Hey, podcast listeners! Thanks for streaming today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's word through the most effective media available, like this podcast. To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes. Now, here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program.
On today's edition of Pathway to Victory. One thing I've learned as a father and grandfather is that our children and grandchildren are watching us very closely. And if we want our children to honor us in our old age, they better see us honoring our parents in their old age.
And that is the focus of the Fifth Commandment. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. The family unit is the solid foundation upon which a healthy nation is established. When families suffer, our communities suffer.
When families thrive, the entire country wins. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress calls on us to follow the Fifth Commandment, which holds the most basic requirement for a God-honoring family. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress. Thanks, David. And welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Behind the scenes at Pathway to Victory, we've been actively engaged in preparing the vacation of a lifetime for you and your family. It's the 2025 Pathway to Victory Journeys of Paul Mediterranean Cruise. Look, you can travel to the Mediterranean on your own, but our world-class travel team has thoughtfully prepared an exclusive vacation that's designed to elevate your experience, elevate your experience at all levels, so that you come home physically and spiritually renewed. On this wonderful 12-day journey, we'll get to experience several Greek islands, and we'll also stop in Ephesus, where the early church began to flourish. You'll never regret joining us on this trip.
The dates are May 5th through 16th, 2025, and you can reserve your spot today by going to ptv.org. Well, tragically, there's an evil movement that's at work in our country. The goal is to strip the Ten Commandments from public display in many of our school rooms and buildings. It seems silly that these simple decrees would be shunned, doesn't it? After all, for thousands of years, the Ten Commandments have stimulated civility, courtesy, and respect in our culture. Well, I've written a brand-new children's book that's intentionally designed to help your children and grandchildren understand the beauty of God's moral code. My new book is called The Ten Commandments for Kids, and you're invited to request your copy when you give a generous gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory.
We'll give more detail about my book for children later in today's program, along with other helpful resources. But right now, let's turn our attention to the next commandment in our teaching series. Today, I'm going to describe some practical ways we can all obey the Fifth Commandment. I titled today's message, Honor Your Parents. If you have your Bibles, turn to Exodus chapter 20, beginning with verse 12, as we discover why we should honor our parents.
Now today, in the few minutes we have, we're going to answer four crucial questions about this commandment because, as we'll see in a moment, this is the First Commandment that has a specific promise linked to those who obey it. First of all, what's so important about families? Why is the family so crucial? In the little book Laws That Liberate, the writer gives five reasons the family's important.
I want to expand on those for just a moment. First of all, the family is the basic building block of society. Secondly, the parent-child relationship is our only lifelong relationship we have. Thirdly, the parent-child relationship shapes a child's self-image.
How we think of ourself is largely influenced by how our parents think about us. And not only that, this relationship is important because the family is the incubator for shaping a child's attitude toward authority. Listen, children who learn early on that there are boundaries in their behavior within the home don't have as much trouble accepting that there are boundaries outside the home, in school, in society, at work. But if a child learns there are no boundaries in the home, if he will not obey the authority of those people closest to him, his parents, how in the world is he going to obey the authority of some unknown teacher or law enforcement officer or boss? And if they don't learn obedience to authority in the home, they'll struggle with it in every other area of their life. And finally, as I said, the family establishes a child's values. You know, the Hebrew word for parent is horem.
It's the root word that we get teacher from. Our parents are our most important teachers, and what they teach us that is most important is what to value in life. If a parent values physical appearance, money, possessions, that's what the child will value as well. But if we value or we model to our children that the most important thing in life is serving and obeying Jesus Christ, they will pick up on that value as well.
Well, that leads to a second question. What does it mean to honor your parents, to honor your father and mother? That word honor is the Hebrew word kebab.
It literally means weighty, substantive. It's the same word we get glory from. To honor our parents means to ascribe worth to them, substance to them. Leviticus chapter 19, 3 says, every one of you shall reverence his father and his mother. Why should we honor our father and mother?
That's the third question. Now, the easy answer would be because God says so. But that answer probably goes over about as well with you as it does with your children when they say, why should I do this?
