Put them into Practice
The Sermon on the Mount ends with the wise and foolish builders in Matt 7:24-27.
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
To illustrate this passage with Junior High students, each Core Group is given a cardboard boxtop, popsicle sticks, paper, scotch tape, and fifteen minutes in their groups to build the best house they can. Half of the groups have sand filling the boxtop as a foundation and half have a slab of clay. After the allotted time, each group brings their house out to the courtyard in front of the JH room and sets them down below the walkway of the balcony above. From that upper floor, a hose with a powerful nozzle rains down water on each home. Typically, the sandy foundations get washed out and the clay foundations stand strong.
In Jesus’ story, both builders build a home and both experience a storm, the difference is in the principles they are built upon. Notice the important thing Jesus emphasizes: Hearing his words and then doing them!
Below is a quick summation of all the specific instructions Jesus gives from the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapters 5-7:
Chapter 5
Be glad when persecuted because of your great reward in heaven.
Let your light shine so people see your good deeds and praise God.
Practice and teach God’s commands to be called great in heaven.
Be reconciled to people before giving to the Lord.
Settle matters quickly with your adversary taking you to court.
Make drastic changes to deal with patterns of sin.
Stay true to your words and do what you say you will do.
Do not fight with evil people, serve them and share with them.
Love your enemies and pray for those that persecute you.
Chapter 6
Do good deeds in secret not to impress people.
Pray in secret not to impress people.
Pray like this (the Lord’s prayer).
Forgive others so you will be forgiven by God.
Fast in secret not to impress people.
Store up treasures in heaven, not earth.
Decide who you will live for, God or black Friday sales (oops- I mean money).
Do not worry about the things of life, God will provide.
Chapter 7
Don’t look down on others.
Acknowledge your faults.
Don’t serve or give to impress important people.
Ask God for good gifts.
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Enter and walk the narrow gate and road that many are not treading, it leads to life.
Watch out for false prophets, their deeds will reveal their hearts.
Hear my words and do them.
This list leaves out some principles from the Sermon on the Mount, like the parts about anger and adultery. In those places he describes a consequence but doesn’t give a specific instruction. The list above is all of Jesus’ specific instructions from chapters 5-7. Trusting these principles makes a solid foundation. Solid enough to withstand the storms of life. Please don’t just read them, put them into practice!
Pastor John Riley
Four Awful Words
Have you ever been to an event that was ‘Invitation Only?’ One where you had to RSVP and show the invitation at the door? Having never been to one of those, I only know about them from movies or TV shows. Usually, it is someone dressed in their finest trying to gain entrance who does not have an invitation and whose name also does not appear on the guest list. The potential guest tries to get to see the host to affirm their relationship and thus join the event. In the theatrical presentation often the denial precedes other creative ways to gain entrance. It can be humorous or serious depending on the drama.
As we close the series on the Sermon on the Mount, we see Jesus talking about the event of entering the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus had been teaching about what it takes to be righteous and to live the life God calls us to live. What He taught was challenging to the current thinking of the religious leaders; their ‘righteous’ acts were for themselves not for God. In verse 21 of Matthew 7, Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven…” We are told in Hebrews that it is appointed unto man, ‘once to die and after that the judgment.’ So this event of entering the kingdom of heaven occurs at that time. Standing at the entrance, you have not responded to the invitation and your name is not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Revelation 21:27). You ask to plead your case to the Lord Jesus. “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?” vs 23. And then Jesus says the four most awful words, “I never knew you”!
I Never Knew You. Those must be the saddest four words ever.
For Jesus, it is all about having a personal relationship with those entering the kingdom of heaven. Everyone has an invitation but what was done with it? His sacrificial death and glorious resurrection are the basis of the invitation to the kingdom of heaven. Our repentance and trust in His righteousness is how we RSVP to become part of God’s forever family.
John 1:12 is one of my favorite verses, “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” Do you remember the day you began this personal relationship with Him? Most of you reading or hearing this, probably do remember that day. Some of us have family or friends who may be depending on their own righteousness to enter the kingdom of heaven. I have one friend who said he did good things and was sincere so, of course, he would go to heaven. “I never knew you!” Some wanted to wait until they were ready and it became too late. “I never knew you!” Some just didn’t bother with the invitation or didn’t think it was real. “I never knew you!” This is not what God wants. 2 Peter 3:9 says ”…he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” Titus 2:11 says, “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.”
