Man, the title of my sermon this morning is Cleaning House.
Cleaning House.
Now, this title is not any kind of a symbolic title.
This is not metaphorical, that, hey, we're really cleaning house around here.
But actually, this is about cleaning the house, literally cleaning your house, all right?
Now, let's start reading in verse number four there.
It says that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love
their children, to be discreet, chaste keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands,
that the word of God be not blasphemed.
Now, in Titus chapter 2 here, the Lord is giving some advice to young men, older men,
young women, older women.
And when he speaks to the women, he talks about the fact that they are to be keepers
at home.
And we have a word, housekeeping, that derives from this, keeping the house, keeping the
home, taking care of things at home.
He's saying, you know, that's what young women do with their lives.
They obey their husbands, they love their husband, they raise children, they keep the
house.
Flip over to First Timothy chapter five, just a few pages to the left in your Bible.
First Timothy chapter number five verse 13, the Bible reads in First Timothy 5, 13, and
with all they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, what does idle
mean?
Idle is when you're not doing anything, right?
Like if your car is idling, you're just sitting at a light, you're not driving.
So it says they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle,
but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.
I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none
occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully, for some are already turned aside after Satan.
So what the Bible is saying here is that young women, in order to not be idle, in order not
to be tattling and busybodies, they have a job that's going to keep them busy doing the
right things, which is to get married, have children, and guide the house.
Now guiding the house or keeping the home is a big job.
It's not a small job at all.
You know, occasionally my wife will go out of town or something and I take over that
responsibility and it keeps me pretty busy, just keeping everybody fed, keeping the place
cleaned up, taking care of the children, spending quality time with them, teaching
them something, having fellowship with them.
It truly is a busy job to keep the home.
It's a full-time job.
And this is the job that God has ordained for women.
This is the ideal.
This is the plan for women's lives, if you want to know God's will.
Look at 1 Timothy 5, verse 8, it says, But if any provide not for his own, and specially
for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.
So the Bible has some pretty harsh words for men who don't provide.
You know, the Bible's telling us here, men need to provide for their own house.
Men need to work.
Six days shalt thou labor.
If any will not work, neither should he eat.
I mean, the Bible takes a hard line on men going to work.
But just as men are to go out and work hard and provide and put food on the table, women
need to take their job seriously as well.
I mean, if you want your husband to go out and give it his best and get to work on time
and have a good attitude and work hard and get something done and earn the paycheck and
earn the bonus, that's what every woman wants their husband to do when he drives off to
work in the morning.
They want him to go to work and sleep on the job and be lazy, get written up, get fired.
You know, they want him to go out and work hard, right?
Well, by the same token, though, women need to be working hard as well.
It's not that God has created men to work and for women to loaf and do nothing.
God has created both men and women to work, to spend their lives working.
It's just a different kind of work.
You know, the work that God has ordained for men is out there in the world.
They've got their boss.
They got their hard hat on.
They got their tools or they've got their office and their computer and their desk or
whatever, but women have their job, too, and their job is cooking and cleaning and taking
care of the children, educating the children, guiding the house.
And just as a man could do a poor job in the working world, women can do a poor job in
the home as well.
And both of them are ashamed.
There are women who just sort of phone it in when it comes to housework and when it
comes to cooking and cleaning.
They're doing the minimum.
They're just scraping by.
Maybe they're not even achieving the minimum.
They're not even getting it done, right?
But they're glad that their husband brings home the paycheck every week.
Well, how does that work?
You know, both parties need to do their part in order to make the family function the way
that it's supposed to.
Go to Proverbs chapter 31, Proverbs chapter 31.
Now I realize that there are people that are in other situations, but I'm getting up here
preaching about God's original intent, God's plan, the ideal for living is what we're talking
about here, what God's will is.
Obviously there are situations where people are living on their own and they're single
or whatever, where, you know, men have to do their own housework.
They have to do their own cooking and cleaning because they're just living on their own or
whatever.
You know, there are all kinds of other situations that are out there, but that's not the point.
That's not what I'm talking about.
We're talking about the standard mom, dad, kids.
That's what we're talking about.
That's the normal situation.
That's what we have all over the building and obviously there are other people who have
different situations, but in general, whose job is it to make the money in general?
It's a man's job and whose job is it in general to do the cooking and cleaning?
It's the woman's job.
That's the way God has set things up in this world.
Now let's say you're in a different situation than that, then what you need to do is take
these same principles and apply them to your situation.
If you're a man living on your own, clean your house for crying out loud.
Don't live in a pig pan and don't be a slob.
Well, I don't have a wife.
Well, you got to do with what you got, buddy.
I think there's something in this sermon for everyone, but it's especially geared toward
wives, housewives, mothers.
That's who I'm specifically talking to.
Point number one on cleaning house is whose responsibility is it?
Whose job is it?
The answer is it's the wife's job or the mother's job.
That's who we are talking about in general.
It's not your husband's job to clean the house.
It's not your husband's job to go work 40 hours a week and then come home and clean
the house because you're sitting around on Facebook and Twitter and soap operas and watching
TV and goofing off.
