THE HOME

THIS WEEK: THE HOME (Ephesians 5:21-6:4)
• God has a specific design and directive for the home.
• The home sphere consists of the relationships and responsibilities within the home:
o Married, widowed, single, parent, grandparent, adolescent, child, siblings…
o Spousing, Parenting, Adulting, Childing, Financing, Working, Learning, Growing…

HUSBANDS AND WIVES:

Ephesians 5:21-33 (NIV) 21Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30for we are members of his body. 31“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
o Mutual submission: because of Jesus, not because of the other person’s performance
o Complementary roles: equal but different
o Like Jesus and the Church—that’s the model.

CHILDREN AND PARENTS

Ephesians 6:1-6 (NIV) 1Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2“Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise—3“so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” 4Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
o Children: Obedience through Jesus and like Jesus
o Parents: Leading and developing in love

SINGLES AND WIDOWS

1 Corinthians 7:8-9 (NIV) 8Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. 9But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

1 Corinthians 7:32-34 (NIV) 32I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. 33But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife—34and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband.
o Our identity is not in our marital status but in our relationship with Jesus.
o Regardless of the status we find ourselves, God calls it good. They all have pros and cons.

RESPONSIBILITIES IN THE HOME
• The Bible has much to say about being a spouse; parenting children; being a Christ-like single adult, adolescent, and child; the life of widowers; and how to manage the home, from handling finances to prioritizing time and relationships and working to provide for your family. It covers it all in one way or another, and most of the time, it is love others over yourself and put God first in all things. How do we have a healthy and godly home?
• It is in the Church and through the relationships in the Church that we learn how to be Christ-like in all these areas. We get better at home when we learn and practice through the Church.

CONCLUSION:
• God has a specific design and directive for what the home is to be and how we are to live as a part of it.
• The Church fills in the gaps and is where we learn to become Christ-like in the home.

QUESTIONS TO REFLECT AND DISCUSS:
Passages to consider: Ephesians 5:1-2,21-6:4; Matthew 7:24-27; Deuteronomy 6:4-6; Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
Icebreaker: What is something you have built, made, or created? Share about what you enjoyed about the process and what effort was needed.
• What passages or points where challenging/encouraging to you from the sermon?

1. Read Matthew 7:24-27 and Deuteronomy 6:1-10. What do these passages show you about relationship with Jesus and the home sphere?
2. What shapes your idea of how a family works? A) What have you learned about family from God’s Word and relationships in the Church?
3. Christ-follower homes are not just homes with parents and children. What relationships does your home sphere include? A) What does building a foundation and walls look like for you? What is challenging for you in bringing Christ’s impact to your home sphere? B) Roofs are important. Who, besides those you may live with, do you intentionally include in your family sphere?
4. In your family, how do you help each other abide with Jesus? If you are single, with whom do you have spiritual conversations where you are real, known, and challenged? A) How is your home life being impacted by your relationship with Jesus? How do you want it to be impacted?
5. How can we help each other grow in the health of our home spheres this year?

Bonus question: Sex, money, and the use of time are topics we often don’t discuss. The Journey of following Jesus impacts those areas, too. Which one of those areas needs to be brought more under Jesus’ priorities and perspective? What might that look like?