Episode 58: "Two Foundations, One Choice"

Welcome, everyone, to the Growing and Grace podcast, a podcast of Grace Hills Church,

where we take a deeper dive into the previous Sunday morning's message.

My name is Matt and sit down here with Pastor Brandon today on Growing and Grace.

We are wrapping up the sermon on the mount with one of Jesus' most sobering illustrations,

the two foundations.

In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus tells us that everyone builds their life on something, but only

one foundation can withstand the storms that are guaranteed to come.

Today, we're going to talk about why obedience, not just knowledge, is the distinguishing

mark of real faith, how storms reveal what we truly trust, and why building on Jesus brings

freedom rather than restriction.

Our hope is that this episode helps you honestly evaluate your foundation and choose to build

your life on the right Jesus himself.

That's a random quick ice figure question for you this morning.

If you were building your dream house, what would be one feature or room that would be

most important to you and why?

Well, at this point, it would probably just be kind of a theater room, one of the things

that the boys enjoy a lot, and we enjoy just movie nights, especially in house, because

it's less expensive.

Then going out and doing all that kind of thing, and just watching the amount of sports

and stuff that we watch, I think having that in the house would be a pretty high end type

of thing.

Go jump into today's questions, kicking things off.

With this idea that foundation reveals faith, you mentioned the foundation you build

your life on, reveals what you truly worship and obey.

So what are some subtle ways believers might think they're building on Christ, but actually

trusting something else?

You know, a lot of obedience can just look like religious activity and, you know, attending

church, putting money in the offering, maybe showing up to serve, but, you know, this

is what the religious leaders did in the Srimon of the Mount, that Jesus kind of talks

about and talks against, and they were doing it primarily for kind of the praise and

applause of everyone around them, rather than for the Lord, like they were just looking

for an external reaction to their piety for lack of a better term, and a lot of people

are deceived in thinking that because they're doing all the religious things, that they

have a solid foundation.

Now, that's part of it in the sense of it's part of obedience, but there's other people

that, you know, they believe that as long as they're kind of healthy and wealthy, and

life is easy, they kind of tie that to their spiritual walk, and they believe that that

is going to be the result of following after God, and so, and there's a lot of false

teachers who make this claim.

We have some in our own area that they tell you that God wants you to be wealthy and

God wants you to be healthy, and that's all tied to your spiritual development, and it's

all really just a worldly standard rather than what we see even in scripture among the

disciples and what they dealt with, and even what Jesus himself dealt with.

And so, that isn't trusting in Christ, like that's trusting in what you think you deserve

or what you think you will get out of following Christ, so it's not about Jesus himself,

and a lot of people build foundations on that, and they're trusting in that rather than

trusting in Jesus alone, you know, for, it's hard, the question's hard a little bit for

believers themselves, like usually it's down believers, or it's people who have not

repent in, or people who are not regenerate that are building their lives on something

thinking that they're building it on Jesus, I would hope that a follower of Christ would

really know the difference.

Again, looking at that idea of knowledge versus obedience, both the wise and foolish believers

heard Jesus' words, so why is hearing truth without obedience actually more dangerous

than ignorance?

I mean, willful, willful disobedience is a result of an unregenerate heart.

So, you know, Jesus states numerous times, like if you love me, you will obey my commands,

and you know, yes, it's possible to be ignorant to some sin, but when there is ignorance,

and we come to that understanding usually through God's revealed word, I mean, there's

grace in that, and a person then who is regenerate when they are no longer ignorant, that should

lead to repentance and obedience, and that doesn't always happen.

I think about it with like a speed limit, the first time I got a speeding ticket, it

wasn't until I was in my 20s, I was actually a seminary, and a friend of I, me and a roommate,

we were going to a small town, there was just a well-known breakfast place, and I'd driven

through there before, and we're driving, and I did not know it was the first day of school,

and I came up over hill and doing what was the normal speed limit, but I ended up driving

into a school zone, going way too fast, and the cops sit in there because it was the

first day of school, pulled me over, gave me a ticket, and you know, that was based out

of ignorance, it wasn't a willful, like I don't give a crap about the speed limit, and

so I knew next time, hey, we're not going to do that, and Jesus said this, and he talked

