Psalm 127 — Westlake Bible Fellowship

0:00 Opening and introduction

Just a little tribute there to the mothers. I don't know, for some reason I seem to this Sunday seems to fall somewhat regularly when I speak on Mother's Day. I'm not sure what that means. So, we're going to cover we're going to stay in the Psalms. Today, we're going to get into Psalm 127.

And I guess if I had to put an overview to my thoughts or to not necessarily this this Psalm but this this Psalm is included but just my thoughts in general, it's it's the what the Bible teaches and what how how do we live it? Let me just say that. It's the challenges of scripture, the challenges of the word of god and how do we live them out in our life. How is that possible to live them out and how do we practically do that? That's kind of what the lord has challenged me with continually and has challenged me, my heart with this morning.

I'm going open with just a short quote from A. W. Tozer. We may as well face it, the whole level of spirituality among us is low. We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the spirit is all but gone.

We have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the lord, and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the holy ghost. So, we're going to talk a little bit about the Holy Spirit today. We're going to talk about Psalm one twenty seven. We're going to talk about the challenges that the lord puts before us. Psalm 127.

I, you know, if you haven't heard me speak before, I I may come down there. I'm not going to yell. I'm not going to do the Haiti version that I did the other day. The the pastor that we we did, we went to Haiti. I don't know that some of you probably most of you know that I went to Haiti.

My wife and a team here, Roger and Harold and Emily. Am I missing anybody? Willis. Yeah, Willis. And the pastor there, I mean, he lets it fly.

He, you know, everything is loud. The volume is loud. The music is loud. He speaks loud. Everything's on a higher plane.

So I gave a demonstration of that last time. I'm not going to do that again. But I will ask questions and look for some involvement from you guys. Move around a little bit. Try to help you stay awake.

So, Psalm 127. Who'd like to read that? Can somebody read that for me? It's five verses. It's just the opposite of Bob's or one of the opposites, not the smallest but it's short, mister reader.

To eat the bread of sorrows, and so he gives his beloved sleep. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb womb is reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.

They shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with their enemies at the gate.

3:56 Looking at the first two verses

She said, I thought you said that that Psalm 127 wasn't necessarily a Mother's Day Psalm. And I said, well, yeah, I mean, I didn't really look at it that way. She said, well, did you read the last three verses?

I

said, yeah, I I did read the last three verses. I mean, there's only five of them. I was able to read through all of them in one sitting. So, but yeah, we are going to touch on that a little bit. Krista kept her mouth shut this morning because Emily and Michael were having a little spat about yogurt or something frozen yogurt.

He ate some of her she ate some of his frozen yogurt and blah blah blah. I walked in and I said, what's going on? And Emily said and Krista said, you better be careful because dad tends to use what you say this morning in his message. She said, I'm keeping my mouth shut. I said, you're right about that.

You're right about that. So Karen gave me a couple of clues of things that she would hope that I don't bring up this time. She usually doesn't do that. So, I'm going to try to not bring up a couple things. Sometimes it doesn't work.

But, okay. Psalm 127. Five verses. There's a lot here. Who is the author?

The Holy Spirit through? Solomon. Solomon. What can you tell me about Solomon? How He was a about front row?

What can you tell me about Solomon? He was strong. He was strong? Samson was strong too, right? Samson.

Samson, yes. Right? Solomon's probably strong. I'm guessing he was strong. What else about him?

Do you notice anything about him?

He's wise.

Wise, right. He was wise. He had discernment. Why did he have that discernment? Mary?

Because he asked the Lord for it. Right. Because he asked the Lord for it. Did he ask the Lord for it for himself? Did he say, God make me wise so that I might be looked upon as the wisest man in the world or in the earth?

So, he would know what to do when he got attacked by his enemies and he could get back

to people. Right. So, would rule well, right? So, he asked the Lord for guidance. He said, This is a great this is a huge task you've given me to to be king.

