In this sermon, the speaker focuses on the theme of vision and the pictures of promise found in the Bible. The sermon begins by discussing Psalm 144, which is a unique Psalm written by David. Despite being a Psalm about war, David expresses a burden for the home and the future of his children. The speaker encourages the audience to dream for their children and envision them building a spiritual house. The sermon emphasizes the importance of raising a holy generation of children and highlights the promise in 2 Timothy 1:7 that God has given us the Spirit of power, love, and a sound mind. The speaker concludes by praying for God's plan to be fulfilled and for the growth of a generation flowing with the Holy Spirit.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. All right, we're going to move into the next session on vision. Pictures of Promise in the Bible is the title of this lesson. I'm going to read in Psalm 144, if you want to turn there. Our beloved father, David, was a prophet, and he moved in the prophetic often by the Spirit of God. But Psalm 144 is an unusual psalm. As David was writing this psalm, a burden for the home comes out in the midst of a psalm that he wrote concerning war. It's a very unusual combination until you understand, and I hope you will as we look at the psalm. But before we read it, I want you just to ponder these thoughts. The context is war. The goal and the burden is a peaceful society. And all that that peaceful society brings, that is the burden of the psalm. Psalm 144. Blessed be the Lord, my strength, which teacheth my hands to war and make my fingers to fight. My goodness and my fortress, my high tower and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I trust. Who subdueth my people under me. Lord, what is man that thou takest knowledge of him or the son of man that thou makest account of him? Man is like to vanity. His days are as a shadow that passes away. Bow thy heavens, O Lord, and come down. Touch the mountains and they shall smoke. Cast forth lightning and scatter them. Shoot out thine arrows and destroy them. Send thy hand from above. Rid me and deliver me out of great waters from the hands of strange children whose mouths speak of vanity. And their right hand is the right hand of falsehood. I will sing. I will sing a new song unto thee, O God. Upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee. It is he that giveth salvation unto kings who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword. Rid me and deliver me from the hand of strange children whose mouths speak of vanity. And their right hand is the right hand of falsehood. Why, David? That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth. That our daughters may be as cornerstones polished after the similitude of a palace. That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store. That our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets. That our oxen may be strong to labor. That there be no breaking in nor going out. That there be no complaining in our streets. O, happy is that people that is in such a case. Yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord. That's beautiful. Now, you have to understand a little bit about the context of life in Israel to understand this psalm. But in Israel, when the men went out to battle, many times they would be gone for months at a time. Off to battle, living in tents, 100 miles away, 200 miles away from home. They would go away for a long period of time. Well, when the men went off to battle, how do you think things went at home while they were away? Well, how do things go at your house when you're away? Day after day after day for weeks and months. And I believe the burden of David's heart, though he was a mighty man, though he was a warrior, and God used David to bring peace to Israel, the burden of David's heart was, Lord, would you end all the wars and bring the men back home to their families? I believe that was David's burden. He mentioned six things here. Each one is prefaced by the word that. It's very interesting to note that. You know, basically what David was saying was, Lord, would you rid Israel from all their enemies? And may I just preface it, so that the men can all come home, so all the godly fathers can come home, that our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth, that our daughters may be as cornerstones. And he goes down through a beautiful list of things which are the natural resort of men being home with their families. That was David's burden. David knew that the key to a strong and mighty nation was not its ability to fight a war. He knew the key was the godly order that prevails when godly men turn their hearts toward home. He knew it. Beloved brethren, it is the same with us. When we are too busy, our homes suffer. We know it. In fact, that's probably how all those people get in that case that I spoke about in the session before, you know. Oh, it's good to be reminded again of our responsibilities. It's because the men get too busy and all homes suffer. David knew this. It was the burden of his heart. Bring the men home, Lord. Bring the godly men home. Bring them into their homes. Let them sit down with their families and know all the many things that we'll be looking at in the verses and sessions