Home Work Pt. 11

You're joining us in part 11 of our series homework today. We're going to be talking about built to last How do you build something that will survive storms? Whether there's storms that come from the devil storms that come from life or even storms that come from our own Choices and habits. How do you survive that? How do you build something to last? This message is gonna bless you I want you to like comment share subscribe and I'll see you right after this service Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Zlo The fort I know y'all happy at the fort right now cuz Deacon Leah back there y'all just act all the different when she's there with y'all Welcome everybody in Zion Church. My name is Keith battle and on behalf of my beautiful wife Vicki We welcome y'all to this service. I don't know what happens in the lights, but I'm too docked in to make that move There you go. Amen back now. Welcome. Good to see y'all. Thanks for being here today. So good to see y'all If this is your first time ever coming to our church We're not gonna have you stand up and put you on the spot or anything like that We just want to acknowledge you by inviting you to our first time guess Reception at the connections table and every lobby at every campus. There's something called a connections table We'd love for you to come there. We have a gift. We want to give you we'd like to Take any prayer requests you had or pray for you about and and see if we can answer any of your questions So that's right after this service. It is our pleasure to make your acquaintance a day And if you're online You're on one of our online platforms, and this is your first time ever visiting our church If you don't mind if you don't mind us knowing is your first time just put the number one in the chat and That'll be the indication that we know this is your first time here. We just want to welcome you Thank you for being with us. All right. This is part 11. Please stand with me if you can do that without harm or risk

As we stand for the reading of the word of God Our series is called homework. This is part 11. Don't let the number of the series throw you off It's 11 part 11, but you you won't be lost today every message will make sense to you even if you haven't heard the previous ones and If you'd like to hear the previous ones you can go on any of our platforms Going our app on our website You to Facebook and you can watch the previous messages. All right. I'm gonna go now to Let's go to Matthew chapter 7 Let's see how this goes today. Let's go to Matthew chapter 7 if you want to turn in your Bibles I'm gonna look at verses 24 and 25 Before I go any further. I don't know how it's going right now at at the bridge or Here or as I land over Zion for watching it But I feel like I need to warm this room up a little bit not in the temperature, but in the associations Like I don't feel like we're kindred in this space Just since that I could be wrong, but I may not be so what I want you to do is I need you to do an entire 360 and by that I mean I need you to say something to the person in front of you Something to the person on your left Something to the person on your right and something to the person behind you And the reason why I want you to do a 360 is because that probably will help force you to talk to somebody you don't know So say something nice to people good morning on the count of three one two three say something nice to somebody around you Yeah For those of you online right now just say hi tell us where you're from Put your city in the chat right now, so we can greet you That's better That's better. That's better. Yeah We are family. I got all my sisters And here we go, Matthew 7, verse 24. anyone who hears and obeys these teachings of mine, anyone who hears and obeys these teachings of mine

is like a wise person who built a house on solid rock. Now, stay right there for a second. He's saying somebody is building a house on solid rock. And he says, when you do that, that is what it's like to hear and obey my teachings. It's like building your house on rock. And it's also wise. You see all that in reverse? It's very important that you see what God is saying. Not just here, but you see, if he's giving you eyes to see, the Bible says, open down my eyes, Lord, that I may behold the wonderful things out of your law. Anyone who hears and obeys these teachings of mine is like a wise person who built a house on solid rock. Verse 25, rain poured down, rivers flooded, and winds beat against that house, 'cause that's when life is just lifein'. But it was built on solid rock, so it did not fall. My subject today is built to last. You may be seated. I started to read in the 745 service I read from my book called "The Second Chance", just a shameless plug, amen. I won't read it to you, but I'm gonna tell you, just summarize a story. And in March of 1911, the New York Times paper did an article on the St. Romans Catholic Church, St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, on Barclay Street, 22 Barclay Street in New York, Manhattan. And it was an interesting story

