Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRO

A feature I really enjoy on my iPhone is the memories videos on photos.

It’s really sweet to go back through memories and see my son.

We recently celebrated his second birthday.

I got really emotional sitting looking at pictures of him as a little baby that was so tiny.

Before I could get too wrapped up in that memory I looked up to see my toddler screaming at the top of his lungs.

I get down to his level to try and redirect his screaming only to get walloped in the face by a toy truck.

It was at this moment I really wanted Sam to learn the value of the fifth word, honor your father.

Look son this command was written by the finger of God!

Now before you go get your kids out of Coram Deo kids and tell them to listen up this is a commandment given to adults.

To catch us up we are going through a sermon series on the Ten Commandments.

These commandments, which occur three times in the Old Testament, literally means “ten words.”

Ten words given by God to his people on how to live in the world.

Today we come to the fifth word, Honor your father and mother in our Ten Word series looking at the Ten Commandments.

As we walk through these commandments again we’re not to see the 10 Words as legislation from a cosmic bureaucrat trying to ruin everyone’s fun Rather as wise instructions from a loving father who knows what his kids need to thrive.

There is a shift here in the commanments

The First four commands are vertical, the explicitly deal with God

Now we get to the 5th, this command & the following are horizontal

They focus on how we relate to one another.

The idea is that how we relate with God affects how we relate with people

When Jesus Summarizes the law what does he say?

Mark 12:30–31 (ESV)

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Love God - Love Others

That’s what the heart of the 10 words are all about

The 1st human relationship mentioned is parents

And again Before you go get your kids / This is written to adult children...

Now as we wade into this I want to say that this may be very difficult for some of you

But friends…There’s gold in the hard things...

When you think about the command to honor you father, what comes to mind?

Honor mother?

(Maybe this is loaded, but this is worthy of our attention.

God is sovereign.

He knew you’d be here today with mixed emotions and he wants to meet you in this)

Big Idea: God is honored in our families

We are going to break down each of these commandments, these ten words in the same way

- What does this command reveal about God?

- What does this command reveal about us?

- How does it point us to Jesus?

- How does it show us the path of life?

So let’s start with first,

I. What does this command reveal about God?

What does it say about God that he would command his people to honor their parents?

It says that he cares deeply about the relationship between parents and children.

Really this is the base level of society.

A from the air view shows us that society rises and falls at the familial level.

These 10 words don’t speak to the nations or government.

Because there is an intrinsic connection between how we relate in our homes with how we relate to the rest of the world.

When there is honor for your parents all kinds of other relationships fall into place.

God is a Father.

That is how he reveals himself.

Parents are commissioned to be representatives of God to their children.

Called to take responsibility for and model gracious & loving authority to kids

The reason we can say someone is a bad parent is because it is wired in us what a parent is suppose to be like.

TRANSITION

This is the first time we see honor in the ten commandments but really honor has been there all along.

The concept of honor has been with us since the first word, and it endures through the last.

The Ten Commandments deal with matters of heavenly submission, earthly submission, and mutual submission—in that order.

Now connect this idea to the Great Commandment, which sums up the law (Mark 12:30–31).

You shall ______ the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. . . .

You shall _____ your neighbor as yourself.

Now let’s fill in the word “honor” in place of the word you just used.

Did the meaning change?

I would suggest that it only expanded.

Honor is an expression of rightly ordered love.

When we love as we should, we honor the object of our love as we should.

It is possible to show honor whether we love an individual or not, at least outwardly.

We may speak of God or others honorably while lacking love for them.

We may act sacrificially toward God or others while lacking love for them.

Honor rendered without love is still better for the common good than dishonor, but it is an empty obedience.

Motive matters.

Honor fueled by love lies at the heart of the fifth word, as it does at the heart of all ten.

What does it mean to honor someone?

It means to respect, to esteem, to regard highly

The Hebrew word is the same as glory = weight or significance

God himself is glorious & worthy of honor and he commands us to show honor to parents

That we take our parents seriously, we don’t treat them flippantly or insignificantly.

Now I know as I say this there are some of you have a well of emotions because of the pain you have from your parents.

The command is not that we trust or always obey are parents, it’s that we honor them.

This makes sense because of two reasons.

First, the dynamic between a child and a parent changes over time (child, adolescent, adult)

Second, we live in a broken world with broken parents who are not always honorable people.

This command is a call to honor our parents as a reflection of the honor we show God himself.

so let’s turn the focus on how we handle this command.

II.

What does this command reveal about us?

What kind of people need to be commanded to honor our parents?

People who are prone to dishonor our parents

So many have tremendous resentment toward parents

They acted dishonorably – Maybe they were abusive, controlling, narcissistic

Maybe your parents were absent

Didn’t prepare us for life / Not trustworthy when we needed them most

Not minimizing your pain.

What happened to many of you was inexcusable.

But the Bible has no exception clause for dishonorable parents

What they did to you or failed to do for you is not OK

Still commanded to honor

How? / Forgive them / No way!