Sunday Sermon: Children Obey Your Parents, Parents Teach Your Children (Ephesians 6:1-4)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament, and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series, presently going through the book of Ephesians. Here's Pastor Gabe.

Ephesians 6, starting in verse 1, children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.

Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.

Fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and the instruction of the

Lord. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you again for this great morning as we open up your word and read your scriptures and receive these instructions.

We as parents find ourselves weak and unable to accomplish the task of raising up children in the fear of God.

We need the Holy Spirit to empower us and give us the strength to know your word and pass it on to another generation.

May we have a desire to see children grow up and walk in righteousness and instruct us and discipline us in that task as we as parents see it set forth before us.

And it's in the name of Christ that we pray and all God's people said, amen. Thank you.

You may be seated. So as David already mentioned, I went and saw Michael W. Smith last night.

I know I made a Smitty reference in the sermon last week and I try not to double up on my references, but what can

I say? I'm a fan. So we went and saw this concert last night. It was 33, 32 years ago that I met him for the first time.

I was four years old and sat on Michael W. Smith's knee. And so for my son to then meet him and my kids,

I didn't try to brainwash them with the music that I grew up loving. They just liked his songs.

And so when this opportunity came up to go see a concert of his in Wichita, then of course I had to get tickets and take them down.

It was kind of a combined birthday present, part for Zieg and part for Annie since the concert fell right between their birthdays.

The first song that he opened with was Go West, Young Man, a hit that he wrote back in 1990.

So you got to imagine he's had this song for a long time and he's sung it lots and lots of times. We were sitting on the second row and he comes out, the crowd's cheering, you know, he sits down at his keyboard and he's got an iPad right there in the middle of the keyboard.

So sitting on the second row, we can see everything, like where Michael's eyes go and stuff like that.

And I noticed something as we're watching him do this song, I'm like, this guy's reading the lyrics. He's looking down at that iPad and he's reading the lyrics to this song that he's had for like almost 30 years.

It was hilarious to me. I thought it was so funny that he had to read the lyrics to his own song.

But that got me to thinking later, this guy's got a library of hits, 35 years in the making.

And you've done the song enough times, but you've also got all these other songs that you've been doing. And so you're prone to forget a little bit.

I would be the same way. So as we come into this today, as we're going to be talking about parenting, some of you are very seasoned parents.

Some of you might be newer parents. Some of you have been doing this for a long time and you've even figured out you're going to parent one child differently than you're going to parent another child.

And as you continue this road of parenting, sometimes you're prone to forget a few things and you need a few reminders.

So what we're going to be looking at today, some of which might be new information for you, some of which might be information you've heard even a dozen times, but perhaps you've forgotten it.

And then for the rest of us, some of this information is just a refresher. We need this reminder because we're weak in flesh and because the

Bible is 750 ,000 words. And so sometimes when we direct our focus on a particular subject, we need a reminder of some of these things as we come to understand this instruction given to children and also to parents.

We're going to look at the passage first, and then I'm going to walk you through Scripture as we look at some key Bible passages regarding parenting or how to direct those passages toward instructions for parents.

So we see in Ephesians chapter six, verse one, a very short section that we're looking at today compared to sections we've looked at the last few weeks.

We start with children, children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Now remember in context of what we're reading here, the instruction that we got in verse 21,

I'm sorry, Ephesians five, verse 21, is that we should submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

And then Paul follows that with three contexts to demonstrate submission to one another out of reverence for Christ.

The first one we have is wives submit to your own husbands. Now I'll tell you at Bible study this past Thursday, as the folks came over to enjoy some good food and some good

Bible study, Will came in and as he's getting food together for the kids, he said, you know, Gabe, you could have done just a very short sermon this past Sunday.

You could have just said, okay, Ephesians five, 22 wives submit to your own husbands. Now let's pray ladies.

I'll let you decide if you want to keep Will as the treasurer of the church after that. But we have that as the first instruction that is their wives submit to your own husbands as to the

Lord. But then we follow that up in verse 25 with a husband's submission to Christ.

Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.

That's the first context that we have there regarding wives and husbands. The second context is what we're looking at today.

Children submit to your parents. Again, this is in light of submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. But then we have the instruction to fathers to submit to Christ.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and the instruction of the

Lord. Same pattern that we saw in Ephesians 5, 22 through 33, we now have at the start of chapter six with the second context following that instruction to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Children, obey your parents. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and the instruction of the

Lord. And notice here that Paul is quoting from Exodus chapter 20.

It's the Ten Commandments. Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and your mother.

And in parentheses, we have this is the first commandment with a promise. And then he gives that promise, that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.

This is the first commandment in what is referred to as the second table of the law.

It's very easy to divide up the Ten Commandments into two tables. The first four commandments is the first table of the law.

This is what we refer to as the vertical commandments, because they address our relationship with God.

What's the first commandment? I am the Lord your God. You will have no other gods before me.

That's commandment number one. Commandment number two, do not raise up a graven image. In other words, don't worship the created things.

Worship the creator. Number three, do not take the name of the

Lord your God in vain. You will honor the name of the Lord. Jesus, when he taught us how to pray, how does that prayer begin?

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Exalting in reverence the holy name of God. That's the third commandment.

The fourth commandment, honor the Sabbath and keep it holy. And there is a

Sabbath rest for all believers. Our rest is in Christ Jesus. And we honor that Sabbath rest every

Sunday when we gather as the saints lifting up praises to our God. And remembering this day,

Sunday, the first day of the week, referred to in the New Testament as the Lord's day, for it is the day of the week that our

Lord Christ rose from the dead. So there's our first four commandments, all having to do with our relationship with God.

The next six commandments are horizontal commandments. They have to do with our relationship with one another.

And commandment number five, the first commandment in that list of horizontal commands is this, honor your father and your mother.

And it's the first commandment with a promise. God, looking at Israel from Mount Sinai, commandment number one,

I'm God, you don't get another one. God, do we get a promise with that?

No, do it. Honor the Lord your God. Commandment number two, don't raise up a graven image.

Don't worship that image. Do we get a promise with that one? No, obey it.

Commandment number three, do not blaspheme the name of God. Do we get a promise with that one,

God? My name is holy, do it. Commandment number four, honor the

Sabbath. Any promise with that one? Hang on. Commandment number five, with that one you get a promise.

Honor your father and your mother so that it may go well with you in the land that the

Lord your God is giving you. When you go to Romans chapter one and you read the doctrine that the

Apostle Paul lays out, demonstrating the fallenness of a depraved culture, this is a verse we're gonna get to here in just a moment, but one of those things that Paul shows as a sign of a depraved culture that the

Holy Spirit shows us in this passage is that a people who are depraved, a people who have turned away from God to the passions of their flesh, they dishonor their mother and their father.

They care not for a previous generation and they care not for a future generation.

They care about themselves, their own licentiousness, their own passions and their own flesh.

That is the sign of a fallen culture when mother and father are no longer being respected.

And you see it in our culture. If you listen to the briefing just once a week, you will hear

Albert Moeller cover some stories in that particular episode of the briefing that might have to do with either abortion or euthanasia.

And you see in those two things demonstrated our culture's lack of reverence for the future generation through abortion or a previous generation through euthanasia.

And we see this culture going more and more in this direction of rebellion against God instead of cherishing life that God has given to us that has been made in the very image of God.

And so you see in this command that we have here, an acknowledgement and a respect and an honor of a previous generation.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right and a planning and a training up for the future generation.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the discipline and the instruction of the

Lord. And if we will do this, God will honor whatever system of government that we have set up because we have a people that understand that persons are made in the image of God and we're honoring the past and looking toward the future and God will bless that obedience.

But we as a culture are falling further and further away from this with children dishonoring their parents and even parents themselves not training up and disciplining their children.

Where I wanna go next from here is I wanna go through some passages of scripture and I've laid out 40.

