God is concerned about the family-life of his people. Scripture regularly gives guidelines and commands on how the home ought to be governed in order to most bless and bring joy to those in it. One of the most direct and simple statements on family life is found in Paul's epistle to the Ephesians and in Eph 6:1-3 we have the duties of children presented: obey and honor your parents. God gives a command but he also backs it up with a promise, all for the happiness of the child and the family and as a display of the gospel in the home. Ultimately this work of obeying and honoring imperfect sinful parents, by imperfect sinful children, is a display of the power of the Holy Spirit in a family.

You know, I just want to cut you into something here. It's really a very special joy to be here with you, but I'll just have to confess, it's an extra super duper special joy to be here also with Don and Deanne and Curtis and Lauren over there and Tom and Lee. You know, we've been banging around for a long time and you know, we've experienced a lot of the same things and have believed a lot of the same things with our whole hearts. You know, we've been slandered in the same ways, beat up in the same ways, and you know what? Really, really blessed in the same ways in our families.

And God just interrupted us a long time ago. We're so thankful He did. And He took us from a course we were all on. Thank the Lord. Thank the Lord.

Well, my job that Tom has given me tonight and tomorrow is to speak about raising children. So that's what I get to do. And it really is a joy to do that. And I wanna do two things tonight. First of all, I want to take us to Ephesians chapter six, verses one through four.

I'd like you to open your Bibles to Ephesians six, one through four, one of the seminal New Testament passages of the scripture on the raising of children. And I wanna speak of why this passage is structured the way it is and why it is where it is in the New Testament and really in the whole Bible and what it really means in general. So I want to quickly try to paint a general picture but I want to do what the text does in the first three verses. I wanna speak directly to children. So I want to look all children in the eye and I'm gonna speak to you mainly, this almost this whole night long.

Well not whole night long, just for the minutes that I have. So if you are a child, I'm just going to define that as somebody who's not married. If you're not married, please stand. Okay? Amazing.

So I'm going to talk to you, I'm going to look at you in the eye, probably for three fourths of the time that I have, and I'm so delighted to be able to do it. And I know some of you are younger and some of you are older, and God has ruled every moment of where you are right now. So praise the Lord for that. Thank you for standing. And this is just like my church, I'm telling you, it's all people who are not married and young and so It really is a joy.

Okay, let's stand for the reading of the word of God. Ephesians chapter six, I'm just gonna read four verses, but I want us to just recognize the honor due to this marvelous, perfect, pure word. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and your mother, which is a first command with the promise that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth. Oh Lord, we pray that you would take these words and burn them deeply within our hearts.

Help us to love them, to love obeying them. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, please be seated. So as we come to Ephesians chapter six, we're actually coming to another illustration among various illustrations of what it looks like when the Holy Spirit has come upon somebody. And the whole chain of logic that continues on here in chapter six, we don't wanna just begin here and take it out of context.

But the argument that Paul's making really begins in Ephesians 5, 18, where he says, be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. And then he begins to illustrate that in various ways. And the first illustration that he gives is in church life, and you start to submit to one another, you hold this position toward one of their changes and there's a way that we submit to one another in the church. We weep with those who weep, we rejoice with those who rejoice, we put ourselves under other people. The second manifestation is that wives submitted their husbands.

And the third manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit in a family is a husband actually loves his wife and he gives himself up for her and he nourishes her and he cherishes her and he washes her with the water of the word. So then we turn the page to chapter six, and the apostle gives another illustration. What does it look like when the work of The Holy Spirit of God is manifested in a family. And so the Apostle Paul speaks of this whole matter here. And he's really declaring the beauty of the kingdom of heaven.

And how wonderful it is to have Jesus Christ as Lord in your life and what happens to you when you do that. So this affects both children and parents. For children, it manifests itself in honor and obedience. In parents, it manifests itself in teaching and admonishing and bringing children up and not exasperating them. And so that's what it looks like.

And we're just gonna cover the first part here regarding children. We'll get to parents sometime tomorrow. But this is the explanation of a particular work of the Holy Spirit in a family. And it all bears witness to the kind of kingdom that God wants to establish in your home. And it's a kingdom of love.

