The Fifth Commandment

Thank you for the special music, Mrs. Wallace and Inioni, and thank you, Congregation, for special music right after that. We had started several months ago a series on the Ten Commandments, and we were covering one a month. And then as the Holy Days came in the spring, we didn't cover one in March. So here we are in April, and so we are going to talk about the Fifth Commandment today. We covered the first four already, and just as a reminder, the first four commandments teach us how to worship God the way that He wants us to honor Him. We have no other gods before Him. We make no graven images to Him and bow down to none of those. We don't take His name in vain. We don't take it casually in our speech. And when we take His name, we live by every word that He says, and we give our lives to Him and honor Him that way. And of course, we keep the Sabbath day holy. It's the time during the week that He's reserved from the time of creation for us to gather together with Him, and to rest from our daily activities, and to be in this Sabbath day. And as we go into the Fifth Commandment, this is kind of a transition commandment, but a very, very important one. As we go through this this morning, you may see how important this Fifth Commandment is as well. Let's turn over to Exodus 20 and read the commandment.

Exodus 20 and verse 12.

It says, Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. Honor your father and mother that your days in the land God is giving you may be long. Now, we all know that commandment. We know what we think it meets.

Paul calls this the first commandment with promise, and indeed it is, because God says if we keep it, our days will be long. Sometimes we stop it, our days will be long, but the rest of the promise there is that our days will be long in the land that God is giving us. So in this commandment, God is telling us something that is important for our families, but is important for all of mankind as well. Let me read what Barnes says about this verse here, specifically the promise.

The Barnes' commentary says, Phil, your family or parental respect is the ground of national permanence. The divine words were addressed emphatically to Israel, but they set forth a universal principle of national life. So in the fifth commandment, God is telling us how our families run, but He's also setting a principle that if it's obeyed, how nations are going to survive. Now we know from the beginning that God created family. Back in Genesis, He created the male and female.

Children were born to them, and God expected that parents would teach their children of His way of life. Implicit in that teaching was a respect for their parents. And obedience is when there are children. And the reverence that God expected them to have.

And as those children would grow up, they would pass that same teaching on to them. The family was the basic building block of society. That's where God saw it. And as you look at history and see how the families are put together, nations that have strong families are strong nations. When America was first founded, the family unit was very strong. People were taught. Parents were respected. Authority was respected. If you look at other societies, as they rose to power, the family unit was strong. It's the backbone of society.

And at the backbone of those family strong family units is this commandment. Honor your father and mother. That your days may be long in the land God is giving you. There's a promise to us, but there's a promise of national longevity if this command is followed. And if it's not followed, you begin to see the effects of it all around us. Let me give you a quote from Socrates. Well, I just gave it away. Here's what Socrates said.

I was going to ask you to guess when this quote was given. What Socrates said back in the 400s BC, and this quote is something that I could go out or you could go out and tell someone in your neighborhood today and you'd think that it was totally applicable. He said, Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority.

They show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents. They chatter before company. They gobble up their food and they tyrannize their teachers. Now, that's kind of today, isn't it? I mean, we could say all those things about today. But here's Socrates, who allegedly said this back in the 400s BC. And he looked around the society at that time, and what he saw was a very well-developed Athenian society that had lost some of its roots. No longer was there the family respect that he was seeing when he was growing up.

Things had gotten out of hand, if you will. And, you know, he died in 399 BC, but if the history books are right, in 404 BC, the Athenian society fell. It fell apart. Sometime before that, Socrates was looking over the situation there in Greece, and he thought things aren't the way they should be. We've all heard about the Roman Empire. Many of you have read the fall of the Roman Empire. And it talks about how, in the last days of the Roman Empire, the family unit just fell apart. In the early days of the Roman Empire, family units were strong.

But as time went on, and as materialism grasped people, family units fell apart, and things became relaxed. And at the end, or in that era, where all the discipline of strong families and what they were teaching had disappeared, Rome fell. They got what they practiced. They forgot what they were built upon. They forgot what was the building block of a society.

