The Blessing of a Christian Home

The Christian Home is Something Worth Having!

Psalm 127

AUDIO MP3

 

Sept 9, 2012 AM

Pastor Craig Ledbetter

Bible Baptist Church, Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland

www.biblebc.com

 

I.                   Introduction (Joshua 24:15) “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”

 

A.    A young woman recently wrote down her view of marriage:

 

1.      "It's as though I'm scanning a desert with a pair of binoculars. Everywhere I look I see bodies strewn about in various stages of death and dying -- divorce, isolation, abusive and decayed relationships, all types of devastation. After viewing this I ask myself, Why would I want to begin that journey?"

2.      Many people feel the very same way. Although they seek the security and joy of a lifelong relationship, they fear marriage. One new bride said ten years ago in a Newsweek article: "I had watched my parents' marriage fall apart, and I didn't know if I could keep one together."

3.      No generation has ever brought with it more baggage into their marriages than today! Throughout Europe, millions of children each year face their parents divorcing, if they are married at all! And unless something happens in their hearts, they are destined to repeat the same failures!

 

B.     The question is, Is it really worth having a Biblically designed Home?

 

1.      The answer is positively YES!

2.      But it must be a God-designed home, not a Do It Yourself (DIY) kind of home!

3.      So many marriages attempt to achieve a strong, enduring bond built primarily on emotions – feelings – money – education – children. But they ultimately find that love and acceptance continue only as long as the other person is meeting a certain level of expectation.

 

a.       As long as the feelings are warm between two people (at the same time), a husband and wife can enjoy one another's company; they can overlook a partner's troubling or annoying traits, communicate adequately, and still express affection.

b.      But when the feelings cool, one or both find they have no reserves - no capability to love an obviously imperfect person. Now needs are not met, which causes hurt, which promotes defensiveness, which reduces communication, which heightens misunderstanding, which provokes conflict, which fuels anger and bitterness. If forgiveness and reconciliation do not break this downward spiral, the ability to love one another becomes paralyzed.

c.       And that’s how so many homes operate today – at the bottom!

 

4.      In spite of a couple's best intentions, they eventually realize that two independent people cannot both have all of their needs met all of the time.

 

C.     And yet, the Bible portrays a Christian Home as awesome! As priceless! As worth everything it might cost you (Proverbs 31:10; Heb 13:5 “Marriage is honourable…”)!

 

1.      Absolutely everybody has it hardwired into us to WANT such a kind of home!

 

a.       A HOME! No matter what kind of a house you may live in

b.      A FAMILY – no matter how little or much money you have

c.       A PEOPLE that you would rather be with because of who they are - FAMILY

 

2.      And the Bible was written so that you can actually HAVE such a home! There is no other way!

 

D.    The Christian Home is Different than all other homes – On Purpose

 

1.      A Christian home is different by design – too many people want to blend and not be different

 

a.       They want a Christian home, but not a fanatical one

b.      They want to have forgiveness, but no responsibility to forgive

c.       They want to have salvation from hell, but still be able to live like the devil

d.      Funny, isn’t it?

 

2.      Everybody today wants “diversity” – until it comes to someone stepping out of the crowd and being like the Lord Jesus

3.      “Christian” homes are NOT much different today from most any other home

 

a.       “Christians” watch basically whatever everyone else is watching

b.      They smoke like the world, drink like the world around them

c.       They “live-together” before getting married, just like the world around them

d.      They experience divorce at almost the very same rate as people who make no time for God

e.       Their teens get pregnant, and get addicted to drugs

 

4.      Christianity is not just about being different, but being godly – like the God who made us

5.      How does the Bible compare a Christian home with a worldly home – they ARE different:

 

A CHRISTIAN HOME

ALL OTHER HOMES

Has only one God in it

Have idols in it (money, music, selfishness, etc)

Has a Dad and a Mom

Have usually just a Mom

Loves each other sacrificially

Love only self at the expense of each other

Does most everything together

Do nothing together

Talks with each other

Never talk with each other

Experiences disasters, and yet loves God and trusts God

Experience disasters, and therefore hate God and distrusts His ways

Loves God first, and succeeds at loving everyone, including enemies

Attempt to love each other FIRST, and fails

Lives within Biblical limits, and according to Biblical rules

Reject all limits and rules – want freedom to do as they please (Judges 17:6)

Humbles themselves

Full of stubbornness and pride

Adorning of the inner man with right attitudes (1Pet 3:1-6)

Outward adorning of the hair, jewels and fancy clothes

Living, Acting and Reacting like Jesus did

Living, acting, and reacting like animals in a zoo!

