[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the preaching ministry of the Agopic Baptist Church in George, South Africa.
[SPEAKER_00]: Alright, come on up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning, good to see each one here today.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, you can sit on the front seat here, if you like.
[SPEAKER_00]: There you go.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, got them all surrounded in here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, children, hi, good morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good to see you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Before you go to your classes, I just wanted to speak to you just a moment because I'm going to be teaching your parents from Ephesians chapter six.
[SPEAKER_00]: The beginning of that chapter, the Lord speaks directly to children, and he says, there, in verse 1, children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right, honor your father and mother.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's a command from the Lord that we have to obey our parents,
[SPEAKER_00]: Obey, I think most of you know what that means.
[SPEAKER_00]: It means that you listen and you submit to what they say.
[SPEAKER_00]: You might not know what that big word submit means, but it basically means that you recognize that your mommy and daddy are in charge.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're to do what they say.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're in charge because God put them in charge.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you're my and daddy, they must listen to God and you must listen to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: The verse two says also that you are to honor your parents, honor them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And honor the best way really at your age, the best way for you to honor your parents is to obey them
[SPEAKER_00]: to obey them with a good attitude.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what attitude is, bad attitude.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, most of you do.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's what it means.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the best way that you can honor your parents as to obey with a good attitude.
[SPEAKER_00]: That means that when they tell you to do something, you don't delay, you don't complain, you don't talk back and in flying, and you don't pout, you know what pouting is,
[SPEAKER_00]: kind of angry, look on your face and you stick your lip out, that's, that's pouting.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't do any of that stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: A good attitude means that you just obey because the Bible says it's right.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what God has said.
[SPEAKER_00]: But let's think about an example.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's say, let's call him Johnny, little boy, and Johnny.
[SPEAKER_00]: We, we might should calling you on or you harness,
[SPEAKER_00]: But we'll call him Johnny.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll say his mother tells him to, um, he's been playing his room.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got toy scattered all over the place.
[SPEAKER_00]: And his mother says, I want you to go to your room and pick up all those toys and clean up because we're going to be eating and I want you to be ready and I want everything done.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, um, so Johnny starts complaining.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, oh, do I have to, um, it gives excuses and the, oh, this is kind of
[SPEAKER_00]: And then eventually, you know, it's most as no, go, that's what I told you to do, you go do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Johnny, he stumps off to his room and he's got a powder face on and he gets in his room and he sees all these toys and he starts kicking toys under the bed and he's throwin' stuff in the closet and then he sees something he wants to play with and so he stops and starts playing with this toy.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was kind of picking up toys and if his mother comment said, what are you doing?
[SPEAKER_00]: He would have said, well, I was cleaning up, but then I saw this toy and then he gives an excuse, but he didn't obey.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he didn't also, he didn't honor his mother, did he?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because he had a bad attitude.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was stompin' around, he's pouting, he's throwing stuff, he's complaining.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what did Johnny need to do in order to obey his mother?
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you tell me something what should he have done?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, he should have gone and cleaned up his room and what?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, no pouting.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's having a good attitude.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, right, obeying.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's exactly right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what the Lord wants you to do when your parents tell you to do something or not do something.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it pleases the Lord when you do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you obey with a good attitude, Colossians 3, 20 says children obey your parents in all things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not just the things that you like, but in all things.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then it says, for this is pleasing to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, children, thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: It'd be dismissed for your class.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm helping.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, good.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, you'll find your place in Ephesians chapter 6.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where we're going to be looking this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to encourage you because I realize that many of you no longer have children at home.
[SPEAKER_00]: You may not have grandchildren that you're able to influence easier and you may be thinking, well, this message is really not for me and you may be tempted to just kind of
[SPEAKER_00]: But I want to encourage you not to do that because this is God's Word.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even if you don't have influence of children in your life or you're not a child, you don't have parents who are still living.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you can't really relate to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: God wants you to relate to others that do have children at home.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wants you to be an example to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he wants you to know if someone comes and says, what do you think?
