[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the Message podcast of High Ridge Church, Longview, where our vision is to help you know God, find freedom, discover purpose, and ultimately make a difference. We are so glad that you're here and we pray that this message impacts your life as you apply the spiritual truths from God's word in practical ways.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Let's listen in. Let's applaud our Savior, the reason why we're here for just about five seconds. Come on. Let's give our Jesus some incredible praise this morning.
And while you're at it, let's welcome in all of our friends watching from all around the world. Come on, how rich family, we love you.
We'll kick a very special shout out to all of our team watching from the Dominican Republic this morning. We've got a bunch of you that are sitting in service. Several of you are going to do a pastor's conference tomorrow. You've got construction projects that are happening. I love being a part of a generous church and a church that's willing to go and help people that are in need. I love that. So we love you guys. Those of you watching, hey, we love you. We're, we're so, so thankful for all of you watching from wherever you're watching from today. We love you. We believe that God's got something special to speak to you as we turn our attention to His Word. So grab your Bibles if you would. Luke chapter six is where we're going to go. Luke chapter six. As you're turning there, I want to say, in case you didn't know, there is a large group of people that have been praying for you all week long. We have been interceding on your behalf. If you felt like, I don't know if anybody cares about me, if no one's ever, ever prayed for me, you are wrong. Because this week I want to show you some pictures. Like this is happening at 8 o' clock this morning. A group of people worshiping and praying for you, asking that God would speak to you, asking that God would get you good, that this would be one of those days where you wouldn't just come to church and hear some songs. You wouldn't just come and hear a message from the Bible. You wouldn't just come and let your children experience some great children's ministry, but you would have an encounter with the Father. He would speak to you right where you are. People have been praying for you. If you don't feel loved, you don't feel cared about, know this. People have been praying for you. We've been asking God to help you. And so that's a beautiful thing to be a part of. I want you to know you're covered. I think that's important for us to know as we walk through some strange times, walk through difficult seasons. At least I know I've got people praying for me. Isn't that good to know everybody? That's good to know. So as we're turning to Luke Chapter six, we're going to continue on with our series called Jesus the Storyteller. We're digging into the parables of Jesus. We're showing you how God does incredible things through some fantastic stories that he tells. There's not enough. There's not enough. I think that is, is said about how brilliant Jesus could paint a verbal picture.
And so as we're digging into His Word, he gives us this in Luke chapter six. And we're going to focus in, on, on, on verse 46 and read through the, the rest of the chapter here. But I have to, I have to admit, when I've. When I've read this story, I come upon this short parable. And what I thought in Luke chapter six was just a shortened, abbreviated version of the Sermon on the Mount, in case you've ever read Sermon on the Mountain in the book of Matthew.
But what I've. What I've realized, I saw something I've never seen before. This is not the Sermon on the Mount. As a matter of fact, what Jesus is teaching here in Luke chapter six is the Sermon on the Plane.
He's just repeating his message.
Jesus Christ himself, the greatest teacher of all time, reused messages. So let me just tell you, if I ever preach something that you've heard before, Jesus did it.
So I can do it. No, Jesus does it, but he does this. This time when he presents the stories, he presents them in a completely different way. It almost looks exactly like Sermon on the Mount, but it's different. And so in one place it says in Matthew, Jesus goes up on the mountain and he sits down and everyone's sitting below him and he begins to teach Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the merciful, all those wonderful things. And then you get to Luke chapter six and it's just like, well, that's very, very similar. Maybe Luke just didn't understand what was happening, he copied it down wrong. But it's completely different message. It's just the same stories told to a different audience because they're at different levels of maturity. It shows us that in some places Jesus is calling people that have never heard the gospel, never heard of Jesus. He's calling them to get on the bus. He's slowing the bus down enough that anybody can get on. And at other times in scripture, he's telling the story saying, look, you've been on this bus for a while. It's time for you to get your own bus and get people on your bus and get people behind you. In some of these stories, there's, there's a complete difference. Even though he's telling the same story based upon the position of which he's saying it. It's crazy that in, in Matthew chapter 5 and 6 that Jesus is sitting up on, on the top of a mountain preaching from a place of authority.