This is actually a sermon that I've done before. It was when we were in Colossians chapter three and there was one very simple verse there about children obeying your parents and then the next verse, fathers raise up your children in the training and the instruction of the

Lord. Just like we have here in four verses in Ephesians six, it's narrowed down to two verses in Colossians three.

When I preached in Colossians three six years ago, I went through 40 passages of scripture to help with instruction on honoring parents and raising up children.

And I wanna come back to those 40 verses today. Now I'm gonna go through this rather quickly because I've only got 30 minutes basically left in my sermon.

So I'd have to spend less than a minute on each passage. But if in going through these quickly, you want these verses that I lay out for you, here's what

I will do for you. On the blog tomorrow, I'll go ahead and post all 40 verses. In addition to what

I'm putting in the blog, this is eventually gonna become a book but that's about two or three months away. So you have to wait a little bit longer for that one.

But let's look at these passages together. I'll quote the reference for you and then give you the verse and an explanation or an understanding of this.

Now I'm gonna go in biblical order. So if you think you can keep up with me, you're welcome to flip through in your

Bible. Let's start in Genesis chapter two, verses 22 through 24, very second chapter of the

Bible. Genesis chapter two, starting in verse 22. And the rib that the

Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

Then the man said, this is at last bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh.

Now that doesn't have to do with parenting. That has to do with marriage. Why would I start a series of Bible passages on parenting with that one in Genesis two, which we actually quoted and read last week when we were in Ephesians chapter five, verses 22 through 33.

Paul even references that in that particular section. So why would I come back to that? Because my friends, this is the foundation of family.

Family begins with a man and a woman. Family doesn't begin with children.

That's the fruit of the relationship between the man and the woman. But family should begin with a husband and a wife.

And that ideal marriage should be built on a foundation of Christ. So as we're talking about family, that's really the best place to start with an understanding of a husband and a wife united together in covenant fellowship for life.

And the fruit of the love that they have will be demonstrated with children.

Now that is not a definition that you're gonna get from the culture. The culture will not tell you that that is the definition of marriage.

The culture is gonna tell you something about love and feelings and two people who like each other can live together and hang out and watch movies together.

I don't, whatever the culture is. Whatever the culture is saying. Nancy Percy wrote a book called

Love Thy Body, answering hard questions about love and sexuality. On page 246, she talked about how in 2008,

California voters passed Proposition 8 that defined marriage as being between a man and a woman. But then in 2010,

US District Court Judge Vaughn Walker overturned Proposition 8, ruling it unconstitutional.

In response to this, Nancy Percy says the following. When Judge Vaughn Walker overturned

California's Proposition 8, he defined marriage as quote, the state recognition and approval of a couple's choice to live with each other, to remain committed to one another and to form a household based on their own feelings about one another, unquote.

The judge did not even say that sex and procreation are one of the purposes of marriage.

They are off his list entirely. He defined marriage as a choice based solely on feelings.

The problem with this definition is that it could apply to committed roommates or polygamous unions or multiple other combinations or permutations.

This is an unbelievably insipid definition of marriage. It does not explain what makes marriage different from other emotional commitments.

Nor can it explain why marriage makes distinctive demands on us such as faithfulness, exclusivity and permanence.

Other relationships don't make those demands. Why should marriage? Yet this is the definition of marriage the

Supreme Court wrote into the law of the land in the Obergefell decision, which legalized gay marriage.

And in the process, it has undermined marriage for everyone. After all, how strong is a contract based on a purely emotional connection considering how our emotions fluctuate and change?

We are losing a public ethic that puts backbone into people's private comments.

The culture's definition of marriage is not strong enough to sustain a marriage. It's not even strong enough to define a marriage as being different than any other relationship.

Which is why we need a biblical definition of marriage, which is unchanging and is not based on everybody's fluctuating feelings.

But rather it is grounded upon truth that God has created the marriage. And he has created marriage to be a picture of the relationship that Christ has with his church.

