Building stronger families: part 1

Part Two

Part Three

Building Stronger Families series

Proverbs 24:1-4
1Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them.
2For their heart studieth destruction, and their lips talk of mischief.
3Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established:
4And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

There are three tools available to help our families. How can we have strong families? Everything we need is found in the Word of God. He has offered to provide us with the wisdom we need:

James 1:5
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

Here are three powerful tools that God gives to build and strengthen our families:

1) The guiding presence of the Holy Spirit:

a) Because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we can have unity. God brings believers together, moving towards their commonality- GOD. If two believers are even opposite natures or personalities, if they are yielded to God, they will still always be going in the same (and right) direction- towards God and living a life that glorifies Him.

b) The purposes of the Holy Spirit:
1) He is our Comforter - John 14:16
"And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;"

2) He is our teacher: John 16:13-14
13Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. 14He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

3) He glorifies Jesus Christ - our lives should life up and exalt Christ; and they will if we will allow the spirit to guide us and we determine to be yielded to the spirit.

To Be Continued: Stay tuned for part two!

"That in ALL things he might have preeminence"
Sunday School Notes from April 27, 2008 (outline was provided)

Proverbs 16: Wise words, Anger

Proverbs 16
2All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits.

3Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established.

6By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.

7When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.

9A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.

13Righteous lips are the delight of kings; and they love him that speaketh right.

16How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!

20He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy is he.

21The wise in heart shall be called prudent: and the sweetness of the lips increaseth learning.

32He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.

Cool verses 4-13

Acts 3:
26Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

Acts 4:
12Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

13Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

31And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.

33And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.

Deuteronomy 18
10There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.

11Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.

12For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.

Deuteronomy 20 ("the company you keep ..." )
16But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:

17But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:

18That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God.

Proverbs 14
1Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.

14The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man shall be satisfied from {above} himself.

15The simple {naive} believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well {considers carefully} to his going.

16A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is {self} confident.

17He that is soon angry {quick tempered} dealeth foolishly: and a man of wicked devices is hated.

Cool verses 4-10

I thought this was an interesting cross reference for the passage in Galations about the ones who creep in unawares-

Deuteronomy 13
3Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

4Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.

5And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.

6If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;

7Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;

8Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:

I also like the emphasis of friends in this passage, as well. It shows even in the OT the Lord was cautioning us on who we should be allowing ourselves to be around, and even more important in who we allow our children to be influenced by. Do you agree?


Job 13
15Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.
16He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.

17Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears.

18Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified.

23How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.

(Amen!!) I should have read this last year ...


Proverbs 10
4He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.

17He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction: but he that refuseth reproof erreth.

29The way of the LORD is strength to the upright: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.

32The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable: but the mouth of the wicked speaketh frowardness.

Cool verses 4-8, 4-9

Matthew 28
20 "... lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

Proverbs 8
11For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.

13The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.

17I love them that love me; and those that seek me early {dilligently} shall find me.

21That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures.

32Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways.

33Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.

35For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD.

36But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul:

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Inheriting the wind

Sunday School Notes from 7-27-08, teacher R.S.

Proverbs 11:29-30
29He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart.
30The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.

Do you have a Christian family? Some cannot answer that question with a yes; because of that, when they make decisions for the Lord, it will naturally trouble his "house", his family. It is important to make the distinction that verses such as this are not speaking about troubling a house because of decisions for God, being a bad thing. NO, no one likes strife, and you want to live as peaceably as you can possibly live with all men. But we cannot shy away from making decisions for the Lord because the unholy in our "houses" might get upset.

On the flipside, what happens when a Christian in a family is the one who stirs up the strife? Oh that's not good at all, is it? We as Christians expect a higher level of behavior and standards from other Christians, realistically speaking. While we are all sinners, we are not to act like the ungodly. When we make decisions to follow the Lord in an area of our life, we are doing so in following His will for us, and other Christians should be in a position in their own walks to where they are able to support you, whether they would neccessarily make the same decisions as you or not.

What is family?
Well, if you are saved, you are part of the family of God. Usually you will be able to recognize your brothers and sisters in Christ in public, because there's a peace about them that surpasses normal, human understanding. I believe the verses above can apply to family in our home, and family as in the body of Christ. Sometimes within the body of Christ there seems to be people that others just do not want to listen to. I know in my own experience there have been people in whom I have tried to reach out to, to be a friend to, to counsel with, and they just do not want what I have to offer them. They may not even realize I see it, but it become obvious after a period of time, they did not want what I had. I have to say it hurt! Sometimes when we distance ourselves from our family, we are distancing ourselves from what our family has to offer us.

Proverbs 15:27
27He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house; but he that hateth gifts shall live.

"Inherting the wind"- lets discuss the charactristics of wind, shall we?
Sometimes you cannot tell which way the wind is blowing. Our teacher spoke about golfers who will take a few pieces of grass and toss them in the air to see which way they blow to be able to see which way the wind is blowing. Wind can be elusive, destructive, or restless- but one thing you can count of, it is always on the move! Do we really want to inherit that for ourselves? being tossed to and fro, never knowing what direction we'll be going next?

The fruit of the spirit- something we all should be fostering in our walks with God:
Galatians 5:22-23
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

We must be striving for fruit, and not heading in a direction where we would be inherting wind like characteristics. Homes should have order. Some homes have invisible problems, even though they appear to have order on the outside. They might be burdened, or heavy hearted. Do you pray about the problems in your home, or do you complain about the problems in your home to the Lord (and others)?

We should be happy and content with what the Lord has given us.

Numbers 23:27
27And Balak said unto Balaam, Come, I pray thee, I will bring thee unto another place; peradventure it will please God that thou mayest curse me them from thence.

King Solomon describes an unsettled home as a troubled home. What do you want to leave for your kids? I know we have a lot of work to do in our home if we are to leave a legacy of peace and order to our children!! A home inheriting wind will turn into a whirlwind, just like a hurricane builds speed.

Proverbs 11:29
"He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart."

The fool is always living for his sin, and rejects God's wisdom. Righteous people produce living fruit. If you had an apple tree tha did not produce apples, would you allow it to stay, or would you cut it down? Most people would cut it down in order to plant another tree in its place that would produce fruit. A wise person is a model for a meaningful life. People will reap the life they live in this world- no one sins and gets away with it. Your sin will always find you out, one way or another!

What sin do you have in your life that you have not dealt with yet? There are alwaus consequences for our sin, some consequences are bigger than others. Sometimes it takes years for those consequences to surface, but they will surface. When they do, it is going to hurt, too. The world is knocking on our door- we must strive to protect our families while reaching the world with the gospel of Christ.