And then in Luke chapter six, it says, he comes down from the mountain, he sits down at a level place and begins to teach them.
And he teaches them the same stories in both sermons, but in a different way. See, one is done from a place of authority. The other one, he comes down and says, I'm preaching from a place of accessibility.
And it gives us a great brilliant understanding of the Old Testament and God's law and God's authority and the New Testament of Jesus coming, saying, let me help you understand. A complete picture is when we look at both of these sermons, the exact same stories told in different ways to different audiences from different perspectives.
One is Jesus saying, I'm here to comfort the afflicted. And the other one, he says, I'm here to afflict the comfortable.
And we, please hear me, we need both.
There are times where we come to hear a message. We're like, I need some comfort. The world is crazy right now. Lord, I feel afflicted in my spirit. My world is crazy, my marriage is crazy, my finances, my children. And everything's going crazy right now. I need some comfort. And the good news is Jesus does that. But there is also times in our lives where we get really comfortable. And Jesus says, I need to afflict you because you're going to get real lazy if I let you stay there.
And Jesus speaks the same parable in different ways to different audiences. Sometimes he's here to comfort the afflicted, sometimes he's afflicting the comfortable one's from a place of authority, the other ones from a place of accessibility.
And Jesus, when we, when we see this stories put together, we get a brilliant picture of what he's really saying to us today.
So Luke chapter 6, let's pick it up. In verse 46, Jesus starts, starts it this way with a he. He probably Needs some help. I would say, Jesus, you don't start sermons this way.
He says, why do you call me Lord, Lord and don't do what I say. Now that's an attention getting statement.
But, but we can obviously see that Jesus himself, the brilliant teacher, he is love, he is grace, he is merciful, he is good.
And he's willing to get into your business.
He's willing to step on some toes. So we see the mood that Jesus is speaking with right here from the beginning. Why do you call me Lord, Lord and don't do what I say?
He's like, why do you, why are you saying you want to hear from me? And then I say something and you're like, yeah, we're going to hear somebody else's thoughts on this. We need a second opinion.
We don't really like that.
He said, why do you, why do you do that?
He says, as for everyone who comes to me look at, looks at this and hears my words and puts them into practice, I'm going to show you what they're like.
And then he begins to tell a story. He says this. They're like a man building a house who dug down deep and laid that foundation on a rock. And when a flood came and the torrent struck that house, it could not shake it because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on a ground without a foundation.
The moment that the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.
So it's really, really obvious here. If you're, if you're reading the story on a surface level, it's, it's obvious to make a big mistake that Jesus is giving some kind of a home inspector advice. Like, that's not what this is. Jesus isn't giving home inspector advice. He's giving heart inspector advice. He said, let's look at your heart. Let's look at those of you that are willing to take what I'm saying, take it to heart and start walking in the truth of what I'm saying.
Jesus is not talking about how you build your house. He's talking about how you build your life.
And so as we're digging into God's word in this brilliant picture that Jesus is painting in just a few short verses, I want to focus on the three main characters of the story. We're going to talk first about the foolish builder, which is none of us. We don't, we're not building foolish things.
And then we're going to move into another character of the, of. Of the story which I don't feel like gets enough attention. And that's the character of the storm.
And then we're going to end the service today by talking about what it means to be a wise builder. Is that all right? So if you're taking notes, number one, the first thing I want to show you, number one, is the foolish builder. And his main issue here, as the character of the story, was he was deceived by convenience.
Say those three words. Deceived by convenience.
Deceived by convenience.
If ever there was a sticker you could put over the American church today, it would be those three words, deceived by convenience.
So when Jesus talks about building a house upon a poor foundation, upon the sand, he's speaking to, to the people in language that they can understand. They understand that in Jerusalem, in, in this particular area of the Middle east, you're dealing mostly with alluvial sand, which, when the sun hits it, it gets deceptively firm.
It looks like it can be built on. It looks like a great foundation until the storms come.
