Establishing A Christian Home

Establishing A Christian Home

Pastor Billy G. Lobbs

Theme: Building strong family relationships in the home.

Text: Ephesians 5: 22-31, "Wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church: and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be unto their own husbands in everything. Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself. For no man ever yet hateth his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh."

Preliminary Remarks:

After a number of years of pastoral ministry, I have become aware of at least seven principles that are a necessary ingredient toward building strong churches.

1. A love for the presence of the Lord.

2. A maintaining of the joy of the Lord.

3. A love for the unity in the Church body.

4. A love for the Word of God.

5. A love for discipline in the House of God.

6. An understanding of priesthood responsibilities.

7. A maintaining of healthy family structures in the home.

Now all of these principles could be enlarged upon, but it's the seventh one I want us to focus on as we attempt to discover the biblical approach to building strong family relationships in the home. This teaching is Part one of a three part lesson entitled, Establishing the Christian Home.

Point I:

I think most of you will agree with me when I say that in many cases, most of us waited until we came into a place of real desperation in our lives before we sought God and acknowledged that we truly needed His help. We were in desperate circumstances and we didn't know how to get out of it by ourselves, so we finally turned to God. I firmly believe that it is God's goal to get us to seek him early. However, most of us continue to seek Him late, as a last resort. Sort of like, well we've tried everything else, now maybe we ought to try God.

The tragic thing in all of this is that so many have been this way concerning the home and family relationships. In our generation, a desperate situation has come into the homes and families of our land. The families are under satanic attack. I don't need to quote for you all the statistics, but in America, it's getting to be a real challenge and risk to go to the altar of marriage anymore with a long range commitment in view. We're told that only 50% will make it through married life with the person they just pledged to live with for the rest of their life. Many marriages end before the warranty on the stove or refrigerator expires.

But the good news is that right in the middle of all the fractured family structures, God has begun to speak to us in a fresh way about our family life and about divine order in the home. So desperate has the situation become in many homes, that people are turning an ear to what God has to say and they are beginning to seek God's advice on their problems. They've tried everything else for a remedy and the statistics prove that those remedies have been ineffective. Now people are saying, "Maybe it's time we tried it God's way."

I , for one, am thankful for all the good scriptural teaching that has been made available to the Body of Christ today in the area of the home life. Almost every major Christian Education Publisher has designed curriculum materials that attempt to implement truth and teaching on the home level. And oh how the Body of Christ needs it, because today the morals and spiritual values of marriage and home, given to us in the Bible, are being openly challenged even in the courts of our land.

Thank God for the many Bible based conferences and seminars on marriage and the family that are being conducted worldwide. Thank God for pulpit preaching that addresses the problems of the home and parenthood and offers biblical solutions to these problems. Bible solutions work!