Getting Your Home in Order

Read there, Hero 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. These words that I am commanding you today shall be in 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, when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as signs on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, to give you with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant. And when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It is the Lord your God. You shall fear him. You shall serve, and by his name, you shall swear you shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you. For the Lord, your God in your midst is a jealous god. Lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth. Amen. So familiar passage of scripture, Very familiar passage of scripture for those of us who have a commitment to family discipleship, who have a commitment to raising our children and the discipline and instruction of the Lord. In fact, that very concept of raising our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord is taken from Ephesians, chapter six and verse four, And in Ephesians six one through four, Paul actually refers back to Deuteronomy your first Deuteronomy five, and to Deuteronomy six. There in that passage, children are your parents in the Lord. But this is right honor your mother and your father, which is the first comandment, with the promise that it may be well with you and that you may live long in the land. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bringing them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. This is a parallel text if you will. This is Paul teaching in a New Covenant context, this idea that we have here in Deuteronomy, and so we know that there is not a one to one correlation, because for Israel there is a particular land that the people of Israel occupied, but in the New Covenant, for the Church, we occupy all sorts of lands. In Israel, there is this idea of their ethnicity being connected with them being the people of God, whereas in the New Covenant we are of multiple ethnicities, of all ethnicities. As it were in Israel, there was the idea of this physical seed that was promised and that was being preserved so that the Christ might come through this people, whereas in the New Covenant there is this spiritual seed that is the reason that we are the people of God, not something that we look forward to, but something that we look back to as we understand why it is that we are God's Covenant people. And yet in the midst of all of this there is this same central theme, this same central idea that God has designed families in such a way that there are duties to be exercised therein that are of great importance as it relates to the faith being passed and communicated from one generation to the next. If we are believers, if we are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, and if we believe that Jesus is our all in all, and if we believe that our salvation is a gift from God through Jesus Christ, and if we also love our children because God has given them to us as our children, and because of the natural affection that we have for our children, that even lost people have for their children, then it only makes sense that our great desire would be for our children and to come to know, to experience, and to live in light of this reality that has consumed and defined our lives. That's the only thing that makes sense. And so because this is our desire, we ought to be asking the question, how do we live our lives in the context of our homes in such a way that we do this faithfully and that we do this biblically. That's our desire. We want to do it faithfully and we want to do it biblically. How do I faithfully and biblically order and structure my life within the context of my family in such a way that I am passing on these truths that have come to define who I am in God. And the answer to this question is what we find here? Oh great, this is just awesome. What's that? Yeah, man, we're just building. That's all we're doing is building attention. In Deuteronomy six, all right, So it starts with the shama here o Israel, shamah Israel, yahuel lono yahueh jad Yahueh. Your elohem is one Yahueh. It really almost doesn't even translate directly into our language, but there are important as respects of this that have to be understood. If we go, wow, what is all of this that is happening in front of me right now? Thank you? And so we start with this acknowledgment of the one True Living God. That's the first aspect of getting our houses in order, is that our houses must be ordered under the one true Living God. Yahweh. Your eloheim is one Yahweh. This term for Yahweh, the covenant keeping God. There are people who worship Elohim many gods, because the word eloheim could be a plural, there are people all around them who worship Elohem many gods. However, Yahweh, their eloheim is one Yahweh. Sort of a play on words. There are people who have a God for everything, but you have a God who is everything. So in the midst of this environment where all around them there are pagans who are worshiping false gods, God first and foremost calls his people to the acknowledgment that he is the one, true and living God. This, of course, hearkens back to the chapter just before. If we look at chapter five, that is where we find the ten commandments repeated here in Deuteronomy. The first time we find them, of course, is they're in Exodus chapter twenty, but we find them in Deuteronomy. Go back with me to chapter five and look in verse six. I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. This is the first and foundational commandment, nor the gods before me. Look at the second one. You shall not make for yourselves a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, For I the Lord your God am a jealous god, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. This is important because the end of our text is a warning similar to that warning on the second commandment, verse eleven, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. And then verse twelve, observe the sabbath day and keep it holy. As the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But on the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work. You