Every Home Needs Some Strong Walls
Pr 25:28
DATE: 25 Sept, 2005 AM
PLACE: BBC Ballincollig
I. Introduction (Pr 25:28)
A. The devil hates rules – He hates walls that keep him out. He loves to be able to just walk into a home and do as he pleases! The best thing to do is make sure he can’t get in (Eph 4:27). And the only way to do that is by having some protective walls of separation between you and the devil – let’s call it insulation! The Bible calls it separation, and to have it, you have to put on “the whole armour of God!”
B. Rules, control, structure – they all are compared to protective walls around a city. Without rules, without control, a person’s life is under constant attack and ultimately crumbles under the pressures of life!
C. Most of the 60’s and 70’s generation grew up throwing off every rule and moral obligation as fast as possible – they tore down the walls that protected them from destruction!
D. And thus explains the high divorce rate, high suicide rate, the high domestic violence rate, the high crime rate, the high rate of drug-use – shall I go on?
E. All of that has always been out there
1. Divorce did not start in the 1960’s
2. Crime wasn’t invented with the Beatles
3. Sex outside of marriage didn’t start at Woodstock in 1969
4. Alcoholic drink didn’t begin with Dean Martin in the 1950’s – even though he drank enough for a hundred people!
F. No! Those things were always there – but they weren’t wide-spread. Why? What happened?
G. Simply, Family, and Society walls were pulled-down. Protective walls of separation were slowly, methodically weakened, and then torn down
H. And anyone who tried to stop or slow the decay was rejected as part of the fringe element – labelled fundamentalists, and party-poopers, and square, and legalists, and joy-killers, and dictators
I. But they were really, only wall-builders! Lovers of their homes, and communities. People who knew what life would be like without certain, specific walls
II. Background
A. The Attack on Moral Walls
1. The home is under the most attack today
a. Forget about hurricanes, and wars for a minute and see that home-life, marriage, the very foundation of all of society as we know it is existing on only a bare-thread of strength and support.
b. How many hours of TV feed into our homes?
c. How many of those hours of TV are actually beneficial to your family, to your marriage, to your kids, and to your walk with God?
d. The world is clearly bent on stripping away every inch of protection against demonic control and domination
1) They make fun of anything good and wholesome
2) They persecute those who love godliness and good
3) They belittle, and pressurize anyone trying to stay away from sin
4) Just try and NOT go to the disco with your friends and see how they react!
e. And then there is the music, and the neighbourhood friends – what about your co-workers? The pressure to “go with the flow” is intense
f. And then people come to church – an hour and a half to make up for over 60 hours of attack? Do you really think coming to church and getting a tiny bit of encouragement is going to counter-balance all those hours of bruising and scarring that we all get in this world?
2. The attack is not against just “homes” but against godly homes, moral-based homes – homes with entire families that seek to live right and follow the Lord Jesus Christ
3. And let me say, the attacks aren’t only from the outside – in many ways, external enemies are far easier to handle than internal ones!
4. Many years ago, homes were strong because their foundation was strong – Jesus Christ – and their WALLS were strong. They knew what was right and what was wrong
5. But over 50 some years, a constant barrage of hammering and pulling has brought down the walls, so that now, even a flea can cause great damage
B. The Need for Moral Walls (Rom 6:12)
1. I shouldn’t have to convince you that there is a great need for moral walls in our homes. I know it is needed – and you do too!
2. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the reason for divorce is because of the pressures and stress that marriages are under – and those stresses aren’t natural!
3. Moral Walls do three things for you!
a. Moral walls Protect
1) Too many people think rules are a form of punishment
2) But rules make for safety and security
3) Walls are meant not to keep people in, but keep things OUT
4) That’s why soldiers and special Garda wear bullet proof vests – not to punish them, but to protect them! From BAD bullets!
5) That’s why houses have walls and roofs – not to punish the family, but to protect it from storms!
b. Moral walls Permit and restrict – the use of Gates
1) If you have walls you will have gates
2) Gates (doors) make it possible to go out and come in
3) But they also control what comes into your home and life
4) Convictions of what is right and wrong, will help you control what you watch on TV, and what you listen to, and the places you will go, and the friends that you will hang around with
5) There is nothing wrong with any of that!!!
c. Moral walls Prosper
1) Once peace and safety is established, then can the family thrive again – then can the human heart flourish
2) If a person is sick with a disease, the first thing to do is to bring them into the protective nature of a hospital, and allow the person to recuperate and ultimately thrive again – you don’t leave a wounded, bleeding person in the street!
4. We are not talking about arbitrary rules set up just to make your life miserable – they protect and prosper you – they allow you to truly be free – to walk at LIBERTY (Ps 119:45)
C. Nehemiah discovered the need for rebuilding some walls – so that Jerusalem could thrive again, without fear of attack
1. Jerusalem had allowed so many sinful actions to enter into it’s walls that God invited the Babylonians to come and bring the judgment of God on the whole city
2. And the walls came crumbling down
3. 70 years later, Nehemiah is sitting as a slave in the king’s palace hearing about the beautiful city of Jerusalem in rubble
4. And his first desire is to rebuild the walls
5. And the whole Book of Nehemiah, just a bit before Psalms, is about him rebuilding those all-important walls
III. Message - The Building and Maintaining of Moral Walls
A. Three areas of wall-building for the Christian: Attitudes, Actions, Appetites
B. These are walls that have to be built around your home, around your family relationships, and around yourself – and they HAVE to be maintained – they are like RULES of the road that you HAVE to abide by, first to get a license, and secondly to stay alive on the road! You CAN’T drive any way you want anymore than you can live any way you want – both are destructive! You wouldn’t live very long if people didn’t abide generally by the rules of the road here, would you?
