Household Order
Pastor Gary Caudill ·
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Transcript
Genesis 1, 26, and God said, let us make man in our image. After our likeness, who is God talking to? The Trinity, the heavenly council, amen. Yes.
Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So, God created man in his own image and the image of God created he in, read the next part with me, male and female, created he them, it's an important part, verse 28, God blessed them and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and every living thing that moveth upon the earth. My focus being verse 27, the latter part, that you've quoted with me or read with me, male and female, created he then. Today my subject and my assignment
is to preach on household order. thank you to be seated in the presence of the Lord. About three weeks ago the Holy Spirit began to touch my heart to start preaching on order. Last week we we talked about, does anybody remember? Original order, that's right. That's right. original work, and we know that God being in charge as our creator is the one who knows why he created us. So it would do us a lot of good to get hooked up with him and find out why he put us here and what he would have us do, if you're with me, say amen. Amen. And so having said that, knowing that it all starts and ends with Almighty God, the Almighty Lord, There were some things that he began to set in order in the earth. There are three institutions you will discover if you study the Bible that God ordained. The institution of the family, the institution of government, and the institution of the church. And today we're gonna focus specifically because it's in historical order, the institution of the family, the household order. what did God do when he created a family and why did he do it? What is his purpose? What is his plan?
Before I get too deep into this, need I say that the world has got it all jacked up. Amen. Amen, brother. Our culture and our society and really every culture across the world has got the family all messed up. Because they start without God. And you cannot start without the original order
in your life. Amen. And God is the one who invented the family. So he's the one who can speak with authority on what the family's supposed to look like. Now today, a man will marry a man, quote unquote, and they will adopt a child because they can't reproduce and they will call that a family, but not according to the word of God. Right. Because the way God designed a family, it is one man and one woman for life, raising children in the nurture and in the admonition of the Lord. Now don't make me preach this by myself this morning. Amen. I'm with you brother. Now, I'm not starting off just to try to stir up a fight, but I am fighting against the devil who is doing his dead level best
to knock everything out of divine order, because when he knocks it out of divine order, it produces chaos and it gives Satan the advantage over your life. Amen. And we need to fall under subjection and submission to the order that God divinely orchestrated in the beginning. If we want to find peace and fulfillment in this life, not only this life, but in that which is to come. Somebody say amen. So having said that, I want to try to break this down and there's a lot in here. I don't even know if I'll get it all done today, but we're going to give it our best, amen. We want to look verse number 26 where it says, God said, let us make what? Men. Man in our image now I do not think that this is
This means that if if we set ourselves up against God that God would have the physical Characteristics that we have but the Bible says God is a spirit And and so what God did is he created us with a Spirit and he created us with a God consciousness. He created us with intellect. He created us with creativity like he has. He created us with freedom like the free will and free speech and then he also made provisions and give us raw materials and it's these things that God gave us when he created man and by those we are to to rule and reign in the earth.
And so it's not your physical strength, it is your spiritual strength. And when man fell into sin, you remember the story, his spirit died that same day. And ever since then, every man, woman, boy, and girl is born into sin. Their spirit is dead until it is made alive by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Until that day, your spirit is disconnected from your creator. That's why you can read the Bible and say, it makes no sense to me. It's not gonna make sense to you until you get hooked up
and your spirit is made alive by the spirit of Christ. Are you with me? Say amen. All right. And so God created us with intellect, creativity, freedom of choice, provisions and raw material so that we could go out and do what he said to do. And verse number 26, what did he say? He said, let have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. We were created to have dominion over the earth and not for the earth to have dominion over us. So when you are given to the weak and beggarly elements and you are falling to subjection to and you are stamped by and defeated by this world. You're living beneath your purpose and you need to find out why and how to fix it, amen. So we're going somewhere, I want you to follow with me.
This is what I call man's catalyst. This is where it all started and we see God's initial design and initial intentions and purpose and the assignment that God gave man. But, as some of you ladies will appreciate, if I might say this with a little bit of jest, God took one look at man and said, I can do better than that. I'm better a woman. I'm all ready to say amen. That's right. He said it is not good for a man to be alone. I don't think God ever made a mistake, but if you ever come close to making one, that was it. Amen. No, he didn't come close.