Enjoys the protective hand of God

Ultimately experiences the judgment of God

 

E.     The Importance of the a Christian Home

 

1.      The Home is directly CONNECTED with the city, and the nation - As goes the home, so goes the nation!

2.      Without Bible believing homes, any nation will end up like hell on earth (Psalm 9:17)

3.      Do you want to know WHY our world is self-destructing?

 

a.       Complete breakdown of society

b.      More and more murders, drugs

c.       Divorces and separations continue to climb and outnumber marriages

d.      Fewer and fewer marriages – except amongst same sex partners

e.       It used to be described as Societal Decline

f.       But now is constantly referred to as a complete collapse!

 

4.      Have you ever heard of civilizations disappearing before?

 

a.       The Mayan civilization

b.      The Roman Empire

c.       The Byzantine Empire

d.      The British Empire

e.       Why did they all disappear?

 

5.      It is because there is no heavenly restraining power anymore!

 

a.       Abraham actually protected Sodom from being destroyed for a bit. When God removed Lot and his family from Sodom, God destroyed it with fire from heaven!

b.      I wonder just how much our homes are keeping THIS nation from being swallowed up in God’s judgment!

 

6.      God works from the inside out (the heart), and from the bottom UP, from the Home outward… and yet our modern world has it all backwards! People only worry about themselves, and they look to the government to give them happiness and protection, instead of God!

 

II.                Message - How to Have and Enjoy the Blessings of a Christian Home

 

A.    Only the Lord BUILDS Christian Homes (Psalm 127:1) – and Especially RE-Builds Them

 

1.      All our best efforts, when done without God are vain.

 

a.       To have something that lasts, requires the Lord’s work (Eccl 3:14) – not just OUR labours

b.      It can’t be built without the Lord doing the actual building – assembling of everything

c.       Every home needs HIM in charge, NOT YOU! We all need the Lordship of Christ running our lives – we need a “governor” – an authority

 

1)      Why obey the Bible? Because the Lord Jesus wrote it

2)      Why do the hard things, and suffer and stay with

 

d.      HE puts things into your life that HE thinks you need

 

1)      Like your wife or husband - Realise that it is the LORD who puts people together (Mt 19:6)

2)      Like your children, or lack of children - It is the Lord who gives children and opens or closes the womb

3)      Like GRACE instead of things - It is the Lord that gives us the needed grace to handle the problems in a home

4)      Like Biblical rules and expectations - It is the Lord who has given us the rules to live by

 

a)      Marriage has rules, just like driving does

b)      Break the rules, result in serious consequences

c)      GOD made the rules

 

5)      One of these Sundays, I may be able to give you The rules of a Christian home – as opposed to the “modern” home – it will blow you away!

 

2.      A Christian Home doesn’t happen “naturally”

 

a.       God compares the making of a Christian Home with HARD WORK, and CAREFUL PROTECTION

b.      It takes Labour – Hard Work

 

1)      There are THREE builders of a home

 

a)      The two whom God joined together for that very purpose – the husband and the wife

b)      And Himself (1Cor 3:6-9)

 

2)      In old days, in the old West in America, people would move onto a field of soil and would BUILD themselves an actual house with wood and clay and rock and mortar, AND they would build themselves a home

3)      BOTH take an immense amount of work

4)      And yet, almost NO ONE works at building their home today – they just “HAVE” one – and it ain’t nothing to be proud of!

 

c.       It takes Time – what we don’t seem to have but MUST reclaim!

d.      It takes Attention to details - According to the Biblical pattern (Cf Ex 26:30) – NOT the ever-changing patterns as seen on TV

 

3.      Thank God that he can save messed up and even destroyed homes (Acts 16:30,31)!

 

B.     Only the Lord Can PROTECT Your Home (Ps 127:1)

 

1.      What good is a home that is EASY for thieves to break in and destroy?

2.      We need to take the PROTECTION of our homes VERY seriously (Mk 3:27; Lk 12:39)

3.      Many a parent has invested great amounts of time into their relationships and children, only to lose them on the first or second days of school (1Cor 15:33)

4.      Our homes HAVE to be Guarded!

 

a.       Protect and Keep what has been built

b.      Who are the watchmen of the home?

c.       The same people who built the home!

d.      Be sure to make protective rules / walls for your home – don’t be afraid of rules

 

C.     Most People Waste Their Time in their Homes (Ps 127:1,2) - Wasted Efforts

 

1.      All your efforts to keep your marriage, or your children, could be wasted!

2.      Without God and His instruction – all efforts without His influence are wasted efforts, no matter how good you may think you are as a Mom, Dad, Teen, or young person!

