and we'll continue to bring these messages on the home just as long as the lord leads and when he says were done will be done with a move on to something else Psalm 127, beginning in verse 1. Now this is a song of degrees for Solomon. We believe that David is the writer, but it's a song that's going to be passed down, or a psalm that'll be passed down for Solomon. He said, "'Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. Let's pray to the Lord tonight. Father, we bow before you again and thank you for this prayer meeting Wednesday night. Thank you for those that have made the effort to gather here this evening. Lord, I know some, no doubt, are dealing with sickness and family issues. We pray for them tonight. God, help us tonight to just take a moment and spend some time looking at your Word this evening. Lord, I'm thankful that you want to help our home. And Lord, we know if there's any help for the home in these days, it's going to come from you. Lord, we realize the world cares nothing about the home. Most of the world as a whole, they don't even realize what a biblical Christian home is supposed to be. God, I'm thankful we that are saved and have a Bible. We know that. I'm glad you've given us instruction. I'm glad you've given us wisdom. Lord, help us tonight just with one more truth that we can apply to our life and have a home that's pleasing to you and a home that is Christ-honoring and a home that is a light of the gospel to a lost and dying world. Lord, that's what we really need in this hour, and I pray you do it in our hearts and in our homes. Bless every home in this church tonight. Strengthen us. May we leave the service tonight just a little bit closer to you. And Lord, whatever you do in this service, we will thank you for it all. We ask that in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you for standing. Now, beginning here in Psalm 127, a very short psalm, but my fault really comes from the very first word in this psalm. And of course, if you paid attention when we read it just a moment ago, it's talking about the Lord building the house, and if the Lord doesn't build the house, then our labor is in vain. And of course, no doubt Solomon is going to build the temple later on, and this might have been the idea that David had in his heart as the Holy Spirit dealt with him about pinning this down. I'm not real sure, but that might have been what David had in his heart to pass on to Solomon concerning not only the building of the temple, but also the ministry of Solomon. Solomon had a great ministry, a great reign, 40 years with peace. There was never a war that was fought with the nation of Israel under the reign of Solomon. Remember that David had in his heart to build the house of God. David wanted to, he had the zeal, he had the desire, but God said, no David, I'm not going to let you do that because you're a man of war, you've shed a lot of blood. I'm going to let your son Solomon do that." So David, being wise in his old age, began to lay aside some things so that Solomon could prosper in the building of the temple. And we're not going to preach on that tonight, but boy, that'd be a great truth for you and I, especially as we're getting older, to get a hold of. We better be laying aside some spiritual things so that our children can do what God wants them to do when we're dead and gone. Most of us tonight, we're going to try to lay aside physical things, and I think that's good. We ought to try to leave them a little something that they can live on and maybe pass down to their next generation. But greater than that, we ought to prepare some spiritual things that will go with them in the days to come. I believe that was the intent of David writing this particular psalm, but we can take this tonight and realize it is dealing with our homes also. The first two verses deal with building, and then the latter three verses deal with children, the fruit of the home. So I want to look at this thought, and I want to take my thought from the very first word where it says, The Lord build the house. My thought tonight simply is this, how to have an exceptional home. How can you and I as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ have an exceptional home? I believe that's the will of God tonight. I think it's the will of God for every believer to have an exceptional home. Now, when I say exceptional, I don't mean that we're to think we're better than anybody. We know we're just rotten flesh at best, and all of us are nothing but no good sinners saved by the grace of God. We're not better than anybody. We're not wiser, smarter than anybody. But if we're saved tonight, we're in a greater position than the majority of this world. If we're saved, it means we know the Lord, we know His Word, and if we'll study His Word and walk by faith and walk in leadership or being led by the Spirit of God, then we can have exceptional homes tonight. I don't know about you tonight, but that's what I want. I want an exceptional home. Now, the word exceptional simply means this tonight, forming an exception or a rare instance, unusual or extraordinary. Now, in days gone by, the Christian home, by large, would not be considered exceptional. In days gone by in America, we would look back years ago and say it was normal for many Americans to have a Christian home. It was normal for many families to be biblical families and church-going and Bible-reading and praying families. But we've lived long enough to see a lot of that falling away. And now we're living in a world that's vastly turning away from God. It's always been going away from God, but it seems like it's sped up in just the past little while of the world and even our nation turning away from the foundational truths of the Bible. And now we've got people in America, they