Perhaps the LORD wants you to pray the names of those in your sphere to RSVP God’s invitation. Consider spending some quiet with Him to hear who He brings to your prayer thoughts! He might even give you the joy of explaining the invitation to them.
Francie Overstreet
EFCC Member
Fake Fruit
“Be wary of false preachers who smile a lot, dripping with practiced sincerity. Chances are they are out to rip you off in some way or other. Don’t be impressed with charisma; look for character. Who preachers are is the main thing, not what they say. A genuine leader will never exploit your emotions or your pocketbook. These diseased trees with their bad apples are going to be chopped down and burned.” Matthew 7:13:29 (The Msg)
We have a neighbor whose orange tree is usually over our fence and full of beautiful oranges that fall to the ground. Unfortunately, the tree isn’t deeply watered, or cared for properly so the fruit doesn’t taste good. The fruit looks good on the outside, but it isn’t sweet or juicy on the inside.
In the same way, we have always had false or fake preachers. You can identify false prophets or deceitful people by their actions and the results of their lives, often referred to as "fruits," just as you can tell a good tree from a bad one by the fruit it produces; good people will produce good deeds and positive outcomes, while bad people will produce negative consequences.
The first thing to notice about false prophets is that they may look like you. They may sound legitimate and they may even use all the right lingo. In other words, they know how to look the part. Many times, this is why they are so deceptive they make themselves appear to look like other sheep. They may look harmless, but they are extremely dangerous.
They may preach only what you and others want to hear. Wherever there is truth there will be error. Wherever people are teaching sound doctrine there will be people teaching false doctrine.
Satan’s greatest ambassadors are not pimps, politicians, or power brokers, but pastors. His priests do not peddle a different religion, but a deadly perversion of the true one. His troops do not make a full-out frontal assault but work as agents, sneaking into the opposing army. Satan’s tactics are studied, clever, predictable, and effective.
2 Timothy 2:15 says, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” We can’t know the truth if we don’t study scripture, and ask the Holy Spirit for discernment to recognize fake fruit when we see it.
Deb Hill
Exec. Assistant
“Stay Off the Highway”
My parents are from Dallas. So I’ve traveled to Texas to visit family for as long as I can remember. Unlike southern California, the Dallas area, like most of the country, deals with this phenomenon called weather.
Dallas can experience snow and, more often, sleet or freezing rain in wintertime. In other seasons, they’ll have intense thunderstorms coupled with strong winds and scary large hail. As a kid, I recall adults discussing the weather, remarking, “Better stay off the roads!” or TV weathermen advising viewers to “steer clear of the highways” when weather conditions made driving unsafe and unwise.
Jesus gave his followers similar advice about road conditions in Matthew chapter 7. He says, “3Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” ESV translation adds that the road is easy which leads to destruction and the road is hard which leads to life.
These are some of the last words of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount. At the beginning Jesus said, I want you to look different and live differently than the world around you—like a light in darkness, I want you to shine brightly, to live so righteously, that your life points other people, to me! If you’ve been paying attention, Jesus has taught us week after week about anger and forgiveness, faithfulness and adultery, honesty and integrity. He’s commanded us to be serious about sin, to love people when it’s not easy to love, and that Christ-followers live lives of generosity. We’ve learned not to worry or trust in wealth or earthly possessions. He’s taught us how to pray—humbly relying on Him and wanting his will more than my own.
Now he warns us. The choice ultimately is mine and yours to make. Which road will I choose? While the invite to follow Jesus is for everyone, the narrow road calling is hard. Most people will choose the easier route, the wider road with less hills, fewer challenges, it requires less effort. It’ll be tempting to choose that road. Anyone and everyone easily fit through the wide gate. … but be warned, it dead ends in destruction.
There’s a better option. It’s difficult, yes; it will require you daily to deny yourself. But it leads to Jesus and it promises life—life abundant, life to the full, life in the Spirit, everlasting life. Jesus came to abolish sin and death and destruction in every sense of the word.
Choose life today, choose to follow Jesus on the narrow way.
Donielle Winter
EFCC Member
Jesus and Everything Else
The American poet, Robert Frost, ended his famous poem The Road Not Taken, by writing,
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Those words have captured minds and hearts since they were written in 1915 as they evoke the imagery of a fork in the road, where we must decide which direction to walk. I think it stirs us because we know that it’s true - there are going to be watershed moments in our lives that we look back on that give definitive shape to the lives we live.
