In this sermon, Pastor Joe Babij examines Colossians 3:20 and the apostle Paul’s exhortation there as to how children should live Spirit-filled, Word-filled lives in relation to their parents.
Auto Transcript
Note: This rough transcript was automatically generated by YouTube’s AI algorithm. We provide it here for your convenience, but know it will surely contain errors as it has not been proofread or edited by a human.
thank you praise team for ushering us to the Gates of Heaven this morning we are back in Colossians and um try not to lose my voice this morning I’ve had a a bout of something I just messes with your voice and so um I have my Ginger and my honey and lemon drink here up here in the Pulpit so if I lose my voice I we’ll just have a word of prayer and go home all right but Colossians chapter 3 and uh I’m looking at verse number 18 through verse 21 let me read that this morning verse 18- 21 Colossians chapter 3 it says wives be subject to your husband as is fitting in the Lord husbands love your wives and do not be embittered against them children be obedient to your parents in all things for this is well pleasing to the Lord fathers do not exasperate your children so that they will not lose heart let’s pray father this morning as we look at this passage in the context of this book give us instruction this morning as to parents and children how that all works Lord in a way that we hold to the promise that’s connected to this passage the promise of a long and Abundant Life so I pray Lord that you would just give us ears to hear and a will to receive the word of God so that we would implement the principles found therein and these imperatives that are so important for our forward growth in Christ Jesus and bless us in that way I ask in Christ’s name amen so we’re looking at this passage of scripture but I’m going to focus in this morning on one passage one passage and that is the passage that says children because I’ve already covered verse 18 18 and 19 children be obedient to your parents in all things for this is well pleasing to the Lord now so far in the book of Colossians I have been saying all along that the new self is the new creature in Christ and on and only the Christian has the capacity to consider themselves dead to sin and alive to God with the ability given by the holy spirit of God to actually serve and please God no one has that ability unless a Christ they’re a Christian unless they have the spirit of God and that’s including in our passage children loving God loving God’s word and loving God’s son includes hating sin with the desire to pursue righteousness therefore salvation is not a matter of improvement or Perfection it is a matter of comprehensive Pro Progressive transformation and what is that that is to be like Christ that is where the spirit of God is taking all of us is to be like Christ as much as possible in your life and children who are controlled by the spirit and who are word filled need to be aware that their responsibility is to be in their action obedient to their parents and in their attitude honor them and the Bible kind of like goes back and forth with these two terms of obedience and honor they kind of dovil together and this Lord’s day I’m concerned to show children and parents that they can be submissive to their parents because this is truly the place of blessing you want to be blessed you want the honor of God upon you you even want to be happy then this is where it happens when children learn to be obedient to their parents and learn to honor them so there is something very sacred about the family in scripture about the relationship between parents and children so special to God is this relationship that in the Old Testament God told Israel in the Ten Commandments if you want to have a time of blessedness and happiness in this new Promised Land if you want to go on living under the blessing of God then you must keep the fifth commandment and the fifth commandment reads this in Exodus we read it in Deuteronomy in Exodus it says the same thing honor your father and mother that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you so notice that this command is smack right in the middle of the 10 and it is the first of God’s ten commandments that ends with a promise the first four didn’t the the next section of the decalogue will will not this one does so this obviously becomes a very important point in all of our Lives because we all have parents all right we all have parents in some respect we all have Guardians over our lives if we didn’t have natural parents then maybe we were born into a family or we were adopted whatever it may be somebody has authority over you and that person is considered uh to be someone that you are to obey and honor now what is the promise well the promise is that if you honor your father and mother yours will be a long full life full of blessing now if you want to live a blessed life a full life under the blessing of God observe and keep this commandment God is pleas with his people to keep this commandment the fifth commandment has been referred to as a transitional commandment this is because the family structure lays at the foundation of all other forms of authority and obedience in the culture this is where they learn it if they don’t learn it there they usually don’t learn it out there so it’s the job of the parents of course they’re the ones modeling this before the children that ought to be taking place and that is definitely in the mind of Paul here in Colossians what is he actually doing in chapter 3 you know what he’s doing he’s going back to the foundational doctrines in Genesis and he’s saying listen these false teachers are not teaching this and they have no results but you as a Believer when you put these and Implement these principles you will have results now the conscious real real ity when we come to this fifth commandment is that we humans created in the image of God are responsible for our character we are responsible for our actions we