Thank you for listening to the Riverbend Church Podcast.
Riverbend Church exists to lead all people to know, love, and
live new life in Jesus Christ. We hope that you enjoy this
message. Thank you so much for taking
time to check us out here today online.
I hope you are having a great time.
Wherever you're at, I hope you're relaxing, grilling maybe
by the pool at the lake, wherever it is.
I hope you're having a great time celebrating with friends
and family on this fourth weekend.
So thank you so much for tuning in just to check us out.
And so I just want to say man, happy 4th of July weekend.
You know, we love to celebrate this time of year.
With grilling, parades and most of all fireworks.
We love to have fireworks. Now.
I grew up in kind of, I'll say, rowdy family that like to really
have a good time and to say that they love the 4th of July would
probably be an understatement. So we would always go to my
uncle's house. And we would be about 30 or 40
of our closest family members. And we would play in the pool,
we would play horseshoes. And for some of you who don't
know what that is, that's the that's the older version of
cornhole. So we would have cornhole would
have all these things going on in the night.
Always ended up with a homemade fireworks display by the adult
men. Well, we always knew we always
graded this fireworks show. Simply because if the fire
department actually had to show up and put out a fire, we felt
like that it was a really good show.
So it was always so fun just to get together with friends and
family and have so much fun and just enjoy that time together.
But I want to start the message and it's going to be a pretty
simple message and it's going to be pretty pointed.
But I want to start the message with one question I want you to
think about, and this is it. When you think of freedom, what
comes to mind for you? So when you think of freedom.
What comes to mind? For you don't have to yell it
out. Wherever you're at, you don't
need, just think in your mind. Just think on that for a second
of what comes to mind when you think of freedom?
Well, this past week I had the incredible privilege of going to
the beach with my family and we had a blast.
Now, when we go to the beach, we get our money to work.
So it was our entire family. Well, all of us, except for one.
He's in Minnesota doing an internship.
So we spouses, kids, everybody, we load everybody up, get a
condo, we go to the beach. We get our money's worth, so
when we get there in the mornings, we pack the coolers
with lunches, everything. We go down to the beach and we
hang out there all day until about 5:00.
O'clock. We know that it's always good
time for us to leave when everybody starts wrapping up in
towels because it's cooled off. So we're going down, we got our
umbrellas, we set our umbrellas and our chairs and our beach
bags and all those good things. It's all set up and I'm sitting
under the umbrella and I'm just kind of hanging out before I go
down to the water and I see this family to the side of me.
And this dad pulls up with a wagon and looks like it's got
5000 Santois in it. I mean, it is loaded and he's
got it. And the wife starts setting up
the chairs. Well, there's a son and a
daughter with them and they waste no time at all.
The daughter just pulls out this shovel.
Now, unlike the shovel I have, she pulls out like next level
shovel, like an actual shovel, and just starts digging.
And I was like, huh, Well, that's that's interesting.
I don't know about you, but my Jess and now when we go to the
beach, part of the fun of going to the beach is people watching.
And so we have this weird thing we do, and I know it's weird, so
bear with me. Don't judge me.
We make up names for families sometimes and stories behind it,
and it's just the whole thing and sometimes it gets really
weird, but it's just, it's just kind of fun for us to do.
So we're watching, I'm watching this family, and we're just kind
of, I'm just checking them out and the daughter just goes to
digging. Well, she starts to waste no
time at all. Like, she just goes straight for
her. She's digging this hole with a
son. And the husband wasted no time,
grabbed their buckets and they started taking the extra stand.
They just started making these piles around the outside of this
hole. I was so fascinated by this
whole ordeal. Not the fact that they were
building their masterpiece, saying Castle on the beach for
the fact that no one said a word, not a word.
It's like they were looking at a flow chart.
Before they went out to the beach to say, here's what you're
going to do, I could tell this was not their first rodeo.
This is not their first time building the sandcastle.
And they knew exactly what to do.
Everybody had a roll. Every had something they had to
do. And so they were just going at
it. Well for over an hour.
Yeah. Again, don't judge me.
I watched these people build this sandcastle for an hour, and
that was hot. And I was sweating under the
umbrella. I know, poor me.
