Unless the Lord Builds the House

Proofread Broadcast Transcript

Reading from Psalm 127 verse 1, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Psalm 127 verse 1. Oh magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt his name together. It's Monday, August 3rd, 2026.

Welcome to another edition of Mark & Friends. As we continue our summer journey through the Psalms, Pastor Daniel Dabney from CU Church opens Psalm 127, reminding us that real peace isn't found in striving harder, it's found in trusting the Lord, relying on his wisdom, and resting in his faithful care. Here's Pastor Daniel on today's Monday edition of Mark & Friends.

Psalm 127 is going to remind us that our trust and our rest is found in the Lord, we rely on him. So I want to ask you this morning on a day-to-day basis, who do you trust? Who do you rely upon? How many of you love a good road trip playlist? Anybody? That's right. When I was a kid, we would travel in a station wagon and we had the Charlie Brown cassette and the Beach Boys cassette.

That was our playlist. Well, Psalm 127 is in a group of 15 psalms that were called the Songs of Ascent, like you ascend a mountain. And these were the songs that the people of God would sing together as they traveled, they pilgrimaged towards Jerusalem three times a year for the major feasts, to go to the temple.

These 15 psalms were their road trip playlist. And so they would sing these songs together, they would worship together as they traveled, they would prepare their hearts. And we know in Luke chapter 2, we have a story of 12-year-old Jesus traveling with his family in a large group up to Jerusalem for a feast.

And so it's most likely that 12-year-old Jesus sang Psalm 127 with his family. Psalm 127 was most likely written by King Solomon. He was the son of King David.

David wrote most of the psalms, but they think Solomon wrote this one. And Solomon was known for a couple of things. He was really wise.

He wrote the book of Proverbs. And you know how Solomon got really wise? He asked for it. God said, Solomon, what do you want me to give you? He said, God, I pray for wisdom.

Give me wisdom. And we have that same invitation in James chapter 1, where it says, if any of you lacks wisdom, ask God who gives generously. So he was known for his wisdom, and then Solomon was also known as maybe the wealthiest man ever.

He had tons of everything. He was a king, and he knew all about building a temple, and building a kingdom, and protecting a kingdom. And so Psalm 127 starts out this way.

Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. That word vain means useless and meaningless. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

And so we're given this imagery of a house, of a kingdom, and these watchmen on the walls. But I think that Solomon, whoever's writing this, I think he wants us to see who God is. I think he wants us to see that God is the architect.

God is the builder. God is our watchman. For a long time, my wife wanted a new front door on our house.

I'm not super handy. I have a hammer. I have some stuff that say Phillips and flathead.

I have a small toolbox, but I'm just not really handy. But we went and got a front door, and I thought, I can figure this out. And I was looking at everything, and I thought, you know what? This is really easy.

All I got to do is call Russ, Dick, and Tim and have them come over and put the door in for me. Because here's what's true. Unless Russ, Dick, and Tim put the front door in, Daniel labors in vain.

And so here's what I chose to do. I chose to align myself to their expertise. And they let me do some things.

They let me help. I held some tools. They let me They let me bring them water.

But in the end, I got to be a part of something bigger than me. I got to learn. I got to grow.

I got a new front door. And I labored some. I labored while relying on them.

Psalm 127 is about reliance upon the Lord. And unless the Lord builds the house, this house, it applies to our whole life. God is the giver of life.

God is the designer and the creator of you and me. And our lives contain relationships and responsibilities. Our lives contain blessings.

Our lives contain heartache. Our lives contain decisions we have to make and goals we have set and hopes that we carry and regrets that we hold on to. We are works in progress.

And so, yes, God made us, but he's also making us. And so when this passage says, unless the Lord builds the house, this isn't God pushing you out of the way saying, quit doing anything. This is not an impatient dad who rips the tools out of your hands and says, quit doing that.

You're messing it up. This verse reveals to us that God is for us, and he's inviting us to trust him. He's inviting us to rely on him.

