Command 5: Honouring Your Parents

[0:00] All right, well, let's open up the Word of God then this morning and find the book of Exodus, chapter number 20. Exodus 20, we're definitely taking a hit today with sickness going around one of these days.

[0:30] That'll be a thing of the past. And until then, we'll just grin and bear it and suck it up, buttercup. So here we go, Exodus chapter 20.

[0:43] Last week, we took a look at the fourth commandment here, the Sabbath of rest in verses 8 through 11. And I tried to clear up some confusion and some false teaching that comes out of observance of this command of the Sabbath day, keeping it holy.

[1:03] And also tried to give you some understanding that this pictures the believer's rest in the Lord Jesus Christ, as Hebrews says, after ceasing from his own works as God ceased from his.

[1:14] And so there's a picture in that command for us today of seeing how we can come to Jesus Christ and receive rest unto our souls. Now, in Exodus chapter 20, I just want to read verse 12, and this will be the fifth command.

[1:31] Verse number 12, the Bible says, Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

[1:42] Six words long is this command, honor thy father and thy mother, and attached to that command is a promise, a promise of long life.

[1:52] Now, this isn't the only command in this Old Testament law that attaches this, that thy days may be long upon the land. That shows up several times. I think it's even pretty close here in the 20s.

[2:06] But in this case, it does show up as a promise, attached, and Paul reiterates that in Ephesians chapter 6, which we'll get to later. And so the command is pretty simple, just honor them. Just honor them.

[2:19] Now, I'm going to give you three angles that we look at this this morning. First is going to be an explanation of the command, and you may think, well, it's pretty simple. You just said so. What do we need to explain? I'll explain.

[2:31] Secondly, we'll look at some illustrations of the command where there's a pro and a con, or a positive or negative, a good or evil, of whether you do or don't. And then thirdly, it'll be the application of this command, how it applies to not only to your relationships with mother and father, but your relationship to God himself.

[2:51] And so those are the three angles this morning of this command to honor thy father and thy mother. But before we do any of that stuff, let's pray together and seek the Lord's help and blessing on this sermon.

[3:02] And Father, I ask that you'll give me strength and that you'll clear my thoughts and mind and enable me to be a deliverer of the word of God. Lord, may your people have ears to hear and hearts that will receive readily the truth of this book.

[3:16] Lord, may we take to heart these words of this command. Some thousands of years long ago, you wrote them with your own finger, and yet they're still relevant to us today.

[3:29] And help us to see that and understand it and believe it and then put the practice where we can. And we're going to just ask for your help now in this hour, in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, I told you, first of all, we need to get a little explanation of the command.

[3:43] And the reason I say that is I think there's some things you need to understand about this command. Because I've already exhibited in previous commands how certain cults twist things or apply things that aren't to be applied and misinterpret the scriptures like the Seventh-day Adventist from last week's command.

[3:59] And then from the Jehovah's Witnesses look at the command before that with the name of the Lord thy God. And so that's very common for confusion and for false teaching to persist as a result of misapplying a commandment.

[4:13] We don't want to do that. So first of all, let's look at this. The definition of the word. I want to just focus on the word itself. It says, The action or the command is to honor.

[4:25] That's what the King James Bible says. It does not say obey, does it? Go ahead. Think about it. I know you're thinking it does. You're thinking in your heart, Well, we've taught our children for years to obey their parents and rightfully so.

[4:41] Yet that's not what this command says in the verse, right? It says, Honor thy father and thy mother. Honoring and obeying are two different things.

[4:52] They may kind of blend together in some aspects and we may get some of that out later. But for now, honor means to regard with great respect. And some additional thoughts or ideas with honor is to cherish and to admire and to revere.

[5:10] Honoring your father and mother is elevating or distinguishing them, holding them in high esteem. That's honoring thy father and thy mother. And it's not only for your parents.

[5:22] This word and this command goes all over the Bible in different manners or is applied in different situations. I'll give you one for instance. In Numbers, a king named Balak tried to hire a soothsayer named Balaam because Israel was coming and he saw them coming.

[5:39] And he said, they're just going to take over us. And so I need to hire this guy, this diviner, and I'm going to have him curse the people. And so if he curses them, they're not going to be able to do anything to me.

