The Power of God’s Word
I can’t imagine life apart from the Word of God. Actually, there is no true life apart from God’s Word. Life without the Word is like a gold fish in a plain bowl. The water can be fresh but there is neither filter keeping it clean nor an apparatus adding oxygen to the water. Slowly, the destructive elements creep in and cripple the environment. The gold fish is soon under the burden of what used to be simple routine. His home has now become his trap. The fish has existence but it doesn’t have life. This describes the lives of so many people today. Without the Word, their lives are plagued by the filthiness of this world and life is nothing but struggle and worry.
Jesus said in Matthew 7:24-27, “Therefore whosoever hears these SAYINGS OF MINE and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house UPON A ROCK. The rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it DID NOT FALL. And everyone that hears these sayings of mine and DOES NOT DO THEM shall be likened to a foolish man who built his house upon the sand. The rains descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell. And great was the fall of it.” Notice that both the wise man and the foolish man in this parable of Jesus faced the same storm. They both faced the rains, floods, and winds of life that tried to collapse their lives. But notice only one of these men suffered the failure. The storm wasn’t their failure. The storm only revealed the true problem: The foundation upon which they built their lives. When are we going to get honest with ourselves about why failure continues to occur in our lives?
Just because you are going through a storm doesn’t make you a failure. Just because you are going through a problem doesn’t mean that your faith doesn’t work. Storms in life do not make us unique. Someone somewhere at sometime has gone through the exact same test you have. What distinguishes people and makes them great is what they build upon. Jesus didn’t teach this parable to focus on the storm; He taught the parable to focus on the foundation. We cannot gauge failure by whether or not we have faced a storm but rather if we are standing at the end of it.
Notice Jesus said that when you practice doing what He says that you are like a BUILDER. I have noticed something about builders: They don’t get a finished product in one day. Builders have to go out day after day on the same project to get results. They have to be consistent to bring something to completion if they are to enjoy payday.
I want you to notice something about God’s Word. Both of these men faced rain, floods, and wind. In the case of the man who built upon the Rock, all three of these forces COMBINED could not bring down his house. The Word of God is able to keep you standing against every wicked cocktail of trouble this world can bring!
Pastor Tim
Family Church Jamestown is a non-denominational church located in Chautauqua County in Jamestown between Lakewood and Busti, NY. The senior pastor of Family Church is Pastor Tim Stahlman a native to the Jamestown, NY area.
