Mark Clark [00:00:00]:
Hey, everyone.
Mark Clark [00:00:00]:
Mark here. This is the Mark Clark Podcast. We are excited about this one. Today we are wrapping up this powerful series on the Sermon on the Mount. This is part nine. And so for three chapters, Matthew five, six, and seven, Jesus paints a radical picture of what life can and should look like in his kingdom, which is vastly different than the kingdoms of the world. And so now he lands it all with a vivid choice. Every single one of us has to make two foundations, the rock or the sand.
Mark Clark [00:00:30]:
So we're gonna unpack what it means to trul. Truly live out Jesus teachings, go beyond the words, and build a life that lasts. So get ready to dive in and ask yourself, what foundation are you building on? And just know this. This podcast is actually brought to you by the Thrive Podcast Network, where we have a whole lot of great shows go over. There's a show called Am I Doing this Right? Hosted by two young ladies that are awesome, and they're talking about what it means to follow Jesus, what it means to engage with cultural stuff as women in the world. But it's a show that both guys and girls get a kick out watching and listening to. So jump over. Am I doing this right? On the Thrive podcast at work.
Mark Clark [00:01:08]:
Okay, let's get into this. The final, last sermon in this Sermon on the Mount series. Part nine. Let's go.
Mark Clark [00:01:15]:
We are ending the series on the Sermon on the Mount this week.
Mark Clark [00:01:20]:
This is Jesus talking for three straight chapters about a revolutionary kind of life. And if we want to be kingdom people, if we want to follow Jesus in the world, this is what your life should look like. And it's been three chapters of that, and it's been just Jesus talking for a full three chapters, which is interesting.
Mark Clark [00:01:37]:
Because we're kind of like, okay, did.
Mark Clark [00:01:38]:
It take, like, 10 minutes to do the Sermon on the Mount? Probably not. We're gonna see that. It probably took a long time, maybe a couple days. Who knows? It might have been a retreat that they all went on. We're not really sure how it all worked out, but he's talking, and he lands the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon ever preached, with one of.
Mark Clark [00:01:56]:
The great images he's been talking about.
Mark Clark [00:01:57]:
Like, there's been two pathways. There's been two kinds of prophets, there's been two kinds of disciples. As you talked about last week, remember the scariest passage in the New Testament, right, Where Jesus is like, some of you are gonna get before me, and it's like you think you're believers, but you're actually not all of that. And now we hit the end where he talks about two houses, he actually talks about two foundations. And he starts working through how and what have you built your life on. And so text starts like this. Chapter 7, verse 24, therefore, meaning. Like in your Bible reading, whenever you see a therefore, ask the question.
Mark Clark [00:02:34]:
Good interpretive, what's it there for?
Mark Clark [00:02:37]:
So it's there because everything that he's.
Mark Clark [00:02:39]:
Been talking about for three chapters, so.
Mark Clark [00:02:41]:
He'S summarizing, if you want to know.
Mark Clark [00:02:43]:
What the whole Sermon on the Mount is about.
Mark Clark [00:02:44]:
What have I been talking about? The only people into the kingdom are people humble enough to say, I don't have anything to offer God. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Mark Clark [00:02:51]:
Blessed are this. Blessed are this.
Mark Clark [00:02:52]:
Don't lust after people, don't be greedy, don't do this. Don't rec. Make sure you reconcile your relationships. All this stuff, that's actually how you're supposed to live. So he says, therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine, so right here we gotta make sure that we're paying attention because.
Mark Clark [00:03:07]:
So for 20 years, I have been preaching right? For some of you, you're like, wow, how's that possible? You don't even look 20. Thank you.
Mark Clark [00:03:16]:
So. So I'm getting old, my forehead's growing.
Mark Clark [00:03:25]:
I don't like it, but it's happening. And I ordered, literally this morning, I didn't even realize. I ordered a large print Bible this morning on Amazon, no joke. Cause I'm up here and I'm like, I can't read that anymore. I'm like, I just. So I'm getting older, but I've been doing this for a long time and.
Mark Clark [00:03:45]:
My process is kind of the same.
