Building Your Family

I know I haven’t posted in a while, but sometimes life just gets in the way.  We are celebrating the Lord’s Supper tomorrow and here is the Table address.

Building Your Family

. Deuteronomy 6:1-9  "Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess,  2 "that you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.  3 "Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you -- 'a land flowing with milk and honey.'  4 " Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!  5 "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.  6 " And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.  7 "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.  8 "You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  9 "You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Continuing on our theme for this year of building, last time we considered building our own personal faith and now I want to share just a few thoughts about building your family.  Strong faith makes strong families.  This is true regardless of the kind of family – whether just husband and wife or parents with children.  If faith is strong in the individuals then the family will be strong – there is some truth to the saying, the family that prays together stays together.  But the particular challenge I want to place before you this morning is doing all that you can to instill the strength of your faith into your children.  That is exactly what God, through Moses is commanding the people here.  Teach the commandments, the statutes and judgments of God to your children.  Take every opportunity to do this – teaching them first and foremost to love God with all their hearts, souls, minds and strength and of course, teaching them to love one another.  Your house should be marked by not only the love of God and one another, but also by faith in God and the distinct desire to do what God commands and to do what glorifies God.
  How do we do this?  1)  Bring your children faithfully to worship God with the saints teaching them the importance of the Lord’s Day for our lives: a day of rest from our usual labors and a day of worship. 2)  Involve your children in the life and ministry of the church – they are a part of Christ’s body as much as you are – they need the support, encouragement and fellowship as much as you do.  3)  Take every opportunity to speak about the faith, helping them to reason – not from tradition but from Scripture, why we believe what we believe.  Equip them to view the world through the lens of God’s Word.    4)  Set and vigorously preserve a time of daily family worship.  Read and study God’s Word, sing the Lord’s praises and pray to the heavenly Father together.  The benefits of this are innumerable.  5) Be Godly examples to your children – in speech, in deed, and most of all in love.  And certainly this is the part that those who do not have children can play in strengthening the family – a child cannot ever have too many godly examples (either in the home or outside it).  6) Finally, remember that though you may plant and water it is God who gives the increase.  Ps. 127:1 Except the Lord builds the house the builders build in vain.