The Home on the Rock
Pastor David T. Elms Preached on 9/8/2026
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Summary
Pastor David T. Elms highlights that a truly strong home must be built on the foundation of Christ rather than human worry or manipulation, urging parents to be spiritual guardians against modern distractions. By providing children with a sense of story, a seat at the table, and a divine commission, families can move from chaos to a legacy of faith.
Key points
- •Building a home is a spiritual endeavor that requires God as the architect; human labor and late-night worrying are in vain without His direction.
- •Parents must be active 'guardians of the gate,' recognizing that modern technology and media can act as silent assassins bringing spiritual threats into the home.
- •Healthy families provide four essential things: a story (heritage), a table (connection), a door (freedom and a way back), and a commission (divine purpose).
- •Manipulation and deception (like the house of Jacob) lead to grief and favoritism, whereas taking burdens to the Lord in prayer (like Hannah) invites God to restore the home.
- •Children are arrows to be aimed and guided; a house built on the Rock ensures that children will eventually become defenders of their parents and their faith.
Scripture
Family
Prayer
Evangelism
Purpose
Spiritual Growth
Life application
This week, turn off all screens for at least one dinner and practice 'table time' where every family member is given a dedicated space to share their story without interruption. Substitute one hour of late-night worrying for prayer, specifically asking God to be the watchman over your family's spiritual and emotional safety.
Reflection questions
- In what ways have you been 'eating the bread of sorrows' by trying to fix family problems through your own strength instead of prayer?
- What 'silent assassins' or spiritual influences are currently entering your home through technology that may need new boundaries?
- How can you better 'commission' your children or family members this week by reminding them of their unique, divine design?
- When faced with family conflict, do you tend to respond with the manipulation of Rachel or the prayerful surrender of Hannah?
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Full transcript
0:00like I'm worshiping. Are you ready for the word of the Lord? Amen. We're starting
0:01a series about it takes God to make a home. And this is an entire
0:06month where we're focusing on family. It has been huge to our church through the
0:10years because family is so big here. And you don't win them in a day.
0:15You don't fix a family in a day. You don't correct a broken family in
0:19a day. It's like chopping wood. Vince Lombardi said, you just got to keep at
0:24it. You got to keep chopping. And the Lord heals and heals and restores and
0:28renews. And so I'm going to read to you the Psalm that God gave me.
0:34And this is so interesting to me because I was praying right here when my
0:39wife and I had winter Austin and Scarlett has three kids. And our plan was
0:45three kids and we were not planning to have any more. And I was praying
0:50right there. I'll never forget it. This was 2000 and, uh, I was praying and
0:56the Lord gave me this chapter that I'm about to read to you. And I
1:01read through it and it starts so differently. I'd never coupled the chapter into the
1:06family story. And so I thought while I'm praying, Lord, what are you doing? What
1:11are you telling me? Is this my next baby dedication sermon? I literally was thinking
1:16this to myself. And so we had church that night and the next day I
1:22come to the office and I was working in the study and my wife called
1:27me. She said, David, what are you doing? I said, I'm
1:32studying, baby. She said, are you sitting down? Yeah. She said, I'm pregnant.
1:38My wife will vouch for you. She hadn't said that in not two
1:44seconds. I said, God told me last night. God told me exactly because
1:50the verse in here says, blessed is the man who had this quiver.
1:56And I thought that was for a baby dedication. And God highlighted that.
2:02And as soon as she said that, and she got back and she
2:08said, well, I wish he would tell me something. and you know some people
2:13think when you've had four kids that you don't know what causes it you know
2:17and other people think you're ignorant and you haven't learned and there's so much you
2:22got to figure out and that's according to what part of the country you're from
2:26the culture of your family but i was so excited my wife was trying to
2:30deal with it you know four and of course the peer pressure and all that
2:34do you You know, and you guys can only imagine the stuff that we went
2:39through when, yes, we're about to have a fourth child. I mean, some of y'all
2:45put us through it, okay? I'm just telling you. No, I'm joking. But, you know,
2:51that was a process. But it was this verse, this chapter that settled it for
2:57me. Except the Lord build the house. They labor in vain that build it. Except
3:03the Lord keep the city. The watchman waketh but in vain. It is
3:09vain for you to rise up early and to sit up late to eat
3:15the bread of sorrows for so he giveth his beloved. Everybody say sleep. Sleep
3:20is holy you guys. He gives sleep. I know some cultures tell you if
3:26you're sleeping you might as well be dead. I'll sleep when I'm dead. That's
3:32not the word of God. He giveth his beloved sleep and lo children are
3:38an heritage of the Lord. the fruit of the womb is his reward
3:43as arrows are in the hand of a mighty man so are children of
3:49thy youth in other words if you have if the Lord's allowed you to
3:55have children it's a blessing happy is the man that hath his quiver full
4:01of them that's it's not talking about arrows there it's very clearly talking about
4:07children Happy is the man that had this quiver full of them. They shall not
4:13be ashamed for they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. All right, Lord
4:18Jesus help me to make sense tonight. I want to represent your word with excellence.
4:23I want to help your people as they come to your house tonight not to
4:28hear a preacher preach or a lecture given. They have come O Lord to find
4:33life's breath for the essence of their day. And some of them are walking right
4:38now in quandaries and in situations that are hard to understand. And they're trying to
4:44find just a foothold to grab onto to help them get traction in their world.
