Telling the Truth for Women

Jill Briscoe: Well now, I'd like you to open your Bibles at Matthew chapter 7. I am continuing in this series that follows the theme: behold the treasure, discover the riches. As I thought about that and where to go in the scriptures to take the messages that I have the privilege of bringing under this umbrella theme, I immediately thought of the treasure buried in the field. Jesus said the kingdom of God is like, and using a parable of a man who figured out there was a treasure in a field, sold everything he had in order to possess it. I thought that's what I'll do. I'll take parables, hidden treasure, and we will work on discovering it together.

The kingdom of God is the spiritual sphere where Christ is King. Anywhere that Christ is King is the kingdom of God. So the Bible says the kingdom of God is coming in the future, true. But Jesus also said the kingdom of God is within you. When the King comes within, the kingdom of God is within you. He also said when he was here physically in that Galilean body, the kingdom of God is among you. John the Baptist said the King is coming, this is the King, the Lamb of God. The King is coming, it is among us. And in a true sense 2,000 years ago, the kingdom of God came among men in the person of Jesus Christ, the King of that kingdom.

Jesus talked a lot about the kingdom. He talked about the rules of the kingdom, he talked about living in the kingdom, he talked about entering the kingdom, he talked about enjoying the kingdom, and he talked about experiencing the kingdom. So anywhere that Christ is King is the kingdom of God. If we follow the rules and the principles he lays down, we can experience that kingdom now. We do not have to wait to go to heaven and experience the kingdom of heaven when we die. Heaven can come down and glory can fill our soul in the person of Jesus our Savior. And so when he comes into our life, the kingdom of God is within us.

Now, each parable that we're looking at gives some of the principles of living in this spiritual sphere. We looked at the buried treasure and then we looked at the pearl of great price, and of course the pearl is Jesus, the jewel of heaven. You're never going to experience true spirituality, and everybody's looking for spirituality. I've been in Europe and there's no lack of people running after spirituality in Eastern and Western Europe. But spirituality is one thing, the kingdom of heaven is another. Spirituality is what the world is running after, hoping to find this something. They know there's something and they're looking for it. The kingdom of heaven is true spirituality because Jesus is the true spirit and he can come into our heart. And so to know Jesus and experience this sphere of spiritual experience is rich and rewarding. We can discover the treasures for ourselves.

Now I want to talk a little bit about parables for a minute. Why did Jesus use parables? What are they? Well, they're a form of teaching. They're employed by prophets, by people in the Old Testament as well as people in the New Testament, and specifically Jesus. It was always enjoyed by everybody because everybody likes stories. Young people like stories and old people like stories. In fact, there is a genre of preaching now that has gone almost exclusively to storytelling and not to didactic teaching, not to homily, not to exegetical preaching.

Some have gone to storytelling to the exclusion of every other type of teaching. Jesus did both. He did all types of teaching, but he leaned heavily on parable for many reasons. I call it Jesus art. He was the master storyteller of all times. It was characteristic of his method of teaching. Mark 4:34: "He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything." He spoke the word to them as much as they could understand.

In other words, I can define a parable as an earthly story with a heavenly meaning, which is still one of the best definitions I've ever heard. An earthly or earthy story with a heavenly meaning, and a true Jesus parable always has a heavenly meaning that's drawn from the earthly story. But I still think it's Jesus art. Stories stick and he knew it. And perhaps later the heavy or heavenly meaning would get through to people that had listened to the story. Perhaps. Maybe they'd take it home and say, "Do you know what I heard the teacher, the preacher Jesus say today?" and tell the family around the table at night.

And maybe as the story was told, they'd start and say, "What do you think he meant? What do you think he meant?" and it would spark interest. He spoke the word to them as much as they could understand. He wanted them to dig for it like treasure in a field. He wanted them to be earnest. He didn't want to just lay out the treasures of God so people could trample over them or listen if they wanted to. He wanted them to work a little bit at it. And so he used parables, hidden treasures for those who are intent on finding the real meaning of life and a foundation for that life.

When you think about it, Jesus' most memorable things or stories are known by people today that haven't even read the Bible. The prodigal son. If you go downtown and just stop people on the steps and say, "Could you tell me a parable that Jesus Christ told?" probably they'd come up with the prodigal son. Probably they've never read it. But somewhere, somehow they've heard of the prodigal son. What about the Good Samaritan? Yes, that clicks, doesn't it? Somehow, even if they've never been to church. And what about the lost sheep? So some of Jesus' most memorable teaching comes from parable.

