The Place of Respect

Ephesians 6:1-4

Welcome to Memorial Day weekend. It is a special weekend as we honor those who have served or are serving our country in the military. Thank you for your service and the families of those who have served.

Welcome to our guest families today. Your presence has made this a special day in the Lord. Please stop by our welcome center so we can better connect with you.

In our church calendar, we have set aside the month of June as Celebrate the Family month. However, this year I have chosen to start a little earlier. The Sunday morning messages will be on the family. Last week, we look at Healthy Relationships from Ephesians 4. Next week we will look at the Foundation of the Family. What does God say about it in Scripture.

Today, I want to deal with what I believe is a super important and most often neglected area in the home. I have entitled it: The Place of Respect.

Christian respect means we honor all people as made in God’s image. We treat others with kindness and love, and acknowledge those who serve in the church. When a person becomes a Christian, he is not released from the normal obligations of life, he should be a better child in the home.

God here in this passage gives us reminders of a parent’s responsibility to their children.

Reminder 1. . .

Respect begins with the parents

The word children here does not mean just young children but to all children. Sons and daughters still under their parents’ roof are obey and honor them.

Obey has to do with action and honor has to do with attitude. It is possible to obey with a wrong attitude. Years ago there was a boy in my 7th grade English class I was teaching in a Christian school. I asked him to stand up while I was addressing him. He said out loud to everyone, “I may be standing up on the outside, but I am sitting down on the inside.”

Parents, you are God’s stewards to speak between you and God while they are young. God has given them to you t with a blank canvas on their life. Yes, they have a will and they have a sin nature; however, you are to shepherd their heart. They must learn to respect you and your boundaries.

One day I was in the store and watched a dad tell his child no to something he really wanted. We’ve all been there. He told the child no at least 10 times but the child ultimately won because he disrespected what his dad said. He had learned that no did not mean no.

Parents are God’s stewards, God’s authority in the home for the children. Since they are loaned to them in trust by their heavenly Father, they are commanded to obey.

Perhaps the reason why our children care so little about God today, is because they did not learn to obey their parents when they were young. When a children matures, he is accept Christ and grow in obedience to God where he learned obedience in the home.

The modern version of Eph. 6:1 is “Parents, obey your children, for this will keep them happy and bring to peace to the home. But this is contrary to God’s order in nature.

“Since the parents brought the child into the world, and since they have more knowledge and wisdom than the child, it is right that the child obey his or her parents.” (Wiersbe)

Children, you are told here in this passage to obey your parents because it is right. Respect comes out of obedience to parents. “Sin always robs us; obedience always enriches us.” (Wiersbe)

Reminder 2. . .

Respect is learned by example vv. 2-4

To honor parents means much more than simply obey them. It means to show them to respect and love, to care for them as they need us and to seek to bring honor to them by the way we love.

We must not provoke v.4 our children. Paul was addressing the example of a Roman father who had supreme authority over the family. When a baby was born into a Roman Family, it was laid the father. If he picked it up, it meant he was accepting it into the home. If he did not pick it up, the children was rejected. It could sold or given away or even killed. (This sound like the modern day abortion practices.)

Paul was saying don’t use your authority to abuse or discourage your child, but build up your child

Colossians 3:21 “Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.”

You can provoke them by saying one thing and doing another-by always blaming and never praising, by being inconsistent and unfair in discipline, and by showing favoritism in the home or making light of their problems. Even worse not keeping the promises you make to them.

Children do by what they see more than by what they are told.

Do you realize that your children’s view of God is what they see in your life? If God is unimportant in your life, He will be unimportant on their life. A disrespect to God in a parent’s life will affect your children’s lives.

I read about a MacDonalds restaurant in Brooklyn, NY will not let minors in their store unless they are chaperoned by a 21 year old adult. The blatant disrespect to the employees and to the store itself drove them to close the dining room area.