Now, if you've ever been to the beach, if you've ever had a chance to sit down with your kids and grab a bucket and you, you take some sand, you mix it with some seawater, and you start building some sand castles, you know that when the sun hits that sand, it gets hard, it begins to take shape. You can build some great things. You might see awesome pictures of people building stuff out of sand. It looks pretty, but you come back the next day and it doesn't look the same.
And Jesus is saying, this is a picture of a life and what people foolishly built on. He's not talking about homes. He's talking about lives. You see, your house is your life. And poorly built lives fall apart all the time.
And by the way, let me go a little bit, little bit deeper. Poorly built lives among Christians fall apart all the time.
So as Jesus is speaking to his disciples, to a lot of people that are listening to his words, he's saying, you're listening to me, but you're not doing what I say. You know how foolish that is? It's like building your life on something that has no real foundation, no bedrock.
Now, builders could be deceived by that alluvial sand because it lasts about three feet.
But beneath that alluvial sand is three feet of hardened clay. And that can be really deceptive because you take clay and you harden it, you bake it in the sun, and it Looks pretty firm, but you've got to go another three feet below that to find bedrock. So what is Jesus saying? He's saying it's not convenient to follow me.
You can't put me in your two minutes a week time slot.
You can't put me in a verse of the day religion and expect your life to be storm proof.
But we love convenience. We love bumper sticker Jesus. We, we love the easy faith, faith fix Jesus, just give me something that I can, I can take that. I can say the verse of the day and I, I can get it tattooed on my back and I'm good to go.
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Cool.
Can you fly like that doesn't apply to everything. You can't just say bumper sticker Jesus, take one scripture out of context and then build your whole life around it. Like that's not what that is.
But we love convenience.
Make it convenient for me so that I can take and say, I feel safe, I feel secure. And what happens is when the storms come, it exposes you got a bad foundation because storms will come.
Life happens.
So when Jesus is talking about building on alluvial sand and then mistaking hardened clay for something that's firm, he says, no, you got to get down to the bedrock. You got to get down three feet below that to find something that's worth building on. Most people in this time, if you've studied your history, if you understand what, what homes look like in the days of Jesus, most people would not go out, build a brand new home. As a matter of fact, what happens most people when they get married or start their family, they just build a house on top of their parents.
And so houses were four and five stories because the kids lived there and the grandkids lived there and the great grandkids lived up at the top and the really, really loud ones or the distant cousins lived in the back somewhere.
But they're not going to go out and build a house. Why? Because it's hard work.
So I will rely upon Grandpa to do a deep dig and I'll just build my life on his foundation.
Not that any of us would ever do that. Let me just say, if ever there was a scripture that reveals East Texas theology, it's that one.
Because as long as grandpa was a pastor or grandma had a good relationship with Jesus, I'm good.
You're not going to stand before the Lord at the end of your life and tell him how great your grandpa was. He knows. Grandpa's sitting there looking at you like?
No, no, that. That. That's mine.
You gonna have to get your own.
Let me say it this way. We build on borrowed beliefs and shallow spirituality that get exposed when life gets difficult.
If your walk with Jesus is borrowed from someone else, it's gonna get exposed.
You cannot live your life based upon my relationship with Jesus. You can't build it upon your wife's. You can't build it upon your husband's. It has to be yours. You can't borrow someone else's foundation. You have to build yours.
It matters your walk with Jesus. You are responsible for your walk with him. And Jesus says, I want you to hear my words and I want you to put them into practice. I want you to dig deep. It's not going to be convenient.
It's not going to be easy.
He's not talking about your salvation. He's not talking about trying to earn my love, trying to do hard things to make me love you more. No, no, no. He's talking about once you've accepted my free gift of salvation, my gift of grace to cover your life. Now let's use that grace, use that salvation. Use the power of the Holy Spirit to develop a relationship with your Father that loves you and has decisions for your life that you need to hear.
Jesus shows us through this brilliant picture that a foolish builder cannot be us. We cannot afford to believe that our lives are storm proof just because we have bumper sticker theology verse of the day depth.
We have to be willing to dig deeper than that.
And my hope today is that you'll hear me and you'll say, I've not been willing to do that. I give Jesus kind of whatever I have left over.
