Honor Your Father and Mother, Part 2

If you're a child sitting here today, or a teenager, and I don't care whether you're 5 years old, or 8 years old, or 12 years old, or 17 years old, I want to tell you something. So, I want you to listen to what I'm about to say next. I don't care what your age is, but if you're under the age of 19, I want you to listen what I'm about to say. God wants to give you a blessing. Now, think about that for a minute. God wants to give you a blessing. He wants to give my mom and dad. No, no. He wants to give you a blessing. He wants to make you have a happier life. So, He wants to make you have a happier life. Now, do you want that blessing? Oh, you can actually answer that, because the blessing has a requirement. Just go to Ephesians 6. A couple weeks ago, I gave a sermon on the fifth commandment, and on how parents can teach honor to children. Today, I'm going to talk about how children honor parents. How do children honor parents? This will help us as parents and grandparents, too, in teaching our children honor, because this is something that is learned. Honor is learned. So, how to honor your parents must be very important. It's one of the ten commandments. But when you really understand what it is, you realize that it creates part of the foundation of what makes any society work. Ephesians 6, verse 1. We read this last time. I'm going to read it again, because here is where this commandment is quoted in the New Testament. Children, 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 you may live long on the earth.

The commandment is to honor your mother and your father so it may be well with you. In other words, it will be good for you. So it is good for you, according to God, to honor your parents. Now, what does that mean? Remember when I talked about how parents teach honor? We have never said what the word honor means. It means to hold in high respect.

It means that when you honor something, you say this has value to me.

So if I offered you a gold coin, a coin made of copper, which one would you honor the most?

The one that has more value. So what we're talking about here is you have to value your parents. You have to think they're important enough to honor, to pay honor to.

So how do you do that? How do you honor parents? Well, we're going to look at three ways that teenagers and children can honor parents. And then, at the end of the sermon, I'm going to give you some specific things you can do. No matter what your age is, I'm going to give you some specific things you can do. The first thing is mentioned. This is the first one you honor your parents. So as parents, we need to help them understand this. They honor us by obeying us. You honor your parents by obeying your parents. Now, let me give you a little secret. Your parents do not want to ruin your life.

They are not trying to make you obey them because they're trying to make you unhappy. I suppose there are... you might find somebody that makes the children obey them simply because they're slipping out of power freaks. But most parents, and your parents, are doing it for that reason. They're doing it because they're trying to teach you a better way than the way you're going.

At some point, when all human beings have to figure out, other people sometimes know more about how life works than me. And that's especially true as a child. They know how things work, that you don't. And they're trying to teach you to have a better life. Proverbs, chapter 1. So obeying your parents is good for you. It is a happy thing.

It may not seem like it at first, but it will make you happier. It will give you a better life. Proverbs 1, verse 8. Solomon wrote, My son, hear the instruction of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother. For they will be a graceful ornament on your head and chains around your neck. Now what that means is, when you listen to your parents and you do what they say, it's like having... Okay? If your girl is like having a beautiful necklace and beautiful rings. It's like having the best clothes. It's like owning something special. Because that's what you become when you honor your parents, when you obey your parents. You say, okay, it wasn't you obeying my parents. I don't always like obeying my parents. No, that's not what it says. It says, do it. You know, if it was easy, you wouldn't say do it. You would just do it automatically. There's no command in the Bible that says, eat ice cream.

It's not fair, you know why? You're not going to do that.

Honor your parents has to be a command because children naturally think, but that's not what I want to do.

So, the Bible tells us, if you do this, you're happier. Solomon says, if you do this, it's like owning a bunch of real expensive stuff. It's good for you. It's good for you to do this. Now, honoring your parents by obeying them means this. This is real important. It means listening to your parents and doing the instructions the way they say.

Listening to your parents and doing it the way they say to do it.

This means that cleaning your room, doing your chores, picking up your toys, coming home when you say you will be home, being where you're supposed to be when you say you're supposed to be is honoring your parents. You could say, I know, I told you I'd be at band practice, but Jenny invited me over the house and a bunch of your other girls were going over the house, so, you know, band practice was short. They ended in an early start. I went over a house, we went over there, and then Bob showed up with a car, so we all went to the Dairy Queen, and I ain't going to remember how late you don't know I am, but I'm at the Dairy Queen. And then you get where your parents are all upset. The point is, if you honor them, you would have called them. There were specific instructions on where to be and what time to be. You see, this isn't important. I know people who are 35 years old that can't hold down a job because they didn't learn to be where they're supposed to be and be on time and be responsible for what they're doing. What they're teaching you will actually help you, your whole life.

