Ephesians chapter 6 is where we are turning our attention now in our series on the redeemed household. Over the last few weeks, I've become increasingly aware of a trend known as teen takeovers. These takeovers are characterized as mass gatherings, which are often filled with fighting. Gunfire and property damage, and have taken place in cities such as Milwaukee, Atlanta, Orlando, and DC. If you look at the footage of them, which is all over social media, one thing is clear: that these people have no respect for authority.
Whether it's a police officer trying to instill authority or instill order or a store owner demanding that they leave the premises, these people are bent on refusing authority. And this morning, as we turn our attention to the book of Ephesians, chapter 6, we're continuing our series on the redeemed household. Having finished his address to husbands and wives, Paul now turns towards the children and towards the parents and how they treat one another.
Now, after spending the last week in this text and the last three in this series, I am. More convinced now than ever before that the hope for our society is in the revival of godly homes centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ. The hope for our society is the revival of godly homes which are centered upon the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so with that in mind, I believe that one of the most immediate lessons that the children whom God has placed under our care, one of the immediate lessons that they must learn, is to submit to our authority as their parents. As we look at Ephesians 6 this morning, we find that this lesson of recognizing authority begins in the home.
And in seeing this, we will learn that the happy obedience. of a spirit-filled child glorifies God. The happy obedience of a spirit-filled child glorifies God. Why? Because their obedience is owed.
Their obedience is commanded. And their obedience is rewarded. And that's what Paul wants to show us and teach us in these first three verses of chapter 6. And so with that in mind, as we look at verse 1, we will see that children owe obedience to their parents. Your obedience is owed.
Now, at the outset, we need to notice that Paul is clearly expecting. that these children are both present in the gathering to hear his letter, And they are at an age where they're not only capable of understanding his command, but are capable of acting it out by the Spirit's help. It's also important for us to recognize that phrase in the Lord. And to notice that it is modifying the obedience of children. It's not modifying the parents.
And by that, I mean. That Paul isn't saying, now children. You obey your parents if they're in the Lord. You obey your parents if they're Christians. That's not what he's saying.
What he is saying is, children, because you are in the Lord. Obey your parents as an act of worship to the Lord. Or we could put it this way: believing children. You obey your parents as an act of worship to Jesus Christ.
Now, Paul's word. For obey here, it comes from two words. And it could be literally rendered Under to listen or to listen under. We could put it this way, or would think of it this way. That It is to listen with the intent of understanding what is commanded.
and acting on it. Of understanding what is commanded and acting on it.
Now, anyone in here with children knows that there is a difference between them listening to you and them hearing what you say. There's this fog that descends upon their young minds when you speak to them sometime. And so it's not unusual for you to get down and to say, Now, do you understand what I'm telling you to do? Repeat back to me what I'm telling you. Or better yet, do you understand what I'm telling you to do?
That's what Paul is communicating. To obey your parents is to listen to them with the intent of knowing what they want from you and then doing it happily. That's what he wants from these children in the church. of Ephesus. With that said, the first pillar He's gonna have three.
The first pillar. he uses to support this command is It is right. Obey your mom and dad. Because it is right. This argument is what most commentators call an argument from natural law.
Natural law is a subsect of what we call general revelation. There's two revelations in the world: we have general revelation. God has created all visible things, and so we look at them, Paul tells us, and it declares his glory. And then we have what is called special revelation. God has revealed Himself to us in His Word.
So natural law is this subsect. Of General Revelation, where God is teaching you something as you observe the natural world. You remember Solomon in the book of the Proverbs? Hey, sluggard, go look at the ant and learn something. Learn something from that.
Learn something from the spider as he weaves his web. Learn something from the hyrax as they work in the rocks. Learn something from these things. It's natural law. Look and see what you can learn.
from the world. Mm-hmm.
So Paul In his first point, he is communicating to children that you obey your parents because it is clearly good and right to do so. This means that as we look Upon different cultures and different times in different places, it's just plain to see that it's good for you to obey your parents. It's good for you to obey your parents.
So for his first point, Paul is saying, before you ever open your Bible, you already know that you ought to honor your parents. Why? Because it's been stamped on your conscience by God. This is what he teaches us in Romans 1. There is this sense in which God has stamped his image on us, and we know, we'll discuss later, that we can rebel against that and sear that conscience.
But Paul says, on your conscience, you know, the whole world knows. You should obey your parents. You should obey your parents. In his um in his book on family duties. John Bunyan talks about the obedience that children owe their parents.