4:50Let that happen tonight. In Jesus' name I pray. And everybody said amen. So we're
4:55going to build our home on the rock. And it takes God. to build a
5:01home. A few years ago, in fact, I had a dream this morning, and that's
5:06the reason I'm telling you this. You guys know God does speak with dreams and
5:11visions. The key is that you know how to use the dream when you get
5:16it. There are some people that when they get a dream, it becomes
5:22so frightening or so exuberating, or what is the word? Exhilarating is the
5:28word, that they don't know how to settle into the world that they're
5:33assigned to serve, where a dream isn't given to you to give you
5:39terror, nor is a dream given to you to make you get scared.
5:45hyper in all of the things that you do. God uses dreams to help us
5:51be better with the people we're here to serve. Many times you'll have a dream
5:56about somebody or somebody else's child. And sometimes those dreams have very heavy stories in
6:02them. And you think, well, what is my duty right now? What am I supposed
6:08to do with this dream? If I don't tell them and something bad happens, am
6:13I going to carry this the rest of my life? And the thing that I
6:17would often say about a dream is that you need to use the energy that
6:22it gives you. But sometimes if God wanted them to have the dream, it would
6:27have given it to them. So when God gives it to you, it doesn't mean
6:32that you are to leverage it as a moment to demonstrate that now I am
6:37your spiritual guru. No, you use that to encourage your own emotions, your own passion.
6:43A dream can make you pray like you've never prayed before. A dream can make
6:48you celebrate like you've never celebrated before. A dream can give you energy that you've
6:53never had before. You wake up with it and it's so powerful. And I had
6:58a dream last night. I knew what I was teaching today and these dreams, you
7:03know, I always do a little self-test what's going on. And did I eat pizza
7:07last night? You know, I know that sounds carnal, but if you eat the wrong
7:12food, you will have some crazy dreams. You know, for me, if I ever have
7:17to take NyQuil, I hate NyQuil. Man, I dream so stupid when I take NyQuil.
7:21It's one of the most, it affects me. There are some things that affect me.
7:26In fact, if I take too much, what's that stuff that makes you sleep at
7:30night? Melatonin. Melatonin can make me have some crazy dreams. And that's just me. I
7:35hope that's not your reality. And so I've got to learn my body because I
7:39don't want to misinterpret anything physiological responses to things that I've been doing. Because God,
7:44when God speaks to you, it will not be a response that you got a
7:49flu and a fever, okay? I got sunburned when I was a child one time.
7:55I fell asleep in the sun in North Carolina, and I'll never forget. I burned
8:00myself so terrible. And the whole night, I dreamed that carp were were rubbing up
8:05against my legs. I would wake up all night and spray on the spray that
8:10is supposed to numb your skin. And as soon as I would go back to
8:16sleep, I would dream. And listen, those were not spiritual dreams. Don't confuse those kind
8:21of dreams with spiritual dreams. But when you have a spiritual dream, I dreamed last
8:27night that I was at a church and I was just sitting as an audience
8:31member and the minister was teaching the Justice Series, which I've been teaching down south.
8:36And the Justice Series, I thought, man, this is interesting. He's teaching the Justice Series.
8:40And there was this beautiful little girl that sat beside me and she just looked
8:45up and smiled at me and I smiled back at her. No sooner that I
8:49had smiled at her, she curled up And she started shivering. And I thought, oh,
8:55Lord. Okay, the dad in me started kicking in, you know. What's happening? I look
9:00up, and the mother comes around. And I pick up the little girl to get
9:05her to her mother, and I felt the fever of the girl. She was raging
9:10hot with the fever. And I remember saying to the mom, this little girl is,
9:15she needs some serious help. She's really hot with the fever. Then I realized that
9:20her dad was the pastor of the church. And I
9:26thought, okay, please get this child some help. And I couldn't, they were not bothered
9:31at all by how sick their child was. It didn't bother them. I was like
9:37saying, please get them help. And they looked at me like, oh, it's no big
9:42deal. They didn't believe me. And when I woke up from this dream, I thought,
9:48I didn't even know if I was gonna tell you this dream because when I
9:53woke up, my arm was still from the feeling of holding that little girl.
9:59And so I asked the Lord today in prayer, Lord, what does this mean for
10:03the lesson tonight? And it quickened to me a vision that I had many years
10:08ago when I preached about a tiger that was in the house, people's home. It
10:12was a home team group, and there was a tiger in the middle of the
10:16house. And everybody was so excited that we've got a tiger in our house. See
10:21how tame this tiger is. And I was standing against the wall observing, happy
10:27faces. Everybody was getting along and everything was going good. And I
10:32was thinking, does anybody know there's a tiger in this house? Because
10:38it seemed like everything was normal. And in that dream, that tiger
10:43grabbed a child by the neck, snarled, and everybody froze. And I
10:49thought, oh, Lord, this tiger is about to devour this child.
10:55And I wanted to scream, but there was a person who came
11:01and said, oh, this tiger won't kill this child. And slowly went
11:06up to the tiger and started petting it. And the tiger's face
11:12went from snarl. Slowly it calmed down. It opened its mouth, let
11:18the child down and laid down. And the whole room just clapped
11:24like we've got a tame tiger. And I woke up. So
11:30wet with sweat. I wanted to scream. And I told the Lord, I said, Lord,
11:34what is this? What does this mean if I'm a watchman on the wall? What
11:39am I supposed to do with this? And ever since that day, you have heard
11:45me reference this dream so many times because this dream put a power in my
11:51heart to let me know we need to be guardians of our home, and we
11:57don't know what we're letting in our home, but the people of God have got
12:02to be spiritually sensitive to know what's going on. Because my world grew
12:08up where wireless technology did not exist. But now there are
12:14voices in our home that we cannot control. Lights flicker, speakers
12:20speak. They know your name. They're silent assassins in every home.