No, if he works all day, you better work all day.
Get something done.
It's just a different kind of work, but you still need to do something with your time
and do a good job.
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.
Whatever you do, do it unto the Lord.
Do it in the name of Jesus Christ.
Do it from the heart as unto the Lord.
So we all need to take our jobs seriously.
It doesn't matter what your job is, do it as unto the Lord.
If you're a man who cleans toilets for a living or shovels animal droppings, you do that as
unto the Lord.
You do it as unto Christ.
It doesn't matter if it's glamorous or not glamorous.
You women that are at home, your job is not always glamorous.
In fact, it can even be a little similar to the two jobs I just mentioned that men do.
You're doing some of those same things, but you do it as unto the Lord.
You do your best.
You take pride in your work.
Proverbs 31 is that great chapter about the virtuous woman.
The Bible says in verse 10, who can find a virtuous woman for her prize is far above
rubies.
And look at the first thing that's mentioned.
The heart of her husband does safely trust in her so that he shall have no need of spoil.
Being the right kind of a wife, being the right kind of a woman is one where your husband
is pleased with you and he can safely trust in you and he knows that he can go off to
work and he doesn't have to worry about everything going to hell in a hand basket while he's
gone because you're there to guide the house, you're there to keep the house.
You are responsible.
You're not going to rack up all the credit cards while he's gone.
You're not just going to let everything get dirty and trashed and kids aren't fed, diapers
aren't being chased.
He can safely trust in her so that he shall have no need of spoil.
What's spoil?
Spoil is that extra money that you didn't get as wages.
It's the bonus.
And he doesn't really need that.
His wages are enough because his wife is a responsible, good homemaker.
He doesn't need that.
Verse 12, she'll do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
She seeketh wool and flax and worketh willingly with her hands.
Now this has to do with making clothing.
Now I don't recommend that you ladies make clothing and here's why.
Because of the fact that today, making your own clothing pretty much costs more than buying
the clothing.
It doesn't really make sense to try to weave all this stuff and do it all from scratch.
So I'm not recommending that you do that.
But let me ask you this, if today we have the technology where this major part of women's
lives has been removed, throughout history, they had to make clothing.
That was a big part of their life was making clothing.
Another big part of their life was washing clothing, right?
With the washboard and keeping things clean, everything like that.
You know, if these pieces of technology have allowed you to be free from that time consuming
work of making and cleaning clothing, you know what that tells me?
You're going to have enough time to clean the house now.
You should have enough time to cook meals.
I mean you have less to do than women have had to do throughout history.
You've got technology helping you.
You've got the car to help you.
And you say, well I don't even have a car.
Well you know what, even without a car, you still have an easier time.
You still have more technology because you have the washing machine.
Even if you have to go to the laundromat and put a few quarters in, that's still easier
than washing it by hand.
And you don't have to make clothing.
You've got savers.
You've got good will.
You've got Salvation Army in order to get durable, good clothing for dirt cheap, okay?
So this woman had more work than you.
She's working willingly with her hands.
Verse 14, she's like the merchant's ships.
She bringeth her food from afar.
That's saying, you know, she's finding the deals on food.
She goes and finds.
That's what merchant ships do, right?
They travel to other countries where things are cheap.
They buy it at a low price and then they bring it back and sell it for more money.
She's like the merchant's ships in the sense that she finds the deals on the food, you
know, even if she has to go to a different store or whatever.
It says, she riseth also while it is yet night and giveth meat to her household and a portion
to her maidens.
She considerth a field and buyeth it with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
She girdeth her loins with strength and strengtheneth her arms.
Now, look, she's not going to the gym and doing biceps curls here.
What it's saying here is that her arms are getting stronger through what?
Through working.
See, there are a lot of men and women who never even set foot in the gym, but yet they're
physically fit just through work, just through, you know, just staying active, moving around,
being fit as opposed to just sitting around and doing nothing.
Okay.
So she gets stronger through working.
She perceiveth that her merchandise is good, her candle goeth not out by night.
She layeth her hands to the spindle and her hands hold the distaff.
She stretcheth out her hand to the poor, yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.
She's not afraid of the snow for her household, for all her household are clothed with scarlet.
She maketh herself coverings of tapestry.
Her clothing is silk and purple.
Her husband is known in the gates when he sitteth among the elders of land.
And, you know, we could go on and on with this, but let me just go to kind of the key
verse here, okay, because I don't want to do a whole sermon on Proverbs 31.
Verse 27, she looketh well to the ways of her household.
This is the key verse right here.
This is the one to really hone in on, underline, and make this your theme verse as wives and
mothers, make this your mantra.
She looketh well to the ways of her household and eateth not the bread of idleness, right?
Not idle, not sitting around, but doing a good job looking well to the ways of her household.
And the result is that her children arise up and call her blessed, her husband also,
and he praiseth her, right, for a job well done, looking well to the ways of her household.
But specifically today, and there's a lot that goes into homemaking, whether it's homeschooling,
cooking the meals, cleaning, caring for the children, what have you.
But the thing that I want to focus on today is specifically cleaning the house.