So parables are earthly stories with a heavenly meaning. Secondly, parables walked the streets of life and that's why they were so effective. They walked the streets of Jesus' life and the lives of the hearers that he talked to. The life of his day poured through golden gateways into the city of his soul, there to be changed by a divine alchemy into matchless parable, says a book I've been reading, wonderful book, written at the beginning of the century on the parables of Jesus.

The life of his day poured through golden gateways into the city of his soul, there to be changed by a divine alchemy into matchless parable. And when you think about it, that's true. The life that he lived and that his hearers lived. Think of the parables. They talk about the poor homes of his land, baker's bread, women patching clothes, barns bursting with harvest, the unseemly scrambling for the best seats in the feasts of the mighty. Stories that had walked the streets of his life.

And you know sermons, homilies, rhetoric, argument may fail. But parables are like a window. And this is another incredible quote from this man, Buttrick: "There can be no logic to prove the spiritual. There can be only the prophet's opening of a window in the hope that clay-shuttered eyes may find it a magic casement looking out upon the mountains of God." The parables as spoken by Jesus were such a window.

Let me say that again, so rich. "There can be no logic to prove the spiritual." Those of you that have tried arguing with people say it's true. Emotions are not impacted by facts. Some people feel so deeply about religion you can come out with the facts and there's no impact because emotions are not usually impacted by facts, by logic. "There can be no logic to prove the spiritual. There can be only the prophet's opening of a window in the hope that clay-shuttered eyes may find it a magic casement looking out upon the mountains of God."

The parables as spoken by Jesus were such a window. It was a word picture and in a very tiny little way, that is one of the tools I use most in my teaching of the Bible. I love to use word pictures that people can remember and people do. The opening of a window. And actually, I have been doing a fascinating thing with these parables of Jesus, the parables of the kingdom. I've been looking at every one and realizing that I haven't found one yet that probably was not an incident that people actually had been involved in.

Like the one we're going to look at today, the house built on the rock or the sand. Remember, Jesus was a builder. Was he talking about something that everybody knew about in Nazareth? These two wonderful houses that Jesus and his brothers had built from the carpenter shop for people. And one had insisted on putting it on the solid rock and if you've been to Israel, you know the whole land is one big chunk of rock. Or somebody that had said, "No, I want my house down in Galilee on the sand. I want to be on the ocean and that's where I want you to build it. Yes, I know what you say about the foundation, Jesus, but that's where I want my house." And then had in fact the storm come and the house on the rock stood firm and the one on Galilee collapsed in a miserable heap, probably.

So parables have walked the streets of life and take a lesson from that. All the teachable moments about God and Jesus and the kingdom of heaven can come through stories. Stories read, stories told. Yes, they can. Jesus' heart is seen in the parables. The heart of the Father for the prodigal son. The heart of the Shepherd finding his lost sheep. The heart of the Good Samaritan for the one in the ditch. Buttrick again, "To know the teaching of Jesus is to know the heart of the teacher."

To know the teaching of Jesus is to know the heart of the teacher. Jesus, his Father, they're in so many of the parables of the kingdom of God. Well, of course, he's the King of the kingdom. So Jesus intended people to hear the story, sticks, they begin to dig into it because they have learned that Jesus' parables, earthly stories, always have a heavenly point. They began to get it. "Oh, he's going to tell another story. Now, what's the point here?"

And when you come to the parable, you always need to look for those two things: what's the story, what does it say, and what's the point, and then apply it to your life. What Jesus knew and taught, he lived. Jesus knew the heaven of a perfectly obedient and loving life. Jesus knew the heaven of a perfectly obedient and loving life. And through his earthly stories with a heavenly meaning, he shows us how we can know such a heavenly life too. The heaven of a perfectly obedient and loving life. Can you experience heaven down here on earth? Yes, when you're lovingly obedient to the King of the kingdom.

So let's look at this parable in Matthew 7 and see what we can learn. Why use parables? Jesus art shows us that we can use the same thing, shows us Jesus' heart as well. Very familiar parable in chapter 7 starting at 24: "Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against the house, yet it did not fall because it has its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain came down and the streams rose and the winds blew, beat against that house and it fell with a great crash." Another translation has "in total ruin." "When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching because he taught as one who had authority and not as the teachers of the law."