We're just having fun. But, you know, God initially, you know, if Jesus was slain before the foundation of the world, don't you know he had plans of making Eve before he ever made Adam? Amen. Nothing catches God by surprise. But man is not complete without the woman. Amen. God took one look at Adam and said, you're gonna need some help, boy. Amen. You're gonna need some help, that's right.
All right, now, let's go to verse 27. So God created man in his own image and the image of God created him. And then it says, male and female created he them. So notice that man is not complete without his wife. They too, the Bible says, shall be one. And so we are meant to complement and complete one another as husband and wife, not compete with and criticize one another. Do I need to repeat that? Yes. No. No. So we're not in competition. We're supposed to compliment one another. We're supposed to help one another, right? Yes.
All right, so note that the following scripture that I'm fixing to read you is the context for a Christian home living in Christ's likeness. The world who knows not Christ cannot and will not live by the verses that I'm fixing to read to you out of the book of Colossians chapter three, where the Bible says this. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord. We live in the aftermath of the of the mistake that is the women's liberal movement. Now I know I just made a bold statement,
I've got a lot of liberals coming after me right now. The women's lib movement became something that it should have never become. It became the fight to God's order. I have no problem with a woman getting a job, help them pay the bills when and if necessary. That's not what we're talking about. But when women insist that they are to live without any help or aid or intervention of the man, that they don't even need man, they have broke God's order and they've fallen into sin. Right. Amen. Because just as the man cannot do it without the woman, neither was a woman ever designed to do it without the man.
They were to be one flesh, to work together, to do more because one shall slay a thousand and two shall slay 10 ,000. And the devil is a liar trying to talk you into divorcing and splitting up because the devil knows as long as you're divided, you'll always fall. But fight for your marriage, fight for your family. Amen, be a man and provide and fight whatever you gotta do to make it work. But don't just get married with the idea, well, if it don't work out, it'll just be an easy fix. There's nothing easy about going into God's, and get going into disorder against the word of God. You will always pay more than you ever thought you'd have to pay.
Can I get an amen? Amen. Now I know that I'm speaking to a society where there's more of a mess than there is anything. That the Christian home as it is described in the Bible is a rare find these days it seems like. But though we need to quit looking at it simply because it's rare and most of us don't relate to it or do we need to continue to look at and draw from those principles that can be applicable to us to at least improve our lives and our walk with Christ more importantly from this day forward? That's right. We need to go back to the order, okay? So it says, why submit yourselves? Do we need to look that word up in the dictionary? Do you got it? See, if you got it, say I got it. Got it. All right. Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. Do you know what that's saying, gentlemen? That's saying don't be sharp with her. Don't be cruel to her. Don't be severe with her. It says love her. Amen. And if you want some backup, I got plenty more. Just hang on, honey. Let's go to Ephesians 5, wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. I know there's some thinking, well preacher, you don't know what my husband would ask of me.
It sure ain't pleasing to God. That's why it says as unto the Lord. Amen. Right. I don't believe and I don't think any preacher would believe that a woman should just completely abandoned the scriptures to be in submission to her husband if her husband's asking her to do wicked and sinful deeds with him. Again, this is the context of speaking to a Christian home with the assumption that they're striving to obey the commandments of the Lord. For the husband, verse 23 says, is the head of of the wife. Be quiet. Even as Christ is, you say, well, Lord help us if it doesn't, in my head, we're in
trouble. And I listen. If he's trying to follow the Lord, he's gonna make mistakes. Just like you wanna make mistakes. But we should strive to follow the pattern that's laid out in the scripture, there's a reason for this. Because you were designed to function best doing it God's way. You were designed to flourish doing it God's way. There was no other alternative that God created for you to follow that it would work better or be better for you. God gave you the pattern, God gave you the instructions. You ought to seek that path because God knows what's best for you and I. Because if the husband is loving the wife, as Christ loved the church, and if the husband is doing what God told him to do, the wife will be no happier than submitting to her husband's leadership as he follows the Lord. That's right, amen. Because he will be her protector, he will be her lover, he will be her financer. Can I get an amen ladies? Amen. He will be everything that you need so that you have no need of nothing because in Christ we have no need of nothing. That's right.
