A song of the Greeks for Solomon, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that
build it.
Except the Lord build the city, the watchmen wake it but in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early, to set up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for
so he giveth his beloved sleep."
I want to stop you for a second and just remind everybody that what we do here at Very Baptist
Church is not of man, it's of God.
It is God who builds his house, it is God who's going to build your house, and he's
going to build it if we allow him to build it, you see, because if we come here in our
own power, we're going to fail.
And so, you know, if you go sowing him but you don't agree how we do stuff, if you
don't agree with our preaching, our music, if you don't agree with our events, then
the Bible says your labor is in vain.
You know, if you wake up early, if you sit up late, if you go out in the heat and the
rain, it's all in vain because you have to believe that what we do, God is in it.
And don't worry about if people leave our church, don't worry about the numbers because
God's going to build that number.
So we just got to do what he commanded us to do and let him worry about the rest.
So you look at verse 3, it says, lo, children are in heritage of the Lord and the fruit
of the womb is his reward.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man that had his quiver full of them.
They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies at the gate.
And what I want to preach on today is this idea of arrows in the hand of a mighty man.
You know, arrows in the hand of a mighty woman, because it takes a lot of courage,
it takes a lot of faith, a lot of patience.
It takes a lot of work to raise up children, but it takes a mighty man and a mighty woman
to actually raise up Godly children, you see?
And you know, in context, obviously the chapter is talking about having your quiver, your
home full of children being a blessing, but it doesn't stop there and that's the problem.
A lot of Christians, even me growing up in the Pentecostal church, most families from
my generation had between six, eight, twelve to fourteen kids.
And what I noticed is that the parents were more, they would always quote this verse,
they would actually look down on you if you didn't have a lot of kids, but what I noticed
was that the parents were more focused on having kids, but they missed the second part
of verse five there.
And so, most of these kids grew up being ashamed of their parents.
They grew up reprobating sodomites, they grew up hating God, you know, atheists.
And they wonder why.
Because the parents failed, and if you look there in verse five, this is where they failed.
It says, happy is the man that had this quiver full of them, yes, but it says they shall
not be ashamed, but they should be able to speak with the enemies in the gate.
And so these children, they grew up to be ashamed of their parents, of their religion.
And so, because the parents were too busy judging others about their quivers instead
of worrying about their quivers.
And so, our goal is to raise up godly adults who will not be ashamed of us.
That is the goal.
And you know, even if you think about Sarah, you know, Abraham's wife, she only had one
child.
And you know, think about Rebecca, had two children, you think about Rachel, had two
children, Ruth, the virtuous woman, the Bible says she's a virtuous woman, it went out of
the way to tell us that she's a virtuous woman, but she only had one child, if you think about
it.
So, then, and people will tell you, well, you're only blessed if you have a lot of children,
but that is not true, because Genesis 24, 1, you know, of Turner, but it says, and Abraham
was old and well-stricken in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things.
And look, that all there includes his finances, his marriage, his children, and all, and he
only had one child, you know, with his actual wife Sarah.
And you know, Genesis 25, 11 says, and it came to pass after the death of Abraham that
God blessed his son, Isaac.
And you see, Isaac was blessed, Rebecca was blessed, and his two children were blessed.
And that was not a lot of children in the house.
So, then the question that leads us to is, how were they blessed if they only had a few
children?
And look, the blessing wasn't the fact that their children turned out right, their children
turned out to serve God at the end of their lives, their children turned out to not be
ashamed of them.
You see, Isaac was not ashamed of Abraham, Jacob was not ashamed of Isaac when they got
old.
And you see, Jacob became a great man, he became Israel.
And so, look, you can even go in the ghettos, and you know, you can find a woman with nine
children.
Believe it or not, in our old Pentecostal church, before I got saved, we had a young
lady there, she had started having kids around 15, she had like literally like nine kids
with like almost nine different guys.
Nine different dads, her kids were a mess, they made a lot of trouble in church, but
according to this theology, she would bring like new guys like every few months, literally
a new boyfriend every few months, but off this ideology that the blessing is only in
just having a bunch of children, you would have to say she's blessed and she's miserable
and they're probably on the way to hell, they weren't even saved.
And so, you know, you think about Gideon, Gideon had 71 children, the Bible says, and
look, God didn't command us to fill our quivers with more wives or with multiple wives.
God said to fill our quiver with the one wife he gives us, but in the story of Gideon, you
think he has 71 children and it sounds, man, that's a big blessing at first when you
read it, at first glance, but then what happens with Gideon's children, you know, one kills
all save one.