He's worth more than that.
Take your relationship with God seriously.
In this culture, Jesus is saying, I want you to hear my words and I want you to put them into practice.
Now. I love what he tells us in Matthew chapter 11. He says, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle, I'm humble in heart.
And he says, you're going to find rest for your soul.
That word there, for soul means my mind, my will, my emotions, and please hear me. Storms are coming, my friends.
You know what Jesus did in storms? He rested.
He rested, and he's telling us how to do the same. He says, if you have a relationship with me, that's more than just hearing my words, but putting them into practice. Storms are going to come. But guess what? That rain, that wind, you never had a better nap because you're wise.
You're listening to me.
You're doing more than just trying to survive the storms that life will bring. It's important that you know this.
Let's move to the second character in this story, and that's the storm, by the way. It's not if, but when. Jesus is very clear in multiple places of scripture that it's not if storms will come in, it's when they come. Jesus Christ himself was in a ton of storms. We have multiple scripture of Jesus walking through storms. Jesus walking on top of storms. Jesus taking a nap during storms. Even Jesus himself had to walk through storms. Storms were more than just rain falling, even spiritual storms. Jesus himself had to walk into the desert to be tempted by the by the devil. He had to stand on top of a mountain. He had to go to the cross. He had to walk through hard things.
Storms will come. Not if, but when. And when. Jesus is speaking to those that are living in the Jordan Valley, they understand that storms come unexpectedly. They come real fast and they do damage that can destroy a house in minutes.
If you've ever seen those videos on the Weather Channel where a storm comes or a hurricane or a tsunami or something, it just takes a house and just boom, gone. This is the picture that Jesus is painting of our lives.
Mm.
It's important to know that Jesus doesn't promise us storm free lives. He shows us how to build storm proof ones.
Storm proof lives.
What happens when my marriage starts falling apart?
What happens when my children leave home or they leave the faith? What happens when your babies get sick?
What happens when you get a diagnosis that's scary in a storm?
What happens when you lose your job?
What happens when there's too much month at the end of the money?
You're in a storm.
Do you drop down and quit?
Do you turn your back on Jesus? I can't believe Jesus would ever let this happen.
Here I am on the side of the road. I ran out of gas. Thanks a lot, Jesus. That wasn't me.
You got $11 in your pocket. You can buy half a gallon of gas and still have enough for an allups burrito and a diet Dr. Pepper. You could have. You could have been fine.
Some of you have never had all UPS burritos and it shows, let me just tell you.
But Jesus shows us very, very clearly that faith and wisdom don't prevent storms. What do they do? They prepare you for them.
Prepared.
If you woke up this morning to crazy things on your newsfeed with what's happening in our world, let me just tell you.
It is important that you have a personal relationship with Jesus that's more than surface, but you're willing to dig deep. Why? Because when storms are here, I can rest. I can have rest in my soul.
When life gets hard and difficult, and it will, I can find rest for my soul.
Because my walk with Jesus is more than just a fast, fast faith, more than just quick Jesus.
So in rabbinic culture, when Jesus is talking about being. Being your rabbi, he says, you call me Lord. You call me Lord. He repeats that word twice. The repetition there implies something deeper than what we would say. It's more than just. When somebody says, teacher, teacher, it implies intimacy, like, I know you on a personal level, and it implies desperation. When someone would repeat, lord, Lord, twice, it's like, I am desperate and I know you can help me.
So Jesus says, why do you use those words?
You're using them like, you know I can help you. Like you know I'm gonna help you. I'm giving you help. And then he says, you don't do what I say.
You're telling me that you know me. You're telling me that you want my help. I'm giving you my help. I'm showing you what to do. I'm showing you my word says, do these things. And you're like, what else you got?
And the reason why we do that today is because we. We can easily separate in our. In our English and American understanding. We can separate doing something and passively listening.
Some of you are passively listening right now.
You're hearing what I say in the background, and then you're like, yeah, but I've got a lot of followers right now on the gram. This has been great.
I'm passively listening.
This is what Jesus is saying.
