Rooted In Your Wealth 23

A Spirit-Filled Home

Text: Ephesians 6:1-4

Introduction

Illustration: A Pastor was watching a television presentation about rebellious youth. The husband on the show said to his wife, “What a mess! Where did our generation go wrong?” The wife calmly answered, “We had children.”

It is sadly obvious, when you look at our society, you see division and rebellion. Husbands and wives divorcing, children rebellious toward their parents, companies are experiencing strikes, etc. While many have tried everything to resolve such conflict and failed, Paul presents once again a sure cure to the problem: REGENERATION; NEW LIFE; NEW HEART.

Paul’s audience is no doubt a mix group (married, single, with kids, uncles, aunts, grandparents, kids have grown older, etc). While Paul directs these words toward the parents, children will be impacted by more people than their parents. Therefore, everyone within each family and the corporate church must take heed to what he has to say.

Paul is not presenting a bulletproof way to make sure you kids never make mistakes or always stay on the right path. He does however make the point that parents (and everyone who has influence) must seek to love, nurture, and disciple their children.

Listen, there will never be Christian kids without Christian discipleship!

Illustration: The mind of your child is like concrete. You only have a short window of time for your teaching and example to make the deepest impact.

1) Place High Value On Your Children

History: Such values were countercultural. Many in the Greco-Roman world would put kids on the trash heap for people to pick up and often turn into gladiators, slaves, or prostitutes. But the church welcomed the children.

Quote: “It was a radical change from the callous cruelty which prevailed in the Roman Empire, in which unwanted babies were abandoned, weak and deformed ones were killed, and even healthy children were regarded by many as a partial nuisance because they inhibited sexual promiscuity and complicated easy divorce.” — Stott

Every child is made in the image of God!

They should be celebrated.

Parents have a holy calling.

Motivation to disciple their kids.

Quote: Bonhoeffer said it well: “It is from God that parents receive their children, and it is to God that they in turn ought to lead them”

The church should always support foster care and adoption (think of the spiritual reflection).

You and I were on the trash heap, but sit in heavenly places with the Lord.

You were once a son of disobedience, but now a son of God.

Always care for the fatherless and motherless!

To imitate God is to follow through with caring for children. Welcome them as Jesus did!

To place a high value on your children is to place a high value on Christ.

2) Place High Value On Being Christian

A. Paul addresses children of any age

God has ordained an order in nature. When God puts something in a particular order, it sets in stone what is the right action.

Animals even illustrate that for us!

Who has lived longer? Who has learned from more mistakes?

This doesn’t however mean that parents are never wrong, but the child is to follow God order.

Quote: :The “modern version” of Ephesians 6:1 would be, “Parents, obey your children, for this will keep them happy and bring peace to the home.” Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 53.

B. Obey your parents “in the Lord”

While the natural order applies to believer and non-believer alike, God’s command here is pressed upon the children who’s parents are trying to instruct them in the ways of the Lord.

This is a COMMAND, “for this is right.”

God mentions the first “horizontal relationship” in commandment five: Exodus 20:12 “12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”

It was a capital offense to verbally or physically abuse your parents: Exodus 21:15–17 “15 And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death. 16 And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. 17 And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.”

This does not mean children are under the law: Galatians 3:13 “13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:”

All commandments are mentioned in the NT except “Remember the Sabbath”… SO, it is just as wrong today to dishonor one’s parents.

C. Honor your parents

It means to show them respect and love, to care for them as long as they need us, and to seek to bring honor to them by the way we live. Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 53.

Illustration: Warren Wiersbe tells a story about counseling a coupling wanting to get married. However they were not concerned about their parents involvement. He told them they did not need to rob themselves of being a good witness for Jesus Christ. They went forward making plans that both families agreed to and Jesus was lifted up.

Colossians 3:20 “20 Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.”

If any child wants to please the Lord, the MUST honor their parents!

How should parents act when the children fail in this way?

Use it as a time to teach how Jesus died for sinners who disobey God.

Make it a moment to teach about the Gospel.

You never have to teach a child to disobey.

D. Obedient children are promised blessing

Exodus 20:12 “12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”

This promise originally applied to the Jews as they entered Canaan, but Paul applied it to believers today. Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 53.

He substituted “earth” for “land” and tells us that the Christian child who honors his parents can expect two blessings. It will be well with him, and he will live long on the earth. Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 53.

He was stating a principle: when children obey their parents in the Lord, they will escape a good deal of sin and danger and thus avoid the things that could threaten or shorten their lives Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 53.

You show me a home where kids who are never cease to rebel against their parents, I will show you parents who rarely took the time to introduce God’s words into their kid’s lives.

3) Place A High Value On Discipleship

While parents may need the help of daycare, nanny’s or grandparents, they MUST NEVER remove themselves from discipling their own kids!

Your lifestyle might need to change to make this happen.

A dream or goal may have to be put on hold to follow through with this awesome opportunity.

Bible examples of parental neglect:

David pampered Absalom

Eli failed to discipline his sons

Isaac pampered Esau

Jacob favored Joseph over his other brothers

Here are a Father’s responsibilities:

Don’t provoke them

In Paul’s day, the father had supreme authority over the family. When a baby was born into a Roman family, for example, it was brought out and laid before the father. If he picked it up, it meant he was accepting it into the home. But if he did not pick it up, it meant the child was rejected. It could be sold, given away, or even killed by exposure. No doubt a father’s love would overcome such monstrous acts, but these practices were legal in that day. Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 54.

Think about your Heavenly Father’s response to you!

Provoking can come about by:

Saying one thing and doing another.

Blaming and never praising.

Inconsistent and unfair discipline.

Having favorites

Breaking promises

Making light of their problems

Nurture them

“bring them up” = nourisheth

Not enough to nourish with physical needs.

Jesus’ childhood is a great example: Luke 2:52 “52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.”

Balance = intellectual, physical, spiritual, and social.

Discipline them

Discipline is a basic principle of life and shows the child you love them.

Hebrews 12:6 “6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.”

Proverbs 13:24 “24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son: But he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.”

Responding to a child in anger or screaming never did anything for a child or the parent.

Loving and consistent discipline is like building a fortified barrier around your child until they are able to take care of themselves.

Story: (told by Warren Wiersbe) “My father would use a cannon to kill a mosquito!” a teenager once told me. “I either get away with murder, or get blamed for everything!…I never knew how far I could go,” a wayward girl told me, “because my parents never cared enough to discipline me. I figured that if it wasn’t important to them, why should it be important to me?” Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 54.

Instruct and Encourage

Even though actions speak louder than words, does not mean we need to downplay the impact of our words to our children.

While your counsel may seem to fall on deaf ears or not appreciated, it doesn’t eliminate your obligation.

2 Timothy 3:13–17 “13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. 14 But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; 15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”

When the Supreme Court handed down its ruling against required prayer in the public schools, the famous editorial cartoonist Herblock published a cartoon in the Washington Post showing an angry father waving a newspaper at his family and shouting, “What do they expect us to do—listen to the kids pray at home?” The answer is: Yes! Home is the place where the children ought to learn about the Lord and the Christian life. It is time that Christian parents stop “passing the buck” to Sunday School teachers and Christian day-school teachers, and start nurturing their children. Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 55.

Conclusion

Are you pleasing the Lord in these things tonight?