Pillars of Our Home

Deut 4:26-32

Welcome to Mountain View Baptist Church! Thank you for joining us today as we worship the Lord Jesus Christ. It our privilege and honor to worship Him who conquered sin on the cross and rose from the dead.

If this is your first time here, we are honored to have you in our attendance. Please stop by our welcome center so we might connect with you.

Our theme this year is Fortify the Family. We know that our families can be fortified only through the Lord Jesus Christ. Our study in January has centered on God’s design for the home. In order for us to fortify the family is to realize it all begins with God. Today I want to challenge you to take action at the end of the service by dedicating your family to God’s direction and God’s purpose.

At the end of the service, I will invite you and your family to come stand for a prayer of commitment to allow God to fortify your family this year.

Have you ever noticed the importance of pillars in your home? Pillars symbolize strength, support, divine presence and memorials.

Strength & Support:

Physical: The bronze pillars Jachin and Boaz in Solomon's Temple symbolized God's establishment and strength (1 Kings 7).

Figurative: People like James, Cephas, and John were called "pillars" for their strong leadership in the church (Galatians 2:9).

Foundation of Truth: The church is called the "pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15).

Our homes need pillars to fortify and and strength us. There are times of difficulties and there are times of joys. The pillars will carry us through whatever comes our way. Pillars are the foundational structure that carries us through every situation. In Washington, DC, you the pillars of the Supreme Court building. They stand out on the front of the building to represent fortification and strength adherence to the law.

What are the spiritual pillars that fortify our homes?

We learned the first 17 chapters of Deuteronomy gives practical everyday realities of life and how we are to live Godly in a pagan world. All the nations around Israel at the time of Moses were polytheistic. They worshipped many gods which influenced their way of living. The people were tempted to follow these other gods especially the ones who pleased them by their lifestyle.

Moses was speaking to Israel regarding the spiritual pillars they needed if they were live for God and honor Him.

What pillars do you have in your home? What keeps your home strong? If you do nothing, you can be assured your home will fall as flat as the walls of Jericho. The pillars of philosophy, entertainment, or psychology cannot fortify your family. These all begin with the wrong place. True strength begins with God. Philosophy says use the pillars of your thoughts, entertainment says use the pillars of how you feel, and psychology says use the pillars of humanism.

However the Bible teaches the pillars God gives us the greatest strength we have. Moses gives us these strong pillars in this passage.

Pillar 1. . .

Seek the Lord v. 29

Seek means to discover, find, or to require in the sense to possess. Moses says if you seek, you will find Him. This comes from a desire to want God in your life and in your family. The focus is on desire. No doubt Satan will attack your desires. Satan will amplify sin to get you to desire that which he offers. This gets to the crux of the problem we all struggle with.

What do you desire? What is the driving passion of your heart and life? This pillar of seeking the Lord over popularity, over self promotion, over pleasure, over money will fortify your family.

If you look at your desires, you will see a pillar of your life. The Bible gives us strong warnings regarding our desires.

1 John 2:15–17 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

Early in this chapter Deuteronomy 4:9 “Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;”

Our desires for God will be fueled when we attend church, when we read God’s Word, and when we are led by the Holy Spirit. When you live a Holy Spirit-filled life, your desires will be after Godly things.

When we are busy seeking God, we will be less tempted to follow the things of the world. Certainly there is nothing wrong with some non-spiritual things in life like hobbies, sports, or recreation; however, it is the place we put these in our life. For example, we had great revival meetings. God spoke to our hearts and it was life changing.

On Monday night was the national college football championship. While I wanted to watch it, the revival was more important than a football game. What Moses is saying to the followers of the Lord, one pillar you will need in your home is to seek the Lord.

Isaiah 55:6–7 “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, Call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts: And let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

Moses is talking about a different way of thinking. He is talking about thinking biblically, Godly, and not being drawn away with the things around you.

Too many Christian homes are not seeking the Lord. Church is optional, prayer is hardly ever spoken, and worldly philosophy permeates the home. It is seen in their entertainment, in their possessions, in the pictures they have on the wall, and in their dress. Seeking the Lord means we get into His Word, we seek answers from Him for life’s challenges. We submit to His teachings.

4509 We can seek God and find him! God is knowable, touchable, hearable, see-able, with the mind, the hands, the ears, and eyes of the inner man.