Mark Clark [00:03:47]:
Like, I know what passage I'm gonna preach. And I read commentaries all week long on that passage. And then I like build out on a Thursday or Friday, I build out like a 10 or 12 page manuscript that's like, what do I wanna talk about? What do I wanna say on the weekend? And I kinda go through it and then I kinda over time, over Friday night and Saturday morning, I get it down to four or five pages and then I sit and I memorize it for like four or five hours and I rehearse the thinking. I have all these color codes that.
Mark Clark [00:04:13]:
I kinda go through all this kind.
Mark Clark [00:04:15]:
Of stuff that I do, and I do all of that. And that's to prep to preach.
Mark Clark [00:04:19]:
I know it blows your mind.
Mark Clark [00:04:20]:
You're like, we literally thought you just made this stuff up when you got up there.
Mark Clark [00:04:23]:
I know.
Mark Clark [00:04:24]:
Actually takes a lot of work to.
Mark Clark [00:04:25]:
Make it look like I'm making it up.
Mark Clark [00:04:27]:
So.
Mark Clark [00:04:31]:
Now that's my job as the preacher. And the Bible's pretty clear. The book of James says not many.
Mark Clark [00:04:40]:
Of you should aspire to be teachers.
Mark Clark [00:04:43]:
Because you're gonna kind of be judged more harshly.
Mark Clark [00:04:46]:
So that's my job as the preacher. This text isn't about me.
Mark Clark [00:04:51]:
It's about you and how you hear when Jesus speaks the question. Martyn Lloyd Jones says, this passage asks the most important question in the history of questions. What have you built? What is the foundation of your life built on? Cause it's either gonna be you or it's gonna be him. Jesus. That. That is the ultimate question. And some of you, you haven't answered that question yet. And what Jesus is gonna say is, there are two kinds of hearers.
Mark Clark [00:05:27]:
There's people who hear these words of mine, and they put them into what practice? And that person's like a wise man, but later he's gonna say, there's foolish people who hear my words and they.
Mark Clark [00:05:38]:
Don'T put it into practice.
Mark Clark [00:05:39]:
Here's what Jesus doesn't want. He doesn't want you showing up to church, taking your notes, going on with your life as if he never said anything. You gotta let. Jesus has enough people who are his fans, right? People like Jesus. Like, he's like, look at all these things that I say. Everybody likes Jesus. Justin Timberlake has a Jesus is my homeboy T shirt, right? Talk to a Muslim. I talked to a Muslim girl a little bit ago.
Mark Clark [00:06:07]:
She loves the teachings of Jesus. Talk to a Mormon. Loves the teachings of Jesus. There's some Jehovah's Witnesses. They're right outside my house. They got their family and their books and their sand. They're not out there going like, hey, I want you to accept Satan. Everybody be like, wow, that's kind of weird.
Mark Clark [00:06:23]:
They're not doing that. They're talking about Jesus. My atheist friends love Jesus. He's a great archetype and a great example of how to sacrifice for family and whatever. That's not what Jesus is talking about. He doesn't need you to be his fans. He needs you to be his followers. He doesn't care that you're interested in his ideas.
Mark Clark [00:06:43]:
Of course. He's a super compelling person who says some really interesting things. One philosopher, Dallas Willard, said he's the most. He's the smartest man that ever lived. So of course we want to look at Jesus and go, he's an interesting guy.
Mark Clark [00:06:57]:
That's not his question. His question is, do you actually follow Him. Because there's lots of people in this room who function. If you continue to read the rest of Matthew, you know what happens?
Mark Clark [00:07:05]:
You get to the end of the.
Mark Clark [00:07:05]:
Book, and Jesus is hanging out with all of the disciples. And he tells them he's gonna die. But he tells them, one of you is gonna betray me. And you know what happens to the man?
Mark Clark [00:07:14]:
They go around the circle and they all start to go, I'll never betray you, Lord. I'll never betray you, Lord. I'll never betray you, Lord. And then it gets to Judas.
Mark Clark [00:07:24]:
Now, I've never met a person named Judas, right? We. We. There's a reason we stopped naming our kids Judas at some point in our culture. Never met a Judas. Why? Because he betrayed Jesus. And you know what Judas says in that passage at the end of Matthew?
