Harmony In The Home Series

"THE WALK OF HARMONY PT 2"

HARMONY IN THE HOME

TEXT" EPHESIANS 5:21

INTRODUCTION

GOD CALLS US TO WALK IN A MANNER WORTHY OF THE LORD....

TO WALK IN A WAY (TO LIVE OUR LIVES IN A WAY THAT BRINGS HIM GLORY, HONOR AND PRAISE). IN OUR DISCUSSION THUS FAR OF THE 2ND HALF OF EPHESIANS WE HAVE DISCUSSED HOW:

WE ARE TO WALK IN UNITY

IN PURITY

AND IN HARMONY

LAST WEEK WE TALKED ABOUT HARMONY IN THE CHURCH, ABOUT WHAT WE ARE TO DO WHEN CHRISTIANS DISAGREE AND WHEN THERE ARE DISAGREEMENTS BETWEEN CHRISTIANS.

ARE YOU WALKING IN HARMONY IN THIS CHURCH....?

ARE YOU WALKING IN HARMONY WITH YOUR BROS AND SISTERS HERE...?

ARE YOU A SOURCE OF HARMONY IN THIS PLACE...?

ARE YOU PART OF THE ANSWER TO JESUS’ PRAYER OF UNITY?

TODAY WE WILL CONTINUE OUR DISCUSSION OF THE WALK OF HARMONY

Ever since Dan Qualye’s famous statement about Murphy Brown, Everyone is talking about it; the President, Congressman, Senators, Donahue, Ophrah, News programs... everywhere you turn it seems like someone is talking about the crisis in the American Family.

Is there a lack of harmony in the HOME? ARE THINGS NOT RUNNING SMOOTH OR WORKING THE WAY THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO..

Well I think the statistics speak for themselves:

1. The divorce rate is at 50%

2. The United states Center for disease control reports that 43 million of our citizens... 1 in 5 are infected with an incurable sexually transmitted virus.

3. And over 3 million more will contract a S.T.D. this year.

4. Over a million teenage girls will become pregnant this year..

30,000 of that million will be under 14 years of age.

Since the popular push for contraceptives for teens sexual activity for teens has increased by 400%.

5. Juvenile crime is now at epidemic proportions as are youth no longer have any concept of right and wrong.

6. Nearly 4 million children are abused in the home each year.

7. A survey in one town indicated that on average fathers spent only 37 seconds a day with their small children.

8. Not to mention the homes where the family just isn’t happy -- everyone is miserable and is just going through the motions of being a family -- they are living a facade.

WHY IS IT HAPPENING?" AND HOW CAN WE FIX IT?

WELL, THOUGH I AM NO ROCKET SCIENTIST, I DO KNOW WHY ARE FAMILIES ARE DYING (THOUGH THE MEDIA, PHIL, OPHRAH AND THEIR PALS, WILL LAUGH AT IT... I AM RIGHT AND THEY ARE WRONG!!-- AND OUR DISINTEGRATING FAMILY IS THE PROOF.)

THE ANSWER, IS REALLY NOT TOO DIFFICULT, UNLESS PEOPLE BECAUSE OF THEIR "SUPERIOR INTELLECT" OR "LOVE FOR SIN" -- CHOOSE TO REMAIN BLINDED BY THEIR IGNORANCE.

Now, I don’t want to overly simplify a very serious problem, BUT in reality the answer is really quite simple. Let me give an illustration from everyday life.

Now I know that this is something that most man have experienced. I know that I have. It’s called doing laundry. Though I do not do it now, I at one time used to try to wash my wife’s clothes. I figured I could do a better job and that I could do it cheaper, you know get more clothes cleaned for the same wash, you know save a little money on the water and electric bill.

And sometimes it didn’t turn out the way I intended. Often, as I reached into the drier, or worse yet, when Judy reached into the drier. Her clothes were not like she left them, sometimes they were smaller, sometimes they were a lot smaller, and sometimes they had different colors on them, and sometimes times they had completely changed colors.

Needless to say this did not make Judy very happy. Today, I know longer wash Judy’s clothes. You may want to ask why? One reason is because I don’t want to mess up clothes that Judy likes. And the other reason and perhaps the main reason is because I can’t afford to do this, because almost every time I ruined something she’d replace it. So my great idea to save money didn’t work, it was not very cost effective.

The problem I had with washing clothes happened because I didn’t read that little label on the particular item of clothes. The designer of the clothes cared about his product and he wanted what was best for it, so he put instructions with his product, he even sowed them into the product, so dummies like me won’t lose them.

He did all he could do to protect his product from misuse, it was almost full proof. Almost! because the directions were of no use, unless the owner (or her husband) read and follow them.

I went through this long story confessing my inability at washing women’s clothes, to make this point. Why are families not working today? WHY, BECAUSE PEOPLE TODAY ARE NOT READING, AND THEY ARE NOT FOLLOWING, THE DESIGNERS INSTRUCTIONS.