And in rabbinic culture, you don't just. You don't just hear your teacher's words. You don't just hear their lessons.
You. You apprentice underneath their way of life.
And so when Jesus says, you're hearing my words, you're saying that I'm teaching you, and you never do what I say. That sounds like an Americanized version of Christianity where we'll say, obedience and listening are two different things.
In this context, Jesus uses the word shema, which means, not only am I listening, I'm doing it. You don't separate those two. In the Hebrew culture, hearing and doing is the same thing.
We think that we can hear and understand and not ever have to do.
And Jesus. Jesus is calling us to not just hear his words, but to follow his ways.
Some of you Know exactly what I'm talking about. Because you have children and you have had a moment similar to mine where you might walk up the stairs to your kids room and look at that pigsty and say, hey, guys, family meeting right now. This is ridiculous. I know you're on break for the summer, but you got to clean this room.
And they'll look at you like, what? It's fine. Like, no, it is. There is raccoons living in there right now.
How did. It's like, where did all my cups go? Where did all the silverware go? Oh, it's all up here.
Like, take out your trash. Make.
Do something with your life.
But if you've ever had those conversations with your children, normally, what I would say is, you, you got 10 minutes. I'm coming back here in 10 minutes, and I want to see this room clean. Do you hear me? Yes, I understand. No, no, no. I will turn the WI FI off in this house.
Do you hear me? Clean your room.
You go downstairs, you put in a load of laundry, you do a couple things like, ah, it's been 10 minutes. Here we go. Walk back up those stairs. In that moment, I expect to see a clean room at minimum. I expect to see most of it done and then finishing up. I didn't quite, I didn't quite get it all done, but I'm working on it. Like, okay, there's some grace for you you can do.
But you know what? I, I, I, I could not imagine in those moments my kids looking at me and saying, you know what? When you were here 10 minutes ago and you told us to clean that room, that was good.
I understood it.
I felt the emotion of what you were saying.
I looked at my brother and I'm like, he needs to hear this.
This is good.
As a matter of fact, when you said, clean your room, I looked it up in the Greek and it means, clean your room.
There's no wiggle room. And I understand it better. And I've got knowledge and depth and understanding.
Good word, Jesus.
Good message, Jesus.
Lord, Lord Jesus.
Wow.
I love that story about the wise and foolish builder. They need to hear that.
They're a bunch of foolish builders. Not us, though. We're good. We're. We're wise builders, aren't we, Jesus? No, Jesus, like, what are you doing? You're separating. You're passively listening. Or you're saying, because I listen and I understand. I got to the root of what you're saying. I get the picture.
You didn't do it.
He's like, if you call me Lord. Lord, if you're implying that I am your source, that I can speak into your life, that can help you, and then I start speaking through my Word, and you never do anything.
He said, that's sand.
Sand.
Let me say it this way. Religious language without knowing Jesus is sand.
And Jesus is very clearly giving us a story that's not some metaphor. It's a mirror.
And it shows us the conditions of our hearts.
It's convenient. And storms will expose what is already true about your foundation.
Storms aren't selective.
Scripture says it rains on the just and the unjust. You're gonna walk through hard times. People are gonna get sick. People are gonna get. Are gonna make mistakes, people are gonna mess up. Pastors are gonna fail, churches are gonna fail.
Governments are going to lie to you.
What's your life built on?
Because if you know Christ and by knowing him, you're obedient to his Word, you can rest in a storm.
You can take great comfort in the fact that what I put my trust in is trustworthy.
And the culture that Jesus is speaking to, this.
What you believe is more than just your moral base. It becomes your identity.
And Jesus is saying this needs to become your identity of who you are. How you identify as a follower of Jesus means I follow him actively. I'm listening to him, I'm reading his Word, and I'm putting it into practice. He says that what you build on becomes what you trust in.
What you build on becomes what you trust in. Let me ask you, are you trusting in things that are sand?
Are you building your life on your paycheck and that's where your security is?
Are you building your life on the things that. On the. On the hope that you'll never get sick, that you'll never have to face dark days? Is that where your hope is in. Is in your health?
