Build Your House on the Rock

In one paragraph

Pastor Mike Demetrius, First B's youth director, brought the message on Graduation Sunday, directing his words to the graduating seniors but drawing everyone into the same questions. Using Matthew 7:24-27, he pressed on what it actually looks like to build your life on the rock rather than on sand. He worked through three things he tells students, but turned each one back on the congregation as a...

Read together

1. Colossians 1:16 quoted at the opening of the service to lead into worship: all things were created by and for Jesus
2. Matthew 7:24-27 main sermon text: the wise man who builds on the rock versus the foolish man who builds on sand
3. John 10 referenced during the offering: Jesus says I am the good shepherd who sacrifices his life for the sheep
4. 1 John 1:9 quoted to assure that God will forgive and purify from all unrighteousness when we confess our sins
5. 1 Corinthians 10:13 quoted to show that no temptation is beyond what is common to man and that God provides a way out
6. Romans 1:17 quoted at the close of the service: the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel, the just shall live by faith

Talk about it

1. Michael talked about students behaving differently when they are away from their parents, and about his own habit of building what he called 'sandcastles' on flawed formulas he picked up in middle school and high school. What formulas or assumptions did you carry into adulthood that eventually stopped working for you?
2. Michael described the Tic Tac story to show how one action outside the lines can quickly require a second lie and then a third to cover it. Have you seen that compounding effect of small lies in your own life, and what did it take to start walking out of it?
3. Michael said your friends will determine the direction and the quality of your life, and that a parent's influence can be quietly substituted by a peer with a bad idea. Who in your life right now has the kind of relationship with you where they could say 'don't take a step down that road, and here's why'?
4. Michael read from 1 Corinthians 10:13 that no temptation seizes us except what is common to man, and he said the devil wants us to think we are the only one fighting what we are fighting. When have you discovered that someone else in your community was carrying the exact same struggle you thought was yours alone, and what did that do for you?
5. Michael closed by asking whether we actually trust God, pointing to the garden and the lie that we could build a better life outside His boundaries. He suggested starting with a prayer as honest as 'God, I don't trust you, but I want to trust you.' What would an honest starting prayer look like for where you are right now?