12:26It comes through iPads. It comes through phones, it comes through screens.
12:32There are silent assassins. They come through cartoons. Kids cartoons come with
12:38an agenda to try to destroy and sour the mind of our
12:44children. And if you just give your children free reign to the
12:49internet or to these social media or to digital devices or even
12:55schools or teachers, You do not know who they have and the devil
13:01has constantly tried to destroy our homes by sneaking into our families and
13:07as people of God we've got to recognize the invisible hand that comes
13:12and tries to steal the peace of our home from us. We've got
13:18to be guardians of our tables, We've got to be guardians of our
13:24living room. We've got to be guardians of our heart. We've got to guard
13:30ourself against this assault, against our mind, against our heart, against our soul. And
13:36it has to be done very seriously. We sing a song that the
13:42weapons of our warfare are not bombs and guns. Worship is the way that the
13:47battle is won. This is the battle we fight. Praise him for the victory. Well,
13:53sometimes it's not always praise. Sometimes it's prayer. Pray for the victory because you know
13:59the spiritual attack that comes against people and the church is a spiritual entity. I
14:04know we have these acres between 82nd Street and Pine Island. I know we've got
14:09this building here and we're going to build an elaborate building to come for the
14:14name of the glory of his name, but the church is not a physical entity.
14:19It is a spiritual entity and your marriage is not a physical entity. Your
14:25marriage is a spiritual entity and your children are not physical entities. I know
14:31you give them vitamins. You make sure they eat their vegetables right. You try
14:37to keep skittles away from them, but your children are more spiritual than they
14:43are physical. And if you're not attuned to the fact that there's spiritual attacks
14:49that come against children and don't think it waits till they're 12. It doesn't wait.
14:55It comes immediately. Things can come. And so you are there. If you're there to
15:00create a healthy diet, if you're there to watch where they put their fingers, whether
15:05it's in a socket or not, if you put all kind of security devices between
15:10them and the swimming pool out back, then why is it not fair for you
15:15to recognize That we've got to build barriers between the spirit world that would try
15:20to destroy our children and our marriage and our home and our Relationships and of
15:25the way we love our parents build a barrier against that this presence that is
15:30around us does not show up in a t-shirt and a tool belt but this
15:36presence also does not sleep this presence is there in the middle of the night
15:41and And this presence doesn't ask permission to come into your house. This presence
15:47doesn't ask permission to learn the sound of your child's voice. And while algorithms
15:53are there to study our children, even the CEOs and the executives of these
15:58social media things that built them, the companies that built them won't even allow
16:04their kids to have access to them themselves. And, you know,
16:10I'm not anti-China. I love China. But the godless China Communist Party, they won't let
16:15things in their nation that they pipe out to the rest of the world
16:21because it is not just a trying to win the physical war. If we
16:27can defeat a nation spiritually, then we can destroy that nation by ripping the
16:33very soul out of that country. And so I want you all to know
16:38that when we take family in this church, we take it so seriously. I love
16:44fun, I love having fun, and if you don't have joy at home, then
16:50you need to start bringing joy home with you. But you've got to also
16:55look at it as a very huge battlefield, that the enemy has a plan,
17:01a scheme, an attack to come and to tear you from your family. And
17:07it is the will of God that you stay connected with your family.
17:13I want to say that again. It is the will of God that you stay
17:18connected. He didn't reach you just for you. He reached you so you could keep
17:23reaching somebody else. And I don't care how many times they've slammed the door on
17:28you. You pray blessing on them. We don't return evil for evil. The Bible said
17:33you overcome evil with what? Good. You've got to work at it and stay at
17:39it and take it seriously. And yes, we look like we're in a circus tent
17:44and I love this. We love this. You know, I make no apologies for the
17:49way this church handles September. I absolutely adore it. But ladies and gentlemen, the reason
17:53why we do it big in the natural realm is because we do it huge
17:58in the spiritual realm. And we may not win all the way, but it will
18:03not be for lack of us stepping to the batter's box and doing our best
18:08to do to hit the ball a long ways, if I can use a baseball
18:13analogy. Technology cannot covenant with your kids. Don't ever allow technology to become, I'm not
18:18saying it's bad all the time. I know when my kids were little, you know,
18:24there were people out there that were saying Barney was demonic. And they had talked
18:29about how the purple of his dinosaur outfit was a symbol of some wine of
18:34Babylon. And listen, you can go down those roads as far as you want to
18:39go. I'm not going with you. I'm just like Disney World. Disney World has some
18:44terrible stuff, and I don't like it. But that doesn't mean you can't go to
18:49Disney World when it's time to go to Disney World. I don't like Nike, okay?