Mark Clark [00:07:40]:
Every man goes, not I, Lord. Not I, Lord. Not I, Lord. It gets to Judas. He goes, not I, Rabbi. Because some of you accept Jesus as teacher, but not Lord. And what he wants from your life is not to just hear what he says. Great.
Mark Clark [00:08:02]:
My kids. I got three daughters. Imagine, before I came here, I said, I want all three of you to clean your room when I'm preaching. Clean the room. And when I get back, I want it clean. And imagine, they said, oh, dad, you have such a great voice. I like your hair. You're a great dad.
Mark Clark [00:08:25]:
And then they. I don't care if they like my hair. Do what I tell you to do. Clowns. I don't care if you like me. I don't care if you affirm me. Do what I say.
Mark Clark [00:08:46]:
That's what I want my kids to do. This is what Jesus is saying. What is a culture that hears what I'm saying but doesn't do it.
Mark Clark [00:08:55]:
They're foolish. And this is the problem. All the way through the Bible, it.
Mark Clark [00:09:00]:
Says stuff like this, right? First John, chapter two, verse four. This is a passage that I read when I first become a Christian. I was sitting outside my house, and I was like, oh, my goodness. Whoever says I know him but does not do what he commands is a liar. And the truth is not in that person. I was like, wow, this Jesus figure is jacked up.
Mark Clark [00:09:20]:
Serious. He's not the kind of guy just goes, hey, guys, just do whatever you want and go on with your life.
Mark Clark [00:09:28]:
He's the kind of guy who says, hey, I want you to actually do.
Mark Clark [00:09:33]:
Meaning you would be better off not hearing what Jesus says than hearing it and not doing it. You'd be better off not being here. But too late now. You're here and you're hearing it, and now you gotta figure out what to do with it. And so Jesus says, I'm giving you all this, but I don't want you to just. I don't want you to just see it from a distance and take the notes and move on with your life.
Mark Clark [00:10:07]:
Because then you'd be like, the crowds listen to this. After the Sermon on the Mount is over. So after he's done this passage about the two houses built on the sand and the rock, it says this. When Jesus had finished saying these things.
Mark Clark [00:10:21]:
What the crowds were, the word is.
Mark Clark [00:10:25]:
Amazed at his teaching the crowd. So when the Sermon on the Mount started, it was just the disciples. By the time it ended, the crowds are there. So he's been going on for a while. And this word, amazed in the Greek.
Mark Clark [00:10:38]:
It means to be shell shocked or thunderstruck.
Mark Clark [00:10:44]:
In, like, if you look at a Greek lexicon, right? So like, to be offended.
Mark Clark [00:10:49]:
And it's actually in the imperfect tense.
Mark Clark [00:10:52]:
Which I know, you know, you didn't come to church to hear about tenses in Greek, but I did Greek for three years, so I got to use it at some point.
Mark Clark [00:10:58]:
So the imperfect tense means that it was ongoing with, which means this. They didn't just, like, hear the teaching of Jesus, get shocked, and then move on with their life. They woke up a month later and they went, oh, my gosh, I'm still rocked by this. This has, like, upended something about my life. This is like.
Mark Clark [00:11:25]:
So a couple weeks ago, we went to the Barbie movie, right? You guys been to the Barbie movie, right? I got three daughters, so I didn't have a choice. It's just built in to the contract.
Mark Clark [00:11:36]:
So we go to the Barbie movie, we all got our popcorn, we sit in the seats, and the Barbie movie comes on. It's this fascinating fun. We're all payment. And then one of the plot lines, of course, Ken is there. And nobody likes Ken because it's like, no girl playing with Barbies as a.
Mark Clark [00:11:53]:
Kid cares about Ken.
Mark Clark [00:11:54]:
So he sings this song, I'm just Ken. Anywhere else, I'd be 10, right? He does this like. So anyways, so nobody likes Ken, and he's trying to get attention. He feels bad. So then they go to the real world. Don't ask how that all works. Anyway, they end up in the real world. And he realizes, like, oh, this world's run by men.
Mark Clark [00:12:24]:
And so he takes all of these manly things, the kind of patriarchy thing, and he brings them back to the Barbie world. And so now all the men do all, like, man stuff instead of just sitting around and beaching. They, you know, they play golf, and they talk about business, and they do all these manly things. And one of the scenes is, he comes in, a bunch of the guys are watching the Godfather, and they look to the woman and say, would you like us to explain it to you? And I'm not kidding you. I look down, and I'm wearing a Godfather T shirt. I got Don Corleone in the front with the cat. And I'm like, ah. And I guarantee I have mansplained the Godfather to my wife multiple times.