This is an aspect of life that needs to be taken care of, and if you don't take heat
unto it, it's just going to get worse and worse and worse.
Things in the universe tend toward chaos, right?
They get dirty, they wear out, and especially when you live in Arizona.
I'd never seen anything like it until I moved to Arizona, how dust comes in.
Because when I was in California, I'd never seen anything like that.
Growing up in Sacramento, California, and even just the few years that I lived in Indiana
when I was in college, I'd never seen anything like it where every day you're just sweeping
dust.
You have like a little pile of sand when you're done sweeping.
Where did the sand come from?
Who knows what I'm talking about?
Yeah, I mean there's some serious dust here.
So if you don't clean, I mean, things get pretty dusty and pretty dirty pretty fast
in Arizona.
That's just one of the things about living here.
That dust tends to blow around and get into the house and everything like that.
So it's something that has to have effort put into it, you know, keeping things clean.
Cleaning the bathroom, cleaning the kitchen, sweeping the floor, wiping things down.
Just keeping things clean.
So number one about cleaning the house, whose job is it?
Well, it's the wife's job.
Say, well, what about my husband, why doesn't he help?
Here's the thing.
If your husband helps you clean, that's great.
And you know what?
You should be very thankful for that and express your gratitude for him and say, hey, thank
you so much for doing that.
But don't you dare get this attitude, oh, well, he has to help clean.
He's making the money.
He's bringing home the bacon.
Now, if you're out working a full-time job and your husband's out working a full-time
job, then I can see some division of labor happening.
But come on.
When you're a stay-at-home wife or mother and your husband's going to work, that is
your job, period.
Your responsibility.
And if he helps you, that's a bonus.
Thank him, be grateful, but it's not his job.
It's not his responsibility.
But number two, go to Galatians Chapter 4.
Point number one, what are we talking about this morning?
We're talking about cleaning house.
We're cleaning house at Faithful Word Baptist Church, all right?
No we're not.
That's not what it's about.
It's about literally cleaning the house, okay?
So Galatians Chapter 4 is where I get my second point.
Point number one, whose job is it?
Whose responsibility is it?
What has God ordained?
He's ordained women to guide the house, keep the house, look well to the ways of the household,
right?
Cook the meals, clean the place up, et cetera.
But number two, who needs to help?
Who is the helper?
Who else is going to do this work?
And the answer is the children.
Okay, so the woman is the supervisor.
She's the one who's responsible.
She's the one who's in charge when dad's gone at work, right?
The helper is the children.
You say, I don't have any children.
Well then, you don't have a mess to clean up anyway, unless your husband's some big
overgrown child just trashing the place.
I mean, if you don't have, you say, well I only have one child.
Well then, you only have a little bit of a mess.
So you say, well I've got, you know, just cleaning the house is a huge job because I've
got 10 children.
Yeah, but you've also got 10 helpers.
So you see how this works?
Everybody's got to pitch in there, right, and do their part in the household.
Now a lot of people have this attitude of, oh, you shouldn't have your children do housework.
They're not your slaves, they're not your servants, and they need to be out enriching
their minds and lives and whatever.
But we're raising a generation of spoiled brats today who don't even know how to work.
Look, doing housework is part of growing up.
And you know what, your boy children, your male children, they shouldn't get this attitude
of, oh, that's woman's work.
No, it's children's work too.
Because you know what, I grew up doing laundry and dishes and cleaning and vacuuming and
all that stuff.
Okay, yeah, when I became a man and started going to work and bringing home paychecks,
okay, now I'm past that stage and I'm only going to do it sometimes.
But when you're a kid, don't you think you're above cleaning that toilet, sweeping that
floor, vacuuming?
I don't care if you're a boy or a girl, you do the housework that mom tells you to do.
And people get this attitude of, oh, it's just not fair to these children, they have
to help with their younger siblings and they have to change diapers or do the laundry or
do the dishes.
You know, that's the best thing for them.
Work is good for you.
Work makes you happy.
Show me an idle child, I'll show you an unhappy child.
Show me a child that's given everything they want, gets to play as long as they want, has
no responsibility, I will show you a miserable child.
You show me the child that's out working hard and doing yard work, doing housework and I'll
show you a happy child.
Why?
Because work gives you endorphins.
It makes you feel good to work.
That's why people go to the gym and work out, too.
It's not just to lose weight or whatever.
It's also because it makes them feel good, right?
You go out and work hard physically as a man, you work hard physically as a woman, you will
feel better and be in a better mood.
If I look at the days when I'm in the worst mood, it's the days where I wasn't that physically
active.
You know, maybe I had a lot of just phone calls, computer stuff, I'm studying my Bible.
You know, I got to get physically active in order to feel better and be in a better mood.
And so here's the thing, you have a lot of women today, they're depressed.
And then because they're depressed, they just keep eating the comfort food.
And then they eat the comfort food and they get more depressed and they get more idle
and they get more depressed and then the house is dirty and it's just like a downward spiral.
What you need to do, ladies, is to get up and get some work done, get moving, you know,
get out there, start sweeping that broom, start scrubbing everything and working hard.
You're going to be happier.
It's going to make you way happier than just scrolling that feed or watching that show
or whatever.