That was the way we concluded the sermon last week. And my friends, even that relationship between Christ and his church, that relationship is also fruitful.

For in the relationship that we have with Christ, how do we produce fruit from that? We go out with the gospel and more people believe the gospel and become adopted into the family of God through faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We are fruitful and multiplying, even spiritually through the preaching of the gospel of Christ, amen?

Does that make sense? So even that marriage between Christ and his church is fruitful and producing.

And so with marriage being a picture of the relationship that Christ has with his church, the marriage should also be fruitful and multiply.

Genesis 1, 27 to 28, so God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him.

Male and female, he created them. And God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.

That commandment, which was given in Genesis 1, is no different today. The command is still there to be fruitful and multiply.

Now, some of you are beyond childbearing years. I'm not telling you that you're somehow not honoring your marriage properly if you're not having children and multiplying.

But if you are young and you can have children, then you should.

My wife and I are parents of four, and God willing, we would be parents of more.

But we've lost children, even in these nine years that we have been married.

But the Lord will bless and honor a marriage that is built upon Christ, and may it be fruitful and multiply, not just producing children, but even raising up those children in the instruction and the goodness of God.

Bode Bauckham has said, do you wanna keep yourself from being wiped out and obliterated and irrelevant in a culture of changing definitions that's trying to change the definition of marriage and family?

You wanna keep yourself from being wiped out by them? Outbreed them. And the sounds, the accompaniment that I have to this today, squeaking children, that's beautiful.

I love it. Because my own children can carry on, and some of you know that. You've heard them in services before.

Okay, so that's verse number one, and that took me about seven or eight minutes to get through that. So we're on a roll here.

Verse number two is Exodus chapter 10 verses one and two. Exodus 10 verses one and two.

The Lord said to Moses, go into Pharaoh for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how

I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them that you may know that I am the

Lord. God is telling Moses what he is going to do in this plan that he has to free the

Israelites from slavery and captivity in Egypt. And he says, watch what

I'm gonna do, and when you see it, tell it to your children and to your grandchildren that they may know that I am the

Lord. Mom and dad, grandpa and grandma, it is our job.

It is our responsibility to pass on to another generation the wonders and the works of God and what he has done and everything that is laid out for us here in the pages of scripture.

Deuteronomy 4 .9, only take care and keep your soul diligently lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen unless they depart from your heart all the days of your life.

Make them known to your children and to your children's children. You know, this instruction speaks of regularity.

We don't just pass it on to our kids, but we do it on a regular basis because of how weak we are in the flesh and how prone we are to forgetfulness.

Every day, we should find something to pass on to our kids. And I'll get to that here in just a moment.

This is verse number three, Exodus 20, 12, which we've already quoted to some degree this morning.

Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. What is that?

That's commandment number five. That's in the 10 commandments. That's God speaking to Israel from Mount Sinai.

And we have that instruction in Exodus 20, 12. The next one is Exodus 34, six through seven.

This is the Lord passing before Moses on Mount Sinai. And as he's passing before Moses, he is describing himself.

This is how God defines himself. Exodus 34, six and seven.

The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.

That's how God defines himself as he is passing before Moses. He keeps steadfast love for thousands of generations.

He forgives iniquity and transgression and sin, but he will not clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.

Now, this is not talking about generational sins. This doesn't mean fathers, if you've sinned, well, your son is gonna have to pay for your sin.

That's not what that's meaning. But rather, if you neglect to teach the truth about God to the future generation, they're not gonna know it and they won't pass it on to their children because they didn't know it from the previous generation.

If we want our children to understand the gospel, we have to teach them the gospel. The forgiveness of sins and everlasting life is found by faith in Jesus Christ.

Deuteronomy 6, four through nine. This is verse number five now. Deuteronomy 6, four through nine.

This is kind of like the quintessential parenting passage that we have here in Deuteronomy 6.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the

Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

You shall teach them diligently to your children and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise.

You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

What is this passage instructing us in here? Know the word of God, teach it to your children and use every opportunity that you have to teach them.