I'm I'm young. I don't know how to even go out and come in. He says, and so, I I need help and and he asked for just wisdom and discernment to be able to know good and evil to rule the people well. So, god had put him in that position and he's asking, god, help me to do a good job in what you've, this position you've put me in. So, god said, because you've asked that, I'm going to make you the wisest man or the most discerning man ever who has been none since you and there will be none after you.

So, we know there will never be another human wiser than Solomon, right? Now, and some people say he was the richest man in the world. It doesn't say that he's the richest that we'll ever be, but certainly, I mean, wealth beyond, and possibly the richest that we've ever, ever known. You just read in the one chapter, the Queen of Sheba comes to visit him. She says, she's just amazed by everything, every detail of his kingdom, the attire that his attendants wear, and the food they eat, and how they're seated at the table, and it's beyond her imagination.

She brings precious stones, and gold, and spices, and the gold alone was 144,000 ounces. So, if you add that up, what's 100 and I figured $1,200 an ounce. So, that's about 180,000,000 And just a chapter before that, his fleet had gone out. He had two or three fleets of ships. One of the fleets had come back with 500,000 ounces of gold.

That's just the gold. If you add that up at that same rate, it's 800,000. So, we're close to a billion just from a few verses in one chapter, not counting animals and, you know, everything else that it talks about. So, five verses. It's small.

Solomon, the wisest man ever, humanly speaking, obviously Christ was God in man, God incarnate. We'll talk a little bit about that in a minute. The wisest man so, we should take notice of this Psalm. Right? This is a good reference.

8:46 The author: Solomon

Unless the Lord builds the house. So, let's look at the first two. Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain. It's vain for you to rise up early and retire late to eat the bread of painful labors, for he gives to his beloved even in his sleep. Some translations might say, he gives them sleep, just sound sleep, good sleep.

My translation says, even in his sleep. So, I'm taking it to mean, God is blessing us even while we sleep. We labor in strife, but He can bless us even while sleep. So, who can tell me in general what do these verses mean? If you had to sum them up.

Give me an idea.

It's useless to do anything unless the Lord is guiding you.

Right, right. It's useless to do anything. He covers the home, the community, you could say the government, your jobs. It's all covered there. It's a total picture of dependence on the Lord.

And how do you think Solomon came to this conclusion? What would lead Solomon?

I think that even in all his wisdom, what he noticed is that it wasn't enough. Like he probably experienced some inadequacy as he was kind of the leader of this massive undertaking. And he noticed what's happening here is far greater than I am. And all I can do to keep this going is to continue to trust the Lord for it.

Right. Great. I mean, I think he it's a great explanation. I mean, do you want to Andy, can take point two. No, it's, yeah, exactly.

I mean, and Solomon had everything, right? Riches, animals, you know, everything that you could imagine. But, and he, in Ecclesiastes, obviously a lot of the same things. Vanity, vanity, it's all vanity. Apart from God, it's vanity.

So, I have three points for those of you who have that outline that Mrs. Doan drew up. I don't want to forget to give you the three points, right? Okay. The first one is the credit.

Who gets the credit? Who are we talking about in these few verses who gets the credit for this work? The second one is going to be the what is the second one? The credit, the condition, the condition we're in, and the third one is the contrast. Okay.

Those are the three points, the three C's that we're going to talk about. So, we're talking about the credit still. So, says in here, unless the Lord builds the house. It could be, you know, the house, a building, but I think he's talking about the home. The home in general.

Unless the Lord builds the home. Okay. I build homes for a living. I mean, not physically swinging the hammer. Sometimes I do, but in general, that's what I do.

I get up, I go to work and I go to a job site where there's a home under construction and I walk through the home and I have to look at what's going on in the home. What's the next phase? What's it ready for? What's coming up next? Who to call?

What's gone wrong? Look at the if there's codes that have been violated. If there's laws that safety laws that are broken or that are in violation. Things to do. So, I'm kind of technically the builder of that house.

