The Christ-Centered Home — David Alspaugh

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Brother Moses, when him and I and some other brethren in a motor home were endeavoring to share the gospel in Boston, Massachusetts, it's one of my first acquaintances with Brother Moses. I'm grateful for that.

Like Brother Dean, some of my relatives are here and my sister, but that really doesn't matter, does it? So much who we're related to, who we know or who we don't, it doesn't matter if we're related to Jesus Christ.

A Personal, Ongoing Relationship With Jesus Christ

We have a relationship with him. And if we know him in a real personal, ongoing way. Scripture that came to my mind as I sat here and listened, I was tremendously inspired and blessed by the hymns and their messages.

And the message there then, out of Revelations 3, was that one there in Proverbs 4, 18, where it says the path of the just is as a shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. And brothers and sisters, it's that way to the child of God who will continue to persevere and press on.

God bless you this morning. Brother Dean thought it would be good if I'd share a message on the home this morning. He left that open to me, but I've chosen to do that by the leading of the Lord. And we want to look at some of those areas this morning in very basic, fundamental ways.

Maybe not so much in detail, but as a reminder, as our brother shared from Revelations this morning, we need to be reminded of things if we're going to strengthen them. And it's not that we don't know them.

I don't plan on sharing a whole list of new things with you that you never knew about the Christian home this morning. But we do need to be reminded, do we not, of truth and God has a way of stirring up our memories.

And one way is by the preaching of God's word and the reading of God's word. I believe that's why the psalmist says, I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the house of the Lord, because it was there he remembered what he was taught as a child and he was reminded again and again as he worshiped his great God and listened to the preaching.

So maybe we can just be an encouragement to you this morning in your homes this morning here as we share from his word. Let's bow our heads for prayer. Father in heaven, we are thankful for the word of God.

It's truth. It's your word. It shall never pass away. It's forever settled in heaven to meet and drink to our soul. It's the bread of life. And we're grateful for it this morning. We ask you to anoint the word, Lord, to the hearts in an effective way, to each one that's here, each one that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirit saith to them this morning.

May we drink from your word and may we, Lord, not be then a forgetful hearer of the word. But as we go forth from this place, may we remember those things which we have heard and put them into practical applications in our life throughout the coming days.

Bless the service for your glory, your honor, your praise and the good of each one here. You know the hearts, you know what's going on in each side, inside of each heart. I just pray you'd meet that need in a way that be beneficial to them and bring you glory.

Children’s Obedience and Honor Toward Parents

Jesus name we pray. Amen. This morning, we want to first share to you children the scripture in the New Testament has two very primary verses. One of them is Ephesians, Ephesians, chapter six, verses one and three, where it says, Children, obey your parents in the Lord.

And I just want your children to remember, though you've heard that ever since you probably can remember that that commandment from the Lord has a tremendous and important meaning for you in life. Also, it says in Colossians 320, the same thing, children obey your parents and the Lord in all things.

It says this is right and it's well pleasing to the Lord and to obey simply means to love your parents. Jesus said one time of his disciples, if a man loved me, if a man loved me, he will keep my words.

There's something about obeying your parents that God designed our God is a God of design. He didn't just cause us to be born into this world and hope we can get along the best we can and make the best of it and do the best we can.

No, God particularly designed a purpose, a plan. He has an intent for everyone in this building, even you children, every one of you. And there's something about obeying your parents that builds a foundation in your life that will benefit you the rest of your life.

But there's also, by the same token, a devastation by not obeying your parents. It has an undermining. It has a it has an unstable effect in a child's life, not saying the grace of God cannot intervene and make a difference later in life.

For many of you can testify and I can as well how it does. But there's something basic and fundamental about that commandment there of the Ten Commandments. Honor thy father and thy mother. Here is the most beautiful picture.

It's the prettiest scene in all the world, I believe, that our eyes can ever desire to behold. It's one of the things that's most pleasant, wonderful when a loving father and mother have children who obey and honor them.

It's something this world needs to see more of. It's something that is disappearing in general in the popularity of a society that's falling apart at the seams, as it were. A father, a mother who have children who love them.