Are you a sports family? You do football together, volleyball, tennis, whatever it is? Use that as metaphors to teach the truth about God to your kids.

I like to go to museums with my kids. I remember one museum that we went to was giving a display on biology and anytime you go to some secular museum, unless you're going to the

Creation Museum, this museum's gonna tell you about how we've evolved over billions of years from a little protoplasm in a primordial pool, however many hundreds of millions of years ago.

And so that's what we had in this particular display and Annie's standing there going, they're so ridiculous, look at this.

How could they believe this? And we evolved from a little single cell, that's silly. There were a couple of guys in there that heard her saying that and they're kind of like, well, let's avoid that crazy fundamentalist, like walking around trying to go another way.

But that was a great opportunity there with that display to talk to my kids about, so how do we know where we came from?

We were created by God, who created us from the dust of the ground, who breathed his own breath into the man and gave him life.

We've been created in the image of God. And so I take those opportunities to share truth of God's word with my children.

Last night, of course, we went to this concert. Michael W. Smith had a preacher along with him on the road that kind of shared some things at intermission and I'm used to this at Christian concerts, been hearing it almost my entire life, but it was a very man -centered gospel.

In fact, at one point, the preacher said, what's the most valuable treasure that there is?

Human souls, that's the most valuable treasure. And he goes to scripture and he reads out of Matthew, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.

And somehow he connected human souls to that. Like we store up human souls as treasures in heaven.

I'm like, no, that's not what that passage means. You go further in Matthew chapter six and it says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things will be added to you as well.

And so after he got done preaching, this very man -centered message, which included feeding the hungry, because they were kind of doing a pitch for feed the hungry,

I think that was the name of the ministry. And after he got done and we're hitting our intermission, I leaned over to my kids, to Annie and Zeej, and I said to them,

I looked them in the eye, I said, what is the greatest treasure? And they said, Christ.

I said, right. That's the greatest treasure, not human souls. It's not that we devalue humanity, but our greatest value is

Christ. He is the most valuable thing. In Colossians chapter one, Paul says, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in Christ.

So he is our greatest treasure. Yes, we are to show love and kindness to one another, absolutely, but why do we do that?

Because Christ commanded us to, because he loved us. And so therefore we must love one another.

That's why we do that, not because a human soul is the highest priority. That wasn't even

Christ's highest priority. Philippians 2 .11, he did all things to the praise and glory of God the

Father. Yes, he died for our sins. Yes, he gave his life for us.

But he did this ultimately to the praise of God, not to the praise of man. And so even that last night was something that I could share with my kids and help them to understand our greatest treasure is

Christ. So these are opportunities that we have to teach the truth of God to a future generation.

And that's the instruction that we have there in Deuteronomy 6, four through nine. Verse number six now,

Deuteronomy 11, one through three. You shall therefore love the Lord your

God and keep his charge, his statutes, and his commandments always.

And consider today, since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it, consider the discipline of the

Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his outstretched arm. This is being addressed to the group of Israelites that are going into the promised land.

This is the generation that survived the judgment upon those who were the grumblers and complainers.

They had to wander around in the desert for 40 years until that generation died. And now the younger generation is the one that's gonna be going into the promised land.

But still a generation that saw the things that happened in the wilderness. So it's being addressed to them.

I'm not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it. I'm telling you, consider the discipline of the

Lord your God, the discipline that he gave to you when you were wandering in the desert because of your grumbling against God, and pass on an understanding of the discipline and love of God to the next generation.

The Lord disciplines those he loves. We have in Hebrews chapter 12. And so we likewise as parents must discipline those we love.

Verse number seven, Deuteronomy 30, 19. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse.

Therefore choose life that you and your offspring may live. That instruction to choose life that often gets used as a pro -life verse, right?

But there's a meta -narrative that's even greater than just narrowing this down to like a pro -life slogan.

To choose life means to choose the righteous things that God is instructing you to walk in.

