I think the danger in starting an entire 8 week campaign about family life is that as soon as I say the word “family,” people automatically have images that come to their mind of what a family is. You may hate your family or you may be ashamed of them and want to hide them away. The old saying is, "you can pick your friends but you’re stuck with your family." Quite honestly, from my observation, the church has traditionally viewed the subject of family and home life through the highly filtered lens of 1950’s and 1960’s Television.
Through that highly filtered lens, a family is a dad, a stay-home mom, a few kids and a dog, usually in a middle to upper middle class neighborhood where kids played outside all the time; dinner was at 5 o clock and always home cooked. Never did you see mom and dad at the kitchen table with a calculator trying to figure out how to make ends meet. Sibling rivalry was never an issue – it was just calm and perfect life. The house was always clean, and the yards never had weeds.
Well, the 1970’s came along and we were introduced to a different kind of family – the blended family (Brady Bunch) complete with an Astroturf lawn and a housekeeper but you never heard the kids say to Mike and Carol "well you’re not my mom and you’re not my dad, and I don’t care if there’s one bathroom for 6 kids, I called first and Oh, by the way I get shotgun 2 in the station wagon 2 days from now."
Then there was the “I hate my meat-head son-in-law" family with Archie Bunker and the evolution of the TV family was on.
Around 1975 we were introduced to a type of family that television had never seen: the African-American family (Good Times), living in the Chicago subsidized housing projects. In the 80’s we got the Single parent family (Who’s the Boss, and a host of others). Somehow, though, the church unintentionally has kept this Ozzie and Harriet, Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver mindset when it comes to ministering to a family and that’s really unfortunate because our culture is full of all different expressions of family.
One of the things I want to do right up front at the beginning of this series called Extreme Home Makeover is ask you to drop your preconceived ideas of family life and drop your worries that this series isn’t for me because my family looks like this or my family looks different from what the church has dubbed a family – and you don’t know what my family is like. My mom and her dad and this uncle and that kid and on and on….
Just drop those stereotypes and focus on a profound statement that God made to a man named David. David lived about 3000 years ago and when he was about 30 years old he became King over all of Israel. Pretty good accomplishment for age 30. In my denomination you can’t serve as the top leader unless you’re 35. For 7 years he reigned over 2 tribes but after that time he was made King over all Israel. And he had struggled to get there. After killing Goliath he was a national hero, then spent 10 years running from Saul, now everything was going OK.
Here’s a short back-story. One of David’s desires when he became the King was to build a temple or a house for God. Throughout Israel’s history they had used kind of a portable worship center called the Tabernacle and David said, we need something permanent for our worship experience, but God turned the tables on David and sent a prophet named Nathan to him to give him a word. God made a profound statement to him and I want to use this statement which David reminds God about here to lay the foundation for this entire 8 week series on Extreme Home Makeover. David’s praying here. Watch this:
Please See 2 Sam 7:25-29 (NIV)
David was saying I’m not just concerned about my family – yeah I’m concerned about them and because of that concern I you (God) to build me a house – a place of stability – a permanent residence. I want something with a solid foundation that for generations will be able to be used and built upon.
We As Christians look back on that and say well David was a man after God’s own heart. Do you want to know what his “family” looked like by the time he was 30? Some of you think you have issues.
1 Chr 3:1-3 lists 6 sons born to David by 6 different women, only 3 of which were is wives. So 3 of his sons and his only daughter were born from concubines. All 6 were born in the 7 year period he was King over 2 tribes living in Hebron. He was a busy man. Oh, and I failed to mention that there was a 4th wife who was actually his first wife that he was estranged from. Her name was Michal, the daughter of Saul, the one who chased him trying to kill him for 10 years. In fact, Saul hated David so much, he gave her to another man while the chase was going on.
So here’s a 30 year old man with 4 wives, one estranged, 6 boys by 6 different women. Can you imagine the dynamics in the room around the dinner table with that blended family? So God steps in the middle of this and says, David, you wanted to build a house for me? You wanted to bring a place of stability for me? Buddy, look around. Look at your family. You’re the one who needs some stability.
