Honor and Obey
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Introduction
Introduction
We are going to be spending some time the next few weeks talking directly to the children and their responsibilities in the home. As parents, we have a responsibility to teach our children these lessons and the heart behind it. We can all be reminded of an important truth because as believers we are all sons and daughters of God. I want to start off teaching the children a chorus that we taught our kids. The chorus is from Bible Truth Music with Byron Fox.
(Children obey your parents song)
Kids we all know these verses pretty well; so lets all quote them or if you don’t know them let’s read the verses together. Just the kids now.
Who is being talked to?
Who is being talked to?
Paul addresses children in this passage and it may seem obvious to ask who is being talked to, but I think there is a truth here that we need to draw out. The key to understanding this passage is the answer to the question What is a child?
The word τεκνον in Greek though some exceptions do apply generally refers to a physical descendent from the ages birth to adolescence whether male or female. This word deals more with family relationship that position or status, but generally, when a child becomes an adult they are no longer considered to be a τεκνον.
Children listen to what I am saying here: as long as you are living in a dependent relationship with your parents you are under their authority to obey them. The older you get you are going to start transition to not being their dependent, but their equal, their peer. But until you are completely on your own as a fully functioning adult, you are to follow the commands of this passage.
There will come a day when you have a family of your own in a house of your own when you will not be required to obey your parents any more. Mom, can’t come over and tell you you have to paint the house pink anymore. Gen 2:24 “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” You leave your parents and form a new home of your own. But even when that day comes we are to treat our parents with respect. We are to honor all men and that includes our parents. 1 Peter 2:17 “Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.”
What are we told to do?
What are we told to do?
A. Obey- comes from a word that means to listen and then do what they say. When you parents give you instructions, you should be listening. Half the time kids fail to obey and then they give the excuse that they didn’t know. Usually the problem is that they did not listen to what they were told. If your parents are speaking to you, look them in the eyes; stop doing what ever else you are doing and pay attention. After all that, make sure that you do what they told you to do. This is the meaning of obey.
It is like a soldier who is going into battle. They have been sitting around camp for days now without anything to do when finally their commanding officer comes into camp. He stands up on a barrel and begins to give instructions: “Men, get your boots on, pack up your tents, but leave everything but your horse and your gun. We are going to patrol along the river and then come back and pick up our stuff and move on.” Now if you were over by your tent playing cards, you might have missed something he said. Lets say you saw everyone packing it all up and you load your stuff on to your horse. Your horse is weighed down and tired now. You didn’t obey because you didn’t listen.
Anything short of listening and doing exactly what you were told is disobedience.
Partial obedience is disobedience- You went out to take care of the dog but you didn’t play with her like mom and dad told you to.
Delayed obedience is disobedience- cleaning your room in the evening instead of when mom and dad told you to.
Doing something else instead is disobedience- Washing the dishes instead of mowing the lawn.
B. Honor- Honor is being used to say the same thing as obey in this passage but it does carry its own meaning. The word means to fix value to. Kids, do you think your parents are special. Honoring them means to treat them with respect and to value them.
Do you ever say mean things to your mom?
Do you make fun of your parents?
Do you treat them rudely?
Do you ignore them and walk away?
All of these things are disrespectful to your parents. When you do them you are not honoring your parents like God said you should.
You might ask, why should I value my parents?
You might ask, why should I value my parents?
They gave birth to you and your mother went through a lot of pain to give you life.
Your parents changed your poopy diapers and trust me no one wants to do that.
Your parents have made sure you were fed and all the things you needed were taken care of for you.
Your parents love you even when everyone else ignores you.
Your parents have only ever wanted what it best for you.
Why should we obey our parents?
Why should we obey our parents?
Our relationship with Jesus
We are told to obey our parents in the Lord. Another way of saying that is because of your relationship with the Lord Jesus. John 14:15 “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” There is a connection between love and obedience. If you know Jesus Christ as your savior your should want to do the things that make Him happy. Obeying our parents is one of those things. We show our love for God and our love for our parents when we obey. When you refuse to obey, you are saying that doing what you want to do is more important than God and your parents.
It is right
Right here refers to being the righteous thing to do. It is a godly thing to do. Kids you can be like Jesus Christ. Did you know that even Jesus had to honor and obey his parents? Luke 2:51 “And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.” Jesus always obeyed His parents but He still had to make a choice to obey them. When you obey your parents you are being like Jesus.
The bible tells us to honor and obey them
Honor your father and mother- is a quotation from Exodus 20:12 Where do we find out what God wants us to do? (Ask the kids) The Bible tells us what God expects from us.
There is a reward for obedience
Which is the first commandment with a promise-
The logical question we should all be asking ourselves is this
Do obedient children always live long lives?
Do obedient children always live long lives?
Let’s say we have three 8 year old boys. One of them is named Billy, the second, Bob and the third boy is Bush. There is an inside joke embedded in this story for my kids. All three of them read their bibles together and they go to church together. They all are trying to obey their parents, but one day Bob is killed in a car accident at the age of 8. Billy knowing what his bible says goes to his dad and asks “Daddy, did this come true for Bob. I thought this meant that he would live a long life on earth.” What would you tell you son?
“I am so sorry for what happened to Bob and I know it is hard and doesn’t feel like things are going well for you or for his parents right now. I know they are hurting tonight. But God did not fail to keep his promise. Because Bob was saved, he is in heaven now and God is rewarding him now. And some day when Jesus comes back Bob will come back with Him and live on this earth again. Eph 2:7 “That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”
The command to obey your parents is actually the fifth commandment, but it is the first one that comes with a promise of blessing. This blessing was made to all the people of Israel that if they and their children honored their parents, God would allow the nation of Israel to stay in the land. It was saying, “If you and your children are obedient, law abiding they will survive a long time in the land.” God wasn’t promising old age to everyone who obeyed this command; instead he was promising a blessed life. As our illustration shows, a faulty understanding of this passage leads us to make God into a liar.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Kids, I am addressing this invitation directly to you tonight. Sin is very important no matter how old you are, so I want to ask you to think about how you have been treating your parents. Have you been listening and obeying your parents? What about honoring them? I hope you know how important your parents should be to you. If you have been struggling with this you need to make this right.
Whenever you sin, this is how you make that right:
Confess your sins to God 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Confess means basically pray to God and admit that what you did was wrong. Agree with God that is was wrong to disobey your parents or to talk disrespectfully to your parents. During the invitation, it is helpful to come down front and spend some time praying to God about this because right now is the moment when he is working in your heart. Don’t put off dealing with sin until later.
Go apologize to your parents- If you confess your sins to God, He will forgive you, but you still need to make things right with your parents. After the service, you should go and apologize to your parents. Say something like this, “Mom, Dad I am sorry I disobeyed you when I … I was wrong. Will you forgive me?
Right now, God’s Spirit might be convicting you about what you did. It isn’t fun to live with our hearts hurting because God is convicting us all the time. Acts 24:16 “And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.” Paul was saying that he didn’t want a guilty conscience about things he had done wrong either to God or to other people. You can come tonight and make this right. Let’s start by praying down front now.