If The Lord Builds The House

Psalm 127 is called the psalm of a sense of Solomon or for Solomon Psalm 127 1. unless the Lord builds the house they labor in vain who build it unless the Lord guides the city the Watchman stays awake in vain it is vain for you to rise up early to sit up late to eat the bread of sores for so he gives his beloved sleep I'd like to speak to you from this passage from this Psalm today but especially verse 1 unless the Lord builds the house they labor in vain to build it but I would like to minister this theme if the Lord builds the house thank you for standing to worship please be seated let's open our hearts to the word of God and for the Lord to continue to do the miraculous here today our church is blessed to have a diverse congregation in many ways you probably know he had church at 9 00 a.m and we have lots of children in our children's ministry in both services but in addition to a wide range of Ages and ethnicities in our church there's also a wide range of vocations represented by our church members among the many occupations of the over 1 000 people that are active members of our church we have more than a few people who are involved in various aspects of construction including Building Homes Home Building my father was a carpenter some of you know that which makes me pretty much an expert on all kinds of construction maybe maybe not but I do ask a lot of questions and I learned by that and studying building a home from the ground up is a pretty complicated process that involves a lot of decision making one source I read said that if you build a custom house from the beginning there can be as many as 3 100 decisions in building that home one of the contractors in our church he's a friend of mine told me that that would have to be a truly custom home and he hopes he never has to build that home with 3 000 decisions but it's more likely that you've got to make about a hundred 100 bigger decisions if you're going to build a home there'll be at least 53 line items for charges that you'll receive as part of that process there is many as a hundred and five different companies involved in the construction of each home and many of those companies will make more in one visit to that house maybe as many 500 different visits from over a hundred and five different companies in the construction of a nice home in the city or metro area of Atlanta and a not so fun fact about building homes in Georgia about 27 percent of the cost of building that home is due to government regulations now if you don't have the right person and the right process then your project might turn into a big mess and be a failure it will be in vain when I was in my mid to late 20s my dad my brother David and I went to my grandparents home in the Metropolis of Wewahitchka Florida which is a little tiny town in the Panhandle and we're going to build an addition onto their mobile home their single wide mobile home some of the work had already been done and I specifically remember setting trusses on the roof with my dad now I'm gonna get labor but I'm not a good master builder I just do what my dad tells me and my dad the real Builder had been on the ladder had laid out marked all the places where trusses were to be nailed my job was to be on the ladder dad was lower I was a little higher David was working down the line and my dad embarked a line and then an X Glide in an X probably 16 inches but I don't remember that for sure and then he said Daryl I need you to nail those boards on the line which I did with great enthusiasm I enjoyed working with my dad and meticulously making sure I was right up against the line we're about halfway through as I recall down the line there and my dad looked up at me and said Daryl are you nailing those boards on the line I was really proud of my work and I said yes sir right up against the line and then my dad said which side of the line the side with the x or the other side I thought oh this is not good and I said well the other side so well that's the wrong side they need to be nailed on the side with the X that's how I Mark the layout of this roof and then he looked up and said you know you've already done a lot we'll just leave it like that and I thought oh no there's no way if you think I'm a perfectionist you should have known my dad I pulled back the nails back the nails off moved them all over re-nailed them on the side of the line where there's an X because I knew my dad had laid that out and marked that and everything would depend on the layout and making sure it was done right and the rookie home builder that I was was doing it wrong but through the years I've thought of this Psalm and that experience when the Bible says unless the Lord builds the house they labor in vain that build it my dad when that case was like the master builder he had a plan and it worked when we worked that plan Psalm 127 is about building it is about guarding it is about life it's a song of degrees for Solomon the third king of Israel and it was a song of ascent maybe it was one of those songs that were sung on the way to church or from the steps from Psalm 120 to Psalm 134 are called the Psalms of a sin and the psalmist tells us in the first three verses that it is vain that is the key word of this Psalm that if you do not live your life if you do not construct your building if you do not guard your city with the Lord being your partner then your labor is all in vain it is vain to build a house if God is not a part of the entire process it is in vain to guard a city if God does not keep that City it is vain he Road for you to get up early and stay up late trying to eke out an existence and working against God instead of working with God if you're going to succeed you need the Lord as your business partner in life amen Psalm 127 and the balance of the Bible never speaks in favor of lazy people it doesn't encourage it at all in this Psalm we read about men who are building a house we read about guards who are watching to protect a city the Bible is very clear about the importance of a healthy work ethic God does not condone