. If you have your bibles we want you to turn with the song 128 song 128 were will be, landing this morning at least for a few moments , very thankful I mean, if you're gonna have an emergency, this is as good a place as any to have it. We can see the fire station just right over there. Even had an off-duty policeman here with us. I mean, we were in good shape. And we're thankful that all is well. Well, this morning, as we look into God's Word here in Psalm 128, this is a passage of Scripture, a psalm that really affected me. It should affect us every time we open God's Word and we read it. But as a young person, and I say a young person, probably 20 or so years ago, I look back and I couldn't remember when the last time I preached this passage. And so I went back and I've got everything cataloged in my computer there. And it was about, it was in 2005. And that was a while back. You know, it doesn't seem like, 2005 doesn't sound like that long ago. And then you do the math. you know I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm not and I remember spending a great deal of time meditating on someone 27 and someone 28 are both related to the family and how would a razor chi I'm bringing about just a great deal of joy, but also a great deal of conviction in my heart related to how I'm to raise my children and raise my family. And at that time, being 27, let's see, well, yeah, it's pretty easy to figure out. Being 28 years old, you know, at that point in time, as a young man and a young father, I remember reading this and just saying to myself, whoa, man, this is just such a beautiful picture this paints, of just this home. and I mean what a beautiful home I mean there I mean daddy's And there my children are just being raised around the table there and just in fruitfulness and excitement, you know, they're just receiving the Word of God like young olive shoots, you know, and they're just growing up, you know, full of wisdom and the Spirit. But it's been 20 years since then. And as we might say, there's a lot of water under the bridge, amen? And also, there are no perfect families, are there? Amen? There are no perfect families because of sin's presence in this world. But yet, as I come back to this passage, and certainly I've come back to it many times since then, but as I come back to it now, 20 years later, it's not as if the truths have changed. Because what we find is we find that we live in a world that is cursed. We live in a world that is tainted by sin. We live in a world that is sinful and is pressing us, tempting us toward sin. And there is a reason for that. And that curse affects even the home. Even the institution of marriage, which God created and He instituted for the rearing, for the teaching, for the perpetuation of the faith, God created the family for that purpose. And yet, that purpose is often thwarted because of the world we live in and because of our own sinfulness. In Genesis 3, verses 16 through 19, we read about the results of sin. When God spoke to the woman and He said to her, I will intensify your labor pains, you will bear children with painful effort. Your desire will be for your husband, yet he will rule over you. And He said to the man, Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, do not eat from it. The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. you will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground since you were taken from it for you are dust and you will return to dust." There's not a lot of hope there, is there? But when we come to Psalm 129, we read a psalm that was written on behalf of and to the people of God. It was written on behalf of, and it was written as a, really a psalm of wisdom, and it was written to be sung as God's people went to worship. It was a psalm of ascents. And as God's people, those who have been redeemed out of Egypt at this time, because these are Old Testament Jews who would've been reading this and singing this. They were God's people who had been redeemed out of Egypt. They had made a covenant with God there at Sinai. They had been given God's law and now they were to live and they were to order their lives in a way that was totally different than the sinful world around them. And what we read here in Psalm 128, we read What, I want to say this the right way, we read here in Psalm 128 what it would look like to reorder our lives according to the plan and the intentions of God. And what we get a glimpse of, just for a moment, just at a distance, we get a glimpse when we look at living our lives in the fear of the Lord, living our lives according to the word of God, we get a glimpse of what God created these things to be. And as New Testament believers, those who've been reconciled to God in Jesus Christ, through Jesus Christ, we are to live in such a way that the world sees God's glory in our marriages and families, even in our children, as they're raised to the glory of God. So I'm going to ask you if you would, if you'd stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word. And let's look here at Psalm 128. It's only six verses, and we're going to walk through it this morning. Psalm 128, beginning there in verse 1. How happy is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways! You will surely eat what your hands have worked for. You will be happy, and it will go well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house, your children like young olive trees around your table. In this very way, the man who fears the Lord will be blessed. May the Lord bless you from Zion so that you will see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life and you will see your children's children. Pray with me. you're only father we pray you be glorified through the reading of your word but also to the preaching of it were afraid you got my words This morning, we want to reflect for a few moments on what the blessed home or the blessed family, as it says here in the CSB, how happy, how happy is everyone who fears the Lord. And obviously here, it's looking at how happy we would be in that institution which is closest to us, that institution which was created by God with intention. And we're talking about the institution of the family. And so the blessed home or the blessed family today, number one, has Christ at its center. I want you to look back there with me in verse one. How happy is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways. We want to talk about a blessed home. We want to talk about