06/15/2014 A Song for Our Father Psalm 127 Songs Jesus Sang Randy Thompson

Transcription

1 Happy Father s Day! Good morning and welcome to Fellowship Dallas. My name is Randy and I m one of the Associate Pastors at the church. I am so glad you joined us for worship today. Over the past week, or so, I feel like I ve noticed more talk about Father s Day on television, on the news, on social networks and on the internet, than I ever have before. Leading up to today s sermon I received links to not one, not two, but to three different videos highlighting Father s Day and the importance of Fatherhood from different people at the church. I feel like our culture is emerging from a war on dads that we ve seen play out in television shows and in film and we re starting to see a renewed, robust value placed on fatherhood in our society. Of all the videos I ve seen this past week, there was one that I really wanted to share. It is a video that was produced by Dove. I think that they hope that after you watch it you want to buy more soap, but after I watched it, it just made me smile and appreciate being a father. Take a look... Again, I don t understand the connection with that video to soap, although all the dads in the commercial seemed clean. But the video does such a great job of capturing how children call out to their father. Whether in a time of need, stress, celebration or just pure exhilaration, there is this overwhelming desire to lean on dad. It seems to me that loving fathers are beginning to get celebrated more and more in society. This is really important, especially when you consider how many kids grow up in our country without a dad around. There are many people in the room today who find Father s Day difficult because they never had a dad growing up. Perhaps for some of you, Father s Day is painful because growing up, you had a dad who was present physically, but was mostly absent emotionally or spiritually. Still, others of you were blessed to have a Father who, while imperfect, was always there for you and your family and your relationship with him is strong. It s interesting that out of all the ways the Bible could frame how we, as creatures, should view our creator how we should look to God the reference we see again and again in scripture is our God as a Father. Whether through the words of Christ, Paul or another writer of scripture, the way God chooses to portray Himself in the Bible is primarily as a Father. And He isn t just any father, He is a good, perfect Father who wants the best for us and seeks our prosperity. His timing is perfect. His actions are perfect. His aims are perfect. And His children are made perfect. He is good. And we are made in His image.

2 Because of the father imagery in scripture, it is so easy for us to take our relationship with our earthly father and superimpose him over our relationship with God. But it is important that you separate man and the Most High God. This is especially important for people who have a strained relationship with their dad, but even if your earthly Father is awesome, He s not God. It is important to confess that God is a good and perfect Father, even though your earthly Father isn t perfect. You must abide by the truth that God loves you and cares for you, as a good father loves and cares for his children. And so, it is appropriate that as we spend time during this summer series looking at various Psalms in Scripture, we look at a Psalm that accentuates the power of fatherhood. The Psalm we will look at today isn t meant only for fathers. King Solomon wrote psalm 127 for all people. The truths presented in the Psalm are valuable for everyone; men and women, young and old. Psalm 127 shows us that our God is in control; it shows that our wellbeing and our security are found in Him and in Him alone. Today we will see that God is in charge of everything. Our Father is in charge of everything. The title of this series is Songs Jesus Sang. Christ used these Psalms to worship God. Psalm 127 is a Psalm of wisdom that reads a lot like Solomon s other writings in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Let s read Psalm 127 together: A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon. 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. 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. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