A. W. Tozer

Notice at the end of verse 29-there is an effort of the heart and the soul to seek after God. In other words, God is not just an entity in our life, but He is the object and passion of everyone of us. The Bible teaches God is past finding out which means He is not brought down to human understanding. You will not figure God out. However, we are implored here to seek Him.

As a family, make it the center point of your home to seek God. This will carve into your home Godly habits like church attendance, prayer, developing a Godly atmosphere in the home. Language, entertainment, and Biblical truth will be the norm in your home.

Pillar 2. . .

Establish Biblical convictions v. 30

Moses is warning the people when they have no convictions, they will fall into idolatry. This idolatry will lead to living a corrupt life. This warning is woven throughout Scripture. In Titus 2:11–12 “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;”

God’s work of grace begins when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. The word grace means that which we do not deserve and the Bible says we don’t deserve salvation but we are saved by grace through faith. Jesus came, died and was buried, and rose again paying our sin and overcame our sins by His power. We can be given by putting our faith in Him.

The work of God’s grace brings salvation to our hearts and changes the way we live. This work of grace gives a Biblical perspective on life identifying what is right and wrong. There are ungodly things and worldly lustful things we will deny. Deny means we don’t want to associate or be part of it. This means we will have to establish convictions about what we will and will not follow.

Convictions are pre-determined choices we make based on God’s Word. For example, Colossians 3:8 “But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.” We do not allow bad language and blasphemy to go on in our homes. God’s name will not be defamed, dishonored, or used in vain. These are our pre-determined choices called convictions.

When someone comes into our home and uses that kind of language, we ask them respectfully to not use that kind of language. When it come on TV, we turn over the channel. Convictions are clearly decisions that develop great habits and prevent us from falling into sin. It is the little things that hurt us.

My in laws live out in the country. They try planting a garden every spring and when the tomatoes come in, the deer will come and eat the bottom of the tomato. This will obviously ruin the crops. There is a verse in the song of Solomon 2:15 speaks of the little foxes that spoil the vines. This means it is the little things that take a toll on the big things.

Convictions are like gates that stop us from getting to the bigger things that ruin our homes.

There are many places where we need biblical convictions: social media, internet viewing, TV programs, dress, music, finances and friendship choices. Decisions about eating and drinking habits. All of these need to have the convictions to protect us from falling deeper into huge problems.

Church attendance, prayer, and Bible reading need to be unchanging convictions.

Pillar 3. . .

Honor God completely v. 39

God is calling His people to worship Him and only Him. It is a strange thing how easy it is for us to become idolatrous. We can allow so many things to get in the way between us and God.

Sometime it is a hobby which we love. I am all about hobbies myself but we have to refuse to let a hobby come between us and God. There are many good things we can do and enjoy in life that is not wrong in themselves but when we allow them to become before God, they have become idol. A job can become an idol. Recreation can become an idol. Several years ago, we had a new church family that joined our church. They were growing in their walk with the Lord and attending faithfully. One Sunday he came to me and said Pastor we won’t be here next Sunday. We got a new boat we want to try out. However, it wasn’t one Sunday, now it was two, and then three. That boat had become an idol in their lives and took them completely out of church and away from God.

Consider it in our heart: the Lord God v. 39. This pillar means the only God in our life is the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to obey and honor Him completely. Verse 40 we are to keep His statutes. When we come to decision and the Bible clearly says what God wants, there is no decision. God is always right.

No man obeys God truly who does not endeavour to obey God fully.

Thomas Brooks

Pillar 3 means we honor God in our attitude and our actions. God will be the one we want to please most. The world and the conformation of the world is anything away from God. Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Our goal is to honor God when we get up each day, go through our day, and come home. He is the One we obey.

Do we honor Him when we speak to each other? Tonight, I will begin a new series on Biblical Family Communications: Speaking Life in the Home. We will learn how to honor the Lord in our home through communication.

Do we honor Him with our money? Is God first in your finances? Do you give Him 10%? What about your internet viewing? What are you watching? A recent poll was given and said 60% of the men in churches in America are addicted to pornography.

Decide today we are going to put these Biblical pillars in place in our home. In just a moment, I am going to invite you to come with your family to the altar and commit to honor God in your home. We will have a prayer of commitment. Will you come with your family and pray that you will honor God in your home? There will be two parts to that prayer. First will be your family praying to God. Secondly I will pray for your family.

We need these pillars to fortify our families.