How to Have a Happy Home — E.A. Johnston

The Spiritual Attack on the Christian Family

We live in a day when there is an attack on the family. The family is an institution designed and sanctioned by Almighty God but there is an out-and-out attack on the family today from several fronts.

A Christian was riding on an airplane and next to him was a man praying with his head bowed and his hands clasped when he was done. The Christian said, hey brother so good to see you praying like that I'm a Christian too.

And the man replied, I'm no Christian I'm a Satan worshiper and I was praying for the devil to destroy Christian marriages in America. Well, I don't know if that story I heard is true friends, but I do know there is an onslaught by the devil against the family of our day.

Media, Sin, and the Destruction of the Home

Jesus said of the devil, the thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. And the Christian home today is under attack more than ever before. Why every time you turn on the TV you are bombarded with missiles aimed at the integrity of the family either with graphic sex and nudity or profanity and promoting perverted lifestyles.

Hollywood programming is determined to destroy the very fabric of the Christian home. The internet is called a web because like a spider's web there are certain websites designed to entrap you with the most raunchy and perverted pornography.

Sin will wreak havoc on a home and give the devil a wedge to pride open. Every time we sin presumptuously and willingly we put a stake in the ground giving the devil a little more room to invade our families and wreak havoc there.

Well, what can we do to safeguard our families? What can we do to have a happy home? One husband heard a sermon at church on being a more appreciative husband so he determined on the way home to lavish his overworked wife with praise.

Entering the home he burst into the kitchen with a profuse gushing speech of praise and appreciation for his wife. She stared at him wide-eyed and threw down her dish towel and said this caps the climax.

This morning I broke one of my best plates. I've had a splitting headache all afternoon and to top it all off now you come home drunk. But the title of my message today friends is how to have a happy home.

Mutual Submission and Christlike Marriage

And my text can be found in Paul's epistle to the Ephesians. You can turn in your Bibles there now friends. We will begin reading in chapter 5 and verse 21. Here now is the Word of God and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His Holy Word.

Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God wives submit yourselves onto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and he is the Savior of the body.

Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Let me pause here to say friends and to ask well what does this mean?

Is a wife to just bend her will to a mean and overbearing husband? No certainly not. Notice the text says Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God Man is not to lord it over the woman or to hit her over the head with his Bible but to treat her with gentleness and kindness and with respect.

The Word of God says Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Well Christ gave himself for the church. Sacrificially we should do the same for our wives. What are some ways we can safeguard our homes against the enemy?

Treating One’s Wife with Honor

I'm going to list some tried-and-true practices friends that if you will incorporate into the life of your family you will help safeguard it from Satan. Number one. Treat your wife like a queen. This doesn't mean Spoil her and give in to her every whim and her demands.

But it does mean to treat her as if she's the most important person in your kingdom. She's your queen. My homiletical mentor Dr. Stephen F. Olford was a busy pastor. But he made sure that one day a week was Queen's Day in his home Where he treated his wife Heather like royalty.

Many women feel Unappreciated by their husbands and they need some moral support. They need some extra TLC. Let me give you some suggestions friends on how you can better safeguard your marriage. The divorce statistics have grown so that the rate of divorce is Nearly as high in Christian homes as in non-christian homes.

It shouldn't be this way. Let me give you some fast rules to safeguard your marriage. First never go out alone with a member of the opposite sex at work or Recreationally, I always made it a point never to take my secretary out to lunch.

One-on-one, but if we had a celebrator birthday, we went out in a group for lunch. Be careful of the company you keep if you have some old friends who you used to go carousing with Before you were saved and there's still bad news then get some new friends who weren't bad news.

Who know the good news and who are Christians? Stop drinking alcohol. Let me put it down big plain and straight. Nothing good ever comes out of a bottle. I know more Christians who had one glass of wine too many.

Or one beer too many and they got in trouble with the law on a DUI. Pour out the booze and don't let liquor steal your mind and loosen your morals. Be guarded. What type of entertainment you watch if a movie is R-rated.

