Living the Fifth Commandment

There's a ceremony, isn't it, to do that? We had four children, and all of them were blessed.

I know God watches out for them. We never had a serious illness among our children, never a broken bone, and there were certainly plenty of opportunities for that. The blessing of God is something we can certainly look for. At the peace, one of the things that was said is the minister was talking to me and he goes, I'm a firm believer in the things that didn't happen. I think you know what he means, because there's all these things that didn't happen where God was watching out for us. When we ask the blessing on Brindley and on Ace and the other children who have been blessed here, we never know how much God is watching over them and over us, but we appreciate that. Before I sit down and before we have a hymn, though, let me turn back. We have the children, and we ask God to help them to grow, to know Him, and to accept Him and to follow Him when they grow up. But there's a blessing that God wants to give to all of us, too. He sees all of us as children. Back in No. 6, as the children of Israel were coming out of Egypt, He told Moses, or asked Moses to put a blessing on the children then. And, of course, we are God's people today. When we leave the world behind, when we follow Him and are led by His Holy Spirit, He would want this blessing to be given to all of you, all of us here in this room. And as we do this day of blessing, let's read the words that God said. Verse 22 of No. 6, The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them, The Eternal bless you and keep you. The Eternal make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Eternal lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

So, with that, let's have another hymn, and then we'll come back for the sermon.

Thank you, my pastor. Now, you all know that our Almighty rejoicers and lives in the praises of his saints, and we are his saints. So, may I invite you all to go into your hymnal once again to page 24. And after that, I'll ask you to all rise and sing out. Page 24, Wait and hope and look for God. Let me get there first. Page 24, Wait and hope and look for God.

And bear the like a flower. Trust in the Eternal God. Do the right, let all you be.

So will your self be fully and truly shall be fed. Put your confidence in God and your way to Him come in. He shall give you your desire, the petitions of your heart.

Rest in the Eternal God. Patiently, step on and wait. And be not nor flat yourself because of evil men. Seize from anger, seize from red for all shall they'll be a part. Wait and hope and look for God. Be still and trust in Him.

Soon the Waker shall not be, and his place shall not be found. So shall you delight yourself and in peace abundantly. Wonderful bread on it. You may be seated again as we wait once again for our love, Pastor Rick Shady. Well, it is a nice ceremony, isn't it?

Now, as I said in the comments that I made during the blessing of the little children, God loves our little children. He looks for Godly offspring. He wants children born, and He wants them to learn the ways of God and to grow up, to know Him, to love Him, to follow Him, to choose Him when they are older. And parents, if you have little children, I hope you never ever neglect the opportunity to give your children the tools they need. If you truly want your children to be happy, if you truly want your children to have joy in their life and peace in their lives, if you truly want your children to be successes in life as well as successes in whatever profession they choose when they grow up, don't ever neglect what God has given us to give them. He has given you the greatest gifts and the greatest tools that you could ever equip your children with. I want to turn today. I want to turn back with me to Exodus 20.

I want to spend some time looking at one of the foundational things that God gave to mankind. You know, when He created man, He didn't just put us here on earth and say, have at it, work your way through whatever comes your way, figure it out yourself. He didn't do that. He gave mankind an instruction book because God wanted men to be happy. He wanted them to be joyous. He wanted them to grow and reach their potential just like we as parents do. He gave us the book, the instruction book in the Bible there, but it was mankind who rejected it and decided they would do things their own way and forget what God had done. But in this book, He gave us some principles, 10 commandments, we call them. We can call them the 10 ways of life and foundational things that we should be putting in. And right there in the middle of the 10 commandments, if you look at Exodus 20, we'll be going down to verse 12, He put something in there that every single person on earth should pay attention to and should count this commandment as something that is just so foundational we would never do without. Following the first four commandments where God showed us how to worship Him. If we love Him, we will put Him first. If we love Him, there won't be any other idols we worship. If we love Him, we won't take His name in vain. If we love and worship Him, we will keep His Sabbath day holy and keep it exactly the way that He said to keep it. And then right after that, as He's beginning to teach man how they would interact and love one another, He put the fifth commandment in that He said, Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. The first commandment that He gives after the commandments that He gave on how to love Him. Sometimes we read that commandment and we think, Oh, our children are grown. We've nailed that commandment, right? Sometimes we may look at that and say, Our parents are no longer alive. We don't have to pay attention to that commandment anymore. It's not true. Every single person in this room, no matter how old you are, no matter whether you still have children at home, whether you still have parents that are alive, or whether they are dead, this commandment applies to us. And it has an effect on our lives at no matter what stage in life you are. God doesn't precede verse 12 there with children, Honor your father and mother. He simply says, Honor your father and mother. It applies to everyone. In this sermon today, I'm going to talk in the first part about children at home and what our responsibilities as parents are to raise our children in that way. And the second part is that I'll talk about how it applies to us once our children are grown. When we're grown, whether we have parents who are still alive or maybe who died years ago, this commandment, Honor your father and mother. You know where it begins? It really begins with mom and dad. You know, we could point to children and say, You should honor your mother and father. But children aren't born necessarily with that thought in mind. They have to be taught that. They have to be taught how to honor. They have to be taught how to respect. Let's go back to Malachi. In Malachi 1, God compares himself to a parent. He says, Honor your mother and father. And he certainly is our father. He's a perfect father. No one can find any fault with him. But in Malachi 1, in verse 6, God says, A son honors his father.

