Matthew 12:29 Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house. 

In the verse…

• Satan is the strong man.
• The strong man’s house is Satan’s kingdom.
• The strong man’s goods are everyone who’s part of Satan’s kingdom, which means all unbelievers.

Physically there are lots of different kingdoms, but spiritually there are only two, and everyone is part of one or the other:

• There’s the Kingdom of God,which every believer is part of.
• There’s the kingdom of Satan, which every unbeliever is part of.

The words plunder his goods describe what happens every time someone is saved. Jesus takes someone from Satan’s kingdom and makes them part of His kingdom

Jesus said [nobody] can enter [the] strong man’s house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man.

If someone tries to enter the strong man’s house, the strong man is going to try to stop him. The only way he could plunder the strong man’s goods is if he’s stronger than the strong man.

Every time Jesus saves someone, He demonstrates how much stronger He is than Satan.

What I’d like to do is consider the application for our families, and this brings us to Lesson 1…

Lesson 1: strong men protect their houses spiritually.

Verse 29 is a profound verse that is packed w/ instruction for us, so we’re going to look at it piece-by-piece.

First, look at the words strong man’s house.

• The entire house is protected by this man.
• The house rises or falls based on him.

Do you see the application for us?

• Men are the protectors of their houses
• Our houses rise or fall based on us

This is why it’s so important for men to be strong!

But let’s be clear about the kind of strength needed. Is it physical or spiritual?

Let me ask all the women in here a question…

“Would you rather have a man who’s physically strong or spiritually strong?”

And all the women said, “Both” .

Women want spiritually strong men.

We all know submission gets criticized:

• Nobody criticizes the command for husbands to love their wives
• But submission is criticized in the world and unfortunately it’s even criticized in some liberal churches.

I’ve been a pastor for 12 years now, and each year I put on a few marriage conferences. This keeps me in touch w/ quite a few couples.

Since submission receives so much criticism, you’d think the biggest complaint I’d hear from women would be:

• My husband wants me to submit and I hate it.
• I can’t handle this whole submission thing.

But that’s not the complaint I hear most often.

The complaint I hear most often is actually the opposite: “My husband won’t lead.”

Women want men who are spiritually strong, b/c they know if their husbands are spiritually weak their homes will be unprotected.

If we want to be spiritually strong men, it has similarities to being physically strong men:

• If we want to be physically strong we must nourish ourselves well, and if we want to be spiritually strong we must nourish ourselves well – we need to consume spiritual food – and that’s God’s Word.
• We need to exercise w/ the spiritual disciplines:
  • Reading the Word
  • Memorizing Scripture
  • Meditating on the Word
  • Praying
  • Service and being involved in the body of Christ

We want to remember…

Men can be great fathers and husbands in the world’s eyes, but be poor fathers and husbands in God’s eyes.

Imagine a man who does many wonderful things for his family…

• He works hard to provide for them…
• He loves them and serves them…
• He takes them on trips…
• He attends his children’s events…

He probably looks like a great father in the world’s eyes, but:

• If he’s not leading his family spiritually, how does He look in God’s eyes?
• If he’s not protecting his family spiritually, despite all the good things he might be doing, he’s not doing the most important thing God wants.

Most men will work hard to care for their families physically and financially – at least in the time I’ve been a pastor I’ve rarely seen men fail in this regard – but as husbands are we working as hard caring for our families spiritually?

Consider this terrible situation…

If you have men who take care of their families physically and financially, but not spiritually, you’re going to have Christian homes that don’t look any different than the homes of unbelievers.

Aside from giving up Sunday morning to worship the Lord w/ their church families – and there are some Christian families who don’t even do that consistently – for the other 6 days of the week, the Christian home won’t look different than the non-Christian home.

See the full post here.

The material from this post is taken from the Work and Rest God’s Way Family Guide. Get your FREE copy today!