INTRO.- ILL.- Some house builders drove into their local lumber yard. One of the men walked into the office and said, "We need some four-by-twos."
The clerk asked, "You mean two-by-fours, don't you?" The man said, "I'll go check," and went back to the truck. He returned and said, "Yeah, I meant two-by-fours."
"All right. How long do you need them?" asked the clerk. The man paused for a minute and said, "I'd better go check." After a while, the customer returned to the office and said, "A long time. We're gonna build a house."
How could any builder be that dumb? I don’t think you’d want that guy to build you a house. And obviously, you need lots of lumber to build a house, but what about a spiritual house? What does it take? And how long does it take to build a good, solid spiritual house?
Even if we never build a house, we all are building a house in this world! We all are building a life.
ILL.- When I was a kid the First Baptist Church of Webb City, MO, gave me a Bible in Sunday School. It had a poem in the front entitled, “Live to Make a Life.” I don’t have that Bible anymore nor that poem. And I can’t find it on in the internet. Essentially, it read: Live to make a life, not a living. And you get the idea.
There are many in life who only set out to make a living, but they never make a life, at least, not a life that is pleasing to God. And that should always be our goal as His children.
I Corinthians 10:31 “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
Whatever we do in life we are to live for His glory. That means to honor God in all we do; work, play, raising our children, etc.
II Corinthians 5:6-10 “Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”
That’s it! We live to please the Lord in life! And since we will eventually appear before the Lord it only makes good sense to seek to please Him in all of life.
Ephesians 5:15-17 “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.”
How do we live? Very carefully. Using every opportunity to honor and serve the Lord. There is much evil in our world and the best way to avoid contributing to that evil is to serve the Lord. We fill our lives with doing good and doing the will of God.
Colossians 1:9-10 “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God...”
We must live a life worthy of the Lord. We belong to Him and we must seek to please Him in every way: marriage, children, work, relaxation, etc.
ILL.- A carpenter walks onto a job site of a large company and hands the foreman his application. The foreman begins to scan the sheet, and notices that the applicant has been fired from every job he has ever held. “I must say,” says the foreman, “your work history is terrible. You’ve been fired from every job.” “Yes,” says the carpenter. “Well,” continues the foreman, “there’s not much positive in that.” “Hey!” says the guy as he pokes the application. “At least I’m not a quitter.”
Many people act like quitters when it comes to building a life. It’s like, “Why work hard? It never pays.” That may be the mentality that some people have. However, everything do in this life does have an affect on eternity. We must not quit. We must not be lazy. We must work hard in order to build a life that is pleasing to God. And that’s what this text is all about. Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.
PROP.- How should the Lord build our house?
1- We must allow the Lord to build the house of our work
2- We must allow the Lord to build the house of our offspring
I. WE MUST ALLOW THE LORD TO BUILD THE HOUSE OF OUR WORK
1 Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. 2 In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for he grants sleep to those he loves.
ILL.- One morning a local highway department crew reached their job-site and realized they had forgotten all their shovels. The crew’s foreman radioed the office and told his supervisor of the situation. The supervisor radioed back and said, “Don’t worry, we’ll send some shovels … just lean on each other until they arrive.”
What was he suggesting? Apparently, that they only used their shovels to lean on and not for work. As we all know, some people are not too work brittle or they don’t have very good work ethic. In other words, some people are lazy.
ILL.- This notice was found in the ruins of a London office building. It was dated 1852. “This firm has reduced the hours of work, and the clerical staff will now only have to be present between the hours of 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. weekdays.”
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO WORK FROM 7 TO 6 EVERY DAY? That’s 11 hours. I realize that some have worked that long at times, but most people today don’t want to work for more than 8 hours a day. Of course, it also depends on what you do and whether you are like your work or not.
Ephesians 6:5-8 “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.”
You may have worked for a boss at some time in your life who thought you were his or her slave or you felt like a slave. However, I doubt seriously that any job we do today would actually feel like slavery.
ILL.- Andrew Carnegie said: “The average person puts only 25 percent of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50 percent of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100 percent.” What about you?
We all need to work harder at whatever we do in life. I really believe that. God believes in hard work and we should too, but of course, it is a lot easier to work hard at something you like.
Also, when we are cheerful and work hard, not cheat on company time, etc., work a full day for a full day’s pay then we present a glowing witness for Christ. And that is allowing the Lord to build the house of our work! We involve the Lord in our work. That’s what it means to have Him build our house of work.
1 Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.