your sons, your daughters, your male servants, your female servants, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the soljourner who is within your gates, that your male servants and your female servants may rest as well as you. You shure remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. So here in these first four commandments we have the first table of the law that is summarized in Chapter six. In this idea, here, oh Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one. It encompasses all I would argue of the those first four commandments. In other words, for our houses to be in order, the first thing that has to be in order is this vertical reality, this reality that we are under the authority of the One True and Living God, that we worship God without rivals in our homes, that there are no rivals to the One True and Living God in our homes. That we shun idolatry in our homes, that we don't tolerate idolatry in our homes, always being ready and being diligent to expose those things and to flee from them. And so first and foremost, if there is going to be order in our homes, this is what's required. That we are a family under God, that we are a family under God's authority, that we structure ourselves as a family under God's authority. If there are many things that we bring into our family. Dad brings things from his family and background, and mom brings things from her family and background. But what overrides and what overrules all the things that we bring into our family is the word of the. One True and Living God. And so we must be willing to forsake everything that we've been taught to the degree that it does not line up with the word of the One True and Living God. This is something that is difficult for us. However, it is required of us if our houses are going to be in order. And then here's the second part. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. So we love God without we worship God without rivals. And then we worship God with all that we have and all that we are. Our homes are built on a right understanding of love. Give this definition and family driven faith that love is an act of the will accompanied by emotion that leads to action on behalf of its object. This is the love that defines our homes and that defines our families. Oftentimes, when we talk about love, all we talk about is mere sentimentalism, and love is just a sentiment. It is solely a feeling. Oftentimes we talk about love. We talk about teenage girl love. Oh my God, I love him, poster on the wall. You ever met him? No, but I love him. That's not love. That's not love. And unfortunately, there is much in our culture that is built on this misconception of love. And this is why much of what we define as love eventually reveals itself for what it is, and we have people who stand up and say I love you with every fiber of my being, only shortly before saying I want a divorce and I never want to see you again. Because we don't understand biblical love and act of the will accompanied by emotion that leads to action on behalf of its object, and the ultimate expression of this love occurs at the cross. This is where God demonstrates his love for us. It was first and foremost an act of the will. Jesus loved us as an act of the will. Jesus didn't love us because it was something that was sentimental. He came to redeem those whom the Father had given to him. There is the covenant of redemption, overarching all other covenants, the agreement that the Father made with the son in the presence and power of the spirit be before time began, and the Father bequeathed to his son and elect people. And Jesus redeemed. That elect people for his father that had been bequeathed to him, so that all of those who are saved in and by Jesus Christ are saved because of this act of the will before we were even created. It is an act of the will. It is accompanied by emotion. It is not led by emotion. Love led by emotion is fickle. It will not last. Amen, somebody, it is an act of the will that is accompanied by emotion, not led by emotion. It's amazing. And when your love is led by emotion, you get into trouble and we say things like we've fallen out of love. Here's your problem. Your problem is that you fell in love in the first Amen. Biblical love is not something you fall into. That's not a biblical concept. Anything you fall into, you can climb out. Of. Love is an act of the will. It is accompanied by emotion, but it is an act of the will. It is a choice that we make. This is why in Ephesians Paul can say to us men and Ephesians five twenty five, husbands love your wives. It's a pastor. I love that as a pastor because men will come and they will say, I know that the Bible tells me to love my wife. I don't feel like. I would stop right there, stop right there. Paul didn't say husbands feel like loving your wives. You just don't love your wives. So the good news is you don't feel like you love your wife, but you don't have to. You just have to love her. Amen, So go home, love your wife. I said, you don't understand. I just, yeah, what don't I understand? I just you know, I just can't even. I just I just don't know if I can do it. I just I just don't. I don't know if I can know. I don't know. I don't know if I could do it. Okay, fine, Jesus said, by this, all men will know that you're my disciples, that you have loved one for another. Go home and love her because she's your sister in Christ. Man, I don't even think she's saved. That's fine. Bible says love your neighbor as yourself. Go home and love her because she's your closest neighbor. He's not even my closest neighbor anymore. I moved out. That's cool, go home and love her, because the Bible says love your enemies. There's no way out, no excuse for me to stop loving his wife, none whatsoever. None whatsoever. It's an act of the will, and it's accompanied by emotion, accompanied by emotion. It's not an emotionless love. It's not just the sort of wooden love. This is another thing that pastorally, I just don't have a lot of tolerance for. Pastoring my wife. I don't know she's got a problem with the fact that I'm not, you know, emotional with her. I'm just not an emotional guy. You lying hypocrite, pastor. I can't believe you said that to me. I