Is all of your trust built upon some organization?
Is it built around religion?
Is it built around your career?
All those things change.
Jesus says, my word doesn't pass away, and I'll tell you what to do. But you can't just listen to it. You have to do it.
And Jesus, through this incredible parable, paints a picture that's just brilliant with these characters, with the storm, and it shows us very, very clearly. I want to put this on the screen so you can see it. Jesus shows us that hearing without doing is. Is nonsense.
That's not a thing.
So let's move on to the final character that I hope all of us can walk out of this place and say, I'm building wisely today. I'm building my life on something better. Let's talk about the wise builder. And we know he was wise because he was willing to do real work.
Now that's something that, that we've shied away from.
Good times create lazy people, they say, and lazy people create hard times.
And we've taken our American culture of getting more and more lazy and we've applied it to Christianity, we've applied it to Jesus and saying, because you saved me, I don't have to do any work.
That's not why he saved you. He gave you free grace.
Then he says, I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit to empower you to make a difference with the rest of your life.
Holy Spirit's gonna reveal my word to you and the Word's gonna show you some steps to take on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday.
This is how we dig deep with our foundation and build a storm proof life. Here's what we know about building is that you don't build during a storm. You build before the storm, before, before you don't lay foundations when it's raining. It's not going to work now. People turn to Jesus when their world is falling apart all the time. And I'm thankful. Most of us, I'd say we're hard headed and we don't learn when things are really good. It takes things falling apart for us to ever turn to Jesus. How many of us just say, that's part of my testimony. My life fell apart and I had to turn to Jesus. Got nothing else, my hard headed people.
Jesus is saying, hey, I'm thankful that you do that, but there's a better way.
There's a better way.
You don't have to wait until the storm to choose Jesus. We build a foundation beforehand based upon the authority of his word and our intimacy of knowing Him. We build before the storms and Jesus is showing us some powerful pictures in here about what it means to have quiet time where we're listening to him in the morning. What would it, what would it look like if you had 15 minutes earlier set on your alarm? We said, God, it might not be all of my day, but I'm gonna give you the first 15 minutes of my day. I'm gonna wake up 15 minutes earlier because I'm gonna give you the first, I'm gonna give you the best, I'm gonna honor you.
Some of you are like, wait, I gotta have some coffee in there. Like, let's not be crazy. Like coffee and Jesus let's, let's put those together.
Because otherwise, next thing you know, it's 10, 15. You're like, oh, gosh, how do you explain that to your boss? Like, I spend the time with Jesus and he just told me, go to sleep. I'm trying to be obedient.
I'm trying to, trying to rest.
No. What would it look like if you, if you took this seriously, if this became something where you, you put your money where your mouth is.
What would it look like if you gave the first and the best part of your paycheck?
Lord, I didn't wait to give him whatever was left over. If there was stuff left over. What if you honored God with the first?
What would it look like if Jesus didn't take a back seat to whatever I have left at the end of the day?
If Jesus wasn't just let me go to church once every six or seven weeks and hear somebody say something that I think is pretty good.
What if your relationship with Jesus wasn't bumper sticker convenient Jesus?
What if it wasn't spiritual consumer Jesus?
I think there's a powerful concept here that Jesus is speaking to all of our lives. If we're willing to listen, he shows us that he defines what a foolish builder is.
And this is where, as I was reading this word and putting this together, this is where it started confronting me.
Let me say it this way. A foolish builder is a spiritual consumer who listens and agrees but never changes.
A spiritual consumer, a foolish builder.
I listen, I agree.
I'll sing along.
I'll never change.
Jesus calls this a foolishly built life because remember this, he's not talking to unsaved people.
He's talking to his disciples.
He's saying, you call me Lord and you're still building a foolish life because you won't step out in faith and obedience of what I'm saying.
Now, the good news here is that Jesus doesn't.
He doesn't define wisdom and foolishness the way that we do.
Now, I grew up in the 90s. In the Mexican culture, we called everybody fool.
What's up? Fool.