don't even know what a home consists of. They don't even understand what a man and a woman is. And I'm not being ugly tonight, it's really sad. We'd laugh about it, but it's so sad tonight. that there are individuals living in America that cannot even figure out what gender they are. And it's heartbreaking, and you think it's bad now. You wait for another generation that's raised with that being normal and no telling where we're going to end up before the Lord returns. So I think tonight, if there's ever been an emphasis that's put on the Christian home, it's now. You and I that are believers that know Christ and walk by faith, we ought to desire and press on to have an exceptional home for the glory of God, because this world needs some exceptional homes. Our nation, our state, our community, your neighborhood where you live, where I live, my town, your town, they need to see exceptional Christian families in the day that we live. And we can have that tonight if we will follow the Word of God. I want to look at three things that I find in this psalm tonight that you and I could mimic in our life and have an exceptional Christian home. And let me just say this tonight. Don't settle for second best. Don't settle for a run-of-the-mill home tonight. Don't settle just to have a family that just barely makes it or squeezes by or doesn't make a difference in the world we're living in. Strive your best and be prayerful and be intentionally desiring to have an exceptional home. And if we will tonight, God will grant that to us. Let's look at these things that we find in Psalm 127 about having an exceptional home. First of all, I notice the overseer of the home. David begins by letting us know the Lord has to be the overseer. And not only is He the overseer, we would call Him tonight, in building terms, the general contractor, He's calling the shots. If you build a home today, you have to have a general contractor. You have to have someone that oversees the building of that home. He oversees every aspect of it. He may delegate certain portions to certain subcontractors and different people, but he is the overseer. He says what goes and what doesn't go. And tonight in the first verse of Psalm 127, we find none other than the Lord Himself being the overseer of the exceptional home. Notice the condition in verse number one. He said this, David said, "'Except,' there's the word tonight we need to get a hold of, "'Except the Lord build the house.'" There's a condition there. That word, "'Except,' simply means without the Lord it's not going to work. The only way to have an exceptional home is to be the exception and let the Lord be the leader in our life. It would really be sad today if we knew honestly how few people in America allow the Lord to have control of their life. It would even break our hearts tonight if we knew how few people that claim to be Christians and know the Lord and even go to church really allow the Lord to be the leader of their life. A lot of times we say we love the Lord and we want the Lord to direct us, but yet in our actions and in our words and the way that we conduct ourselves, it's the farthest thing from letting the Lord lead us in our life. So, David reminds us here tonight, there's a condition to this. It's a conditional promise that we're seeing here in Psalm 127. Lord in our life. We're not going to have an exceptional home if we push God to the side. We cannot have an exceptional home if we say, Lord, now we're going to do it our way, and we're going to live the way we want to. And if we get in trouble now, and if we need you, Lord, we'll ring the bell or We'll raise a hand, we'll cry out to you, and, Lord, we want you to run in, be our spiritual spare tire, and then when everything's fine, we'll go back to business as usual. That will not produce an exceptional home. To have an exceptional home for the glory of God, He has to be in control. He has to call the shots. He has to tell us what to do and what not to do and where to go and where not to go and what to follow and what not to follow. If the Lord is leading our lives, David said to Solomon here, except the Lord build the house, He's got to be in control. And that's a daily thing. You know how we get the Lord in control? This is how we get the Lord in control. We get ourselves off the controls or out of the way of the controls. We get up every day and say, Lord, even though I want to lay hold of the controls of my life, even though I want to steer my own vessel and drive my own ship, Lord, I realize I can't do that. I'm going to back up. I'm going to trust You. I'm going to follow You. I'm going to let You put Your hands on the reins of my life and let Him take control of our homes. Well, if we'll do that tonight, you're talking about joy, you're talking about prosperity, spiritually speaking, you're talking about living in peace. We're going to see that here in the next verse. It is a joy tonight to have the Lord as the overseer of our home. Do you know that it would be foolish, absolutely foolish, for me to go out here tomorrow and try to build a natural physical house. Now, I've been around building for years, but I don't have my contractor's license. I've not studied. I've not taken the test. I've not done a lot of framing and all those things that go along with that. It would be a foolish thing for me to go try to build a physical house tonight because I do not know what I'm doing. And so it is tonight with our spiritual home. It is a foolish thing when we try to build a spiritual home outside of allowing God to call the shots in our life. And I'm telling you, it's easy to do that. It's very easy to get caught up in life and say, well, I know this, and I can handle this, and I can take care of this. No, that's not what the Lord wants us to do. He