512. Walking in the Word, Jesus is the Best Foundation

Jesus implores you to seek a relationship with Him. He is our strong foundation and offers the best ending to our story! Enjoy our study of Matthew 7:21-29 and Luke 6:46-49 and 13:23-30 as you come to know Him and His heart for you in a more profound way.

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Welcome to Walking in the Word, the biblical teaching arm of the Women World Leaders podcast. My name is Julie Jenkins, and I'm honored to be your host. Our mission at Women World Leaders is to empower you to walk in your God-given purpose. We do that by encouraging and inspiring you with stories from women of faith who have triumphed through suffering and have courageously walked where God has called them by giving you an outlet to use your gifts from writing to fundraising and anywhere in between, all for God's glory alone. And, of course, by studying the Bible together, and receiving empowerment from the ultimate source of power, God Himself.

On this, our Wednesday podcast, we take a moment to sit back and hear from God and soak in all that He wants us to learn. We are currently studying the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—hanging on every word and action of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as He walked on this earth.

Before we begin, let me pray for us.

Dear Heavenly Father, Holy Spirit and most precious Jesus, we come to you today in awe of who you are, and in thanksgiving, for all the teaching you continually share with us. We so want to know you, and we want to please you. Please guide this teaching may be pleasing to your ears, open our hearts that we may be willing to hear exactly what you want us to know. In Jesus name, I pray, amen.

Well, today we are finishing up our study of the Sermon on the Mount. And while everything that Jesus says and does is important, today's teaching is the key to it all. It's all about knowing Jesus. Jesus wants to have a relationship with you.

Relationships are difficult. No matter how you slice them. We have to learn how to give, how to accept that which someone else gives us, we have to listen, and we have to talk. Depending on your personality, one of those might be more difficult than the other. We have to offer grace and forgiveness and care and wisdom.

But relationships can be fun, too. It's easy and tempting to put a guard around our hearts when we've been hurt to keep the pain out. But the problem is, when we work to keep the pain out. We often keep the joy out, too.

The Israelites depended on God, but at times, they turned away from God in pain caused by their own sin. To ease that pain, they tried to control their relationship with God, putting up walls and making extenuating rules by which to guard their hearts and still be honoring to God, at least in their own eyes. In today's wrap-up of the Sermon on the Mount, however, we hear Jesus asking us to take those walls of protection down and to seek to truly know Him. He has so much more for us than rules and guardrails. He has the blessings and joy of an intimate relationship with Him that He is longing to shower on us.

In his teaching so far, Jesus taught the Beatitudes that God blesses in a highly unexpected fashion, giving the most to those who hunger and thirst to know him. He taught that we as Christ followers are the light of the world and that He came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it. We've learned that, in God's eyes, the attitude of our hearts is just as important as our actions. And that God wants us to love our enemies and even pray for them. We've learned that we can be generous because God will will always provide for us. And we must not judge others. But instead, be discerning as we go to God in prayer seeking His wisdom.

And now Jesus underscores it all by teaching that a relationship with Him is the key, the foundation of all that we have been taught, and who God made us to be.

Today's scripture is from Matthew chapter seven, verses 21 through 29. And from Luke chapter six, verses 46 through 49, and chapter 13, verses 23 through 30. Let's read from the New Living Translation beginning in Matthew 21.

Not everyone who calls out to me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On Judgment Day Many will say to me, Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name. But I will reply, I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God's laws.

Jesus is prophesying here, telling his listeners what will be. Remember, God is sovereign and in control, so what he says will come to pass. Think of it as a movie trailer. We don't know or understand the whole story. But throughout the Bible, we get bits and pieces of that coming judgment day. The prophet Joel had already given some detail about what he calls the day of the Lord and Joel chapter two. Jesus listeners would have been very familiar with this picture that Joel painted of the earth and ruins as the Lord our God who is gracious and compassionate and abounding in love thunders at the head of his army. Despite the destruction, Joel wrote that on that day, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

But if Joel's telling is like the short movie trailer that gets you hooked and leaves you with questions. Then Jesus' words add to the intrigue as he expands on Joel’s movie trailer with his own revelations, saying that not everyone who calls out Lord Lord will enter the kingdom instead, some will hear Jesus reply, I never knew you.

The plot thickens.

Jesus’ followers are learning for perhaps the first time that their eternal destination depends not on what they do, but on who they know. They must know Jesus, and Jesus must know them. They have to take those walls of protection that they have built up around their hearts and destroy them. Allowing Jesus in.

