In this piece we are going to be looking at something that we shouldn’t take personally. It is not an insult to anyone of us, it is just what the Holy Spirit wants to meditate with us on. We want to consider: A Foolish Disciple versus a Wise Disciple. One thing is very important for us to note. Both groups are disciples, whether foolish or wise, they are all disciples. What differentiates them is whether they are wise or they are foolish. So, let us go straight into the book of Matthew 7, I will read from verse 24-27. See what the Bible says: “Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of Mine…” ‘Whoever’, whether the person is the bishop of a church or a member of a church, a man or a woman, whether the person just got born again three weeks ago, or just got born again 30 years ago, He says:
“Whoever hears these sayings of Mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock….” The reason why the building did not fall, it’s not because the building was lucky. Our difference is not much about luck. It says, for it was founded on the rock. So, it means if that house were not built on the rock, it would have fallen. So, what excused, what exempted this building from the calamity was not luck or chance or by accident. The same thing that happened here perhaps happens to every other person. But the result is different because a house is built on a different terrain. Let us go to verse 26 so that we can see the second side.
“But everyone who hears, and that “every” also excuse nobody. The first one says “whoever,” meaning anyone out of us, whether we are ten billion, seven billion, anyone out of us. “Everyone” now means all the seven billion of us, all of us. He says, “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, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” Now, the reason why it fell is also referred to in that verse 25. It was implied. The other one did not fall because it was built on the rock. And Jesus said a foolish man is a man who builds his house on sand. So, why did it fall? Because it was built on the sand. So, our focus is on a foolish disciple and then, we are comparing that with a wise disciple. Both of them are disciples.
Let’s go back to that verse 24, Jesus said, Therefore, for the reason I am mentioning now, whoever hears these sayings of mine. Now, there was a time Jesus said, “My sheep will hear my voice and they will follow me, the voice of a stranger they will not hear.” It is good to follow Him because you hear Him. You know it’s one thing to for you to say “please come,” and then you start coming and then, instructions begins as soon as you’ve started following but you choose not to do what you are told to do, but you are following. Do you know you will still be called a follower? I said, come and follow me and then you began to follow. That is one layer. But as soon as you began to follow, I started giving you one or two other instructions but instead of you following the instruction, you are following me. You are a follower but you are not following what I am saying.
Jesus says, “Whoever hears these sayings of Mine”, it means, the person is even interested in hearing. As a matter of fact, it is demanding, it is something that requires some sacrifices. Jesus said, if you are a woman, a man and you chose to hear the sayings of mine, that’s one thing. People could have said you are good; you are doing a great job, but Jesus didn’t want to be carried away. He said, “If you hear these sayings of Mine and you don’t do what you are hearing, then I will liken you to a man who builds his house on the sand.” So, you are a hearer. You are hearing, meaning that you are interested in me, you came to me. You are hearing so I can call you my disciple but you are not following what you are hearing that makes you a foolish disciple. We must understand that the disciple is already a disciple, he is already following.
There was a time Jesus spoke to the people and the bible says, many people turned back from following him. They said, this is a hard saying, who can receive this? And Jesus turned back and looked at the other 12 and said, “Are you also going?” And they said to Him, “To whom shall we go?” Jesus said, are you also going because some have left? They said the things they were hearing were hard. Don’t forget, before they left, they were following, they were hearing but they could not connect with the things they were hearing. The things they were hearing didn’t mix with faith in their hearts, it didn’t produce the behavior that Jesus desired, and so they left Jesus. At that moment, they stopped being disciples of Jesus. Before that time, they were hearing Him, they did not depart but they were not doing the things He was saying. So, what can you call them at that time, you call them foolish disciples? Because that window is very short, the window when a man decides to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, because he believes or she believes that there is something my life will get from him.
At the beginning before anyone could conclude the decision of following Jesus, there is something he wants to gain from the experience, but having made up your mind to follow, you begin to hear some hard sayings; He begins to tell you; 'Brother, drop this behavior'; or 'Sister, start doing this'; and you are like saying, Jesus, this is a hard saying — you keep reading the Bible — and you are deflecting the counsel of the Lord to you. When we look at your life, we don’t see the Word, that is the period: the period you are either call wise or foolish. The extreme part of it is when you stop following Jesus, at that point we won’t either call you foolish or wise again but someone who is not a disciple. It is one thing for you to be a disciple, it is another thing for you not to be. But as long as you decide to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, you must listen to Him, but if listen only to Jesus were to be enough; he wouldn’t have complained about these people — the were listening to Him. Jesus didn’t complain that they were not listening but says, “Anyone who listens to these sayings of Mine, and does not do them.”