are justly held accountable for habits and words and deeds so then this fifth commandment is the bridge between our responsibility to our God and our responsibility manward parents do in some sense occupy to their children the place of God just think for a moment much of what and who you are comes from your parents from our parents right our voice length and shape of our limbs our height the color of our hair the strength and clearness of our sight the soundness of our brain our muscular vigor whatever constitutes our weakness in our power was largely determined for us by what our parents were we also were and are dependent upon them for food and clothing and Care without which we would die we were and are dependent on their wisdom or their whim on their harshness or their kindness for our happiness we we depend on those things and really for greater importance for our happiness because it starts right in the family it starts with mother and father and children all these influence us and gives us Direction and form as to the development of our character so here’s the Prof ity of the Fifth Commandment that we alone are responsible for our actions honor your father and your mother this is this is the first place that we will learn how to interact with others whether we come from a good family or not so good we are still responsible as to how we respond to the parental relationship now as we come to Colossians chapter 3 we will find in this this one verse in verse number 20 and this is another imperative it’s another command and there are three things that we can learn from this imperative this morning and the first one is it’s to be taken seriously secondly it has a comprehensive component to it and thirdly it redirects one’s attention on Jesus that’s what it does and I want to look at the first one this the an imperative that is to be taken very seriously notice verse number 20 the first part of that verse notice children be obedient to your parents again an imperative a command it means very basically other places it’s translated to listen you got to listen first before you obey you have to process that before you can actually obey actually as other places it means to submit to to be subject to and the ultimate idea of the relationship between parents and children is to be found in the relationship between God and all mankind honoring parents and God are closely related so give honor to where honor is due the Hebrew word for honor is the word kabad which means weighty to be weighed down with respect it means to honor your father and mother is a very serious and weighty commandment don’t think it’s just something you can take or leave it’s something you need to not only understand but actually to implement in your life to honor one’s parents means much more than obedience obedience is included but further it is to give your parents a place of superiority to hold them in high esteem so the parental relationship is the first and most important relationship it is a relationship that will shape all other relationships that you have of course there are all kinds of exceptions that is good parents with bad kids and bad parents with good kids it’s out there you we know we all have met people in situations like this so God places a special value on Parental Authority the parent and child relationship is the first place where we learn what it is to have someone in authority over us and how important that is remember last time we looked at verses 18 and 19 and it said wives be subject to your husband so the context is still about being subject being submissive to someone who God placed in the order of things over you and so in the home is the place that we learn it the most we learn to listen we learn to obey even when we are told things to do that we don’t want to do it is a place where children learn how to honor and respect others and what it means to worship God and carry out the first four commandments so honoring parents includes several actions some positive some negative excuse me for example honoring your parents has positive actions to it and what are some of those uh and right here in verse number 20 it says children be obedient to your parents that means listen to them listen listening comes before obedience that the word children Techna here in the Greek does not refer specifically to young children but to the time children are under the tutelage of their parents and where they learn to submit to their Authority so the age could range from infant all the way to a what they call a child adult from 13 years old to 30 years old usually depending on whether the child is still in the home home under the authority of the parents yet children are to honor their parents the whole of their life so other words obedience bleeds into honor obedience could end at one point when you leave the home you get your own family and now you have your own responsibility to raise your children but the honor for your parents goes on the rest of your life but it starts with obedience if you do not obey them you’ll probably never honor them for whatever reason uh people won’t now if you were to make a distinction between obey and honor that means you switch from obedience to honor obey has to do with action and like Disobedience or uh obedience and honor has to do with Attitude respect or disrespect so those both things are together it’s like what it says in Ephesians because Ephesians also brings this same passage up but expands it in Ephesians where it says children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right honor your father and your mother which is uh the first commandment with a promise it’s to be noted that when Paul applies the Commandment in Ephesians to the Christian reader he omits any reference to the land of Israel and Universal izes the promise and so how could we ever keep that promise by the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit and we have the whole word of God so Colossians is talking about being word filled