Anyone Who Listens

Matthew 7:24-27

²⁴ “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. ²⁵ Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. ²⁶ But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. ²⁷ When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.” Matthew 7:24-27

Listens and Follows vs. Hears and Doesn’t Obey.

My kids (and basically every kid everywhere) are master stallers at bedtime. They know their bedtime, but they still have to be reminded about it. And so we often are telling them “Time to get ready for bed,” and there will be no indication that they are doing anything. A few minutes later, we call again, "Bedtime!” And sometimes the only thing we get back is “I heard you!”

“I heard you!”

We all do this from time to time. We may hear an instruction, a plan, or a time, and we do not do what is being said or asked of us. We hear, but we don’t listen, and we certainly don’t obey.

And these Red Letters warn us what will happen when we hear Jesus’ teach and doesn’t obey instead of listening and following: a mighty crash.

A few things to note about this teaching of Jesus.

First, the negative outside circumstances (rain, wind, floods) happen to us no matter what. The question is not if you will have storms, but when and how bad. Following Jesus does not guarantee a pain-free and rain-free life. Jesus says earlier in this sermon that the “rain falls on the just and unjust alike.” Storms are coming. The question then becomes how do I best weather the storms?