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Salt + Light Community is a SOMA church plant in the heart of Fort Worth, TX. Here you’ll find teaching and discussions from our gatherings on Sundays.
Speaker: We're looking at the Sermon
on the Mount for the last time.
Um, this will be the last one of our
sermon series before we j- uh, jump
into our summer series looking at
parables, which will be really exciting.
That's when we always have, uh,
different, uh, speakers in our community,
in our church community, come and
share, um, uh, get to teach throughout
the summer, and so I'm excited for
that to start when we, um, in July.
So this will be our last, uh, sermon
on the Sermon on the Mount, though.
So one of our family's favorite
traditions, one something that we
do that we've started, started this
back in 2020, um, is Matt and I
always make a summer slideshow, like
a, a highlight reel of our summer.
And we put together all of our pictures.
We put it to a couple of, like, you
know, summer songs that, you know,
got, like, played on repeat in our
house for the year that summer.
And we started this in 2020 when
summer felt especially weird, and,
you know, you were, uh, housebound for
most of the summer, and you weren't
doing a lot of typical summer things.
And so we decided we were gonna make
a slideshow to kinda show, like, look
at these things that we actuallyâ¦
We actually did a lot of
really fun things, you know?
We, we did quirky and weird things,
but we made a lot of fun memories.
And so we made this slideshow, and
it was a really sweet experience
for us to wrap up our summer.
And so, um- We started
doing it every summer.
So we've now done it, uh, six times.
It's kinda like this summary to
say, "Here's what we did, kids."
Uh, you know, so that way when
they go back to school, you know
how, like, the temptation is to
be like, "What did we even do?"
And we're like, "We did a
lot, and we showed you."
Um, so we do this every year.
Uh, that way they can't forget
something that they've done.
And, um, and so it's important
though to remember these small
moments that were actually, like,
really great and really fun.
It kinda reframes our
perspective as a family.
And I'm a big fan in general of
just reflecting and looking back
on seasons, so this is a really
special tradition that we do.
So what I wanna do for the Sermon on
the Mount is kinda do the same thing.
Give us a highlight reel of what
we have been looking at, because
it's easy to get to the end and
be like, "That was a lot of stuff.
Like, what did we actually study?
What actually did, um, stick out to me?
What was God actually teaching
me through this sermon?"
Um, so we've reached the end of it.
We've covered a lot of ground, and I don't
want us to forget what we've studied,
forget the lessons that you've learned.
Maybe, maybe there's been some conviction
in your heart that you've had to work
through, some confession, some repentance.
Um, all, I don't want us to
just kinda move on from that.
Because the whole point of this Sermon on
the Mount that Jesus gave to His followers
was to teach us what it looks like to
live a flourishing life in the kingdom.
And He ends this teaching, He ends, uh,
the ⦠It, it's so beau- I just, I love,
like, He's such an excellent teacher, but
the way that He wraps up this teaching
is so important and, um, and valuable.
Because what He does is He ends
it with a call to build your
life on the right foundation.
That's what He's been moving us toward
this whole time, is what kind of
foundation are you building your life on?
So before we look at today's scripture,
before I read it for us, I wanna
first look back on where we've been.
So Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount
by first focusing, chapter five, he first
focuses on the identity of his followers.
Before he gives any sort of instruction,
uh, any sort of, um, you know, w-
wisdom, teaching, whatever, he starts
us first, uh, by describing who we are.
He kicks things off with the
Beatitudes, and we're familiar
with this passage typically.
Um, he talks about how we are blessed in
ways that feel backwards to the world.
Um, but they actually represent the
blessedness of life in the kingdom.
When we value what God values, the
blessings in life look different.
So he's- he goes on to say, you know,
"Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Blessed are those who mourn.
Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst for righteousness.
Blessed are the per- the merciful.
Um, blessed are the pure in heart,
the peacemakers, the persecuted."
All of these things that at first
glance don't feel like blessings, but
together what he's doing is he's painting
this picture of living like Jesus.
And when we live like Jesus, he
goes on to say, we step into our
call to be salt and light, that
we are blessed to be a blessing.
And he tells his followers that
we are the salt of the earth
and the light of the world.
So that, so the way we live matters.
And he doesn't say, "I
want you to be that."
He says, "You are that"
which that's why it matters.
