Because I Said So! - Part 1 - Part B

Even pagan, ancient, debauched Rome had a law called the Patriot. Protest stops the absolute authority of the father.

I'm not advocating it, but the idea is that the father chooses the occupation of the son or daughter, chooses the wife of the son or daughter, and has absolute power of life and death in the child as long as the parent is alive. Only because Rome said it's good, it's right for children to obey their parents here. God says it's right. And the word right is the Greek word chaos. Eighty one times it's in the Bible. New Testament. Most of the times is translated. Right? Chest's or in accordance with God's commandment. Here's my point. To eBay, to honor, to respect, to appreciate mom and dad is right, not because the Romans said it's right, not because Americans say it's right, because God.

Says his right. Studies show that names have a lot of influence. In fact, some suggest your name could be a predictor of the career you'll choose. For instance, people with a name like Dennis or Denise were more likely to become a dentist. And Cheryl spelled with an S is more likely to run a seashell shop than Cheryl with a c h. Really? It is for lawyers giving your child a name like Laura or Laura. It's may guarantee their interest in that field.

Names have consequences. And today here and correct, we Skip weekends. Edition Pastor Skip continues our teaching series God's Top 10. This series takes the Ten Commandments and demonstrates their relevance for today. And in this study, we learned that the names we call our parents also have consequences. But first, here's Skip to tell you about how you can get in touch with. Hey, Pastor, Skip here. If you want to stay up to date on the latest from this ministry, follow at Skipp Hide Sigue on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

That's Skipp H. E. I. T. Z. I. G.

Now let's join Pastor Skip and Exodus. Chapter 20. Verse twelve. Honoring your parents extends even toward your in-laws.

Now, some of you're thinking, Skip, you really you cross the line now. You were preaching before. Now you're Medlen because you might have a family.

Were you thinking. I honor my parents. Your parents. That's your responsibility.

I'm not going to honor them. I don't even like them around.

Well, let me tell you a story from the Bible. David had a father in law who wanted to kill him. His name was Saul. He spent years of his life scouring the countryside to kill his son. In fact, Saul, father in law, even used his own daughter.

The wife of David, to kill David. That's what he tried to do. This was a weird, dysfunctional family. So anybody if there was anyone who could say, I don't need to honor that, it would be David. But listen to this. David is hiding from father law in a cave at an Ghetty for Samuell 24. Saul goes into the cave not knowing David's in there. It's in the dark. Saul gets right next to David, doesn't even know it. One of David's soldiers says to David, Hey, this has gotta be the hand of God who has delivered Saul into your hands. Kill him. David turned to his soldier friend and said, I am not going to lift my hand against listen to what he calls his father in law. God's anointed.

God's anointed. The guy who's trying to kill you is God's anointed. That's how David's home. I'm not going to raise a hand against God's anointed. What David does do is takes out his knife and he cuts a little piece of Saul's robe off and then he feels really guilty that he did that. I can't believe I cut a piece of his robe of Saul, leaves the cave, goes on the other side of the valley with his soldiers. David comes out of the cave and waves. That little piece calls after Saul. Saul, check your robe. F why I. I could have killed you. I didn't do that.

Even though it was told me that I should do it. I will not lift my hand against you. God's anointed. I don't know what your men are telling you, but I love you.

Let's take a lesson. David didn't treat his in-laws like outlaws, but loved them, honored him and even respected him.

Now there are restrictions to this. I have to say that. Look back at Ephesians chapter six in verse one.

Children obey your parents. Now notice this next part in the Lord. That's a qualifying phrase in the Lord. The general rule is the action of obedience, coupled with the attitude of honoring. However, there are times when that is limited. There are exceptions. And when would that be? Whenever the father or the mother are trying to get their child to do something that's not in the Lord.

Something that's against the Lord.

Do you member in Ax five when a law was passed that said, you can't preach the gospel in Jerusalem. It's against the law.

It's forbidden. I remember the response of the church. Church leaders didn't say, well, OK, obey the laws of the land. We won't preach. Peter said boldly. You're going to have to figure out if you think it's more right to listen to you or God. But as for us, we must obey God rather than men. In other words, we will respect the governmental authority. But when you cross the line to violate God's will, we're going to obey God, not you. Same a home. If a dad says you can't pray. You can't read your Bible. You can't have fellowship. That's flatly against God's law. Jesus put it this way. If you want to be my follower, you must love me more than your own father and mother. Wife and children. Brothers and sisters. Yes. More than your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. So a child can never follow his or her parents into sin or take sinful advice. OK. Let's create a scenario. Here's a mom and a dad. They're both not say they have a child, let's say a teenager or in college who has just recently become a Christian. And this young man is dating a young girl. And these two parents say, you know, we advise that you move in with your girlfriend and live together and have all of the benefits of marriage, including sleeping together without being married, because just, you know, you never know. You have to see if you like it. A child who's a Christian isn't going to say, well, I gotta obey my parents. You say no. That's not what the Bible says. Here is where I'm going to make a break. Because of that kind of restriction, it's not in the Lord. So all of that to say boundaries sometimes have to be set.