come to you for pastoral help and you call me a lying hypocrite. Wait a minute, don't look now, you just got emotional. You're lying hypocrite. You told me you weren't an emotional man, and all I had to do is call you a lie hypocrite, and you got emotional. You're lying hypocrite. Here's the deal. You watch the ball game and your team's getting beat like a tied up goat. You don't just sit there and go oh, they seem to have far more points than we do. Right now, if you showed up at work on Monday and your stuff was in a box, you wouldn't just pick up your box and. Go, well, it was nice. Wallet lasted. So when a man looks at his wife and says, I don't know what you want from me. I'm just not an emotional man, she thinks you lying hypocrite. I've seen you be emotional about all types and manners of things. So what you just said to me was I don't matter as much as those things. It's an act of the will. It's a company need by emotion, and it leads to action on behalf of its object. These are the words that are uses. Here with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. The heart is a muscle in the middle of your chest that pumps blood. This is a reference to the center of your being, to your will, with all your might, and then with all your soul. This might, your muchness. It does lead to action on behalf of its object. And Jesus did precisely this. He is there in the garden and gethsymite, and he is praying sweating drops of blood. I will never forget. Standing there in that very garden where he prayed, overlooking the place where he would soon be scourged and in crucified, and he cries out, if there is any other way let this bitter cup pass from me. Amazingly, there in this place where olives are crushed, He's been crushed under the weight of our sin, and it is almost too much to bear. And yet he says, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. It was an act of the will, accompanied by emotion, that led to action on behalf of its object. Christ went to the cross to redeem his bride. You see, this is the love upon which a well ordered Christian family is built. It is the love of Christ. It is first worshiping God without rivals. But secondly, here is this love that makes us more than just a group of individuals who are united by blood or adoption or marriage or anything else. We're united by something more significant than that, when we are found in Christ. I love my. Children regardless of how they have come into our home, whether they came to our home through my wife's womb, or whether they came to our home through an adoption. Regardless of how they came into our home. We love our children, and because we love them, our greatest desire is that they be united to us in just one more way, because the union that we have with them prior to them coming to faith in Christ is just not enough. Grateful to God that my children are my children, but I will never be satisfied with that. I want my children to be my brothers and sisters in Christ. I want us to be united by that act of the will that was accompanied by emotion that led to action on behalf of its object. So the Gospel undergirds all that we have, and all that we are, and all that we do, because that love makes us something more. And this is the love that we're called the model for our children, even in the marital relationships. These words that I command you today shall be on your heart again, Not words on the muscle in the center of your chest that pumps blood, but these words that are on your heart, They're on your will. Your will is impacted by these words. Are you how's your will impacted by these words? Well, we know that in the New Covenant God puts this righteousness in us and this law in our hearts, and that our wills are transformed because of what Christ has accomplished in us. So this idea here, we can look at it a couple of ways. We can look at it through old covened eyes, which is often the way we do it. These words I commagine today shall. Be on your heart. What that means is we need to just memorize the law of God so that we can do the law of God, because that will make us a good family. Wrong answer, that's works righteousness that leads to death, that leads to death. You know how you want these words to be on your heart and on the hearts of your children to the new Covenant turned to Jeremiah thirty one. Jeremiah thirty one and thirty one. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord. When I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. It did interesting same reference here as back in Deuteronomy, my covenant that they broke though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the House of Israel. After those days, declare the Lord. I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins. No more. That's salvation. That's the Israel of God. That's the Church. That's how we want God's law written on our hearts and on the hearts of our children, not just by them learning rules and trying. To follow them. That's not enough. That's not enough. So even when we teach them the law of God, we teach them the law of God with a view toward them, recognizing the fact that they can't do this in and of themselves, but they need another, an alien righteousness. This is how those words are to be written in our hearts. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise. I had a woman who was a government school teacher once. So you guys always use that passage in Deuteronomy to you know, promote home education and this and that and the other. And she says, I always thought that Moses was referring to non school hours. Okay, I just got I gotta I gotta ask you two things. I just want to ask you when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise. Not only is that a he break pattern with those you know, four terms that would indicate that it's all of life. But I'm just wondering what would be left out of that? Even if you don't look at the pattern of speech there, what's left out of that? And then here's our second question on what school was Moses sen and his children to. I know, I said, I just need to ask you one thing. That was two, But just give me a twoffoot. Help me out right there. You can't get there from here, you can't. This is discipleship that encompasses all of