How you live matters because
you are the salt of the earth
and the light of the world.
Righteous living is going to
be in contrast to the world.
And he goes on to u- u- he says six,
there's six different things that
he says where he says, "You have
heard it said this, but I say this."
And what he's doing there is
he's challenging our views on
things like anger, and lust, and
divorce, truthfulness, revenge,
and how to treat our enemies.
And the odds are when we've gotten to,
at this point in the sermon, you, uh,
there's been something that you have
not liked about what Jesus has said.
He's at least said one thing that
you didn't wanna hear, because
God-pleasing righteousness is not easy.
Living the way of Jesus is
often in conflict with the
way that we want to live.
But what He wants is instead of running
away from God because we don't wanna
do it or we can't do it, what He wants
is to run us, have us run towards
God, to be honest about what's hard.
You know, I've talked
about this multiple times.
To be honest, I don't want to love
my enemies right now, but I need to
run towards God with that, rather
than run away, and embrace it.
And then when I do that, when we do
that, when we run towards God, we
give Him the chance to transform us.
And so these six examples that
Jesus gives are not about us just
cleaning up our behavior, but actually
transforming our hearts from the inside.
And what that also does is it impacts
our relationship to those around us.
It impacts the way our relationships
are with others in a positive and
meaningful way, and that's what
helps us to be that salt and light.
So there, from there, that's
for all ch- just chapter five.
It's crazy how much He packs
into just chapter five.
And then we go into chapter six,
where Jesus invites us to consider
our motives, uh, when it comes to
spiritual practices like giving, and
fasting, and prayer, and we're warned
against the dangers of wrong motives
and hypocritical religious actions.
You know?
Jesus warns us against the dangers
of, uh, feeling a s- false sense
of security in our possessions and
our wealth, rather than in God.
He asks us, "Where is your treasure?
What master will you serve?"
And those are questions that He presents
to us, and they're meant to convict us.
They're meant to kind of feel
hard, and maybe some of us
are wrestling through that.
To sober us and to cause us to do some
reflection on our lives and our hearts.
Jesus is very clear.
Uh, true satisfaction is not going
to be found in what the world
offers, but rather in God himself.
He is our treasure.
He is our focus.
He is our great reward.
And so Jesus goes on to
say, "Therefore, trust God.
Trust God with your daily needs.
Trust him with your
worry and your anxiety.
Trust him to provide and to care."
Jesus is calling us to have faith in God.
He's calling his followers to find
complete security in the love of
God, the Father, for his children.
And then in chapter seven, Jesus
explains how his people are to,
uh, to relate to one another,
to live and to relate to others.
You know, we are to judge humbly,
pray passionately, and discern wisely.
And the conclusion to his sermon addresses
three choices that every person must make.
Last week we looked at two of them.
The first one was, will you enter
the narrow gate or the wide gate?
And the second question is,
will you follow a false god,
or will you follow Jesus?
And today, we get to consider
the last choice that he offers.
Which foundation will you build your life?
Can you believe he said
all that in one sermon?
Uh, that, that, that's why I wanted
to do this quick summary of what we've
been studying, because we can only
fairly answer this question after we
understand what these two foundations are.
When someone asks you, uh, when
Jesus presents this question, "Which
foundation will you build your life on?"
It's reasonable to ask, "Well, what are
my options, and what am I committing to?"
And that's what Jesus has done here.
He has laid out all of that for
us in His Sermon on the Mount.
He has presented a picture to
us of how to live a flourishing
life in the Kingdom of God.
He's not just giving us these good ideas.
He hasn't just been, like,
spouting out some thoughts that
He has, things to consider.
Um, He's actually giving
us tangible actions that He
wants us to put into practice.
He's saying, "Here is the life I want you
to live, but what are you gonna choose?"
So Jesus concludes his sermon with
a parable, which is interesting
because everything up to this point
has been pretty direct from him.
Love your enemy.
This is how you should pray.
When you fast, do it this way.
Don't be anxious.
Uh, over and over again, he's making
these pretty direct statements.
Doesn't mean they're easy
statements, but they're direct.
And now he presents us this picture,
and so I wanna read it for us.
I'm gonna be reading
in, uh, Matthew 7:24-29.
And he says, "Therefore, everyone who
hears these words of mine and puts
them into practice is like a wise
man who built his house on the rock.