Now, when you come up to a parable in your reading of the Bible, look around it and find out what occasioned the teachable moment. Find out what was happening. Peek around the corner of the verse, see who's standing in the shadows. Where did they come from? Why did Jesus suddenly use that moment to give a parable? Well, the context of this is very interesting. The context is the Sermon on the Mount. This is not just haphazardly thrown in as he walks along the road and sees a building that doesn't look in very good shape. He has been sitting on the most gorgeous piece of real estate in the world on the mount side looking over Galilee and he has been giving the Sermon on the Mount. It starts in chapter 5 and it finishes at the end of chapter 7.

He has been talking about the most incredible things. He's been talking about humility, seeking after God with all your heart. He's been talking about integrity. He's been talking about bravery when you're persecuted, jump up and down for joy. He's been talking about worry, telling people they are not to worry. He's been talking about treasure in heaven. He's been talking about spirituality, true spirituality, prayer. He's been talking about fasting. He's been talking about judging others. He's been talking about murder. He's been talking about divorce. He's been talking about oaths and curses. He's been talking about what the law says about an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. He's been talking about loving your enemies and giving to the needy.

And at the end of all of that, he gives a parable. The end of all of that. So the context is the Sermon on the Mount. And when he says those that hear my words, which words? Those words, chapter 5 to chapter 7. It had been straightforward commands. It had been straightforward instruction. If you're angry with your brother, it's as bad as killing him. Nobody could miss the point of anything he had been saying. So the context of this particular parable was thousands of people sitting on the hillside listening to the very famous Sermon on the Mount. That's the context.

And at the end of it, he says not everyone of you who calls me "Lord, Lord" is going to get into the kingdom of heaven. That's the context of this, just look before it for a few verses. He's been talking about you'll know a tree by its fruit. Many will say to me on that day, the judgment day, "Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?" Then I will tell them plainly, "I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers." Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like, etc. etc.

And so here we have Jesus, the context of his teaching is this and his parable: profession without performance, lip without life, no living it out, just taking it in. That's the context of this particular parable. He's teaching about the kingdom of heaven. He's saying spiritual talk doesn't guarantee you a place in it. Not everyone who says to me "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father in heaven.

His will is revealed in his word. He's just been telling them what to do. What to do when you worry, what to do when you want to get divorced, what to do when you want to stay married, what to do when you curse somebody out, what to do when this happens, what to do when that happens. That's my will revealed in my word. And if you want to claim that you know the King of the kingdom, then you'll do what you hear. You'll do what you hear.

So knowing Jesus isn't just knowing these stories. Knowing Jesus isn't just knowing about him. Knowing Jesus is meeting him in such a dynamic experience that you're never the same again. He walks into your heart and life and you know him in reality, in personal reality. Years and years ago, a very famous film came out called *The Hiding Place*. It featured Corrie ten Boom. And all across America, people went into an ordinary theater in order to see the story of this little wonderful lady who had been the ringleader, actually, of a smuggling ring that spirited Jews away that were being targeted for the camps, the concentration camps.

And one of her inner circle ratted on them and Corrie and her sister Betsie, her father, and her nephew were all arrested and taken off to Ravensbruck and to three different camps where all but the nephew and Corrie died. And then due to a mistake, her name was omitted off the list one fateful day when everybody else that she had endured unbelievable things with were marched off to the gas chambers. And she was released. She was released. And she came back to Haarlem. And I have stood in her home as I wrote a little book for children about her and went to research it there in the clock shop which still exists.

She went back into her home straight from the concentration camp, straight over to the telephone, lifted it up and said, "I'm home. Put me back to work." That was Corrie. Everybody heard about her story, everybody was amazed. How could anybody be so brave? How could anybody love Jesus so much? And then one day years and years ago when we'd just come to Elmbrook, we had some contact with the Billy Graham team who had made that film. And I said, "Do you think she would ever come to our church? Do you think we could ever get her? We could show the film all over Milwaukee and then maybe she could come." And they said, "Yes, she could come."

