Thank you for listening to this message from
Lifehouse Church. Thank you for being in the
house. I want to say one thing. I love that this
is Rise Sunday. Before I get into the message
and what God has for the day, some of you may
not know I used to be a youth pastor. So praying
over the youth is a big deal to me and praying
over the kids of this church. And I, you know,
as I was up there praying, I was thinking something,
you know, so many times we pray for protection.
We should, we pray for God's blessing, but I
pray that God makes them the head and not the
tail. Amen. So if I can get you to challenge
you to something as you pray for those students,
I want you to pray over them and just ask God
to make them the head, not the tail. Here's what
I believe about young people that follow Jesus.
I believe they're blessed and highly favored.
I believe that God goes before them and makes
a way. I believe that God goes and raises them
up in their generation. So I want to pray that
way, and I want you to join with me that way.
I cannot tell you how much it means for adults
to be praying over the students in this church
and speaking over them. over them. I remember
when I was a kid in church, I remember people
coming and speaking over my life. They recognized
the gift of God in my life. They recognized what
God was doing. So if you get the opportunity
and you see, you know, if you catch a kid, I
know we all catch kids doing the wrong thing.
When you catch them doing the right thing, speak
over them, amen? Speak into them, raise them
up, all right? That's our job as parents, grandparents,
you know, just all along the way. And I appreciate
that so much. You all do that beautifully. Just
keep doing it and do it. even more. Amen? Amen.
I got that all out. That was my youth pastor
side of things. All right. Let's pray. What I
want to do, if you would, just one more time,
extend your hand. I will even let you stay seated.
Extend your hand this way. We're going to pray
over these invitations this morning. We don't
ever want to fail to do that. These are invitations
for people to come into the kingdom of God, to
know God. So that's represented by the green
balls and the orange ones are those who have
accepted. So Lord, we thank you for this day.
God, I thank you for each person, God, that's
represented by these invitations. Lord, we're
believing God for an influx of people into the
kingdom of God. kingdom of God, that for the
kingdom of God to expand. Lord, we pray over
every invitation. We pray over every need, every
person. And Lord, we're just asking, Lord, that
God, that the light of Jesus would shine in their
hearts. And Lord, they would make commitment
to follow you. And we thank you in Jesus' name.
Everybody say it together. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Well, thank you for all that. Man, that was my
mini -sermon before the sermon. This is going
to be a good day. All right. Well, believe it
or not, believe it or not, you decided what to
do today about 2 ,000 times every waking hour.
So when you got up this morning, you made at
least a couple thousand decisions of what you're
going to do. How many of you, that makes you
tired right now just thinking about it, right?
In the littlest things, in the biggest things
in life, you've made about 2 ,000 decisions in
your waking hour. 2 ,000 times you thought, what
in the world am I going to do today? And you
might have been decisions on the way to church.
You might have thought about, do I turn my head
left or do I turn my head right? That's a simple
decision. Do I look up? Do I look down? Do I
look forward? What do I do? You've made a decision
about what you ate for breakfast or what you
did not eat for breakfast. You probably made
a decision if you went to the cafe this morning.
What flavor am I going to get? How many squirts
of flavoring am I going to get in my coffee?
Am I going to put half and half in my coffee
or am I not going to put half and half? Do I
get it hot? Do I get it cold? We do it all here,
by the way. All right. Relationships. You might
have been thinking about what do I do about a
relationship? What do I do about finances? What
do I do about my car? Come on. You can name it,
right? Anything. It's been a busy morning for
you. Turn to somebody beside you and tell them
you look tired. Come on. You look tired. You've
got a lot of decisions to make today. Right?
You've made a lot of decisions today. What to
do. Thousands of times we make decisions on what
to do. What to do. What to do. On the road of
life. And it changes as you go. And the journey
and the destination itself will depend on what
you do. The decisions that you make. And in one
of the most important moments. of interaction
between Jesus and the 12 disciples. He says something
so profoundly impactful that has to do with what
do I do? So if you got your Bibles this morning,
we're going to be jumping around a little bit.
You want to get your Bibles, we're going to be
in the New Testament. Go to Matthew chapter 28.