The rain came down, the streams rose,
and the winds blew and beat against
that house, yet it did not fall because
it had its foundation on the rock.
But everyone who hears these words
of mine and does not put them
into practice is like a foolish
man who built his house on sand.
The rain came down, the streams rose,
and the winds blew and beat against that
house, and it fell with a great crash."
"When Jesus had finished saying
these things, the crowds were amazed
at his teaching because he taught
as one who had authority and not
as their teachers of the law."
So he ends with this picture.
"Therefore," therefore, meaning in light
of everything I have said, everything
I have just told you, "everyone who
hears these words of mine and puts
them into practice is like a wise
man who built his house on the rock."
This is powerful imagery.
This is a really
easy-to-grasp picture for us.
What's being described here
is a tale of two builders.
The wise builder chose a firm foundation
built on rock, and when the storms
came, the house on the rock stood firm.
But by contrast, the foolish
builder built his house on sand,
ready to fall with a crash when
the winds blew and the waters rose.
This parable here of the wise and foolish
builders, it is an invitation for us into
a life that is firmly built on Jesus.
And I think everyone would agree,
um, I don't want a crumbling house.
So yeah, I wanna build
on the firm foundation.
But how do we go about that?
What does it actually mean?
What does that actually look like for us?
Well, what's in this parable is
actually an analogy, and I think
it's actually really helpful
to break it down in that way.
So I'm gonna put, uh, verses 24 and 26
up together, and we'll look at this.
It says, "Everyone who hears these
words of mine and puts them into
practice is like a wise man who
built his house on the rock."
Okay, so that's what we have versus, "But
everyone who hears these words of mine and
does not put them into practice is like a
foolish man who built his house on sand."
So for a p- a parable here, Jesus is
actually still being pretty direct.
He's not always direct with parables.
Uh, but this is a really
direct thing here.
He's g- he's saying here.
What it comes down to is practice.
Your foundation is built on whether
you put Jesus' words into practice.
That's it.
Our foundation is built, uh, based on
how we respond to the teachings of Jesus.
So, do we hear?
Have we heard everything, and
then we're just gonna carry on?
Or do we hear and respond?
Do we reorient our lives
around the words of Jesus?
Doing what Jesus says or not doing it,
that is what makes the difference between
a house that stays standing in a storm
and a house that falls with a great crash.
The Book of James picks up on this idea.
Uh, James 1:22 s- starts and says
this: "Do not merely listen to the
word, and so deceive yourselves.
Do what it says.
Anyone who listens to the word but does
not do what it says is like someone
who looks at his face in a mirror, and
after looking at himself, goes away and
immediately forgets what he looks like.
But whoever looks intently into the
perfect law that gives freedom and
continues in it, not forgetting what
they have heard, but doing it, they
will be blessed in what they do."
They will be blessed.
Not that everything is
gonna be smooth or easy.
They will be blessed, meaning
when the storm comes, they will
not fall with a great crash.
We deceive ourselves when
we try to build on sand.
We think we're okay when we're really not.
I hear what you're saying, Jesus.
I've read it, I've listened, uh, but I
honestly doubt that the storm is gonna
come for me, at least not anytime soon.
I've got time to deal with that later.
I'm content to keep building my
life where I'm at, the way I want
My family spends a lot
of time at the beach.
Um, nothing fancy.
We're Texas coast here, you know.
But, uh, uh, my kids are growing up
going to the beach over and over.
I grew up going to the beach.
My parents grew up going to the beach.
It's, like, this legacy
beach that we go to.
The same spot.
Um, and where we go, there's a, um, a
little, like, walking path that kind
of goes over the dunes that you have
to take to get to the, to the ocean.
You guys are familiar with this.
Um, and, you know, the dunes
are these big piles of sand with
vegetation, and they serveâ¦
They're also, like, a protective
barrier from the houses.
And we know, we have been trained
to know, that we don't mess with
the dunes because there's, umâ¦
That's also a habitat for, you
know, creaturs- critters that we
don't love, like snakes and rodents.
So we, we don't, you
don't mess with the dunes.
You just are aware that they are
there, and you walk over them.
Okay, so, well, a few years ago,
we were down at the beach after a
big storm had wiped out the dunes.
That happens occasionally.
And, um, which meant that the path to get
to my aunt's beach house was a lot easier.