Halfway obedience is not obedience. Pick up. I want you to pick up your room. No, stuff's all over the place. So, Bob shuts the door and leaves. And you're 10 years old, it's like, and this is really hard for a guy, I have to admit, because when you're a 10-year-old boy, his mom walks out the door and you look and here's your Star Wars toys. You start to pick them up and then guess what you do? And pretty soon, you forget. And then you hear the door knob turn and you panic. Oh, no! Right? I understand. But this is discipline. And boys who are in discipline, it takes a long time for boys who are in discipline. And girls, too. But especially guys, because we tend to live so much in the moment at that age. In the moment, we still do that as men sometimes, we just live in the moment. And in that moment, we forget what we're supposed to do. Or what you do is say, oh, no, I've been fooling around. She's going to come in, so you just shove everything under the bed. I remember my son doing that. One time, my wife came out all upset. She said, Gary, there's like four pieces of old pizza under there. You throw the bed. There, it's clean. Honoring your mother and your father is doing what they said in the way that they said it. You say, well, I'm tired of that. I can't wait to get out of here because no one will tell me what to do in the way that they want to do it. Then you better, well, you can't even get a job at McDonald's. You better be good enough to own your own business, because you'll go out of business because you don't have the discipline to work. I can remember my dad pushing me. We sanded floors. Pushed me, pushed me, pushed me, pushed me all the time during the summer. We sanded floors and we helped, painted houses. One day, he said, Gary, I have to go do another job. I want you to varnish this floor. And he left. Yes! I couldn't. When he showed up, exactly what he should be done, I was just finishing it. He said, good job. He was like, but I was going to take the afters off. I must have been out of 16, 17 years. I was like, yeah, I should have gone off. I couldn't. Why couldn't I do it? Because of what he taught me to do. I didn't want to do it all the time. But after that, I realized this is how you keep a job. This is how you keep a job. So when you do things halfway, that's not obeying. That's actually dishonoring your parents. Now we look at a family who are mentioned in the Bible only because they honored their families. For generation after generation, the children honored the parents. They honored the parents, the grandparents, the great-grandparents. And that's the only reason they're mentioned in the Bible. Let's go to Jeremiah 35. Now, Jeremiah was sent to Judah to tell them to repent. And now Jeremiah is asked to do something rather strange. Okay, this seems strange. Jeremiah 35. Verse 1.

Now, they asked to be one of the strangest things the prophet was ever asked to do. I want you to go get this family over here. I want you to invite them to the temple. I want you to take them into one of the big rooms on the side of the temple, send them all down, and bring out some of the best wine in the temple and serve them wine. What? So Jeremiah does it. He contacts the family, and all the men come in, and they sit around, and he serves them the best wine. Verse 5. He says, Jeremiah says, Then I said, before the sons of the house of the Rec. of Bites, bowls filled with wine and cups, and I said, drink wine. The Lord has asked you to come here and have a drink. Big bowls of wine, and everybody had cups of wine, and when you get faced with that, you can have another cup of wine. But they said, We will drink no wine. For John of Dab, the son of Rekaba, our father, commanded us, saying, You shall drink no wine, you know your sons forever. You shall not build a house, so steep, planted, vineyard, nor have any of these. But all your days you shall dwell in tents, that you may live many days in the land where you are soldiers. Thus we have obeyed the voice of John of Dab, the son of Rekaba, our father, and all that he charges to drink. No wine, all our days. We and our wives and our sons and our daughters, who are to build ourselves houses to dwell in. For tents, so we have dwelt in tents. But here's what their great ancestor had told them to do. He said, It's best for our family to be novans. Let's not live in the cities. Let's just take our cattle, let's just take our flocks, and we'll be novans. We live in tents, which is a better way to live. We don't want to live in the cities. We don't want to be farmers. This is the best way to live. But we're not going to drink wine. People in the cities drink wine. I embellish it a little bit, but why would he tell us not to drink wine? Because obviously, he and his team people get drunk. Right? So I've got a better way of life for you. And what we're going to do is we're going to be good herders of cattle and sheep. And that's what they did. Generation after generation taught their children.