We're going to start off at verse 18. And it
says this, very familiar piece of scripture.
If you've been in church any length of time,
you've heard this, you can maybe quote it. And
Jesus came and said to them, all authority in
heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them
to observe all things that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always to the end of
the age. It's the Great Commission. It's what
Jesus said to his disciples before he was about
to leave. And he tells them to go do three things,
right? It's a commission to us, followers of
Jesus Christ. He said, first of all, go make
disciples of all nations. Go make other Jesus
followers. You just prayed over invitations.
This is an invitation to come into the kingdom
of God, to follow Jesus. So our job, right after
we get saved, our job in our job description
is to go make disciples. Go find people. Bring
them into the kingdom of God. Then he said, baptize
them in the name of the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit. If you've been here for a baptism
Sunday, we baptize. We believe in immersion baptism.
So we put them down. We make sure they're baptized,
right? We put them under the water the whole
way. I haven't held anybody too long yet. I'm
thinking about it, right? But we baptize them
in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. We do that. That's what the Word of God
says. We tell them about what water baptism means,
how that's a representation. We even talk about
baptism in the Holy Spirit. But then Jesus said,
teach them to do everything that I commanded
you, right? Teach them that. Teach everybody
that comes into the kingdom what to do. It's
mandated. This is what he told us to do. Teach
them what I said to do. Teach them how to act.
Teach them what they should put their energy
to, right? Teach them what really counts in this
life and what doesn't really count in this life.
The Word of God will tell you that. Teach them
what is sinful and what's not sinful. Teach them
how we should act in the kingdom of God even
though we're in the kingdom of man. Teach them
that. Teach them what to do. And in John 10 .10,
and you can jump there if you want to, in John
10 .10, Jesus gives a summary reason, right,
why this is so important, why he said what to
do. He says this. Again, another very quoted
piece of Scripture. For the thief comes to steal,
kill, and destroy. I came, this is Jesus talking,
I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Jesus spoke. What we do makes the difference
between having abundant life and not such an
abundant life. It really does. Say it out loud
with me. They're going to put it up on the screen.
There's abundant life if I do what Jesus says
to do. Ready? There's abundant life if I do what
Jesus said to do. Let me say it again. Some of
you don't believe it yet. There's abundant life
even if I do or if I do what Jesus said. to do.
There's abundant life if I do what Jesus says
to do. There's abundant life if I don't do what
Jesus says don't do. Amen? And the lack of abundant
life, even death, is when I ignore what Jesus
said to do. It's true. If I'm ignoring what Jesus
said to do or not do, I When I do that, when
I ignore what Jesus said to do or what he said
don't do, I kick the door open. If we go back
to that scripture in John 10 .10, I kick the
door open for the thief to come in to steal,
to kill, and destroy my life. It's true. It's
true. I'm going to prove it to you by the end
of today. If you don't believe it yet, you will
as you take a look at scripture. And you might
be like, well, how does this all work? It is
my obedience to Christ's command that protect
me. from the enemy's hand. And I did not try
to rhyme that on purpose, all right? It worked
out that way. It is the obedience to Christ's
command that protects me from the enemy's hand.
It is what we do that Jesus says to do that keeps
me from the enemy. I say this all the time when
I get into... premarital sessions, or sometimes
even marital sessions with individuals, I'll
tell them, listen, do what Jesus said to do about
marriage. And sometimes couples are living together,
right? And there's two sides to that whole thing.
When couples are living together, there's a side
that they could be involved in premarital sex,
and we can talk about sin on that side. But then
I come over to this side, and I say, look, why?
Why are you doing this? Because here's the thing.
If you do what Jesus said to do in a relationship
between a man and a woman, You come into covenant
relationship, it's blessed. It says that in the
Word of God. I can show you that in the Word
of God. It's already blessed. Anything that Jesus
says, anything that God's Word says that we're
supposed to do, and we launch into what we're
supposed to do, do you know it's already blessed?
Half the time, you don't even have to pray about
it. I'm going to shorten your prayer life a little
bit. If you're doing what God said to do, it
is already blessed because it is his word. It
is what he spoke. It is what he commanded. So
all I have to do is step into what he says to
do. So sometimes when I get these couples, I'm
like, hey, you don't want to stay outside of
God's blessing. You want to walk in God's blessing.