There are certain relationships that require distance. And to honor them would be different than in a normal, healthy relationship. And David and Saul are a good example. David honored his father in law, but there was quite a distance that Saul got away from the case. Before David even came out and showed himself, David was protecting his life and his family and his men.

So there are boundaries that are to be set. Let's look at the second part of this command and we can close with that. And that is the security of the command personally in keeping this commandment, since it has a promise attached to it. There's benefits to doing it. And no one would be a quality of life. Look at what it says. Honor your father and your mother. This is a vision.

Chapter two six, verse two, which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth.

Now, why does it say that here? It says that here because it said it there. Right. Exodus 20 that you may live long in the land, the lord your God is giving you. What does that mean? Well, remember the context of the Old Testament. What was the penalty for disobeying your parents, cursing your parents, hitting your parents in the Old Testament? Right. It wasn't a guest appearance on The Simpsons.

It was death, capital punishment, Exodus 21 15. He strikes his father or mother shall surely be put to death. Exodus 21 17. He who curses his father or mother shall surely be put to death. Well, it makes sense. Honor your father and mother that you can have a long life.

It doesn't mean that all good kids live long and all bad kids die young. We've known that's not the case. Oftentimes I've seen good children die young. We've seen disobedient, ordinary people live way too long.

How old was Adam when he died? Nine hundred and thirty years old. How old was Jesus when he died? Incidentally, Paul calls him the second Adam, but 33. Adam outlived Jesus 30 times. Did Adam live a better life than Jesus? Far from it. Preposterous.

So it has more to do with longevity of day. Certainly there's built into the commandment, but quality of days that it may be well with you. So to live long. Yeah. Generally because parents are given to safeguard children. And if children obey their parents who are there safe guardians, they're going to live better and presumably even longer. It's not too hard to figure that out and figure out why obedient children will listen to their parents warnings.

I remember the warning. Here's one of them. Don't touch that motorcycle. It was a Honda 50.

It went all of way be 20 miles an hour, 30 miles an hour. Honda 50. But I thought. I'm 12 years old. I can handle a Honda 50. Don't touch the Honda 50. Soon as they were gone. Got the keys. Put it in the Honda 50. Went down the street and it was so fun till I crashed it.

And I got hurt and I could have gotten killed. Or the time my parents were leaving for dinner and said, Skip, Bob, don't fight, OK?

Soon as they left, we got into a fight. My brother threw me through the front window of the house. I landed on the lawn, broke the window, of course. Broke me, of course. Two weeks later, they went out again. Three weeks later, I threw him through the newly replaced front window of the house.

Now, all of that pain could have been avoided by simply obeying the commands of father and mother. So they're given to safeguard children. Children don't always know danger. A child will grab shampoo and try to drink it. Play with a knife. Eat the cockroach in the corner. It takes a parent to go. No, don't do that.

You don't move. Why? Because you will move the Coke roach.

Solomon wrote to his son in Proverbs three, My son.

Do not forget my law. But let your heart keep my commands for length of days and long life and peace.

They will add to you. So it makes sense that generally a child will live longer if he or she obeys his or her parents because you're going to listen to their warnings. Also, an obedient child is going to avoid bad habits and bad friends. Don't smoke. Mom will say don't drink. Dad should say don't take drugs. They should both say. Or that friend of yours? Bad stuff. Bad news. Stay away from him. I remember they warned me about Richard Wilhite. How dare they? I thought. They don't know him. He's my friend. I know him. He's a great guy. I remember I brought him home first time. Get rid of him. He's bad news.

I can't believe you don't like him.

Richard Wilhite ended up in prison and was later murdered for all sorts of drug charges. And they could see early on the seeds of that and that young man.

And they tried to warn their son, who was stupid and chose not to obey his parents.

So disobedience does bring consequences. And one of them may be a shortened life and certainly will be an unfulfilled life. It's like the mom who said to her five year old daughter, honey, you obey me. If you don't, you'll have to live with the consequences. And the little girl said, no, no, no, don't send me off to live with the consequences. I want to live here with you.

But there are consequences that we live with.

But there's benefits that we live with if we obey. And one of them will be a quality of life.

Number two. Number two, a clear conscience.

Verse one. Look at it again. Ephesians Chapter six. Children obey your parents and the Lord for this is what? Right, That's right. Did you know that virtually every culture, ancient or modern, says it's right for children to obey their parents? It's good. It's good for society if you obey your parents. Even pagan, ancient, debauched Rome had a law called a patriot. Protest does the absolute authority of the father. I'm not advocating it. But the idea is that the father chooses the occupation of the son or daughter, chooses the wife of the son or daughter, and has absolute power of life and death in the child as long as the parent is alive. Only because Rome said it's good, it's right for children to obey their parents here. God says it's right and the word right is a Greek word chaos. Eighty one times it's in the Bible. New Testament. Most of the times is translated right chest's or in accordance with God's commandment. Here's my point. To obey. To honor. To respect. To appreciate. Mom and Dad is right. Not because the Romans said it's right. Not because Americans say it's right. Because God says it's right. And the best way to live with a clear conscience is to do something because, you know, it's right before God. It pleases the Lord. Here's the complimentary verse and Colossians chapter three, verse 20 children obey your parents in all things. For this is, well, pleasing to the Lord. Listen, there's something about doing something that doesn't feel natural to you. Doesn't feel right. Now I. Turness treated me so bad. I'm not going to honor to say I'm going to do it anyway. I'm going to do something counterintuitive to how I feel, because it's going to be right before God and I want to go to bed with a clear conscience. And I'll tell you what, I told you the episode with my father. What I did at my brother's funeral and embracing him.

