Let me introduce to somebody…

If you’ve purchased an adult lego set from the Swedish furniture company IKEA, you have seen this him: 

IKEA Man is featured prominently in all IKEA instruction manuals to tell you the right things to do and the wrong thing to do.

He pictographically lets you know that carrying a Billy bookcase by yourself is bad, but carrying one with a friend will surely lead to a smile.

He helps you to understand that your Kallax shelf unit will be destroyed, unless you assemble it atop your Stockholm rug.

And of course, he lets you know that climbing on your Hemnes dressers is a bad idea, unless you anchor it to the wall.

Today we find ourself at the end of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain, and as he concludes the sermon, he sets before us an IKEA Man image, letting us know of the fate of the IKEA man that hears His teachings and does them, and the other IKEA man who does not.

Before we jump in, let’s pray.

Exposition

At the top of the conclusion of his sermon, Jesus poses a question. He says to his disciples (and the eavesdropping crowd)…

46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? —Luke 6:46

This question just cuts through it all.

Jesus essentially says, “It is non-sensical for somebody to claim that I am LORD, yet not do what I say…or at least try.” It is a question of authority, power, and wisdom.

Jesus then gives a little parable and really points before us two options: we can build a house with a rock solid foundation (which is a life built on hearing and doing the teachings of Jesus), or we can build a house without a foundation (which is at best just giving lip service to Jesus, saying ya, I believe in Jesus, but then not doing that which he invites us to).

He says in v. 47…

47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. —Luke 6:47-48

So the one who hears Jesus’ words and does them is like somebody who does the hard work of digging down to the bedrock to lay the foundation down there has a house that can withstand the wiles of nature.

In another Gospel account, Jesus says that this builder is a wise man.So anyone hears my words and puts them to practice is wise, they’re smart, they’re intelligent.

But what happens to the person who didn’t do the work of digging down deep?

49 But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” —Luke 6:49

The other house—serving as the representation of the person who hears things and does’t do them—ends in utter catastrophe. The house is destroyed. And notice that the text doesn’t say that it stood strong for a little bit, it says immediately, it crumbled.

The house provides a meaningful image for us, but ultimately the house is not the important thing here. The whole story is about the foundation.

Key to understanding this text is what Jesus is saying it means to build a foundation on the bedrock, or rather what type of person builds their foundation on the bedrock. It is the one who hears the teachings of Jesus and does them. 

One of the unique challenges of our cultural moment is that we live in a society that largely has divorced hearing from doing. We now very easily mistake insight for transformation. We hear something interesting and think we’ve changed. One big reason this has happened is because over the last 40 years our culture has entered into the information age where are are now inundated with information constantly.

In his well-known work, Amusing Ourselves to Death, social commentator Neil Postman notes…

The tie between information and action has been severed. Information is now a commodity that can be bought and sold, or used as a form of entertainment, or worn like a garment to enhance one’s status. It comes indiscriminately, directed at no one in particular, disconnected from usefulness; we are glutted with information, drowning in information, have no control over it, don’t know what to do with it.” —Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

He wrote this is 1985! Before the cell phone, before Twitter and Facebook, before the internet even! The barrage of information today affects us deeply. It has created a world in which we can take in information, we can even feel something about the information, but then it leads us to do nothing. We are used to reading headlines, or watching the news, or looking at Twitter, taking it in and then not acting. 

Even in the Christian life, we can be tempted to simply stand under the waterfall of information: we read Desiring God articles, or follow Christian leaders on Twitter, or listen to 8 different sermon podcasts during the week, or even have robust Bible reading plans, but not put into practice the words of Jesus. And don’t you see that’s the exact issue that Jesus sets before us. The difference isn’t in hearing, because both builders hear the words of Jesus, it’s about doing them.

To do Jesus’ words, to obey them, to put them into practice, is what this whole thing is about.

That’s why James, Jesus’ half-brother, says these words in his letter decades after His brothers ministry…

22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves…17 So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. —James 1:22, 2:17

It is only through hearing and doing, that a life is built upon the foundation of Jesus and His words. Hearing is not enough.

