Please take your Bibles and you can open them up to Exodus chapter 20. And Happy Father's Day, yeah. And the title of my sermon is, Honor your father. Isn't that convenient? We're going to look at that in God's Word today. We know, if you've read the Bible, you know that in the very first chapter of the Bible, we're told that God created a man and a woman, and in chapter two, he developed the first, or instituted the first human relationship, that of marriage. He established that institution, and then the man and the woman became a husband and a wife, and God told that first couple to be fruitful and multiply. And so by the time you get to Genesis chapter four, they're having their first child. And now this new role of parenting starts. And so that man and that woman, that husband and that wife, they became a father and a mother. That is absolutely foundational to understanding life and how life is to be lived in this world. And ever since then, there's been an all-out attack on this foundation, established by God. Because the devil is opposed to God, and he went after the man and the woman. And we read about that in Genesis chapter three, and there we see the fall of man into sin. And then in chapter four, we see the effects of sin and the effects of the work of the devil, because that first child, Cain, killed his younger brother, Abel. And in the inspired commentary on all of that, the apostle John wrote in 1 John chapter 3, verse 12, that Cain was of the evil one. And what we have seen ever since that is that when God's word is not upheld, when God's word is not proclaimed, when God's word is not practiced, you will inevitably see the damaging effects in the family. That's right where we are today in our world. We need to get back to proclaiming and practicing God's word regarding the family. So, on this Father's Day, I've chosen to speak on Honor your father. It is a biblical command to honor your father, and it's one that we have to follow carefully. We have to think about it individually, because we all have a father. Everybody has a father. Doesn't matter who you are, you have a father. This command applies to you. We need to think about this nationally, because I'm sure we're all aware of all the issues with fathers in our culture. We hear a lot about fathers that are absent or abusive, or they are irresponsible, and that's the cause of many problems in our country, because we're not following God's plan. And it's been well documented, it gets a lot of attention, but I would suggest that one reason we have all these issues is because this foundational command to honor your father is not being followed. And growing up in a culture that doesn't honor fathers or even talk about honoring fathers, doesn't encourage anyone to take the responsibilities of being a father seriously. I'm old enough that I can remember there was once a very popular television program shown every week, coast to coast, in black and white, called Father Knows Best. There are a few old people here that remember that Father Knows Best. They're not producing shows like that today. Today, fathers are portrayed as incompetent, foolish, and emotionally disconnected from their families. We need to care about this, both individually and nationally. We need to care about this spiritually, because this affects my own spiritual life. Family is important to God, so it must be important to me, but we have a lot of family-related issues within the church. We're certainly not immune, and this highlights why. On this Father's Day, I thought it would be good to look at this command to honor your father. And certainly, we're talking about evangelism. We're talking about reaching people with the gospel. If you want to stand out and have a testimony in our world, have a family that is ordered by God's Word, that would look different and that would open opportunities to talk about the gospel. I'm afraid that this has become a forgotten command. A Forgotten command. It's just not talked about, it's not written about, it's not preached on, it's just forgotten. And I think that disrespecting dad has become a respectable sin. Some of you have read Jerry Bridges’ great book on respectable sins. He could add another chapter disrespecting dad, because it's just become expected. We expect people to disrespect their dad. So, let's look carefully at this command. And I want to read all ten of them. So, we're going to read Exodus 20:1-17. And I'd invite you to stand for the reading of God's Word. Exodus, chapter 20, starting in verse 1 and going down to verse 17, which says,
And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.
That's the reading of God's Word. Please be seated, and let's pray for our time in God's Word. Thank you, Lord, that we have your Word and that it is clear on this subject of family, because it's so important to you, and it's helpful for us to be reminded of these things, especially when we live in a culture that is giving such an opposing message, it's with such volume. And so, Lord, I pray you give us ears to hear what you have to say. And I pray that we might be encouraged to follow after your Word and to bring honor to you in the doing of that. For we pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
So, we're going to look at the fifth command here in Exodus 20:12 today. And I know that it says, Honor your father and your mother, I know that, but today is Father's Day, so we're just going to look at half of it today. If I get asked to speak next year on Mother's Day, we'll have part two of this sermon. But today we're going to talk about honoring your father. And as you think about that command, I want to show you three responses that we should have to this command.