[SPEAKER_00]: He wants you to be able to give a biblical answer, not just your own wisdom, not just what you think or what you did, but what God says.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so today as we look at this passage,
[SPEAKER_00]: obey and honor their parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the gold we could save in parenting, or at least a biblical concept, a biblical gold would be to have children grow up and love the Lord with all of their heart, all of their mind, and all of their soul.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we could add to that and others as themselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that would be a great goal for us to have for our children.
[SPEAKER_00]: But how do we get our children to have that goal for themselves?
[SPEAKER_00]: How do we do and how can we help them have that kind of goal?
[SPEAKER_00]: We can educate them, we can train them, we can read all the different parenting books and get ideas.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can even use the best methods.
[SPEAKER_00]: But all of our efforts will fail without the grace and power of God is working in our hearts in his working and our children's hearts are necessary for them to grow up with this kind of biblical or lofty goal of loving the Lord with their whole being.
[SPEAKER_00]: as Daniel read in Psalm 127 and 28, but verse 1 there, remind you says, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's a good reminder to us that we need to depend upon the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: We need to do all that we can do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And use God's blueprint of His Word, follow His admonitions, and above all of that, walk day by day in the penance of on Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, parents in particular, live day by day in the grace of the power of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And set your affections upon Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: that it would become evident in other people's lives and especially in the lives of your own children that you love the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that you love him with all of your heart and with all of your soul and all of your mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when they can see that the Lord is real in your life, that empowers
[SPEAKER_00]: about the Lord, and obeying the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so if that is not real in your own life, then it's like swimming upstream, especially as they get older.
[SPEAKER_00]: If they see a conflict between what you're saying, and what you're living, what you can face between what you apply to your own life,
[SPEAKER_00]: then it is very difficult to instruct them, to teach them your words become hollow to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this morning we want to look at children in particular and children's responsibility in the family.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've seen coming out of chapter five, instruction there,
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's spoken directly to the home as to wives and husbands.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now he turns to the children and says to the I'm children, obey your parents and the Lord for this is right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with the promise.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that it might be well with you and that you may live long in the land.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the parallel passage in Colossians 3 in verse 20 says, children obey your parents in all things for this is pleasing to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we can sum up the responsibility that he's given here as a relates to children with the command to honor and obey parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, Paul could have said other things as he could have said other things to the the wife and to the to the husband.
[SPEAKER_00]: But this is what, this is central, this is what he's focusing in on.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the area where they need to give attention.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so these are foundational.
[SPEAKER_00]: They go back into chapter five, as we said.
[SPEAKER_00]: And notice especially, chapter five and verse 21, where he says submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Christ is the focus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our reverence for him,
[SPEAKER_00]: enables us to have the right perspective about these other relationships.
[SPEAKER_00]: And submission is at the heart of what he's talking about, verse 21, submitting to one another, and that carries over into our other relationships.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as we all know, submission is not something that comes easy for any of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as parents, you know,
[SPEAKER_00]: that it's not natural for your child to want to submit.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's natural is for them to be self-willed and selfish and rebellious, to the degree that they're able to be rebellious, it's just there, it's in the heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's extremely important that children learn from a very young age
[SPEAKER_00]: submit to you as the authority in their life, and that is a God-given authority, a God-given responsibility.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you must establish your authority in all things in their life.
[SPEAKER_00]: But at the same time, you must remember that you also are under authority, and that you are accountable
[SPEAKER_00]: God is blessed to you and given you the gift of a child, and then he wants you to steward that responsibility, and dependents upon him, and obedience with his will for that child.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that is a great responsibility that we have as parents, and we are going,
[SPEAKER_00]: But by God's grace, in His power, we can obey Him, we can raise our children to please Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that has to be our focus.
[SPEAKER_00]: That has to be our day by day, intention and focus is not to please somebody else, not to do what the world's doing, not to follow the latest fad, but to seek God's wisdom in God's day by day.
[SPEAKER_00]: some enemies of obedient submission, or the opposition we could say to that, what, why is it so difficult?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why is it so difficult for our children to have obedient submission?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, first of all, there's an influence from without.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's an outside influence from the world upon our home, upon our children.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can definitely say that the world is the enemy of the Christian home.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Satan and his influence in the world is the enemy of all that God will have and all that God has proclaimed and God has given priority to the family
[SPEAKER_00]: And in Susayton has targeted the family.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can see it today, can't we?
