Minister Dustin Stanton, Hallsville Church of Christ
In Matthew chapters 5 through 7, Jesus gives us His sermon on a mount. It’s a very powerful sermon that is revolutionary to its listeners and transformative for us as readers. He begins His message with the Beatitudes and goes through with metaphoric examples of where to store treasure and how to judge others. But, I want us to hone in on the way Christ wraps up His message. He does so with the story of a wise man and fool building a house. He says in Matt. 7:24-27:
“Therefore whoever hears these saying of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
We have read this parable many of times and it’s even one that we teach our children from a very young age because it’s easy to understand. If you build a house on a rock, the house will stand the test of time. If you build a house on sand or a marshy foundation, it will fall when the ground swells and the winds beat against it. For a moment though, I want to pose the question, ‘what is the house?’ Seems simple, but can you describe what a biblical house is? Well, like every question, we’ll have to turn to Scripture to see it described to us!
A house can be your life! That is what is described in this story in Matthew 7. A house is the life you build and you should choose to build one on a biblically and scripturally sound foundation. Many choose to build their life on the world or on sand, and when life gets tough, they fall apart. They crumble underneath the pressures of life and are shattered. The Christian faces many of those same struggles, but when built on God’s Word, the Christian prevails through the storms of this life.
A house can be a family! The prophet Nathan tells David in 2 Samuel 7:16-17 that his house would be established forever. The house of David refers to his lineage and family that follows him in his genealogy. When the wise man built a house on a solid foundation, this can also be in reference to having a solid family. One that loves God and loves his Word. Having a marriage built on godly principles and working in godly ways. The foolish man’s family fell to shambles when the rain came down and the floods came up
For the complete column, see this week’s edition of the Centralia Fireside Guard