Jesus knew that some people were not ready to do what they were hearing. They were like that tree that was cumbering the ground which was not productive, fruitful. And Jesus gave the parable of the fruitless tree that the tree was to be cut down, but someone intervene to plead for the life of the tree saying it should be giving another year — let’s wait if the tree would become fruitful from the nutrient it gets from the earth within this time. Jesus is not interested in a one who cumber the ground; we have become the disciples of Jesus; we shouldn’t cumber the ground in the church; anywhere we have been planted by the Lord. Anywhere the Lord has planted us, we should not just be listening, hearing; we should be doers of what we hear as much as we hear.
The two who build either on the rock or the sand are builders; the foolish and the wise. Both of them are builders, they only differ on the platform that they build on. It is even possible that the two are following the same prototype; the same house that is built on the rock could be the same house that is built on the sand, their difference is not the building but what they are building on. Take for instance, two men may be working for the Lord as pastors, the matter is not in the name, the designation, but what each of the two are pastoring with. It will be hypocritical of you if you don’t do what you hear, but you are telling others to do them what you don’t do. It is possible for anyone to teach about Christ when himself is following Christ. But if such a man is not doing what he hears from Christ, he can only teach what it is that he himself obeys.
So, when you come daily, you don’t come to be fed the word of Jesus, but to be fed with what the man himself is following. Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 3-4: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” God has a way of comforting in us in our tribulations, and the goal is so that we may be able to comfort others with same comfort that we have been comforted. That is the ordination of God; God takes you through an experience even if it looks difficult God teaches you how to pass through it, so you can teach another person how to pass through it.
What about a situation when it is not the Lord who taught you how to go through an experience? You went here and there outside God to go through a situation, you will be inexperience to teach others how to go through a similar situation. You will have to teach them the things you learnt. And that is why it is possible for us to have so much gathering of believers, and all we hear is story, story, stories; you know last month I was in Japan, and last week I was In Malaysia — telling your personal story to the people instead of your personal experiences with Christ; you don’t have enough thing to tell them because what has affected your life is not the Word. Sometimes, I find it frustrating listen to testimonies in the church, oftentimes, people don’t open up to tell you how they begged people to have whatever they are testifying about, but in actual sense they did beg one uncle or relative to send to them, they almost got the man or woman wore out with their callings and pleadings.
But these same people will come before brethren to give manufactured testimonies; yesterday I was completely red, and I asked the Lord “Will leave me to die from lack?” But in the kindness of God, I just heard a sound on my phone, behold, it was an alert of 40, 000 naira — everybody, help me shout hallelujah! But they skipped the phase that they frustrated the person. Perhaps, some will even begging could threaten to reject the person their request was not to be met by the uncle, brother, sister, or relative. But you also, having listened to their stories, you desired to trust in God, but there is no substance to rest your faith on. The faith has been falsified: couldn’t tell the how God came through for them in their hard moment; how they trusted God. It is difficult for them to share their faith success story because they didn’t actually trust the Lord, they trusted an uncle somewhere.
For some people it is connection; human connections. They always lobby to get favor from men, and they promised to give 30% of their monthly salary to the person, but they are now testifying that God did it. But shouldn’t it have been better if we are honest to say someone did it for us when we are sure it isn’t God who do it? But the problem is that we are not always honest. When God is not our experience, there is no comfort that can be transfer from us to other people. They are pastors that survive on politicians’ gifts, they can’t testify or share the news with others because they don’t know the source. You just say God is, but how has God been good, you have skipped that. Until you are comforted by God, you can’t comfort others.
It is not whether you are a builder or not, what matters is upon what base, foundation are you building on? Every worker in the kingdom is a builder, and he or she is meant to build on Christ. Let’s read 1 Corinthians chapter 3 from verse 9-15 to see how the Bible expresses this reality again.
“For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another build on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it [the foundation]. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 1If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”
In this context, the foundation was mentioned; this is not on sand, but on Christ Jesus, the Rock. If you build your life, ministry, marriage, or everything, on Christ Jesus, what you are expected to see is that it will endure. When opposition, flood, rain, or challenges come upon it, what you have founded or built on Christ would stand. The work wouldn’t fall because it is built on the rock. So, you pray, I pray, but what are you praying on? You give, I give, but what are you giving on? It is possible to do good things and still find yourself in hell. On what foundation is your good works? If someone gives you food so that you will eat and die, even if it has the appearance of God work, the motive is wrong. That is similar to what king David did to Uriah the husband of Bathsheba, David sent him to the battle field, and anyone would have thought he was favored by the king because as a soldier when you are able to survive the battlefront and returns successfully, you are supposed to be promoted. To Uriah, he might think the king wanted him to showcase his God given ability, but the intention of the king was evil, different. Good work without good motive is evil.