3 As I mentioned, this Psalm was written by Solomon and similar to other wisdom literature in Scripture. But notice the very first line in this Psalm. Even though it is in the original Hebrew, in most of your Bibles, the first words appear before verse one. The line reads, A Song of Ascents. There are fifteen Psalms of Ascent in the Bible. These Psalms were sung by the Israelites as they ascended to the temple in Jerusalem during festival seasons a few times each year. The City of David was elevated, and as the people entered Jerusalem from around Israel, they would ascend the hill of the Lord. Like many of us do, they would sing songs while traveling with family, but instead of Let it Go, they sang these Psalms. So, when we read in the Gospel of Luke about Christ going up to the temple in Jerusalem with His family, this is one of the songs that He was singing with Mary, Joseph, His siblings and His friends. Also, many historians believe that these Psalms of Ascent were incorporated into regular Jewish worship, even outside of the festival seasons. This means that Psalm 127, along with the other Psalms of Ascent was a song that Jesus sang a lot. Let s look again at the first two verses: 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. 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. Now remember the Psalms are poems. And interpreting poetry can be difficult since so much of the language is figurative. In this Psalm we have a mix of literal and figurative language. There are layers of meaning here. Building a house not only means the physical building of a house, but it can also represent the building of a household and all that comes with it. Building a home includes the physical building, but it also means the installation of values, traditions, habits, schedules and the way you do things, as a family. Growing up, I would sometimes say to my mom, But mom, my friend s parents let him say those words. And she would respond, Well, those aren t words we say at our house. Even deciding what words are appropriate is part of building a home. By the way, you don t have to have a family or even be married to build a home. Even if you live all by yourself, you set boundaries for your life that either embrace God or reject Him. Building a home is something that we all do. In the second part of verse one, there s another instance of figurative language. Watching over a city, means the security of a community, but it also represents personal security and protection. In Ancient Israel, setting watchmen around a city was how the people of the city were protected from invaders, whether man or beast. But for us, security isn t just locking your front door at night, or getting a concealed handgun license. Security is also child-proofing your home. It s putting on a seatbelt. It s being confident that the God who made you knew what He was doing and not allowing your identity to flow from anything

4 other than Him. Finding security is anything we do to try and gain control of our environment whether for safety s sake or to satisfy our own desire to be in control. You see, it s easy to try and build a home and find security outside of God. People do it all the time. Even Christians get tempted to build their home based on what seems to be popular. They build their schedules around what everyone else is doing instead of what God would have them do. It s easy to get caught up in building your homre around soccer practices, play dates, going out to eat, certain tv shows and doing everything that you think that everyone else is doing. As for building your own security, it s easy to build your personal arsenal, install a high-tech security system, or even hire a security detail and think that you have it all under control. But if we do these things without the leadership and guidance of God, we are wasting our time. A house built on human ingenuity is imperfect, at best. Placing security in human-made systems only presents so much peace. We must rely on God. We must seek His guidance as we build our homes and seek our security. Now, King Solomon isn t saying that we should ignore security or trying to build our home. He is simply demonstrating that trying to build a home or find security outside of God s wil is ultimately futile. It eventually amounts to nothing. We can have the most fabulous homes and the most powerful military in the world, but without God we re hopeless. Swimming pools and drones only get you so far. Verse two says as much about our work. If we strive to work without God s guidance, what s the point? Sure, you might get paid well, but if God isn t in your work, and you don t view your work as an offering to God, your work is in vain. We often try to separate what happens on Sunday from what happens the rest of the week. Many of us are tempted to believe that Sunday is for the sacred and the other days are secular. But the truth is that for Christians, we are to give our entire lives to Him, including our work. I think, here, it is helpful to think of the farmer. The farmer can work hard, planting, tending the fields and taking care of his crop, but only God can send the rain. The same is true for your work your job itself is a gift of God. And you might be really good at your job again, your giftedness is from God but success comes from God and God alone. We like to think that through hard work and ingenuity we can make it rain, but only God can truly make it rain and bring success. When we place our faith in Him, we have peace to know that God will make it rain when He is ready. Our work is not anxious, and therefore not futile. For most of us, we spend a large percentage of our waking hours in the workplace. If God loves us and cares for our lives, then wouldn t He want to guide this huge part of our lives? He wants to use us not just in the church, but in the day by day, minute by minute thoughts, actions and words of our daily lives; whether at home or at work.