You will be happier physically accomplishing something with your hands, getting physical
is going to make you feel better.
And children are the same way.
Work is a blessing.
There are people who don't like working, they're called lazy people.
And that is not a virtue.
And if that's you, you got to force yourself to work and start to like working and thrive
on working and crave working and enjoy working and getting something done.
It's one of those things where you don't think it's going to make you feel good, but it does.
And then you know what sin is like, sin is the thing that you think is going to make
you feel good and it doesn't.
Working hard, you feel good about yourself, right?
You feel healthy.
And there's even a scientific explanation for it of just endorphins that are released
when you're working hard and sweating and doing something.
So therefore, children need to help out as well.
Look at Galatians chapter 4 verse 1, here's my philosophy.
Now I say that the heir, as long as he's a child, differth nothing from a servant, though
he be lord of all, but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed to the
father.
You know what the Bible says?
That children don't differ at all from the servants when they're children.
Meaning that little Lord Fauntleroy needs to go out and mow the lawn, shovel the dog
dews, take out the trash, scrub the floor, and not just be like some nobility or something
going from his horseback riding lesson to his violin lesson to his chess team and Latin
club and swim lessons and then come home and play video games and watch TV and read
comic books.
No.
That is not, no.
He needs to serve.
He needs to work.
And there's nothing in the world wrong with putting your kids to work, it's the best thing
you could ever do for them.
And kids naturally want to work.
Even a toddler, even a two year old, you say, here, go put this in the trash.
It's like the greatest thing to them.
They take it to the trash, they throw it away, big smile.
You've got to get your kids working.
You're like, oh, it's too much work, too much work.
Train your kids to do some of it.
Get some help.
Obviously, yeah, it is too much for one woman to clean the house for 12 people, to cook
for 12 people.
You're right.
That's too much.
That's why you've got to get the helpers.
And you say, oh, it's more work delegating to them.
In the beginning, yes.
But in the long run, as they learn, they're going to start relieving you of that effort.
If you keep training them and teaching them, you know, let them cook a meal.
Let them clean up something and do laundry, fold laundry, hang laundry, wash dishes.
Learn to delegate that to the children, okay?
So number one, whose job is it?
The woman's job.
Number two, who else's job is it?
It's the children's job, right?
She has the power to delegate that to children.
I'm talking boys and girls, not just the girls.
Get the boys doing it, too.
Get everybody working.
Get everybody helping, okay?
Number three, point number three, why are people's houses so dirty?
Why are their houses so dirty?
You know, because look, it's just a fact that a lot of people's houses are really dirty.
What's the problem?
What's going wrong?
Now, let me just stop.
Before I get into why houses are so dirty, I just want to say, I'm not talking about
being a neat freak here.
I'm not a neat freak.
Anybody who knows me, you know, probably thinks I'm a big hypocrite right now.
Anybody who knows me realizes that I'm not a neat freak by any stretch of the imagination.
That's not what I'm talking about.
And you know, there's a verse in the Bible that says, where no oxen are, the crib is
clean but much increase is by the strength of the ox.
So yeah, if you have no kids, it's pretty easy to make your house look like a museum
all the time, right?
Or if you just have no activity going on, if you're not accomplishing anything, you're
not doing anything, you know, then it would be easy to keep your house looking perfect
and pristine.
That's not what I'm talking about because of the fact that, you know, our houses are
to live in.
Amen?
We want to have kids and kids are going to break things and make messes and, you know,
we want to teach them and have school work going on in the house.
We want to have other church activities going on.
We don't want to just spend our lives just worshipping our house and making it look like
a perfect museum all the time.
So I'm not talking about just this over the top neat freak.
But you know what, isn't there something between the museum house where the wife vacuums three
times a day and living in a complete pigsty?
You see what I'm saying?
What I'm preaching today is not to live in a pigsty, not to have the place trashed, not
where, you know, a police investigator is going to come and say, hey, there's a sign
of a struggle here.
Okay?
You're like, no, actually, this is just our house, okay?
So what I'm saying, I'm not saying it needs to be super duper clean where you're eating
off the floor, white glove inspection.
I'm not talking about that.
I'm just talking about a reasonably tidy, orderly clean house.
I'm just talking about a sanitary place to live, right?
Just living in a sanitary place and just living in a place that is reasonably tidied up and
clean in order.
But you see, it's just so hard, you know, it's just so hard to do it.
I'm going to tell you why it's hard.
I'm going to tell you why houses are dirty.
There's a reason why.
And it's three words.
Three words that are going to fix your problems today.
If you're like, Pastor Anderson, you're making it sound so easy, but I just can't get the
house clean.
There's three words for you.
If you only get three things from the whole sermon, it's these three words.
Too much stuff.
You have too much stuff.
That's why it's hard.
Look, the more stuff you have, the harder it is to keep clean.
Now, a lot of people's attitude, and if you would go to Ecclesiastes Chapter 5, a lot
of people's attitude is, well, if I could just get a bigger house, if my husband would
just bring home a bigger paycheck so I could get a bigger house, I could keep it clean.