Verse 24, and I'd like to finish reading verse 23. Husband, the head of wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. Verse 24, therefore the church is subject unto Christ. Rather, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. thing. I'm just saying, ladies, if your husband is trying to serve God, you're not doing yourself any favors, bugging him all the time. Right. You're just bringing a curse on your family. Me and my wife have not been perfect, but we have put these principles to practice and when we have done so, they have worked. They have worked well. We made it a practice
as much as humanly possible, especially when the kids were younger, to not argue in front of them. If we had a disagreement we would do it behind closed doors so that the children never saw us against one another, in disagreement with one another. And if one of the kids had a propensity to go for one of us over the other, we would always check them by checking each other first. Why? Because there's proper order in the family and the children need to see that example. And there's order, there is success. When there's order, there's respect. When there's order, there's love. When there's order, there's peace. We sought to try to live by the book and to make an environment in the family that the children would want to hang out in even if they grew up and got careers
of their own. And I thank God that so far it's working. Elijah's still home and he's up 22 years old. Amen. He loves Sunday. He's moving out tomorrow. We're kicking him out of the No, he's going to start his career tomorrow. My point is my kids ain't no rush to leave home because home is a happy place. Home is a place that's orderly. Home is a place where we live by certain rules that God laid down and that's just what's expected so there's no confusion as to what we're gonna do today, what we're gonna do tomorrow. You see what God has laid it out? There's a very simple principle, but if we'll set our hearts to live by them, they'll iron out a lot of the wrinkles in our family lives. That's right. Amen. Is it gonna be perfect?
No, because we're all made of flesh. but at the very least let's attempt to do it the way God said to do it, amen? Now, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Men can shout about the women being in subjection, but before you shout too loud, you better make sure you're loving her like Christ loved the church. Amen. He's willing to give his very last drop of blood for her. Amen. There's nothing more miserable than a woman who's having to submit to a man that has no respect for her. Right. That has no kind of love or affection for her. That's just bossy and snappy and what was the scripture? Bitter, sharp, cruel, and severe. Don't make it hard on your wife. God's taking notes. That's right. You're right.
God's taking notes. She is the weaker vessel. And God judged harshly the enemies of Israel who would hit them in their weak points to take advantage of their vulnerabilities. And your wife is vulnerable already by nature of her physical weakness. She's weaker than you. She needs your strength. She doesn't need your rebuttals and your criticism and your anger and all of your frustration being dumped out on her because God judges you for taking advantage of and ignoring their weaknesses. They're fragile.
Here's the verse, 1 Peter 3, 7. This is a man's completion. You want to know how to have a complete life when you find a wife, the Bible says, he that findeth a wife findeth a good thing and obtain a favor of the Lord. Amen. Men who treat their wives like trash deserve to be bucked against. Right. Amen. I don't advocate it, but I don't blame her either.
Can I get an amen, men? Amen. All right. Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them. This is 1 Peter 3, 7. This is a very powerful verse. I'm going somewhere with this. This ain't with me. Likewise ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge. In simple country terms, you know what that means? Know what you've got. You better acknowledge her value. You want proof of that?
Just read on. Giving honor. What is honor? It means to see her intrinsic value. Yes. It means to treat her with dignity. It means to see her as precious. And ladies, you your shopping shoes on. This was in the definition. Money paid. Amen. Well, if we paid our wives what they were truly worth, what would we pay them? You'd be broke. Amen. Amen. I would too.
