Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / "Faithful Unto Death: Practicing Faithfulness in the Home" by Charlie Roney

Transcript

"Faithful Unto Death: Practicing Faithfulness in the Home" by Charlie Roney · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

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  anything worthwhile to say, just go ahead and say it. You know,
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  we've got plenty of time tonight. In other words, I'm not in any
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  hurry. Appreciate you being here.
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  I hope you feel that way when we finish
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  the lesson tonight.
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  Neil called a meeting of a group of us. It's been
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  several weeks ago now and said
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  that he wanted us to do a series of lessons on faithfulness.
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  And so he called a meeting of several of us.
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  And one thing I noticed right away that everybody
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  who was in the meeting was white-headed. And so
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  of course, including myself. So he
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  was hoping that years of experience would be
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  able to take care of things and that
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  we could all speak on faithfulness and we'd all know just
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  exactly what we were going to do. But now that That may or may
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  not be the case, but I appreciate
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  the opportunity to come. My wife and I moved to Bowling Green in June
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  of last year, and shortly after that,
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  we placed membership with this congregation,
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  and we're so glad that we did, and we're glad to be here, and glad
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  for all of the encouragement and all that has been given
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  to us. My topic tonight, the overall
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  topic for the series is Faithful Unto Death,
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  Being Faithful Throughout Life. And my topic
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  tonight is Practice Faithfulness in the Home.
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  There are 2 things I want to do tonight.
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  I'm sort of going out on a limb on part
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  of this, but hopefully it'll all work out.
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  I want to tell you about a family that
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  is not a perfect family, but a
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  family that certainly, if there were such thing
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  as the Hall of Fame of families,
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  they might be in it. I won't
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  mention any names, although I might accidentally,
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  but not on purpose. Because I
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  don't think it's important as to what the names are.
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  What is important is what these people stood for
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  and what these people have accomplished with their life.
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  And the reason that is important and the reason that
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  may be something outstanding is because,
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  as all of us know, there are so many families that
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  don't have hardly anything to brag about.
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  Things haven't gone well. Things aren't going well
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  today. Possibly things are not still
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  going to go well in the future in
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  their lives. But I want to tell
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  you about a family tonight. I'm gonna
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  tell you part of the story to begin with, and then the rest
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  of the story at the end of the class tonight.
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  This family that shall remain nameless is
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  a family that I'm holding up to you as not
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  a perfect family, but an ideal family.
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  Not because of their family name, and not because of the
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  church of which they are a member, but because
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  they provide for us, it seems to me, a great example
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  as to what a family ought to be.
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  There was a husband and a wife in this family,
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  of course, and this husband and
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  wife had 4 children.
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  All 4 of their children
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  became members of the church, and their parents, of course,
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  were members of the church also.
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  Another interesting aspect to this story is
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  that all 4, or 3 out of the 4,
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  get it right, 3 out of the 4 married
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  Christians. And I'm gonna tell you the
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  rest of the story, at the end of the lesson
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  tonight. Did they all succeed
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  as parents, or were they an absolute
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  failure as parents?
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  But I want to look at several other things tonight.
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  I want to look first of all at our subject that we've been assigned
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  of practicing faithfulness
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  in the home, it seems to me that there are some preliminary
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  considerations we need to make regarding
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  this topic. We need to ask ourselves
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  the question, am I a member of
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  Jesus' church? Another question
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  we ought to ask is, did I
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  marry a member of Jesus'
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  church? Another question:
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  Did I encourage my children to marry a
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  member of Jesus' church?
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  These questions are too important for us to leave to chance,
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  but yet the reason there have been many problems
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  in many homes today is because Sometimes
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  people have chosen that path.
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  Well, I didn't have any help selecting my husband and they don't
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  need any help selecting theirs.
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  But yes, they do. And yes, it is
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  important. And yes, it is something that is going to
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  have a bearing on their life for the rest of their life.
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  On this earth. And when you are making a
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  decision that is that important, you need to
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  have all the help that you possibly can to
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  make the right decision and to make not only the
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  right decision, but to make the decision that
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  God wants you to make. Now,
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  how long has it been since you heard somebody say that about marriage?
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  You need to not only marry the right person,
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  you need to marry who God thinks is
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  the right person for you.