The move we made or didn’t make…
The job we took or didn’t take…
The school we decided to go to…
The proposal we decided to say “yes” or “no” to…
Life is the sum total of the decisions we make.
That’s what Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount. He states there are two different paths, true and false prophets, and two kinds of foundations we can build our lives upon. The hearers of Jesus’ sermon have to decide what they’re going to do with his words. I’m struck by the fact that there are only two choices - Jesus and everything else. It’s here that as moderns, we often want to push back suggesting there has to be more than two choices. Isn’t life more nuanced than this binary Jesus presents? Does this sound too reductionistic to you? We live in a world that’s filled with options. You go to the grocery store and have 10 different kinds of spaghetti sauce to choose from. We’re often more comfortable with the idea that there are several good options. However, Jesus doesn’t leave us with that possibility.
Jesus is reinforcing his exclusive claim to be the way to life, a claim that he makes throughout the gospels. In John 14:6, Jesus said,
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Jesus doesn’t say it’s hard to get to the Father apart from him, he says it’s impossible. He doesn’t claim to be a way, he claims to be the way. He ends the Sermon on the Mount in the same way, forcing his hearers to decide what they are going to do with his words. Will they hear them and put them into practice or will they build their life on their own wisdom? Will they trust Jesus or will they trust their surrounding culture?
The same choice is in front of us. Two roads are diverging in the woods. The Jesus path is less traveled, but it’s the way to life and joy and peace. Choosing him makes all the difference here and now and throughout eternity.
Pastor Ryan Paulson
The Choice Is Yours
Series: The Curriculum
Text: Matthew 7:13-29
Speakers: Pastors Ryan Paulson & Esteban Tapia
November 24, 2024: On Sunday, Lead Pastor Ryan Paulson and Teaching Pastor Esteban Tapia completed our fall series on the Sermon on the Mount, The Curriculum. The title of our sermon message is "The Choice Is Yours." We hope you enjoyed this study!
Ask, Seek, Knock
Just about everyone has heard of the Golden Rule. (They just might not know it comes from Scripture!) “Do to others what you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12). This encouragement is a timeless beauty and according to Jesus it also “sums up the Law and the prophets”—That’s quite a statement! Even though all of Mosaic Law and its writings could be summarized this way, the Cliff notes were not enough. The rule needed to be embodied by Jesus as He lived it out in the world for the disciples to see, experience, and eventually capture in the New Testament.
The disciples had varied backgrounds, convictions, and opinions, yet Jesus called them together to learn from Him and knit together with divine wisdom into a new kind of people. The way of the world is to think of and protect yourself at all costs, but the way of Jesus is to think of others and protect them as if they were your own being.
In their time with Jesus, the disciples witnessed a gentle and lowly way that included asking a lot of questions, seeking the heart matter, and opening doors of freedom and healing. Relationship doesn’t ever work when it’s forced… it can’t. So how can we model the way of Jesus in relationships—even when they are hard and disagreements threaten to divide? We can ask good questions without a critical judgemental heart. We can seek to understand a perspective and not immediately dismiss it. And finally, we can knock sensitively on areas (doors) of people's lives asking for permission to enter to provide wisdom and help. Afterall, isn’t this how you would want to be treated? The Kingdom of God makes its way into the everyday as the way of Jesus is lived out in all our relationships… wouldn’t that be golden?
Jessica Klootwyk
Discipleship Director
Pigs & Pearls
Matthew 7:6 (NIV) Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.
A curious Bible verse for sure. Dogs and pigs and pearls?? What is Jesus teaching us with this verse that fits between a warning about judging others, hypocrisy, and a reminder to pray persistently as we ask, seek, and knock?
It reminds me of Jesus in Mark chapter 6. He sends his disciples out to preach “the Kingdom of Heaven is near”, to heal the sick and drive out demons…. His instructions were, “take nothing for the journey except a staff, no bread, no bag, no money in your belt.” His disciples were traveling with a treasure more precious than money or possessions—they had the most precious pearl ever—the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven, the grace of God. Jesus continues, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave as a testimony against them.”
It’s foolish to entrust holy things to unholy people, people who refuse to recognize the value of the gift you’re trying to give.