We have a my boss is the builder. He's if somebody says who's the builder, it's going to be him. It's Danny McMahon, Buckingham Homes. He's the builder. I'm just the site management guy.

But I'm organizing the construction. So, I prioritize the home, the construction, and I look at the codes, like I said, and I look at the blueprint. So, if God is helping us build our home, if God is helping us or building the house, if we labor in vain without him, how is he going to help us do that? What does that mean? Anybody have any input on that?

Well, if we're building it to our own satisfaction, then it's in vain. And if we're doing it to his satisfaction, then it would be to his

work. Right. To his satisfaction. So, you're a father, Bob. You have kids and a family and a home.

What would be a practical thing like to Josh or Krista or Justin that you could tell these guys, you know. Good answer. Good answer. Love your wife as Christ loved the church. Right?

Anybody else have some ideas in relation to home building or in that concept building a home?

Stick to the blueprint.

Stick to the blueprint. That's one of my points. That's great. Yes, stick to the blueprint. And give me one thing in the blueprint.

Give me one thing?

Give me, yeah, give me page one in Jim Bingham's blueprint. Or what is the blueprint?

All of God's Word.

Right. The Bible is the blueprint. So, what would be one thing that you've tried to do with your family? I'm only asking for one, Jim.

Well, I think you talked about things you shouldn't say for

the Paul. What do you have asked?

You know, I've what I've learned over the years is that there's nothing more valuable than prayer. Dan, hi. I I failed as a builder when you talk. So prayer is what brings it, puts it in the Lord's hand. That's what I found.

He's much better older than I am.

For sure. For sure. Especially when you get older and your kids get older and you know, when they're little, you can kind of sort of control them and you can kind of sort of make them do what you want to do. When they get older, you can't do that anymore. So, it's prayer.

It's prayer. So, so unless the lord builds a house, we labor in vain to build it. So, the lord will help us prioritize what's going on in the home. He'll help us he'll help us through the blueprint, which is the Bible, right? He'll help us establish the home.

So, if all the workers just showed up, I mean, Bob works on our job sites and I guess it does happen, where everybody just shows up and does what they want to do. But if it happened in a totally uncoordinated way, it would just be a mess. It would be people working, you'd have drywall guys hanging drywall before the wiring was done and plumbing, I mean, which happens, but not all the time. So, and just things would go out of order. The sinklets would be wrong.

The house would be improperly built. So that's a great picture for me unless the Lord builds the house. I get to work in that world. So, the blueprint a couple of things that I wrote down for the blueprint is train up a child in the way he should go. Proverbs tells us that.

Train up a child in the way he should go. Teach him scripture. Teach him verses from the Bible. Teach him how he should behave. And Deuteronomy, you're all familiar with that.

Teach the child, you know, when you sit up, when you lie down, teach him the things of the word. Teach him scripture. And God's roles for the husband and wife, there's so

much

there. It's one of my favorite topics to speak on that I've spoken on in the past. It's just the marriage relationship. Not that I practice any of it, but it's fun to talk about it. I get to, you know, pick on my wife sometimes, but she's a good support about it.

So let's go to 1B. This is still we're still under the what's my first C, guys? Credit. Right. Who gets the credit?

17:04 Unless the Lord guards the city

First thing that comes to mind is New York and nineeleven.

Yeah. Unless the Lord guards it, we guard it in vain, right? I felt that a little bit when we were in Haiti. That, you know, we knew that it was going

to be a little bit it could be a little

dangerous or whatever, you know, it's on the State Department website.

Wilson bought us life insurance.

Yeah, yeah. Wilson bought us life insurance to travel. So, it's kind of like, you know, we're going, we're going and then, yeah, well you need life insurance in case you die. You know, we had we might have to life flight you to some appropriate medical because there isn't anything there that's going to be able to take care of you. So, we get there and, you know, we understand there's armed guards there's guards of some type on the premise, right?

