ICYMI: Luke 6 // Foundation
If you missed Sunday's service or could use a refresher, here's a quick recap featuring a song from Sunday on Spotify, main points from the sermon, a key quotation, a guide for prayer, and our weekly Next Step Practice. Scroll to the bottom for the full sermon recording.
📖 Focal Scripture
🎯 Main Points
What kind of fruit are you bearing? In Luke 6:43–45, Jesus uses the analogy of good and bad trees bearing corresponding fruit, asking the listeners to consider what kind of fruit they are bearing. This calls for honest introspection and contemplation of one's actions, speech, and motivations. Is my speech building up or tearing down? Are my actions working toward peace or division? Is my life oriented toward abundance and justice, or are my actions motivated by fear or scarcity? Rather than eliciting guilt or shame, this exercise is necessary before taking action.
From Crisis to Action: Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Plain have likely stirred up a mix of emotions among the crowd, bringing comfort to some and challenging others. As he brings this teaching to a close, he asks those who’ve gathered to act on what they have heard and let it change how they live. Will their faith impact their relationships, politics, and priorities? Will it matter tomorrow?
A Firm Foundation Requires Practice: In Luke 6:46–49, Jesus presents a juxtaposition. On the one hand, a man who comes, hears, and acts is someone who builds a house on a firm foundation. On the other is someone without a firm foundation — someone who listens but does not act. This demonstrates the work required to build a strong spiritual foundation. Jesus emphasizes the importance of both hearing and doing. With every prayer, scripture read, act of service, and call for justice, we nurture our relationship with Jesus and build on what's come before.
You cannot automate your spiritual life. In order to be able to weather the storms that come, our faith cannot be on autopilot. We can’t be passive observers. Instead, faith requires time, consistency, and hard work in response to the grace we've been given.
Christ the Solid Rock: In a world filled with war, mass shootings, grief, and loneliness, these practices that help build a firm foundation remind us of resurrection hope in which the worst thing isn’t the last thing, empower us to provide shelter for others, and put our faith into action for justice, liberation, and mending as the hands and feet of Jesus.
🗣️ Key Quotation
“The more you repeat a behavior, the more you reinforce the identity associated with that behavior. In fact, the word identity was originally derived from the Latin words essentitas, which means being, and identidem, which means repeatedly. Your identity is literally your “repeated beingness.” — James Clear, Atomic Habits
🙏 A Guide for Prayer
Set aside time to read Luke 6:17–49 and then dig deep with these questions intended to help you create a strong foundation for action. Consider scheduling up to an hour or 10-15 minutes daily for this prayer, and journal your reflections.
Here are some questions to aid your reflection:
What’s something in my life I haven’t wanted to confront?
What does my calendar, my budget, my time, or my relationships say about my priorities?
What kind of fruit do I leave in your path — good, bad, a mix of both?
What needs to change in me as I seek to follow Jesus more faithfully?
What is one step I can take this week toward that change? Pray for God’s grace to empower you to take that step.
➡️ Next Step: Refine your media consumption.
This week's practice is to refine your media consumption, including social media. A guiding question for this practice: Who do you follow and receive news from that educates you and empowers you to more faithfully participate in God's world set right? Who do you follow and receive news from that moves you further away from love of God and neighbor?