[SPEAKER_00]: You can see it all around us.
[SPEAKER_00]: The influence of the world against a biblical norm of the Christian home.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he will do anything and everything possible to win the heart of your children.
[SPEAKER_00]: And to turn them away from having a submissive and obedient heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you look through the Scripture, you see that disobedience to parents is right up there at the top with actions and attributes of the world, a world in opposition to God, disobedience to parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes the world has this idea, especially with little children, young children.
[SPEAKER_00]: that disobedience is not such a big deal.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of cute, or it's just, you know, that's just the way it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: You kind of should expect it and not worry about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just live through it, kind of attitude, or appease them, or bribe them, or do whatever, you know, just get through it, you know, you just have to live with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you got the terrible twos, and you got this, and you got that, and you know,
[SPEAKER_00]: You shouldn't expect more than that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But God's word teaches us otherwise.
[SPEAKER_00]: And speaking of how serious a God takes disobedience,
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen to this list in two Timothy chapter three.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a partial list, but it lists some of the actions and attitudes of the last days he calls it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, we are living in the last days.
[SPEAKER_00]: This time period before the coming of the Lord is the last days.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he says that in the last two Timothy chapter three, verse one, in the last days, there will come times of difficulty.
[SPEAKER_00]: For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, and you continue on there with that list.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I want you to note that among this list is disobedient to parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you summed up that list that I gave you there, you could really say this is the self-focused life.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a life that makes self the most important person in the room, and that is in the heart of your children.
[SPEAKER_00]: They will revolve your family around themselves if you will let them.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we as parents must guard against those attitudes, those influences from without, from the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's always, they've always been there, the influence of the world has always been there.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it seems like that it's becoming more and more invasive into our lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: The influence that is now is more and more difficult for parents to protect their children.
[SPEAKER_00]: Teenagers and sometimes younger than teenagers have all of the influence of the world in the palm of their hand All of the evil all of sin all of the attitudes all of the priorities of the world is in their hand And so it is It is Increasingly Dangerous For our children
[SPEAKER_00]: And I would advise you to parents, to not give your children a smartphone.
[SPEAKER_00]: At least until they are spiritually and mature enough to be able to choose
[SPEAKER_00]: to live for God, and to put Him first, to be spiritually mature enough to fight the battles against the world, the flesh, and the devil.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we're not talking about a 10-year-old, or even younger in some cases, even the world has recognized the harm of having this constant access to the social media.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I heard just this week that Australia had enacted a law there, the government had enacted a law that these social media platforms are not to be given or allowed to have membership from anyone younger than 16, I believe this wording was.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's not coming from Christian moral values.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's just coming from the realization that there is danger there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's become so evident that they're trying to deal with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so there is this danger from without.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you could think about many other ways in which as parents need to protect our children from influences
[SPEAKER_00]: But that there's not only the danger from without, there is a danger from within.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's this influence from within the child within their own heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's why it's not enough just to guard against outward influences.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you can separate yourself from the world, but then you take the world with you, because there's a corruption in the heart of all of us,
[SPEAKER_00]: is there from birth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we must deal with that heart that is set on going its own way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some believe, and it's been taught for many years, especially in the psychological world
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, if you just put in the right input, if you get to give the right environment, then they will turn out right.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the idea that there is a the Prave nature from birth is contrary to the thinking of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And many have, many have believed that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But all you have to do is look back at Adam and Eve in the record of the Bible and you can see that that's not true.
[SPEAKER_00]: That even with Adam and Eve who were created in innocence and given a perfect environment, it's the first opportunity to attemptation, they failed and they turned away from what God had said.
[SPEAKER_00]: Psalm 58, and verse 3 says, the wicked are estranged from the womb.
[SPEAKER_00]: They go astray from birth, speaking lies.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the job of the Christian parent is to turn the child away from their own way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those we don't let the child just choose their own path or have their own way.