So I'm, I'm under the umbrella and I'm watching them and their
sweating never slowed down. And this thing's starting to
take shape. It's looking good.
So I'm invested by now. And then, like, dude, you wasted
an hour of your life watching these people.
We know. We've all done it on TikTok,
YouTube. We went through that rabbit hole
and an hour later we're watching them make paint or something
weird like that. So we've all done those things.
So I'm watching in fascination, too, because no one's really
talking. Still, after an hour,
everybody's just working. Every now.
They take a break, go cool off in the water, come back.
They're still working. It was incredible to watch.
Them build this thing and they were just going at like they
were even going for the Moat around the outside and I was
just this is watching. But then when I I started to
look around there were lots of other people on the beach
building sand castles too. Not not just stain castles but
like some were nicer than others.
Some were I mean elaborate some were not so much some were just
a bucket with. Just this and maybe something
fancy right on top of it. Just to say, you know, there
there there wasn't much. But hey, to each his own.
You know, build, build what you want to build.
It's your masterpiece. This one guy built a shark.
Some of this pedestal thing came up, had this whole shark.
It was impressive to say the least.
But I'm looking at all these sink houses down the beach and
I'm just curious. I'm like, wow, this is so
interesting because I mean, I've, I am myself, of all the
times I've been to the beach with my family, have dug.
Thousands of holes and built hundreds of sand castles.
But this time was different from me because when I looked around,
I saw all these people and I was like, it's just we're all
building something. They're building their
masterpiece. They're having fun.
They're enjoying it. They're together.
And it hit me. And this is this is our life.
This is a picture of our life. I know you may say.
Wait a minute, Greg, what are you saying?
We're all building, we're all building something like right
now, wherever you're at, you may be with friends, you're building
community, you're building into other people, you may building,
you may be building a career, you may be building a family,
you may building a a retirement, a nest egg, a business plan so
you can start a business. And what's interesting about us
too, is as we build, we're always, you know, we're we're
going to make sure everybody else knows because some of us
are even building our influence on social media so we can help
build that business. So we can build those other
things. So it's one thing or the other.
All of us in here, some of us are actually building multiple
things at one time. And so it's it's an interesting
concept. Not only do we just build these
things and we're builders, but also too we're, you know, we're
taking selfies, we're taking videos, we're posting those on
Snapchat, TikTok, we're telling you how to build your
sandcastle. We're telling you all the things
that we've done to build this amazing masterpiece structure
that we have. Just so that you too can build
it with us. And so we we're we're all doing
this. We're just sometimes we lose
track of us building our masterpiece and we lose sight of
all the things that are around us.
And so it's interesting because Jesus talks about this very same
thing in Scripture. It's in Matthew Chapter 7.
Now if you haven't read Matthew Chapter 7, it's an incredible
book, just a chapter there. Not the book, but the chapter.
And and it's Jesus talking to a crowd now this is a it's it's an
encouraging it's a challenging chapter to read it's Jesus
starts throwing truth bomb after truth bomb and he is just giving
life application of do this do this.
How about this. You should do this you shouldn't
do that. He's going on and on so many
times through this through this chapter of what we should do
everything from judgment to how you should treat others and.
How you should. I mean it was just it was about
how you seek after him. It's going on and on and then
Jesus takes all of this and he wraps it up in this verse at the
end, which is a really cool analogy.
That was what made me think of and it and it's going to be on
your screens, so read along with me.
It's in Matthew Chapter 7, verse 24 through 27.
It says everyone then who hears the 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 wind blew, and it
beat on that house, but it did not fall.
But inks have 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, and the floods came and the winds blew,
and it beat against that house and it fell.
And great was the fall of it, man.
So Jesus takes all those those those things he had been saying,
and at the end he wraps him up with this.
Now, there's some really hard truths and some really
encouraging truths in this passage, and I'm going to pull
out just a couple. And just for a challenge for us
to think about today. And the first one is this,
Storms are coming. It's that simple.
And it's. It's that profound.
The storms are coming. If you're not in a storm coming
out of a storm, then you're about to go into a storm.