[5:50] And so he said to Balak, or Balak said to Balaam, he said that I am going to promote you to great honor if you'll do this thing. What is that? You're going to be elevated to a very high position and distinguished and be very highly esteemed.

[6:06] And so I'm going to promote you to great honor. There's other biblical concepts of honor. One of which is you're to honor the elderly or the aged. You're to rise up before the hoary head, meaning the gray-haired or white-haired man.

[6:19] And it says to honor something in the face of the old man. It's respect and revere them and give place to them.

[6:31] Not just the elderly, but the elders, as in the pastors that rule well are worthy of double honor. The king, you're to honor the king, Peter says. And another idea of the word honor is to prefer above yourself.

[6:46] That is, Paul says in Romans 13 to brothers and sisters in Christ. He says, in honor, preferring one another. In honor. Looking at your brother or looking at your sister humbly through your humble eyes and preferring them or their wish or their needs above your own.

[7:04] And so that's honoring. Husbands are to dwell with their wives according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel. Now it doesn't say husbands obey your wives.

[7:16] It doesn't. But it does say to give honor to your wives. And so they're different terms. It's to think highly of or to treat with great respect. And I think it's pretty obvious that the degree of honor differs dependent upon the relationship.

[7:30] I'm pretty sure that's very easy to understand. Whether it's children honoring their parents or you honoring the king. Or some individual in the world kind of moving up in position at the job or whatever the case.

[7:44] So the degree of honor differs depending upon the position or the relationship. But the definition is the same nonetheless. So first of all, in the explanation of the command, let's be careful that we understand the word that's being commanded.

[7:58] The word honor. Then secondly, let's understand this. This is very important. This command is not aimed exclusively at children or at the teenagers of the day.

[8:11] You do realize that this command is the fifth command out of ten. And it sits right alongside the same commands or the commands given to the same people that you are not to make unto thee any graven image.

[8:23] You're not to bow down thyself to them nor serve them. You think that's to kids? How about this one? You think that's just to the children? This isn't to kids.

[8:35] This command, honor thy father and mother, falls right in line with all of the rest. And its audience is the same. We can't just pluck that one out and say, now children, remember the Bible says this to you.

[8:46] And act like it doesn't apply to the adults as well. It absolutely applies to adults. And I want to make that very clear as we get through this. Just because somebody turns 20 years old, and I'll use 20 because that's the Bible, you're not a teenager anymore.

[9:03] When you're 19, you're still a teen. I hope that makes sense to you just by hearing it. The Bible age is 20. And you kind of step out of the adolescence or the teen years and are treated differently.

[9:17] And just because somebody hits that number, that in no way makes them exempt from being under this command. I think and believe biblically this command is for life. It's as long as father and mother are alive.

[9:30] And it may even go on after that, that you continue to honor their memory or honor their wishes even after death. And so the command stands and the command states that you honor thy father and thy mother.

[9:44] All right. So if you understand that, then we can move on. I want to give you two illustrations of this just in cases in the Bible where some did and some didn't and what that looked like. And so would you turn to Jeremiah chapter 35.

[9:57] I'm going to read a good portion of this. But this is just illustrations of what it looks like or how it's practically displayed in the lives of certain people in the Bible.

[10:08] These are children of a father, but they're not children in the sense of 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. They're grown adults. In some cases, they're maybe even grandfathers themselves, and yet they're still honoring the word of their father.

[10:25] All right. Jeremiah 35. Now, it's really the whole chapter that discloses this information. And for sake of time, I'll just give you a little bit of the background here.

[10:36] This is a time where the beginning of the captivity. And so Nebuchadnezzar is sending forces and a captain over, and he's taking, in the first wave of the captivity, he takes the cream of the crop, the princes and those that were vocational or what's the word I want?

[10:54] It just held a craft or a high occupation. Remember Daniel? He was one of those children that were well favored. So he and those cream of the crop were pulled up in the first captivity.

[11:08] And so they're still in the land. Jeremiah is in the land, and these people we read about are still in the land. And what they do is this particular family moves to Jerusalem, probably for safeguard, because it's a very unstable time.

[11:22] Their land has just been conquered, and some have been removed as captives. And so they're not going to dwell out there in their inheritance anymore, because that's just easy pickings. And so they move in to Jerusalem.

