who really need support. And I said before, godly, wise parents won't put that kind of pressure and burden upon the children. That would be us, right? We want to be godly, wise parents, don't we? Let's make sure we don't put that kind of burden on our children. Let's make sure that we earn above and beyond what we can spend to honor our parents and leave something for our children so they can use those things to further the Kingdom of God. I really believe that. If my children are godly, and they're really serving the Lord, why would I give that money to some charity? I want them to use that to continue to serve the Lord, right? Now, I'll give it to organizations, perhaps seminary, missions organizations, and so forth. That would be great. It would be a wonderful privilege, that's investing into the Kingdom. If my son, let's say, Nathanael, the Lord carries and he goes into the ministry, why wouldn't I want to support that? If my daughter is the wife of a missionary, why wouldn't I support her? I'll be the number one prayer partner and financial support. Why wouldn't we want to leave those finances to them when we're going to leave everything behind anyways and make plans of such? Your son, your daughter is a delinquent. Say, help me out dad, I need some more money. So you can blow it in Las Vegas? No, I'm not going to give you a cent. That would be a loving thing to do. Help me out dad. Why? So you can speculate? You can waste frivolously? I don't think so. Why would you want to damn them by giving them more money? No, you want to love them with a tough love. And so, as best we can to nurture and teach them to follow after the Lord and admonish them in the fear of the Lord, they're people with wills. You can't control people with wills. The Holy Spirit has to do that. And so, if somehow they're derelict on their responsibilities, and you and I know that. We read through Scripture. Ungodly king, like Ahaz, would have a godly son like Hezekiah. A godly man like Hezekiah. No king like him prior to himself except David. A godly man would have a wicked son like Manasseh. We find things skipping. Jotham, Ahaz's father, a godly king who learned from his father. And yet, what happened? Godliness skips generations. People rebel. Just because we set godly models and examples and do our best doesn't mean that we have guarantee in product. That's by the grace of God. And none of us is arrogant enough to guarantee that. We trust in the Lord for that. We hope in that. And so we need to apply these things into practical things in our lives. So, let's go over that again. Introduction to submission. This commandment is important because we learn submission through it. This is an instruction to support. This commandment is important because we know what to support, what not to support. Now, finally, in this commandment is information about success. Information about success. This fifth commandment. Honor your father and your mother. Look at the second part. That your days may be prolonged. First of all, this is a promise of longevity in the land which the Lord God gives you. It's a promise of possession and it's a promise of blessing. To disobey this commandment, therefore, you would automatically think it will incur curses rather than blessings. And you're right. Exodus 21, verse 15, And he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. That's what God thinks about rebellion. that works itself out in violence. Verse 17, And he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. You violently attack your parents, God says, you deserve to die. And you curse your father and mother, you should be put to death. That's what God says. And you know something? God forgave me. I never directly cursed my father and my mother, but I had ill thoughts and words in my heart. when I was unsaved, because it was out of rebellion and sin. I deserve death many times over, and yet by the grace of God, here I stand, not condemned to eternal hell, which I deserve, but on the banner of grace because of His grace. Leviticus 20, verse 9, If there is anyone who curses his father or mother, he shall surely be put to death, He has cursed his father and his mother. His blood guiltiness is upon him." That's what God thinks about that. Proverbs 20, verse 20, He who curses his father and mother, his lamp will go out in time of darkness. That's just a hopeless picture, isn't it? It's going to be put out. Proverbs 19, verse 26, He who assaults his father and drives his mother away is a shameful and disgraceful son. There should be shame and disgrace in such a person. Deuteronomy chapter 21, verse 18. If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him he will not even listen to them, then his father and mother shall seize him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown. And they shall say to the elders of his city, this son of ours is a stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard. Then all the men of this city shall stone him to death, so you shall remove the evil from your midst. and all Israel shall hear it and fear." You know what God encouraged the community to do? To root out such rebellion and stubborn individual. Now obviously we can't stone people today obviously, but that's what God thinks about people who are dishonoring parents. So what is needed so that We will incur the blessings of God, not cursing. What is needed for us to transmit the blessings of