The first response. And if you want to take notes, you could write this down. Number one would be, “Realize the Importance.” Realize the importance of this command. This is one of the ten Commandments that makes it significant right there. These ten Commandments are the foundation of a covenant that God's making with Israel through Moses. We call it the Mosaic Covenant. It's a covenant that was conditional, but it laid down the laws for them for living in the land that God was giving to them, and if they lived in the land and followed his laws, they'd be blessed and they'd live there a long time, as the command says, but if they don't, they're going to get removed. And if you know the history, you know that they didn’t, and they wound up getting removed. But it is one of the foundational commandments. All the rest of the law is built off of these ten, and all the prophets kept calling people back to these. So, this is a foundational commandment. And the very fact that honor your father is one of those commands should get our attention that God saw this as important as he's laying out the laws for his people. This is one of them, and it's noted by Jesus too. This command is repeated, quoted by Jesus. You can read it in Matthew 15:4, Matthew 19:19, and you can read it in the parallel passages in Mark and in Luke. Jesus saw this command as important. And in Ephesians 6:2-3, the apostle Paul points out that not only is this a commandment, but it's the first commandment with a promise. And so, they're doing everything to highlight the importance of this particular command. And so, if it's that important, it should be important to us, and not only the fact that it's on the list, but where it is on the list makes a difference. You know, this wasn't just put together willy nilly. There's a reason for why they are in the order that they are.
And a lot of people see the ten Commandments broken up into two units, and they would say the first four have to do with our vertical relationship with God, and then the next six have to do with our horizontal relationships with one another. And as you look at it, you can see where that makes sense. I understand that. And if that's the case, then Honor your father is the first command in that horizontal plane, and that makes it foundational to all the others. If you learn to honor your father, then you're going to be able to follow these other commands as well. And so that position there is important. But there's another way to look at the list of ten, and this is typically the way Jewish people, particularly Jewish scholars, have looked at it, and that is to include this fifth commandment with the first four and to see it as connected with our duties to God. Just like the first four talk directly about our duties to God, so does this one. And there are reasons why one main reason would be the wording, the way the command is stated. All of these first five commands give you a reason why you should keep this command, and they all include the words “the Lord your God.” So, if you read those first five commands, you'll see that in there, in fact, in this fifth one, the command is Honor your father and mother. The reason is that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. So, they see that connection there, even in the way it is worded. That is significant because it places it right alongside of those other duties that we have before God, and that tells us that you honor God by honoring your parents. You honor God by honoring your parents. And another thing that would help us to understand why that would be placed there is because parents are God's representatives in the home. It’s the responsibility of parents to pass on the truth about God to their children at home, and you can think of passages that talk about that. For example, in Deuteronomy 6:6-7 says these words that “I command you today shall be on your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your children.” And so that's one of our duties towards God is that we take in his Word and we pass it on within our family.
So, there are a lot of reasons here to consider the importance of this particular command because of where it is in the ten Commandments, and where it is in the order of the ten Commandments. It should get our attention. It's designed to attract our attention, and all of that is a positive way of saying that it's important. But there are also passages that talk about the importance of it by highlighting the negative of what happens if you don't keep this command. And so let me show you some of those to help us understand the importance of this. Over in Exodus 21:15, it says, “Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.” Strike your mother or father equals death penalty. That makes it sound like this is very serious, but this is not something you want to do. Verse 17 says, “Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death.” You might have said, okay, if I hit my dad, I could see that, but cursing him equals death penalty? Yeah, it's serious stuff. God says, Honor your Father. You're cursing him, God says you're deserving of the death penalty. Just to show you some others, Leviticus 20:9 says, “For anyone who curses his father, or his mother shall surely be put to death.” He has cursed his father or his mother, his blood is upon him. It's like what an outrageous thing that a child would do this, that they would curse their mother or their father. God sees this as incredibly important. In Deuteronomy 21:18-21 says, “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, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’” Which kind of lets you know we're not talking about three-year-olds here. We don't have three-year-olds getting drunk. Here's what happens, though, to this rebellious child, “then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones, so you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear and fear.” Well, I guess so, when you are rebellious towards your parents, God calls that evil, and it's something that needs to be dealt with seriously. This is just highlighting how can we read these verses about honoring your father and not think that they're important. In Deuteronomy27:16, it's talking about the time when they get into the land, they're to have some of the people stand on one mountain, Mount Gerizim, the other, stand on Mount Ebal and they're going to repeat the blessings and the cursings from God's law. And in verse 16, it says, “Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother, and all the people shall say, Amen.” That's an act of affirmation. Yeah, you cannot dishonor your parents.