And his blessing is do what he said to do. And
this is where we do what God says to do. what
his word says, what his direction is, right?
Move on that thing. Do that thing. Step into
it because there's blessing attached. The blessing's
attached to it. There's life there. There's favor
there. We ward off the enemy and we walk in the
abundant life when we walk in obedience. Sometimes
this is what happened. Sometimes Christians...
Jesus followers, right? They feel like they're
not living in the abundant life, and sometimes
it's because in their head they're following
Jesus, right? They think Jesus is a great idea.
They may have even said a prayer at some point
in time. They kind of think in their heart they're
committed to follow Jesus, but they don't really
do what God says to do. So in their head, they
say they're following Jesus, but they don't really
follow what the word of God says to do in their
lives. And they end up, instead of experiencing
abundant life and what abundant life should be
in their lives, what they end up experiencing
is this waffling back and forth. James talks
about this a little bit. I won't go into all
that in the book of James. But they experience
this going back and forth and it's back and forth.
And they experience the enemy kind of kicking
in the door in their lives. And they're wondering
why. The enemy's hitting them on every side.
And it's because they're not walking in the blessing
of God. They're not walking in the commandments
of God. They're not walking. And so in their
head, they're like, man, I follow Jesus. And
in their lives, they're not following him at
all, right? They're not following anything he
said to do. And all this mess comes in and they
just get confused and they get waffled back and
forth. I've seen it a thousand times. See, when
talking about God's blessing, his spiritual blessing
is not spiritual pixie dust, okay? It's not.
It's not spiritual pixie dust. God's blessing
is a result of you getting underneath and involved
in and stepping into what he says to do. It's
where you're going to find God's blessing. It's
that last thing. Now, am I saying that God's
presence doesn't ever overshadow you? Absolutely
he does. But let me tell you when that happens,
when you start. When you start walking with him,
I didn't say perfection, I said walking with
him. You start walking with an obedient heart,
God begins to overshadow you. The blessing of
God comes and the presence of God comes with
all that. It's all tied together. We never get
to the abundant life in Jesus if we're locked
down into doing what I want to do and not what
God wants to do. We can't hop on the train of
God's grace. and jump off the train of God's
obedience, right? Or obedience to God. So many
times we do that. I want to jump on the train
of grace, the grace of God. I want to take that
all in, but I jump off the train of obedience.
Man, I'm not getting many amens. Charlie got
at least one, all right? Listen, we got to jump
into this. We got to follow him. Abundant life
in Jesus is God's grace. It's salvation by faith
in God, plus doing what he said. That's how we
get to abundant life. It's true. Thank you. Even
if that was a pity, amen. I'll take it. We love
the first half of that formula, don't we? I do.
God's grace extended to me. It is so easy. It
is so beautiful. Jesus paid it all on the cross
of Calvary. I can't do a thing to earn salvation.
There's nothing in me good enough. There's no
way I can come to Christ in my own power, in
my own strengths, or with anything that I do
in any way. He spilled his blood, the only blood
that would pay the price for me and redeem me
on Calvary. He died in my place. That grace extends
to me as a free gift of God. All I have to do
is receive it. He sets me free. from my sin.
It's amazing. It's grace. But we can't take the
grace and discard the obedience in the abundant
life. We obey out of result of the grace of God.
Abundant life post -salvation, right? Post -born
again is me having so much faith in Jesus Christ,
my Savior, that I will go do what he says to
do. I got more faith in him than I have in me.
I got more faith in him than I have in anybody
else. It's no longer my opinion, but his opinion.
Amen? How many know we're a society of opinions?
Amen? It's true. Many of us have opinions. I
would love to just take the mic and send it around
the room. How many of you know you have an opinion?
Raise your hand if you have an opinion this morning
about anything at all. Yes, thank you. Remember,
you made 2 ,000 decisions in the last hour. You
made your mind up over the last hour. You had
some opinion on what you should do. Where are
you going to eat? If you like this message or
not, you're going to have an opinion later on.
