"I Brought You Into This World; I’ll Take You Out!"
Exodus 20:12
INTRO: It is a dangerous thing to grow old! An elementary school class had been photographed and the teacher was trying to persuade
them each to buy a copy of the group picture. "Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say, ’There’s Jennifer; she’s
a lawyer,’ or ’That’s Michael; he’s a doctor.’"
A small voice at the back of the room rang out, "And there’s the teacher she’s dead!"
Exodus 20:12
"Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you." (NIV)
What does it mean to HONOR your father and your mother?
I. "H" = Consider their words HEAVILY.
-The word "honor" means "heavy". We must weigh the words of our parents heavily because they have clout, they are significant.
- It is still the PARENT’S RESPONSIBILITY to "train a child."
Proverbs 22:6
"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." (NIV)
In order to train a child in the way he should go, parents must go that way themselves! Parents disciple children best by being disciples.
Parents can discipline children best by being disciplined. In other words, live like you want your kids to live! By doing so, your life will give them
reason to honor you.
II. "O" = OBEY your parents!
Ephesians 6:1
"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." (NIV)
-No EXPIRATION DATE on this command!
-Perhaps we would understand "honor" more if we were treated like giraffes after birth.
In A View from the Zoo, Gary Richmond tells about the birth of a giraffe:
The first things to emerge are the baby giraffe’s front hooves and head. A few minutes later the plucky newborn is hurled forth, falls ten feet,
and lands on its back. Within seconds, he rolls to an upright position with his legs tucked under his body. From this position he considers the
world for the first time and shakes himself.
The mother giraffe lowers her head long enough to take a quick look. Then she positions herself directly over the calf. She waits for about a
minute, then she does the most unreasonable thing. She swings her long, pendulous leg outward and kicks her baby, so that it is sent sprawling
head over heels.
When it doesn’t get up, the violent process is repeated over and over again. The struggle to rise is momentous. As the baby calf grows tired,
the mother kicks it again to stimulate its efforts....Finally, the calf stands for the first time on its wobbly legs.
Then the mother giraffe does the most remarkable thing. She kicks it off its feet again. Why? She wants it to remember how it got up! In
the wild, baby giraffes must be able to get up as quickly as possible to stay with the herd, where there is safety. Lions, hyenas, leopards, and wild
hunting dogs all enjoy young giraffes, and they’d get it too, if the mother didn’t teach her calf to get up quickly and get on with it!
-Moms, are you tired? Will Durant said that tired mothers find that spanking takes less time than reasoning and penetrates sooner to the seat
of the memory!
-Children will always push against the limits placed by their parents to see if they move. If the limits move, the children’s security is gone!
Set limits for your children for their security, not your satisfaction. If our limits are set according to the guidelines of the Word of God, our children
will be stronger by obeying them. In turn they will honor you, their parents!
III. “N” = Be NICE to them.
Exodus 21:15,17
“Anyone who attacks his father or his mother must be put to death. Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.” (NIV)
-I ought to be dead! Before I became a Christian, I regret that I said some cuss words to my mother. I would never cuss my dad...I knew he
would kill me. But mom was shorter than I so I felt safe!
The point is that you can never call back the words you have spoken! You can apologize, beg for forgiveness, overdo kind deeds, but you
cannot eat your words! What you have spoken is on the wings of eternity and is not subject for return! It is final. I wish I could call back those
words I spoke to mom in childish anger. I told her I was sorry, and she forgave me. But I cannot undo what I said!
-God puts high priority on the way we treat our parents! Kind words, remembering their special days, speaking lovingly to them and about
them will go a long ways in showing honor to them.
IV. “O” = Tend to their needs as they get OLDER!
-A wealthy Texan was in the habit of giving his mom unique gifts on Mother’s Day. One year it was lessons on Hang-gliding; the year
before that it was the entire record collection of Slim Whitman’s hits. But this past year he felt he had outdone himself. He purchased for mom a
rare kind of talking bird that could speak five languages and sing “The Yellow Rose of Texas” while standing on one foot. This talented Bird cost
the man $10,000, but he felt it was worth every penny! This would be one Mother’s day gift she would never forget. A week after Mother’s Day he
called his mother. “Mom, how did you like the bird?” His mother replied, “Why, it was delicious, son!”
-Stay alert to you parent’s needs as they get older. The greatest need parents have as they age is their children’s time! No better investment
can be made.
-Once there was a little old man. His hands trembled; when he ate he clattered the silverware distressingly, missed his moth with the spoon
more often than not, and dribbled a bit of his food on the tablecloth. Now he lived with his married son, having nowhere else to live, and this
arrangement made his son & daughter-in-law miserable.
They took the old man, made him sit on a stool in the corner of the kitchen, and made him eat his food out of a bowl.
One day his hands trembled more than usual and he dropped his bowl and broke it. His son yelled at his dad, “You are such a pig! You
must now eat like one!” So the son made his dad a little wooden trough and he got his meals it that.
These people had a four-year old son. One evening the young man saw his son playing with some bits of wood and asked what he was
doing. “I’m making a through, “he said, smiling up for approval, “to feed you and momma out of when I get big!”
Honor your parents, lest your children dishonor you!
V. “R” = RESPECT them.
-How we treat our parents not only IMPACTS them.
It IMPACTS US! To respect our parents means that we hold them in High Esteem! We should treat them like kings and queens!
-In 1993 an old photograph was found was found in the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The picture was of an overweight
man in a baseball uniform with the words, ‘Sinclair Oil”, on the shirt. No one knew where the picture came from. It had been slid into a display
case neatly and no one had noticed until one day a visitor inquired what it meant.
Later the person who had put it there confessed. It was left there by someone who was wanting to honor their father in the Hall of Fame.
His father had died, and he felt his dad was deserving of special recognition. So, while no one was looking, he held a special ceremony and
inducted his father into the Baseball Hall of Fame!
-If you could give your Mother or Father a gift of Honor today, what would it be? The best gift you could give is to honor them by living a
Godly life!