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  And I think we could solve a lot of our problems that
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  we have within the area of marriage,
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  within our homes,
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  if we could just step back Instead
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  of the old term of rushing into marriage,
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  if we could step back and
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  do all of the investigating we need to do,
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  ask all the questions we need to ask,
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  and then we need to make a selection of
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  who am I going to marry? And I think
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  sometimes in the zest of youth,
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  in their young years, they somehow sometimes
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  get married too soon, not necessarily age-wise,
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  but maybe they got married too soon because they
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  really weren't ready to settle down and
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  get married. I don't know how many times I
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  have heard in someone's conversation, well, it didn't work
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  out too well, but you know, they just weren't ready to get married.
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  And that's a very sad commentary on something that
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  is so important and something that is going to last so
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  long in a person's life, as who are
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  they going to marry. But I want us to
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  look at these preliminary considerations and
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  understand the questions that
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  we may ask now are extremely important
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  unto those who are involved in marriage.
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  Today, many parents are happy when their
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  children are dating someone And we think, well,
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  maybe they're going to get married. Or they're happy when
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  their children marry, and they describe
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  the marriage as they're married to a good Christian
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  man. 9 times out of 10,
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  when a person uses that expression,
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  they mean that they're
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  members of another religious group But that
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  doesn't make any difference. But it does.
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  Or they may say that to try to excuse
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  the situation or the circumstances around
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  that couple getting married.
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  But I think it is very important for us to seriously
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  approach the subject and to help
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  ourselves and help other families as they are involved in this
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  situation. A lot of families also
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  are happy that their children are going
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  to marry someone someday,
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  and they're happy that they're going to get married and not,
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  not going to be single.
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  Also, we see that people sometimes say,
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  Usually it means that,
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  talks about someone who is attending a church.
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  It sometimes talks about, you know, as if that is the only
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  one, if that is truly
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  the best church for anybody. The best
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  church for anybody is the church we read about in
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  the Bible. But a lot of times,
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  that kind of thinking doesn't enter into people
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  wanting to get married, and why they marry, and who
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  they marry. But it certainly
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  ought to be a part of the process.
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  Many times, when we make the statement that
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  our children are going to get married,
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  And someone maybe asks us who it is. And we
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  say, oh, they are a good person because they're religious.
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  Are they religious because they're a member of the Lord's church?
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  Or are they religious because they're a member of
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  a denomination? And I think for most of us that are
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  in this room, we can easily recognize the
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  difference, but young people don't always
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  recognize that difference. I think
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  it important that our children must be right when they are
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  teens and also when they are adults.
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  We must also ask ourselves the question,
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  is the Church of Christ important to
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  parents? Your children already
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  know the answer to that question because
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  they've heard the excuses that you've made or
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  might have made. And no, we can't
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  go to church on Sunday night. You know,
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  that's when 60 Minutes is on and we don't
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  want to miss 60 Minutes. And we
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  can't do both. There are all sorts
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  of situations like that that sometimes people face
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  within their lives.
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  We see also that an examination of
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  a person's home is important.
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  Is the Bible and prayer important to our family?
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  Does our family attend the services
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  of the church, or do we attend just on
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  Sunday morning? Now, I know I'm speaking to the Wednesday night crowd.
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  I haven't forgotten, but I wanted to throw that in because
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  that's so much a
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  part of the feeling in America today.
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  If I've gone to church on Sunday morning, I don't have
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  to worry about church the rest of the week. That's the
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  way too many people in our society behave about church,
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  regardless of whether it's a church member or whether it's
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  a member of some other religious group.
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  So we need to consider these things.
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  I also want us to take a look at the
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  Apostle Peter and the information
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  that he gives to us, first to
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  wives and then to husbands. Peter was a fisherman,
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  he was an apostle, he was a preacher,
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  he was a deliverer of the first gospel sermon.
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  He wrote 2 New Testament books, and he speaks
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  to us about the family in 1 Peter chapter 3.
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  He tells wives that they are submit to their husbands,
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  that the wives are to possess a gentle
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  and a quiet spirit, that family
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  members can be won to the Lord by
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  the conduct of the wife.
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  Wives are also told to do good and to not be
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  afraid. But on the other hand,
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  to husbands, Peter says, dwell with
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  the wife and dwell with her with understanding.
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  Give honor unto the wife. Be heirs together
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  of the grace of life, that your prayers
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  be not hindered.
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  I want to go back and look at this
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  family that I mentioned a few moments ago,
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  because I'm not trying to hold them up as
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  a super, super family or a four-star family.