wants us to have that exceptional home. And in doing that, we have to let Him have the reins. We have to let Him take control. So there's a condition, accept the Lord, build the house. Notice there's the contrary to it. Now, we have a choice to make. God is not going to make anyone let Him build their house. God is the perfect gentleman tonight. He's not going to make you get saved. If you're saved, He didn't make you get saved. You got saved because He dealt with your heart and you wanted to. You made the choice to be saved. He's not going to make you live for Him. That's between you and the Lord. If you don't live for Him, there's some bad consequences you're going to face. It's much better to live for Him, but He's not going to make you live for Him. And He's not going to make you let Him build your house. You're going to have to want to let Him build your house. I know a lot of times people that I've known over the years that wanted a house built, they would ask me or others in the construction business and say, hey, do you know a good contractor? Do you know somebody that you've worked on their houses and you would recommend them? And I had a couple men that I really held in high esteem that built good homes. They were honest and fair and didn't cut corners, and I would pass their names out because what I could see in working on their houses, they were good house builders, and they knew what to do. And tonight I can recommend to you that Jesus Christ, our Lord, is the greatest home builder there ever was, spiritually speaking. He can build our house like nobody else can. So you see that condition, but notice the contrary that David mentions to us tonight. He said, except the Lord build the house, there's the condition. The contrary is they labor in vain that build it. You ever seen somebody build something that didn't know what they were doing? Maybe you've done that before. I've sure done that. I've thrown a few sheds and makeshift things together, and I wouldn't want anybody to necessarily look at them and measure them and one thing and another. I'm not that good of a carpenter. There are men that God has given that gift to, and man, I'm telling you, they're precise. See, I did seamless gutters. As long as you get it within a half inch, that's all that matters. Amen. You can't be a good carpenter that way. You've got to get down to those little lines if you're going to make a good living being a carpenter, especially a finished carpenter. But here we find there's a contrary to this. He's telling us here, David's telling us this. He said we're laboring in vain if we try to build our spiritual home without the Lord in control. And sadly tonight, here's the easy thing to do. The easy thing to do is try to build our own home. A lot of times I've seen people, I've seen it in the gutter business. I've seen people think, well, I'm going to cut corners. I'm going to save some money. I'm not going to call the professional. And I'm going to go down to Lowe's or Home Depot or somewhere, and I'm going to buy the material myself, and I'm going to do it myself. And I know years ago, they started coming out with these DYI shows, and man, I'm telling you, that about ruined businesses, because every time you go to somebody's house, they'd say, Well, I saw Bob Vila do it on the show. You know, bless the Lord, he wasn't working with what we was working with, amen? And it was a stage thing a lot of times. You've seen things and I've seen things that people have done and labored and labored, spent a lot of money and thought they knew what they was doing and when it was all said and done, they had labored in vain. I've had people call me before and say, listen, I tried to put up my own gutters, I tried to do this, I'm done with it, tear them down, get them out of there, you do it. And I learned this a long time ago, you can't beat a man at his trade. There are some things you're better off just hiring somebody to do, amen? It'll save you time, it'll save you money, and it'll save you a lot of heartache. And when it comes to our spiritual homes tonight, we must let the Lord be in control. We don't want to be like the contrary here and have a home that's vain. I'd hate to live a life in this world and try to build my own spiritual home, get to the end of my life and have a mess in my hands. Vain means empty, worthless. I'd hate to have a worthless home tonight because I didn't let the Lord build my home. So he mentions the condition. He mentions the contrary. Then he mentions here the thought of a city in verse number one. He mentions the containment here. Notice midway through verse number one what David said. He said this, except the Lord keep the city. First part of the verse, except the Lord build the house. Second part of the verse, except the Lord keep the city. He said the watchman waketh but in vain. What is he talking about here? He's talking about containment. He's talking about the Lord guarding the city. Now, we want the Lord to be our home builder spiritually tonight, but we also want Him to be our protector. We want Him to contain us. We want Him to be the watchman in our life. I'm thankful that there are spiritual watchmen. That's what I'm supposed to be. As a preacher, as a pastor, I'm supposed to be a spiritual watchman for you. I'm supposed to cry aloud and spare not. I'm supposed to tell you what thus saith the Word of God and try to preach to you to live for the Lord and beware of this and beware of that. But the greatest watchman is the Lord Himself. And God can see things that we cannot see. And He can catch things that we cannot catch. And He can fix things that we cannot fix. So He tells us here in this thought of containment, except the Lord keep the city. We can do all we can to keep things right, but without the Lord in