Parable of Build Your House on The Rock & Be A Light

This post has been updated and includes a new House on The Rock pocket puzzle!

There are new Parable posters, updated visuals and more!

Today our lesson is a parable. Remember, a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. We can find today's parable about building your house on a rock in Matthew 7:24-28 and Luke 6:46-49. We can read about being a light in Matthew 5:14-15.
 

Jesus was teaching in the desert. Jesus told this parable because the people could see the differences in where they would build their houses. It is so much easier to build on top of the sand instead of digging down to the rock below the sand. Jesus compared that to people. It is easier to listen to what Jesus tells them than to actually do what He says.

Jesus began by telling the people that whoever hears and does these things that He is telling them is like a wise man that builds his house on a rock.

When the rains came and floods built up, and the winds blew and beat on that house, the storms didn't make the house fall down, because it was built on a good rock foundation.

But the people that hear the words that Jesus tell them and doesn’t do them is like the foolish man. The foolish man built his house on the sand.

When the rain came and the floods built up, the winds blew and beat on his house, the storms made the house on the sand fall down. Matthew 7:27 “And great was its fall.” 

Make sure that Jesus is your rock foundation by studying the Bible and following His words. It takes work to be a Christian, just like it takes work to dig below the sand to find the rock. But it is worth the effort! Jesus is the Rock as we read in Psalm 62:2.

 

Jesus also told the people that "You are the light of the world."

Jesus told a parable of being a light. First, Jesus said that if a city is built on the top of a hill, it can't be hidden. It is up where everyone can see it.

And when the people light a lamp, they don't hide it under a basket! You light a lamp to have light, so you put it on a lampstand so everyone in the house can use the light.

Read today’s Bible verse again. And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching!

    

This is a visual that I use for the lesson for hiding a light under a bushel. I purchased the light (on the left) first on eBay, then searched for a basket that I liked that would fit over the light. You can make a lamp like the one on the right yourself. You can see the directions here.

  Click here to download the updated visuals.

This includes the completed teacher's visual. There are two ways to use this house puzzle. You can print the rock on it's own paper and students can lay or glue the house on top of the rock to put the puzzle pieces together. Or, there are easy instructions to create a pocket using the rock. The house puzzle can be cut out and stored in the rock pocket when it's not being used. This can be left on a table for early arrivers to work on, too.

 I cut everything out and put it together so the students could just go right to work putting the puzzle together. Just a note, I put the pieces and the small reference card in a 3x4 plastic bag. I have these for other projects and these fit inside the pocket perfectly! I did this so the students wouldn't rip the pocket trying to get all the pieces out in class. Obviously, this is optional.

 

Click here to download.  

Here are worksheets that can be used as discussion starters. I divided them in case you are not teaching both parts of the lesson. Students can write or draw things that Jesus wants us to do or how to act as Christians. You can print them here.

Here is the song I sang as a kid and my grandkids love it too! There are different versions, but this is this is the one I use. I have included the hand motions also, which can be cut off if you don't want them on your paper. You can print it here. You can also sing This Little Light of Mine song found here.

Click here to print the worksheet. 

Click here to download the Parable posters and lesson.

Click here to print this lapbook.

 This post was featured at My Teacher's Name is Mama.

And, thanks to Sarah Ann at Faith Along the Way

for featuring this post!