It's a kingdom that shows itself in the ways of the Holy Spirit. And you know, really, you can summarize everything that God has said about family life, about marriage, as Don has just so clearly taught us, and in children, is that the gospel is displayed in children. And the authority of God is demonstrated in children, and there is a promise of success, and there actually is a requirement or a conditional for success. And you know, when the Spirit of God fills the hearts of people in a home, the most wonderful things happen. Who wouldn't want them?

You know, the Apostle Paul said, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. That's what happens to you. And you know, you begin to set your mind on the things that are above not in the things that are on the earth and you whatever things are pure whatever things are lovely whatever things are good or cute that's what happens So this whole passage speaks of the power of the Holy Spirit and what happens to children and what they ought to do in order to manifest the work of the Spirit of God, because these things that Paul is commanding really aren't possible unless God is at work in a child. So there's several things about this. There is a secret of home life that is revealed here.

And that secret is that it breeds all manner of expressions of love, of the Holy Spirit. You know, the Holy Spirit in the Bible is called the Helper. He teaches, He's the one who sanctifies. He gives hope, He comforts, He protects, He empowers, He counsels, He convicts you of your sin, He guides you into all truth. This is what the Holy Spirit does.

So this argument that Paul is making is for the power of the Holy Spirit to be manifested in a family. And if you just think of this as some legal matter, it's far deeper than that. The command here is directly connected to the character of God. God is love and everyone who is born of God loves. And that's the whole matter.

Whenever you have people who disconnect the commands of God from the character of God, the grace of God, the love of God, the compassion of God. Whenever you disconnect those two things you just get dead legalism. That's what you get. But here the Apostle Paul will have none of that. They're connected And so that's what we speak of here.

Now, these powers of the Holy Spirit work to progressively neutralize three of the most devastating things in a person and in a family and in a church and in a business and in a government. And those things are individualism, number one. Number two, rebellion. Number three, disconnection. These commands are really designed to deliver children from those terrible things that can happen to them.

I'm really gonna be talking to you, children, about the greatest gift you can ever get, and that is a heart of submission. And the second thing about Ephesians 6, one through four, is we find a perfect balance here of authority and tenderness in the home. You know, God gives parents absolute authority in the home, but it must be tempered. There is, the authority isn't a harsh authority, because it's sinful to exasperate your children. So there's this perfect balance of authority and love and tenderness and kindness because if you're exasperating your children, then you're violating the command, actually.

So they have to be together. And this is this balance of authority and tenderness. You know, one of my favorite books on child raising was written by William Gogue in the 17th century. And he commenting on this says, both of these, both authority and tenderness, he says both of these are joined together for a very good composition. He says, love like sugar sweetens fear, and fear like salt seasons love.

And thus if you join both of them together, it's a loving fear and a fearing love, which is the ground of a child's duties." I love the way he says that. And these two extremes are settled in parents' hearts when they have children, because those two things are really called for in parents. And harsh subservience is inappropriate. Tender heartedness with truth is appropriate. We speak the truth in love.

That's really the whole matter here. And, um, uh, so there are these matters of authority and submission. Now, what I want us to notice here is that these verses that I read are directed, first of all, to children. He speaks directly to children. That's why I wanted you to stand up.

I wanted you to know I'm talking to you. I'm not talking to your parents right now. From here on out to the end, I'm not talking to your parents. I'm just talking to you, okay? And I'm gonna try to keep my, it's difficult to stay in that voice, but I'm gonna try, especially when you're the majority here, you could take this place over if you wanted to.

And so Paul here, he speaks of obligations of fathers and mothers, but primarily he's speaking to children here. Tomorrow I'll talk about the implications of this for parents, because there are. But the critical matter here is that Paul is talking to children. The children are in the meeting of the church. That's assumed.

They were there with the old people and the young people and the rich and the poor and the foolish and the lame and the blind and everybody was together in the church. And the Apostle Paul just assumes that the children are there. He's already spoken to the whole church, submit to one another, He points to wives and he says submit to your husbands He points to the the husbands and says love your wives and now he's pointing to the children. That's what I'm doing right now so There are there are two commands here And there is a promise that I'd like for us to take hold of here. Now the command is easy.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. And I want to convince you, if you need it, I hope you don't need it, but I want to convince you, if you need it, that obeying your parents is the best thing you can do for your happiness and for your success. It's the best thing you can do. And he says here that you should obey because it is right. It's just right, that's why you should do it.