And we look at America today, and we can see the same elements. Just in the 50-some years that I've been alive, society is totally different. I know we let our children get away with things, and they're not children anymore, they're all grown, that my parents would have never tolerated.

And I look around, and there's things that we allow to happen, and just behaviors that we see all around us. And it kind of makes us, I don't know, not as acutely aware of how things should be as God would have them be.

And so we see America in decline. God says, as long as you keep the principle of honor your father and mother in place, and that's the basis of a family, honor your father and mother, your nation will live long. Because, you know, if you honor father and mother, and you teach that, what happens as a result? All authority is respected. People respect the leaders of the land. People respect the offices that people have. And you don't have a society that's always denigrating and always talking down about someone in authority.

Honor doesn't mean that you have to agree with everything they say, but you respect the position they're in. Some time ago in the, I don't know if it was in the 1970s, it became just commonplace to ridicule the President of the United States. Comedy shows would roast them, there would be skits about them, they'd be quite funny. But in the process, now it's become commonplace for everyone to disrespect the office of president.

And certainly we don't agree with everything that every president has, no matter what political party they're in. Everyone we disagree with, but there's still a position that's there that's to be respected. In this commandment, God gives the groundwork for what should be done. Let's turn back over to, or how we should behave. I'll turn back over to Acts 23. And we see Paul here in a kind of tense, tense situation with some of the Jews.

And they're accusing him, and he's kind of responding back to them. In chapter 23 and verse 1, it says, Paul, looking earnestly at the counsel, said, So you can kind of see the atmosphere that was there. He said something someone commanded to him to be slapped. Paul said to him, God will strike you, you whitewashed wall.

Well, Paul was responding in the way most of us would. For you sit to judge me according to the law, and do you command me to be struck contrary to the law. So he kind of retorts back to the man who ordered that to be done. And those who stood by said, do you revile God's high priest? They were in kind of shock that Paul would speak that way to the high priest. And Paul said, I didn't know.

I didn't know, brethren, that he was the high priest. For it is written, you shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people. See what Paul was saying? He didn't know. But when Ananias gave the command to strike him, had Paul known that he was the authority of the day, he would have kept his mouth shut. Because he was raised with respect for authority, even if you don't agree with what they're doing.

And he quotes there from Exodus 22 and verse 28. Let's turn over to 1 Peter. 1 Peter 2. And verse 17. Peter concludes one thought before he begins to talk about submission by servants. Verse 17, he says, Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the King. Show respect for authority, is what he was saying. The first commandment, or the fifth commandment, teaches us that. If it begins at home, you have a society that is based on some strong principles.

Let's go back to Deuteronomy 6 and read through some familiar verses here. As God built the family unit, and as Israel was coming out of Egypt, and he was reminding them of how to live their lives, Deuteronomy 5, Moses reminds them of the Ten Commandments and restates them again. And then beginning in chapter 6, he tells them how families should operate. Chapter 6, verse 1, says, These are the statutes and judgments which the Eternal your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you're crossing over to possess. So he tells them, Obey them now, but when you get over into that land, this is how you're going to need to live.

That you may fear the Eternal your God to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, from generation to generation. You do it. You teach them how to do it. They'll teach their sons how to do it. Do that all the days of your life, that your days may be prolonged. So that when you go over into that land, it's going to continue to be well with you, and your society will survive and thrive.

Therefore, hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Eternal your God of your fathers has promised you. A land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel, the Eternal our God, he is one. You shall love him with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.

Teach them, he says, diligently to your children. Talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. Make them part of your everyday life, not just something you talk about on Friday evening or when you come to Sabbath services. Make it part of what you are and what your family life is. Teach it, just like we might teach math in school, and every day kids go to school and they learn reading and writing and arithmetic.

Every day we should be knowing that God is the most important part of our lives, and teaching those things, and our families become very versed with that. And just see that as a way of life as they are growing up. Bind them, he says, as a sign on your hand and there will be a front-less between your eyes. Let them guide everything you do. When you think of it, filter everything through God's laws and the direction that He has put you in.

Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Let them be a key component of everything you do, because it is the most important thing you do. And Moses says, and God says, if you do that, your children will do the same thing. They will rise up and they will teach their children. And so you can see how strong family units should pass on from one generation to another. And God's way is preserved. And God promises, if you do these things, the result of doing those things will be strong nations.

If you fail to do those things, if you stop doing them, the end result is failed nations. Nations that fall apart, families that fall apart. It's not that God does anything. It's our actions result in those problems that we have. God just lets us reap what we sow. If we sow what He says, the blessings will automatically occur. But if we stop doing it, everyone, things will begin to fall apart.

Let's turn over to Isaiah. Isaiah 3. We have an interesting chapter here of what is befalling Jerusalem. And as we read through the first several verses here, think about how we'll talk a little bit about what happened to get Jerusalem and Judah to this point. But think about what's happening in our society today. In 1st 1 of chapter 3, Isaiah says, The eternal of hosts takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stock and the store, the whole supply of bread, and the whole supply of water. Everything begins to crumble. A nation that was once rich with all these things all of a sudden begins to have economic problems.

No longer everything that they expected to have was there. The stock and store begins to disappear. The whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water. No longer as plentiful as it once was. The mighty man and the man of war, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder, they begin to disappear from the land.

The wise people that were there leading it, all of a sudden there's a dearth of leadership in the land. And the people that you could use to look to that would be able to kind of guide a nation through some things are no longer there. The captain of 50, and the honorable man, the counselor in the skill for artisan, and the expert in chanter. All gone. All of a sudden you look around and you say, where's the leadership?

Where's the one who can lead us? Where's the one who has the strength and who seems to have the vision that can pull us out of where we're going? And as they looked at Judah and Jerusalem, there was just no one. No one seems to be the answer. Economy was beginning to falter, and leadership was beginning to falter as well, and there was just no one you could look to and say, He has what it takes to lead us out of this mess. But as Judah and Jerusalem began to fall away from living God's way of life, the end result of what they did resulted in the things that we see here in the first three verses.

In verse 4, it says, I'll give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. There's no leader. There's no natural leader that's out there that everyone looks to and says, this is him, so babes will lead them. Now, Barnes' commentary says this about verse 4, Children are not necessarily children, but they represent immature people, people that haven't progressed to the state of maturity. So we may be 55, 60, 40, 30, 21. We may have the age in years, but do we have the maturity?

And what he's saying here is, immature people will be their leaders. People that aren't seasoned, people that don't have the background to do those things. I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. And when immature people are leading a land, in verse 5, it says, the people will be oppressed, every one by another and every one by his neighbor. The child will be insolent toward the elder, and the base, or the dishonorable person, will be insolent toward the honorable.

All of a sudden you have a society that's no longer living by the principles of God, but you have things turned upside down. Now let me read this from a commentary from a psychologist about immaturity. It says, immaturity is a direct result of not honoring parents. So this was a Christian psychologist. People of this mindset have a hard time cooperating because their minds are filled with insecurities. They feel they're being taken advantage of, or they feel driven to compete in everything.

As they age, they feel put upon, and thus become quite defensive. Because such children were not made to respect their parents, they grow up not understanding what truly works. So they lack wisdom. This failure reveals itself in self-will and self-indulgence that can be taken to the point of sheer rebellion. Safeguarding the family and building the family unit is key to a strong society. Strong families build strong people.

And as we look around, you know, society, we see some of those elements of immaturity. People that didn't develop over the course of their life with the proper training what wisdom is and what works. And too many times, the mark of that person was they resisted authority. They weren't made to pay attention to what was going on. They weren't made to understand that there are people when you're younger that have answers, and that you would be well to listen to them. And so when they grow up, they're insecure, and they just reject everyone and think they have all the answers, or they're combative and defensive and always in a competition mode. They don't trust because they weren't taught that in the early age. And when that becomes a nationwide or a societal norm, the nation's got problems because there's no one to lead. There's no one to look to. And as we look at America, we can begin to see what the result of the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s were. When we live in a land where today we say children are equal to their parents. Your children don't like what you do. They can report it to a school authority and have you arrested. They don't like your mode of discipline. They can run and tell someone. And is the authority going to side with them, or are they going to side with you? More often than not, children are their oppressors. Children have been elevated to a stance that is just not right. Now, this is not, you know, I know there's situations of abuse that have occurred, but we live in a society that's upside down, where children are no longer being taught, because even in the schools they're told, if something happens at home, tell someone.

