Healing Our Homes

Intro

Ladies and gentlemen, we live in a broken era.

Broken societies, morals, integrity. Marriages break, families split, and relationships are being destroyed.

We face perilous days because of the godlessness in and out of the church.

World history has proven time and time again that societies who don’t have a high view of God will fall apart over time.

This is the era that you and I face. A time in which our children and grandchildren are growing up. There is no room for us to close our eyes and hope that everything will be better. Gone are the days when we believe that we belong to a “Christian nation”. It’s not dying anymore or on life support. It’s dead.

And yet, the children of God can still wake up and live with purpose! Our agenda has never changed. Not one time. The purpose of the church has not changed.

In Philippians 3:18-21, Pauls says, “18 For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame; and they are focused on earthly things, 20 Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21 He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.”

For all of us here today, I want to make an important point. Paul did not write the passage we read under the lenses of the USA. He was talking about the kingdom of Heaven. The everlasting kingdom where God and His people will dwell.

This is the same kingdom that Christian’s belong to. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, He said “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is is in Heaven.”

Christians presently belong to the kingdom of God and have the ability to claim our Kings authority everywhere we go.

It is time to claim the authority of God in homes.

READ Isaiah 32:18

When God announced His kingdom through the prophet Isaiah, he proclaimed safety and the well-being of every home in the land of the saints. While the world as it sits presently is full of damnation and destruction, the people of God “dwell in safe and secure dwellings.”

There are plenty of places that you and I cannot control, but God has given the church authority to claim His glory over their homes. Before God will change the White House, He must change the church house. Before He will change the church house, He will change the home.

The Kingdom of God Starts at Home

My desire for our church is for men and women to claim God’s kingdom over their home and in their family.

The family structure is important to God.

In the traditional and non traditional sense.

READ Deuteronomy 4:1-9

Humans have a tendency to forget God’s goodness and fall into sin again and again. One way to help people avoid this pitfall involved them regularly teaching God’s ways to the children and grandchildren—that is, they needed to establish a godly legacy within their homes. Living faithfully as God’s people requires that transmit our faith to our offspring.

The men of Israel were charged to take what had been taught and make sure their families lived a life in obedience to God.

Think of a home as a body of water. We can be part of a pond or part of the ocean. When we are connected to sources of water that are connected to others, we are constantly moving. When we are landlocked and manmade, we are just sitting stagnant. Is your family landlocked with the world or a flowing body of water connected to God as your source?

Families devoted to ushering in the kingdom of God are not perfect. Far from it actually.

A kingdom family has men and women devoted to God’s purpose on earth as it is in Heaven. We allow God to teach us how to:

Parent our children

Treat our spouse.

Obey God when no one is looking.

A kingdom family has a kingdom father who understands that he must be growing in his relationship with God so he can be spiritually equipped to lead the family. But, the father is not the only one in the home called to influence.

“God has given you one of the greatest privileges imaginable: the privilege of helping shape the future of another human being. Someday, your children will no longer live with you—but what will their memories be? Will they be of bickering or conflict—or will they also be of love joy and happiness? Don’t let your frustration or weariness crowd out your love.” - Billy Graham

God’s home is meant to be a place where His kingdom is ushered in by loving parents to His children.

With Matthew 22:34-40 as our foundation, we will journey together and learn how we can allow God’s kingdom to heal our homes.

Before we leave...

To talk about the home means that we have to think about our history… There is the good, the bad, and the ugly.

To talk about the home means that we might be carrying shame… God is not done with your home.

To talk about the home means that we have to be willing to experience painful change… Baby steps.

Please come to the light with it all and let God heal you.