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Introduction:
How important is family to you? What are you willing to do to make
your family stable and functional? Are you willing to work long
hours to provide materially for your family? Are you willing to
rise up early and stay up late to accomplish all the goals and
activities in which your family is involved? Are you willing to
eat the bread of painful labors to give your children a better
life? Are you willing to pursue education, material goods, comfort
and recreation for your family? Will you read books? …watch
videos? …visit counselors? How important is a stable and
functional family to you?
Is having a stable and functional family important enough
to you to let God build your house? Psalm
127:1-2 cuts directly to the heart of the matter. Unless
the Lord builds the house, For He gives to His beloved even in his
sleep.
All of the things we are willing to do to stabilize and
functionalize our families are no more than wheel-spinning, unless
we are willing to allow God to come into our homes, building them
and guarding them His way. Are we willing to allow that?
We are beginning our five week, focus on our
families. Our
inspiration is the above psalm. We want to have families that are
built by the Lord. In parallel to Jesus’ illustration in Matthew
7:24-27, we want to have homes built on the solid
foundation of God that can withstand the storms we will face.
Throughout this month, we are going to learn what God says about
marriage, family, roles, goals, stewardship, relationships and
many other aspects of a God built home. Please, get one of the
books that corresponds with this series for your family and read
it along with your family. Make sure to attend each of our
services over the next six Sundays to hear 12 lessons that will
help God build your family. Also, we encourage you to join one of
the small groups we have established to coincide with this study.
If you are our guest, you are welcome to participate in one of
these groups. Please, see me and I can help you become a part of a
group that will help you and your family.
As we begin our in depth look at how the Lord will build
our homes, we will look more closely at Psalm
127. Because of vss.
3-5, we have almost exclusively seen this psalm as one on
the family. However, when we examine this psalm in its historical
context, we gain insight from a different angle that provides a
great illustration. This psalm is attributed to Solomon. With that
in mind, we cannot help but think of the great house about which
Solomon was most concerned to build—the Temple, the House of
Jehovah God. Further, as king, I can’t help but think that
Solomon had a particular city in mind as he wrote this
psalm—Jerusalem, the capital city of Israel and the home of the
House of God. To add to this picture, note that this psalm is one
of the Songs of Ascent. The Ascent Psalms were sung by the Jews as
they made their annual treks to Jerusalem to worship God during
the annual feasts. They sang this psalm as they ascended the
mountains up to Jerusalem. They sang it as they prepared to
worship in the House of God in the City of God. First and foremost
then, this psalm had a national meaning to the Israelites. This
psalm contained the message that was central to all of Israel’s
history. So long as the Jews allowed God to be the fundamental
basis for everything they did, God’s House and God’s City were
protected. However, if they would not allow God to build the House
and protect the City, but turned to false gods, no gods, then the
House and the City would be destroyed. This psalm was first and
foremost about the House of God, the City of God, the Nation of
God. Yet, that nation was itself a family. Further, just as God
would deal with the Nation, its capital and its center of worship,
so does God deal with the individual family. With this historical
context in mind, we will examine the God-built and God-guarded
House and City, learning some all-important parallels regarding
how we can have God-built and God-guarded homes today. Discussion: I.
Invite God to be a part of your home building and
acknowledge His hand in it. A.
When David had the initial idea to build a temple, he
called Nathan, God’s prophet, and sought his advice (I
Chronicles 17). As it turned out, God did not want David
to build the house; He wanted Solomon, David’s son, to build it.
God did, however, allow David to prepare for the temple. In I
Chronicles 29:2, David said he had prepared with all his
ability. However, read his prayer in I
Chronicles 29:10-19. David asked God to complete the work
and acknowledged God’s hand in all his preparations. B.
Then Solomon carried out the work of the temple with which
David, by God’s order, had charged him. In II
Chronicles 6:10, Solomon also acknowledged God’s
fulfillment of His promise. Further, his prayer of dedication in II
Chronicles 6:14-42 asked God to make all their work
worthwhile. Solomon, like his father, invited God to be a part
their work. In II
Chronicles 7:1, 12-16, God demonstrated that He accepted
the invitation. C.