So, this highlights the importance of this command from a negative way, by highlighting how seriously God says this should be dealt with. Let me show you some more. And turn to the Book of Proverbs. And I would say to any dad here, any mom too, you're wanting to teach your children the truth. You're wanting to give them wisdom for living in God's world. The Book of Proverbs should become your best friend, and you should use it because it's written like from a father to a son, and it covers every area of life, this should become your best friend. But look at what it says here in Proverbs 19:26. Proverbs, 19:26 says, “He who does violence to his father chases away his mother is a son who brings shame and reproach.” Shame and reproach, he does violence. It says there and obviously that could refer to physical violence toward his father, but it could also back then and today refer to legal violence against your father. That's a shameful thing to do. Proverbs 20:20 says, “If one curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out. In utter darkness he curses them.” He shows contempt towards them. He's certainly not respecting them. He's disrespecting them. The warning here is that this could lead to death, and by bringing in utter darkness, it could refer to the fact that this person could suffer eternal death because they're not wanting to honor God by honoring their parents. One more. Proverbs 30:17. This one's pretty graphic. Proverbs, 30 verse 17, says “The eye that mocks a father and scorns to obey a mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures.” It talks about the eye that mocks the Father. The eye, oftentimes in the Bible, is connected to your heart. It's like the window to your heart. And so, is the heart that is showing contempt or mocking the father, it's despising his authority. It's an act of extreme arrogance to mock a father, and it says that you're going to suffer a dishonorable death. That's the idea there. It's not saying watch out for ravens flying by. What it's a most dishonorable thing for a Jewish person would be to die and not be buried, to just be left out there on the ground and then the birds come by and feast on you. That would be a dishonorable way to die. And that's the warning that's being given here to those who would mock and disrespect and scorn their father.
These are serious things to think about. We need to take this command seriously. God does; I need to take it seriously. And I think this is important, because I think a lot of times nowadays, people see their dad in particular as an obstacle in their life. This dad thing isn't a good idea. He's more like an obstacle who's holding me back in my life. I once had a high school student to ask me, “So how old do I have to be before I stop having to listen to my dad.” I said, “You better watch out for ravens, kid. That is not the way you want to think about this.” God takes this seriously because family is important. We’ve got to take it seriously. You need to remember that when you honor your father, you are honoring God. That's one way that you show that you honor God is by honoring the people he tells you to honor, and that would include your father.
So, we need to realize the importance of this command, and then we need to, secondly, a second way to respond to this would be to “Respect the Command.” Respect the command, take it seriously and think through what it's saying and put it into practice. The command there in Exodus 20:12 is to honor your father and your mother. We need to take that seriously. So, we need to think through, well, what does that mean to honor my father? What would that look like to honor my father? And the word “honor” there is a translation of a common important Hebrew word Kavod, which means “to appreciate the weightiness or the glory of something.” It's sometimes used to refer to the glory of God. And so, we are to assign great worth and value to our father. That's what that's saying. Certainly don't want to take them lightly. You don't want to take them for granted. You are to honor them. There's another command given in Leviticus 19:3 that is similar, but it uses a different word, another important word. Leviticus 19:3 says “Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father.” “Revere” them, that sometimes translated fear. In fact, when you read “fear the Lord” in the Old Testament, this word fear, that's the word so it means to show them great honor and great respect. It would certainly include speaking respectfully to them and about them. If I'm going to honor my dad, if I'm going to revere my dad, I'm going to speak to him in a respectful way, and I'm going to speak about him in a respectful way. I'm going to treat him kindly. I'm going to treat him gently. I am going to treat him with dignity. That's a word we don't use much these days. We don't talk about dignity very much. But if I'm going to honor and revere my father, I should treat him with dignity, that certainly would include me praying for him that way, for me to honor him by praying for him and praying for his good. It would include living with him in an understanding way. You need to understand your dad is old, and he's getting older, and so more and more you're going to notice things he can't do anymore, and he doesn't remember some things anymore. Hey, live with some understanding with the guy, because you're going to be there someday, too. So, show him some understanding and believe the best about him. Don't be judging his motives. Shouldn't judge anybody's motives, but we seem to think that's okay with our dad, we are to believe the best about them. In 1 Corinthians, 13:7, it says “Love believes all things.” Yeah, you should give your dad the benefit of the doubt. Certainly, you can call him, you can visit him, be involved with him.