5 If you don t view your workplace as an environment for Christ to grow your faith and, perhaps, the faith of others, you should reconsider your approach to your job. There are so many opportunities day in and day out to demonstrate Godly values in the workplace. Faith and work are not separate faith should infuse your work. For those who turn their homes, security and work over to God, there is rest. There are times when work brings stress, but when we give these things to God, when we lay our burdens at His feet, He gives us peace. The Psalmist is reminding us here that Our Father is in charge of everything. As much as we like to think we are in control, Solomon is showing us that God is in charge of everything. Recognizing His sovereignty is key to building a healthy home and workplace. The second part of the Psalm focuses on children. Let s read verses three through five: Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. These verses demonstrate what a blessing children can be. In these verses, children are called a heritage, a reward, arrows, and a blessing. Children are a heritage because they carry on the family values and beliefs. They are arrows because children contribute to the security of a family when they grow older. They re a blessing because they ensure that their parents are not put to shame. The city gate was a place where business would take place. If you had something against someone else, the legal matter would be taken to the city gate where the elders presided. Verse five shows us that if someone charged you with something, your children could stand as witnesses to your character and your actions, preventing you from being put to shame. Children are a testament to our character. It s interesting that we see in the first two verses that God is the only one who can truly establish the household values and security that we try to build for ourselves. One of the ways he helps us build Godly homes, find security and place meaning in our work is to provide children for us, as a blessing. Children can help us build a Godly home. So many people don t bother coming to church until a child gets involved. Children can help us find Godly security, maintaining the Godly boundaries we set for ourselves and for our community. Children can help us find meaning in our work, as we seek to provide for them, in reverence to God. In the Old Testament, the family was very important. There was no state government to step in and help in old age. There was no 911 you could call in an emergency. There was no one else you could depend on for certain. But we see in the New Testament a re-casting of family. Not only is there a basic family unit of a father, mother and children, but the Church is also considered a family; the adopted family of God. This is important because many of you feel as if you are not blessed by children when, in truth, you have spiritual children all around you. You have a community that could step in during emergencies and stand as a

6 witness to your character. The key is that you invest time and yourself in your community in spiritual children who may be young or old, depending on their spiritual maturity. So, as we look at Psalm 127, the prevailing point the Psalmist is trying to make is that God is in charge of everything. God is in control. It is only through Him a home finds a firm foundation. It is only through God we can find true security. It is only through the Father that we can find any meaning in our work. It is only through God that we can grow up the next generation to be agents of love and peace in our world. God is sovereign. Our Father is in charge of everything. If God is in charge of everything, how do we build our homes according to His will? What are we to do? The first thing you can do is simply confess to yourself that you are not truly in control. Confess that God is in control. God is in control. We like to think we are in control, but the only thing the Bible charges us to gain control of is ourselves. We must exercise self-control. Trying to control everything and everyone else will get you nowhere. You can try to control every inch of your home. You can try to control every aspect of your children. You can try to control everyone else, but trying to do that will wear you out and you re sure to fail. Your job is not to be God. Your job is to follow God. So, the first thing you need to do is confess that God is in control. The second thing you can do is to spiritually invest in your home. Spiritually invest in your home. This seems daunting to many of you, and our church wants to help. Helping you build a home according to the will of our Father is the reason we have Home Point downstairs next to the Hub near the south entrance of the church. Home Point is not a simple bookstore, even though you can buy some books there. There are plenty of resources in Home Point that are free. Perhaps our greatest resources in Home Point are our volunteers. Kathleen, who runs Home Point, offers great advice, as someone who has worked at our church for many years, is a mom and a grandmother. Home Point is a resource center whose purpose is to equip the home for a lifetime of discipleship. Whether you are single or married, with kids or without kids, a child, a teenager or a senior citizen, there are resources there as you seek to build your home or your family on Christ. If you desire to build your home according to God s will and seek for Him to guide your household, I strongly encourage you to visit Home Point to see if there are any resources you can pick up that might benefit you. So number one, we should confess that God is in control. Two, we should spiritually invest in our homes. Lastly, we should praise God for His provision. Praise God for His provision. Jesus sang Psalm 127 with His family and the rest of the Israelites as a way to praise God for all He had done. You should be quick to be grateful to God and to thank Him for all that He has brought you. Be quick to sing a song of thankfulness in the car on the way to church or as you travel down the road. Be quick to thank God for His goodness in your life.

7 Every Father desires to be the source of provision and protection for his family. Seeking to provide for and protect your family are good things, but we can t go overboard and start to play God. It is through Him and Him alone that we can find true security and provision. We can build a house. We can build a business. We can lock the front doors, build a wall at the border, and grow the strongest military in the world but if God is not in our effort, our work is in vain it s pointless. The City of Dallas is hungry for people who strong dads. This city needs people who build homes that uphold godly values. How refreshing is it when you see a family that loves well? Our communities need us to demonstrate how God takes away anxiety and replaces it with peace. Our workplaces need people of peace who seek to be selfless, carrying values of character and integrity. Our children need to see us find our strength in God. The strongest father in the room is not the one who embellishes his cleverness or ingenuity. The strongest father in the room is the one who embraces his weakness, leaning on God for true strength. We are not in control. Our Father is in charge of everything.