[11:35] Now, I'll start in verse 1 here. And so he does.

[11:54] He grabs Jeazaniah, the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habanaziah, and his brethren, and his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites.

[12:05] And I brought them into the house of the Lord, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Idaliah, the man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maasaiah, the son of Shalem, the keeper of the door.

[12:18] And I sat before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine and cups, and said unto them, Drink ye wine. But they said, We will drink no wine, Jeremiah, prophet, you preacher, man of God, we will drink no wine.

[12:35] For Jonadab, the son of Rechab our father, commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye nor your sons forever. Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any.

[12:49] But all your days ye shall dwell in tents, that ye may live many days in the land where ye be strangers. Now the bottom line is, these followed the voice of their father, the patriarch, as it were, of their family.

[13:03] And this might be their father's father, their grandfather. But they're obeying and observing every word that he spoke to them, and they remained under his command. And the Lord saw that, he knew that, and so he knew they weren't going to drink wine in the house of the Lord, but he brought them in there to make the case.

[13:20] And so what God says about this, verse 13, it says, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, go tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will ye not receive instruction to hearken unto my words, saith the Lord?

[13:34] The words of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine are performed. For unto this day they drink none, but obey their father's commandment. Notwithstanding, I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking, but ye hearken not unto me.

[13:47] And he carries on to talk about how he sent prophets to them, and they rejected the prophet's message. They refused the word of God. And so he uses this family as an illustration to preach and to declare to the nation, You need to be obeying my voice.

[14:02] Now at the end of this, that family gets blessed from God because of their obedience to their father and honoring their father in his word. So the command wasn't from the prophet to drink no wine or to build no houses, plant vineyards, all of that.

[14:18] They're going to essentially, while their nation is under captivity, they are not going to try to grow themselves as a people because they're remaining in the land. I'm going to guess, just based on the way the captivity went, that these were just common folks.

[14:33] Nothing special about this family. Just ordinary people, didn't have a particular skill that was going to take them to the top level. But nevertheless, they refused to build and to plant and to grow and to take advantage of the absence of the upper crust of society.

[14:50] And they dwelt in tents because that's what they were commanded of their father. So this wasn't from the prophet or from the Lord, but the command was from their father. The command wasn't popular in the land.

[15:01] It wasn't a pleasant command, but they hearkened to his words. They put themselves in an awkward case and even became a spectacle to others. But God used it as an illustration to explain to his people how ultimately he just desired for them to obey his voice.

[15:17] So there's what it looks like for somebody to honor their father and their mother in real life practice in a case where it may not be popular among your peers or your neighbors and it may not look like you got it together, but you're doing what was right.

[15:34] And the Lord blessed it. All right, so something else. Let's go back to Genesis 24. I want to show you another side of what it looks like when you don't honor your father and your mother.

[15:46] Genesis chapter 24. And the story here, as we introduce it, starts with Abraham. And you know God had called Abraham out of the country of his father.

[16:01] And let's see, he moves him and his possessions and wife and family into the land of Canaan.

[16:11] Now Abraham had no seed at the time, but the Lord gave him a seed. They called his name Isaac, which means laughter because his mother Sarah laughed. And now Isaac has grown and it's time for him to have a wife.

[16:26] And in chapter 24, look at verse 3 and 4. This is Abraham speaking to his servant. And he says, So the people that dwell around him, all these Canaanites, he sees what they're up to.

[16:53] He knows what kind of people they are. And he says, You are not going to let Isaac marry one of these girls. That's not going to happen. You go back to where I'm from and you get one from there.

[17:03] So that's the case here. Let's move on to, let's see, look at chapter 26. Chapter 26 of Genesis.

[17:14] So Isaac marries Rebekah and he has two sons, Esau and Jacob. And Esau, the firstborn, the eldest, who has the birthright, who is going to carry on his father's name and legacy and receive the inheritance of the father's business and possessions, and it's going to be on his name.

[17:39] Esau has a bad attitude. And it shows up in certain decisions that he makes. And the first one here is in chapter 26 that I want to point out.

[17:49] Esau knowingly dishonored his parents in choosing wives of the daughters of Canaan. Look at 26.34.