And you know, if Gideon didn't get to see that, but if he was alive, that would be a
curse, that wouldn't be a blessing if you think about it, you see?
And you know, many, many godly men failed.
It's sad, but you think about Moses, he sent his two kids off with his wife and we don't
know what happened to them.
The man that talked face to face with God, the Bible says, you know, David, the man after
God's own heart, I mean, we guys know the story with all his kids.
I mean, he felt miserable, even Solomon.
Solomon shot correctly, but eventually he went wrong.
He picked up some bad habits and that's why us fathers and mothers should be an example
to our kids because they could affect them later on in life.
And so you think about Samuel, Samuel was a good man, but Samuel, what happened to his
children?
You know, it says about Samuel, it says, and his sons walked not in his ways, but turned
aside after Lucre and took bribes and perverted judgment.
And you know, I believe that some of these men had their hearts in the right places,
but they were too focused on other people and they forgot to focus on their house.
And look, we need to focus on our house and then focus on our people, because what's the
point if my kids go to hell, but I get other people on the street safe?
Do you know what I mean?
And so, you know, the Duggars, you guys hear about the Duggars?
I know a lot of people were looking at them when they first came out, but the Duggars
have 19 kids.
And look, folks, they claim to be independent Baptists.
That's pretty close to our backyard.
Praise the Lord.
They didn't say independent fundamental Baptists, but they said they were independent Baptists.
And when the media asked them what religion they were, and when they were also asked,
why did you have so many children?
This is what they quoted.
They quoted Psalms 127, folks.
And they said, when they asked them, they said, well, God said, happy is the man that
had his quiver full of them.
They should have continued to read the rest of that verse, but that's what they told
the media when they were asked why they had so many children.
And then when they got on that show, how did those, you know, did their children look innocent
at first?
They probably looked like a happy family, but how did those children turn out?
You know, one son took advantage of his sisters, kind of reminds me of the story of David's
son.
He took advantage of other girls.
The sisters started to rebel.
They wanted to get away from the house.
And so I don't know much about the Duggars.
I never really watched them.
I didn't care much for them.
I thought it was already a bad news when they were on there.
But I did some research on them, because all I knew was when he saw them on the magazines
at a check stand, how, you know, the girls were depressed at home and all that bad stuff
what they were showing about them.
So I did a little research when I was working on this sermon, and I want to read this little
article to you real quick that I found on home entertainment about the Duggars.
And it says, when Ginger Duggar married Jeremy Vuolo back in 2016, she was immediately whisked
off to a new life in Loretto, Texas.
Since then, Ginger and Jeremy have relocated to California, and Ginger has arguably become
the most rebellious Duggar.
She dyed her hair blonde last year and revealed that she watches television and listens to
modern music, independent Baptist.
She and Jeremy have taken on a much different way of life from the way she was raised.
And look at this, though the two are still religious, they still claim to be religious,
and they came from an independent Baptist family.
And so, you know, if you keep reading, it talks about the sisters chopped their hair
short, how the kids are just rebelling against the house, and so how the parents are coping
after their shirt was canceled, they made a laughing stock of themselves.
And look, the Duggars going on that show, they have given great occasion to the enemies
of the Lord to blaspheme his name.
Because here's the thing, the world's going to look, saw them, the world's going to say,
well, you claim, you follow that book, you claim that book so that you'll be blessed
if you have children, but yet your children hate you, your children don't want to be around
you.
And so, they have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.
And look, I thought they're Baptist, I thought that they were supposed to be independent,
they're supposed to be separate from the world, so then what in the world are they doing hanging
around with Hollywood?
And so, what the problem is that they were double-minded.
The Duggars, they were double-minded people, and the Bible says a double-minded is unstable
in all his ways, and now their children are going to be unstable in all their ways.
And they're going to reap what they sow.
You know, 2 Corinthians 6, 17 says, wherefore come out from among them, and be separate
saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you.
And so, they decided to touch the unclean things of Hollywood, and honestly, I just
think in my personal opinion that the Duggar families had those children for the wrong
reason.
I think they just wanted to have a bunch of them become famous, to get money.
That's probably what their goal was, I might be wrong, but that's what I see from reading
all this stuff.
So, I think they just turned aside after Lucre and took bribes and perverted judgment.
They tried to say, oh, we're trying to help the world, you know, to be a light to them,
but they actually were darkness.