This is very convicting. He writes. You are indebted to them. For the pains that they have taken with to bring you up And until you have children of your own, You will not be sensible of the pains and the watchings, the fears, sorrows, and afflictions that they have gone under to bring you up. And when you know it, When you have kids of your own, You will not easily yield.
you'll not easily admit that you have repaid them. for their favor to you. You're not going to know how much they love you and have suffered for you until you have kids yourself. And when you finally have kids yourself, you're going to realize. I've not even come close to saying a proper thank you to them and how I have honored them.
This understanding of owed obedience is taught by Solomon. In Proverbs chapter 23, verse 22, the first part of this proverb says, Hey, listen to your father. Who begot you? Listen to your Father who begot you.
So seeing this, we learn off the cuff that your parents are owed your obedience if for no other reason than the fact that they brought you in this world. You may remember the old T V show where The dad says to his son, boy, I brought you in this world and I can take you out. Which is a rather more colorful and negative way of saying I'm your father and you listen to me if for no other reason than I brought you here. They're owed your obedience. It was that woman.
Who endured the agony of bringing you into this world, so it's right for you to obey her. It was that man who put clothes on your back, so it's right for you to honor him. It was those parents. That God gave you, that protected you when you were vulnerable, that fed you when you could not feed yourself. It was those people who kissed your every scrape.
And scratch that you had, and because of that, Paul says, it's just right and obvious they deserve your obedience. They deserve your obedience. I can remember Being at my grandparents' house with my mom one day as a young boy. And that day, for whatever reason, I had the bright idea that I was going to disrespect my mother in front of her dad, and it was going to be okay.
Now, Papa was a quiet man. He was very gentle by nature. But when he heard me disrespect my mother, he he quietly leaned forward in his chair. and with a furrowed brow behind his glasses, And from behind his thick mustache, he growled at me. You better respect your mother's son.
That's the only one you've got. I wish I could stand before you and tell you that uh I heard that and I never dishonored her again. But I can tell you that he definitely got the message across, if for that afternoon in his presence at least. And the message that my papa was communicating to me is exactly what Paul is communicating to you in verse 1. That woman, that man, you.
Your parents are owed your obedience because they brought you into this world and have nourished you. And so you just owe it to them because this is how God has structured the world to work. We owe them. for their care. For us.
Well, if natural observation of obedience. Is it? powerful enough. God's word thunders it so loudly. that it cannot be ignored.
And that takes us to our second point this morning. That not only is your obedience owed to them, but your honor is commanded. Your honour is commanded. of God. Verse 2, Paul is going to reach back to Exodus chapter 20.
And he's going to bring the fifth commandment to our attention. And what I want us to notice here is that the fifth commandment in verse two does not use the word obey like in verse one. Rather, it uses the word honor. You honor your father and mother. And the word honor, to honor them is to fix a high value on something or someone.
The implication of this is that you honor your parents by esteeming them better than yourself. They are of high worth to me. And because I affix such a high value of them, because I think so highly of them. I'm going to obey them. I'm going to honor them.
Okay.
Okay.
The reason I bring this up is that we need to understand This difference between obedience and honor is that we need to understand that. Honoring your parents is the mind and the heart. It's the in workings of the fifth commandment. while obedience to them is the outworking of the fifth commandment. Did you catch that?
Honor is the soul of the fifth commandment. And obedience is the outworking of the fifth commandment. The inside and the outside, the fool man is on display in obedience to the fifth commandment, not only when he does what they want him to do on the outside, but when he, thinking so highly of them on the inside, rushes to do it, knowing that they are. are worth much to me. We could put it this way.
When I rightly view my parents as people put in my life by God. I will strive to happily do. What they Command of me.
Now, before I move on, I want to. Address a few questions that I feel like are relevant to this text, and here's the three questions I want us to explore today. First, how long do I have to obey them? That's a good one. How do I honor dishonorable parents?
And how do I honor my elderly parents? Those are the three questions I want us to explore. First, how long do I have to obey them? Obedience is separated from honor. Obedience is the outworking of honor.
Honor is a heart position held for them forever. Obedience does have an expiration on it. What is it, though? I've been rather disgruntled with the commentators who have regularly said that your obedience expires when society says that you're of a grown age.
Well, American society has only recently, and in a relatively short amount of time, said that an adult is now not 21, but 18. And so if you were on track to get your children ready to quit obeying you at twenty one, You're in trouble because they're going to disobey you at age 18 now. I'm not content with that. How long do you have to obey? As I mentioned before, obedience is an outworking of honor.
