Mensa Otabil - The Unwise Builder
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Yesterday we talked about the wise Builder; today we’re looking at the opposite of the wise Builder: unfortunately, the foolish Builder. So we look at Matthew 7:26 and 27: «But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell. And great was its fall.» As I said yesterday, this parable is about how we relate to God’s Word, but Jesus is actually likening His Word to a reality of His time, where and the way people built their houses. There were people who built on the rock and people who built on the sand, and He’s likening those realities to how people approach His Word.
So, He talks about the foolish Builder. The foolish Builder builds on the sand. Now, as I said yesterday, it’s not so much about the materials they build with as it is about where they build their houses. You can have the best materials, the best education, the best information, the best network, and the best friends, but if you build in the wrong place, all of that investment will go to waste. The house on the rock withstands the storms of life, while the house on the sand does not stand.
So what is it about the foolish person described here, the wrong kind of Builder, that doesn’t allow his building to stand? First, they are influenced by surface appearances. They look at the terrain, and as I said yesterday, in the place where Jesus grew up, sometimes sand can be hardened, and the only thing that will test that hardened sand is water, is rain. The foolish man looks at the sand; it looks hard today, it seems stable today, and they build on it. They don’t go deep; they go for the superficial. They look for things that impress people. They want to build quickly; they want people to applaud them. They want to take a picture and put it on Instagram; they want to take a picture and put it on Facebook. They want to have bragging rights that they got it first. So they are very quick to act and they don’t take time to think through, to analyze, to look at all the other aspects-what can go wrong and how to hedge against what will go wrong. That is the foolish Builder: surface people influenced by appearances.
Secondly, they settle on shifting ground. They don’t settle on solid ground; sand moves. Sand is a weak foundation for building your life, your marriage, a nation, a company. There is nothing firm in the sand. So when we are looking for shifting grounds, what is in vogue, what is popular, we become like this Builder. We find whatever seems available and decide to use it, or the popular, and decide to go along. No conviction, no faith-it’s all about fitting in, blending in, becoming like everybody else, doing what everybody else is doing. That’s the problem with this Builder.
Thirdly, they build for short-term success. They are only impressed with how people will applaud them today and not about how it will look tomorrow. Listen, everything we build in life takes time; it takes effort, and it’s not good for effort to be wasted. It’s not good for you to spend so much time in a marriage and for the marriage not to work. It’s painful when what you’ve built doesn’t work. So let us ensure that our foundations are right, so that what is built will endure adversity, because, as I said yesterday, adversity will come. Your life will be buffeted; whatever you build will be buffeted. But if you build right, you will be sustained and you will endure. If you didn’t, unfortunately, the house on the sand, Jesus said, fell flat, and great was its fall-it was massive when the winds, the rain, and the storm came. I am persuaded that will not be your testimony; I am persuaded that will not be your story. I pray that your life doesn’t end this way. I pray that God will bless you with wisdom to lay the right foundations for your life.
Let us pray. Say with me: Heavenly Father, help me to be a hearer and doer of Your Word. Enable me to build things that endure. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.