laziness and most of the people that I know are not lazy at all but I've learned that people who are lazy don't think that they're lazy but they have lots of excuses like Proverbs 22 13 says the lazy person claims there's a lion out there there's a lion in the street if I go outside I might be killed that's just a lame excuse for laziness but just because people work really hard that doesn't mean they're going to succeed in their efforts it's bang for you to think that you can build the house of your life without God being your general contractor it is useless it is vain it is vain for you to guard your house or a city is the example that the psalmist gave us unless God is guarding that City with you it doesn't matter how many Sentinels you have how evenly spaced they are how heavily armed they are if God does not keep the city the Bible says then that Watchman is stays awake in vain he's simply wasting his time there's a notable example of this in the Bible somebody Building without God as the general Builder the Tower of Babel is an example of people who got together they were unified in their efforts they had the same goal the Bible says they all had the same lip and the same tongue it seems in my studies that they spoke the same language with the same accent and intonation they all said the same things in the same way they were perfectly harmonized and in unity to build this wall the Lord had told them I want you to scatter yourself across the face of the Earth but when they came to the plane of shinar they said this looks like a good place to settle down so they made bricks of clay and they used tar for Mortar when translation says asphalt and they begin to build a city this was what they said let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens let us make a name for ourselves lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole Earth but in spite of their unity in spite of speaking the same language in spite of their determination God was not in it God was not for it and the Lord came down and Confused their language as they babbled at Babel right they quit understanding one another and the Bible says they left off building the Tower of Babel and the city in sharp contrast to Babel is the temple that Solomon built for the Lord the Lord was for this building it was his idea from the beginning and the so the Lord blessed the capital stewardship project that raised the funds for the building of the temple the Lord gave David the king of Israel Solomon's father an exact blueprint he gave Solomon instructions I'll call them building codes about the way that the temple was to be constructed there was not the sound of a hammer made at the site of construction everything was cut away from the site and perfectly assembled like a building fitly framed together and then the Lord provided skilled superintendents to oversee the work there were artesians and craftsmens who did the physical labor the temple was a complex construction project that was under the oversight of God Almighty his idea his blueprints his enabling but it was a massive project worth billions of dollars in our modern currency the Bible says that Solomon conscripted a labor for course of thirty thousand men from Israel he would send them in ten thousand man shifts to Babylon they would work one month they would come home for two months another shift would go and work a month at a time Solomon also conscripted seventy thousand common laborers and eighty thousand Quarry workers to Quarry out Stones up in the Hill Country and then he designated three thousand six hundred foremen to supervise the Work First Kings 5 tells us about this construction project it took seven years to build Solomon's Temple but it was built by God's plans with God's enabling and it was not built in vain it was a success then and it is a Marvel today one of the great marvels of the ancient world the build building of Solomon's Temple now I think you know this that my message today is not building how about building houses or temples or guarding cities but my message is about building a life it is about building a life that doesn't fall apart that doesn't come apart at the seams that doesn't end up collapsing under its own weight you see God is the architect and the designer of life and the Bible is the blueprint for successful building and so if you're going to build a successful life you need to read the blueprints that are found in the Bible Amen in the Bible you will find everything you need to know about life and godliness you will find everything you know about making wise decisions you will find everything you need to know about building how healthy relationships you'll find everything you need to know about being saved and staying safe and spending eternity in heaven you will find it in the Bible and you will not find it anywhere else except the Lord build the house they labor in vain to build it but if you build your life on the Bible you will build a life that will never fail that will never crumble that Will Never Be Shaken if the Lord builds the house but it's one thing to read the blueprints it's another thing to follow them most of us are educated far beyond the level of our experience we know much more than we do but in the Bible it's very clear that it is not just knowing what the Bible says but it is obedience to the Bible that is all important Jesus talked about this in his conclusion in The Sermon on the Mount many of us learn this story when we were Sunday school children but don't assume that anybody or everybody knows this story Matthew chapter 7 verse 24 therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mind mind and does them this is the key to building a Godly life it is hearing knowing and hearing the words of God and then doing them Jesus said and does them I will liken him to a wise man who built his House on the Rock a firm foundation and the Reigns descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it did not fall for it was founded on the Rock notice the criteria for building on a rock that will not be shaken it is hearing and doing the