C. Three Personal Moral Walls for Everyone to Build
1. The Wall of Right Attitudes and Words (Ps 34:13) – what we allow ourselves to think
a. This the most important wall for you and I to work on – start here, and the rest will be easy!
b. What we think determines what we are and how we live
c. Three right attitudes
1) The wall of good thoughts (Philp 4:8) – produces joy as it repels wicked imaginations. Good thoughts are stronger!!!
2) The wall of forgiveness – give people another chance – give them the benefit of the doubt – it repels bitterness
3) The wall of few words (Pr 17:28; Pr 4:23) – hold back your feelings and your heart from racing ahead. Speak carefully, and prayerfully – repels confusion and misunderstanding
2. The Wall of Right Actions – what we allow ourselves to do
a. Did you know there are some things that you are not supposed to do?
b. At first, your parents put up some walls around you to protect you – told you not to do some things, and they were right to do that!
c. Later, the responsibility for wall building passes onto you – the world says, GET RID OF THE WALLS, but God say, build your own walls now and make them good, and solid, and sure! Like:
1) Never take revenge – allow the Lord to take care of your enemy
2) Never substitute your Bible reading and prayer time for anything else – put up the wall of faithful walking with God in His word and personal prayer time
3) Always keep Jesus Christ first in your life – more about this in a moment!
4) Always bless others, and always do more for them than they deserve – even though they don’t deserve it
5) Always obey your authority over you – always!
d. HEY! Sounds like Jesus Christ’s way of living doesn’t it?
e. Let me give you a few more
1) Jam 1:27 Keep yourselves unspotted from the world
2) 1Jn 5:21 Keep yourselves from idols – Brittany Spears!
3) Josh 6:8 Keep yourselves from the accursed thing – from sinful things that God has said to stay away from – like:
a) Sex before marriage – make a vow to stay pure until your wedding night! Goes against Everything on MTV
b) Drink and drugs – never go anywhere where the temptation would be present – never try them, never toy with them
c) Like pornography – oh God help everyone put up high walls between them and the porn of today!!! NEVER to allow into their heart and home!
d) PUT A WALL BETWEEN YOU AND THESE THINGS!
3. The Wall of Right Appetites – Health – What we allow ourselves to want (1Cor 3:16,17)
a. God talks a lot about what we should and shouldn’t allow into our bodies!
b. It is wrong to defile (ruin) your body – to have bad eating habits, and bad sleeping habits, and bad entertaining habits
1) I’m talk about too much pizza, and burgers, and cereal for supper
2) Too much sleeping - laziness
3) I’m talking about chocolate three times a day
4) I’m talking about subjecting your body to drink, thinking it a social experience instead of the intoxicating, and liver damaging poison that it is!
c. Your health so easily affects your spirit, your attitude, you ability to praise God and worship God, and do right, and talk right and especially THINK right – constant health problems can pull you down easily
d. God commands us to do what is necessary to protect our health
1) Yet people stay up watching TV until 2 and 3am
2) They run off and try to have a “good time” at a disco thinking it will give them some joy
e. Build the walls of Godly appetites (Gal 5:16):
1) Much Bible (Jn 17:17) – changes your appetites, AMEN!
2) Much church and Christian fellowship
3) Much repentance for past blindness and rebellion
4) Much good food and balanced, healthy diet
5) Much struggle
a) Like me with correcting all my bad driving habits
b) I HAD to change them – HAD to
c) Hours of focus and review and struggle, and disappointment
D. The Most Important Wall (Ps 34:7) – the Lord Jesus, in and around you
1. David had it – known it all his life
2. Job had it (Job 1:9,10)
3. Daniel in the lion’s den had it
4. Shadrach, Meshak and Abendigo had it in the fiery furnace
5. It is available to everyone who wants HIM! Who seeks to have HIM control and dominate as well as protect and prosper them (2Kgs 6:15-17)
6. Without salvation, there is no spiritual wall there – you are standing alone
7. And your walls are certain to crack and fail under the pressure
8. Jesus came and died to be your Saviour, your defence, and your liberty
IV. Conclusion
A. Folks,
1. Divorce did not start in the 1960’s
2. Crime wasn’t invented with the Beatles
3. Sex outside of marriage didn’t start at Woodstock in 1969
4. Alcoholic drink didn’t begin with Dean Martin in the 1950’s – even though he drank enough for a hundred people!
B. No! Those things were always there – but they weren’t wide-spread. Why? What happened? Simply, Family, and Society walls were pulled-down. Protective walls of separation were slowly, methodically weakened, and then torn down
C. Do you love you home? Then protect it – build some walls – some strong walls around your life so that you can be the more than conqueror that Jesus designed you to be!
D. Three areas of wall-building for the Christian: Attitudes, Actions, Appetites
1. The Wall of Right Attitudes and Words (Ps 34:13) – what we allow ourselves to think
2. The Wall of Right Actions – what we allow ourselves to do
3. The Wall of Right Appetites – Health – What we allow ourselves to want (1Cor 3:16,17)
E. The Most Important Wall (Ps 34:7) – the Lord Jesus, in and around you
Craig Ledbetter
Ireland