Here would be a simple definition. Honor is an attitude that is followed by actions that affirm that you love your dad, and you value him. It's an attitude that's followed by actions that affirm that you love him, and you value him. And this would include a stepdad. Some of you, that's what you know. You live with a stepdad that would include him. He's the dad in the house. Honor him. And this would include a father-in-law, because when you get married, you and your spouse become what? One. So now, you're a part of their family. That would include a father-in-law, and you have an obligation to him, and that is a significant area of conflict in laws, either his in laws or her in laws, or maybe in some cases, both sets. They are intrusive into your life in a way that's not appreciated or helpful in your marriage, you are still to value them and a little honor shown towards your stepfather could diffuse a lot of attention. It's a soft answer that turns away wrath, and so showing him honor could help with that relationship. If it is a difficult one, you should honor your father-in-law. When my dad got into his later years, he outlived my mom by fifteen years. Lived to be ninety-seven, and at ninety-one he was still beating my sons at golf. But so, he was doing pretty well, but as he got older, he needed some help from time to time. And so, because our kids were gone, Roberta would periodically fly from Texas, because my dad lived in Santa Barbara, and go spend a week with him, just helping him. And people in our church would ask, what? Why? Why is she? It's her father-in-law. Exactly. You're supposed to honor your father, and so that's what you do. But you have to understand that this is a lifetime commitment to honor your father. Yeah, when you're a kid living at home and they're feeding you and clothing you and taking care of you, you also have the obligation to obey them. But when you leave home, you don't have to. They're not telling you how to eat your green beans anymore, but you still have to honor them. That's a lifetime responsibility to honor your parents. There's no expiration date on this command, and we're going to see more about that in a minute, but I would suggest to you that even if they are dead, you still have a responsibility to honor them. My dad did die four years ago. I still need to honor him and honor his name and his reputation and his memory, I still need to speak respectfully about him, because he was my dad. And adult children are to care for their aging parents. Now, see, last night, all the aged people said, Amen, not very loud, because they're aged, but it was there. It was there.
In fact, turn with me to Mark chapter 7. Mark chapter 7 and starting in verse 9. This is an account where Jesus is dealing with the Pharisees, the ever-present Pharisees, and they were giving him a hard time because his disciples weren't keeping some of their traditions. And Jesus is correcting them, rebuking them regarding that. And this is the parallel passage to the Matthew 15 that I mentioned earlier, in verse 9, he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition.” For Moses said, honor your father and your mother, and whoever reviles father or Mother must surely die. But you say, if a man tells his father or his mother whatever you would have gained from me, that is given to God. Then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the Word of God by your tradition that you have handed down and many such things you do. That's a serious rebuke from Jesus. See, they were into their traditions. They were supposed to be the Bible believers of their day, but they had developed a tradition that sounds really spiritual. Everything I have is dedicated to God, so nobody gets it. It's all going to go to God. You know, I'm living off of it as much as I want, but whatever's left is going to go to God. I've already committed it. I can't give it to my parents or anybody else. Sounds really spiritual, but it's a convenient loophole to get out of caring for your parents. Apparently, Jesus thought that they should care about their older parents, and he's using this commandment to support that. This is a way you honor them. Even though you're an adult, they're aging. This is a way that you are to honor them. And today, there are Christians who use a similar loophole. They use spiritual sounding reasons, like, I'm too committed to church to go help my parents do anything, or all of all I've got is going to go to the church. Or, by the way, my parents are unbelievers. Why would I want to spend time with them? I've heard all of those. They sound good, sound spiritual, sound like you’ve got an excuse there. But Jesus would say, no, you're making void the Word of God. And as you can see, this honoring your older parents involves financial care.
Turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter 5. 1 Timothy 5 is the chapter that talks about caring for widows in the church and the responsibilities. And the church has a responsibility, but families have the first line of responsibility towards their parents, especially widows, and that would include a man or a woman. But it says in 1 Timothy 5:3-4, “honor widows who are truly widows,” that means they had no nobody else, no other way of support, nobody to take care of them. So church, you take care of them. But verse 4 says, “If a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents. For this is pleasing in the sight of God.” That's an amazing statement. Caring for an older parent is an act of godliness. You want to practice godliness? Well, show some care to your parents. And it's interesting the statement he makes there. This is a way to make some return. They invested in you when you were growing up. They took care of you when you couldn't take care of yourself. Now, here's a way to make some return on that investment by you caring for them, and he adds, “this is pleasing in the sight of God.” Well, I should want to do what's pleasing in the sight of God. This is one thing I can do. And go down to verse 8. This is still talking about taking care of widows in your family. And it says, “But if anyone does not provide,” and that word provide could be translated with the idea of planning ahead. In other words, you know your parents are going to get older, you know issues are going to come up, you should plan ahead to provide for them, to take care of them, whatever their needs might be. It says, “If anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for the members of his household, he has denied the faith worse than an unbeliever.” Yeah, even unbelievers do stuff like this, and it's the right thing to do, and for a Christian not to do it, well, you've denied the faith. Verse 16 adds this, “If anyone, if any believing woman, has relatives who are widows, let her care for them.” Let the church not be burdened. We do care about widows here. We do provide for them. We do want to meet their needs, but the first line of responsibility is with the family, because the church doesn't have unlimited resources, and we need to take care of the ones who have nothing. This is an important thing. We need to think through how to keep this command. We need to respect this command by understanding what it is saying and working through all of the implications and applications that would be associated with honoring my father. I need to think that all the way through, and I need to let the Bible direct me in thinking that all the way through.
Now, some of you are sitting here thinking, yeah, but you don't know my dad. I have a dishonorable dad. And that may be true, but there is no qualification to the command. It doesn't say, honor your father, unless, or honor your father, except. It just says, honor your father. Honor your father. So, let's think about, well, how would I do that? How would I honor a dishonorable father? Well, you certainly could maintain an attitude that's ready to forgive. There might need to be some reconciliation there in that relationship. You should be all for that. You should be all about wanting to reconcile my relationship with my dad and be ready to forgive him in pursuing that. That should be your prayer, that your relationship could be reconciled. And maybe even there's a need for salvation in this situation, that should be your earnest prayer. Now, that should be what you're living for. 1 Corinthians 13:7 says, “Love hopes all things, as long as they are breathing, you should be desiring reconciliation with the man who is your father.” That'd be a way of honoring, showing honor to him. Now, he may not want you to honor him. He may not want to reconcile with you. That's his decision. But as far as it depends on you, I'm all about wanting to reconcile here.
You know, you've got to think this through and think eternally about this. My in-laws, I mean, just to put it plainly, they weren't too excited that I was marrying their daughter. They thought their daughter was making a huge mistake, and they let everybody know that, including me, that I was kind of unwanted. And the early years of our marriage were difficult because of the relationship with them. It's probably more difficult for my wife because she's ashamed of her parents for some of the things that they're doing, but it was a very difficult thing. They started to like me a little bit better when we gave them grandchildren. That helped. So, you might want to consider that option, that seemed to help, you know. Now they had grandchildren that they could dote on, but you know, we made a commitment to honor our parents. That was something early on, because we both came from unbelieving families. We wanted to make sure that we understood what it meant to honor our parents, and both of her parents, in their eighties, within two years of dying, came to know Christ. So, you never know. You’ve got to be hopeful that God can work in this situation, and you have to trust God. He chose your dad. Now maybe if you'd had a vote, you wouldn't have voted for this guy, but you didn't get a vote. God sovereignly gave you your father for his purposes, and he did it for his glory and for your good. Trusting God means that God can even use this dishonorable dad for my spiritual good. That doesn't mean you're going to approve of everything he's done or is doing. It doesn't mean that you support everything he's doing. It doesn't mean you're going to agree with everything he's saying or doing, but it does mean you're going to show him love and