If we've taught them right, a son honors his father. A son honors his father and a servant is master. If I am, if then I am the father, where's my honor? If I'm a master, where's my reverence? Says the eternal of hosts. I've taught you this. This is what you're supposed to be living by. Yet I'm the father. How do you honor me? What do you do where I'm concerned? Says the Lord of hosts. And then he says to you priests. Just bear in mind when you read to you priests who God is talking about because we know what all of us are in training for, right? Why God has called us, what he's doing as we progress from spiritual infant to spiritual maturity, what he has in mind to you priests who despise my name. Yet you say, in what way have we despised your name?

And then I'm not going to read through the rest of chapter one. You can do that on your own. See, the ways that the priest have despised his name. That they don't do things with a willing and eager heart. They almost approach some of the things that God says as if I have to and it's a drudgery. Oh, if we have to do this, we will do it. If I have to be there on Sabbath, then I'll do it. Not with a willing and a cheerful heart and that this is where you'll want to be. Oh, if I have to keep myself from doing this and deny self, I will. Not because you see it as a path to future, path to perfection, path to eternity. Not because you really want to do it. And as you read through chapter one, you'll see those elements in what God is saying to the priests who handle worship of him in that way. Let's wrap down to chapter two. Verse one. And now, O priests, this commandment is for you.

But you won't hear, and if you won't take it to heart, to give glory to my name, says the eternal hosts, I will send a curse on you and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have cursed them already because you don't take it to heart.

We know what God wants. He wants us to learn. He wants us to learn those principles, not so we can just repeat them back, not so that we just kind of do the things but don't really understand why we're doing them.

He wants us to have His laws written in our hearts, in our minds. We do those things because that's what we want, Lord, that we see the benefit of doing them. We see what God has given to us. We see the value of that instruction.

We know that it's the way to everything that the world says they want, but everything that the world is not today. Then, in chapter 2, he goes through and gives a couple reasons. You can read through later the verses 3 through 12 here. But let's go down to verse 13 because it gets more at home with what we're talking about today as we talk about family, God who instituted family, God who created family, and God who put that as the fundamental building block of society. Verse 13, and this is the second thing you do, he says that you don't honor Him. You cover the altar of the eternal with tears, with weeping and crying. You're not happy. Your lives are sad. You're miserable, and you don't even know why. So, He doesn't even regard the offering anymore, nor does He receive it with good will from your hands. Yet, you say, well, for what reason? Is it or not? We just do it, rotely? He says, because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth. Ah, it starts with Mom and Dad. God has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously.

Now, when God created man, He created a male and female, He said that a man shall leave his mother and father, he shall cleave to his wife, and that they will be bound for life. When we have modern marriage ceremonies, we talk about how the two men and wife stand before God, and they vow to love each other for life, to remain faithful to each other for life, to do the things for life. It's a vow we made to God. When I counsel people for baptism, I tell them, you're going to do this. You're committing to God for life, not just as long as it feels good to you, not until something better in your mind comes along. You're committing to Him for eternity. And marriage is the second most important commitment, not to be entered into lightly. A vow that you make to God, that you will grow together, that you will picture the time that you're together. What it says in Ephesians 5, that your marriage becomes the picture of the relationship between Jesus Christ and the church. And if you follow the principles of marriage that are in the Bible, if you follow the principles of marriage that we've talked about at services, you will grow that way. As you are led by the Holy Spirit, you will grow in that regard. You will go closer. You will love each other more. You'll become a picture of what a marriage should be.

But God says to those at that time, and He would say to those at this time, some of you have dealt with your wife treacherously. You haven't loved her the way that you should love her. You haven't done the things for her the way that you should. You haven't made her happy. You haven't not hurt her. We all hurt, right? But we do apologize when we learn and we grow as we go on. You've dealt treacherously with her. Doesn't this mean you cheated on her, as the world would say? Anything we do that hinders that marriage. God says you've dealt with her treacherously. You haven't honored your vows. When I found you as husband and wife, I wanted you to grow. I wanted you to grow as one flesh, and I wanted you to become like the relationship between Jesus Christ and the church. And He goes on in verse 14, and He says, yet she is your commandment in your wife by covenant. I bound you. You stood there, and you vowed to love one another. Verse 15, but then they make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit. And why, one? Why is God buying husband and wife together? He seeks godly offspring.