[SPEAKER_00]: to turn them away from their own self-centeredness, their own rebellion, and turn them to a submissive and obedient heart to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that begins with being submissive and obedient to you, because you stand in the place of the Lord until they are old enough and mature enough to be able to give their heart
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me just give you some scripture, a more scripture to speak of this, this depravity.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Proverbs, all of Proverbs is really directed towards children, older children for
[SPEAKER_00]: your father, listen to the voice of your parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Proverbs 1625, for example, says, there is a way that seems right to man, but it's end is the way of death.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's man in general, there is a way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you'll find that there's this language of the way, your own way, stands an opposition to God's way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Chapter 22 verse 6, a well-known verse, trained up a child in the way he should go.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even when he is old, he will not depart from it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now that's a positive statement, a trueism.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a hard and fast promise.
[SPEAKER_00]: That if you train your child to love Lord, he will automatically grow up and trust the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: We know that's not true.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because that child is must for himself come to trust the Lord and love him.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's a phrase there that says, trying to put child in the way he should go.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's an interpretation there of the Hebrew.
[SPEAKER_00]: Most translators have followed that King James rendering the way he should go.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I notice that the legacy standard Bible has given the alternative translation that says trying to patch out according to his way, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it can also be taken as a negative statement of basically you train the child by letting them do their own thing, letting them have their own way, which is also true if you leave
[SPEAKER_00]: Choose their own path, that path, without the intervention of God, will always be away from God, in rebellion and self-centeredness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Proverbs 29 verse 15 says, the rod in reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in one more, Proverbs 22 verse 15, folly is bound up in the heart of a child.
[SPEAKER_00]: but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's the intervention of the parent to correct, to discipline, to turn them away from their own way to the way of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that should be settled in our hearts and minds that children must not be left to their own way because their own way is on the path to condemnation.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Christian parents have this great responsibility.
[SPEAKER_00]: But before you let that white burden you so that you're discouraged, remember that God is with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God will help you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God is giving you resources.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's given His word.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's put the Holy Spirit of God within you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And He will also work in the lives of your children.
[SPEAKER_00]: As you bring up bare upon them the Word of God in the example of your own life, he will help you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's also given the resource of the church to not only instruct, but to also pray for you, to encourage you, brothers and sisters in Christ to support, and to help you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you can lean upon these resources and depend upon the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want us to think, secondly, about the nature of this obedient submission.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's interesting that Paul addresses the children here, directly, and in so doing, he elevates their place and importance within the family of the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And granted that
[SPEAKER_00]: to for these children to hear, they have to be old enough to understand what he's saying to be able to be impacted by this direct command.
[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, children is not an age specific here.
[SPEAKER_00]: The word translated children is not just talking about little children.
[SPEAKER_00]: His children really could be classified as any age, as long as you are under the authority of your parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: in the home and you haven't gone to establish your own family or your own accountability before the Lord, you are in this category of a child and you come under the authority of your parent.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he's speaking here to children directly that can have the ability to make
[SPEAKER_00]: Children, young children, do not have the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Children that have not yet put their faith in trust and Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we do believe that God can work in their hearts.
[SPEAKER_00]: God can help you as a parent to bear upon their hearts, the truth of God's Word.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we were traveling in the States, visiting churches, and we were back in one church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And somebody, you know, after the service came and, you know, boys were in, well, two of them Dosh and Daniel were in the crash like, you know, time and somebody, somebody said something.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it was Daniel that had done something wrong or hadn't had the right attitude or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, I guess they expected that the missionaries, children would be, you know, little angels, I guess, but it was a very minor thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just kind of thought, well, you know, he's, I think he was about three or maybe four.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I say, well, I'm sorry about that, but you know, he's not saved yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, that sometimes we have expectations that are not real, but that also is not an excuse for us as parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can't sit around and just passively wait for our children to be old enough to understand what the Lord is saying.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we must be actively engaged in training them, actively engaged in correcting and molding, they're thinking, bringing discipline to their actions, to turn them from their own way and set them on the path of believing and trusting God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a lot like the farmer who goes out and plows up the field and he gets the soil ready for planting.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so apparent in many ways is plowing the heart of their child, loosening up the hard soil, getting it ready, removing the stones and the weeds and all the wrong thinking and the wrong actions and wrong attitudes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that they will be able to transition to believing the Lord in submitting to the Lord without such a great transition from their life, from a life of rebellion to a life of submitting to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God is able to do all things.