[18:01] And Esau was 40 years old when he took to wife Judith, the daughter of Berai, the Hittite, and Bathshemath, the daughter of Elon, the Hittite, which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.

[18:17] The same grief of mind that it would have been to Abraham, Isaac's father, had he sought a daughter of the land. That wasn't going to happen. Look over at chapter 27 and look at verse 46.

[18:31] Verse 46. This is Rebekah. After dwelling with these daughter-in-laws and having them around and living in this land, Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth.

[18:45] Now, I didn't show you the verse, but those are Hittites, and that's who Esau married, two Hittites. I'm weary of my life because of the daughter. They're wearing me out. If Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?

[19:03] And so she's at her wit's end with finding a wife, a good wife for her son, Jacob. She loves Jacob. Esau took two daughters and totally displeased them, was a grief of mind to them.

[19:15] And the very next chapter begins in chapter 28, 1 and 2, with Isaac telling Jacob, don't marry one of these girls, son. You go back to where I got my wife, and that's where you go get yours.

[19:28] And that's exactly the commandment there at 28, 1 and 2. Now Esau was not ignorant at all of this situation, and he decided against his parents' wishes to do things his own way, against their counsel, against their opinion or their advice.

[19:45] After all, this is my life. You're not going to tell me who to marry. You're not going to tell me what to do and how to live it. And if it's a grief of mind, suck it up. Because Esau didn't care much for mom and dad's opinions about who he married.

[19:59] You can see by his own mother's admission, this thing hurt. And you can see it was a grief of mind to both of them that he chose to marry one of these Canaanite girls.

[20:10] And when she says these words, she says that, what good shall my life do me? What she's saying, I think she's saying that I was raised this way. I was not raised the way these people act around here and worshiping the gods they worship.

[20:24] I was raised differently. She's from Syria. And she says, all of that upbringing, that culture that I have, my people, it's just going to disappear with this generation of my boys.

[20:37] They're marrying Hittites. My grandkids are going to grow up like Canaanites, is what she sees. She says, what good shall my life do me? My life's worthless. It's meaningless.

[20:47] I can't instill anything. And this culture dies. And so she's greatly distraught by the choices of Esau, dishonoring his father and mother.

[20:59] But there's something else. Look at chapter 25. Something else in the decision that Esau made that shows his dishonor. In verse number 34, we see that Esau despised his birthright.

[21:13] You can read the very last four words of verse 34. Esau despised his birthright. Now the birthright, being the firstborn, made him the primary heir of the estate of his father, of the business, of the wealth, of the name, the genealogies would travel through his name.

[21:36] And that's just, that's the culture and the way it was. And Esau despised being named after his father. He wasn't like his dad. And he wasn't going to be like his dad.

[21:49] And he had that, I had that spite in me as a young man, a fool. And it was in this man I see it. He despised being named after his father.

[21:59] He despised being named after his grandfather. Why? Because he was his own man. He was going to do things his own way. For instance, look at verse 27. You don't get a whole lot of information on Esau.

[22:11] But one thing you learn is the boys grew. And Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field. Now his father Isaac wasn't a cunning hunter. And his father Abraham was not a cunning hunter.

[22:25] What were these men? These were herdsmen. These were shepherds. A little bit later in chapter 26, you see that Isaac in verse 13, that he waxed great and went forward and grew until he became very great.

[22:38] He had possession of flocks, possession of herds, a great store of servants. Like that was Abraham's M.O. He was very great in substance with cattle and herds. And then Isaac himself inherited that and was the same and the Lord blessed him the same way.

[22:53] Going forward, you see that that carried true with Jacob. He was very good with the cattle and the herds. But Esau, the call of the wild was in his ear.

[23:05] He didn't want to be like, Dad, I got to get out there. I'm a man of the field. I'm a hunter. I got a name for myself. I'm good at it. I'm cunning. I'm smart.

[23:16] I can do things these people couldn't even think of doing. They've never done what I can do out there in the field. Not everybody can do it. Not everybody sees it the way I see it. Not everybody can read the land and can tell the wind.

[23:27] And he just, he knows what he can do. And the Bible gives him the credit. His dad was proud of him. In verse number 28 of 25, it says that Esau loved Jake.

[23:38] Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his venison. He was proud of his boy. He's like, man, this guy's got some skills and he's feeding me and it's delicious and this is stuff that I'm just not familiar with.