I just can't get organized because I don't have enough space to get organized.
No, you just have too much stuff.
Usually when people get a bigger house, it's not because they have too many people.
It's because they have too much stuff.
The stuff is what is taking up so much space, more so than the number of people in your
house.
You got to get rid of some of the stuff.
Look what the Bible says in Ecclesiastes Chapter 5, Verse 10.
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance
with increase.
This is also vanity.
When goods increase, they are increased that eat them.
Here's the phrase that I really want to focus on.
What good is there to the owners thereof, save the beholding of them with their eyes?
See, there's a lot of stuff that we have.
The only good it is to the owner thereof is just to look at it.
It's not being used.
It's not improving your quality of life.
You just see it.
You just look at it.
What good is it to the owners thereof, except for the beholding of them with their eyes?
The sleep of a laboring man's sweet, whether he eat little or much, but the abundance of
the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
Why?
He's stressed out, is what that's saying.
Verse 13, there's a sore evil which I've seen under the sun, namely riches kept for the
owners thereof to their hurt.
You know, you're keeping a bunch of stuff.
You got all these possessions.
You've got all these goods stored up.
It's time to cut some of that stuff loose, and then it will be a lot easier to clean
the house.
You don't have too much stuff.
The Bible says godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into
this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
We can't carry anything out of this world.
The Bible says that it will all be burned up someday, 2 Peter 3, verses 10 and 11.
It will all be dissolved.
It will all be burned up.
Eventually, you will lose everything, every keepsake, every ornament, everything will
be gone.
Luke chapter 12 tells the famous story about the rich man who is storing up all his stuff,
and he has to go build a bigger barn so they don't have a place to bestow all his goods.
He's trying to store everything on this earth, and then he dies, and he loses everything.
He can't take it with him in the parable told by Jesus in Luke 12.
You brought nothing into this world.
You can't take it with you.
Loosen your grip on the things of this world.
You have too much stuff.
That's why you're having a hard time keeping the place clean.
If you got rid of a lot of stuff, it would be way easier.
Too many toys, too much clothing, too many kitchen accoutrements that you don't use or
don't need.
Now, here are just some practical tips on this.
If it's broken, trash it.
People keep stuff that's broken.
Things that are broken, throw them away.
You don't need every cell phone charger of every cell phone that was out in the late
90s.
That Nokia cell phone charger, that won't plug into a smartphone.
That's not going to plug into an Android or an iPhone.
It's time to throw that thing away, man.
Get rid of that thing.
Just broken things, things that don't work.
Don't put them in a drawer.
Don't put them in a box.
You're going to fix it some day.
Just throw it away.
Just trash it.
That's a practical tip.
Number two, if you're keeping something just because someone gave it to you, well, I don't
need this.
I don't use this.
I don't like it, but somebody gave it to me.
Trash it.
Don't tell them, but trash it.
Don't just keep things in your house to make people feel good.
If somebody gave you something, you don't like it.
You don't use it.
You don't want it.
It's broken.
Throw it away.
Get rid of it.
Okay?
Number three, you haven't used it in a full year?
Trash it.
Okay.
Number four, when you buy new things, anytime you buy new things, get rid of old things.
This is what I do.
I literally, I hate more than anything to buy clothes.
I like it when my wife buys clothes for me.
Like she'll go, she'll try it on.
She kind of knows how it fits on her, you know, like a suit coat or something.
I hate buying clothes.
So I rarely buy clothes.
Every once in a while, I bite the bullet and I'm like, okay, I'm going to go all the way
a quarter mile to Goodwill and buy some clothes or whatever, you know, or I go to, if I need
nice clothes, I go to turnstile secondhand, you know.
But otherwise, typical savers, Goodwill, Salvation Army, that's where I buy my clothes.
You're like, yeah, we know.
It shows.
But anyway, I go down there and I buy a bunch of clothing at once because I'm like, I don't
want to do this again for a long time.
So I'll buy a bunch of pairs of pants, a bunch of pairs of swim trunks, you know, shirt,
church shirts, ties, whatever I needed, and I'll buy all that stuff and when I get home,
I count up, okay, this is how many items I bought, I'm going to throw away more than
that.
Seriously.
Because if I'm bringing in new stuff, I need to get rid of the old stuff.
So then you got the pants that have the holes in them, the pants that are stained, the pants,
all the stuff you're replacing.
And I go through and I make sure that, hey, if I'm bringing in eight articles of clothing,
I need at least eight to be going out and better, 16 to go out or 10 to go out.
You know, if we can exceed.
But eight is the minimum.
If I bought eight, eight need to go minimum.
Now a lot of people have this attitude of, oh, but it's just wasteful, this is all, look
at all this perfectly good stuff that's junking up my house.
I'd rather throw it away and have peace in my home and a clean house.
But you don't have to waste things, you bag it all up and you drop it off at Goodwill.
That's what I do.
So I just, when I get home with my new clothes, I just get out a garbage bag and I start throwing
in stuff, oh, I haven't worn this in a year, haven't worn this in two years, don't wear
this anymore, this has got a hole in it, this is threadbare.
And I start throwing them in, throwing them in.