He seeks godly offspring. In a marriage where husband and wife believe, or a marriage where husband and wife take seriously their vows to one another, that they will follow God, that they will love each other, cherish each other, that they will follow God first in each other and always be there for each other. And He blesses that marriage with children.

He wants to know that that child born into that marriage, found by Him, are going to learn the ways of God, that that's going to be infused in them from the very early days, that they will plant in that children the ways of life that lead to everything good, that lead to the ways of success, that lead to the ways of happiness, that when they grow up and they go out and they have and they get married and they have children, that they'll plant that in their children as well. And people who see them will see that example. Look at that husband and wife. Look how happy they are together. Look at their children. Look what they've been equipped with. What did you do to have children that seem so settled, that seem so peaceful, that are so hardworking, that have all these good qualities that have been built into them? You follow God. You followed His principles. You followed what He said to do. And you talked your children that way and husband and wife, mom and dad. You modeled that way. You lived it.

Now, when the children look at you, they see this is a picture of marriage. This is how mom and dad act. Look how together they are. Look at what they've done. We have to model what God has given us.

And if we're going to teach our children to honor God and honor father and mother, then we have to model it in our relationships and in our marriages as well. God created family. God is the one who put it in place. He's the one who said, do this, and it will be well with you, as we read. Did we read that in Exodus 20? Or do we even go to Exodus 20? Did I read Exodus 20 already? Okay. To honor your father and mother, that it may well, but you may be long in the earth where God has placed you. Let me give you a quote. Any of you have a quote? Sometimes I do these quotes, and when I come back from thousands of years ago, you don't know if the person really said that or someone 100 years ago thought, wow, it would really be nice if he said that. But you know, I can't find any counter to this thing that Socrates said. But Socrates is reported, and some places will say Plato said it. You know who Socrates and Plato are, right? Philosophers in Greece. They had some wise things to say. Socrates is reported to have said this sometime in the back of the 400s BC. Of course, he was back in Greece. And as you listen to these words that are attributed to him, think about where we live today. He says, our youth now have luxury. They have bad manners. They have contempt for authority. They show disrespect for their elders, and they love chatter in place of exercise. I love that part. Isn't that kind of a picture of society today? They love the text. They love to talk on the phone. They love chatter instead 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.

Isn't that—I mean, couldn't we say that about America today? I mean, just about everywhere I look. That's kind of what our youth today seems to be. We live in a land that God has so richly blessed, and we have so many things that we can give our children. But that's the way it is, and somewhere along the line, things just haven't gone right. Because when you look at the world around us today, what do we see on TV? When you watch the news, what is missing? What is missing in society today? Respect for authority. Wouldn't that be one of the key things? You look and see all the conflict between police and people who are whatever they're doing. There's no respect for authority. You look at the presidential elections. There's no respect for authority. There's no talking about real issues. It's just a matter of tearing each other down.

You look at the world around us, and it's a sad, sad place. There's no accord. There's no unison. There's no happiness. If you look at the news, you see that our country is kind of like what Socrates said of Greece back here in the 400s BC. The Greek Empire fell in 404 BC. As Socrates or Plato, whichever one wrote this, they saw what was happening in society. Their empire fell. If you go back, and I'm sure you've read about the Roman Empire in the past, and you look at what led up to the Roman Empire, you see as a disintegration of the family. You see a lack of respect for authority. You see everything falling apart because it wasn't taught. When God said, Honor your father and mother, he was giving a pronouncement that would make families happy, that would make nations more peaceful, that would make the world more peaceful.

And the world has said, and certainly the world we live in today say, you don't need to honor mom and dad unless they agree with what you say, right? You don't have to follow what mom and dad say unless you want to agree with them. And yet God gave parents the responsibility to teach their children. Let's go back to Deuteronomy 6.

Deuteronomy 6.

