Kingdom PeopleSample

All Other Ground is Sinking Sand

Jesus has been teaching for quite a while now. And hopefully, you’ve started to see the big picture that He is painting of God’s Kingdom and what it looks like to be a part of it. But how does He choose to conclude? Well, in true Jesus-fashion, He tells a story.

In this story, there are two guys and two houses. The first guy builds his house on rock. Storms, floods, rain, and wind inevitably come, but the house stays standing because it’s built well, on a solid foundation. On the other hand, the second guy builds his house on sand. The same storms come, but this time the house comes crashing down because sand sinks and sand shifts. 

What’s the point? People who hear Jesus’s teachings and put them into action are like the first guy. It’s Kingdom people who build on the rock. But If we’re living based on something other than Jesus’s teaching, we will sink into laziness, or our perspectives will shift from reality. When the storms of life come, there’s nothing solid to fall back on except the words of our King. All other ground is sinking, shifting sand.

When Jesus ends the message on the mountain, Matthew tells us that people were in awe. They had never heard anyone teach like this before. Not just because of what Jesus said—that was radical enough—but also how He said it. He spoke with authority. His only source to cite was God Himself. That’s bold. That’s powerful. 

Jesus could speak with such authority because He spent His whole life backing up this message. Jesus is the perfect representation of the Beatitudes: He’s the Light of the World. He went above and beyond to the point of giving His life to show us love. He constantly communicated with His Father, and He knew who He was and why He was here. Jesus could proclaim the Kingdom with power because He was destined to be its perfect King.

Now we get to follow after Him in proclaiming the Kingdom because He has invited us in, and He not only invited us, but also appointed us as ambassadors, His representatives to the world. How do we continue the mission of bringing heaven to earth? We do this by living a life that backs up our calling as Kingdom people. 

Challenge: Are you living a life that backs up your calling? Why does putting Jesus’s teachings into action matter so much? Journal your answers. Decide and do. Find at least one way to put into action your calling as a Kingdom person today.