Unless the Lord Builds the House

I got up early this morning and listened to two presentations of "Working Preacher" and then to part of a sermon preached by Bob Burmeister at the Roseville campus of North Heights Lutheran Church.*  The sermon was from last Sunday and was on a similar theme to the one we shared at Crossroads last week.  The basis of the message was a Bible verse from Psalm 127:

Unless the Lord builds the house,
the work of the builders is wasted.

Pastor Burmeister reminded the crowd in Roseville that their founding pastor, Morris Vaagenes, had often used that verse (Ps 127:1a) when the church embarked on building programs.  But, as Bob also said, the word "house" does not really mean a church building or a brick or wood or stone structure.  Instead, "house" here refers to a family line, a heritage that is passed down from one generation to another.  I could paraphrase that verse this way:

Unless the Lord builds the family,
the work of parents is bound to be frustrated!

The most important thing parents (and, in fact grandparents and any other adults who want to have a positive impact on the next generation) can do for kids is to allow God to work on their own lives, that is, on the lives of the adults, allowing him to transform US through repentance and ways of living that give God control.

That is the same basic message that I shared at Crossroads last Sunday.  God's promises are not only for individuals.  They come to the whole "house" when we live by faith in Jesus.  You can listen to the message at the Crossroads worship page (scroll down to the sermon player) or at http://www.sermon.net/crossroadsdc.  The message begins 36 minutes after the beginning of Sunday's recorded worship.

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* The church I serve, Crossroads Community Church of Cokato, building a relationship with a new "association" of local churches headed by Pastor Per Nilsen of North Heights Lutheran Church (Arden Hills and Roseville) and Community of Hope Church (Rosemount and Hastings). 

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