because this church has stood, Mr. Thompson, for 73 years, as a beautiful edifice right in the city of New York. And after 73 years without even a hairline crack in any of his granite walls, following the building of a skyscraper right next to it, the building started showing distress throughout the building, starting in his foundation. They started finding that the walls were caving in and there were 10 foot long cracks in different parts of the building. Like entry points were caving in, like all of this was happening when something big came in next to it. And what the building inspectors discovered was, was the building was in such disrepair that they made it unsafe for people to go in and out of the building, they had to shut it down. And this is what they found all y'all, this is gon' shock you. They found out in their research that the entire structure had been built on sand. Sand. In fact, there was reports that when the skyscraper was built next to it, that the contractors and the construction workers had to move immense amounts of sand before they put the skyscraper up. The whole area was all sand. But watch this, the building looked fine until something big came close to it.

And it exposed, watch this, the exposure was seen in the cracks and the windows caving in and stuff like that and stuff like that happening in the building, but the real problem was in the foundation. You see, it matters how things are built. And I'm not just talking about brick and mortar construction. I'm talking about tangible things like the principles that something is built on, the convictions that things are built on. It matters how things are built. And here's what we learned from Matthew chapter seven. When something is built like this, something is built to withstand storms in life. When you build a home, 'cause all of us are building a life and we're building a home, when you build your home to withstand storms, not to be storm free, but to be storm proof. There's a difference. 'Cause storms are coming to everybody's house. But when you build a house that is storm proof, it is because you have learned as a resident in that house how to listen to what Jesus says and obey it. That's the message right there. It comes down to this. It doesn't matter whether you live in a gated community or you live in the projects. You can live in an apartment, a condo, a townhouse, a single family house.

You can have a manicured lawn. You can have a swimming pool indoors in your house. You can have servants who work around your house or you can have roaches. Three in the morning, the lights come on, and the roaches start running around the kitchen on the floor. See, some of y'all ain't never woke up in three in the morning and walked in the kitchen lead an apartment in Pune, so I got seven of them, I got seven of them. Let me get back on track here. It doesn't matter the economic valuation of your property, what matters is, is do the people in your house listen to what God says and obey His Word because that's a house that's built to last. You know what? To do this passage slow enough to grab some bricks to build a house with that will last. And I want to read the passage again, but this time I want to use the new living translation and this is how I raise. It says, "Anyone who listens to my teaching," Jesus says, "he listens to my teaching and he follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock, though the rain comes in torrents and the floor waters rise and the winds beat against that house. It beat against the rain, the floods, the winds beat against the house of the person who listens to my teaching. That house, the house of the person who follows my teaching, that house got hit. The house of the person who's wise, that house got hit. Tell somebody it happens. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. You can't get around it. Storms are indiscriminate. But here's the good news. The next reword says, "But it won't collapse," ooh, that's fine.

It won't collapse. It won't collapse it. The storms may come, but it won't collapse it. Rain came. Wind blew. But my house was built on you. Christ is my firm foundation. Oh, is there anybody here that understands that the devil threw a hole out at your house, but you're still standing by the grace of God? Okay. I'm going to get you. Excuse me. I interrupt this sermon to give you five seconds to let God know I'm grateful that a lot came at me, but I stood. A lot hit my house, but I'm standing. A lot came against me, but I won't collapse. I didn't let God know it was you that did it. It was you. I ain't going to sit in here and act cute, act like he didn't cover me, act like he didn't keep me, act like he didn't surround me. It was a Lord who rocked it up. Somebody let them know you're grateful. I'm grateful. I'm grateful for your shelter. I'm grateful for your shelter. Ooh. When I woke up this morning, I heard those three words, it won't collapse. It won't collapse. It won't collapse. I'll prophesy to you in the name of Jesus.

