How to Make a Home Beautiful | Part 2

What's our highest calling as believers?

Listen to Adrian and the other people who are watching, especially to the young ladies. What are you going to be? What are you going to do? What are you going to be?

And if she says, Well, I want to be a wife and a mother. A what? Like that's some sort of a failure. Oh, what a waste.

Friend, that is not a waste. That is the highest, deepest, sweetest, fullest, most meaningful thing that you can do, is to have a Godly, Christian home. Welcome to Love Worth Finding, featuring profound truths, simply stated by Adrian Rogers. On the topic of Biblical truth, Pastor Rogers said, Some people use the Bible as a club rather than a sword. And so we need to do that which is becoming to sound doctrine, that which adorns the doctrine of God. So we need sound doctrine. And we also need to understand the importance of a Godly Christian home to live out what we believe.

Our families are facing a lot of enemies that threaten to drain us of our splendor. The key to a beautiful home is the wife and mother. If you have your Bible, turn to Titus 2, as Adrian Rogers gives the powerful conclusion of how to make a home beautiful. A beautiful home. You know, the key to a beautiful home is the wife and mother.

So I want to talk to you about what the Bible has to say about being a Godly mother and helping that mother to have a beautiful home. Now, as we talk about a Godly woman who makes her house beautiful, her home beautiful, I want you to see about what I'm going to call the legacy that she is to leave. She is to be teaching the younger children. She is to set an example for the younger people. And how is she going to do that?

Verse 3 says, First of all, with some good old-fashioned holiness, in behavior as becometh holiness. This speaks of the way she lives. It just speaks of her lifestyle.

And she is to be Godly in her speech. Gossip is a disease. They get worse with age. And some of the worst gossips are older people. There is something very ugly about a home that is not a holy home in a home that is filled with slander and gossip. And a woman, a Godly woman, who is to leave a legacy, she is to be holy. She is not to be a scandal monger. And she is not to be addicted to substances. And certainly the spirit of this would include cigarettes and pills and diet drugs.

Anything else that is addictive. Not only is she to set an example for the younger women, we're talking about the legacy she is to leave for the younger women, but she also must teach them. Look again in verses 4 and 5 that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chase keepers at home, good. The word good literally has the idea of values. It means family values.

You know what we need in America today? Some Godly grandmamas and some older women who are going to be teaching these younger women to be homemakers. You mothers and you grandmothers and you ladies in the church who have experience. Somehow we need to get you with these younger women.

Look at verse 5, verse 5, verse 6, verse 7, verse 9, verse 9. She will leave by setting an example and by teaching. But the love that she is to learn. Now what are the older women to teach the younger women?

Look at it, verse 4 that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chase keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. Did you know that you're to teach the younger women to love their children? One of the great new ways of teaching younger women needs today is for mothers to love children. The radical feminists have taught women today that having a career is perhaps more important than being a homemaker, and material goods are more important than children. Psalm 127 says low children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is His reward. We have a generation today that looks at children as burdens rather than blessings.

Being a homemaker is not easy, not glamorous, but ladies and young ladies, I want to tell you there is no higher calling. Fathers have influence on their children, but mothers make the greatest impression, and that is a fact. Now, the Bible teaches that the older women are to teach the younger women to love their children, and number two, to love their husbands.

Now, if she can be taught to love her husband, that means that she can love her husband. And we're talking about love. We're not talking about soap opera love. If you're watching those soap operas, my advice to you is cut it out. All that is about is sex and immorality and perversion. That's all it's about.

And you watch that long enough, and you're going to become suspicious. You're going to be wondering, you know, I wonder if my husband is living that way. Love your husband. Mrs. Bitter Graham said, it's your job to love your husband.

It's God's job to make him good. And so you think of the legacy she's to leave, and you think of the love that she's to learn. This is what she's been taught. Now let's shift gears and think a little bit about the lifestyle that she is to live. Verse five, here's her lifestyle.

She's to be discreet, chaste, keeper at home, good, obedient to her own husband, that the Word of God be not blasphemed. Now what does the word discreet mean? Well, the word discreet means sober-minded. It means serious. It means sensible.

It means using good judgment. She's going to use good judgment in her shopping, in her nutrition, bookkeeping, decorating, in her physical culture. The Bible says when you find a wife, you find a good thing.

She'll do her husband good and not evil all the days of her life. And then look, not only discreet, but chaste. The word here means pure, not sexy, not foxy, chaste. Young lady, keep yourself pure and save yourself for the one you're going to marry. Go to the marriage altar a virgin. Make that your purpose.

Save yourself for the one that you're going to marry. And the older women need to be teaching the young women this. We have mothers today who are giving their daughters advice and birth control pills and all of these things.

I can't believe that. You're to teach them just the opposite, to be pure, to be chaste. And don't think that the high school is going to do it.