So, of course, Will, Willis, he's a gun guy, hunter guy. He wants to go see the guy's gun, you know. So he asked Harold, can I go see the guy's gun? Not Harold, he asked Wilson, can I go see the guy's gun? And Wilson's like, no, no, wouldn't do that.

I'm just, okay, don't then you start to wonder, does the guy even have a gun? You know, maybe he doesn't even have a gun. And then Harold, who's not here unfortunately, can't pick on him, who forgot things like toilet paper and I don't know, what else did he forget? He forgot a bunch of stuff. He's been there three times.

He forgot all this stuff. But he remembered a baseball bat. And he comes out with a baseball bat and he puts it next to my wife's bed. He's going, is she going to need that? I mean, he's bringing a baseball bat.

He forgot all this stuff. He must be thinking that she might need the baseball bat. Right? So now you're starting to think, what's going on here? You know, who is guarding this facility?

And then in the middle of the night, I didn't hear him the first night. I get there were these voodoo drums, know, just boom boom, these pounding drums. People and they said it's, since it's getting close to Easter, then the voodooism gets more active in Haiti. There's a lot of voodoo there. There's a voodoo temple not too far from where we were.

So, the drums were beating, and these people are walking around at like two or three in the morning, and you just hear just mumbled, jumbling, talking. So, Karen didn't sleep. I guess she had the baseball bat, so she didn't need to wake me up. Karen and Emily didn't sleep much, but I didn't hear it. But the second night I heard it.

And just this talking and these people, and there's walls around the complex, but it's, there's not much to them if you really wanted to get over them. You hear all these people walking around and talking and mumbling, you know, what's going on? And it kind of sounded like they were right outside the building. And Will said the next day, he said, well, you know, if I was going to be afraid of anything on this trip so far, that would probably be a good opportunity for me last night when the people are that would have been my thing I would have picked to be afraid of if I was going be afraid. So, I realized we're not in control here.

We don't know what's going to happen. They could storm the gate past the supposedly armed guard, which we later joked, we went and said, oh, we get it. Understand now that armed guard means he has arms. He actually has arms. He doesn't have a gun, but he's just, he has arms.

He's sleeping up there. He did have a guard shack. We went and fixed the roof of his guard shack the one night. And so, there was somebody sleeping up there, but you know, it wasn't an armed fortress by any means. So, we had to trust that the Lord was going to protect us.

I mean, you know, He was in control. We're driving down the street, in the middle of the Port Au Prince sticking out like sore thumbs in this open canopy jeep. And then Roger sends me an article a couple days ago about an assembly missionary there, who the guys were telling him, Get down, you're going get shot. You know, Hi, you shouldn't be standing up. And we're standing up, Roger's got this big, you know, sun hat on, and it's blowing in the wind, and we're taking pictures, and they just think, Yeah, well the Lord was guarding the house.

So unless the Lord builds the house, unless the Lord guards the city, they labor in vain. Verse two, is still under who gets the credit. It's vain to work apart from God. It's vain to do our work apart. Verse two, It's vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors, for he gives to his beloved even in his sleep.

Now think about that for a minute. He gives to his beloved even in his sleep, even while we're sleeping. We love to worry, don't we? That's one thing that's kind of been on my heart. Just not to worry, not to fear.

But it's so hard. There's so much to worry about. You know, you can worry about your kids. You can worry about your car breaking down. You can worry about, I mean, you can, the list is endless.

We can worry about anything and everything. But these verses are telling us the Lord, in a sense, essentially the Lord is in control. We have to depend on Him. If we do anything apart from Him, it's a waste of time. It's futile.

22:39 Our condition: vanity and sin

This this life, if I'm not, what's my purpose? If if the lord is not in it, what's my purpose? So, that leads me to point number two is our condition. Our condition now. How did we get to that condition where it's pointless?

And I'll ask you guys, how do we get to that condition where we can spin our wheels, where it can be vanity in this life? How do we get there? How did that happen? I mean, really simple. You this is these guys can answer that.

What?