Mark Clark [00:13:24]:
So what mansplaining is. It's when a man.
Mark Clark [00:13:32]:
And literally at the end of the movie, I stood up and I put my sweater on as I walked out of the movie theater, I'm just surrounded by pink. Everyone was pink. And I was like, oh, gosh, hey, guys. But I was like. I was. I was, like, offended. Like, but in a good way. I was like.
Mark Clark [00:13:54]:
I was like, have I been. Have I been mansplaining the Godfather my whole life? Do I need to rethink what I do? Like, this is what I'm saying. It's like, do you marvel at the teachings of Jesus where it actually causes you to go, man, I should do.
Mark Clark [00:14:10]:
Something about all this?
Mark Clark [00:14:13]:
Or are you just sitting back looking.
Mark Clark [00:14:15]:
At it like an artifact in a museum? So this is what Jesus is doing, because those are two separate kinds of people. There's a way of hearing and a way of doing. One of the great parables that Jesus tells is the parable of the sower and the seed. It's maybe the most powerful parable in my mind other than the prodigal son. And Jesus says, seed goes out, meaning the word of God goes out. And the hearer responds four different ways, and he gives four different images. So think about who you are in these images.
Mark Clark [00:14:44]:
He says, the first person hears, the seed goes out. Here's the word, but Satan grabs it.
Mark Clark [00:14:49]:
Right away, and it never takes root, right? So you just don't care.
Mark Clark [00:14:54]:
The second group, they receive it with joy, but they aren't deep enough, so.
Mark Clark [00:15:00]:
They walk away from God. And we know people like that, right? They got excited about it maybe in high school or something, and then they walked away.
Mark Clark [00:15:07]:
The third group, Jesus says, is they receive it, but the worries of this world. And then he cites money.
Mark Clark [00:15:15]:
Choke it out, and nobody wants to follow Jesus anymore. And the fourth person is a person.
Mark Clark [00:15:21]:
Who receives it, and they multiply the.
Mark Clark [00:15:24]:
Blessing of their life, 30, 60, and a hundredfold. I want you to be that person who hears the words of Jesus and actually carries through with them and says, this is actually what I want with my life.
Mark Clark [00:15:41]:
So back to the opening verses. He says, the person who does that.
Mark Clark [00:15:45]:
Is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. We're gonna come back to this in a sec.
Mark Clark [00:15:50]:
And then he says, verse 25, the rain came down.
Mark Clark [00:15:55]:
This is such an interesting image, because what Jesus does is he says, the most important question of your life needs to be framed. In light of the fact that the rain is coming, There is going to be a day when you die. And I know at Bayside, we don't talk about this a lot because we love to be positive and love that.
Mark Clark [00:16:16]:
But there are times when we have.
Mark Clark [00:16:17]:
To stop and talk about the fact that there is rain coming on all of your lives. It will happen, and you will stand.
Mark Clark [00:16:25]:
Before God on the day of judgment.
Mark Clark [00:16:28]:
That's the rain he's talking about.
Mark Clark [00:16:30]:
There is going to come a time when the rain and the floods and your life will be examined before God. And the problem with our life is we don't. We don't reflect enough on it. We don't think so.
Mark Clark [00:16:43]:
This past week, I was driving into the office for some meetings, and as I pulled up, there was an ambulance and a cop car and some people standing around. And as I pulled up, I looked out and I saw there'd been a been a crash. And so I came out, a bunch of our staff were out there, and a guy in a motorcycle who was driving and this coupled. It's just right here was turning like this, and he went right into the side of the car. Boom. Dented the car in like this. And a couple of our staff ran out as he breathed his last breath, and he passed away right in the street. They put him in the ambulance.
Mark Clark [00:17:16]:
By the time I was there, the ambulance didn't even go anywhere. It was just there. And the couple that was sitting in there, the older couple, and they're sitting out and our staff's loving on them and praying for them. An hour later, I left the meeting and the place was all cleaned up. There was no cop cars, no ambulance, no crowd, and there was just cars driving by. And it struck me how vulnerable life is that there will come a day when you pass away and all the people around you will just go on with their life. Your life will not freeze the universe. Not every.
