Bulletins - Deep Creek Baptist

- - Isaiah 40:21–26ESV
This Is My Father's World
Children Of The Heavenly Father
How Deep The Father's Love For Us
Exodus 20:12 “12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”

The Ten Commandments
1. One God
2. No idols
3. Revere His Name
4. Remember to Rest
5. Honor Parents
6. No murder
7. No adultery
8. No stealing
9. No lying
‌10. No coveting

Proverbs 30:17 (ESV)
17 The eye that mocks a father and scorns to obey a mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures.

INTRODUCTION:
As you know, the Ten Commandments may be divided into two sections, each reinforcing the two greatest commandments.
The first four commands spell out what it means to love the Lord our God:
Not to have any other gods before Him;
not to make or serve any idols;
not to take His name in vain; and,
o keep the sabbath day holy.
The last six commands teach us how to love our neighbor as we do, in fact, love ourselves:
To honor our fathers and mothers;
not to murder,
commit adultery,
steal,
bear false witness, or
covet anything belonging to our neighbor.
Standing at the head of this second section, the commandment to honor our parents is foundational to keeping all that follow.
If we truly honor our parents,
we will not disgrace their name by
becoming a murderer,
by being unfaithful to our marriage vows,
by stealing,
by lying, or
by the greed and discontent underlying covetousness.
The keeping of the Fifth Commandment also works back toward the first four.
If we are rebellious and disrespectful toward our parents who gave us life and sustenance, we will also probably be rebellious and disrespectful toward the Lord God, our creator and sustainer.
Disrespect toward parents and God
will also carry over into disrespect for all authority,
and thus will result in a breakdown of law and order, leading to a disintegration of the very basis for civilized society.
Thus the keeping of the Fifth Commandment is not some outmoded, quaint idea to be set aside without consequence. It is vital to the survival of our community, state, nation.

This passage has a narrow meaning which is very apparent as it applies to the family dynamic,
How children and parents are to act toward one another.
But it also has a more broad meaning.
it can show us how to honor all of those who God has placed in authority in our life.
We must honor and respect those whom God has placed over us in all areas of life.

How to Treat Your Parents

of The meaning of “honor”:
The word translated “honor” is a Hebrew word with a root meaning of “weight” or “heaviness.”
It is the same word often translated “glory” in reference to the Lord.
To glorify the Lord is to attach the utmost weight or significance to who He is and what He does.
It means to assign Him the highest place because He is worthy of it.
The opposite of glorifying God is to treat Him lightly,
to shrug off Him and His commands as insignificant.
Coupled with the idea of weight is that of value, which is the root meaning of the Greek word for honor.
Gold and silver are heavy, valuable metals.
We say of a valuable man, “He’s worth his weight in gold.”
Applied to parents,
to honor them is to have an attitude of respect for them that stems from the fact that we greatly value them and the contribution they’ve made to our lives.
To honor our parents is to assign a high place of value to them.
God’s instruction to us is to give our parent(s) “weighty worth.”
Obviously, the opposite would be to make “light” of, make fun of or diminish the importance of parents.
The Lord wants us to have a “heavy appreciation” for our parents.