[23:49] I'm used to eating the kids and of the flocks and this man getting out there and getting the game. But Esau could care less for being like dad and for following in the footsteps of dad and of granddad, Abraham.

[24:06] He wasn't interested in keeping the flocks. He wasn't interested in investing his time and energy in the family business. But instead, he wanted to do what he loved and do what made his name great.

[24:20] And so Esau even had a different disposition. Look at chapter 27 and just get a little glimpse of the kind of man that he was. This man was a killer and he was hot.

[24:32] In verse number 40, Isaac speaking to his son Esau and he says, and by thy sword shalt thou live. By thy sword shalt thou live.

[24:44] It's going to be a rough, violent life that you're going to live, Esau, because that's the kind of man you are in heart. In verse 41, Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him.

[24:56] And Esau said in his heart, the days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then, I'm going to kill him. I'm going to kill that brother of mine. He's dead. I'll get what I want.

[25:08] Ultimately, one way or another. And so here's a case, an illustration rather, of not honoring father and mother in more than one way. And when it comes to making decisions for his wife, when it came to make decisions about his future and his family and his attachment to them and his submission to that, just said, I'll do it.

[25:28] I'll do my own thing, go my own way and I'll be my own man. Thank you very much. I don't need you and I'm not here to help you. He was selfish. He was arrogant and he did not submit to honor his father and mother.

[25:41] The Bible says, A foolish son is a grief to his father and bitterness to her that bear him. A foolish man despiseth his mother and refusing to honor as the command says, thy father and thy mother is a mark of a fool.

[25:59] Amen. The mark of a fool. Now some application. There was the explanation, the illustrations, how that looks in a few cases and now let's make some application in your own life.

[26:12] As in the relationships that you and I have with our mothers and our fathers, I think the command's very plain as we've studied, honor thy father and mother and we decide, determine what that word means.

[26:24] But I think it looks different depending on what age you are or what stage of life you're in. And so let's get a few things from the scriptures that can help us depending on where we are.

[26:35] So let's flip over to Ephesians chapter number six. And you may know where we're going, but it's worth turning so you see what the scripture says plainly.

[26:48] Ephesians chapter six and the first two verses, three verses. You'll notice verse one is addressed to children.

[27:03] Now the command we pointed out was not addressed to children. But in this case, Paul does make a command in the church. He makes it to children. Obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.

[27:15] He says in Colossians, children, obey your parents in all things for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord. It's right. It's just right. He doesn't give you the command yet.

[27:26] But then he adds on to it and by the way, honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise and there's the promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth.

[27:38] So Paul doesn't have any trouble attaching an Old Testament command to believers today and to young people specifically in their obedience to their parents. Honor for children when you're young means obeying their word and respecting their position and their authority.

[27:57] That's honoring your parents, obeying your parents. But there comes a day when you're not young anymore, when you move out of the house, God willing, when you move out and you begin to make your own decisions, you begin to establish your own life and your own family and I today as a 46-year-old man am a son still of my father but I'm not under his authority.

[28:25] There may be some finer points where it may be decided that I should be submissive to him in certain things if he decides but overall, he's not going to call me up and tell me what to do today.

[28:39] He's not going to tell me what to do in my home or about dealing with my wife or kids. He doesn't have any right to do that. He can give me his advice and his counsel but I'm not under his authority. But the command doesn't say to obey.

[28:53] As I pointed out, it says to honor. And let me show you something about when you're older. Flip back to Mark chapter 7. The Bible, it'll hit it. This book will touch it all.

[29:04] If you'll just get in it and care and look for it, the book will tell you what to do in all areas. When you're young, you obey, you honor by respecting their position and authority and obeying their word.

[29:21] when you're old. You honor them by caring for them and providing for them and even looking after them when they get old.

[29:34] Mark chapter 7 and verse number 9. 9 through 13. Jesus Christ says, He said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God that ye may keep your own tradition.

[29:52] What's the commandment of God they're rejecting? For Moses said, Honor thy father and thy mother and whoso curseth father or mother let him die the death. But ye say, by your tradition, ye say, if a man say to his father or mother, it is Corban, that is to say, a gift by whatsoever there mightest be profited by me, he shall be free and ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother, making the word of God of none effect through your tradition which ye have delivered and many such like things do ye.