this commandment to our children so they'll get the blessings and not the cursing? What's needed? Successful transmission of faith. That's what's needed. That's what's needed. Successful transmission of faith that we honor our parents. For our children will see our hypocrisy and deny the faith if we don't obey this foundational Doctrine and Command, because this is such an important relational dynamic. If our children don't see us honoring our parents, they're not going to honor us in their time either. But if we honor our parents, guess what? They're going to listen to our instruction. If we nurture our children in the ammunition and fear of the Lord, we practice and we try to practice all that we know to be right and good and true in God's Word, we have now the platform of instructing the next generation. For example, Proverbs chapter 5, I'm going to give you five passages back-to-back showing what parents say to their kids, and the instructions follow after. I'll just give you the prelude. Proverbs 5, verse 7, Now then, my sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. What is that? That's a call to learn. It's called to the children to learn, the sons. Proverbs 7.24, Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, and pay attention to the words of my mouth. Proverbs 8.32, Now therefore, sons, listen to me, for blessed are they who keep my ways. Proverbs 23.19, Listen, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way. Proverbs 23.22, Listen to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old. What does that tell you? The reason why so many young people lack wisdom today is because they didn't get it at home. They didn't get it at home. They didn't get it like that. They didn't get biblical spiritual instruction at home. In other words, if we came from spiritual families who taught us, our moms and dads, did their best to teach us the Word of God, then we should be men and women of profound wisdom. We should be way ahead of our peers in this field called life. We should be wise livers, not the one in the organ, but the ones who live out their lives. What do you think a child would do if he had honored his parents? What do you think he would do? If a child really loved and admonished and respected and honored the parents, what do you think he would do when the father says, listen my son, He paid attention. Okay, Dad, what have you got to tell me? Carefully listen and follow godly wisdom, right? That's how wisdom is dispensed. Now you see the pattern of success for those who honor their parents in the Lord. Now you see the commandment in Ephesians 6, chapter 6, verse 1 to 3. Children, obey your parents in the Lord. Why? Because they've walked the path of faithfulness in the Lord And every time they say something to you, scripturally, spiritually, wisdom-wise, because they've lived through life, wisdom is knowledge put into practice, right, from God, they're going to dispense that. And if your children, at all stages of your life, you honor your parents, you're going to get tremendous wisdom. So you're way ahead of your peers because of it. And that's why there's something to be said about third, fourth, fifth, sixth generation Christians. Something to be said about that. Now I'm not putting that into any kind of a magical formula because God's sovereign, right? He dispenses wisdom. And that's part of what the Holy Spirit gives as a package deal of the spiritual gifts. But there's something to be said about that kind of generational faithfulness, wisdom. Many people, many young people who grow up in these families, they just simply seem to escape certain pitfalls in life that so many of their peers fall into. Just no other way of looking at it. They have wisdom. They know what works and what doesn't. They know that what is wise and what isn't. They don't even try to attempt something because they know it's foolish even before finding it out, figuring it out for themselves. They're humble people. They're unsure of themselves, so they follow the wisdom of God and other godly counsel. They're not arrogant, so they think that they can believe in themselves and try everything and fail miserably. This, my friends, right here, this commandment deep information about success in life. God wants us to be successful. That's why he wants us to honor our parents. You want your children to be successful? First, you honor your parents, right? And then secondly, leave a lasting legacy so that they can honor you for how you live and what you say. So they'll pay attention to what you do and glean wisdom from you and they'll start off running in life. and not struggling and stumbling and falling and hurting in life. So you see the pattern of success here for those who honor their parents in the Lord. Now let's conclude with a few things here. God demands that children honor their parents. Therefore, what can we conclude from that? Children, honor your parents. What can we conclude from that? Parenting is a profoundly high calling. It's an honorable profession. I think that's just devaluing it. It is the most honorable occupation. Parenting is. And I want to challenge some of you ladies who think that you have a more honorable job or career elsewhere. You got it wrong. I don't care if you're the president, female president of the United States. Your parents, your children won't honor you. They don't care about what you do, what you have accomplished. They