If your family were threatened with physical harm, you would do anything to protect them. Would you do the same to shield them from spiritual harm? Today, on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah takes a closer look at the 127th Psalm. with wisdom on fortifying your family with prayer.
to introduce the conclusion of his message. How can I help my family? Here's David.
Well, there's an old adage that you don't know how good a parent you have been until you see your grandchildren. Then you find out whether any of the things you taught your children are being passed on to the next generation. It's a wonderful, wonderful experience when you witness those things in the legacy of your family.
Well, it doesn't happen about everything, and there are some things maybe that we do and did for our families that aren't being done for our children's families. They're doing many other things, and one of the great joys is to see them following the example of their parents as they parent their own children. The family is a dynamic institution, one of God's best ideas. People remind each other often that the family was instituted long before the church. It can be a real burden, but when God is in control, There's nothing better.
than the family. And we're going to talk about that some more today here on Turning Point as we finish up this discussion of how can I help my family based upon Psalm 127 and a little bit of Psalm 128. We'll get to it in just a moment, but let me keep reminding you during this month of our special resource. I don't want you to miss the opportunity to get this book, Five Psalms for a Flourishing Life. 236 pages hardback to help you practice daily abiding with the Lord, help you discover a deeper source of hope during times that are difficult.
Help you be encouraged to invest more intellectually and intentionally in your relationships and activities with your family and with others. This book is only available from Turning Point. It's brand new, never been offered before, and it's yours for the asking. When you send a gift to help us with the resources needed to continue what we do here in the month of May, your gift of any size, just send that gift and ask for the book on Psalms, and it'll be on its way to you. We want you to have it.
We hope it'll be a blessing to you. We know it will.
Well, from Psalm 127 and 128, how can I help my family according to the Psalms? I remember going away and getting some time alone with the Lord and really sitting down and trying to crystallize some years back.
Okay, Jeremiah, what are your priorities? And I'll tell you, it's one of the most important times I've ever spent in my life because I believe that with what God has done here in this place. Apart from a clear understanding in my mind, and yet I struggle with these all the time, but a clear understanding of what my priorities are. I would be making a lot of really bad decisions right now.
So let me tell you what they are. They don't necessarily have to be yours, but most of us are going to fall into the pattern of these priorities. Number one, I'm a person. And I better take care of my personal relationship with God. God's number one.
In fact, he says he must be number one. He's a jealous God. He doesn't want anybody in between me and him. He's number one in my life. And so I have to cultivate that relationship.
I have to spend time with God. I have to make God number one. Secondly, I'm a partner. And I've got a wife. A wonderfully wonderfully good wife.
God is first. Donna second. Thirdly, I'm a parent. And they've got children. Four of them.
And there. The most important thing in my life outside of God. And Donna. And every day of my life, I have to fight to preserve. that priority.
Because you see, when I'm at a football game, I'm not at three or four other places where people think I should be. Or if I'm at a dinner sometime, I've said no to other things. And you know, there's an awful lot of pressure. and a lot of expectations about what you should be doing with your life. But I want to tell you as best as I know how to tell you.
that my children are third in my life, the only thing ahead of them Is God And Donna. I had it tested when. I was invited to speak at a convention up at Arrowhead Springs. I was asked to go and speak to a group of 450 women. at a women's Bible study.
We agreed that was an opportunity that I should take. They wanted me to teach the life of David, and I had just preached through the life of David, so we went. You know, we had this thing all scheduled out way out in the future. I knew the basketball season was over. I don't schedule anything during basketball season that conflicts with the ball games if I can help it.
Not anything during football season.
So I was so excited, you know, this thing is out here in March.
Well, then our wonderful basketball team got good about halfway through the year. And they started getting better and better, and they started winning, and they won, and they won, and they won. They got in the playoffs, and they kept winning. And I kept looking at this date that was over here. And we kept getting closer and closer to the date.
And would you believe it? I was scheduled to be at Arrowhead Springs from Thursday through Saturday, and our guys won all their games and were supposed to play for the city championship on Saturday morning at 10 o'clock in the sports arena. And I'm supposed to be at Arrowhead Springs. You got to be kidding.
Well, I'll tell you, I got up to Arrowhead Springs and told them that we'd speak anytime they wanted us on Thursday and however many times they wanted us on Friday, but we were coming home on Saturday. I'll never forget this. We got there at Springs, went into that beautiful hotel up there, which is the Campus Crusade headquarters, and there was a lady who came through the lobby and she said, Are you Dr. Jeremiah? And I said, Yes.
Oh, she said, We're so glad you're here. And she said, Let me just tell you right up front, we're so glad you're not staying for Saturday. Yeah. I thought this poor lady hadn't even heard me speak yet, and she's already made up her mind. And then she said something I will never forget.
