Centennial Park Baptist Church – Sunday June 14th, 2009

Centennial Park Baptist Church – Sunday June 14^th, 2009 – 10:30 am

HOW DOES GOD BUILD A BRIDGE?

Psalm 128: 1-4

¹ How joyful are those who fear the Lord—all who follow his ways! ² You will enjoy the fruit of your labor. How joyful and prosperous you will be! ³ Your wife will be like a fruitful grapevine, flourishing within your home. Your children will be like vigorous young olive trees as they sit around your table.⁴ That is the Lord’s blessing for those who fear him.

When designing a bridge, an engineer must account for three different loads:

1. Direct Load – The weight of the bridge

2. Live Load – The weight of the daily traffic

3. Wind Load – Pressure of storms

How to recognize the loads ( attacks ) on the family

1. Dead Load – SELFISHNESS

2. Live Load – WORLD in which we live

3. Wind Load – ATTACKS on the family

Remember the great destroyer of families:

I Peter 5:8 - ⁸Be of sober spirit, be on the alert Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

How to Increase the Priority of Your Family

Cherish your human connections: your relationships with family and friends. For several years, you’ve had impresses upon you the importance to your career of dedication and hard work, and , of course, that’s true. But as important as your obligations as a doctor, lawyer or business leader will be, you are a human being first and those human connections – with spouses, with children, with friends – are the most important investments you will ever make.

At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed on more tests, not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a child, a friend or a parent…. Whatever the era, whatever the times, that will never change. Barbara Bush

1. Our Foundation must be BIBLICAL

I Corinthians 3:11 - For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Psalm 128:1 - How blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in His ways.

2. Our Family must be CENTRAL

Psalm 128: 2-3 - When you shall eat of the fruit of your hands, You will be happy and it will be well with you.³Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house, Your children like olive plants around your table.

3. Our Forbearance ( patience ) must be EVIDENT

Philippians 3: 13-14 - Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

NOTES: ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________