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Now, let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig.
Now you read that children obey your parents, and you might think of little kids at home, you know, who are 12 years and under. But the word for children is the word techna, which means any child of any age. still living at home under the authority of parents. And these days that could be up to. Thirty.
I don't know. You'll see. Even after they leave home. You don't stop honoring your parents. I remember when I left home, I was, I was going to say 18, I was really 17.
I graduated at 17, I left home. And I thought, you know, I'm done with my parents. I'm done with needing to honor them and obey them and do my own thing.
Well I did my own thing for a summer. And Right in the middle of that summer, I was watching a broadcast on television with Billy Graham. I gave my life to Christ. And the first thought, I need to go back home. I need to tell my parents, I need to tell my brothers, I need to tell my friends what happened.
So I went back, and for a period of time, I was once again living at home with my parents. And The Lord kept bringing up this verse. Honor your parents, honor your mother and your father. And it was very tough at this point because I had left the church I was raised in, the Roman Catholic Church. I'm this crazy, long haired, born again hippie Christian that they could not figure out.
And did not really like. Though they loved me, but they didn't really like me. And um I had to figure out how I am going to honor my parents in this new paradigm. Honoring your parents is something that is to last a lifetime, and it is for all of us, and it is in the lineup. It is in God's top 10 list.
It's the fifth commandment. And I told you Sunday that of all the commandments, most of most of them are put in the negative. Only two of them are put in the positive, really one and a half. And the one that really shines as a positive commandment is the fifth commandment. Honor your father and your mother, and then a promise is attached to that: that you may dwell long in the land that the Lord your God is giving to you.
Now, there is a problem in the New Testament era. Because the religious leaders figured out a way to take the fifth commandment. and twist it so they wouldn't have to obey it. Let me read this to you. This is from the Gospel of Mark.
I'm reading from chapter 7. You're free to turn there if you're quick on your. Feet or your with your fingers, Mark chapter 7. When they came from the marketplace, this is Mark 7, verse 4, they do not eat unless they wash. That is the Pharisees, that didn't mean like wash.
The germs off, but ceremonially. cleanse themselves. And many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches. Then the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but they eat bread with unwashed hands? They don't go through the proper.
Ritual ceremonies. When they Eat their hamburger. He answered, and they wouldn't eat a cheeseburger, that's not kosher. He answered and said to them, Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites? As it is written, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and in vain do they worship me, teaching his doctrine the commandments of men.
For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, the washing of pitchers, cups, and many other things you do. He said to them, All too well you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your tradition. For Moses said, Honor. Your father. And your mother.
And he who curses father or mother, let him be put to death. But you say, if a man says to his father or mother, whatever profit you might have received from me is corban, that is a gift to God. then you no longer let him do anything for his father. And his mother. They knew the commandment of God, honor your father and your mother.
They knew they had a responsibility to care for their father and their mother. But they had come up with an interesting way to twist The commandment of God to get out of. Honoring father and mother, caring for father and mother, financially, et cetera. And that is this. They could, if they Dedicated something they had, money or whatever property they had, and they said it is Corban, it is devoted to God.
They could in turn Dedicate anything and everything to the temple.
Now, as Pharisees, they were beneficiaries of the temple. They were paid by the temple.
So they were able to dedicate everything to the temple. Receive the financial benefit of it. But because it's dedicated to God, not honor their father and their mother.
So the ironic part is they're going, how come you don't keep our traditions? And Jesus said, Why do you buy your traditions? Annul the commandment of God. When I was a fan of the menu, I was Growing up. as a Roman Catholic.
I remember Kids of parents who went to the priest or the monseigneur or the bishop. And a couple of them managed to get their marriage annulled. And annulment means that the church doesn't recognize your marriage as valid, even though you may have said vows to each other, even though you went through the ceremony. If you really try hard, you could get them to annul the relationship. If the relationship is annulled, then you're free to marry anybody else you want.
And it never really sat with me and thinking now: how could it not be a valid marriage if these are their children? And that is their wedding certificate. And when I go to their homes, I see pictures of their wedding and wedding guests. But they had figured out a way by their tradition to. Twist The commandment of God.
for their own profit, for their own benefit. The Pharisees were doing that with the fifth commandment. And Jesus nailed them on that. He said, no, you're to honor your father and your mother. Beautiful example of honoring your father and your mother is Jesus on the cross.
Jesus had left home. Jesus lived with his. Disciples travel the countryside.
Now he is on the cross dying for the sins of the world. But even in his anguish, he made sure that his mother. Was taken care of when he said, Son, behold your mother, mother, behold your son. He made sure that John, his follower, would take care of her. He honoured her.
It is a time of anguish. He honored his father and his mother.
So Children, obey your parents in the Lord. It's right. Honor your father and your mother. It's a commandment with a promise.
So that's the basic role of submission. Then back to chapter six, Ephesians, verse four, and you, fathers. Do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and the admonition of. The Lord Question? Or yeah.