Why are you going out to eat? If I like my wife
or my husband today, some of you have an opinion
on that, depending on what happened before church,
right? I know you love your spouse, but how many
know sometimes you don't like your spouse? Come
on, amen, the married people. If you've been
married for a minute, you know what I'm talking
about. And Dixie and I are fine, by the way.
We had a great morning this morning, so I wanted
to clarify that. We got opinions. But I'm here
to tell you the abundant life is not on the other
side of my opinion. It's not on the other side
of my decision. It really isn't. It's what he
said to do. And I don't always love it. It doesn't
always line up with my opinion. Because Jesus
said things like, I'm supposed to love my enemies.
That is not my opinion. Don't like that opinion.
But there's abundant life on the other side of
that opinion. If I do what he says. The Lord
said, vengeance is mine, says the Lord. Not my
opinion. Probably not my opinion at all. Might
not be yours, right? But there's life on the
other side of his opinion. Hitting somebody harder,
hitting somebody back harder. If you've got siblings,
you know what I'm talking about. If you get hit
by a sibling, you want to hit them back twice
as hard, right? Vengeance is yours, saith you.
Right? It's kind of our motto. But that's really
not what Jesus said. Jesus said vengeance is
mine. I'm supposed to put down the vengeance
in my life. I experience abundant life when I
follow what he says to do. God's grace. plus
doing what he said to do equals abundant life.
And if you're not experiencing abundant life
as a Christian, it's probably not God's fault.
I'm pretty sure it's not actually, right? Probably
on your end, probably something going on in your
own life. Listen to what Jesus says. I told you
we're going to jump around a bit. We're going
to Matthew chapter seven in verses 24 through
29. He says this, he says, everyone then who
hears these words of mine, and does them. Say
does them, right? Who hears these words of mine
and does them will be like a wise man who built
his house on the rock and the rain fell and the
floods came and the winds blew and beat on that
house. But it did not fall because it had been
founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these
words of mine and does not do them will be like
a foolish man who built his house on the sand
and the rain fell, the floods came, winds blew
and beat on that against that house and it fell
and great was the fall of it. And when Jesus
finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished
at his teachings, for he was teaching them as
one who had authority and not as the scribes.
Jesus gives a detailed account of what the abundant
life actually looks like. This is what it looks
like. If you want to know what the abundant life
looks like, it's a picture of that. Because a
lot of us, when we think about abundant life,
as soon as I said the abundant life, well, a
lot of you had a lot of different ideas. I can't
read your mind, but if it was like the cartoons
where your little bubble came up above your head
and went ping. And just the words came across.
Probably a lot of you had different ideas of
what abundant life is. When I say abundant life,
you might be thinking of money and stuff, right?
Abundant life to you might be like, yep, I got
abundance at home. I got stuff. I got money in
the account. Everything's looking good. Financially,
things are all lined up. 401K is looking good.
I get to retire soon. That might be abundant
life. That might be more popped in your head.
It could be cash. your stuff. Or maybe abundant
life to you means like, you know, all my human
relationships are in good shape right now. Right?
No conflict, no stress, no strain. Like, everybody's
kind of getting along in the family, you know,
because it's always just kind of getting along.
But everybody's getting along in the family,
you know, but that's kind of abundant life, right?
Or maybe it's health -related for you. Oh, I
got my health. If you don't have your health,
you don't have anything. People say that kind
of stuff all the time. That might be abundant
life to you. There's all kind of definitions
of abundant life. There's all kind of things
we look at. For you, it might be your children
running around your home, and you're thinking
abundant life's just a piece of quiet, right?
Or you might have elderly parents falling and
stumbling around your home. And you're like,
man, if I could just go to an island somewhere
and get a few minutes peace, you know, that might
be abundant life for you. There's all kinds of
definitions. We come up with all these ideas
of what abundant life is. But Jesus says, this
is actually what it looks like. This is what
abundant life looks like. Everyone who hears
these words of mine and does them will be like
a wise man who built his house. And the rain
fell and the floods came and the winds blew and
beat on that house. And it did not fall because
it was on the rock. Abundant life is life where
you stand. It's when you don't get knocked down.
It's when you don't get drug over, right? It's
when you can stand fast on the rock. That's what
abundant life is. When rain falls. When you look
at this scripture, when rain comes, that's trouble.
