Jesus finished the Sermon on the Mount with a simple but powerful image: homes built either on sand or on the rock. One is fragile and eventually washed away; the other is secure and withstands the storm. In this image Jesus is summing up the entire Sermon. What is above ground and external can be beautiful, but anchored to sand. It will eventually fall. But what is anchored to the rock—to Jesus himself—brings a perfect stability that can withstand anything. Only by building on the rock will we be empowered to live out the Sermon on the Mount, not as an ideal but as a reality.
Application Questions
1. When you think about your life, do you tend to focus more on the house (the externals you build) or the foundation (what's underneath that holds you up)?
2. How have you experienced the freedom and security of building your life on the rock of Jesus? Are there ways you still live as though your foundation is fragile?
3. What about the foundation of Jesus Christ allows you to live out the Sermon on the Mount in your day to day life? How can you embrace that more this week?