Why is it when Paul addresses children, he says, he quotes the commandment: honor your father and your mother. When it comes to raising children, He doesn't address father and mother. But the father Well. Notice the context, notice the wording, I should say. Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath.
It could be that Paul understood in that Greco-Roman culture. that it was very easy and Normal. For fathers to neglect The raising of their children. That's woman's work. You know, I'm working in the Roman Senate, or I have a very important job with the city of Ephesus, or, you know, I'm doing my occupation.
That's my work. My work as a husband is to go to work and provide for this family, and I'll clean out the garage too and do a little yard work, but everything else. With kids, that's your responsibility. It could be just simply out of neglect. A second reason he's telling fathers not to provoke their children to wrath is.
Men Can be Tend to be See if you agree with this. Harsher. Just by virtue of the fact that they have a great physical strength, they have a deeper voice usually than their wives do. And when they yell, it's whoa, it can be intimidating and powerful and come across in a way that is harsh. But there's a third reason, and I think really is the reason, although all of these are legitimate.
Um The buck stops with him. The father Is responsible for his wife and nurturing, husbanding her. Cultivating that ground, but also. He is responsible for the raising of the child. He has to be involved somehow.
So, even though it was not typical in that culture, he involves the men by saying, You fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath. But bring them up. See the negative. Don't provoke them to wrath, but bring them up. That's the positive.
Bring them up. Don't put them down. Bring them up. Don't push them away, bring them up. Bring them up higher.
Encourage them. Nurture them. Train them. Don't say Well, when they say, Daddy, why should I? Because I said.
Don't do that. Sit them down. Explain it to them. Help them understand, reason with them. You are setting a template.
for how they will raise their children.
So bring them up. In the training. and the admonition of the Lord. You're listening to Connect with Skiff Heitzig. Every day, the generosity of friends like you helps make clear, verse-by-verse Bible teaching available to people searching for truth, purpose, and hope.
And this month, we want to thank you with a pair of powerful resources to help you understand your identity in Christ and God's design for your life and relationships. When you give, you'll receive the Expound Ephesians 9 CD series with digital download, along with Pastor Skip's book, Beyond the Summer of Love. Together, these resources explore the richness of the gospel, reveal your place in God's family, and show how biblical truth brings strength, restoration, and lasting hope to your relationships. We'll send both resources as our thanks when you give $50 or more to support Connect with Skip Heitzig. Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com/slash offer.
Now let's return to today's teaching. When it comes to Christian books on marriage. In Christian books on family. Christian books on restoration and counseling, those kinds of things, those domestic issues. When it comes to that pool of literature in the Christian world, Let me ask you a question.
Do you think men or women buy those books the most? How many think men? How many do you think are women? Yeah. Eighty percent of those books are purchased by women.
They know, they care, it's important to them, they want nurturing, they want. Restoration. They want the relationship fixed. I remember when our son was born, little Nathan Alexander. And I remember holding him in my hands, and my first thought is: he's so light.
Well, he was a newborn. And I thought, that was the first thought. I thought, he's so light. And then, as I'm holding him, thinking he's so light, and I thought, boy. He's so light.
I hope I don't want to drop him. You know, I was just sort of nervous that I. would would drop and th these are the first thoughts that I had as a father. And so I thought he's light, and then suddenly I felt the weight. Of responsibility.
Oh, he's not light. This is heavy. And the weight of responsibility that it's going to be a lifetime of commitment, a lifetime of. Paying for him. You know, this is one of the reasons we should honor our parents.
It costs To raise a child today, it costs from infancy to age 18. about $330,000 per child.
So you just figure out the math, and it's like, okay, the least you can do is honor me. Bond servants. Be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart as to Christ, not with thy service as men pleasers, but as bond servants of Christ, Doing the will of God from the heart. With good will doing service. As to the Lord.
And not to men. Today, we don't have in our culture bond servants and masters. We have employers and employees, so we could easily translate it. Employees, be obedient to those who are your masters or your employers according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, and sincerity of heart. As to Christ.
I read this statistic. Recently. And I had to cross-check it a couple times because I thought it was. outrageous and I actually found out I was Um, a little bit on the shallow side that it was actually much greater. I'll explain.
I read this statistic that the average worker in America. admits to wasting Twenty percent of his day And then I said, that can't be right. It's 25%.
So being on the phone, social stuff, socializing with people, kind of doing their own little task when they got a little couple of minutes to do it. They waste the equivalent over one day per week Now we should work as though our employer were Christ Himself. I'm doing this as unto the Lord. And some of you go, well, I'd like to be in full-time ministry. That looks more fun and more glorious to me.
Listen, if you work for me, you're going to work hard. Or you won't work. When I was working in the hospitals, And I would bring my Bible and I would bring commentaries and I would be studying for Bible studies that I would do. I had several people say to me, Skip, do you ever think you want to be in full-time ministry and quit the job here and be in full-time ministry? Because it just seems like that's what you're all about.