She said, what you don't understand, and she smiled. Is that we are all wives of executive husbands. fund this ministry so that we can do what we do with Bible study. And she said, it's just so incredibly encouraging to see somebody in a position of leadership make a decision in favor of their family. During the afternoon, I'll never forget this, it was one of the last sessions, and a lady got up and she ran out of the building.
She had tears coming down her face. And you know, let me just make this momentary announcement. That's really unnerving to a speaker. You know, if you feel the urge that you just have to get out of here and it's really life-threatening, you know, go for it. But when I see you leave, especially if you look like you're troubled, and my mind cycles back over everything I've said for the last five minutes.
Well, that happened, and I went to the director of the conference and I mentioned this lady who had left, and I said, Could you please see if I might have said something that offended her? She came back to me later. She said, Pastor, don't worry about it. She didn't offend her. She had heard about what you were doing because we had to announce that you weren't going to be here on Saturday, and you weren't even talking about it, but while she was seated in the meeting, It really became A matter of great concern to her.
Her daughter was playing for the state championship in Denver, Colorado on Saturday. And she got under such conviction She got up out of the meeting, went and packed all her duds, got on the next plane and went home. What are we talking about? We're talking about putting our children in a place where once in a while They understand. that they're important.
Making parenting a priority. I want to tell you something. If we didn't do anything else with our life, Making parenting a priority. is pretty much a full-time task. Amen.
Amen. Number three. Keep reading in your Bibles. Principle number three. Is protect your family from destructive influences.
Verse 2 changes the metaphor just a bit. It's a good idea. The watchman stays awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, unless the Lord guards the city. The watchman stays awake in vain.
We've been in the family building business. We've seen the family get built like you build a house.
Now we have a picture of a city that is a protection for its people. And the writer of the Psalms changes the picture and he says, unless the Lord keeps the city, The people who try to keep it are doing it in vain. And he's still talking about the family, that's evident. And what he's talking about is the fact that while it is important for us to come to God and let him be the builder of our families, when our families are built, we have to come back to God and ask Him to help us be the watchman over our families. And it's a picture of a parent looking out over his family and protecting it and watching out for it.
Boy, if there's ever been a day. When we needed to do that This is the day.
Now, the interesting thing here is that the psalmist once again puts us in partnership with God. Just as there's one builder and two laborers, and we're working together on the same project, there's one who is the watchman, but we're to be watchmen with him. You see it? Unless the watchman who is the Lord is working, then we who are also watching aren't going to understand it.
So, what the psalmist is saying is: we're in partnership with God in building our homes, and we're in partnership with God in protecting our homes. Are you with me? There's a man who has written a great deal about the family, and I come to love his writings. His name is Steve Farrar. Maybe you've seen some of his books.
He said rather indelicately, I don't let my children watch network TV for the same reason I don't let them drink out of the toilet. Mm-hmm.
Now, I probably would have said that a little differently than he said it, but he got his point across, right? I understand the necessity of work. And God knows if that's something you have to do. To make ends meet, that's one thing, but if you're doing it to live at another standard of living, it's a foolish decision. Because you're giving up your children for more toys.
What a trade. And what God is trying to help us understand is this: that we not only have to build our homes. Once we build them, we have to stand over them and be protecting of them. Care about them. I want to share this with you because I think it's a very practical, hands-on sort of thing.
If you're in partnership with God in protecting your family, how do you do it?
Well, how do you do anything in partnership with God? It ultimately involves prayer. Read an article written by Suzanne Fields. in which she talked about this whole matter of praying. how important it is for couples to pray for their children.
And right after that, I had been given a book by Patrick Morley. It's called Man in the Mirror. It's got articles about the kinds of things that we struggle with as men. Articles about children and about our relationship with our wife, and how we deal with our jobs, and how we deal with our money, and all the temptations that come as a part of our maleness. Patrick Morley, in his book, talked about seven couples who were all new Christians who started to meet in a prayer group, and the result of their prayers are so dramatic that he said, I verified their story personally.
These Couples were naive new Christians, and they discovered when they met for the first time that they all had something in common. And that is that they all had children who were not saved. In fact, a total of 23 of them.
Someone brought a verse to their first Bible study that said this: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved and your household. Acts 16:33. They took it as a promise from God that God was going to save all their kids. And they started to meet together, all of them. And they began to pray for the 23 children who God had given them who were outside of Christ.