And so I said, "Now where shall we host her?" and they said, "Well, she likes to stay in homes." And I said, "Would she stay with us?" and they said, "Yes." And so we got ready to receive Corrie ten Boom. I want to tell you something, I will never, ever forget our children who were then probably 12, 10, and 8, sitting around the table, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I think we had her for about a week. And we got to know Corrie. And there was a time I remember one of the children running down opening the door and saying, "Oh Miss ten Boom, we are so honored, I'm so thrilled that you've come to stay with us."

And we met her. We'd heard about her, we'd watched the film, we knew the facts, we'd read everything that had been written about her. But suddenly one day we met her. She walked into our lives and we have never been the same as a family. It was like having Jesus for breakfast. It was absolutely incredible. That woman lived so close to Christ. You just, she would be talking to us all around the table and the kids would be hanging on every word as we would be. And suddenly she'd say, "Don't you think so, Jesus?" and we'd all sort of look.

The Lord was as there for her as we were there. And she slipped in and out of conversation to him and us, just like that. It was an incredible experience. And there was a very different experience for us after we'd met her until we continued having this relationship with her until the Lord took her to heaven. And you know something, that's what it's like with Christ. You can hear all about him. You can see films about him, see the Jesus film, see something at Easter, you can read the stories, you can know all the facts. But until he walks into your home, don't say you know him.

Until he invades your life, then you might have all the language. "Lord, Lord, haven't we prophesied in your name? Haven't we taught Sunday school? Haven't we sung in the choir?" And he'll say, "Depart from me, I never knew you," you see. "I've been knocking on the door of your life but you never opened it and let me in." And so Jesus says that's what's got to happen. Then he tells this wonderful story. Why should we believe Jesus? Why should we believe Jesus over other people? Now again, I'm thinking of 7,000 kids that come from every point of the compass in Europe.

Why should we believe Jesus rather than another philosophy or religion? Well, Jesus said, "I'm the ultimate authority." When Jesus had finished saying this, the crowds were amazed at his teaching because he taught as one who had authority. Why? Because he is. He is the ultimate, absolute. He is the authority of heaven and earth. He is God. That's why God came down. He is absolute law. Therefore, it's obviously absolutely necessary to obey and hear and do. If Jesus was God, argument finished. Argument finished.

What he said about life is right because he's God. And if he said, "Don't just listen, do it," then we better obey it. Translate the truth heard, the truth pondered into truth lived. Now only obedience can establish a man or a nation and without it, life crashes into ruin. Only obedience to him, to Jesus Christ, can establish a man or nation and without it, life crashes into ruin. And as I heard about the fall of communism over and over again from people who had been born into communism, raised in communism, taught to be communists, it was an absolutely incredible thing.

The foundation of their life was communism. And then one day the storm came and they found it to be sinking sand and they had nothing under their feet. The whole collapse, the incredible collapse. And I think we've forgotten how incredible the collapse of communism has been in our generation. As soon as that collapsed, those people had absolutely nowhere to put their feet. And it's when the storm comes, you see. It's when the rain beats. It's when the floods sweep you away that you find out what sort of foundation you've got under your feet.

Now the wise person says, "What's the basis of my life?" You don't usually see the foundation of a house, but you know what sort it is when the storm comes. I met an incredible lady in Bulgaria this last year. She's a doctor. She was in charge of a hospital in Bulgaria under communism. She was a communist. Her father was one of the chief members in the government. Her whole family were communist. She married one of the leaders of the communist party in Bulgaria and she was given charge of one of the biggest sanatoriums as they call it, hospitals, in Bulgaria and she ran it wonderfully.

She got married as I said and they had a little boy. He was four years of age and one day the little boy got sick and they rushed the little boy into her hospital. And she went to the little room and the doctor looking after the little boy said, "We're losing him. We can't save him." And the lady, according to her testimony that I sat and listened to, walked out of the hospital along the street where there was a Catholic church with the door always open. She walked into the church, got down on her knees and said, "Okay, I don't believe you're there. I have been taught to believe you do not exist. But if you do, save my child."

She got up from her knees, walked out of the church, walked back to the hospital, and her little boy ran down the steps into her arms. She took his hand, turned around, went back to the Catholic church and she knelt down and said, "I don't know who you are, but would you please send somebody to help us?" And in the corner of that church was an old lady, part of the underground Bible study that was there in that city. And she tentatively walked up to this young doctor who was very well known, very quite well known in the whole of the country, and she said, "Would you like to meet some friends who believe?"