I know it's heavy, but he told me to tell somebody it won't collapse. It won't collapse. Watch this. The devil can throw whatever he wants at you. It ain't going to collapse because it's built on something greater than my attack. Throw it at me, devil. It won't collapse. It won't collapse. It won't collapse. You won't lose your mind. Everything ain't going to fall apart. God's going to hold it all together. It won't collapse. Yeah, yeah, because of what it's built on, because of who it's built on. Let me keep going. Let me keep going. Let me keep going. Verse 26, I'm going to read the rest of the passage, but anyone who hears my teachings and doesn't obey, is foolish. Look at somebody nicely near you at Zillow right now and everywhere. Look at somebody nicely near you and just say, "Don't be foolish." Like a person who builds a house on sand because the rain's coming and the floods come and the wind's going to beat against that house, different house. Same storm, two houses, same storm, two different results. One house collapsed with a mighty crash. The other one won't collapse and it's not about zip code. The difference is this person is foolish in this house and the person in the other house is wise. And while he was, they do what God tells him. [BLANK_AUDIO]

This is the amazing thing about this passage. Let me go back to verse 24 and 24. Am I boring, y'all? - No. - No, I don't care. (congregation laughing) This is the thing about this whole passage. It's so simple. It all starts, if you want to build a house that lasts, you want to build a life that lasts, it all starts with your ears. (congregation cheering) Now, last week, we looked at our eyes. David said, "I live in my house with integrity "and I won't put anything vile or vulgar in front of my eyes." Here comes Jesus this week, and he says, "If you're going to build a house that lasts, "it's got to start with your ears." Where does it start with? Anyone who listens, anyone who hears? Two houses, house A, they're listening, house B, they're listening. Same Greek word, here, listen to different English words. Same Greek word right here. It's the Greek word, it's the Greek word. I'm sorry, just a cuo. It just means to listen, where we get the word acoustics from. It all starts with the ears. You know, we have to ask ourselves if we're trying to build something?

What are you listening to? (congregation cheering) Who are you listening to? I have gotten to a point in my life where I am very discriminated about what I even listen to. I don't even want to hear that. I don't want to hear that because it's hard to hear it and not get in me. You understand what I'm saying? I don't want to hear that. It ain't funny. I don't want to hear that. It tells us my faith. I want to hear things that build me up and make me grow and challenge me to be better. I don't need to listen to no foolishness. And some of us have a real diet and appetite for drama and gossip and foolishness. What are you listening to? There's a study done at the University of California, San Diego, it was done in 2009. And they concluded that the average American over the course of 124 hour period, one day listens to 100,000 words in one day between television, social media, the things they read, the things they look at, listen, 100,000 words. And then when they did an updated study on this study, they said the advent of social media has increased that number. So here's the deal.

According to the University of California, San Diego report, we listen to 700,000 words a day. And if you listen to the 700,000 words a day, how many of those words came from Jesus? - No, let me better say it fast. Come on, guys. - If my house has to be built on his word. - Yeah. - And I got 700,000 words. How many of them did I hear from him? That means you have to be intentional about hearing what he says, about reading what he says, about having an intake of what he says. Because faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. And then the Bible says, how can they hear without a preacher? And you don't even have to like preachers, but you need one. You need a preacher like you need a lawyer, like you need a dentist. Like you need a doctor, you need a preacher. 'Cause preachers give you God's word. And if you got 700,000 words coming against you, seems like it's important to get some words. That's why I come in the church, it's so important 'cause at least in church, I know I'm gonna get a word from the Lord. Now I have a speaking pace of about 150 words a minute. I'm probably gonna be talking to you for 40 minutes.

That's 6,000 words. That means if you pay complete attention to the whole time. All I got for you is 6,000. Now you throw that up against 700,000 and you getting 6,000 a week, I would say this time is very important. I would say this time of your week is very important. (audience applauding) Because you need these 6,000 to fight the 694,000 others. Yeah, I did that for family eyes, I did that. (audience applauding) But it ain't enough just to listen and to hear for your house to stand. 'Cause something's coming that's stronger than what you're listening to. It can't just be what you said. He says, "Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise." (audience chattering) It is obeying what you hear that matters. It is the doing of the word. It's interesting. It's interesting, huh? They don't even, Jesus doesn't even say, "I want you to study it." He just said, "Listen to me and follow my instructions." (audience chattering) Listen to no bay. Scholars, you're educated and ratchet. Season clock says you got a head full of sins, but a heart full of sins because you don't let the word go down 12 inches to your heart.

