A Christian Home

Text: Ephesians 6:1-4; Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Series: Restoration Sermons

Date:

Speaker: Ed Rangel

Location: Waupaca Church of Christ

Bible Version: NASB 1995

Sermon Type: Expository

Learning Objectives

By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:

1. Identify the Christian home as one of two God-ordained institutions alongside the church.
2. Understand what God requires of parents: being Christians themselves, nurturing children in the Lord, and discipling deliberately.
3. Describe the specific duties of children toward parents — obedience, honor, and worship.
4. Recognize that every child is entitled to a Christian home, and that parents who withhold this have robbed their children of something irreplaceable.
5. Commit to keeping a steady flame of godliness burning in the home, not just at the church building.

Thesis

The Christian home is God's nursery and training school — the first and most influential church any child will ever attend — and its success depends on parents who are Christians first and children who are taught to obey God through obeying their parents.

Burden

God established two institutions: the church and the family. He wrote the instruction manual for both. The church can be faithful in its assembly and still fail if the homes that supply it are godless. Conversely, a generation of children raised in homes where the Bible is read, prayer is heard, and both father and mother are committed to Christ will produce a strong and lasting church. The outline puts it bluntly: every child is entitled to a Christian father and mother. A child whose parents are not Christians has been robbed of something they had a right to — and only their parents can give it back.

Introduction

There are two God-ordained institutions: the church and the family. The church does not exist to replace the home, and the home does not exist to replace the church. They are complementary — each designed to accomplish what the other cannot. The success of the church depends, in large part, on what happens in Christian homes from Monday through Saturday. This sermon develops in three movements: the nature and state of the home, the duties of fathers and mothers, and the duties of children.

I. The Home

A. The fundamental unit: husband and wife, father and mother, children.

1. God established this order in creation: "A man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife" (Gen. 2:24).
2. Sin and death have marred so many homes — divorce, neglect, abuse, loss, rebellion. Every home carries the marks of the fallen world.
3. But the design has not been revoked. The home God designed is still the home God blesses.

B. For the home to function, all its members must work harmoniously.

1. The greatest happiness available in a home is not found when each member pursues his own interests but when each serves the others.
2. Paul's instruction runs in every direction: husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, children — not one party is exempted from responsibility.

C. The home is God's nursery — His training school.

1. "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it" (Prov. 22:6).
2. Each member of the family reflects the influence of the home. A child does not arrive at his character from nowhere — it is formed by what he sees, hears, and absorbs in the first years of life.
3. A home where God is not present, the Bible is not read, and prayer is not practiced is not simply neutral — it is training its children in something. The question is what.

D. The home is neglected today.

1. The church meeting can compensate for some things, but it cannot compensate for an absent or godless home.
2. An hour or two per week at the church building cannot undo seven days of the world in the home.

II. Duties of Fathers and Mothers

A. They must be Christians themselves.

1. The first and irreducible requirement: parents cannot give what they do not have.
2. Every child is entitled to a Christian father and a Christian mother. This is not a nice-to-have — it is a debt owed to the child.
3. If the parents are not Christians, the children are robbed of the most important influence in their formation. No one can give that back to them except the parents themselves.

B. They must nurture their children in the Lord.

1. "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4).
2. The word is paideia — training, education, formation. It is not incidental or passive; it is a sustained, deliberate process.
3. What this looks like in the home:

a. Talk more of God and Christ in the home — not just business, sports, and the concerns of this world.

b. Read the Bible in the home — not only at church, but as a regular household practice.

c. Pray in the home — out loud, so children hear it. Some children grow up never once hearing their father pray. That absence speaks louder than words.

C. Fathers must shoulder their portion.

1. the direct statement: "Father, help mother; why should she bear the burdens alone?"
2. The spiritual formation of children is not a mother's task delegated from the church — it is a joint responsibility, with the father bearing the primary weight (Eph. 6:4 is addressed to fathers).
3. A father who attends church but never prays in his home, never reads the Bible with his children, and never talks about Christ at the dinner table is failing his family's spiritual formation regardless of his church attendance.