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  But I think the record of what they have accomplished
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  as a family speaks for itself.
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  And that's the reason I mentioned these things tonight.
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  One of the son-in-laws in this family is
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  now an elder in the church.
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  When he came to know about the church,
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  he came and visited a service.
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  And then he came back another time
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  to visit again. He came to the service
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  with his girlfriend,
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  but when he got to the church service,
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  he saw another girl there,
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  who was prettier than the girl he was with.
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  I don't guess I have to finish the story, do I?
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  He married the girl that he thought was prettier,
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  and she was a Christian,
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  and she led him to Christ,
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  and he is now an elder in the church,
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  But there are other things that I think need to be considered in regard—
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  or said about this family.
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  This daughter who married
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  the elder,
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  she was a teacher for many years in a Christian
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  school. But later on in
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  life, she decided that she would resign
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  as a teacher in this Christian school and
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  take on another job, and that job
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  was teaching her grandchildren at home.
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  That takes a real commitment to
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  decide to do something like that, and I think
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  that she should be lauded for doing that.
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  There was also a female grandchild in
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  the family who became the church secretary.
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  The grandmother now lives with the
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  daughter and her husband because
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  she has gotten along in years.
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  I'm not trying to present to you today that this
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  couple, this family, is the perfect
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  couple, is the ideal.
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  But I am saying to you today that the record that
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  this couple has left behind for
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  her family and for other families to see and
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  to hear about is one that's worth
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  following. It's a record
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  that they ought to be extremely proud of,
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  and I haven't talked with them on an individual basis about
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  how they feel about that, because I didn't want to contact them
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  and let them know what I was gonna say tonight,
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  because they would tell me, oh no,
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  whatever you do, Don't say that.
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  And that's the reason I didn't want to use their names,
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  but I wanted us to be able to see
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  that it is possible for
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  a family to exist in
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  this day and time that can
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  be proud of what they're doing as parents.
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  Can be proud of what they have already accomplished,
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  can be proud of the things that yet they can do within
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  the future, whether it's with their children or
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  with their grandchildren. And as I got
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  to thinking about what I wanted to say here tonight,
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  I got to thinking about this family.
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  And I thought, you know, without bragging, and without setting
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  them up as the super, super, super family of 2016,
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  I think this presents an interesting illustration.
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  And the illustration is, it is possible to
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  have a Christian family in this day and time.
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  Yes, it does take time. Yes, it does
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  take commitment. Yes, it does
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  take having some bad days,
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  but probably having more good days than
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  bad days in family life,
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  because everybody is pulling in the same direction
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  when everybody's a Christian.
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  But when everybody's not a Christian, you've got
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  families torn here, there, and yonder.
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  And then we all scratch our heads and wonder, well, what happened?
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  Why did they break up? Why'd they go their separate
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  ways? Why didn't they find some way that they
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  could be reconciled? Once again.
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  But when the Lord is the Lord,
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  it makes all the difference in the world in a person's life.
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  Because as we go through the situations in
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  life, we see, well, I'm not gonna do
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  that. Well, why aren't you gonna do that?
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  Because God wouldn't want me to do it.
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  As you go through life and you see certain things
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  in the world or exposed to certain things in the world,
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  and you say, well, I don't wanna see that.
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  Well, are you too good to see that? No, I'm not too good to see
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  that. I just don't want that to have an influence
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  on me. I don't want it to
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  try to tempt me to do wrong.
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  I don't want it to cause me to
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  possibly deny that
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  I am a member of the Lord's church and
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  say maybe I've been a member of the church for so many years.
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  But I think our families are so important and
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  they're so necessary.
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  And I didn't start the families, God did.
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  And he knew exactly what he was doing.
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  And when he gives us the help and when he gives us the
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  encouragement and when he gives us the characteristics
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  of a good home in the Bible,
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  It's not there to fill up space.
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  It's there to help us, because every one of
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  us that have families, we need help.
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  We need the encouragement that the scriptures can give unto us.
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  And that's the reason that we need to teach our children and need to be
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  teaching our grandchildren about what the Bible says
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  about marriage. Because someday in the future,
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  our children and our grandchildren are
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  going to have to answer the question when somebody
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  says, will you marry me?
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  And are they going to be prepared to give the
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  right answer? And when that
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  no-good guy asks that question,
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  will they have the strength enough to say,
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  no, I will not marry you?