It's just in your head. So you can spit out the Bible, but you can't talk right. What are we doing? Let me tell you something. The ability for my house to stand, for my family to stand through storms has nothing to do with how well I teach and preach the word, nothing. It has nothing to do if somebody comes up here and sings great and plays music great that has nothing to do with their house standing. In fact, in fact, you can sing so powerfully or play an instrument so powerfully that people will start crying and trust God more. And that same person that played and sang will go home and want to commit suicide. I promise you ain't lying. A pastor or a minister can come up here and preach and teach the word of God to you say I understand the word of God for my life and that person will go home and have no clue what to do in their own life. See, it's this big difference between being spiritually gifted and scripturally grounded. It's a big difference. When we are petitioned and preaching and singing all that, we're just using our gift. And when we use our gift, it's predominantly for you. This doesn't help me. This is for you. What I've got to do and what you've got to do is not just be able to teach it and preach it and sing it and hear it. What we all got to be able to do is obey it. As we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word, what a glory He shares on our way. While we do His good will, He abides with us still all to those who will trust and obey. Trust for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. It requires obedience. Not did I hear it. Am I doing it? Here's what I like. I like this quote from James. Don't just listen to God's word. Don't just listen to it. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you only fooling yourself. If you listen to the word of God and you don't obey it, it's like glancing at your face in the mirror. You see yourself walk away and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free and if you do what it says, that part, and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you. You don't have a blessing because you did it. That's the work right there. That's the work right there. It is doing what God said. Happened to checkbox. Yeah, I went to church today. Her PB. Yeah, I heard your radio. Yeah, we went to church today. We saw online and you got your checkbox. You did your Sunday checkbox. Hey, you know Sundays, I only listen to gospel on Sunday fast. Okay, that's good. That's good. You're getting good because you got 700,000, so you might as well throw a little extra in on Sunday. But none of it matters if you don't do it. The gap between many of you having progress in your Christian life and not having it is not even what you're listening to because you listen, listen, listen, listen, just go back for a second. Do you not understand that both of these people are listening to the word? The man whose house collapsed is listening to Jesus. The person whose house would not collapse is listening to Jesus. The difference is one is wise enough to obey and the other one is foolish enough to disobey.

I like this quote by John Mark Comer. He says this about how important the word of God is. He says the goal of reading scripture is not information, but spiritual formation. He says the goal of reading scripture is to take it on the mind of Christ to actually think as Jesus thinks. To fill your mind with the thoughts of God so regularly and so deeply that it literally rewires your brain and from there your whole person. You wonder how important it is to have your whole brain rewired. How about being a nasty, disrespectful person? house, he's rough and tough, never tender, she's arrogant and run her mouth, you both need your brains rewired, oh God. So as your whole person can change, that's Romans 12, be not conformed in his world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Now trust me when I say I love y'all, I only had to know you personally to love you. I was telling somebody recently, when I grew up in church, people didn't preach sermons like this, they were pre-sermons, but they were esoteric, they were ambiguous. They would talk about Jesus and talk about Daniel and David, but it wouldn't come to me. Like, you understand what I'm saying? The reason why I talked to you like this, because that's what I needed. I wish I had gotten this when I was, so I hope you ain't offended, this is the way I do it. So, if somebody should have told you. Here's what the late Dr. Charles Stanley says, he says it's not enough that we comprehend the truth, we must be conformed to the truth. As we read and hear God's word, we come face to face with ourselves, there it is, James again. He comes face to face, watch this with ourselves, our deficiencies, our errors, and our faults. And we say again and again, I'm not like Jesus, but I want to be. But I go a step further than what Dr. Stanley says, I also say when we get into the Word of God and we're listening to it and we're reading it, we also come face to face with who we are as Christians that were more than conquerors. We have authority in Christ, and we are victorious in Jesus. We don't just have to be what we're broken, we don't have to be experts on how broken we are.

