Building a Life
Matthew 7:21-29
May 29, 2005
First Baptist Church,
Wilson, NC
Did you know that East Carolina University has a major in Construction Management? A. J. Hayes’s grandson Reid Daniel is a graduate of that program, and now has his own homebuilding business in Oxford. Many of you know Robeson Canady who is in that program now. And our own Russell Johnson is taking a summer school course in Physics toward receiving his own degree. I wonder what else is required for a major in Construction Management? Basic engineering, personnel management, business management? You know, you could design a pretty good course about “Construction in the Bible,” for there are over 500 references in Scripture about building things. There’s the tower of Babel and the tabernacle of the Hebrews and the temple of Solomon. Jesus, being a carpenter himself, told a parable about a builder who counted the cost before he broke ground. It was also Jesus who said “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” And to wind up his greatest sermon on the mount which was about how to build a good life, that carpenter-preacher told this construction story. I’ve asked Charles Bailey to read it for you today. (Matthew 7:21-29)
Jesus, being a carpenter, knew the importance of a good foundation. Lately we have been learning the same thing as the new narthex extension takes shape. Chris Hill, son of Carolyn and Keith Hill, is our contractor. He has taken extra care to be sure the project has a good foundation. When he dug the foundation footings, he noticed something strange and asked Bruce Jackson and Chuck Whitley to come take a look. The ground was not solid. Bruce and Chuck walked around in the hole, and with every step they felt their feet sink down three inches. And they will tell you that they are not, er, not light-footed! They realized this could be a problem. Who is going to want to use the new restrooms if you have to worry about going down the hole?! So Chris made sure to dig down extra deep and fill the hole with a solid base.
Jesus said you’ve got to build on a firm foundation. Otherwise, when the flood comes, your house -- your life -- will not stand. Speaking of floods, our Baptist Men saw the power of a flood firsthand when they went to Clyde, North Carolina to help people recover from two floods. They saw how, when a flood rises up around a house, there is nothing you can do. When it gets high enough, nothing can keep the waters out. And when those waters come in, the devastation is complete. Most houses had to be completely gutted. Some houses simply could not stand anymore and came down.
The destructive power of a flood is irrevocable and complete. That is why Jesus used the image of a flood to describe what it will be like on the Day of God’s Judgment. God’s judgment will come like a flood. It will come as a surprise. It will come all of a sudden. When it comes there is nothing anybody can do to stop it. When it comes its power will be devastating. That is what the Day of God’s Judgment will be like. And “on that day,” your life and my life will stand or fall depending on one thing, what foundation we built our lives upon. If we build our lives on the foundation of Jesus’ words, then our lives will hold up “on that day.”
In case we do not get the point, Jesus gives a second image of judgment day. On that day, Jesus will have to say to some, “I never knew you.” If you like watching the TV series, “The West Wing,” then you will always remember Mrs. Landingham, secretary to President Jed Bartlett. Mrs. Landingham was Jed’s conscience. Whenever he was tempted to set aside his principles, whenever he was about to do something out of character, Mrs. Landingham would march out of the Oval Office saying, “If that’s what you really think, Jed, then I never knew you.” That is judgment. And when judgment day comes for all of us, if we have failed to keep the principles and the character of the words of Jesus, then he will say to us, “I never knew you.” The judgment of God. It’s like a flood tearing through your house. It’s like Jesus walking away from you saying, “I never knew you.”
Note who Jesus is saying this to. He is not talking to unbelievers. He is not even talking to believers who fail to do anything. Jesus is talking to believers who’ve been saying “Lord, Lord,” and who’ve been busy preaching and casting out evil and doing many powerful things. In fact, the people Jesus is talking to are people like you and me. To people like you and me Jesus says, “I never knew you.” Personally, that makes me highly motivated to find out why people like me will be found lacking on Judgment Day. What is the problem?
Jesus has a problem with people who on the surface sound good and look good but who below the surface have a shifty foundation. The problem is appearance versus substance. The problem is taking shortcuts. Let me go back to construction language to explain.
My father was a masonry subcontractor. Whenever a building contractor started a house, he could call my father to come lay the block and brick for the foundation. Now when my Dad would start a foundation, he wouldn’t jump right into it and start flinging mortar and laying block. He would take time to set up a solid foundation. He would establish the corners. He would use a transit to establish the level of the foundation. With his tape measure, he would measure the distance from corner 1 to 3 and from corner 2 to 4, and if the distances were equal, he knew that he had a true rectangle instead of a cockeyed parallelogram. During my college summers I worked with him and I watched how carefully and how wisely Dad would establish a foundation. It was like what Mark Twain said of his father: “When I was sixteen, my father was an idiot. When I turned twenty-one, it was amazing how far my father had come!” I realized Dad had a lot of wisdom about a number of things, including foundations: a good foundation requires thought and careful preparation.
