← The Wake-Up Call
The Wake-Up Call
On the Houses That Build Us
00:20:44
How is your life being built like a home whose rooms are furnished with wisdom and knowledge and treasure?
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Foreign.
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Good Saturday to you. Sower Nation it is. What is the date today? It's January 24th in the year of our Lord 2026. I'm John David Walt, and this is your wake up call. Why do I do this every day? Why am I so focused on what day it is? Because every day matters. I'm not wanting to put pressure on you. I'm wanting to say, wake up and realize that this is the day that the Lord has made. And it. It's not coming back. And every day it's like, if you can sow one seed today, one just like one seed, that's a day in the future when something's rumbling under the ground and then coming up through the soil and growing. And, you know, not all seeds make it. In fact, most don't make it. But that's not the point. The point is that some do. And this is what we're doing here. We're sowing. We're sowing the goodness, the love, the joy, the compassion, the care of Jesus. He's coming to you and through you to another person. Always. Every single day, every single encounter. Possibly. That's what being awake is about. So, yeah, that's why I do it. It's Saturday. It's another sewing day and got some goodness. Dad's with me. Today. We're going to be singing. And let's not skip consecration as I've done lately, but let's begin there. Wake up, sleeper. Yeah. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you. And we're praying in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. All right, we're in the house now. The store is open. It's time for revelation and response. That's the recipe for transformation. Let's just turn our eyes upon Jesus. Now. Today's entry is entitled on the Houses that Build Us. And our text is chapter 24 of Proverbs. I want you to read that whole chapter. Listen to it. Read it. It's full of wisdom. We're going to zero in on verses three and four. Hear now the Word of the Lord. By wisdom a house is built. And through understanding, it is established through knowledge. Its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures. The Word of the Lord. Now consider this. Today's text took me straight to the home of my grandparents. 305 South Adams. I was blessed to grow up in a multigenerational farming family who all lived in the same small town, Dumas, Arkansas. I lived less than a mile from my grandparents, whom I affectionately called Meemaw and Pipaw. One of the great gifts of my choice. Well, I wonder what you called your grandparents. What do your grandchildren call you? One of the great gifts of my childhood was growing up in and around Memaw and Pipaw's house. It was a house built by Wisdom. Though they could have afforded a much larger home, they enjoyed the simplicity of living smaller. The house of three bedrooms and three baths couldn't have been more than a couple of thousand couple of thousand square feet. Probably less than that. There was the boys room where my dad and Uncle Martin grew up. Me, mom, Peepaw's room, a guest room, a den, a formal living room, a dining room and a breakfast room. All seven rooms knew their purpose well and served the family for decades with profound consistency. I remember not a single remodeling project. They never upgraded the appliances. Everything had its place and it all worked together with a style and beauty that had everyday functionality. They established this house with the collective understanding of the generations of wisdom it takes to make a home. You heard the text. By Wisdom, a house is built and through understanding it is established through knowledge. Its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures. Now then there were the rare and beautiful treasures. I remember the ornately crafted headboard with the four tree like posts that made up Memaw and Pipaw's own double bed. Okay, I sleep by myself in a king size bed and Meemaw and Pipaw slept in a double bed all those years. Then there was that one of its kind, hall tree with the rust flecked mirror in the middle and all those tree like branches on which Pipa's curated collection of cowboy hats and fedoras hung. Pipaw had no hair, he always wore a hat. And the marble tabletop that served as the garrison for the umbrellas and walking canes which doubled as mine and Lee's swords. The things they bought for that home, while probably not expensive, held exquisite value. Then there was the boys room with those dressers still holding the treasures of the son's growing up years. Pocket knives and money clips, Air Force stripes from their uniforms and shotgun shell. Their lives. My dad and Uncle Martin, the Walt brothers. Their lives spread out before us along the walls, chronicled in vintage framed simple black and white photographs. I'd love to tell you about the breakfast room and the oak table. The Family dined around for over a century even preceding them. You know, life's truest treasures, like wisdom, gain their value not by what they cost, but from the worth conferred on them by their holder. Rarity has less to do with limited editions and everything to do with the stories infused into the life of an object. Reflecting on today's text. And this analogy of wisdom with a well built house has me thinking. I want my life to possess the qualities of my grandparents home. A place of spacious simplicity and well worn wisdom. A place where everything was old from the first day and yet seemed to ever renew itself with each passing year. Everything aged, yet nothing seemed to get older. That's what the wisdom and knowledge of God are like. They shape our lives like a well built house, filling our years with rare and beautiful treasures.
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Wow.
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I love that God takes me back. Makes me think of that Miranda Lambert I mentioned it today, singing with dad Miranda Lambert song. You know she, she goes up to her old house she grew up in and, and she says could I, could I come in? This is, this is where I grew up. She pointed to her handprint on the concrete. You know that those were her handprints and her feet print as a kid. And she says in the song I thought. I thought if I could touch this place or feel it, this brokenness inside me might start healing out here. It's like I'm someone else. I thought that maybe I could find myself and then this. If I. She said if I could just come.