God is pretty serious about this commandment. He wanted, at the base of the education, honor your father and mother. Learn to respect elders. Learn to do to have that as part of your life. Let's look at a couple verses over here to show just how serious God was about this in Proverbs. In Proverbs 20... Oh, wait, you know what? Stay there in Isaiah 3. I didn't finish what I was talking about there. Let's go back to Isaiah 3.

We've gone down through verse 5. Let's read through verse 6. And again, see the results of a society that has gone away from what God had intended it to live by. Verse 6, it says, When a man takes hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying, You have clothing, you be our ruler. Hey, you seem to have things going on. Why don't you lead us? And let these ruins be under your power. We've got a mess on our hands. Hey, you take it and do it. And we'll protest, saying, I can't cure your ills, for in my house is neither food nor clothing. Don't make me a ruler of the people. So you find a land where it's like, okay, you look like you know what you're doing. You come in and you lead us. No, I don't want to do that. I've got enough problems. I don't need to. I need to take more on... For Jerusalem stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because their tongue and their doings are against God. What they did was different than what God instructed them to do. To provoke the eyes of His glory. The look on their countenance witnesses against them. You can just look at them, and you can see there isn't. There isn't the attention that God would have... that we would have if we were obeying God. The look on their countenance witnesses against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom. They don't hide it. Woe to their soul, for they have brought evil upon themselves. When we sin, when we depart from God, we bring the evil on ourselves. It's just a law of nature. You follow what God says, good things result. You depart from it, the opposite results.

Verse 12... let's read verse 10 and 11 as well. Where they say to the righteous, it will be well with them, because they're doing what they should be, and they will eat to the fruit of their doings. Woe to the wicked, it will be ill with them, for the reward of His hands shall be given Him. You reap what you sow. As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, those who lead you cause you to err and destroy the way of your paths.

Now let's turn back to Proverbs. Proverbs 20. Proverbs 20.

And God said, honor your father and mother, and He put that as the transition, the transition commandment between what we do to worship God and how we love one another, as we learned in the last six commandments. Proverbs 20 verse 20 says this...

No curses. Disrespects them, mocks them, makes light of them. Over in chapter 30, he's a little more poignant.

And the words that are used there, chapter 30 and verse 17, says...

Pretty stern words. God was serious about what was to go on in the families of Israel. When He put them in the land, He wanted them to be there forever. He wanted eternity to be there. He wanted to give them all the things that they wanted. But if we want what God has to offer, we have to follow the principles that He commands. Let's go back to Deuteronomy 21.

Deuteronomy 21 and verse 18.

Here's what He says to Israel...

God was serious about what we learn. He was serious about this commandment. Even where children are concerned, that if they would not obey, stone them with stones. And He says, so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear.

He was serious. Because this commandment carries a lot of weight. If children don't respect or honor their parents, they're not going to respect and honor teachers when they go to school. They haven't learned that. They're not going to respect the laws of the land, because they haven't learned that. Most importantly, if they haven't learned to honor Mom and Dad, how are they going to honor God, who's our ultimate authority?

And if we can't teach our children to honor God, how have we failed them?

So God said, it begins at home. Teach the respect and authority at home, and that flows out for the rest of their lives, and you have a strong society. Because if we can't respect God, if we haven't given our children that gift, that they respect authority, and that they respect and honor God, then we have cheated them in a way that is just awful and unthinkable. Well, let's go back. We can see, I hope you see, how wide-ranging this commandment is, and how it has impact beyond just our individual families and just us. It affects the whole nation. It affects everything that we do. And God put it there at the beginning that people would teach their children, and that that would be a cornerstone of a successful family and a successful nation. Let's go back and think about the commandment. You can turn back to Exodus 20 if you want, in verse 12. But there it says, Honor your father and mother.

