Let's get to this morning's message. We're back looking at the Songs of Ascent, and these are the songs that the Jewish people sang as they went on pilgrimage, and they would head to Jerusalem to worship God in the temple. And we're looking at Psalm 127, and 127 is all about the Lord building the house. So I'm calling this message, Let the Lord Build Your House. Do you want God to be involved in the building of your life? So let's look at the verses. Psalm 127 verse 1, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. And by the way, most people believe that Solomon wrote this, and you're going to see a lot of in vain or vanity. Because we all remember Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes, right? It's in vain. Vanity, vanity, vanity, all is vanity. So here, if this is Solomon talking about the Lord's house, and talking about unless the Lord builds it, the city, unless the Lord watches over it, it's being watched or in vain. And then he makes a segue into, behold, the children are a heritage from the Lord. So we're going to talk a little bit about children. Now, what's important to note here is that there is a lot of metaphors going on here. There's a metaphor for house, there's a metaphor for city, and there's a metaphor for children. These three things can be interpreted in a few different ways. Now, a metaphor is a figure of speech. It's a phrase or words that express an action that maybe not is literally seen right away. So many scholars have looked at these passages and said, well, what exactly is the house that Solomon's referring to? What about the city? What about the children? So I'm going to give you a little bit of what has been sort of discovered. Now Solomon built the temple, right? So he might be referring as the house, he might be referring to the temple. There's that possibility that the Lord has to build a temple. We'll talk about why that's maybe not the correct interpretation. Then there's the city, that could be Jerusalem. If it's the temple, then the city would be Jerusalem, and then the children would be the Israelites. That would be one way of looking at this passage. The other way is to build the house is the household. So it's speaking to a father. speaking to the head of the house and says, now, you have to allow the Lord to build your house. And then if the Lord builds the house, then the community is going to be blessed because then the Lord will watch over the community because he's watched over your house. And this is referring to biological children. Do you all know that the reason why our society is messed up is because a lot of our children are messed up? And do you know why the children are messed up? Because you're messed up. Thank you. And so this is seeking to stop that pattern of parents not following the Lord, not doing what the Lord wants, not allowing the Lord to build the house, and then it trickles down to the children, and then it gets into society. America is in the state, it is in a lot of, because the church and the parents in the church haven't really done that great of a job. So we'll talk about that. And then, of course, the house could be just the person. That's you. You are the house. And we'll see why this may be the best interpretation. In which case, building you would then affect society. And then the children of those who are born of the Spirit, who are following God, the children then become the people that we disciple. So let's look at it, the house is the person. Now why is this probably the most relevant or the best interpretation of this? Because Jesus actually taught this way. We're gonna see Jesus, and by the way, we are also referred to as the temple of the Holy Spirit, but Jesus referred to us as the house, the person's life. Remember what he says here? Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built, what? His house. He built his house upon what? Upon what? The rock, which was? Jesus, yes. What specifically does he say? The person who builds on the rock has done what? Just listened to Jesus? Just read what Jesus had to say? He has to do it. Right? These are people who are true disciples. In other words, they read in the Bible, oh, this is the way Jesus wants me to live. This is the way Jesus wants me to act. Well, that's the way I'm going to act. That's what I'm going to do. Right? Jesus taught on humility. Taught about secret giving. Well, that's the way I'm going to do it. I'm going to be secret about my giving. Jesus taught about, People that do their religious services to be seen. Well, I'm going to make sure that my religious service isn't a public show. Do you understand what I'm talking about here? You build upon what Jesus set forth in his word, and here's what's going to happen. If you do the word, it says here, the rains fell, the floods came. You all know that rain and floods do come. You all know the winds do blow. Trouble comes. It says that house, did not fall. Why? Because it was founded on the rock. What was the rock? Hearing Jesus and then following what Jesus said to do. On the other hand, those people who hear Jesus and don't do it, people who sit in church Sunday after Sunday, they hear the words of Christ but they don't do them. Well, then the rains and the winds of life come, and it says that because their house was built upon sin, when those rains, winds come, it says it falls, and great was the fall. And we'll talk about the disobedience to following Christ's example and all the ways in which our lives fall. I'm gonna get into this in a couple of different ways. You all know you're not here by accident. And I don't mean being in church, I mean being on the planet. Do you know you didn't have to be born? Anybody in here just out of curiosity, you asked to be born? Anybody in here? You persuaded God that it would be a good idea