I don't know how many of you ever started your
week out. Monday was looking pretty good. By
the time you got to Wednesday, you wonder what
in the world ever happened, right? How did I
miss this? There's just trouble dropping all
around you. It's like little bombs, like rain
falling. Just boom, boom, just like you came
in this morning. There's trouble all around you.
There's rainfall. Or maybe it's winds of adversity
that begin to push against you, and all of a
sudden, in one moment, everything changes, and
there's this wind, and there's struggle, and
there's stress, and there's strain in a relationship.
Or maybe it's even crisis, like a flash flood,
right? That's floods, flash flood. You're up
one minute and it feels like your feet just gonna
be ripped right out from under you because there's
a torrent coming down the hillside and you're
standing in the middle of it and you don't wanna
get washed away. To everyone that hears these
words of mine and does them is like a wise man
who has built his house on the rocks. And when
the rain came and when the wind came and when
the crisis came, he stood. It stood firm. It
stood fast. This is abundant life. This is life
in Christ. You don't get your legs taken out.
You don't get rolled over and destroyed. You
don't die in the process. You don't get swept
downstream. This is rock life. Say rock life.
I'm going to coin a new phrase around here. This
is rock life. You won't crash. It's an accurate
picture. And the one that ignores Christ, the
one ignores, it says it right at the beginning
of that scripture, what he says to do is the
person who builds their house in the sand. And
you might get through the rain, but when the
winds come and the floods come, I don't know
if you've ever been down by a beach when a hurricane
comes through and see what it does to buildings
that are built in the sand. I've been down in
places like New Orleans when the hurricane hit
down there. I went in after the aftermath. And
anything that was down along the shoreline that
was in those posts in the sand, they were gone.
There might be a post sticking out. They were
gone. History, out of there. You're going to
crash. Sooner or later, it'll come down. This
is life on the rock, Jesus Christ. This is abundant
life. This is what happens when you hear the
word of God and you begin to do it. You won't
get taken out. The enemy can't get you. Anchored
to Jesus, plus doing what he said to do, is abundant
life. Can we just keep drilling that? Is it okay
if we drill down just a little deeper? And here's
what I'm going to do. I got you in Matthew chapter
7. We're actually going to work through this
chapter backwards. I'm going to go back up a
couple verses. And we're going to go to verse
21 through 23. And it says, you workers of lawlessness.
Huh. This is a tough scripture, right? Like,
what? You know, do, he says, do the will of my
Father. If you look at that verse closely, you
can't separate doing what Jesus said to do and
following Jesus. Not everyone, he says, not everyone
to me who will say to me, Lord, Lord. There will
be people who will come and say, well, I prophesied.
Prophecy is speaking the word of God. Sometimes
it's quoting the word of God. Sometimes prophetic
means futuristic, even getting a sense from God
what the future is going to be. He said there
are going to be people who will come and say
they prophesied. There are going to be some who
cast out demons, and you're thinking, well, how
in the world can they not know God and cast out
demons? Because the name of Christ carries that
much authority. It is not anybody's name. It
is not the power of a man that casts out demons
from somebody. It is the name of Jesus Christ.
It is the power that is invoked when Jesus' name
is used. And he says, I'll even do mighty works.
People will do mighty works. They'll say, I did
mighty works. It is the authority and the power
of Jesus Christ. But if you're not willing to
do the will of God, walk out the will of God,
do what Jesus says, do rock life, right? He said,
you're going to walk up and you're going to say,
I did this and I did that and I did this. And
he's going to say. I never knew you, right? The
grace of God is salvation, but there's gonna
be evidence of that. Jesus said in his scripture,
lawlessness is the one who prefers to do the
will of the father or does not do the will of
the father. Lawlessness is the one who refuses
to do what Jesus said. Lawlessness is my way
and not his way. And when Jesus says this, it's
synonymous with what the father said, because
Jesus said, I am in the father and the father
is in me. If we claim Jesus as our Lord and we
do not do what he says to do, in the end, he's
going to look at us and say, I don't even know
you. I don't even know you. Now, you might be
thinking, are you preaching a works gospel? Absolutely
not. We are saved by grace, by faith, by faith
in Jesus Christ and that alone. But what I do
is the evidence. of God's grace extended in my
life. What I do is the evidence. It really is.