He called us the victory, and the more ignorant you are, the less victory you have. And it's all born out of, not having an understanding of who we are from his Word. So if anyone listens to my teaching and follows it, they're wise. We got that like a person who builds his house on a rock. Though the rain comes and the torrents and the floor waters rise against it, beat against that house, it won't collapse because it's built on bedrock. Let me say this about that. First of all, let me take a little commercial and tell you something about storms that I think is very important to get a grasp on. And that is what I would call, once you go through a storm in your life, it's important that you do a post-storm assessment. What I mean is it's like you have to look at what happened, not to point the finger, but the fix. What can I do to prevent this storm from happening again or to minimize this impact if it's going to come back again? It is because of the truth be told, some of our storms are self-inflicted. I'll come back to that in a moment. Some of us, it wasn't just a devil. Even if it was a devil, your behavior gave him room to move like that. Come on, talk to me here. That wasn't all a devil. That was Deborah and Dionne. You have to start taking your part because we end up in devilish situations that become a storm. How many would agree that some of the stuff I've been through is my own disobedience? Now, if you don't put your hand up, go up with your hand up, that's going to be one less lie you got to give an account for. A post-storm assessment says this, let's say it's a medical storm and you are in a medical condition that you're in because of poor diet, poor habits, not working out eating the wrong stuff.

Then, of course, you go to the doctor and they do what they was going to do to me. Some of y'all don't notice, I was eating so much, if it was dead, I'd eat it. Cookies, ice cream, chips. I was eating everything and then they got me and said, you got high blood pressure and we're going to put you on a statin. I said, how much time I got before you got to do that? Instead of going on medicine, I went on fruits and vegetables and stuff that's like medicine. See, this is what we do. We go on the medicine so we can keep eating wrong, but what you're doing there is keep a pressure down. They keep a sugar right. Well, how about you stop eating, take your pressure up. [BLANK_AUDIO] See, that's a storm you can intervene in. Oh, y'all don't like this now. Well, I got to be ready to do it. Let's say it's a relational storm you're in. And you can see the reason why we keep having this problem 'cause we don't know how to communicate. We always argue first, well hello. How 'bout going back to "Can We Talk?" And let's watch that. And that's not just listen to it, how 'bout applying it? See, you only got 6,000 from this one. How 'bout watching some messages during the week? That might get you up to 12. (audience applauding) Now, watch this. Hit the baby. (audience laughing)

The rain and torrents. I want you to see something 'bout this storm, how much time? I want you to see something about this storm. It's a trifold storm. It's a perfect storm. You got rain coming down in torrents. It's so much rain, the floor waters are rising up against the house. So the rain's coming down on the house, which is causing a flood to come up around the house. And then they got a wind that's beating against the house. That's a three piece. (audience chattering) Sometimes, in life, you're not just dealing with one thing. (audience chattering) You be like, "Well, come on now, listen." (audience laughing) Let me do, let me do one at a time. Anybody know what it's like to be dealing with a three piece? (audience chattering) A dirty rice. (audience laughing) You got, you got an Asian parent. You got a child in trouble. And your marriage is drifting. And when you have that, it could be a financial thing, a medical thing, a work thing. How many of you know, it doesn't even discriminate. And when you try to triage it, it can overwhelm you. And then when it's your Asian parent into the trip,

how all of a sudden you got an Asian parent that needs care, how all of a sudden, now you only job? (audience chattering) How that happened? (audience chattering) I ain't got no brothers and sisters anymore. (audience chattering) But everybody showed up at the funeral for the collection. And everybody had a poem at the funeral. (audience chattering) But when it comes time to turn beds and lay up in the bed in hospice and talk to the doctors and get, y'all ain't talking to me in here. You all by yourself. And if that ain't enough, you got a child that's cutting up. (audience chattering) And then while you're dealing with the child and with the parent, now you look and you ain't got enough time for your spouse. And it's like the three most important people in your life are slipping out of your hands. The rain is coming down and the flood is rising and the wind is beating against your house. And I'm telling you, you don't have time to miss church because this might be the only place that can speak to what you're dealing with in your life. And God says, I got a word for you to help you keep going. Somebody give God a praise that I can go to a place