care about what kind of relationship they have with you. Isn't that right? And what is the most honorable occupation as a dad or a mom? Isn't it to do all that we can to live out Christ before them and point them to the Lord and say, you follow Him as I'm following Him. Isn't that what Paul said? Imitate me as I also imitate Christ. Parenting is the most honorable. of all occupations. Don't let anybody tell you lawyering, or doctoring, or engineering, or businessing is the best. Parenting is the most honorable. It always surprises me that many women would rather choose a less honorable profession, occupation, than the most honorable. Proverbs chapter 31, I want to whet your appetite, ladies, and I'm sure some of you are not convinced. Many of you live in such a manner that you are not convinced. And you probably won't choose the honorable path. But let me convince you. Proverbs 31. Now you look at this as an excellent woman, right? Look at this. Verse 28. Her children rise up and bless her. Her children rise up and bless her. Her husband also. And he praises her, saying, Many daughters have done nobly, but you excel them all. Now ladies, you won't be anywhere happier than when your children bless you and your husband praises you and compares you with all other women. And he says you're the best. There's no other. What career path do you think will satisfy you more than that? Verse 30, charm is deceitful and beauty is vain. But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised." What is her motivation? It's because of her relationship with the Lord. She fears the Lord. She fears the Lord. Her motivation of being such an excellent woman, a woman worthy of praise before her children, worthy of respect and honor before her husband, is because her motivation comes directly from the Lord. She pleases the Lord and He blesses her. and all that she does in her relationships. Verse 31, Give her the product of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates. That's what you're looking forward to when you honor your parents and you become an honorable parent. Now let me speak to all of us who are children and who have parents. Let me give us some things for us to think about in application. First, obey your parents during the days of your youth. Obey them. In other words, when I say obey them, that means just assume, for the sake of argument, that your parents are right and that you are wrong. That's basic assumption. When you obey your parents, it means that your assumption is that you trust their ideas and opinions more than your own, unless you have scripture, and sound data to back it up. In other words, when it comes to opinion, you just submit. Preferences, you submit. Your parents want you to get pants that is not really in fashion, but they say it's good for you, you just submit. Your parents think that you ought to dress a certain way, you submit. You reason with them, but ultimately you submit. Obey your parents when you're young. Honor is not due to performance in the Bible, but because of position and because of God's commandment. Remember that? We need to be honorable to all people. Secondly, serve God faithfully during adulthood. That's where you are right now. The greatest way that you can honor your parents, even if your parents are unbelievers, is to be faithful Christians. Because guess what? Serving the Lord, being faithful, growing in Christ, is the best gift you can ever give to your parents. You'll be praying for them, interceding on their behalf, you'll be sharing the gospel to them, you'll be trying to be a best witness to them as humanly possible because you're Christian and they're not. Even if you have unbelieving parents, serve God faithfully during adulthood and that's the best way you honor your parents. We honor our parents the most when we honor God the most. That's your stage right now. And then thirdly, care for your parents when they are dependent on you. Care for your parents when they are dependent. Not to take care of them when you can and when they are dependent is sin. And when I say care for them, it means financial. Right? Financial. If they have emotional needs, there is no way you can meet their emotional needs. There is no way. You would be a fool if you think you can meet someone's emotional needs. You know how big the needs are? You're a tiny person. You cannot even meet your needs. Only Christ can do that. Christ can fill the need. We can meet people's desires. We can't meet people's needs. So if your parents say, oh, I need you here, I need you. Tell them, I'm sorry. You got a bigger problem than me. I can be there 24-7. That's not going to take care of your need problem. You need the Lord. And if you're going to try to be a Messiah to your parents, God help you. You're in for some rough ride and some disappointing times, frustrating moments. Care for them in the way that you can, which is physical. Care for them when they can't take care of themselves. Oh, I'm 55 and I'm tired. You know, you need to come and work so I can retire, says mom and dad. Don't retire now because if you do, you're going to die early. Work hard. Work till you're 75. And don't think about retirement. And when you can't take care of yourself, don't worry. I'll take care of you. I'll take care of you. As a matter of fact, I have a little savings account in your name so I can take care of you. Do that. Fourthly, pray and