And you know, if it's total trash, then it goes in the trash.
Don't donate stuff that's like got a problem, you know.
But you know, if it's salvageable, if it's a perfectly good item, but you just never
wear it, take it to Goodwill.
Drop it off, right?
So you have two bags, one's trash, one's donation, okay?
Now here's another practical tip.
Whenever I clean any room, right, because sometimes you have to kind of tackle this
one room at a time, right, like, hey, today I'm going to clean this bedroom or today I'm
going to clean this office or whatever.
Whenever I tackle a cleaning or organization project, this is how I measure my success.
How do I quantify it?
How many bags of trash I produce?
I'm not kidding.
If I go in and clean a room and no trash is produced, I've completely failed in ways
that wasted my time.
I'm talking about deep clean, like an organize, okay?
If I go in to organize and, you know, I am like, I got three bags, three garbage bags
of trash out, why?
Because I know that's providing long-term organization there as opposed to just moving
everything around, sorting it out, and then I have the same problem next week when the
kids take it all out again or whatever.
You must produce trash.
You must produce donation bags in order to have succeeded at your cleaning, decluttering,
organization project, right?
Okay, and then one other thing I need to point out here, and I might step on some toes here,
but you know what?
You come to church, sometimes you need the rebuke.
You need exhortation here, okay?
Not trying to offend anybody with this, but let me just tell you something.
Storage units, the answer is no, no, never.
Now listen, the only time a storage unit could ever be possibly be appropriate or make any
sense is if you're moving or something, and you've got to stay in a hotel or you've got
to stay with friends or family, wall your house, so you have to put your stuff in storage
unit for like a month or something, you know what I mean?
Or you put it in one of those pods or whatever, who knows what I'm talking about, the moving
pods or something.
Yeah, okay, that makes sense.
I'm talking about people who just have a storage unit.
It's an addiction.
It's a sickness, okay?
And I'm not trying to hurt anybody's feelings, and if you don't agree with me, fine, keep
on flushing hundreds of dollars down the toilet every month for your storage unit, but let
me just give you some practical advice.
It is the biggest waste of money on the planet.
You're like, yeah, but I have all this nice furniture, I got all these nice things, I
just don't have room for them, but someday I'm going to have room for this stuff.
Okay, how much are you paying for that storage unit every month?
Because I didn't used to think storage units were that bad until I saw the bill for one.
I've never used one, but I saw the bill for one, people are paying hundreds of dollars
for these things.
Who knows some going rates for storage units?
Somebody help me out.
72 bucks a month?
For how big?
15 by 5?
That's pretty small.
10 by 15, 154.95.
175 bucks a month for a 10 by 20.
Is that in another country?
Because you're not speaking English right now when you talk about meters.
Speak American.
No, I'm just kidding.
So anyway, the point is, I've seen people pay hundreds of dollars per month, but we're
hearing these numbers, 150 bucks, 175 bucks, whatever.
The cheapest tiny one is, let's say it's for some tiny skinny thing, it's like 80 bucks
a month or something.
Okay, pay that for a year.
Even the 80 bucks, you just spent 1,000 bucks in a year.
175 a month?
You just spent a couple grand in one year.
Over $2,000.
What are you having there, gold bricks?
You know, it's like, oh, but we have this $500 sofa.
Okay, store that thing for one year, you could buy four more.
You buy four of those $500 sofas.
Do you see what I'm saying?
It doesn't make any sense.
You're just throwing money away because you just can't let go of the things of this world
because you're just trying to stockpile.
You're a hoarder, is what you are, okay?
I'm telling you, it's hoarding.
If you don't use it, why are you storing it?
And if you do use it, why is it in a storage unit, right?
Because you don't use it.
That's why it's over there.
You'd be better off to just sell all that stuff and buy a new one or even donate it
all and buy a new one because of the money that you're throwing into that storage unit,
okay?
Sorry, storage companies of America, but you need to all go out of business and just cease
to exist.
I'm telling you, people waste money just storing.
They store some dining room set for the next three years, spend $3,500 preserving their
$800 dining room set or whatever when you can always just buy a new one, right?
I mean, look, storage units are just a bad idea and like I said, you don't have to agree
with me.
I'm just giving you my opinion right now, okay?
I don't have a Bible verse on storage units or anything like that, but I'm just giving
you my opinion, all right?
So just allow me that privilege.
So what are we talking about this morning?
Cleaning house, number one, it's the wife's responsibility.
Number two, who needs to pitch in and help?
The children, delegate.
Number three, what's the problem?
Why is it so dirty?
Too much stuff, okay?
Number four, the fourth and last point is why does it matter if the house is dirty?
Who cares?
What's the big deal?
Why even talk about it, right?
Well, I'll tell you why because number one, it stresses everyone out.
It's stressful to everyone.
It's stressful to your husband, wife, children.
You're stressing yourself out and you might not even know it, but it's just stressful
to be in a cluttered, messy, dirty space.
You'd be a lot more peaceful and happy in a clean house.
So it's stressing everyone out.
Number two, it's teaching the children to be lazy and lack character.
