Trust the Lord to Build the House || David Platt

so let's dive right in psalm 127 verse 1 this is the word of god and on that note isn't it good this summer hearing god's word from different pastors and being reminded that it's god's word not any person not any pastor that ultimately brings us together and as long as god's word is proclaimed then we are happy people we're satisfied in the word of god period so let's hear the word of god to us today psalm 127 verse 1 unless the lord builds the house those who build it labor in vain unless the lord washes

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 oh god please speak by your spirit through this

word to every person listening right now and to every person who may listen to this in the future in jesus name amen this is quite a text that really splits up naturally into two parts though they're connected and how they're connected is really important but let's start with verses one and two did you notice the phrase that is mentioned three different times repeated circle it in your bible unless the lord builds the house those who build it labor what in vain unless the lord washes over the city the watchman stays awake in vain it is

in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest so in the original language of the old testament this word vein literally means empty meaningless point less like you can build a house but in the end if you do it apart from the lord you will miss the whole point you can try to watch over a city but apart from the lord and his help your watching will be wasted no matter how early you get up or late you go to bed you will live in anxious toil so here's how i'd summarize it

psalm 127 here is giving us a picture of the vain pointless anxious wasted life at which point i would pause and ask who of us wants that who of us wants to go through life anxious only to get to the end and realize i wasted it i totally missed the point it was all in vain i don't think anybody wants this life so let's hear god speaking to us right now here's what leads to this kind of life two things let me show them to you if you do these two things this is the kind

of life you will have one the vain pointless anxious wasted life works without dependence on god it builds it watches it even rises early and goes late to bed but it does all of these things saying i don't need the lord i don't need god i can build and watch and work on my own that's the first thing works without dependence on god and then second the vain pointless anxious wasted life toils without trust in god so this word for toil in verse 2 is the same word that's actually translated pain back in genesis chapter

3 verse 16 when we first see the curse of sin the picture is you work hard you do all that you can to build and to watch to work to provide your toiling like it all depends on you to fix this to solve that to control this to make that happen it's all in your hands which inevitably leads to anxiety when you can't fix it or you can't solve it or you can't control it or you can't make it happen now it's at this point i just want to pause and realize this is how all

of us are prone to live from the youngest to the oldest among us we are all prone to work without dependence on god to get up and go about our day we have so much to do school work this or that for the kids for family this or that for friends this or that in our schedules and any one of us can dive into all of these things without stopping to spend concentrated time with god saying i can't do any of these things apart from you any of us can easily go through our days without

sitting down opening up god's word and saying i need you i need to hear from you i need help from you without setting aside a half an hour an hour or more to express our dependence on god we are too busy of a people for that now i realize that some people here today might not yet believe in god maybe you're exploring christianity or maybe you're visiting with a friend or family member and you are atheist or agnostic you might say honestly i don't need the help of god the love of god i can do

all these things on my own after all i've built a career with hard work i worked hard in school i worked hard to climb the ladder i get up early and i'm successful it seems to work for me at which point i would say based on what god is saying here i'm sure you do i'm sure you work hard i'm sure you get up early and you have earned and are earning what you work for but i would ask the follow-up question who gives you breath to get up early who gave you a mind to

study in school who has given you the ability to climb that ladder who's causing your heart to beat right now your lungs to breathe in this moment the bible is telling you today that the success you enjoy actually comes from the god you deny which makes his love for you all the greater absolutely you can be an atheistic homebuilder there are many atheistic home and company and country builders in the world but in the end it will be pointless god is telling you right now if you work apart from dependence on me then you work

in vain now at the same time for most in a setting like this in church you're probably not an atheist you believe in god you believe in jesus but it's at this point i would submit that many christians live like practical atheists if you are a christian but you get up and go on with your day without stopping to spend concentrated time expressing your need and your desire for god and his help aren't you practically living like it's dependent upon you what's the practical difference between you and an atheist when your schedules look pretty much

