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.
H. Psalm 119:160 “0 the entirety of Your word is truth…”
I. There is a story about Abraham Lincoln who was arguing with a political opponent. "How many legs does a cow have?" he asked his adversary.
"Four, of course," came the disgusted reply.
"That's right," agreed Lincoln. "Now suppose you call the cow's tail a leg; how many legs would the cow have?
"Why, five, of course," was the confidant reply.
"Now, that's where you're wrong," said Lincoln. "Calling a cow's tail a leg doesn't make it a leg." - copied
J. John 17:17 “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”
K. God's word is priceless and precious. Unknown spiritual riches await those who will search therein for them. "More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweater also than honey and the honeycomb" (Psalm 19:10).
L. John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
III. Don’t dishonor your Father with your actions.
A. “The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, and he who begets a wise child will delight in him. Let your father and your mother be glad, and let her who bore you rejoice.” – “The father whose children live godly has cause for joy. What a pleasure to have children who are wise. Live to make your father and mother joyful! Make your mother happy that you’re her son.” (paraphrased)
B. Solomon is admonishing his children to walk in the ways of the Lord so they could be proud parents, rejoicing in the path their children have taken.
C. Proverbs 28:7 “Whoever keeps the law is a discerning son, But a companion of gluttons shames his father.”
D. A man was successful in business, and had a well-educated son who was highly respected and honored like his father. But one day to everyone's surprise the young man was charged with embezzlement. At his trial he appeared nonchalant and arrogant about his sinful actions. When the judge told him to stand up for sentencing, he still seemed unrepentant. Then hearing a slight scuffle on the other side of the room, he turned to see that his aged father had also risen.
E. The once erect head and straight shoulders of that honest man were now bowed low with shame. He had stood to be identified with his boy and to receive the verdict as though it were being pronounced upon himself. Suddenly his son realized the terrible grief he was inflicting on him, and tears welled up in his eyes. He had tarnished the family name by his behavior. Now his poor father was caught in the backwash of his son's evil deeds, although he had done everything he could do to keep him on the straight and narrow path.
F. 3 John 1:4 “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”
G. There is no greater joy that a mature Christian mentor can have than to hear that his disciple is maturing in Christ as well.
H. Malachi 1:6 “A son honors his father, And a servant his master. If then I am the Father, Where is My honor? And if I am a Master, Where is My reverence?”
IV. Give your Father your whole hearted love and respect
A. “My son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways.”
B. The heart is the main thing in true faith. The life that you live outwardly may be moral, decent, and respectable, in the eyes of people. Your minister, and friends, and neighbors, may see nothing very wrong in your general conduct. But you may be hanging on the brink of everlasting ruin. It is your heart which is the main thing. Is that heart right in the sight of God? – adapted
C. Proverbs 4:23 “Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.”
D. J Wilbur Chapman told a story related to him by R A Torrey of an old father and mother who determined to give their boy an education. They were as poor as they could be. They had a conference in their home, and decided to send their boy to the university. They knew he must be away three years in his preparatory work, and four years in his college work, seven years in all. In the summer vacation he must work near the school, and could not come home. Every dollar sent to him increased the pinch of poverty at home. Finally, the old father said: "Wife, I cannot stand it; I am going to see him." He did not have money enough to go by train, so he drove by horse and wagon across the hills. It took him days and days, and the horse he drove was ridiculous in appearance. The wagon in which he drove provoked a smile from all who saw him come into the university yard. He never knew that his boy had drifted. He had not been told that he had forgotten his father's God. Three young fellows came swinging down the sidewalk in the university town. When they saw the old man, they laughed at him. He saw them in the distance too, and his old heart began to beat rapidly. He recognized one of them as his boy. He threw down his lines, sprang out of his wagon. and ran to meet his boy. The boy looked at him for only a moment, then, in the presence of his friends who had jeered at this old man, told him he did not know him, He said: "You are not my father!" The old man turned, without a word; he did not touch his boy; he did not kiss him. He got into his wagon, rode away back over the hills, went into the old farmhouse, sat down in the old chair; his head drooped forward on his breast, and he was dead. He had broken the heart of his father. The boy had lost the vision of the old days, when his father said he would educate him; the recollection of his father's prayers did not stir him. How often we forget and break the heart of God!
E. God wants your heart wholly devoted to Him.
F. Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart-- These, O God, You will not despise.”
G. Sometime back a Christian magazine published a story about a father's love for his daughter. The young girl loved jewelry and so she worked hard to buy an imitation pearl necklace from a discount store. Her dad saw her attachment to the necklace and each night he came to her bedside he asked: "Jenny, do you love me?" And she would say: "Yes, Daddy." "Then give me your pearls." But she would say: "Daddy please, not my pearls. I saved my money for these pearls." That conversation was repeated for weeks until Jenny finally relented and with tears running down her cheeks she said: "Here Daddy. You can have them." And he took them! But a moment later he handed her a velvet case with a strand of genuine pearls that he had all along. He was waiting for her to surrender the imitation so he could give her the genuine. (Adapted from Discipler Magazine.)