Basically, you're preparing them for the ghetto someday, like, okay, I'm going to raise my
kids in a dirty, cluttered, messy environment so that it will be a smooth transition for
them to end up in the ghetto someday.
Because guess what?
If you actually teach your kids to live in a clean, organized, sanitary space, they're
never going to feel at home in the ghetto.
And they're going to do everything they can not to go there.
Not to go to that horrible, rundown, slummy place.
They're going to not feel comfortable there.
That's going to be the last place they want to end up.
So you know what they're going to do?
They're going to actually go to work and figure out a way to be responsible and be able to
live a civilized life, right?
So don't teach your children to be lazy and lack character.
And then thirdly, it's unsanitary.
Go if you would to Deuteronomy chapter 23.
It's unsanitary.
Now even if you don't have, let's say, decaying food matter, you know, rotten food, okay,
even if you just have clutter and junk, all that dust is unsanitary.
Even in Arizona, you're going to get valley fever from inhaling all that dust and all
those particles.
Also all that dust and debris and dander that's underneath furniture and shelves and under
the bed, it's a breeding ground for cockroaches, bed bugs, you know, lice, I don't know what,
everything.
Just every critter and creepy crawler disease-carrying organism, it all thrives on that stuff, right?
But if you keep it clean, you won't have as many problems with those type of critters
and things.
The dust is bad for you.
Also, obviously, the rotting food and decaying food, you know, if you have little kids and
you have a really messy cluttered house, it's pretty easy for them to just drop that unwanted
vegetable or sandwich or whatever just behind something, for it to just begin to fester
and produce all kinds of spores and whatever it's going to do.
So, you know, it's unsanitary, you know, and God, throughout the Bible, is a God of decency,
doing things in order, being organized, clean, sanitary, I mean, these are principles that
are carried through throughout the entire Bible.
I'll just give you just one little example here.
I mean, we could turn to a lot of scriptures, but just Deuteronomy 23, 10, if there be among
you any man that is not clean by reason of uncleanness that chanceth him by night, then
he shall go abroad out of the camp.
He shall not come within the camp, but it shall be when evening cometh on.
He shall wash himself with water, and when the sun is down, he shall come into the camp
again.
Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad, and thou
shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon, and it shall be that when thou wilt ease thyself
abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from
thee.
For the Lord thy God, and I want to focus on this verse 14, for the Lord thy God walketh
in the midst of thy camp to deliver thee and to give up thine enemies before thee, therefore
shall thy camp be holy that he see no unclean thing in thee and turn away from thee.
What's it saying?
That the Lord himself is going to walk through the camp, and of course we know that this
is the Lord Jesus Christ, the captain, that meets up with Joshua in the book of Joshua
and tells Joshua to take his shoes off his feet for the place where on his stand is holy
ground, and this is the angel of the Lord that was to go before them and lead them into
the promised land.
So he's basically saying, I'm literally physically going to be walking around that camp, and
I don't want to step in, you know what.
That's what he's saying.
Isn't that what it says?
I mean, he says, the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp to deliver thee.
He just finished talking about cleaning up dung and other mess, and he says, you know,
he's walking through the camp, and we don't want what to happen in the latter half of
verse 14, that he see no unclean thing in thee and turn away from thee, and say, you
know what, that's it, I'm out of here.
This place is a mess.
This place is filthy.
This place is unsanitary.
I'm out of here.
You say, well, the Lord doesn't care about stuff like that.
He only cares about the heart.
Well, apparently, he doesn't like mess.
He wants it to be clean.
He wants it to be sanitary, you know, and if we want to have the Lord's presence in
our home, you know what I mean, let's make it to where he's not just disgusted by it.
I'm out of here.
Obviously, we know Jesus is not physically going to show up at your house and walk around,
but still, the spiritual principle applies that if Jesus were on this earth, your name's
not going to be Zacchaeus.
He's not going to say, hey, I must dine at your house today.
He's going to be like, let me give you a rain check on that, you know.
Look, there's some people's houses that you don't even want to go to because it's such
a mess.
You'd rather just skip it and go somewhere else, right?
I remember when I was a kid just, you know, getting invited over to certain people's houses,
you're like, yeah, let's go and then other people, you're just like, oh, man, that place
is so dirty and you felt weird.
You're like, I don't even know if I can trust the food at that house because when the house
is so dirty, I mean, think about when you go to a restaurant, do you trust the food
if the place is dirty?
No, I mean, but when everything's clean and tidy and painted and everything, then you
feel like, okay, if they're cleaning up the dining room, then we assume they're washing
spoons and pans and everything like that, not like a Chinese food place that I ate at
one time where they literally changed the oil on a vehicle in one of the pans that they
cooked in.
All right, that's out there.
So the point is that, you know, the Lord does care about these things.
He talks, just look up the word wash, look up the word bathe, look up the word clean,
unclean in the Bible and you know what you're going to find?
Mention after mention after mention after mention.
You know, the Bible says, be ye clean that bear the vest of the Lord.
That means we should keep our physical body clean.
Take a shower, brush your teeth and also keep your house clean, your kitchen clean, your
bathroom clean, your bedrooms clean and you say, well, my husband doesn't care.
