Scripture that I'll be preaching from is Psalm 127. The words are in your bulletin. I think they're from the English Standard Version. I will be reading from the New King James Version, which should be very close. Psalm 127, a song of ascents. of Solomon. Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows. For so he gives his beloved sleep. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is his reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with their enemies in the gate. This is the living and abiding word of God. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God abides forever. Will you pray with me? Father, we do thank you that you've spoken to us in your word. Lord, may we hear it today gladly, and would you help us by the Holy Spirit as we all pray together for your blessing on the preaching and the hearing of the word of God, how thankful we are for your Holy Spirit, who is the interpreter of the Bible. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. As you heard, this is a song of ascents and it means to go up. It's also called a pilgrim song. It was sung by the Jewish pilgrims as they made their way up to the Temple Mount and to worship and to celebrate the Feast of Israel. And it's said to be written by Solomon, which is the only one we know of in the Psalms written by him. Others have it as written for Solomon, perhaps David wrote it, some think, to encourage his son in the task of building the temple. But Solomon had a house to build, the temple. He had a city to guard, Jerusalem. And he had a family to build, to raise up a seed for the Lord. And for all these things, Solomon would need to depend on God, to look to him alone for guidance. But of course, this psalm was not written for Solomon only. It's written for all of us. And to encourage and challenge us to build our lives on God, really to have our lives built by God, unless the Lord builds the house. than they labor in vain who build it. So God must build even though we are involved in building. And so the first two verses I want to use as a somewhat lengthy introduction. And then the final three verses, there'll be three points of application for building a family on God. But there are general principles here in these first two verses that apply to anything that we do in life. And so whatever it is that you are trying to do as a Christian, if God is not working in it, then what we're doing is in vain. And so we're reminded when we hear that word vain of Solomon's writing in Ecclesiastes, I'm preaching now through that book. And vanity of vanities, the world is full of vanity. Everything that is done apart from God is vain. It's empty, it's worthless. It can mean devastation, ruin, waste. And that's exactly what the New Testament teaches, that the works that we do that are not done in Christ and for God's glory and by his help, they are burned up in the end. They are worthless. They are given over to ruin and waste. So God calls us to examine our lives. And to look and to ask ourselves, are we building our lives on the rock upon Christ, upon his teachings? Are we seeking to do all things as unto him? Are we, another way to put it is, can I discern the work of God in my life? Do I see that God is actually building my life, building my house, my family, my church? Jesus once said in the Gospel of John, he said, it is the spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing. And that can be a difficult verse to interpret, but clearly the flesh by itself cannot accomplish the will of God. We need His Spirit. We need the Spirit of God. And so it's not so much what we do for Christ, and we do actually serve Christ, we do things for Him. We do things for the Lord. But it's what the Lord is doing for us, in us, and through us. So if your life, your work, your family, your church is not being built by God, then whatever we try to do won't last. and it won't amount to anything. Philippians 2.13 reminds us that it's God who is at work in you to will and to do according to his good pleasure. So that reminds us that we need to trust in God, not in ourselves. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding. Don't lean on the flesh. Lean on God. Lean hard on him in prayer. And verse 2 says, it's vain to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, because he gives his beloved sleep. How well did you sleep last night? I planned to get up at 6 a.m. this morning. I woke up at 4.30 and couldn't get back to sleep. So it wasn't the perfect night's sleep, but it was a blessed sleep. And the Lord gives sleep to us. It's vain to burn the candle at both ends and not rest in the Lord, and not have his peace, and not have his contentment. And so God calls us to work hard, but not to be workaholics. He calls us to work diligently, but not anxiously. And we often think, if we had more money, a little more margin there, I could get a part-time job, get some more money in the bank, then I could rest easy. Not if God's not in it. If God's not directing your life, that's not the way to God's peace. We all can identify with worrying and not sleeping at night, worrying about how to pay the bills, worrying about a wayward child, worrying about an exam that's coming up, and all kinds of things that we can be anxious about. But think about Jesus when he was in the boat with his disciples and a great storm arose, but he slept right through it. God gives us his grace to sleep right through the trials that he brings into our lives by his providence. And so he taught us not to worry about food, about clothes, about anything else, certainly not tomorrow. We don't need to be more anxious and give more anxious toil. We need more of the secret work of God. giving us peace, giving us that contentment that Scott was speaking about from the 10th commandment. This psalm also mentions another area of life that's one we tend to worry about these days, and young people especially are very much concerned about safety, about safety. And verse two says, unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. And