How To Honor Our Father

How to Honor Our Father

Proverbs 23:22-26

Introduction: The observance of Father's Day provides an opportunity to express a special thank you to our fathers for their unconditional love and affection. Celebrating Father's Day makes fathers feel that they are loved, appreciated, and valued by their children. As believers we are to show honor both to our earthly fathers and to our Eternal Father. The biblical word for honor means "to give great weight to; to hold as valuable." Proverbs 23 tells us how we can show honor to our Father.

I. Listen to the Wisdom of our Elders

A. “Listen to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old.” - Listen to your father who gave you life,

B. "Father's Day is that one time of the year when I get complete obedience from every member of my family. I tell them not to spend a lot of money on me--and they don't.” – Pat Williams, Winning With One-Liners

C. One of the tragedies of our society, we have lost respect. We have lost respect for those in authority. The problem of lack of respect started within our homes. We have gotten to the point that children and grandchildren are the authority figures and parents and grandparents bow down to their whims.

D. We no longer look upon the wisdom of the elderly, our parents, and our leaders. We reject and fail to learn the lessons that they have learned.

E. Deuteronomy 21:18-21 “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and [who,] when they have chastened him, will not heed them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. And they shall say to the elders of his city, 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.' Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear.”

F. Children don't know what's best for them. That's why God gave them parents. If children knew what was best for them then we parents would be out of a job. – copied

G. Exodus 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.”

H. Ephesians 6:1 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.”

I. Titus 3:1 “Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work.”

II. Value Truth as a Precious Gem

A. Buy the truth, and do not sell it, also wisdom and instruction and understanding.

B. A boy who was a witness to a crime was testifying in court. The defense attorney asked him, "Did anyone tell you what to say while you're on the witness stand?" "Yes, sir," the boy answered. "Who was it?" the attorney asked. "My father." Raising his voice, the attorney asked, "And what exactly did he tell you?" "He said that some sleazy lawyer would try to trip me up, but if I told the truth, I would be just fine." – Kent Crockett Sermon Illustrations www.kentcrockett.com

C. Today across America many church congregations are rationalizing away the truths of the gospel and replacing them with the creed of cultural relativity.

D. While an estimated 74 percent of Americans strongly agree that "there is only one true God, who is holy and perfect, and who created the world and rules it today," an estimated 65 percent either strongly agree or somewhat agree with the assertion that "there is no such thing as absolute truth." Christianity Today, September 16, 1991, p. 48, from George Barna, The Barna Report: What Americans Believe, 1991.

E. 2 Timothy 3:7 “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

F. Truth is not a matter of your personal viewpoint. Learn to see things as they really are, not as you imagine they are. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or who says it. No matter what you believe, it never changes the facts. The facts, if they are there, always speak for themselves. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.

If forty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing. The sky is not less blue because the blind man does not see it. – Bob AuBuchon Jr., via BaptistPreachers mail list

G. The Holy Scripture is the only standard of truth.