I'm sorry, Deuteronomy. No, Deuteronomy 6. I was thinking of the Commandment chapter, but Deuteronomy 6 is where I want to be. I should never take these words lightly. Deuteronomy 6, verse 4. God says, here, O Israel, or here, O my people, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. It should be translated, the Lord is Lord alone. There is just one God that we follow. The Lord our God, He is God alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today, same thing he said in Malachi, shall be in your heart. Put them in your heart. Live them, love them, let them become you, let them define you. You shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. God should be there. They should know God. They should see God. They should see the love between mom and dad. They should have a pleasant environment that they're living in and saying, this is good. They don't want to depart from. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand. They shall be as frontless between your eyes. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Let them mark who you are. In this house, in this house, we obey God. The world outside may say that this is the way to do it. Here we follow the law of God. Remember what Joshua said? As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And I would hope everyone in this congregation and all God's people all over the world would be teaching their children, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. We live in the world. We have to go to school in the world. We have to play in the world. We have to work in the world. But as for me and my house, we do what God says. And we need to equip our children with that knowledge as well. Now, when they grow up, they can say the same thing you do. That they've seen modeled at home. The way we do things is the way God said to do them. And when they see the success and when they see the happiness and when they see the work ethic that is installed in them, and when they can just look and compare themselves, and I don't mean that we should be comparing ourselves, we should be to each other, but sometimes you can look around and say, you know what? Our children, our children stand out from those around them. They're more respectful, we should be able to say. They respect authority more. They're more polite. They work hard. When their hand is put to something, they do it diligently. The principles of the Bible you begin to see in their lives when you work with them and talk with them. That's what we should see. That's what their teachers should see. That's what the world around should see. And when they ask, why? Why do your children, why are they that way?

As for me and my house, we serve the Lord.

If society would simply respect or teach the respect of authority how different things would be. You know, God takes this responsibility that we have as parents very, very seriously. It isn't something that we can just kind of, you know, just not do anything with and say, hey, it's good enough. It's good enough that they come with me every Sabbath. It's good enough best. We should want to see the development that our children, from the time they're very young and still these things in them. I know we live in a world that says, you know, your children, even when they're two and three and six years old, should be able to tell you what they're like. No, no, no. Come on. Parents, wake up. Don't buy into any of that stuff. The church, God, would never, ever talk about emotional abuse, verbal abuse, or physical abuse. But there is a time that we teach children the right way and we drive the false ideas out of their minds and leave them on the path of God. And believe me, they will thank you for it. They will thank you for it. As I said, and I'm going to say it again, if you want to equip your children for success, for happiness, for joy, teach them about God. Teach them the ways of the Bible. Don't accept no for an answer. You teach them that. And you model it, all of us, at home and in our personal lives. Let's go back to Proverbs 20. See where God, how seriously He takes this. Because, you know, yes, He wants parents to do that. And yes, we must do it. But as children grow older, they have a mind as well. But I want children to take notice, and our young people to take notice of some of the things that God says here. Because, you know, when I was growing up, some of these verses caught my attention. And I certainly wasn't a perfect child. And then some of these things that it talks about, you know, it'll, you know, well, I never cursed my father. It was where I'm in Proverbs 20 and verse 20. When I look at that, but the next verse we look at, you know, I sometimes look at and think, Wow, but anyway, Proverbs 20 verse 20, whoever curses his father, or his mother, his lamp will be put out in deep darkness.

Children, don't ever curse your mother or father. Parents, don't ever accept that from your children.

Teach them respect. Teach them compliance. Teach them obedience. Teach them the things that they should do. It will stand them well in life. Proverbs 30. Proverbs 30 verse 17.

This is the verse that I remember well from childhood, and I just had visions of what would happen if I did this. Chapter 30 verse 17, the eye that mocks his father. You know what that is, right? I mean, dad says something, teenager rolls his eyes and whatever, and like, yeah, can you believe he's saying that? The eye that mocks his father, scorns obedience to his mother, the ravens of the valley will pick it out, and the young eagles will eat it. It's kind of a pretty vivid verse, isn't it? But it shows that God is serious about obedience. He's serious about respect. He's serious about honoring mom and dad and treating him the way that he wanted to. You know, 1 Peter 2.17 says, honor all men, what we teach at home. If parents honor or children honor mom and dad, if they obey mom and dad, if they learn that at home, they'll learn that out, or do that out in society as well. Let's go back to Leviticus 19.

Leviticus 19 and verse 1.

The eternal spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel. He'd say to us today, Speak to all my people, and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the eternal, your God am holy. You will be separate. You will do the things of God. You won't be like the world around you. You will be coming like Jesus Christ. You will be doing the things that God has you do. For I the Lord your God am holy, and every one of you. Every one of you, notice that? Not just children, not just parents with children at home. Every one of you, from the youngest to the oldest, every one of you shall revere his mother and his father.

And I read in one of the commentaries, when God said, Honor your father and mother, he didn't put any qualifications on that, did he? He didn't say, Honor your mother and father if you thought that they raised you well. Honor your mother and father if they were perfect. Honor your mother and father if you didn't have any issues with them. Simply, Honor your mother and father. And here in Leviticus 19, verse 3, he says, Every one of you shall revere his mother and father. There's a principle, respect, respect authority. Teach that at home. Teach it to your children. What they do to you, they will do to others. Importantly, as it follows in verse 3, they will do to God. Because in the very same sentence, he says, Every one of you revere his mother and father, and keep my status. For I am the Lord your God. Model the truth at home, and you know what? When you show you teach your children, they'll also follow me.