for you to be born. No. As a matter of fact, when we look at our life and everything about life, it is all part of God's architecture. I mean, Psalm 139 tells us that. It says that God sees us when we're unformed in our mother's womb, and then it says, in your book were written every one of them, that is to say, the days that were formed for me when yet there were none. It's like before I was born, there was a book on God's shelf that had my name on it, and he had my entire life written down. I'm not an accident. Now in my case, my mother didn't plan on me. I was an accident in the sense that my parents weren't even married when they had me, conceived me. Was I an accident? Are you an accident? No. It doesn't matter how you came about. God was involved. But it goes even further than that. The book of Hebrews tells us that we're to look to Jesus who is the founder and the perfecter of what? Our faith. That the only way I can really perfect my faith, the only way I can really carry out what I was designed to do is I have to look to Jesus. How often do I have to look to Jesus? Every day. As a matter of fact, if I'm not looking to Jesus right now, I'm probably not going to be able to complete this message. Do you understand this? Listen to this. This is Philippians 1.6. I'm sure of this, Paul says, that he who has what? Begun a good work in you will bring it out to its completion at the day of the Lord. Who began the work? Jesus. Who completes the work? That's why you have to look to him because he's the one who planned the work and now he's the one who has to complete the work. Ephesians 2.8, rather. We are what? His workmanship. We were what? We were created in Christ. For what? For good works. See, if you don't get this, you're barely living. If you don't know that you were created for a purpose and you've got to find that purpose and carry out that purpose, you're barely living. See, you were created by God, for God, for a purpose. And by the way, if you have any problems with predestination, things being predetermined for you, think about your life. Think about what has already been predetermined. You had no choice in your birth. You had no choice in your parents. You had no choice in your DNA. You had no choice in the location, city, or country that you were born. You had no say in your nationality. You had no say in your skin color, your race. You had no choice whether you were born male or female. You had no choice really even in your personality. Y'all get this. You will never find out who you are until you go back to God and say, God, you created me this way. Why? I have dyslexia. I can barely read up here. And if I wanted to, I could say, I can't barely read. I'm not going to be a pastor. A pastor's got to read publicly. Does God care? He says, I created you to be this. You be that. You had no choice in your physical attributes. You had no choice in whether you were smart or whether you have a learning disability. This is all laid out way before you got here. And you had no choice in your religious upbringing either. And here's the big one. You had no choice in your faith. That's where people get a little squeamish. They're going, no, no, no. I get all of that. All of that was chosen for me. But whether I believed in God, that was my choice. You think so. You ever ask the question, why did you believe? Why do you come to church? What is it? It's not your intellect, I give you that. It's not your wisdom. There's something in you that draws you. See, listen to what the Bible says. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of your own doing. Your faith was not of your own doing. What? It was a gift from God. The ability to believe. I've always believed in God from the time I can remember having thoughts. I believed. Faith is a gift. Listen to what the Apostle Paul said. This should seal the deal. Listen. When he who set me apart, when? Before I was born. When was Paul set apart to be an apostle? Before he was born. Who called me by what? Grace. Was pleased to reveal his son to me. You know what this means? If Paul doesn't get the Damascus Road, Paul doesn't become a believer. And who decided the Damascus Road? Was it Paul? Paul was going in the complete opposite direction. You understand how your life is mapped out? You understand that there's a purpose. And in fact, I would say this, the Lord is building your house whether you know He's building your house or not. But I will say this, there maybe is 5% of your life that is within your control in which you have to be obedient to God. See this verse, it says that by grace you were saved through faith. It goes on to say this, We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus, yes, for good works, but then it says this, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk into them. Let me just say this. Whether you walk into what God created you for is a lot of your decision. You may get to heaven and God says, did you go down the path I wanted you to go down? You'd be like, no. I didn't even really care about a path. We're all getting kind of quiet and some of you are getting loud and most of you are getting quiet. What is Solomon's point here? Listen, unless the Lord builds a house, you will build it with labor and vain. Unless the Lord's watching over the family, it's in vain. All of Ecclesiastes is all about the vanity of life. Life makes no sense. You live, you die, and what's the point? It's vain, he says, to rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxiety. You think your life is all about just worrying about things? I was created to worry. And I worry all the time about everything. No! So there seems to be a shift here from all of this laid out, unless God builds the house. But he's talking about children. You all know that children are a product of not