New Testament scholar, Jonathan Pennington writes,

“The call is to put into practice Jesus’ teachings, not merely to believe in them or in him…This is discipleship…Disciples are called to a level deeper than cognition by practicing his teachings.” —Jonathan Pennington, The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing

Notice also here that the same storms have fallen on both builders. That’s really important. Theologian Dale Bruner points out,

“Obedience to Jesus’ words is not so much protection from troubles as protection in them.” —Dale Bruner, Matthew

You hear that? Thank you Jesus for recognizing the realities of the human existence. He’s not some self-help guru that says follow these ten steps and you’ll always be happy, healthy, and trouble-free. Jesus says “No, take heart, cause you’ll have troubles in this life.”  Rains will fall and flood waters will rise.

Both builders will face troubles in this life, but they will fare very differently. Jesus says that the house built on the faulty foundation will end in a great crash. It will crumble to the ground in a heap.

Now, as we move towards applying the text, we need to circle back to Jesus’ initial question:

46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? —Luke 6:46

You see, Jesus is telling us very plainly, that if you say you believe that I am the King of this Upside-Down Kingdom, then you would do what I tell you.

It’s a simple question of authority.

Our view of Jesus’ authority, affects how we relate to Him and His teachings.

If we believe that Jesus has all authority, power, and wisdom, then we’re going to do what he says.

The same is true in other aspects of life…

• Why do you call me doctor, doctor and not take the medicine I prescribe?
• Why do you call me mechanic, mechanic and not change your oil?
• Why do you call me financial advisor, financial advisor and not put money into your 401K?

If we, with our very own mouths, ascribe an authoritative title to somebody but do not obey their instructions, then we do not really ascribe authority to them.

Jesus says, “If I am not just the wisest person to ever live, but the very embodiment of Wisdom, then do you not think that the things I invite you to would hold up?”

Now, of course, it’s complicated. Sin still remains in all of us, but Jesus doesn’t really provide that nuance for us in this text, so though it’s there in the scope of Scripture, I think the teaching of Jesus today invites us to consider a couple questions:

Are you building your foundation on hearing and doing Christ’s teachings?

Are you digging down deep to build your foundation?

Application

1. Are you building your foundation on hearing and doing Christ’s teachings?

We hear often people agree that Jesus is a great teacher—a guru, of sorts—but they don’t believe He is Lord. They will seek to follow some His teachings, but will not submit to His Lordship or Kingship. Perhaps they agree with Jesus teachings on the ethics of loving your enemy, but say his teachings on sexual ethics is antiquated and old-fashioned. Maybe they agree with Jesus’ care for children, but his teachings on building a community around those who look different than you is woke.

But you can’t abide by the King’s edicts apart from knowing and submitting to the King. You can’t divorce a person’s words from the person. When we pick and choose the parts of Jesus that we want to submit to, we’re not really submitting to Him at all. We’re submitting to a Christ of our own making.

As the late NYC Pastor, Tim Keller says…

“Only if your god can outrage and challenge you will you know that you worship the real God and not a figment of your imagination. . . . If your god never disagrees with you, you might just be worshiping an idealized version of yourself.” —Tim Keller

We cannot pick and choose the parts of Jesus’ teaching we like, because we then make a Christ of our choosing. We divorce His words from His Person.

Building your life on the solid Rock, Jesus, is the wise play here. Building our lives on anything else leads to a great crash.

Jesus is asking you the question. “How can you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I say?” Or to ask it different, Jesus is asking you: “What foundation is your life built upon?”

We are all building our lives on something, so what foundation are you building on?

• Are you building your life on the foundation of the American Dream? It’s all about getting the house with the picket fence and the 2.5 kids and a dog.
• Are you building your life on the foundation of your career? Or earthly success? It’s all about that climbing the corporate ladder, working those 80 hr weeks to get to the top.
• Are you building your life on the foundation of your family? Everything revolves around your kids being happy, healthy, and well-adjusted.

The reality of all of those things is that they are like sand. They can easily slip through your fingers, and if your life is built upon them it will lead to a great crash, when they all wash away.

