Psalm 127 is one of the psalms the people would sing as they walked up Mount Zion towards Jerusalem. This
psalm’s written by Solomon using the imagery of building a house to describe
building Israel with God as the builder, but it also applies to the family. The
principles are the same, unless the Lord is the one doing the building, unless
the Lord is the one we turn to for what the identity, values, purpose, and
meaning for being family should be, we’re working in vain. We can build
beautiful houses, but if the Lord isn’t the designer and foundation, the house
will not last.
We’re in a series based on the book Faith Begins at
Home and we’ve reflected on how it begins with choosing
with Joshua, “as for me and my household we will serve
the Lord.” Then we heard Moses’ call to obedience to God’s will, laws,
and decrees. This morning we’re reflecting on giving our children a strong
foundation for their faith and lives. As we raise our children to become adults
equipped to engage the world with purpose and strength, it’s important to turn
to the Lord to build them in the faith, so that their foundation is Jesus. Psalm
127 is a wisdom psalm, given to us to ground us in God’s wisdom and ways,
showing us how God is involved in every part of our lives.
Pastor Holman quotes Chuck Swindoll, “The family is the place where principles are hammered and
honed on the anvil of everyday living.” God’s the great builder and
designer: look all around us; not only at creation, but at culture, art,
science, politics, and how everything fits together and has its proper place
and even time. Humanity has thrown a lot of glitches into God’s creation
because we keep choosing sin and idols, but God continues working out his plan
of redeeming everything through Jesus, including our families and homes. God
wants to be the builder of our homes and families, the reality is that “unless the Lord builds the house, the workers build in vain.”
Jesus picks up on the image of building at the end of his Sermon on the Mount. Here he tells
his listeners that if they don’t build their lives on his teaching, it’ll end
in weaker homes and lives, Matthew 7:24–27, “Therefore
everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a
wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose,
and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it
had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and
does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on
sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against
that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
Be honest. Are you building your home on the rock that stays solid through all of life’s storms,
building your family on Jesus and his teachings? Jesus commands us to walk his
way. What is his way? Start with the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. Are you salt
and light that transforms our world, are you true to the spirit of the Law and
not just the letter, do you trust God and not repay evil for evil, are you
generous with what God has given you, and quick to prayer and forgiveness? Do
your lives show the fruit of the Spirit? This is all-in living for Jesus with
the Lord both the builder and designer of our family, but the reality is we
play games with Jesus’ call to walk his way, we don’t go all in, and our
children see this and wonder why they should.
The church helps build up our children in the faith, but the home is the place where faith
is made real and children learn to live their faith out. I love Sunday mornings
and our times of worship, but we’re only together for 1 ½ hours. As families, it’s
up to you to talk about and live out our worship in your homes. Take the time
of praise and worship, confession, assurance, and committing ourselves to
living out God’s will, our offerings, and going deeper into the Word and think
about how to live it out through the week. 20 minutes of preaching can’t open
up all that’s in God’s Word. If you’re only depending on Sunday mornings to be
fed, you’re going to go hungry. We have a responsibility as families to
continue to open God’s Word up regularly at home and carry our worship into the
rest of the week. It's in our homes where God becomes Lord of our lives and
Jesus the foundation of our households.
Solomon goes on, “Unless the Lord watches over the city, the
guards stand watch in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling
for food to eat—for he grants sleep to those he loves.” The warning is
that without the Lord, you build in vain because of enemies and your sleep will
never be restful. Jewish teachers often use the negative to emphasize a
positive choice, here Solomon twice says, “Unless the
Lord” to encourage the people to ask the Lord to build their houses, to
watch over them and the promise is peaceful sleep, trusting in the Lord to keep
them safe and providing for them. Worry and fear can make the world feel like
it’s shifting under us. Jesus talks about trusting God and not worrying about
having the things you need in Matthew 6 and he ends with, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all
these things will be given to you as well.”
When we were going through seminary as a family, Joyce and I often turned to God to provide for our
family because we couldn’t. Our children sometimes worried about how we would get
by. God provided for us through many anonymous gifts, a place for Joyce to
volunteer at that helped us out, and a seminary food bank. Even today, our kids
remember how God always provided. It’s helped them to recognize God’s presence
in their own lives still today, as we often talked about trusting God. The
hardest was not being able to do what the other kids could do, but they also
admit that it was part of them learning the importance of priorities.
Jesus “grants sleep to those
he loves.” When we choose to
serve the Lord and obey his will and laws which he’s given to help us flourish
as his children, he gives us a sense of peace. You can give your children
everything they want, but without the Lord, there’s no foundation, you’re
building their lives and faith on shifting sand that can wash everything away
without warning; that’s not loving them. You’re doing them no favours by
teaching them that it’s alright to put God second for your own pleasure or to
fit in. When your children see you practice real faith and trust God in
everything you do, in your relationships, and how you live for Jesus, it
strengthens your children’s foundation.
Jesus loves our children; he holds children up as an example of faith we should be like. Our
children are precious to God and he entrusts them to us. Raising our children
in the faith is the most important task we’ve been given. Solomon tells us children
are a blessing, a heritage from the Lord, a reward. He uses the Hebrew word “sakar,” which also means maintenance, to take care of. Our children are
one of God’s greatest gifts, but they come with a responsibility, to raise them
in the faith to know, follow, and love the Lord. He describes children as “arrows in the
hands of a warrior.” For those of you who have done some archery, you
know the importance of making sure your arrows are straight and true so you can
hit your target. In Solomon’s day, archers made their own arrows, spending a
great deal of time and effort to make sure they would fly true.
As families and as a church, our responsibility is to
train up our children in the way they should go so they’ll fly true
through life; true to Jesus with Jesus as their goal and target. A skilled
archer spent a great deal of time in training and learning his craft, in
learning how to be an archer and craft his equipment. As parents, to shape
children who will fly true through life, dedicate yourselves to continual
learning and growing in your faith and life. Just like an archer can impact a
battle from far away, you can make a difference in the world well into the
future through investing the time and effort to raise your children in the
Lord.
When we teach and model faithfulness to the way of
Jesus, when we teach the value of sacrificing the ways of
the world for Jesus’ way, when we model to our children obedience to Jesus, God
promises his blessings in his command in Exodus to not worship idols, “You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the
Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the
parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing
love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
The impact you have in following the Lord’s design for your children’s faith
built on the foundation of Jesus, can shape generations after you. What a gift
of love to your children, and to the world!
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