And she said, "Yes, I would." And so they took her and they began to nurture her. Whereupon, of course, it all came out and the communists said, "Well, next Thursday we're going to come and take your children away from you." And that little group of people began to pray. And day after day after day after day for two years they prayed and the communists never did come to take the children, which was incredible because that's what they did if anybody ever did anything like becoming a Christian. She said this: she said, "The whole of the foundation of my life collapsed in ruins when the storm came. It was built on sand. Communism, sand, sinking sand. And now I have my feet on the rock. I have a firm foundation."

It's incredible. She's a wise woman building her house on the rock. And of course, now communism has gone, she has become very well known and still practices and has a voice for God in Bulgaria. Pray for her. Pray for her family. Her husband came to Christ, incidentally. You know it's amazing when you get your feet on Christ the solid rock, because the storms will do you in. I was thinking of a famous hymn and then I couldn't remember how it started, but we found it. It's called "The Solid Rock." I'm sure you know it, it's an old hymn.

"My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. When darkness veils his lovely face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil. His oath, his covenant, his blood support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand."

And so the wise man has the foundation of Christ. In fact, one of the apostles said, "We have no other foundation than that has been laid and that is Jesus Christ." He's the foundation that we need to build our lives to. And you need to put the frame up, the structure. What is the frame? Well, we have a lovely house. We renovated it. I say we renovated it. Stuart says she knocked it down and put it up again. Little difference of opinion. However, he's right. I didn't intend to knock it down to the foundations, but as we began to take off the roof to put another story on this little 1850 schoolhouse that we live in, we found that the walls built in 1850 were sort of waving along the foundation.

And the builder said to me, "It's not code." Well, it certainly wasn't code. I could see that. And so down it came and came and came until all we had left in the middle of a Wisconsin winter was an 1850 bird's-eye maple schoolroom floor. And I spent two very harrowing months trying to get the people to keep it covered and never did succeed. It just got soaked and snowed on and everything etc. etc. etc. However, it is perfect, didn't ruin it. We came down to the foundation. We needed to do that. And then we built according to code.

And seeing the builder that was building my house had a job in Chicago, I became the general contractor. And I learned how to build a house. And I got sick to death of code. "No, we can't do that, it's not code." Chapter so and so, verse so and so, says this. That's code. You have to have so many little outlets on that wall and this wall and you can't build your stairs that wide because it's not code. They have to be this wide and they have to be this deep. And we had to build according to code. That was the frame that went up.

Now this is the code. You have to build on the foundation of Jesus according to code. And if you do, that means doing what he said. Then your house will be very, very firm and it will stand any storm, any flood. If you don't build according to code on a good foundation, then of course you're in big trouble. I think about the foolish men. I mean foolish people build their lives on foundation. Everybody has a foundation, everybody has a philosophy, everybody believes something. I've never met anybody that builds on nothing. Maybe they build on love or a relationship or a wife or a husband. Might build on a person, marriage, family.

I know a lot of people that build on the foundation of a person or family. But what does the hymn say? "I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus' name." If you lose your identity, if you build only on a person, on a marriage, on a family, what happens when your husband walks out on you or dies? And what about the single person? And what about when the children leave home and get married? Who are you then? What do you build on? If we build on family, if the family is God, there will come a point where we'll find that sinking sand.

But if God is the God of the family, if he's the foundation and the family is built on God, then when the storm comes, the family will stand firm. I saw that in absolute reality in our experience as a family when something happened to one of our children and the family closed ranks and everybody had their feet on rock. On God. God was the God of our family, the family was not God. If the family had been God, then when the family broke, we would have broken. But everybody had their feet where they should be, on the foundation.

And everybody was saying, "Well, what's the code? What does he say about this? We want to find out what he says about it, then we want to do what he says. We want to respond to people as we should. We want to conduct ourselves as he says you should when this happens or that happens." You know, there is nothing left out. I tell you, when you're building a house, down to the nails and the hammer and the littlest tiniest thing, somewhere there'll be a code, somewhere there'll be a chapter and a verse. It doesn't matter what it is. And it's so in this, in his words.

If you spent your life doing nothing else but get a Bible with all the words of Jesus in red, you know they have those, and do nothing else this year — this is a challenge — but study the words of Jesus and do them, then you'll be in good stead. One of my favorite books is *Children's Letters to God*. I often quote from it. "Dear God, I would like to know why all the things you said are in red." Must be puzzling for a child. But if you want to know well how, where do I start? Start there. Just read the red. That's what he said. And then just think well how do I do the red? How do I do the red?