3.      Most homes are full of Worrying, Fretting, Stress, Sorrow – overmuch sorrow and worry today

 

a.       By wrong focus – on mainly the children, or on the job, or career

b.      By wrong expectations – that nothing will change (yet the marriage vow was, “For better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health…”

c.       By carrying guilt and burdens you were never built to carry

d.      By believing God doesn’t care!

 

4.      God gives us rest from fear and failures! Thank God! WHEN we do things HIS way – that is our theme this month! Having a Revival in our homes! In our home-LIFE!

 

D.    The Value of Children (Psalm 127:3-5)

 

1.      It’s funny how God finishes up by talking about the blessing of children! You would think He would talk about the blessing of Husbands, or a godly wife, but He ends with a reminder of the value of children!

2.      Funny how our modern world talks so much about children’s rights, and about the needs of children, and yet

 

a.       They murder them by the millions in the womb every year

b.      They don’t care that millions more have to endure multiple divorces by their parents

c.       They ignore the fact that physical, mental and sexual abuse of children is exploding through the roof

 

3.      The only people who really care about children and their deepest needs

 

a.       Are not all the social workers

b.      But the Christian Mom’s and Dad’s who sacrificially give of themselves to train their children up to be like Jesus (Pr 22:6)!

c.       Only the Bible elevates children correctly without spoiling them (Mat 18:1-3)

 

4.      Children are Three Things

 

a.       God’s heritage – His legacy- what HE has passed on to us – LIFE! They are eternal

b.      God’s gift

 

1)      They are only a reward - the grace of life - A blessing upon a home!

2)      Not accidents, or nuisances, or a curse

3)      They are all miracles from God (Ps 139:13-16) – not a by-product of evolution!

 

c.       A Threat to the world system – instead of the world system being a threat to the family!

 

1)      Our children can change our world

2)      Our children can hinder the devil’s work, and can save nations – see young Samuel do it! He was SUCH a threat to Satan’s attack against the nation of Israel

3)      What could YOUR child do that could change and save THIS nation?

 

III.             Summary

 

A.    Is it really worth having a Biblically designed Home?

 

1.      The answer is positively YES!

2.      The Bible portrays a Christian Home as awesome! As priceless! As worth everything it might cost you!

3.      But it must be a God-designed home, not a Do It Yourself (DIY) kind of home!

4.      And the Bible was written so that you can actually HAVE such a home! There is no other way!

 

B.     The Christian Home is Different than all other homes – On Purpose

 

C.    The Christian Home is Vitally Important!

 

1.      As goes the home, so goes the nation!

2.      God works from the inside out (the heart), and from the bottom UP, from the Home outward… and yet our modern world has it all backwards! People only worry about themselves, and they look to the government to give them happiness and protection, instead of God!

 

D.    How to Have and Enjoy the Blessings of a Christian Home

 

1.      Only the Lord BUILDS Christian Homes – and Especially RE-Builds Them

 

a.       A Christian Home doesn’t happen “naturally”

b.      It takes Labour – Hard Work

c.       It takes Time – what we don’t seem to have but MUST reclaim!

d.      It takes Attention to details - According to the Biblical pattern (Cf Ex 26:30) – NOT the ever-changing patterns as seen on TV

 

2.      Only the Lord Can PROTECT Your Home – and it NEEDS protecting

 

3.      Most People Waste Their Time in their Homes - Wasted Efforts

 

a.       By wrong focus – on mainly the children, or on the job, or career

b.      By wrong expectations – that nothing will change (yet the marriage vow was, “For better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health…”

c.       By carrying guilt and burdens you were never built to carry

d.      By believing God doesn’t care!

e.       God gives us rest from fear and failures! Thank God! WHEN we do things HIS way – that is our theme this month! Having a Revival in our homes! In our home-LIFE!

 

4.      Your Children are Priceless (Psalm 127:3-5)

 

a.       God’s heritage – His legacy- what HE has passed on to us – LIFE!

b.      God’s gift

c.       A Threat to the world system – instead of the world system being a threat to the family! Our children can change our world

d.      And by the way, so is your wife, and your husband!

 

IV.             Application - What To Do Now

 

A.    Start building along with the Lord a Christian home – instead of working against Him

B.     CHOOSE to Have a Christian Home – Decide this month is going to be a game changer – a month where decisions are going to be made no matter how hard, or how humiliating

C.     Trust the Lord FOR a Christian Home – not Dr. Spock, or anyone else

D.    Fear the Lord’s Judgment Against Ungodly Homes – we are losing homes all around us

E.     Obey the Lord’s Instructions on How to Function as a Christian Home – step by step

F.      Rest in God’s Promise to Make Your Home, A Christian One!