Now I know that's not encouraging news on you're like,
man, come on, we're grilling and you're going to throw this at
me. But let this is the truth of
what we live in. Their life is full of storms
now. Not all those storms are
horrible. There's been some storms where I
I actually love to go out on our front porch and watch when
storms blow in. And they're pretty cool because
sometimes they come in and sometimes they go out.
Storms in our life are the same way.
Sometimes they're quick. Sometimes they have somewhat
pain, but they're inconvenience and it's not.
But then there's some of those storms we're holding on for dear
life and we're hoping we make it through it and it's hard and it
feels like it takes absolutely everything that we have, but we
just keep holding on and our family, Jess and I.
No storm. Very, very well.
And there's been some really bad ones and not so bad ones in our
life, but we just keep holding on and we just keep moving
forward. So the idea of storms are coming
in this passage, it it wasn't a when and if it said and the rain
fell and the floods came, it wasn't when it was.
They're coming and it's going to happen.
What's it built on the second truth out of this?
Is knowing what to do is not enough.
So it's interesting so many times as Christians we say oh I
read the Bible or I go to church or or I'm in a small group or or
I even I even give or I even do some of these things and and and
Jesus here is is when he's talking to the crowd saying hey
hey hey this is it's not about just knowing it's because he
says here he says everyone who hears these words of mine and.
Does them will be like a wise man.
That's the trick here. This is a simple, simple
concept. Just.
I mean it's it's it's so simple that sometimes we overlook it
and we get caught up in it and we just miss the the hard truth.
It's not about just you. We hear these words.
We hear the teachings. We know where they are.
Then he goes, now do them. Even some of the versions of
this passage say that you make them an everyday part of your
life. That's what the application
process when we talk about giving scripture handles, we
give those things. That's the ideas that I give it,
something I can grab on to make it a part of my daily life so
that it means something to us. So knowing is not just enough.
It's about being a doer. I hear these words, I know the
truth, and I do them. See, Jesus isn't looking for
perfection from you. It's not.
Jesus is saying I doesn't want you to be obedient.
Take this truth of who I am, of who this is, and put it into
your life. Put it into practice and watch
what it does. Give it some space and see what
happens. You know how many those
masterpiece sand castles, even that cool shark, were left at
the end of the day? Zero.
None of them. Let's see.
None of you expected them to be there either, because we know
how that works. We know that simple concept.
The tide comes in and washes it away.
Our life is the same thing. Storms are coming.
The tide's coming in. What are we building on?
So I want to go back to the question that I asked before
when we started. When you think of freedom, what
comes to mind for you? When you think of freedom, what
comes to mind for me? Miss Jesus, if you want true
freedom, true true freedom from bondage, from sin, from those
things that don't weigh us down, that's found in Jesus and him
alone. That's where the truth is.
That's what he's saying here. Hey, if you wants to build
something that's going to last, build it on the truth of Jesus,
the truth that he tells us, that we mold our lives into, that
it's about him so. Michael is going to, he and Jen
are going to lead us in some worship.
And I'm going to ask you to do something right now.
And I know maybe weird Wherever you're at, wherever you're
you're you're listening to us at.
But I almost want you to turn up the volume.
Take a minute, close your eyes. And as they worship, I don't
want you to allow God just to speak to your heart, create some
space for him to say hey, and ask the question, what is it in
my life that needs to be built? On him and it's about him.
So I ask that question. Allow space for God to just move
in. You let me pray for us before we
worship God. We thank you so much for the
opportunity to God. Just open your word.
God. We thank you for the truth of
who you are. God, I pray as we look around.
Of all the things that we're building.
God, we ask those hard questions.
Are we building him on the truth of who you are?
They built on you the rock and God.
I pray that you would speak to us.
And God, I pray that we are honest with ourselves and honest
with you. But God, more than anything, I
pray that we are doers. God, when you say yes and lead
us God, we say yes right back. God, we thank you for that
opportunity. It's your name, we pray.
Thank you for listening to the Riverbend Church Podcast.
To learn more about who we are as a church and how to connect,
you can head over to our website Riverbendchurch dot Life.