Sermon Tone Analysis
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*Spirit-Filled Parent-Child Relationships*
*Ephesians 6:1-4*
We can scarcely overestimate the importance of the home in God’s plan.
We need only to look at the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 to see how strategic the home is.
Consider the two tables of the law.
The first four commands deal with the vertical dimensions of life – our relationship to God.
The last five commandments deal with horizontal issues – how we relate to our fellow man.
What is right in the middle?
The command to honor father and mother.
You see the home is the place where children learn both how to relate to God and how to relate to others.
It is the training institute in which kids learn how to live in the world that God created.
Tedd Tripp in an article entitled /Embracing God’s Plan for Authority/ states:
/We need to provide our children with a coherent and accurate model of reality, a model of how God has made things and how they are all supposed to function.
Our goal must be greater than simply forcing or persuading our children to obey God’s commands.
Our goal must be to help our children understand and embrace the world God has made./
/ /
Tripp goes on to talk about the various authority structures God has placed in the world.
For instance, the authority of government, the authority of leaders in the church, the authority of husbands in the home, the authority of employers in the workplace, etc.
He argues that it is essential for parents to teach their children about authority if we want them to function properly in the world God has established.
This is of great concern to Paul in the book of Ephesians.
We have already seen that this section of the book is governed by the ideas of submission and leadership.
We have been looking at how those concepts are to be lived out between husbands and wives.
Now, we turn our attention to how submission and leadership are fleshed out between parents and children.
Keep in mind that all of this instruction is to be understood as demonstrating the filling of the Spirit in our families.
So, today we see what Spirit-filled children and parents look like.
I.
Spirit-filled children obey and honor their parents (vv.
1-3).
A.
Children?
Who is being addressed?
1.
The word translated children is a general word which does
not give us any indications of age or circumstance.
2.
If we look at the larger context, we get some indications.
a. Verse 4 tells parents to bring up their children in the
discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Based on this,
we can judge that the children being spoken to in v. 1
are children who are being “brought up” in the home.
That is, they are still at the age of being under the
support and authority of parents.
b. Since children are directly addressed in this letter, we
may also assume that it is not addressed just to infant
or very young children, but also to those who were at
an age where they could listen and understand.
That
would mean children perhaps as young as 4-5 yrs all
the way up to the oldest teens.
c. So, I think we can safely say that this instruction is
addressed to all children who are living with their
parents and still under their primary support and
authority.
It would certainly exclude those who have
become adults and established their own homes.
APP: I think it is important to recognize that the Bible directly addresses Christian children.
I want the children and students to listen closely.
If you are a Christian, the Bible is speaking directly to you today.
Look at verse 1.
It says, “Children…” Just like it said husbands or wives, it now says children.
That is you.
Your responsibility to hear and obey God’s Word does not begin later.
It does not begin when you are an adult.
Your accountability to God is not something you can shirk until you are older.
God is speaking to you.
You are responsible to hear and follow His Word.
B.
Children are to obey and honor their parents.
1.
The word obey literally means to “hear under.”
It is a word
that means to follow instruction in submission to authority.
This same word is used to speak of how demons, wind, and
waves obeyed Jesus.
It speaks of how Xns obey the truth.
2.
The word honor is a value word.
It was used to describe how
a price was fixed for a piece of land.
It is a word that means
to determine the worth of something.
So, when it is used in
connection with people it means to respect, honor, and treat
someone as worthy and valuable in your eyes.
3.
When you bring these two ideas together it means to value
your parents appropriately and obey their authority.
That is,
you are to hold them in the highest regard, respect them, and
do what they say.
4.
These two ideas encompass both inward attitude and
outward behavior.
In other words, you need to respect your
parents with your attitude as well as obey your parents with
your actions.
Outward conformity to rules while harboring
an inward resentment toward parents is not fulfilling this
command.
C.
Why should children honor and obey their parents?
1.
/Because you honor and obey Jesus Christ/.
Look at the words
“in the Lord.”
Your obedience and honor to your parents is
first because you honor and obey Jesus.
You cannot say you
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