01-19-2020 – God-Ordained Relationships: Part Three

Bible Text: Ephesians 6:1-9 | Pastor: Pastor Mike Hale | Series: Ephesians | Deuteronomy 6:4-9, ““Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your
heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you
sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when
you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as
frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and
on your gates.

The parents of Israel failed, just as many parents today fail to share God’s plan,
purpose and provision with their own children.. So why is that so difficult?

1. Every living person has a sinful nature, with self at the center.
2. The world system is godless and corrupt, antithetical to the character of God
and God’s will for marriage, family and other relationships.
3. The widespread confusion and ignorance about marriage and parenting is
exacerbated by the myriad of marriage, family and child psychology books written
by so-called experts who have no real substance and are lacking the truth.

Read Ephesians 6:1-4… There are a many secular humanistic groups today who
are promoting the release of children from the morals and values held by traditional
families, denying parental authority, outlawing physical punishment, and forbidding
religious education, or “indoctrination” as they refer to it.

Some of those from these groups are seeking to remove all moral ideologies and
instead to allow children to have complete sexual freedom: contraceptives made
available through school health clinics, abortions on demand, minimum wage
payment for doing household chores, and even the right to sue and/or “divorce”
their own parents.

Parents who do not teach and train their children to know and to apply God’s
principles and precepts, may one day find that their child has become like a frog in
a kettle of water, sitting atop a burner on a stove, adjusting to the slowly rising
heat, unaware of the imminent danger approaching, until it is too late, ultimately
succumbing to death by environment.

Children must not be allowed to choose whatever they want, whenever and
wherever they want it; for they are under the authority of their parents, not the
other way around! And no matter what the world says, God is very clear:

(Ephesians 6:1-2) children are to obey (behavioral action) and honor (heart
attitude) their parents.

This is the first commandment with a promise,

euteronomy 5:16, “Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God
has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with
you on the land which the LORD your God gives you.”

The OT consequences for disobedience and disrespect was death.

Exodus 21:15, “He who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to
death.”

Deuteronomy 21:18-21, “”If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will
not obey * his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even
listen to them, then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the
elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown. “They shall say to the elders of
his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey * us, he is a
glutton and a drunkard.’ “Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so
you shall remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear of it and fear.”

A generation of undisciplined, godless children will produce a society of
confused, neurotic, and dangerous adults; and it can take up to three or four
generations to reverse the effects of one wicked generation.

The Children’s Defense Fund posts the following figures, concerning what
happens every 24 hours in America:

5 children are killed by abuse or neglect
7 teens commit suicide
170 children are arrested for a violent offense
300 children are arrested for a drug offense
600 unwed teenage girls have babies
1,800 abortions take place
2,800 kids watch their parents separate or divorce
3,000 teens drop out of high school
5,000 teenagers contract an STD

A world like this is very hard on its children.

A child can have no greater blessing or inheritance than the godly teaching and
example of loving parents. It is a parent’s duty to train his/her children to know
and honor God, to care for themselves, and to care for others.

Children do not know God naturally, they must be taught about Him, His plan
and His provisions; His love must be shown to them, so they will come to trust in
Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord, and so here (Ephesians 6:4),
fathers are commanded not to use their authority or their physical presence to
provoke or exasperate their children, instead, he is to model Christ to them.

In two separate studies [one by Harvard University sociologists, the other by a
well known Christian psychiatrist] similar factors were found to produce beneficial
and productive parent-child relations:

1. Love expressed by parents for each other, and for their children.
2. Firm, fair and consistent discipline and expectations
3. Good modeling by both parents, with father as the head of the home.

Following are some factors that were found to cause resentment or to provoke
anger in children, toward their parents:

1. overprotection
2. showing favoritism, comparing siblings
3. pushing achievements to fulfill parental fantasies
4. a lack of commendations
5. pushing a child to grow up too quickly
6. using love as a reward and/or punishment, i.e., conditional acceptance of a
child based on performance

Biblical Proverbs direct us to train and discipline our children according to God’s
principles and precepts, expressing our love for them and our obedience to God.

Proverbs 1:8, “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction And do not forsake your
mother’s teaching.”

Proverbs 13:24, “He who withholds his rod hates his son, But he who loves him
disciplines him diligently.”

Proverbs 19:18, “Discipline your son while there is hope, And do not desire his
death.”

Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he
will not depart from it.” 15, “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod
of discipline will remove it far from him.”

Proverbs 23:13-14, “Do not hold back discipline from the child, although you
strike him with the rod, he will not die. You shall strike him with the rod and rescue
his soul from Sheol.”

Proverbs 29:15, “The rod and reproof give wisdom, But a child who gets his own
way brings shame to his mother.” 17, “Correct your son, and he will give you
comfort; He will also delight your soul.”

Children are blessings and treasures from God; they belong to God, and so we
as parents are caretakers of that which belongs to God; it is our responsibility to
guide, direct, protect, encourage, discipline, teach and equip our children, that they
might come to know and to serve the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ:
crucified, resurrected, and coming again.

Matthew 19:14, Jesus said, ”Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from
coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
As Christian parents, we are to exemplify the will and the character of God in
our lives, so that our children will come to personally know Jesus Christ as their
Savior and Lord; only then, will they have all they need to be able to enjoy life on
this earth, as a servant of Christ, while waiting expectantly to be brought into
heaven, as a child of God, where they will live forever, in the presence of God the
Father and God the Son, with all those who are members of the Family of God [the
Body of Christ].

Read Ephesians 6:5-8… Slaves [employees] are to serve their masters
[employers] obediently, respectfully; for this is good and pleases the Lord. We are
to serve others as if we are slaves of Christ, working wholeheartedly, as if serving
the Lord Himself. And we do this whether we are serving under or alongside other
believers or unbelievers.

Read Ephesians 6:9…Masters [employers] are not to threaten or mistreat
their slaves [employees], for we are all equal in God’s sight (in salvation and
individual worth) and there is no favoritism in God’s family, for we all serve one
Master, who is in heaven, and through Christ we all belong to God.

Galatians 3:26-28, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For
all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There
is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male
nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

1John 3:1a, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would
be called children of God; and such we are.”

1John 5:1-2, “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and
whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love
the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments.”

Husbands are to be the head of the home, and they are not to be harsh with
their wives, but considerate and caring, treating them with love and respect.

Parents are to be obeyed by their children, but they are not to provoke or
mistreat them, but to love, nurture, and train them, so they might know and serve
the Lord.

Masters [employers] have authority, but they are to provide what is right and
fair to their servants [employees] because God in heaven is the Sovereign Master to
whom every one will one day give an account.

And so, whether you serve the Lord as a husband, wife, child, parent, employee
or employer; you are to serve as if you are serving the Lord Himself.

Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other,
just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”

Colossians 3:17, “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord
Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” 23-25, “Whatever you do, do
your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord
you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.
For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has
done, and that without partiality.”