18:55It's my own thing. There's been some stuff that Nike has done, and I decided
19:00I'm wearing Adidas from now on. But if you wear Nike, I'm not saying you're
19:06of the devil. We got to know our spaces, where we're going to fight, and
19:12not get beyond our jurisdiction in this process, because ultimately, the Lord is the one
19:18that's going to save us. But our kids, we cannot just be passive with
19:24them. Parents go crazy getting their kids in the Catholic school. They will pay thousands
19:29of dollars if I can just get my child in the Catholic school, then they'll
19:35get that good scholarship. I'm not going to come against that. I'm just telling you,
19:41if you pay $50,000 a year for your kid to go to school, don't think
19:47Satan's not waiting for them at that school. If you can't afford
19:53a school like that, which God bless my kids, I couldn't, you know, somehow you
19:58make it. You know, we fought and got the girls when they were older and
20:03shared in hills, you know, and that was expensive. But, you know, you do some
20:08stuff. You make some allowances for them to try to help them not get under
20:13that assault. But at the end of the day, it's the Lord that's going to
20:18hold them. Even a church, if you get them to go to every youth congress,
20:23many times I've told people, you know, sometimes there's a young person that can't afford
20:28to go to youth congress. And many times people in this church will step up
20:33silently. Brother Sean will tell you, and I'm sure Brother Christian's learning this too. There's
20:37people in this church that sponsor kids to go. And kids have gone for years
20:42who couldn't afford it because somebody just stepped up and paid their way. The one
20:47thing I want you to know is that if they get all the perfect conferences,
20:51the perfect programs, they have a gym to play in, they have all the accoutrements
20:56of success. It doesn't mean that they're going to not have a fight of their
21:01life. Don't ever let your guard down. It's your family to pray over,
21:07to love, and then don't let your kids think all of a sudden you're panicked
21:12that you're their Messiah. No. So that's the essence of this lesson tonight. The tiger
21:17is not tame. And we just talked in the last parenting seminar, I'm going to
21:22go through these real fast. But the story, there's four things you gotta give your
21:27kids. You gotta give them a story. You gotta let them know where
21:33they came from. Let them know your journey. The kids learn through storytelling.
21:39Dads, tell your daughters stories. Moms, tell your sons stories. Lay down, turn
21:45off your phone. Don't take a call. Tell your CEO he's dead to
21:51you for the next two hours. You
21:56think he's coming to your funeral? Your child will be there. I'm
22:02telling you, we've got to get some places that are untouched by
22:08these silent assassins that try to come in and steal our time
22:13from us. And your kids are your most valuable gift. They are
22:19the heritage of the Lord. Tell them your story. The next thing you give to
22:25them is you give them a table. At the table, let them tell their stories
22:29from their day. Fight to have dinner together. I know it's not possible every
22:35day unless you're a special family, but you need to fight to try
22:41to have at least one or two days a week that the kids
22:47know we're at the table, nothing's gonna interrupt it, and everybody gets a
22:52chance to speak. Austin can tell you that Scarlett liked her talk time.
22:58Scarlett could talk her talk time at our table. And if we
23:04let her go, none of the other kids got their chance to talk. So Ethan
23:10would be doing back flips over here. He didn't need to talk. He was the
23:15gymnast. It took Austin, and Austin was pretty much to himself. These were awesome days,
23:21y'all. Winter, we'd sit over there just ready, just ready. But Scarlett would find no
23:26dead time. And I'd see what happened. So, you know, we just said, "All right,
23:32Scarlett, it's time for winter. What happened today for you?" And we fought to have
23:38every child have their time to tell their story. Then when we had family night,
23:42we would always go around. I would read a devotion, and it was sometimes super
23:46spiritual. Other times it was not super spiritual. I wanted them to think differently. And
23:50then I would always start in my house. It was from youngest to the oldest.
23:53That's the way the military does it. You always do it from the least in
23:57rank to the top. And so from the youngest to oldest, they always had to
24:01talk first. Now, when it's the first time, a young time, sometimes I would reverse
24:05it to show the young one how to do it. But then the next time
24:10it was from youngest to oldest, it doesn't matter what they say. It's their time
24:15to give a speech to the family. And it's awesome. What are you doing? You're
24:21giving them a place that they're special and they're heard. So you give them a
24:27story, you give them a table, and then you've got to give them a door.
24:33And this door is how to get out. And then also it's gotta be a
24:38door to get home. And of course the picture is the story of the prodigal,
24:44that dad had an open door ready when the son who had been more ignorant
24:49than any of you have ever been. When Jesus told the story of the prodigal,
24:54how many of you know of anyone who demanded their inheritance before the parents were
24:59dead? I mean, that's about as bad as it can get. I don't know anybody
25:05so nervy as to run up to their father and say, "I'm tired of being
25:10at home. "Give me my inheritance even though you're still alive." I'm telling you, first
25:15of all, I'm not a good enough man as that father, all right? Because if
25:20my children come and told me to give their inheritance, I'd say, "All right, you
25:25got it." Here's the door. It's like. It's like Scarlett threatened to run away
25:30one day. I didn't know anything about it, but my wife did. She thought her
25:36mom was a pushover. Scarlett said, "I'm tired, I'm gonna go." And so my wife
25:41said, "All right, go." Scarlett went in to get some clothes. She said, "No, no,
25:46those are my clothes in that closet. "They're not your clothes. "You can wear the
25:52clothes on your back." And she said, "By the way, give me your phone. "Go,
25:57leave, see ya." Scarlett stood there and she thought, "I
26:03didn't know." My mom said, "Melanie, she was done." She said,
26:08"Leave, skedaddle, go to your world of supply." Obviously, God turned
26:14her around. And y'all never knew when that happened. And now
26:20Scarlett's like, "Dad, did you tell that?" Why do I tell
26:25these stories? I'm not trying to make my kids look bad.
