My apologies for missing yesterday! I totally lost track of what day it was after I woke up! My emotions have been all over this week too, as I’m sure many of yours have. First the governor says that he’ll let the shelter in place order expire Sunday night, which made me excited because we could potentially meet soon! Then the county extended it into May! Yikes! Well stay strong everyone! And don’t forget if you need to chat about anything at all, feel free to reach out to me.
Today we’ll be looking at Luke 6:43-49, which is what we’ll be studying together on Sunday! Don’t forget to tune in to our service on YouTube tomorrow!
“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”
This is the end of Jesus’ “sermon on the plain” but it’s the exact same as the ending of His “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew 7. He’s gone through all sorts of examples of what it means to be His disciple, and gets deeper and deeper into who we are. His 2 examples today address our hearts. It’s one thing to have external obedience, it’s a different thing to have a completely different orientation in your heart. I’ve been reading a book called ’Sojourners and Strangers’ over the past couple weeks that is about the theology of the church. He talks about 3 orthos that should be characteristic of all Christian: orthodoxy, orthopraxy, and orthopatheia. So we should all have right thinking, right actions, and right feelings. Christianity isn’t just about external obedience, it’s about having a complete life change! And the way we demonstrate that life change is by demonstrating the right fruit, particularly in our speech, because that reveals where our hearts are.
The second story Jesus tells is about where your foundation is. The foundation is the most important part of a house. Similarly, our foundation is the most important part of our lives. If our lives are built on the foundation of Jesus then we’ll be able to weather anything thrown at us, and if it’s built on anything else our house will fall apart at a whim. I think this current pandemic has revealed for many of us where our foundation is. I hope you’ve been encouraged to more fully rely on God during this time, and have built some good habits during this time that will continue after life is back to “normal.” Looking forward to “seeing” many of you on YouTube tomorrow!
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Pastor Mike's Musings 