Let me back you up just a couple more scriptures.
It says this in 15, beware of false prophets
who come to you in sheep's clothing, but they
don't really are ravenous wolves. You will recognize
them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from
thorn bushes or figs from thistles? So every
healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased
tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear
bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good
fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit
is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, you
will recognize them by their fruits. Look at
the person beside you. Tell them you got some
fruits. Don't tell them they are a fruit. Tell
them you got some fruit. You got fruit. You do.
The fruit of your tree is the evidence of what's
on the inside of the tree. That's what this scripture
is saying, right? The fruit of the tree is what
a tree does. A fruit tree produces fruit. That's
what its purpose is. That's what it does. It
produces fruit. And you'll know a tree if it's
good or bad by its fruit. You'll know if a tree's
diseased if it's by its fruit. And you can say,
and it's no matter what it's pretending to be,
what that tree's pretending to be on the outside.
Because sometimes diseases are just thought you
see it on the inside. I've had trees that were
rotten on the inside and they would grow and
there's leaves and some fruit comes out, but
they're diseased on the inside of that thing,
right? They're a mess in there. And sometimes
that's what it's talking about here. What is
your fruit in your life? That's what you're doing.
That's what you're out there doing. Is it evidence
of what happened on the inside of you? The scripture
said our grapes gathered from thorn bushes or
figs from thistles, right? What is the fruit
of the tree? It's why Jesus said at the beginning
of this, beware of false prophets who come to
you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous
wolves. Prophets say things. False prophets say
things. The way you tell a prophet from a false
prophet is their fruit. What's in their lives?
right? Sometimes, man, some of you get online,
you're just taking every word coming down the
pike from somebody. Do you know who that person
is? Do you know the fruit of that person? Do
you know if it's good or if it's bad, right?
Because you might have a false prophet in front
of you. The word of God talks about it. Jesus
is saying, be careful of prophets who say one
thing and their fruit produces something else.
They look good at church. They look good at life
group. They look good when they're speaking in
front of the camera. But what are they doing
outside the church? What's happening, right?
What's the fruit of their lives? I don't know
if you, and I'm no fruit expert by any stretch,
but I don't know if you've ever seen a diseased
apple. And I'm going to put a picture up there.
They're going to flip that up on there. And you'll
see the one on the left, right? That's a diseased
apple, actually. Now, how many know that looks
pretty normal to you? I eat apples. I eat a bag
of apples about every two weeks, a full bag of
apples. And honestly, if I saw that apple on
the left, see that little, just one little mark
on it, I'd be like, no problem, right? Because
most apples have some kind of defect on them.
That's just, you'll see something on the outside.
I'd pick that thing up and start munching right
away. I would, I'd just start, I'd dig right
in. I'd bite right into that thing. But how many
know it can look perfectly healthy on the outside,
but as soon as you bite into that apple, do you
ever bite into like a diseased apple? Oh, it'll
ruin your day. This is nasty, right? You run
over to the garbage can, spitting it out. You
know, if it's rotten on the inside, worse than,
I had worm, a worm literally inside one time.
Bad day. Bad day. Really bad day. It only takes
one bite. Finding out what's on the inside, right?
To find out what's really going on. Every tree
that does not bear good fruit. What's that tree
doing? Rock life is faith in Jesus. Salvation
by grace. But what's happening on the outside?
You cannot jump on the grace train, right, and
then just leave the obedience train and run right
on by you. That's what the Word of God is telling
us. What do I do? What do I do? What do I produce?
What will be the evidence of who God is in my
life? Worship team, I'm going to ask if you would
come. As I was preparing this message, I couldn't
get away. From the word picture that Jesus spoke.
A house, right? Now, I want you to picture that.
