1. Title: Defend The Home Front
2. Text: several
3. Audience: Villa Heights Christian Church, AM crowd, March 12, 2006, last (8) in the series “A Clear and Present Danger”
4. Objectives:
-for the people to understand the role of the family in withstanding the threats that endanger us; to identify specific threats that endanger their homes; to gather ideas that will assist them in confronting the threats to their homes
-for the people to feel convinced that the family plays a key role in standing up against the clear and present dangers of our age; to feel confident that careful attention to our families will help all of us in the fray
-for the people to take some practical steps to strengthen the family and to fortify it against the attacks that we know are going to happen
5. When I finish my sermon I want my audience to be aware of some specific fronts where Satan is trying to dismantle our homes and to take some measures to protect it and make it strong against him
6. Type: topical
7. Dominant Thought: Satan’s attack is largely aimed to damage the family structure so it makes sense to shore up our families against that attack
8. Outline:
Intro: Someone has defined insanity as doing the same actions and expecting different results. If that’s true, I’m thinking that a lot of us are acting rather insanely about our families this morning.
If you’re a coach, and you know that the other team is going to send a guy around the right end, and he’s going to come in and sack the quarterback, what will you do? Run the play and watch the quarterback get sacked? Or will change your game plan? Will you put another big guy on that end, or run the quarterback around the other end, or have him lateral the ball off before the rather large guy gets to him? You will if you’re trying to win! And I want to win at this thing we call family, don’t you?
Doesn’t it make sense, if we can already know ahead of time where Satan is going to launch his attack, to adjust our defenses and our offense so that there won’t be any damage?
2 Corinthians 2:11
in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.
Well, take a look. Satan is sending his big guy around the ends to tackle our families.
-Ill - Douglas MacArthur II, worked as Counselor of the State Department under John Foster Dulles. Both men were hard workers. One time Dulles phoned the MacArthur home and asked, “Where’s Douglas?” Mrs. MacArthur had answered, and she thought Dulles was an aid. She’d had enough, and she said, "MacArthur is where MacArthur always is, weekdays, Saturdays, Sundays, and nights - in that office!" It was just a few minutes later, MacArthur got a phone call in his office. It was John Dulles, "Go home at once, boy. Your home front is crumbling."
It’s a simple fact of the military. It’s reflected in the sentiment of the 1914 war song “Keep The Home Fires Burning.” It’s necessary for the homeland to be strong and secure for it’s armies to do their work. Remember the city of Ai? Remember how Israel first just ran up and attacked it and ended up running away? Then, they checked with God about what to do. They dealt with sin in the camp, and they used a different approach. One detachment attacked the city, and lured all the fighting men out. The Israelites made another retreat, so the army of Ai ran after them. What they didn’t notice was that after they were out of the city, a 2nd detachment of Israel had run into the city and was setting it on fire. Once the smoke was rising, the army of Ai found themselves ruined and trapped.
After the tragedy of Pearl Harbor, US officials were eager to retaliate in a way that would help the morale of the American people, and that would strike at the very heart of the Japanese. The answer was to bomb the capital city. So, on the morning of April 18th, 1942, B25 bombers lined up for takeoff from USS Hornet, flew over Tokyo, and dropped bombs on several targets. It wasn’t a militarily significant blow, but it was a strike against the home front of Japan.
Part of what makes September 11 stand out to us is that it was a strike against us on our own soil – an attack on the home front seems so much more significant than a war that’s fought someplace we’ve never even seen before. It makes sense to me that the place where Satan is going to do some of his worst work is against our families.
Today, my plan is to identify some of the dangers that specifically are threatening the family of today. I want to do that because I’m convinced of the integral role that the family structure plays in our success in the Church. In other words, take apart the families of the Church and the Church comes apart.
Even the Church itself is most definitely a “family.” God speaks of us in family terms – It’s no mistake that He calls us His father; that by His Holy Spirit we’re adopted as His children; that the result of that relationship is that we’re all brothers and sisters in Christ; that Jesus relates to us not only as our Brother, but that also the Church is His bride, set apart for Him.