minister to unbelieving parents and be more caring and loving than ever before without compromising your lordship to Christ. And tell them. Tell them. constantly about the gospel. Tell them about heaven. Every time you see them, tell them about heaven. Tell them about your assurance of going to heaven. Tell them about how much you want to meet them forever in heaven. But they can't. They can't come to where you're coming because they reject the Lord who can take them to heaven. Tell them constantly until they're dead tired. And they tell you to stop and then tell them some more. Because that's exactly what they need. Pray and minister to them, to unbelieving parents. Fifthly, handle the competition between temporal parent-child relationship with the permanent husband-wife relationship. You men, remember God's design. A man shall leave his father and mother. Notice it says man shall. It already assumes that women will. They changed their name, their identity to become one flesh. You shall leave your father and mother. Two shall become one flesh. What's more permanent? Husband-wife relationship. Guess what? They did the same thing too. They got no excuse to holding on to you. No excuse. Alright? They did the same thing. They loved their parents. They held on to you. And if they say, well, see, we're taking care of our parents. Wonderful. Good. I'm going to follow God's command. Handle the competition between temporal parent-child relationships. That's temporal. More permanent is husband-wife. Sixthly, honor your parents. That's important, but you need to prepare to honor the parents. You need to strategize. You need a game plan. How do you do that? How do you go from here to there? You need a game plan. I'll give you some practical things. Let me share this with you from a pastoral perspective, from a church leader's perspective, from a corporate body's perspective. And my premise is this, Lord blessed his people to be a blessing to others. In other words, we are God's blessing, not only to one another, but to all the lives that we touch, including our parents. So based on that premise, I say that our corporate resources are greater than our individual resources. Our corporate resources are greater than our individual resources. And you can already vouch for that, right? I want to take my wife on a date, but I have limited resources. I can't take her on a date and still be with my kids at the same time. So what do I do? I tap into the corporate resources. I say, hey brother, hey sister, how are you doing? And then I try to get people together to fellowship and then do something positive for us. Corporate resources are always greater than our individual resources. Secondly, our corporate resources are God-given blessings to minister to the needs of individual member. Think about that. Our corporate resources are God-given blessings to meet the needs of the individual member. Wow. You know, we may be working. Our wives may be at home raising our children. Who's going to have the energy to care for our are elderly if they can't care for themselves. Well, that's where the corporate resources come in. God-given blessings. It could be in the form of youth group, children, college students who come and who are a delight. I remember when I was a youth pastor, we would make a monthly visit to a convalescent hospital where we would be the only young people that would come in in a long, long time. These elderly folks are completely neglected. Their family members don't come. Maybe once or twice a year they come. We come every month. Every month. We know them by name. We bring them a little box of Kleenex because they're drooling or they constantly need a wipe. And so we pray for them. We hold their hands. We sing our songs. I share the gospel. We spend two or three hours there on a Sunday afternoon. And they just, when are you coming back? And they're asking us. I love it. And what a way. And I thought, you know, why can't we do that to our elderly? Why can't we have a community where we can minister to our elderly? Why not? And it's very difficult. Why can't we do that? Well, that's just a thought. Some members are more flexible with time. Others are more flexible with income. Still others have a greater heart. That's all in the body. Why can't we draw on those resources and those blessings and begin to minister to those people who need the ministry? Others have skills. Others have knowledge regarding housing, health care, elderly law. Others have a heart, tremendous heart. Some of them even major in fields that can help the elderly. God can use all of these things to honor the elderly, where our corporate strength gives back and is stronger than our individual strength. The Lord blesses His people to be a blessing. And I believe that that is a vision that we can have together, corporately. Because you know, right now, that's not your concern. I know. Right now your concern is getting married, raising kids. And even raising kids is not your concern. It's getting married. That's a major concern. But five, ten years from now, most of you will be already there. Ten, fifteen years from now, it will be there. Even sooner, perhaps, for many of you. This will be a major issue. Just as I think you can have an individual plan to honor your parents, it must be strategized, it must be thoughtful and prayerful, I think we can have one that is corporate and prepare for that. Then