control, it's not going to work. There are cities tonight in America, no doubt, they've spent millions of dollars trying to keep their cities safe. They've done this and done that, and they put all the newest technology in place, and maybe years ago they hired more policemen. They're trying to get rid of them now instead of hiring them. That's a foolish thing. There are cities that have spent multiples of millions of dollars on safety in their city. Many times it's failed. Many times it hasn't worked. And the Bible tells us here, if we want proper containment and security in our life, we've got to let the Lord encamp our homes. We've got to let the Lord contain our homes. We've got to let the Lord be in the midst of our homes if they're going to be safe and sound. He mentions this containment. God's power is a must for an exceptional home. You and I will never have an exceptional home outside of the power of God. We don't have that power in our flesh. It's not there. I don't care how smart you are. I don't care how much of the book you know. I don't care how strong you think you may be. Without the working power of God in my life and your life, we will never have an exceptional home. It's an impossibility. So he reminds us of that containment. He reminds us here of the cost if we don't have an exceptional home. Look at the last part of verse number 1. He said, except the Lord, keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." When I look at this watchman, I think about, and this was natural in Bible days, and I understand we have security guards and things like that, but when I think about this watchman, what they were doing, they were trusting natural flesh to keep the city. And we do that sometimes. We did that in the military. We had watch. We had fire watch duty and things like that, where somebody was always up, somebody was watching, somebody was keeping an eye out. When we were in the field doing maneuvers, we would have watchmen and listening posts and things like that, that we would train with. But flesh is flesh tonight. You know, sometimes a watchman goes to sleep. Sometimes a watchman gets tired. Sometimes a watchman's had a bad day, and he's just not on his game, and he's just not sharp enough, and the enemy comes by. The Bible tells us here that there's a possibility of suffering great loss and paying a heavy cost if we don't let the Lord be the overseer of our life. If we try to do it in ourself at best, we're going to be a failure. So number one tonight, He must be the overseer of our homes. If we're going to have an exceptional Christian home, the Lord has to be in control. There's no way around it. Notice secondly tonight, I want to look at the objective. What is the objective of an exceptional home? Why would I, or you and I, want an exceptional home? Would we want an exceptional home so we can say, oh, look at me, I got a good home? No, that's not why we want an exceptional home. We don't want to be prideful. We don't want to walk around again like we're better than anybody or we know more than anybody. But we realize tonight there's great value in having an exceptional home. You know what's sad tonight? I've dealt with people. You may have dealt with people like this. You may have some people like this in your family. What is so sad tonight is to deal with people and watch some people care nothing about their homes. It's heartbreaking. I've watched men that cared nothing about their homes that walked away from them. I've watched women that care nothing about their husband or children walk away from them, do things in their home, bring things in their home that were going to destroy their home. That is sad. That's heartbreaking when you find somebody. I saw an individual today that's out of church, and I love that individual. I love him with all my heart. Matter of fact, I picked up the phone and gave him a phone call when I saw him. But my heart breaks for them because they're not where they need to be. My heart breaks for them because I know their home could be so much stronger and so much better. And I know why they're out in the world. They run the risk of the enemy destroying their home. We must desire the proper objective of having an exceptional home. Notice what he says here in verse 2. Three things the psalmist gives us in verse 2. First of all, we notice the natural way that he deals with. Notice what he said, it is vain for you to rise up early to set up late. Now what's he talking about there? Is David talking about it's vain to go to work? No, that's not what he's talking about. We know the Bible tells us if a man doesn't work, he shouldn't eat. We know it's good to labor, it's good to work, it's good to make money, it's good to take care of your family. That's an honorable thing. But here what he's talking about with this thought of the natural way, he said, it is vain for you to rise up early to set up late. It is inside the human nature tonight to take care of ourself. We have a human nature that is somewhat self-sufficient. If you've ever been out West and did any work spiritually out West, it's difficult sometimes to deal with Western people. You know why? Because they come from a long lineage of people that are self-sufficient. I mean, they left the East. Their forefathers left the East years ago and went to buying large and uninhabitable land. A tough land, a land that'll kill you if you don't know how to handle it out there. You don't run around out there like you do back here in the east. There are some things, if you don't know how to operate out west, you will die from natural causes called the weather. It'll kill you. You don't jump in a car and take off down the road when it's 30 below or 25 below without some extra clothes in the car and without some water and some food. You