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Luke 12:39 – But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.
There is no doubt that the family and the idea of family has been under attack from the enemy in our society.
One of the greatest responsibilities of a father and a mother, a husband and a wife is to protect their family.
Protecting the family is not just about defending those we love from a physical attack it is protecting one another from the assaults of the world. From the ideas and social norms that constantly are trying to find their way into our homes thru social media, television and radio and people that try to invade our space with their unbiblical ideas.
Protecting our families means understanding that Satan is a thief. Just as we fortify our homes so that the things we own are not stolen and the ones we love are not hurt or assaulted.
We must protect and fortify our homes so that Satan cannot steal the things that we have worked so hard to instill in one another in the ways of God and in the way of love.
Fortify means “to make strong; to secure; to protect or strengthen against attack.” We need strong families. We need to protect them against the attacks of the devil.
When I go to Denmark one of the things that just struck me as remarkable was the fact that you could be in a café and parents would leave their children outside parked by the window in their stroller sleeping. I was appalled, I was horrified, I was worried. This is normal in Nordic counties. People still value family to such an extent that no one would even think to hurt the children.
While this is ok in some places the truth is that Spiritually, Satan wants to destroy the idea of family in a nation, tear apart families and to hurt each of our family members personally.
Family is not just the Children it is the entirety of the people involved. We are going to look at ways to protect and fortify our families. To protect them spiritually and to cover them naturally.
Protecting the family starts at the top.
When I say at the top I don’t mean with the husband and wife as a couple. I mean with the man of the house.
While a husband and wife do become one. God places the headship and responsibility of the leadership of the home on the man.
1 Corinthians 11:3 - But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
There is always an order to the layers of responsibility. Christ is the head of the man; man is the head of the woman and God is the head of Christ.
Authority is always about responsibility not about dominance.
God has made the husband and the Father responsible for two things. PROTECTION and PROVISION.
It is the Fathers responsibility to set the tone and standards of the house. It is usually the wife who helps to set the atmosphere of a home. It is the Father who is to take the responsibility for the home.
Joshua said.
Joshua 24:15 - And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Notice Joshua said – as for me and my house.
Every man must take responsibility for THEIR house.
Matthew 19:4-5 - And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?
A man leaves his father’s home and establishes his own home.
Not his father’s house – His own house. The husband and wife become one.
This is why the wife takes the husband’s name. While they are two individuals the two become one. There is no division.
This is why at most weddings the preacher introduces the couple as Mr. and Mrs. and uses the husbands first and last name.
Just as we are the bride of Christ and we are hidden in Christ, the wife is hidden or protected in the husband. Just as we take on the identity of Christ the wife takes on the identity of the man. The two become one.
Not two names, not hyphenated names. One name. – No division.
You cannot become a Christian without taking on the name of Jesus. If you won’t take the name of Jesus then you can’ t become His. That is a non- negotiable. The same is true of husband and wife.
I am going to say something that is going to rock social convention. If you are not willing to take your husband’s name then you are not ready to become a wife. And if you are not willing to give your name to a wife you are not ready to be a husband.
The responsibility of leading a family to Jesus starts with the husband and the unity with his wife so that there is no division from the top down. 1 divided by one is always one. Two divided by one is always two. Division stops when the two become one.
In our home it is my job as the husband and father to make sure that all of the doors and windows are locked and secure at night. No matter how tired I am it is a responsibly that is mine.
It is me who will get up at night to see what it was that went bump in the night.
It as Noah who built the ark. He had the help of his family, but it was ultimately his responsibility to provide the ark so that they were safe from the storms of the world.
Matthew 6:6 - But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
Without a solid foundation, no matter how beautiful the house looks, it will fall when it is tested by the storms of life.
Husband, pray for your wife, children and grandchildren.
Wives pray for your husband, children and grandchildren.
Children pray for your parents and one another.
We pray for our children daily. We prayed for their safety, their walk with God. We prayed for them through battles and school. We prayed over their coming and their goings. We prayed for their future spouses and now that they are married, we pray for their husband and wives.
We prayed for the grandchildren that we wanted and now we pray for the grandchildren we have.
Jesus said that what you do in secret. Will be rewarded in the open.
We now see our family living the things that we prayed for behind closed doors.
Good foundations are not seen unless you invite people to see them. But you see the results in the long run of a house, a marriage and a family that is still standing and still serving God.
Matthew 7:24-27 - “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
Storms come. Rain falls. Winds blow. – Every family faces adversity and attacks.
The foundations take time to build and establish. – If you ever watch a home being built a great deal of time is spent on the foundation. It doesn’t look like a lot is going on to the untrained eye. Then all of a sudden, a really nice house is built.
Once the walls are up and the doors and windows are on, then you can work on all the fine touches of making a house a home.
I want you to know that we are praying for you and your family. I often think of the verse - what Good is it for a man to gain the whole world but lose his own soul. I added a twist to it. Was does good is it if a man gains the whole world but loses his own family?
Remember that God is for you and your family! You are loved !
Pastor Marvin & Dawn
Image by Frank Winkler from Pixabay