Isn’t that just like us? We want to do all this stuff for God and we want to build something significant for God. We have all these plans in our heart. "I’m going to do this and serve here and lead this and preach this and teach this class" and God says, "wait a second. Look around. You see all this stuff that makes up your family – whatever it looks like? I want to do more for you than you can ever do for me. Let me build you a house."
So God says to David, I’m going to take all of these dynamics; all these relational issues, all of this sibling rivalry and I’m going to build you a house. I’m going to build something of permanence and stability for all of those in your bloodline no matter how messed up and challenging it is. I will build you a house.
David says, God you are so awesome. Build something for me that is going to last forever. I want my house to be remembered for generations as one that you built.
God builds revelationally through his word, he builds relationally through his covenant with us, and he builds generationally as we seek to pass on truth to the next generation, but he wants to partner with us to see it happen. It would be easy to think that, wow hey, God is going to do all the work so I can just coast and that would be nice except for one thing: Renovation is messy. Sometimes in an extreme makeover the old has to be completely stripped down. Faulty foundations, crooked walls, sheetrock with mold, cracked pipes – it all has to go to make room for the new.
In our lives many of us want God to step in and start an extreme makeover, but it can get messy. Some of our home have been built on faulty foundations. There are relational cracks that have caused love and communication to leak out. There are old, moldy walls of yuck that have been neglected for years and if we pulled back the rugs we would see layer upon layer of issues and unresolved conflict that have been swept underneath. If we want God to build us a house, we need to be prepared for new foundations, new ways of thinking, new ideas, and that takes a commitment on our part to let the old be broken down so the renovation can begin. You’ve realized the truth of Psalm 127:1
Ps 127:1
Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; (NKJV)
What will happen if we let god do this? Here’s what we know:
1. What God builds, he establishes
“And the house of your servant David will be established before you.” (v. 26)
This root word “Established” used concretely speaks of being firmly established, being firmly anchored and being firm. In other words, when God builds something it is rock solid – it is set in stone.
Ps 93:1
The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed in majesty and is armed with strength. The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved. (NIV)
Ps 65:5-6
By awesome deeds in righteousness You will answer us, O God of our salvation, You who are the confidence of all the ends of the earth, And of the far-off seas; Who established the mountains by His strength, Being clothed with power; (NKJV)
I’ve seen a lot of homes that have plaques and signs on the threshold of their homes that say the "such and such family, established in such and such a year." But truth be known, many of you feel like your house has never been established. Your marriage got off to a rocky start and never recovered. You made bad decisions early in your life financially and as the years have clicked off you’ve never achieved your goals. You got burned in a relationship and now as a single person you have vowed never to get hurt again so you’ve withdrawn into a relational shell, closing yourself off from anyone who trys to get close to you.
God says, if you let me come in and build, I will establish you. I will help you put down roots of strength that will anchor you and set your foundation in stone
2. What God builds, he blesses
2 Sam 7:29
“Now be pleased to bless the house of your servant” (NIV)
Gen 1:22, 28 – He Blessed them. As He was building his creative work at the beginning of time he blessed his work and told the work to be fruitful and multiply. It has been His plan from the beginning to bless what he builds. He told Abraham that from his seed, He would build a great nation and through this nation all families of the earth would be blessed. Here I get the sense that David is opening himself up to the blessing of God because he is content to let God be the general contractor and call the shots.
What God build he blesses and I submit to you that if we want to position our homes for the blessing of God, we have to say "God, you call the shots. You be our general contractor. We will sub underneath your leadership and let you show us how you want to build revelationally, relationally and generationally in my home."
3. What God builds, he perpetuates
2 Sam 7:29
“…that it may continue before You forever…” (NKJV)
David’s house had issues down the road because of bad decisions and all of us will make bad decisions from time to time that can cause heartache and hardship, but watch this:
Isa 9:6-7
For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. (NKJV)
Luke 2:1-4
And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, (NKJV)
The house of David will continue forever and God wants to perpetuate His blessing in your house that will impact generations. Kids or no kids, your house can have lasting impact for generations to come if God is building, establishing and blessing. The question is, will we allow him to build with us and set our house in stone?
This is so awesome a word from the Lord.. It has touched my heart tonight Pastor Jon.. Thanks
ReplyDeleteGood word, Jon. And even though last Sunday's was more directed at the men, I got a lot out of it, too.
ReplyDeleteJill