The junior high school is going to do it. The last place on earth these kids need to learn about sexual morality is in secular schools. Listen, our moral sexual education will never work for good, always only for harm, if it is not based with morals and Bible proof. And you better see to it that your kids understand what the Bible teaches. Teach them to be discreet, to use good judgment. Teach them to be chaste, that is to be morally pure. And teach them to be keepers at home. Does that mean she can't go out of the house?

No. This Greek word comes from a word that literally means to be a housekeeper, that is a worker at home. It comes from two words, one meaning house and the other means to work. That means that her major responsibility is to keep the home. Now we have about 50 million working mothers in America today, and approximately one out of every three mothers with children under three hold a full-time job. But being a homemaker is a full-time occupation. And I've said it often, my heart is out, my head is off to women who have to work. But if you're working in order to have a bigger house, a finer vacation, a nicer car, and not spending time with those children, especially when they're little, you're making a terrible mistake.

First Timothy 5, verse 14, Paul says, I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. The mothers to be the queen of the home, there is no higher calling and no greater career than to be a homemaker. You say, well we need that extra income. Everybody today has these two incomes and we've got in our lifestyle where we need that extra income.

Well be very careful that you evaluate need correctly and be very careful that you do your book work to find out just how much your wife may be making. I was reading where a Chicago firm made a study and concluded that after all the added expenses and overhead are taken away, only about 10% of the working mother's wages remain. Only about 10%.

Now that may be a very expensive 10%. And you say, well Adrian, what do you know about it? You haven't had that experience.

Well, I think I have. I worked my way through college and through seminary. Joyce and I lived from hand to mouth, God's hand to our mouth. We got married after our first year in college. We'd been grade school sweethearts, high school sweethearts. We felt it was time to get married. And I had not quite reached my 20s, but we got married and I was working my way through school. Joyce was in school, her father was paying her tuition.

But we just decided that we're going to start a family. We're going to work. And I worked at many jobs. I worked as a fruit packer. I worked as a busboy. I worked as a butcher, carpenter's helper, elevator mechanic, used car salesman. I was good at that.

Working, inspecting houses for termites. I want to give you a testimony. For seven years, seven years of getting an education, raising a family, my wife was able to stay home with the children and I was able to finish the school, able to graduate without owing anybody anything by trusting the Lord and tithing and working. It wasn't easy. It was worth it. And I wouldn't take anything for letting Joyce be home with our little ones while we were going through school. Now, we could have had some things that some of the other people had, but we didn't have them.

I wore hand-me-down clothes and we worked hard. But God honored that. And I'm glad that we did that. I don't say it boastfully.

Not everybody can do that. God was good to us. We didn't have anything extra. We were like many young couples. We had to get that check down to the bank each week. But God blessed and God honored. And I just believe that if at all possible, a woman is to stay home. Now listen, you need to understand that this does not limit a woman.

Read Proverbs chapter 31. You're going to find out that a godly woman's activities include travel and commerce and agriculture and investments in property and charity, but she does not neglect her household. How do you measure how much outside interest a woman is to have?

In my estimation, here's the way you measure it. And it's very simple. Does her outside work contribute to the home or detract from it?

It's just that simple. Does the thing that she's doing, whatever it is, read Proverbs chapter 31, and see does it contribute to the home or detract from the home? The home is the center, the most important part of our lives. This may seem like heresy to you, but my home is more important to me than this church. And if I had to choose between this church and my wife, I wouldn't have to think about it. You can get another pastor.

I've got one wife. The Bible says that if a man is a pastor, one of the prime requisites for being a pastor is a successful family. That is, if you're not doing it at home, don't stand in the pulpit and export it. And what we need to understand is that it is not business. It is not education. It is not recreation. It is not government. It is not the church.

It is the home that is the basic unit of everything, and therefore all of the artillery of hell is leveled against the home. And our kids, many of our kids going off to college, everybody asks them this question, especially to the young ladies. What are you going to be? What are you going to do? What are you going to be?

And if she says, well, I want to be a wife and a mother. A what? Like that's some sort of a failure.

Like you've missed it. If you want to be, oh, what a waste. Friend, that is not a waste.

Not a waste. That is the highest, deepest, sweetest, fullest, most meaningful thing that you can do is to have a godly Christian home. Teach these young women to be homemakers, keepers at home.

This is what it says. And then next it says teach them to be good. Now the word good here doesn't mean not doing bad. What it literally means is to be kind-hearted, not just morally straight. Every home needs a heart, a person with a good heart, not someone who is hateful and sharp. The law of kindness needs to be in her mouth. And then she is to be taught to be obedient to her husband. Now right now I'm going to say something that is very politically incorrect, but it is biblically true. Just take your Bible and look at it, verse 4, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands. You know there are people who want to take the word obey out of the marriage ceremony. Sometimes when I perform a marriage I look out and when I say to the wife that she is to say to her husband that I will be obedient. You look at the head snap. Did he say that?