The word honor comes from the Hebrew word kabod. K-a-b-o-d. And the Hebrew word kabod indicates heaviness or a weight. Now, when you first hear that, it kind of is like, what does that mean? But as you read through the commentaries and see how the Hebrew word was used, it means that honor was something where you attach great weight or great importance to someone. And so the commentaries say honor is exactly the right word to have it translated into the English language. Today we might say that that person carries a lot of weight. You know, we work in companies, and the president of the company, you know, what he says, goes. Someone might say he carries a lot of weight. What he says, we're going to abide by. So we'll honor your father and mother, and it encompasses many things. We're going to see that this commandment is for all of us. Whether we're very young, whether our parents are still alive, or whether our parents are dead, this is a commandment we keep the rest of our lives. It doesn't go away when we turn 18. It doesn't go away when we get married and have a family of our own. It doesn't go away when our parents die. We honor our mother and father as the basis of who we are for the rest of our lives. Let's look at the first part of honor, and that would be obey. Well, before I even go there, let me back up a minute. You notice in the commandment that there's no conditions on it. It says, and say, honor your mother and father if they follow God. Honor your mother and father if they were good providers. Honor your mother and father if they did everything right. It just simply says, honor your father and mother, that your days may be prolonged to the land God is giving you. No conditions. Whether your parents were the best parents on earth, or whether they were the worst parents on earth, God says there's a principle, honor your mother and father. Hold them in a deep respect. And that's tough to do sometimes, isn't it? No parent is perfect. Look around and see young children, and I can think back to the times when I would be not happy with the decision my mom, or more importantly, or more likely my dad made. And I can think back on some things that, you know, I could go back to instances in my life when I was very young, and I realized that what happened at that time was wrong. But I've also, you know, realized my part in it, and I also realize that regardless of it, you honor your mother and father, because we all make mistakes. There isn't a perfect parent on earth. But God says, regardless of it, honor them, because there's a timeless principle involved there. When we're young, and when we're at home, we obey. Turn with me back to Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6 and verse 1.

Paul writes, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Part of learning to honor and respect is obey when you're young. Obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth. And then he gives some commands to fathers. Don't provoke your children. Don't bring them to wrath. But bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. Bring them up to respect God.

Bring them up that they understand His way of life. But the first principle is obey. So children, teens, the Bible commands you obey. Now it also commands, and you're fortunate that your parents are in the church. You obey your parents, but you obey God more than them. If your parents tell you to do something that's contrary to God's law, you obey God first. In the church, you shouldn't have that problem. You obey your parents. It's the same law that we apply in society. We obey the laws. We're law-abiding citizens. If the law of the land is such, we do it. But if it's contrary to what God says, we obey Him first. There may come a time, sometime in our lifetimes or beyond that, where the law of the land is another day of the week becomes the Sabbath. And anyone that doesn't keep that day holy will not be able to buy or sell, not be able to work. What do we do? We respect the authority that made that law, but we obey God first, and we don't ever depart from His law, even when it's to our own personal hurt. Honor your father and mother. Obey them.

But we grow up, and we become adults, and we have families of our own. And if our parents have done a good job, we have a good foundation on which to build, and we train our families from the same principles that they trained us.

I was fortunate that my parents were in the church for most of my younger life, so it was an easy transition. I appreciate that as you come into the church as an adult, it's different, and you have a lot to unlearn of what your parents did, and you learn to train your children the way God said. Your parents may disagree. Your parents who aren't in the church may disagree with what you're doing. They may not even begin to understand why you would take your children out of school for parties that everyone else seems to have so much fun with. They do not understand why you would deny your children what all society thinks is so great for kids. But you do it anyway. Because you obey God, and because you follow Him. And as we grow older, obedience gives way to what honor is, and the rest of our lives we honor our parents in the way that this commandment is talking about. Because if the commandment was for us for children, it would say, obey your parents. But it says, honor your mother and father. What are some of the things that we do if we honor our parents when we're older? We still hold them in deep respect, right? We would never talk down against them. We wouldn't talk against them. We wouldn't minimize them with other people. We wouldn't castigate them in front of the others. And when they speak, we listen, and we have the appropriate demeanor. We love them unconditionally. Christ loves us unconditionally. So regardless of whether they're in the church, whether we judge them as a good parent or not, we love them unconditionally because that's part of who we are and what God commands us to do. Love your neighbor as yourself. He doesn't say, only love those who treat you well. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love them unconditionally. Christ died for all our sins. He loved us all unconditionally. He came to earth. He suffered. He died. He was resurrected that we might have life. And He didn't put a condition on it. When He died, well, this is only for people who do this and that. It was for everyone. And then, when we have the call, when we receive His Holy Spirit, or when He calls us, we choose to follow Him.

