EPHESIANS 6:1-3
November 12, 2006
New Covenant EPC
“LIVE LONG AND PROSPER”
Body Life: The Book of Ephesians
I. Child-parent relationships can get quite challenging at times can’t they?
A. Gwen Molda, Michigan. Today’s Christian Woman, "Small Talk."
1. While I was preparing dinner one evening, my six-month-old daughter, Keri, began to fuss in the next room.
2. Christina, my four year old, offered to go give Keri her pacifier.
3. After several minutes passed, I called to Christina, "Did you put the pacifier in her mouth?"
4. She replied, "No, Mom. She likes my toe better!"
B. "Eminem, the Boy Who Loved to Bounce," abcnews.go.com (2-26-04)
1. Triple-platinum rapper and producer Eminem is known for his violent, controversial lyrics.
a. He vents on everything from his unhappy childhood in a single-parent home to his contempt for various celebrities and the mainstream media.
b. His songs frequently defame others, including his family members.
2. Eminem raps about his mother being welfare dependent, a drug addict, and sleeping around with many different boyfriends.
a. He calls her a horrible mother, and says that he hopes she burns in hell.
b. His mother, Debbie Nelson, doesn’t take it to heart, though.
c. "That’s just artistic expression," she says. "He’s very sad on the inside. He is hurting a lot. And I can see it. I can see through my son. I know him like the back of my hand."
II. Verse 1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
A. The word here in the Greek for child “ôåêíïí”, is “one who receives correction.”
1. It was understood in Biblical times that a child was one who had to be formed by encouragement and correction.
2. The word in the Greek for parent “ãïíåõó” is quite literally “one who causes to be formed . . .”
3. The role of the parent is to form not just procreate.
B. Obedience is not a term easily heard today.
1. Young recruits in the Military must learn obedience to command.
a. Today it is very difficult for young people to come into the military and be under another human being and to carry out orders.
b. The whole concept of obedience is foreign to our culture today.
c. They hear about rights from our society but not responsibility.
d. They hear about fulfilling our dreams and our expectations but not about listening and following.
2. God placed us within a certain family for His purpose.
a. Our obedience to our parents is paralleled to our obedience to the Lord.
b. If we cannot hold our tongue and our rebellion there is little hope, we can be obedient to God.
c. God does not promised us the Garden of Eden neither does He gives Hell.
d. How we learn and grow within our families is important to our own development.
3. God has not given us parents so we can figure out how to escape discipline and authority but to grow within it.
a. Being a child under obedience to a parent teaches us discipline, self-control, unselfish behavior, doing things for the good of family, it teaches us how to control anger and how to forgive even when the other does not seek forgiveness.
b. Forgiving our parents is important.
c. Forgiving our parents who are deceased will not benefit them but is especially good for us.
C. The Bible is a book of wisdom right from the mind of God.
1. God’s design from the very beginning was for parents to be the primary educator, spiritual mentor, financial and material provider, disciplinarian, and companion to children.
2. Counter to modern dogmatic media, the health of the nation, the world, the community, church and individuals is tied to the health of our families.
3. And that health is tied to respect and honor between children and their parents.
D. Scripture does not condone parental abuse.
1. The Bible does not approve nor encourage autocratic parent child relationships because children are on loan to parents from God and He alone is ultimately responsible for all children.
2. The whole foundation of the family is based upon the parent’s sacrificial love of the child and the child’s honor and respect of the parent.
E. The famous writer Oswald Chambers said the following:
“It is not what we do that matters, but what a sovereign God chooses to do through us. God doesn’t want our success; he wants us. He doesn’t demand our achievements; he demands our obedience. It is only by obedience that we understand the teaching of God.”
1. “God wants children to obey their parents.”
2. “Obeying God begins there.”
III. Verse 2 Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise),
A. A small boy invaded the lingerie section of a big California department store and shyly presented his problem to a woman clerk.
1. “I want to buy my mom a present of a slip,” he said, “but I don’t know what size she wears.”
a. “Is she tall or short, fat or skinny?” asked the clerk.
b. “She’s just perfect,” beamed the small boy. So she wrapped up a size 34 for him.