to follow. David knew the key to a strong nation was the godly order that prevails when godly men turn their hearts toward home. David's prayer was answered, but not in his lifetime. I don't know if you noticed that. God did answer his prayer, but not in his lifetime. In the reign of his son Solomon, there was between 20 and 30 years of peace. No war. I don't know if you've ever connected them together, if you ever considered it before, but the beautiful testimony of the nation of Israel in Solomon's day, you know, how the nation of Israel rose up and became a powerful testimony of a living God to the nations around it. You know, in David's day, the nations feared Israel because it was a warring nation. But in Solomon's day, the nations reverenced Israel because it was a holy nation. There's a big difference between the two of those. All the beautiful stories are there in the scriptures of how the nations came and the queen of Sheba, she came to Israel and she came to the city of Jerusalem and she was in awe at what she saw. She beheld the order of the servants of Solomon and the joy and the happiness of the people and the king's ascent to the temple and the sacrifice and the people singing and all the things that she saw. She said, I don't have any more breath in me after I have seen these things. The half was not told to me, said the queen of Sheba. I heard about all this, but all the half was not told. This was in the days of Solomon. Did you ever consider, brothers and sisters, that the reason why Israel rose to that place was because David ridded the nation of all of its enemies. And all those godly men went home and turned all their spiritual energies loose upon their families. And order, beautiful, holy order prevailed in Israel. David prayed, Lord, that our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth. Now what we see in this picture of promise is a plant that has been nurtured and cared for and brought to the place where it's ready to bear fruit. That's what a mature plant is. A mature plant is one that has been nurtured. The soil has been worked. The seed has been planted. It has been covered up. It's been watered. It has been washed over. It has been fertilized. The soil has been loosened. It has been cared for. And it's now grown up into the place where it's standing tall and it's strong and it's beautiful and it's ready to start pushing forth all of its fruits. That's a beautiful picture to a farmer. When he looks out and sees all these plants and there they are ready to start producing. That's the picture that we have right here. That was the thing that David prayed for. Lord, would you bring them in home that our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth. Oh, there's a powerful picture in this. We see the vision of a farmer and all the care that he puts into nurturing a plant, raising it up so that it can bear fruit and be a blessing. Let's relate this analogy to our dear sons this evening. Would you allow me to do that? Can we dream a bit again? When I think of a son that is a mature plant ready to produce fruit, I think of a young man, oh, 18, 20 years old, upright in heart. One that has a clear confidence because he has a clear conscience and he keeps it that way. I think of a young man who loves the Lord Jesus with all of his heart and everybody knows his testimony is clear. Grace is upon that young man. He's a virgin. He's saving his purity for the wife of his youth, watching over it jealously. He would not give it away to anyone else but one. He's filled with the spirit and he's filled with the word. He's busy about the master's business. He loves his parents. He delights in being under authority. He's ready for a life of fruit bearing usefulness. Can you see him standing there? Maybe you think, oh, that picture's a bit high. You think, Brother Denny, you're going too high here. You're shooting too high. Listen, spiritual Israel longed for and dreamed for that. That exactly that I just described to you. Consider with me three young men in the Bible who were just exactly like what I described. David, the shepherd boy, like a mature plant, grown up in his youth, in his youth, anointed with the Holy Ghost. In his youth, he was such a blessing to King Saul that he chased the devils away when King Saul was tormented by them. By his anointed, pure singing and playing on his heart. David, the shepherd boy, slew a giant, served his dad. And there he was in his youth, ready for a life of fruit bearing. And brothers and sisters, look at the life of fruit bearing that he had. Daniel, the servant of kings, who was carried away into a strange land in his youth, but would not defile himself with the king's meat. Because there was a purpose of God settled down on his heart. And he knew, he didn't know what it was, but he knew, I want to serve my God. I will not defile myself with this heathen king's meat. There's a call of God on my life and I will not do it. He didn't know back then that he was going to be Daniel the prophet and that we would be reading his writings thousands of years later. Millions and millions of people reading them hundreds of times. He was just a mature youth, ready to bear fruit. And oh, the fruit that he bore as he became a man. But look at him in his youth, dear