Survival | Lesson 12, Part 1

Greetings MOL Family!

Welcome back to our “Survival” series! In today’s class, we will be speaking specifically to those who have entered into the sacred circle of marriage – to Husbands & Wives…

Success In Home Building

Turn please to Matthew 7 — The closing words of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. I have a great desire that every home [*of those who go through our studies] shall be a home that survives the wreck of a world. We all know that divorce courts are working overtime these days. And for every married couple that seek the courts, there are others who, because of any one of a number of reasons, don’t go that far, but there’s really a separation in heart. To state it the other way around, and I’m quoting inspiration now: “There is not one marriage in one hundred that results happily.” Not a very good batting average, is it?

You would think that men and women would want to learn a system that produces better results. So our opening text tells us how to be successful in home building. We will read the words of Christ, and as we do, pray that the Holy Spirit will be our teacher; and what a wonderful teacher He is.

Therefore whosoever hears these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: [Here’s successful home building] …the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that hears these sayings of Mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. – Matthew 7:24-27

One of these two pictures represents your home. Which will it be? Oh, I’m so glad that we may choose.

Now, if I were speaking to young people in their teens and 20’s, those unmarried, there are some specific things we would spend more time discussing, than we will today. However, for the unmarried, there will be plenty to think about in the study, if you are going through it. But I shall tell you frankly that my main message is to those who already have their life partners. If I present an ideal which seems far above you, remember, I’m only presenting the words of God. I want to assure you at the outset, that (by God’s grace) you can reach the ideal. Keep that in mind all the way through.

This is what I love about the plan of salvation; it is a constant adaptation and application of the ideal to the real, the practical. And no matter how many failures you may have made in your home life, your home experience, you can come off victorious in the home stretch of the race. I don’t care whether you’re in your 20’s or 30’s or 40’s or 60s, or anywhere up beyond that. No matter what problem you’re in today, my dear friends, my years in the ministry of Christ has taught me that there are not very many really happy homes. There are plenty of people who can put on a good front as they walk down the street. They may even come in the church arm in arm. But God only knows the problems that they have in their inner life. And this is because the marriage union offers the greatest opportunity in the universe for the manifestation of love or selfishness. Whichever one predominates is going to come out.

You can hide some things from people you only see once a week. The world has an expression of “letting one’s hair down”. Well, it comes down alright, inside the home, doesn’t it? But when the great Creator planned the first marriage, and conducted the first wedding, He planned that this should be the crowning blessing of His creation. This was the last thing He did on the 6th day of creation week. This was the keystone, the capstone of the work of creation: the home, marriage. And, like all the rest of His creation, He pronounced it very good.

If we will do what our text says, and build upon the Rock, we can have homes that survive the shock, survive the storm, survive the earthquake, survive every devastating influence that may be brought to bear against the home. Your home can be successful…

Now, how to be; Jesus lists 2 things here – that’s all there is to it. The first is to listen to what He says, and the second is to do it. Obviously, the reason for listening is in order to do it. How foolish a man would be to pay an architect for a set of blueprints and then never look at them? Just go ahead and build without them. How foolish on the other hand, to spend days and weeks, and months pouring over the blueprint then never put them into a building. Theory and practice, study and action, these must be combined if we’re to have successful homes.

There are a few successful homes in this world. Even in this Godless, immoral, unsatisfied, restless, rebellious 21st century, there are some successful homes. They are the ones whose members follow the sayings of Jesus Christ.

But… How?

In our last lesson, I studied with you the relationships between parents and children. We showed that the two great principles are law and love: Love prompting the directives on the part of the parents, and love inspiring the response of obedience on the part of the children. But behind and underneath, successful relationships between parents and children is a meaningful relationship between husband and wife. This is the heart of the successful home. This is its beginning and the kernel of it all the way through.

May I say, again, seeking to be practical? Where, because of death, father or mother must tackle the job alone, or where because of supreme selfishness on the part of one member or the other, there is lack of unity, in any case, my friends, if there is only one member of the team that is willing to work with God, God can still do some things – don’t forget that. It’s an easy thing for husband or wife, as the case may be, to alibi out; to say, “Oh, well, I’d like to have a Christian home, I’d like to have a successful home, but….” And of course, following the “but” is the description of the failures of the companion.

My dear friend, do not for one moment take that view. Do not waste any time in that direction. While I speak to husbands and wives collectively, I would like to speak to each of you individually.

You can do something about making your home a successful home. Don’t wait for someone else. Don’t wait for the other party. Make the move. You can do it. We’re going to study how to have a happy successful home.

As I mentioned, the 2 great principles that underlie relationships between parents and children, these 2 great principles underlie the relationships between husband and wife. They are law and love. You can’t get along without either one. If you try to run a home without rules, without order, you will have the absence of order, which is chaos. And that’s not Heaven on earth. It’s more like the other place. But all the order in the world, all the organization in the world, all the rules in the world will not solve a thing. The home in God’s plan is particularly, and especially the place of love.

Let’s turn to Matthew 19 and see how the Savior outlines the plan for the successful home:

…He answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. – Matthew 19:4-6

I wonder why Jesus put that last point in. I’ll tell you why. Every devil in hell, and he has too many men and women in the world helping him, working with their satanic majesty, is trying to break up homes. I hope you’ll never be guilty of lending a hand to this work. May I put in right here this thought? When you lend a sympathetic ear to the complaints of the husband against his wife, or the wife against her husband, you are helping the devil break up homes. And you can be just as sanctimonious as you wish, but that’s the business that you’re in.

We need to be helping and encouraging people to find the solution of their problems in counsel with God and each other, instead of pedaling their family secrets all over the country. May we read a comment on this, from the book Ministry of Healing? — This is a handbook on survival.

Around every family there is a sacred circle that should be kept unbroken. Within this circle no other person has a right to come. Let not the husband or the wife permit another to share the confidences that belong solely to themselves. – Ministry of Healing, pg. 361 {The Wisdom of the Great Physician, pg. 117}

There is someone reading this that, if they would get this one paragraph and put it into practice, it’ll do them more good than all the rest of the study put together. The Holy Spirit will have to tell you whether you’re the one that needs this or not. But this is part of the solid Rock on which to build a successful home.

It has become fashionable today, to seek out marriage counselors of all stripes and kinds – religious, scientific, and otherwise. But I want to tell you something my friends, and I’m not ruling out the fact that sometimes people need counsel, but first let me tell you 2 things. Jesus knows more about how to solve your problems than any man or woman in this world. And if husband and wife will get down upon their knees together, together mind you, and pray together over their problems with no third party around, if they will frankly look at their problems at the feet of Jesus, 9 times out of 10, they can get help without any third party ever knowing anything about their problems.

The second thing I want to tell you on that point is this: If after they have tried the best they know to pray and study through their problems, they still recognize that they have a problem they haven’t been able to solve, if husband and wife together will seek counsel, and will seek that counsel together, they will save many a heartache.

Join us next week, as we continue this most urgent study on survival – in the home and marriage! Invite a friend, and we’ll see you then… 

–Continue on to the next study–

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With Jesus in the vessel, you can smile at any storm that seeks to tear down your home. Both houses in Matthew 7 experienced this “beating”. But only one home was able to stand through the storm. >> Enter Into This Experience

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*This study has been adapted from classes taken by Elder W.D. Frazee.