He's inviting us to align our lives to his expertise. We're saying Christ is my firm foundation. He's inviting us to take all that we are, to ground our decisions, to ground all the things that we pursue, to ground our relationships in the truth of who he is, and then be a part of something bigger than us.

The next verse, verse two, it says, it is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for he gives to his beloved sleep. I don't think they're just talking about a strong work ethic there. I think this is that getting up early, going and going and going with anxious toil, worry that's all on you, stressed out all the way to bedtime, laying in bed, can't fall asleep because your mind's racing.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? So let me ask you this, what drives you? When you woke up this morning, what drove you out of bed? What has had control of your emotions this weekend? Who or what do you rely on? What success are you chasing? Or how would you even define success? The world has a lot of definitions for us of what success is and tries to tell us, oh, this is success. Do this, get this, this is success. But I believe God sees it differently.

There's this beautiful picture in Mark. Jesus is in the temple with his disciples, and they're watching people drop tons of money into the temple treasury. And then this poor widow walks up with two small coins, all she has to live on.

And she drops these two small coins that were hardly worth anything into the treasury. And Jesus points and says, she gave more. His economy is different.

And so I think Psalm 127 describes success for us. Success is trusting God. Trusting God is the most successful thing you could ever do.

But everything else around us to say, no, this is how success is measured. You got to do this. You got to get to here.

You got to have this. Solomon had everything. And in the end would write that in the end it was meaningless.

Or you look at things that we all chase today. And, you know, I would guess in here, there's probably a lot of Brad Pitt fans in here, right? All you Brad Pitt fans, raise your hand. There you are.

But honestly, Brad Pitt has a lot of the things in life that many of us are probably chasing. And he was quoted in an interview. He says, the emphasis now is on success and personal gain.

I'm sitting in it. And I'm telling you, it's not it. It doesn't help you sleep better.

We've got to find something else. We have found something else. Or Kyrie Irving, NBA basketball player, worked his whole life, labored and labored and labored for one thing to win an NBA championship.

And he finally won one. And he said this, it was like climbing up one of the tallest mountains in the world, winning a championship. And when I got up there, he said, I felt empty.

So what do we do? How are we supposed to live? How do we live this out? Well, these first two verses of Psalm 127 shows us that we have a role to play in our lives. The verse does not say don't labor. We just don't want to labor in vain.

We don't want to labor and strive apart from the design of God in his favor. We don't want it to be useless and meaningless. God desires that we work and work hard.

And I don't just mean a nine to five job. I'm talking about the labor of our lives. He desires we get after it.

He desires we go after things. He desires we give our best with the things that he's given us. He doesn't want us over here saying, I don't have to do anything.

God will take care of it. And he doesn't want us over here going and going and going full of anxious toil, thinking it's all on me. It's all on me.

He's inviting us to trust and partner with him. He wants to guide us. He wants to pour out favor on us.

He wants us to know fulfillment that comes from him. In Colossians 3, it says, whatever you do, now that covers a lot of ground, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as for the Lord, not for man. That's success.

I believe that's what God wants to drive us. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart is for the Lord and not for man. And so now we're realizing, hey, God is inviting us to be a part, to trust him and be a part of something he's doing.

God could have built the ark, but He had Noah build it. And Noah trusted him and got to be a part of something. God could have made the walls of Jericho just collapse, but he had his people march around and trust him and be a part of it.

God could have made food just show up in the hands of the 5,000 hungry people, but he had his disciples pass it out and collect it and trust him and be a part of something. There are moments in your life where you have trusted God and partnered with him and it's blessed somebody else, or maybe you've been blessed by someone who's trusted God and partnered with him. And so how do we labor and know that he's building the house? How do we know how to honor him? We hear a lot in church, for your glory, for your glory.

How do we know we're living for his glory? How do we rely on him? God is so good. He's given us some incredible gifts and he's given us some specific gifts that help us rely on him. Three major gifts that God has given us are the word of God, the people of God, and the spirit of God.