So, while you're supposed to honor your parents as long as you live, the way you do that doesn't look the same forever.
So, when does the way you honor them change from obedience? I think the immediate context is very helpful for us here. Look back with me at chapter 5, verse 33. Just before Paul switches to address. Children and parents.
What does he say? For this reason, For this reason of God joining you together, a man shall leave his father and mother when. When he is being joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
So when does a child Textually speaking... Abandon, the text is to abandon or to forsake his parents to be cemented to his bride. When does this child graduate from obedience? I think the scriptures are clear. It's when a new family unit is established.
And I think this is very important for us in American society because we are radical individualists here. And there's almost this joy, as we've explored, especially in the last two weeks, of being free from submission. But the scriptures never have an idea of a man or woman who is free from submission. It's foreign to the text. A wife is always and everything submitted to her husband, and the husband likewise is submitted lovingly to the needs of his wife to minister to her.
Children are submitted to their parents to honor and obey them, and parents are likewise to be submitted to the needs of their children to care for them, right? And so there's not this inner working time where a child is free from both texts of submission or idea of submission. I believe the text is rather clear. That it's when a new unit, a new household, a new family unit is established.
So, a child is to submit to their parents, and a parent is to submit to the needs of their children, and we are always in submission of some sort.
Now this certainly changes. We've got a four-month-old, a three-year-old, and a six-year-old. And the way that you parent even these young children changes drastically based off of personality and time and such. And as they age, you're going to change your parenting of them and the way that they obey. And the way at which you expect obedience is different.
I expect my six-year-old to obey me more quickly and readily and with a better understanding than I would expect my three-year-old. And so the way that this out works is different in every regard, but yet we do find that there is to be an honorific obedience to one's parents until they are free from their parents' oversight and authority and have established a home of them. of themselves.
Now Here's our second question. How do I honor my elderly parents? How do I honor my elderly parents? Proverbs chapter 23 verse 22. It's going to be very helpful.
for our consideration. Listen. to your father who begot you And do not despise your mother when she is old. Do not despise your mother when she is old. The word for despise here has a really powerful definition.
It means to hold in contempt. To hold them as insignificant. It gives the image as though you view your parents as something that you can neglect, someone that you can be dismissive of, someone that you can treat as though they are irrelevant to you. Do you despise your mother in her whole old age? Are we breaking this command?
of the word. Let's bring it down to to to our practical applications. Are we patient? Are you patient with your mother as her mind begins to slip and she asked the same question for the tenth time this morning? Are you patient with your father?
This wants. Pillar of strength, this image of power. Are you patient with him and understanding as he soils himself again? Are you mindful of your parents as they sit alone at home and they yearn for your companionship? The Proverbs speak of you as their joy.
Is there delight? Do you view them? As valuable counselors full of time-tested wisdom, or do you view them as old fools? with expired ideals. Here's another one.
When it comes to their care, When you place them in a home, if that is your choice. Did you put them in there? because you thought that that would be the best way to care for them. Or did you put them in there because you wanted to get them off of your back? And the reason I say this is that my first ministry was ministering.
in the Alzheimer's unit. at the nursing homes. And it was extremely heartbreaking how often I would have nurses come to me and say, Hunter, you have no idea how much this means to these people. Their children have not come to see them since they put them in here. These units are extremely helpful.
There are times in which you are not able to give them the care that they need, and so it is a right ministry to them to seek better care. But that is not the case in a myriad of circumstances. Did you put them there to honor them? to give them the care that they deserve and need, or did you put them there so that way you can go on more vacations and to get them off of your back? This is not my preference.
This is the word. Do not despise and dismiss and neglect and criticize and treat as unworthy your elderly mother. Do you honor your mom and dad? Finally, you might be thinking.
Some of you Are saying, how on earth am I supposed to honor my parents when they behaved so dishonorably? Throughout this series, I have sought to make one point very clear in every sermon. I intentionally put this in every sermon. And the point is this. You are called to honor these offices, not because the individual is perfect, but because of the position that God has given them.
Wives, you submit to your husbands. Why? He's not perfect. The text doesn't say because he's perfect. The text says because he's your husband.
Husband, you love your wife. Why? She doesn't look like she did 20 years ago, or she's not doing things that make me happy. I didn't ask if she was doing it perfectly. The text says you love your wife.
Why? Not because she's perfect, but because that's her position. She's your wife. And children. You obey your mom and dad.