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  And when a Christian man that maybe they've known all their
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  lives asks them,
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  will you marry me? They will say yes.
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  I don't know whether I ought to tell this story or not. I hadn't gotten
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  permission, but When I asked my wife to marry me,
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  I didn't get the question all the way out.
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  I haven't figured out to this day what happened,
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  but she said yes before I finished the question.
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  And I thought under the rules of etiquette that you had to
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  let the guy finish the question before you gave the answer.
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  But it didn't work out that way, and I was just absolutely
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  shocked. When she said yes,
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  and I didn't have time to give any more thought as to the question,
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  about the question that I just asked. But anyway,
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  we all have our own stories about things that have
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  happened to us from time to time. But I think it is
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  so important, and I'm glad to have the opportunity
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  to be able to speak tonight,
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  and talk about practicing faithfulness within the
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  home.
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  Because this is something that needs to be taught
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  in our churches. And this is something that needs
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  to have an emphasis. And this is something that
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  needs to be told to the adults, needs to be
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  told to the teens, needs to be told to the young adults.
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  Because they are maybe closer to the situation in some
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  senses than what we are now at the age
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  that we are. But I'm grateful for
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  the opportunity to be able to say
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  these things tonight and to give you this example.
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  I think we all need to have examples to go
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  by. And I think this family that
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  I described to you tonight is a real
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  family. And this was
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  not some made-up story or some preacher's story.
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  This is what I viewed as what this
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  family was able to accomplish.
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  I don't know how many times that
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  the grandmother in this story showed
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  up in my office. I never kept a count,
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  but it would be a considerable number of times
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  she showed up in my office. And every
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  time she showed up, I knew
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  that she either needed help with something, or she needed
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  to be told how to straighten something out that
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  was happening within her family.
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  Because as a grandmother, she was very devoted to
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  her family, and she wanted her family to
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  be right, and she wanted her family to
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  go to heaven, and she wanted her family to
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  treat other family members the way that
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  they ought to be treated. And because
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  of that appreciation which she had,
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  she didn't have a lot of education,
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  certainly didn't have a lot of education other than practical education
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  about marriage. But she would come often
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  to me and described for me
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  the situation of what was going on with one
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  of her children, and wanted me to give her
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  the answer to her situation,
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  and help her to be able to go and talk to
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  that child and their
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  mate, and get things straightened out.
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  And that's the kind of grandmothers and mothers
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  and Christians that we need within this world today.
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  Not the kind that are filled with gossip and
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  are filled with tales, but the kind of people
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  that whenever there is a problem in the family,
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  and we don't know the answer, and we can't find the
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  answer in the Bible, we can go to other people
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  and can ask them, what should I do
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  in this situation? I have this situation
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  in my family, and I need some help.
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  And I've heard that many times.
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  And I may not have always had the right answer,
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  but I always tried to give an answer of
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  encouragement and of instruction as
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  to what needs to be done so that she could in turn help
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  her children and her grandchildren to have the
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  kind of marriage that they ought to have.
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  Next Wednesday night, Bill Dayton will speak on understanding
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  God's faithfulness.
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  And as the fellow says, I think I've shot my wad, so I'm going to
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  sit down and give everybody some extra time to
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  visit and talk to one another. But I appreciate your coming tonight.
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  Appreciate your doing such a good job of listening.
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  And I hope that this has been an encouragement to every one
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  of us to not only to understand that
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  God is concerned about what
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  goes on in our families, and that's the reason he gave
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  us instructions as to what to do and what not to do.
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  And he is willing to give us encouragement for
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  our marriages, if we'll pay attention to this divine
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  book that God has given to us as an instruction
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  manual for our lives, as well as an instruction
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  manual for our marriages.
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  Let's bow together in prayer as we conclude.
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  Heavenly Father, we are thankful for this opportunity to come
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  together and to discuss the subject of marriage.
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  That God would approve of. That is
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  the marriage that we all want. Hopefully, that's the
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  marriage that we all have. And maybe as a result
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  of our being here tonight, it better equips us to
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  be able to be of help to others,
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  others in our family, others in our friendship
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  circle, to help them deal
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  with the problems that may be facing them as
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  results of problems within a marriage. Help us,
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  as we should in every situation in life,
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  rely upon the Word of God, and that
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  he has presented an answer there for us,
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  if we will but seek the answer and follow it.
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  In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
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  Thank you for coming tonight.
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  Yes. Oh, you're welcome. You're dismissed.