and get a word to help me to keep, that's why I don't play about church. You play about it if you want. (audience clapping) You need a word. I need a word 'cause I feel like I'm gonna collapse without it. I need something on the rock. I need a word, heaven and earth shall pass away, but his word will not fail. He's got answers. He's got solutions. He's got wisdom. He knows all about your problems. He knows all about your kids and he can use a preacher to speak to you as if that preacher has been in your house. How many know that's true? 'Cause that's how he moves. (audience clapping) But here's the problem. Here's the problem. I'm almost done. I read something in Ezekiel 33 that kind of messed me up, y'all. This really messed me up. 'Cause I don't wanna believe this about y'all. (audience laughing) I don't wanna believe this about y'all. I'm in denial. You'll get that later.

I'm in denial about y'all. This is what God showed me in His Word. And this is what He was saying to Ezekiel. I say, Lord, I hope that ain't Zion. This is what He said to Ezekiel. He said, Son of Man, your people are talking about you in their houses. They're whispering about you in the doors. They said, He said, come on, let's go hear the prophet. Tell us what the Lord is saying. Come on to church, come on 945, Serbs. Yeah, come on to the bridge. Come on over to the fort. And verse 31, it says, "So my people come pretending "to be sincere and sit before you." 'Cause they listen to your words, but they have no intention of doing what you say. Not even faking like they're gonna do it. Their mouths are full of lustful words and their hearts seek only after money. Verse 32, "You are very entertaining to them. "Like someone who sings love songs "with a beautiful voice or plays fine music "on an instrument. "They hear what you say, but they don't act on it." Not y'all. Verse 33, "When all these terrible things happen to them, "as they certainly will, then they will know "a prophet has been among them." So you know what?

If it is y'all, it don't matter, 'cause I got to prophesy as I was commanded. I got to speak to dead bones and say, "Live" as I was commanded. So whether you do it or not, it's none of my business. And I'll tell you this, your house is on the line, your life is on the line, your family is on the line, and the thing you built, ooh, ooh, the thing you built is gonna collapse if you don't start doing what God tells you. It's just that simple, it's just that simple. And isn't it interesting? It's very interesting, we are in, you know what this is called that we're inside of? It begins with a B, what do they call this? A building, they call this a building. Any edifice of any significant size, they call it a building. Here's the thing, it's already built. Why not call it a built? They keep calling it what it needs to keep doing to stay up. (audience applauds) (audience applauds) That's why we have a building engineer who stays around here to keep the building up. - Okay. - You understand what I'm saying? What am I trying to tell you? You will never stop working on your marriage.

You will never stop working on your family. You will never stop working on your finances. You can never stop working on your communication. You are building something, you are building something. Stop acting tired and weak, you gotta build. (audience applauds) - Building, everybody stand up. I've been standing the whole time. Wake 'em up, be all right. I know you were sleeping, but you was listening in your sleep. (audience laughs) I used to get mad when people go to sleep on me, when I'm preaching. But then I saw her saying, "Lisa here." Amen. - Amen. - "Lisa here." - May it had a long night. (audience laughs) The devil will make you drowsy on the truth too. Be careful. (audience chattering) Amen. I want to say something to you about what's gonna be necessary for you to build something to last, your life, your home, your family. If it's gonna be built to last, before you can work on your home, you gotta work on yourself. - Hey, I trusted that message, challenge your life.

And here's what I want to say as we wrap this up today. If you fallin' down, don't stay down. And make sure why you're down there, as John Maxwell says, is you can pick something up, is you get a lesson from your loss. It's not a loss if you get a lesson from it. Learn from your mistakes. Walk with the Lord, forgive yourself, and keep going. Because this race is not given to the swift, nor to the strong, which is those who endure to the end. And remember, we don't have a house that's already built, we're still building it, we're building our marriages, we're building our communication, we're building our financial life, Design Church.