Minnesota Campmeeting 1973

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Minnesota Conference

E.L. Minchin

Eight Secrets of a Happy Home

I promised you that I would speak on 8 secrets of a happy home.

But before I give the secrets, I would like to sort of connect with yesterday's meeting and also link up with our dear brother Dower's message last night.

You know, as I sat there last evening, And I was reminded that the world is waiting.

How long will we keep the world waiting for the genuine manifestation of his grace and his love and his power through his people.

I said in my heart last night, O Lord, I want to follow thee in all things.

And I remembered that Jesus said, If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Love is the spring of all our action, isn't it?

And obedience to him in all the things, all the beautiful light that he shed on our pathway, and what a delight it is to do his will when he is abiding in our hearts.

And to connect up with yesterday's message.

First of all, I think I shall read you Hebrews 11, verse 7, because yesterday we spoke about love in the home.

And I have been reminded, as I have read this particular verse, verse 7, of a man who must have been a wonderful dad in his own home, because the only ones that listened to his preaching were those of his own household.

By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, or with godly fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." Think of it, friends, by faith, yes, by a living faith in a living God, being warned of God of things not seen as yet.

And friends, that's our situation today, isn't it?

My brethren and sisters, I want that godly fear in my heart, fear to disobey my God, fear to displease him, the fear of God in my heart, not a fear of his judgments, but just a fear that I might hurt him or disappoint him.

He moved with godly fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house." Isn't that wonderful?

Dear parents, don't you want to prepare an ark to the saving of your house?

For 120 years that godly man preached faithfully, witnessed faithfully to the will of God, irrespective of what was going on around him and the scoffs and the indifference of the people around him.

And finally, friends, the only 1 that listened to his preaching were his own children, his own family.

I say Noah must have been a wonderful dad, don't you think?

It's a great thing when children listen to their parents' teaching.

Their parents must be backing it up by godly, consistent lives.

The Lord said of Abraham, I know my servant Abraham that he will command his household after him.

I can use this, my servant, that he will command his household after him." I said, Noah must have been a great man.

Dear fathers this morning, what memories are your sons and daughters going to have of you?

As they look back, when you're gone, when they leave your home, what memories are your children going to have of you?

A young man said once, Pastor, my dad's the godliest man I knew.

He said, you know, Elder, I've known my dad to pray with me out in the hay field.

I've known him when we've been pitching hay.

My dad to come over to me and he put his big farmer hands on my shoulders.

He said, son, would you pray with me out here in the hayfield?

And my dad has put his arms around on my shoulders, and he's prayed for me.

He prayed that I would grow up to be a good boy, that I would love the Lord, that I would serve.

Oh, he said, my dad is the godliest man I ever knew.

Oh, husbands, fathers, isn't that a wonderful testimony?

Wouldn't you like a testimony like that to be born of you?

That dad must have backed up by his life a consistent loving father heart he must have had in life for that boy to say that.

Fathers, what memories are our children going to have of us?

And mother, what memories are your daughters going to have of you?

I told the shepherdesses yesterday about a great mother, Mrs.

Susanna Wesley, the mother of John and Charles Wesley, The great John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, the man who stirred England and brought a mighty revival that changed England there and saved it from the terrible godless revolution that took hold of France about that same time.

But John and Charles Wesley, Charles the great hymn writer and the great preacher and the hymn writer, they had godly parents.

But you know that mother, she had a tremendous influence over her children.

I see the ladies looking at each other now.

They had families in those days, didn't they?

We don't know anything about it with our 123, or 4.

But I tell you, friends, they had something else, too, of strength and godliness and integrity, so many of them.

John Wesley said, oh by the way, only 11 of those 19 grew to adulthood, but each 1 of the 11 became a thoroughly committed Christian.

They had a godly father and an amazing mother.

John Wesley said he learned more from his mother about the Word of God and about Christianity than he learned from all the theologians of Europe.

That mother took nothing for granted with her children.

She had a little room in her home, and she took each child in turn, repeatedly, and there in that little room she would talk with that child about his own personal relationship to Jesus Christ.

She'd read the scriptures, she'd talked to them about Jesus, she'd talked to them about their own relationship to Jesus Christ, and she led there in that little room each 1 of her children into a personal, living, loving relationship with a personal Savior.

Indeed, she held a Bible class in her kitchen on Monday mornings for the women of the neighborhood.

And so great was the crowd of women that came to that Bible class, oftentimes there wasn't even standing room in her kitchen.

I read a portion of a letter that she wrote to her son John, the great John Wesley, that mighty man of God he became.

And do you know, mothers, a portion of her letter ran like this, Whatever weakens your reason, Whatever impairs your tenderness of conscience, whatever obscures your sense of God, whatever takes off your relish of spiritual things, that to you, my boy, is sin." I say again, what a mother!

I would to God we had thousands of mothers who could write letters like that to their children, to their sons?

No wonder she gave to this world such an illustrious son as John Wesley, a woman of great faith, of great integrity, A woman who knew God, a woman who could expound the scriptures.

What memories that man must have had of that mother.

Mothers and fathers, We don't acquire that in a day either.

It's a steady pursuance of the will of God every day.

You know, there are many enemies to the home today, friends.

You know as well as I do what's happening to the American home.

The drastic, the tragic disintegration of the American home.

And no country where the home has gone to pieces can stand for long, friends.

For the very success of the nation, the well-being of the Church, the prosperity of the nation, Sister White says, is dependent upon home influences.

And the strength of that home is in the strength of the godly mother and father who lead that home.

Menninger, the great world psychiatrist, stated recently that the family life, the home or the family life in the United States of America is headed for a national tragedy, the home, in this country.

Of course, we're forgetting God, the great standards of righteousness in his law, in his word.

Men back there seemed to be strong men and women, so many of them.

And the discipline of the home was very strong and beautiful.

Maybe some think it was over strong, but what men and women they gave to the world.

I say the enemies of the home today, friends, of your home and mine, what would I say?

Just a plain godless materialism, secularism, and a materialism like a blight is poisoning our souls and our lives and our society and our homes.

Back to Menu

Eight Secrets of a Happy Home

Transcript

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Related

Life in God's Will: A Young Adult Seminar

03 God’s Will and the “ONE” for Me

1h 2m

ABC's of Prayer (with Video)

5 - Communication Jesus’ Way

48m

The Glory of Biblical Submission

1h 4m

Relationship Revival

2. Loving Out Loud

1h 11m

Restoration 2005: To The Point

How Safe is Safe Sex?

59m

Dane Griffin: SWYC 2005 Practical Christianity Seminar

Practical Christianity Seminar, Part 1

51m

Restoration 2005: To The Point

World’s Greatest Crime Part 2

39m

Love, Relationships and COVID19

49m

The Divine Solution

1h 33m

To Have and to Hold on

Keys to Better Communication - Part 4

1h 16m

Marriage Heart to Heart

Forgiveness

54m

Sound Doctrine