I'll tell you when that really paid off. Is when I buried my father. And I had a clear conscience at his casket.

Because I did something that didn't feel good at the time, but I knew it was pleasing to God. That's the best way to live. Now, here's a thought in closing. There's only one person in all of history has kept the fifth commandment perfectly. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he's the one where to follow. He's the one where to look at and watch what he did and how he did it. And he said, I always do those things that please my father. You might be thinking we'll skip. Look at who his father is. You don't understand my situation, Skip. I was abused by a father. I was abandoned by my parents at 11 years old. I had to get a job to put bread on the table because he walked out of the family. You don't understand. But Jesus understands. When Jesus was on the Mount of Temptation, Satan came to him and said, hey, since you're the son of God, command these stones to become bread. What was Satan implying? He was implying your father didn't take very good care of you, does he? He's not putting bread on your table, is he? So right now, do something to circumvent that. Or how about the garden of good Samone father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. Maybe you look back to your child and you say, my parents never listen to my advice, never took my counsel father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done.

But my parents for Sook Me. How about Jesus on the cross? My God, my God, why hast dao for saken me?

In the fifth, third chapter of Isaiah. Very odd text of scripture, verse 10 four, it pleased the Lord, the father, to bruise his son.

No one here has ever been bruised and hurt like Jesus Christ was on the cross for our sins. Please don't misunderstand me. No cards, letters this week that say. What do you say? God's a child abuser. No. We know that that was redemptive. That that was for atonement.

Here's my point.

You can't say Jesus doesn't understand pain of relationship. When he felt that separation and cried out on the cross, he understands better than you think. And the same Jesus Christ, who knows what that hurt is like is the same Christ who lives inside of you and will enable you to love and honor and respect your parents. And that's not some psychobabble to pay eighty five bucks an hour for. That's resurrection power of the Christ that lives in you, who will enable you to do it. Now, there was a couple there were both atheists, self-proclaimed atheist father and mother had a five year old daughter. One night in an argument, the man pulled out a gun and shot his wife, turned the gun on himself, committed suicide, all in the view of their five year old daughter. How traumatic that would be. She never heard about Jesus. She never had an opportunity. She was raised up to five years of age and that kind of a home. And she watched her parents die.

She was taken into foster care.

One of the foster caregivers brought that little girl to church one Sunday morning to Sunday school and explained to the teacher what the background was. The teacher in class that day held up a picture of Jesus Christ of painting and says, day, anybody here know who this is? And that little five year old girl from an atheist home raised up her hand and said, I know who that is. That's the man who is holding me the night my parents died.

It's as if God built in, by his grace, the truth that he's a father to the fatherless.

There's no such thing as a perfect parent. There's no such thing as a perfect child, but there is a perfect God.

Who has a perfect will? And part of his perfect will is built into this commandment, honor your father and your mother, and he, by his grace, will help everyone to do that.

You know, honoring our parents may be hard. And honoring our in-laws may be even more difficult. God gives a promise with the command, a promise for blessing. We'll find out more about that when we return with the conclusion of this teaching, because I said so.

Part two and today's teaching was just one part of a dynamic look at the Ten Commandments that Skip calls God's top 10. And the entire series is available from the store at Connect with Skip dot com. You can get all 17 teachings bundled together as an audio seed package for only thirty nine dollars plus shipping.

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When Joel Rosenberg releases a new book, I can't wait to read it. He never disappoints. Recently, I was able to talk with Joel about this book from his home in Jerusalem.

It's about an American president who's about to roll out his Middle East peace plan. Jill Rosenberg's novels are dramatic stories ripped from the reality of today's headlines. Wow. A Saudi Israeli peace plan. That would be huge. That would be historic. Let's do it. Let's do a summit in Jerusalem. That's the setup of the Jerusalem assassin. What's amazing about that is this is a plausible scenario. The Jerusalem Assassin by Joel Rosenberg is our special offer this month. Your hardcover copy of The Jerusalem Assassin is our thank you gift. When you get thirty five dollars or more today to help expand this Bible, teaching outreach would Skip it. So call now to get your copy. Eight hundred nine to two eighteen eighty eight or give online securely connect with Skip dot com slash offer.

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Thank you. Honoring our parents means obeying our parents. But is there a time to disobey Skip? We'll tackle that next time here and correct me, Skip. Weekend Edition. A presentation of Connection Communications Make. Connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.