Who is the Builder of Your House?

[00:00:00] Let's go to Psalm 127. Tonight we will look at basically one verse, Psalm 127. I'm sure that you are familiar with this. While you're turning, if you'll go ahead and get 2 Samuel chapter 7 as well. [00:00:19] Psalm 127, Psalm 127, and 128 are two Psalms that seem to put special emphasis upon the family. [00:00:32] We will not spend all of our time in both psalms or even in all of the verses of 127. Our primary target will be verse number one. [00:00:42] The heading says, a song of degrees for Solomon. This degrees is, they say people far smarter than me say that degrees refers to the psalms that were recited. As they went, went up, they ascended the temple stairs. And so the idea of degrees is that increasing the ascent anyway. And so verse number one says, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh, but in vain it is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he giveth his beloved sleep. [00:01:29] Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. That's such a good truth. I don't know that we'll cover it this month, but such a good truth. Our children are gods. That's what that verse is saying. In essence, our children are God's. They do not belong to us to do with them as we wish. [00:01:54] And you know, all of us will give an account to God for his property. [00:02:00] All right, next verse says this. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. [00:02:09] So are children of the youth. So I would encourage you have babies when you're young, right? Children of the youth. Because it is easier to chase down kids when you're younger than it is when you're older. [00:02:23] But I'm honestly looking forward to chasing grandkids as long as they can go home. [00:02:28] So verse number five. [00:02:31] Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. [00:02:35] They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. [00:02:41] This idea, I'm just saying this kind of, as we pass by, this idea that children are anything except a blessing and a reward and something to be rejoiced over that exists in the world. Did you know that the birth rate in the United states is now 1.59 children, perhaps per woman, 1.59. Do you know what it has to be in order to replace our population 2.1, 2.1 that means on average American women are having one and a half children per woman. [00:03:23] And that no doubt that no doubt is reflected or reflects the fact that that children are not viewed as blessings, they're viewed as burdens in our super narcissistic society. [00:03:39] But really, children are a blessing. It's work where no oxen are. The crib is clean, but much increases by the strength of the ox. It's a lot of work chasing kids around, changing diapers, cleaning up after them. It's a lot of work, but it is worth it. [00:03:57] And very few things will be greater blessings in life than that than your kids. And so especially if we like Verse one says we're able to make sure that the Lord is building our house. And that's what I want to look at tonight. Verse number one is our text. So let's pray together again. [00:04:16] Our Father, thank you for the chance to be here tonight. Please guide us in our study of your Word. Guide me, Lord. Help me to say some things that would encourage and help your people. Lord, you know that I need your help and I have no power at all. And Lord, be our teacher tonight we ask in Jesus name. Amen. [00:04:34] Except the Lord build the house. They labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city. The watchman waketh, but in vain. You could look at this verse and you could see how it applies not just to the home. Because this verse is not just talking about a house, a home. [00:04:50] It also mentions the city. So it obviously applies to many, many, many things. And here's what here's the kind of principle that we can take away from it, which is this. [00:05:01] We should want the Lord our God involved in every part of our life. [00:05:09] We should want him personally actively involved in everything we do, whether it be whether we are going to school or or raising our kids or our relationship with our spouse, or whether it be our church or our business venture or endeavor, or as brother Joseph reminds us with his jobs, his prayer requests about his job, even a job like that, Lord, Lord, please be involved. Help, we need you. And that should be our attitude. And that's what this verse is teaching. But of course we're going to focus on the first part, which is the Lord building the house. So look at Second Samuel, if you would, Chapter seven and verse number one. [00:05:59] Second Samuel seven, verse number one. [00:06:04] And it came to pass when the king sat in his house and the Lord had given him rest roundabout from all his enemies. Let me pause here a second. [00:06:14] This is David. [00:06:17] This is probably in my opinion, one of the sweetest moments between a man and his God. That really demonstrates what the Bible says when it says that David was a man after God's own heart. [00:06:34] David was not commanded to do anything in this passage. [00:06:38] All that you see here is springing spontaneously up out of David's heart, every bit of it. Verse one, David is in his house. [00:06:52] He has a beautiful house. Remember, we're talking about a house, right? [00:06:56] That the king said unto Nathan the prophet, see, now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains. [00:07:05] And Nathan said to the king, go, do all that is in thine heart, for the Lord is with thee. And it came to pass that night that the word of the Lord came unto Nathan, saying, go and tell my servant David, Thus saith the Lord, shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in? What's interesting in this passage is you see the three scriptural definitions of a house. You see all three of them in this one passage. Number one, David is sitting in his house. That's what we think of as a house, right? Where you live, your address. [00:07:41] And in verse number five, the Lord says, shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in? Now, this is similar to that, but this is the house of God. This is the temple, right? So that's the second definition. So a regular house, the temple of God. [00:07:57] And then verse six, the Lord continues. Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day. But I have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle in all the places wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel, spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel whom I commanded to feed my people Israel, saying, why build ye not me an house of cedar? Now therefore, so shalt thou say unto my servant David. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote from following the sheep to be ruler over my people, over Israel. And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth. Moreover, I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more. Neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more. As beforetime and as since the time that I commanded Judges to be over my people, Israel and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. [00:09:12] Period. Notice the period. [00:09:15] Also, the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee an house. [00:09:22] Now, hold on a second there. We already saw David sitting in his house. And then David's thinking about building the house of God for God, the temple. And now the Lord says, I'm going to make you a house. [00:09:35] David already has a house. He has a beautiful, no doubt a beautiful house of cedar, right? [00:09:42] What house is he talking. He's not talking about a house made of cedar or a block or brick or anything like that. This is referring to David's family, which is a biblical definition of a house. And it's interesting because the word house and family, they're connected. It's only one word. It's used in both senses, just like we do in English. [00:10:06] And the Lord connects one's family with the place where they live. It connects one family with the place where they live. And, you know, just as a contrast, it makes sense in English, right? But in contrast, in Cambodian, you can't say that. [00:10:22] You would say. You would say a house is a different word. Like a building is a different word than you would say to refer to your family. So this would be. You would say family rather than house, because it doesn't make any sense to say house in that case. But in English, it's one word that means both, which perfectly connects it, because where does your family live? Your family lives in that structure of the house altogether. And so the idea is, when you start a family, you build a house just like your family. You get married and you have children, and you build a house in the same way. And that's kind of the analogy the Lord is using here. Now look at verse 16. [00:11:03] And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee. Thy throne shall be established forever. So I wanted to establish the way that the word house is used to refer to the family of David that the Lord promises to give to him, because that's kind of where we're going with this. Now go back to the psalm. [00:11:31] I want you to notice this in verse number one. And I'm primarily, when I read this, I'm primarily thinking of the people that among us that are preparing to get married. In other words, again, when you think about starting a family, it begins with marriage, right? It begins with establishing a home, and then it continues with having children, and it goes to grandchildren and that kind of thing. [00:11:56] All of that is analogous to building a house starting from the bottom. So let me ask you, when you Read verse one. Except the Lord build the house. They labor in vain that build it. What you see is a picture of a house under construction, do you not? Is that what you see? It's in process. It's not built. And really, all of our families, all of our lives are a matter of. Our house, as far as our family is concerned, is a work in progress. But you see that in this verse, that it's a. It's a work that's really just getting started or it's in progress. But I'm thinking of those among us who are getting ready to start a family. In other words, they're about to break ground. [00:12:35] You've bought some land now, right? You've gotten engaged. [00:12:40] And I know there's some that want to be engaged and they want to get married in the future. Well, you bought a piece of land and you're getting ready to break ground and you're getting ready to build a house, right? That's what's happening here. [00:12:54] But the house is not yet built. It's not yet established. [00:12:59] So you see kind of the start of the house going on here. And so the question is, what should you do when you're looking at starting a house? Kind of the first step, of course, if you're talking about a physical house, probably the most important thing that you have is, are the plans, right? Sam's a plumber, right? Sam's a plumber. And so he looks at plans. Same thing with Devin. Devin's not a plumber. He does H vac. [00:13:33] And