Ephesians 5:29-32
After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church--for we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery--but I am talking about Christ and the church.
So, I went about trying to identify the threats to families of today, which change over time. One source I went to is what other preachers see as a threat to families. In the December 2004 issue of Facts &Trends magazine, preachers cited what they believed to be the greatest threats to the family:
• 43% divorce as the number-one threat
• 38% negative influences from the media
• 36% cited materialism
• 24% absentee fathers
• 22% families that lack a stay-at-home parent
• 18% co-habitation before marriage
• 17% pornography
For the past 7 weeks, we’ve been reviewing several dangers that threaten our generation. It occurred to me that most of those could be written in as “the great threats to our families.” That makes sense. It reemphasizes to me that that’s where Satan’s going to direct his hardest attacks. Remember them?...
1. Devaluing human life – treating any human, old, young, or unborn, as if their life can be appraised by some human standard, when God has already appraised every human life and pronounced it valuable
2. Evolution – treating God as though He’s just some afterthought in the way we look at life, rather than treating Him as He is, the source of all life and of everything that exists
3. Relativism – treating truth and morals as if they change with wind, as if there’s no standard for right and wrong and no basis for authority
4. Universalism – treating anyone’s salvation as if it’s just a given without any acceptance on our part
5. Pursuit of happiness – treating life as if our purpose for being here is to be happy and to make that our main goal, when God has greater concerns about our life
6. Pornography – a blight that’s rotting our society and that’s happening in homes across the world
7. Materialism – treating stuff as if that’s what we need
Every one of these things beats right on our front doors and tries to get in. Satan’s hitting close to home. So, please excuse the overlap, and excuse the incompleteness, but I want to cite some specific threats to home for us. I want to hit close to our homes too, and then suggest some biblical ideas to deal with them.
I. Worldly Ideas Replace the Bible as the Basis for the Home’s Structure
Ill - In the glovebox of most every car in our parking lot this morning, besides your registration and proof of insurance, there’s a book – a small book maybe ¾” thick. If you go to change your oil, it tells you what kind and how much to put in. It tells you what pressure to have in your tires, and how often you should change the air filter. It even tells you how big of a load it can carry, and how much gasoline it will hold. If you have a question about your car, that’s the first and best source of practical information, because it’s written by the same ones who designed the car.
When I sit down with a couple and talk about what they need to do to prepare for marriage and starting a family, I start by talking about the owner’s manual. It’s the book that’s written by the Designer. If you want to know how something works, you consult the owner’s manual that the designer gives you.
When I need to work on a car, I don’t go see what some actor or singer or TV news anchor has to say about my car. I want to hear from the people who know something about it – the ones who designed it.
One reason I love the Bible is because it tells me what I need to have a successful family life. It’s all there, and I can trust it. Once upon a time, it was the standard for the structure of homes in the US. Now, we’ve "outgrown" it. Now there are "experts" to tell us what we really ought to know about authority, values, discipline, and love in our homes, and they’ve somehow discovered that the Bible was actually wrong on a lot of points! That kind of thinking is a threat to our homes.
I know we have a lot to think about. That doesn’t mean it’s all worth occupying brain space. We need to have a Christian worldview. What’s that? It’s having our most basic convictions shaped by what God has said. It’s obeying
Colossians 3:1-3 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
If that’s true, then our most basic thoughts about life are going to be shaped by what God has said, not just every idea that’s out there somewhere.
Philippians 4:8-9
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
The Scriptures teach us that parents ought to be the authority in their homes. Today, children can take their parents to court – even divorce them, and parents are being taught to let their children choose their own course earlier in life. It’s a worldly idea that has been accepted in place of God’s design.
Don’t discipline your children; you’ll give them a complex! Little Ralphie has been labeled as a "behavioral disorder" child who needs counseling. What Little Ralphie really needs are some parents who love him enough and take enough time to say "no" to some things and to discipline him. Prov 13:24 says "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him." Heb 12 says that God shows us that we are His sons by disciplining us. But instead a worldly idea has been accepted in place of God’s design.