life. Education is discipleship. We're to disciple our children. Everything that we do, everything that we are, is to be governed by these truths and these realities. They mark us. And because they mark us, they mark the way we raise our children, They mark the way we live, our everyday lives, They mark the conversations that we have. They mark us. It's because they mark us that they eventually mark those whom we raise. And then he says, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand. They shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You should write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Here is an act of literally marking our home as God's territory. Marking our home as God's territory. You know, I didn't understand this until I thought back to my childhood. I didn't grow up in the church. I didn't grow up around Christians and Christianity. I was raised by my mother, my single teenage Buddhist mother. Didn't hear the Gospel til my first year at university. But I remember as a boy. I mean it just clear as day. If I closed my eyes, I can picture walking into our apartment. And you walked into our apartment and over to the left, there was this little sitting area and if you went forward, you know, you went to the rooms, my room, bathroom, mom's room. If you went over to the right there was a little eating area right here against this wall. There was this black box. And you open up that box and there was her incense and her Buddha and a bell that she rang, and some beads that she rubbed together when she would chant. I remember what she would say when she chanted. I remember kneeling there with her. I remember the smell of the incense. I remember all of those things, the feel of that box, all of it. Why because it impacted all of my senses. It impacted every one of my senses. Unless you think that's a pagan idea, that worship is something that would be multisensory like that. This God's idea. That's why when we come together we see the word, we hear the word, we touch and taste the word, and the bread and the wine, all of our senses engaged in this process, even the way these things smell to us, all of it. It is a multisensory experience, and it marks us. It's amazing the things that you remember. It's amazing how you can hear something. I can hear something on the radio right now today. And I'm telling you, when I was a boy, Saturday morning. Was cleaning day and we cleaned, we cleaned, we cleaned, we cleaned. And this has cost me on a number of occasions, because there'd be times when you know, I was less than an ideal husband in terms of picking up after myself. I know it's hard for you to, but it happened maybe once, and so you know, and I wasn't wouldn't, and it wasn't like I could get away with it, you know. And I remember the words just cut like a knife. And my wife looked at me and said, oh, I know Francis taught you better than this, Yes she did, but why you have to bring it? Come on now? It's just not fair, man. But every Saturday we would clean. We'd have much, but on Saturdays it was clean, y'all. And my mother would put on old Motown. Then it wasn't old, it was just motown. Mother put on motown, and we would clean a while, and we would dance a while, and the broom would be a microphone and we would and if you were too holy to enter into this experience right now, you need to pray some more amen and then go listen to some more motown, all right? And I just. Remember it, and things would come on and I can remember riding down the road with Bridget one day and the song. This big old smile came across my face and she said, you're thinking about you and your mama cleaning on sadday. I sayd yes, I am actually right now in this moment. I pay then other phone, I call my mother and the song was on, and I just put the phone up to the radio and my mother said, oh, I know what you're thinking about, because I was marked by that. But my mother wasn't a believer. Oh how I desire that my children would hear the great songs of Zion ten twenty thirty forty years from now and say, oh, I remember my daddy or my mama on their knees. Oh I remember us singing this song together. Oh I remember, Oh I remember, Oh I remember. Because their entire experience is engulfed with this reality, not just someplace we go one day a week, but our entire experience, being in golf, in this reality. Things that they see, things that they touch, things that they taste, the amazing, the idea of Sunday dinner. Oftentimes, when people tell me about shows on television, we're not big television people. A lot of times, people will tell me about shows on television and I'm like, yeah, okay, whatever. But somebody told me about a show on television, this one particular show, Blue Bloods, and it had Tom Selleck in it and he's you know, New York Now police commissioner and this, that and the other. And people kept telling me no, no, no, no no, you need. To check this thing out. And so I checked it out and it was amazing every episode. And this is what made me finally check the thing out. Here's this family, multi generational police family. One of them is in the DA's office, is serving the city of New York. But every Sunday they have Sunday dinner together. They sit and sing grace, you know, before their meal. They sit and talk about their week and they do and I'm like, okay, here is a father and the grandfather with their children around the table for Sunday dinner. And so I'm gonna say this, and I just thought to myself, why should this be so unique? Why why should I be just giddy right now? Because I'm like, this is a show and it's on TV and there's people Sunday dinner and they're saying Grace and they're you know, why, why, why why why? Because we've lost that, folks, And that's why they put it in the show, because it's hearkening back to a lot of things that we've lost, this sense of duty, this sense of service, this sense of family. And Sunday dinner. There's some of you who have a mother or a grandmother who's going on to glory. But there's something that they made for Sunday dinner, and to this day, if you smell it, it either brings a smile or a tear. Why because it marked your senses and ingrained this understanding of the centrality of God. Regular family worship. Does this. Every