April 27, 2025
It can sometimes be a challenge to raise kids, have a good marriage, or get along with your family. That’s why we’re starting a three-week series that I’m so excited about called “Bless this home.” We want our home and family blessed! This series is based on the Beatitudes in Matthew 5. Next week is about how Jesus said, “blessed are the pure of heart.” It’s about resisting sin and temptation. The following week is about how Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers, so we won’t gossip, and and we’ll deal with conflicts.
Today we’re talking about how Jesus said blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. They will have a blessed home. Maybe not today. It might be a long game, but they will be blessed.
It’s easy to do the wrong thing. You may get a quick reward when you do something bad. But if you hunger and thirst for God, you go for the right thing, it may take a while, but in the long term, you’ll find a great blessing.
If you want a blessed home and family, it’s not quick and easy. It takes commitment, sacrifice, careful words and actions. But it has a huge benefit. Here’s a vision you can hold: to raise your kids and when they’re adults, they like to be with you. They don’t have to, but they want to! That’s a blessing! There’s harmony, and everybody gets along.
My family is so far from perfect. But we enjoy being together.
This Bless this home series: the foundation for it all is a strong relationship with your family. It is a busy world. Jesus was busy too. But he made time for people! He made time to bless children, when his disciples thought it was a waste of his time. He made time for a blind person who wanted healing. Made time and put himself at risk by touching lepers. He made time for the woman at the well, although his disciples were shocked that Jesus was talking with the woman.
In your family, everybody is different. You might not agree on everything. But stay connected. Family is most important in your life after God. Jesus told the story of the shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep to find the one lost sheep. Seek to be connected to your family. You might bring a family member back from trouble if you patiently seek connection. Prioritize that relationship with your family. Have fun with them! A warm relationship is the glue that holds a family together and the foundation for a blessed home.
Today we’re talking about how to help your family hunger and thirst for righteousness, for them to love God and do what’s right. Don’t settle for being a home that just believes in Christ, be a Christ centered home.
What do you hunger for? Think of the last 7 days. What are you pursuing? Maybe in your time off you are pursuing comfort and relaxation. Instead, you might be pursuing popularity, your image, looking good with clothes, your home, or vehicles. Or maybe you’re pursuing a big win: more money, a bigger house, or your kid to be student of the year. Maybe in sports you want your kid to be a champion underwater, synchronized swimming polo player on the 4 and under team, a travel team. We’re all pursuing something!
We might be pursuing anything over God. We could have an appetite for things that don’t satisfy.
I used to love pizza. I started to eat healthier, and soon realized pizza wasn’t so good for me. After a while of changing my diet, I wasn’t so hungry for pizza. My craving changed. That’s the same with when you start really pursuing God. You see the benefits that come when you just long for more of Him. So, you develop an appetite for righteousness.
What’s an appetite for God look like? What is it to hunger and thirst for God? You want to talk to God, you pray, a lot! You pray with your family. You talk to your family about God. It’s something we may not hunger and thirst for, because following God is not against the law. Some places you could be punished for it!
1984 when I was in college I studied Russian language for a semester in the Soviet Union with 36 American students. We were allowed to go to church. But in Russia nobody would become a member of a church because it would doom you to low status, you could only get a menial job like shoveling snow. My friend, Yulia, who was Russian, went with me and a couple American friends, plus a student from Africa to visit the Baptist church. It was a show church for Westerners, so the government could say, See, we have nice churches where people worship. We’re not preventing the practice of religion. Yulia was curious and brave enough to go once. But she wouldn’t go again. She could get in trouble.
One American student, Sherry, had contact with a few Russians who were part of a secret monastery. They felt they couldn’t practice their Russian Orthodox faith publicly the way they wanted to. The government didn’t allow any church groups to meet. When Sherry went to visit the secret monastery, she was very careful so she wouldn’t give them away and they wouldn’t get in trouble.
Being in Soviet Russia, a place where there wasn’t the free practice of religion we were used to, was hard! I remember me and some of my American friends praying on a bridge together, which was dark and very cold! I was glad for that! In a place where religion was restricted you felt you needed some prayer and needed God! I felt a hunger and thirst for God.
It’s a privilege to be able to pray and talk freely about God and to gather in groups! In our country you are free to pray with your family, to talk about God, how good he is, and to talk about how God answered your prayer! You are free to tell your family, let’s go serve other people because God has done so much for us! We are so blessed.
Maybe you think, well I don’t know how to talk about God or pray with my family. You simply look for an opportunity. Maybe there’s a beautiful sunset. Instead of saying, “Man, look at that great sunset!” You say, “Look at that beautiful sunset! We are so lucky God blessed us with it!” Or if you’re married and you have a big decision to make, instead of just looking at the pros and cons to make your decision, you say, “Well let’s ask God what we should do.” You pray together and then see if you have a sense of what God’s answer is. When you spend time reading the Bible and praying, don’t keep it super-secret. When you have a prayer request, that God answered, tell your family, “I prayed for ________and look what God did!”
Or you make it fun to talk and pray and serve. Here’s a fun way to have family prayer: a popcorn prayer. You make a lot of popcorn. Then everybody takes a turn praying. The rules are: You have to eat a handful of popcorn right before you pray. Then you have to sneak in a piece of popcorn while you’re praying. And then eat a handful of popcorn after you’re done! It’s so much fun to pray!
And pretty soon you realize as a family we are not just a Christian family, instead we are a Christ-centered home. Jesus is the center of our lives.
My challenge for you this week is to tell your family about how good God is, how He has blessed you!
Everybody ends up somewhere in life. The folks who decide on a direction ahead of time usually end up somewhere on purpose. If you want a blessed family, don’t just drift along, don’t be a lukewarm Christian. Stay connected in the relationships with your family. Then pursue God. Hunger and thirst for Him. When you do, your family will experience life change, joy and purpose, that comes from pursuing God! Amen.
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