about the narrow way and the two paths, and some of those were disobedient, you know,

you might be heading down a path of destruction, but the fact that you're willfully disobeying

what you know to be true, because it might just be that you're not a follower of Christ,

and the other part of that is, you know, God sets up boundaries for ways to live our

lives, that if you continue to live outside of those boundaries, you can expect some difficulty

in your life, and it's a different type of difficulty from just, you know, spiritual,

from hardship and sanctification, like there are natural consequences to living outside

of God's design, and I think that's where most people deal with hardship, they deal with,

they're dealing with the consequences of their own actions, because they don't really

live up to the Word of God, they don't see the obedience as freedom, and so they suffer

those consequences, and then they question why, why is this happening to me? And it's

like, you know, God says not to live like this, not to live like the world going out and

getting drunk, or sleeping around, or, you know, avoiding any responsibility, or, you

know, having just an attitude or a mouth that is not honoring to the Lord, and then you

wonder why things just kind of are difficult and hard, like, what people will notice when

you get a foundation built about Christ, when the storms do come, like it's still, there's

a level of calmness and peace and lack of fear knowing that God is in control, when you're

living life, however, and a hardship comes, man, that's when the anxiety and depression

and all the hardship and the uneasiness, the unrest kind of kicks in, it's because you

haven't built your life on anything that Jesus tells you to do.

So this idea of cheap and easy faith, building on sand is faster, cheaper, and easier, where

do you see Christians today tempted to choose convenience over obedience?

There's a lot of things, you know, our culture values, convenience, they value ease, they value

pleasure, they value immediate gratification. I think some of the biggest things in our

culture, especially among young peoples and relationships, where they're so afraid of

being single, that they'll compromise and take the easier route to be with somebody who

doesn't necessarily align with their same values, and they'll begin to compromise their beliefs

and lifestyle for fear of being single. In other cases, it's, you know, biblical community

just becomes a convenience, and so a lot of times, you know, people will prioritize their

work, they'll prioritize their kids' sports, they'll prioritize a lot of different things,

because it's easier than, you know, telling a coach, like, hey, man, church is a priority

for our family, we're going to be there, because they're afraid that, oh, if I don't, because

they know if they don't show up, the coach might kick them off the team, but at the end

of the day, like, my kids aren't going to stand before that coach someday, they're going

to stand before God. And I'll never forget that I remember hearing Matt Chandler, he talked

about this and the thing with parents and sports, and I try to remember this myself. He said

all of his years, I mean, he's been pastoring a very large church in the Dallas area for

many, many years, and he said, he said, in all my years in pastoring, he said, I only know

of one person that ever made it, like, ever made it professionally. It says, like, the odds

that your kids are going to make it a very, very slim, but they're at 100% going to stand

before God, and it's something that you got to keep in mind. And I, you know, for us with

our sports, with our boys, you know, when there's a try, a tryout, especially for a non-school

team, like with baseball this year, to decide, try it out for numerous baseball teams. And

I told every single one of them, I said, hey, this is our, this is who we are. This is, I'm

a pastor. It said, church is a priority. We allow him to miss one Sunday a month with churches

long as everything else is going on. So that's going to be a problem. Then just don't, you know,

don't put us on the team, because I'm not going to end most of them said now, most of them

were like, no, we're not going to do that. They didn't say why, but you know why. When you,

when you watched your side try out, you know why. And there was one that was that understood

that and was willing to work with us on that. And so, you know, we'll see how that goes

when we get into that in the summer. But, you know, a lot of it ease just comes from our

own, it's really fulfilling to start our own desires. Like, we don't want to work for

something. Um, I don't know. So look at this idea of storms being guaranteed to happen.

So we know that the Bible says that, you know, the storms are going to come, right? And so,

how does this passage within Matthew 7 help believers reinterpret suffering not as failure,

but actually as, as revelation? You know, like the storms in the passage come, come for everybody.

There's, there's no distinguishing from the type of storms or the intensity of the storms.

And so, and storms comes for a lot of reasons. I think there's kind of three, three kind of general

basic reasons. One, I've talked about this already. There's the natural consequences of our sin.

They create storms. They really do. Um, number two is we just live in a sinful world.