Now, this wasn't a command from God. It was something in their family. And so they passed it on. You see that in businesses sometimes. You see that in farms, right? You'll see a father, teach his son, teach his son, and they'll work that land. And that's their land. And they're attached to that land. Well, he didn't want his children attached to land because they would have been the cities.

So they were nomadic. They moved around living in tents. And they raised, you know, when they traded for food, they raised their cattle, their sheep, and nobody drank wine. They just stayed away from alcohol.

Now, why did God take the Recovites and bring them in?

You know, all of Jerusalem had to be saying, where do those people go out into the Temple for? I mean, Jeremiah, the famous prophet, who was invited and into the Temple, and they're all meeting with him in a private room. And then it gets out, you know, one of the people attended to work at the Temple, and he goes, it's the strangest thing. He just brought a gallon of wine.

So this would have got out all over, okay? This would have been a big event as people saw this happen. This little baddie tribe come into town.

And everybody had seen him. Verse 12, They gave him the word of the Lord to Jeremiah, saying, Oh, by the way, one of the reasons they did this, as you read the passage, is because they saw that when Nebuchadnezzar came in and when Judah was always invaded because God wasn't with them anymore, they always attacked the cities.

So if the Rekabites decided, it's better us to prove to you that nomads, the armies of the avoid nomadic tribe, we don't buy glass for a bunch of nomads.

So there was nothing to their madness here. And this would have been passed off from generous to generous. Verse 12, They gave the word of the Lord to Jeremiah, saying, That says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Go and tell them in of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Who do not receive instruction to obey my words, says the Lord. The words of Johnadam, the son of Rekab, which he commanded his sons not to drink wine, Are performed to this day, they drink none, And they obey their fathers' commandments. But although I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, You do not obey me. Because they said, you prophets, I have spoken to you, And here is a group of people that obey their fathers generation after generation after generation.

They are nomads, they cause nobody any trouble, and they don't drink wine. And he uses them as a positive example. The Rekabites are already mentioned because of this example. Otherwise, we wouldn't know if this little nomadic clan within it, You know, there is rights within Israel floating around. We don't think about the Rekabites. Except they are mentioned here because they listen to their fathers.

And you won't even listen to me. If you read the rest of the story, In fact, if you go down to verse 16. Jeremiah said to the house of the Rekabites, That says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. Because you have obeyed the commandments of John the Dan, your father, And kept all his precepts, and done according to all he commanded you. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, John the Dan, the son of Rekab, shall not lack a man to stand before thee forever.

There is a Rekabite alive somewhere today. That family has been protected by God. They've never been wiped out. There is always a man to stand before God. Why? Because for these generations, They simply followed the instructions of their fathers. Interesting, isn't it? That's the reason we're reaching here. That shows you how important it is for children to obey their parents.

How important that is to God. And you might say, well, yeah, okay. But my parents make mistakes. I see my parents make mistakes. I see them lose their temper. I see them use a swear word. I see them do this. I see them do that. I see them make bad decisions.

It doesn't say, honor your parents if they're perfect. You notice, that's not what the commandment is. The commandment is to honor your father and your mother. Now, there's a whole other issue that comes up here, and it's not what we're going to cover today, that has to do with honoring parents who have abused you. That's a whole other subject to work through. But interesting enough, even if you are estranged from a parent, and you can't have a relationship with a parent because of abuse, there are certain little acts of honor you can do that will help your children honor.

I noticed situations of someone who was abused, terribly abused, as a child. Could not have a relationship with, say, a father or a mother because of it. And they couldn't keep their children there because the children would be abused. But every Father's Day, they sent a card. They didn't say, I love you, I miss you. They said something like, thank you for bringing me into this world. They said, well, why would they do that?

For one thing, they received a blessing for doing it. They honored their parents, but their children saw that too. So that's a whole different subject, and that's very difficult. But that's not what most people deal with. What we deal with are just imperfect parents. But let's look at a situation in the Bible where someone had to deal with imperfect parents.