I know this may sound odd, but the most powerful being in
the universe will not force His way into your home. Matthew
7:7-11, describes God as our kind and loving Father. He
wants to give us good gifts. He wants to build our homes up to be
stable and functional. But He will not do so unbidden. How many
families have yet to receive the blessing of a well-built and
well-protected home because they have yet to consistently invite
God to be a part of their home? D.
Further, the second aspect of this prayer is acknowledging
God’s work. As Proverbs
3:6 says, if we acknowledge God in all our ways, he will
make our paths straight. Remember Ephesians
3:20-21. We ask God to exercise his power but must
remember that He will do far more abundantly beyond all we ask or
thing by the power working in us. All too often, if we do not see
some kind of miracle, we act as though God had no hand in the
work. David and Solomon both worked hard, but recognized and
acknowledged God’s mercy, grace and benevolence in building the
house of God. E.
If we want God built homes, we must ask God to build and
protect and we must acknowledge His hand in all our ways. II.
Follow God’s pattern.
A.
I don’t know how many times I have read I
Chronicles and missed I
Chronicles 28:19. When Moses built the tabernacle in Exodus, we read of a pattern established by God. In fact, Exodus
25-31 and Exodus 35-39 are mostly redundant, as Exodus first reveals the pattern and then shows the Israelites step
by step following the pattern. There is no such extensive passage
about the temple. I have often wondered if Solomon was simply
allowed to build it however he wanted. Then I read through I
Chronicles 28 again and learned the answer. In vss.
11-18, David gave a pattern to Solomon for the temple.
Then, in vs.
19, David said, “All this the Lord made me understand in
writing by His hand upon me, all the details of the pattern.” B.
The temple, like the tabernacle, had been designed by God.
Solomon was not given the freedom to build the temple however he
desired. If the Lord was going to build and guard this house,
Solomon had to build it to God’s specifications. There were
perhaps parts that Solomon did not like. I can only imagine what a
king thought of building a room he was never allowed to enter,
especially if it was the room in which God was going to speak to
his people through the High Priest. Yet, Solomon was to follow
God’s pattern whether he liked it or not. C.
That is the case with our homes. If we want God to build
and protect them, we must follow His pattern. As God describes the
role of the family in the world and the role of each individual
family member within the family, we must follow His pattern. We
must not turn to pop-psychology or modern culture. Rather, we must
turn God’s word. D.
I trust you see in these first two points the bedrock
foundation of a God-built and God-protected family. To drive it
home to a practical level—our families must be praying and Bible
applying families. Without connection to God through prayer and
the application of His word to our families, we labor in vain. III.
Have a mind to work and put your hand to the work. A.
As we learn about the House which God built, we must not
push Psalm
127:2 farther than God intended it to go. The verse
teaches that without God in the picture our work is in vain. It
further teaches that God can provide blessing to the faithful
servant, even while the servant sleeps. However, this verse was
not intended to be the guide for our work ethic. Neither David nor
Solomon believed they simply had to study the Law and pray and
then they could sit back waiting for God to construct His house.
Again we read I
Chronicles 29:2. David prepared for the temple according
to all his ability. Further, II
Chronicles 2-4 describes the work Solomon put into the
temple. They recognized that God had to be involved, but God would
work through them. They had to work. B.
Take this a step further and take a look at Nehemiah, as he
led Israel to rebuild the city of God that had been destroyed
because the people strayed from having God protect the House and
City. In Nehemiah
2:8, 18 Nehemiah recognized every step of his success had
to do with the good hand of the Lord being with him. Yet notice
what the people had to do. Nehemiah
2:18, “Then they said, ‘Let us arise and build.’ So
they put their hands to the good work.” Then Nehemiah
4:6, “So we built the wall and the whole wall was joint
together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.”
This was done in the midst of turmoil and opposition. God blessed
the people as they worked. C.
The same is true today. Do not think you can pray, read
your Bible and then wait for God to accomplish it all without your
real involvement. If you want your home to be God-built and
God-protected, you have to have a mind to work. You have to put
your hand to the good work. Always basing that work on God’s
pattern, acknowledging his involvement. God will accomplish more
than you can ask or think by the power in you (Ephesians
3:20-21). However, He will only work through you to the
extent that you are willing to work. Therefore, you may well eat
the bread of painful labors. You may burn the candle at both ends.