[SPEAKER_00]: God can take a
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes he delights and taking a person who has lived their whole life in rebellion and saving them, but for his grace and glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: But for the most part, people who turn to Christ and faith or those that have been prepared to do so.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you have been trained to submit to their parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: You also see their phrase in the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now this phrase in the Lord, it modifies the command to obey, it goes back again to chapter 5 verse 21, out of reverence for Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've seen this phrase is repeated in different ways, but children are to obey their parents
[SPEAKER_00]: as if they're obeying the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or we could say at this way, parents stand as God's representatives to their young children.
[SPEAKER_00]: They stand in the place of God and they speak for God and they prepare their children for God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so our children must have their hearts directed to Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: They obey us to please him as what the passage in Colossians 3 said.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as children go older, they can learn to center their life on obeying and honoring the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's a much easier for them because they have seen it and they have heard it.
[SPEAKER_00]: This phrase in the Lord doesn't mean that children are only required to obey if they have Christian parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've heard that before, but that's not what the phrase is modifying.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's modifying obedience.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this, as with other relationships of authority, submission,
[SPEAKER_00]: and all in those other categories, also we're required to submit to unbelievers.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that doesn't mean that we're required to obey them if they require obedience or disobedience to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: For example, as citizens, we are to obey our authorities of the governmental authorities.
[SPEAKER_00]: but not if they force us to disobey the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: As a wife, you're required to follow your husband, but not into sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as children, they are required to obey a parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: With the exception of an unusual situation for a parent would require them to disobey the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm sure it's happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you know situations where a parent would teach their child to steal or to lie.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we may even be guilty on some level where maybe you've done something like you're talking, someone calls and a child older child answers the phone and you say, tell them I'm not here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, why did you just do?
[SPEAKER_00]: You just talk them to not be honest.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we don't want to just say, well, somebody else is guilty and let the Lord speak to our own hearts and how that we demonstrate a submission to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Christian parents, when you in love train your child to have a submissive and obedient heart,
[SPEAKER_00]: the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the chapters six of verse one says, for this is right.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, it's righteous.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the way of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's God's way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And any parenting plan and there's lots of them out there.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's probably more books written on parenting than the other subject in the
[SPEAKER_00]: But any plan that allows children to assert their own will to get their own way is in opposition to God's plan.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's especially important as they're very young.
[SPEAKER_00]: And obviously, we want to train our children that they grow and mature to begin taking responsibility for their own decisions to have some freedom.
[SPEAKER_00]: to make decisions, to have some maturity, to not allow them to continue.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't want them to continue in their infancy, where you're always telling them, do this, do that, don't do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we want them to grow, but in the beginning with the very young children, we are the authority.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are in charge, so be in charge.
[SPEAKER_00]: Be in charge with love and grace, exert your will upon their will, in a loving, caring way, but we mustn't cower before our children and let them dictate for us what is right, and what should be done or shouldn't be done.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I see parents sometimes get desperate.
[SPEAKER_00]: and just try anything because they're struggling with a toddler or a three-year-old or you know they seem out of control and you kind of feel like well you know this is not working I'll try something else and unfortunately it began to seek advice and look in all the wrong places
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, this is right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they are also effectual.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, God's Word works.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if what we're doing is not working, if we're trying to do what the Bible says, but it's not working,
[SPEAKER_00]: and not with God's way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And granted, there's lots of problems that we've already talked about.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's opposition, the child's heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we must expect just because we do it right one time, that they're automatically going to be fixed.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we know his parents, that you have to keep coming back and keep coming back and keep coming back to the same thing and teaching and re-teaching and discipline and discipline.
[SPEAKER_00]: you begin to see the fruit of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes the fruit comes quickly, and sometimes it's resistant growth, but there is growth, and God will help us and God will enable us.
