[1] #314, Honor Your Parents, Pastor David McIntosh, Sunday 06-08-2008

Text: Matthew 15:4

INTRODUCTION

• We are going to take the next 4 weeks and focus our attention to the Christian home. If we don’t get what is experienced & taught at church into our home lives, we have failed as followers of Jesus Christ.
• In a typical week, fewer than 10 % of parents who regularly attend church with their kids read the Bible together, pray together (other than meal time) or participate in an act of service as a family unit.
• 1 out of 20 families have any type of worship experience together with their kids, other than while they are at church.
• In short, most families do not have a genuine spiritual life together! (George Barna)

Transition: In these next 4 weeks we are going to focus specifically on the words of Jesus. He has laid out four essential principles that when embraced and practiced, our homes will be transformed by the power of His Word.

TODAY IS PRINCIPLE #1: HONOR YOUR PARENTS (MATTHEW 15:4)

“For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.”

WHAT IS HONOR?

1. The word “Honor” = to affix value to something that belongs to us or is related to us; to revere.
2. Mark 7:6 – “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (Insight here is that honor involves lip praise + reverence from the heart)
3. John 5:23 – “That all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.”
4. This is the same honor we are to honor our parents with (Jesus used the same word)
5. “God never wastes parents on teenagers. He chooses just the right ones to carry out His bigger plans.”
6. To honor your parents is to be reminded in your spirit that God gave them His authority and will work through them (not around them) to accomplish His will.

HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS IN OUR LIVES & HOMES

1. Anytime a biblical principle is established in the O.T. law, and given again by Jesus in His teachings and reinforced in the Epistles, it is directly related to success in life.
2. Exodus 20:12 – “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.”
3. Matthew 15:4 – “For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother and anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.”
4. Colossians 3:20 – “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.”
5. The honor we give to our earthly fathers is an expression of the honor we are showing to our heavenly Father, who gave us our earthly father.

THREE LEVELS OF HONOR

1. HONOR THROUGH OBEDIENCE
   1. Children first honor their parents with obedience.
   2. Obedience is quickly & cheerfully carrying out the commands of those who are responsible for me.
   3. The opposite of obedience is “willfulness.” It’s really my will or yours.
   4. Luke 2:49-52 – “Why were you searching for me? he asked. Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house? But they did not understand what he was saying to them. Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them…And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”
   5. The greatest obstacle is when parents don’t understand us.
2. HONOR THROUGH WISDOM
   1. As a child grows and becomes a young adult they honor their parents by walking in Godly wisdom.
   2. To listen to counsel from your parents and walk in wisdom is what the Scripture tells us in Proverbs 10:1 – “A wise son makes a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.”
   3. 3 John 4 – “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”
   4. Wisdom is seeing my life from God’s perspective.
   5. Story of purchasing a house with my dad’s help, going to the bank together and getting the credit report, my wife & I no debt, agent looked at my dad and said, good training dad!
3. HONOR WITH SUPPORT WHEN PARENTS BECOME OLDER
   1. As parents become older and especially if and when they are unable to care for themselves, they are to be honored by the care and assistance of their sons and daughters.
   2. Jesus honored His mother in her later years by giving the responsibility for her care to His disciple John because Jesus knew He was not going to be there to do it.
   3. Proverbs 30:11 – “There are those who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers.”
   4. “When we think we are strong and self-sufficient, we should remind ourselves of the early years when we were weak and totally dependent on the care of our parents.

SUMMARY

We honor our parents by obedience to them, walking in wisdom and supporting them.

GREATEST OBSTABLE: THEY DON’T DESERVE IT!

1. God has motivated us with the promise that it will go well with us if we honor our parents.
2. They might not deserve it, but God deserves your best and your children deserve your best.
3. Here is the clarion call from Jesus: John 13:34 – “A new command I give you: Love one another, as I have love you, so you must love one another.”
4. We don’t love our parents as they love us; we love them as Jesus loves us!

CLOSE

1. If you want the presence of God to fill your home it begins with a spirit of honor & reverence toward God and then toward each other (especially parents)
2. If you feel your children do not honor you, you have not fostered an honoring atmosphere or you have not or still do not honor your parents.
3. You honor your parents, not until they die, but until you die.
4. Response, to come as families, heads of households, children, I call to repent of a spirit of disrespect and to ask God to begin a great work in your life & home, starting with obedience to Jesus command to Honor your father & mother!