the same many christians live like they don't need god every single day and this practical atheism is all the more prevalent when we get to the second part of the picture here the toiling without trust in god how many of us are tempted to toil without trust in god even as children of god how many of us can so easily lay in bed at night worrying about this go through our days anxious about that as if god is not in control or as if he is not worthy of our trust we are anxious people teenagers

anxious about what others think about them about grades about getting into schools we're anxious about getting jobs about building careers about our investments our health our families our friends if we're not careful we can live just like a godless world around us toiling without trust in the god who saves us how many of us when faced with a problem instinctively turn to ourselves and think how can i fix this instead of immediately turning to god and saying i can't do this i need you to fix this how many of us when we face a problem

instinctively or immediately resort to fasting and praying now at this point some might say well you can't just sit back and do nothing you can't just pray at some point you have to go to work you have to do something but that's exactly what this psalm is saying the psalm is not saying it's wrong to build or watch or even to rise early and go late to rest it's actually good and wise and biblical to build and watch and work hard from the beginning of the end of the day for that matter but notice the

difference here so here's the contrast between the vain pointless anxious wasted life and so let's see the opposite the valuable meaningful peace-filled life that counts the kind of life that does the exact opposite of what we just saw it works in constant dependence on god it builds with the realization that apart from god's help and god's building whatever is built won't matter it won't last the kind of life that watches with the realization that you're not the only one watching that the lord is watching too and you need his help to watch well you watch

independence on the lord watching you build independence on the lord building i wish we had time to turn here or maybe just write it down genesis chapter 11 is a perfect illustration of this think about it that chapter begins with people building a tower the tower of babel not in dependence on god but in defiance of god and all these people with all their ingenuity building a tower realize that in a second god stops it and they're scattered all of their building just like that is shown to be vain pointless wasted but then in the

second half of that chapter god calls one man named terah and god says i'm going to build you a family i'm going to give you a son his name is gonna be abraham and through him i'm gonna build an entire nation and an entire movement that will one day reach all the nations and church you and i are sitting here in metro washington dc today thousands of years later as part of the building god began that day that's valuable meaningful life that counts why because it builds in dependence on god you want to work build

watch work wisely hear the word of god today you and i can accomplish more in 10 minutes on in dependence on god then we can in a lifetime in dependence on ourselves and realizing that will change your life turn aside from your self-sufficiency and live in god dependency which is why this kind of life gets up in the morning and does what gets on your face and says i can't do anything today apart from you god opens up his word and says i need to hear from you and i need your help in all these

ways and you start listing them all out you start going through your day god i need your help in this way and that way i need your help now i'm going to need your help all day long all day long i'm going to be looking to you because there's nothing today that i will face that i can do on my own i need and i desire you and your help does that describe your life that's the valuable meaningful peace filled life that counts because so follow this listen to where this kind of life leads not

to anxious toil no for those who depend on god he gives to his beloved sleep now see this the valuable meaningful peace-filled life that counts works in constant dependence on god and rests with complete trust in god isn't this so good there's a way to work to build and watch with rest there's a way to be a teenager and not be stressed there's a way to be an adult and not worry about this or that because you realize that as you're building and as you're watching you're working in dependence on god you are loved by

god beloved is the word we see here are you seeing it hearing this word to you from god for all who trust in god you are beloved loved by the builder of the universe and the watcher of the world which means you can lay your head on your pillow at night no matter what is happening around you no matter how many problems are swirling and how many burdens you're bearing and you can close your eyes and you can actually go to sleep in peace because you know that ultimately you and all these problems and all

these burdens are in the hands of the lord who loves you and by the way he never goes to sleep in other words he never stops working for you i'm pretty sure i've shared this before one of my favorite quotes on sleep is from john piper he writes sleep is a daily reminder from god that we are not god once a day god sends us to bed like patience with a sickness the sickness is a chronic tendency to think that we are in control and that our work is indispensable to cure us of this disease