It's your father and mother's credentials of their godliness, children, when you obey them. Obedience is natural by God. It is. It's right. It pleases God. It's going to go with you long throughout life.

To honor your parents, what does that mean? Young people, children alike, it's a weighty reverence. That holds in all seriousness, high esteem in regard for your parents, veneration is another word that describes to honor someone to hold them important in high priority and to value them greatly.

That's what it means to honor, to look up to with fond favor and respect, to seem with appreciation and love. Now, maybe you're here this morning and your parents aren't what you think they ought to be.

Does God say honor your parents only when they're what they ought to be? No, the command is sure, it's simple, it's straight, it's to all honor your parents, honor your father, your mother, obey your parents, never be ashamed of your parents.

Maybe some things they do you are, but never be ashamed of your parents. I remember when I wasn't a Christian, sometimes I'd like to stand back a little bit from my father and mother if they were walking in public somewhere.

I would have rather just not quite been identifying with them. But to honor your parents is to never, ever be ashamed of them. Always be willing to identify and go with your parents. Honor them for who they are, not possibly what you wish they would be.

Always speak well of your parents to others, especially to other children and youth. We can get caught up so quickly and in speaking evil of each other, of other people. But young people and children never get caught in the habit of speaking evil of your parents.

God will bless you for that. Yes, he will. Don't speak unkindly of your parents or to your parents. Tell them you love them. You'll never know to your parent what that will mean to them. Thank them sincerely for what they have done by bringing you into this world.

Proverbs 28 says, My son, hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother. Listen with careful attention to the things your parents teach you. Hide it in your heart. Cherish it.

Write it upon the table of your heart. Determined by God's grace and instruction of your parents to put into practice what they taught you. And it's not that your parents never maybe taught you something wrong or never made any mistakes, but the things of God that they have influenced your choice.

Remember, you are an individual as a child and as a young person of choice. And God placed Godly parents in your life to influence that choice for him. Practice what they taught you. They do it to give you guidance in the way you should go, even though you don't always understand.

You think maybe they're too old fashioned and maybe they're too out of step with time and they don't understand. Can't put an old head on young shoulders, they say. But all I tell you, God's word is sure that he has a purpose in your life by giving you godly parents as ours in the hands of a mighty hand of a hunter.

He has placed you and they pull back strong. You're not a frisbee that they just fling out and goes any old way. No, but you're an hour, the Bible says, they pull back on that bow and they aim. Normally, a bowman aims, doesn't he?

Now, one time we have a record in history when King Ahab was shot, there was an aimless, nameless hunter who says adventure pulled a bow and God directed that arrow into the ribs of Ahab, doesn't give his name.

He was the aimless, nameless hunter. But that's not what God has in mind for you as parents and you children. They're aiming you to glory. They're aiming you to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

And it is with purpose and much intent that your parents have labored and taught you and instructed you and lived an example before you so that you might go in the right direction. They were young once, too.

They know very well your temptations, your fears and your doubts, the things that you're struggling with. Maybe they're a little bit different nowadays, but really the the principle behind it all is much the same.

It's either for God or Satan, you must choose the wisdom of this world or the wisdom of God. It's your choice, young people. God bless each one of you have chosen the wisdom of God for your lives. Yes, you'll never regret it as you grow older.

Love not the world. No, understand as a young person through God's word and instruction, your ministers and those over you who instruct you what the world is, where she's going, she's headed to the pit.

Yes, she is. And you need to understand that Satan is after every soul. I think he can be said of everyone in here, as Jesus said to Peter one time, Simon, Simon, Satan has desired to have you. And it's Satan's desire to have everyone in this building this morning.

Jesus says, Peter, I prayed for you. And when thou art converted, he says, I pray for you that your faith fail not when our converted strength in thy brethren. So, dear parents or dear young people, this this morning here, I just want to remind you to be faithful.

Those of you who are Christians and to be strong, don't throw in the towel, don't allow yourself to be led astray, but strengthen the things that your parents have taught you and be faithful and be diligent.