And we live the life He called us to. Love them unconditionally.

Another thing we do as we get older is we're there for our parents. One of the ways we honor them is we're there when they need us.

He's right to remember parents' anniversaries. Right to remember some of these special occasions in their life. It's good to share the good times with them. It's also very important to be there when the times aren't so good. And I know many of you, as I look around, have done an excellent job in honoring your parents as they have grown older. And as they've gotten sick and as they haven't been able to take care of themselves, you've done a great job and set a great example of how being there for your parents is. And that's honoring them. Take care of them and be there when they need you to be there. Let's turn it over to Matthew 15.

As Christ is in Jerusalem one day, He encounters the Pharisees. And as usual, they had something that they were going to chastise Him about. In chapter 15 of Matthew, verse 1, it says, The scribes and the Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they don't wash their hands when they eat bread. So they kind of watched how they were washing up, decided, You know what? They didn't follow the way that we should wash. They understand that it was not just washing your hands, but washing all the way up to your elbows, some commentaries say. And when they looked at Christ, they said, How come your disciples didn't do that? They wanted to nail Him on something for that. And Christ answered and said to them, Why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honor your father and your mother, and he who curses father or mother, let him be put to death. Well, I'm sure He had their attention at that point. He goes on to say, But you say, Whoever says to his father or mother, whatever prophet you might have received from me is a gift to God.

What they were saying is, Well, you may need this, but you know what? It's more important for me to give it to God than to give it to you. You have a need, but I want to give it to God. So He says, You're saying, Whatever prophet you might have received from me is a gift to God, then he need not honor his father or mother. And that was the tradition then. Even if your parents are in need, if you want to give it to God, then ignore the commandment. And then Christ says, Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition.

Honor your father and mother. If they have a need, be there for them. If they have a financial need, be there for them. If they need something, give it to them.

It's your responsibility the rest of your life as part of the command, Honor your father and mother.

Families have a responsibility of taking care of one another. You know, in a lot of societies, most societies outside of America, you look at the Japanese, you look at the Chinese, and some of the others, they take good care of their elders. Elders, their parents aren't off living someplace by themselves. They're there where the family can take care of them, and it's just part of life that they grow up expecting that when they have their own family and they're out working, that they're going to be making sure that their parents have what they need as well.

In America, we don't see that as much anymore. With several exceptions, many people do do that, and I know a number of here in this room do. But when you look at society, we have a tremendous business in the nursing home business, where when someone gets old and they can't take care of themselves, you know, just dump them in the nursing home. And there are some cases where those type homes are good because of the medical needs are so significant that they need to be taken care of more than we can.

But to the extent that we can help, you know, let's help. Let's honor our parents by giving them what they need and doing what they need. And if they need to go into a home like that, visit. You know, I remember going with my father. I had an uncle who never got married and never had a family, and he got sick and he had to be in a nursing home.

But even as a teenager, when we would go there, it struck me just as an awful situation because my dad would go there and visit him regularly, but not many other people would. And he was in the room with another man, and literally that man hadn't seen anyone when we would go there for weeks and weeks. It was just he was abandoned. And I remember thinking as, you know, 12 and 13 years old, how awful that must be to just be put someplace and no one ever comes to visit you.

No family was ever there for them. So even in the situations where we need to do it, visit. Make sure you're there for them because it makes it. And like I said, everyone in this room I know has been in this situation, or the people that have, have done a very good job and that they have honored.