when you do anything like that, you have to look at plans. And when you're building a new house, you have to look at plans and see where everything's supposed to go and where there's going to be a toilet, in Sam's case, or where the alders are going to be, or the doors and the windows and all that thing. All of that, you look at the plan prior to starting to build the house. Because if Sam just started running pipe, you know, connecting to the city water and then running pipe and then started doing all that, and he has no idea where it goes and what order it goes or how to connect it or anything like that. [00:14:06] Is that going to work? Obviously it's not going to work because there is no plan. There's no blueprint. And all houses, all new construction houses, have a blueprint. You know what, the builders constantly refer back to it to find out where everything goes. They have to. [00:14:22] So you're starting to build a house. But notice here, before we go too deep into it, notice, except the Lord build the house. [00:14:29] They labor in vain that build it. [00:14:33] So pause a second. Ask yourself, who is building the house? [00:14:38] But don't answer, because that might sound like a little bit of a trick question. Who's building the house? In verse number one, first part. [00:14:47] All right, let me ask you like this, because everybody's afraid to answer. [00:14:51] How many builders are there according to verse one? [00:14:57] Do you see it? [00:14:59] There's two. [00:15:01] There's two. [00:15:04] You have. Except the Lord build the house. [00:15:07] They labor in vain that build it. So you have the Lord, obviously, that's the main core of the verse. But then you have these other guys who are working. You see it? They labor in vain. So there's people who are working on the house as well. And you see this kind of matched. When you go to the second part of the verse, in that parallel, it says this, except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh, but in vain. So you have the idea of there's two watchmen. [00:15:31] There's the Lord, who's the one who's really watching, and then there's also the watchman. [00:15:37] Now, we don't say, hey, watchman, the Lord's got this. You can go home. [00:15:41] You don't do that. The Lord uses instruments. And the same is true with the builder. There are actually two builders. There's the Lord who is, you might say, the master builder. You might just say builder. [00:15:54] And then you also have the men. [00:15:57] You know, in this analogy, you have the men that are building the house. They're the ones that are. That are throwing down lumber. They're the ones that are laying pipe. They're the ones that are running electrical wire. They're the ones that are hitting. Hitting the nails with the hammers. You know, they're the ones doing the work. But you have the Lord. You have the Lord also as the builder. In fact, the Bible says, if the Lord's not the builder, it's worthless now. [00:16:23] So this is perfectly. This perfectly matches with what we. With how a house is built. Because when you go to build a house, like a custom house or something like that, you have what we call in the construction industry, you have the builder. The builder. And that refers to the general contractor who is overseeing the entire project. Right. And he's supposed to know about all the people that are doing the individual work, the substance. Right. [00:16:52] But he's usually not doing the bulk of the work, is he not? No. All the subs, the plumbers, the electricians, the H Vac guys, the carpenters, the roofers all of those guys are doing the work. They're actually the ones sweating. They're toiling, they're laboring, like you see in verse one. But they're not doing it on their own. [00:17:12] No, no, no. They're following directions that are given to them. [00:17:18] They're not doing it independently. [00:17:21] But what I want you to see from this is that both builders are required. [00:17:27] This morning, when we were looking at Deuteronomy chapter six, you know what we were looking at concerning the family? We were talking to the. We were looking especially at the mom and the dad as the builders. And that's a right thing to do. So we can't say, well, Lord, we, I want you to direct the building of my house. I'm getting married, or I'm already married, and I want you to direct the building of my house. So I'm just going to sit back and let you do it. Mm, mm. That's not the way it works. [00:17:56] The Lord's gonna say, here's the plans. [00:18:01] Now get to work. That's what he's gonna say. Get to the labor. [00:18:06] It is not those who labor, the workers who labor, the builders who labor, stop laboring. [00:18:12] It's that they labor with God. [00:18:17] They labor with God. [00:18:23] You know, and in our families, for sure, we, as the mom, as the dad, as the grandparents, or whatever other kind of family, husband and wife that's. Even in that kind of situation, we have a role to play as the builders. The Lord expects us to work just like we saw the word diligently in verse 7 of Deuteronomy 6 this morning. [00:18:54] But the whole matter does not depend upon us. [00:18:58] There's almost nothing. No, I say, I can't think of anything. I don't know of anything in our life where the Lord expects it to depend upon us solely. [00:19:06] And it's not even really halfway half and half. [00:19:10] It's really all about the Lord. The Lord is the builder, whether it be a family, whether it be a church. You know, many times I say that when I pray. I talk to the Lord about