I won't ask you how many of you think your parents are imperfect. Okay, I want to ask you to raise your hands. Luke 2. Now, I want you to...some of the younger kids really...this one. In fact, my next two examples are really about younger kids. Luke 2. Verse 40. And the child. Now, who is the child here? Anybody know? Jesus. So Jesus grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.

And his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. Now, when he was 12 years old, okay, 12 years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the Feast. And when they had finished the days, so they went up, the Passover, they would have stayed just during the days of the 11 bread, they returned. So they go back home after the days of the 11 bread.

The boy Jesus lakored behind in Jerusalem. And Joseph and his mother did not know it. Now, they would have gone to Jerusalem probably with lots of family and friends because there was a pilgrim event.

So all the people in their neighborhood would have got together that could go that year, and all their family members and friends. And so there was a huge caravan. People going into Jerusalem are going in by the hundreds of thousands to keep the Feast. And so they would have come out with their caravan from their village, and they would have joined the caravans and all these people. So coming back, oh, he's probably with his cousin John. He's with the family, he's with the friends. And everybody trusts and everybody's fine, but Jesus isn't with them.

It says, but suppose again they have been in the company, and they went a day's journey and saw him among their relatives and acquaintances. They traveled the whole day. It's getting to be nighttime. You know, we need to go find Jesus as time to go to bed, right? Well, where is he? They go around, they ask everybody, they're camping, you know, they're on their way. The caravan has stopped, and they can't find him. Now, every parent in this room has faced the point where you lost a kid, and you know the absolute panic they use you. They're absolutely panicked. Now, I want you to think about something. Jesus is the perfect human being. His parents are God. Jesus is the perfect twelve-year-old. There's never been a twelve-year-old like this. His parents were righteous people, but they're not perfect. Now, if you and twelve years old can figure out your parents aren't perfect, and you're not perfect, you think Jesus can figure it out? They weren't perfect, but he is perfect. He's not the perfect adult yet, because he's twelve, but he's the perfect twelve-year-old.

And he's not with them, and they're panicked. So they rush back, this is a big city. Think about this a minute, as an adult. What if your twelve-year-old was missing in Murfreesboro, and you didn't figure it out until you got to Nashville? No, you're in Memphis. You've driven a long way, and you realize you left them.

And you rushed back to the place where you got gas, and he went into the bathroom, and you forgot. And he's not there. And at some point in this city, Jerusalem wasn't a little town, a big city. He's lost. He's not there. They rush back, and they get to Jerusalem. Verse 45 says, So when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking him. Now, so it was that after three days, they're looking for him. They're panning. Nobody's sleeping tonight. Joseph of Mary's crying. He's ringing his head. They're just panicked.

They're worried. They're upset. Their twelve-year-old boy is lost in a huge city. And they can't find him. Will he kidnap? Will he kill? Could someone take him, and seek him off, and sell him to one of the Arab tribes as a slave? What happened to their boy? And you know what? They knew he was not normal. They knew he was the son of God. Right? His conception was not normal.

And angels told them, This is not your child. This is God's child. They lost the Messiah. I mean, that's going to be hard, too. You know? We lost the Messiah. Now, it was after three days, they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. They found him in the temple with the greatest teachers of the Bible alive, having conversations. And they weren't saying, Where's your parents?

He was so engaging, that they were having discussions with a 12-year-old. Now, Mary and Joseph walk into this situation. You can imagine what they did. Come here, young man. You had your mother. Your mother hasn't slept for three days. We've been worried sick about you. Why did you do this to us? You know? Uncle Joseph almost had a heart attack. There have been lots of Josephs in the family, by the way. Why did you do this? Verse 47 says, All who heard it were astonished at his understanding and answers.

But when they saw him, they were amazed. His mother said to him, Son, why have you done this to us? Right? Isn't that what a mother would say? You know what you did to me? You know what I've been through? We thought we would just find you. Oh, yeah, he was the guy who took him off to the summit in Egypt.

Look, your father and I have sought you anxiously. And those were what Jesus said to them. Why did you speak me? Did you not know that I must be in all my father's business? This is the perfect 12 year old. For us, what's you doing what God wants you to do? Now you say, well, that's dishonoring his mother and father. Well, it wouldn't be except for the next statement.

But they did not understand the statements which he spoke to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth and were subject to them. But his mother kept all these things in her heart.