god turns us into helpless sacks of sand once a day how humiliating to the self-made corporate executive that he or she has to give up all control and become as limp as a suckling infant every day he calls sleep the broken record that comes around with the same message every single day that we are not in control that god alone is the great worker who never tires and never sleeps and god is not nearly as impressed with our late nights and early mornings as he is with the peaceful trust that casts all anxieties on him

and goes to sleep now what's interesting is where this psalm goes next because really we could just stop there here there is so much to soak in in just these two verses but then in verse 3 this psalm takes what almost seems like a left turn and starts talking about children but i would submit this is no left turn for many reasons one when the bible talks about building a house it's often talking about building a family look at second samuel chapter seven when god promised to build king david a house he was talking about

a family and that in and of itself is instructive for us isn't it when we think about building we often think about building a career or a business or a portfolio or a resume but the bible actually prioritizes building a family with children and lots of them at that a quiver full of them that's a very different perspective than the world around us today the trend lines are clear young adults in our culture putting off marriage until later and later oftentimes in the name of getting an education and a job and building a career as

if marriage is a barrier to these things and kids an even larger barrier or maybe even a burden to prevent that do you see what's wrong with the picture we are buying into we live in a culture that sees children as barriers and burdens when the bible calls them blessings and rewards so let's be careful with the way we talk about children even as the church we say i have one kid or i have two kids or i have three kids i don't want any more is that the way we talk about blessings or is

that the way we talk about burdens singles and especially men who have the responsibility of leading a home if god has called you to be single by all means maximize singleness to his glory if not then pursue a wife not years from now but now in dependence on god and when you get married and for all who are married unless god clearly says otherwise pursue and prize children trusting that in some cases he in his wisdom doesn't provide children in the way we hope but knowing that we should not see children as barriers or burdens

to be avoided or put off but as blessings to be sought and pursued from the lord and i should add here how thankful i am for singles and parents across this church family who are giving their lives to pour into the next generation of children in our church family over the last couple of weeks i've been at the rock senior high camp and junior high camp and i have witnessed faithful men and women across this church family some of them spending their vacation days riding hours on a bus sleeping on a very uncomfortable bunk in

at least in the guys cabins some rank rooms where every teenage boy forgot their deodorant or refuses to put it on their body and there are men and women in these cabins studying the bible praying with these students because they know and believe every one of them is a gift from the lord and i should also add i'm praying for a culture in our church where we do not have to beg for rock or kid's quest volunteers like serving the next generation is a burden for someone to endure i am praying for a culture of

church members who see serving the next generation as a blessing that we are all pursuing we can't keep buying into the way the world talks about kids and thinks about kids as the people of god who believe psalm 127 knowing that children and students with all due respect are not always easy a couple of sundays ago i was visiting different kids quest rooms here at tysons just to thank different people for serving and there are a couple of rooms where they had their hands full and i felt really bad for days when sermons go along

in here [Music] and we we all know this what parent in this room would say that raising toddlers or teenagers is a breeze it's been said that by some that the children are often a handful before they are quiverful but isn't that the beauty of this psalm apply what we've seen in this psalm right to parenting how do you pair it in a way that's valuable meaningful peace filled in a way that counts how do you do this you parent in constant dependence on god god i can't do this without you god i need your

wisdom i need your strength i need your help i'm building here as best as i can with what you've given to me but i can't do anything without your building do not try to parent apart from dependence on god how how will you parent without spending concentrated time with god asking for his help hearing from his word you can't do it not in a way that counts i i think about then the connection between or working in constant dependent dependence on god and resting with complete trust in god here's the good news i think about

in my own life i could not sleep at night if i thought parenting was all up to me the only way i can sleep is knowing that god loves my kids more than i do and that god loves me and my wife and he promises us when we wake up in the morning we're going to have new mercy waiting for whatever parenting brings that day to every mom or dad within the sound of my voice of all ages with all age kids including young children two adult children hear the lord saying to you today in

