Building up the Household

On Sunday, we take the next step in thinking about ordering our lives around the altar of God’s worship. Three weeks ago, we considered how the altar takes priority over the city in the life of the Christian. Last Sunday, we looked at the way our watches are set by that worship. And this Sunday, we will begin to think about our households.

Indeed, when God made the world, he created the universe to be his cosmic temple. In history, he set his name in Jerusalem where his house would be built. And before and after Solomon’s temple was constructed in Israel, God designed humanity to build their own households.

In previous sermons, we have looked carefully at the command to “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 9:1, 7) and what that means for families and children. Sunday that will not be the major point. Instead, we will consider what it means to use our lives in service to God by building up the household that God has put us in. From the smallest child to the elderly widow, there is a way to fulfill this household calling, especially in connection with the local church. And on Sunday, we will think about what that means.

Honestly, I am not sure this sermon could have come at a better time. This week, Vice President Vance referenced the Ordo Amoris, which is the idea of having ordered loves. That is loves that begin with our family, and then move to our church, our neighbor, our nation, and the world. Indeed, while David Platt and other evangelicals have jumped over the family to reach the nations, America's VP reminded us of the simple and Christian principle of loving our families. On Sunday, we will consider this very principle too, and how it applies to building our households.

At the same time, there was a statement released this week about the Future of the Family. Endorsed by Christian leaders like Albert Mohler, Andrew Walker, Carl Trueman, and Eric Teetsel, along with other political conservatives, this new project aims to help households handle the barrage of technology undermining human nature and the goodness of families. You can find the website here, A Future for the Family.

What both of these anecdotes share is the way that Christians are responding to a world that has prized individual expression over familial bonds. Yet, long before we address these things with policies, programs, and political action, we need families filled with husbands and wives, along with children and grandparents recovering a vision of the good life that centers on the household. And I stress the word household, because of the natural productivity inherent to that word.

Truly, as God made a house (a temple) and a household (a dynasty), so he invites his image bearers to do the same. And in those households, he intends his redeemed people to do good works. Truly, the end goal of the Christian life is not more money, more freedom, or more fame. Rather, the goal is a fruitful house and a family that lives, moves, and has their being in communion with God and one another.

On Sunday, February 2, we will consider Psalm 127 and 128 to see God’s household in action. And my hope and prayer is that by looking at the vision of God’s household it will impel us to imitate God and to work for the good of our own households with concentric circles that reach to the end of the earth. That is the aim for Sunday, and I invite you to pray for help as we consider these truths together.

To prepare for Sunday, you might look at the links mentioned above or read Part 1 of Twelve Ways to Order Your Week by the Son. This was the promised application from last Sunday, and a preview of Sunday School on February 9. (This Sunday we have Great Commission Prayer). In all, the Lord has many things for us in this day. There are many good works he has put before us (Eph. 2:10). And by God’s grace, we pray he would confirm the work of hands, beginning with our worship on Sunday.