And each week, as they faithfully prayed for these children, Over the course of two years, all 23 kids committed their lives to Christ. In a Denver Crusade, Dr. Billy Graham. Spoke about this verse of scripture in Acts, and he said that they had learned through their own study that in homes where the Father came to faith in Christ first. the entire family came to faith in 60% of the situations.
Where the wife came first, it was 40 to 50. Where the children came first, 25% of them saw their entire family become Christians.
Now, what does that say? That if you want the families of America to be changed, you've got to change the fathers because they have the greatest influence in the home in bringing others to faith. The way that this is all going to change in our families, in our partnership with God, in the protection of our home, is through prayer.
Some months ago, this really became apparent. to Donna and to me. And I don't know if you've struggled with this.
Sometimes we've struggled with praying together and praying. For the things that are important, we pray, but it's not always been as focused as we had wanted it to be. And one of the things that gets focused real quick when you end up with a bunch of teenagers in your home. Boy, do you begin to sense the need for prayer in your life. Amen.
You may not hear anything else I say today, moms and dads. But I want to tell you. There's never been a time when we needed to pray for our kids more than we do now. They're fighting battles most of you don't have a clue about. That are in intense battles, and they need.
To know. that mom and dad are standing with them. and praying with them. And you say, well, boy, you know, I came here today to get some help from my family.
Now you got me under this guilt trip, Pastor, and I'm feeling, you know, I got to go home and got to talk to my wife about this, and I know this is not going to be fun.
Well, let me just tell you. God wants to take you wherever you are. And if this has been a struggle for you, let me tell you, it's been a struggle for us. This isn't that something we've come to easily. But we're glad now that we've got a few of these under our belt and under our experience, and we're learning how to do it better.
I was real intrigued by Patrick Morley gave us a little list of some things we could pray for for our kids. Listen to this. Pray for a saving faith if they don't know the Lord. Pray for a growing faith if they're immature. Pray for an independent faith as they get older.
Isn't that a good thought? Pray that they will be strong and healthy in mind and body and spirit. Pray for a sense of purpose and destiny in their life. Pray for a desire within them that they will have integrity. Pray for a call to excellence.
Pray to understand the ministry God has for them. Pray that they will set aside times to spend with God. Pray that they will acquire wisdom. Pray protection against drugs and alcohol and premarital sex. Pray that God will bring them the mate that He wants them to have and begin praying for that person already because you know your kids and they need prayer, and there's a whole list of stuff.
to pray for your children. What an incredible thing. That's how you build the house, and that's how you protect your children. You know, one of the things that happens as your kids grow older, As you become aware of this wonderful thought, that you have lost control. Are you with me?
Little by little, isn't that what parenting is all about? It's the gradual losing of control.
Some of you kids think you're under all kinds of oppression right now.
Well, let me just tell you. It's going to change. It's inevitable. You're going to get more and more control over your life. And that's the real scary thing about being a parent because you know why?
That's when we get our grade card. That's when we find out how well we've done. And ultimately, we're going to say goodbye to them. And the thing that's so incredible is that the one way you can still. Be in touch with your kids is through prayer.
Let me tell you something. God hears. He really does. One last thing. Number four.
We need to get to the place. Where we praise God openly. for our kids. Read with me verses 3 and following. Isn't this a wonderful passage?
Behold, children are inheritance from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a 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 in the gate.
That's the best thing that Solomon could say. in his language about parenting and What he said is be positive about being in the family. Be positive about your children. Realize God gave them to you as a gift. Realize that they're inheritance for the Lord, that's God's reward to you.
You say, good night. I hope I don't get rewarded too much more. I know how some of you think. But I want to tell you the truth. Children are God's blessing to us.
And the psalmist uses this metaphor, class. He says, They're like arrows. What does an arrow do? An arrow goes to a place where you can't go. to accomplish a purpose you can't accomplish.
Isn't it incredible to see how God raises up our children and He thrusts them out? And do you ever stop and think about the fact that whatever good your children are doing out there, wherever they are right now, if they've left home, There's a part of you that's doing whatever they're doing because you're in them. Not only physically, but your life has been built into their life, and they're an arrow that's gone out from your bow. to do good for God. Hmm.
And then it says here that when your children are grown, That you will not be ashamed, and it says they shall speak. With you in the gate, and this is a wonderful picture here. It's a picture of what happened in Solomon's day. All the business was transacted at the gate of the city. Are you with me?
And all of the major disputes were decided at the gate of the city. And what Solomon's talking about here is this: if you grow up good children, and when you get older, you get in trouble. They come and stand with you and help you out and speak for you, and they're part of helping you. You know, you might not think that's important, but as you get older and older, it's good to know you got some kids out there who will come and stand with you and encourage you. And some of us who are children still are in that process right now with our parents, aren't we?