Mark Clark [00:17:55]:
Everyone's just gonna drive by at some.
Mark Clark [00:17:57]:
Point, just go, here's two devastated families whose lives will never be the same. And we just carried on with work and everyone drove by the spot for.
Mark Clark [00:18:09]:
The rest of the day. And I'm like, guys, there are times in life. This is why the book of Ecclesiastes says it is better to go to a funeral than a wedding. But we. Do we get excited.
Mark Clark [00:18:21]:
Do we get excited about funerals? No, we get excited about weddings, but Ecclesiastes says weddings are useless. Hey, Tommy, you're looking good. Bless you guys. Great. You didn't think anything about your soul. You didn't think anything about the fact that there is a day coming for you when the rain is gonna fall. You just danced your night away and had a great time and celebrated.
Mark Clark [00:18:49]:
Tommy, you go to a funeral, though, you start weighing eternity.
Mark Clark [00:18:57]:
And Jesus says, it is your job to start being smart enough. This is why he says, wise and foolish. Are you wise enough to think about eternal or just temporal things? Think how much time and energy you put in to considering your life partner.
Mark Clark [00:19:15]:
Or what work you're gonna do or what.
Mark Clark [00:19:18]:
Whatever. Whatever you spend all your time and energy on. Think about the fact that Jesus is going.
Mark Clark [00:19:23]:
All of that is secondary to this question.
Mark Clark [00:19:27]:
What are you building your life on?
Mark Clark [00:19:30]:
Have you even come to terms with.
Mark Clark [00:19:32]:
The fact that this is a spiritual. You have a soul. And there are spiritual dynamics.
Mark Clark [00:19:37]:
There's this Baptist, super Baptist, conservative writer and pastor by the name of Russell Moore. And he was writing. I was reading his book on family a little bit ago, and he starts the book with an interesting question. He says, you know, when I was a little kid, if you would have come up to me and asked me what my favorite holiday was, I would have told you it was Easter or Christmas. And then he says, but I'd be lying, because my actual favorite holiday as a kid was Halloween. And he said, growing up in a.
Mark Clark [00:20:09]:
Baptist home, of course Halloween, you weren't even allowed to celebrate it.
Mark Clark [00:20:13]:
But the reason I loved it, he said, is because it was the one night of the year where everybody agreed, even the adults, that there is some kind of spiritual component to the universe and there's evil and it wants to hurt me. And I was scared of it, but it woke me up to something that no other holiday did, that there are spiritual realities in the universe. There are two brothers that. Have you guys ever watched or heard of the movie the Conjuring? Right. I don't watch horror movies. They completely freak me out. Right? I don't, because then I watch those movies. I'm like two in the morning.
Mark Clark [00:20:51]:
I'm like, ah, who's There.
Mark Clark [00:20:52]:
It's like some plant is like.
Mark Clark [00:20:59]:
But these two brothers made the Conjuring, and they're Christians. And people like, how could you.
Mark Clark [00:21:04]:
How could you make a horror movie if you're Christians? And their response is, why would I make any other kind of movie?
Mark Clark [00:21:12]:
Why wouldn't I want to make a movie that makes you all wake up to the fact that. That there are spiritual realities in the universe rather than just watching Pocahontas again? You don't watch that and think deeply about your soul and the reality of evil and good and which side you want to be on. But you start watching the Conjuring, you start asking some big questions. Is that thing going to get me?
Mark Clark [00:21:38]:
This is what Jesus is doing. He's going, guys, wake up.
Mark Clark [00:21:43]:
Rain is coming for all of us. At some point, you have no control over it.
Mark Clark [00:21:48]:
And if you haven't dealt with the reality of your soul yet, he's going, this is why?
Mark Clark [00:21:54]:
The question is, what are you going.
Mark Clark [00:21:56]:
To build your life on?
Mark Clark [00:21:57]:
And so he says this. You got to build.
Mark Clark [00:21:59]:
And I'm not a builder. My wife is the one with a toolbox. And she is legit. Like, she said to me, I was.