That was a term of endearment. And I remember my parents getting upset because there's a scripture where Jesus talks about, if you call your brother fool, you're in danger of hellfire. Like, you're going to hell because you called your brother a fool. He is a fool.
I'm telling the truth. I'm being honest. Doesn't the Bible say anything about telling the truth, being honest? Like, what's up, fool? Like that's him. He's a fool.
But we would. We would use the word fool as, you're an idiot, you're dumb.
You're not as smart as the rest of us.
We say a wise person. Oh, look, they're so wise. They've got a. They've got this and they've got that. That must mean a lot of wisdom. We define wisdom and foolishness completely different than Jesus. And I want you to see very, very clearly that Jesus does this. Jesus in this story.
It shows us that the wise and the foolish are not separated by intelligence, but by obedience.
That's good news because it gives people like me a chance.
Wise people are not intelligent people. According to scripture.
Wise people are not smart people. According to scripture. Wise people are obedient according to scripture. That's wisdom.
Why? Because he's my source of wisdom.
It levels the playing field for all of us. Otherwise, we'd say only the smartest people get to go to heaven. Only the smartest people get to obey Jesus. No. No. Thank you, Lord. You've made a way for me by saying, even someone that has no clue can become wise by saying, I trust you, Jesus. Show me what to do.
How do you define wise?
How do you define foolish?
Does it line up with the word of God? Because Jesus defines it differently than what I would.
Let me just ask you very, very plainly. What. What area of your life could Jesus be highlighting today? What could he be shining that spotlight on right now?
Is there a part of your life that you're like, you know what this is? This is. This is facing a storm. It might be my marriage.
I'm not gonna ask for a show of hands, but I know it for a fact. Or maybe you're walking through a season of grief right now. I'm in a storm.
You've lost somebody, and it's hard.
Maybe you're walking through a health trial. You're in a storm.
Maybe it's a financial thing and you find yourself holding on to every dime that you have, afraid that God won't be the provider that he says that he is.
So it's hard to trust him because we're so busy trying to be wise in our own eyes.
What area of your life could Jesus be spotlighting today? Saying, I want to help.
Like, Lord, I'm lonely.
He's like, let me be the friend that stays closer than a brother. Develop a relationship with me and let me show you.
But I need help.
He says, let me help you.
He says, take my yoke upon you. Learn from Me, I'm gentle. I'm humble in heart. He said, I'm going to give you rest for your soul. I'm going to give you rest right in the middle of a storm.
What area of your life could he be spotlighting today?
Because if we invite him in to that mess, into our foolishness, into the broken parts of our lives and the parts that are walking through difficult circumstances, he gives us direction.
And at that point, we have to separate ourselves from just being passive listeners or taking suggestions from Jesus. We have to say, your will be done.
And by taking one faithful, obedient step at a time, we will outlast any storm.
You'll still be here when that storm is over.
That's good news. Not so much because there's another storm coming.
Be wise.
I say this today because we live in troubling times.
There's a lot that's going on in our world, and you can let it drive you nuts.
You can let it push the limits of your sanity. You can just check out and try to ignore it, or you can recognize that Jesus has prepared us for this by asking us to find rest and our relationship with him, by letting him be the Lord of our decisions and our lives.
By recognizing not only is he Lord, that's teaching us something, but he's inviting us into the story, saying, come, follow me. Let me show you what to do.
I want to finish up right there, if that's okay. So would you go ahead and put away your Bible, set them down next to you. Let's just take a moment, if you would. Let's just bow our head and close our eyes. And if you're watching online today, I believe it. God has spoken something to you. I want to give you a chance to maybe respond to him as well.
Can we just be honest before the Lord and say, lord, I need your help.
I'm walking through some difficulties. It might be your health, might be your marriage, might be a lust issue, might be a sexuality issue, might be an identity issue. You're in a storm.
Need help?
Jesus is offering help.
So with heads bowed and eyes closed, let's pray together today. Today, let's offer him our issues.
Let's ask him for help and be prepared in that moment to give him our preemptive yes, whatever he tells us to do, our answer is yes.
Holy Spirit, would you come right now?
We come before you in our brokenness. We come before you, Lord, in humility.