Now here's the thing. See, he is broke. You know, this culture has heavily criticized women who stay home to raise their kids. I can't believe you do that when you can build a career, you can make all kinds of money, you can do this, you can do that. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And let me tell you something. Have you done the math on what it costs to raise children in daycare? My wife may not draw a check, but she provides invaluable economic benefit to my family. Because if I had to pay ten other people to do what that woman's doing for my kids, I'd go bankrupt. So she is far more valuable at home to me and my family than she is trying to build a career. And she would agree with that. Are you with me? Say amen. Amen. Nothing wrong with that. We've got to rethink this thing. There's no surprise that the enemy is trying to bring disorder to the family. Trying to put undue pressure on one or the other of those spouses. I understand some people are in a where they have no control over what they've got to do. Don't take this personally. I'm just reminding us of what the original order was so that we can have a target to anchor us. right if and whenever applicable are you with me say yes all right so now it goes on it says
uh giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel uh i look the word weaker vessel up it means fragile and the phrase vessel is i think of household vessels what do you ladies do with your finest chinaware. You put it up, don't you? Preferably you display it in a glass case so that it's protected but also on display. In a china cabinet, exactly. Here's the illustration I want you gentlemen to get of your wives. She is fragile but that does not mean she is worthless. She is of such treasure that you would protect her as a lady will protect her best chinaware in her kitchen. And you wouldn't be ashamed to put it on display and let everybody see. But now you want to protect her. You know some of the most
pricey things in life are the most fragile things. Am I right? The purer the gold, the fragile the gold. Did you know that? That the mixed up in to make it strong enough for your for it to not, for it to endure abuse. The purer the gold, the more fragile, the more soft it is. Amen. Right. You know why she's a weaker vessel? Because she is of tremendous, intrinsic, immeasurable value. Amen. That's what God thinks of your wife. If you're smart, you can start thinking like God. Amen. Amen. Yep.
It means fragile, delicate, to be protected and handled with care. All right, now watch what it says. that's into the weaker vessel as being heirs together of the grace of life. That's your prayers, be not hindered. Never forget, men, that you're heirs together. What God has blessed you with, he's blessed her with. What God has blessed her with, he's blessed you with.
Amen. I personally don't understand. Uh, there may be practical reasons, but if it's for divisional reasons, I highly go, I'm highly against people who have separate bank accounts from their spouses, unless it's just a practical reason for it. But many do it because they're afraid that if they split up in divorce, at least they'll have their part. See, that's a spirit of division. That's expecting failure before it happens. The Bible says we're heirs together. Get in this thing like your life depends on it,
and you know what, me and Amy decided a few years ago because the Bible told us to do this, divorce is not in our vocabulary. It's not even an option. We don't even talk about it. Amen. Right. Amen. It's not an option, right? I know many of you are probably already divorced,
and I'm not judging you. Please don't take this the wrong way. but we've got to look at the original order to see where we got off. Right. And to see where we need to aim the next generation. Yes. And look, you can make the best of what you've got left. That's right. You may have made some mistakes, give it a little love and move on,
but do it right going forward. Can I get an amen everybody? Amen. We're just talking about household order according to Genesis chapter one. And God expects us to honor and cherish and value our lives. and if we do what the Bible says to do in 1st Peter 3, 7, I dare say the majority of women would have no problem following the leadership of their husbands. No problem. Amen. Amen. So did you think you'd catch on this morning? Oh, I'm glad I did, man. What's 1st 28 of Genesis 1 say? You got that, Chris? and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth as it doeth and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Okay, thank you.
So we saw man's catalyst in verse 26, we saw man's completion in verse 27 with the formation of the marriage. And I always say man's conception. This implies that it is through our successors that we are able to subdue or conquer the earth. That God does not mean for it to start and finish with you as a couple. And this is where Colossians really went off the rails. We have neglected our children. We have abused our children. We treated them like an inconvenience or worse than cancer. And in some cases, many of them have been killed before they had a chance to see the first light of day, because it's always about me, myself and I, what empire I want to build for myself.
And would you know, statistically, that most abortions today are a result of convenience and not other matters that they use to try to justify making it legal. Amen church. Amen. But god said there's some blessings that you're only going to get when you are fruitful and multiply and you raise your children in the nurture and admonition of the lord. You want to know what the fastest growing religion in the world is right now? It's the islams. You know partly why that is? Because they're overpopulated. That's right. They raise their kids to believe what they believe. And they have a lot of them. Meanwhile, the Western Christian Church wants 2 .1 children and no more. Amen. That's the average, I think, it used to be.