Mark Clark [00:22:11]:
Out, and she texted me, like, hey, I think the dog needs, like, a certain house thing. And I have this idea about where this connects to the dining room, but it's the dining room wall, and they share it.
Mark Clark [00:22:22]:
But if we were to get a.
Mark Clark [00:22:24]:
Nice hole in here, then the dog could kind of come and go. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, we're just talking. Yeah, yeah, great idea. Hypothetically, I get home, this woman has cut a massive hole like this in our dining room wall. I'm like, I didn't even know we had that saw. Where did you get that saw? And she has laid a 1950s diner vibe, painted the whole thing. There's an arc light and some plants. I'm like, what the heck? I've been gone for two hours.
Mark Clark [00:23:01]:
She moved an electrical socket. How? I'm like, that would be me at top. I'd be like, all right, I found the socket. Oh, electrical socket.
Mark Clark [00:23:12]:
I'm giving up.
Mark Clark [00:23:13]:
That would be me. That's it. This lady figured it out. Moving, electrical, boom. Moving up here.
Mark Clark [00:23:19]:
Crazy.
Mark Clark [00:23:20]:
Anyway, so she builds stuff.
Mark Clark [00:23:22]:
I do not.
Mark Clark [00:23:24]:
But Jesus knew about building. And he said, here's what I want you to do.
Mark Clark [00:23:28]:
I want you to build your life on the rock. Right now you're reading that, you're like, okay, what's the rock? Is it family values? Is it I love America? Is it Being a good person. What do you mean, the rock? Well, this is why, if we're really good readers of story, we'll continue reading Matthew's Gospel and we'll ask the question, how does Matthew use the word rock?
Mark Clark [00:24:02]:
And we're gonna figure out a couple chapters later.
Mark Clark [00:24:05]:
Chapter 16, one of the great passage in Matthew, he gets to the place where he asks all the disciples who everyone's saying he is.
Mark Clark [00:24:12]:
He says, who do people say that I am? And Simon Peter answered, you are the Messiah, the son of the living God. And then Jesus responds, he goes, I.
Mark Clark [00:24:22]:
Tell you, you are Peter, and on.
Mark Clark [00:24:25]:
This what rock I will build my church. Now, again, in the Greek, it's a little clearer, because there are some denominations within Christianity that say, well, what's the rock?
Mark Clark [00:24:45]:
Well, the rock seems to be Peter. So they say, Peter was the first Pope.
Mark Clark [00:24:54]:
But that's not actually how the language works. What Jesus says is, you are Peter. And the word Peter means rock, confusingly. So he says, you are rock. And on this rock, I will build my church. And he goes, oh, Peter, he's the first.
Mark Clark [00:25:12]:
But he actually, what he says is, you are petros. And a petros is a movable stone.
Mark Clark [00:25:20]:
Something you could kick down the street.
Mark Clark [00:25:23]:
You are Petros. And he says, and on this Petra, I will build my church.
Mark Clark [00:25:32]:
And a Petra was like a mountain that you could not move. And so what's he saying? Saying, no, no, I'm not building. I'm not building this on you. I'm building it on the confession you just made about me. It's not the person, it's the proclamation that you are the Messiah. You are the one who's living a perfect life in our place. You are the one who has died on a cross for our sin. You are the one who has risen again from death to give us life.
Mark Clark [00:26:05]:
And we're going to understand that. And Jesus goes, and on that confession, I am building my church.
Mark Clark [00:26:13]:
Have you built your life yet on that rock or.
Mark Clark [00:26:17]:
Because here's your two options.
Mark Clark [00:26:18]:
On that day where the rain comes, you can stand before God and hold out your own record, or you can stand before God and hold out Jesus record for you. That's it. I don't want him to go. And on Mark Clark, I will build my church.
Mark Clark [00:26:33]:
I'm a gong show.
Mark Clark [00:26:38]:
I'm a disaster.
Mark Clark [00:26:39]:
Listen, you guys ever been up to Mount Hermon? You guys ever been that family camp?
Mark Clark [00:26:44]:
So I spoke there a couple weeks ago, and originally, like, my whole family was supposed to come, and then they all ended up with Stuff like camps here. And so I went up by myself, which is crazy. You do not want to see me by myself at a family camp for a week. So my wife's like, just be normal, dude. Don't be you. He's a nice people.