Don't turn to idols, he says in verse 4. Going back to the second commandment, what he would say on how to honor him, don't turn to idols, don't make for yourselves molded gods. I am the Lord your God. If we teach our children about God, if we teach them to honor and respect, they'll grow up. And I hope that they will choose to honor God by keeping his commandments and worshiping Him when they're old enough to make their choices of what to do. Because of what they've seen you do, and because of what they have experienced in life, and they see the goodness and the joy and the peace that is in your house versus maybe some of the friends' houses that they go to. Don't shortchange. Don't shortchange your children, parents. Don't do it. Don't think you're going to make them happy or doing them a favor by this and that and whatever. Teach them what God said. Let's go back to Ephesians 6.

In the New Testament as well, we find the same commandments and the repeated here. So we know that it wasn't something just for Old Testament Israel, but for New Testament Christians as well. In chapter 6, verse 1, again after chapter 5, the latter party talks about the marriage between husband and wife and how they should be giving along with one another and how they should be relating to one another. How that happens does have an effect on the children. Chapter 6, verse 1, children, obey your parents of the Lord, for this is right. Do it. Teach them that. Don't make excuses for them. Don't let them compromise. Let them have them obey you and teach them what is right. Verse 2, honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise. The first commandment with promise, that it may be well with you, it says in Deuteronomy 5, that you may live long on the earth. And here, while he preached that in verse 3, that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. Paul repeats it right there. And then he goes back to parents and their role in helping their children understand and live by this commandment. Fathers, don't provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. As fathers, we can hurt our children. We can be a roadblock to them, accepting God. We can be a roadblock to them if we respond to them in a way that will offend them. And I don't mean when we are dealing with right and wrong, but when we provoke them to wrath. And as we have older children, you know, parents, we have to learn to respect our children as well and treat them in accordance with the age they are. Always expecting and commanding that they abide by your rules and the rules of God, but also recognizing as they grow older, that you may have to approach them in a little different way than you did when they were two and three and four years old. Don't provoke your children to wrath. Don't do that.

Remember, parents have a responsibility in this commandment.

Certainly, the children have a responsibility in this commandment. And God says, do it, that it may be well with you. Back in Deuteronomy, I'm not going to turn there, he says, if we will follow his ways, if we will just do what he says, he will rain down blessings on us. He will give us joy, peace, all the things that we could ever want. That's what he wants to do. God never wanted people to be unhappy. He never wanted them to be in conflict with one another. He didn't want marriages where both people aren't thriving and growing together. He wanted marriages to be where people are improving each other, where the love, the trust, and the closeness grows. He wanted that to happen with children, and he wanted them to start off as infants and be trained through the various stages of them when they're 18 or 21 or whatever it is, when they're ready to go out on their own. You have succeeded in what God gave us as parents' responsibility to do.

Give him godly offspring. Teach them what God had said. Teach them this commandment, the fifth commandment. Before we move on to the next part, I want you to just stop for a moment. I want you to think about this commandment. Honor your father and mother. Stop and think if everyone on earth followed just that one commandment, just that one commandment, whether they live in the Middle East, whether they live in India, whether they live in America, whether they live down in South America, Africa, wherever, if every single person just taught that one commandment, honor your father and mother, and the things that are complicit with it, that they taught them the moral values that they should have. Not the moral values of the world that has gone way off course, but the moral values that they have, the moral values that are in place whenever a nation is strong and that you see disappearing time and time and time again before a nation or an empire falls. If every single person taught that, how different would the world be today? It would be a world we don't even recognize, wouldn't it? We wouldn't have any of the news stories that we have because everyone would have been brought up. Respecting mom and dad, and thereby respecting authority. Everyone would be compliant and be used to living by a standard that has been set for them and not deciding on their own what to do. It would be a far, far different world today. It'll be a far, far different world when Jesus Christ returns, and the whole world is taught this commandment along with all the others. Well, let's go back, though, and let's talk about how this commandment applies to us. Perhaps when we are grown, our children are grown, our parents are older, or our parents are dead. Does it have an application to us?

