Psalm 127:1 “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it”.
Introduction: God wants to build our houses. Now, the last time I checked, I didn’t see God building physical houses all over this area and for the people that are here this evening. This building that is taking place is not physical, it’s spiritual. God wants to build our houses spiritually, and according to this verse, it would do us a lot of good to cooperate with God. Why? Because If we try to build our own houses, “we labour in vain”, and we don’t want to do that. What we want is for God to build our houses, spiritually, and we want to cooperate with Him as he does the building. God wants to build our houses spiritually by strengthening, knit it together, establish or preserve our houses.
The truth of the matter is that we can choose to build our own houses or we can cooperate with God as He builds our houses.
As long as we are in charge of our houses, WE are building the house, we get to build it however we want to, with no one to tell us how to do it. We set up things we want to set up, and we take down things that we want to take down, spiritually speaking.
But if the Lord is in charge of our houses and we cooperate with God and we follow God where he wants to take our family/ our households, then He is the one building the house.
God is the builder, but we can cooperate with God by:
- Having a House of Service– Joshua 24:15 – This is Joshua’s last charge to Israel before his death. And Joshua tells the nation of Israel how he is going to commit himself and his household to God by serving God. Our service to God is something that God wants from us, therefore spiritually speaking, doing this would help us cooperate with God as He builds our homes.
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- Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon”.
- There is no better service than the service of God.
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- Having a House of Godly Examples– Psalm 101:2, 7. King David here is making a statement that he is to walk within his house with a perfect heart”. Because he as the parent is committed to this, he is a good example to his children. David is an example of someone who:
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- Vs 2 “Behaves wisely in a perfect way”
- vs 2 “walks with a perfect heart”
- Vs 3 “sets no wicked thing before his eyes”
- Vs 4 Doesn’t have wicked person for friends
- Vs 5 Doesn’t slander his neighbor
- Vs 5 Doesn’t give high looks or has a proud heart
- Vs 6 Associates with good, faithful people
- Vs 7 Doesn’t work deceit or tells lies
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- In I Corinthians 11:1 Paul said “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ”. What a great testimony and responsibility of Paul to want us Christians to follow him as he follows Christ. As parents, we should tell this to our children or those in our household, follow US as we follow Christ. We become the example that they follow, not that we are perfect but that we are striving to do our best ALL the time, what a responsibility.
- Having a House of Obedience– Jeremiah 35:1-10 here we see the obedience of the Rechabites in the reign of Jehoiakim. When it comes to obedience- little disobediences turn into big disobediences, just like little obediences turn into big obediences.
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- If our children are going to be obedient to us, first they have to see us as parents be obedient to God. This is something that is taught by instruction and by example. vs 10 “have obeyed ,and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us”.
- John 14:31 “But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do”.
- Colossians 3:20 “Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord”. Our children learn to obey their parents and they understand that this is for their own good.
- Our children obey us, we obey Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ obeys our heavenly Father, it all works out perfectly, and we are cooperating with God.
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- Having a House of Prayer- Acts 12:5, 12- This is Mary’s house where evidently there were many people gathered praying. Prayer in the home is a great thing because this is how we can bring petitions to God for others, in this case, its possible they were praying for Peter and then Peter literally shows up to where they were, I suppose to show the answer to prayer.
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- Luke 18:1 “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint”. In this parable Jesus Christ encourages the believer to keep on praying and to never give up.
- I Thessalonians 5:16 “Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you”. This means all the time and without ever stopping.
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Conclusion: If God is going to build our houses, then God must be present in everything that we do in order to help and cooperate with God’s building of our houses. We have to allow God to be in charge of our homes and everything that takes place in it. That’s how God gets to build our houses.
As we saw in this lesson, we can cooperate with God by having a house that serves the Lord, by being a godly example to those in our house, having a house of obedience, and having a house of prayer.