might get stranded and you might not make it until somebody comes and helps you. It's not that way here. We've got a building on every corner, a house on every corner, a gas station on every corner. But those individuals out there, sometimes they're hard to get them to understand they need the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ because they come from generations of being self-sufficient. And in many ways they are self-sufficient. But when it comes down to spiritual things, none of us tonight are self-sufficient. None of us have the ability to build our home in an exceptional way without the Lord in our life. Now, you notice here the natural way. This is man's natural way of trying to take care of himself. This is what we do, naturally speaking. We rise up early, we set up late, trying to make our homes the way we think they ought to be. Isn't that the rat race of this world? Isn't that what most people did today? They got up this morning, and hit the road about daylight, running 90 mile an hour, run you up. If you just travel to Asheville one morning about 7, 7.30. If you haven't done that in a while, I think you ought to do that. Amen? You ought to get up in the morning. If you got time, just get out here on 26. You'll do pretty good until you get to about Weaverville. But from Weaverville on, buddy, you better be paying attention. I mean, you better be running with the speed of traffic. You better be looking what you're doing. You will get run, slap over. And you that go every day, you know what I'm talking about. I try not to go every day, but the times I do, I take a deep breath and I get in the middle of them and hammer down. Because I'm telling you, they'll run you over. What are they doing? They're getting up early, they're staying up late, they're trying to build what they consider a home. They're trying to build what the world What declares is a home, but it's not a home. And again, I'm not knocking working. I'm not knocking having things and having a good life and being able to take care of things. That's good. The Bible talks a lot about our finances being in order. But here, the psalmist is talking about having a spiritual home. And I wonder how many people today got up and broke their neck to go make a living, but if they could look in on what you and I are doing tonight, they'd say, you're crazy. You're sitting in church on a Wednesday night? Why? Why did you take the time? You've worked hard all day. You've labored. You could be at home with your feet propped up watching television. Nothing good on it. But you could be at home with your feet propped up watching television or doing something like that. Why would you come to the house of God? You know why you're here tonight? Because you know You've got to have the Lord to have an exceptional home. I know I've got to obey the Lord if I'm going to have the kind of home God wants me to have. I've got to do it, amen? I've got to put more emphasis on the spiritual than on the carnal if I'm going to have the kind of home God wants me to have. So there's a natural way we all battle with it. Then there's a normal woe that David deals with here in verse 2. He said, It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows. What is he talking about there? Well, you know, this is what I get out of this. You know, life is full of sorrow. Job said, man is born of a woman. A few days, he's full of trouble. That's man's life. Life is full of trials and heartaches and sorrow and trouble on every hand. It rains on the just and the unjust. And the best we can do ourselves in this life, we're still going to eat the bread of sorrow. The very hardest we can work, and the most we can prepare, and the most we can labor, and all the effort we can put into it, is not going to exclude us from eating the bread of sorrow. There are some people in life that have worked of their life I mean nose to the grindstone never had any time for their family never had any time for God the things of God worked all their life decided they were going to retire and sit down and just killed over dead of a heart attack or some dreaded disease they didn't have time they didn't get an opportunity and really their life spiritually speaking is a life of that is nothing but vanity and nothing but empty. So He warns us here tonight, there's normal woes no matter how well off you are. Listen, troubles come to the rich houses as much as they do the poor houses. Troubles come to those that have everything and those that have nothing. We are living in a sin-cursed world, and it's natural, it's normal to have woes and troubles in our life, but thank God for the Christian home, that's not the end of it. There's natural woes. But then for the believer tonight, the exceptional home, there's the nurturing work. Look at the last part of verse number 2. Look at what David said here. He said this, "...for so, because of these things..." This is what the world does in the first part of verse 2. They rise up early, they sit up late trying to build what the world says is a home. They eat the bread of sorrow and never really get anywhere spiritually. He said this, "...for so he giveth his beloved," that's us that are saved, "...sleep." What is he talking about here? What's the objective of an exceptional home? The objective of an exceptional home is this. The objective is that while the world is crazy around us, and while people are running to and fro like animals, and sorrows all around us, and yes, we have some of that, and yes, we have trials, but there's something about an exceptional home tonight that we can rest in. You see, there's a lot of people today that went and made money on a job that's six-plus figures. There's a lot of people today that drove a car to work that costs more than mine in your house does. Amen? I'm