2021-5-9, The Christian Home: The Family Room, Deut. 6:1-7

Introduction

Life can be pretty tough, and if you had/have a great mom it makes it more bearable It doesn’t take much to be a great mom to your kids. Keeping them alive is always appreciated. Being a reliable listener, being willing to suspend judgment and reflect back thoughts and feelings is a winning quality. Being an encourager for your kids is a big one. There aren’t a lot of people in the world I feel that I want to impress, but mom is one. Feel my muscles. Praise from one set of lips is worth more than most others. “Good job, Doug!” and “You can do it! Doug! got me through a lot of semesters and years of ministry. “Your mom thinks your cool!” (Because she has to) Oh, and the powerful deterrent of disappointing your mother. This has kept me out of jail to this day. Be a spiritual coach. Cultivate faith practices in your h

ouse, but more so, take seriously the spiritual questions of your children. Listen, try to find the answer, demonstrate simple faith. It seems being a great mom is more in the nuance than being the best party-giver in the neighborhood. The money on your kids won’t matter as much as these three. These will stay with them for a lifetime.

Review

May is a major month for family, so I like to preach messages on the family.

What is a Home?

This month, I am preaching on a topic that I find inspiring and challenging- the Christian Home.

When I mention home, I am referring to your house, in a biblical sense. This is I more than the structure you live in. It mean your family kingdom or domain- All that pertains to your family that you rule over:

Relationships with one another

Family rules

Relationships outside the home

Your household’s posture toward God in heaven?

Daily business

Matters of identity such as the family heritage and history which come into the house from your families of origin.

Dreams and ambitions your family has for the future.

Your house is an all-encompassing concept.

God’s House

Last week we saw that God has a house too, also known as His kingdom. God’s house has its own set of rules, privileges, relationships, and ways. We get to be a part of it through Jesus Christ.

John 14:6 ESV

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

ABCs

If we are a part of it, His house ways become of first importance and priority our lives.

If we are Christians, How should being a part of God’s House influence the shape and ways of our earthly homes?

If He is Lord, then He is Lord of our homes. This means that His house ways influence the ways of or houses.

And God makes it worth it if we align the rule of our homes with His rule of His.

Proverbs 24:3 ESV

By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established;

1. Our homes become established and gain endurance.

The benefit for aligning your house was with the Lord’s house ways will go on beyond the four walls of your home.

2. Our family ways, these skills for living (wisdom), we bring into the world- into your community, workplace, government, and church.

3. they go into the future- they go into the homes of our children and then on into the homes of our grandchildren. Isn’t it neat to think that your decisions today about our home may live on into the next hundred years?

Emotional Appeal for them to Listen and Series approach

We all want good godly homes don’t we. We’ve witnessed broken homes. For many of us, our homes are exactly that, broken & dysfunctional.

The good news is that you can and God will help. Your home’s turnaround can begin today and can be accomplished very quickly, even if the damage is immense. I hope this study helps you to repair and rebuild your home.

Even if your house is in decent shape, it can certainly get stronger so it can face whatever storms this life has in store for it. I hope some of the items in this study will fortify your house.

In this series, I want to point out several ways that the Lord’s house ways can shape our family ways.

I want to do this by visiting different rooms in our houses (figuritively, of course). These rooms are metaphors for different aspects of family life. As we visit each room we will look at some of the Lord’s ways which you can consider to apply to that area of your families life. My hope is that as your add His ways into the mix, you will find your home bigger and stronger in Him.

So far in our tour, we’ve visited the kitchen:

Kitchen is the place of...

Gratitude- Thank you board & prayer

Family Connection- family dinner a priority, 4+ times each week

Hospitality- remember the empty chair

Next I want to go to the Family Room

Family Heritage

The family room reminds us to remember and establish our family faith stories.

Close your eyes and imagine your family room, or the family room of your youth. What’s hanging on the wall? What’s on the mantel? Framed family photos? Anything on display like a family Bible verse or a family crest? How about artifacts from previous vacations or mission trips? or gifts which mean a lot to the family? Maybe a family Bible?

These things represent our family heritage and identity. We keep these things in the family room because it is the family room afterall. And, after the kitchen, it’s the place where the family gathers often. These are gateways to our family stories. They are he things the kids ask about which lead to the stories about their family.

So we put reminders about the origins of our families, the stories that make us who we are, and clues about where our families are going- like pics of the grandkids.

I married into a family that loves to indulge in family memories. It’s not an unusual thing to gather with the Davis clan and watch old family videos or vacation slideshows.

Just this last week, in the family room, Brooke and Ella and I took in some Google Photo pics in my big brown chair.

It’s good to reflect on and remember your family heritage.

The Israelites were a nation, but they started as a big family. You remember that Jacob, whom God called Israel had 12 sons. Their families grew and became the tribes of Israel. Throughout the Bible you see several references to the family story or heritage.