Well, because I said so. Fortunately, God gives us some reasons that we ought to honor our father and mother. First of all, there's a theological answer to that question, and that is our attitude toward our parents both reflects and shapes our attitude toward God. That's the theological reason we're to obey our parents, but there's a sociological reason as well. Anarchy in the home leads to anarchy in the nation.
I mean, that's just the fact. You see that in the heart of this commandment. Let's look for a moment, first of all, at the promise of the commandment. Exodus 20, 12 says, honor your father and mother that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. Now, this is not specifically a promise of long life.
That's how we take it. It means that, well, in the words of Deuteronomy 5, 16, honor your father and mother that your days may be prolonged and that it will go well with you in the land. God was talking to Israel, and he said if you want to survive well in the nation, if you want your nation to do well, then the key to order in your society is order in the home. Interestingly, when Paul repeated this command in Ephesians 6, 2, and 3, he talks about an additional promise, and that is it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. Does obeying your parents means you're going to live a long time?
Not all the time, but sometimes it does. Following their laws, their rules may keep you away from dangerous substantives, addictions, behavior that would shorten your life. But there is a principle behind this fifth commandment that I want you to see, and that is simply this. God honors a society that honors the family. The Bible says there is an anthropological answer to why we should obey our parents as well, and that is appreciating our elders maintains their dignity in an undignified world. You know, this idea of obeying your elders applies to children and parents, but the Bible extrapolates that idea to say that we ought to have respect for elders in our society. 1 Timothy 5, 1 to 2, we don't have time to look at it. 1 Peter 5, verse 5 says that we are to honor elders, and how we treat our elders is a reflection of how we treat God. You say, where do you get that in the Bible? Well, Leviticus 19, verse 32, you shall rise up before the gray-headed and honor the aged, and you shall revere your God, I am the Lord. Do you see the connection? Revering the gray-headed, those with gray hair, those with no hair, regardless, we're to revere them.
Do I hear an amen on that? Because how we treat them is a reflection of how we're going to treat God. Proverbs 20, verse 29 says the glory of young men is their strength, and the honor of old men is their gray hair. There are a lot of you with a lot of honor out there, and up here as well. You know, I tell men and women, go into the seminary, if you're going to choose a professor, choose the ones that have gray hair. Because not only have they had time to develop their expertise in their subject matter, but they've had time to gather hopefully wisdom in balancing their theology with everyday life. The late Warren Wiersbe had a great quote.
He said, the elderly are the only outcast group that everybody expects to join because nobody wants the alternative. But how we treat them today will determine how we're treated tomorrow because we reap what we sow. And that leads to the final question. How do we honor our parents? What are some practical ways we can honor our parents? This command is obeyed in different ways at different stages in our life.
First of all, there's an application for children. For children to honor their parent means for them to obey their parents. Colossians 3, 20, children be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord. Ephesians 6, 1, children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
Now notice the boundary. We're to obey them in the Lord, in the Lord. What if a child is asked to do something that is illegal or immoral?
No. In that case, Acts 5, 29 applies, we ought to obey God rather than man. No, we obey them when they ask us to do things which are in accordance with God's will.
By the way, some people would say this would apply to even young adults who are living in their parents' home and still depending on their parents for financial aid. And the Bible says, I hear an amen on that. You know, Genesis 2, 24 gives us the pattern, a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and the two shall be one flesh.
God's plan is for young adults to gradually leave the home emotionally, financially, physically. But that doesn't mean that ends our relationship with our parents. There's a way to apply this honor your father and mother to young adults and that is through our respect for them.
In Proverbs 6, verses 20 to 23, Solomon said, my son, obey your father's commands and don't neglect your mother's instruction. Keep their words always in your heart, tie them around your neck. When you walk, their counsel will lead you. When you sleep, they will protect you. When you wake up, they will advise you.