all your efforts to build up your house your children your family hear the lord saying to you right now i love you keep depending on me and trust in me and you will find that you are loved and you will find peace in me and i would add as a significant side note for those who are listening right now who desire children but god is not answering in the way you're asking or desiring whether you are single or married i think specifically of a faithful brother and sister in our church family who just spent the

last two months in children's hospital fighting for their little boy's life who was born two months ago and this week he went to be with the lord so for them and for anyone else experiencing sorrow and struggle and the desire even to apparent hear god's saying to you right now through his word i love you keep depending on me and rest in me and my love for you and rest in his love for in this situation for this child who died all too soon we can rest in god's love because we know the bible teaches

this little boy is beloved by god and safe in his arms forever which then leads to how this whole psalm turns around did you notice this children are a heritage from the lord a reward from the womb a blessing it's a blessing to have a quiver full of them they're like arrows in the hand of a warrior who stand with you when you're facing enemies at the gate so get the picture here it's like here's a guy who's facing enemies coming at him they're like coming toward him and if this guy's alone he's in trouble

but this guy has a quiver like full of arrows just i'm not picking a number just a lot of them full and that makes these guys think twice about messing with this guy because they know he's got them on his side so that that's the picture here in god's design parents watch out for their children in a way that one day children watch out for their parents and that's that's a good word for all of you who are aging for caring for aging parents right now hear god affirming the work that you are doing this

is good work you're standing behind your mom or your dad this is good work it will not be easy work but god will give you everything you need to be a blessing to them when you need it and they need it let me tell you how i saw this illustrated over recent weeks many of you know and mike mentioned uh levon one of our pastors here at tysons who's fought with a brain tumor for 10 years and a couple of months ago he and his family realized there wasn't anything else that could be done to

stop its growth i want to tell you what i saw when i went to lee's home i saw a man lying in bed facing what first corinthians 15 calls the last enemy death itself you know what i saw around him i saw his wife and his grown kids and they were taking care of him getting him his medicines helping him be comfortable and they were reading the bible to him every day years ago when they were young lee read the chronicles of narnia to them over the last month they decided to pull out the chronicles

of narnia and read the last battle to their dad or c.s lewis imagines resurrection and new creation to come i give you a picture and leave on of building a family in dependence on god seeing children as a blessing from god and one day finding yourself with them at your back as you walk through heaven's gates is this not a great psalm well let me tell you how god has specifically used it in my life and family many of you know the story of my family how heather and i struggled and agonized through years of

infertility desiring to build a home but god not blessing in the way we desired and how the lord used that journey to open our eyes to adoption and we adopted our first son caleb from kazakhstan after which heather to our complete surprise became pregnant with our second son joshua that then led to a failed adoption process in nepal that redirected us to china where we adopted our daughter mara after which heather surprisingly became pregnant with isaiah and at that point we were joyfully content and to be perfectly vulnerable i think i saw additional children as

too much as preventing us from doing some things we would like to do until a date night years later when the subject of adoption came up at dinner in a way we had not planned the only way i can describe it is god met us at the table that night and by the time we paid the check we were ready to start the adoption process again so we did again from china and we were matched with the sun three and a half at the time named jd we were three days away from going to pick

him up in january 2020 when we receive word that china was closing down because of a virus the initial word is that they'd be open again soon and that began a process of waiting for now two and a half years especially in light of all that's going on that part of the world not knowing when we can bring our son home so i've shared all that before in the church what i haven't shared is what happened next a few months later we were in psalms in our church bible reading plan much like we are right

now and on the day we came to psalm 127 i read this psalm as i was meditating and praying about how children are a blessing specifically a quiver full of children a blessing i began to think if that's true i believe this then why would i want not want more blessings the more i asked that question in prayer the more i began to sense maybe our quiver won't even be full with jd so i wrote all that down in my journal but obviously i needed to talk with heather about this and as we began to