And so, so things happen. They may not necessarily be our fault. Like, it might be somebody

sitting against us that creates a storm. And then the third part is God is sanctifying us. Like,

I believe God puts us in, in positions to sanctify us. So, um, and generally, I think people

know when they're suffering the consequences of their sin. You know, if you're treating people

like crap or you're going out and getting drunk or you're sleeping around and like, there's

consequences that come from that. Like you're, you're going to know it. Um, now, in other cases,

you know, there's times when, you know, maybe it's, hey, you know, a job loss is not your fault or,

you know, I didn't get the job that I wanted. And those are moments where God wants us to trust.

And God wants us to rely upon him and he's, and he's using that situation to sanctify us. And

we need to start asking those questions of like, what is God trying to teach me during this time?

And instead of thinking that God is like keeping us from something that we want or that, um,

that is that we think is good. We get to trust that God maybe has something else out there.

Something that's better. Um, and so we have to revaluate the way that we see storms and the way

that we understand hardship. Um, if it's a result of our sin, we repent. If it's a result of

somebody else's sin, we forgive. Um, if it's a situation where, uh, we don't really know why

something is happening. We trust that God has our best out for us. Part of my devotional this

morning was reading, is reading when the book of Job and goodness gracious, man, like, um,

everything that Job went through was, was God testing him still holding again when this

happens. I remember God, even when God tests us, he still holds accountable the people that, um,

are in those situations like he gave permission to, to say, to go after Job to say, just don't take

his life. And in that time, like his kids passed away, he lost all of his flocks, um, his wife told

him to curse God and died. Like so many things happened to him. And in the midst of all that,

at the end of it, God's going like, you know, you're questioning me, like who were you? Like,

did you set the foundations of the earth? And, and if you ever get a chance, man, to go read

chapter 38, 39, 40, 41, it got in 42, like, God's response to Job. It's just like taking him to

the woodshed, man, and, um, and Job's like, yeah, you're right. I got nothing. I can't say anything.

And, um, at the end of that, God restores Job 10 times. And so if we read that wrong,

we could be like, oh, does that mean that I'm going to get rest? No. Now, if you're a follower of

Christ, when you enter into eternity, it's going to be, it's going to be more than 10 times of anything

you've ever, you've ever had in this earth. And so we had to think of that in an eternal

perspective rather than an earthly perspective. And so, um, yeah, storms are just always an

opportunity for us to evaluate our own hearts, evaluate our own lives and, and try and determine

what exactly is going on and what is happening. You shared an illustration of a few pictures from

some hurricane destruction. And so some of the homes looked identical until the storm hit.

And so what are some invisible foundations people often build their lives on that only show

themselves in crisis? Well, every, every home has a foundation. So, um, every person is building

their life upon something. And your reaction to the storms, when the storms hit kind of reveals

what you're building upon. I mean, you can look at two people in your church that that that

haven't seemed to have similar lives, not knowing really what their, what their foundation is built

upon. Um, and so what your reaction reveals your heart because if, if a storm comes and you get

angry and frustrated and like I'm done with God or you think that as long as you're doing all

these religious things and, um, that God must bless you and God must keep you from hardship and

life is supposed to be easy and everything is supposed to go your way. Then you're not worshiping

God for who he is. You're worshiping God for what you think you deserve. And that could be a

foundation that that people can, can build their lives upon. It's, it's God is a, God is a tool for

my own personal wants and desires and needs and pleasures rather than my goodness. Like he is,

my rescuer, he is the savior of the world. He has rescued me from my sin. That is absolutely

devastating and without him would lead to an eternal separation from God. Like a conscious

torment separation from God for eternity. Like thinking about that puts a pit in my stomach.

Um, it's really hard to fathom and, um, so some, but you can also look at somebody who

uh, is very healthy and wealthy in life seems to be easy and it's very easy for us to thank man.

And maybe somebody who goes to church or claims to be a, a Christian and, um, and they love Jesus

yet God has chosen to, to bless them in these ways. And it's easy for us to think man they're

because they're doing all these things because they love Jesus because they're like, this is why

they're getting this and that's not necessarily true either. Um, some people that have, some,

some of the most godly people that I've met life, life doesn't easy. Didn't work out the way

that they wanted it to. So looking at the idea of religious activity versus real faith, you warned

that people can do all the right religious things and still miss obedience. How can someone

evaluate whether their faith is external performance or internal transformation?