What did the perfect 12 year old do? Obeyed his imperfect mom and dad. So you can never use their imperfect as an excuse. Because Jesus didn't. So that excuse doesn't work. Jesus followed his imperfect parents who did not understand what he was doing. So sorry, I tried that one when I was young. It doesn't work.

They're doing the best they can. Now, the second way you honor your parents is by doing what is right, even when they aren't around. Now, this really comes down to the context of honor. If you honor, if you value your parents and what they teach you, you will value yourself.

You know, many things that people do to themselves are so disruptive. They use drugs. They drink too much. They party. They commit crimes because they do not value themselves. I have no value, so it doesn't matter. If you honor your parents because they are honoring God, you begin to become a person of honor. Do you honor your parents? Do you value? This is an interesting question. What do you really think about this? Do you value your parents more than your friends?

Because if you do what your friends say about your parents, then you have to admit. You have to be honest. Yes, my friends are more important. Do you value money more than parents? Do you value being popular more than parents? These are real questions you have to ask and you have to be able to face. Or do you value that they will help you be a valuable person? By honoring them, you become an honorable person. Now, let me explain something that's very important. And I don't care whether you're eight years old. This is important. When things are bad between your mom and dad, you believe you don't have the right not to do what they say.

If you're tired, if you're hungry, if something bad has happened to you, and you're having a problem with who you are with, and you're having a problem with your mom and dad, you emotionally believe that you would have to do what they tell you. It is a weird aspect of human nature. But you know something else? We treat God that way. As adults, we even do that.

God didn't do in my life what I wanted. Therefore, I'm not going to do what He wants. I did that new job. God didn't give it to me. I'm still out of a job now because I keep the Sabbath. Therefore, I'll show God. I'll break the Sabbath. I'll show Him where He owns the Sabbath. I think my son would... I'll never forget. He was mad at me for something. We're driving along in the car, and then he says, I'm showing you... He's the maxiad. How old was he? Can't be a river. I don't know. Eight, nine, ten. I'm showing you I'm not wearing my seatbelt.

I said, boy, don't you realize if I jam on the brakes and you don't have your seatbelt on, I'm going to watch you fly by as you go through the front window.

So who's going to hurt more here? You can hear a click. Think about this. I'm going to hurt you by hurting me. But that's the way the child thinks. But it's the way we treat God. This is a fascinating story to me in 2 Kings, because there's somebody in this story we don't recognize much because of the big... There's some huge personalities, important people in this story. 2 Kings, Chapter 5. But there's another person in this story.

We have Elisha, who is the great man of God here. And we have the Amun, who is the general of the Syrian army. Now, you can't get 2 more prominent people here. There's 2 really important people here, and there's a battle of will that takes place, and the Amun has to submit to God. But I'm not going to read the whole story, because I'm only going to read the story, because there's another person here.

Now, the Amun commander of the army of the King of Syria was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master, which was the king of Syria, because by him a ward had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but a leper. And the Syrians had gone out on raids and brought back captains, a young girl for the land of Israel.

She waited on Amun's wife, and she said to her mistress, If only my master were with the prophet who was in Samaria, for he would heal him of his leprosy. And Amun went in and told his master, saying, Thus saith the girl who is for the land of Israel.

Then the king of Syria said, Go, now, and I will send the letter to the king of Israel. So here now we have the Amun, who is probably considered the greatest general of the Middle East at the time. And he has a letter from the king of Syria to the king of Israel, saying, I have sent in my general there.

Now, think about just what this means. If you read through the whole story, it's real complicated. He goes, Oh my! The general showing up, who could kill him, he started a war, but there's this letter from the king of Syria that says, Please, I know we've been enemies, but please honor my general and let your prophet of Yahweh pray for him. And all stories about the sort of wills between the Amun, he's a very proud man, Elisha, who treats him a certain way, and God heals him. So here we have this whole story that teaches all these lessons.

But God doesn't go through all that. Because it's the person in verses 1 through 4, then we don't think about it. Who is that? Who's the person who went through 4 and didn't even have a name? It's a little girl. You see, the person God uses to set this whole thing up is a little girl. Now, you could say, she could say, I don't have to obey God. Now think about this. Why is she there? Why is she the servant of a general's wife in Syria?

