Honor Your Father & Mother Series

“HONOR YOUR FATHER & MOTHER” Ex. 20:12

FBCF – 7/3/22

Jon Daniels

INTRO – Lot of talk in our tumultuous society these days about parents & kids.

- The traditional nuclear family of a dad, mom, & kids is no longer seen as the only pattern for a family.

- The legalization of gay marriage has led to homosexual couples adopting children or doing artificial insemination in order to bring vulnerable, impressionable children into their unbiblical, immoral family situation.

o Drag queen’s Instagram post – Small boy walking provocatively in a Pride parade wearing a dress. Crowd cheering. Caption from drag queen: “For all of you LGBT out there who wish you had children (like I do)…These are our children…& they are watching us & learning from us. Be a good example.” w/ hash tag #generationstocome

- Fatherlessness is a huge epidemic across our nation, causing massive upheaval & uncertainty in children & adolescents, which leads to increased poverty, increased likelihood of runaways, increased substance abuse, increased emotional & physical health issues, increased suicide rates, increased dropout rates & educational struggles, increased crime rates, & increased illicit sexual activities & teen pregnancy rates. (https://fathers.com/wp39/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/fatherlessInfographic.pdf)

Families need help – help that we, the Church, MUST offer to them.

- The urgency of our day demands that we do it.

- The love of Christ compels us to do it.

- The Gospel motivates us to do it.

- The Word of God instructs us to do it.

We have the answer, & that answer is found in Jesus Christ alone! We must know Him & make Him known. We must preach Him. We must show Him. We must stand on the truth of His Word & live it out in our personal lives every day, in our homes every day, & in our church every day.

It is no coincidence that, right in the middle of the 10

Commandments, #5 deals w/ a very important family relationship – that of sons & daughters to fathers & mothers. (By the way, God said “Honor your father & mother,” not your “father & father” or your “mother & mother”)

- First 4 – our relationship to God

- Last 6 – our relationship to other people

This Commandment matters to God b/c the way you respond to your parents is the way you are likely to respond to God.

- Angry, hostile, bitter toward parents? Most likely same w/ God.

- Honor parents even w/ their faults? Most likely to honor God w/ your life.

This Commandment makes obedience to the rest of the Commandments much easier. Learn to genuinely honor your parents & you’ll probably not have many problems w/ murder, adultery, & theft. Choose NOT to honor your parents – you’ll mess up so many other areas of your life through disobedience to God’s Commandments.

EXPLANATION – Exodus 20:12

Very simple, clear, & concise commandment: “Honor your father & your mother” – PERIOD. Does not say:

- Honor them if they are honorable

- Honor them if they provided for you

- Honor them if they never neglected you

- Honor them if they treated you right

- Honor them if they never got divorced

It simply & plainly commands us to honor them.

- It doesn’t say you have to like them if they’ve been abusive or neglectful.

- It doesn’t say you have to obey them if they’re leading you in a direction that is contrary to God’s commands.

- It doesn’t say to imitate them when they’re ungodly & immoral.

- But it does say to honor them.

“Honor” – Hebrew word means “to be heavy, to be weighty.” Basic meaning is to treat someone w/ respect b/c they carry a heavy weight of authority & responsibility.

- Sometimes we may say that certain dignitaries or leaders are “heavyweights” b/c of their place of authority & influence. That’s exactly what the Heb word means.

- It means to treat your parents as VIPs b/c of the heavy weight of authority they carry.

God is clearly commanding all of us to honor our parents – to prize them highly, show them high respect, exalt them, commend them & appreciate them.

D.L. Moody: “’Honor thy father & thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.’ I believe we must get back to the old truths. You may make light of it & laugh at it, but remember that God has given this commandment, & you cannot set it aside. If we get back to this law, we shall have power & blessing. I believe it to be literally true that our temporal condition [present, earthly condition] depends on the way we act upon this commandment.”

APPLICATION – Honoring our parents is a lifelong responsibility.