And maybe someday God will lead you into life as being a father and a mother. And you'll be so grateful to God for the instruction your parents have given you. You'll never regret it. God's will for directing our children in the Lord.

The Christian Home and the Fear of the Lord

That's basically what we want to talk about. We could talk about the marriage relationship, and that's very important in the home. Talk about a lot of other things. I just want to read Psalms 128 here, Psalms 128.

It says in Psalms 127, children are the heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As ours are in the hands of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is a man that has his quiver full of them.

They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gates. Blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord, that walketh in his ways. It's being the right parent that matters. Sometimes we think we need to have the right children.

Sometimes parents in frustration say, well, I have the wrong children. My children are just different and they're just this and they're not that. And we'll just be the right parent. That's what God wants us to be.

Be the right parent and you'll see how maybe normal your children really are after all. Yes, and one of the ways being the right parent is to fear the Lord. I want you to notice in this simple little chapter how many times fearing the Lord is mentioned.

For thou shalt eat the labor of thy hands. Verse two says, Happy day shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house, thy children like on a plant round about thy table.

Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed, that feareth the Lord. What a blessing. The Lord shall bless thee, Alizon, and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. You're going to have a blessing in church life as well.

Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children. Peace upon Israel. The Lord entrusts to us as parents. The grave responsibility for teaching and training our children in the ways of the Lord and instilling the fear of God in them.

And we need to take it seriously and be sincere and be diligent in this God designed responsibility. And I know you are, and I just want to kindly remind and share some. Principles from God's word that is helpful to remind us that we cannot shirk this responsibility.

I know young men, when you prayed and sought God's will for a wife. Maybe some of you are doing that here. Maybe there's some couples here courting, I don't know. But when the Lord leads you together and you anticipate the wedding day, it's a tremendous joy to to be able to embrace the God design of holy matrimony.

But I want you young men to remember with that sweet little wife, as sweet as she is, comes a tremendous amount of responsibility. Tremendous amount of responsibility, more than many young men ever really thought.

Blessed is the young man that's instructed in that beforehand. I've heard so many parents say after the children are raised, now we have the experience. Now we know how when we had our children, they were little.

We didn't know how. And now that the raise is too late. Well, I think a young lady and a young man that fears God first and plants his truth into their hearts before. And to I want to say this in the on start here, maybe some of you who are single people here, some of you who are not married at this point think maybe you can go to sleep.

This is a view. This is for you. There are people you can relate to. There are people you can be fathers to. There are there are people you can be brothers and sisters to. There are many areas. God is a God of purpose.

And whether you are married or not married really doesn't make a difference to the God of all purpose, whether maybe you're up in years and not married yet. That really don't matter neither to God. One young lady was getting up in years and she was getting concerned she wasn't getting married.

She went to her pastor and says, you know, what should I do? And he just called me, says, well, you know, God's plan is one man for one woman. You can't improve on that. She said, I don't want to improve on.

I just want to get in on it. And that's the important thing, that you're in on God's plan, and if he leads you into marriage, praise God, if he doesn't praise God again, it doesn't mean that God, you aren't fulfilled and you're not living after God's purpose and heart and life and whatever he leads you into.

But if he does praise the Lord, you don't need to be in a hurry about it. Brother Davis was in a hurry. I'm not saying you only to wait that long, but praise God. You know, as God leads, as you live under your parents direction and serve the Lord and open your heart to his guiding and he leads you into holy matrimony, walk through the door and let God purpose his will in your life.

Then in that as well, our commitment to Jesus Christ. And the level of that commitment is going to determine greatly how we're going to fare in being a right parent and in transmitting the Christian faith and the fear of God into the hearts of our children.

Basic steps to being a. A virtuous pair is first preceded by a godly, pure courtship, I believe that's God's will and that's God's word. However, I want to say some came in later in life after courtship.

I'm sure some of you were converted, maybe even after you had children or even a number of children. And I know that God's grace and his marvelous power of restoration is able to raise up out of lives that have been wrecked and ruined by sin and shame and disgrace and turn some of the most beautiful people in his church out of those kind of situations.

