Sermon Tone Analysis

SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 21

Title: What Makes a Home Christian?

Text: “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it” ().

Scripture Reading:

“He Leadeth Me,” Gilmore

“Take Time to Be Holy,” Longstaff

Offertory Prayer: Our Father, we are grateful for those who have learned the joy of bringing the tithe into the storehouse regularly.

They know the delights of obedience.

We pray that more of our people will learn the truth that happiness comes in being faithful to God in every area of life—including the stewardship of money.

Make this part of the service meaningful in the lives of all who participate.

We pray in Jesus’ name.

Amen.

Introduction

Both the Old and New Testaments emphasize the value of a godly home.

We who know Jesus as Savior and Lord use the expression “Christian home” to express our ideal for family relationships.

The psalmist realized the absolute necessity for spiritual influence in every area of life.

His emphasis on “the Lord building the house” in today’s text reveals to us that Christian goals in family living have their roots deep in Old Testament soil.

The psalmist used the word “Jehovah” (KJV “Lord”) in our text, which is the name that was so dear to the heart of every Jew because it was the name by which God had revealed himself to his people.

Since the early Christians used the phrase “Christ is Lord” as their confession of faith, we can almost equate Jehovah of the Old Testament with Jesus of the New Testament.

The psalmist came as near as an Old Testament writer could to saying a home must be Christian in order for it to be effective and meaningful in everyday living.

I.

More than an influence.

A Christian home is more than one in which people say kind things to each other and seek to live unselfishly.

Someone said recently that America’s problem is that we are trying to practice Christianity without believing it.

This is the problem in many homes.

People try to have a Christian home without believing in Jesus and committing their lives to him.

One cannot have the fruits of Christianity without also having its roots.

During World War II an outstanding seminary president was invited to speak on a nationwide religious program.

The network insisted on seeing his manuscript in advance.

One of the program planners called him to ask him to change one word in it.

The seminary president had written in the manuscript for broadcast that he “hoped every person who sat at the peace table when World War II was concluded would be a Christian.”

The network executive asked him if he would eliminate the word “a” and say that he “hoped every person who sat at the peace table would be Christian.”

The seminary president said in chapel to several hundred students, “I spent twenty minutes explaining to that executive why I could not, in good conscience, make that slight change.”

The word Christian must be a noun before it becomes an adjective.

There is a subtle philosophy existent in our nation that many people who do not profess to be Christians in the orthodox sense actually have more of the spirit of Christ than some who are openly committed to Christ as Savior.

This simply is not true!

Although one may occasionally find a person whose personal living standards do not conform to his or her profession, the greatest Christian deeds are being done by Christians who have openly committed themselves to Jesus as Savior and Lord.

The same is true with reference to our homes.

It is not enough to say vaguely that we should be Christian in attitude and minimize the importance of personally accepting Jesus as Savior.

II.

Every member should be born again.

Just as every member of a church should be a born-again Christian, so every member of a Christian home should be a born-again person.

There are, to be sure, an overwhelming number of mothers who have held a home together when Daddy would not bear his share of the load.

Some such mothers have reared children who have gone out to bless the world.

To say those homes were not Christian homes seems cruel and overbearing, but one must be honest.

A home can be genuinely and thoroughly Christian only if every member of the household is an openly committed Christian.

What about the children?

Surveys have shown over and over that where mother and father are both committed to Christ as Savior, the children often come to Jesus at an early age.

A number of years ago, the foreign mission board of a major denomination in America ran a survey on the “conversion age” of the missionaries appointed that year.

The average age of the group was less than eight years.

The children of homes that are Christian in the fullest sense are those who go out to bless the world with strong Christian convictions, sweet spirits, and stable emotional lives.

III.

Every member should practice his or her religion.

An outstanding marriage counselor told of a survey he conducted among married couples.

He asked, “What, in your opinion, contributes most to a happy, successful marriage?”

A large percentage of the group replied, “Religion lived daily in the home.”

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians gives some practical rules for family relationships.

Women are to “submit [them] selves unto [their] own husbands as unto the Lord” (), and husbands are to “love [their] wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it” (v.

25).

Any woman is safe who submits herself to a man who loves her in the same way that Christ loves his church.

Paul continued, “For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church” (v.

29).

Children are to obey their parents, and they are to do it “in the Lord” ().

Both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, children are told to honor their fathers and mothers.

Likewise, fathers are told that they are not to provoke their children to wrath but rather to “bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (v. 4).

The important matter in family life is relationships.

If we practice our religion faithfully, we will keep the right attitude toward the other members of our family, and we can live together in Christian love.

This is the thing that makes a home Christian.

Conclusion

A hymn writer of yesteryear said, “A happy home is an early heaven.”

Charles Spurgeon once said that when home is ruled according to the principles of God’s Word, angels might visit and not find themselves out of their habitation.

Is your home genuinely Christian?

Has everyone in it made public profession of faith in Christ and committed himself or herself openly to following Jesus as Lord of life?

If not, today would be a good day to bring the family circle together and decide in the words of Joshua that “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” ().