Ephesians talking about being spirit filled they’re the same thing you can’t have one without the other you have to have both of them just like what are the parents actually going to teach their kid their children well just take go back to I’m going to be looking at some Proverbs go back to Proverbs for a minute look at proverbs 23: 22- 26 notice what it says here Proverbs 23:22 again Paul’s not he he’s not preaching the New Testament in Colossians he’s preaching the Old Testament because the Old Testament New Testament are hand and glove they go together right so he’s telling us what it says in Proverbs and what’s Proverbs all about proverbs is all about how to raise Wise Kids while you’re driving from them foolishness right being naive and ultimately scoffing at things right so we want to raise wise children notice what it says in verse 22 of Proverbs 23 listen to your father who begot you and do not despise your mother when she is old buy truth and do not sell it get wisdom and instruction and understanding notice verse 24 the father of the righteous will greatly rejoice and he who SES a wise son will be glad in him let your father and your mother be glad let her Rejoice who gave birth to you give me your heart my son now notice what the last part it says and let your eye Delight in my ways you you know what you have there you have the word gets people to listen and then you have the modeling look at me as your parent See How I Live Now that that lays a lot of weight on parents because you can’t wiggle out of this you can’t give this responsibility to anyone else you must take this responsibility and really consider it to be one of the most important things that you’re called to do on this Earth is to be able to raise people raise children to be wise and you know what that’s a lot of work and it never ends just because your kids grow up and leave the home done then then there’s always communication but if your children honor you when you give your two cents after they leave the home they’ll take it and they’ll listen to you not all the time but you got to say well okay you’re a man now you’re a woman now you have to make your own decisions but I pray you make the right one right but most of the time your kids even me when they’re kicking sometimes against you they they they listen to you you know they may not never tell you that uh but they will put it into practice but nonetheless there’s the word and there’s modeling your I Delight in my ways and so as the parent is living to honor God they are teaching their children to do that now just going back to Colossians you’ll find that when we were in Colossians you find that the signs of honoring and loving your parents come how where well in chapter 3 verse number 12 when mercy is taught in the home and kindness is taught in the home and humility and gentleness and patience and forgiveness are taught in the home and when it is taught it is caught also by the kids and so when you both parents and children are doing this and putting these things into practice unity is kept relationships are built and it leads to spiritual maturity in christlikeness and spiritual fulfillment that is the blessed life that is part of the promise that is connected to this small passage of scripture here but all connected to all places in the word of God it also involves as I said positive things like listening and it also involves adhering to and imitating their teaching again without turning there Proverbs 1 verse number 8 hear my son your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching indeed they are a graceful wreath to your head and ornaments about your neck meaning what when children honor their parents this way and listen to their instruction it looks beautiful you don’t have to worry about going to a supermarket and your kid lying down on the floor screaming and kicking cuz they can’t have you know their favorite cereal they’re going to it’s going to be beautiful because they’re going to listen and then people say to you how how do you get your kids to listen how do you get your kids to listen man I want to get I want I want to I want that but I can’t do it well of course it they have to have the spirit of God too and the word of God to be able to do that it doesn’t it’s just not something you can give them and they can do it so you have to give the gospel that means so the best way to show yourself a fool at least a child is to think that your parents are fools The Book of Proverbs reiterates the admonition to honor one’s parents extolling them as The Fountains of wisdom Proverbs says again 101 a wise son makes his fathers glad and a foolish son is a grief to his mother so obedience and honor Fosters self-discipline in the home and it brings about stability it it brings about longevity meaning that children won’t do foolish things will will will shorten their lives right God will give them the wisdom not to listen to their friends that say take this drug or go over here or be involved with this thing which will could be a very dangerous and then uh possibly their life will be shortened obedience properly Springs from reverence and respect and vice versa also honoring your parents by avoiding negative actions so honor is equal to obedience and dishonor is equal to Disobedience disob obedience is shown in Acts and attitudes of children when they display a reckless disregard of Parental advice and a lawless demand for Freedom which really threatens the family life and produces some of the most serious societal problems of our present day and the present day of other nations too when people act out not in respect to other people but in hatred towards them and that’s what we have going on in the world today these principles in the Middle East were taught when they were young and so when they get older what would you expect this is what they were taught so a child who violates the the the word of God concerning their parents punitive measures were to be taken in the Old Testament which included really