Sermon Tone Analysis

*Responsibilities of Children and  Fathers*

/Ephesians 6:1-4/

 

The children had been begging for a hamster, and after the usual fervent vows that they alone would care for it, they got one.

They named it Danny.

As usually happens, two months later when Mom found herself responsible for cleaning and feeding the creature, she located a prospective new home for it.

The children took the news of Danny's imminent departure quite well, though one of them remarked, "He's been around here a long time—we’ll miss him."

"Yes," Mom replied, "But he's too much work for one person, and since I'm that one person, I say he goes."

Another child offered, "Well, maybe if he wouldn't eat so much and wouldn't be so messy, we could keep him."

But Mom was firm.

"It's time to take Danny to his new home now," she insisted.

"Go and get his cage."

With one voice and in tearful outrage the children shouted, "Danny?

We thought you said Daddy!"

 

Paul Harvey once shared a few thoughts on what makes a father:

“A father is a thing that is forced to endure childbirth without an anesthetic.

A father never feels worthy of the worship in a child's eyes.

He is never quite the hero his daughter thinks, never quite the man his son believes him to be; and this worries him—sometimes.

A father is a thing that gets very angry when the first school grades aren't as good as he think they should be.

He scolds his son, tho' he knows it's the teacher's fault.

Fathers are what give daughters away to other men who aren't nearly good enough, so they can have grandchildren who are smarter than anybody's.”

(Reprinted in the newsletter of First Baptist Church, Bossier City, Louisiana, June 10, 1980.)

But what makes a real Dad?

Here’s one that would qualify, in my opinion.

Evelyn Rhoades wrote in the May 1990 /Reader's Digest/ that when her granddaughter went to college, the girl's caring father sent along a telephone answering machine.

He had pre-recorded the outgoing message:

   /"Hello.

You have reached the residence of Elizabeth Eaton at //California// //Polytechnic// //State// in //San Luis Obispo//.

This is Liz's father speaking.

I am a six-foot-four-inch, 276-pound, violent-tempered gorilla.

Please keep this in mind when conducting business with my daughter.

If your business is friendly and honorable, leave your name and number and she will return your call."/

I’ve shared with you before the legend from India about the creation of man and woman.

The legend tells that to create the woman, God took several intangible things, such as the roundness of the moon, the blossoming of flowers, “the softness of a bird’s breast and the hardness of a diamond, the sweetness of honey and the cruelty of a tiger,” along with the singing of a nightingale and the faithfulness of a mother lion.

He mixed all those things together to make the woman, and gave her to the man.

But there’s another version of how God created the man.

It’s in the form of a little poem:

 

/God took the strength of a mountain,           /

/The majesty of a tree,           /

/The warmth of a summer sun,           /

/The calm of a quiet sea,           /

/The generous soul of nature,           /

/The comforting arm of night,           /

/The wisdom of the ages, /

/The power of the eagles flight,           /

/The joy of a morning in spring,           /

/The faith of a mustard seed,           /

/The patience of eternity,           /

/The depth of a family need,           /

/Then God combined these qualities,           /

/And when there was nothing more to add,           /

/He knew His masterpiece was complete,           /

/And so, He called it - DAD!/

--Author Unknown

 

In the closing verses of Ephesians 5, Paul began to deal with the Christian relationships in the home, and the difference Christ should make in a household ruled completely by Him.

Today we turn to the opening verses of chapter six to find God’s instructions for the children and the parents.

It is important to remember that these words are for Christian children and Christian parents, specifically fathers.

These words make no sense whatsoever without the presence of Christ in the home.

Paul was writing to Christian people, so the only place you can fully apply what he taught is in the Christian home.

God is always clear about what He wants His people to do and be.

We can argue and rationalize about what God says, but the truth will never change.

His commandments for us will never change.

We are to follow them in faith, just as we first asked Christ to enter our lives by faith.

It is interesting that Paul should begin a section on the Christian home by first speaking to the husband and wife.

The relationship between the husband and wife will determine the other relationships in the home.

So now the second relationship Paul turns to is that between children and parents.

Paul was saying, quite rightly, that even the relationship between children and their parents should fall under the Lordship of Christ.

In Paul’s day, there was a custom among the Romans known as “patria potestas,” which means “the father’s power.”

The father had absolute control and power over his wife, his children, and  his entire household.

He could sell anyone as a slave, or work them in the fields in chains.

He could even order them killed as punishment.

When a child was born, it was placed at its father’s feet.

If the father picked up the child that meant that he acknowledged the child and wished to keep it.

If he turned his back and walked away, the child was to be thrown out or sold at auction.

A contemporary of the Apostle Paul by the name of Seneca once described Roman policy with regard to unwanted animals: “We slaughter a fierce ox; we strangle a mad dog; we plunge a knife into a sick cow.

Children born weak or deformed we drown.”

So when Christ came into the world, what He taught was completely opposite.

He taught that children are just as important in the eyes of God as the adults are, which was a hard thing for the disciples to understand.

Jesus gave a new meaning to the important of children, and He gave new meaning to the responsibility a parent has in raising children.

Let’s take this brief passage in Ephesians 6 to find just a small sampling of what the Bible teaches.

*1.

First, the responsibility of the child, 6:1-3*

There are actually two words in vv.

1-3 that describe the responsibility of the Christian child toward his or her parents.

One word applies to the child who still lives at home, and the other word applies to the grown child, who is out on his own in the world with his own household.

*The word for the younger child is “obey.”*

/“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.”/

“Obey” is a simple word; it is a word that we can all understand.

It doesn’t need much /explanation/, but it does need a lot of /application/.

In the New Testament, the word “obey” means to “listen and do.”

It means to pay attention to what someone tells you or shows you, so that you may obey their instructions.

Children, that is God’s word for you to live by.

I believe this word “obey” is directed to children who are still under the care of their parents.

God wants you to obey your parents, plain and simple!

God wants you to obey your parents, not because they are your parents, but because you have made a commitment to Jesus Christ, and He knows that being obedient to your parents is only one way to express in your life what you say you believe in your heart.

You see, God knows your relationship to Jesus is only going to be as right as long as your relationship with your parents is right.

If you’re mad and fuming at your parents, you won’t have any peace with Jesus.

And when you disobey your parents on purpose, your relationship with Jesus will be clouded.

You’ll begin to feel that God doesn’t hear your prayers, and you won’t have any peace or guidance in your daily life if you refuse to obey your parents.

When my own daughter Jennifer was very small, I led her in saying her prayers every night.

If she had been real good during the day, and she knew it, she would say her prayers just as sweetly as a little girl could say them.

But if she had been cranky all day, or began to be upset when bedtime approached, she would say, “I can’t say my prayers.