evening. We get together, we pray together, we sing together, we read together. There are these experiences that mark us, that mark our memories, that mark our senses, legendary stories that are told. There's one story that's always told. It always gonna be told in the backam household one of our children. I believe it was Amos. You know, at the end of our time of family worship, we always sing the doxology and Amos, who will be three next month? Now it may have been Micah before Amos who's about to be anyway one of them. Wellin the last few years this happened. Family worship just kind of went long this day. Usually we're not there very long, ten fifteen minutes. Okay, we keep it simple, we keep it short so that we keep it going. Amen, Somebody, if you don't keep it simple and keep it short, you're not gonna keep it going, all right, And so especially when you got little ones, really little ones. And so we read together. But this particular passage just brought out a lot of discussion and a lot of applications and it was just rich and the older kids were into it, and we were going and we were talking and I don't know. How long it got. But the little one at the time, who was a lap baby, didn't really understand what was going on. What he did understand is this is way longer than this normally goes on. And I know how to end this thing, and he just started going, Look, and Bridgid is like, like, is that the doxology? Like yeah, somebody ready for us to be through. Our children will laugh at that forty years from now, and what will they remember family worship as a cornerstone. Of who we were? This is marking our home This is marking our families. This is what we do as a new covenant community. When the Lord brings you into the land that he swore to your father's Abraham and Jacob, to give you great and good cities. That you did not build, houses full of all good things, that you did not feel, cisterns you did not dig, vineyards Genoalo, try that you did not plant. When you eat and are full, then take. Care lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Do you know the greatest obstacle to godliness and families? It's prosperity. It's prosperity. All of a sudden, we prosper and there are things that become more important to us, and we don't have time for those foundational things anymore. I've never met a man, nor do I know a pastor who's ever met a man who came to the end of his life and said, Pastor, I just wish i'd spent a little more time at work. And it's almost as rare to meet a man that doesn't say I wish I'd just spent a little more time investing in my family. But what happens. What happens is the allure of giving our family things takes us away from giving our family, ourselves and our God. And so we become provider and protector at the expense of being priest and prophet. And we excuse it because of the acquisition of things. This warning was there then, and this warning needs to be there now, because this is our greatest obstacle. The old folks used to say, the devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy. And there are so many of us caught up in this. Just a little bit more, just a little bit more, just a little bit more. I'll never forget. It was Colin Powell. When you know, General Powell had finished his service in the first term with President Bush. He left that second term like a lot of people do, a lot of cabinet members leaving that second term. You know, he had served at the pleasure of the president. He was leaving so that he could now go and give some time to his family. And I sat there and I thought about that for a moment. I thought, isn't it interesting that here is a man who has had a full twenty some thirty year career in the military, rarely there with or for his family, then went into politics and had a second career, rarely there for his family. And now that his family has grown and scattered, he. Leaves this office and says, it's so that I can give time to my family. I pray that God gave him the opportunity to make up for lost time, but I doubt very seriously that that was the case. Generals and politicians aren't the only ones who make sacrifices like that. There are many of us who are sacrificing our families on the altar of our careers. You know, I. Got the advice a long time ago from an old preacher who said to me, son, don't always make yourself the hero of your stories and the pulpit. Yes, sir. Don't make people think that you wear a cape, yes sir, because there is that temptation to just tell folks about things that you got right right now, I've been able to get my travel schedule. This is what I do for a living. By the way, I work at my church for free. I don't get paid by my church. Planted our church nine years ago, and our desire was that we would have people who serve the church and the leadership with the church, and not burden the church financially so that we could give money to missions and survive as a church plant. And there are others who are are paid now by the church, but I've not needed that, so I haven't done that. But I finally got myself to a place where I travel about six days a month. I office at my house. And somebody was sort of commenting on that a while back, and you know, sort of giving me that sort of pat on the back type thing, said what I meant before you do that, Here's what you need to understand. The only reason that I am there is because I started with an epic fail. You start an itinerant ministry, and basically when you begin, you're saying yes as the phone is ringing, prying, This is voting yes, I'll come preach at your event. You don't even know what the event is. I don't care. We got to eat and I'll come. I'll preach. And then if the Lord's favor smiles upon you, inevitably you come to a place where you have more than enough to do in order to provide for yourself and for your family, and unfortunately, for a lot of men. They don't make the third transition, which is learning how to say no. And again an old preacher. I thank God for old preachers who are willing to take young ministers aside, hug us around our necks and say, boy, let me tell you something. And I'll never get this conversation. Those people who are calling you don't care about your family. You can have twenty five days booked in a