For their command is a lamp and their instruction a light and their corrective discipline is the way to life. If you're a young adult and making a key decision, maybe about a marriage partner, about a career, about a financial decision, you ought to seek the advice of your parents. You're not under their command any longer, but remember, they know you better probably than anybody in the world. They love you.
They want the best for you and you ought to at least seek their advice. But there may be some times you have to say no to their advice because of God's leading in your own life. You all have heard me tell a story about my mom who grew up in another denomination. She never became a Christian, saved at a Billy Graham crusade and she ended up joining our church on the day Billy Graham joined our church in 1953. She said if it was good enough for Billy Graham, it's good enough for me.
That was our comment. But to be an actual member here, she needed to be scripturally baptized. Dr. Criswell explained to her why that was and she did her own study of the Bible and came to that conclusion. Well, her parents didn't understand. They were very upset, thought she was forsaking her heritage by being baptized in a Baptist church. But she went ahead and got baptized. My parents refused to attend the baptismal ceremony because they thought it was such an affront. But through the years, they had a change of heart. After my mom died, my grandfather was still alive and one day he said to me, he said, you know, Robert, the best decision your mom ever made was to join that first Baptist church in Dallas.
And if I were physically able, I'd walk down the aisle of that church and get baptized myself. Eventually, they came around and they understood. What I'm saying to you is if you're a young adult, treat your parents with respect.
Seek their advice. But ultimately, you have to obey what God is leading you to do. And that leads to a third way we honor our parents in middle age and that is through our support of our parents. Sometimes that support is financial support.
Again, you know, I'm doing everything I can. Amy and I are doing everything we can not to be a financial burden to our children, but sometimes that's beyond the parent's control. And if your child has a need, if your parent has a need, you're the first one to meet that need. You know, 1 Timothy 5 talks about widows in the church. It talks about widows who have financial need. And it says if a widow has a family that can provide for her, let the family provide for that widow and let not the church be burdened. That was Paul's words. He said it's the family's responsibility. And then he says in verse 8 of 1 Timothy 5, for if anybody does not provide for his own household, his own family, especially those of his own household, he is worse than an unbeliever and has denied the faith. In Mark 7, Jesus chastised the Pharisees because they found a loophole, they thought, not to care for their parents.
And we don't have time to look at it, but Jesus condemned them for that. By the way, supporting your parents doesn't always mean financially supporting them. We need to be an emotional support to them. Call them.
Check up on them. Invite them to family events. They need to know that they're still an important part of our lives. And finally, we honor our parents through our reverence, specifically how we speak about them and how we remember them.
Did you know it's possible? It's not only possible, it's critical that we honor our parents even after our parents have died. I remember when my father died, both my parents, as you know, died when I was in my late 20s and early 30s. And there was something about my dad dying.
He was the second one to die that hit me especially hard. Those of you who have lost parents know that when that second parent dies, it's really many times a traumatic event. And the week after he died, I was under pressure to get a book manuscript done, my second book, and I was reading over it. And I came to a paragraph I had written about my father. It wasn't anything bad, but as I read that, I thought, you know, some people could get the wrong idea about my father. And I don't want anybody to have the wrong idea about my dad, so I deleted that paragraph. We need to be careful about how we speak about our parents. We need to speak about them with reverence to our own children, our grandchildren, and other people as well. It's one way we reverence our parents. You say, well, wait a minute.
You don't understand. My parents were horrible. My dad and mom, they abused me emotionally and physically.
And that may be true, but surely there's something redeeming about those parents that God gave you. I look out there and I see my friend June Hunt. June comes from one of the most famous families in the world. Her father was the richest man in the world. And God has given June a wonderful counseling ministry, and she ministers to people who have been abused. And in her life story, she doesn't sweep under the rug the abuse she suffered emotionally as a child from the hands of her father.
But what I've always appreciated about June is she balances that. She always talks about some positive things she learned from her dad as well. And she's a perfect model of what I'm talking about, about making sure you talk reverently about your father, not forgetting their mistakes, but balancing that. It's not only how we speak, but it's how we remember our parents that we bring honor or dishonor to. You know, I bet every one of us could dredge up some awful memory of our father or mother, something they did wrong, just as our children can about us as well. But hopefully there's some good things, some positive things you can remember about your parents and thank God for as well. We don't get to choose what happens to us, but we choose what we dwell on, what we think about.