Young people, aside from accepting Jesus Christ, no decision will affect your life like the choice of your mate. How much of that decision are you letting God make for you? What about loving God is shaping your attitudes and choices about your future mate? Have you let Satan’s ideas creep into your thinking?
God tells us in II Co 6:14-16a "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.” Did He mean it?
"Yes, but I’m going to date him and marry him and lead him to the Lord." Tell me one person for whom that has happened and I’ll find you 20 where it didn’t. "Yes, but I know someone who did it and he became a Christian." You’re right – it could happen. It has happened. I suppose that’s fine if instead of concerning yourself with the Lord’s will in this matter, what you’re interested in doing is setting up your life so that you might beat the odds. I suppose that’s fine if what you want to do is possibly survive.
Ill - There have actually been 10 people who’ve gone over Niagara Falls and survived it. You could do that, and possibly survive it. I would still recommend against that. I’m interested in helping people have a better future to look forward to than just "possibly surviving." Listen to God on this matter. Save yourself a lot of hurt.
At some point in recent history, the idea of living together before getting married became “no big deal.” After all, you test drive a car before you drive it, don’t you? Even David Orek lets you try out his vacuum cleaner for 30 days before you have to keep it. Shouldn’t 2 people try out living together for a while before they do something serious like get married? And I ask you, how serious is marriage if it doesn’t have to be there before they live together? How important is staying married, if it wasn’t important before?
Somewhere along the way we’ve allowed ideas from the world that sound good and even feel good to replace the way we think about our homes. It’s time we challenge one another to a Christian worldview. When something in your family comes up, ask questions that direct you to biblical thinking – something other than the words of Oprah, Dr. Phil, Katie Couric, or Madonna.
Ask instead, “Where’s an example from the Bible where this happened or where this question came up?” “What did Jesus teach about this subject?” “Is there a story or a parable that sounds like this?”
Restate the absolutes: God is really the Creator. Scripture cannot be broken. Truth hasn’t changed. Jesus is the only way to the Father. Judgment is coming for everyone. We’re saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
And anything contrary to these truths is a lie from hell that doesn’t deserve a place in our thinking, especially when it comes to how to build a home!
Another specific threat to families is…
II. Loss of Respect for Marriage
Our country has lost what was once a high regard for the institution of marriage. It’s reflected
• in a divorce rate that matches or outnumbers the number of weddings each year
• in the number of couples living together out of wedlock
• in the somewhat successful effort to make homosexual marriage legally recognized
• in husbands and wives who make no effort to strengthen their relationship
• in the number of extramarital affairs people are involved in
• in the AIDS epidemic
All of them are indicators of what our country thinks of marriage (or doesn’t think!)
What does God think about marriage?
Hebrews 13:4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure
• But marriage isn’t honored when it’s just looked at as a formality or a piece of paper, so couples live together with no commitment to each other and no regard for how God looks at it.
• Marriage isn’t honored when we treat it like a disposable razor that you use and then throw away if it gets too dull or you don’t like it. Still many are approaching it on a trial basis.
• Marriage isn’t honored when partners participate in or permit trying to find any kind of sexual fulfillment outside of the person they’ve chosen as husband or wife.
• Marriage isn’t honored when we have to fight to define it as a faithful relationship between a man and a woman. Instead, we stand at the brink of a slippery slope that could well enough result in a complete loss of what makes a marriage.
• Marriage isn’t honored when it’s taken for granted, rather than treated like the place where two no longer live for themselves but for the good and nurturing of the other.
Listen to God’s word on the subject of divorce - Mal 2:16: "I hate divorce, says the Lord God of Israel." - not divorced people – in many ways the church needs to re-examine its attitudes toward divorced people. But divorce shouldn’t be. Those of you who’ve been through the pain of divorce would be the first to agree that it isn’t what God planned or desires.
The very idea of family can’t survive without a proper regard for marriage. God designed that families should have a mother and father who are committed to each other, and who raise children who will have the same in their homes, and that in those homes people will be pointed to Jesus as King of their life.