I think of this commandment, not only do we find a path to success, but we find a path to healing. Certainly a healing of society when God has all the people on earth living by this command and dealing with it and teaching it at home, but a healing that can even occur among us today. Let's go back. I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Let's go back to Luke. Luke 2. Luke 2. Find an example. Whenever we are looking for what to do and how to look at the situation, we can go back and look at the example of Jesus Christ, because in his life, we find the clues of how we approach various things as well. In Luke 2, verse 41, we find the story—I think I even mentioned this a little bit last week—about Jesus Christ and the time that they went up to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. As it says here in verse 41, the Feast of Passover—of course, that includes Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread that they went up to Jerusalem for—we find some things in here. Verse 40 says, Jesus Christ grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. What he was being taught at home is exactly what we're talking about today. He was taught the law of God. He had very good parents who took their job seriously, who knew that they had to implant into him the very same things that we're talking about today. In verse 41, they modeled the life. His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of Passover, and when he was 12 years old, they went to Jerusalem according to the custom of the Feast. Remember, three times in a year, they would pilgrimage up to Jerusalem at Unleavened Bread at Pentecost and at the Feast of Tabernacles. And when they had finished the days, you notice they finished the days. They didn't go home after five. They stayed there the whole time because God, that was His command, kept those days there. When they had finished the days, as they returned, the boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem, and Joseph and his mother didn't know it. But supposing Him to have been in the company, they went a day's journey and saw Him among their relatives and acquaintances. So when they didn't find Him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking Him. You can imagine the panic in their minds. Where is that boy? Where? We haven't found Him. And can you imagine being apart from your 12-year-old for three days, four days, and not even knowing where He is? Certainly not in this society. So 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. And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers.

Well, He was 12, but He wasn't your typical 12-year-old. He's not like any 12-year-old I know today. So if you're 12 out there, or 13 or 14, you'll get any ideas. Don't get any ideas. Jesus Christ knew what He was talking about, and He stayed behind to talk about the Bible, to talk with the people at the temple and in Jerusalem. And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. So when they saw Him, verse 48, they were amazed, and His mother said to Him, Son, why had You done this to us? Same thing you and I would say. Could You have told us what was going on? Look, Your Father and I have sought You anxiously. And Christ replied, Why did You seek Me? Didn't You know that I must be about My Father's business? Now, on one hand, we can look at that, and we can scratch our heads and say, what was Christ trying to say? Of course His parents would be concerned. Of course they didn't want their 12-year-old not knowing where He was. And He says, Why did You seek Me? I don't know. I have to be about My Father's business. Well, Jesus Christ at 12 years old knew what His future was. He knew what He was going to be doing, and He was eager to get on with what His life mission was.

Why did You seek Me? Maybe He meant You should have known where He would be here in My Father's house. That's the only place I would want to be besides Your house. But the time wasn't ready yet for Him to be about His Father's business in the way that He was saying.

Notice what Jesus did. Well, notice Mary first here in verse 15, or Joseph and Mary. They didn't understand the statement when she spoke to them. What does He mean by that? He must be about His Father's business. And then, verse 51, they told Him, as they should, You're coming home with us. This time You stay right with us, right where we can see You. Then He went down with them, and He came to Nazareth. He didn't argue. He didn't throw a fit. He didn't say, No, I'm going to stay here another day. No, I'm going to finish this conversation. He had an obedient attitude. He followed exactly what they said, and noticed the first phrase, and He was subject to them.

He listened to them. He obeyed them. He fulfilled the role of child just as He had been taught by His parents, but also been taught, and He knew that it was in the law of God, and He was the right thing to do. He was subject to them, and His mother kept all these things in her heart. Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. Young people, when you learn God's way, when you model God's way, when you take it to heart, you will increase in favor with God, and you will increase in favor with men. Never ever doubt the value of what your parents teach you. Never ever doubt the value of learning the things of God, of learning what God stands for and standing up for Him. Never discount the value of learning what hard work is, what dedication and commitment to a cause is, that you are willing to stand up for something you believe because you'll believe it in your heart and not just fall down because the world around you says it. My dad used to say a saying, and he said, he goes, you have to stand for something because if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. You ever hear that? Young people, you have to stand for something. Stand for God. Don't stand for a society that is showing the wear and tear and that's about to fall. You stand for what your parents have taught you. You stand for God. You use what He has taught you, and you keep that with you all the days of your life. Well, that was Jesus Christ at 12. He knew what He was going to do. He knew where He was going next. He knew what His life's mission was. At 12, I had no idea what I was going to do. Even when I got to my first year of college, I didn't know what I was going to do. Turns out that even most of my life, I didn't know what God had planned for me to do, but Jesus Christ did, and He will lead you to that as well. How do we deal and how do we relate to parents as we grow older? How did Jesus Christ relate to His parents and His mother as He grew older? He obeyed them here at 12. Later on, He left and He was about His parents about His Father's business. But let's go back to Matthew 15. Matthew 15 and bring honor your father and mother into adults. Matthew 15, verse 1. Jesus is speaking to the scribes and Pharisees. In verse 2 of chapter 15, they ask Him, Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands when they eat bread. And Christ had a reply for them. He said, Well, why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honor your father and your mother. Adult Pharisees, honor your father and mother, and he who curses father or mother, let him be put to death. That's how important that commandment is.