talk we both realized well we'd read the same psalm and we were thinking and praying the same thing thus began a journey where it became clear that the chances of having another child biologically were small but adoption was definitely a possibility so we prayed and explored and began a parallel adoption process domestically here in the u.s through lifeline it's a great gospel-centered ministry that among other things works with birth moms and dads when possible who desire to put together an adoption plan fast forward to the end of last year in december heather and i received

notice that a birth mom was set to deliver in about a month and she desired a home for her baby girl but in the notice we received we heard that this birth mom already had a name picked out for her baby girl when heather and i saw that we looked at each other and said that's kind of a bummer because many years ago we had said that if god ever gave us another girl we would love to name her mercy and we know that's not the most common name but heather and i looked at each

other and said of course that's not a deal breaker so we read this profile that this birth mom had put together about herself and her desires for her child and we got to the end of the profile she said i have a name already picked out for my daughter and we read the words i want her name to be mercy believing this was not a coincidence tears began to flow and we began to pray god we don't know this is all going to go through but we're trusting in you to lead in this and about

a month later for the first time we met mercy's birth mom via zoom and i think she may listen to this regardless i want to say to all of you that heather and i fell in love with this birth mom who was making a hard brave sacrificial decision to do what she believed was best for her beautiful baby girl and we honor her we honor her trust in the lord and her desire for mercy is good throughout this process there is no question there will never be a question about how much mercy is loved by

her birth mom and we also honor her dad as an image-bearer of god well about a week later mercy was born and here's a picture of mercy mercy happily being held in her first mom's arms and a couple days later we met them both and this mom entrusted heather and me to be mom and dad to mercy and the reason i haven't shared any of this is publicly is because anyone who's been through an adoption process knows that a variety of complications can arise along the way you want to be wise and careful and honoring

everyone involved to wait until things are final and the last six months have involved a lot of ups and downs and emotions that i've actually alluded to at different points and i've said at a couple points lord willing i'll be able to share more about this one day well all of that led to two weeks ago when heather and i had the opportunity via zoom to be in a courtroom and to tell the story of god's clear love for this little girl her birth mom's love for her our love for her and specifically share the

story of her name by the end the judge said the courtroom was in tears as she pronounced that mercy was a member of the platt family so here's here's one of my favorite pictures of mercy and i have i have about 5 000 others on my phone if you would like to see them but i'll spare you today and just just to give you a picture of the chaos in our family i was i was alone in the house this week one night uh giving mercy a bottle and just singing over her as she looked

up peacefully at me so here's the picture of her just looking up he's sleeping then the rest of the family i hear them come in the house and they all come barging into her room they're kissing all over her playing with her which led to this picture there we go where look at her it's like she's like just put me in the bed like i was so peaceful but even that picture is bittersweet we are obviously so so so thankful for this journey that god has orchestrated and this baby girl he's entrusted to our care

in a way we never could have imagined at the same time we have a son who's waiting for this to happen to him to be a part of that picture his birthday is actually tomorrow we had a call with him this week just to wish him a happy birthday to introduce him to his new sister and we got off that call and prayed again especially in light of all that's going on in that part of the world god please open the door for us to go to him and him to us and you know the

bitter sweetness for me actually goes one layer deeper because tuesday so two days from now is the anniversary of the day when my dad suddenly died of a heart attack and it makes me really sad that he never got to see that that picture none of my kids actually he never got to see me as a dad all of them have only heard about him but that's the beauty of psalm 127. because when the lord builds the house it's not in vain it's not empty it's not pointless my dad pointed me to the lord in

a way that i'm doing everything i can to point my kids to the lord and for all who trust in him one day we're going to be with the lord together in a house that will last forever that's a valuable meaningful peace filled life that counts and i want to exhort you to live it