honor every way you can, as often as you can. So, that would mean you pray for him, and you pray seriously for him, you pray for his good and you do good to him. Bible says, “don't return evil for evil, but do good and give a blessing instead.” And I know, are any of you reading through scripture of the day? Are we Reading 1 Samuel right now? Tomorrow, we come to chapter 24 and there's this evil king named Saul who wants to kill David. Have you heard of this story? He wants to kill David, and in chapter 24 David and his men are hiding in a cave, and Saul comes wandering in there. I mean, this is a setup. David could take his life easily, and all of his men would have been all in on that. He didn't have the highest quality guys following him. But anyways, they just said, you're justified. This is self-defense. Take him out. We would do well to listen to how David handles that situation and how he talks to Saul, the respect that he shows for this man who wants to kill him. And in fact, in verse 11, you're going to see that he calls Saul father. And oh, yeah, by the way, Saul wasn't just the king. Saul was his father-in-law. It would be a great help for many of us in dealing with a difficult father to see how David handles that. With Saul, you don't have to wait till tomorrow. You could read it today, if you want, but you're going to see that in 1 Samuel 24 now, you know some of us, some of you, have wonderful Christian fathers, and that is a great blessing. Amen. And you don't want to ever, ever, take that for granted? You might think, well, he doesn't need any help from me. I mean, he's got a wonderful walk with the Lord. Things are going good in his life. He's having a fruitful life, and he's got life insurance and all kinds of other ways, he's got Medicare. He doesn't need any financial help from me. You know, everything is going well for him, and that may be totally true. He may not need anything from you, but he loves you, and he would love to spend time with you, just to spend time with you, his child that he loves, he would want to spend time with you. So don't neglect him. Don't think, well, there's all these millions of people out here that aren't saved. I’ve got to give my attention to them. No, if you have a dad like that, you should be involved with him and care about him. You need to honor your father. And you need to teach this to your children. We need to teach this to our children. And so how do you do that? How do you teach children that they're supposed to honor their fathers? Well, here's something revolutionary. Teach them the Bible, because you're going to bump into all over the place, commands to obey the authorities in your life, including mom and dad, and you need to teach them that the Bible is the authority, it does come from God, that it is sufficient. It covers all of life, and it is powerful. It can lead you to salvation. It can tell you about a Savior who is the Son of God, who died and rose again. Everybody who trusts in him has eternal life and an abundant life. We need to teach them the Bible. And it is so fun teaching the Bible to children, because they take everything literally, very literally. And so, I remember teaching our boys that, you know, we would read the Bible and it says, love your brother. And you could just see them looking at the guy, “This guy” and, you mean, love these guys? And I let them ride with that as long as we could, because I figured if they could learn to love those two guys, everything else will be easy. Teach them the Bible. But more than that, be an example. Be an example.
How do you honor the people that you're supposed to honor? How are you honoring your boss or honoring government leaders or the police or church leaders? And you know men in 1 Peter 3:7 are supposed to say, you're supposed to show honor to your wife. You want your children to learn what it looks like to show honor. Show them by how you honor their mother, your wife, and certainly you could show them what it means to honor your dad, by the way you honor your dad. Now, if you sit around the table at dinner time and all you do is complain about this person and that person and the other person. Don't be surprised when your kids grow up complaining about you, because where did they learn it? They learned it at the table with their dad. So, dads be worthy of honor. Now, your kids should honor you whether you're worthy or not, but let's give them a break and live a worthy life. Let me read to you Proverbs, chapter 17 and verse 6. Proverbs 17:6 talks about the importance, the value of having an honorable father. It says, “Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers.” Children are blessed by having an honorable father, and so dads, you should prioritize godliness in your own life. You should be pursuing and practicing godliness in your life so that you provide a worthy example for them. And you should be practicing a life of love, love for their mother, love for them, love for people in the church. Show them what it means to live that kind of life. And if you need help with that, you will look around and follow the best models that you can find in the church of guys that are honorable, worthy fathers. The one thing you can't do, the one thing you shouldn't do, the one thing you must never, ever do, is demand that they honor you, that that's on them to honor you. It's up to you to live an honorable life. It's up to them whether they're going to honor you or not. Now, certainly, if they disobey you, you need to deal with that, but you're not going to demand, may the earth open up and swallow you alive if you ever demand that your kids honor you, that's not your place to do that.