It happened to Jesus as well. He went to his hometown, Nazareth with his disciples. He taught in their synagogue and some were amazed, but many doubted the wisdom with which he taught. Those who’d known Jesus as a toddler, a young boy, an awkward teenager… it says they took offense at him!
And Jesus remarked, “Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor……He was amazed at their lack of faith.”
Like pigs and dogs, animals with zero understanding, they lacked faith and missed that the holy one, the gift of God, his precious perfect Son—the pearl—was right there before them.
Faith is what Jesus came looking for, hearts that were open, eyes that could see, and ears that could hear. The Kingdom of Heaven is for those with faith, willing to trust and follow Jesus.
In Matthew 13, Jesus says the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. The Merchant--unlike the dogs or the pigs--the merchant was looking, searching for, and knew the immense value of the pearl when he found it.
God, we praise you today for the precious gift of the Son, and salvation by grace, through faith.
Donielle Winter EFCC Member
Planks and Specks
Matthew 7:3-5 3 "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the plank that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."
Can you imagine having a 2 x 4 in your eye? Me either–but I’m pretty sure Jesus wanted to make it very clear that it’s much easier to see something wrong with our neighbor, spouse, coworker etc., than to see what is wrong with ourselves.
The saying "the fault we find in others is usually our own" means that when we criticize or become bothered by a particular trait in someone else, it could reflect a similar trait that we might be subconsciously struggling with within ourselves, acting as a kind of mirror to our own shortcomings. Or more simply, when I find fault with someone else, it is usually because I’m not happy with myself in some way.
Yes, we are supposed to hold each other accountable, but I believe that once again Jesus is reminding us not to be hypocrites.
Things aren’t always what they seem. Do we know their full story? Or are we jumping to conclusions? “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment” (John 7:24, ESV) What if we focused on building each other up rather than finding fault?
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up … 1 Thessalonians 5:11. Even as I write this, I wonder if I have been doing this as much as I could or should. Do I notice people around me who might need a word of encouragement?
Our words and actions can instill hope, reminding them of God’s unwavering love and presence. Whether it's offering a listening ear, sharing a word of encouragement, or simply being there, your support can make a huge difference in someone's journey.
We can pray for the person regardless and ask for discernment and an opening to talk to them if we feel so led. Then it will come from a place of love and concern, not judgment. But maybe, just maybe, in our conversation with the Lord, something will be revealed that we need to deal with ourselves first.
Deb Hill
Exec. Assistant
Crossroads: Discernment vs. Condemnation
Matthew 7
Have you ever noticed that not all parking spots are created equal? I remember being a new driver and thinking I was much better than I was. There was a brief window of time when I’d confidently cut through traffic and park right in front of the store, thinking I could squeeze into the tightest spaces. Once, in front of Major Market, I misjudged my skill and ended up bumping my car into the tire of the one parked next to me. Luckily, there was no damage, and the driver got out laughing, saying, “I knew there was no way you could make that spot!” His response wasn’t to condemn my error but to show understanding and humor instead of judgment.
This experience brings me to a question: Have you ever been at the crossroads of discerning how to respond or quickly condemning a situation?
In Matthew 7, Jesus shows us how to handle these crossroads. Whether speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well or confronting those misusing the temple, Jesus always began with discernment. He reminds us that we’ve been given minds to think, hearts to feel, and the ability to lean into each moment to glorify God with our actions.
Yet, we sometimes misunderstand Jesus' teachings on judgment. People often quote, “Judge not, that you be not judged,” with good intentions. But Jesus doesn’t mean for us to shut off our brains or abandon our ability to discern what’s right or wrong. Instead, He reminds us to recognize our own biases and flaws—our “specks and logs” (verses 3-5)—so we can see clearly. He calls us to discern both within the church and outside it, knowing when to speak and when to hold back, letting the Holy Spirit guide our responses.
Despite our best intentions, we still sometimes misstep, letting condemnation slip through or failing to discern a situation fully. Like my minor parking accident, we may find ourselves misjudging a turn or misreading the moment. But at each crossroads we face, may we seek Jesus’ guidance. When we ask for His help, He’s always there, ready to guide us.
I am praying that He is directing you at your crossroads. If you ever need guidance, just call out to Him. Praying for you all.
Pastor Jeremy Johnson