26:31They're normal. Your kids are normal too. They're gonna push these buttons. They're
26:37gonna try things, and when they do, you gotta build your house on the foundation
26:42that is a rock that's not my wisdom or the wisdom of men. You've gotta
26:46build it on the wisdom of God. Give them a door to leave, and also
26:51that door's open to come back home. And then you also give them a commission.
26:56You let them know you were born and created by God. Me and mom were
27:01gonna have a baby, but there were gonna have been one of a million, literally.
27:06You're the one God gave us. You're on purpose. You weren't just lucky
27:12to be here. You're on divine assignment. You gotta
27:18commission them and let them know just how holy and on purpose they are. Because
27:22many times they think, well, this ear sticks out extra, so I was forgotten when
27:27God was handing out ears. Or I got a crooked nose, God was off the
27:31job when my nose showed up. Or have you seen this wart over here that
27:36I got? Certainly God was asleep when that wart came out. Or have you seen
27:40the way my jaw is shaped? Oh, God forgot my jaw. Or all kids think
27:45these ways. It takes parents to say, do you know you were divinely
27:51designed by God? I'm not saying that if there's not something that needs to be
27:57fixed surgically, that that's wrong. I'm just saying that we've got to get away from
28:03this idea that there's this perfect schematic that God can only use when he made
28:09you with the of your eyes, the lean of your eyes, the shape of your
28:14hands, it's all a part of his story. And there will be a moment, a
28:18critical moment in your life that that part of your disposition, God will use in
28:23a supernatural way that if you don't know it, if all you thought was God
28:28was off the job when he made me, you know, I thought I was supposed
28:32to be six foot four. Man, I wanted to be 6'4". My uncle was
28:386'9", and I had all kinds of hope that I would be 6'4". Man,
28:44if I could be 6'4". I'm not saying I'm short, but I'm not 6'4".
28:50Well, what's the deal? Was I forgotten? No. God made me. God made you.
28:56And when you realize that, it's up to parents to get that through to
29:02kids. So here's the thing about Psalm 27 that I want you to see.
29:08Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. This may
29:13sound like a super spiritual, less practical lesson, but I don't have all the answers
29:19for all the settling situations you're gonna have to be a part of. Unsettling situations.
29:25I don't know every storm that's gonna come and how it shows up. It could
29:31be that crazy person in the cubicle next to you. It could be the guy
29:36who side swipes your car. There's a lot of things that are gonna show up
29:40in your life. But at the moment when it happens, you've got to realize God's
29:45building my house. Here's why I worship. Here's why I pray. This is why I'm
29:49faithful with my tithes and offerings. This is why I'm faithful to be kind when
29:53I don't wanna be kind. Because I want the Lord to build my house. If
29:57I wanna be an ogre, then God will go ahead and fold his hands and
30:01let me. If you wanna be nasty, God will let you be that all by
30:05yourself. But if you want him on your side, you walk a certain way. You
30:10correct your mouth. You correct your thoughts. People don't even know how many times you
30:14catch yourself going down this road. Thank God y'all don't know how far I go
30:19down these roads, okay? I go down this road and all of a sudden the
30:24Holy Ghost says, where are you going? You gonna have the Lord build your house
30:28or are you gonna build it? Because God will back up and let you build
30:33your house. But when you realize I want the Lord to build my house, That
30:38means every situation. I don't know, but I know this. I'm going to do my
30:43best. But if I let the Lord build my house, if I labor and I'm
30:47going to labor and all of you are going to work hard at it, you
30:51work hard at it. Well, if you do it with the Lord, it will not
30:55be in vain. But if you want to work hard at it because you think
31:00you have it like that, then you will not have the Lord build your house.
31:04So if you get anything out of this whole message tonight, I'm saying you need
31:09to lean not to your own understanding. That's why you need the word. You need
31:14to get in the word. You say, well, I don't understand it. It's King James.
31:20Well, it's fifth grade level, so I don't know what grade you read, but fifth
31:25grade level is King James, all right? So that wasn't very nice, was it? David,
31:31be nicer. My point is this. If you want the Lord's word to speak to
31:36you, then you'll let it work on you and it'll surprise you.
31:42You think you're reading in some random place and all of a sudden
31:48a verse comes alive. Did you read my mind? I thought I was
31:53just opening the Bible. I'm not saying go do that. You know, there's
31:59a new word from God. Literally there's times that I've done that and
32:05you have too. Don't admit it. Don't admit it. God speak. And you
32:11just keep sliding down till you find the verse that fits.
32:16Okay, but don't think that God can't don't put God in a box He
32:22can the Lord builds the house. And so here's the thing I want you
32:28to look at as I bring this to a close You've got to know
32:33your Bibles to know the story of Elkanah. You all know the story of
32:39Jacob His name was changed to Israel Abraham Isaac and Jacob. These are two
32:44houses that we read about in the Bible Elkanah was Samuel's daddy
32:50He was married to Hannah. Both of these men had two wives, okay? No, Alan,
32:56don't go off and marry two wives. It's the Old Testament, different day. All right,
33:01both of them had two wives. One was very fruitful and the other didn't have
33:06any babies. But why does the Bible tell us these stories? Are they there to
33:11make us look bad at that generation? Say, wow, how are they in the Bible?