Luke presents his version of the movie trailer as he writes, beginning in Luke 13:23. Someone asked him Lord will only a few be saved. He replied, work hard to enter the narrow door to God's kingdom, for many will try to enter but will fail. When the master of the house has locked the door. It will be too late. You will stand outside knocking and pleading Lord opened the door for us. But he will reply, I don't know you are where you come from. Then you will say but we ate and drank with you and you taught in our streets. And he will reply, I tell you, I don't know you or where you come from? Get away from me, all you who do evil.

The people must have been sitting on the edge of their seats by now as they listened to Jesus' words. Could it be possible that even when we think we know Jesus, He doesn't know us? And if those who don't know him can't get in the door, where does that leave them?

Luke's movie trailer continues as the camera pans out backing away from the locked door, showing us what is on the outside.

Luke 13:28

There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For you will see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God. But you will be thrown out and people will come from all over the world from east and west and north and south to take their places in the kingdom of God. And note this, some who seemed the least important now will be the greatest then and some who are the greatest now will be the least important.

Imagine the chaos and confusion. Have you ever been left out of a gathering? It’s painful. But this pain? We can't even imagine what it will feel like to be left behind weeping and gnashing our teeth. Knowing that we are too late

And the scene cuts. The dark screen becomes filled with light as the beautiful music swells and the viewer's body relaxes.

Luke transitions and chapter six verse 37. As Jesus says, I will show you what it's like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it.

Picking back up in Matthew 7:24. Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters raised and the wind beats against that house. It won't collapse because it is built on bedrock.

Luke says it stands firm because it is well built.

Despite the light and the beautiful black background music and the firm foundation for those who know Jesus, there will be wind and rain and floodwaters. But with Jesus as our bedrock, we will be able to withstand any storm that comes our way. Even the storms of destruction that may take away the people or the things we love. Even those deep floodwaters and the strong winds that come in those last days will not touch the children of God.

But Matthew records, Anyone who hears my teaching, and doesn't obey it is foolish. Like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rain and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.

Luke says into a heap of ruins.

Have you ever read one of those choose-your-own-ending books. Those were my favorite. When I was a kid, you get to the end of a page and be given a choice did she go through the red door or the blue door. If you choose the red door, you'd be instructed to turn to a certain page and if you choose the blue door, you'd be instructed to read a different page and the story would continue.

Well, in the film of your life, you get to choose the ending. But there are only two options. You can choose to keep those walls up and go it alone. Or you can choose to have a relationship with Jesus.

Choosing to keep those walls up around our heart, keeping Jesus out going it alone, and trying to earn our own salvation means that the path will get more and more difficult. Darkness and sin will envelop you until there is no light remaining. Fear and worry and pain will take over as the door is locked behind you, indicating the opportunity to turn back is no longer available.

Or we can choose to follow Jesus to intentionally dismantle our walls and let Him into our hearts. Asking His forgiveness and doing our best to follow him in obedience with each and every step we take.

This decision involves choosing a relationship with Jesus. And like any relationship on our end anyway, it will probably be messy. We will not be perfect. We will sin, and we will stray, we will hurt, and we will cause pain. But God is perfect. And he will always walk with us and guide us. Once we make that decision to go to Him and we have our full hearts open to him and to knowing Him, that same door will be shut behind us, and there will be no going back to where there is gnashing of teeth.

The path will continue to get more and more beautiful as we walk away from sin until on that final day, there will be no more sun. God will bottle our tears, whisking them away from us. The music will swell, and joy will fill every cell of our bodies.

Matthew finishes. When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at His teaching, for he taught with real authority, quite unlike the teachers of religious law.

Jesus is unlike any teachers of religious law because Well, Jesus is unlike anything, or anyone else we've ever known or ever will know.

There aren't enough superlatives in the English language to describe the wonder of Jesus. He's sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. He's perfect love, joy and peace. And you can have all of that in your life or not. The movie is yours. You are the director.

Choose well.

Dear most holy God. If there's any person listening today who doesn't know you and wants to know you, I pray that you enter her heart today. At this moment, give her words to confess, confess her sin to you and give her guidance and an undeniable urge to walk in obedience to your call on her life. God, thank you for giving us the opportunity to share eternity with You. And to begin that eternity, that eternity now by having a relationship with you, that will never end as you lock the door behind us.

Thank you for sending your son to make a way for us and to guide us into your loving arms. In Jesus name, I pray, amen.

If you have any questions, we want to be there for you. And if you have just given your life to Christ, we would love to celebrate with you and walk with you on your journey. So please reach out to us at [email protected]. God bless you. See you next week.

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