[SPEAKER_00]: So be persistent, and don't lose heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ozea makes an appeal in his letter, at the end of the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: the letter chapter 14 of Zia, Zia is appealing to Israel to turn back to the Lord and he says whoever is wise let him understand these things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whoever is discerning let him know them
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, emphasis on that God's ways are right.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hear so many people today, you know, they hear God's word.
[SPEAKER_00]: They know what it says, but they don't think it's for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: They think it's old.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like it was good for the people in the first century, but things have changed.
[SPEAKER_00]: But God's word has not changed.
[SPEAKER_00]: God has not changed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what he said, then is right for us now and our own culture, our own time, our own lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Ozeus says, the ways of the Lord are right in the upright, walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Closions 320 children, obey your parents and all things for this is pleasing to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, in verses two and three, he also talks about honor, children honor their parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so obedience submission includes honoring parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: It may sound strange, but obedience of a child is not enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: is just the conformity.
[SPEAKER_00]: The outward conformity is not enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: We want the heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: God wants the heart of the child to be submissive.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so parents don't be satisfied with just outward conformity.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes we feel like there's such a victory.
[SPEAKER_00]: They did what I said.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I got them to do what I wanted them to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you feel like that's a victory.
[SPEAKER_00]: Unless their heart is right, the attitude is right.
[SPEAKER_00]: We haven't accomplished a whole lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: Unless we want little Pharisees growing up.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we must guard against that and not be content with,
[SPEAKER_00]: little Johnny just going and picking up his toys or getting the floor cleared out with the stomping feet and the pouting face and all of that we can't be content with that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your children may be too too young to know the word but the word honor means but they usually know what it means to have a bad attitude and what it looks like.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we can also demand that we can require that we can train for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: and not be content with less than what God wants for our children.
[SPEAKER_00]: And granted, it may take time.
[SPEAKER_00]: It may have to come back to it again and again.
[SPEAKER_00]: We may feel that times like it's failing, but God is faithful and is word is faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when we obey Him, or we are persistent in seeking to honor Him, God produces fruit, only in our lives, but in the lives of our children.
[SPEAKER_00]: On verse 2 and 3, Paul is quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 5 and verse 16.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is the, you remember the, the ten commandments and Moses is, is, is regiving the law to this generation that's getting ready to go into the promised land, the land of Canaan.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he is admonishing them to remember the covenant of the Lord and he is warning them,
[SPEAKER_00]: that they must obey the Lord if they want God's blessing on them in this land that they're getting ready to inherit.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is giving them the he quotes from the fifth command in most of you are from wealth of mere with the Ten Commandments, the first four are oriented towards God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the last six are oriented towards our relationship without or with among one another, and especially in the family.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you run me five, 16, honor your father, and your mother as the Lord your God commended you, that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God shows how important this is.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's very serious about this command.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's interesting that this command is the first of those that are in our human relationships.
[SPEAKER_00]: It stands right at the top.
[SPEAKER_00]: Children honor, honoring parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: And just to emphasize how serious he is, he annexed the death penalty,
[SPEAKER_00]: Among Israel and this theocracy that they're under, he annexed the death penalty for a son who is rebellious and we're not listened to his parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: And obviously this is a child old enough to come in rebellion.
[SPEAKER_00]: against his parents, and there's two different places where you see this command that that son is to be brought before the community, and he's built to be stoned to death.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, that seems like incredibly harsh, doesn't it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why would God have such a strict and stern
[SPEAKER_00]: as it relates to rebellion, and it's because children honoring their parents is foundational to the home.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not only foundational to the home, it's foundational to society and all that governs society, a child who cannot submit himself in that way, in the closest relationship,
[SPEAKER_00]: to His parents who love Him, who've cared for Him, who've provided for Him, who've trained Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: If He cannot submit to that, He cannot submit to anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: He cannot submit to any authority.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God was protecting, and He's given these laws to protect that society,
[SPEAKER_00]: And so God shows how serious he is.