33:16They had two wives. No, it was because the interaction of family teaches us how
33:22to respond when things aren't going our way. Because Jacob had a wife that he
33:28loved named Rachel. You know the story. He married Leah. Leah was a trick. He
33:33wanted Leah. I mean, he wanted Rachel in the tent and Leah was there when
33:39he went in, you know. Bad day for him. And he had to work seven
33:44more years to get Rachel, the one he loved. Okay, well, similar story with Elkanah's
33:50wife. He had two wives and a second one that he loved was also barren.
33:56The thing that I want you to learn from these two stories is that the
34:02two houses in between them was this plumb line that shows us one is going
34:08to let the Lord build the house. The other one is gonna work it by
34:13their own manipulation, their own machinery, their own game plan, their own trickery, their own
34:18thinking, okay, I'll do this and they'll get it there and I'll work there and
34:23slide like this and get it there. The own works of her own hands. And
34:28you would think that the one that's the hero was the one who did it
34:33right, but he's the one who did it wrong. Jacob built his whole life on
34:38deception. You know the story. The blessing wasn't his. and his mother led him in
34:43the deception? There's so much deceiving in the Bible and it's all there for
34:49us to see. Why does it get reported? So that we don't embrace this
34:54kind of living because we're just as tempted to embrace this kind of action.
35:00Well, that was Old Testament, our day stuff. We're just adjusting the situation. No,
35:06you're deceiving. And so Elkanah, Hannah couldn't have a baby either. And so they
35:12had the same pattern, but two different ways to go about it. And of
35:17course, when we come to it, there's this tearing because both wives ache. But
35:23Rachel, when you read the scripture, the Bible said that Rachel saw, the Bible
35:29said this in Genesis. Both these stories are in Genesis. Genesis 30, verse one.
35:34And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob, no children, okay? She's barren.
35:40Rachel envied her sister and said unto Jacob, now this is an
35:46accusation, give me children or else I die. And Jacob's anger was
35:52kindled against the one he loved, against Rachel. Men, don't ever admit
35:57that you get angry with the one you love. Okay, don't admit
36:03it, but you do. Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel and he
36:09said, do you think I'm God? That's essentially what he said. Am
36:15I in God's stead? Who hath withheld from thee the fruit of thy womb? And
36:21so Jacob's journey is filled with deception and favoritism and jealousy and competition and failure
36:26and grief. That's Jacob's world. It's a world of, well, I'm gonna play this trick.
36:32I'm gonna deceive in this way. I'm gonna do that. And over here, when Hannah
36:38cannot have a child, what does she do? The Bible said that Hannah
36:44came to the Lord and when she is not able to
36:49have a baby, she goes to the altar of the Lord
36:55and she says, oh Lord. She doesn't accuse her husband. She
37:00doesn't say, you're not coming through for me. Doesn't say, you're
37:06not the one providing for me. She says, oh Lord, will
37:11you remember thy servant? When you're handling family stuff, That's a
37:17nice word for it. When you're handling family storms, it's easy to go
37:23and get a game plan. What I'm telling you, you need to go
37:29to the Lord and let his word dictate your responses. I know that's
37:35general. I know that's big. But his word will push you to the
37:40fruit of the spirit. When you want to be saucy and sassy, his
37:46word will push you back over here and say, bless them. Bless
37:52them that despitefully use you and curse you. You know that sister-in-law who doesn't
37:58treat your kids real good? You know that one? Bless them. It doesn't mean
38:03you have to always expose your kids to that. Sometimes you realize, well, I'm
38:09not gonna let my kids be exposed to that. But you don't do it
38:15out of vengeance because then what you're trying to do is build your own
38:20house. Vengeance is mine says who? I'm gonna ask you again. "Vengeance is
38:26mine," saith, I'm gonna ask you again. You're getting it right. You're
38:32giving me the right answer, but I need you to hear yourself
38:38say it. "Vengeance is mine," saith, our flesh wants to get on
38:43the battlefield of carnality. And if we build our homes like that,
38:49our kids are gonna pick it up, our daughters will pick it
38:55up, our sons will pick it up. And what you've got to
39:00do is build your home on the word of God, knowing
39:06that God has your back. Now, how do your kids catch
39:12it? Because you talk to them about it. You sit down
39:17and game plan. My kids' cousins didn't always treat them good.
39:23I'm not talking about which side, but my son's sitting right
39:28there. He'll tell you that where it was a time that
39:34I told him, remember Austin? I'm sure he'll never forget it.
39:39Did I want to tell them that? No, but
39:45also didn't want him to feel like he ran to me every
39:51time an injustice happened by a cousin who just is off the
39:57chain. Y'all don't have any cousins like that in your family. They're
40:03perfectly trained by Yuri, the trainer who trained. What are you trying
40:09to do? I was teaching my son. He only has two cheeks.
40:16You run out of cheeks. And I remember when he finally, not finally, he did
40:22it. Bobo, Bowdoin, your daddy did it, Bowdoin. Your daddy, that tender, soft daddy you
40:28got. He's not soft. Don't think he's soft. But he's the most gentle-spirited child I
40:34have. Austin, I hope I'm not embarrassing. The most gentle spirit. Ethan's pretty good, I
40:40guess. But not as much as Austin. Austin had such a gentle spirit. I
40:46mean, just such a gentle spirit, but he hit the end. I'll never
40:51forget when Scarlett was getting bullied. Remember Austin? Scarlett was getting bullied at
40:57Walter C. Young, and there was some boys bullying her on the way
41:03home. And as a dad, I couldn't do anything, but we had taken
41:09all we could. So I just grabbed Austin and we went and dropped
41:14Austin off. And that gentle, so kind brother, Just showed up
41:20and said, I'm her brother. I want you to know something. I don't know
41:26what all he said. All I know is the boy never did it again.