Don't you despair? Don't you despair because you didn't have some teaching, right? I didn't have a lot of teaching I should have had. One thing I did have, I had a fresh conversion experience and I love my wife with all my heart.

And I tell you, I'll be married 40 years in a couple of months. I don't regret one day of it. Not one. I haven't always done everything right. I'm not saying I've always been what I ought to have been, but I tell you, I can highly recommend if you take Jesus Christ first and foremost and foremost, take up his cross.

You can, as a husband and wife, you can be blessed of God. In fact, some of those people God has used even throughout the Bible, he used Rahab the harlot. He brought different people into the lineage.

He brought Timothy forth. Maybe some of you are here as Timothy this morning saying, well, I don't have a godly father. So therefore, what you're saying, I just can't attain to it. Was that Timothy's excuse?

No, I'm not saying his father wasn't godly, but apparently was an unbeliever. But his mother and his grandmother made up the difference. Mothers and grandmothers, if you're sitting here this morning, your influence in those young Timothy's can restore what the canker worm has eaten.

Yes, God can raise up beautiful testimonies and lives and marriages and parents out of some of the most depiccable situations that you might have found yourself in. So don't you despair over that next to a pure courtship?

I think parents need to be born again. I mean, someone has said and when they first said it struck me a little unusual. But the more I thought what they said, the more I agree. They say, you know, it really is a wonder that marriages work.

I said, what do you mean? Well, he said, you take two people who live two different lives for 20 or so years in two different homes, two different cultures, bring them into one and expect everything just to flow nice and sweet and lovely.

Why is a miracle of God that two people can do that? But that's just exactly what needs to happen. A miracle of God. We if they're both born again and they both love the Lord Jesus with all their heart and their blood washed, their spirit filled, they're living in the fear of God.

They're walking in obedience, just commandments. Brethren, God can take them to live as diverse as they were and bring them in and make one of the most beautiful flower gardens in his kingdom. They can do that.

Praise God for that. That's his will for your lives. That's his will for you as fathers and mothers living in the fear of the Lord. And the fear of the Lord is a is a tremendous teaching in God's word.

The fear of the Lord is having an awareness of God always. That's what it is, is having an awareness of God and understanding our accountability to him. Whether it's right or wrong, there is consequences.

And because of his word and because of his will for our lives, we understand those. Then we live accordingly, knowing the consequences. And it's not a thing of fear where we just live underneath him expecting, well, all right, Lord.

No, rather, the fear of God is living a joyful, intimate, close life to Jesus Christ. It's it's like sheep in their shepherd. We know his voice. Stranger, they will not follow. Do you know what that word voice means in Greek?

It's where we get our English word phone, P-H-O-N-E, that's the Greek word for voice there. That's where we get our word phone, our English word phone from the Greek word voice. It means a town or something we can recognize.

Those of you who have sheep, you understand how that works. I've had sheep already and they get to know your voice. You come and feed them every morning or every evening or you watch over them. You care for them.

You talk with them. Soon as they hear your voice, they come running. But you let us voice of a stranger go into that pasture, into that barn, and they scatter like everything. Why? They don't know his voice.

Living in the fear of God is knowing the voice of God. I'd like to illustrate it this way. Some of you children, maybe some of you little boys like to play farm. We're losing some of our equipment here.

You like to play farm and you have tractors you play farm with. Some of you girls like to play dollars. You have dollars you play dollars with. You know, after those tractors get used a while and maybe not always cared for as they ought to, what happens to them?

They get looking a little bit the way they do. Maybe a wheel come off, muffler come off, they get bent, the steering wheel comes off, the tire missing, who knows what. And if two of you boys are playing in the room and you're you're farming, I mean, you're really farming for real.

It's amazing how boys can farm for real. And they got them old tractors down there on the carpet and they're plowing or disking or making hay or whatever they're doing. And the one brother decides after a while this old tractor he has is not as good as his brothers.

The wheel keeps coming off and he don't like it. It's bent, rusty, and he flings it into corn. He reaches over and grabs his brother's tractor. Now, boys, you're not supposed to do that, are you? No, you're supposed to share.