Philippians 4, 8 says, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. Dwell on these things. Some of you are saying, Robert, you don't understand. You don't understand the abuse, the heartache I've suffered because of my mother or my father. You're right, I don't understand, but God understands. And I would say to you as gently and as compassionately as I can, the only way you're going to be free and experience the relief you want is by forgiving your parents of those wrong things that they did. Forgiveness isn't about denying you've been wronged. It's not about rationalizing what happened to you. Remember, it's impossible to forgive people you first don't blame. You have to blame somebody before you can forgive them. Acknowledge your pain to God, but then choose to let go of that hurt you've experienced.
Give up your right to get even. Leave it up to God to settle the score. Say to your Heavenly Father, Lord, you know how much this parent has hurt me, how much it's affected me, but today I'm choosing to forgive, to let go, not because that parent ever asked me to forgive them, not because they deserve to be forgiving.
I'm forgiving because you have forgiven me. Isn't that what the scripture says? Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ has forgiven you. Now, again, I say this compassionately, but Jesus was pretty clear about this in Matthew 6. He said, if we forgive others, God will forgive us.
If we refuse to forgive others, God will refuse to forgive us. As I look back with my parents, what I am most grateful for is when both of them died, there was no unfinished business between us. We said everything that needed to be said. They knew I loved them. I knew they loved me. I hope the same is true for you. When you get that final phone call telling you that your second parent has gone home to be with the Lord, I pray there's no unfinished business between you and your parents that will impact the rest of your life.
The best way to make sure there is no unfinished business is to honor your parents and your attitude toward them and your words toward them and your memories of them. For a moment, I want you to think about the loved ones in your life. Maybe today you're thinking about your mom and dad who instilled these principles in your life, or maybe your heart is with your adult children now raising a family of their own. Whatever the case, I think you would agree that these Ten Commandments from God are vitally important.
So here's the question. Has your family fully embraced the power of these Ten Guardrails from God? The revolution in their hearts begins with you. It starts when each of us begins to respect the value of these ancient laws.
And let's be clear, the responsibility to impart these truths falls to you and me. For that reason, I want you to own a brand new book I've written for you and the little ones in your life. The book is called The Ten Commandments for Kids. Every God-fearing household should own a copy of this creative resource so that you can teach the ones you love these valuable, life-giving lessons from God. You're invited to request your copy when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Friends, your gift today will truly make an impact.
Let me give you a brief example. Recently I received a note that said, Pastor Jeffress, I haven't been to church in a long time, but I've been listening to you on the radio. Today I felt God speaking to me.
I'm ready to commit myself to God and trust Him through all my trials. Thank you so much. Well, friends, this thank you note really belongs to every one of you who supports the ministry of Pathway to Victory. My voice wouldn't extend beyond the city limits of Dallas without you. So thank you for partnering with us to bring the truth about the Ten Commandments to the country we love and even to the world.
David. Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. When you invest in the ministry of Pathway to Victory by giving a generous gift, we'll say thanks by sending you the brand-new illustrated children's book, The Ten Commandments for Kids. You'll also receive the original best-selling book by Dr. Jeffress titled The Ten, How to Live and Love in a World That Has Lost Its Way. Call 866-999-2965 or visit our website, ptv.org. Now when your gift is $125 or more, we'll also send you the complete collection of audio and video discs for The Ten teaching series.
Plus we'll send you a study guide to use on your own or with a small group. One more time, call 866-999-2965 or visit ptv.org. You could write to us if you'd like. Here's that address, P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. Again, that's P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins.
It seems like every day the headlines are filled with reports about violent crimes. But imagine how much different our country would look if everyone learned to value life the way God does. Join us for a message on the Sixth Commandment Wednesday on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in His Word. To become a Pathway partner, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory.
