Honoring Our Parents

Sermon Series

Ten Truths that Show Us How to Love – Part 5 

"Honoring Our Parents"

Pastor Jerry

Matthe 15:3-9 (NLT); Exodus 20:12 (NLT)

 

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Today is week five of our sermon series concerning, “Truth!” Knowing the truth during this Pandemic has become a very big problem in today world?” “What’s the Truth?” The truth can mean the difference between life and death. Thousands of years ago God gave ten truths for living; they are called The Ten Commandments. The overall intent of the 10 Commandments is to teach us truth on how to show love. Today we're going to look at the 5th commandment and the message today is titled, “Honoring My Parents.” So, here is Truth number five in our series! Exodus 20:12 “"Honor your father and mother...." Let me ask you: Do you think that all parents are worthy of honor? WHY DID GOD GIVE THIS COMMANDMENT? If some parents may not be worthy?

1. There are no perfect parents.

All of us have weaknesses and faults and inconsistencies, we make mistakes. Only God is the perfect parent. Even the best parents have made mistakes and sinned. God is saying I want you to honor the position of parenthood. God gave the fifth commandment …because…

2. Respect for authority begins at home.

This is a critical lesson that every child must learn. It determines how well you're going to do at school, in your career, in relationships. God gave this commandment …because…

3. How I relate to my parents will affect every other relationship.

It is the major forming factor in your life. Your style of relating is set at home. Even today, as a grown up, when you act in ways you don't understand and can't figure out your behavior, many times it's because you're still reacting to your parents. HOW AM I TO HONOR MY PARENTS? It depends on what stage of life you're in. Each stage you apply this command differently.

1. AS A CHILD, I HONOR MY PARENTS BY OBEYING AND RESPECTING THEM.

Eph 6:1 "Children, obey your parents; this is the right thing to do because God has placed them in authority over you."  Obey -- do what they say, willfully, pleasantly, immediately. The Bible teaches that as long as you're under your parent's roof you're to obey them.

2. AS A YOUNG PERSON, I HONOR MY PARENTS BY ACCEPTING AND APPRECIATING THEM.

The older you get, you start seeing the faults of your parents.  You start seeing their hang-ups, faults, the holes in the armor. It becomes important for you to accept them in spite of their weaknesses. Why should I choose to accept my parents? Acceptance means:

1. Realizing that God used them to bring me into the world.

Your parents may have been excellent, mediocre or poor but regardless of how they treated you growing up, the fact is they gave you something that nobody else in the world could give you -- they gave you your life. Acceptance of my parents means:

3. Listening to what they have to say. When you're out on your own, you're not bound by their advice but you don't despise it. "Listen to your father who gave you your life and do not despise your mother." Pr. 23;22. You can disagree without being disagreeable.
4. Acceptance of my parents includes forgiveness. The fact of life is we often hurt those we love the most -- intentionally and unintentionally. If you live together for any length of time you're going to be hurt by the people in your family. Families must be built on forgiveness because we hurt each other. Prov. 20:20 "If you curse your parents, your life will end like a lamp that goes out in the dark."

The fact is God gave you your parents for a purpose. You honor your parents when you forgive them for what they did wrong and you choose to focus on what they did right. Deut. 26:11 "Be grateful for the good things that the Lord has given you and your family." God says I'm not only to accept my parents, the good and the bad, but I am to appreciate them. It's easy to take parents for granted. Some of you had super parents and it's easy for you to appreciate them. For some of you it's a little more difficult. I would suggest that there are at least two things you could appreciate about your parents regardless who they were:

1. You can appreciate their effort. Parenting is a difficult, time-demanding, energy draining job. It takes incredible energy just to feed, cloth, provide, and corral your kids, much less teach them anything. I can’t begin to imagine how difficult parenting has become during this Pandemic. First, you can appreciate your parents efforts.

 

2. Second, you can appreciate their sacrifice. Parenting is expensive. The economics today alone are staggering. When a couple chooses to have kids they are choosing to do without some other things. So we should appreciate the sacrifice. Prov. 23:22 "When your mother is old, show her your appreciation."

The last stage I want to mention that applies to how we honor parents is... AS AN ADULT, I HONOR MY PARENTS BY AFFIRMING AND NOT ABANDONING THEM. For many parents, growing older, the older they get the less respect they get. They lead lonely lives. Your parents have a great need, a desperate need, to feel and to know that they made some kind of positive contribution in your life. They need affirmation. God says He wants you to affirm your parents for the rest of your life as long as they're alive. How do you do that? You affirm your parents by staying in touch with them. And that is difficult with the Pandemic going on. Prov. 3:27 "Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act." Do the right thing while you've got time to do it. Affirm your parents now.  The Bible says that the way you treat your older, elderly parents is the demonstration of your true faith. I Timothy 5:8 "Anyone who won't care for his own relatives when they need help, especially his own family, has no right to say he is a Christian. Such a person is worse that the heathen." That's pretty strong. A word to parents: If you want to be honored, you must be honorable.  The key to good parenting is loving discipline. Every child must learn two things:

1. Disobedience brings pain. Every person has to learn that. God says that -- you disobey God there is pain in your life. Every child has to learn that disobedience brings pain.
2. Obedience brings freedom. As a Christian parent, your number one goal in your life should be to insure the fact that your kids come to know Christ when they are old enough to understand.

It is easy to honor your father and mother when they are good, godly people. But some of you had parents who hurt you deeply. So what does God expect you to do? How do I honor a parent who was dishonorable to me? God is not asking you to deny the pain. He's not asking you to make excuses for your parents, for their dysfunction. Only But He does know and He does care and He can help you overcome that pain. He can even bring good out of it if you'll let Him. He wants you to know Him and He wants you to get to know Him through His son Jesus Christ. He loves you more than you will ever realize. Honor your Heavenly Father by giving your life to Jesus today.