Why? They're not perfect. The text doesn't say honor your honorable parents. It says you honor your mom and dad. Not because they're perfect.
but because of their position. It doesn't say honor honorable parents. It doesn't say honor your parents when they make you feel good and happy.
So, how do we honor our dishonorable parents? Here are four ways. I'll read through them rather quickly for the sake of time. First, by readily forgiving them for their sins against you. Readily forgiving them for their sins against you.
Second, by refusing to badmouth them. Listen to Proverbs chapter 30, verse 17. The eye that mocks his father. and that scorns obedience to his mother, The ravens of the valley will pick it out. And the young eagles will Eat it.
This means that we need to be careful about how we view and speak about. Our parents. This even means that we need to be careful about how we speak about our in-laws to our spouses, unless we are trying to ensnare our bride into disrespecting her parents and violating the fifth commandment.
Now we all have in-laws in here that are married, don't we? And that's different contexts and different backgrounds and different understandings of how we want to do things. And you're going to have a tendency to go, your mother really knows how to do X, Y, and Z. Right? Don't look at me like you have no idea what I'm talking about.
You know exactly what I'm talking about. And we need to be careful with that. Displaying some self-control, knowing that in that venting, you might be tempting your bride to sin against her parents and God by dishonoring her mother and father.
Now, this isn't to say that if your parents are living in a wicked lifestyle or promoting something that's sinful, you can't discuss that and have an understanding of how to handle that, but it is saying. that if there's just something that you disagree with on preference, do not dishonor them. And do not tempt your bride into the same dishonor. Third, refuse to seek revenge. Refuse to seek revenge on them.
Now hear me clearly hear what I'm saying. If your parents have abused you... generally abused you. I am not saying that you should not seek the justice of the law. Your parents are to obey the law, it is set above them.
So I'm not saying that you should cover up criminal abuses. What I am referring to is there's this trend that's becoming more popular, especially among millennials. It's a spat of going no contact. It's this fad of essentially cutting your parents off completely with no response, explanation, or communication to them and leaving them completely high and dry and not speaking to them again. And it's become increasingly more popular among millennials.
So When I'm talking about getting revenge, I'm talking about this fad of going non-contact because the people on Reddit say your parents are toxic. That's wicked. That's evil. It's sinful. Beloved, do not punish your parents for being imperfect sinners, much like yourself.
Much like yourself. A good friend of mine, Joshua Rodriguez, was speaking as a millennial, two millennials last week, and he said, Millennials, we have spent a great deal of time critiquing the boomers, and yet I have seen how we raise our children, and I'm not really convinced that you're any better. And so we should not. Seek to Punish our parents for being imperfect sinners, much like ourselves. And so, finally, what I want us to do when we honor dishonorable parents is by respecting their office, if we can't find nothing else worth respecting.
That's my father. That's my mother. God has given him and her to me, and he is going to receive glory in me honoring them, even if they have behaved dishonorably. Let me give you a text. Genesis chapter 9, verse 20 through 24: Noah has gotten off of the ark.
Noah has opened a vineyard and has foolishly overindulged in his work. And in his tent one night, his son Ham walks in on him. And seeing the foolish failure and nakedness of his father, what does Ham do? He walks out. And he just plasters the failure of his father to everyone in the area, his brothers.
But what do his other boys do hearing about their father? Do they walk in there to giggle and to look and make fun of their dad? No, they turn around, not even to look upon his shame. They walk backwards not to gaze upon him. and they cover him up.
The height is failure. Love covers a multitude. of sins. They do this because they love and honor their father. And that's the heart of the matter, isn't it?
A child who loves and honors their parents will in turn seek to obey their parents. But those stubborn and sinful hearts of ours aren't always interested in that, are they? I remember the story about a little boy who was causing a disruption in class, and his teacher, being fed up, said, Okay, you go sit in the corner back there. And when he finally got settled, they caught him whispering to himself, I might be sitting on the inside. or on the outside.
But I'm standing up on the inside. And that's what we find with kids, isn't it? This is not the obedience that God wants of us. He doesn't want us to say, fine, I'll take the trash out, but I'm really going to let you know I'm mad about it. That doesn't honor the Lord.
That's violating the fifth commandment. Honored your father and mother in your obedience to your father and mother. God wants us through His apostle to understand that when we understand that He gave us our parents for our good, we will obey them with happy hearts. They are there for your good. They're there for your good.
Now, in the Old Testament, in Israel, being a rebellious, disobedient, and disrespectful child was not simply a character flaw. It was actually considered a felony punishable by death. Read Deuteronomy chapter 21, verses 18 through 21. I'll read it to you. If a man...
