Building on the Right Foundation
Notes
Transcript
Happy Mother’s Day.
We thank all the moms...
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. 2 It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.
This is a very special Psalm because it is one of the only two Psalms written by perhaps the wisest human being who ever lived , King Solomon. King Solomon of course wrote most of the book of Proverbs and His Father David wrote most of the Book of the Psalms. Solomon wrote only two Psalms, Psalm 72 and this Psalm that we are going to study today, Psalm 127 in light to the importance of motherhood and family.
Being a mom is challenging, even under the best circumstances—managing everyone's schedules, trying to anticipate and fill needs is difficult.
Mothering can be Smothering sometimes.
Mothering in a time of unprecedented uncertainty and fear is even more challenging. And yet, we now live at such a time as this.
Right now, there are endless self-help articles and social media posts framing this time as an opportunity to relax, unplug, read a backlog of books, find new shows to binge and closets to clean out. And this is fantastic advice for anyone who has the time to do those things.
But that's not the reality for many moms, particularly not those with very small children who need near-constant supervision and engagement. So what do moms do? How do you manage our time, support your kids, and keep your houses running all while confronted with anxiety that can at times feel crippling?
I don’t offer to answer this question, but in the face of the complexity of mothering of parenting at this time - I would go back to the basics of family according to God’s word.
The family is God’s idea. End of Part 1
Destroy the foundation of the family and you destroy the fabric of society.
This has been Satan’s strategy.
3 if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
How does Satan attack the family?
Satan is attacking the family..
1. From Without.
2. From Within.
How is Satan attacking the family from without? Satan has been unleashing diabolical attacks against the family.
In his book, “I’d Never Thought I’d see the Day” Dr. David Jeremiah listed nine signs of the decline of western civilization and among these signs he listed..
“Marriage is becoming Obsolete”
By this we mean, Marriage as defined by God which is between a man and a woman. This is a very subtle attack on the family, by redefining marriage, society like ours opens itself to all sorts of depravity.
Satan knows that if he succeeds in destroying marriage and the family, he would have succeeded in destroying the foundation of the home.
He is attacking the family from without by using ungodly men and women in our legislature, to enact anti-marriage and anti-family laws. Believe it or not laws are being written that even try to steal the parent’s right to raise their kids away from them and to the government.
There are also attacks to the family from Within.
Family being attacked from within:
You name it – the possibilities are endless.
Satan’s attacks on the family from within (Plan A)
Putting emphasis on career.
Pursuit of material wealth (houses and cars)
Introduce jealousy, envy and dishonesty, seeds of doubt ( leading to infidelity)
If this doesn’t work:
Satan’s Attacks on the Family from Within (Plan B)
Addiction (Lust, pornography, gambling)
Stirs up rebellion among the kids.
Social pressures (Media messages, rivalries with friends and neighbors)
There may be a million different ways of doing this, and we can be sure that Satan is master of them all. But we have to hold on to what the Word of God teaches us.
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.
Question is...
Who is building our homes? End of Part 2
Well Ramon, it is not so much who is building it. It is all about the foundation! The foundation on top of which we are building the house. We are able to build the house as long as we build on the right foundation - the rest is up to us!
They borrow from the famous verse: “God helps those who help themselves!” i
Turn to that in your Bibles...
“God Helps those who help themselves” (??????)
This is why I miss seeing your faces, or if indeed you turned to your Bibles.
You know, the saying “God helps those who help themselves” is a saying that is not taught anywhere in the Bible..
Well..
Didn’t Jesus say, “The wise man built his house on the rock” - Matthew 7.
The whole context of that is obedience to his words, What Jesus said is “everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock”. It is the right and moral choice to obey God.
The problem is that people create a wrong separation between the physical and the spiritual, between their house and the church, between the home and the family altar.
We cannot separate the physical home from a spiritual altar. Our Home is the altar. End of Part 3
Lord, let me run my family, you have other things to worry about. The salvation of souls that is your turf, my family is mine.
Lord, let me focus on providing for my family, my career, putting food on the table, when it comes to the spiritual food of my family , Lord that is yours.
Lord, let me use my money the way I want to, I need to take care of all these things first, oh I have this left over for your work.
The Bible clearly says the Lord should build our house, you mom or dad who tries to do it on your own — the Bible says do it in vain.
At the core of godly parenting is surrender.
“Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who tries at all.”
Let the Lord be the builder of your house.
Easy to say Ramon, I need to work hard, you know how early I have to get up to go to work?
In the age of both Dad and mom working, it is not uncommon to hear someone be considered a good provider.
Ultimately,,
God is the Greatest provider.
2 It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.
End of Part 4
People work hard to accumulate wealth, to earn money that they become anxious.