He's given us the word of God. For years in our household, we had a lot of Legos. And anytime you buy a box of Legos, whatever you got, whatever you're going to build, it had an architect.

It had a designer. Someone designed and created that and then packaged it for you. You get to take it home and you have all the pieces there.

And then there's this really important thing in there called the instructions. And those instructions make it really fun to build that project. God has given us instructions.

He's given us instructions that are our way of following the plans of the designer. It's why we dig into it every week. God gave it to us to say, here's who I am.

Here's what I'm like. Here's what I'm doing. Here's what I'm calling you to be a part of.

We've also been given each other. We've been given the people of God. We were never meant to pursue Jesus alone.

He's given us the church. Don't let a brother or sister in Christ go it alone. We've got to mourn with those who mourn, rejoice with those who rejoice, forgive each other, confess to each other, learn from each other, share our struggles with each other, celebrate what God's doing in our lives with each other, find brothers and sisters in Christ who exude the peace of God and ask them about that, learn from each other.

And then we've been given the spirit of God. And when you say yes to Jesus and you trust in his name, you're baptized into him and you're following, like you're all in with Jesus. There's this promise of his very spirit, Christ in you, the hope of glory and scripture spirit is called the helper that he wants to help us.

Jesus said, when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. How comforting is that? The spirit of God, a helper and a guide. I do too often, but I don't want to live a life that I can pull off on my own.

I want to be guided by a spirit. I often ask God really big questions, which we should, we should ask God big questions, big questions like why God, why is this happening? Why is this not happening? When are you going to do this? God, how are you going to do this? God, God's ways are higher than ours. And he doesn't necessarily owe us the answer to all of those questions.

Well, last year, my wife Kelly was reading a book called identity exchange, and she got me reading it. And it's a great book about prayer and reliance on the Lord and listening to his voice. And in that book, I learned kind of this real simple prayer.

And the prayer is this, God, what do you want me to know? I'm in this situation. I'm making this decision. I have this circumstance happening or this relationship.

God, what is it you want me to know? And what do you want me to do? It's not a secret formula. It's not a magic prayer, but it did help posture my heart into kind of a place of reliance, trusting that God does want us to know things. Well, about that time, this was last fall.

I volunteer up at Fisher High School with the Fisher High School football team, believe it or not. And it's kind of a chaplaincy role. And so I'm just there just to encourage the guys, slap them on the helmet, encourage the coaches, hang out with them.

And so last fall, I was reading this book and Coach Palmer there at Fisher, he said, hey, at team dinner tonight, would you be willing to just share a few words with the guys, just something about being a young man? I said, yeah, I'd love to. And so I was that afternoon. I was like, well, I can think of something to say, you know, I can come up with something, you know, football's like life.

You win some, you lose some. There's adversity in football. Well, guess what? There's adversity in life.

And I was like, I can come up with something. I thought, you know what? I'm just going to stand before the Lord and say, what do you want me to know? And so I was on our front porch and I said, God, what do you, what do you want me to know about tonight? What do you want me to know about these young men? All of a sudden I had this random, random thought of this little children's book we used to read our kids when we were little. And I was like, Daniel, focus.

You're trying to hear God's voice right now. You know, like God, what do you mean? No. And I could not shake this little children's book.

And then I started to argue with the Lord. I said, God, I am not reading a children's book to high school football team tonight. I couldn't shake it.

I went inside. I said, Kelly, I think I'm supposed to read. You are special to the football team tonight.

And she's like, you're supposed to, I said, Hey, this is your fault. You got me reading this book. And so I go to the high school library that night.

They're come out of practice and incredible group of guys. So I said, Hey guys, I'm going to read a children's book to you tonight. And I fly through it.

I mean, I'm just, I'm cooking. I mean, I'm part of, he's wondering, I think God's pranking me at this point, you know? And so I'm reading this children's book. I finish it.