we certainly witnessed that recently a few weeks ago with the nation of Israel. Israel has a very heavily fortified border. And they have the most extensive and well-funded intelligence service in the whole Middle East. And that fence has cameras all around it, ground motion sensors, regular army patrols, and yet the Hamas terrorists. And they even have agents that have penetrated these terrorist groups. And yet, they didn't know it was coming and the attack and they bulldoze their way through, they cut holes in the wire and just floated in on their paragliders and like no one was home, like no one was guarding the city. And so how did these safeguards fail? The Israeli officials are still trying to answer that question. The ultimate answer is written in our texts, unless the Lord guards the city. then the watchman stays awake in vain. Well, the takeaway from these first two verses is that whatever we undertake to do, whether it's guard a city or build a family or build a church or build our career, that unless we seek the Lord's strength, unless we rely on his grace, unless we humble ourselves before him and seek his wisdom and guidance and protection, then all that we do will be in vain. And that's especially true when you're seeking to raise a family, to raise your children. I've often told people that raising children was the most difficult thing I've ever had to do. but it's also the most blessed and joyful thing that I've had to do, been privileged to do. So the thing is, if God doesn't build your marriage, you would be better off unmarried. If God doesn't build your family, you'd be better off with no children. If God doesn't build your life as founded upon Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, it would be better for you if you had never been born. And so if you're here today and if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have not personally and savingly trusted in Him and Him alone as your Savior and Lord, today is a day of salvation for you. Today, turn from sin and say yes to Jesus Christ, receive Him. You will not regret it. You will not ever be disappointed if you have put your trust in the Lord. So those who know Christ need to remember. We need to remember that our calling is to live for God's glory, to be involved in building his church. The church is his household. Christ is the head of the church. He's the head of the household. And yet we are called God's fellow workers. So how does God build his house? How does he build his church? Well, he builds it not with bricks and mortar and so on, but with people. He builds his church with families. And as I came into understanding of the Reformed faith, I saw the unity of the covenant of grace, and that God always, throughout both Testaments, has always worked in and through families. The family is so foundational, and you've all heard the saying, as goes the family, so goes the church. One of the Puritans, Richard Baxter, said, a holy, well-governed family is the preparative to a holy and well-governed church. Oconee Presbyterian is going to be a blessed church when the families of this church are holy and well-governed. So the question I want to ask and try to answer this morning is, how do we build a family, a home for God, so that it is God himself who is doing the building? Three principles to gain, to glean from these last three verses of the psalm that will help us, help to ensure that our homes are being built by the Lord, even as we labor for him. The first thing we need to be convinced of is that our children are a blessed gift of God. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward. So there it is, children are a gift from God. And so just the physical conception and bringing a child, giving birth to a child is, of course, part of that process. And those are the things that we think about. But bringing a unique human being into the world is not merely biological process. It's the Lord alone who opens and closes the womb. All throughout the Bible we hear those kinds of statements that the Lord closed her womb or the Lord opened her womb and certainly he works through the ordinary means of physical conception. but he's ultimately in control of the outcome. I like what John Calvin said, that the meaning then is that children are not the fruit of chance, but that God, as it seems good to him, distributes to every man his share of them. So we need to remember, at all times, that children are gifts of God, and they're unknown from Him. We are merely stewards of the children that He gives us. Now, children are not always seen as gifts of God, and every age has looked at children in an unbelieving way, as a hindrance, To a fulfilled life, children are viewed as being in the way. And so if they're in the way, we can throw them away. And that's what we see in the culture today, neglect, abuse, abortion. According to the book of Genesis, we are to be fruitful and to multiply. But the odd thing is, is that today, birth rates are plummeting in places around the world, in our own country, even in places like China. But a lot of people today, young people especially, are very anxious about having children. One of the reasons that I've been reading about is this issue of climate anxiety. People are taking vows, young people, to save the planet by not having children. And according to some, that's the number one trending reason for declining birth rates and fertility. Anxiety actually inhibits fertility. But as Christians, we're not to be driven by fear. Do not be anxious about anything. Fear not. How many times do we read that in the Bible? And many young people, of course, are afraid they won't be able to afford to raise their children. They look at their bank account, and they say, we can have maybe one. And that's it, because often they're being selfish, and they're thinking simply about their own lives, and they're not trusting God. Well, we can all relate. It's not easy to trust God at times. And then there's the recently published