D. Parents must help each other and train together.

1. Christians cooperate in every other area of kingdom work — why not in the most important one?
2. Pray for each other. Encourage each other. Agree on the spiritual direction of the home.
3. "A steady burning flame of zeal for God must be kept in the home" — the phrase. Not occasional revival bursts but a steady, sustained, daily warmth.

E. This is the greatest work beneath the stars for parents.

1. No achievement in business, community, or even church ministry exceeds the importance of raising children who know God.
2. The home is the first church, the first school, and the most formative community any person will ever inhabit.

III. Duties of Children

A. Obey your parents.

1. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right" (Eph. 6:1).
2. "Honor your father and mother" is the first commandment with a promise (Eph. 6:2-3).
3. Note Paul's qualification: "in the Lord." This is not absolute obedience — it is obedience within the framework of God's authority. When parents ask children to do what God forbids, the child's primary obligation is to God. But outside of that exceptional case, obedience to parents is obedience to God.

B. Disobeying parents is a double sin.

1. It is sin against the parents. It is also sin against God, who commanded the obedience.
2. "You disobey God when you disobey them — a double sin" — the phrase is exact.
3. A child who treats parental authority as negotiable has not yet understood that authority flows from God and cannot be casually set aside.

C. Honor them and God will bless you.

1. "That it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth" (Eph. 6:3).
2. The promise is not merely personal longevity — it is the blessing that comes from right ordering. A person who has learned to submit rightly to parental authority has learned the posture of submission that carries over into his relationship with God.
3. Honor them means more than obedience — it means treating them with dignity, gratitude, and love, especially as they age.

D. Go to church and learn to worship God.

1. The child's role in the assembly is not passive attendance; it is active learning.
2. "The Bible will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from the Bible" — the proverb. Both halves are true and worth teaching to every child.
3. A child taught to find the church building joyful and the Bible familiar will carry those patterns into adulthood. A child taught indifference to both will likely live it out.

Application

The immediate application is for parents: are you giving your children what they are entitled to? They did not choose their parents or their home. They are there because God placed them there, and they are dependent on you for the single most important formation of their lives. The question is not whether you provide food and clothing and education — those are the minimum. The question is whether they hear prayer in your home, whether the Bible is part of your daily conversation, and whether they see their parents living as though God is real and His word is true. If the answer is no, the correction starts today.

For children and young people: the obedience your parents ask of you is not arbitrary. It is the practice of a posture that will serve you before God your whole life. Honor them. Obey them in the Lord. And when the day comes that you build a home of your own, build a Christian one.

Conclusion

Two institutions: the church and the family. The church's strength flows from the homes that supply it. The home is God's nursery, God's training school, the most formative environment a human being will ever inhabit. Parents must be Christians themselves, nurture their children deliberately in the Lord, and sustain a steady flame of godliness in the home every day of the week. Children must obey their parents in the Lord, honor them, and learn to worship God. Neither party has a passive role. Both are called to active, faithful work in the institution God designed.

Invitation

If your home is not yet a Christian home — if you are not yet in Christ yourself, and your children are watching you live as though God does not matter — today is the day to change that trajectory. Come to Christ. Hear the word, believe, repent, confess His name, and be baptized for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38). You cannot give your children a Christian home from outside of Christ. Come in. If you are a Christian parent who has let the fire in your home grow cold — who has trusted the church building to do what only the home can do — come to God for renewal today. Come as we sing.

Word Study

Scripture Interlock Table

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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 73. Doctrinal audit: core framework; father's primary spiritual responsibility in the home (Eph. 6:4) named without diminishing the mother's role; "obey your parents in the Lord" qualification correctly noted — not absolute obedience, but obedience within God's authority structure; no egalitarian softening that removes the father's particular leadership responsibility; invitation calls to full obedient response (Acts 2:38). No OCR problems. Raw split extracted from source PDF page 73.

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