Obey the word of Christ

Rev Enoch Thompson | MARCH 5, 2023 | MATTHEW 7:24-29

KEY VERSE:

"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. Matthew 7:24 (NIV)

MESSAGE:

Hearing the message of Christ is easy and simple, someone speaks, I listen and walk away without the word making any impact on my life. Just as talk is cheap so is hearing cheap. Doing is the matter of the matter. Our relationship with God is not based on having access to the revelations about God but conforming to the demands and directives of God through His word.

The Lord paints the picture of two types of hearers of His teaching. Verses 24 and 26 show the marked difference in response to the teachings of the Lord. There are those who hear and obey the teachings of the Lord (verse 24), and there are those who hear and disregard the word of the Lord (verse 26). Those are choices that the individuals concerned make, and they are free to do so. However, there are real-life consequences to those choices.

Hearing and obeying the instructions of the Lord makes a person strong in the face of the challenges that life presents. Life lived according to the teachings of Christ is like a house built upon a rock, whereas a life which disregards the word of Christ is comparable to a house built on the sand. Both houses face the storms, and storms of life come uninvited and without discrimination. The end result of the two houses is the house on the rock standing when the storm is over, and the house on the sand falling, and with a great crash!

The danger of hearing and not doing the word of God is very close to everyone of us. The Holy Spirit finds it necessary through James to remind us in James 1:22-25 “²² Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it — he will be blessed in what he does.” (NIV). Knowledge without application is useless, and faith without work is evidently dead (James 2:14-17).

FEET AND HANDS FOR THE MESSAGE:

Where are you in your faith journey? Have you reached the place where reading or hearing God’s word is not a mere academic exercise with no practical relevance for life? We need to make God’s word the determinant of the direction of our life. Commit to obeying the word of God you know at every point in your life. You will be better off for it!

PRAYER:

Dear Father in Heaven, your word has been reliable through all the endless ages. Please help me not only to admire the beauty of the word, but to apply the teachings of the word, that I might become enabled to stand and withstand the challenges of this life, and to have a good account to give at the end. Thank you for hearing me, in Jesus’ glorious Name, Amen.

THERE SHALL BE SHOWERS OF BLESSING.

SHOWERS! BLESSINGS!!