Building a House – Mother’s Day Message
Posted on May 3, 2014	by Touch of Joy Ministries
To start the audio of this message go to the bottom of this page and click on the arrow OR
read the synopsis below and then click on the arrow at the bottom of this page.
Synopsis of Building a House
A Mother’s Day Message
We’re about to slice a piece of the bread of life, the word of God. And today’s slice comes from Luke 6:46-49 “So why do you call me ‘Lord,’ when you won’t obey me? I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then obeys me. It is like a person who builds a house on a strong foundation laid upon the underlying rock. When the flood waters rise and break against the house, it stands firm because it is well built. But anyone who listens and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will crumble into a heap of ruins.”
Although it may not be Mother’s Day this week, I believe the message is good for the entire year. Let me begin with a story….. Building a house
An elderly carpenter was ready to retire and told his employer-contractor he was going to leave the carpentry business and spend more time with his wife and family. He acknowledged that he would miss his regular paycheck, but he had laid aside a little money and with his monthly social security check hoped that he could get by. The contractor that he had so faithfully worked for asked if he would, as a special favor, build one more home. The carpenter after a little deliberation agreed to build one final home.
The carpenters heart was not into the construction and as a result he resorted to shoddy workmanship and inferior materials in building the house. It was an unfortunate way to finish what up to then had been a dedicated career.
When the house was completed the contractor came to do his final inspection of the home. Following their walk through the contractor handed the carpenter the keys to the house, saying it was his gift to the carpenter for the many years of dedicated service he had given. The carpenter was shocked. If he had known he had been building the house for himself he would have done it with care and would have used the best possible materials. The work had been completed and there was no going back to correct the inferior house.
You and I are in a sense carpenters. We are building our lives a day at a time. We must guard against putting less into this task than what will result in the best possible outcome. What was done today will either strengthen or weaken the house we will live in tomorrow. Perhaps this is why our savior was a carpenter. He set the example of how we should live and walk out our live.
And I wanted today to use as my text that place in Luke where Jesus talks about “building a house.” what could be a better theme for mother’s day?
It is the concluding parable of three parables that Jesus told in the last part of chapter six. The first was about the blind leading the blind, and the other is about bad trees being unable to bear good fruit. It’s the third of those parables at which we look today — the parable about building a house. Jesus tells us that there is only one way to build a house that will be secure against the storms that will always threaten. You have to dig deep down, Jesus said, and lay a foundation on solid rock. Without a firm foundation, the house will be shattered by the storms that come, to be sure, Jesus is talking about building the foundation of our life on Him and the rock of His word. But what better place for that foundation to be laid than in the home. So, on this Mother’s Day, I want to talk about building a house of life in the context of the family.
I can’t imagine that you haven’t heard or read Robert Fulghum’s book, “All I Really Need to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten.”
Listen to part of it again:
“All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be, I learned In kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there In the sand pile at Sunday school. These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Take a nap every afternoon. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the styrafoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed In the styrafoam cup — they all die. So do we.”
Think what a better world It would be If we all — the whole world — had cookies and milk about 3 o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or, If all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess. And it is still true, no matter how old you are — when you go out Into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.