I don’t want to do anything in vain in life! I want God to touch everything I do. I want Him to bless everything that I do and to His glory! I don’t want Him to bless my work for my sake, but rather for His sake and glory! I’m not here for me. I’m living for His glory and honor and praise!
2 In vain you rise early and stay up late toiling for food to eat—for he grants sleep to those he loves.
Rise up early in vain? What’s the deal? That’s what most people think anyway. That is, they think that getting up early to do anything, work or otherwise, is vanity. They don’t see it as being worthwhile.
The writer is suggesting that whether we get up early to go to work and even stay up late to work, all of it is in vain unless the Lord is involved in our work. And that is true. We must allow the Lord to build our house of work.
II. WE MUST ALLOW THE LORD TO BUILD THE HOUSE OF OUR OFFSPRING
3 Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. 4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. 5 Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court.
ILL.- John Chrysostom, the early church father, had a most interesting tract on the right way to bring up children— “Let us afford our children from the first an incentive to goodness from the name that we give them. Let none of us hasten to call his children after his forebears, his father and mother and grandsire and great-grandsire, but rather after the righteous—martyrs, bishops, apostles.
“Let one be called Peter, and another John, another bear the name of one of the saints...let the names of the saints enter our homes through the naming of our children.”
It was Chrysostom’s idea that the child should be given a great name; that he should be repeatedly told the story of the great bearer of the name and that thus he should be moved to make himself like the great owner of the name which he bears.
Interesting thinking. And I do believe that children should be motivated in life to work hard, be good citizens, and even more than that, follow Christ in life. That should be our greatest hope: for our children to become Christians. What are you living for? Is it not to see your children with you in heaven? I just don’t see how you could enjoy heaven without your children being there, but that may happen to some people. That, I believe, should be our ultimate goal when raising our children. We must lead them to Christ!
ILL.- Preahcer J. Wilbur Chapman said: “I was standing in Tiffany’s great store in new York, and I heard the salesman say to a lady, ‘Madam, this pearl is worth $17,000.’ I was interested and said, ‘Please let me see the pearl that is worth $17,000!’ The salesman put it on a piece of black cloth, and I studied it carefully.
“As I looked around that beautiful store, I imagined them bringing all their stock up to my house and saying, ‘We want you to take care of this tonight.’ What do you think I would do? I would go to the telephone and call up the chief of police and say, ‘I have all of Tiffany’s stock in my house. Will you send some of your trusted officers to help me ensure its safety?’
“But I have a little boy in my house, and for him I am responsible. I have had him for nine years, and some of you have just such a little fellow. I turn to this old book and I read this word: ‘What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?’ (Matthew 16:26) If he had all the diamonds and rubies and pearls in one hand and just the little boy in the other, the boy would be worth more than all the jewels.
“If you tremble because you had millions of dollars’ worth of jewels in your house one night, how then can you go up to Heaven before your Father, and the boy be not with you?”
I believe we should teach our children to work, have manners, be productive citizens but more importantly, we should teach them to become citizens of the kingdom of God! We should lead them the way of Christ and teach them way of Christ.
Ephesians 6:1-4 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. "Honor your father and mother"—which is the first commandment with a promise— "that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth." Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”
This scripture doesn’t need explanation, it needs action, response, doing, obedience. We train and raise our children in the Lord in two basic ways: teaching and example and example may be the best way to teach. I remember more of what my father did than what he said when he was alive!
3 Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Children are what? Sometimes a pain but we recognize they come from God. They are a blessing or should be or can be if we train them properly. We must allow the Lord to build our house of child rearing! This means that we must always point our children to Him and try to raise them to know Him and live for His glory.
CONCLUSION-------------
ILL.- Michael Catt is the Sr. Pastor of the Sheridan Baptist Church in Albany, GA, which is about 180 miles straight south of Atlanta. It’s the church that has produced such movies as: Facing the Giants (2006), Fireproof (2008), and Courageous (2011).
He wrote: “What would happen if you had a compass, headed for the North Pole, and your compass was faulty? What if it was only one degree off true North? If you were starting in South Georgia where I live, there’s a good chance you would end up in the Atlantic Ocean and never reach your destination. A compass is only good if it’s accurate. If your goal is true north, then one degree off keeps leading you further and further away from your stated destination. With that thought in mind, realizing we are all flawed sinners saved by grace, there’s a word of caution I’d like to offer. Make sure your compass is pointed true north. Or, simply, make sure your compass is pointed toward Jesus.”
AND HE’S RIGHT. Life is vain without the Lord.
Steve Shepherd, Cape Girardeau, MO, shepherd111@hotmail.com