People try to control their lives with their ambitions until their ambitions control them.
How? I am not saying that hard work is wrong.. people think that work is part of the curse of God on Adam, but in reality God already gave Adam the gift of work and tending to creation even before the fall.
It is when work itself and accumulation of wealth becomes the ultimate goal that it becomes wrong and even sinful.
I have said this before.. no man in his deathbed had ever said, “I wish I had spent more time working.” - maybe someone has but it wouldn’t make sense.. it is almost always the regret of not having spent more time with what matters most — a loved one (kids, spouse, other members of the family) or God and the things of God.
Money can’t buy happiness.
There are those who think this way, “Money can’t buy happiness, but it certainly is a stress reliever”. (Image here)
This is why the Bible is so wise when it said from the text today in the second part of verse 2:
“… eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.” (Psalm 127:2b)
The Bread of Anxious Toil. End of Part 5
This goes back to the lack of surrender and trust.
Jesus said in
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Philippians 4:6 says do not be anxious about anything..
The bible is telling us today that it is in vain that people lose sleep over anxious toil...
the last part of our text today says: “for He gives His beloved sleep”.
If you study it carefully, is the text saying that it is God Who gives His beloved sleep, so that there is no reason us to be anxious?
If you look at it, does this mean that the motivation to not stay up late working is that it is God who gives you sleep?
Seems to be a weak motivation for people to not be anxious - hey it is God who gives you sleep, don’t waste it!
Some translations of this verse says: “God gives to His beloved in His sleep”.
which means that:
God can perform more good for those who trust him while they sleep than they can perform with anxious labor for themselves while awake. (John Piper)
End of Part 6
Let the Lord build your house on the right foundation.
Give God total control of your life, your marriage and your family.
How do you do that?
Acknowledge that what you have and the means for you to acquire Him is primarily by His mercy and grace.
It is an attitude of waking up everyday, and saying Lord thank you, you have given me this day, you have given me time, thank you, I give it back to you. My life and everything I have is because of your mercy and grace. If you get out of bed with this attitude, you cultivate dependence on God, that you will feel arrogant not to do it everyday.
2. Entrust your whole life and your whole family, not just parts of it, to God.
Who can better control our lives and our families than the one who cares for us the most? When you put your life in the hands of God, He will never drop you. If you are a parent, you love your kids, but remember God loves them more and He will provide for them more, and He will protect them more.
Don’t inhibit their strong desire to serve the Lord. Talk to the Lord about your kids’ desire to go on a mission trip, let not your protective instinct get in the way of the plan of God. Our first instinct should be to trust the Lord and to go to Him. Before you say no, consult the Lord.
3. Align your goals to God’s bigger goals.
God has huge plans for the world, He is navigating the world through this coronavirus pandemic and it leads to the ultimate event, the coming of the Lord Jesus. Let us stretch our goals to not only cover the short term, but the long term and more lasting purpose of God for the world. Think of yourself, your family as a critical piece in that mosaic that only God can see.
23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,
End of Part 7
I have worked for a company for over 20 years whose goal is to manage the wealth and retirement of people. And I have walked away from it because the specific goals are really not aligned to Kingdom goals. Now I am not telling you to quit your jobs. In my clear calling from God that I have seen that the pressures and time I spend trying to make clients happy are getting in the way of following my calling that I made that decision. I don’t regret it, I am not even looking back. God can do better with what I have now than with the plenty I had when I was employed. I acknowledge Him is my only employer, my life belongs to Him and my goals are now aligned with His greater purpose .
Unless the Lord Builds the house, they Labor in Vain Who tries at all...
End of Part 7a
As a mom today, or just as an individual struggling through life, you or people around you may think that what you do for God does not mean anything. In reality, it is living life outside His will that is in vain. Life is wasted if not given to God.
You may not see the value of your life from your perspective, it is only from God’s perspective that you see yourself as part of that beautiful mosaic seen only by the Lord.
Question is: What if I started on the wrong foundation and have been doing it wrong for a long time? How can I fix my life? My family since the foundation itself is faulty.
How can I start over?, how can you salvage a house and prevent it from collapsing if the foundation is already weak? Humanly you can’t. Unless the builder that will restore and renovate your house is God.
“Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who tries at all.” This is where we see the power of God’s redemption.
Unlike physical structures that can never be redeemed if the foundation is faulty. Spiritual structures like the family can be redeemed on top of a new solid foundation.
End of Part 8
God will give you another chance.
God will redeem what you lost.
He will make everything new, like you never committed the mistake before.
Seems so simple, well that is why God’s redemption is powerful. Only Jesus can do that.
Would you dedicate your life, your marriage if you are married, your whole family to the Lord today?
Prayer