Go ahead and close your eyes for a minute. I
do this sometimes. I've done this in actually
a funeral message that I use sometimes. And I
want you to do this. I want you just to picture
this in your mind because this will help you
grab a hold. I want you to picture in your mind
two houses on the shoreline. And pretend you're
out in the boat just a little bit from shore.
and you're staring back at the shoreline, and
you're looking on the left, and there's this
house built on the rock. There's rocks, a big
rock crag there, and somebody built a house up
on top of that rock. And then you can pan to
the right, and you can make your beach look like
anything you want, because it's your imagination
you're using right now. But you pan to the right,
and there's a house that's built in the sand.
This is what Jesus was talking about. You can
look back up at me. Rock life, rock life is the
only life. If you want abundant life, it's rock
life. It's when it rains, when trouble comes,
when I'm on the rock, I stand fast in his grace
and I keep doing what he said to do when it rains.
When trouble covers me, he shields me, right?
I keep doing, I keep. depending on the grace
of God. And I keep doing what he said to do.
In the trouble, when adversity comes and the
winds begin to push against me and from every
side, I'm starting to get pressure and the stress
is starting to come in. I talked with somebody
this week under so much stress and the stress
begins to come in and the winds begin to push
against. You lean on the grace of God and the
salvation that he provides and you just keep
doing what he said to do. Because there's safety
on the rock. When the floods come and the waters
feel like they're going to tear you apart, wash
you away, drown you in whatever's in front of
you, behind you, or beside you, you lean on the
grace of God. This is rock life, abundant life.
And you keep doing what he said to do. When you're
healthy, when you're sick, when the sun is rising,
when the storm's going, when the lightning's
flashing. Not perfection, but obedience to God.
This is abundant life. Anything outside of rock
life is that house you built over in the sand.
And it'll look good when the sun's shining. It'll
look good when there's no adversity. It'll look
good when it's just a little pitter -patter of
trouble coming down. But when in its rain and
its wind and its flood, that thing's going to
crash. It's going to come down. I'm going to
ask you to stand. This is what Jesus said to
do. Rock life. Say rock life. Rock life. I'm
telling you, I'm coining a phrase. Even if you
don't like it, I'm coining it anyway. I'm going
to give you two things. I have a digital checklist
on my computer and my devices, and I use it every
single day. And I kind of mark things this way.
Typically, I have like a red list, which is urgent.
And then I'll have a yellow list, which is important,
but not urgent. And then I'll have a green, which
means I can get to it sometime. All right. And
sometimes I'll categorize the things that I'm
doing, or sometimes I'll just put them in order
like that in my head on my list. But I'm going
to give you two things that are urgent for you
to do. Put this on your to -do list, because
we're talking about what we do, right? What to
do. The first one is know the rock. Know the
rock. And what do I mean by that? I mean, do
everything in your power to learn everything
that you can about the rock named Jesus Christ.
Find out who he is. how he functions, what he
said. Do everything within your power. One of
the reasons we do Bible through a year, and we're
going to do it again, we're going to continue
to do it every single year. I want more and more
people to participate. You need to find out who
Jesus is. You cannot come to a message on Sunday
morning, and even I know some of you listen to
podcasts, all that, that's awesome. Keep doing
that. But you're not going to find out who Jesus
is until you dive in yourself. Truly. You'll
find out pieces of it. You're not going to find
the full expanse of who God is. Find out who
he is. Know who he is. Know the rock. And then
the second thing is, is commit to rock life.
That means that by the grace of God, you're saved,
right? And if you're not saved, you can be this
morning. Know Jesus as Lord and Savior because
of what he did on the cross, and then do what
he said to do. That's rock life. That's it. Just
know him and do what he said to do. If it doesn't
make sense to you, do what he said to do. Even
when you don't like it, do what he said to do.
Even if you want to take vengeance, do what he
said to do. Just do it. Because there's abundant
life on the other side. You won't crash. You
will not go down. There should be this deep,
deep assurance for us that if we walk in this,
Do you know what it means to know that you cannot
be taken down? You should be beating your chest
right now. Right? Come on. Right? It's not you.
It's him. But if you've got a big enough big
brother, they can't take you down. They can't
take you down. The enemy cannot take you down.
Rock life. in to this message from Lifehouse
Church. We pray that you were impacted powerfully
by this message. If you have been personally
affected by our ministry and you would like to
partner with us as we love God, love people every
day, visit our website at