1. The Penteteuch and the History is the story of where Israel came from, the Patriarchs, How Israel got into Egypt, How the Lord brought them out of Egypt, how they got the law, how they got into and conquered the promise land, How they got kings, how the kingdom became divided, then destroyed, then restored, and then the hope of complete restoration.

2. Psalm 78 is a brief recap of the story which begins with...

Psalm 78:1–4 ESV

Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth! I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.

3. Geneologies in Matthew and Luke retell the story.

4. Stephen preaches to the Sanhedrin

Acts 7:2 ESV

And Stephen said: “Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

and finishes with...

Acts 7:51–53 ESV

“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”

Action-

1. Take time to remember your family heritage, especially those of faith.

J.T. Gualtney- itenerate preacher who baptized 600 in late 19th century.

Carla and I tell our testimony of coming to Christ and call to ministry often.

We celebrate milestones of faith like Andrew’s baptism.

2. We should remember the good and the bad of our family stories. Israel sure did this (when Joab murdered Abner). We learn from both the victories and defeats of our families.

3. Let’s say you have no stories of faith of virtue in the family, then it is important to set about writing and recording new stories.

This is all good to put us in context.

Family Devotions

The other purpose of the family room is to hold together the beliefs of your house.

The family room reminds us to hold our faith in Christ as a family.

In the beginning of The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom described how the family met before breakfast and her father read a chapter of scripture. The point of the story is that the family had practices in which they held their faith together.

This reminds me of one of my favorite verses in the Bible, again in Moses’s sermon in Deuteronomy, in which he instructs the families of Israel to hold their faith together. The instruction to the parents is...

Deuteronomy 6:1–7 ESV

“Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

What is Moses instructing, talk about the Lord among your family. Hold it together

We have a very individualized faith. We hold the idea that every person must trust in Christ as personal Lord and Savior and follow Him in believers baptism. Every individual will be held to account for his or her actions. This is all absolutely truth.

However, we need also to hold in view that God also relates to us as families (or houses). God is interested in saving and redeeming our “houses”.

The inference in here is that faith in Christ is as much a family endeavor as an individual endeavor.

Action Step

Begin practices which support the family holding faith together. A good practice is a family devotion. Convene as a family for the purpose of family devotion. Mom or Dad (preferably Dad) Read a verse that you understand. Ask open questions about the verse and lead the family to understand the main point. Ask for prayer requests and praises. Pray. Do it more often than not.

Parents, this is really hard to do, but your kids will appreciate it when they get older. It will get richer in time as everyone gets used to the routine. Let honest questions flow, and don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know.” while still trusting the Lord.

Family Leisure

This last item is probably what happens the most in the family room- family leisure.

How would you describe how your family relaxes? There are a lot of different ways to relax together, and this is good to do together. Enjoy each other. If there’s just two suggestions the preacher can say regarding it...

Just make sure it doesn’t replace greater things. This makes reference to the quantity of family leisure. While you don’t want to have 0 time doing rec and relaxing, you gotta make sure you’re not putting off important things because you like relaxing with the family so much.

Luke 12:16–21 ESV

And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

We only have so many days, and we don’t know when our last will be. We have God-given work to do like loving God, loving others, and making disciples. So don’t trade leisure for better things.

For example, we may very well give an hour or two each day to Bible study, church, listening to Christian music, family devotions. But, according to Forbes, we spend seven hours a day consuming online media during our leisure time. https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnbbrandon/2020/11/17/new-survey-says-were-spending-7-hours-per-day-consuming-online-media/?sh=3355a8856b46

The second piece of advice I’ll mention is about the quality of our family leisure. Don’t allow your family leisure activities to be counterproductive to our growth as Christians. Boy, we’ve got a lot of secular options for entertainment. Movies, Netflix, DisneyPlus+ just for starters

You can understand how this is not helpful in improving your family faith.

One lesson we learn from the Sabbath in the Old Testament is that the best rest is that which is set in the Lord. Rest and leisure that is set in the gratification of the flesh is rather hollow.

The family room reminds us to make our family leisure consistent with our family faith and our desired family heritage.

Try this simple rule- Make your family leisure activities consistant with your family faith and desired family heritage.

Philippians 4:8 ESV

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

So, what if downtime as a family was more about talking about the Lord and His beautiful and noble things. More time outside, giving energy toward pursuits which edify and build up your house.

Could your leisure time result in awe and marvel of God?

Action-

Do an honest assessment of family leisure. too much? too little? Is it supportive or unsupportive of family faith or your desired family heritage (is it one day going to contribute to your great great grand kids getting saved.

Brainstorm as a family leisure activities which you enjoy and please the Lord. Don’t let the world and its values taint your rest.