words of God it is living by the Bible verse 26 but everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them it's like James wrote about later in your Bible that some people are forgetful hearers they hear the Bible but they don't live the Bible they walk away from an encounter with truth and they forget what they heard or saw of themselves and they live the same old life life in the same old way without obedience to what they heard and what they saw then Jesus says that everyone who just hears these saying and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand the same circumstances happen to this man the Reigns descended the floods came the winds blew and beat upon the house and it fell it collapsed and great was its fall in other words its fall was complete as complete was the Integrity of the house that was built on the Rock so was the failure of the house that was built on the sand so my message to you today is that build your life you should build your life on the word of God and on the lordship of Jesus Christ and if you will your house will not be in vain your life will not collapse your life will not fail gotta build your house on the Rock Amen and let the Lord be the builder of the house life like building a house is made up of many decisions now there's a wide range of estimates of how many decisions a person might make in their adult life per day or per year and it's such a wide range I'm not sure there's credibility in any number but I'm going to throw a couple out just for you to think about Sheena ianger who is a researcher she's a survey person at the Columbia University she's in fact a decision researcher and she said that the average American makes approximately 70 conscious decisions every day but then I read an article in ink magazine that said that adults make more than 35 000 decisions in the course of a day now there's a little disparity there right 70 or 35 000 so I don't know maybe some make 35 000 some make 70. then I read another unrelated source that said the average person will make 773 618 decisions over the course of their lifetime and will come to regret 143 262 of them how do they know research now that's only 52 decisions a day for an average of 50 years I was kind to the numbers so whether it's 52 decisions a day or 70 or 35 000 suffice it to say every one of us make a lot of decisions every day some are inconsequential they may not matter at all but some of the decisions we make really affect our lives and they affect our eternity and we should live our lives in the light of Eternity that the little decisions we make every day add up to our character they change and they shape who we are it is in the building of your life now in June I taught three Wednesday nights on making decisions on June 8 I taught on making excuses or making decisions on June 15th I taught on making wise decisions part one there were five components on June 22nd I taught part two of making wise decisions and if you are not in church and you did not watch online you did not make a wise decision by not watching those messages in person or online making wise decisions I'm not really being facetious but I'm trying to make it easy on you while saying that was not a wise decision if you build the house of your life by any other blueprint than the Bible then you are laboring in vain your work is useless they're nailing the boards on the wrong side of the line you're building your house on sand you're living your life by the the pressures of the culture you're living your life making each decision as it comes by no blueprint no principles and guiding your life if you're building the house of your life and Jesus Christ is not the superintendent the contractor then you're laboring in vain at the end of your life your life will have been wasted but if you do live your life by the Bible and if Jesus is the Lord of your life then I want to assure you today that your life will matter your life will count eternity will matter for you for if the Lord builds the house you will never labor in vain that is the heart of my message today sometimes in building a life it doesn't look like it's working out you wonder if it's making sense adding up what's the difference between you and The Sinner next door who lives there live by impulses and hasty decisions they're living for now and not eternity but I can tell you that when you live your life with eternity in view with God is the Builder of your life there's an assurance that every decision every day that adds up to your entire life is going to be blessed by God amen character is constructed by the choice to live by biblical convictions and you only see the result of those decisions over time Moses refused the temptation to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season so if the sample of life is a day or a week or a month or a quarter or even a year then maybe you would say that living your life by the blueprint of the Bible and by the superintendency of the Lord Jesus Christ it doesn't make any sense at all but Seasons come and go and sin is just a season the pleasures of sin are just a season so Build Your Life by Godly character Integrity is installed into the house of your life by choosing to do the right thing all the time one thing at a time being faithful to God may not seem to separate you from the person who's building their life by their own blueprints but in the end it will pay off so I want to encourage you today to honor your commitments to your spouse if you're married to your children if you have children to your family your job your ministry and your church don't cut Corners don't compromise on convictions for every time you use Cheap Building Materials every time you skip a step that is noted in the blueprint there is a prize to pay there are some people that live Hollow lives making impulsive decisions but their lives in a single moment of time seem to come crashing down but the person who builds their life on a rock the person who has the Lord building their house builds a house that will never fall will never fall day by day year by year living by Life by