When my Dad died, my family asked our friend Nancy Osborne to speak at the funeral. (Nancy is a chaplain at Rex Hospital.) She began by quoting the words of this very scripture, Matthew 7: “a wise man … built his house.” (v. 24) Then she talked about how my father built his life.
I have a theory that Jesus was not only a carpenter, but also a brick mason. We usually translate the Greek word tekton into “carpenter,” but tekton can also mean anyone skilled to work with any building material: wood, stone, brick. In fact, Jesus and his father Joseph may have been subcontractors for a huge building project in Sepphoris a few miles away from Nazareth. I’ve walked on those very stones.
Jesus the builder says that a wise man will take careful thought and preparation when building his house – when building his life. A wise man will build his life on the foundation of Jesus’ words – words like:
If your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift at the altar and go – be reconciled to your brother (paraphrase of Matthew 5:23-24)
Turn the other cheek (5:39)
Go the second mile (5:41)
Love your neighbors and pray for those who persecute you (5:44)
If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you (6:14)
Do not store up treasures on earth, but store up treasures in heaven (6:19-20)
Seek ye first the kingdom of God (6:33)
Ask and it shall be given to you (7:7)
All these words are just samples of the wisdom for life-building that Jesus gave in his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. These three chapters are the blueprint for a life that will stand up to any test, even the Judgment of God.
On the Day of that Judgment, there will be people who have sounded and looked very religious, but who have not gone to the trouble of building their character and conscience and on the words of Jesus. They are people like us who irritate God by the way we look and sound good but who still keep ourselves in control instead of God. It is not too hard to look and sound religious, to say “Lord, Lord” and do mighty acts. But it is hard to build a life on what Jesus actually said. What Jesus actually said is strange and repugnant to what our culture idolizes. Even our religious debates on the soul of our nation, on secularism versus religion, hardly ever mention the teaching in Jesus’ blueprint for life in Matthew 5-7. Look back at the beginning of his blueprint for a life foundation (Matthew 5:3-10) and see:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The words of Jesus and popular wisdom could not be any more different. When secular people or religious people argue over how to live a good life and how to live together as a nation, no one mentions these words of Jesus on how to build a life.
For us then the main question becomes: how can we build a life that does more than just sound and look religious and sincere but is actually founded on God’s will in the words of Jesus? Let me make a few construction hints:
First, as you build your life, make sure to build in a reading room. Build room into your life to read and ponder the words of Jesus. You could start by going home today and reading Matthew 5-7 for yourself. In fact, try reading it over and over this week. It’s not long, about the length of a brief sermon, which it is. As you read, imagine that you are physically making room in your life for these words. There is a psalm that describes the life of someone who has built that kind of reading room:
Thy word have I hid in my heart
That I may not sin against you. Psalm 119:11
Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path. Psalm 119:105
Second, as you build your life, make sure to build in a prayer room. Build plenty of quiet room into your life to listen as Jesus speaks directly to you, and then there will be room for you to answer him.
Third, as you build your life, make sure to build in a party room. Yes, you heard me, a party room. Build plenty of room into your life to celebrate with Jesus the good things of life. Your time in your reading room will show you how often Jesus enjoyed parties: a wedding at Cana, a party with Matthew and his tax collector colleagues, a dinner with a Pharisee. A party room, by the way, has always been one of the best places for believers to share their lives with unbelievers, like Matthew did, but that’s another sermon.
Fourth, as you build your life, make sure to build in a workout room. Jesus said, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and ACTS on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” You’ve got to have room in your life to ACT on the words of Jesus, room to WORK OUT the implications of your salvation, room to practice doing the will of the Father. One African American preacher said, “The Word works when you work the Word.” Make a room in your life for working out.
A room for reading the carpenter’s words, room for prayer, room for party, and room for working out the word. All of these follow from the firm foundation of a life that is built on the will of God.
Jill Crainshaw of Winston-Salem tells of the day when her friend Pearl finished building her life. She spent her last days surrounded by people who loved her. She had a life house built through over eighty years of “listening to the Word and acting on it.” Her life house had some flaws. Some relationships had been difficult, not all her decisions had been the best. But she had trusted that Jesus knew something about building a life, so she had tried to follow the words of his blueprint. Her friends surrounding her agreed that Pearl’s life had stood the test. Pearl’s life was not fragile nor easily blown away, but secure and enduring. Imagine what it was like when Pearl met the Carpenter whose words she had built her life on. Imagine him seeing her and saying, “Hello Pearl, I know you.”
-- Douglas E. Murray