disinheritance and sometimes even death so avoiding negative actions like what not cursing your parents Exodus 12 2117 he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death wow I don’t know about you if I was back in the Old Testament and I heard that say I’m I think I’ll obey my my father and my mother right I don’t want to get put to death and they actually did that in the Old Testament also not treating them with disrespect or dishonor like it says in Deuteronomy 27 in verse 16 cursed is the one who dishonors father and mother and all the people shall say amen and then of course not stealing from them Proverbs 28:24 he who robs his father and mother and says it is not a transgression it is a companion of a man who destroys also it’s not striking your parents Exodus 21:15 he who strikes his father and mother shall surely be put to death and then of course just blatant Disobedience to parents where in Deuteronomy it tells us in verse number 18 If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and his mother the mother and father shall seize him and it says they shall take him to the Elders of the city and the the sons and this son of ours they will say to the elders is a stubborn rebellious son he will not obey us he’s a glutton also and a drunkard then all the men of the city shall Stone him to death so you shall remove the evil from your mist and all Israel will hear and fear I don’t know about you that would make me afraid but see that’s the seriousness of the Commandment that’s app we don’t use these results today but if we don’t discipline our children if we don’t tell them what is right and what is wrong what is God’s way and whatever other which every other way then what happens that there will not be Unity kept in the home or in society and then we know that lawlessness cannot gain the upper hand if it does it must be dealt with and it must be removed and it should be removed at the family level that’s when you deal with with that kind of things that kind of attitude uh that come from children because they have a sinner sinful heart right we should know what sin is more than anybody else they have a sinful heart right they’re going to disobey they’re going to lie they’re going to do things that they’re not supposed to do we already know that we did that so we’re no different than them but once we get the word of God and now we have transformation going on in our life and we know what is right then we want to pass that down to our kids right because I didn’t have this when I was young I didn’t have the word of God I wasn’t a Believer when I was young not not until I was like 21 22 I became a Christian and and so when I came to the word of God I say wow that’s that’s something I that that is true that’s the way it ought to be you know and I didn’t learn that I thank the Lord that the Lord did give me a decent family they uh there was obedience in the home there was uh retribution maybe not the kind that the Bible talks about but there there was and it did Keep Me In Line uh it did keep me in line and I did have uh a respect for my mother and father and I think one of the reasons why is because I was I did learn the Ten Commandments and the Ten Commandments I I would repeat those and repeat them repeat them it’s stuck in my head that’s what the Commandments say and I want to honor God didn’t know what I was really doing back then but it turned out to be uh something that the Lord did but again going back to Colossians what are the signs of Dishonor and disrespected Colossians Colossians 3: number 5 therefore consider the members of your Earthly body to be dead to what immorality all right impurity passion evil desire and greed which amounts to idolatry so that in the home that you are teaching your children to avoid shameful desires and sinful uh sexual sin and impurity and lust and greed and idolatry and then also in Colossians 3:8 and9 they also are to avoid anger and malicious behavior and slander and dirty language and lying and when they do that the parents and the children are to do these things put them to death so it doesn’t destroy relationships to rid ourselves from these things because they are they will break uh Unity within the home and they end up crushing the people that God is granting to a particular family so that means the general principle was Disobedience and dishonor promote a lack of discipline which in turn brought instability a shortened life and the lack of well-being within the home now there obviously uh there’s obvious difficulties that rise out from this subject some young people may say today that their parents are not lovable uh and therefore they cannot obey and love them or that they say that my parents are not wise and therefore I cannot obey and respect them or someone would say that my parents are unre unreasonable and selfish and have vices and sin and temper and and speech problems and therefore it is impossible for me to honor them now there’s not a few children I’m sure that in our days who are inclined to take that position at first hearing that could seem to be reasonable enough but if the tables are turned would the children want the parents or Guardians to judge them with the standard that they’re judging of course not see the word of God gives warning to the church because worldliness has come into the church and some consider this teaching to be old-fashioned and too restrictive and Satan has done a good job destroying the family and now his Target is children that’s what the target is now so you destroy Society you destroy the family you get to the children there’s nothing left and then of course you attack the church and the word of God and that’s where it’s going next in his plan the world could not be disorganized in all its rebellion and all the things going on unless this the mystery of lawlessness was going on behind the scenes and Satan was was pulling the strings everything is being set up for the time that the Antichrist will sit on the throne and and Proclaim