I know you can't have 2 .1 kids, but you get what I'm saying. Here's my point, God's original order was that if you'll raise your children under my guidance, under the Lord's guidance, the sky's the limit of what you can accomplish in the earth. God will bless you with favor. What did God do when he decided to bless Abraham? He decided to bless Abraham's seed. And now there's an old nation and they've got their own country. Are you listening to what I'm saying? If the Christians want to start winning in society again, the Christians are gonna have to get it right with their kids. One of the biggest problems we have in evangelical Christian quote unquote homes today is that by the time the kids reach 18, they don't want nothing to do with God or church. What's the problem? You're never gonna win the battle by forsaking your children and not raising them right. Right, amen. And so I never forsook my children. I made sure they had the best of everything. Did you?
What is your definition of best? When the Bible says, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. I'd rather my sons have to buy their shoes from Walmart for the rest of their life, but have a love for Jesus, than to have all the Tommy Hill figures and all the brand name stuff and don't know nothing about the God of heaven. We better prioritize correctly. Thank God for Walmart. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. Listen, Listen, it's all about priority. Is there anything wrong with the kids having nice things? No.
No, as long as those nice things don't happen to them. And as long as those nice things don't happen to you. Amen? I remember going through this process with Elijah praying about what to do for college and all of this back several years ago. Elijah got a call from God on his life to preach. and many would have advised him to go to Bible college. And you know, there's that inclination to think, well, if I go get a career and a degree like Elijah did, am I putting the world first or am I putting God first? And a lot of times there's a clash in the church. We don't understand where our limits are. And we think that if we're too successful, we're not godly. And we think if we're too godly, then we shouldn't be successful. And I'm here to tell you, you can have both as long as God is always first in your heart and life. That's right. Amen. Amen. You can. You can have both. If you don't believe me, you want to know who the richest person in the universe is? God. If wealth was sinful, then God's the greatest sinner of them all. Amen. But wealth is not sin. It's the love of money. Right. When you put your money before God, And when you put your children's education and their ball games and all of their fun stuff and activities, all that before their spiritual growth and development, then no wonder they're checking out. Because if you don't see church as important, then neither will they when they get old enough to make their own calls. Right. I'm talking about household work. My daddy didn't have much, still don't. But you know what he does have? An undeniable and unbreakable love for Jesus. I'm sure glad that when daddy didn't have a lot of money to give me, he Jesus. Yes. Because you know what I see God doing? He's raising up some young men that I'm so proud of. And I give God the glory, and I know every one of these young men are sinners. They're not angels. They have the ability to break my heart tomorrow, and I pray it never happens, but I realize that that's the reality. But here's my point.
I'm telling you what God did, and I know it's going to sound like I'm bragging, but I'm bragging on God. God prepared me for such a time as this so that I could speak with experience and proof and not just be a theory. My son graduated, what is it called, Magnum Cum Laude? God blessed him to where he got 100 % academic scholarships and even have money left over to buy his food, his books, and the car that he drives today and don't have a dime of student debt with a four -year major college degree. Fixing the work for those students today, you cannot tell me that putting God first don't lift your life. When you do it the Bible way, the Bible will see through it that what God said comes to pass. the house on order. I give every, all, and any credit of success in our life to what the Bible has instructed us to do. Right. Because if we had not followed the leadership of the Lord and the guidance of the scriptures, we would not be in the position we're in now. Do we have struggles? Oh yes, you better believe I've got some struggles. I don't have enough time in the day and you wouldn't care to hear it all. That's true. But I've got joy down deep in my soul that this world didn't give and the world can't take away. Amen. And I got a peace that passes all understanding and I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day and the Bible says he that began a good work and you shall perform it to the day of Jesus Christ and I know that even though I have problems I have a savior that's bigger than any problem that I've got and I'm not going to give up on the old time way because the old time way has given me anything valuable and precious that I have in my life. And I want to just make a public announcement to the devil into this culture that my life and my choices and the way of this book is not for sale. Thank you very much. You know what, we got to get back to the old man's everybody stand your feet. I've got more to say, but I'll have to say it next week.