Immitating God Through Mutual Submission In Our Families Series

Date: 3-12-00

Title: What God says about Child/Parent relationship

Bible Text: Eph. 6:1-4 & others

Subject: What does God’s Word have to say about the relationship between Children and Parents.

Complement: Parents must take authority, children must honor & obey.

Main Idea:

Intro: We continue today hearing how it is we can be shining examples for Christ. The key we are told to being people who show a dark and troubled world what freedom and light look like is mutual submission. Loving one another so much that we put the needs and concerns of others before self. This “other-minded-ness” is the crowning testimony of love. God’s love for us and our love for others.

This is to be observed in all our relationships. Especially our marriages as we saw last Sunday. Today we look at another important relationship which is ripe with opportunities for us to live in such a way as to demonstrate all that we have in Christ.

Today we look at the relationship between parents and their children.

This is important because there are many ideas bouncing around today that run contrary to what God desires.

Three things weaken, undermine, and threaten to destroy the family today. One is our sinful nature of which every person is born with. Our selfish, me centered perspective passed on to us from Adam and Eve. Second is the Satanic World system in which we live. Because God’s plan is to build, strengthen, and protect the family, Satan’s plan is to undermine, weaken, and destroy it. By every means possible Satan strives to lower the moral standards and values so as that the family can’t function any longer as God designed. Thirdly, is the perverse influence of humanistic philosophy. The push is toward a philosophy that alienates parents and children. One popular speaker at a well known and respected Secular College said that he looks forward to a world where there will be no schools, no families, and no parent-child relationships. He says, “To free the child we must do away with parenthood and marriage, we must settle for nothing less than the total elimination of the family.”

For years, one of the major goals of Marxist socialism has been to liberate children from the home and make them wards of the State. A child out of the home will not be taught any moral, religious, social, patriotic, or political standards or attitudes that are contrary to what the state wants.

These factors are constantly at war against the family and the parent-child relationship. In just four short verses God’s Word shows us how we as Christ-followers can experience the freedom and joy of our respective roles in such a way as to honor God and receive His blessings.

Let’s look together at them:

I. Children Honor And Glorify God And Their Parents As They Submit. (Eph. 6:1)

A. Children are a gift from God. (Psalm 127:3-5)

1. From the things we read and see on TV one might almost conclude that for some, children are a burden or curse rather than a gift and a blessing.

a) Babies are aborted before they are born because they are viewed as an inconvenience.

b) We read every day of children being left neglected and abused.

2. The Word of God says that children, those addressed here in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, are a gift. (Psalm 127:3)

a) Children are a heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

b) As a matter of fact God’s Word says the more you have the more your blessed! (Psalm 127:4-5)

c) This tells us that when we hear of someone having another child say their 5th or 10th for that matter.

d) When we roll our eyes and say, “Oh, that poor woman”! Biblically we need to know in our hearts that children are a blessing from God even if they are a lot of work!

e) Even if they can cause gray hair or loss of hair, or drain the energy from a mom and dad like a new toy drains batteries.!

Trans: So we see that children are a blessing, a gift! We also know that this is not Pollyanna, put your head in the sand wishful thinking. Buck up and smile moms, don’t you know, having and raising children is a gift and blessing from God! Say that to a mom who has chased preschoolers all day and you could lose an eye as she hurls a Lego at you! The good news is that God’s Word gives us a user’s manual on raising them appropriately. It doesn’t guarantee ease and simplicity, but it does provide valuable help in raising our kids God’s way! Let’s look and see how we do that here in Ephesians 6.