Honour your parents (10 commandment series)

BIG IDEA: Freedom comes through honouring God-given authority.

: ‘they disobey their parents’

29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.

; disobedient to their parents.

3 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents...

Jewish scholars tended to divide the commandments five and five. In doing this, they included the honouring of parents under our duty to God. This makes sense. How could we claim to honour God, whom we have not seen, if we fail to honour our parents, who we do see? Parental authority is divinely delegated and is an integral part of our reverence for God.

; at the top of a whole list of commands, and preceded by “be holy, because I the Lord your God am holy, God says, ‘each of you must respect your mother and father. I am the Lord your God.

The death penalty was pronounced upon anyone who cursed their parents, it was that serious to God.

; “Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.

So what about us as parents?

BIG IDEA: Freedom comes through honouring God-given authority.

This command has as much to do with parents as well. Are you a parent with children here this morning?

Children are gifts from God;

27 I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. 28 So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there.

The purpose for your authority in the lives of your children is not to hold them under your power, but to empower them to be self-controlled people living freely under the authority if God.

Jesus is an example of this. The One who commands you, the One who possesses all authority, came as a servant. He is a ruler who serves; he is also a servant who rules. He exercises sovereign authority that is kind - authority exercised on behalf of his subjects. In , Jesus, who knew that the Father had put all things under his authority, put on a towel and washed the disciples' feet. As his people submit to his authority, they are empowered to live freely in the freedom of the gospel.

Instruction starts at home; , ,

4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lordyour God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

3 For I too was a son to my father, still tender, and cherished by my mother. 4 Then he taught me, and he said to me, “Take hold of my words with all your heart; keep my commands, and you will live.

What do we do when children don’t obey us?

It’s our responsibility. Use your authority in the most loving, firm and gracious way that you are able. Don’t let the seed of autonomy grow deep.

Discipline is not an option;

Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.

What about those of us who are children?

BIG IDEA: Freedom comes through honouring God-given authority.

There is a direct link between our attitude to our parents authority and our attitude to God’s authority.

,

22 Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.

4 The father of a righteous child has great joy; a man who fathers a wise son rejoices in him. 25 May your father and mother rejoice; may she who gave you birth be joyful!

Discipline; submit to it.

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Love;

Joseph: , , ,

New International Version (NIV)

3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.

New International Version (NIV)

29 Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time.

New International Version (NIV)

7 Then Joseph brought his father Jacob in and presented him before Pharaoh. After Jacob blessed Pharaoh,

11 So Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the district of Rameses, as Pharaoh directed.

Obedience;

20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

Tedd Trip has a thing called the ‘circle of great blessing’.

God doesn’t establish mum’s authority to make our lives miserable. He put her in charge so we could receive the joy, peace, protection and happiness that comes from walking in God’s ways and doing his will.

Respect;

17 “The eye that mocks a father, that scorns an aged mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley, will be eaten by the vultures.

Kaedom:

Became a Christian and his dad just teased him endlessly about it. In front of the family at family dinners, in public. Just made a laughing stock out of him. But it was incredible to see his love for his dad remain.

He always asked for prayer for his dad, and would through his life just quietly go about following Jesus.

34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn

“‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— 36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’

37 “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

The world: how can I honour my father when he drinks or is mean or abusive, or a bigot? How can I honour my mother when she’s caught up in career and hobbies and friends? How can I honour my parents when they’ve never had much interest in me?

The Christian: how can I see the wrong my father is doing and still find a way to honour him?

Devotion

You may have seen signs about elder abuse around the place.

It’s so common for children of elderly parents to abuse them by forcing them into nursing homes, getting them to change their will, pension skimming, and many other ways, that it’s now a government initiative to make the public aware of it.

3 Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. 4 But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God... 8 Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Jesus:

25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his motherthere, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.”From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

BIG IDEA: Freedom comes through honouring God-given authority.

Exceptions

29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings!

6 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Husband wife relationship takes priority over the relationship previously enjoyed with parents. No lessening of affection or care though.

Abusive situations

Eg. Drug rehab. Letting abuse go on from parents is not honouring them, but letting them get away with sin. Honouring them means going to the police.

Examples

Promise

That it may go well with you

That you may live long in the land

Submission to parental authority means it goes well in at least two ways.

1. It goes well spiritually. Your children are learning that they can trust God to work through Mom and Dad to bless them. They experience the joy and fulfillment found in God’s ways.

2. It goes well practically. When you make up the guest list for a birthday party or decide whom to invite along on a family day, you choose children who are willing to receive direction. Hundreds of times in their lives, your children will see how opportunities are denied to the unruly but come to a child who is responsive to adult authority.

3. Submission to Mom and Dad also means a child “may live long.” We all know tragic circumstances in a young child has been taken, but there is a general biblical principle here. Obedience to God will result in richness and fullness of life.

4. Teach your children to obey. Help them understand and visualize the blessings that come with obedience. It is the very best place for them to be.

BIG IDEA: Freedom comes through honouring God-given authority.

Because it’s the sure thing early on that teaches a person their flawed and sinful. It’s the quickest way for them to experience the necessary brokenness that precedes the healing balm of the gospel.

The people had just been rescued by God

They’d just learned how they were to live in peace and harmony with God

Now they were about to learn how to live in peace and harmony with one another.

How to live the good life! How to enjoy the freedom Christ won for us. Not to get caught up in the weariness of sin again.

Beware of legalism

Beware of antinomianism

Don’t separate this command, or any other instruction from the one who has given the command.

We don’t obey in order to be accepted.

We obey because we’re already accepted.

DON’T FORGET THE GOSPEL! IT’S HIS GRACE, NOT YOUR ABILITY.

1. “Like everything else God calls people to, God doesn’t call people to be parents because they are able”

2. “God’s grace frees you from having to deny your weaknesses”

3. “God’s grace liberates you from the prison of regret”

4. How did you express your inability as a parent this week? Give two examples.

5. What weaknesses have you been denying as a parent? How can embracing that weakness make you a better parent?

6. What regrets do you have as a parent? How can grace liberate you from those regrets? Be specific.

Jesus: he learned obedience to death on a cross.

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!

9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.