himself God and people will say wor worship Him and there will be one world government and one monetary system and one religion uh and everybody will be controlled and they will know where you are all the time they will know what you spend things on they will have algorithms to what you desire what you don’t desire what you buy what you don’t buy so the day has come in which irreligion and godlessness and lawlessness are permeating everything including the home scriptures description of lawlessness is clear in Romans 1:30 what does it say slander haters of God insulin arrogant boastful inventors of evil evil disobedient to parent of course second Timothy brings it up again Paul speaking to Young Timothy being the pastor there at Ephesus he says you men will be lovers of self lovers of money boastful arrogant revilers disobedient to parents ungrateful Unholy so children who are disrespectful and dishonoring to their parents are a picture of sheer ungodliness and lawlessness and one of the most striking striking displays of lawlessness is the observable arrogant unashamed Disobedience to Mom and Dad when it’s seen in public there’s nothing more ugly I believe in society than this there’s nothing worse that characterizes a generation than Disobedience and action and disrespect and attitude towards parents because if that’s happening in the home it will happen towards God but in the end our parents who had us loved us just the way we were because we were their children and their loving love transfigured us and most parents love us in spite of our faults and shortcomings don’t they that’s what we do with our kids and young people I would say this that your parents who have lived in the world 20 or 30 years longer than yourselves have found some things out worth knowing of which you know nothing if you are silly enough to dispense of all their experience and what they have learned from the word of God you are tolerably certain to suffer for your Folly anyhow when you come to scripture it says honor your father and mother so do not express habitual contempt for what you perhaps rashly supposed to be your parents ignorance or prejudices that if you knew a little more of the world you might possibly see in them a power and a wisdom which as yet you and your youth have not yet discovered or experienced so the bottom line is that Authority came to be generally disregarded and the whole structure of society when it is disregarded dissolves so disobedient children reflect upon their parents and are ashamed to the home and to the church so to fail to teach children to to obey is to disobey God and being really bring disrepute upon his name as well as making children unpopular with everyone else so spoiled youngsters make poor employees they make poor employers they make poor husbands poor wives poor parents they in the end become Misfits in society so today many push aside God’s rule to not spare the rod and substitute reason with your child now it would be fine if they were reasonable but little children and rebellious teenagers are not reasonable so as long as they are eating and sleeping at home they should obey their parents so parents complain that I could do nothing with them the fact of the matter is that many parents do nothing with them when they were small and now that they’re big they can’t do nothing with them they did nothing to disciplin them they didn’t put out making rules and setting boundaries for them and that if you break the rules and you move past the boundaries there are consequences that’s a loving home that does that because that’s how the world is set up is it not there’s always rules I mean let’s face it when you come to a stop sign if you decide not to stop at a busy intersection what could happen right by chance you can get through it and nothing happens but try it again and your chances aren’t going to be very high so in the Old Testament the bible really tells us Micah tells us listen when disorder comes into the family and in relationships and into friendships and into the neighborhood this is how it sounds the prophet Micah recorded it like this do not trust in a neighbor do not have confidence in a friend for her who lies in your bosom guard your lips for Sons treat fathers contemptuously daughters rais up against their mother daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law a Man’s enemies are men of his own household so to despise those who brought them into the world and nurture of them to adulthood is a sign of the times difficult times will come and this is part of it because men will be lovers of money and self and disobedient to parents and of course lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God it all takes place in progression and it starts right in the home right with Obe obeying parents so is that important it’s heavy it’s weighty it’s a weighty command to us we would we should take it seriously now that that leads me to my second point and it’s this it’s this the second imperative that we can learn from what we can learn from this imperativ is that is it is an imperative that has a comprehensive component to it back in Colossians chapter 3 notice the second part it says children obey your parents what in all things in in all things why all things well just consider that for a moment because children are born with a sin nature so already they are born with no knowledge so they’re naive they’re born with no wisdom so prone to foolishness and left to themselves prone to self-centeredness and wickedness also it is the parents who who have been given by God the authority they have the authority to do what they have the authority it says in the word of God to direct their children they have the authority to direct their children it says in Proverbs 29 in verse number 15 the rod and reproof give wisdom but a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother also they have the power to restrain them proverb 29:17 correct your son and he will give you comfort and he will also Delight