Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction:
It takes a village to raise a child…or does it?
This is an oftentimes cited statement (thought to be an old African proverb) by our culture that seeks to try to force its own ideas into the minds of our children.
Who has the responsibility for raising children?
The government?
The public school system?
The church?
Or is it the parents?
Today we are going to spend some time in the Word of God talking about family.
We are going to start by addressing the children of our church and then move on to parents.
So I pray that we are all ready for an incredibly relevant and difficult study on the Biblical family.
Join me as we read God’s Word:
Let us pray.
Prayer
Today we are going to discuss two ways Christ is glorified by the family.
I. Christ is Glorified by Godly Children (Colossians 3:20)
We see this paralleled by Ephesians 6:1 as well:
I’m pretty sure many of the parents in this room may have either audibly or under their breath said amen after this verse.
When my kids were younger this is one of my favorite go to verses!
Yet, I think this sermon may feel a little like the last sermon in which husbands felt pretty good until the second half - when they became the called out ones in the Scriptures!
So don’t get too excited yet parents!
So we start off with the word children.
This is one of the more general terms for children in the Greek which is tekna (tech-na).
This refers to any child still living in the home and under parental authority and guidance.
Before delving into the rest of this verse - it is important to remember that the parent-child relationship changes drastically once a child is married and grown.
We are to leave and cleave.
Once we are married we no longer are under our parents authority.
We need to honor and respect them.
But we are not commanded to obey them any longer.
Getting back to our verse, however, I love that children are addressed here directly.
Paul doesn’t tell the parents to tell their children what he says.
He addresses them directly.
This is another reason that we feel strongly about having our children in the service with us instead of being in a separate space.
If Paul addressed children in letters read among the congregations of the churches - then I think it is clear that he wanted children to hear other parts of the Word taught as well!
Moving forward he tells children to obey their parents.
This word obey is stronger than the word submit that we saw in the charge to wives.
And it is even more strongly presented because it is followed by the phrase ‘in everything.’
This is a tough commandment.
Obey your parents in everything.
Can I get a show of hands from all of the sons and daughters here that have obeyed their parents in every single thing since they were born?
No one other than Jesus can raise their hand on that one!
We should all understand that we are sinners and that we are need of a Savior.
The command to obey your parents is a command directly from God.
He even included this command in the Ten Commandments.
As children under your parents authority, you honor your parents by obeying them and respecting them.
Looking back at our verse, Paul ends the verse with - for this pleases the Lord.
This command is not a dependent clause.
It is not dependent on how great your parents are and if your parent always gives the commands that you agree with.
God commands children to obey their parents and to honor them even if their parents aren’t the most perfect parents.
None are perfect I’m afraid!
Children, you obey your parents because God said so.
You don’t obey them because of who they are or aren’t.
You obey them because of who God is.
You obey them because it pleases the Lord.
But what are some practical ways that you can grow in holiness as children?
How can you improve at obeying and honoring both your parents and the Lord?
I think that the book of Proverbs is one of the best places to start.
It is filled with wisdom.
If you want to grow in wisdom, then read Proverbs through multiple times.
Read it slowly and digest the wisdom there.
You will come to verses like these:
The Bible is clear that children are to obey their parents in everything.
Those who are disobedient to their parents are termed foolish.
Spend a little time in Proverbs and you will see what God thinks about those who are foolish!
I’ll just let you know ahead of time that it is not good!
Wisdom comes from obeying and accepting instruction.
Obviously, we need to obey Christ first and if our parents ever give a command that is sinful, we should resist it.
But in all other things - in everything else - children should obey their parents in order to glorify Christ.
As we come to the end regarding this first point, I want to address the children humbly for a minute.
Being a parent is hard work.
You are going to hear some of the challenges in a moment as I address parents next.
Please spend much time in prayer for your parents.
We as parents don’t know all of the answers and we don’t always have it all together.
We need wisdom from the Lord as well.
Lift us up in prayer regularly and ask for the Lord to keep us strong.
Moving forward we see that....
Scripture References: Ephesians 6:1, Genesis 2:24; Exodus 20:12; Proverbs 13:1, 15:5, 10:17, 23:22,10:1
II.
Christ is Glorified by Godly Parents (Colossians 3:21)
I want us to also look at the parallel verse for this in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians:
As you can see there is great overlap here.
I want us to systematically study these two verses so that we get an idea of what it means to glorify Christ through our parenting.
We see both verses start off with the word fathers.
You may note that I have included the word parents in the point.
I have done this for two reasons.
First, because we live in a world that has a lot of families that have missing fathers.
Some are missing because the Lord has taken them home.
Some are missing because they ran from responsibility.
Some are missing for other reasons.
And second, because fathers and mothers are a team.
Mothers are an incredibly active part of raising children.
They are frankly the primary caregiver for the children.
But I want us to understand the actual charge here starts with fathers who are the leaders of the home.
So moving forward we see that fathers are not to provoke their children lest they become discouraged.
And as the verse in Ephesians states - not to provoke your children to anger.
The word provoke in Colossians is erethizō (err-a-thez-o) in the Greek which means to rouse to anger, to stir up, to irritate, or to be quarrelsome.
The verse in Ephesians has a slightly different Greek word but has a similar definition.
By provoking our children we cause them to become discouraged which also means to lose heart.
Have you ever seen a child who has lost heart and become discouraged?
It is such a sad sight.
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