To choose death means to instead do those things that you choose to do, not to pursue peace and rebellion against God, but chasing after the passions and the lusts of your flesh.

That will lead to death and judgment. But pursuing righteousness in Christ leads to life everlasting.

Verse number eight, Psalm 27, nine through 10. Forsake me not,

O God of my salvation, for my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the

Lord will take me in. I mentioned last week as we were talking about marriage that it might be difficult for some of you because you grew up in broken homes.

So it's difficult to hear sermons about marriage or about parenting when you did not have that kind of example set before you.

But I urge you, don't carry those things into your marriage. Don't carry those hurts and those scars from things that you were not privileged to receive and then impress those things upon your children.

Rather, resolve yourself today to fear the Lord your God and instruct your kids in the love of God.

If you have a mother or a father who has forsaken you, I tell you, the

Lord your God is your father. Verse number nine, Psalm 71, five through six, and verses 17 through 18.

For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth.

Upon you, I have leaned from before my birth. You are he who took me from my mother's womb.

My praise is continually of you. O God, from my youth you have taught me and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.

So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.

If you are here today, God has, and are you here today? Yes, all right, rhetorical question.

If you are here today, you have been specifically placed here by God to hear the gospel.

Praise God for that. And it is not arrogant, it is not prideful for you to praise

God and say, God, thank you for putting me in a place where I could hear the gospel of God and believe it.

But now that you've been recruited into the army of God, now that you have been adopted into his family, you have become part of the plan to take the gospel to those who have yet to hear it.

So praise God that you've heard it, but now you must take it to others who need to hear it.

Psalm, verse number 10, Psalm 78, one through four. Give ear,

O my people, to my teaching. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known that our fathers have told us.

We will not hide them from their children, but tell it to the coming generation, the glorious deeds of the

Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done. Verse 11, this is

Psalm 103, 17 and 18. But the steadfast love of the

Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.

That's a song we sing. I just had to do that. It's straight from Psalm 103, 17 and 18.

It was a song that was written by the Spencer family, which we had here back in August, if you remember them. So we like to sing that song in the car.

I wasn't planning on doing that, but we got to the end of that verse and I couldn't help it. Thanks for humoring me, kids.

Psalm 127, three through five. This is verse number 12. Psalm 127, three through five.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb, a reward.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them.

He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. This is counter -cultural.

Like all you have to do is go to Facebook and you see the comments on anybody's Facebook page when they announce they're having another baby and it's more than two.

Baby number three is on the way, right? Or baby number four or five.

Any number that's higher than two. So what do you see in the comments section on Facebook when you see stuff like that?

Hey, you know where babies come from? You guys know how that happens? Three, oh my goodness, when are you guys gonna stop?

Have you seen those comments before? That's the way our culture thinks about a large family.

And praise God for the Kurestins expecting another one. And we've had big families here. The Hadley family, you remember them?

The LaCour family. I think the LaCour family has like 11 or 12 now. I still talk with Joe every once in a while, but they're adopting.

So Joe and Beth aren't having any more kids. They're just like bringing new kids into the flock. They're adopting kids and teaching them the gospel.

Those are beautiful things. And we should never scoff at that. We should praise and celebrate that.

But you'll hear this every once in a while. I even hear this from pastors sometimes. They thought they were expecting, but then it turned out to be a false positive and they weren't.

And they'll say something like, whoo, dodged a bullet there. No, no, we celebrate and rejoice in life that God has privileged us this opportunity to raise up children and enjoy parenting.

Parenting's hard, but you got some help. And rejoice in God and your parenting.

I said that last week in the focus of the sermon regarding marriage was to honor

God with your marriage. Honor God with your parenting. Verse number 13, it's

Proverbs 1, eight through nine. Hear my son, your father's instruction and forsake not your mother's teaching for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.

Now we come back to the children, obey your parents and the Lord for this is right portion of the passage today. Listen to your father's instruction.

Obey it. Fathers have instruction to pass on. Verse number 14,

Proverbs 13, 24. Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.

