Lenten Series
Just Do It! 



Matthew 7:21-28

ED
Grace to you and peace from God our Father...  

JOHN
And our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ....  

BOTH
Amen.  

ED
For all of you taking notes on the sermon, the title of the sermon today is "Just Do It." The text is Matthew 7:21-28.  

JOHN
After eleven dialogue sermons, we are at the close of the Sermon on the Mount. Today, we are at the very end of Matthew five, six and seven, where Jesus has just finished his many teachings about the anger and revenge, love and marriage, prayer and fasting, and not judging. Jesus has just laid out his spiritual guidelines for the Christian life.   

ED
At the very end of these teachings, Jesus tells a parable. After all these teachings, Jesus concludes his teachings with a story. A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. A parable is a down to earth story but has a profound spiritual truth. Jesus was a carpenter by trade and this story is about building houses.   

JOHN
Jesus, the carpenter,  said:  “The person who hears these words and teachings of mine and does them, puts them into practice, is like a wise man who builds his house upon the rock.  And so when the rains fall and flood come and minds blow and beat against that house, it will not fall.  Why?  Because its foundation is on the rock.

ED
In other words, the solid rock foundation for life is doing the teachings of Jesus. It is putting into practice the wisdom of Jesus.   

JOHN
On the other hand, the person who hears these words and teachings of mine and does not do them is like the foolish man who builds his house upon the sand.  And so when the rains fall and floods come and winds blow and beat on that house, it will fall.  Why?  Because its foundation is on the sand.”  

ED
The word, foolish, comes from the Greek word, “moros” from which we get our English word, “moron.” It is a moron who builds his house on the sand. It is a moron who only hears the teachings of Jesus but does not do them.  

JOHN
Jesus did not explain the meaning of the parable, but the people understood it. The people understood that our lives are like houses. If we build our lives upon a good foundation, when the storms of life come, our lives will survive and remain intact.  

ED
Jesus did not say “if” the storms of life come; not “if” but when the storms of life come, your house will be able to stand, if it is built on a good foundation. A good foundation is doing the teachings of Jesus and putting Jesus’ teachings into practice in our daily lives. That is the foundation.  

JOHN
If, on the other hand, we build our life on a poor foundation, when the storms of life inevitably come, our life will be washed away in the storm.  Why?  Because the foundation is worthless. We all intuitively know the need for good foundations for anything to last.  

ED
And what is the good foundation according to this story?  It is those who hear and do the teachings of Jesus, those who hear and put into practice the spiritual and moral values that Jesus has been describing.

JOHN
I like the phrase from Nike where they say, "Just Do It."  Of what benefit is all the greatest teaching in the world if you don't act upon it?  For example, suppose you aren't feeling well so you go to see your doctor.  Your doctor figures out what ailing you and then writes you a prescription and tells you what to do to get well and you don't do it.  Does that make any sense?  

ED
No. Let’s suppose you have been having some medical problems and go to the doctor and he or she diagnoses your illness as cancer and suggests that you need a combination of chemotherapy and radiation and that your kind of cancer is often responsive to this medical combination, that you may in all likelihood prolong your life by taking both chemo and radiation.  Your oncologist is one of the most respected oncologists in Seattle.  But what if you hear your respected oncologist but don’t do what he or she tells you?  Or do only part of what you are told to do?  The chemo but not the radiation? The radiation but not the chemo?   Is that smart?  Is that wise?   

JOHN
No. Let’s say that you are having lower back problems and you visit a physical therapist who has had much success in treating similar back problems.  Let’s say that your physical therapist gives you a series of six exercises that will take twenty minutes every day.  The therapist suggests that if you put these exercises into daily practice, your back will be much improved.  But what if you hear these instructions but don’t do them?  That you hear these instructions, but only do half of them, half of the time?  Is that wise?   

ED
No. Let’s say ;that you are going to build a house on the steep hillsides of West Seattle where the land moves often with heavy rains.  You visit a soils engineer/architect who has successfully built many homes on the steep-banked high hills of West Seattle, and this engineer and architect tells you the many things that have to be done in order for your house to remain standing there in West Seattle.  But what if you hear these instructions and you do only half of them, or a portion of them. You implement some of the designs  but not the whole?  Is that wise? 

JOHN
No!  Or suppose your car is on the fritz so you take it to your mechanic.  Your mechanic tells you exactly what you need to do to solve the problem. You need new spark plugs, new spark plug wires and a tune up. But you don't do it. You just put in spark plug wires. And you continue to wonder why your car is running so poorly.  Does that make any sense?  

ED
No. What good is a map if you don't read it?

JOHN
What good is a compass if you don't follow it?

ED
It's possible to have people who are regular in worship, who know the Bible, and who speak all the right words but do not do what Jesus tells us to do.  It just doesn't make any sense.  

JOHN
Knowledge must be put into action; theory must be put into practice.

ED
If we are to be followers of Jesus, we must hear and do.  

JOHN
The Greek word for “doing” occurs eleven times in this chapter, Matthew 7. Yes, eleven times. Write that down kids. The word, “doing,” occurs eleven times in Matthew 7. Jesus is inviting us to do his teachings, to put his teachings into practice. Listen to us pastors as we read Jesus’ teachings from Matthew 7 and we will emphasize the word, “do.”

