WITHIN MY HOUSE

Psalms 101:2

If there is any place where we have trouble walking with a perfect heart, it is at home!

• At home, we want to take off the mask.
• At home, we want to let down our hair.
• At home we want to cut loose a little.

And, more often that not, it gets us in trouble!

We will say things at home that we would never dream of saying in public.

We will do things at home, we hope no one outside of the house ever learns about!

It is true isn't it?

We come to church and put on our spiritual face.

But as soon as we climb back in the car, if we are not careful, we will take that dude off like we do our Sunday suit coat, and let all the flesh hang out!

David determines to do, in this verse, something we all need to determine to do.

We need to determine that even within our house, we are going to walk with a perfect heart!

There are three things in this short Psalm I think will help us here:

I. BEHAVE WISELY

Psalms 101:2 (KJV)

I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.

We get ourselves in a lot of trouble at home because we don't behave wisely there!

It is amazing to me, that we will often treat strangers on the street with more courtesy than we do the people we love the most and love us the most!

It is an unwise person who ignores those who are most likely to support him through thick and thin, while giving in to the whims and whimsies of those who would drop him in a heartbeat if he messed up on them!

We have, in our homes, the most important relationships we will know in this life.

A. Behave wisely with your mate 

1 Peter 3:7 (KJV)

Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

While this verse tells the husband to dwell with his wife according to knowledge, it is obvious that the best relationships will be built when both the husband and the wife knows how to please the other!

There is a reason why it specifically says husband though.

Because men are the worst offenders in this regard.

God made men to be conquerors and women to be helpmeets.

Because of that, women naturally look for ways to help their husbands.

Men, on the other hand, tend to come home from a days work and expect that, because he brought home a pay check, his wife is happy!

It is true of both the husband and the wife, but it is especially true of the husband, that he needs to learn to dwell with his wife according to knowledge.

You need to learn what the other likes and doesn't like.

What the other dreams about and would like to do some day.

What the other is good at and what they are weak at.

You need to become experts on each other!

B. Behave wisely with your kids.

Ephesians 6:4 (KJV)

And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

It is possible to mess up raising kids!

So we need to behave wisely raising them!

We need to learn how not to provoke them to wrath.

We need to learn how to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord!

We need to behave wisely in raising our kids,

and we need to behave wisely when we are around our kids!

It is unfortunate that we drop our guards at home and around the kids.

• We say things around them that will forever impact them.
• We cuss around the kids, and we have taught them to cuss.
• We complain about the pastor, or some other church member, and we have taught them to disrespect the church, the preacher, and to gossip about people.

There is: 

• No one who clings to our words and actions more than our kids. 
• No one who wants to more like us.
• No one who wants to please us more

And when we behave unwisely around them, we make a mistake that they may never out live!

C. Behave Wisely With Your Things.

Because everything you have really belongs to God.

They all need to be used in ways that please the Lord!

Here is a guy that gets a boat.  WONDERFUL!

It is a blessing when God allows you to have something that the family can enjoy together, provide a little rest and family relaxation.

But then, you go out and use it when you should have been in church SHAME ON YOU!

Don't you know that God can take those things away from you as easily as He gives them to you?

Or worse, he might let you keep up them and keep up the sin you are committing with them!

That means you are sowing more and more wicked oats that either you, or your children will have to harvest someday!

Behave wisely at home.

D. Behave wisely at home with the Lord.

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 (KJV)

And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

The home is no place to ignore Christ!

Your home ought to be a haven for the Lord!  It ought to be a place where only Godly conversations are spoken.

Your home ought to be a place where prayers are offered and the Bible is read.

Behave yourselves wisely at home

Secondly.

II. BEHOLD PURITY IN YOUR HOME

Psalms 101:3 (KJV)

I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.

This means that in my home, I ought to be careful that only those things that are pure are found there.

A. In the decorations we display

I have seen Christians who claim to be godly, who have naked statues displayed as a form of art.