Look, he's just being nice.
He's just too nice.
He cares.
And you say, no, honestly, my husband just really doesn't care.
Well, you know what?
The Lord cares.
You know, what if your husband goes to work and his boss doesn't care if he slacks on
the job?
Does that make a right to slack on the job?
Because the boss doesn't care or should he be doing it as unto the Lord and getting it
done and cleaning it up?
Look, men need to go to their jobs and take their work seriously.
Look, I take being a pastor seriously.
I take preaching seriously.
I take my job seriously.
Every job I've ever done, I took it seriously, right?
I mean, that's what men are supposed to do.
I hope you take your job seriously, right?
Well, here's the thing.
Wives need to get an attitude about their job that it's their job, not just like, well,
my job is to hang out and fool around with this hobby and that hobby, and the kids are
kind of this necessary evil that gets in my way of my hobbies.
Or cooking is something that gets in the way of my busy schedule.
No, no, no, cooking is your schedule.
Cleaning is your schedule.
You know what?
And look, I mean, today, it's gotten so bad today that when people want to speak against
feminism, right, what do they say?
Woman, go make me a sandwich.
I'm thinking, like, that's setting the bar too low.
I can make myself a sandwich.
You think I need my wife to make a sandwich for me?
Woman, go, I mean, what's next?
What are our kids going to be saying, woman, go pour me a bowl of cereal?
I can pour my own cereal.
I can make my own sandwich.
You know what?
I want my wife to cook something, all right?
You know what I mean?
Yeah, it's getting quiet in here now.
Hey, I want my wife to actually make me a cooked, homemade meal.
Imagine that, okay?
You know, these people make all these stupid jokes like, oh, it doesn't take a college
degree to make a sandwich.
You know, it's like, well, you know what?
My wife cooks some amazing meals that even those who have the bachelor's in culinary
arts would blush, you know, at her skill level.
You know, look, take some pride in what you do, right?
Do, you know, get the recipes, learn how to cook, do a good job, clean the house, get
organized.
And, you know, take homeschooling seriously.
Oh, here you go, here's a coloring book, homeschooling, check for the day.
Oh, here's a PBS program to stick you in front of the TV.
Shut up and eat your cereal and watch it, you know.
I'm not against cereal.
I'm just saying, I'm saying like, you know, I mean, some, I mean, that love crunch peanut
butter granola, who knows what I'm talking about?
That stuff, I mean, that stuff's amazing.
So at least put that on the table, right?
You know, there's a time and a place for it, amen?
You know, late at night, no, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, the point is though, you know, take your job seriously.
Don't just go, oh, oh, here's cereal for breakfast.
Here's a box of macaroni and cheese.
Here's, let's open a can of SpaghettiOs.
Here's a hungry man, freezer dinner, you know, put it in the microwave.
That's not cooking, right?
I mean, take your job seriously.
Is that how you want your husband to be at work?
Shortcuts, cheating, you know, not doing it right.
And look, feminism has destroyed America.
And it's continuing to destroy even our Christian homes today.
And we need this kind of preaching, whether you like it or not, it's what we need.
Okay, you know, we need wives to get serious about being a wife and a mother and to take
that job seriously and to do their best, cook their best meals, you know, excel.
And you'll be happier anyway when you work hard and take pride in your work.
Now you can get the feeling that your husband gets every day when he goes to work and works
hard and takes pride in his work and feels good about that.
And you're like, well, I don't have that.
Well, that's your fault if you don't have that sense of accomplishment.
Accomplish something and then you'll have a sense of accomplishment.
You know what I mean?
It's like, whoa, it's easy for you men, you know, you go out and you achieve things and
build things and have something to show for your work all day.
Well, you know what, why don't you build something and, you know, why don't you build a casserole
or something?
You know what I mean?
Build, you know, build a meal.
You know, build an organizer from Ikea to clean the place up.
Accomplish something.
And you know what?
It's a great product anyway because, you know, at the end of the day, after I installed
a fire alarm at a hotel or something, you know, every time I drive by, I can say, hey,
see that hotel there, kids?
I installed the fire alarm there.
And they're like, we don't care, okay?
But here's the, you know, women, their product is children that grow up and rise up and call
them blessed.
I mean, the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.
And so being a wife and a mother is an important job, is a great job.
And there's definitely something to show for it.
You know?
And serving your husband, serving your children is a great calling.
You know, take it seriously.
Love it.
Enjoy it.
Do a good job.
You know, homeschool the children.
Do the best of your ability.
Clean, cook, work hard.
Don't be idle.
Don't be lazy.
And I'm telling you, you'll be happier anyway.
You'll be happier.
Your husband will be happier.
The kids will be happier.
You can have peace and joy in a clean house.
Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
And I just pray that we would take heat unto it, Lord.
We as a society always tend to think that we know better.
But Lord, help us to realize that your way is best and that you ordain things the way
they are for a reason.
And I pray that every man would do his best at his job and that every woman would also
do her best at her job, especially if that job is to be in the home.
Because that is an important, critical job for our society, Lord.
And we thank you for everything that you do for us, Lord.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.