They actually made the Baptists look bad.
And so, point number one, and my only point is, point your children towards the right
mark.
Point your children towards the right mark while there's still time, while they're still
young, while those arrows are still in your hand, because when they get old, it's going
to be too late, folks.
And you know, what is the point of an arrow?
Think about an arrow.
What do you do with an arrow?
Well, an arrow, you're supposed to shoot it towards a mark, or towards a target, right?
And so, our arrows, our children, once God gives them to our hands, we have to start
pointing them towards the mark, and that mark, that target, should be God, it should be Christ
Jesus.
And you know, Paul said in Philippians 3.14, I press toward the mark for the price of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
And look, that's our goal.
Our goal is for those marks, those arrows, to hit that mark, which is Christ.
And look, our greatest battle is going to be to raise up Godly children, it's going
to be to have children that will grow up, to adults that will say, hey, I have fought
a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.
Look, I have kept the faith, because a lot of great men's children do not follow God
with all their hearts like their fathers did.
That is our goal.
And so, in closing, I just want to remind you, you know, I want my children, I want
my children, when they leave my house, when I let go of those arrows, folks, I want them
to go continue soul winning, continue to go towards Christ, praying, I want them to read
the Bible, because here's the thing, once I let go of them, the arrow's gone.
And the way I direct it is going to go, and you can run across the state, you can run
across the country, across the world, try to redirect them, but it's too late, folks,
the arrow's gone, and only God will redirect them with a rod.
And that's not, that's what we're trying to avoid, right?
And so, how can we accomplish this?
Well, hey, bring them soul winning.
Do not forget about soul winning.
Bring them to church.
Bring them not just to Sunday morning, don't shoot them towards Sunday morning only, because
guess what?
Their children are going to go to once a month only, and eventually they're going to go back
into the world towards their own target.
And you know, bring them to all three church services, and I want to say, teach them to
fear this book.
Teach them to fear this book from a young age, folks, even before they can read it,
because here's the thing, these are the words of God, they're not God, but they're the words
of God.
And you know, throughout the years I've seen kids scribble, you know, Bibles here and hymnal
books here, and here's the thing, we're going to get new books, we're going to get new hymnals,
but even the hymnals, what do we call them?
Spiritual hymns.
And why do we call them that?
Because there's a spiritual aspect, and there's a message of itself in the song, and here's
the thing, I've seen parents where they watch their kids scribble their Bibles and say,
well, they already messed that up, might as well let them finish it, but here's the thing,
you're going to fail, because we'll get new Bibles, but they're not going to respect this
thing when they're 12, 13, and they start marking it, and you're going to try to correct
them, then it's too late.
You've got to correct them when they're young.
Having respect is, my dad always told me this should be on top of everything, you never
touch, you never put anything on top of this, and I'm not saying it's a sin to put anything
on top of this, but my dad said this is the word of God, and you need to respect that
word of God.
And so I agree with that, and so yeah, you know, teach them those things, and you know,
the last thing I want to tell you guys is, don't let them watch television, folks, it
scares me how much I hear throughout the years how many people came here and they have Netflix,
they have TV.
Look, this is a TV right here.
You might not have a TV in your house, but YouTube is a TV, friends, and let's not be
hypocrites, and when you put the Egypt in their hands, don't be surprised they start
walking like Egypt.
If they start acting like Pharaoh, you know, look what happened to the Duggars, they play
with the industry, and now they're famous in the industry, and they're going to hell
pretty much, right?
They're talking bad stuff about their parents, and look, you might get them saved, yeah,
but here's the thing, Lao was saved too, and you know, Lao went to Egypt when he was young
with Abraham, he saw Egypt, when he became a man, he looked at Sodom, that reminded him
of Egypt, and soon he moved to Egypt, and he destroyed his life and his family's life.
And so, we need to remember that, you know, our kids can either be a burden or it could
be a blessing to us, and you know, God might give you one, two in his wisdom, he might
give you 10, 20, but just make sure you point them towards the right mark, towards Christ.
Let's pray.
Lord, help us, Lord, to remember that you've given us these children, Lord, to our hands
to give them back to you, Lord, and Lord, I pray that for those that are married and
have grown children, that no longer have children in their house, but for the singles, Lord,
help them, Lord, to go out there in the fields of sin, Lord, and you know, win souls, get
arrows, and just point them to this mark, Lord, to your house, where they could grow
spiritually, Lord, and just bless the rest of this day, Lord, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.