A Happy Home

A Happy Home

Introduction: This is the Christmas season and I notice year after year how the devil tries to ruin our celebration. It's obvious to the spiritual person that the Devil doesn't want to see people be reminded of the star that would lead wise men to the one who would be his ruin. He doesn't want you or me or anyone else to understand the true meaning of Christmas. If it isn't another lawsuit to have the local nativity scene taken out of the city park, town square, or the local school play its yet another suicide, mass shooting, or terrorist attack (And there will be more). During these times we should all be happy and yet more and more we tend to be stressed out, exhausted, frustrated with long lines, anxious about whether someone will like a gift or not, and even though we may deny it, some of us dread the awkward tension between disgruntled acquaintances at a party that we don't really want to go to. All of these things make the Holiday season not at all what we would hope it to be.

I want us to reflect on the family this morning, because Christmas is a family holiday and family happiness begins in the home. Our message this morning is “A Happy Home”

Psalm 128:1-4

“Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in his ways.”

The word “blessed” is used in so many different ways today. We hear 'bless you' or 'bless them' or 'he is blessed', or 'blessings to all'. But the word “blessed” in this verse comes from the Hebrew word 'asher' which means 'Happy'. “Blessed (Happy) are those who fear the LORD, In order to have a happy home you must have a happy family. Just as the church isn't the building, its the people, the house isn't a home until it has a family living in it. Home, just like the church, is a sanctuary from the world. We enjoy coming inside to escape from what is outside. We love to come to those who comfort us when the world has rejected us. But as long as you have more of the world than God in the home it will never be a happy home. If you have the love of God, the hope of God, the peace of God, the joy of God, the word of God, the spirit of God in your home then going to church will be like going from your living room to your dining room. When you make your home a church, going to church feels like going home.

Let's begin where the family begins; with the man.

Where the Family begins

This Psalm addresses the man as the head of the household, and as He is blessed, so is his family. Not just any man is blessed, but a man that fears the LORD. When we think of fear we think of someone hiding behind something or running away from something. But this isn't referring to anything like that, this refers to those men who Love God, Respect God, Revere God, Honor God and have a holy appreciation of God and out of that reverent love for God all blessings flow to and through the family! Do you want to be blessed? Have a man leading the household that loves God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength and you will be blessed. (Ladies, if you have a man like that, you have a blessing!)

If you want to know why there are so many unhappy homes today it goes back to the fact that there are so many homes without a Man who fears God living in them. I recently heard black pastor say enthusiastically, that one of the problems is that women are attracted to the wrong kind of man! I agree. Hollywood tells you it is cool to have the “bad boy”, and you believe them. How can you not see the devil gaining his point, not in the church, but definitely in our society when rebellion is somehow a virtue to be found in a man? How can any woman live the blessed life chasing after a loser like that? And just because a man goes to church or went to church or says he does, or has, or will go to church doesn't mean that He fears God.

You may notice as I have that anytime Islamic extremism is mentioned, sooner or later some unbeliever looking for moral equivalency will say that Timothy McVeigh was a Christian. They reason that since He went to a Catholic church a long time ago as a boy, that makes him a Christian. G.K. Chesterton said, “Just going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in your garage makes you a car.” just going to church won't make you a christian, no more than just repeating a prayer will make you saved. There must be a desire within you to surrender to God.