But sometimes boys do do that, don't they? Yeah, they do. Maybe it's the girls playing and maybe some of the dollies get looking a little like some of our dollies did, right? They get ink on them. Maybe they get an arm missing or the hair pulled out.

Or I remember one of our dollies, one of them had all the toes and fingers bent off one time by one of the boys. And it just wasn't a nice looking dolly. And maybe one little girl decides she don't want that old dolly and she reaches over for their sister's dolly and said, I want that one.

Like her brother does the tractor, I want that one. And there they are pulling over this good tractor and they pull too long, they'll be pulling the muffler off of that one too, or the wheel. And they're not sharing this thing.

They're pulling, I had this tractor, I had that long enough, you take this in. And all of a sudden, father enters the room. What happens? The door opens and their stand is dead and the two boys are down there pulling.

Or the mom, maybe it's the mother, enters the room and the other girls are about pulling another leg off of the dolly, the good dolly. What happens usually? This is what should happen. All of a sudden, the other brother lets go of that tractor, don't he?

Yeah, he's just sort of very sheepishly goes back to the corner and grabs out of the old tractor. Now he's farming again with that tractor. Now it's OK, isn't it? Nothing wrong with it now. It's OK now.

What makes the difference? Why wasn't it OK a while ago? Maybe this other little girl takes this doll again, holds it in her hand. It wasn't a while ago, but now the mother's standing watching, it's OK.

And that's that's to illustrate just how the fear of God should be working in our hearts all the time, whether father and mother stands at the door, whether we see a policeman or whether we see the preacher or whoever it might be, or our father or parent or someone else watching should not indicate how we should live when we live in the fear of God.

It's having God's presence all the time in our mentality. Therefore, we're careful. Sometimes we get a little reckless in our driving habits, don't we? Maybe not reckless, maybe just forgetful. And what happens when you are driving down the road and there's just an officer, something I mean, that's one of the fastest reflexes I believe there is.

And that break hit that foot, goes up, hits that brake pedal. Do you have to think very long, a very intelligent way to react to that thing? No, it's just right there. What is that? You're really that's a recognition of God, the presence of God.

It says we should be obedient to the to the to the those that are over us. And there is a reminder we shouldn't have to have that as a reminder. And sometimes maybe it's a reminder we don't want to pay a fine.

I don't want to get caught or get a point rather than is really for conscience sake before God. But when we have the fear of God, I believe that places us in a position. That we can adequately live and raise a family for the sake of God.

God says of Abraham, I know him. He's going to command his children after him. Yes, he will. And God wants you to do the same. It's vitally important, dear ones, to teach your children in the ways of the Lord.

Noah moved with fear. He had the fear of God. What did he do? He built an ark to the saving of his house. I'd like to ask you fathers a question this morning. Are you building an ark for the saving of your children?

Not out of Gopherwood, not a pitch. No, not that kind of an ark. But are you building an ark by the materials God has given you from his word to provide a place of safety and security? So when this world goes to nothing and we see that new habit and in that new world that our brothers spoke about here recently, we have a safe place for our families.

There was other men in Noah's day that did not fear God and they suffered the consequences. They suffered being drowned in the flood because they did not fear the Lord. Cornelius is a New Testament man that we read about, says he feared the Lord with all his house.

And I believe when he was converted, I loved him in that house when Peter was speaking and the Holy Spirit ascended upon that congregation of people. I believe he had his servants there and I'm not sure who all might have been there, his relatives, his neighbors.

He was waiting and anxious to hear the word of the Lord. Peter, a little bit hesitant here going into this Gentile's house. But nevertheless, he went and the Lord performed one of his marvelous works that day, all because a man, even a Gentile man as he was, even an army man as he was, he feared God and God blessed that man.

And he will bless you the same today. I mean, we begin by prayer. We're reminded in the opening about our prayer life this morning. Pray for your children, either conceived, pray for their souls when you mothers hold and nurse those little little ones.