So, there's a lot to think through on this whole thing of honoring my father, all these things that we could think through, and we could explore these a lot further and develop it a lot more. Hey, I've done this sermon two times. Of both times people said, Well, what about this? You forgot about that? Okay, I told you there could be a lot more. So, I'm glad you thought of it, but we need to think it all the way through.
And there's one last response, one last response. And it comes by looking again at the verse there in Exodus 20:12, because it says, “Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord, your God, is giving you.” So, the third response would be, “Receive the blessing.” God promises a blessing to those who honor their father. It's the first command with a promise. Now this Exodus 20, it's a statement made to the Jewish people as they're entering into the land. It's part of the covenant that God's making with Israel regarding the land, but the fact that Paul repeats this to a largely Gentile church shows that there's a blessing for all who honor their father. They're going to receive the fullness of God's blessing, not in receiving the land or living long in the land like Israel would, but they will see something. We don't know how it might be manifest, but you can believe that God's going to honor it. If honoring your father is a way to honor God, then we can remember the words of God in 1 Samuel 2:30, where it says that “God honors those who honor him.” So, you honor God by honoring your father, God will honor that in your life. And, by the way, those words in 1 Samuel 2 were spoken by a prophet, a man of God, and they were addressed to Eli, the priest, who was an irresponsible dad. And this idea of receiving a blessing, God honoring those who honor him, for some that may explain the blessings in your life despite weaknesses you have in other areas of your life, God is recognizing and honoring the fact that you are honoring him by honoring your father. Or for some of you, this could explain the difficulties that you're facing in your life because you're not honoring God at this most foundational level of honoring your father. Could explain why things aren't going so good for you and your life, and even for others. If you've got a hatred for your dad, a bitterness towards your dad, and you're just overall neglecting him, that may be revealing that you don't even know God. If that's the case, and that certainly would have been the case of the Pharisees that Jesus was dealing with. And remember, they were good people. They were Bible people. They were serious about following the Lord. If a Pharisee came to church here today, you would think they were a great person. And him, and there could be Pharisees here today who are making void the Word of God because they're not wanting to do what he commands. Well, the good news is you can be reconciled to God, because he did send his Son to die for sinners, and everybody who trusts in him will be forgiven of all their sins forever, and they will stand justified before God, and that he will welcome you into his family, and you can know him as your heavenly Father. That's what we call a good deal. And he will give you a new heart and a new kind of a life that will allow you to love and honor your earthly father. God commands us to honor our father. He commands us to do that. I trust that just this brief time that we've had here today has helped you to realize the importance of this and to respect the keeping of this command, and gives you the desire for the blessing that God gives to those who honor their fathers. So, think of all the ways that you can honor your father, and not just today. I'm not just talking about one day a year. I'm talking about honor him all the time. Think of all the ways and on your worksheet on the backside, one of the application questions is list ten ways that you can honor your father. My guess is you can come up with a list of ten.
I was talking to one of my grandsons last night who are learning about honoring their father in kids’ ministry, and I told him about this list of ten ways. He goes, “well, they didn't tell us to do that.” Okay, I'm telling you all to do this. I'm asking, I'm not telling. I'm asking, asking you to think carefully about how to honor your father. The Lord will honor that commitment. He will honor that commitment. Because if you commit to honoring your father as a way of honoring God, then that is for his glory, and it's for your good, amen. Amen. Let's pray.
Father, we are thankful that we have your Word and it is so clear on a subject that has become so confused in our world. And Lord, I pray that you would help us to think this all through, about exactly what you're saying, about how important this is, and how we might apply it in our own lives, no matter what our situation is or who our dad is, that we would want to honor you by honoring our fathers. And Lord, I pray particularly for the dads here in the room, Lord, that you would encourage them, and that they would know that they see what you're doing as valuable as a father, and that they would want to live that godly life. They would want to set an example. They would want to be a worthy example for their children to follow, and I pray that you would encourage them, strengthen them to do that. We know it, it's hard. There are lots of challenges to doing that in our day, but I pray, Lord, that you'll give wisdom and strength to be able to do that, so that your name will be honored. And not only will the men here today be men who are worthy of honor, but that we would raise up a whole generation of future dads who would be worthy of honor, and it would be for your glory. It would be a testimony to the power of the gospel. So, Lord, we pray that you would do this for your glory and for our good, and we pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.