Because the Syrians had raided Israel in kidnaps her. Now she could say, you know what? I would have to obey my parents. Her parents may be dead. I don't have to be God anymore. Look how bad my life is. There's a real important point here. I don't have to be God. Look how bad my life is. That's how much she does. Even when bad things are happening, she maintains a relationship with God. This means you have to do what is right, even when your parents aren't around.

Even when bad things are happening. That is honoring God, and that is honoring your parents. And I tell you what else it is. It's honoring yourself. It's an act of honor. So I find it interesting that this whole story, the one person who doesn't get much press, she's not even mentioned by name, is the person God uses who set the whole thing up.

This little girl, who happens to be kidnapped. I think a little. I don't know how old she is. She may be a young teenager, but she's a girl. And she's not old enough to be considered a maiden, so she's not under mid-teens, probably. She has to be younger than her mid-teens. How it amazes me is that even as a slave, she's so respected because of how she acts, that the wife of the general goes to him and says, this little girl's right. The general goes to the king of Syria.

What is his argument? This little girl taught me this. Can you imagine going to some, you know, the governor of the state or the president of the United States and say, I would like a letter from you to go someplace because the little girl told me this? That's an important little girl. I mean, her impact should be the purpose here. This is important, little people. Okay? This is important because God's point is here, honor me, honor your parents, do what is right, evil when they're not around, and I will take care of you.

That's the point God's making. That's the point of this part of the story. I can say that's the point we never read. One other case here, 2 Timothy 1. What other example I want to use? And I'll give you our third point.

Timothy was a very important minister in the church in the early days of the church, and Paul writes to him a couple of letters. These are personal letters. That's what makes 1 Timothy so interesting. It's that they are personal letters between Paul and this young minister. Those are what it says in 2 Timothy 1, verse 5.

We'll break it in a little bit in a second. He says, But when I call for remembrance, the genuine faith that is in you. So he says to this man, and he's a younger man, but he's a man who's a minister, he says, there's a genuine faith. I remember it. I think about the remarkableness of your faith in God. That is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice, and I am persuaded is it you also. Where did he learn his faith? He didn't come to his dad. Do you know why? His dad was a Greek. His dad worshiped Zeus if he had any religion at all. He might have been a atheist. So where did he learn it? Who did he honor to receive the training that he had? Was it from his grandmother? His mother. You will find throughout the Bible, too, it's not just honoring parents. It's honoring your grandparents and your great-grandparents. It's not family issue. Today we're so cut off from our other generations. This is sad. He got it from his grandmother and his mother. That's who he learned about God from. And there are mentions because of that. Look at chapter 3, verse 15. Once again, he's talking to Timothy, breaking into the middle of a thought. And that from childhood, you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Jesus Christ. He learned the Scriptures as a child. Who taught that to him? Who did he have to honor to learn that? His mother and his grandmother. Now, some of you also have your father around to teach you the Scriptures. You are blessed. That is a blessing to have parents to teach you the Scriptures, because that will have an impact on your life in the future. So you honor your parents by doing what is right, even when they're not around. And then the third point, honor your parents by honoring God. You should pray. In Psalm 106, God listens to your prayers as much as he listens to anybody else's prayers. God listens to our prayers, and God interacts with our prayers. Peter gave a sermon to thousands of people. And when he was done, and it was maybe a Jewish and fossilite group, the fossilites were people who were non-Jewish, who had converted to Judaism. He gives this sermon, and hundreds of people come up to him, and they respond. And I want you to notice what he says in Acts 2. Acts 2. I know this is sort of long to sit through, and ours is a long time for young people to sit and listen to a sermon about them. But this is real important. And what I'm going to say next is very, very important to your life. Acts 2, verse 37. Acts 2, verse 37. So, when they ask Peter what should we do, Peter says, when you accept Jesus Christ as a Messiah, you repent and you turn to God. Be baptized. But then he says, verse 37, he says, Now when they heard this, they were cut in the heart. People listened to the truth given by the apostles here in the New Testament, and they espoused the descriptions of the Old Testament. And it said, they cut it in the heart. They wanted to listen. They wanted more. They wanted to respond to God. And he said to Peter, the rest of the apostles, Then, brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, Repent, every one of you, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. It's the next verse that I want you kids to listen to. So, stop for a minute. And if you're color-hanging or whatever you are, stop for a minute. For the promise is to you, as the adults, and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.