your soul and then they have the power to actually test how things are going and then judge how things are going in Proverbs 29 and: 18 where there is no vision the people are unrestrained but happy is he who keeps the law now that no vision means There’s No Boundaries There’s No Boundaries you give your children to say no you can’t go further than this if you do there’s going to be consequences so the P the power has been given and Authority has been given to parents the force necessary to cause them to follow your ver your verbal instruction and listen to you the pressure to hold them back from what they would do if you left them to their own will and desire and of course the adjustment of pressure to to evaluate how far your CH children come so you can dispense Rewards or take away rewards you can do that based on their action of obedience and their attitude of Honor towards you as a parent and it’s to be done in all things now there is a third thing that we learned from this per imperative and it’s the last thing in Colossians chapter 3 verse number 20 it says children be obedient to your parents in all things and notice for this is well pleasing to the Lord now get this if the desires of the parents and now the desires of the children are to obey their parents and for what reason that it’s well pleasing to God Brethren a life Liv with the that goal to please the Lord is the blessed life that is the blessed life so honoring your parents comes with a promise in Exodus that your days may be prolonged in the land so honoring parents brings goodness into one’s life in fact the honoring of one’s parents leads to a lengthening of one one’s days at the results that in um excuse me is insured by fearing the Lord like it says in Proverbs 10:27 the fear of the Lord prolongs life but the years of the wicked will be shortened so living long in the land for in the Old Testament was more than just chronology the phrase uh really has to do with Abundant Life if you want to enjoy the full bless blessing that God has for you in this life you will listen to your mom and dad so honoring parents does come with a reward and that is part of the reward and Ephesians is the one who expands on that that you as you honor your parents it’ll be the first commandment with promise so that you may be it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth so think with me for a moment picture a child who starts to learn God’s commands and for the first time after listening and honoring his parents he begins to say wow this is not just for the Old Testament Israel this is for the church This Promise is repeated in the New Testament so if I actually do this I have a promise that comes to me and first first A promise is something that has a positive characteristic to it attached to it which creates in the Child Hope and anticipation let me use a weak illustration of a father promising his child a big old sloppy Banana Split at the end of a day that he was obedient what does it creating a child it creates desire what is a child thinking of be by the end of the day I’m going to get a banana split and I like Banana Splits I don’t know about you I like Banana Splits right and I’m looking forward to that so it creates desire but it also creates anticipation to want to continue to do what’s right that’s what is in the heart of a child that’s in our hearts too when we have a promise and then also so kids that when you honor your mother and your dad you actually gain the respect and trust and freedom you actually crave that’s where it comes from that’s part of of the promise it’s like what it says in Deuteronomy 10 the Bible says and now Israel what does the Lord your God require from you but to fear the lord to walk in all his ways to love him to serve the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and to keep his Commandments and his statutes which I am commanding you today for your good I like those endings that the scripture has if you want to be live a happy life do this and there’s a promise connected to it a promise connected to it and the the the the thing when you when we think about that this Divine command is coupled with a Divine Assurance of blessing and to all whom it is obeyed like secondly if it puts the onus on the one making the promise who’s making the promise well the parents are making the promise because the parents are in the place of God but God makes the promise too so in other words somebody has to deliver on a promise which causes an atmosphere of mutual trust a child learns to trust their parents which in turn they learn to trust the Lord they learn to trust the word of God early in their life early in the development of their character so their action of obedience will lead to their attitude of Honor so it’s also a promise that bears benit benefits for parents in later years when your children do come back to you when your children do ask you for advice when your children do respect you and talk to you to other people with a in an honoring way see that means that you are receiving the promise of this child learned something you know of course many times parents say you know what I didn’t have really much to do about it it was all God who did it and and that’s that’s true in one respect but God gives us a responsibility to carry it out and there’s a third thing is that a young person would be motivated to go on to listen to the voice of God and that is the goal the goal is your your children listen to you so when you give the gospel to them they’ll listen to God and then beyond the home they’ll live for the Lord without you being there and maybe that’s the greatest blessing a parent could have is that that’s not a guarantee but is is a blessing to know uh your kids or one of your kids or some of your kids are living for the Lord and that becomes a a part of your prayer list always praying for them always praying them that God would transform them that God would grow them to Christ’s likeness and God would just make them people that