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In, I swear I leave.
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Won't take nothing but a memory from the house that built me. It's such a powerful song everybody. That's what I love about country music guys. It's three chords and the truth. Wow. Thank you Miranda Lambert for that. A little tear jerk today. Let's pray. Abba. Father, unless you build and furnish the house, we who build it labor in vain. Build our homes by your wisdom and furnish our lives with the treasure of. Of your words. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. The journal prompts today I hope you'll journal about what's come into your remembering today. What memories does the story of my grandparents home evoke in you? Consider your own home. What stories might your children and or your grandchildren tell to future generations? Now consider more importantly your own life. How is my life and your life being built like a home whose rooms are furnished with wisdom and knowledge and treasure. Wow. You know the other day or maybe yeah. I think I talked about making like, like scripture texts being houses that we go stay in like Maybe there's a verse that's a cabin and maybe there's a. A chapter that's a. That's a house and then there's a backyard. Maybe there's another verse that becomes the fire pit out in the backyard. Just kind of take it in an im. Imaginative direction. We want to get the Bible out of the book and just flowing in our imagination with wisdom, with beauty, with picture and imagery and metaphor and story. That's it. Over the centuries, it's gotten turned into something else many times. It's time to just take. Let it gently take it back and say, lord, this is. This isn't our book. It's your book. You unfold it for us, open it for us. Well, there's lots more I'd like to say about this, and I think I'll hand it over to dad here and we'll do some singing together. Hey, well, it's. It's going to be a good Saturday today because we got a great singer here with us and we got a great song to sing. You know, dad, in the wake up call today, I'm having to hold my mic up. It's. It's wilting on me. But I talked about Proverbs. We were in chapter 24. And there's. The text says, by wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established through knowledge. Its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures. And I told the story about Meemaw People's house in the boys room. What do you remember about that old house?
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Well, we, Martin and I lived there all during our school years with, with mother and Daddy. And it wasn't a fancy house, but it was a good house. And it was a warm house and we enjoyed it. It was right there, right there, right in town, and we really enjoyed it.
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Wasn't a fancy house, but it was a good house. It was a house Wisdom built.
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It was a nice house. In fact, Linda's living in it now, ain't Linda?
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Yes, exactly right. She and Uncle Martin lived in there.
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Yeah, they did.
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And we love going over there, don't we?
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Oh, yeah, yeah.
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Because a good home is filled with good memories.
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It is. It was full.
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I like that country song where she sings about the house that built me. That's a. That's a. One of my favorite country songs. And she, she's going back to her house after she's grown up and she goes up to the door, she didn't even know who lives there. She says, you know, could I just come in? I won't Take nothing but a memory of the house that built me yeah. And. And I love that. Hey, look who's here. Mom just came in. Mom, we need you to sing with us today. She's a great singer. But you know what made me also think about Wisdom. By wisdom, a house is built. I thought about our house. Who built the house you live in now? Who put that whole thing together? You talk about her all the time.
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Susan.
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That's right. Wisdom. In. In the scriptures, Wisdom is personified as a woman. Sophia. That's the name. Wisdom. And she built that house with wisdom, didn't she?
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Yep. Susan's a good builder.
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She thought of everything. And then you build the house, and the house builds you.
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Right.
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It's kind of how it works. Well, what are we singing today?
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Onward Christian Soldier.
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Whose favorite hymn is that?
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That was. That was Daddy's, Mama's.
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That's. So we're going to sing it in kind of a celebration of them and the house they built that built us. And today we're going to sing the first three verses. We usually don't do that, but it's really long and.
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Yep.
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And you got things to do today, so you got to do some sewing. You ready?
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I'm ready.
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Onward, Christian soldier Marching as to war with the cross of Jesus Going on.
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Before.
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Christ the royal master Leads against the foe Forward into battle See his banners go Onward, Christian soldiers Marching as to war with the cross of Jesus Going on before at the sign of triumph Satan has done Plea on then Christian soldiers onto victory Hell's foundations quiver at the shout of praise Christians, lift your voices loud your anthems raised Onward Christian soldiers Marching as to war with the cross of Jesus Going on before.
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Number three, last verse.
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Like a mighty army moves the church of God Christians, we are treading where the saints have trod we are not divided all one body we one in hope and doctrine One in charity.
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Onward.
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Christian soldiers Marching as to war with the cross of Jesus Going on.
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That's a good one.
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Yep. That's. And that's enough.
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That was a good one. Well, we got to get out on the field. It's Saturday. But it's going to be a different feel today. You may be back in the back 40. You may be seeing people you don't normally see. But be ready to encourage them and take plenty of seed. Don't ever want to run out of seed, do you, dad?
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No way.
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Well, for the awake, say again, I'm David Walt. I'm John David Walt. And we'll see you on the field.
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Amen.