I believe God instilled a direct way of instilling some of the first principles that your child can receive when they there and their infancy and their innocency look up into your eyes and you hold them close and you whisper the name of Jesus to them.

And when you pray God's blessing upon their souls and when you instill that faith like Lois and Eunice did in the little Timothy, when you hold them upon your knee, you tell them the stories of the Bible, when you tell them about the great God, Jehovah, when you tell them about his love and sending his son, Jesus Christ, his death, his sufferings, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension, his coming again, you instill into those little hearts and minds the fear of God.

Don't ever take it for granted. Don't ever think it's a useless effort. It's one of the most important things you can do while your child is little. Householders, you need to be strong and rise with courage and purpose in your hearts to be a godly example as a priest, fathers, husbands, as a provider, as a protector.

Let the power and the blessings of the Lord Jesus Christ be channeled to you, through you, to your wife and to your children, that you can have a sacred, godly, sanctified home separate from this perishing world.

Keeping the Home Pure and Training Children

Paul tells Timothy, keep thyself pure. I want to just change that a bit this morning. Keep thy homes pure. You need to keep yourself pure to keep your home pure, undoubtedly, but keep your homes pure.

It's one of the, on this side of glory, it's one of the most sacred refuges from the battlements of this ungodly, wicked, chaotic world in which we live, is your home. Keep it pure. Keep it for God. Train up that child in the way he should go.

Bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord, Ephesians says. Train and nurture means to restrain. It means to correct. They have a little evil heart in them, as cute and as little as they might be.

Inside of them, there is a nature that God wants you to train. They have a will that he wants you to secure. Secure that will for your children, of your children, says in the admonition of the Lord. And to those of you who feel young and inexperienced, I believe if we know how our heavenly father relates to us as his spiritual children, that will in turn equip us and enable us so that we may know how to be a physical father to our natural children.

The Bible says in Hebrews, we've all had fathers which corrected us and we gave them reverence. Shall we much rather be subject under the father of spirits and live? There is a parallel there. There is a there is a likeness as God deals, corrects, loves, encourages us as his spiritual children that enables you as fathers and mothers to be able to nurture and correct your physical and your earthly little bundles of joy that he has brought into your home.

Keep their eternal end in view. Remember, you're raising adults, not children. You're raising people not for this life, but for the next life. It includes both. Yes, secure that child's will by teaching them obedience young in life.

I know you people have teaching on this and I know you're practicing it very evident, but I just want to remind you that you need to take that disobedient child aside when he disobeys you and you need to lovingly and kindly, but firmly and in a biblical manner, correct that child.

Make sure that child understands what you're doing. They need to make a commitment. They need to say, I'm sorry. They need to say, I understand or they say, I'm not going to do it again. And then pray for that child.

Take them back and go through it again and see if they understand and if they don't do it again. Now, talking about harsh beatings, I'm not talking about cruel anger fits of parents. I'm talking about a father that hurts to punish that child as though he was being punished himself.

Talking about a father in the sincerity of the Lord understands the weight and the responsibility of his place or her place as a mother that God has placed between himself and the soul of that child. And that erring nature of that child needs to be molded.

We need to take our little trees and the saplings and we have to tie them up. Sometimes we have to put a stake in and pull them over this way. Seems like by nature they have a they have a bet in going the wrong direction and we need to stake them up and pull them in so that they can go the right way for the glory of God.

Need to do that. Be calm when you discipline your child. Be discreet. Ask God for wisdom. Be gentle, but be firm. When this is done early in life, a child will soon learn to know that his parents authority is not to be trifled with.

They learn that a child so discipline often not often needs backings, but will be a happy child, will be a content child, will be a secure child, will be an innocent child. That's God designed for your child's innocency before they come to the age where they can make that choice themselves.

It's God's will for you to cleanse their evils away in that measure by securing their will until they reach that age themselves. Blessed, happy and secure are those children living under the protection of their parents guidance and in accordance to the order of God.

How many of your eight year olds touch hot stoves in your house? Do they? Do your 10 year old children touch a hot stove? They don't do that. Why don't they do that? How many of your four year olds touch a hot stove?