Has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother both parents are pleading with him and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, then his father and his mother shall take a hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city, and they shall say to the elders of his city, This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard. Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones.
So you shall not, or so you shall put this evil away from you, and all Israel shall hear. and fear. When we read this text in our 21st century context, We think to ourselves, this is barbaric and horrific. But what we need to understand Is that a rejection of parental authority is a rejection of divine authority? Where am I getting this from?
Leviticus chapter 19, verse 2 through 3 reads: You shall be holy. For I, the Lord your God, am holy, and so every one of you shall revere his mother and his father. God has put our parents Above us for our good, and to thumb our nose at their authority is to, in essence, to thumb our very nose at God, to question Him, to question His wisdom in putting them over us, and to rebel against Him. in his pleasured structure of society. And if that's not clear enough, when Paul calls us as Christians to submit to our government in Romans 13, He tells us that their authority and all authority derives itself from God who is the authority.
Your parents are the authority over you, not because some societal construct of some guys really wanting to manage their rebellious kids came up with this idea. but because God himself has established this and worked it into the framework of all human society.
Now hear me clearly. Don't want to be misunderstood or misrepresented here. I am not advocating. or insinuating that the Old Testament practice of stoning our sons and daughters should make a return. What I am stating though is that disrespect must be treated as a deadly serious matter.
in our homes. And here's why. If our children Are not taught to respect the very hands that fed them and sheltered them. they will grow up to despise every authority that has been put over them in their lives. If they cannot respect the hands that have cared for them more than anyone else on earth will, they will respect no one.
They will respect no one. Jeremiah 35. I believe I recall it correctly, there's this group called the Rechabites. It would have been a relative family of Moses through marriage. They were nomads, and when when we find them offered wine and food and shelter in Jeremiah 35, they say no.
I'm gonna ask why. Because our father Generations past for 200 years told us that we are to never have wine and we are never to settle down, we're to be nomads in the land. And they've obeyed it.
Well, God takes that and turns it, and He tells Jeremiah, You go tell Israel. that they have obeyed their father in this for 200 years. And yet I have cared for you. Since your conce since your inception And you you regularly dishonor. Me.
There's a conviction almost, a communication. Of the authority structure that we find there, God is honored as we obey our fathers and mothers. We need to understand that dishonoring our parents is an outworking of our dead spiritual condition. We rebel against our parents because we reject God's rule and we question God's wisdom. It's this idea of what we call epistemological autonomy.
It's this way in which I say I'm going to judge God's word through a standard higher than his word. I'm going to judge God's word through what I know. But what does the scripture tell us? That the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. What is the higher authority?
Is it my mind that's formed and meshed by an algorithm online and influenced by all of my friends around me, or is it what, thus saith the Lord? He knows better than me, and by faith I'm going to trust him. and I'm going to honor that man and woman put over me.
So, not only is this obedience owed and commanded, but we need to understand. That their leadership is not a burden. We should view the obedience of children to their parents as the training ground and the expression of their obedience to God. It's a way I get to worship the Lord. It's a way I get to worship the Lord.
So obedience is owed, honor is commanded, but lastly, this is going to be rewarded. Your honor, point three, my final point for today is it will be rewarded. Verse 3 reads, That, I'll start, which is the first commandment with a promise that it might be well with you, and you may live long on the earth.
Now in verse 3 you'll notice that Paul Paul makes an intentional change to the Fifth Commandment and its application. In Exodus 20, we read, Honor your father and mother. Why? That your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. In Ephesians 6, it reads, Honor your father and mother.
Why? That it may be well with you, and you may live long upon the earth. The primary difference I want to draw your attention to here is the end of that statement. It's the end of the promise. In Exodus 20, God speaks to Israel, and when He does, He anchors His promise.
in the promised land that he's giving them. In Ephesians 6, however, Paul has expanded the scope of this promise not only to land in the Middle East, but to the entire world itself. Your translators get this right. They leave off the last bit of that promise Paul does, and they render that properly by expanding it to the earth.
So, with that in mind, I believe that Paul's primary focus isn't only, it is, it isn't only longevity of life. But he also wants us to see this promise in light of our inheritance in Christ. The issue with this promise that we have before us is that it's contingent. What's it contingent on? You obeying and honoring your mom and dad.
And I've got bad news. None of us are doing very well there. None of us have properly executed this command. And so the promise is in jeopardy of being forsaken and foregone. And if the root of disobedience is spiritual, brothers, then we need to understand that so is the cure.