Mark Clark [00:27:10]:
Just be normal, do what they ask.
Mark Clark [00:27:13]:
And just, you know. And so I'm like, yeah, of course. Literally, first night I pull up, it's like, evening. Pull up my parking space, got my truck there, move all my stuff upstairs. I get up, preach, you know I want to.
Mark Clark [00:27:25]:
And it's like, family cabin.
Mark Clark [00:27:26]:
My wife.
Mark Clark [00:27:27]:
People are gonna come up to you.
Mark Clark [00:27:28]:
Oh. And I'm just like, I don't. What do you want? I don't. Like, whatever. So I preach in the morning, preach a couple days. I'm like, I want these people to like me. And then one of the most respected guys there walks up, group of people. He's like, hey, what are you.
Mark Clark [00:27:48]:
What spot are you parked in? I'm like, what?
Mark Clark [00:27:51]:
I look over. I've been parked in the handicap spot of the camp for two days. And the guy's like, you don't look handicapped, bro. I'm like, what? What do you mean? He's like, look, you're part. I was parked in the handicapped arm for two days. I'm up there preaching. I'm like, oh, my gosh.
Mark Clark [00:28:08]:
Without my wife, I'm a disaster. I do not want to stand before Jesus in the end and put my record on the table. I want to put his record on the table.
Mark Clark [00:28:22]:
That's what he means by the rock. He's like, you got to understand. You got to build your life on the confession that Jesus is the one Jesus that is the center of your life. Not you. That when you read the Noah story, which is just a fascinating. We. We kind of give. You know, we give the Noah story out in, like, kids church.
Mark Clark [00:28:48]:
Like, those of you who grew up, you always hear, like, the Noah story. And it's kind of weird that we do that because you're, like, coloring the giraffes. You're like, what's gonna happen to him, Mama? It's like, mmm.
Mark Clark [00:29:01]:
And we read it as if it's about us. Noah. Be like, Noah. And then you realize, no, no, Noah's a disaster. And the story's really about the fact that God hung a rainbow in the sky because one day he's gonna come and take. Take the judgment for you. Because the Bible is about him. It's not about you.
Mark Clark [00:29:22]:
And this is where constantly Jesus is reminding us, this is what I Want you to actually build your life on. Because there are two ways to live. There's the wise way, but then there's a second word. There's the foolish man, right? This tends to be me in most situations in life. I just find myself, like, there was a moment where a couple years ago, I saw a picture of, like, a box in a backyard that held trees. And I looked at the picture and I'm like, I could do that. That'll be easy. So I went to Home Depot, I got wood, I cut it, I built the box, laid some soil, stuck three trees in it.
Mark Clark [00:30:02]:
I'm like, that was easy. And then the rain came and the.
Mark Clark [00:30:08]:
Soil flooded out all over the backyard and the trees fell over.
Mark Clark [00:30:12]:
And I'm like, oh, how did that happen?
Mark Clark [00:30:18]:
And then I had to go get some plastic, and I plasticked it off. I tried again. Rain fell, whole thing exploded.
Mark Clark [00:30:25]:
Here's the thing. Then I had to pay $1,000 for someone to come and do it.
Mark Clark [00:30:33]:
Because here's the thing.
Mark Clark [00:30:34]:
There are some people who eyeball stuff.
Mark Clark [00:30:38]:
And there are other people who look it up on YouTube and they get it done properly.
Mark Clark [00:30:47]:
There are wise people and there are foolish people. And Jesus says, I don't want you to be the foolish person who lives their life in such a way where even when the evidence starts to hit you that Christianity is actually the way you should live your life, you keep pushing it aside because of the way you're living your life right now. And you don't want people to judge you. You don't want people to think you're silly.
Mark Clark [00:31:12]:
And that Jesus says, is the foolish.
Mark Clark [00:31:14]:
Way, because that, in that moment, here's what's happening.
Mark Clark [00:31:17]:
You are living out of the teleprompter.
Mark Clark [00:31:19]:
Of the cultural moment that you happen to be in right now.
Mark Clark [00:31:23]:
And you don't realize you can't kind of self critique the foolishness of the culture you live in.