At this point, having the laid the foundation of prayer and Bible
application the work is worthwhile. IV.
Don’t be distracted by the mundane and procrastinate the
spiritual work. A.
In about 537 BC, the Jews taken captive by Assyria and
Babylon were released by Cyrus of Medo-Persia to return to their
homeland and rebuild the House of the Lord. According to Ezra
3, the Israelites rebuilt the altar their first year back
home. In the second year, they began work on the temple itself,
laying its foundation with a great shout of praise (Ezra
3:8-10). However, Ezra
4:4-5 demonstrates that the people did not complete the
temple right away. They were hindered by their enemies. For nearly
16 years, the bare foundation of the would-be temple lay in
Jerusalem. God had sent the Israelites home to rebuild His House
and His City, but they did not have a mind to work nor did they
put their hands to the work. B.
What had happened? Certainly, the enemies initially
distracted God’s people from the work. But that was a small
issue compared to the Jews own complacency. In time, the people
apparently became accustomed to an incomplete temple. Haggai
1:1-8 shows what happened. While the temple’s foundation
lay bare, the Israelites had built their own homes, sown their own
fields and continued on with their own lives. As they were busy in
their day to day, they procrastinated the work of the Lord’s
house. “Now is not the time for that work,” they kept telling
themselves. In fact, it became a vicious cycle. Because they
procrastinated the Lord’s work, the Lord was angered with them
and caused their material work to fail, causing them to spend more
time in the mundane, causing them to put off the Lord’s house,
causing God to be angry with them and bring their work to naught,
etc. C.
How often do we become consumed with worldly
pursuits—secular education, careers, recreation and
entertainment and keep procrastinating the Lord’s work in our
families? Like the Jews, we always mean to get to the spiritual
work of the Lord in our homes, but now is just not the time for
that. We have other issues to deal with. Sadly, once that pattern
starts, it produces a downward spiral. We keep thinking extra time
to do the spiritual will come up and it never does. We must simply
stop and devote ourselves to the Lord’s work in our homes, only
then will we accomplish His work and only then will the Lord build
and protect our homes. As Colossians
3:2 says, “Set your mind on the things above, not on the
things that are on the earth.” V.
Never stop serving the Lord. A.
Our final lesson comes from Israel’s repeated failure. We
can hardly turn a page in our Old Testament without reading that
Israel quit serving the Lord. In a matter of weeks from their
deliverance from Egypt, the people had made a golden calf as an
idol and praised it as the god who had delivered them (Exodus
32:4). This was the story of their nation. They would be
oppressed, cry out to God humbling themselves before Him, He would
deliver them, they would turn back to idolatry, God would punish
them by oppressing them with another nation. As God had promised
early on, this eventually led to their removal from the Promised
Land. At the same time, God did the unthinkable. He abandoned the
House and City He had built and protected. Nebuchadnezzar took
Judah captive, tore down the walls of the City of God and
destroyed the House of the Lord. Then, God allowed His City and
His House to lie in ruins for nearly 70 years. B.
Why? Read Daniel’s prayer of confession toward the end of
the Jewish captivity to see (Daniel
9:4-19). “…we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted
wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments
and ordinances…we have not listened to your servants the
prophets…open shame belongs to us, O Lord…because we have
sinned against You…nor have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our
God, to walk in His teachings…indeed all Israel has transgressed
Your law and turned aside…Therefore the Lord has kept the
calamity in store and brought it on us.” C.
Why did God abandon the House and City He had built and
protected? Because His people abandoned Him. If we wish God to
stay with us and our family, we must not bank on a few good years
of service, we must persevere in His kingdom doing all the things
we have talked about all our lives. Never stop serving the
Lord—no matter what Satan hurls our way, no matter what life
holds in store, no matter what death filled valleys we walk
through, cling to the Shepherd, trust in Him and serve Him. He
will bring us through in the end. Conclusion: In Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus told the story of two houses. One was built on the foundation of what He taught and one was not. The first withstood the storms, the second collapsed in the face of them. I hope you understand that having a God-built, God-protected home does not mean avoiding the storms. But it does mean being given the strength and protection to carry you through the storms. These days we are willing to do so much for our families to make them stable and functional. The question is, are we willing to let God build them?
Glory
to God in the church by Christ Jesus
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