Divine Blueprints For A Godly Home

There is a word that is used to describe the broken and shattered homes of today. And that word is dysfunctional. If you listen closely you will hear people talk about, dissect, dialogue and analyze dysfunctional homes and dysfunctional families. Case studies reviewing families and family members who act out of control/order with the family structure are tagged being as dysfunctional. Talk shows, Jerry, Maury and even Oprah have on stage a family with two dogs, 1 cat and an IT—stating that ‘I am the way that I am because I am dysfunctional’. And if you listen to it long enough, this tainted view, though it is ideal and euphoric, will leave you the mistaken impression and false illusion that there are homes, relationships, families that are fully functional. And if, left with that euphoric impression—you will look at what you’ve got to go back to—and you will walk away in disillusionment, confusion, pandemonium and perplexity every time.

I want to submit to that there has only been one fully functional family home in the history of mankind and the human race. That home, without argument, hands down would have be the home of Adam and Eve, the masterpiece of God’s creation in the world, prior to their sinful disobedience. You know the story very well—They were created to be in perfect and harmonious sync and relationship with God in a perfect environment. Everything about them was perfect, ideal, just right—then all of that changes when Adam does not take his God-given covenant authority to kick a snake out his relationship, his home and his family. And as a consequence, sin entered in and it has never been the same since.

From Adam to today, families have faced an onslaught of tough problems. Adam and Eve had a dysfunctional marriage. Abraham and Sarah suffered financial distress, causing them to move out of the country. Isaac and Rebekah played favorites with their children. Rebekah plotted against her husband. Jacob betrayed his brother’s trust. Joseph lived in family plagued with so many problems that his own brothers sold him into slavery and told their father that he had been killed. All of these family problems came about because of sin, but what about Job? Job was a man who lived close to the Lord. You might say he was in church every time the doors were open, gave his offerings, taught a Sunday School class and sang in the choir and lived a holy life, but in one day the Bible says he suffered the loss of all his children, all his wealth and his health.

The Bible is full of such stories: stories of families as they suffer the storms of life. Those stories are the stories of our lives today. No family is immune to the storms of life – they are simply a fact of life. Every family here today is facing storms: you are either suffering through them now or you know they are coming. Some of you are in financial distress and there seems no way out. Some of your marriages are taking a beating from the hurricanes of life and you wonder how much longer you can hold out. There may be family shame, lying, deception, jealousy, or mistrust. It may be that you’re burdened with having to take care of family that cannot take care of themselves.

To say that our homes needs some improvement from the storms and the hurricanes that would eventually come our way is to say that everything is not what it should be and not what it COULD be. When it comes to remodeling our home there are five things we need to remember:

1. It takes longer than you planned

2. It cost more than you figured

3. It is messier than you anticipated

4. It requires greater determination

5. It takes more patience than you expected.

This is true of our home life as well. You make plans to improve your relationship with your spouse and children. In the beginning everything goes well, but then somewhere in the process, you realize:

1. It takes longer than you planned

2. It cost more than you figured

3. It is messier than you anticipated

4. It requires greater determination

5. It takes more patience than you expected.

It’s not easy, but with God as your architect, His Word as your blueprint, faith as your hope and victory as your motivation—in the words of Missy—you can ‘Work it if it’s worth it’.

I. Essential

If you are going to make it/survive/continue and endure, there is an essential element that must be present in your family.

The text states for us very clearly, aptly and succinctly “Except the Lord”. Which is to suggest and purport that without the Lord it is useless, futile and pointless to the extent that it is a waste of time and worth nothing at all.