[SPEAKER_00]: And notice that also attached to this command is a promise.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's the only of the think of Amos that have this kind of direct promise attached to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And verse 3, that it may go well with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Ephesians 6, verse 3, that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, for Israel, when that command was given, they were, this generation is getting ready to go into the promised land, that's the land he's talking about, and Moses is preparing them for blessing, and he warns them about judgment and curses if they don't obey.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he's preparing them for that, and Paul here doesn't explain
[SPEAKER_00]: the New Testament application of that promise.
[SPEAKER_00]: He just puts it out there and applies it to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so there remains obviously for us as the church as believers in the new covenant.
[SPEAKER_00]: There remains for us a blessing for obedience.
[SPEAKER_00]: Obedience to God's Word results in God's blessing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some have misunderstood and misapplied and tried to apply Old Testament promises directly to the new covenant church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it have led to very false ideas about what our expectations should be.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our expectations should not be from this verse that every child who dies young relatively young,
[SPEAKER_00]: is because they are disobedient and rebellious, and that's simply not true.
[SPEAKER_00]: We should also not expect that an obedient child, a submissive child to their parents, will live to be 80 or 90, and that doesn't always happen either, does it?
[SPEAKER_00]: But what we should expect is that God will bless them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe what we can safely say is that their life will not be cut short because of God's discipline upon them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they will have the full life that God intended for them and God would desire for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the rest we have to leave in God's sovereign will in our lives because many times
[SPEAKER_00]: or that we die young and we can't understand those reasoning, those plans of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we're called upon to submit to that and to trust God in that, knowing that he loves us, he loves that child more than we do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he is the sovereign Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we can't put up on this more than what it means for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: What it does mean, and the promise does mean is that if you want God's blessing in your life, honor your parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the part about obedience, it does change as we get older.
[SPEAKER_00]: As we get older and establish our own home and have our own authority structure within the home, we're no longer required to obey our parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just because they want us to do something doesn't necessarily mean that we should do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're directly accountable to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've come under His direct authority and the father, the husband, as the direct responsibility before him.
[SPEAKER_00]: before his parents to obey.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that line of accountability changes.
[SPEAKER_00]: But this matter of honoring continues.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that will look different in different situations in different ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: But most of us understand honor, respect,
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have to agree, we can have a parent who is sinful and ungodly, and we can disagree.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't mean we can download their doing or teaching or saying we can disagree.
[SPEAKER_00]: But at the same time, we can still show the proper respect for their position for who they are as our parent.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the Lord is very serious about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as you look back in the Old Testament commands, that he gave there, he's talking about older children.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's talking about a second generation that might be inclined to disrespect their previous generation for their failures.
[SPEAKER_00]: After all, they've wondered 40 years in the wilderness because of their parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So, but that is the mean they can disrespect and stop honoring their parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so God calls us to this attitude and this show of honor and there is challenges in that and we have to figure out sometimes how do we show honor without allowing
[SPEAKER_00]: our parents to have a wrong influence in our life or our children's lives or you know there's always complications there's always difficulty but God sees our heart attitude and how we desire to show honor well closing let us pray for our children it's pray for children within our church especially
[SPEAKER_00]: and pray that God would keep them and bless them and that the soul of their hearts would be prepared.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that they would be receptive to God's Word in the working of God in their hearts.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pray for parents, our family, especially the parents of young children, pray that they would truly put the Lord first in their own lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: and that they would have wisdom to be able to train, to discipline, to instruct their children, and to live before them, and then pray for one another, pray that we, especially as older saints, might see the responsibility that we have.
[SPEAKER_00]: We still have a responsibility to live before God, to set an example, to walk and love and submission to the Lord so that that is seen, it's evident in our children as they grow up.
[SPEAKER_00]: We may not have a lot of influence, but they see us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they see what we do, they see our attitudes, they see what we don't do, and they learn from that.
[SPEAKER_00]: in our own lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Father, thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or the admonition of your word, thank you for the instruction of your word.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray that you would help us, a Lord to learn and to submit ourselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I pray especially for our parents and for children, children still at home, that you would bless them, that you would help them, that you would keep them, Father.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that
[SPEAKER_00]: They may learn a submissive heart that would please in honor you.
[SPEAKER_00]: We pray in Jesus' name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.