And it's right because there are things that are right and there are things that are just plain wrong. This is a north-south, black-white issue. It is, it's just right. Now, we live in a world where some people think that there is no right or wrong, but that's just not true. It's actually ridiculous.

Even the people who say there's no right and wrong actually believe in right and wrong. And When something is wrong, it's not beautiful, and it's not good, and it's not helpful to you. And Paul here is telling us what is good. And I wanna give you 10 reasons why it's right to obey your parents. I'm going to give you ten reasons.

I don't know if you have anything to write with, but if you don't, I'll send it to you or your parents. But there are ten reasons it's right to obey your parents. And the first reason is that it's right because it pleases God. And you want God's blessing in everything you do. Imagine not having God's blessing.

Imagine having the one who created you, who created the world and all the powers that are invested in this world to be against you. You don't want him to be against you. And you don't want to be against him. You know, Paul says to the Colossians church, Colossian church, that when children obey their parents, it is pleasing to the Lord. It's pleasing to God.

Because God opposes the proud, and he gives grace to the humble. James says that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. I'm sorry that's the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 1. James says that God gives grace to the humble. So the first reason that you should obey your parents is that it pleases the Lord.

You don't you don't You really don't want to be on the wrong side of Almighty God. I know it's not very popular to say, but let me tell you, God is the supreme force in this world. He created it, and He governs everything that happens here. The second reason it's right for you to obey your parents is because children need to learn obedience when they're young. Pride makes children think that they should be in control.

And here's the reality. Children lack the wisdom and the experience to be in control. I know some of you are older, and you may not quite qualify what I'm gonna say, but children are blind, they lack experience, they need help, and they need more mature people to guide them, and I just wanna encourage you to embrace that idea. Your parents are smarter than you, and you need them, you need their correction. You need them to take you in a different direction than you want to go and You know Ecclesiastes chapter 10 gives a picture of this He says even when a fool walks along the way, he lacks wisdom, and he shows everyone that he's a fool.

And this is true of children. Children need mature guidance. And that's why God gives parents to children. So it's right because you need to learn obedience when you're young. The third, you know, just let me just say one more thing about this.

Children naturally are deceived about themselves. Children want all the authority and they want all the responsibility of adults without having the maturity and the thinking and the background and the processes and even the financial ability to be on their own. It's the natural thing in a child's heart to want the same authority as a parent has. But they don't have the same wisdom and they don't have the same experience as their parents. So it's right because you need it when you're young.

And then thirdly, it's right because rebellion, well, rebellion is really dangerous. And if you believe what the Bible says about it, you know that's true. But rebellion is connected in the Bible to the self-driven, idolatrous impulses that characterize evil, even demonic activity. And God calls it divination in 1 Samuel 15, 22 to 24. The word of God says this, rebellion is like divination.

That's it. Divination at its core is rejecting God and going to another source for wisdom, for authority and for your life, for your affections. And this independent spirit of arrogance is idolatry. And when God said to obey is better than sacrifice, he, in that passage, and for Samuel, he's making it clear that the heartfelt obedience to God is better than going through the motions with a rebellious heart, because it's like witchcraft. Rebellion is like witchcraft.

It's evil, you need to recognize that. When you feel rebellion welling up in your heart, it is demonic, you just need to understand that. And it should terrify you. The fourth reason it's right is because obedience is one way that you love God. One way that we love God is by obeying Him.

Jesus says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. In John chapter 14, 23, Jesus says, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words And the word which you hear is not mine, but my Father's who sent me. Jesus will say to some people, very gifted people, Great communicators, they did a lot of great things for God. And in Luke chapter 6, 46, Jesus will look at those people and he will say to them, "'Why do you call me Lord, Lord, "'and do not do what I say?' "'And they will say, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, done many wonders in your name?

And Jesus says, I never knew you. Well, he says that because they never had a heart to obey. And, you know, it's right to obey your parents and it's right to obey this command in Ephesians 6, one, Because obedience is one way that you love God. And, you know, we must never forget a particular fact of the life of the Lord Jesus. The Bible says that he grew in wisdom and stature in favor with God and man and that really is designed to be the pattern for all of us.