people. That's what we're talking about. What about Joseph, dreamer of godly dreams? Joseph, who served his father, was under authority. Joseph, who endured persecution because of his life. Joseph, a man of lovely character in his youth. Joseph, a man who was tested at Potiphar's house and tested in the prison and tested in so many ways and came out pure gold. Joseph, there he is. I don't know how old he was when he was thrown into that pit, maybe 18, 19 years old. But there again was a mature plant, ready to bear fruit, ready for a lifelong experience of fruit bearing. And oh, look at the fruit that Joseph bear all the days of his life. My dear people, God wants our young men to be just like that. When they turn 18, 19, 20 years old, He wants them to be like a mature plant. Grown up in their youth, ready to bear fruit, ready for a lifelong experience of bearing fruit in the service of the King of Kings. That's what David prayed for. And on the practical side of that, there's much to do to raise mature plants, isn't there? Much to do. And Israel knew that. And David knew that when he prayed that prayer. He knew there's much to do to raise these mature plants. Bring the fathers home, Lord. Bring the fathers home. There's much to do to raise up sons like that. And dear brothers and sisters, there's much to do to raise up sons like that. But it's the will of God, and God wants it more than you even know. Then he went on and said, oh, that our daughters may be as cornerstones polished after the similitude of a palace. David prayed, Lord, bring the men of Israel home to their daughters. We don't quite grasp that, you know. That's woman's work. The daughters, they're for mom. Mom takes care of them. But David prayed, bring the men home to their daughters, Lord. We need to get a vision of that. Your girls need you, Dad. Oh, if you knew how much they need you. They need you. We have a picture of a cornerstone, a polished cornerstone. A cornerstone is what gives stability to a stone building. A cornerstone is the stones that connect the rest of the stones of the building together. A cornerstone is the stone that is used to plumb the line of the building so that the building stays straight all the way down. The cornerstone is used for that. The cornerstones are used to beautify the building. Oh, the inspiration in this picture is tremendous. That God would do such a work in our hearts that we could nurture our daughters into such a place. That they could be cornerstones. Let's relate this analogy to our daughters like we did to our sons. I see a young lady, 18, 19, 20 years old. She is upright in heart. Her face glows because her conscience is clear and she has learned to walk with a clear conscience. She's one of the king's daughters, all glorious within, waiting to be placed in a building somewhere. Grace is upon her and everybody knows it. She doesn't have to go around telling people, God's grace is on me, because everybody knows that God's grace is upon her. That's the way it's supposed to be. There she is, a virgin, pure, saving her heart and her body for one man that God will bring into her life. She loves her parents. She delights in their authority. She's delighted to be under the oversight of her father. She finds a lovely place there underneath his oversight. There she stands, ready to guide a home, prepared, able to care for the children and guide her own home. She is beautiful because of all this that we said. She has a beauty. Oh, it's not like other beauty is. No, this is a different kind of beauty. It's not like the beauty that is around us today in this world. But it's an inward beauty. It's an inward makeup. It's an inward clothing of a meek and a quiet spirit. There she is, like a polished cornerstone, ready to be placed in a building somewhere to give it structure, to give it stability, to use it as a plumb line and to beautify somehow, somewhere for God. Can you see her standing there? That beautiful young lady. Hallelujah. Oh, God, give us dozens and dozens of them. I want that kind of son and daughter. The practical inside picture. Let's look at that a little bit. It takes a craftsman to make polished stones after the similitude of a palace. Not just anybody is going to do that job. This craftsman, he knows what he's doing. He has a vision. Though he looks at this stone and it's still rough and it needs some work on it, he sees something when he steps up to that stone. He sees something beautiful. He sees it already in its place there, taking its place in that building. He comes to that stone with a vision. He has tools in his hands. And carefully, with purpose, with a hammer and a chisel and scraping, he goes to work on that stone to make it a beautiful stone polished after the similitude of a palace. There are methods hidden in this picture, brothers and sisters. This is no haphazard work to make one of these beautiful stones, one of these cornerstones. This is not happenstance. You just don't throw in a little here and there and go your own way and hope that it all turned out right. No, no, no, no. Not if you're going to make one of those precious, beautiful cornerstones. It takes time. It takes time to make a cornerstone. It takes time to raise up a plant and make it mature. It takes time, brothers and sisters. God has plans for your daughters. He wants them to be strength and beauty of a household someday. Amen. Let's go on to the next picture of promise found in Psalm 128. Psalm 128, let's read there. Verse 3 and 4. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house. Thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. Hallelujah. Glory. Do you believe it? What a picture. That was a beautiful picture to a man in Israel. This is a very meaningful illustration to them. An olive tree was one of the most valuable pieces of property to a man of Israel that you could own. And God said to him, If you will fear me in walking my ways, I will gather your children like olive plants round about your table. I'm going to fill your table with them. He knew that is a blessing. Olive oil was a symbol of peace in Israel. A symbol of health. A symbol of wealth in the nation of Israel. It was used to make the face to shine with ointment. And olive plants made the face of a man in Israel to light up with joy. We will see why as we move down through here. Olive oil was used to make fire to illuminate. It was used as anointing oils to put on wounds and sick people for health. It was used to set apart the chosen with holy anointing oil. It was used to make holy anointing oil which couldn't be used except to set apart special chosen vessels. Olive oil was used for soap and for cleansing. And it was also used as a cash crop to buy other necessities. If you had eight or nine olive plants, you were a blessed man. Note this about olive trees. Olive trees could live for two or three generations. If you care for them well, some of them could live for many, many more generations. In fact, they say that there are olive plants in the Garden of Gethsemane that were there when Jesus was there on His face praying before the cross. You see, an olive plant is an unusual plant. When it is old and dying, get this, the roots of that olive tree begin to push out new shoots. And those new shoots go down into the ground and start pushing up a new tree. And about the time this old one falls over and is gone, there's a whole new shoot growing up there. And so you might get generations and generations of service out of an olive plant if you take care of it right and make it grow up into a tree. This was no little illustration to a man in Israel for God to say, I'm going to make your children like olive plants round about your table. That was a very valuable thing to an Israelite. Now, how does this picture relate to our children? There are several ways that we can glean from it. Let's look at them. First of all, our children are our treasures. The beautiful picture of a wife bearing many children, and God gave that as a picture, and He chose one of the wealthiest illustrations in Israel to show that He highly esteems children. We can see God is saying to us, your children are a treasure. Number two, let's note the tremendous usefulness to benefit others around them. God wants our children to benefit others around them. Children can be a great asset to their parents and to the society. They can be lights to illuminate the lost. They can be healing balm to the wounded. They can be a witness to a lost and dying world. Do you realize that in the book of Revelation, God called His two witnesses in the book of Revelation olive trees? These are my two olive trees that stand beside my throne, and oil flows out of them. What a beautiful picture! What were they? My two witnesses, God said. God wants our children to be that. Olive trees by which the oil of the Holy Ghost flows out, that they can be a witness for Him. They're tremendously useful. May God make our children olive trees by which the oil of the Holy Ghost flows. Let's look at another one. I want you to note, these are olive plants. God didn't say olive trees. God said to Israel, olive plants. There's a difference between a plant and a tree. One is small, and the other one is fully grown. It takes 15 years to nurture one of those olive plants to the place where it bears fruit. 15 years. Imagine that. You know, you work with a tomato plant, you know you get some tomatoes pretty quick. It takes 15 years to get oil out of that olive plant. But, that's no big deal at all. This thing's going to produce oil for my generation, and the next generation, and even the next generation. I'll put 15 years into it for my sons' and my daughters' sake, says the man in Israel. No problem. I'll nurture that little plant for 15 years until it grows up into an olive plant and produces fruit and blessing for 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 generations. That's not a bad investment. Well, it takes those kind of years to nurture ours too, doesn't it? There were many wild olive plants in Israel. Many of them. You know why? Because there were olives everywhere. And you know how the seeds are. The seed, one lands over here, and one seed lands over here. And they push all the oil and throw all the scraps away. And there goes a seed, and there goes another one. There were many olive plants all over Israel. They called them wild olive plants. They were of no value at all. Do you know the difference between a wild olive plant and one of those like God was talking about? There's only one difference. The wild ones were