How to Stand When Everything Else Falls

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:



And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.





It is my opinion that the most important Christian sermon in history is not a Billy Graham, or David Wilkerson or Joyce Meyer or any other preacher of this age. It is not Peters sermon immediately after Pentecost, nor Stephens fiery preaching which ended up costing him his life, it isn't any of Paul's wonderful sermons. I believe that it is the sermon on the Mount recorded in Mathew chapters 5 through 7.



Jesus Christ is the speaker and He begins by describing some characteristics and attributes of the person or persons who are deemed Blessed in the eyes of God.



GOD SEES THINGS DIFFERENTLY THAN WE DO.



The world around us has a particular view about what it is to be blessed. To be blessed in our society is typically equated with success at some level. Abundant finances are usually considered to be a blessing, achievement in sports and competition, accolades, awards and recognition are viewed as wonderful blessings. If you have a great career with wonderful and powerful positions you are most certainly blessed. Good health, and nice homes and clothing certainly mean that a person has been blessed and the list can go on. In measure these things can all be great blessings, when they come from God, and are attained in honesty and in accordance to Gods standard of living.



Here is Gods list of what He considers blessed.

Poor in spirit

They that mourn

The meek or humble

They that thirst and hunger for what is right not just within there circles but in the world around them.

Those that are merciful, that means forgiving and compassionate, understanding.

Those that are pure in heart, that means honest and having a desire for integrity and truth.

Peacemakers

Those that are persecuted for the cause of Christ.

Those that are reviled for their unwillingness to compromise the Truth, and evil spoken of falsely.



If you got nothing else from these two lists, the one thing that would be clear is that God doesn't see things the way that we do. It should instantly challenge your perception of what it is to be a blessed individual, and if you are anything like me, you would be brought into an awareness of how much you and I truly do need to be blessed! It would bring us to the very next point which is..



YOU AND I CANNOT BLESS OURSELVES, ONLY GOD CAN DO IT.



I believe that the reason Jesus chose to start with the characteristics of the "truly" blessed individual, was to bring about the awareness of our deficiencies in the eyes of God. Any honest person would read these descriptions and with no argument whatsoever come to the conclusion that they don't meet the criteria. This is how the Holy Spirit convicts and convinces.



Once you and I are able to realize that we fall short of the Glory of God, he begins to lovingly go into an even further detailed assessment of what Godly living is. The rest of the sermon is really a preparation of the heart to be able to receive the Power to live for Christ. He came to fulfill the Law, not to destroy it. In order to live for Christ we must agree with the fact that without him we are accursed individuals.



In Mathew 5:19 He makes the following statement - Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach [them], the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. From Mathew 5:19 through 5:48 Jesus Christ goes into the Law and its requirements.



Again the honest person who read this at one point or will read it in the future will become aware that they are already guilty of breaking not only the least of these but probably the majority!! Fear and conviction and dread should have come to the heart at this moment if we are or truly have been seeking a relationship with God... Which leads to the next point



GOD BRINGS US INTO CONVICTION BECAUSE CONVICTION LEADS TO REPENTANCE



Repentance!! Ah, this is the climax of Jesus sermon on the mount, while he doesn't go into the fullness of the theology of repentance because the people were not yet ready to understand this concept, He does give his audience the outline for an effective prayer of repentance.. We must acknowledge who God is, where He is in relation to where we are, We must repent of our lordship and ask Him to bring His Lordship into our lives, His will not ours, We must trust Him to be our provider, to give us our daily sustenance, We must be willing to lay down our grievances in gratitude for that fact that He has forgiven us. We must trust him for the power to overcome temptation and to deliver us from the Enemy of our souls, all of this because we acknowledge that The Power and Kingdom, and Honor is His!!



Its not very complicated, but it is very powerful. Repentance leads to forgiveness. Forgiveness leads us to our final point!!!



SALVATION!!



Once we are forgiven God expects us to walk in His Plan of Salvation!! He gives us the right to walk in this plan by virtue of the fact that we have been forgiven! Our forgiveness is not just a pass to try again, it is complete Justification. It a completely clean slate, and a rightful place in the will of God for his Children and in His Kingdom. He also promises to give us the Power to walk in his ways. He promises to give us the Blessings that we read about and realized that we fell so short of. He promises to fill us with His Holy Spirit and cause us to walk in His Statutes, as long as we are willing to continue to seek Him with all of our might and with all of our strength...



We have the choice to walk away from this new life at any point. We also have to choice not to walk away. God has now given us the Power, and He is so merciful that He does not stop there. He is aware of all the voices in this world and in our corrupted nature, He is aware of the Enemy of our Souls and all of his schemes to try and deviate us from Gods plans, and so He left us a fail proof set of instructions, maps and rules of conduct which would ultimately make it impossible for us to stray to far to the left or to the right without quickly realizing it and getting back on the right path.



If you study from Mathew 6:15 - Mathew 7:20 we have some wonderful insight from our Lord on how to live our Christian lives in complete dependence on God.



He concludes the entire sermon by reminding us that if we can hear His words, and put them to practice that we will undoubtedly stand when the floods and storms come. WHEN the storms and floods come NOT if....



And likewise he warns that those that Hear and do not put to practice His words will not stand but rather fall at the coming of these floods and storms!!! Again No ifs here, just certainty... Promises!!!



We can stand when everything and everyone else is falling!!