Ministry, but you're working here at the hospital. Do you ever want to be in full-time ministry? And I corrected them. I said, I am in full-time ministry. You and I are having a conversation, you probably would never come to church, but now.
You're an audience to me. I am in full-time ministry. is your present location. Wherever you are presently located and working is your ministry vocation. There are people there who wouldn't darken the door of a church, as they say.
But they'll have very open conversations with you. And it's very advantageous. What does that have to do with this? The workplace is the Visual stage. For unbelievers to examine the life of a Christian.
As they examine the life of a Christian at the workplace, they're wondering things like: what kind of ethics do Christians have? How do Christians treat other people, other employees, other clients? What do they do when something goes wrong, et cetera, et cetera? They're watching, they're observing you.
So it is a staging area. For the gospel.
So we shouldn't do it with iService as men pleasers. You know, here's the boss, polish the apple. Hey man, how are you doing? Look like you're working. Knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive, verse 8, the same from the Lord, whether a slave or free.
You know, there's a lot of ways you can look at your job. I love the story of a. Three workers in Paris, France. They all had the same job. They were stone cutters.
A man walked up to these three men working, and he asked the first guy, Hey, what are you doing? And the guy said, I'm just breaking rocks. He asked the second man, What are you doing? He says, I'm just earning a living, a few francs. He asked the third man, What are you doing?
He said, I'm building a cathedral. For the glory of God. He was making the Notre Dame. See, you can look at it as ice breaking rocks. I'm just earning a living.
This is for the Lord. I'm doing it as unto the Lord. And you masters, you're not off the hook. You employers, do the same things to them, giving up, threatening, knowing that your own master also is in heaven, and there's no partiality with him. Finally, my brethren, Be strong in the Lord.
And in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities. against powers Against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day.
And having done all, To stand Stand Therefore, Having girded your waist with truth. Having put on the breastplate of righteousness. And having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel. A peace.
Now Paul turns. A page here, so to speak. He has been speaking in the first two chapters about the wealth of the believer, chapter 1, 2, and 3. Chapter 4 and 5, The Walk of the Believer.
Now, the second part of chapter 6, verses 10 to the end, the warfare of the believer. He leaves the walk, he leaves the home. And he takes us out to the battlefield. Where you smell the smoke of war. Spiritual warfare.
When I gave my life to Christ. That afternoon in July in San Jose, California, I felt so much peace.
So much joy And I didn't even know how to describe what had happened to me. And I told you that when I went to see my friends and I was trying to tell them and they Told me about the word born again. I had never heard that phrase. And they were listening to what I was trying to tell them. And the guy said, Heitzig.
Have you been born again? And I said, where did you get that? That's a great phrase. That expresses what I feel. I feel like a new birth.
He said, Well, Jesus said that. He said, You must be born again if you're going to see the kingdom of heaven. I said, yes, I have been born again. And I felt joy, I felt peace, I felt satisfaction. And then I read where Jesus said in John chapter 10: I have come that they may have life.
and have it more abundantly. And I did experience an abundant life, and I do experience an abundant life, but. What nobody told me. Is that You have abundant life, yes. But you'll also have a battle.
You have abundant life, you have peace, you have joy. But you have a target painted on your back because you have defected. From the enemy's territory, the enemy's camp. You have left the strong grip of Satan on your life. You have done the one thing he didn't want you to ever do, and that is surrender your life to Christ.
Now Read the book Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.
Now he and his demons will do everything they can. to target you, to discourage you, to challenge you. And so, from that point on, when I first discovered that, I started reading all the other verses in the New Testament that I didn't underline. Where Jesus promised. that there would be warfare.
And battles. Fights At the end of Paul's life in 2 Timothy 4. He ended his life by saying, I finished the I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I've run my course.
I fought the good. Fight. Then Jesus, when he promised that he would build his church, do you remember how he described it? He goes, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. It seems to imply that they'll try their hardest.
to prevail against us.
So I have discovered that two things can be true at once. I can be in the midst of a battle, the battle of my life, and that battle is daily and it never ceases, and at the same time have abundant life, overflowing life. because I'm assured the victory. I fight not for victory, I fight from victory. But There are certain things I need to know, certain things I need to wear.
And though I really wanted to finish all of chapter six, Ah, you know me better than that. And I I won't say the gates of hell prevailed against me because they didn't. Um But What I'm going to do is Next week, next time we're together, finish off Ephesians by just talking about these weapons and the armament, the defensive weapons and the offensive weapons that we have in this battle against Satan. And that'll close the book. Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Before we go, remember, your generosity helps share God's word with people around the world, offering truth, hope, and encouragement where it's needed most. And this month, we'd love to thank you for your gift of $50 or more by sending you the Expound Ephesians 9 CD series with digital download, along with Pastor Skip's book, Beyond the Summer of Love. These resources will help you understand your identity in Christ and see how God's design brings strength and restoration to your relationships. Give today at connectwithskift.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. See you next time on Connect with Skip Heitzig.
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