Stronger Dads - Stronger Homes

Let’s open up our bibles to Psalm 127. Find with me, Psalm 127 and when you find it, just hold your place there for a moment.I’ll let you know here in a moment when it’s time to stand together. Psalm 127 is one off the two recorded Psalms that have been accredited to King Solomon. I can’t remember if I mentioned it last week. But I do find it interesting that King Solomon was known for his superior intellect and wisdom.

But he still failed God. All throughout the Bible, we find great men of God who fail. Adam in Genesis, the first of a line of failures failed to lead his wife to reject the fruit and to rely on God alone. Abraham a man of superior faith, failed to love and protect his wife and failed her and others. King David was known as a man of worship and a man after God’s own heart.

He was in love with God and we see that love being lived out in the book of Psalms, but he had moral failures. Sampson had immense physical strength, but with a sinful disregard for his parents and for God. His strength ended in collapse. Peter in the New Testament was overly confident in His leadership, but yet he allowed Satan to use him to try and derail the mission of Christ to go to the cross.

Solomon had all the wisdom in the world, making him the wisest man of his day who would write proverbs that still relate to us today. Solon was wise and he was loved by God. There is a Scripture in I Chronicles 28 found in verse 6 that says, “I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father” No one in the world would hear that line until Jesus came and began his ministry.

But yet, Solomon sinned greatly against the Lord. He married pagan wives, built pagan altars for them, and even participated in pagan worship himself. And the only reason God didn’t take the kingdom from him was because of the promise God gave to David. Solomon failed miserably. I just want all the men to hear today. We can have all the extremes… faith, strength, wisdom, love and courage in our walk with God, and still fail in our walk.

We can have faith, but fail to trust God. We can have strength, but still be weak in your walk with God. We can have a heart for worship, but fail God. As I sat in my study this week, I kept thinking. If all of these men drastically failed God, then what hope is there for me. A man who wrestles with sin, and anxiety, and even self worth every day.

And then the Lord reminded me of Ephesians 6:10.. Finally, my brothers, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. The Lord laid on my heart, Be strong. Not in anyone else. Not in your appearance, or car, or money or even my wife in kids. Lay your treasures down at the foot of the cross, take upon yourself the yoke of Jesus, for it’s easy and be strong in Him, and in his power and might.

What I’ve learned in my personal walk with Christ is that Often one’s strength or weaknesses isn’t obvious until challenges arise, but I can be strong in the Lord anytime by faithfully believing God’s Word, being sensitive to His Spirit within me and then trusting him, by faith to live in His abundant grace. This morning, I want to share with you, on this Father’s Day how to be men and even women of God.

Psalm 127 gives us ways and exercises to help us become stronger dads to build stronger homes. Let’s stand together and read Psalm 127. Psalm 127:1-5… 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. 2 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.

3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. 4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. 5 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. And all of God’s people said together… Amen. You may be seated. This week Gabriel and I went to Walmart to buy a tire tube for his bicycle.

When we got home he had asked me if I could help him put it on. It was a heart filled moment for me because although he is 15, to ask dad to come and help meant I was going to get to go out, teach him something and spend some amazing time with him. He had already taken the tire off, which of course is the easy part. But then came the hard part of removing the inner tube and replacing the old one with the new one and then putting the tire back on the rim.

After some struggle I got everything situated and it was time to pump the tire up. So, I held the tire in place and he began to pump the tire with air. And as he was doing that, I was praying that I didn’t poke a hole in the new tube with my flat head screwdriver. But before long, the tire was filled, and everything was done and Gabriel was able to ride off and everything worked as planned.

After all was said and done, i went over to my office and I began to think back. There was a time when he wasn’t strong enough to push down bicycle pump without my help. As men, and women of God, we can very easily do whatever it is God lays on our heart without the help of God. There’s a lot of Christians who live practical atheistic lives. It’s true.

There’s a lot of people who come into churches every Sunday who are faced with some sort of problem, and instead of turning to God, they instinctively turn to themselves to fix the issue without God’s help. I’ve noticed even in my life at times, that walking by faith is easy until I am required to trust in God. I can believe in God, I can know God exist, I can even do the work that God calls me to do, but even with those truths, I can still live a life where I do not trust God in all circumstances.

Again, it is a reminder to be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. It’s a call for me to always remember that all things has the fingerprint of God on them for Him. Solomon in Psalm 127 verses 1-2 is teaching us that. He reminds us that apart from God we do everything in vain. I can go out and build a porch and forget that God has given me the very breathe that helps my body have the strength to do the job.

He has given me a weekly job to pay for the material that is needed. He has given me knowledge and life experiences to give me the mental picture on how to build it. And when it’s all said and done, I can very easily stand there on the finished porch, look to my wife and kids and say, “Look at my amazing work, Lets celebrate by firing up the grill, cook some steaks and crack open an ice cold root beer.” I can do all of those things, and still forget that God’s hand was involved in every step and forget to thank God in my work.

God wants us to work hard at our jobs. He wants us to be hard workers. But not at the expense of forgetting his amazing presence in our lives. That even though we work hard at our jobs, we ultimately must work them for him. Did you know we’re called to work for Him? No, Im not talking about those just in ministry. I am talking about us, ordinary blue color people who are called to go to work every day to work for the glory of God.