Mark Clark [00:31:28]:
It's like, if we were to. If I was to ask you, as a modern Western person who went to college and, you know, you've hung out in California and you do your little philosophy class, and I say to you.
Mark Clark [00:31:40]:
What about the teachings of Jesus do you really like?
Mark Clark [00:31:43]:
Some of you might go, oh, I love the parts where he talks about loving your enemies. Right? Love that. Great. What about the sexual stuff? You know, the whole, like, you gotta be married to the person in order to be intimate. That feels a little traditional and old school. I don't. I don't like that part of Jesus.
Mark Clark [00:32:00]:
But I like the part where you're.
Mark Clark [00:32:02]:
Supposed to love your enemies. Great stuff.
Mark Clark [00:32:03]:
Okay, cool. Now we get on a plane and.
Mark Clark [00:32:06]:
We go to Afghanistan. And we're walking around Afghanistan and we.
Mark Clark [00:32:11]:
Ask them, what parts of the teachings of Jesus do you like? They would say the exact opposite. His sexual ethic might be not. Not stringent enough. Need to reign these people in a little bit. Some consequences if they step out of line.
Mark Clark [00:32:30]:
Love your enemy. Not going to do it. Terrible idea, because my grandfather died fighting for this property. So which one of you is right? Every moment you live, you're reading the prompter of the culture that you live in, and you think you're right because you're not letting Jesus break into your mindset and shake you up a little bit and rattle you and go, no, no, you can't actually earn your way to heaven.
Mark Clark [00:33:06]:
And when you think you can, you're this guy who has built his life not on the rock, but on the sand of his own life.
Mark Clark [00:33:16]:
And when the rain comes, and it will, there is a great crash and your life falls apart. Both now and the eternal ramification of it. Those are your options. You either give your life to Jesus, or you try to hold onto it yourself and realize you couldn't build your life just on you. Let me read you a quote. Let's all close our eyes. I want to read you A quote from C.S. lewis, who was a smart guy, lived in the last century, one of the great writers and philosophers.
Mark Clark [00:33:57]:
And if some of you are like, yeah, the reason I haven't believed in Jesus and built my life on the rock is because I'm smarter than everybody else. This is a guy who was probably smarter than you. Listen to what he says. God will invade. And when that happens, it is the end of the world. When the author walks on the stage, the play is over. God is going to invade.
Mark Clark [00:34:27]:
All right.
Mark Clark [00:34:29]:
But what is the good of saying that you're on his side? Then when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream, something that never entered your head to even conceive, and it comes crashing in, something.
Mark Clark [00:34:45]:
So beautiful to some of us and.
Mark Clark [00:34:48]:
So terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left, it will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it's become impossible to stand up. That will be not the time for choosing. It will be the time when we discover which side we have already chosen. Now, today. This moment, he says, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. But it will not last forever.
Mark Clark [00:35:36]:
So if there are those of you right now with every eye closed that want to actually receive Jesus, maybe for the first time, or say, I gotta. I gotta get back on track with.
Mark Clark [00:35:45]:
Jesus, I just want to pray, Just.
Mark Clark [00:35:47]:
Lift up your hand so I can pray for you. Yeah. That day is coming. And this eternal decision is the most important of your life.
Mark Clark [00:35:59]:
Yeah.
Mark Clark [00:35:59]:
I see you. So, Father, we know that you see the hearts and hands in here that take this text at face value and recognize that there are only two ways to live. Either on the rock that is you, or the sand that is us. And so save them and seal them for the day of redemption in this moment, that they would receive your sacrifice for them on their behalf. And those of us who've already trusted you, that we would treasure you more because of what you've said. And not only we'd be the kind of people who hear it, but we'd actually be do it. We would actually start to reflect the fruit of this sermon. What does it look like to not be greedy? What does it look like to reconcile with people that we've had trouble with in our life before we bring our praise and gift to the altar.
Mark Clark [00:36:57]:
Like he said a bunch of weeks ago that we've got to set those relationships right first. What does it look like to forgive? What does it look like to pray? Right? To fast, to follow you, all of these things that you've laid out in order that we flourish. I pray that we would actually believe you. Not just believe in you, but believe you. And that our lives would be fuller because of it, especially in eternity. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.