But we know that Jesus submitted to his parents. You can read about it in Luke chapter 2 verse 51. He submitted to his parents. But here's what we need to just recognize about Joseph and Mary, Jesus' parents. You know, guess what?

They're a lot like your parents. They're young and inexperienced. You know, there are probably a lot of firstborn kids in this room. Guess what? When you were born, it was trial and error.

You were born to parents that were inexperienced and young. How about that? And God actually meant it that way. Nobody gets perfectly experienced parents, even when they get older. They're still learning, believe me.

You know, my children are all grown up. I'm still trying to figure it out, honestly. I know what the Bible says, I wanna try to do it, but I look back and I'm thinking, what were you thinking? I still have a whole lot to learn. I wanna learn more, I really do.

Number five, it's right because God determined the authority that he gave you. God determined, God planned, he ordained the authority that he gave you. Yeah, your parents, God rules. Now, you should obey because you didn't choose to be born to these parents. You didn't choose your parents.

God Almighty, The ultimate sovereignly wise being in the universe chose your parents for you. And he is wise. And God determined this authority that you have. You know, God says to Jeremiah, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. David says, you formed me in my mother's womb.

Your birthday is determined by God. Your dad was appointed by almighty God. Your mother and your siblings, where you live, the laws that you live under, the customs of the people that surround you, the very house you live in, the very job your dad has. Don't despise it. These are things that have come from a sovereignly wise God.

And it's right to obey your parents because it was God who placed that authority over you. The key to happiness in this life is to recognize that God rules. And the child that's dissatisfied with his parents will always have a tendency to be dissatisfied with God's providences this whole life long. And if you're dissatisfied or offended by your parents, if you're angry with your parents, kids, break that habit now, break it now. Don't let that run, because it'll run over you.

And it'll chew you up and spit you out if you don't conquer that you know you're like Cain was Sin is crouching at the door, but you must conquer it. But break free from that habit before it's too late. Now, some of you, maybe it's possible, are being abused by one of your parents, or maybe even a sibling, and that's not what I'm talking about. If that's true, then you need to go to your pastor, and you might need to call the police if you're being genuinely abused. But if it's just about their authority, then you're not being abused.

You actually have been placed by Almighty God under that authority. Number six, it's right because parents are flawed. You should obey your parents because they're flawed. You know, This is the way God planned it. You know, God...

Have you ever thought about this? God didn't want you to have perfect parents. If He did, He's big enough to give you perfect parents, but He didn't want you to have perfect parents. You know, mature people somehow realize that at some point in their life. They don't exercise their authority perfectly.

They don't, you know what, they don't always talk to you perfectly. Sometimes they get frustrated sometimes they get mad and things like that. Well, here's the reality. God wanted you to have parents to tell you things you don't want to do. God did that.

So it's right to obey your parents because they're flawed. And nobody ever had perfect parents, and nobody is ever gonna have a perfect husband, nobody's gonna ever have a perfect wife, and when you grow up and start having children, guess what? You're not gonna have perfect children. That's the world that God has designed. And you know, when you were born or when you were adopted, here's what happened.

God placed you, according to his sovereign wisdom, into your home. Not my home, not Don Hart's home, your home. That's what He did. And, you know, the keeping of this command should never, for you, be dependent upon the character of your parents. You obey in spite of the character of your parents.

Because guess what? Everybody gets inexperienced parents. Everybody gets sinners. You know, somebody, I think it was Elizabeth Elliot, said, you know, the problem with marriage is that you marry a sinner. But then she said, you know, It's worse than that.

I'm paraphrasing. She said, because not only do you marry a sinner, if you're a woman, you marry a man. And if you're a man, you marry a woman. And that means there are gonna be problems, okay? You know, God didn't design this world to be trouble-free.

He puts a man and a woman together? What is that all about? They're so different. Yeah, they are actually different. God embedded differences and conflicts into his creation for his own glory.

He didn't create this world that every single person would have the exact same thought or want to do the exact same thing. That's not the world he created. And you need to get used to that, you know, because your whole life is gonna be characterized by that. It's a real problem. Resolve it when you're young.

Don't wait until you get whacked upside the head 500 times, and some people do, because they have never reconciled themselves to the fact that they should obey their parents because they are flawed. Number seven, it's right because no one ever escapes authority. How about that one? Nobody ever escapes authority. No matter what you do, no matter where you go, you will be under authority in some way.