41:32Why? Because it doesn't mean you're a pushover. It doesn't mean you don't handle
41:37some business. Sometimes you got to do angry business. Be angry and sin not.
41:44but you cannot do it by saying i'm going to figure this out myself everything
41:49you do you need to do it with a spiritual disposition because if you do
41:55it here it'll break your home apart the same hurt by both women the same
42:00ache but they went two different directions hannah went to the lord She also went
42:06to her husband. She did some natural things too, but she went to the Lord
42:11and said, "Oh God, remember your child. I'm gonna make this matter a matter of
42:16prayer." This one thought, or H-O thought, "Well, I'm gonna just play manipulation. I'm gonna
42:21put all the guilt on the husband. It's your fault." And Jacob says, "Who do
42:26you think I am, God?" Well, these are two family stories that we just jump
42:30past and don't see the family value of a lesson learned if we're not paying
42:35good attention. Because Rachel went to Jacob. You got to come through for me. And
42:41there's some things your husbands cannot do for you, wives. And husbands, there's some things
42:45your wives cannot do for you. If you put that kind of weight on them,
42:50you're expecting them to be like God. And that's idolatry. They cannot supply all your
42:55needs. Only the Lord can supply all your needs according to his riches and glory.
43:00Sometimes you got to go to the Lord. Well, all times you got to go
43:05to the Lord. But you got to remember, don't build by your own thinking of
43:10how to get through this thing. Take it to Jesus because the favor that Jacob
43:15showed, he had favoritism in his house. You remember the story of Joseph and the
43:20coat of many colors? It was because Jacob said, well, this is Rachel's boy. I
43:25have favoritism in my house. I have a favorite child. Hannah didn't she didn't make
43:31favoritism she took a coat to her son every every year too but the difference
43:37was Joseph was supposed to be the answer for the whole family and he ultimately
43:43was see God can met can fix your mess this is the story of it
43:49God uses families that are a mess God can fix the mess sometimes it takes
43:54years this story of Joseph didn't get fixed for many many years Many
44:00years, the story of Samuel starts when he's still a lad. Why? All because of
44:05how mama handled the difference. Mothers, be spiritual. When you think it's getting out of
44:10your grip, it's not out of God's grip. It might be out of your grip,
44:15but it's not out of God's grip. Every time you feel like it's too big,
44:19you can't reach it, you go to the Lord. Don't run and think, well, I'll
44:24find another way. I'll call their boss. I'll call this. I'll get their neighbor spying
44:29for me. I'll get their neighbor, I'm friends with their neighbor and I call her,
44:33I got their neighbor's number. Lean on the Lord, I'm finished. Come home must be
44:39built on the rock, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that
44:45build it. Except the Lord keep the city. The Lord's gotta keep it. The watchman
44:50waketh in vain. It's vain for you to rise up early with worry. Sit up
44:56late and eat the bread of sorrows. That's talking about worrying all the time. Well,
45:01the more I worry, the better it'll be. Listen, that is a curse. And sometimes
45:07it is grandparents, okay? I had a grandparent on one side, I'm not gonna say
45:13which side, that was a worry specialist. I mean, worry, worry, worry, worry. It was
45:18never the will of God. It is vain for you to do that. Take it
45:23to the Lord, lay it down, and trust that he has your back. Lo, children
45:29are an inheritance of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his. Whose
45:34reward? It's God's reward. And as arrows are in the hands of a mighty man,
45:39so are the children of thy youth. You need to aim your children. Aim them.
45:45Guide them. You can't travel with them, but you do send them in a direction.
45:50"Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them, "for they shall not
45:55be ashamed." What's your children gonna do if you don't raise them up in manipulation,
46:00but you raise them leaning on the Lord? Here's what they're gonna do. They're gonna
46:05deal with the enemies. Your children will have your back when you hit your weak
46:11spaces. Your children, the devil acknowledge, I mean, the Lord acknowledges in the Bible that
46:16you'll still have enemies when you're old. I thought, Lord, I could retire from my
46:21enemies. No. Wouldn't it be nice if you could retire from your enemies? Lord, I've
46:26retired. No, but this is where your children become the ones that keep you safe.
46:31You kept them safe because you did it in the hand of the Lord. If
46:36you did it through all kinds of manipulations, then when they get older, they'll play
46:41the same games on you. And you all know families like this. I'm telling you,
46:46and it's not just out of the church. Don't think it's just out of the
46:52church. What I'm saying happens in the church as much as it does in the
46:57world. In the church because people don't understand
47:03how the Lord wants to guide your family now. You can't go
47:08to church and talk in tongues and all of a sudden say
47:14my family's right. No, what are you doing Monday? How do you
47:19help them get up on Monday morning? How do you help them
47:25when they come home with their homework? Same thing with your marriage.
47:30Be busy making others great. Shall we stand? If the home doesn't
47:36stand on the Lord, then the home cannot stand. You know,
47:42we sing, "The Lord is my rock and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Whom
47:47shall I fear? The Lord is my rock and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?
47:53Of whom shall I be afraid? The Lord is the strength, strength of my life."