God's word builds a house that will never collapse When Storms strike and they will surely strike your life your life will be blessed your life will flourish if you live according to the word of God the Bible says that through wisdom a house is building and by understanding it is established and by knowledge the chambers be filled with all Pleasant and precious riches you build your life by the word of God and when you do you are blessed it's the blessed life and when you don't the house of your life like a house of cards will ultimately collapse I've read about a house I've been close enough to tour it but did not it was built in a very halter Skelter Manner and I looked up what Helter Skelter means and it means just thrown together any weird way right means a lot of things Sarah Winchester was married to William work Winchester he was a firearm magnets who invented the repeating rifle the rifle that won the West that cowboy carbine that is a lever action but he died in 1881. and when he did Sarah his wife inherited more than 20 million dollars which in today's money would be almost six hundred thousand dollars 576 million dollars she also received 50 ownership in the Winchester repeating Arms Company giving her an income of roughly a thousand dollars every day which would be equivalent in our money to twenty eight thousand dollars a day how many of you think you can live on twenty eight thousand dollars a day let me see your hands right okay she set for life she moved from New Haven Connecticut all the way to Sacramento California and she started building a house not Sacramento but the city escapes me but California and she started taking her money 1984. she purchased an unfinished Farmhouse Santa Clara Valley San Jose is a city and she built this 24 000 square foot Queen Anne style Victorian Mansion it is known for its size its architectural Oddities and this is important to my message for the lack of any Master building plan it's the epitome of a house built as you go along there's a lot of theories as to why she did that some say that she consulted a medium and they told her you've got to go build a house an illest construction project to keep away the evil spirits of all the people that gun your husband invented his killed whatever but she was a little bit out there she hired carpenters and they worked day and night and they built the house to seven stories tall she hated Architects because of her disdain for Architects she directed The additions all by herself she augmented the building they say in a very haphazard fashion it was built with no master plan one student of that house said most buildings start with some drawings some blueprints that say this is what it's going to look like when it's finished but this building the Winchester house looks like they just made it up as they went and that's exactly what happened 38 years Sarah Winchester worked on that house it's known as the Winchester Mystery House some say it's kind of creepy and it has some really weird Oddities like doors and stairs that go nowhere doors that if you open late to a 12-foot drop-off don't walk in there the one door that if you step through it you'll fall down into the first floor and land in the kitchen sink their windows that overlooked other rooms and stairs with oddly-sized Riser as she got older she developed arthritis and so she shortened the Riser of each stair step there's like 161 rooms in the Winchester House 40 bedrooms two ballrooms one finished and one not 47 fireplaces over ten thousand panes of glass 17 chimneys with evidences of two others two basement levels three elevators and one source I read said only one working bathroom I forgot to say that at nine o'clock you know you know it's spiritual when it's not in your notes right and you say that this Winchester House I told you not odds some say it's haunted but it was built with no blueprints no master plan no master builder just a really rich lady with a lot of crazy ideas who would wake up one day and say I want you guys to build this and I want you 38 years she just built and built and built and built and added on here and added on there have you ever met a person whose life looked like that there was no rhyme there was no reason they woke up in a new world every day they did whatever they felt they were Guided by emotions and not reason they didn't make commitments they didn't live by any convictions they just threw their life together and that is why our world isn't such a crazy mess right now there are people who do not even understand that the Bible is not just a law book it is a guideline for life it is a blueprint for building a life that will stand for time and in eternity so my message today is a call to go back to the Bible to make Jesus Christ the architect of your life the building contractor of your life the supervisor of every decision stop what you're doing right now and get back on God's page and let him build your life and make something beautiful out of it amen and somebody at least one person right now saying it's too late you can't even imagine the mess my life is in I'm like the Winchester Mystery House a bad decision making no Architect no blueprint no plans but the Bible says that judgment begins at the house of God takes us as we are when we come to him we come to him as dead Sinners and we ask him to forgive us of our sins we identify with this burial by water baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ father remission of sins and just like you heard when we celebrated what's with the party God will fill you with the gift of the Holy Ghost it will change your life forever it will give you the power to live by the blueprint of the Bible it will change your life so whatever mess you may be in today it doesn't matter what your age is it would be nice if you were just a child but most of us in this room are not so stop in your tracks Right Where You Are say Lord enough is enough if you said that you would forgive me Lord and I come to you right now and I ask you to forgive me of my sins I pray God that you would give me a chance to rebuild my life