Honor them by accepting their role.
Ephesians 6:1 “1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.”
The Greek word for obey is hupakouo, which means, to “listen under.”
The idea is that children are to listen to what their parents say because they are under the authority of their parents.
This is clear in Paul’s linking, “Children obey your parents” with the command to honor them (Eph. 6:1-3).
When Paul states, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord,”
he does not mean,
“Obey your parents only if they are in the Lord” (that is, Christians).
Nor does he mean, “Obey your parents when you think their decisions are in line with what you think the Lord wants.”
He means, it is your duty in the Lord to obey your parents.
The Book of Proverbs, after a brief introduction, begins,
“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” (Prov. 1:8-9).
The only exception to obeying your parents would be if they commanded you to do something that is a clear violation of Scripture.
But even then, you must demonstrate to your parents a submissive spirit that seeks to please them. You should respectfully appeal to them and explain your reasons why you cannot obey them in this instance.
You should show that it grieves you to have to disobey them.
And, you should submit to any punishment they impose without complaint or rebellion,
but with a heart of joy in the Lord, that you are counted worthy to suffer for His name.
But such times when you must disobey your parents out of obedience to God will probably be rare
There comes a point, of course, where you move out from under your parents’ authority and are no longer obligated to obey them.
Wise parents let the reins go gradually, so that a young person assumes more and more responsibility for his own life, until he is on his own.
When is that? It is not necessarily at some arbitrary age, such as 18 or even 21.
But a general rule of thumb is, if you are chafing under your parents’ authority, you are probably not ready to be out from under it.
Your obedience to your parents shows that you are mature enough to live apart from their direct authority, and that you are under the lordship of Christ.
But even when you’re out from under your parents’ authority, you always remain under their counsel. As an adult, you answer directly to God, but it would be foolish to shrug off your parents’ counsel without careful consideration.
There are times as a Christian young person when you must follow God’s leading,
for example, to go to the mission field,
The life of William Borden is not your typical missionary hero story. The beginning of his life was unique not only to many missionaries, but to most people in general. He was born the heir of a million dollar family fortune in the late 1800s, a dairy company worth $2 billion today! He earned his undergraduate degree from Yale and a graduate degree from Princeton seminary. Against all worldly logic, William left his millions and followed the call of God to an unreached Muslim people group. The situation of William’s inheritance was exceptional, but equally remarkable were the circumstances surrounding his death. Even though he did not follow in His fathers footsteps in the family business he respect his father decision to go to Yale before the missions field. But even their William was a missionary force on campus. He did at age 25 before he could go to China but after his death, three phrases were found written inside his Bible: “No reserves. No retreats. No regrets.”
William showed his family respect and honor.
Honor them by alleviating their need.
1Timothy 5:4 “4 But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.”
Paul directs children and grandchildren to make some return to their aged parents by caring for them and providing for their needs, and adds, “for this is pleasing in the sight of God.”
He goes on to say that if we do not provide for our own families
(he means both our immediate families and our aged parents),
we have denied the faith and are worse than an unbeliever (1 Tim. 5:4, 8).
Benevolence ministry.
A strong society is based on a high view of people's worth--no matter how old they are.
Lying at the heart of these commands was the protection of the aged from being driven out of the house or abused when they could no longer work.
This was Jesus' concern in Mt. 15.1-9 where He condemns the Pharisees for religion that excluded caring for parents.
God would rather have their obedience than their money!
Honor them by making amends with them.
I understand how many of us have difficult relationships with our parents.
Some of us carry in our bodies deep wounds from those who were supposed to protect us, who were supposed show us what it means to walk with a faithful Savior.
And we're going to talk about what that means for us in regard to this command.
But I want to acknowledge from the start that for many of us, things aren't even close to the way they're supposed to be in our families - our biological ones and often our spiritual ones, too.
But take heart that there is more grace in Jesus than we know.
And there is hope that tomorrow won't be the same as today because our Father is at work through his Spirit, conforming us to the image of the Son.
Deal with any bitterness and forgive your parents from your heart.
Forgiving those who have sinned against us is not optional.
Jesus said that if we do not forgive our fellow men, our heavenly Father will not forgive us (Matt. 6:15).
I have trouble fitting that into my theology, but there’s no mistaking the fact that Jesus considered forgiveness a major, mandatory requirement of the Christian life.
Granting forgiveness in our hearts does not mean naively restoring trust in the relationship.
If your father molested you sexually, forgiving him does not mean trusting your kids to be alone with him.
But it does mean rooting out any bitterness toward God,
who sovereignly allowed this sin against you, and toward your father who committed it.
It also means granting him forgiveness verbally apart from his deserving it the minute he repents (Eph. 4:32).
Also, you may have to ask forgiveness for any rebellion or other sins you have committed against your parents, even if they provoked it.

''To honor your parents means to obey them in your younger years, support them in their older years, and to respect them through all the years.''
How to Treat Authority Figures
For starters, we could say that the commandment is larger than just parenting.
There’s a long tradition of understanding this commandment (and all of the commandments) as having a broad application.
Christians have always understood that the fifth commandment is not just about parents and children,
but about that relationship as a template for any other relationship of authority we may have in our lives.
By implication, when God tells us to respect our parents,
he is telling us to respect anyone who has legitimate authority over us.
So the Israelites naturally would have applied the fifth commandment
to other relationships that involved authority.