Get the wart out of it. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other without

Oh, yeah. Just grind, hit grinding wheel, hit the, you know, whatever, put the carrots out there and you're running and, you know, don't get any closer. Takes about thirty what am I, fifty? Takes me about fifty years to figure that out, fifty two. Yeah.

So, I'm looking more though back to the even very basics. How did we get in that condition? What is our condition as human beings? Right. Sinful nature.

So, you mothers out there, do you need any convincing that when the kids were little, that they had a sin nature? I mean, you're going hear both in the world that we're basically good, and we just got to try harder, and we have a good nature, and you leave man to himself, he'll eventually, you know, climb to a higher level of goodness. Is that what you saw when you were raising your kids? No. I I think kids are the best evidence of that.

I mean, you don't have to teach them that it's mine. You know, you don't have to teach them to be selfish. That's what sin is essentially selfish. We're selfish. We want our way.

We want our thing. We don't want God to tell us anything. I mean, I didn't have to tell Emily and Micah, okay guys, I'm going to speak this morning and I need an illustration. So, what I need for you to do is, Emily, get that yogurt out. And it's Micah's yogurt.

Micah, I know that doesn't bother you, but Emily, eat it. And Micah, I want to I want you to blow it out of proportion. I want you to get mad about it. I want you to act like that is just the last yogurt you're ever going get. And then, Emily, I want you to make some snide comments back and then I'll walk in right before I speak and I'll get to lose my temper.

You know? It would be great. I've been pulled over here in the parking lot before I once before I spoke, like, the day the morning of, I'm out there with a flasher, you know. Oh, there's our speaker. He's yeah, he's got his tie on.

He said, Police pulled him over. I cut somebody off a little bit in the driveway and, you know, turdled through clothes. I'm sitting in a cop car. I didn't have to teach them that. They got that all by themselves.

It's it's just our nature. It's our it's our we have a sin nature. We have a problem. We are separated from god. We're born that way.

That's what the Bible is all about. That's what the Bible teaches us. That's what the Old Testament specifically teaches us. Here's the law, here's everything that Moses and the 10 Commandments, and everything to show you how short you are from what God wants you to be. From how perfect and how holy God is.

This is how far we fall short. That's the Old Testament in a nutshell. Adam, yes, I believe Adam and Eve in the garden. Adam and Eve sinned, that changed everything. Sin entered the human race right there.

And as a result of that, the scripture tells us that as a result of that, if one man sinned, we've all sinned. Right? Result of Adam's sin. So, that's our condition. So, because of that condition, we're selfish and we want to do things our way.

And we want the credit for everything that we do. I struggle with that. Do you ever struggle with the credit? Do ever do something that's good that nobody notices, but then you're like, nobody's really noticing that. You know?

I cleaned that thing up and nobody noticed it. Let me just, you know. Right there, yeah. Anybody notice that? Hey, honey, did, you know, I cleaned, I did, you know, you want to be noticed.

You want to credit for that. It's our nature. We want to fight that. So, Solomon is telling us here, that is vanity. It's useless.

So, we have a problem. We have Solomon telling us everything is vanity if we do it on our own without the Lord, but we know that we're falling short because scripture tells us it's also our experience in real life. Sinfulness, selfishness, we experience it every day. So, we have a problem. So, the problem is how do we restore that relationship to God?

27:31 Restoring the relationship through Christ

How do we restore that relationship?

Well, we can't do it on our own. Right. So the restoration of the relationship came through Christ's death, burial, resurrection.

Right. Right. Your uncle got you off the hook. No, that's fine. No, I was just keeping him awake in the background.

Right, it's through Christ's death, right? John three sixteen, most of you know it. It's on football stadiums. For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. Ephesians two, two, eight, and nine, for by grace you have been saved through faith.

It is the gift of God, not by works, lest anyone should boast. So, we know that God sent his son, Christ. That's what Easter, we just came through that. That's what the crucifixion was all about. That's why Jesus came to Earth.

