BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE

Text: Psa. 127:1-5

WE NEED TO LOOK TO GOD AND THE FUTURE

1.       For raising a family. If God be not acknowledged, we have no reason to expect his blessing; and the best-laid plans fail, unless he crowns them with success.

2.      For the safety of a family or a city. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchmen, though they neither slumber nor sleep, wake but in vain; mischief may break out, which even early discoveries may not be able to prevent.

3.      For enriching a family. Some are so eager upon the world, that they are continually full of care, which makes their comforts bitter, and their lives a burden. Our care must be to keep ourselves in the love of God; then we may be easy, whether we have little or much of this world. Children are God's gifts, a heritage, and a reward; and are to be accounted blessings, and not burdens: he who sends mouths, will send meat, if we trust in him. Children who are young, may be directed aright to the mark, God's glory, and the service of their generation; but when they are gone into the world, they are arrows out of the hand, it is too late to direct them then. All earthly comforts are uncertain, but the Lord will assuredly comfort and bless those who serve him; and those who seek the conversion of sinners, will find that their spiritual children are their joy and crown in the day of Jesus Christ.

LET’S BUILD FOR THE FUTURE

I.                OUR HOMES

A-Husbands-(Ecclesiastes 9:9-Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun )

 B-Wives-(I Corinthians 7:10-And unto the married I command, yet

 not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband:)

 C-Children-(Ephesians 6:2-Honour thy father and

  mother; which is the first commandment with promise;

  3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on

 the earth.)

II.            OUR CHURCHES

A-Head of the Church-(Colossians 1: 18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.)

B-Authority of the Church-(Acts 16:4 And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem.)

C-Discipline of the Church-(Matt. 18:15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. 17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican)

III.       OUR NATION

A-Pray for our Leaders

B-Render to the Government What is theirs

C-Obey the Laws of the Land

IV.           IN CONCLUSION LET’S LOOK AT THIS POEM AND

 THINK OF THE POINT IN IT….

THE BRIDGE BUILDER

An old man, going on a lonely way,

Came at the evening cold and gray,

To chasm vast and deep and wide

The old man crossed in the twilight dim,

The sullen stream had no fear for him;

But he turned when safe on the other side

And build a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,

“You are wasting your strength with building here;

Your journey will end with the ending day,

You never again will pass this way;

You’ve crossed the chasm deep and wide,

Why build a bridge to span the tide?

The builder lifted his old gray head—

“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,

“There followeth after me today,

A youth whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm that has been naught to me,

To the fair-haired youth may a pitfall be;

He, too, must cross the twilight dim;

Good friend, I am building this bridge for him.”