Luke 6:46-49: The House on the Rock

Luke 6:46-47 "Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built."

In the 1940's, a man by the name of Alex Jordan built what is now known as "The House on the Rock" in Spring Green, Wisconsin. The house is home to the world's largest carousel, multiple rooms of self-playing musical instruments, a 200-foot long sculpture of a squid attacking a whale, and much, much more. However, the best part of the House on the Rock is the Infinity Room, which is an architectural masterpiece that extends 218 feet out of the rock and includes over 3,000 windows. One might ask why this house is so amazing, and why it has stood for so long. Furthermore, how can you build a 218 foot long balcony out of the side of a giant hill? Perhaps it had something to to with the fact that the house was built on a rock.*

Jesus, the architect, must have had a similar concept in mind when he taught the disciples in Luke 6:46-49. After spending a good amount of time teaching (Luke 6:20-45), Jesus concluded is teaching of a parable of two men who were building houses. One build his house on the rock, enabling it to stay standing after the floods washed over it. However, the other man built his house on the sand, causing it to fall apart when the floods came. The moral of the story is this: in order to remain standing amidst the storms and floods of life, we must build our house on a solid rock. But what is that solid rock?

In context, the solid rock Jesus is alluding to here are his teachings. "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,'" Jesus says, "and do not do what I tell you?" The context here shows us that to build your house upon the solid rock is to build your life upon the teachings of Jesus. That is, in order to stand firm when life storms over us we must obey all of the teachings of Jesus. In case you haven't found this out yet, that's the reason why this blog is called The Solid Rock Blog. Each morning, we take a look at the teachings of God in his Word, that is, the solid rock upon which we stand in order to not get destroyed amidst the storms of life!

The application for us this morning is obvious: are you standing upon the words of Jesus? Are Jesus' teachings your Solid Rock that you are building your life upon, or are you building your life upon something else? Let me encourage you, brothers and sisters, that the only way to flourish in this life is to build upon the rock of Christ. Building upon anything else in this world will only cause you utter destruction.

"On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand." - Edward Mote, 1844

*Perhaps many of you, especially those of you in Wisconsin, know what the House of the Rock is and maybe have been there. If you haven't and you someday get the chance to, I'd encourage you to visit. It's by far one of the coolest things I've ever seen on planet earth, all for $30 a person. Every dollar is well spent, and it will give you a full day of enjoyment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_SR8nI6TZE