Dear Church,
Allow me to remind you of Sunday’s big ideas:
Matthew 7:24-29 24 “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. 25 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. 26 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. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” 28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
From this parable Jesus told we see that:
Building big faith involves more than hearing the right things.
Going to church and gaining knowledge is step one for sure, but church attendance and hearing truth doesn’t grow us or change us unless it impacts what we do and starts to produce spiritual fruit in our lives.
Building big faith involves more than knowing the right things.
In verse 28 we read that the crowds were amazed at Jesus’ teaching. He really knew His stuff. Verse 29 says He taught like a person with authority and not like the teachers of the law. The teachers of the law knew their stuff, too. They were experts. They had studied. They had memorized. Why were the crows amazed by Jesus and turned off by other experts? The teachers of the law had great knowledge, but no faith in something greater than their knowledge. They weren’t exercising their faith. They were only spewing knowledge.
Building big faith involves implementing the right things.
James 1:22-Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
Do we want to be blessed in what we do? We need to build big faith by doing what Scripture says. We can be our own worst enemy when it comes to building faith because we want it all figured out before we will try it out. Faith doesn’t work that way. Faith isn’t about figuring everything out. It is about living something out.
Building big faith will see us through the storms of life.
So, the wise man who put Jesus’ words into practice in Matthew 7 went through rain, flood, and a hurricane and his house stood firm. He remained unmoved. However, the man who didn’t practice what he had heard didn’t weather the storm quite so well. His house crumbled.
Let’s be builders. Let’s not just be hearers, attenders, or studiers. Let’s be implementers. Let’s put action to our faith.