But we have messes, we have storms. We have issues that we're worried about.
Lots of concerns. Lots of hurts, lots of pain.
And Lord, your word shows us very clearly that you're no stranger to pain.
You bore our pain. You carried our weaknesses.
You're the God that can take whatever we lay on you.
Lord, your word says to cast our cares upon you because you care for us.
So, Father, I pray that we would be listeners and that we would be obedient to whatever it is you're telling us to do in Jesus name.
Now, with heads bowed and eyes closed, maybe you came here today and you're saying, pastor, I don't have a relationship with Jesus.
I need one.
Or maybe, like me, you were raised in church, but you've gotten away from God and you need to come home. Home, my friend, you're in the right place today.
If you want a relationship with Jesus, if you need a relationship with Jesus, if you've wandered away from your faith, you need to come home. I want to invite you to pray a prayer with me. I'm not going to single you out. I'm not going to embarrass you in any way. I want to invite you to pray with me. Take that first step today.
Don't just be a listener of what you've heard.
Take a step. And the step starts with a prayer. And as a matter of fact, all of us are going to pray this out loud together so that you won't feel embarrassed in any way. But you need to pray this.
Let's pray this prayer together. Say it this out loud, if you wouldn't mind. Just say, jesus, come on, let's say it like we mean it today. Jesus, I believe you're the son of God.
I believe that you came and died.
I believe that you rose from the grave so that I could have life and forgiveness for all of my sins.
I ask you to forgive me.
I give my life to you right now in Jesus name, with heads bowed and eyes closed. If that was you, you say, pastor, I've been away from God, but I prayed that prayer and I meant it to. Or, pastor, I've never prayed that prayer before, but I've met that prayer. Can I just see just your hands all across this place with nobody looking. Can I just see your hands? Would you lift them up nice and high and proud? That was me. I prayed that prayer.
Good, I see you up there. Good for you. Good for you.
So proud of you in the decision that you just made. For those of you that prayed that prayer, even if you're watching online, there's a number appearing on your screen. Text the words I prayed to that number, if you wouldn't mind. And I'm going to send you a link to some things that will help you understand what just happened in your heart and what to do next.
Good for you.
How rich family, go ahead and look up at me if you would, and let's stand to our feet together.
I want to remind you that there are people all over our world that because of your willingness to share this message on social media, those people are meeting Jesus. Those people are able to engage in church in an online way. It's a unique time that we're living in. Some of us, like your phone is the closest that you'll ever get to a church.
And so I want to invite you. Would you mind sharing this message with our world? Our world is living in confusing and painful times. There's a lot of storms happening right now. People need this. And so if you enjoyed what you heard today, would you do us a huge favor? Would you share this message with your social media? And we believe that when you do that, God's going to allow some people that you may never know this side of heaven to come into relationship with him. So I want to just thank you in advance for you being willing to make a difference today. Good for you. And I'm also going to invite our elders and their wives forward. And we've got some pastors and their wives. They're going to step up and they're going to be right here as this service ends to be available to pray for you about anything that you might need prayer for. We would love to pray for you.
Then for everybody else, I'm going to bless you and send you out of here today.
Let's pray. Father, I thank you for my friends. I thank you for your word. I pray that my friends would be led by your word all week long, that they'd be encouraged, that they'd be strengthened, that they would find great hope in your word, that your word would come to life. Lord, give them rhema word that they might see exactly what to do and take that next step of faith. Lord, would you bless them? I ask these things in the mighty and matchless name of Jesus Christ and all of us said together, Amen. God bless you as you go. I hope you have an awesome week.
[00:41:19] Speaker A: Thank you so much for listening in today. Our prayer is that you are encouraged and strengthened by the message. If you haven't done so yet, be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave us a review wherever you're listening. If you want to be a part of our online community.
Connect with us through Facebook or Instagram with the handle hyridgelv or you can check out our
[email protected] lastly, if this ministry has impacted your life and you'd like to support its work, visit highridgelv.com give we appreciate your support and we're believing with you today for God's best in your life. Have an incredible week and we will see you next time.