telling you, there's a lot of people like that. But you know what? They came home tonight, they came home to a fuss, and a fight, and no love, and no peace, and no joy. They came home, the wife wouldn't speak to the husband. He asked, when dinner's going to be ready? She said, go fix it yourself if you want something. He went in there, didn't speak to her. The kids went in their room, slammed the door, turned the radio TV on, and they won't see each other again until they part ways going out the door tomorrow. That is not a home. And it's by far not an exceptional home. An exceptional home follows the Lord, and God gives them peace to be able to lay their heads down. He giveth his beloved sleep. I'm telling you, an exceptional home, even if there's no money in the bank, you can hug each other's neck and go to bed tonight with the peace of God in your heart. An exceptional home, even if there's a bad doctor's report in that home, you can still pray around an altar of prayer and read some scripture and go to bed knowing God's in control. Whatever comes your way, that exceptional home, there's peace, there's love, there's joy. I'm going to tell you why a lot of churches don't get along in this day, because there's a lot of households that don't get along. It would shock you and I if we knew how much turmoil and bitterness and arguing and trouble goes on in people's houses, even those that claim to be saved and be right with God. That's not the will of God tonight. If anybody ought to get along, it ought to be the Christian home. It ought to be the sweetest place that there ever is to be. So he mentions the objective of the exceptional home. Now I want to give you one more thing tonight. These are the last three verses of the psalm. We see here the outcome of an exceptional home. Now let me say this before I get into verse 3. Verses 3 through 5, he deals with children, the fruit of the home. And I want to say this. I want you to understand this. You know this now, but I want to reiterate it. Not every home is blessed to have children. You say, Bridget, why is that? I don't understand that. I can't give you a good reason for that. I've known some people that I believe would have made the greatest Christian parents ever on earth. But for some reason or another, God didn't open the womb. God didn't allow them to have children. And then I've known some people, honestly, sorry as the day is long, didn't need children, didn't know how to take care of them, didn't care how to know how to take care of them, and have a house full. And I'm telling you, that blows my mind. I will never figure that out this side of heaven. But you've got to understand something tonight, God. It's the Lord that opens the womb. It's His business. But we ought to have a home tonight that has an outcome that glorifies God. And that's what David deals with here. Let me give you five things here from verses 3 to 5 about the outcome of an exceptional home. In verse number 3, notice the investment. Now right here, David's not talking about our investment, even though we should invest in our homes. I mean, if you invest in anything, you ought to invest in your homes. You ought to invest in your home more than your job, more than your bank account, more than anything you do. That home ought to be your number one investment place. But notice this. This is not talking about us. The people of God investing. This is talking about the Lord investing in us. Look in verse number 3. He said, Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord. I want you to look at that word heritage. It means a handed down heirloom. Some of you here tonight, you may have some heirlooms at home. You may have something that your parents handed down to you. You may have something that your grandparents handed down to you. And it's special to you. It's an heirloom. It may be expensive. It may not be. But they handed that down to you with the intent of you passing that on. They didn't hand it down to you for you to throw it away. They didn't hand it down for you to squander it or trash it or to tear it up. They handed it down to you. They gave it to you because they had a desire and intention for you to carry on the heritage in your family. That's the idea that David gives us here in verse 3 about children. Children are an heritage of the Lord. Here's the idea tonight. God gives us children. When God smiles on a home and places a child in that home, He's handing us that heritage. He's giving us the most treasured gift you could ever have outside of salvation. And He's wanting us to take that spiritual heirloom and take care of it. and nurture it and put it in a safe place and do everything we can to protect it and preserve it and pass it on down to the next generation. Isn't that what we ought to be doing with our children and grandchildren? There's an investment there. The Lord has blessed our homes with children so we would nurture them in the ways of the Lord. The Lord didn't give us children for us to neglect them. He didn't give us children for us just to not be a part of their life. He gave us children that we would raise them and teach them in the things of the Lord, and do our very best to see that they get saved and they get on the right path for the glory of God. There's the investment in verse 3. There's the increase in verse number 3. Notice what David goes on to say, "'Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is His reward.' Now, I understand sometimes they don't act like rewards, do they? Sometimes, instead of being a blessing, they act like little devils, don't they? Mine have. I know yours have it, but mine have before. And that happens sometimes. But really, we'd have to admit tonight, children are a reward of the Lord. It is a blessing when God allows a child to