The fifth commandment regulates our work.
Employees ought to obey their Employers
We are to respect our bosses and show honor to our employers.
After telling children to obey their parents,
Paul proceeded to tell slaves (employees in our culture) to serve their masters (i.e., employers). It was all part of respecting authority. He wrote:
Ephesians 6:5-9 “5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, 8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. 9 Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.”
Keeping the fifth commandment on the job means working hard and speaking well of the management
it should be apart of our character and our Christian walk that we obey those who are bosses.
It is a sin to disrespect or to work with a bad will.
even when the work may be menial, we must be motivated and respectful.
The reverse is true as well, employers are to treat their employees with respect, if not then you are sinning, and eventually you will have no employees.

The fifth commandment also requires respect for our leaders in the church
Church members are to obey and Imitate the elders of the church
Specifically, it requires submission to our pastors, elders, and deacons—
the leaders who serve as our spiritual fathers in the household of God.
Hebrews 13:7 “7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.”
Hebrews 13:17 “17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”
To honor our elders
is to pray for them,
encourage them,
and assist them in their efforts for our spiritual progress.
It is to accept their counsel and discipline with humility,

This commandment should also apply how we approach our government.
Citizens are to be subject to governing rulers.
Romans 13:1-7 “1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed”
Titus 3:1 “1 Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work,”
1 Peter 2:17 “17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.”
Today honoring the king means respecting officers of the law and representatives of the state.
It means praying for politicians.
It means obeying the laws of the government and paying our taxes.
In all these ways we are called to “submit … to the governing authorities,
for there is no authority except that which God has established”
Thankfully, we live in a country where there presently is freedom of religion and speech.
We have the freedom (and sometimes the right) to speak against our leaders. We see this in the Old Testament.
The prophets often denounced the kings.
There is a place for this.
In a republic, we have an opportunity to effect change by affirming or criticizing those in leadership over us.
Even as we are critical of them,
we must do so in a way that shows respect for the office and position which they have been granted—
sometimes as a great means of grace, and other times as a means of judgment.

In all of these relationships, “we should look up to those whom God has placed over us, and should treat them with honor, obedience, and gratefulness.”
We should do this even when those in authority don’t seem to deserve our respect.
The Heidelberg Catechism is right when it says that the fifth commandment requires “that I show honor, love, and faithfulness to my father and mother and to all who are set in authority over me; that I submit myself with respectful obedience to all their careful instruction and discipline; and that I also bear patiently their failures, since it is God’s will to govern us by their hand” (A. 104, italics added).
Respect for those who are in authority is respect for God because all authority comes from him.
Our respect is not based on their personal qualities or professional qualifications,
but on the position they have been given by God.

There is another side to the this honor and respect
There is another side to all this, which is that people in authority have a responsibility to exercise it in ways that are pleasing to God.
We may not abuse our authority by using it harshly or by overstepping our bounds. Nor may we fail to do our duty.
Leaders in government are called to protect their citizens.
Pastors and elders are called to serve God’s people in the church, not to abuse them.
And people in management are called to care for the people who work for them.
We are called to pray for them, encourage them, counsel them, protect them, and provide for their daily needs. We are called to set a godly example, for although children don’t always listen to their parents, they never fail to imitate them

Honor and Respect brings blessing
Exodus 20:12 “12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”
The 10 Commandments: Then and Now (THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT: Praise for Parents)
The Apostle Paul said this was “the first commandment with a promise”
Eph. 6:2 “2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise),” , a
nd the promise is intended to give special encouragement to children.
God knows how hard it is to obey our parents.
He also knows that children find it easier to obey when they are promised a reward;
so the fifth commandment comes with the promise of long life in God’s land.
The promise to live long and prosper (Deuteronomy 5:16).
Attached to this commandment was a conditional promise for the nation of Israel.
It was not an absolute promise that if they honored and obeyed their parents they would live to be a hundred years old and die wealthy.
But, as a general principal, an obedient and honoring lifestyle would contribute to national blessings in the Promised Land.
The beginning of that obedient life laid at the level of the family.
Respect for all the community was learned and engrained at the early stages of life in the family.