a home that enjoys the blessing of God Well, it begins with the fear of God. It begins with the focus or the surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ He is Lord not just in heaven remember But also here on this earth and he is Lord whether or not you worship him or bow to him But one day you will But those who know Him have already bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have already professed faith in His name. We have repented of sin. We have turned to Christ. We know Him to be the Son of God. Now, for these Old Testament Hebrews, alright, that this psalm was written to, those who originally sung this psalm, those who sang this psalm there in the Old Testament times, They would have understood what it meant to fear the Lord. This is something that we've lost sight of in our day. Many of us have. But to fear the Lord is just simply to come to Him with the reverential awe. You hear that? The reverential awe that He is due. Is God God? Well, of course He is. How could He not be? Is He the Creator? Is He the Sustainer? Do all things come from Him? Were all things created for Him and to Him? Is He deserving of all glory, honor, and praise? Amen, and amen, and amen, and if you know those things, if those things have been revealed to you, if you've seen those things in the Word of God, and faith has been implanted within your heart, if you've called on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, believing He is the Lamb of God, sent from God to this earth to live in such a way that God will be glorified perfectly through Him in His perfect moral life, that he might then die for our sins according to the eternal plan of God and Jesus Christ died at Calvary for our sins they buried him and he was raised from the dead he appeared to his disciples and then he ascended up into heaven and before he went he said all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth if you believe those things to be true, and you believe what God's Word says there Romans chapter 10, that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Do you believe that? Amen, amen, and amen. Well, if you believe it, then you ought to reverence the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you ought to approach Him with the reverence and the awe that is due him. And in every area of your life, you are to live understanding that you have been redeemed. Remember Israel? They were redeemed. They were brought out of Egypt. They were set free from their bondage, remember? They were set free so that they might be a holy nation set apart unto God. Well, we also have been redeemed, amen? We've been redeemed. We've been set free from slavery to sin and death. We've been brought into a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. And now we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. This is our reasonable service. This is what we're to be about. and so for the Israelite who would sing this on their way to Jerusalem when they're going up to worship and sing this song when they would say blessed is the man or are happy is the one who fears the lord and walks in his ways they would understand that the fear the lord and walk in his ways those things are intertwined Because if you know Him and you believe Him to be who He says He is, and as an Israelite, when you recited, Hero Israel, the Lord your God is one, you would understand that what comes next is only right and proper, that you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Because He's worthy of all those things. You see, the blessed home, the home that is blessed by God and glorifies God, has Christ at its center. At the very center. Family life is not something that we just go and do and then we sprinkle a little Jesus on it. No. Christ is at the center and everything else revolves around that relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. What does that look like? We're bringing this into a New Testament context. What does this look like? According to the Word of God, what should this look like? What does it look like to have Christ at the center of the home? Well, you say, well, Brother Paul, it means a lot of things, and it does. It means that we're surrendered to Christ in all that we do. But for my children to understand and to know that Christ is at the center of our home that all that we're about revolves around this relationship that we have with Jesus Christ, that we've been called out of the world and we've been called into Christ. We've been born again. There's some things that are sort of non-negotiables. We will honor the Lord with those things which are most precious to us, because we want to honor Him with everything. Now, what are the things that are most precious to us? Children. Oh, you're right. Children are certainly most precious to us. They are the most precious gift that God gives to us in an earthly sense. Our wives, our spouse, our children, certainly those are gifts from God, those relationships. But there is something that we all have to some degree. There are certain things that we all have. And if you want to see where someone's devotion is, you will look at these three things. The first one is our time. We've all got the same amount, believe it or not. There are some of us who don't think we have any time. There's 24 hours in a day. You've got the same amount of time as your neighbor. And you choose how you allocate that time. You say, oh, Brother Paul, I don't get to choose how I allocate my time. Well, you choose how you allocate your time under the fear of the Lord and with respect to the fact that God is sovereign and providentially He puts things in your path. There are things it seems as if oftentimes we don't have any time. Well, we've all got time. We've all got another thing that we don't like talking about. We've all got money, resources. Oh, you say, Brother Paul, you got us in here on Mother's Day to preach on tithing. No, not really. So we have time, we have money, and we have energy, okay, or vitality. You look at how you spend and what you give those three things to, you will see who is Lord in your life. You'll see. What do you give your time to? What do you give your money to? And what do you give your energy to? Now, I don't have to tell you today, I don't have to tell you, but I'm going to, I don't have to tell you today what it would look like for a Christian, what a Christian home ought to look like, because God's already told us in His Word. Because in reality, when we talk