Want to help your family? Strengthen your marriage. Honor the idea of marriage.
Singles and Young people, set some lofty goals and some high expectations for your marriage. Parents, model honor for your marriage to your children. Tell them what it means to you and show them why it’s worth protecting.
One other threat. Again, I know it’s an overlap with past 7 weeks, but bear with me.
III. Confused Priorities
Our families are threatened by the fact that we tend to give lesser things priority over the health of our family. I’m speaking to myself as a father of a family this morning. I understand this threat, because I’m personally and painfully aware of the buffet of priorities that every family faces today. And whatever priorities we choose to hold to, it’s going to affect our homes financially, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Men are overworked. Too many dads and husbands are satisfied to pour themselves into their work, be gone too often, and to arrive at home to give their family the leftovers. We use the excuse that we have to, but way too often it’s because that’s what we choose, and we make it a way of life for our homes.
Women are overworked. Too many moms and wives are satisfied to pour themselves into a job along with their work at home, be gone too often, and to arrive home to give their family the leftovers. Your efforts are valiant, ladies, but are the priorities in the right place? Does it have to be that way, or have we all grown to accept a way of life that has confused priorities?
Is it a surprise that our kids grow up with some confusion when it comes to what matters? They’re supposed to be learning them from the adults in their world. What are they learning? That having stuff, at the expense of having a family, is #1? That truth can be sacrificed where it’s convenient? That what we do deserves more work and attention than what we are?
No person on his deathbed ever said, "I wish I’d spent more time at my job." No student graduating from high school ever said, “I wish that I hadn’t worked so hard at learning.” No family with its last child leaving home ever got together and said, “Remember all those memories we made together? Boy, I wish we had done something else instead!”
Seek first His Kingdom His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well. Do you believe it? If it’s true for an individual, it’s true for a family. The family that makes this its priority isn’t going to have such a struggle with deciding how many sports to let kids participate in, what movie to watch together, or where to spend the family budget. Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness.
Conclusion:
Let me summarize this morning with some practical ideas to help defend our homes:
Some Helps for Defending Our Homes
1. Understand that the family unit was designed by God
That means that any aberration from that design will be a challenge. Sometimes that can’t be avoided – spouses and parents die, or leave. No one asks for that to happen. Other times it’s due to wrong choices and just wrong living in the past. No matter how it comes about, we need to not be surprised that homes without that design are struggling, and we need to help one another through that struggle. Some kids are going to need a fill-in parent where there isn’t one. Some single moms are going to need the aid of another mom at times. Some ladies who are widows are going to need to be cared for. Some men left alone are going to need fellowship.
2. Hold Up The Positives
What I mean by this is we ought to not be ashamed to highlight how solid homes are doing it. When someone celebrates an anniversary, let’s praise their faithfulness. When kids grow up to do well, let’s praise the way home supported those choices. The point isn’t to downgrade any other home, but rather to hold up positive examples that encourage others to do well. I’m convinced that strong families are one of the greatest evangelistic tools the Church can have, because there are a lot of hurting families out there who would love to see that their homes be stronger and more full of joy. God wants us to look at the perfect standard of Jesus and to try to be like Him. Let’s uphold families who give examples of excellence and follow that lead.
3. Develop a Christian Worldview
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
God is telling us here that we need to make our decisions come from a deliberate foundation in His word. The battle is going to be won or lost because of the way we think.
Sow a thought, reap an act. Sow an act, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny. It’s a Chinese proverb, but its point is simple: what we believe is what we’ll ultimately become, and what we become decides where we’re going to spend forever.
4. Implement Some Deliberate Action That Gives Priority to Home
It may be a family game night. It may be one meal together on a regular basis. It may be turning off the TV at specific hours. It may be dating your spouse. It may be an annual trip. It may be as simple as setting your work hours.
Take a look at what your home says is most important right now and make some decisions that will protect it.
Begin this morning by committing your home to Jesus. Whether you’re a large family and growing, or you’re a home of one person, begin by yielding that home to the Lordship of Jesus Christ today.