Jesus was God in human form. God coming down to man, and dying and paying the price on the cross for us, so we could be restored. So, we can be in a position where we can give God the glory. It doesn't mean that we're always going to give him that. It doesn't mean that my house is always going to be a place where the Lord is building it and I'm not building it.

Our family, our community, my job. No, it's a constant struggle. It's a constant struggle, but it puts us in a spot because we're redeemed. Once we've repented and asked Christ's forgiveness for his, for our sins, and acknowledged that his offering on cross, Christ's offering on the cross is what enables us to be restored to that fellowship with God. His blood shed in the Old Testament, you read it, all the animals sacrificed, the shedding of blood, that was what was used in the Old Testament to cover sin, but it was never enough.

But Christ came and shed his blood once for all, so that we can be restored to God. So, that's our condition. So, we know that Solomon is telling us to give the Lord credit in all these things and everything that we do. We know we can't do that apart from Christ because we are separated. And there's another illustration when you're, when sin separates us from God.

It's like kids, when kids, back to the kids again. When they have jelly. I mean, your kids ever covered with grape jelly or, you know, peanut butter or spaghetti sauce? I mean, all of you guys have been. And you're dressed up.

Maybe you're ready to come to church or a wedding. And the kid wants to come up and hug you or touch your you can't. No. You can't. You're dirty.

You're filthy. You cannot touch me. It's just a simple illustration. God is holy. We cannot approach him.

We cannot touch Him when we are in our sin, because He's holy. That's His character. I don't understand all of it. I don't know that we will ever understand until we're in Heaven. But God is holy, and we cannot approach Him when we are in a sinful condition.

So that's why Christ has died for us. If we accept his gift, we're redeemed. So that's the last point. The contrast. We just have a few minutes left.

The contrast. That quote I read from the beginning, A. W. Tozer. I'll read it again.

We may as well face that the whole level of spirituality among us is low. We have measured ourselves by ourselves until we, until the incentive to seek the higher plateaus and the things of the spirit are all but gone. We have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord, and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost. One of the things that is a challenge for me and that I struggle with is that the difference, I guess, the contrast. Solomon contrasts here, you know, you're futile with you're doing it, everything you do is futile without the Lord, but if the Lord builds it, if the Lord is in it.

But how does that work? I mean, how does that work practically? How does that work in my life and in your life? We talked a little bit about it, and we know it's the word, it's fellowship, it's teaching, it's guidance from the blueprint. God uses all those things.

But I'm always challenged by the fact that I just don't feel like I'm different enough. I mean, do you struggle with that? I go to work and go on these job sites and we see these guys and, you know, I don't for the most part, I think the only thing that they really notice is that I don't swear. You know, they catch themselves when they start to swear and they yell, you're religious, know, sorry. And you know, I don't so, I mean, they notice that, but what else?

There should be more. I mean, there really should be more, right? We really should stand out more if we're really, truly indwelled by God. Don't you think? That's kind of what Bob pointed to last week, and left that challenge.

And I went up to him afterwards and I said, okay, what do we do? You know, what do we do next? I'm with you. It's vanity and chasing after material things, and what do we do next? So I hope we can have a little bit of practical help here by reminding us of the Holy Spirit.

Of the Holy Spirit. I think we shy away from the Holy Spirit. It's kind of a mystery. It's something that maybe we don't understand. There's a lot of different teaching on the Holy Spirit.

So, I think we just kind of go, well, you know, we got the word, and we've got fellowship, and prayer, and the Holy Spirit, you know, don't know. I don't really not too sure how to handle that. You know, do you raise my hand? Do I not raise my hand? Is that good?

Is that bad? I don't have all the answers. I'm not, I don't. But just to think about that. Just to consider that we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit.

Once we accept Christ, that happens instantaneously. It's the change. You acknowledge, Lord, I'm a sinner. I realize that. I realize that Christ died for me.