Um, I mean, the best way to do that is, is, um, like, what does your life look like outside of,

you know, your Sunday mornings? You know, um, do you see, do you apply and put into practice,

you know, what you are learning or hearing in, uh, like on Sunday morning, you know, if you're,

if on Sunday morning, man, you've got this religious mask on and then you go to work and you're

involved in the same gossip, you're involved in the crude conversations or you're, um,

refusing to, you know, see your, your mission, um, in that company, see it as a mission field and

wanted to tell the people about Jesus or your cut in corners and doing things that are unethical to

kind of get ahead. Like, if your life Monday through Saturday, it looks completely different than

what it does on Sunday, then you're just doing the religious things because it maybe makes you feel

better. Um, as many times I remember, uh, in, in college and, and being a young adult where I went

into church services, um, because it just made me feel better about myself in a lot of ways. Like,

it made me, um, it just kind of gave me this, this kind of emotional reaction and, you know, there

was, there was a little bit of, there was guilt from a lifestyle and it wasn't right, but there

was really never any repentance, but I could go in there and hear about God's forgiveness and grace

and get all woman fuzzy and then go right back to doing what, whatever I wanted to do.

And I think that happens a lot with people like, if you're a follower of Christ, it's gonna,

it's gonna, it's the first that's going to, to flow out of obedience. Like, people are going to,

you know, to see the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. Like,

you're, you're increasing in those things, you're growing in those things and, um,

and you're pursuing after those things. Um, otherwise, you're just, maybe just living under

cheap grace. You're just, you're saying, I'm gonna do whatever I want to do. You know, it's got,

like, I have been, I've done this before. We've got them in town. They were like, I was about to

do something. I knew that it was wrong. You know, I'm like, well, Kyle, forgive me later.

It's a really scary proposition to be in. Uh, it's a scary mindset. I think a lot of Christians do

that. Um, and I had to, I had to fight against that because I still want to do that.

And, uh, and it's not a reflection of internal transformation. Internal transformation is,

is recognizing our sin as being repentant. It is, is looking to change internally that

ultimately kind of flows externally. You shared how obedience brought freedom from anxiety and,

and lack of purpose. So why do so many believers still believe obedience restricts instead of

liberates? I mean, we're just conditioned to that in our society that, um, that obeying anything

or anyone at any time is, is restrictive. Um, and, you know, again, it goes back to, to being

apparent, like, we restrict our kids from doing certain things, not because we hate them, but

because we love them. And this is what God does. Like, he, he restricts things not out of, you know,

hatred or out of wanting to ruin our lives or wanting us not to have any fun. He's just saying,

hey, these, these are some guardrails that I put up because now this, this is the way that I

originally designed the world to be when I brought Adam and Eve into it. And when we were in

perfect relationship, like, when sin wasn't there, this is what it looked like. And then sin came in

and, and really affected every aspect of creation. Um, and then for humans, it affected, you know,

physically, morally, spiritually, uh, everything emotionally, like, it's all now been corrupted.

And so he said, but hey, with the, with the regenerate heart, with the renewed heart, like,

you can live within those guardrails, not perfectly, but when you do that, you will experience

freedom because slave isn't, is, um, sin isn't, is, is, isn't slaving. I mean, you can become

enslaved to alcohol or to drugs or to sex or to pornography or to relationships or to money.

Um, when we live under gods, when we want to obedient to God, that those things don't become the

pursuit, um, Jesus becomes the pursuit. And we have a better, more fulfilling mission that has

eternal value. The crowds were astonished because Jesus taught with authority, not borrowed

opinions. How should recognizing Jesus' authority change how we respond to his teaching?

