Is Your Home a Little Bit of Heaven
Is Your Home a Little Bit of Heaven?
Eph. 5:19-33 EBC 5/28/06
When home is ruled according to God’s Word,” said Charles Haddon Spurgeon, “angels might be asked to stay with us, and they would not find themselves out of their element. Warren Wiersbe went on the say, “the trouble is that many homes are not governed by God’s Word—even homes where the members are professing Christians—and the consequences are tragic. Instead of angels being guests in some homes, it seems that demons are the masters. Too many marriages end in the divorce court, and nobody knows how many husbands and wives are emotionally divorced even though they share the same address”.
What’s the answer here, “the answer is the Holy Spirit of God! It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can walk in harmony as husbands and wives parents and children”.
If our homes are to be a heaven on earth, then we must be controlled by the Holy Spirit. But how can a person tell whether or not he is filled with the Spirit? Paul gives us three ways we can know if we are filled with the Spirit:
I. Joyfulness (Eph. 5:19)
A. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit – Ga. 5:22
1. Christian joy isn’t a shallow emotion that changes with the atmosphere but is a deep experience of adequacy and confidence even in rocky times.
B. This kind of joy is not a thermometer but is a thermostat.
1. Phil 4:11 -
C. To illustrate this Paul uses the analogy of drunkenness. The drunk often sings but this just shows his hearts corruption, but someone who is filled with the spirit shows the glory of God
1. Acts 16:25 – Paul and Silas sang praises to God and the Phillipian jailer and his family got saved.
II. Thankfulness (Eph. 5:20)
A. Warren Wiersbe –“the chief problem in marriage is taking each other for granted.
B. How does a grateful heart promote harmony?
1. The sincerely grateful person realizes that he is enriched because of others. A grateful heart acknowledges God as the giver (James 1:17).
C. 1 Thess. 5:18 – in everything …
III. Submissiveness (Eph. 5:21-)
A. Paul applied the principle of harmony to husbands and wives, parents and children and masters and servants.
1. Rom. 12:10 -
a. By nature, we want to promote ourselves, but the Holy Spirit enables us to submit ourselves.
b. The Christian husband and wife should pray together and spend time in the Word, so that they might know God’s will for their individual lives and for their home. Most marital conflicts start with a refusal to submit to Christ thru His spirit.
B. V.25 – Paul saw in the Christian home an illustration of Christ and the church.
1. Their love is to be sacrificial
a. 1 Cor. 13:5 – not selfish
2. Their love is to be sanctifying. They are set apart for each other. The wife belongs to the husband and the husband belongs to the wife. Anything different is sin.
3. Their love is to be satisfying. Their actions towards each other ought to be a mutually satisfying experience.
a. Warren Wiersbe- If both are submitted to the Lord, and to each other, they will be so satisfied that they will not be tempted to look anywhere else for fulfillment.
b. But even if two Christians marry in the will of God, they must stay in God’s will if their home is to be the creative fellowship God wants it to be.
c. The root of most marital problems is sin, and the root of all sin is selfishness. Submission to Christ and to one another is the only way to overcome selfishness.
d. We need to understand that the Spirit uses the Word of God to work in our lives.
1. Col. 3:16 -