Your House Is The Lord's House-4 Series

YOUR HOUSE Is The LORD's HOUSE-IV—Psalm 127:1-5

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Years ago, there was an old tale in the Marine Corps about a lieutenant who inspected his marines & told the ‘gunny’(gunnery sergeant) that they smelled bad...in fact, they stunk to high heaven! The lieutenant demanded that they change their underwear.

The Gunny responded, 'Yes, sir, I'll see to it immediately'.

He went into the tent & said, 'The lieutenant says you guys stink, & he wants you to change your underwear! Smith, you change with Jones, McCarthy, you change with Wiltkowskie, Brown, you change with Schultz. Get to it'.

The Gunny’s 'house’ was not fully the Lieutenant’s ‘house’!

Your house is the Lord’s house. What you do with it must honor him!

By the Holy Spirit, the author of Ps. 127 compels the reader, & singer of these truths, to ensure the heritage of the Lord’s house.

Every successful ‘house’ is built & maintained by the Lord.

*When is your house the Lord’s House?

7 affirmations/evidences that your house is the Lord’s house.

We have previously found that...

Your ‘house’ is the Lord’s ‘house’ when...

1. Your LABOR Is The Lord’s(:1a-b)

2. Your WATCH Is The Lord’s(:1c-d)

3. Your TIME/Attentiveness Is The Lord’s(:2)

4. Your HERITAGE Is The Lord’s(:3)Lineage/Progeny

Likewise today we will find that...

5—Your house is the Lord’s house when...

Your WEAPONRY Is The Lord’s(:4)

Explanation:(:4)Offense/Testimony

:4—“Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth.”

By virtue of “children” being a “heritage” & “reward”, they are can be compared to or are similar to or are “like” a “warrior’s” “arrows.”

Children are as near & dear to one’s household in the same manner as “arrows” are near & dear to a “warrior.”

*?In what way(s) do “arrows in the hand of a warrior” speak to “the children of one’s youth”?

They are a part of who the warrior is...They are part of who the parent(s) is(are).

They are the warrior’s(& parent’s) offensive projectors & defensive protectors from enemy encroachment by keeping the enemy subdued & humbled. They bring fear to the enemy.

They give the warrior(& parents) peace of mind & heart.

They are what the warrior(& parents) needs & trusts in to accomplish all that is before him(them). An extension of the warrior(& parents).

Like “arrows” they touch, enter, & destroy that which opposes God.

Once shot/fired, the nearness to their intended target speaks of the integrity of the ones who shot/raised them.

When children are in Christ, they are effective weapons against the enemies of God by being true/faithful to Him...Their faith is extended to others.

Rom. 1:14-17—“I am a debtor both to Greeks & to barbarians, both to wise & to unwise. So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first & also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

No one can approach the enemy, or “hunt or defend themselves with crooked arrows! Just as straight arrows are indispensable for the success of the archer, so are strong children[indispensable for] the success of society!”

“It’s a frightening thing when a child, at...a young age, becomes crooked in their thinking, in their behavior & in their morals…once society breaks the child’s [Christian]foundation – [Secular]society as it is, does not have the power to fix it!”—Dave Kinney(SermonCentral) Why “of one’s youth”?...

Children should be conceived thru our initial commitment to raise them in the nurture/training & admonition of the Lord(Eph. 6:4).

If we wait to have children until we’ve ‘made our millions’, then our commitment to raising them properly is actually founded on money & flesh rather than God’s glory.

If we wait to have children until we’ve ‘made our millions’, then we will not live long enough nor have strength enough to affect their proper upbringing as has been designed.

Godly parents get to experience their children’s commitment to God in Christ. They remain interactive with & continually instill Christian(godly) values in their adult children.

Those who have their children too late in life, grow old & pass away without witnessing & interacting with their children’s onslaught/battles with & against evil(Eph. 6:10-20).

Someone has said, “An arrow is only as good as the bow that shoots it.” But don't be monolithic or confuse the metaphor in our text with that!

Unfaithful children are, in many ways, an affront to Christian parents. Unfaithful children can be ‘rightly’ or ‘wrongly’ interpreted as representative of parenting ability.

Unfortunately Christians may find themselves 'wrongly' judging Christian parents because their children stray from or outright reject Jesus!