I will do what Jesus teaches and my house will remain firm on the Rock

From: July 14 – 20, 2009

Pastor: Edith Cruz

Study: # 600 – Church in the House

TOPIC:”I will do what Jesus teaches and my house will remain firm on the Rock” Mathew 7:24-27 Only a house that has a strong foundation can remain in a storm. The storms of life come to everyone, but what says if we are righteous or evil is if we remain faithful or not. This can be seen by the decisions we make. Only a life that lives with its roots in God can remain stable. The stronger we are in the Lord the more we will resist the temptation. The whirlwind is for everyone, the illness, the economic situation, things that affect the righteous as well as the impious. Our body learns how to resist according to how we have built our lives. Our foundation is Christ and His word. When we arrive to God’s house we are determined to comply with the Lord’s word, begin a life devoted to God; to devote ourselves takes a lifetime. The knowledge of the truth of God begins the moment we receive the Lord in our heart. It is not only what we know now, but rather we acquire more and more knowledge each day, everything in due time. We begin and we continue to learn everything about the Lord. The Master carries out the teachings day by day very carefully. Jesus taught those verses with so much wisdom! We began to build "the house" that represents our lives the day that we came to Christ. It is no longer our voice but the voice of the Lord that begins to lead our lives. Unlike the spirit, to live in the flesh is painful and machiavellan. If we are not born of the Holy Spirit our flesh will dominate our spirit; that is why it is necessary to be born of the water and of the Spirit. Our new birth in Christ occurs when we listen to the Word. This process is a little slow. But, we have a Master. Sometimes we think that the word is the capacity of a human, but the word comes from the Lord who left everything written and He himself has taken charge to bring up the church with knowledge, because He is interested in us growing. It is our responsibility to listen to what Jesus taught. Sometimes we have the wrong idea of what the Lord taught. Because of the lack of knowledge people cannot see clearly what the teaching of our Lord means. The first step in the Christian life is to listen to the word of God. Each time we get deeper into the Word and we do what we hear. When we put to work what we have listened to we become wise persons, with understanding. But, when there are so many thoughts in our mind, we listen but we do not obey. Lord means Master, the one who has complete authority over our lives. We serve Him, the Lord Jesus. We arrive at church to learn how to conduct ourselves and live. If He has every power over our lives, because we belong to him, then it is our obligation to do all that He tells us. He teaches us according to our necessity. Many call Him Lord, but they don't obey him and that is a contradiction. It should be a necessity for him to govern us. True love, true faith means and involves a sincere obedience. Within the human being there is the disobedience that causes a challenge and that is death.

The Lord and His love, this has been the greatest event that has occurred in our life. He has given us eternal life and never lets us go in times of illness and crisis; this is when he is closer to us. But, if we don't obey Him, we demonstrate that in fact we don't love Him or truly believe in Him. To love the Lord

is the best thing that has happened to us. The knowledge of His Word helps us in our lives. When He speaks to us and teaches us we take His Word and make it ours. That knowledge tells us how we should act and we put it in action. What the Lord tells us is what we should do. There are many who don't practice what is preached because they don’t make it theirs. We are wise people because we listen to His voice and we obey. If we want to be followers of Jesus we should want to deserve the title of being wise people; we should do what we hear and we learn, because obedience means to hear and to do. We are obedient disciples to a Master that teaches us. Obeying must be the most important thing in our life in order to become men and women of God. To obey is the only sure seed in life and His promise is eternal life. We have the Lords support in all our life. Those in the Lord that hear and obey His Word become wise. Those who do not hear the advice are not wise persons. Those who understand that it is the Lord who speaks directly become wise, and build their life on the rock. Because the only one who loves us and builds well our spiritual house is the Lord. Jesus begins to build our life on the rock and it becomes beautiful, clean, big, where He can live. Because it is in purity, integrity, love, sanctity and faith how it is built, so that when the big floods come and the earthquakes that want to ruin our days, everything will remain. The house is not built if not on the rock. When the storm arrives it will be apparent where our house has been built. The rivers come to all, but we decide where we build. The wise build their house on the rock. We are a town that has constructed on the rock. We should live our lives over a firm foundation in obedience to Jesus' teaching. What can bring us down is our sin, if we have built on dirt. The wise are those who come to Christ and have salvation, have heard His words, and received His instructions and put them into practice in obedience. That which costs more sacrifice is worth more; it is given more importance, and protected. The best thing to do is to build our life on the firm foundation of Jesus' teachings; because this way there will not be any adversity that will make us hesitate. Jesus didn't come for us to be foolish but to build our house according to His instructions, in obedience, so that we would have a firm life on the rock. Those who don't fulfill His Word become senseless people. When we are going to do something we should do it right. When we try to avoid ourselves some work and we don’t dig well, we are only building on the sand. To build on the rock more work is required, it is more difficult. But, regrettably, men like things that are swift and easy. Maybe it is easier to follow our own path than the path of Jesus, but at the end everything will turn into ruins, curse and death. The only path we should follow is Jesus’ path. Those who build on the rock are the ones who deserve eternity. Many forget that the rain, the storm, and the bad days will come. Let us not be like those who are senseless who hear the instruction and neglect to follow His teachings. Let us be the wise ones who hear and obey the Word and their houses remain firm on the rock. Amen.