It's R-rated for a reason. Don't fill your eyes with actors taking off their clothes for racy sex scenes. We have actresses today that look like angels. But they have the morals of an alley cat. Ask yourself a question friend.

Every time you watch TV. Is this something? Jesus could sit here on the couch with me and watch alongside with me. If not, don't waste your time and energy watching filthy Hollywood programming until you rise.

Get as big as saucers in your brain the size of a pea. If you have an addiction to pornography. Get professional help. Immediately from your pastor or from a church counselor. There are a few things more destructive to a family than the husband or wife watching pornography.

An adult film star got saved and she gave an interview to a Christian magazine. In that interview she said how demonic the adult film world was. She said there was always a demonic presence there on the set as she filmed a sex scene.

And that the actors and the adult film world World are in bondage to Satan and many of them openly worship Satan. Listen to me friend the most destructive element you can introduce to your family is by watching Pornography in the home.

You're literally Opening the front door of your home and inviting the devil in to ruin your loved ones. Do you have a bad temper and do you lose control of your temper in the home? It's been documented that demons are drawn to outbursts of anger and rage.

Get help if you keep losing your temper and losing your cool. Nobody wants to live with slamming doors and outbursts of anger. Well, these are some negative things to avoid to safeguard the home. What are some positives that you can do to have a happy home?

Holiness and Daily Devotion in Marriage

Make it a priority to live a life of holiness unto God in a life consecrated to the Lord Jesus. Pray the prayer of Robert Murray McChain Which was Lord make me as holy as a saved sinner can be. Make it a priority to have a daily Devotional time with just you and God and make it a priority to have a daily devotional time.

Also with your spouse where you write out a Bible lesson for her. Or you do a devotional study together with her. Get up early if necessary. And make this a priority you'll be amazed friend on how this time of holding your spouse's hand and Praying with them will strengthen your marriage and deepen your walk with God.

Be a good listener be supportive of your spouse and encourage them daily. To become the best they can be make it a priority to be your spouse's number one cheerleader. Let me share a true story with you about how some families in a church experience personal revival and healing of their marriages.

Personal Revival and Renewal in the Family

Well, the man went on a weekend church retreat to get close with God and during their retreat These men really got hold of God they got serious with God. Or should I say God got a hold of them and turned their lives upside down in personal revival.

Well, these men returned to their families on fire for God. The husbands began to treat their wives with more patience with more gentleness. They were loving to their wives. Kind to their wives more tender and caring to their wives.

They began to have daily devotional time with their wives and they held their wives hands when they prayed and this went on for several months until the women of the church were so overcome by the new dispositions of their godly husbands that they too Went all out for God and the wives.

Experienced personal revival as well and they became mothers of Israel in the home. Well soon the teenagers saw what it was like to have two godly parents who had the reality of God in their lives and it became too much for these kids and Soon many of the teenagers Turned their lives over to Christ and were saved.

What that entire church ended up in a deep revival where God showed up in his manifest? Presence and soon the surrounding community was impacted for Christ and the gospel as well. Many were saved in that community.

Christian Action in the Community

It all started with the men of the church and soon this church Saved up enough money to go by. I get choked up when I tell this story friends. They actually bought worst abortion clinic in their community and they turned it into a Christian bookstore, but do you see how important it is friends to take this thing?

We call Christianity seriously. We give the reins to Christ and when we do that He can literally Transform the lives of our home. Do we believe that? Oh, I hope you do friends. But it all starts with you.

Surrendering the Home to Christ

Are you ready to get serious with God? Are you ready to let him bring change into your life? To heal your marriage and Strengthen your home. Pray this prayer with me dear friend Lord Jesus, I want you to be in charge of my home.

Make me the man you want me to be. Make me the woman you want me to be. Heal my home and help me to live for you by giving you first place in my life. So you can have Preeminence in the life of my family and be in charge of my home.

Make me a more better and loving spouse and a more godly parent. For my family bring change here by your spirit. I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus Amen.