And I think we've had some very good examples, you know, here in this church of how you do that as your parents grow older. But be there for them. Over in John 19, you know, Christ showed even as a man who was 33 years old, who was here for a purpose that, you know, for all of us. And as he was hanging, as he was on the cross, as he was dying, he set us a very good example that this commandment never, this commandment never stops being in effect for us.

John 19, verse 25. And there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. And Jesus in all his agony, Jesus as he was standing there close to death, saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved, the Apostle John, standing by. And he said to his mother, Woman, behold your son. And he said to the disciple, behold your mother. And from that hour, that disciple took her to his own home. Even in his dying hours, in agony, with the weight of all the sins of the world on him that he was going to pay for, he remembered, I'm leaving a mother.

And he wanted to make sure she was taken care of. And he looked at John and said, You take care of her. And he told Mary, I'm not going to be here physically. John will be your son.

John will look after you. And they did it. What a tremendous example Christ left us, that we never, ever, ever forget to honor our mother and father. To remember them and to make sure that what they need, to the extent that we can, we give them. It's a timeless principle that through successful societies, it's just there. One other thing that we can do if we honor our mothers and fathers is to forgive. To forgive them.

I don't think any of us in this room, at least I hope not, have endured a situation with a parent where they have been so totally abusive or the type of things that you see on TV. And the things that you see on TV are horrendous.

How parents can turn on their children and how children can turn on their parents as well. But we all have things from our childhood that we remember. We all have scars. I look at two of my kids and I know they have scars because I wasn't a perfect parent. But you know, we forgive. We forgive. I was going to look up the statistic, and I didn't remember to do it. But of all the psychiatrists and all the psychologists that are there on every corner in America, it seems like these days, I would say the majority of the people who are in those couches or in those seats, day in and day out, are there because of some issues that they have from childhood.

And they just can't let go of them. And if we don't let go of some of those issues, it kidnaps our lives. We never can become who God wanted us to become or even who our parents wanted us to become. If there's lingering issues, forgive. Even if your parents are dead, forgive them. Let God give you the release. Let God give you the ability to honor them even when they are no longer with us. Take it to Him. Acknowledge that there were problems.

And ask Him to forgive. And ask Him to let you forgive them so that you can get on with your life. Honor your parents in that way. Back in Matthew 6.

Matthew 6 and verse 14. Christ says, If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. If you forgive them, He'll forgive you. But if you don't forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Forgive. He doesn't say forgive everyone but your parents. Forgive everyone. Let God release you from that thing that's holding you back. Let God release your emotions so that you can experience the joy that He wanted us all to have, the peace that He all wanted us all to have. It comes if we obey this commandment. Honor your Father and Mother. Here's what some of the benefits of forgiveness are, according to the Mayo Clinic Health website. When we let go of grudges and bitterness, and we forgive others, it can lead to healthier relationships. We all want healthier relationships. We want a healthy relationship with God. Forgive. It gives us greater spiritual and psychological well-being. It results in less anxiety, stress, and hostility. You can enjoy life, and you can focus on what you're doing. There's a physical benefit, lower blood pressure, fewer symptoms of depression, lower risk of alcohol and substance abuse. And the website goes on and on and on. All these things may have their root in just forgiving and then honoring our parents because of the position that God gave them. Let me read another quote here from a Christian psychologist. His name is Mark Rucker. He writes, The moral and religious weight of parents lies fundamentally in the person and position. It was never dependent on their practical ability and performance. Never dependent on that. Just simply the fact that they had that position, God says, honor them. If we do it, it will be well with us. If all of society did it, it would be well with society. But among God's people, this commandment was given to us because He wanted us to have peace. Remember in John 14, Christ said, My peace I leave with you. Be at peace with it. Ask God to help you keep this commandment, no matter what age you are, because as long as we live, it applies to every single one of us. And will apply to us for every day the rest of our lives. Let's go back and read the commandment one more time. This time let's read it in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 5 and verse 16. Honor your father and your mother, as the eternal your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which He is giving you.

Let's honor our father and mother, and honor God as well.