I say a few words. I dismiss him. We pray, dismiss him to dinner and they're walking out.

And this one young man comes up to me with tears in his eyes and he gives me a hug and he says, thank you for that. And I thought, no, thank you, God, that you're kind enough that you want us to know things that you want to help us. You want to guide us.

The end of verse two, it says, for he gives to his beloved sleep. He doesn't want anxious toil for us. He wants you to rest in him.

Are you tired? And I don't mean because you got up early to come to first service this morning. Like is your soul tired? Are you tired of the anxious toil? Are you tired of trying to show everyone confidence when deep inside you're in a panic? Are you tired of trying to stay really busy because it helps us ignore all the questions and wrestling in our own hearts? Are we tired of being so quick to criticize others because we don't want to face our own shortcomings? Are we tired of trying to distract and cope and numb ourselves with things because the worries are so overwhelming? And then this idea of rest, well, rest goes against my work ethic. Rest looks weak.

I don't have time to rest. God is offering true rest, not some rest that we try to control and manipulate. I can make myself rest.

I can fill myself up. No, he wants to be our rest. Years ago, coming back from a mission trip to Africa and we're boarding the flight for the long flight over the ocean.

So we had a doctor on our team and I went back to him and I said, hey doc, I've got it in my hand. I said, I have a Dramamine, a Tylenol PM, and a Benadryl. Can I take all three of these together? And he said, you can, but you'll be really tired.

And I said, all right, because I was like, I'm going to, I'm going to give myself some rest. So I take these three pills. I go sit down.

The flight takes off. I used to have this fear that when a plane landed, that the front two tires would barely turn at a touchdown, which would then spin the plane. And then it would start rolling sideways.

I don't worry about it anymore. But so I took these pills. Well, we land and it happens.

The plane spins. We're rolling. There's fire everywhere.

And I wake up and I'm, I'm sitting there and I realized I was screaming. And so I stand up in the plane and I said, hey, I just want to apologize to everyone. I was screaming.

And then I woke up from that. It was a dream within a dream. It was like inception.

I, I tried to control my rest. I tried to force my sleep and it took me to the craziest, weirdest place. And when we try to give ourselves rest, it takes us to the craziest, weirdest places.

At creation, God worked six days and rested on the seventh and said, rest is a gift. And here's the key. When we trust in him, we can rest in him.

Jesus said, come to me, meaning, trust me, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And some of the greatest news we could ever hear. I think Psalm 127 reminds us of that in this whole thing, this whole thing called life.

We're not the centerpiece. We're not the builder. We're not the main character.

It takes the pressure off our shoulders. And now we get to be a part of things that God is doing. He doesn't want us to try and force and find cheap, fake rest and things like bank accounts, or try to find rest and how many likes and followers we have, our successes.

No, Jesus is the centerpiece. And now we get to build our lives on him. We just sang it.

Christ is my firm foundation, the rock on which I stand. That comes from Matthew seven. Jesus said this, everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them, who aligns themselves to his expertise, who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.

And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it. Too many times we think God's going to call us to a life of misery. Now Jesus does say in this world, you will have trouble, but he says, take heart.

I've overcome the world. And I think a collapsing house is a lot more miserable than a house that stands firm on a rock, no matter what storms hit it. He's the firm foundation.

Life apart from God is vain. Building on anything else, but the foundation of Jesus is vain. And so God, his role, he's the architect and he cares about everything in your life.

He cares about what you're involved in and us, our role is to trust so that we can rest. Last few verses, verse three, it says, behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them.

He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. There's a real simple truth here. God is a giver and children are a gift.

We have four of them. They are a gift and says there to be raised and shot out like arrows into the world to impact the world. And I was talking with Addison Phillips.

He's a part of our church family. He was talking about how when a, when an arrow leaves the bow, you could be aimed right at the target. But if that actual arrow notches in the bow is just a tiny, tiny, tiny degree off after 30 yards, it'll miss the target.