month, and if the three they want are open, they'll ask you for them. And then when your family falls apart, they'll condemn you to high heaven. They're not going to look out for your family if you don't. And that's not always the case, but oftentimes it is. You have to learn how to say no. And it took me way too long to get to that place. And I cannot tell you how grateful to God I am for those who help me recognize the need to get to that place. Is my life in perfect balance, Lord, No, absolutely not. I still have to have those moments where I open my eyes and look across the you know, this sort of panorama of all of the spinning plates, and say a couple of these things need to fall. But the only way that happens is we make a decision about what the immovable object is going to be. And when we understand these truths and the way that our family is to be ordered, and that what undergirds that is our desire to communicate and propagate Gospel truth from one generation to the next, then that immovable object at the center of our universe becomes our duty and responsibility to those whom God has given us charge over spiritually and everything else it's called upon to bow to it. That's way different than the way we're conditioned to think about our lives. But let me ask you this about the way we've been conditioned to think about our lives and the words of that Texas theologian, doctor Phil. How's that working for you? Because for most families it's not. Most families are on the hamster wheel, part of the rat race doing the deal. Even most homeschool families are having this conversation. Maybe the children are just growing up so quickly. I'm overwhelmed by the responsibilities that I have here in the home, and it just seems like it's passing you by. You write a check for the curriculum. I'm grateful for that you allow us to ken you the homeschool. I'm grateful for that, but have you ever considered that maybe we need a little bit more than your money to buy supplies? Now, I know nobody in here has had that conversation, but you know somebody who talked to you about that conversation not long ago. And you can sit there and say, yep, I know exactly what you're talking about, Preacher. I had a conversation with a friend of a friend who was saying that very same thing. And it's amazing how common that conversation is. You know. It's also amazing. What's amazing is, as I've preached in again, homeschool circles, and I say homeschool circles, because you know, we usually think about those families as having it all together. And ironically, many homeschool moms beat themselves senseless because they believe all the other homeschool moms have it all together, and they're the only one who has a hair out of place, can't say amen, you ought to say out. And all they see in their own family is what's wrong, and all they see in other people's families what's right. And so it's this constant self flagellation, you know, beating it. Oh woe is me, I'm a horror, you know. But here's what I've come to see among these perfect homeschool families over the last decade or so that I've been in those circles, I'm starting to see that when I go back to places, there are people, oftentimes who've been in leadership in the homeschool community, who've been married twenty twenty five, thirty years, who've walked away from one another and divorced. Last couple of years, I've become aware of at least at least half a dozen situations like that, Like, what's going on? Here's the answer to that question. What's going on is these people become homeschool families and nothing else. And Mom is over here in her world teaching children. Dad is over here in his world making provision. Children grow up. The last one leaves the house, they look at one another and say who are you? And they're done Because they were a home school family. But they weren't a marriage. There were a child raising family. They were a lord, give us many children family. And then when the many children were gone, they had to finally admit that they had those things instead of a marriage. Something's wrong, folks, our houses are not in order when that's the case. Because yes, our goal is this multi generational reality. Our goal is that we raise our children who know and serve the Lord. Our goal is that we pass on this gospel truth from one generation to the next. But in the midst of our goal, we cannot forget yet that our marriage is actually a living, breathing picture of this gospel relationship between Christ and his church about which we're preaching. So that if we're neglecting that, we're neglecting the very reality that's supposed to be at the center of who we are. And so we're still at the boarder, by God's grace and for God's glory. My prayer is that this would not be characteristic of us, but that we would be individuals who are committed to the truth of the Gospel, that we would be families who are committed to this multi generational transmittal of the truth of God's Word, And that we would be families whose marriages are seen and recognized both by us and by others as this living breathing God honoring illustration of the love that Christ has for his bride and the security and submission that the bride experiences and offers in return, so that then we might indeed truly be families that are well ordered. Let's pray, Gracious God, Heavenly Father, we bow before you humbly, acknowledging that we are in such disarray and in desperate need of your truth to guide us. Grant by your grace that our homes may be ordered by your word, that they may be ordered by your truth. Grant that they may be marked by the reality of the Gospel and the redemption of Christ. Grant that our love for our children might be manifested and a passion to see them come to repentance and faith. Grant that our love for one another's husband and wives might be marked by that act of the will accompanied by emotion that leads to action on behalf of its object, and that paints that beautiful reciprocal picture of the love relationship between Christ and his bride, the Church. We ask that these things might be true of us, so that Christ might be glorified in us, and that he might indeed have the fullness of the reward for which he died. This we pray and his name, and for his sake, amen.