But you say, He says to them, Whoever says to his father or mother, Whatever prophet you might ever receive from me is a gift to God, then he need not honor his father or mother. Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. So what he was saying is, you've got this tradition. He wasn't talking about ties and the things that you give to the temple that you give to God or the offerings you give to God, but whatever profit you had, you got a little bit of extra money. What the scribes and Pharisees are saying, give it to the temple. Drop it in the temple. Treasure is here. We're all about the money we receive here. You give me your profit. And yet, some of them had mothers and fathers who needed that money to live on, but they were being told to know, more important to give that money to the temple.

Christ said, no, you've got a responsibility to mom and dad. Even if you are grown, even if you are older, and even if they are older, honor your father and mother. And so when we grow older, we still honor mom and dad. We respect them, but as we become adults and we're living our own lives, apart from home, obedience is not necessarily the thing that God looks for us, but He does ask us to honor them. Remember who they are. Respect them. Be there for them. Take care of them. If they have needs, you meet them. That's how we honor mom and dad. You take care of them. You make sure that they're not lacking anything. If they need help, you be the one to be there to do that. They were there for you all the days of their life. They sacrificed. They got up at night. They did the things that you needed to have done. Now you honor them by doing the things that they need. And sometimes that even means money that they need in order to live. And that's what he was talking about here, and he set an example there. We honor our mothers and fathers by making sure that they have what they need.

Over in 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy 5, Paul, as he's instructing the young minister, Timothy, he has a few words to say along the same lines that Jesus Christ said here. 1 Timothy 5 and verse 1. See, in the first few verses here, he's talking about respect. Timothy was a younger minister, having to deal with some older people, people his age as well. And Paul reminds him to be respectful. Don't rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father and exhort younger men as brothers. Exhort older women as mothers. Treat them with respect. Don't compromise the law. Don't be afraid to tell them what they need to hear. Exhort younger women as sisters with all purity. Deal with the pure conscience. Do it because you want them to follow God, and you want them to be in the kingdom of God and follow the path that God has done. He says in verse 3, Honor widows, who are really widows. Honor them. Now, we know that God looks at widows. He looks at orphans, and he looks at those people who have had those problems or trials in their lives, and he wants us to love them as families, and he wants us to love them as church families, right?

You remember James 1, 27, Pure and Undepured, religion is this. Keep yourself unspotted from the world. And make provisions for what? The, well, you know what? I hate to misquote things. Let me go back to James 1, 27. I know that verse as well as I know my name, but not at this second. James 1, 27. Pure and undepiled religion before God and the Father is this. To visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. There you have it. I think I'll just learn to turn to the verses. So, what he's saying is, Honor widows, who are really widows. And he says in verse 4, But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show piety at home and to repay their parents, for this is good and acceptable before God. Honor your mom and dad. If they need something, help them. Give them what they need. If they need assistance in some areas, money, other ways, be there. Make sure you don't just abandon them.

Verse 8. The conclusion of this, he says, If anyone doesn't provide for his own, often we apply this just to a husband. It certainly applies to husbands, but it applies to a whole family, as you're looking here. If anyone does not provide for his own, especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. God wants us to learn to love. God wants us as a family, his family, here in Orlando, there in Jacksonville, over in Ocala, around the world, love one another. Look out for the needs of one another, and certainly in our physical families, watch out for those. Honor mom and dad. Honor the widows. Honor the fatherless. Show them respect. Do the things that they need done. John 19.

John 19.

25.

Touching a series of verses here is Jesus Christ was about to die. He had been crucified. He was hanging there on the stake or the cross or whatever you want to call it. In 1925, it says, Thou there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother and he knew he was going to die, she knew his father had already died. She was going to be left the widow. Who was going to take care of her? And he knew his responsibility. I want to see her be taken care of, and I'm not just going to abandon her because I'm leaving this physical body. When he saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing by, he said to his mother, Woman, behold your son. We can look at this verse in a number of ways, but in this case, he's clearly saying, Woman, look, I'm taking care of you. It's interesting that Christ called her woman and not mother. His commentaries have some things to say about that. And in verse 27, he said, The disciple behold your mother, and from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, show the example. Our job is to take care of parents. Make sure that they have what they need. I know many in this room do that, have done that. Something we all may be faced with, whether we haven't already. It's the right thing to do. That's the way that God created families. To love, to care, to provide for one another. And it's important that we do that.