47:58What is this? Is it just a song? No. It's what you have when you're
48:04facing crisis. Okay? What's going to happen when your parents pass away? There's going to
48:09be a will. All there might be is a trailer park. I don't care
48:15how much or how little. Those are moments that stress can come into the family.
48:20And there's always going to be somebody who handles it less fair, shall we say.
48:26You cannot let that make you bitter. You've got to stop and say, "God's got
48:31my back. I'm taking my diligence. I'm addressing the issue. I'm willing to talk about
48:37it. I'm not going to just stay quiet and assume them to read my mind.
48:42If I have to write a letter, I'm going to write a letter. I'm going
48:47to have somebody else proofread the letter. Proofread the letter to make sure it's
48:53not nasty. I don't want to read your letters, but if I have to bring
48:58it to me, I've done it before. I'll say, oh, that line right there, that
49:03line right there needs a change. I feel you right there. Well, what is it?
49:08It's just trying to make sure we know God has our back because I want
49:13him to know above all things, he builds our home. Let's ask the Lord
49:19to guide our thoughts, our words, our actions right now. Let us all
49:25lift our voice together. Lord Jesus, you know how our homes are being
49:30built, how our marriages stand, how our relationships. They have attacks and assaults
49:36on them. They have people that are continually trying to come in and
49:42maybe even be an instrument of the devil. But Lord Jesus, we're not
49:48looking at this as if it's just some sideshow, some small thing. These
49:53are the most valuable relationships in our life. And the devil wants those
49:59relationships to be lost. The enemy of our home wants to destroy the
50:05love between us. our home, between brothers and sisters, between siblings, between parents
50:10and their children, between children and their mothers. All these attacks that
50:16come from every angle. Lord, we know that if you don't build
50:22the house, We labor in vain that do if you don't keep the city we
50:27labor in vain We watch in vain so this night and this month We're going
50:33to be teaching that we will keep a place for our family we're going to
50:38make sure that we give them a story a to tell them that they've had
50:43people there before and we've come through. We're gonna make sure there's a table that's
50:49protected for them to know that they're here and they've got a place to be
50:55heard. We're gonna show them a door where they can go into the wild yonder
51:00and that they were created to fly and that door is also gonna always be
51:06open that when they do something that's outside the boundaries of what they were raised
51:11to be that there's still going to be a way back home because
51:17we will always keep a light on for everybody in our family. We
51:23will always be expecting a reconciliation, a renewal, a revival of love and
51:29kindness and hope. And oh Lord, when that's all said and done, we're gonna make
51:34sure that there's a commissioning, that they realize that they are on purpose and that
51:40they were placed here by God and that they have some assignment there to do
51:45for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Help every husband to be
51:51praying about what his wife's purpose is in this world. Help every wife to be
51:56praying, oh Lord, For what is her husband's purpose in this world? Oh Lord, we
52:01know that Paul asked for there to be some that did not ever get married
52:06He said I wish that they were all as me Oh God just because we
52:11have this family story doesn't mean that those who do not have a husband or
52:16a wife are less on purpose or that they're less assigned or they're less
52:22divine Oh Lord let your power and your grace be upon them in Jesus
52:28name cover them with your mercy cover them with your grace cover them with
52:34your power help them Oh Lord to know that the tiger isn't tame that
52:39we're not gonna let some things in our house, we're not gonna let some
52:45spirits roam around in our house unchecked, but we're gonna continually love and pray
52:51and be spiritual and fight to keep our screens free from demonic activity. We're
52:57gonna fight to keep our phones free from demonic approaches. We're gonna fight to
53:03keep our house a sanctuary. We're going to take practical
53:09steps to keep our house a sanctuary. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I want
53:15to ask you guys to pray with me. I meant to do this at
53:20the beginning of my message, but sister Naomi has been put back in the
53:26hospital for a wound. It's not healing properly. And I promised her that we
53:32would pray for her. She'd been fighting it for a little while now and you
53:37know it can get overwhelming and I would like for us to pray for her
53:42and also brother Jamie Costas his healing has not been on a usual trajectory it's
53:47not bad and thank God we've got some good news but he's had some hiccups
53:52along the way that I'm ready for them to stop will you join with me
53:57right now and pray for brother Jamie Costas and sister Naomi strong father according to
54:02your power according to your healing grace Minister to Sister Naomi right now.
54:07Heal her body. Let the wound heal properly. Let there be an
54:13administered blessing that settles not just upon her wound, but also, Lord,
54:19upon her heart and upon her spirit and upon her mind.
54:25Let angels minister to her right now as she is there in that hospital
54:31room. Lord Jesus, thank you for strengthening Sister Danita and Brother Jamie. Let healing
54:36be in that house. Let your blessing be upon them. We give you the
54:42praise and the glory for it all. In the name of Jesus Christ, I
54:48pray. Hallelujah, hallelujah. I look at Sister Gilliland who's been going through cancer treatment. Every
54:53time I see you young lady, my heart just leaps within me because just the
54:59fact that you're able to be here is victory. It's beautiful to us. You're in
55:04our prayers. You're still in our prayers. Whenever you guys see Sister Diane Grantham, she's
55:09going through the same thing. Reach out to her, love her, pray for her. You
55:14know, people are warriors when they do it silently. I don't want anybody to feel
55:19like you do it silently in this house. Amen. Love one another. Show the love
55:24of Christ one to another. You're dismissed in Jesus' name. Have a great, great week.
55:28I will see you Sunday.