And you should obey your parents because for the rest of your life, every authority in your life will be a little bit like your parents. Maybe not completely like your parents, but they will always be a little like your parents. And They will have blind spots. They will have sins. They will even be inexperienced.

You know, some of you older guys, you're working for bosses that don't have that much experience, and they might not even be as smart as you, maybe not half as smart as you. And you know, you've had to reconcile yourself about that. And nobody ever escapes authority. Authorities push you out of your comfort zone, they disappoint you. Even though they shouldn't speak harshly to you, they will.

They might make mistakes, they'll shoot their mouths off, they'll use words you wish they didn't use, they might even hurt you. And that's what authorities do. And if you're not successful in learning how to obey your father and your mother, you're gonna find that you, you're gonna keep meeting those authorities. You're gonna keep meeting them. They're gonna have different names, they're gonna live in different cities, but they are authorities.

And you're gonna get your head bloody because you didn't learn to honor your father and mother when you were a kid. And here's a test. Can you be happy in a world where all the authorities are flawed? Can you be happy? Every wife has to ask herself that question when she gets married.

Can I be happy when I see my husband is flawed? Can I be happy when I see my boss? Can I be happy when I see the elders of my church, they say the darndest things? Can you be happy? This is really important.

And God created your family to be the place where you learn it so that you will be blessed. You'll be able to navigate this world of flawed and inexperienced and sometimes even evil authorities. Number eight, It's right because your training time at home is short. Oh, it's short. Shorter than you think.

You know, this is a very limited time of training. It's a very narrow window. If you don't get it, if you don't get it while you're with your parents, it's going to be hard after. Get it now. Get it under your belt.

Get it done. Honor your father and mother now because it's really, really short and it'll be gone before you know it. And It won't go well with you if you don't get it at home. God's given you a short time. And of course this has implications for parents.

Parents need to understand this too. They need to be very attentive to these early years. I'll talk about that tomorrow. The consequences are so bad after you leave home. Get it early, get it now.

Number nine, it's right because there's a promise. It'll go well with you. You know, Honor actually brings various kinds of success into your life. It's the first command with promise. He's not saying it's the first promise in the Bible.

That's not what he's saying. It isn't the first promise that appears in the Bible, you know, in the Ten Commandments. What he's saying is that it's the most important command because of the kind of promise that it is. In other words, it's the most critical promise for your own well-being. It's the most important promise for your happiness and your success.

It's not the first in sequence, but It's an overarching promise. It's incredibly important for your success. And number 10, you should, it's right because of the power of honor and obedience in every relationship. There are many relationships where honor is required for success. And when there is a culture of honor and obedience in the home, first of all, makes way for a peaceful and a well-ordered family, but it also spins out into all the other relationships.

You know, the Puritans and many, many Bible interpreters over the years have believed that the fifth commandment to honor your father and mother really implied every relationship of authority that you ever encounter and I think I think they're right It's a paradigm for every relationship. Do you ever know people that move from relationship to relationship to relationship, job to job to job, town to town to town. Now I'm not saying that if you've moved a lot that this necessarily is the problem, but if it's because of lack of honor toward authority, then it creates a pattern like that. God does move people around sometimes more than others, but when people move around because they can't handle the authority that God put in their life, that's a whole nother kettle of fish. That's a whole gigantic problem.

And often that's just because there's a root of unsubmissiveness in the spirit of dishonor and rebellion that was never conquered in childhood. And the Bible gives various illustrations of this. You know, I'll give you four of them that are very explicitly in Scripture. You know, Honor and obedience really causes a life of blessing in every relationship. First of all, it causes blessing in the church among God's flock.

Submission is critical for a child to be a blessing in the Church of Jesus Christ, because God desires the people in the Church to submit to one another in a particular way. And there are many ways that we submit to one another. We are affectionate toward one another in brotherly love. We give preference to one another in honor. We practice hospitality.

We bless those who curse us. This is, in the church, if you don't have a culture of honor you have a disaster in a church. Because we bring, in order to submit to one another, we bring ourselves under the care and the concern of one another. And we submit to one another out of reverence to Christ. And this is a wonderful culture to have in a church where people have a submissive heart toward one another.