And one of the reasons we're doing that is because God has raised us up in a good family.
Now we can come and stand with our parents in a time when they really need us to stand with them. Oh, let me tell you something, friends. God has a good plan for building good homes. He tells us if we put God at the center of our home, that's the first thing. If we put parenting at the top of the list, that's the second thing.
If we determine to protect our kids as a watchman watching over a besieged city, that's the third thing. And if we bring praise to God and have a positive attitude toward our children, that God has given them to us as a gift, what an incredible thing that can be. The salmon nearly leaped off their hooks. That was a far cry from the day before when the four anglers couldn't even seem to catch an old boot. Disappointed but not discouraged, they had climbed aboard their small seaplane and skimmed over the Alaskan mountains.
to a pristine secluded bay where the fish were sure to bite. They parked their aircraft and waded upstream where the water teemed with ready to catch salmon. Later that afternoon, when they returned to their camp, they were surprised to find the seaplane high and dry. The tides fluctuated 23 feet in that particular bay. and the pontoons rested on a bed of gravel.
Since they couldn't fly out till morning, they settled in for the night and enjoyed some of their catch for dinner. then slept in the plane. In the morning, the seaplane was adrift, so they promptly cranked the engine and started to take off. Too late, they discovered one of the pontoons had been punctured and was filled with water. The extra weight threw the plane into a circular pattern, and within moments from liftoff.
the seaplane careened into the sea and capsized. Dr. Phil Littleford determined that everyone was alive, including his 12-year-old son, Mark. he suggested they pray, which the other two men quickly endorsed. No safety equipment could be found on board, no life vests, no flares, nothing.
The plane gurgled and submerged in the blackness of the icy morning sea. Fortunately they all had waders which they inflated. The frigid Alaskan water chilled their breath. They all began to swim for shore, but the riptide countered every stroke. The two men alongside Phil and Mark were strong swimmers and they both made shore, one just catching the tip of land as the tides pulled them out toward sea.
Their two companions last saw Phil and Mark as a disappearing dot on the horizon swept arm in arm out to sea. The Coast Guard reported they probably lasted no more than an hour in the freezing waters. Hypothermia would chill the body functions and they would go to sleep. Mark with a smaller body mass would fall asleep first in his father's arms. Phil could have made the shoreline too.
but that would have meant abandoning his son, Their bodies never were found. And then the writer asks. What father wouldn't be willing to die for his son? I'll tell you what. The best I know.
I think I would do that. I think I'd die for my son. If it came to that. And for my daughters.
Okay. I think if somebody came after my family and it was me or them, I think I'd put myself in harm's way. to protect them. I hope I have that kind of courage. But let me ask you something, men and women.
If we, and I assume that most of us would agree to that, if we are willing to go so far as to die for our children, Why is it? that it seems so hard for many of us to live for them. That's the issue. Because you see Tragedy is no less painful if it's by the sudden stroke of a storm or a drowning than it is if it's the long, protracted hurt. Of a disenfranchised child who has been swept away in the world and has lost all hope of ever recovering.
And I want you to understand that while we can't always be the ones to stand in harm's way. God has put us as parents in this world to stand in harm's way. For our kids. By the grace of God, I want to join hands with all of you as fellow parents. and say, I'm going to give that the best shot I have.
until it's no longer necessary. You know, friends, Donna and I have four children. 12 grandchildren. one great grandchild, and four more coming in the fall. And um One of the great choices we have is our family.
I believe when I get to heaven, long before God asks me what I did as a pastor, He's going to ask me how I did as a father. And my greatest joy, my greatest task has been to lead my family and to watch them grow in the Lord and be successful in what they do and honor the Lord Jesus Christ in their lives. I know that's true for many of you. There's no greater joy, the Bible says, than to know that your children walk in the truth. I know that's a spiritual message, but it's also very true in our physical families and relationships.
Well, this is the end of the week and I hope you'll have a good time at church this week and be sure to be there. Listen to us on the radio or watch us on television for the weekend editions, and we'll see you right here Monday as we continue our discussion of God, I need some answers, as we talk about why do good things happen to bad people on Monday. Uh The message you just heard came to you from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Dr. David Jeremiah, the senior pastor. Turning Point is also on radio and TV this weekend.
To learn where you can find it, visit our website davidjeremiah.org/slash radio. That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio or call 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of David's new book, Five Psalms for a Flourishing Life. It'll help you abide with God, and it's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the English Standard, New International and New King James Versions, available in your choice of attractive cover options.
Let us know how this ministry blesses you by writing to Turning Point, P.O. Box 3838, San Diego, California, 92163. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us Monday as we continue God, I Need Some Answers on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.