notion by the New York Times that the maternal instinct is a myth created by man. That's all, you know, patriarchy. But in Marxist terms, don't ask me to explain this, but, and I quote, that motherhood is an oppressive ideological narrative that supports structural patriarchy. And so why would you have a child if you're being, you're an oppressed group? You would rebel against that. But even in the church, we don't always have the right view of children. And we do sometimes find ourselves If we have children in the home complaining about them, that they're a burden, well, they are a burden sometimes. But they're still a gift from the Lord. And so the Bible says foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. So we've got to balance that fact out with the fact that they are God's blessed gift and inheritance. Children who are raised in the fear and admonition of the Lord will ultimately prove to be a blessing from God. Those covenant promises are made and we never know when God will will fulfill those promises in the lives of our children. But we never give up trusting God to bring these things about that he has promised. They are a gift of God. They require a lot of work and prayer. Many children, someone said, makes many prayers. And we need to pray. Pray for your children. Pray for the adult children who have moved on and moved out of the house. Pray for your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren. and pray hard, pray earnestly, because the enemy, the devil, the Bible says, roams around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And we certainly know that the world that's out there, the secular world, they want your children, they want our children, but God wants them more. And we need to counteract that and to remember that by God's grace, these tender plants that God has given us, if nourished properly, will grow up and bear fruit to the Lord. And that leads to the second principle taught in this psalm about our children, that children are mighty weapons to be used for God. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. Arrows are made from different materials today, but traditionally they're made of wood. And there are some sticks and branches that are fairly straight, but you still have to sand them. You have to form them and shape them and straighten them out into a smooth, straight arrow that will be accurate and useful to an archer. And so children, by nature, they're sinful and they're crooked. They need to be straightened out. They need to be smoothed out by God's grace and by the instruction of the Word. We need to train them to discipline with the Word and depend upon the God of the Word. Someone has said that our children are what we make them. They're represented as arrows in the hands of a mighty man, and arrows go the way that we aim them. So the arrows need to be molded, but they also need to be directed and shot, as it were. But again, unless the Lord makes them what he wants them to be, unless the Lord does the work alongside our work, in fact, his is the great work, then our labor will be in vain. But arrows are for use by a warrior, therefore war. And in this world, we are at war. There are a lot of physical wars. Going on, but the spiritual war is the main one that we think of between light and darkness, good and evil, between God and Satan. And so godly parents who raise godly children inflict great casualties on the kingdom of darkness. Well, only God, again, can make them straight and shoot them straight, but After children have grown up, it is much more difficult, right? It's sometimes too late to bend them, but God can bend them still through our prayers. And so the best time to mow them is when they're very young. And what an exciting thing to train Teddy. You're already seeing the fruit in your other children, Scott, but Teddy's will come in time and it's a blessed thing. But we're at war. It's a serious thing. Train a child in the way he should go. When he is old, he will not turn from it. So train them while they're young. willing to do that if we actually are disciplined. Parents have to be disciplined to train and to discipline their children. Sometimes undisciplined children are really the fruit of undisciplined parents, and I know that well from my own experience. But Psalm 8 and verse 2 says, from the lips of children and infants, you have ordained praise or strength, as some translations have it, because of your enemies to silence the foe and the avenger. So when our children are taught about Christ, they are strengthened in their faith, they are taught to praise Him. That's one thing that we should do in our homes. We should praise God, sing His praises, and teach our children to give thanks and praise to the Lord. And so are you, if you are a parent and you have children in the home, are you teaching them? Are you training them with the Word of God? I want to encourage fathers, but also mothers, at this time to think about what your responsibilities are. First of all, to study the scriptures for yourselves. To be the chief Bible scholar in your home. Try to read the Bible every day. And if you haven't ever done so, read the Bible through. I won't say you have to do it every single year, but it would be great if you did. And then secondly, I would urge you to begin a study of the shorter catechism. My wife and I have just started reading through the catechism again. It's always amazing how helpful that is. And then thirdly, establish a daily time of family worship in the home where God is praised and where prayers go up. Well, our children are under spiritual attack. Jesus loves the little children, but Satan hates them and the world wants them. So we can't sit back, we can't be passive and we need to be active because their children are meant to be arrows, they're meant to be weapons. And so this is the view of children that we need to see them as God does, as blessed gifts of his, and also even as weapons in his hand, in our hands as well. So now, lastly, from this psalm, we need to know that children raised for God will not lead to shame. And verse five says, happy is the man whose quiver is full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with their enemies in the gate. Some couples, of course, in God's providence are not able to have children. We understand that. Some are called to singleness. We do understand that as well. But our text implies that having a family, having children is the norm, and that's what we should seek after. And that having children, and even many children, brings great blessing to our lives. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. I won't go into the quibbles about quivers and how many is in a quiver. And it certainly doesn't mean that everyone should have a large family. God's providence is unique. It's not a cookie cutter situation. Or if you have more children, that you must be more spiritual, not necessarily. And so it just means that children being a gift of God, the more he gives you, the more blessed you will be if you give them back to him. It's ultimately up to the Lord to determine the number of children that we have, and certainly we can be involved in the planning and spacing of our family and having children, but just don't buy into the world's way of thinking that looks at a large family as a great burden, or even worse, yeah, you're ruining the planet, or something like that. Realize that God says you're blessed if you have any children, even more blessed if you have many. But if you have children and they are raised from the Lord, established on his word, offered to him in prayer, then you will not be shamed. The reverse of that is true as well, and the Bible tells us that they will bring shame to us if not raised for him. Proverbs says a child left to himself brings shame to his mother, and a foolish son is the grief of his mother. The father of a fool has no joy. A foolish son is a grief to his father and bitterness to her who bore him. And so, of course, all children, no matter how well we raise them, how much we pray for them, will bring some grief to us. And they never turn out perfect. Parents aren't perfect. But though we can't expect perfection, God calls us to be faithful to our calling as parents and to look to God to mold them and shape them for his honor. And verse five says, godly parents will not be ashamed, but will speak with their enemies in the gates. In the ancient cities, the gate was the place of business transactions, of cases that were conducted and tried. And godly sons were a great help and defense as they grew up to help their parents. And the old Baptist preacher Spurgeon said, nobody cares to meddle with a man who can gather a brave clan of sons about him. And of course, the verse has spiritual application for us. In Genesis 22, we read the account of Abraham. Abraham had the son of promise. He waited long for this son to come. And when Isaac was born, God says, now I want you to take him. After a time, he says, I want you to take him and to offer him to me as a sacrifice. And Abraham demonstrated his devotion to the Lord. And he took him up on the mount and he would have sacrificed him, but the angel of the Lord stayed his hand. And then God responded to Abraham by pronouncing a blessing on him. Listen to this in Genesis 22. God said, by myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and if not withheld your son, your only son. You see, God wants us to offer our sons and daughters to him. Not literally, as God told Abraham to do, but spiritually. In blessing, I will bless you. In multiplying, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven, as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seat all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. So God wants to use our descendants to possess the gates of the enemy. The gates are the places in academia, in the workplace, and in our communities. We think of how the media and academia and how entertainment, it's all been, it seems, co-opted by the enemy. We need children to be raised up who will take back the gates in our culture. And so if, like Abraham, we offer the children God gives us to the Lord and obey his voice, then our descendants will indeed possess the gates of their enemies. They will stand firm on the word of God. They will proclaim it to their generation. They will defend that truth and pass on the faith to their children and even their children's children. This is the long-term view that we all need to have, that God's covenant would extend forth to all generations until he comes. Remember this, unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. So is God building your house? Is he building you? Is he building your family? Is he building your marriage? Is he building your church? Hebrews 3, 4 says, for every house is built by someone. Who's the builder of your house? Every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. The only real builder of anything that lasts is God. If God's not building our lives and homes, we are wasting our lives and losing our rewards. But if we labor in the Lord, and especially to build our own lives and our homes, then the church will be built, and then it won't be in vain. And I'll close with 1 Corinthians 15, 58. It says, therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain because God, you see, is working, working in you and through you. Let's pray. I thank you, Heavenly Father, for this portion of your holy, inspired, and errant word. And I do pray, Lord, for the families here today, especially those with children, with young children in the home. We pray you'll give much grace to mothers and fathers as it is a busy time, as it's very demanding. And I pray that you'll give them, Lord, the ability to take time to spend alone with you in prayer, to take time to have family worship in the midst of a busy, busy schedule. And Lord, as these children grow up, we will give you the praise and the honor and glory as they become arrows in the hands of mighty warriors. In Jesus' name, amen.