And I'm not saying that that overthrows the authority in a marriage or the authority in a family, doesn't overthrow the authority of a father, but These authorities exist in parallel together at one time in the church. It's also a tremendous blessing to church leaders. The writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 13, 17 says, obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give an account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable to you. God desires a culture of honor and reverence in the church toward leaders and if you don't develop that toward your parents now you will be a thorn in the flesh to the leaders in your life in the church because you didn't learn it when you were young.

These leaders are imperfect men. You know, One of the hardest parts of church life is when you encounter people who never learned how to forgive, they never learned to have mercy, they never learned how to have grace toward the imperfect people and authorities. They complain against each other, and sometimes they cause radical divisions in a church. And it's the hardest thing. You know, it's the thing that makes pastors wanna quit more than anything else, honestly.

And church splits, hatreds, divisions, most of the time can be traced right back to disorder in a family where parents did not require honor and obedience and children never gave it. And those people come into the church, and they bring that culture of reviling and dishonor and distrust, and not thinking the best of one another. You know, most church problems, You know what they really are all about? Most of the time, people don't think the best of one another. Most of the time, that's what it boils down to.

Not all the time, but way too often. And Guess what? You can trace that right back to a child who didn't think the best of his parents. So it's really critical. You know, children, listen, these are so important to understand.

And if children are allowed to dishonor siblings, if they're allowed to speak harshly to one another, if they're allowed to not appreciate one another, hit one another, hit their parents, you're setting up the church for tumult in the future. There's the blessing to civil leaders. In Romans 13, God commands us to honor not only our civil leaders, not just honor them, but to submit to their very authority. He said, let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God. And the authorities that exist are appointed by God.

Whoever resists authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. Learn it now, learn it while you're young so that you can be a blessing in the city, in the county, in the state, in the nation in which you live. Be a blessing to your nation by learning it now. Be a happy, submissive, compliant child now, so that you'll be a blessing to everybody around you. Then there's the blessing to employers.

You know, Ephesians 6 verse 5, The next verse that we won't talk about in the next couple of days here reads like this, bondservants be obedient to those who are masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in sincerity of heart as to Christ not with eye service as men pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he's a slave or free. Learning honor and obedience in your home makes you a blessing to your employer. And honorable employees who think the best of their employers Always do better. I've been an employer. I've had companies that employed, you know, lots and lots of people, But the ones who really honor the authority are always the ones that have the greatest blessing.

So children, children I'm talking to you just like the Apostle Paul is in this passage. Obey your parents in the Lord. Obey them in everything. Do what they tell you to do immediately. Do it without complaint, without excuse, and without delay.

Because the relationship that you cultivate now in your home will affect every moment of your life after you leave your home. And so I guess the big question is, do you have a heart of mercy toward your parents? Do you desire to show deference to their instructions and their opinions? Do you give careful respect to their commands? It's really important because honor determines just about everything about your life.

So children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is a first command with promise that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth. I pray that that promise and that obedience is something that is found in double measure in your families. Children, children, I'm talking to you. Obey your parents in the Lord.

It's the most powerful thing you'll ever do in your life. And it'll take you to a place where you're ready to submit to the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the absolute greatest blessing that you can ever experience in your life. To submit to God your Father and to submit to his Son Jesus Christ. And when when you do that it means that God has changed your heart and He's rescued you from yourself. Because ever since the day you were born, God was trying to rescue you from yourself through the commands and the admonitions of your parents in order to put to death the narcissism and the idolatry of yourself.

And a person is saved because God causes them to be born again. And their hearts change toward God and they desire to do His will. And they say, not my will, Lord, but Yours be done. And that's the heart of the beauty of the kingdom of heaven. And really, that's the beginning of all love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Every beautiful thing is found here in this command. Children obey your parents for this is right. Would you pray with me? Lord We bow down before these holy commands to recognize that you are true. Our hearts always lead us astray.

But Lord, I pray that you would in this room, that you would have mercy upon all of us. I pray right now that especially you'd have mercy on every child in this room. That you would, by the power of your Holy Spirit, convict anyone who has any dishonor toward father and mother. Lord that they would repent of it tonight, that they would turn from it tonight, that they would confess their sin before you of their dishonor toward their father and mother, that it might go well with them. Amen.