Colossians 3:23-25 reminds us: 23 Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. 24 Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ. 25 But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done. For God has no favorites. What’s interesting is that in Colossians we are called to work, but it never tells us what our specifics work is to be.

It only says, whatever it is, whatever you do… do your work willingly as if you doing it for the Lord… even if it’s as simple as washing the dishes. One of my favored books to read is Practicing the presence of God written in the 1500’s by a man called, brother Lawrence. Day after day, and over the course of his life, this once French soldier turned into a priest, would retreat to a place in his heart where the love of God made every detail of his life dedicated to loving God.

His biography tells us how he hated kitchen work. And of course, it seems that there’s always these people who are above us that seem they have this personal vendetta against us. What do they do? They always assign us the job no one wants. So, Brother Lawrence would be assigned to wash dishes and prepare food. And he hated it, but among the steaming pots and pans, he would often have conversations with God.

And so, as he washed dishes he would turn his drudgery into satisfied devotion. We’re called to work, and we’re called to work hard at our job. But we’re never called to work so hard that we forget God. And were never called to work so hard that we forget our family either. Sometimes the only time we hear job well done in anything we do, is when we know from our own hearts, that we accomplished our work for the Lord and when we do it for him, he always says..

great job. But here is something else we also learn from Solomon. We’re called to work hard, as if were working for the Lord. But we’re also called to rest often and take advantage of our time off. Just as it’s easy to forget God in our work, it’s also easy to forget God in our rest. I can’t tell you how many times I’d come home from work in the gas company to just want to veg out in front of my PlayStation and ignore my family.

It was so bad, that not only was I neglecting my wife, but I was also neglecting our kids. Just recently we were talking around the dinner table about being together and Chloe told me she remembers the hours I would spend on my play station and not playing with them. Talk about a knife to the heart when your daughter remembers you doing something that didn’t involve them when I should have come home and been the father I never had.

I’ve always heard the phrase, work hard, play hard. We can also say, work hard, rest hard. But don’t rest so hard that you neglect those around you that love you and that you love. Resting is just as important as working. Solomon might not have been a great Psalm writer like his father David, but he was defiantly a man of wisdom. Proverbs 23:4-5. Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich.

Be wise enough to know when to quit.5 In the blink of an eye wealth disappears, for it will sprout wings and fly away like an eagle. He reminds us that life is fleeting and meaningless if we just live to get rich. Learn how to quit and learn when to quit. Learn when to find rest. And stop trying to gain the world.. because in the end. We gain nothing if our soul has been lost.

Jesus taught, what do we benefit if we gain the whole world but lose our own soul? It’s so easy for us to forget God in our work, but it’s also easy for us to be lazy and expect God to do everything and we do nothing while we seek to find rest elsewhere. As I remember helping my son fix his tire this week, I was also reminded of when he was little, and we needed to pump up the tire to his little bike.

He realized that he couldn’t overcome the differential pressure and push down the tire pump. I then gently put my hand between his to help. Once he realized I was doing most of the work, he would let go and run off to play. Expecting me to finish the work for him. He figured that since I was pumping the tire, he didn’t need to, and he would go and find something more interesting to do.

I think we can do that with God sometimes. We can ask for help, and once he puts his divine hand on our situation, we have a tendency to go and let God and we walk away expecting God to just finish the job. What we learn is that we must rest often and take advantage of it because God is preparing us for greater things to come. And most times, those things that strengthen us require to be rested so that we can do what God calls us to do.

Not for us.. but for his purposes in expanding the kingdom. We’re given grace to give grace. we’re given strength to give strength. And we’re given rest to prepare us for the work of compassion God is calling us into. This truth is best taught in Marks gospel. In Mark chapter 6. Jesus send outs the disciples. They head out and begin telling others to repent from their sins. During this time of work, Mark includes the story of the beheading of John the Baptist.

Word reaches Jesus of Johns beheading and the disciples return from their ministry work. So Jesus says in verse 30, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest for awhile.” SO they head out into the Sea of Galilee to find rest with one another. As soon as they rest and land the boat, people are there on shore waiting for Jesus. And Jesus saw the crowd and he had compassion on them because they were like a sheep without a Shepard.

As Jesus ministries to the crowd it begins to get late. So the disciples come to Jesus and tell him, hey, it’s getting late, these people need to go back and find food. So, Jesus looks at them and says, no… You feed them. Listen church, don’t let your mind wonder off because there is going to be some real spiritual truths being laid out for you in this moment. The disciples wanted to call it a day, and rightly so.

They were tired. They worked all day. They’ve been helping Jesus and serving the people and working hard at their jobs. Their job was to be servants of Jesus for Jesus. I can imagine serving all day had to be exhausting… But Jesus wanted to involve them into the ministry of compassion. You see, I believe Jesus worked the strength and pride out of them. Because to see the compassion of Jesus..

they had to be weak so they could witness the power of Jesus. Henry Nouwen reminds us, that the compassion of Jesus requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.” The story goes on that they find fish and bread and then they serve that to the people and there was enough for for everyone.

Sometimes we can work so hard in our regular day to day job that when we fail to see our work for God, and we fail to rest with him. When we fail to rest in Jesus we fail to know what Jesus wants from us. Many times we fail to see the need of compassion for others because we fail to find rest with Jesus. So, rest is needed. But do not neglect rest with Jesus because that rest is always going to lead us into moments of compassion for our family and for others.

And that’s my final thought… Solomon calls us *