come into a home. It is a blessing when God passes down that spiritual heirloom of a child into a home. And here's our responsibility tonight, to have the very best exceptional home we can have to raise those children for the glory of God. That's what God wants out of my life. That's what He wants out of your life tonight. To have a home that is as close to the Scriptures as it can possibly be so that our children have the right environment, the right opportunities, the right teaching, the right direction to carry on with their children in days to come what we have taught them. There's the increase with our children, and our families are increased. And you think about it, every family that God gives children, and children in the race for the glory of God, it gives that family greater potential to make an impact in this world for the glory of God. If you happen to have grown children, and many of you do, that are serving the Lord, you know as well as I do, isn't it a joy to watch them serve the Lord? Isn't it a joy? I mean, nothing thrills my soul any greater than to sit back and watch my children sing, or testify, or preach the gospel, or raise their children, my grandchildren, for the glory of God. It excites me, it thrills me, it gives me more than money could buy. It gives me more than anything this world has got to offer. It's a joy in my heart. I really believe that when it's my time to go, that my children are going to pass on down what God has done in our life and what's been passed down to us. And that is the joy of having a home. That's what God wants it to be. I want to have that exceptional home. You see the increase. It comes from the Lord. The investment comes from the Lord. But notice in verse 4, he deals with the children concerning the instrument of the home. In verse number 4, he says, "...as arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth." He mentions this phrase here, "...arrows in the hand of a mighty man." It is the will of God that our children be instruments to go forward and accomplish the will of God in their life. Just like a mighty man would take that arrow, and especially in Bible days, you know, nowadays, we just go to the store and buy them. We got it easy. We just go to the store and buy them. They make carbon arrows now. Used to, when I was growing up and first started shooting a bow, you had aluminum arrows, and sometimes they'd get a little bit bent, and if you didn't catch them, if you didn't eyeball them and look, and you shot one that was crooked, it'd do this number, and you couldn't hit the target with it. But now you've got carbon arrows, and for the most part, they're either straight or they're broken. That's about the best way to tell. Sometimes they'll split a little bit, and you can't tell, but for the most part, we got it easy, but it wasn't so in Bible days. In Bible days, if they were going to have an arrow, they had to find a certain kind of wood. And they had to take that wood, and they had to shave it down as straight as they could. And they would wet that wood, and a lot of times they would hang a rock or something heavy on that wood and stretch it out and let it pull it down, let it get it real straight, and then they'd have to find the feathers to make the fletchings out of. They'd have to find the rock or the metal to make the arrow heads out of. And it took a whole lot to make a good arrow in Bible days. We don't know that nowadays. But here he's talking about the instrument. It's the will of God that every Christian home produce children, if God gives them children, produce children that will be instruments for the glory of God. just as that mighty man will put that arrow in that bow and stand back and draw that bow and aim toward that mark. And if that arrow's right, and the mighty man's right, and he got his sight picture right, and he releases that arrow out of that bow, it will hit its intended target and do the job it was intended to do. Boy, isn't that what God wants out of our homes for our children? God doesn't want us to have homes so that our children fail. He doesn't want us to have homes so that our children go away from the things of God. He wants us to have an exceptional home so they'll continue, and even more than continue, do greater things than what we've done. I'm looking for my children to go further than what I've went in my life. I hope they do. I'm cheering them on. I'm fanning the flames. Do more than I've ever done for the Lord. That is what God wants out of our exceptional Christian homes. You see those instruments there? Let me give you two more things and I'm done. David here mentions to Solomon the invigoration in verse number five. Notice this word here. He said, Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. I've already mentioned that tonight, but you know if you've got children, if they're serving the Lord, you know that's a happiness money can't buy. That's a joy that money came by. To be able to lay down at night and know that they're not out in this world partaking of sin. Know they're not in something that's going to destroy them. That's a joy. Listen, my heart goes out to people that don't have that peace. It really does. I'm not making light of anybody. It could be any of our children, but for the grace of God. My heart goes out to people that weep every night because their children are out in the world making mockery of how they've been raised. That's heartbreaking. I'm telling you, no parent should have to go through that, but I know a lot of people have to go through that, and that's a sad thing. But I'm telling you, it's a happiness, it's a joy, it's a gladness when you get to see your children hitting the mark every now and then, and doing what God's called them to do, and having a heart for the things of God. That