when you’re not there they’ll just carry on and they’ll pass the Baton to the Next Generation to their kids that’s the goal that’s the goal and when that happens and we they know that God takes his children by their hand that he cares for their welfare that he makes known to them his will in the word of God and he marks out for them the way of Happiness when that takes place and see that is the beneficial part of it that so that a child learns early to listen that listening and obeying to those in authority over them is beneficial for them and it is motivational to them it’s well pleasing to the Lord and if we look at Colossians isn’t that what the book of Colossians started out saying isn’t that the prayer of Paul for the children that just got saved look what he says in Colossians chap 1:9 and 10 he says for this reason also since the day we heard of it we have not ceased to pray pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in All respects bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God see that is the goal and parents were a part of making sure that goal happens obeying is not always easy whether you’re a kid or whether you’re an adult sometimes it means obeying when you don’t understand sometimes it involves obedience when you your personal desires are in direct opposition to your parents’ desires yet if children you are to honor God then you must honor your parents’ desires not sometimes not when you think you are right and they’re wrong always and of course we’re talking about Christian parents here in scripture and kids mark this down obedience comes easier when there is a proper respect for your parents it’s easy to respect some it’s easy to obey somebody you respect but if you don’t respect them it’s very hard to obey anybody of course I I have to say this that this is not necessarily a promise of a long life in the world in every instance as a result of obedience to God or every obedient person would live to a ripal age but the general tendency is that keeping the Divine precepts issue in a prolongation of life and the Pres preservation of Health in other words a quality of life somebody could live a a short life life and have a quality of life someone could live a very long life and have no quality in their life so this we pass on to our kids a desire to have a quality of life and where does that start obeying your parents in turn would you obey the Lord and so Obedience of children to wise and loving parents results in habits of Industry self-control self-respect of faithfulness and kindness and worship towards the Lord which are absolutely a guarantee of success and of a long continuance of an abundant life and and so why is that because the person willingly lives in the realm in which the word of God is desired delighted honored and practice where obedience is practiced where sobriety is practiced where Temperance is practice a balance of all things where hard work is practiced where contentment is realized where tempers and passions are controlled where sexual Fidelity is practiced where Integrity kindness and love our practice where worship of the Lord is a daily realized and practice and prayer to the Lord is a regular part of the day and week expelling worry from the thoughts and showing dependence upon God and of course preaching the preaching of the word of God is heard regularly and practiced that they’re not only just listening to you they’re listening to the preached word and the preached word you want parents that goes along with what you teach them because the preach word is going to do way more than you can when they get it and they they absorb it and then they put it into practice so all these and more have a way of preventing the wear and tear on the Constitution to the general prosperity and well being of a person who pursues God’s wisdom and of course the main one of the main things is that Mom and Dad aren’t sad when children obey they’re glad that’s what the Bible says they’re glad but when when uh the children are not obedient mom and dad are not happy parents are sad when they see their child swell up with pride by thinking he or she is right when no grid to measure what they are saying but by their own standard he or she thinks they are right and Mom and Dad are full of baloney parents have grief because they see what’s coming in this life and the next when their children do not obey like Proverbs 12:15 says the way of a fool is right in his own eyes but a wise man is he who who listens to counsel parents see danger if the child’s future maybe they may see injury or death Maybe by drugs or by misuse of a car or by picking evil friends or by catching some communicable disease in a relationship with an evil man or a woman and mom sees that if not by premature death possibly by jail or prison or just grief and pain and restlessness and unhappiness and pointlessness and loneliness that comes because people don’t obey none of this is a quality of life but a joyless misery who wants to live like that see that’s part of the promise the promise is if I do this then God is going going to bless me with an abundant life so young people when you obey several Pro positive things take place number one you avoid conflict and you when conflict comes you know how to deal with it properly you make your parents glad don’t you want your parents to be glad kids don’t you want your parents to be glad yes do I hear an amen from the kids amen amen oh come on amen amen all right okay also you feel glad yourself you avoid dangers and difficulties that your parents foresee but you can’t see because you’re a youth and lack experience you please God you learn to enjoy the life God has given you not always looking over the fence to the greener pastures God’s blessed you with with a life he’s given it to you and you are thankful for it and if God’s given someone else A Life That’s way more seems abundant than yours got thank God for them too God’s given them that to them and not me that’s all right because greater