But we also have to remember, as we grow older, who is our Father? God is our Father. And as children of God, we honor Him, we worship Him, we honor our parents, we make sure their needs are met, but we obey God. Acts 5 verse 29. Acts 5 verse 29. As Peter was faced from the powers that be there, that wanted him to stop preaching the gospel, he said something, and they ordered him not to. The principle we all need to remember, he said in Acts 5, 29, we ought to obey God rather than men. We must do what God's will is first. We must put Him first. And sometimes that may counter what daughter wants, what son wants, what mother wants, or what we may want. We follow God. We put Him first. Back in Matthew 10. Jesus Christ. When He was calling His children, or when God was calling us to be His children and to follow Him, follow Jesus Christ, follow His example, He had some words that are pretty sharp and pretty clear for us. Matthew 10 verse 32. He says, Therefore, whoever confesses Me before men, him I will confess before My Father who is in heaven. You follow Me. You show by your words. You show by your actions. You are truly following Him in every aspect and growing in that aspect, just as our children grow from age, infant, up to 10, 12, 15, 18. And just as we are growing from spiritual infant, up to spiritual maturity into what God wants us to have, He says, You confess Me before men. I will confess before My Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies Me before men, him I will deny before My Father is in heaven. He's not just talking about people going out there and saying, I don't believe in God. I don't believe in Jesus Christ. I don't want to follow Him. Well, that's certainly clear. Certainly clear and included in that verse. But it's also people who deny Him by their actions. If you say they follow Him, but then don't do what they say. We've got a whole world full of that, right? A whole world full of people who say, I follow Jesus Christ, but don't. But you know what? We have people in the church who do that as well and do their own thing rather than what God says in some cases. He says in verse 34, Don't think that I came to bring peace on earth. He will bring peace when He returns. I didn't come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his daughter, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's enemies will be those who dismount his own household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. God first, not daughter first, not brother first, not father first, not father, physical father first, not mother first. God says, Do something, you do it. Do you make sure that you're taking care of mom, dad, brother, sister, whatever it is?

You follow God. You do what God says. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me, who lets them dictate something that you know you shouldn't be doing and you aren't following God if you do it. Whoever lets whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. There are things that we can all look at in regard to the Fifth Commandment and how we live with our or how we honor our mom and dad.

And I'm here to tell you sometimes, you know, when mom or dad or brother or sister or son or daughter says, Mom, Dad, I want to do this. We can't do this on that day. And this is so important. The best thing you can do for them is you say, I'll make sure you're taken care of. But as for me in my house, we will do what the Lord says. I will follow God first.

I will put Him first and what He says trumps what you want or when I think you need to want. We all need to learn to put God first and follow Him implicitly. In our lives. Enough said on that.

One more thing. You know, I worked in healthcare and hospitals and with doctors and a number of people throughout my life. One of the things that I know and in talking to people, even with physical illnesses, is that there can be a lot of problems developed later in life because of what mom and dad did or what they experienced in childhood.

And I know that not everyone in here had a perfect childhood. None of us had a perfect childhood. None of us are perfect parents. We've all made mistakes. We only have one perfect parent and that's God the Father. We can be thankful that He never makes a mistake and we can follow Him implicitly and know if we do that we're doing the right thing. But the world is full of psychologists. The world is full of psychiatrists and a lot of the reasons that those people are having their emotional issues and their problems getting on with life and some who are very much up in age, who have never been able to get past what mom or dad did and the terrible things that they experienced.

It doesn't excuse us from honoring father and mother. No one would condone what some of the people have gone through. No one would say it's not a big deal. It is a big deal what some people have gone through. It is a big deal and I can understand that the psychologists understand but you know what? There is healing in God. No matter what we've been through in life, no matter what experience we've had, God can heal that. And one of the ways that He heals is something we have to do.

We have to forgive. You know, God says forgive one another. Christ says forgive others your trust their trespasses. He doesn't exclude mom or dad and that He didn't say forgive everyone but don't ever forgive mom or dad.

If they did you wrong in life, then you don't have to forgive them. No, He said you forgive everyone. And I don't know if there's anyone in here. I'm not talking to anyone at all in particular. I don't have anyone in mind. If you are saddled with that, that's something that mom or dad did, forgive them. If they've been dead for 50 years, forgive them. Let God heal you. If there's anyone in here who's telling me that today, you know, boy, I hope. I hope they're listening. And we start following God and we start following Him with all our heart and all our mind.

But forgive. And if you can't find it in your heart to forgive, ask God to give it to you. He will. He will. You may have to continually ask Him for that, but I tell you when you follow this commandment, when you follow the fifth commandment, whether you're young, whether you're old, parents, I'm telling you again, don't shortchange your children. You are doing them a huge disservice. If you don't teach them what God has given you, the knowledge He has given you.

Don't shortchange them. Don't shortchange yourself with what God can do. He can heal. Forgive them. He can lead us and guide us, and He can give us joy and peace, but we have to do the things that He said. Honor Mom and Dad. Have that respect for authority. Honor Him more. Follow Him and put Him first in your life. Then it will be well with you, and then you will live long on the earth, and then you will have eternal life and grow up to be what God wants you to be.