about time, I mean, God set apart one day out of seven. You say, Brother Paul, that's an Old Testament, that's an Old Testament law. It is an Old Testament law, and we don't live under the law anymore. But my goodness, if God told them in the Old Testament they ought to set aside one day as a Sabbath unto the Lord and it was part of creation, well, it seems like that's a principle that we ought to put into play in our own lives, don't you think? The Lord's day, we set one day apart and we set it apart unto the Lord. Now, some of y'all don't like that, and I get it, but you're here today, so I'm, hey, God bless you, all right? You're starting out good on this Sunday, you're here. to worship the Lord and honor him and come under his word. Thank God for that. Let's go to money. We don't want to spend too much. We don't want to get to meddling about time. So we'll turn our attention to money. You say, well, Brother Paul, we... I don't have much money. Well, join the club. Nobody thinks they have much money. But by virtue of the fact that you got here somehow today, you got a little bit. Okay? And how do you use it? How do you hold it? Do you hold it tightly? Or do you hold it with an open hand, understanding it belongs to the Lord? In the Old Testament, there's a concept of the tithe, 10%. Now, I want you to understand that under the law, they gave a whole lot more than 10%. If you go back and you read about all those laws in the Old Testament, they gave closer to 25% to the Lord. You say, well, thank God, Brother Paul, we're not under that law. Amen, amen, and amen. I'm with you 100%. We're not under that law anymore. But you know what? If they were willing to do that when they were under the law, how much more for those of us who are under grace? Because in reality, we're just to live our lives, understand it all belongs to him. We're not to live with a closed hand. We're to live giving in a disciplined way, just as we ought to set aside time to be with the Lord in a disciplined way. We ought to give in a disciplined way to the Lord's work. I'm not here today to tell you that it's a wall that you give 10% of your earnings to lord was a pretty good principle issue for live with a live under and some are several colors absolutely no way I can do that there's no way you can do it the way things are right now I agree with you 100% we live in a country so distracted and oftentimes the church is so distracted that it did the first time some of you have looked at god's words when you do this week is when you open it up today and thank god that you're here and you're opening it up today, but we do better. Should we do better That's the encouragement of this passage of Scripture. If you want the blessings of the Lord, if you want to glorify the Lord, if you want your life to be ordered in such a way that others would see Christ in and through your home and your marriage and your family, well, that's a mighty good place to start. You see, the blessed home has Christ at its center, but also it is productive and thankful. You say, Brother Paul, you're going to run out of time. You're right. Okay, we're going to move quicker. Look in verse 2 there with me. We read there, you'll surely eat what your hands have worked for, you will be happy and it will go well for you. Now this is certainly pointed toward the man, toward the husband. And the idea here, remember what, you remember sin thwarted the work of the man, you remember that? The ground was cursed because of that sin which entered into the world. His work was cursed. And we see in the nation of Israel that when they came into Canaan, you'll remember that God made certain promises to them. He made promises to them based upon their obedience to Him, whether or not they feared the Lord and worshipped Him alone. And we can read there in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, we can read about the blessing of God related to the obedience of His people, and we can read about the judgment of God that would come upon His people when they were disobedient. And much of that had to do with whether or not invaders would come in and take the fruits of their labors. Much of that had to do with whether or not the rain was going to fall at the right time. Much of it had to do with whether the locusts were going to show up. And they didn't have anything to spray on them back then. And if the locusts showed up, it would all be gone. Because those things, disease would come in, plagues and famines and all those things. And that which they had worked for, they would not get to reap the benefits of all of their work. And what do we read here? We read that the man blessed by God, the man who puts his trust in God and fears God and walks in His ways, well, he's going to get to eat the fruit of his labor. He's not going to be taken by an invading army. He's not going to become the spoils of war. but God's gonna care for them, and he's gonna help them. He's gonna be productive, but also he's gonna be thankful. He's gonna be content. It says, you'll eat what your hands have worked for, and you will be happy, and it will go well for you. You'll be happy. How? Because you're thankful for that which God has provided. If you fear the Lord, if you walk in his ways, what is contentment? Contentment is just simply being thankful for what you have. That's what contentment is. And the apostle Paul told Timothy, godliness with contentment is great gain. There's nobody in this room that has as much as they want, but there's also no one in this room who can't be thankful for what they have. You see, the blessed home has Christ as its center. It's productive and thankful, and it is peaceful and inviting. Look there with me in verse 3. We read there, your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house, your children like young olive trees around your table. Now, 20 years ago when I was looking at that, I'm just thinking about having babies. We're in the middle of that. We'd had one. We're hoping to have another, or maybe another. You know, we didn't know how many the Lord would send us, but we were hoping to have some. And that's where, you know, my mind was then, but as I began to study this this week and go back and read me some commentary, some different things, some of you got this in the King James, if you've got the King James version in front of you, you read this and it talks about the wife being like a vine on the side or beside the house, okay? This idea of a fruitful vine, it's