If our disobedience is spiritual, then so is the cure. None of us are perfect sons and daughters. We have all dishonored and disobeyed our parents, and by virtue of that we have spit in the face of God who gave them to us. But there's one man. The true sun The Lord Jesus Christ, who has honored father and mother, Perfectly.
and without failure. John chapter 8 verse 29 reads, And Jesus says that he always does that which is pleasing to his Father. I always do that which is pleasing to my Father. And this is true. even to the point of death in the garden of Gethsemane.
Where Jesus cried out, Father, if it be your will, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. But that's not all. While the Son of God was hanging upon the cross, dying. Jesus still honored his mama.
And it's one of the most convicting. and beautiful displays. of a son's honor and love for his mother. that has ever been communicated. He's hanging there and nails are through his hands and feet.
He has been beaten beyond recognition. To breathe, he has to literally pull his body up on the nails that are piercing him, and he's suffocating in his blood. And as he does this, he looks. At John and Mary. And he says to them, Woman Behold your son.
And then he looks at John and he says, Sun Behold your mother. Which is to say, mama. You depend on John now. And then he looks at John and he says, in John. You take care of my mama.
You take care of my mom. But I've got so much going on in my life. the Son of God incarnate. Was bearing the sins of the world upon his shoulder and suffocating to death in his own blood. And he made it a priority to honor her until his death and has fulfilled the fifth commandment for us.
You take care of my mom. It's that Lord who told us that the meek. The meek will inherit the earth. It's that Lord who was faithful unto death, who crushed death, who has ascended into the heavens, and His Father. looked at him And said, Ask of me.
And I will give you the nations for your inheritance. and the ends of the earth. for your possession.
Now we have all sinned against our parents. and against God. And because of this, none of us can lay claim rightly to this promise. But Jesus Jesus has stepped in on our behalf to represent us. Jesus has done for us what we can never do for ourselves.
That man. has won for us. what we could never win in our flesh. And it is in that man that born-again children, all of us are told, you walk in my footsteps, and by my Spirit's power, you obey and honor your mom and dad. And as we do this.
The text says that we will enjoy a life that is generally speaking Well and long. You will enjoy these things. And what a powerful text and convicting text this is for us. And how beautiful it is when we see the Lord Jesus. honoring his mother.
Until death.
So, as we consider the example of our Lord today, let's ask ourselves. Have I been coming up with excuses to violate God's commands to me? When we look at him And we see that he cared for his mother even while the weight of the world rests on his dying shoulders. When we look at him, how can we say that this commandment is almost not important for us? When we look at Christ.
There should be no more beautiful evidence that this is of the utmost importance for our lives. How will we do this? How will we do this? Well, Ephesians 5.18 tells us, do not be drunk with wine. in which is dissipation.
But be filled with the Spirit. And what does the Spirit do? except for glorify the Son of Man. As he raises our eyes to look at Jesus, Our example. our Saviour.
our victor. We will inherit the earth. That's eschatological in some sense. Where he will come and make all things new, and yet we are also living out that reality in our daily life. We are what we could call a new creation people.
Now We are victorious over dishonor. and disrespect And so as our society, and we're seeing it, right? is crumbling over this manifest hatred for their parents. and dishonor for their parents. The society which does this is a society that is not long for this world.
And we are set before them. to convict them. through our love for others, through our love for the Lord, and through our honoring of our Father and Mother in obedience with this divine command. of our Heavenly Father. This is the Word of God, and may God sanctify its reading to our hearts.
Let us pray. Most kind and gracious Heavenly Father, we are thankful for your word. And we are thankful for your spirit. Who works among us? And I rejoice this morning, knowing Lord, that you were pleased to use Ineffective and ungifted men, or men who are not gifted to communicate your word.
And you have promised us in your word that you will take that stony heart and give us a heart of flesh. And so today, I pray that if there is anything that is done, Lord, that you would use your spirit to convict us of our sins and to turn to Christ for our salvation. Please, Lord. Work in the hearts of those who have sinned against you. Lord, I confess.
And with a longing wish, I could return home to obey better and to honor my parents more zealously. And yet we cannot do that, and so we come before you with a heart of repentance and just essentially say, Lord, for the time that you have given me, I want to honor the parents that you have given me. You are a wise Lord, and I thank you for my mom and dad.
So now, Lord. We ask that you would sanctify your word to our heart. and help us to glorify you. In Christ's name. Amen.
Mm-hmm.