Uh, you know, you didn't have to
walk all the way down to go, to
get to the little bridge walkway.
You could just cut right across.
Well, it turns out just, just because
the dunes were gone did not mean that,
um, that the critters disappeared.
They were just displaced.
So as Belle was walking, as we were
all walking back, as Belle, she was
actually leading the pack, she nearly
stepped on a rattlesnake, uh, 'cause
they live in the dunes, and the dune is
not there and the rattlesnake still is.
Uh, so she nearly steps
on the rattlesnake.
She flips out, flies basically
back, back into Matt's arms.
It was terrifying for all of us.
What we realized, uh, that was a
really important lesson for all of us.
Uh , don't walk, even
if the dune isn't there.
If the dune is meant to be
there, don't walk there.
Uh, 'cause the storm had come and
knocked down the sand foundation,
and what came out of that was
not good or helpful or safe.
It was very scary.
The truth is that Jesus doesn't
say that if you build on the
rock, you won't face a storm.
The storm is coming either way.
The storms came for both the
builders, for both the builders.
Hardships come for all of us.
No one's gonna be untouched.
And that's not to give you
a doomsday message here.
That's just the reality of being a human.
So whether you build on the sand or
you build on the rock, everything
looks fine as long as there's no storm.
We can get tricked into thinking that
our house and our foundation's okay.
So this is a sobering image,
but it's not meant to scare us.
Jesus is never meant to scare us into
faith or scare us into obedience.
He's not trying to do that.
Instead, I think what he's-- what we-- or
the right response to do is to go back and
dwell on his words and meditate on them.
Don't just think about the house
that you have built, but think about
the house that you are building
If you look back on the Sermon on the
Mount, all of his words, everything
that Jesus has said, everything
that we have looked at over the past
few months, all of that is about
building a house that will stand.
So if we practice Jesus' teachings, not
just hear, but practice, but do, this is
what creates a solid foundation that will
carry us through the inevitable storms.
So what does it look like for you
to put his words into practice?
And here's something that
makes this challenging for us.
Most everyone in this room is very
familiar with the tingy- teachings
in the Sermon on the Mount.
But being familiar is not the
same as actually practicing.
Knowing is not the same as doing.
Honestly, putting these teachings into
practice requires intention and thought.
It requires reflection.
It often requires
confession and repentance.
Remember, Jesus has taught, he
just taught there are two roads.
There's a wide, easy road to follow,
or a narrow road with a narrow gate.
So here's what I want us to do,
um, as we wrap up this series.
I want you to look closely at your
foundation, the life that you are building
How does it compare to
the world surrounding you?
When it comes to your inner thought
life, or when it comes to how you
budget and spend your money, or what
you prioritize, how you prioritize your
time, how you love others, how you talk
about others, your judgment of others
How different is it really?
How different is it really
from the world around us?
Ask yourself that, and
be honest with yourself.
What areas are you building
your life on the sand?
Are you just cruising along on an
easy interstate instead of doing the
work with the Spirit to actively apply
these words of Jesus, orienting your
life down the narrow road instead?
Living your life in an upside-down
kingdom-oriented value system
that is going to look different
than the world around us.
Because don't fool yourself into the
lie that being familiar with Jesus'
teaching is the same as applying
and living out His teachings.
That's the difference between the wise and
foolish builder, because only one offers
a stable foundation to endure the storms
And I think we're all interested
in living a wise life.
Nobody wants to be labeled a fool.
So this is an invitation for us
to trust the wisdom of Jesus.
Following Him will lead to a life of
generosity and love in the Kingdom of
God, and that's a house that can endure.
Jesus will not fail.
He is a firm and lasting foundation, and
there is no need to look anywhere else
So the question for us is what
sort of house are we building today
in our lives and in this church?
Are we living out the words of
Jesus, or are we merely reading them,
hearing them, and then carrying on?
Jesus' words here remind us that it
doesn't matter how we've built our
house or how we've fixed it up or how
impressive we are to other people.
Unless that house is founded upon
the rock, the house will fail.
And the greatest tragedy would be
to build and to live on a foundation
of sinking sand, never recognizing
until too late, until the storm comes,
the need for a foundation of rock.
The foolish builder ignores Jesus' words,
but the wise builder comes to Jesus.