A Grimm’s fairy tale tells about an old man who lived with his son and daughter-in-law because he had no where else to go. The old man’s hands trembled. When he ate, he clattered the silverware, often missed his mouth with the spoon, and dribbled some of his food on the tablecloth. The daughter-in-law hated having him there because he interfered with her right to happiness. So she and her husband took the old man gently but firmly and led him to a corner of the kitchen. There they set him on a stool and gave him his food in an earthenware bowl. From then on he always ate in the corner, blinking at the table with wistful eyes.
One day his hands trembled more than usual and he dropped the bowl, which broke. “If you are a pig,” said the daughter-in-law, “you must eat out of a trough.” So they made him a little wooden trough, and he got his meals in that.
This couple had a four-year-old son they were quite fond of. One night the father noticed the boy playing intently with some bits of wood and he asked what he was doing. “I’m making a trough,” he said, smiling for approval, “to feed you and Mamma out of when I get big.”
The man and his wife looked at each other for a while and didn’t say anything. Then they cried a little. Then they went to the corner and took the old man by the arm and led him back to the table. They sat him in a comfortable chair and fed him his dinner on a plate. From then on nobody scolded him when he clattered or spilled or broke things. (Told by Joy Davidman, Smoke on the Mountain.)
If we dishonor our parents, we will reap dishonor ourselves.
our parents saw to your needs when you were helpless;
someday the cycle will go full circle and you'll do the same for them.
Jesus supported Mary when Joseph died (Mk. 6.3) and saw to her needs even from the cross (Jn. 19.26-27).
The moral fiber of any culture is measured by how it treats its weakest members.

Christ is the Perfect Child.
Like the rest of God’s law, the fifth commandment is impossible for us to keep. Here are some questions for self-examination:
Do you ever talk back to your parents?
Do you ever hide anything from them?
Do you ever silently curse them?
Do you speak well of your parents?
Are you taking the time to strengthen your relationship with them?
Are you giving them the care they need and the honor they deserve for their position in life?
We all fail somewhere.
The fifth commandment is part of God’s law, and like the rest of God’s law, we have broken it.
No one is the perfect child.
Except Jesus.
When Jesus died on the cross, he paid the penalty for our breaking the fifth commandment as much as for any other sin.
But Jesus has done more than that: He has also kept the fifth commandment in our behalf.
It was not enough for Jesus to pay the price for our sin—
he also had to offer God the obedience that his law demands.
And Jesus did that. He honored his parents.
The Bible says explicitly that Jesus “went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them” (Luke 2:51a).
The only times their relationship was strained were
when Jesus stayed behind at the temple in Jerusalem (Luke 2:41–50)
and when he kept preaching instead of stopping to visit with his family (Luke 8:19–21).
But even then he kept the fifth commandment by honoring his higher commitment to his Father in Heaven.
And Jesus honored his earthly parents right to the very end of his life.
He was not able personally to care for his mother in her old age,
but he provided for her in his dying moments
by asking his friend John to be like a son to her (John 19:26, 27).
From the manger to the cross,
Jesus was an obedient son who brought honor to his earthly parents and his heavenly Father.
In respecting his parents’ authority he is more than our example:
He is the perfect child God demands that we should be.
Everyone who trusts in Jesus has perfect obedience to the fifth commandment,
because when Jesus obeyed his parents, he was keeping God’s law on our behalf.
Faith of Our Fathers

Isaiah 40:21–26ESV

We must honor and respect those whom God has placed over us in all areas of life.

How to Treat Your Parents

The Lord wants us to have a “heavy appreciation” for our parents.

Honor them by accepting their role.

Honor them by alleviating their need.

Honor them by making amends with them.

How to Treat Authority Figures

Employees ought to obey their Employers

Church members are to obey and Imitate the elders of the church

Citizens are to be subject to governing rulers.

Honor and Respect brings blessing

Christ is the Perfect Child.