It is not about running up and down, what are you building on? Don’t ever wish to be busy and at same time guilty. Upon what are you sacrificing? Upon what are you having sleepless night, is it because you have an ulterior motive? If there is a hiding agenda to all you do in the name of the Lord, then be sure of this one thing that the prophecy of God over your future is reversable; “When the flood comes, when the rain comes, the building wouldn’t endure, you will fall” you will not endure it, because you will tell yourself, “On what am I coming to kill myself.” People have been thinking you have been a fervent brother but there is a reason; once the reason doesn’t make sense again, you will say to yourself, “I cannot come and kill myself”. The bases for your sacrifice are no more because you have told yourself, “If I am able to come and be sweeping the fellowship hall every day, the pastor will nominate me”, and since that doesn’t happen, you have been discouraged. Or you realize that what you have been expecting, you no longer need that thing again; you need another, will you still be committed? That is what we are saying, will you still continue to do the old good?
So, it is like a wind has blown, the wind of trend. There is a shift in the trend, the thing people use to demand they no longer demand it, will you still continue to do the things you do? Maybe you have believed you were called into the prophetic, and you began the processes, you have been praying and fasting, but suddenly, the people in the country you are no longer want to hear prophecy anymore, what will you do? You said you are a prophet, yet people are running away from you, what will you do, the flood has come, what will you do? Will you still remain? You have been called a teacher, and you have been hearing that the reward of teachers is in heaven, but you still know that there will be people to learn from you then suddenly, nobody wants a teacher again, everyone is in the lookout for a prophet, what will you do; will you now abandon that teaching ministry and become a prophet? It means the basis upon which you have been building has been sand.
What will determine whether you will endure is not desire; it is not about I desire to be this and that, I desire to do good, it is not about all of that, but are you building your life according to the Lord has said concerning you? God said it and I believe it, that settles it; is that the description of your life? Will you be bold to say that your choices are sharpened by what God said to you? Jesus says it, “Everyone who hears what I say and does it, such a man is wise.” It means God says your life will be like this, and you believe it and you start doing something about it as you are led daily. To such obedient disciple, the Lord is saying, “You are building your life on the rock”.
But when God is saying something to you, but you are doing a different thing, you are liking to a foolish disciple. It is not as if you are not doing something, but you are doing different thing from what you hear; the interest of the Lord. God says, “My son, rise up and pray”, and you stood up and you are running up and down, did you do something? Yes, you did something, but the instruction was that, “My son, rise up and pray”, you stood up but was running up and down; you refused to obey. Jesus said if you live your life like that, you are foolish. It is not about God is speaking to me; I hear God, in fact, Jesus has made us to realize that we all hear God. Of course, nobody is meant to make anyone feels that he or she is the only one that hears God, Jesus says we all hear God. But it is not just about hearing God; are you doing what the Lord is asking you to do?
When you hear God, what happens is that you have gained knowledge. God gives you knowledge, but knowledge is not enough, you must translate it to understanding; Lord, that thing you told me, why, is there anything I need to understand about it? When God is not giving you understanding about it, you still press in to ask, what do you want me to do, Lord? And the Lord says to you, do this and you now do it, that is wisdom. Wisdom is the rightful application of knowledge; you have come to know, and you have understood based on what you have known, and you live and make decision according to your knowledge, that is wisdom.
They said, “Smokers are liable to die young”, that is knowledge. But why? Because when they smoke, their lungs will be affected by the smoke; that is understanding. While a former smoker taking the decision that, “I will never smoke again in my life.” that is wisdom. But having heard that smokers will die young, and you still go ahead to smoke that is foolishness, you will not endure. It is not a curse, the Bible says, “When the flood of life comes such won’t fall [he or she will not endure]”. They say: “If wishes were horses, beggars will ride.” Wishes are not horses, so beggars won’t ride. It is easy to hear; the challenge is with doing. We all hear. Take a church that has up to 2000 members, they all listen to same messages, but they don’t have same life, is it because God is different to all of us? It is because we all are different to the Word that we hear. Concerning the 10 virgins; the Bible said that they were all virgins, but what differentiated them were their choices. And what differentiated their choices were the different foundations they were built on.
The 10 virgins were all told how to do things, but some of them perhaps had told themselves, I can’t stress myself, I want to look good; I cannot carry weight, I can’t extra oil. But when they got to the point that they needed more oil, they had already exhausted their reserve. So, you can see that the genesis of foolishness is disregard to instructions. Anytime we hear a word and we disregard it to show something else, we are being foolish. Pattern your life after Christ, it is not about telling people here and there that “Don’t you know that I am a disciple?” It is not about hearing; it is the matter of doing what you hear — building according to what you hear. A Scripture says, “You will hear a voice behind you, this is the way, walk in it, when you turn to the right and to the left.” A voice is telling you; brother Gboyega, turn to the right, but you chose to turn to the left, if you fall down while walking on the left side, is God unfaithful? No! you have simply chosen a wrong path!
My prayer is that God will help us in Jesus’ name. It is a good time to pray and the prayer point is: “I will not choose a wrong path; I will not be a fool.” Pastor E.A Adeboye said sometime ago “Joy to the wise, I refuse to be a fool.”