our church and I say, lord, will you build this church? That's what I'll say, lord, will you build this church? But do I just. What do I do? Do I just sit in my office and doodle around? [00:19:36] No. No. [00:19:37] I have a work to do. You know, all of us do if we want to build the church. But ultimately we know that Jesus is the builder of the church. [00:19:45] So both are true at the same time. [00:19:49] You have a general contractor who's building this house. And that's the Lord God. Without him, we're wasting our time. [00:19:57] Wasting our time. But with his plans. [00:20:02] With his plans. He expects us to take those plans and to implement them so that the house is actually built. [00:20:09] And so the thing is erected and is beneficial to the Lord. Notice it says this verse one, except the Lord build the house. They labor in vain that build it. [00:20:25] Have you ever done something and you did all of that work, sometimes two or three times, and it was all for nothing. [00:20:34] Have you ever. Have you ever had that experience that you've done all this work? Maybe you guys are in school and you thought you had an assignment and you did the whole assignment. And then when you got back to school the next day, the teacher was like, no, you weren't supposed to do that. And you had done it. [00:20:49] And it's like, how many of you know what I'm talking about? [00:20:54] That is no fun, labor in vain. [00:20:58] But, you know, you talk about physical things, you know, okay, we, you know, it took a half hour, an hour, whatever, maybe even a day. But ultimately, in the big picture, it's not that big of a deal. You know, maybe earned a little bit of character for it, maybe to pay attention a little bit better. [00:21:13] But think about eternal things, because you only have one life. [00:21:17] You only have one life and you spend it. Listen, you only have one family, right? You only have one family, only one set of children, and you are going to labor. Notice it says they labor in vain. That means they're working. And you know, everybody, everybody, every family, it doesn't matter if they're believers or unbelievers. It doesn't matter. [00:21:45] There's no distinction here. Everybody that starts a family, gets married and starts a family, has children and goes and builds a house, everyone has to work and put in labor in it, right? Every one of us. I mean, people that aren't Christians, they have to take their kids to school and they have to pay for all the stuff, and they've got to earn money to support them, and they've got to pay the mortgage and they got to teach their kids and help them with their homework, and they've got to do whatever they do, take them to T Ball and whatever it is that they do, they got to do all that. So there's work involved. [00:22:17] There's always work involved in educating them, supplying the needs for your children, taking care of your family needs, spending time together, going on vacation. [00:22:27] But what is there going to be? What is there going to show for all of that work in eternal things, in eternal Things. [00:22:45] Will our families produce eternal things for the glory of God? [00:22:52] Or will our families, basically, as far as God is concerned, disappear for the glory of God? [00:23:03] Think about it. Think about you raise a family and you guide your family. You have children and in the end, because the Lord was not building the house in the end for eternal things. [00:23:19] It's just smoke. It's all gone. [00:23:23] None of your posterity follows Jesus. [00:23:28] None of your posterity serves Jesus, loves Jesus. [00:23:32] None of them. [00:23:33] It's just wiped away. [00:23:36] You know what that is? That is like the dictionary definition of laboring in vain, is it not? [00:23:47] You gave the best of your life and it produced nothing of eternal value. [00:23:55] Lord doesn't want that to happen. [00:23:57] In fact, he said he wants. Looking at the reverse of this, he wants our labor to be useful. [00:24:05] That's what this verse is saying, useful. So what does useful labor look like in the context of your family building a home? What does it look like for you to expend energy and at the end you say, this was worth it, this has value, this is going to endure. What does that look like? [00:24:26] Well, we could ask ourselves, what for what do we labor in our families? [00:24:32] What is the goal? [00:24:34] Right again. We go back to what we were talking about this morning. Is our goal just to have well mannered kids, or is there something more? Is our goal to have kids that don't embarrass us or is there something more? More? Is our goal to have kids that make money and are successful or is there something more? [00:24:51] There's got to be something more. And there is, because all of those things are temporal. [00:24:58] Our goals for our children, for this house, and this aligns perfectly with God's goal, which we'll see in a minute. [00:25:09] Our goal is not our goal. That our children continue to follow Jesus when they leave the house. Is not our goal to have a family that fears God and is in harmony with one another? Is that not our goal? [00:25:24] Is that not? Is there. Could there be anything more important than that than a family whose members love Jesus? [00:25:32] There is no greater goal than that for our family. None at all. [00:25:37] You know, if your kids grow up, if our kids grow up and they don't make a lot of money, but they fear God, that's okay because that's eternal. [00:25:48] If our kids grow up and they don't get