is a joy again that money cannot buy. And if we're gonna have exceptional homes, God will bless us with that. You see the invigoration, I'll give you one more thing and I'll be done. Look at the last part of verse five. David mentions the influence of the outcome of an exceptional home. He said, happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed. That means the children, that means the family. It's a honorable thing, not a shameful thing. But notice this, notice the influence. He said, but they shall speak with the enemies and the gay. See, there comes a time where parents get older. There comes a time where we can't do what we used to could do. And in Bible days, there were times when the mom and the dad, they were too old to go to the gate and keep the enemy out. They were too old to fight the battle. They were too old to physically resist the enemy coming in. But if they had children that had been raised right, If they had children that had purposed in their heart to serve God and honor their parents, they didn't have to go to the gate and do that. Their children would go to the gate and do that. They didn't have to worry about that. There was an influence now. No longer was mom and daddy the primary influence in the family. They were waning off, but the children were waxing on. And now you've got the children and the grandchildren. They're the influencers. They're the ones that are making the difference. You and I have seen it in churches over the years. You can go to some churches and you'll see a lineage of a family in a church where they've stayed right with God for multiple generations. You'll go to some places and a family name will be mentioned. Somebody will say, oh yeah, yeah, I know that family boy, they love God. They've got children that serve God and grandchildren that serve God and great-grandchildren that serve God. I remember old great-granddaddy so-and-so was a preacher and this, that and the other. I'm telling you, that is the influence of an exceptional home. That's what every believer ought to desire. That's what every one of us ought to strive for tonight. We ought to do everything we can to have an exceptional home, to make a difference in this world for the glory of God. Well, I'm glad tonight. I'm glad according to Psalm 127 and many other places in the Bible. I'm glad tonight God has made a way where you and I can have an exceptional home. You might say tonight, well preacher, I don't feel like my home's very exceptional. Listen, I'll be honest with you, there's many times I don't feel like my home's very exceptional. I'm so geared to see the negative things. I'm telling you, pray for your preacher, because I'm that way. I see the negative things in my home. I see the negative things in church. I have to constantly say, Lord, get my eyes off the negative, because there's so much more positive than negative. But for some reason, my old carnal, sorry nature wants to fixate on the negative all the time, and it'll discourage you. And I realize we've all got negative things in our home. There's no perfect home here tonight. There's no perfect parents. There's no perfect children. But I'm gonna tell you tonight, if we will strive to have an exceptional Christian home, we'll be glad we did. And I'm glad I can report to you tonight and I can tell myself out of the Word of God that it is very possible to have an exceptional home in these days. There are people there people said this to me and my wife over the years well-meaning people I don't hold any ill feelings toward them, but they've said something like this I don't think I could have as many children in this world as y'all have because of how bad this world is and I understand that there's fears but listen God has given us an opportunity tonight as Christian homes Christian parents to raise children to be exceptional in these days and to make a difference for the glory of God in this world and to be a light in a very dark world that we're living in I can't think of any other honor we could be bestowed tonight than striving to have an exceptional home. And what we've got to do tonight is just keep an eye on it according to the Word of God. And when there's something in our home that's not exceptional, deal with it. Don't just sweep it under the rug. You ladies that clean the house, Now, men, we're bad, we shove it in the corners, you know, and we stick it out of sight, out of mind a lot of times is my philosophy. But you ladies, you know better than that. You don't want nothing swept under the rug. You don't want nothing crammed in a corner. Get it out, deal with it, put it in the wash, wherever it goes. We got to do that in our Christian life. If we sweep it under the rug, it's gonna come back to haunt us. If we hide it in the corner, you stick dirty clothes out of sight, you'll find them in a few days, I'll promise you that. You'll start smelling them. And so it is in our Christian life. Let's ask God to help us on a daily basis. Lord, search my life. Search my home. Search my heart. Search my parenting skills, what little I may have. Search my children. And if there's anything in our life that's not exceptional, Lord, shine the spotlight of your word on it. Give me grace to repent of it and get it right and have the very best home I can possibly have for the glory of God. That's my desire tonight. I hope and pray that that's your desire to have an exceptional Christian home. You have the message tonight. I trust it'll help us. Amen. Let's stand. you'll come get a song together and I had spelled While they sing tonight, let the Lord help you. Are you on Christ tonight? That's the foundation. A great things God has done When saints came in and praised the Lord For all the victories won A place of safety The bond of love that's there can't be explained