2. Two days later, mom came to the store herself and changed it to a 52. (Saturday Review)
B. The word HONOR in the Greek means to “Esteem and respect, it means to give a high value within one’s life.”
1. To honor God is to give Him reverence and homage, for God alone is worthy of our highest honor
2. The fifth of the Ten Commandments states, “Honor your father and your mother”
C. Jesus taught that to honor parents means to help them financially
Matthew 15:4-6 “For God said, ’Honor your father and mother’ and ’Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ’Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ he is not to ’honor his father’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.” (NIV)
IV. Verse 3 that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth. (NAS)
A. The word “WELL” here in the Greek means “NOBLE, GOOD.” The word is the opposite of kakos, “evil.”
1. Obeying and honoring our parents may not give us riches but it will give us a noble life.
2. Not only that, as we treat our parents so our children will treat us.
3. Our children hear our lives more than our words.
B. Ps 128:1-2 How blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in His ways. When you shall eat of the fruit of your hands, you will be happy and it will be well with you. (NAS)
1. Some of us still grow our own vegetable gardens and fruit orchards
a. There is nothing more delicious than canned fruits or vegetables which you have grown, picked and preserved.
b. There is a sense of completeness and purpose.
2. To obey and honor our parents can give us the same sense of well being and purpose.
3. We may not give our children a fortune of money but we can give them an inheritance of healthy connections.
C. Obeying our parents and honoring may give us a long and prosperous life.
1. The Japanese taught us to make cars to last longer.
a. Today the Japanese are willing to teach us to live longer.
b. Japan’s health ministry has surveyed 4,000 Japanese who are 100 and older, and here is their formula for a long healthy life.
c. Eat regularly three times a day, but do not overeat.
d. Try to eat meals with other family members present.
e. Exercise every day, preferably walking.
f. And with few exceptions, Japanese children, young and old, obey and honor their parents. -- Associated Press, 9-15-93.
V. If anyone knows Star Trek, you remember the wise character Mr Spock.
A. He was half human and half Vulcan, a race of logical thinkers.
1. Whenever Spock would say goodbye to a friend He would give them the typical Vulcan greetings, “Live long and prosper.”
2. Live long and prosper is a great blessing in any language and in any time.
3. Many competent researchers have found, being at peace with our family of origin has a lot to do with our own peace and the peace we pass on to our children.
B. John McCaslin, The Washington Times "Inside the Beltway" (11-12-03)
1. First Lady Laura Bush recalls one overnight visit with her husband in the home of his parents, the former President and Mrs. Bush.
2. "George woke up at 6 a.m. as usual and went downstairs to get a cup of coffee," Mrs. Bush says. "And he sat down on the sofa with his parents and put his feet up. And all of a sudden, Barbara Bush yelled, ’Put your feet down!’
3. "George’s dad replied, ’For goodness’ sake, Barbara, he’s the President of the United States.’
4. "And Barbara said, ’I don’t care. I don’t want his feet on my table.’"
5. The president promptly did as he was told, for as Mrs. Bush observes, "Even Presidents have to listen to their mothers."
C. Judge Andrew J. Guilford, of Newport Beach, California, wrote the following “Letter to the Editor” which was published in, TIME, vol. 143:26, p. 10.
1. I recall my ‘60’s generation confronting a police phalanx spread across the plazas of UCLA.
a. Invigorated by yet another basketball championship, we gestured and flung trite phrases across the bucolic campus, which was bought with our parents’ taxes.
b. If things got hot with summer approaching, we descended the cliffs of Palisades Park and sprawled for a tan on the beaches of Santa Monica.
2. Now we remember an earlier generation that struggled through the Depression --- to confront Nazi armies across the pastures of France.
a. Invigorated by an ancient sense of duty, these men flung themselves across Normandy.
b. When things got hot, they sprawled for safety on the beach at Omaha and ascended the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc.
c. With head bowed in respect and not disdain, I raise my naked hand, no longer clenched, and now say, “Right on! Thank you.”
D. Hear God’s Words of Grace and wisdom, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth.”
