STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL HOME

Luke 2:41–52 KJV 1900

Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

DON’T DREAM YOUR DREAM LIVE YOUR DREAM

Introduction:

Whenever we come to any portion of God's Word, we should approach it in two ways.

The first way to approach a portion of God's Word, is to simply ask the question, "What information does this passage of Scripture give to me?"

That is, out of the time from when He was born in Bethlehem, until the time in which He begins His public ministry at the age of thirty, we know nothing.

Those years are called the silent years, the years of obscurity.

The silence of those thirty years is broken only this one time, here, when Jesus was twelve.

The passage shows us that, at that age, that pre-teenage moment, He is already very acutely aware of His special relationship as God's Son. He is aware of who His Father is: God, the Father. The passage also tells us that He was very aware and responsive to His human obligations.

That, although He was God's Son, He nevertheless was subject to Joseph and to Mary.

But the second question we ought to ask of any text in Scripture is, "What insight does it give us for our own lives?" This Scripture will not be complete if it only provides us information about Jesus.

To be complete, it must also provide us information about ourselves.

We must let the Scripture be the window through which the Holy Spirit allows us to look, to see our own lives, what's important in our own lives and in our own families.

This morning we have a excellent opportunity to see what the ingredients in a successful home and in a successful life are.

Mary and Joseph had one of the most successful homes in all of human history. Not only were they given the responsibility of raising the child Jesus, but they had other children also, who turned out well.

We know that they had at least four other sons.

And they had at least two daughters. We know they had at least two because, the phrase used indicating that Jesus had sisters was plural, meaning at least two.

I. The first secret in a successful home or in a successful life is that spiritual priorities dominate.

You see that every time you come across Mary and Joseph in the text of the Scripture.

Their lives are being lived out in accordance to God's will.

Their first and fundamental devotion of life is to love God and to serve Him with all their heart, mind, soul and strength.

Luke 10:27 KJV 1900

And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

The particular manifestation of their spiritual priority in this text is the fact that they are going up to Jerusalem to the Passover.

That reflects the spiritual commitment on their part to obey the Old Testament law.

The Old Testament law held that every Jewish adult male who lived in Israel was required, three times a year, to present Himself in Jerusalem at a major festival: the Festival of Passover, the Festival of Pentecost, and the Festival of Tabernacles. It was not required that women and children go along. It was also to be noted that Nazareth was a distance of about a hundred miles from Jerusalem.

Using the trip by which Mary and Joseph would have come, avoiding Samaria and going down across the Jordan River through the valley and up the mountain to Jerusalem, it would have taken them a good three or four days one way and another three or four days coming home.

This isn't the only time in Mary and Joseph's experience when their priorities show.

We know, by working backwards through the text of Luke, that they were present at the purification rights for Mary at the temple.

They circumcised Jesus according to the law.

Mary's song of praise, when she discovers she is to be expectant with Jesus, is one that is laced with a tremendous knowledge of God and perception of the Old Testament Scripture of Hanna.

Mary's moral purity is a sign of her fidelity to God.

Joseph, in his life, has a balance of justice and mercy.

Justice, in that he would not marry Mary because of what he perceived as moral impurity, and yet mercy, in that he would not publicly divorce her.

Joseph was also a person who was spiritually led by God in his dream life.

These two people who had an intense commitment to the Lord. Spiritual priorities dominated their life. It should be noted that when they went to Jerusalem, they took Jesus with them.

How important it is for us who have families and children to include our children in our spiritual priorities. So what is important to us shows also to them.

Been concerned of spiritual priorities in individual lives, in the church and in families.

We realize that the greatest struggles that each one of us, in this congregation, have is establishing a daily priority of prayer and reading of the Scripture; if we're in family groups, to do that in family groups together.

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 KJV 1900

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

THE SECOND SECRET IN A SUCCESSFUL HOME IS BEING LINKED TOGETHER WITH GOD’S PEOPLE

The Feast of Passover lasted a week. It was a community time.

It wasn't a time where just Mary and Joseph were going with their child, Jesus, to the temple by themselves.

They were with family.

They were with neighbors.

They were with friends.

They were part of this community of God.

The pilgrims even traveled in companies together.

That's probably why Jesus got lost, because, generally, those pilgrimages involved a hundred people or so.

The women and children would be up front, during the walk, and maybe the animals would come in between, and then, the men and older boys would come behind.

Jesus is at that transitional age where he's young enough to be with Mary, but old enough to be with Joseph.

So Joseph's thinking, "He's with Mary"; and Mary's thinking, "He's with Joseph."

But at the end of the day, they all get together in the encampment, and they discover Jesus is not there.

So they turn around and, the next day, come back.

The third day, they find Him in the temple.

But Mary and Joseph had a commitment to be involved with God's people.

Jesus was not in a religiously, culturally, or socially isolated home.

He was brought up in the context of being with God's people and receiving all the input that God's people can give regarding His life.

Whether it was an elderly Simeon or Anna, or whether it was neighborhood people or family people, or whether it was synagogue people or people going to the temple, they chose not to isolate their child from others.

One of the things that happens in the church is that, if we involve our children and our families in the church of Jesus Christ, they're going to be deeply touched by other people.

We need one another. There's too much Lone Ranger Christianity churches, where we almost have a sense of taking or leaving church, and we see worship as theater rather than the church as a body, interlinked together in more than simply a Sunday morning worship context.

I need the church of Jesus Christ. I need people in this body, who act as a buffer for me on occasion. There are rough edges in my life that need the buffering of the body.

I need people, too, that will encourage me and help me and spur me on.

The third secret of a successful home is when parents are concerned about where their children are. Mary and Joseph were concerned about where Jesus was.

If you'd been trusted to be the parents of the Christ, wouldn't you be worried if you'd lost Him?

Any parent who's ever had a child who has come in late, can immediately identify with Mary and Joseph's concern.

The fourth quality in a successful home, and one modeled by Jesus: children to whom God has become their Father.

The fifth step in a successful home is children who voluntarily come under the control of their parents.

The sixth secret of a successful home is children who advance mentally, physically, spiritually and socially.