Luke 6:46-49 Sermon for June 21, 2026

Good morning! Let me tell you a story that perhaps you might already know.

Back in 1776, there was a General Charles Lee. He was second-in-command of the Continental Army.

George Washington gave General Lee instructions, and the instructions were to bring his troops immediately to join the main army during the retreat across New Jersey. A rather simple command, yet, General Lee, in his arrogance and dismissiveness of Washington decided otherwise. He thought he was smarter than the Command-in-Chief.

What did he do? He ignored Washington’s orders repeatedly. He moved slowly on purpose. He stayed in a tavern instead of marching. He left his army exposed.

Well, as a consequence, General Lee was captured by the British dragoons while staying behind his own troops. He was caught in his slippers, writing a letter trashing Washington, and in direct violation of orders.

This nearly cost the Continental Army its survival. Later, he would be court-martialed for further disobedience at the Battle of Monmouth.

Of course, there are much more details to this story, but I share this story on America’s 250th birthday year, because it speaks into what we’re going to dive into this morning. And the premise of our message this morning is this: direct disobedience to the commands and words of Jesus will lead to severe consequences; albeit destruction.

Here’s the reality: not every who says “Lord, Lord,” will inherit the Kingdom of God. In fact, the amount of so-called ‘Christians’ who say they love Jesus are quite deceived because they simply don’t follow Jesus.

And make no mistake, to follow some commands of Jesus while ignoring others is to reject Jesus as Christ, Lord, Savior, and King of your life. To add or subtract or twist the words of Jesus is to reject Him. Most people in today’s churches are following a fabricated version of Jesus, which is complete foolishness for this leads one to the pits of hell. But, more on that momentarily. Let’s turn to our passage, which will actually wrap up the 6th chapter of the Gospel of Luke. Here is what the Word of the Lord says:

Luke 6:46-49

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things I say? I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. When the flood came, the river crashed against the house and couldn’t shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The river crashed against it, and immediately it collapsed. And the destruction of that house was great.”

Our first take-away is this: To call Jesus ‘Lord’ means absolutely nothing is we don’t obey Him.

Such as ‘Christian’ influencers who preach Jesus but ignore His ethics. Such as Church-goers who treat worship as optional and obedience to Jesus as a bit extreme. Such as Christians who loudly defend the Bible online but don’t even read it devotionally themselves at home. Such as people who want Jesus as Savior but not as Master. Such as Christians who treat Jesus as a brand, but not a King. Such as people who say that God knows their heart as an excuse to their disobedience. Such as Christians who love Jesus’ comfort but ignore His commands. Such as churches that say they are about Jesus but wave the rainbow flags on their buildings.

Here’s an issue today: many love the ‘Come to Me and I will give you rest’ portion of Jesus, but ignore DENY YOURSELF, TAKE UP YOUR CROSS, GO AND SIN NO MORE, FORGIVE SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN.

Many people love Christian merch and playlists, and cute little Bible verses in their social media handles but reject sacrifice, submission, discipleship, and cross-bearing. Many people want forgiveness but no repentance. Many people want to argue theology and debate doctrine but won’t pray, obey, practice holiness, or love their neighbor. Many people want to pray, obey, practice holiness and love their neighbor, but won’t take serious the ethics, theology, and doctrine of God’s Word. Many people want to attend church when convenient and see cute Christian songs, but refuse to forgive, repent, submit to Scripture, and serve. Many people want to say “God first” and quote Jesus in a virtue signal type of way but their lifestyle and content is slanderous, materialistic, pride-driven, and sexually immoral.

And, so, here Jesus is asking, “Why are you calling me Lord, and continue to not obey me?” And the reality is that this is epidemic in today’s churches. We are filling churches with luke-warm Christians who only follow Jesus when convenient. But that’s not Christianity. There’s a grave danger here. We are deceiving ourselves if we think that this is ok.

And another grave danger is when we give Jesus our self-overs. Honestly, this is mind-boggling when we think about this. We give our jobs 100%. We give our kids’ sports 100%. We give our hobbies and leisure 100%. We give our family 100%. But, when it comes to Jesus and what He says in His Word, it’s when we have time and as long as it doesn’t conflict with something we’ve got going on in life.

Come on now! The One who went to the cross for you, and we give Him what’s leftover. And this can only be attributed to a few things such as: you don’t really love Him, you might be ignorant of His teachings and you will be if you have no habit of opening the Bible daily or go to a church built solely on butts, budget, and buildings, or you’re not on a discipleship path. And, it is to that we turn to the next take-away.

True Christianity is a discipleship lifestyle that goes deep. Here’s the stark reality: The American church is not failing because people don’t attend. It’s failing because discipleship is rare, shallow, or nonexistent.

However, there’s a caveat here: at root, The American church is shrinking because so many people are falling away who were never believers to begin with. What do I mean by this? Well, for the last 30-40 years, we’ve been so obsessed with numbers and zero fruit. We’ve been so obsessed with budgets, buildings, and butts that we’ve totally ignored the simplicity and power of the Great Commission built on discipleship.