ED
Jesus’  Golden Rule. Do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.

JOHN
Matthew 7:21. Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.  

ED
7:22. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?”  

JOHN
7:24 Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.

ED
7:26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand.  

JOHN
In Matthew 7, Jesus teaches us to bear good fruit and the Greek word for “bearing” good fruit is the same Greek word for “doing good actions.”  

ED
Later in the book of Matthew, Jesus describes his true family. Who are Jesus’ true family? Who are Jesus’ true mother? His true brothers? His true sisters? Who are his true family? Jesus said:  

JOHN
“My mother, brothers and sisters are those who do the will of God. My true family are those who do what I teach.”  

ED
In these Bible verses the verb, “do,” is in the present tense. This implies continuous or repeated actions. This implies keep on doing, keep on bearing fruit, keep on acting. The Greek word suggests continuous action.  The Greek word suggests that the "doing" is a way of life rather than an isolated deed.

JOHN
We need to back up for a moment here.  We know that we can't do it perfectly.  We can't follow all of Jesus' teachings perfectly.  Jesus knows that nobody is perfect.  We are all flawed. The power of sin is still very strong in our lives.  And we are still saved by grace as a gift and this is not to imply that we somehow earn our salvation by obedience.  That is just not the way it is.  Nevertheless, Jesus still concludes the Sermon on the Mount by saying do it!  Whoever hears my words and does them are my disciples.

ED
What Jesus is saying here is that we need a good foundation, and the good foundation is doing the teachings of Jesus.  You can't cheat on the foundation.  You can cheat on the paint, the windows, the carpeting, but you can't cheat on the foundation.  If you want a building fifty stories high you have to have a good foundation.  If you want a marriage to last fifty years, you have to have a good foundation.  

JOHN
Ed, I remember the house I grew up in the north end of Seattle.  It was an older home but one summer my dad discovered termites in the wood just above the foundation.  They had already done significant damage to the wood framing in the house.  We had to tear all the stucco off the side of the house and rebuild all the wood framing near the foundation.  We wondered why the termites got into the wood in the first place and what we discovered was the foundation was not done properly.  It was not high enough above the ground level and the termites could get from the ground to the wood easily.  The point is, much of the house was destroyed because the builder had cheated on the foundation.  

ED
You just have to have a good foundation.  There's no other way.  

JOHN
Let's think about foundations for a minute.  Foundations are made out of concrete, right?  But concrete by itself has very little strength.  What do we need to make the concrete strong?  Steel.  Reinforcing steel!    When the landscapers did our driveway at home -- just before they were ready to pour the concrete I noticed there wasn't any reinforcing steel .  I asked and he told me that they never put steel in a residential driveway.  Well I figured they knew what they were doing.  Wrong!  Our driveway is now broken in several places.  It just wasn't strong enough.  It needed the reinforcing steel to make it strong.  Jesus moral teachings is the reinforcing steel of life.  Doing what Jesus teaches is what gives strength to our foundation of faith.

ED
Love is fine but it needs strength.  I feel that many people have what's called "sloppy agape."  "Lazy love."  These people talk about love, love, love, love, love, love, love. They talk about love but don't do it. The Greek word for “love” is “agape” and so these people do “sloppy agape.”  

JOHN
When we think about good foundations, one area we definitely want a good foundation is for our children.  Children need a good foundation that is well built and strong.  And it has to start early in life.  You can't cut corners on your children's foundation.  Early on children need to learn about good ways to handle their anger, to have a healthy view of sexual morality, to learn about revenge, being generous, to learn how to pray, and not to worry so much about material possessions.  And the best way to teach our children so they will have a solid foundation is by example.  When we as parents, grand parents,  teachers, advisors do what Jesus taught, our children will follow and their strong foundation will be well established .  

ED
In regard to marriage, I have given this speech a thousand times to hundreds of couples planning to marry.  You have to have a solid foundation to build your marriage upon.  If not, your marriage will not survive the storms of life.  

JOHN
Our whole value system needs to have a proper foundation built upon that which is strong and durable.  And there is no better foundation to be found anywhere than in the teachings of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Sermon on the Mount.  In doing what Jesus teaches we find the very strongest of all foundations  

ED
A long time ago Jesus took his disciples up on the mountain and taught them about life.  He taught them everything they needed to know to have a strong, solid, foundation......

JOHN
And when Jesus finished saying these things, the crowd was amazed at the way he taught.  He wasn't like the teachers of the law; instead, Jesus taught with authority.  

ED
The crowds? The crowd s who had been down on the shores of Lake Galilee?  

JOHN  
Yes, the crowds finally arrived and heard the teachings of Jesus. In other words, these teachings are not just for the close followers of Jesus. These teachings are beneficial for all people.  

ED
We can read these teachings of Jesus. We can digest them, absorb them, memorize them. That is the easy part. But doing these teachings is the hard part. Putting his teachings into practice is much more difficult. But …  doing them is building a great foundation for life.  

JOHN
As the Nike ad said,

BOTH
Just do it. Amen.


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