a doctor degree and they don't do whatever and all that stuff's fine. I mean, we ought to have ambition, good godly ambition. [00:25:58] But that's not the essential point. The essential point is what's Eternal, which will determine whether our labor is in vain or not. I mean, we can have a kid that becomes a, you know, astrophysicist and works at NASA. And we think, man, he works at NASA, he works at SpaceX. And they say, you know, he sent a guy to Mars or whatever. We say he was on that team and he was in the control room. Well, that's great. But does he fear God? [00:26:22] That's all that matters, right? [00:26:25] Because they ain't gonna find nobody out there. There's not gonna be anybody out there. Okay, we saw that, the planetarium yesterday, right? [00:26:39] Ecclesiastes 2, 18, 19 says this. Yea, I hated all my labor which I had taken under the sun, because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me. He's talking about his labor now, right? [00:26:52] And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool, yet shall he have rule over all my labor, wherein I have labored and wherein I have showed myself wise under the sun? And this is also vanity. Of course, we know that the writer Solomon of Ecclesiastes had a very, very dark view of life. You know, his life. He wasn't thinking of eternal things when he wrote it, and you have to understand that when you read it. [00:27:20] But there is a certain truth to this. And, you know, I've seen it in my own family. [00:27:24] I have. [00:27:27] Did you know my grandfather's father was a lay preacher? Now, he wasn't. From what I understand, he wasn't much of an example to his family. [00:27:38] And my family went to church. Some of you, a few of you. [00:27:41] Do any of you know my family? I don't think any of you that are here, brother Vernon, sister Betty, they just got back, so they're not here. But you see, my grandparents and my grandparents. Yeah. Ms. McLean, I think she's the lone person. And of course, Sam's met my grandma. But my family, they went to church. [00:28:06] My great grandparents and things, they went to church and they were faithful. Now, whether they were true believers, I don't know the answer to that because, of course, I wasn't here. [00:28:14] But I saw in one generation all that was gone. [00:28:20] One generation, it was all gone. [00:28:23] You know what I don't want? [00:28:26] I don't want the labor that I've put into my wife and to my family to be gone when my kids leave. [00:28:35] I don't want that. [00:28:36] You know what I want to say? I want to see my kids follow Jesus and love Jesus. And I want to see their kids follow Jesus and love Jesus. You got to work at it. [00:28:46] There is no passive way to get this done. You got to work at it. [00:28:50] But the only thing that will make a difference, the only thing that will work is if God himself is the builder. [00:29:03] God is the builder. So why would the Lord, in verse number one, why would he build a house? Why is the Lord interested in. Why is he basically reminding us, hello, you're building a house, you're getting married, you're having kids. It's like the Lord's standing over in the corner saying, you better not leave me out. [00:29:21] It's almost like what he's saying, right? Better not leave me out. The way it's worded, except the Lord build the house. [00:29:28] I'm here. [00:29:29] I should be in charge of this. You need the plans, you need the builder. Hello, I'm here. [00:29:35] He wants us to be involved in that. [00:29:38] He wants, rather, he wants himself to be involved in that. [00:29:41] But oftentimes we're like, nah, we're good. [00:29:44] I got this figured out. I don't want you to interfere with my life and what I'm doing and all the plans I got and all my ambitions and all that. [00:29:52] But what is God's desired end when he builds a house? Because he's the builder. [00:29:57] God doesn't build a house to make us wealthy. [00:30:00] God doesn't build our house to make us educated. God doesn't build the house to make us famous or respectable members of the community. [00:30:13] God's goal is to build our house for his glory, full stop, nothing else. [00:30:26] You think the Lord is concerned with how much money we make? [00:30:32] Obviously he cares about all the details of our life. But. But that's not even like. That's not even in the same universe as what is important to him. He'll take care of all those other things, right? [00:30:43] But he is concerned about building a house that is. That glorifies him. [00:30:49] This house that he's building, which is referring to our family, is for his glory, it's for his pleasure, and it's for his namesake, not our own. So if he builds the house, he gets the credit and he gets the benefit. You know what I think we're almost finished here. But you know what I think? I think the Lord wants to build houses. He wants to build families in our church. He wants to build families among you, you that are getting married, you that are married already, you, that, that. That are having children. You know what he wants? He wants. He wants to have a family that he has built from which he can take servants of his to do great things for his Name, not about you. It's not about me. It's about a family. [00:31:40] You know, there were many in history, there are many servants of God, people whose names you would recognize. And you know what? They weren't saved from the gutter. [00:31:49] And you know, we're glad about that. But a lot of them came from Christian homes. [00:31:54] We have this idea that