just left to grow on their own. The others, the man of the house, the lady of the house, the children of the house, they nurtured that thing. You have to water them all the time. You have to keep the soil loose. You have to keep fertilizing those roots. And you do that for 15 years. You care for that thing. You won't have a wild olive plant. You'll have a beautiful olive tree that produces oil for several generations. That's the difference between a wild olive tree and an olive tree. And by the way, that illustration holds true if you look it up in Romans chapter 11 also, where God says that the Gentiles are a wild olive plant grown up on their own. Oh, dear brothers and sisters, let's take our little olive plants and pour our lives into them for 15, 20 years. They shall bear fruit for generations to come. You will never count it a waste of your time what you pour into those children. You will see it in eternity. And lastly, let us also consider the generational aspect of the olive tree. The good, solid, healthy tree will regenerate itself again and again. And that is exactly what God wants us to do. And that is exactly what God says to us. A good, healthy Christian will regenerate itself again and again and again in the lives of its descendants. Can you see them standing there? Those beautiful olive plants? Those mature olive trees flowing out the oil of the Holy Ghost to a needy world around them? And at the same time, putting forth those shoots and regenerating themselves unto another generation of godly families. There again, two ways. Pouring out its oil to a lost and dying world, but at the same time putting out those shoots and growing another plant for another generation. There it is. Both ways. You track it. It's all through the Bible. I'm telling you, there's a secret. There's a secret in it. Alright, let's go on. We have one more that we want to look at here. And that is building a house. Psalm 127 Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. This word house is used in two ways here in this scripture and in two ways in the Bible. But in the scripture it's used both as a physical building and a spiritual building. Let me explain. It's a little hard for us to grasp in this land that we live in. Most of us don't build our own houses. But if you lived in Africa, you'd build your own house. And in Israel, a young man built his own house. This illustration becomes very fruitful when you begin to realize that every young man built his own house. He built a house for his bride. You picture it. He goes and he gets his espoused wife. He makes the arrangements as a man in Israel does with the father of a young lady. The young lady makes the agreement. Yes, I will marry you. He leaves the young lady at her father's house. And he goes back to his father's house and his father's property. And guess what he does. He prepares a place for her. Amen. Just like Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you. I'm going to my father's house to prepare a place for you. Well, this young man, he goes back to his father's house to build a house for his bride. Now, he's going to build a real house. He's going to build a real building. And here he is out there working, building a house. What do you think he's thinking about while he's building that house? You think he's thinking about wood and nails and stuff like that? You think that's what he's thinking about? No. He's thinking about the day when that dear lady comes to this house and they start their household together. That's what he's thinking about. And these words come to his heart again and again while he's building his physical house. Accept the Lord, build the house. They labor in vain that build it, young man. While you're putting on the roof, don't forget, young man. Accept the Lord, build the house. They labor in vain that build it. This illustration comes alive when we see it through the eyes of a young man in Israel. And the word that God gives to a young man is simply this. Make sure I have first place in your life and in your home. That's what God says to that young man while he's pounding his nails and digging his foundation. Well, there's a couple of pictures that we can see here, some illustrations that we can draw out of it. First of all, we get a striking portrait of the Lord building a house, my house. I get a striking portrait of the Lord building my house. Now, I've seen this two ways. One, I see God overseeing the project of building my household. I see him. He's the master builder. And in his own mysterious ways, he works behind the scenes to build my household. That's one of the pictures that I see as God being the master builder. That's a picture which requires a lot of trust in God. You know, we look at that and we say, OK, Lord, I do believe that you are very interested in my home. And I see you sitting on your throne, watching over everything that goes on in my house. That's one picture. But the other picture that I get requires a bit more yieldedness. Not just trusting God that he's there working behind the scenes, but it requires much more yieldedness than that. I see God putting his hand on my hand and raising my children through me. Amen. He puts his hand upon the hand that has the hammer in it. And there's God building my house, using