The Gift of a Godly Home
Grace, mercy and peace to you on this Father’s Day, from God our Father above, and our brother with us here below, our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Today we’re going to talk about the gift of a godly home.
Home sweet home… Home is where the heart is… There’s no place like home, Dorothy said, and I’d have to agree…
Or as John Denver sang, Hey it’s good to be back home again… Sometimes this old farm feels like a long lost friend…
I know the feeling…
It’s an open view from the highway to my Dad’s farm, which is about a mile from the road, and it always a good feeling when the farm comes in sight.
Growing up, the house and the barn, were the two centers of the farm, but what made it home, wasn’t the house, or the barn, or the buildings, or the cows, or the land… it was the family.
We can become so fond of certain places for so many reasons, but most of all, because that’s where our family was… and where we had so many experiences together… many enjoyable, some difficult.
Our families are far from perfect, but still, they’re a gift from God… and to be treasured.
God, in His wisdom, created us to be born and exist in the context of family… father and mother, husband and wife, son and daughter, brother and sister…
And in the larger context of extended family… grandparents and grandchildren, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews and cousins… all made to be gifts to one another.
For my daughters, with their mom being incapacitated with Alzheimer’s, their aunts and cousins have become so dear and helpful to them.
This is God’s design, to be part of a family, a godly family, as He originally intended families to be when He made Adam and Eve in His image, with holy love…
… and for them to have children, who would be born in God’s holy image, and to raise them in godly love, and peace, and joy.
God made the family to be the foundation, the basic building-blocks of society for all other institutions to be built on.
With so great a responsibility resting on our families, it’s so important that families are built on God and His Word… with Christ as the cornerstone of the home.
Built on this Rock, families, although not perfect, are a firm foundation for nations and societies to be built on.
When based on godliness, societies and cultures are much more loving, and just, and benevolent.
Knowing the vital importance of a godly family, the adversary to godliness and family, the devil, tempted Adam and Eve with the goal of driving a wedge between them and God… and between each other.
And sadly, it worked.
Upon sinning and disobeying God, Adam and Eve turned on each other, they blamed each other.
And then they had the arrogance and self-righteousness, which we sinners have, to blame God for their wrong choice.
God’s intention for a world of perfect love and joy, built on holy families, was lost.
But just like that, it was restored, with a promise… that one of their long-term family, their descendants, the Messiah, would someday make things right with God again.
Because of this sure and certain promise, Adam and Eve didn’t have to die that day…
… God was able to spare their lives, and possibly the life of their first child, Cain… because, as Martin Luther speculated, Eve may have been pregnant by then.
The blessing and the task God gave Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28, to be fruitful and multiply, would continue.
God’s plan to populate the earth with people, through marriage and family, continued on… and will until earth reaches its end, and a new heaven and earth begins.
Ever since sin came into the world, life has been up and down for the families on earth, to say the least.
The animosity that had come into the world through Adam and Eve’s disobedience, intensified in their family, and led to tragedy, as their first-born son killed their second born… how heart-breaking for them.
How fast families and members of families, can become so unlike God… it only took a generation for sin to lead to murder.
Let this be a warning and a wake-up call for all families today.
Evil can consume us and our families, and our world in a hurry… we all need God together.
More than we need the world, we need God, who can rescue the world.
After Adam and Eve, the families of the earth multiplied…
… with an interruption, when God had to cleanse the earth with a flood, and start over with one faithful family, the family of Noah…
… and once again, the families of earth continued and multiplied… until the Messiah was born… into a godly home.
His earthly father, Joseph, demonstrated godly love and honor in the way he treated Jesus’ mother, Mary.
When Joseph heard she was pregnant, and he knew he wasn’t the father, he arranged to end the betrothal quietly, not publicly announcing it, because he didn’t want to shame and humiliate her.
But God intervened with an angel, who told Joseph that Mary was with child by the Holy Spirit, and would give birth to the Messiah. oly Spirit,
Joseph believed, and they got married, and they raised Jesus in a loving, godly home… although, not perfect.
While Jesus was pure and holy, his parents and brothers and sisters were sinners like us, in need of forgiveness.
Still, Joseph and Mary believed, and they raised Jesus in the Word and the ways of His Heavenly Father.
As Joseph loved and honored Mary, so today, with God’s help, a husband ought to love and honor his wife… and a godly wife, love and honor her husband.
And let fathers and mothers cherish their children as gifts from God… and raise them in the Word and the ways of the Lord, as Mary and Joseph did.
Joseph would have taught Jesus the tools of his trade as a carpenter, but he knew that Jesus’ religious education was by far, the most important part of His learning and growth.
So it is today in a godly home, with godly parents, who make the love of God and the learning of His Word, the most important part of their children’s education and growth.
As Ephesians 6 instructs us, 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, (don’t give them reason to resent you when they’re grown because of your selfish, ungodliness), but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
That’s your responsibility as a parent… to raise your children, in the ways and the mercy of the Lord.
It’s the greatest gift you can give them.
And when your children become adults, to continue to pray for them, and support them in their walk with God in any way you can.
Like godly parents, godly children are vital to a godly home… and are a joy to their parents… and grandparents
Ephesians 6 says, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”
Parents aren’t perfect, nor are children, at any age, young or adult…
… but at every age, we have God to help us, if we will let Him, if we will turn to His Word and learn… and grow in God’s wisdom and grace.
What a priceless gift a loving, godly family is, worth more than all the gold in the world.
How much worse our lives would be without a family built on the love of Christ.
Children who are born into a godly home have struck gold.
Being born into a family with faith and love in Christ, makes you far richer than being born into a family with money.
Do you want your children to be rich?
Raise them in the Word and the ways and the love of God, and they’ll be fabulously rich, and eternally rich.
May God bless your home and your family, with His presence and His gifts…
… as we pray at the family table, Come Lord Jesus, be our guest, and let these gifts to us be blessed…
… especially the gifts sitting around the table, the dear members of our dear family.
And with God’s presence in our hearts and our homes, we have His peace, which passes our understanding, and guards our hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, on whom our homes and our lives are built. Amen.