• The house built on the foundation of the American Dream comes to a great crash when you can’t keep up with the credit card debt and have to file for bankruptcy.
• The house built on the foundation of your career comes to a great crash when Humana makes cutbacks and you’re laid off.
• The house built on the foundation of your family comes to a great crash when one of your kid goes off the rails and damages themselves and your family.

You see, the temptation even for us in the church is to make good things God things. And if we build our lives on anything other than Christ and His Word, then at some point when trials come, whether it be in this life, or the life to come, the whole thing will come crashing down.

What foundation are you building your life upon?

2. Are you digging down deep to build your foundation?

There was something in this text that I’ve never noticed before.

48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. —Luke 6:48

I think in my mind or imagination of the text, I see two people coming up to a plot of land, one just is a knuckle-head and says well I’ll just build here on the sand, the other one is smart, a master craftsman, and they say well I’ll build here on rock, cause I know it’ll last.

I think I also probably imagined like many of you that as long as I was “saved” then my house was firmly built on that foundation.

But that phrase dug deep just really messed with me this week, because it made me think that perhaps the work of building your house on the foundation of Christ is a lifelong endeavor and not just a one time decision.

A brother in our church shared a great quote with me from a book by writer David Benner. It says…

…People who are afraid to look deeply at themselves will of course be equally afraid to look deeply at God. For such person, ideas about God provide a substitute for direct experience of God. —David Benner, The Gift of Being Yourself

The longer I follow Jesus, the more parts of my life I find that I actually have not built my life on Christ for. And I am made aware of this in so many ways:

• Some times it’s sin like raising my voice at my kids because my control issues get the better of me when I realize I can’t actually make a little human (or a big human for that matter) do anything. 
• Other times it’s good things like my desire to do good work become outsized and become too enmeshed in my identity before God. 
• And yet other times, it may just be past wounds or painful experiences that I simply have not fully allowed Christ to heal.

The one who built his house on the rock dug deep to build the house on the foundation…but I’m afraid to do that oftentimes because I know that if I go down to the depths of my soul, that means I have to plumb the depths of the soul of God, and meet the real God, not the God of my own making. If I’m honest, the God that will require me to change.

Sometimes we can do that hard work of digging deep on our own volition, but oftentimes—maybe we could even say most of the time—it’s not until we go through suffering or hardship that we see that we need to dig deeper to allow another part of our life to be built upon the foundation of Christ.

Why? Because that’s when our realest selves are revealed.

In his book Soul Making, Alan Jones talks about tears in a way that I think could go alongside the storms mentioned in our text. He writes…

Tears flow when the real source of our life is uncovered, when the mask of pretense is dropped, when our strategies of self-deception are abandoned. Trials and humiliations are necessary only insofar as they are the means by which our true life is uncovered. —Alan Jones, Soul Making

Our suffering and hardships, even when they are out of our control, can be great revealers of what our foundation is built upon because suffering and hardships strips away all the fluff, all our avoidance mechanisms that keep us from either (1) having to look deeply at ourselves or (2) having to look deeply at God.

In all of our suffering, we have an opportunity to see that which is not built on the foundation of Christ, confess, repent, and dig deep and then rebuild that part on the bedrock that is Christ.

The other option is to not dig deep; maybe turn to booze or TikTok or Ben & Jerry’s pints and just numb yourself because you don’t want to see the depths of yourself and you certainly don’t want to see the depths of God.

But friends, it’s in the depths that we meet God and experience the greatness of His love and affection for us.

In his letter to the Ephesians the Apostle Paul uses a metaphor that Christ used the text just above ours today, and that metaphor, not all too different than ours today is that of a tree, whose roots (think foundation of a house) have to go down really deep to live a healthy tree life.

…Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. —Ephesians 3:17-19

Church, God Himself, went to the depths of our brokenness by taking on Flesh and dying on a Cross, taking all the punishment required of our transgressions so that we didn’t have to. But, as we celebrated last week, the story didn’t stop there and it’s because Jesus was raised as the Conquering King over Satan, sin, and death, that we now are invited to dig deep to our depths to build our house on the foundation of Christ the King.