I have known Christians who have in their homes, the idols of pagan religions, just for decorations.

Let me tell, you, if it couldn't be displayed at church, it shouldn't be displayed at home!

B. The forms of entertainment

Christian, why would you watch a movie in your home and be entertained by people doing things you know perfectly well is wicked and unholy?

You have allowed your home to become defiled.

No Wonder God doesn't bless your home as He wants to!

No wonder we have trouble with our kids, when you watch shows with kids cussing and rebelling against their parents.

No wonder they grow up and get involved sexually, when you allow them to sit right next to you and watch movies that arouse the senses!

No wonder they become violent when you bring into your home the violence of some of the shows they have out right now!

It is more than just the movie that is wrong.  It is the fact that it is in your house.

If you believe there is a devil and demons, your had better believe that Satan sends some of his demons along with every one of those shows to mess up your house!

We let our guard down at home don't we?

But in our homes we ought to

Behave wisely, and

Behold purity and thirdly

III. BELONG ONLY WITH THE GODLY

Psalms 101:6 (KJV)

Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me.

The Christian home is no place for ungodliness of any sort.

David says he will not know a wicked person.

Psalms 101:4 (KJV)

A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person. 

What he means by that is have a close relationship with them.  

There are two types of wickedness that we should have no close fellowship with in our homes:

A. The Doctrinally Wicked

2 John 1:10 (KJV)

If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:

1. I will not allow a person who is doctrinally wrong about Christ to even enter into my house!

• The Jehovah's Witnesses 
• The Mormons

If they want to teach their false doctrines, they are not even welcome to sit down on my couch.

I do not give them the time of day.

I try not to be rude.

But I do not try to be polite either.

I don't even say good-by when they leave.  I just tell them to go.

I do so under the authority of this passage.

I do not believe that it is Biblical to allow their wicked doctrines to even be spoken in my home.

I will eventually get to their house and witness to them there.

But they will never step so much as one foot in my house!

2. There are those who are doctrinally wrong about some other things, but not about Christ.  

• People who are saved, but believe they can lose their salvation.
• People who use other versions of the Bible
• People who are not Baptist in their convictions.

I can still be friends with them, but I do not allow them to give their false views in my home.  

We do not discuss them there!

I believe every false doctrine comes from the devil and I do not want to allow the demon that gave it to that other person to get loose in my house!

B. The Practically Wicked.

These are people who do wicked/Sinful things.  

David identifies more than, but at least these three types of sinners that were not welcome in his home:

1. The Slanderer. 

Psalms 101:5 (KJV)

Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer.

David would not tolerate allowing someone to come into his home and speak evil of another person!

Gossip and slander, and evil speaking of this type can only be stopped if we refuse to allow the speaker an ear.

We can't, for politeness sake, listen to what they say, and just not agree with them.

We must cut them off and refuse to allow them to say it to us in the first place!

2. The Wicked Doer. 

Psalms 101:8 (KJV)

I will early destroy all the wicked of the land; that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the LORD.

People who are involved in wicked activities ought not be allowed to have the freedoms to bring their wicked doings into your home.

• Cussing
• Drinking
• Smoking

People who do these things shouldn't be allowed to do them in your house.

It is questionable to me if they should even be allowed to do them on your property!

3. Liars 

Psalms 101:7 (KJV)

He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.

As far as I can see there isn't much worse than lying!

David said, I won't let them even stay in my sight!

C. Who was it that David did want to be around?    

Psalms 101:6 (KJV)

Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me.

1. The Faithful

Which can mean, 

• those who have faith in God and 
• those you can have faith in (dependable, good for their word)

And I think both can be applied.

2. The Perfect

Which doesn't mean they never do anything wrong ever.

The word perfect means mature.

Those who are growing in the Lord

Your home is one of the most important places in your life.

Why is it we do not protect it more?

• By behaving wisely in it
• By beholding only purity in it, and
• Be belonging only with the godly in it