Another counter -cultural thing. The culture's gonna tell you that spanking is child abuse. You know what the

Bible says about that? Proverbs 23, 13, do not withhold discipline from a child.

If you strike him with a rod, he will not die. But rather, Proverbs 22, 15, folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.

Spanking's a godly thing. But don't do it, don't do it in anger. Do it because you're instructing your child in goodness and explain to them why they're getting punished.

Not because you're mad, but because you wanna direct them in the truth. Tell them what you did was wrong and this is gonna be painful for you so that you will learn that it's wrong and you won't do it again.

And Hebrews 12 says, the discipline that we receive is painful in the time that we've received it, but it yields fruitfulness and righteousness to those who pay attention to it.

Do not withhold discipline from your child. Proverbs 17, six, this is verse 15 now.

I know I'm like adding a whole extra ton of verses in here. Verse number 15, Proverbs 17, six, grandchildren are the crown of the aged and the glory of children is their father's.

And all the grandparents said, amen. All the grandparents said, amen.

Verse number 16, train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

That's Proverbs 22, six. Verse number 17, because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.

That's Ecclesiastes 8, 11. So further in these instructions to discipline your kids and raise them up in the training and the instruction of the

Lord, if you hesitate to do that, they'll incline themselves to evil. If you don't show them that there are consequences to bad behavior, they set their hearts toward evil instead of righteousness.

Psalm 119 to go along with this, verse 60, I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments.

Let me give you an example of how we as parents sometimes reinforce delaying obedience in our kids.

Come here right now, I'll give you to the count of five. Five, four, why ain't your kid coming?

Because they know they can wait until one. There's more numbers on that hand. You're teaching your kids to delay obedience when you do that.

Obey now, don't have a heart that is set to do evil, but love to do what is good.

Verse number 18, Ecclesiastes 12, one. Remember also your creator in the days of your youth before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say,

I have no pleasure in them. Life gets hard. Know God and teach it to your kids when they're young.

Verse 19, Ezekiel 16, 20 through 22. And you took your sons and your daughters whom you had born to me and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured.

Were your whoring so small a matter that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them?

And in all your abominations and your whorings, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your own blood.

This is God through Ezekiel rebuking Israel for sacrificing their children to false gods.

Folks, that's what's going on in our generation through abortion. There's a series of documentaries, a two -part documentary called

Babies Are Murdered Here and Babies Are Still Murdered Here. And if you want an eye -opening understanding of how the pro -life movement has not been successful in abolishing abortion,

I would encourage you to watch those two documentaries. I'll direct you as to where you can find them if you message me online.

Verse number 20, Malachi 2, 14 through 16. The Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

Did he not make them one with a portion of the spirit in their union? And what was the one

God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.

For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her says the Lord, covers his garment with violence says the

Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not be faithless. So I just talked about abortion being a violent thing.

My friends, God views divorce as being violent. You're taking that one flesh union, a man and a woman united together for life and you're breaking it apart?

You're destroying that one flesh and that is violence before God. Be faithful to one another.

Verse number 21, Zechariah 8, three through five. Thus says the Lord, I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.

And Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, old men and old women shall sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age.

And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the street.

Now we shift to the New Testament. Verse number 22,

Matthew 6, nine through 13. Pray then like this, our Father who art in heaven, do this with me.

Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen.

Teach your children to pray as our Lord taught us to pray. Verse number 23,

Mark 9, 35 through 37. And he sat down and called the 12 and he said to them, if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.

And he took a child and put him in the midst of them and taking him in his arms, he said to them, whoever receives one such child in my name receives me and whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me.

Verse 24, Mark 9, 42. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

Verse 25, Luke 14, 25 through 27. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Whoa, that took a different turn.

Whoever does not hate father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life cannot be my disciple.

This is what that means, ladies and gentlemen. Our love for Christ must be so great and so total and so full that any love we would have for another human being would look like hate by comparison.

Doesn't mean you hate them. On the contrary, we've just read instructions. You don't divorce your husband and your wife.