if you come from a Christian home, you're somehow pre programmed to go away from God. Bunk. [00:32:02] No you're not. [00:32:03] If you came from a Christian home, you are way ahead in the game of eternal things. You are way ahead. There is nothing to say that you have to crash and burn. You don't have to. In fact, that's the whole purpose is God built that house so that he would have a group of people that are way ahead and he'll take those people and use them for God, good things. [00:32:25] And that's what he's done. That is exactly what he has done. Just survey people in history. [00:32:31] David, was David saved from the gutter? No. David came up in a God fearing home. And you go on, Timothy, was he saved from the gutter? No, he came from a home where his mama and his grandmother taught him the scripture. You can go on and on and on, and I know there's contrary examples, but that's the whole purpose. The Lord wants a family that he has built from which he takes people out to serve him, to live for him, to love him, to lead in churches, to be faithful, to be faithful members and deacons and song leaders and church cleaners or whatever the case might. People to be evangelists, people to be teachers. This is what he wants to do. And he takes, he uses this house that he has built to build those people for his glory. [00:33:20] It's not about us. So how then do you get. The final question I've got is this. How do you get the Lord involved in the building of your house? The Lord says, I'm over here. [00:33:32] I'll just give you three quick things. [00:33:34] The first thing you need to do is recognize that you and I are inadequate to build our own home. [00:33:43] Now we might be. I might be. You might be a knowledgeable person. [00:33:48] And you might have a lot of understanding and knowledge on many subjects. You might have advanced degrees or whatever it might be. But you and I do not have the knowledge sufficient to the task of building your family. [00:34:03] You don't have it. [00:34:06] You need the Lord. That's what he says. You need Him. [00:34:10] This verse tells us that we are insufficient. So the first thing to do just to get it Out. Lord, I don't know what I'm doing. [00:34:19] I don't know what I'm doing. [00:34:22] I need you to build this house. That's a good starting place. Wouldn't you agree? [00:34:28] Number two, you must constantly refer back to the plans he has provided. [00:34:39] And of course, that's obviously a reference to the Scripture. [00:34:42] Proverbs 24, verse 3 says this through wisdom is a house builded, and by understanding it is established. [00:34:54] And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches. [00:35:00] You know what you need to build a house? You need wisdom. [00:35:04] You know what you need to build your family? You need wisdom. Where do you get it? You get it from the plans of the builder. He has instructed you and me to follow those plans. Like this morning in Deuteronomy 6, one of many parts of the plans. And when we do that, that's how we. That's one of the ways we get the Lord involved in the building of our house. Because again, he's the builder, but we're the ones doing. We're the ones slinging the hammer. And that's the way he designed it. But we got to do it according to his plan or it won't work. [00:35:36] And lastly, there will be times when you get to. In your home, whether it be husbands and wives or moms and dads and children or grandchildren or extended for in laws. You know how that goes. I mean, just. [00:35:55] There will be times when you do not know what to do. [00:35:59] Sam, when you've been working on new construction and you've had plans, was there ever a time that you had a question? [00:36:07] What do you do? [00:36:18] If the plans don't specify it clear enough, then you call the builder. You'd be like, all right, I don't know what to do here. And are we not faced with that all the time? As a believer, Lord, I know I have. Maybe I'm the only one. Lord, I don't know what to do in this relationship. I don't know how to help my kids. [00:36:37] You don't know how many times my kids don't know anything. [00:36:40] How many times I say, lord, I don't know what to do about this problem with my children, with this issue. It's not anything like they're doing wrong. It's just I don't know how to advise them. I don't know how to direct them. Maybe I see something. Maybe I need to. I feel like I need to intervene, but I don't know how or when or what to say. And all of those things, you know, what you do, you look at the plans and then you go to the builder and you say, lord, I just don't know what to do. And I need, I ask you to help me with these, with this building. I don't know what I'm doing. [00:37:15] And the Lord will help you and he'll give you instruction and he will, he will give you guidance for that question that you have. He is personally available. That's the point. The builder is personally available to help you when you don't know what to do. He expects you to seek him when you have questions that you don't have answers to. [00:37:38] And in the building of the house, there will be many. [00:37:42] There will be many. [00:37:46] So we should make sure that we do everything in our power to involve the Lord in the building of our home. Especially for those of you that are starting a home or want to start a home, start a family, Lord, please be in the middle of this family. [00:38:02] That's not a one time thing, right? Definitely not. [00:38:06] It is a lifelong reference. Back to the plans. Let's pray together.