Good night. Doesn't he realize this is the 21st century? How could he say such a thing? No, she is to be obedient to the husband. That doesn't mean the husband is the dictator. It means that the husband is to give loving leadership to the home. We talk about chain of command.

It's not so much a chain of command as it is the acceptance of responsibility. And submission is not subjugation. A husband is not some sort of a top sergeant in the home using the Bible as a club to beat his wife with.

That won't go. A man said, I used to subscribe to the theory of male superiority, but my wife canceled my subscription. The husband is not superior to the wife. I am not superior to Joyce. I say this without equivocation. In many ways she is superior to me. She made better grades than I made in school.

I already told you she beat me in the better speakers tournament. But she is to be in submission obedient to her own husband. Paul explains this in another place in Ephesians 5. Verse 22, wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands. By the way, that word own is the word idios, your idiot husband. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands. It means special husband as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife. Now here is the parallel. Listen to it.

Don't miss it. Even as Christ is the head of the church and He is the Savior of the body, a husband is to be to his wife what Jesus is to the church. Now this is not for her punishment.

It is for her protection. 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 3, But I would have you to know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. Now notice this line here. God the Father, God the Son, the man, the woman. Now just as God the Son is under God the Father in the Holy Trinity, the woman is under the man in God's scheme of things.

It does not mean inferiority. If you know Bible theology, you know that Jesus Christ is co-equal, co-eternal with God the Father, not inferior. But there is in the Holy Trinity this line, I would have you to know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. Now because God the Father is the head of Christ the Son, it does not mean that Christ the Son is inferior to God the Father.

No woman is inferior to a man. Galatians 3 verse 28, For there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. We're all one in Christ, but still God has given this line of responsibility in the home. And this needs to be taught.

It's not being taught today. And a woman who rebels against this is going to have trouble. She's going to have trouble first of all with God. And if you have a rebellious spirit toward your husband, your problem is not primarily toward your husband, it's toward God. But not only are you going to have a difficulty with God, you are going to have difficulty with your husband. Rather than being his Completer, you're going to become his Crippler. And then you're going to have trouble with your children.

Because if you're not under the headship of your husband, you're not going to be able to have authority, spiritual authority with your children. A woman who cannot learn to be under authority can never be trusted with authority. And then she's going to have trouble with herself. She's not going to have her deepest needs met. Submission does not remove freedom. When is a train more free?

When it's on the train tracks or running through the meadow? When you get on God's plan, begin to obey the Word of God. You're going to find out that God will give you incredible liberty. And so in these verses here, how to make a home beautiful, how to adorn the doctrine of God, that which becomes a sound doctrine, that which is becoming. A woman is to learn these three things. There's the legacy that she is to leave. She's to teach the younger women. There's the love she's to learn. She's to learn to love her children and to love her husband. And there's the lifestyle she is to live.

I don't know how we've gotten so far away. To live any other way is to blaspheme the Word of God. Look at the last part of verse 5. The Bible says, do this, that the Word of God be not blasphemed. Somehow we've gotten a generation that thinks it's smarter than God.

But even a casual look around will tell you there's something very, very wrong in today's world. I submit to you when all else fails, read the directions. There it is, the Word of God. Maybe you needed to hear that word today with something you're going through.

When all else fails read the directions, which is in the Word of God. That's an inspiring and challenging word and a comforting one as well. You know, at Love Worth Finding, we love hearing how the ministry and the messages of Pastor Rogers have inspired you in your own faith journey. If you can go online to lwf.org slash my LWF story and submit your own testimony. Or you can read others who have shared their stories. We often select these stories and share them throughout our Love Worth Finding community.

And we'll always protect your privacy if that's what you desire. We can't wait to hear from you. Go there right now, lwf.org slash my LWF story. Now if you'd like to order a copy of today's message request one by the title, How to Make a Home Beautiful. Call to order at 1-877-LOVEGOD. This message is also part of the insightful Fortifying Your Family series. For the complete collection, all six powerful messages, call that number 877-LOVEGOD.

Or you can order online at lwf.org slash radio or write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. These verses have inspired us to make a home beautiful and adorn the doctrine of God. A Christian woman is to learn these three things, the legacy she's to leave, the love she's to learn and the lifestyle she's to live. We hope this message was a blessing to your heart today. And please join us next time for more timeless truth from Adrian Rogers right here on Love Worth Finding. Here's a story from a listener who reached out to us not long ago. She said, I have started listening to Dr. Adrian Rogers sermons on the Love Worth Finding app and his sermons are so relevant today.

He is an amazing preacher, teacher, and speaker. But we are honored to share these lessons and insights from Adrian Rogers and it's through your prayers and donations that we're able to do that. As a way to say thank you for your generous support this month, we want to send you our struggles booklet collection. Find freedom from the struggles through the profound practical insights of Adrian Rogers. Request the struggles booklet collection when you call with a gift at 1-877-LOVEGOD, 1-877-568-3463 or give online at lwf.org slash radio. And thanks for your support of Love Worth Finding.