I once read a book that talked about somewhere being about 40 million Americans who have left the church since the 1990s. And As I thought deeply about this, it all made sense in that many of those people have been ‘won’ into church by anything but the biblical Jesus and that simply wasn’t enough to sustain them.

We were so obsessed with getting hands raised at Christian camps and conferences so that we could report those magnificent numbers that we’ve actually don’t a huge disservice to those folks. I remember, not too long ago, as a pastor, I had to report a monthly chart. On this chart were categories of “baptisms, members, engagements, etc.” But, no repentance, marriage restorations, discipleship metrics, etc. It felt like a game of who can get the most baptisms and if the baptism numbers were down one month, you felt guilty. And trust me, the baptism game was nuts.

I remember, not too long ago, hearing a person at a VBS say this to a group leader: we’ve only got ten minutes left, it’s the last day of Friday, so make sure you get the kids to say a prayer and ask them if they like Jesus so we can record those numbers for staff meeting. 30 kids raised their hands. The numbers were reported to staff meeting and I felt sick to my stomach at the game we were playing.

I also remember asking this individual leaders, “What’s the plan to disciple these little ones so that they can truly understand what they raised their hand for and how to follow Jesus?” The response: not important right now. You know, Bryan, that when the numbers are up in categories, the bigger budget we can have next year to do this all over again.

SO, let’s not go too far off the deep end here and let me say this: we need to be discipled and to be discipling. Without this, disaster ensures.

When we disciple someone, we are being intentional to help them follow Jesus in every area of life through teaching, example, relationship, accountability, and obedience to Scripture. When we are being discipled by someone, it’s the same to you. This takes time, intentionality, vulnerability, and is a consistent lifestyle; not just on Sunday mornings at 10am.

As we venture through the Gospel of Luke, we’ll be touching more on discipleship. Let me introduce our last take-away and it’s this:

Storms WILL come and they will reveal your foundation and if this foundation is not built on Jesus, your life will eventually collapse.

Alright, so let’s get one thing straight here from our passage: storms will come. Just because you are a believer doesn’t mean you’ll get a life of ease and comfort. In fact, it’s most likely to be quite the opposite. Please understand that.

When these storms come, they reveal the foundation of your life. They don’t create it by the way. They say that what doesn’t kill you will strengthen you and this is a very stupid teaching. If what doesn’t ‘kill’ you doesn’t bend your knee to Christ, you’ll eventually be killed.

Without Christ, pain doesn’t automatically produce growth. Pressure doesn’t automatically produce character. Suffering doesn’t automatically produce strength. And the amount of people who go through life one storm after another and still reject following Christ is crazy. Eventually, as harsh as this sounds, you need to let them find out. You point them gently to Jesus but you let them find out. A person who comes for help without wanting the ways of Christ just doesn’t work out.

There is a reason why Jesus asks, “Do you want to get well?” Most people don’t actually because getting well requires you to do things Jesus’ way. This is why socialism is not biblical in the least bit.

So, two premises under this takeaway we must firmly grasp: First, as long as you are on this side of eternity, life is going to happen. The storms will come. Crap will happen. And just when you think one season has come and gone, another will come soon. It’s just the way it is. And when these storms come, they reveal whether or not you’ve built your life on Jesus.

Second, if you have not built a life of obedience to Christ, those storms will come and your entire life will unravel before you and bring destruction. And rest assured that this is all tangible: a marriage not built on Christ and obedience to Christ will collapse. Same with your career, parenthood, friendships, and so forth. This isn’t an abstract idea.

Jesus makes this very clear: The storms come and the house doesn’t shake because it was well-built. And what is that house built well? It’s a person’s life built on obedience to the words of Christ, not merely hearing them. It’s a picture of deep, costly, deliberate discipleship that produces stability when judgment, trials, and suffering comes.

But what about when those trials come and I do shake? The prayer is that, in the mercy and patience of God, you’ll be drawn to Him while you still have time.

Because eventually, time will run out. When we take a high view of this passage, what you see here is a foundational doctrine known as the perseverance of the saints.

So, let me break this down as we close our time together, and I invite Elizabeth back up.

The perseverance of the saints means that all true believers- those genuinely regenerated by the Holy Spirit- will continue in faith, repentance, and obedience to Christ until the end of their lives, not because of their own strength, but because God Himself perseveres them by His power and grace.

And so when you understand that and connect it to this passage, you’ll understand that every true believer will not only be able to ‘weather’ the storms of this life, but will survive the ultimate storm of God’s judgment at the end of times because of God’s grace and mercy and the righteousness of Jesus. This passage isn’t about salvation by works at all. That’s important to understand when we read about Jesus referring to actually doing what He says. It’s talking about works as the evidence of saving faith that God grants you to the end.

Let us stand and worship King, Savior, Lord, and Christ Jesus.