[30:30] So what exactly is going on? Well, they have a gift. It's a gift that has value. Perhaps it's just straight up money. But at any rate, it has value and this gift, mom and dad, you would be profited by if I were to give it to you.

[30:49] But instead, I can say it is Corban, meaning it is a gift to God and I can give it to the priest at the temple and the priests, by this tradition they've established, suffer him, the man, the son, no more to do ought for his father or mother.

[31:07] I don't have the funds to take care of you because I've given it to God. And there's no doubt the way this thing worked, somehow this came back around to benefit them because I can't see them really just giving all their money to the temple and not taking care of their parents unless it benefited them and they're rejecting the commandment of God by doing this.

[31:29] The expectation and Jesus Christ puts on these adults the command to honor their father and mother and to do so by doing ought for them, by profiting them with whatever that gift is that you possess.

[31:46] And it makes clear sense the child is supposed to be taken care of and providing for. But by neglecting this responsibility Christ teaches these people this tradition you've come up with you are violating, you are rejecting the commandment of God.

[32:03] There's another case, let's flip to it, we've got time, 1 Timothy chapter 5, a very similar idea as far as of this age being older in life, 1 Timothy 5 and here's a case where there's widows in the church and what Paul tells Timothy is you need to take care of those widows if they're widows indeed and if that is that they don't have any sons and they don't have any nephews that can take care of them, if they've got nobody then Timothy let them come into the number in verse number 9 they call it and they have to of course meet a certain criteria for their testimony and the way they've lived their life for the church to take the responsibility for them but the point really is you're going to see the word honor in verse 3 honor widows that are widows indeed but if any widow have children or nephews let them learn first to show piety at home and to requite their parents for that is good and acceptable before God so the word honor here is used to mean provide for Timothy don't neglect them and even the word requite their parents means pay them back it means mom took care of you when you were little now it's time for you to take care of her mom bathed you mom cleaned you mom fed you mom took you to your appointments now it's time for you to maybe even bathe take to the appointments figure out the medicine do all the things they did to you when you couldn't do it for yourself and here they are in a position that they need somebody to take care of them let their sons let the children or the nephews show piety at home and requite their parents is the command and the word that's attached to all of this in verse 3 is honor widows that are widows indeed so the idea is that you're not under the that or that you are rather under that command the fifth commandment you're under that command as long as your parents are alive and you have a duty to observe this and to care for them and to whether it's as a youth respecting their rules and observing them and obeying their word or caring and providing for them at the end of their life when they age and become in need of assistance that's honoring thy father and thy mother and so going back in Exodus when we when we started with that command it didn't say obey it said honor and the Lord Jesus Christ shows us and even the apostle Paul shows us how honoring goes a lot farther than just listening to what they tell you and complying it's a lot more than that now turn to

[35:02] John chapter 5 this is the last place I think that we're going to go to this morning the gospel of John chapter number 5 so by way of application first how it applies in your life with your relationship with mom and dad it's very plain honor thy father and thy mother that'll look different based upon the age obviously but now secondly how does this apply to your relationship with God and this is pretty important stuff maybe of the utmost importance if you dishonor mother and father I find it very highly likely you will dishonor God if you cannot honor and submit to a mother and father that you can see the authority God places in your life at a youth how are you going to honor and obey a God that you cannot see the truth is you won't and when God puts you under certain authorities at a young age and you learn to obey them and submit to them and to follow their rules and let them mold and shape you in life and train you up in the way you should go you'll find out that when you step out on your own you still have authority to submit to some of them are around you but the biggest and best is the one above you your heavenly father and you're going to have to learn to turn to him and trust him for your needs and trust him for your instruction and him for direction and if you can't take it from mom and dad you're not going to take it from God you're not going to seek it from God if you got that rebel inside of you that says

[36:42] I'm not going to listen to my mom and dad I'll do what I want to do you're never going to go to God and say oh God what should I do in this life you're going to say I'll do what I want to do that's exactly what you'll do the command I think acts kind of like a litmus test it reveals the pride and the rebellion that dwells inside of your heart this command has dealt with me many times in my life many times it showed me Toby you've got a lot of wicked pride inside of you you're a rebel you don't want to listen you don't want to submit and you don't want to obey and it's the command that reveals that to me and shows me who I really am on the inside and who I desire to please and to serve this command said Toby you've got a problem you've got rebellion inside of you and that book told me rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft

[37:46] I'd say I have a problem and I'd say so do you when you as a young person want to disregard the word of your father and mother when you want to show your pride like Esau and say I don't want nothing to do with you I'll do it my way because I'm my own boss and I'll make my own choices and I'll live with it but you're not going to tell me what to do you stinking rebel you wretch you're going to pay for it and that's inside of you now look at John chapter 5 and look at verses 22 and 3 John chapter 5 verse 22 for the father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment unto the son and why did he do that here's why that all men should honor the son even as they honor the father he that honoreth not the son honoreth not the father which hath sent him so that's pretty plain

[38:48] Jesus Christ was a figure a person that they could see and the father said I want them to honor you and here's how I'm going to do it I'm going to commit all judgment Jesus you judge them they'll answer to every one of them are going to answer to you that's how we'll fix this and that that'll make them honor you you know what you do coming into the courtroom you say your honor why is that the term is befitting the judge the one who holds all the power and can condemn you or justify you can punish you or release you the judge holds the power God the father gave his son that power why did he do that because he wants you to honor him he wants you to honor the son the father wants you to submit and to revere his son and so he put him in a place in a position of authority so that you would submit and get under that you know why your relationship with Jesus Christ ought to be the most important thing here's just maybe one angle is because he's ultimately your judge and so if you neglect this relationship and dishonor him and don't treat him the way he deserves to be treated in your relationship you're going to be the one that has to stand before him and give answer for this that's a bad move imagine that just put it in today's world like you're going to be tried for a case and you didn't and you face the judge in the courtroom and like oh I better be on my best behavior and dress nice and say yes your honor and yes sir and yes ma'am whatever and then out in the street you see him and you step up and threaten him and tell him what you really think about him and just go off on him because you're not wearing your robe now and that's how they treated

[40:35] Jesus Christ when he wasn't wearing his robe but that's a mistake because he whether he's wearing the robe or not is still the person that's the judge and so your submission to him is of the utmost importance for you for you and he that honoreth not the son honoreth not the father that sent him and so the father gives the responsibility and the power to the judge his son and this authority and they said if they don't honor you well they're not honoring me and comparatively to bring it back to this command comparatively God has placed parents in your life and he's commanded them to have the rule over you and for you to be under their rule and they're you're to submit to them and you're to honor them for the rest of your life and theirs dishonoring this command is dishonoring the God that gave it and he'll take it personal if you dishonor them you're dishonoring the command

[41:50] I gave you're dishonoring me and so we might put this one up a little bit higher on our list honor thy father and thy mother because it's for life and the application of it may shift over time as you understand but the command still stands to honor thy father and thy mother let's bow our heads and before we dismiss and before we go home I realize that when you pinpoint certain things in life it can really cause you to think about it in a way you hadn't thought and it makes me wonder what your relationship with your parents is like this morning is it one where the communication is clear and it's open where there's love that is reciprocated or is it one where there's pride in the way and the communication is no good and the love is not being displayed if your parents are still alive then I recommend you think about what you can do for them and what they're going to need from you it's a biblical principle and teaching and God help us not to walk around how well we read our

[43:23] Bible and we pass out tracts but we don't take care of our parents because it's mom and dad that took care of you oh but you don't know my parents you don't know my mom you don't know my dad no I don't you'll have to seek the Lord over that and you'll have to let him guide you into what that relationship should look like or can look like if you still live at home and are under your parents authority you better recognize that when I dishonor them I'm dishonoring God and he didn't miss it and he sees what's inside my heart why I would dishonor them why I would disobey why I would talk back why I would ignore and that pride that's in you needs to get out of you while you can this thing's going to carry through life it's not one that gets talked about much but it's there and it's best for you to prepare in your heart how you're going to deal with certain situations as soon as you can before it shows up and you're not prepared and you're tempted to neglect or to just push off to the side but the command still stands honor thy father and thy mother if you need to talk to the Lord about something today do it today's a great time to do that and we're going to sing a hymn of invitation

[44:50] I invite you to come and pray and seek the Lord love you for