Now, you don't have to answer that call. You don't have to take the promise. You don't have to do any of this. And you cannot receive the blessing. You know, I mean, parents can't make children. Once you become adults, you make your own decisions. We can't make you do anything.

But as we try to train you the best we can, God makes you a promise that He will be there for you if you want Him to.

So, understand that.

You're not here because, well, my parents come, so God's service says, well, I'll let you come. I don't want you here, but I want your parents. But you tag along. You smell these little things.

You're here because you're invited by God just as much as anybody else.

Understand it. You are here because you're invited by God just as much as anybody else. Because the promise is made to your parents and to you.

Now, you may not let that promise back up to you.

But, boys, you can wrap your mind around that. God has made a promise to you, and that is, you honor your parents and you honor me, and I will guide your life. That's the promise. You honor me and I will guide your life. There's no greater honor, I can guarantee it, as a parent. There's no greater honor that you can give a parent than honoring God.

That's the greatest honor any parent can receive, is when you honor God. You have a calling from God, and God gave you a command that says, if you do this, you'll be much happier. He'll be well with you. Now, I want to sum up by going through five things that younger children can do to honor parents. Just five simple things, and five things that teenagers can do to honor parents. I can also go through five things we as adults can do to honor parents. We can break this down. To all your parents, it doesn't say, oh, when you reach a certain age, just stop honoring them. That's not what it says. You continue to honor them. You continue to honor. For all you younger kids, to honor your parents, you don't run in church.

You don't create boys in church. Now, every one of us is, I did that as a kid, I understand. But you are just honored, your parents. Because as you do that, guess who everybody looks at? All dead. Now, as parents, we know that. We laugh at each other.

Our kids have done all the same things. So if you're a parent, don't worry. You're kids. But as a kid, you honor your parents when you don't run at church, when you're not noisy at church. Because you're here to honor none. You honor your parents. Every time we have a potluck, and you wait to let older people go first, you honor your parents. Because I'll tell you why. Every time you do something like that, and someone sees it and walks over and says, well, that was good.

That was good. Your parents are honored by your action. These are little things you can do. Every time you open the door for an older person, you show honor to your parents. You honor your parents when you don't interrupt them when they're talking. You know, church, you just do this. Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom. Now, I understand there may be emergencies where Bob needs to listen, you know. Bob, mom, mom, mom, you know. Bobby just took all his clothes off. He was running around through the parking lot, okay?

You don't do that, okay? And you go, I'll just leave you alone, okay? There has to be some communication that says, this is important. Mom, this is important. Now, we do that with our kids, and sometimes they'd say, Mom, Dad, Dad, Dad, is this important? Now, they had to think real, real. Well, because if it's not important, and they say yes, they're in real trouble. No, okay, then you wait. You're interrupting us. Now, you stand right here. I will get to you.

I'm not ignoring you. Okay? You have found you today. Remember to talk about parents. If you stand here, I will get to you in just a moment. Now, if it's important, guess what? If you tell me it's important, I start my conversation with the adults to find out that Bobby's running around in a parking lot. Okay? But when you just interrupt all the time, run around, you know, you are showing dishonor to your parents. So when you're in the grocery store, it's only to sit because you think, well, they won't do anything if they get here. You're dishonoring your parents.

It's dishonor to do that. It is honoring your parents when you simply treat other adults with honor. When you treat other adults with honor, you say hello when you're spoken to. Now, these are just issues of politeness, but they're actually the beginning of honor.

You show honor to others, you receive honor. Because when you walk up and you say something nice to the adult, I don't mean kids have to do it. You see people, I mean, my kids were the personality where, several times I was in a restaurant, and there was a German family and a Jewish family. And all the German kids were, this is the true story, very rigid and eating, and all the Jewish kids were just running around doing those.

And the mother said, why can't I put my kids to do that? And someone said, you'll never get your kids to do that. This is somehow, this is the genetic thing happening over here, and this is genetic thing. I mean, the kids are kids, and they're all different. So I'm not saying that we make them yellow pencils. I'm saying to think about it in terms of these actions in the beginning of the discipline of honor. Honor takes disappointment. And so we teach the little ones these things, and we start to teach them honor.