And Ephesians six, it says, be perfect parents and have perfect children. That's nevermind. I read that wrong.

That's not what it says. Doesn't say that. It says, bring up your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

It sharpens them that no matter how old your children, that we want to aim them towards Jesus. And maybe parents, grandparents, the best way that we can aim our kids at Jesus is for them to see us trust and rest in him. Maybe one of the best ways that we can aim our kids toward Jesus is for them to see us take hold of the word of God, the people of God, and the spirit of God.

And maybe you don't have children, but we all need spiritual mothers and fathers pointing us towards Jesus and children might not be the gift that you received from the Lord, but he's a giver. And so what gifts has he given you that you can use to impact the world? When we receive a gift on Christmas morning or on your birthday, when you get a gift, you didn't earn it. You didn't pay for it.

You didn't work for it. It's a gift. And so as a receiver of a gift, our role is twofold to be thankful for it and take care of it.

That's our role when we receive a gift, gratitude and take care of it. God is a giver and a provider. He's given us incredible gifts that we are to walk in gratitude and then honor him with those gifts, the giftings and the skills and the opportunities and things you get to put your time to and your hands to and your, and your knowledge to that's all a gift from the Lord walking gratitude and honor him with.

And he wants to give us gifts like wisdom. He wants to give us guidance. He wants to give us strength.

He's given us gifts like confession and conviction and repentance. The forgiveness, they're incredible gifts. Whether Solomon wrote Psalm 127 or not, we know he wrote Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. And the connection is pretty clear.

Maybe many of you grew up reciting Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Maybe it's on your wall in your home. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. What if we really, really looked at that? Trust, meaning be confident in, be secure in, founded on, not in self, not in training, not in expertise, not in talent, not in bank accounts, not in intellect, not in your circumstances.

No, trust in the Lord. Who? The architect, the builder, our provider. What are we trusting with? Everything.

Trust him with all your heart, all you are, which means this. We no longer can lean on what we understand. We can no longer lean on what we see, what we know.

We can definitely not lean on what we feel. No, lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways, not some of your ways, not even most of your ways, in all your ways, acknowledge him, meaning submit to him that it's you, God. You're the architect.

You're the builder. You're the protector. You're the giver.

You're the king. You're the savior. You're the redeemer.

And so all these things that I have, all these things that I do, this life that you've given me, I acknowledge and submit to you. Why? Because you're mean? Because you don't want me to enjoy life? No, because he wants to make your path straight. He wants to guide you.

He wants to show you the way. He wants you to be a part of things bigger than you. Who knows better about life? Who knows more about life than the architect of life? And he's saying, align yourself to me.

Unless the Lord builds a house, labor is labor in vain. But I'll tell you the most vain and meaningless and useless thing we could ever do. Try to save ourselves.

As we sang, only the blood. We cannot work for that. We cannot labor for that.

Only the finished work of the cross of Jesus accomplishes that. Out of his love for us, when our sins separated us from him, he came for us and he suffered and died and he took the punishment for our sins as he hung on a cross. In Ephesians 2, it says this, for by grace you have been saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing. It is a gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship. He's our builder.

Created in Christ Jesus for good works, we are to labor, which God prepared beforehand. He's inviting us into things bigger than us that we should walk in them. Thank you for joining us for today's edition of Mark & Friends.

Today, Pastor Daniel Dabney reminded us that unless the Lord builds our lives, our efforts alone will never satisfy. God invites us to trust him, rely on his wisdom, and discover the rest that only he can give. I invite you to continue learning by visiting the Mark & Friends page at greatnewsradio.org or wluj.org. There you'll find today's broadcast and additional resources to help you continue growing in your walk with Jesus.

Thanks for listening. Thanks for being a part of our radio listening family. This is Mark Burns with the Ministry of Great News Media.

God bless you and have a great day and night.