not just simply about having children, it's more than that. It's a vine that adorns the wall. It makes the home a pleasant place, but it's also fruitful. And so the home is a place where there is peace. The home is a place that is warm and inviting, and yes, is filled with fruitfulness. Now, why a vine? Why would a vine be used here? The wife's not like a tree that grows up. The wife is like a fruitful vine. A vine requires attention. A vine requires pruning. When we moved into our home here in Ruston seven years ago, I remember moving into that house and there was all the ... Again, I bought it from family. It's a family member who sold it to me. They talked about all these beautiful muscadine vines, wild muscadine vines. They were growing all over the trees next to the house. There's all these vines everywhere, just vines everywhere. We were there for about a year and I saw all these vines and I knew they were muscadine vines, but guess what I didn't ever see? I didn't see any muscadine. You just let them grow and you see how many you get. Just let them go wild and see what you'll get. You'll get nothing. That's what you'll get. And the ones that are on the vine are going to be up, so they're not going to do you any good anyway. The only thing that's going to get them is squirrels and possums and things like that. You've got to bring them under control. You say, I'm not telling you men to go control your wives. That's not what I'm telling you. But I am saying this, that the wife is to submit to the husband, and the husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church, as we read there. That the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. I'm not making those things up. It's right there in God's Word. And there's to be this relationship that's lived out. If the man is fearing the Lord, if he's seeking the Lord, then he has to be running his house in such a way. He has to be there leading in the home in such a way that his wife is able to be fruitful. That she doesn't have to take over. Remember, that's the curse. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you. Now, what does that mean? It doesn't mean that your wife will think you're good looking. That's not what it means. But what it means instead is the wife's desire will be for the husband's headship. And then he will rule over her. There's an idea of division there in the home, but when you both fear the Lord... When you've both been redeemed and come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, you've been reconciled to Him, well then guess what? That relationship is redeemed as well, husband and wife. They're redeemed, and because that marriage is redeemed, then you can love one another as God intended in the beginning. And the wife is there in the home, making the home an inviting place, a place where peace reigns there within the home. And it's a blessed place. I tell Christina all the time, I said, sweetie, if I didn't have you, there wouldn't be a picture on the wall. There'd be a path to walk through from one part of the house to another. OK. I'm afraid that my kids would stay in their rooms all the time, even more than they do now, because I'm the no parent. I don't think they need to do anything, but just listen to me. And so, not just today, but every day, they better thank God for their mother. Why? Because He created us different. He created us different, but yet for His glory. When we submit to Him, then we're able also to submit to one another in love and glorify the Lord. And God is glorified through our humility, our love that's shared in that relationship where the two become one and do that which God has created them to do. And so the blessed home has Christ at its center. It's productive and thankful. It's peaceful and inviting. And then what's going to be lastly for us, passes down a godly legacy. I want you to look there at the end of verse 3 and end of verse 4. Your wife will be a fruitful vine within your house. Your children like young olive trees around your table. In this way the man who fears the Lord will be blessed. You see these last two points are really intertwined anyway. and we're about to put the period on this sermon, passes down a godly legacy that causes, that allows us in the midst of this world that is so bad to still look forward with hope. I've said this enough from the pulpit that people don't tell me this very often any longer, and maybe it's because my children are older. But I remember, and some of you have heard this, when you were having kids, people who were older would tell you that, I don't know how you can bring a child into this world. You ever said that? You ever thought that? You ever been told that? I've been told that. And thank God that early on, the Lord reminded me of her They don't have to serve the Lord when they get out of my house. But they gotta do it as long as they live there, whether they want to or not. You say, Brother Paul, you mean you make them come to church? Absolutely. I also make them go to school. Why? Because it's good for them. It won't hurt them a bit. And they need it. And so did I. You know, I hear, well, my kids don't, I didn't want to go to church for the first 23 years of my life because I did not know the one that the church was there for. I was an outsider within the church. Why? Because I didn't know Jesus. when I surrender my life to Jesus Christ for the last 25 years of my life I can't be with God's people enough now what's the difference Jesus is the difference who he is and what he's called us to do what he's done for me and for you When He's at the center, everything else will work according to His will. And when those difficult times come, and they will, amen? They will. When they come, then we can trust that even these horrible things that we go through, He is working together with all things for our good and for His glory. Amen? Amen. We come to a time of invitation this morning, and we'll have a few verses of a hymn of invitation. And this morning, it's a little different sermon than what you're used to hearing, a little more practical, I hope, in a lot of ways, and timely, you know, with what's going on today. But this morning, My prayer is, if you're here today and the Lord's been working in your life to bring you to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, then even amongst the foolishness of this message preached, you may be saved. And so I'm gonna ask you, if you would, if you'd stand to your feet at this time.