That you are valuable because you do this, and then they are treated valuable. You know, if a child's standing there being nice, and you look at that child, what's the first thing you say? Hi! And you shake their hand, you show them honor. It's just normal. Now, the child feels honored. Once they start to feel honored, it becomes easier to do this.

Oh, teaching them value. When I come up and have something important to say, and I stand there, and mom or dad says, is this important? And I say, yes. All of you don't stop. Now, if they say, is this important? Well, I want the ball. That's not important. And, nope, you can't interrupt. They learn honor. That, because you know what, it's an adult. I have to do that.

We just don't run up and interrupt each other's conversations. No, I'm sorry. Jump in front of somebody in the middle of a conversation and start talking to this person, ignore that person. We don't do that. Thank you, they should do that, either.

You also, young people, you honor your parents when you don't take or destroy other people's property. Eventually, you have to learn to take care of your property. You start with, you don't take or destroy other people's property. Well, these are just simple things. I can get a list of 50, but there's no simple things. Teenagers, older children, you honor your parents when you fulfill your family obligations by simply doing your chores, taking care of your possessions, taking care of your room.

You begin to honor your parents when you begin to become responsible for what you have, what's around you. You honor your parents when you respond the first time they make a request and they sit and wait until you've been asked half a dozen times. The greatest honor is when they ask you once when you do it. That's the greatest honor. That is the greatest honor that you can give your parents. They ask you once. If they ask you three times, you've already dishonored them.

Even if you do it, you've dishonored them. You honor your parents when you keep your word. If you're going to be home at a certain time and you can't make it, you call them. You keep your word. They trust you. The purpose of parenting is to keep you a child. The purpose of parenting is to make you an adult. We don't want you to have to call us and tell us where you are when you're 28 years old. We don't want that! We want you to become adults, but you have to learn it. Responsibility is earned. It is earned. You can say, I want it, but if you don't deserve it, you shouldn't get it.

You earn it a step at a time. And when you break being responsible, you have to earn it back. That's reality! That's the way it is in the world. That's the way it is in a job. That's the way it is if you want to get through college. That's reality. So, you honor your parents when you become responsible, when you keep your word. You honor your parents when you talk to them in a respectful manner.

I know every house at times there is conflict between child and parent. And sometimes it gets disrespectful on both sides. I understand that. We have emotions. It'd be nice if we didn't. But we do.

So that's reality. As a parent, there's a time you just have to say, look, I'm angry. I shouldn't have said that. You're going to have to give me time. We'll deal with this later. And what they see is, oh, that's what you have to do. Then you have to deal with it. You can't leave it alone. But sometimes as parents, we have to be like, okay, I'm out of control here. You really got me upset.

I'm going to have to think about this. Or, of course, what the weather like to say is, wait, your father gets home. They got the bad guy. And then you simply honor your peers by being honest. You don't have to steal. You don't take what's not yours. These are the simplest steps. These are the very beginning steps of honor. And this is a lot more. God has given you a blessing. You may think, well, I'm only 10.

I'm only 15. God has given you a promise. And there's a blessing attached to the promise. Honor your parents that it may be well with you, that you can have a better life. Honor them and you will have a better life. You will be happier. You will be happier.

I counsel people in their 40s and 50s who are in agony because of a bad relationship with their parents when they were children. And maybe the parents are dead and they can't fix it. We are designed to have a relationship with our parents. And ask anyone who did not have a dad or a mother, or ask anyone whose parents are estranged, or anyone who just their parents died when they were young, and they will tell you how painful that is. And that even as adults, we wish to have a relationship with our parents. It's part of the way we're designed. God has given you a promise with a blessing. And His promise, though, for you is more than the fifth communion. Actually, the promise God has offered all the young people that are in the right here in church today is more than what He gave the ancient Israelites when He gave them the fifth communion. Oh, He promised them with a better life. What the promise in Acts says is the promise of the Holy Spirit is given to you.

He don't have it yet, but the promise that you can have it is given to you. So if you're a young person, this isn't just about having a happy life now. It's about being God's child forever. That is what He's offering you. And the fact that you're here means it's already been offered. The call is already made. How much do you want that blessing from God? Learn to honor God and honor your parents, and God promises what He will do in your life.