I mean, if we understand who Jesus is and that all things have been placed at his feet,

um, for his honor and his glory, like, the authority that he taught with was, was a one that, um,

showed that, like, he was the son of God. And so if, if Jesus is God, then we could trust

that anything that's coming from him is true and it's good. And by following that, um, it,

it changes, like, if you know something to be true or you, you know somebody to be an authority

on something, like, we all, in any profession that you're in, you're searching for the authority

on your profession because you want to get better. Like, you, you think about classes that people

go to or seminars that people go to, they're always looking for ways to, to improve and to get

better. And Jesus is sitting here saying, you know, like, I'm, I'm the perfect authority on

all things. And so when we understand who Jesus is, then that really should change the way

that we view his commands. It goes back to the question before. It's not, it's not restrictive.

It's freedom. It's, it's, you know, what is, what, it's proper and what is good, what is best,

what, what brings honor and glory to God. Like, those are the things that we're looking for. Those

are the things that we're pursuing after. And, um, you know, but it all comes down to how you view

Jesus, who you think he is. I say, that's all the time. If you, if Jesus is who he says, he

is, it changes everything, changes every aspect of your life, your work, your play, your relationships,

everything.

You connected obedience to the resurrection because Jesus rose, we can trust his words. So how does the

resurrection move obedience from obligation to worship? You know, it's very simple. If Jesus

is who he says he is, if Jesus rose from the dead, if Jesus has overcome sin and death for us

so that when we place our faith and trust in him, we repent of our sins and we now have salvation,

we're, we're looking at somebody who, who, who literally and genuinely saved our lives.

And so now we live an obedient response to that. We're not living trying to earn that salvation

or trying to earn his favor, trying to earn his love. That's already all been established.

And so that was, that was a big, a big turning point for me in my walk in my, in my 20s. And

I remember, can I remember exactly, it might have been Tim Keller. Tim Keller said something

similar to that, but I don't, I think I heard it beforehand, but like we live an obedient response

to what Christ has done for us. And when we see it that way, that, that changes how we view

things, because if you, if you think you got to earn God's love or in God's favor and you're just,

you're trying to be obedient, you're trying to do the religious things and then things don't work out.

You're like, oh man, God's mad at me. I already didn't do this right. So I got to do it different.

I'm doing something wrong. And man, that brings about anxiety, that brings about fear, that brings

about a lack of rest and, and that is not, and that's just not true. And so the, the, the resurrection

affirms that Jesus, that everything Jesus said is true. And, and so if more people could rest in

the finish work of Christ, like we can rest because it's finished, we can rest because Jesus took

care of all of it. Um, if we lived in that way and in that mentality, we would experience more

freedom than what we do. If someone listening feels convicted from today's conversation, what,

what's one practical step they can take this week to begin rebuilding their foundation on Christ?

I mean, the biggest thing is it's repentance. Like I say this every single time I think in our,

in our podcast. And the reason for that is because repentance should be a daily thing because

none of us go through a day without falling short of God's standard. Um, and so if you're, if you're

feeling convicted for whatever it may be, you know, what you're building your life upon,

then, then maybe you just need to, you need to change what you're focusing on. And you need to

prioritize your relationship with the Lord first and prioritize biblical community first.

Uh, before adding else, everything else, look, it's, it's certainly it's a good thing to work

and to do your job well to do it for the honor of glory of God. Um, what are you doing it to pursue

money and power and position and you're putting everything else aside, then, uh, you're, you're

always just going to be chasing that next dollar or that, that next promotion and each time you're

going to, we're going to realize and find out, hey man, like this, it's satisfying for a little

bit of time, but ultimately like it doesn't, it isn't really fulfilling. And, and so it really

starts with repentance and an understanding of proper understanding and asking God to, to,

to reshape your heart and to reshape your thinking, um, so that you know and understand,

like who God is and, and what he has done for you. And then that becomes the, the motivation,

the foundation for the rest of your life. Hey man, thanks for the conversation. Hey pastor,

Brandon, let's close in prayer. Lord Jesus, thank you for your word that serves as the solid

rock foundation for our lives. Help us to be wise builders who do not only hear your teachings,

but act upon them. When the storms come our way, may we stand firm because our lives are built on

obedience to you. Forgive us for the times we have been foolish builders choosing the easy path

over the right path. Give us the strength and courage to live lives that honor you in every area.

May our obedience be a testimony to others of your goodness and faithfulness in your

precious name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening to Growing in Grace. Until next time,

keep your eyes on Jesus and keep growing in Grace.