me as I yield to him and giving my all day by day. He uses me to build my house. Either way, except the Lord be actively involved in building our house. We labor in vain. We labor in vain. Let's dream a little bit for our children again. Shall we do that, brothers and sisters? Let's dream a bit for our children as we look forward to them building a spiritual house. Two young people, a godly young man and a godly young lady. They both love God with all their heart. They are like those two we just described before. Here they are, a young man and a young lady who love God with all their heart. God begins to lead this young man and this young lady together. They sense God's call to consider marriage with one another. They enter in to a pure courtship with the smiling blessing of those who oversee their lives. And they begin at that moment to lay the foundations of a powerful home. It begins there, dear parents, it begins there. Being like-minded as they court and share and talk together in their like-mindedness, they are drawn closer and closer together and they dream dreams and see visions together. Right? Remember? Some of you young couples, you've just been married a little while. They dream dreams and see visions together. It's a powerful time. Amen? Eli? It's a powerful time. You sit and dream dreams and see visions of where we're going to go with our family for God. God leads them on and they enter into pure, holy matrimony and a new household is begun. They begin to walk together with God in unity. And God continues to work in their hearts. And a structure, a beautiful structure of peace and love and holiness begins to rise up from this union of a husband and a wife who have been continuing to walk with God together. God gives children. They receive these children with reverence and with awe. And they bring these children into this holy atmosphere that has already been produced by the fire of love they have for God and for each other. They bring these children into this holy atmosphere. Then the parents rise up with a vision and begin to train their children for God. They take those little olive plants and they begin to grow and prosper in this holy atmosphere. And this beautiful house begins to rise up out of that and it takes about 30 years to build this house. But oh, what a beautiful house it is. Hallelujah. What a beautiful house it is. And the devil is defeated again. You say, Brother Denny, I can't do that. You're going way over my head. I can't do all that. Is that right? Consider with me. Consider Solomon's temple. Consider the temple that Moses built. In both of these examples, God worked supernaturally to build that temple and that tabernacle. The Bible says that the Spirit of the Lord came upon the craftsmen so that they could make that temple and that tabernacle exactly the way that God wanted it to be. Consider with me. If God did this for an earthly temple and a tabernacle, what will He do for living temples? Well, someday, if God poured out His Spirit upon a man who was going to do a carving of a lampstand, how much more do you think God would pour His Spirit out upon a father and a mother who wanted to raise their children for God? I tell you, much more. Much, much more. 2 Timothy 1.7 is our promise. Hear these words. God has not given us the spirit of fear. As you look at all that you're hearing, God has not given us the spirit of fear, but the spirit of power and the spirit of love and the spirit of a sound mind. This is what God has given us. I tell you, with the spirit of love and the spirit of power and the spirit of a sound mind, I believe we can raise a holy generation of children. What do you think? I believe we can. Let's stand for prayer. Let's pray. Oh Lord, our God, our hearts thrill tonight. Oh Lord, I see those little olive plants, God. I see them growing up into plants, flowing with the Holy Ghost. Oh God, I see it so clearly. I see Your plan. I see what You have in mind. I see what You have in Your heart, God. I worship You for it this evening, Father. All this is in Your heart. And if it is in Your heart and You have put it in Your Word, You have given it to every one of us. Hallelujah. Lord, we believe that tonight. We are not going to despair, Lord. We are not going to despair. We're not going to let our hands hang down. We're not going to go home and say, It won't work for me. Oh God, deliver us from that unbelieving spirit. God, instead, we, by grace through faith, we believe these things, Lord. These things are for us. God, You want to do them for us, Father. I pray that You'll continue to work in each and every one of our hearts, Lord. Go deep. Go deep in our hearts, Lord, as we go away from this place tonight. Go deep in our hearts, God. Oh Father, where we need to repent, let us repent. God, I pray You'll continue to change the atmosphere of these meetings, Father. The atmosphere is changing because the people are getting clear. I pray that You'll continue to change the atmosphere of these meetings. God, I pray that You pour Your Spirit out upon these meetings, Father. I pray that Your presence would be so awesome that we don't know what to say. God, do it. And oh Father, then let us take that home to our everyday world. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.