And then look at your life. Are you worrying? He said don't, then don't worry. You say how do I do that? You don't worry. You quit. I've often talked about going round and round Jericho. That was what helped me because I was going round and round something I was worrying about. You know you wake up and you go round and round this huge Jericho that's in your life. And as I was reading the word, I applied it to my life. God said one round Jericho. I mean I couldn't stop. I was exhausted at night because I'd been tramping round and round and round and round my Jericho.

And God said you can do it once. Once a day, Jill. You can worry yourself around this problem once a day. And then you go back to camp and you get on with life because everybody back in camp was being ignored. I was obsessed with Jericho. And so very practically, I did what the word said, or I started to try and do what the word said. And when I'd start and go round Jericho again, God'd say, "You've been around that once. Have to wait till tomorrow." I couldn't wait till tomorrow. I'd wake up thinking "Yay, now I've got my chance" and I'd tramp around and then when I got right round it, God'd say, "Okay, that's it for today." All right. Once round Jericho, a principle drawn out of a story.

But Jesus said it in Matthew: Do not worry. Now if you call him Lord, do what he says. And however you find the ability to do that. If, however, you are a foolish man, you won't do what he says. You might be able to quote scripture, but you won't be able to do it. Let me give you one practical story. How can I start and make this practical? Well, use the Bible and it calls itself — Jesus' words — the law. Use the Bible like a mirror. James 1 says, "Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves, do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like" — there's a simile — "a man who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that brings freedom and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has learned or heard but doing it, he will be blessed in what he does." His life will stand when the storm comes.

My daughter and her baby went down to the Bonaire which is off South America. I thought it was nearer. So I said to Judy, "Oh, bring the baby and it's not that far." It's off the end of Venezuela and her husband came. They were going to stay on and have holiday afterwards, but I tell you it was an awful journey. We get there and the baby is fit to be tied and so the next day I say, "Well, I'll look after the baby and you go for a run with Greg." And so they go off and the only way I could keep him from jittering, I always call it, was putting him with his back against me and you know how you put your hand under his legs so he's got his back against you in front of a mirror.

And he could see this other baby. And then he'd stop crying. But as soon as I moved away from the mirror... so by the time they came back from this long run... "Where have you been?" I was ready. And Judy said, "Well, what's he been doing?" and I said, "Well, as long as I kept him in front of the mirror and he could see himself, he was fine." She said, "Oh mother, he didn't know it was him." Now she's a psychologist. I said, "How do you know he didn't know it was him? You people are so clever."

She said, "No mother, they don't know it's them at that age. They know it's them at this age," or something or other, you see. So I said, "Well, who did he think it was?" I have great doubts about all this stuff. Of course, he knew it was him. Well, "No mother, no mother, he just thought it was another baby." And you know, I thought about that. You and I are very like that baby. We look in the perfect law of liberty which is like a mirror and we say, "Oh, there's another baby. That's not me. That's not me."

You have to be a little bit mature before you say, "Oh, oh, that's me. That's me." And then you go away and you do what it said. You do not forget what you have seen. And you continue to look and say, "This is like a mirror. Show me me." And then be big enough, mature enough, to do something about the reflection that you see looking back at you in the word of God. And when you do that, you will experience life in the kingdom. You will discover its treasures and its riches and life will never be the same again. Pray with me if you will.

Dear Lord, thank you very much for Jesus, for his art of telling stories, earthly stories with heavenly meanings and heavy meanings too. Help us not just to listen to the stories or the wonderful teaching that he gave, but to put it into practice and so build on the foundation of our relationship with Jesus a firm frame so that when the storms come, when the difficult things happen in life, we will not have built our life on anything other than God himself. Lord, you say it's a wise man, it's a wise woman that does this.

You say in Proverbs, "The wise woman builds her house, the foolish one tears it down with her own hands." Foolish one builds on sand, the foolish one never figures out what the core values of her life should be. Don't let us be foolish, let us be wise. And Lord, let us start by looking into the perfect law of liberty and seeing that we need to know Jesus personally, not just about him, and we need to make him King of his kingdom. So help us to go away and do what you say for Christ's sake, Amen.