only God, but also of you. But first of all, of God. Listen to what it says here. This is 127.3, not 126.3. Behold, the children are a heritage from the Lord. You all know your kids are not your own. They're on loan from heaven to you. God saddled you with some responsibility. Yes, there's a reward for your womb, but no, they're really a heritage from the Lord. Be careful. Awesome responsibility. Jesus must always be the North Star, the purpose for which you were created. And parents, you better tell your kids the reason they were created was for God. And you better also encourage them to find God's path for their life, not just the path they might want. Let me give you something really staggering. I hardly ever read magazines, and I especially don't read the Atlantic. You all heard of the Atlantic? It's not a very faith-friendly publication. Some people might say it's very progressive and leaning way left. Here was an article in here about why the kids of society are so depressed. Why are so many of our kids so depressed? Why do some of them even commit suicide? This is the Atlantic. Listen, a plausible explanation of the more pronounced happiness problem in the Western, see I told you I was dyslexic, in the wealthy Western world like the United States is, listen, is the growing secularization measured by an increase of the number of so-called nuns. What are nuns? People who profess no religious affiliation. The Atlantic is saying, we did it, we've done the research. Kids are unhappy because they're not connected to church anymore. That's the Atlantic. Listen. People who profess no religious affiliation. In the United States, the percentage of the population with no religious affiliation has nearly doubled since 2007 to 29%. Scholars have long found that religious people on average are what? Happier. And what do they attribute it to? Purpose. Life isn't just floating on this ball in hyperspace hoping, no. It goes on to put blame at just the emphasis of material success in society. Make a lot of money, get a good job, that's what it's about. Doesn't matter whether we go to church, make sure to get an education and get a good job and have a big income. Parents, if that's what you fed your kids, and you did not feed them the importance of God and faith and the church, yeah. Don't be surprised when they're not happy. Listen, because these things, when you drive down religion or spirituality, you are also driving down meaning, also flourishing. This is the Atlantic. This is where you come to find out what Jesus taught. Atlantic is quoting Jesus. The rich young ruler went away sad because he couldn't follow. Hey, when the world's rebuking us, we're in trouble. Deuteronomy, you should teach them, your children, diligently. You should teach the law to your children. You should talk with them, what? When you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise. What does it say? You're talking to your kids all the time about your faith. If you're like Johnny, come to church, but you're not talking about your faith with them in the house, don't expect them to want to go to church. Because they don't see it in mom and dad. They don't hear mom and dad always talking at the dinner table about their faith, about following God. Church to them maybe is just a place where hypocrites go. Because I see mom and dad. Train up your child in the way that it should go, and what? When he's old, he won't depart from it. But that training isn't just coming, it's you training them in the faith. Do you understand what the text is saying here? It goes on to say, if you'll do this with your children, your children will be like arrows in the hands of a warrior. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. That's a quiver. Something that holds arrows. Those are your children. You've got a lot of them. It says here, you're like a warrior. Let me shoot Johnny at this one. And by the way, the children is best understood really more as a boy rather than a girl. Now, that may upset some of you. The Hebrew word Benson means child, but it also means boy or a young one, a grandson or a grandchild. It could be interpreted both ways, but it leans more toward boys. You want a powerful weapon? Train up your young men to be godly men. When I came out of Catholicism into evangelicalism, I was bewildered by the whole thing. And this was the first church I attended. This is actually the church. It's Green Tree Church. And the pastor, of course, was married, like most evangelical pastors are. And he spoke a lot, and I got a lot out of him. But the main thing I got out of him was he had two sons who were both hot and heavy and passionate for God. And I said, you can't get that without something at home. These kids aren't produced in a vacuum. You show me a man of God who lives it out at home. His kids were passionate for the things of God. And if they saw hypocrisy in their father, they would not be. Are you all beginning to hear this? His children were weapons. Matter of fact, his children went on to pastor this church. His legacy lives on through his children. Children can be used to defeat our enemies. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. Listen to what it says here. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemy in the gate. He's speaking to his enemies at the gate. You can say a lot of bad things about me, but look at my kids. And now you've got to shut up. When I read the scripture, I immediately thought of this dynamic singing duo here. Has anybody bought their records? Their latest album is coming out. Not since Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton have two people. I've got all their records. This is really amazing, these two. No, I'm actually talking about a debate. Does anybody remember this? This is 2016. Hillary and Donald going at it. And somebody had the presence of mind in the heat of this discussion of two people that really don't like each other to ask this question. Regardless of the current rhetoric. Let's turn it up again. Let's do it one more time. So you've got to get it from the very beginning. Regardless of the current rhetoric, would either of you name one positive thing that you respect in one another? You don't know what she said, though, don't you? She pointed at his kids and says, I respect him for them. He says he has raised some amazing children. And you may not be a fan of Donald Trump, you may not like his personality, but when you look at those kids, when you look at the way they stick up for their father, the way they speak on behalf of their father, You can't say much bad. The enemy can't say much bad if you have children like that. So let me ask you a question in closing here. Is it possible for you to have success without God? And some of you are thinking this through. And it really does come down to how you define success. If success is money, fame, whatever, yeah, for sure. As a matter of fact, God basically says, listen, when humans get together and they plan something out, it says here, when they were building that Tower of Babel, this great structure, this is God saying, nothing that they purpose to do will be impossible for them. You can succeed without God. You can make billions of dollars without God. You can be a flaming success without God. Jesus says you can gain the whole world. But is it really a success? Why? Success cannot be measured in the temporal, can it? Did y'all know you got more than 80, 90 years? Did y'all know that if you just look at material success, you're going to make a drastic mistake? Y'all know what building this is? Oh, Christopher Theseus. I'm not going to, I'm just going to say this. Before there were megachurches, there was this church. It's the largest church in America. Well thought out. Thousands upon thousands of people flocked to this church. Not only that, it had the largest TV ministry. More people watched this ministry on TV than any other single ministry. People would flock to the Crystal Cathedral for conferences, and the founder of this amazing ministry was asked the question, what is the secret to your success? You know what he said? I built this on God. He actually said, the secret of my success is check, double check, and recheck. What he more or less is saying is, I built this. My precision of checking and then rechecking and double checking. Do you all know how this ended? It went into bankruptcy. They had to sell the church. The TV ministry done. No scandal. There was no scandal. It was just built on sand. Do you know what happened with his family? They all divided. sister against brother, the whole thing. In less than a couple decades, this whole thing was gone. The largest, the biggest, the most beautiful. It was almost like God says, let me do a little lesson here for y'all. Show you that you can be successful without me, but also show you ultimately it will fail. The church is built on this kind of strength, I wouldn't have come to northeastern Pennsylvania unless God called me here. I'm not an idiot. That didn't sound good, did it? That did not sound good at all. Wow, sorry about that. That did not, for all the people who live here. Wow. Let me back that up a second. Can we erase that from the tape? No, no. I'm not stupid because I obeyed God when he told me to go. And it has been a wonderful ride predominantly because God says go, you go, there's the blessing right there and going. But you also know that you can do a lot of things in God's name As it says here in Matthew, there's going to be a bunch of people on the last day, Lord, Lord, calling them Lord, in your name we cast out demons. In your name we did many mighty works. In your name. We built great things in your name. And he's going to say what? I don't know you people. My greatest journey is not being a pastor or not building a ministry. My greatest journey is knowing Jesus. I'll be honest with you, sometimes I've got to pull myself away from being with Jesus to say, Jesus says, okay, now you've got to start doing some stuff here. You just can't sit here forever. Now everybody got really quiet on that one. Okay. You all know that. By the way, those are a lot of charismatic people. There are a lot of non-charismatic people who have no oil, right? These virgins are also going to be left in the dark because they're going to be too late to the party. And they're going to come knock and say, let us in. And Jesus is going to say the same thing. I don't know you people. Do you understand the importance of knowing God? True success in life is founded on building your life on Jesus and what he said and doing it. Everything else is vain. I love the way this poem, he says, he gives his beloved sleep, meaning that if God is in charge, you can be asleep in the storm. Do you understand this? The winds can blow, but you know, hey, I'm on the rock. If your life is built, if God has built your life, built who you are, you can relax. You're always going to win in the end. On the other hand, if God has not built your house, it doesn't matter how hard you work. It doesn't matter how hard you try. In the end, you will lose. Does this all make sense? Closing with this one verse of scripture, and this is Colossians. For by him all things were created, including you, and heaven and earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, rulers or authority. All things were created, what? Through him. Big, big takeaway. Created for him. You were created for him. Go to him and let him build your house. Thanks for listening to this message from River Mountain Church. If you'd like some more information, visit our website, rivermountainchurch.org.