uh we’re we’re all heading to the kingdom of God where God’s preparing a place for us and where he is we’re going to be also right that’s what we’re looking forward to even if we lose everything lose it lose it all we may lose it all but we learn to enjoy life the life that God has given to us and become increasingly thankful you want to dispel worry in your life be thankful when you wake up in the morning have a list of 10 things you’re thankful for and include people in that and even possessions can come at the End Amen I’m thankful for a car that doesn’t break down but I’m thankful for my wife I’m thankful thankful for my kids I’m thankful for my church for my brethren when if you have a list of thankfulness it kind of like pushes out grumbling and complaining it’s there’s no room for it every day wake up and have a list of thankful things to to repeat back to God you know uh Mr uh Lloyd Jones say don’t listen to yourself talk to yourself talk to yourself what what I’m learning in the word of God tell myself did I set something off over there so anyway young people if you haven’t been doing well in this area if you haven’t been doing well in this area then today today show your parents that you mean business and prove it to them by practicing it every day it may mean it may mean that you must come and repent and believe in Jesus Christ as your lord and savior because you haven’t done that yet you haven’t you haven’t been saved so you really can’t do these things unless you’re saved you can do them grudgingly you can do do them with your will to a certain point but you can’t do them in the spirit where the spirit gives you the results of them it also May mean that you need to yield yourself to the holy spirit’s control so that he can use you as an instrument of righteousness in your home and I want to end with this take your Bible and turn to Luke Chapter 2 Luke Chapter 2 the ultimate example the ultimate example of a child and parent relationship that’s honoring to the Lord is found in Luke Chapter 2 of course this is the relationship that Jesus Jesus Christ has with his parents let me just give you the background of this passage at at the point Jesus was growing to be a man and begin to show independence from his parents at the age of 12 he was taken to the temple in accordance with the Jewish com uh custom to go to the Jerusalem to celebrate the Day of atonement as the holy days had come to an end and everything was heading everybody was heading back home to Nazareth Jesus and his parents became separated when Joseph and Mary Mary could not find him in the midst of the Caravan searching everywhere they headed back to Jerusalem and found him Jesus in the temple talking with the elders asking questions back and forth and when they found him after three days of frantic searching I don’t know about you but if your child is not in your view for a short period of time and you think they’re gone you go crazy right well that’s what happened to Mary and Joseph right here they were going crazy they were frantically searching for him and J jesus’ parents directs him when they find him to come home with him and what does Luke 2:51 tell us how Jesus responded well notice what it says chapter 2:51 and he went down with them and came to Nazareth and he continued in subjection to them his mother treasured all these things in her heart so in other words Jesus willingly put himself under the authority of his Earthly parents when maybe the desire of him at 12 years old was to be with his heavenly father but he submitted to them see Jesus willingly put himself under their Authority the authority of his Earthly parents until his public Ministry at age 30 and Jesus experienced what the blessing of a qualified or a Quant quantity of Life how do I know that look in verse number 52 of Luke 2 it says and Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and Men is that a blessed life that’s a blessed life that life is a life we can live too that’s how we live it and we please God and so that’s the action that Jesus had of obedience to his parents at the age of 12 but Jesus as a man at the hour of his death what does he do in John chapter 19 what does he tell what does it tell us about his attitude it says Jesus showed honor to his widowed Mother by entrusting her to John’s care where it says there that the soldiers did these things by standing by the cross of Jesus where his mother and his mother Sister Mary the wife of cleopas and Mary Magdalene when Jesus then saw his mother and disp and uh and the disciple with him he loved standing nearby he said to his motherwoman behold your son and he said to his disciple behold your mother and from that hour the disciple took her into his house in other words he honored his mother till the last minute these are the things that we can do all of us can do this kids you can do this if you are a Believer you can do these things and that this imperative you can consider this morning as very serious that also this imperative is to be lived every day this is not something just thought about for a few minutes and then it passes from you it’s every day and then this imperative keeps your attention on Jesus he is the example and what is that uh attention is that it says in Colossians in verse number 10 that I do things because it is well pleasing to the Lord that’s the Abundant Life amen let’s pray Lord thank you again for your dear people thank you Lord for the word of God it is amazing that it exposes so many things it reveals to us everything that we need for life and godliness and it gives us the very guidelines as parents to raise our children and also Lord as children to be obedient to their parents to know that when they are there is a promise and a blessing that comes with that that they can actually live a life an abundant life when they obey the Lord and I pray Lord that you would instill th these TR truths and principles in all of us so Lord we can pass on to the next generation of baton that is worthy of serving