I need to repent and accept his gift by faith. It's not on works. It's just faith alone. Right at that instant. If you truly do that, you are saved and you are transformed.

You are a new creation. The Holy Spirit comes into you. Now, that's kind of weird, right? The Holy Spirit comes into you, indwells you. But that's what happens.

I mean, we know that. We know that from Romans eight and we're going to read that in a minute. But when's the last time you thought about that? I'm going to pause for fifteen seconds. It's going to seem like a long time.

Fifteen seconds. And I want you to think about that. The Holy Spirit indwells you, lives in you. What is that? I just want you to just try to get your mind around that.

We won't understand it. Think about it. Fifteen seconds. That was about fifteen seconds. So, if you're like me, I hadn't thought about that recently.

Just I haven't. Kind of know, W. Tozer talks about that plateau. We kind of hit that plateau. Plateau, you know, go to church, do things, you know, go to the job site, don't swear, try not to speed, try to if you can talk about God or you have the opportunity, you try to, but not dynamic.

You know, Ray's got Ray is gifted in that. Ray is dynamic. I mean, he's on the job sites with me. I mean, he'll you know, he looks for opportunities. He talks about it.

He has a gift of evangelism. He's great with that. But I just want you to consider that, that you have the Holy Spirit living in you. We're going look at Romans eight real briefly here. Romans eight is kind of considered one of the foundational chapters of the Christian faith, right?

36:34 Sealed with the Holy Spirit

Once you're in Christ, once Christ, once you've made that commitment, you've turned your life to Christ, you're in him. You are sealed with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes into your life and will never leave. You are sealed. You are redeemed.

You are transformed. You are a new creation. There's nothing you can do that will take that away. Well, don't know, except the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, right? I don't know what that...

Then the question is, are you really ever saved? But once you're truly saved, there's nothing you can do. You're still going to sin, you're still going to do bad things, things are still going to happen and you're not going to lose that salvation. Therefore, there are now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for the law of the spirit. For the law of the spirit is of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.

For what law, for what the law could not do, weak as weak as it was, sorry. Like Sam, I didn't think I needed my glasses, but weak as it was through the flesh, God did sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh as an offering for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the law might be filled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. For those things, for those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the spirit, the things of the spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.

Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile towards God, it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. For those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, if you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed, you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. There's a lot there.

We don't have time to get into it. But, verse nine, however, you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. We know that the spirit of god does dwell in us once we accept Christ. So, just leave you with that challenge.

I don't know all the practical applications of of that and and and how the spirit is a mystery. The trinity is a mystery. We'll never understand it, but it doesn't mean we don't contemplate it, and we don't challenge each other to think about it. And that's my challenge to you. Think about that.

Think about the Holy Spirit indwelling you. Think about if, there's an illustration in this book that I've read, The Forgotten God by Francis Chan. He said, if you told somebody, the spirit of God enabled me, indwelled me to become a fantastic basketball player. I have God's ability to become a basketball player. Would you expect a change?

Wouldn't you expect a little faster on the court, change in my jump shot. I mean, if I said God's indwelling me and has enabled me to play basketball, you're going to expect to see a fantastic basketball player, right? Mean, this is God. This is God indwelling us. So, we have that in our life, and we just tend to forget that.

We tend to forget the power that's available to us. The same Holy Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, we read this morning, dwells in us. That power, that spirit dwells in us. And it's available to us constantly. He lives in us.

40:32 Closing prayer and thanks

The blessing of children and family. We thank you that through the Holy Spirit, we are, we have the opportunity to live for you. We thank you that through Christ's death we are restored first to a right relationship where we can at least even have the potential to live for you. And then you indwell us with your Holy Spirit to give us the power to do that, and the wisdom and teaching us all things through the Spirit. We just thank you for that reminder this morning from your word, And bless our conversation and as we go about to bless the mothers today and encourage them for they are a gift from you.

In Christ's name, amen.

Psalm 127 — Psalms 127

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Psalm 127 — Psalms 127

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