You remain faithful to them. But our first and greatest love should be

Christ. That no matter what it might cost us, we are fully devoted to Christ.

Verse number 26, Luke 18, 15 through 17. The people were bringing even infants to Jesus that he might touch them.

And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him saying, let the children come to me and do not hinder them.

For to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.

Verse 27, John 14, 18. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you.

Verse 28 is Romans 1, 28 through 31. Since they did not see fit to acknowledge

God, he gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.

They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

As I said to you before, Paul lays out here a doctrine of the depravity of a society.

And one of those things that you see in a depraved culture is that they are disobedient to their parents.

Verse 29, 2 Corinthians 13, 11 reads, rejoice, aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the

God of love and peace will be with you. Verse number 30 is actually what we just read here in Ephesians 6, one through four.

So I'm skipping now to verse 31. Children, obey your parents in everything for this pleases the

Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged, Colossians 3, 20 through 21.

Verse 32, 1 Thessalonians 2, 11 through 12. For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

My friends, we're all children of God if we are followers in Christ Jesus. And so we are all to be instructed as children are to be instructed.

Verse number 33, 1 Timothy 3, four through five. An overseer of the church must manage his own household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive.

For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? I fully understand the responsibility that is upon me as a pastor, that Dave has, that Dwight carries, the responsibility upon us to keep our own household in the training and instruction of God.

But this instruction is not exclusive to us for we actually stand as examples to the rest of the church.

So all of us must understand providing for our households and training them up in God's word.

What is the consequence of this if we do not? Verse 34, which is out of 1 Timothy 5, eight.

If anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his own household, he has denied the faith and he is worse than an unbeliever.

Because even unbelievers know you care for your family. So how much should we as Christians understand that?

Verse 35, 2 Timothy 1, five. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother

Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I am sure dwells in you as well. Timothy came from the upbringing of his mother and his grandmother.

If you come from a single parent home or you are a single parent in a home, do not be discouraged for you can raise up children in Christ just as Eunice and Lois did with Timothy.

It's not hopeless for the single parent either. Verse number 36, 2

Timothy 3, 14 through 17. Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

I lost my place there for a moment. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Verse 37, Hebrews chapter 12. Have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom the father does not discipline?

If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons and daughters of God.

Three more verses, hang on. Verse number 38 is 1 John 2, 12 through 13.

I am writing to you little children because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake.

I am writing to you fathers because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you young men because you have overcome the evil one.

I write to you children because you know the father. 2

John 1, 4 through 6, this is verse 39. I rejoice greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth just as we were commanded by the father.

And now I ask you, dear lady, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one that we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.

And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.

My dad has shared with all of us kids, there's really only one thing that he wants to hear from us at his birthday or Christmas or on Father's Day.

He wants to hear, dad, I'm following Christ because of you. That's gift enough that he wants.

And ever since he told me that, I've never bought him a present again. I just tell him that every, I'm just kidding,

I do still get things from my dad. 3 John verse 4, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

As a pastor, that's what I desire the most, is to hear from the congregation,

I'm walking in truth. You can take the online stuff away, you can take any hope or prayer that I have of doing anything beyond what

I do in this room, I don't care. But just to hear from my own kids and from my own congregation,

I'm walking in the truth. That's reward enough for me. Last verse,

Revelation 21, 7. The one who conquers will have this heritage. I will be his

God and he will be my son. For all who are in Christ Jesus, we are children of God the

Father, our almighty King. Let us rejoice and praise his name together forever.

♪ The King of hosts, whose might is ever vast ♪ ♪

And whose paths are barren by the eerie sound of night ♪ ♪

Guide us toward the place by which the shepherds sing ♪ ♪

Thy praise within our hearts.

♪ Thank you for listening to our weekly sermon presented by First Southern Baptist Church of Junction City, Kansas. For more information about our church, visit fsbcjc .org.

On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, inviting you to join us again this week, Growing Together in Christ, when we understand the text.