we're strategizing. Then we'll plan. Then we'll execute. We can do it. And we can really bless others. I don't know why the Lord used me and my family as a guinea pig of such things. I feel like that sometimes. I feel like parenting is... I don't have older parents who have gone who are raising teenage children. I can ask and say, how did you do it? How did you raise some godly What kind of books did you read? What kind of activities did you get involved in? I have very little research. All I have to do is I got to fend for myself. Go find out and go through experiences. And then only I can just transmit that to others. This worked for us. This didn't. We do it this way. We try public education, private education. Now we're homeschooling. It's working out. It's difficult. Yes. Don't do this. Do that. And we have a lot of that. Perhaps we can share with all of you if you choose to do that. I have elderly parents. My father suffered from a double stroke, and he doesn't have many years to live. Parents are constantly aging. This is a real problem for us, these issues. And I'll go through that. And you won't yet, but you will soon. I don't know why, but that's basically where I am. And so these things are, in my mind, as I think about this fifth commandment, as a child, of God first and of my parents, how can I honor them? I'm more concerned about their spiritual welfare than anything. I don't care about their health care coverage, I really don't care where they live, what kind of diet they have, they're going to die. I care about where they would be when they die. That's a concern. And I'm sure you're concerned about that. So let's work on that. I think that's the greatest way we can honor our parents. May the Lord give you much wisdom in this area and give you the courage to do what is honorable. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this practical instruction of this fifth commandment. Thank you for instructing us in the area where we are really sorely lacking. I pray that you would help us to have the wisdom from above that we will practically apply this commandment into our daily lives, into our families, especially unto our elderly parents, and especially as we set a godly model and example for our children. If the Lord tarries, teach us, Lord, how to honor our parents, that we're truly a reflection of honoring You. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Have a wonderful Bible study. We have some fantastic sets of questions for you regarding how is my honor. And if I'm a master, where is my respect, says the Lord of hosts, to you? Etc. So the Word of God teaches us we must honor God. Malachi 1.6 The Word of God also commands that we honor governmental authorities and all who are in superior position to us. Romans 13 verse 7 What does that tell you? This kind of rebellious attitude? In our modern culture, it is anti-God. Furthermore, the Word of God tells us to honor our employers. You have a job? You answer to a boss? Well, here's what God says about that. Ephesians 6, verse 5, That is not the kind of disrespect that we find much in our workplace. where employees backtalk and backstab against their bosses. And a water cooler talk that is often the case in many, many companies. Christians must not partake in that. It doesn't mean that we need to be kisser uppers. The scripture says clear, we need to render service and honor as unto Christ. Who put these authorities there? God did. Now the Word of God goes further. Wives must honor their husbands. Ephesians 5 verse 33. Nevertheless, let each individual among you also love his own wife, even as himself. That is the obligation that God places upon husbands. But also let the wife see to it that she respect her husband. Husband, love your wife. Wife, be submissive and be respectful. That tells us that familiarity breeds contempt, and oftentimes it is the wives who have very much disrespect, dishonoring spirit toward the husband. And so this is God's will for us. 1 Peter 3, verses 1-2, In the same way, you wise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives as they observe your chaste, and respectful behavior. This is God's expectation of every Christian wife. Chaste and respectful behavior. Not boisterous and demanding spirit. And then, children must honor their parents. Ephesians 6, verses 1-3. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment of the promise. that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth." Now, we would think that it ends there, but there's a further step of honor, and that is that Christians must honor all people, all men. 1 Peter 2, verse 17. Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. In other words, God's desire and His command for us is that we would have a heart of honor, What is the heart of honor? That is basically the heart of Christ, who did not consider himself equality with God, something to hold on to, but he emptied himself by humbling himself, taking upon himself humanity and dying on the cross as a servant. It is that servant attitude. What does a servant do? He serves all and exalts all above himself. That is what Christ did. That attitude must be in every Christian. So this very bossy attitude, this superior attitude, is nowhere to be found in a Christian heart. It must not be there. Because the lowly and humble disposition in mind, which was in Christ, must be also in His disciples who call Him Lord. That's why we must honour others. So the principle of honouring others must be first found in an obedient, humble heart flowing out from our heart into our hands in what we do. Lip service is not true honoring. We shall see later how the Lord Jesus rebuked those who only give lip service but have no heart of honoring. So by the authority structure in the home, God wants us to develop a submissive spirit which is foundational to godly growth and maturity. Have you noticed that in our culture there is a consistent despising of parental authority? And it started a while ago. but it's been brooding. I grew up when I, as a young boy, watching TV, it was mostly black and white shows in this country, and most of the male figures in the home were very strong, wise, intelligent, protective, providing individuals. Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver, these kinds of shows. It's what I grew up with. A little wholesome, and perhaps we say idealistic, yes. But at least they portrayed an ideal type of a home, what a good home, a happy home should be. Today it's Homer Simpson, the idiot, who commands absolutely no respect and no authority. Who would want to submit to that? And you sense that rebellion in Bart and even a sense of disdain in Lisa and even the baby, I don't know her name. There's this kind of an anti-authoritarian flavor that's built in. Look at the hip-hop generation. Look how they demean authority. They hate authority. And they just completely undermine the value and the honor of women in all that they do. It's this anti-authoritarian attitude that's pervasive in our culture. We've seen the fifth commandment that was given by God as an introduction to submission. That by obeying God's commandment, and its ramifications in the home first, it will trickle down into society that teaches us to develop a heart of submission. And this was God's will for every stage of our lives and every echelon of our society. And that Christians must be honorable in their honoring. And we're going to develop that further. But I want us to see a second aspect of this commandment. And that is that this is an instruction to support. This is not only an introduction to submission, but it's an instruction to support. And what is that? There's no specific description of how old the children are to the parents, so that every age we need to honor our parents. God gave a general commandment which applies to all children of all ages. I'm a child to my parents. Both sets of my parents. My wife's parents, who are basically my own, because I'm their son-in-law, I'm their son. We make very little distinction. only by name, just so that we can teach the difference between the two sets of grandparents to our children. That's it. Functionally, they're the same to us. We love them equally. We're concerned about them equally. Both my sets of our parents are living. I'm a child to them. I need to honor them. I need to respond to them in such a way. It's clear that God nurtured and supports our growth and wellness through our parents. And it is in this context that we learn from our parents' caring, how we care for our parents and their caring for their parents in the past, that we learn about honoring. That our children learn from our behavior how to honor. Because they won't know if we're not honoring them. If we treat elderly with disdain, belittle them, Our children will watch that. They won't learn about this. So as we've already seen in Mark 7, how Jesus rebuked the teachers of the law. Here, children refused to honor their parents because of financial selfishness. Korban. That's just financial selfishness. And instead of rebuking and correcting that, the religious leaders fostered it. Why? Because they had a lot to gain. You see, this individual retirement plan that they had, a piece of the action belonged to the legal experts. They had everything to gain about this. So they say, oh, you don't have to do that. You can honor God through that. They nicely set aside the commandment of God. Financial selfishness. Here's where we need to reflect. And most of us probably don't struggle with this because we're still, many of us are being somehow dependent on our parents. That's okay at this stage of your life. That's nothing to be ashamed of. But that needs to change right away, right? Amen. Paul writes in 1 Timothy 5 as we read verse 8, If anyone, that would be us, does not provide for his own, that would include our parents. And the commandment still stands. He's worse than an unbeliever. You know why? Because there's plenty of unbelievers who are going to have worse than that. We need to ask that question. To provide for their children. Children can fail to provide for their parents depending on where you are in your financial stage and your age. Financial neglect and mismanagement often is the cause of why those who need to take care of those who can't, can't. A person who wastes money in frivolous spending or God forbid on alcohol, drugs, pleasure pursuits and gambling is worse than an unbeliever. Someone will say, I don't have any money. You don't have any money? You've got designer suits, you've got fancy, fancy toys, you've got fancy new cars, you take expensive vacations. I don't have any money to take care of you. It's worse than an unbeliever. It's a wretched soul. He just denied the faith. And that kind of horrible neglect and mismanagement must not be found in a Christian.