Honor and Obedience: The Fifth Commandment

Praise God. My dear friends, we're going to be starting our service and I would like to read from Matthew 11 verse 28. Matthew 11 verse twe 28. Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. And as some of us remember last week we went through the fourth commandment where um we were learning about what the Sabbath is and how the new Sabbath is us resting in Christ and our rest is not one day a week like in the Old Testament where they rested on Saturday, but our rest is every day. And the Holy Spirit, it gives us that rest because we can be going through something hard in our life. But when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, he gives us that peace. He gives us that joy, his spirit. It gives us that strength to where we can rest in him. And when Israel rested, it rested from two things. From labor, it rested. And the second thing was to honor God. To honor God for what? For getting them out of Egypt when they were enslaved. But our honor to God is not just once a week. Our honor to God is every day thanking him that he got us out of this world and saved us and gave us eternal life. And in that we find peace and rest that we don't that we're not going to stand before him in judgment, but he's going to come for us and we're going to be with him at the wedding feast. And that's the hope that we are all holding on to. And that's the rest that we can feel that when he comes, he's going to come for us. Not to stand before him in judgment, but to be with him at the wedding table. And with those words, let's pray. Lord God, we thank you so much for this wonderful morning that you have given us. Lord God, I pray for today's service. Lord, may may the word that was prepared today, God, God, teach us, instruct us, and bless us, Lord God. I pray, Holy Spirit, that you open up each heart here. Open up each heart, Lord God. Our hearts, our minds, Lord, our ears open up to hear your word, but also to worship your name, God, because you are worthy, God. and bless this whole service and each one here in Jesus name we pray. Amen. And all together we'll be singing great is thy faithfulness. [Music] Great is thy faithfulness, oh God, my father. There is no shadow of turning with thee. Thou changes not. Thy compassions they fail not. As thou has been, thou forever will be. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. All I have needed, thy head and proided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. Summer with 10, thousands beside. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. All I have needed I am hath proided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. Oh my soul, do you not know, have you not heard? It's been told from the beginning. The Lord your God is on your side. Oh my soul, don't be afraid. Hope in the Lord by his righteousness and power. He will strengthen, he will guide, and I will sar on wings like eagles. held by the hand of God. I will run and I grow tire and on his name I call for the Lord is never weary. His ways are beyond my thoughts. I will trust in him with all my heart. [Music] Oh my soul, do you not know? Have you not heard? It's been told from the beginning. The Lord your God is on your side. Oh my soul. Don't be afraid. Open the Lord. By his righteousness and power. He will strengthen. He will guide. And I will soar. On wings like eagles. Held by the hand of God. I will run and I grow tire and on his name I call for the Lord is never weary. His ways are beyond my thoughts. I will trust in him with all my heart. Praise God. Praise the Lord, brothers and sisters. I'm really glad to be back, you know, in the house of the Lord to worship his name, glorify his name with all you guys. And um I would like to open up to Psalms 9 for our Bible Bible reading for today. Uh, and I'll give you guys a little bit of time to open that up. Psalms 9 be going over this hope psalm and the page is going to be 777 for most of you. And it says here, I will praise you, oh Lord, with my whole heart. I will tell of all your marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in you. I will sing praise to your name, oh most high. When my enemies turn back, they shall fall and perish at your presence. For you have maintained my right and my cause. You sat on the throne judging in righteousness. You have rebuked the nations. You have destroyed the wicked. You have blotted out their name forever and ever. Oh enemy, destructions are finished forever. and you have destroyed cities. Even their memory has perished, but the Lord shall endure forever. He has prepared his throne for judgment. He shall judge the world in righteousness, and he shall administer judgment for the people in uprightness. The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And those who know your name will put their trust in you, for you, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. Sing praises to the Lord who dwells in Zion. Declare his deeds among the people. When he avenges blood, he remembers them. He does not forget the cry of the humble. Have mercy on me, O Lord. Consider my trouble from those who hate me. You who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may tell of all your praise. In the gates of the daughter of Zion, I will rejoice in your salvation. The nations have sunk down in the pit which they made, in the net which they hid. their own foot is caught. The Lord is known by the judgment he executes. The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Meditation. The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God, for they needy shall not always be forgotten. The expectation of the poor shall not perish forever. Arise, O Lord, do not let man prevail. Let the nations be judged in your sight. Put them in fear, O Lord, that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Praise God. And now uh we'll have brother Mike and uh Vitali play a song for us. And then right after that, we'll have uh Pastor Gennady and Tim uh going over the commandments this morning. God bless. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Oh, heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Happy [Music] birthday. [Music] Well, before we start our fifth commandment, I would like for all of us to take this uh few minutes and introduce yourself to each other. Um yeah, introduce yourself and then we'll start. um shake each other's hands like how do they say greet yeah greet each other okay let's take these few minutes You You too. How you doing? remember That's why [Music] Really? Okay, right now they're still trying to put up the slide, but um if we'll open up our Bibles to the ones in the pews to Deuteronomy 5:E 16. Deuteronomy 5:16. This is page 263. 263. Oops. [Music] Yeah, verse 16. Commandment five. That's interesting. Why? Um, Jacob, is it so play from current slide? Maybe I um play from current slide. Okay. Restarted. Okay. Sorry guys, technical difficulties. Um, so slideshow current slide. Well, anyways, we'll just read and I guess we'll begin. It's going to be kind of small. Okay. So, page 263, Deuteronomy 5:16. Honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be long and that it may be well with you in the land which the Lord God is giving you. I'll read it again. Honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be long and that it may be well with you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. So, the fifth commandment, a lot of people they um well, I'll say it's it's very straightforward, but I had some people ask me, well, Tim, uh you the the commandment says to to honor my my mother and my father, yet my father, he gave me bad advice. ice. Um then like I heard some people say, "Well, I grew up in a home that was abusive. How can I honor my father in such circumstances?" Well, that's a very good question. And what we need to understand is that there's differences between honor your parents and to obey your parents because because obedience is not the same as honor. Even though it's very close to to honor, but we we know that you will not obey if your father wants you to do something evil, right? That's that's not like you are not to obey in that sense. And me talking with some people um their fathers gave them really bad advices and there was instances where the father like even had them do things where right now they're ashamed of um because they thought that they need to obey. So today we're gonna go through the difference between honor verse obey and what it actually means to honor and growing up in a home where you might have not had a good father or mother example. Or maybe you grew up in a house where it was an abusive home. Maybe verbally, maybe physically. Yet the Bible still teaches us to honor to honor. It doesn't say honor your father and mother when they are nice to you. But it says honor your father and your mother. And then there's a promise. Well, that's kind of a bummer that the slides are not working. Maybe Jacob can come and just uh make this work. Jake, why don't you come here and make the computer work? So, so while they're trying to figure out on a on a slide, uh I do want to also add and I do want to make even a bigger difference between honoring and obeying. Okay? And I would say that honor may do nothing with obeying. There could be a father in your life that is actually like brother Tim or pastor Tim said was abusive and well you cannot obey that parent but regardless you have to honor that parent. Why? Because well that parent brought you to the world. And sometimes by honoring him what it means is that you would actually when you grow up you help your parents to get on the right track. You care about them. If the parents were abusive you understand that who made them to be like this is the is the Satan himself. So they following that actually path and now you can completely resent them and you may say that well I don't care about my parents I want to do nothing with them but when you honor your parents it's mean that you're going to tell to your parents you know you need to change you need to come to the right path you need to know the lord and you will do this because you honoring them you care about them and you are acknowledging that they're your parents. So you never disown them. And over here the the definition of honor is to honor someone is to show them respect, admire, and value. It's about the attitude you show toward them. And the definition of obey, well, I just kind of I didn't put the definition from the dictionaries, but to obey means to follow instruction or commands from someone in authority. So, honor is your attitude towards somebody, right? Like when you're when you're honoring say a king and sometimes kings they don't do do everything you want but but you still honor them because they they are in authority right um where obedience is your actions and like we just heard where if your parent uh uh tells you to do something that is I would say illegal or abusive or not right, you are not to obey them in that sense. Um and like this point over here, the last point is honor does not mean to obey sin and the foundation of the family. Um so what what we have to understand that God when he created everything he created everything beautiful and everything has a reason. Everything has a reason. A family is created beautifully and it has a reason because when a family is strong then the society is strong. When the society is strong then the country is strong. But what do we see right now? We see when sin came in, it has twisted the family that God created for the good of man. And right now a lot of people are growing up without parents uh without a mother or a father. Um because either they're they're raised by only the mother. Either they're raised by only the father or either they're raised by an orphanage by nobody. Uh no mother, no father. And it hurts God because God did not mean for a family to be like this. And so in Genesis 24 or 2:24, it says, "Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." The beauty of a marriage, right? Right now, marriages are looked down upon. They're looked down upon. People live together with a spouse not married. And that was not intended by God because when the the mo the the wife and the husband, when the couple is not married, then the child grows up in a very different unstable household. And God doesn't want that. And so in Genesis 1:28 it says, "And God blessed them." This is Adam and Eve. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it." A beautiful picture of a family. A beautiful picture of raising your children, having children. How many times like I heard recently where married couples are saying, "Oh, well, I don't want kids because I grew up in a very harsh household or I don't want kids because they are too expensive." But God, he wants a a strong family, a loving family because the the seed that's planted produces fruit. And the fruit it produces is a strong society and a strong country. And that's what strong families do. Strong families are not just just to be strong. There's actually reasons. there's blessings down the road. And when we honor our parents, then that pleases the Lord. That pleases the Lord. Because if we're able to honor them, then we're we're able to honor God. And um like how we heard today, Pastor Henry was saying, we honor them. They're not perfect, right? They're not perfect. I'm not a perfect parent, but we honored them because they brought us into this world. They brought us into this world. Well, and ju just to reinforce also that until certain point, a child will has to obey their parents. And in our culture where we were brought up, until we get married, we live in a parents house. Just because we live in a parents house, therefore parents have rules and we obey those rules. As soon as you like uh in uh pastor Tim read in Genesis when God said that a man shall cleave to his wife but before that he should leave his fathers and mother home. So it's mean not only physically but also when it comes to the um emotionally that obeying it's actually ends right there. So we have to see the difference but the honoring never ends because when people get married now they obeying God commandments. Why is that so? until you were under the authority of parents, they represent you God, who the God is. And we learn by obeying parents, we learn how to obey God. Then when we honor our own, we should obey God and people above us in authority. But the honoring of your parents has to always stay with you regardless how bad parents was to you. Not just that maybe they were not as good parents, regardless whatever happened, regardless how bad your parents were, you have to honor them. When you understand that, then your behavior towards them will be completely different. If they're, like I said, if they are not in the right path throughout your life, you're going to look how to forgive them. You're going to look how to bring them to to salvation. You're going to seek how to help them out. Why? Because you're honoring them. It's like when you're a parent and you have a kid and your kid is not in a right situation, what do you try to do? You try to help your kid. Why? you love your kid. But now when you actually have a parent that is not you're not under authority anymore but that needs a help because you honor that parent. You're going to do everything to help that parent. So that's why see why it's important to honor your parent because you're there to help them out. And when we in this situation then the society becomes stronger because the uh you try to help out your parents you try to bring them out when the when you have a child you try to help out your child and the community become stronger and this is the God's command given to us not just because God want us to honor our parents because there is a blessing in that and and actually maybe pastor 13 will come to that. Yeah. And there's a story from the Bible about Samuel and he was a young child. But this child, he obeyed his parents. He obeyed his parents and he honored them and he even obeyed the the priest. Like he was raised under the priest and because of his honor and obedience, God he used him in a very big way. He became a prophet and a judge of the whole country of Israel. But it started when he was young. You see, it started when he was young. He was taught to obey, to honor, and to respect. And as he grew, he still honored. He still honored. And then we see his kids, Samuel's kids. He had two sons, but they didn't honor their father. um they they disrespected his father. They dis because of their disrespect and dishonor to their father, they started dishonoring God. You mean not Samuel's but Eli. Eli's sons or or Eli's. Sorry. Sorry. Yeah. Eli's the the the priest. Thank you, Pastor Henry. So, so Eli's children, two sons, they started dishonoring their father. And because of their dishonor, God punished them and punished them to death. Because when a person doesn't show respect and honor to his or her parents, then that's a dishonor to to the highest authority of God. Therefore, uh the family like over here it says is the training ground. It's the training ground for the society. If we are able to learn to honor our parents, then we're wherever we're going to be, we're going to learn to honor honor the rules, honor uh uh respect others. Uh people that are dishonoring, they're they're more violent, they're more disobedient. But those who honor, they show restraint, respect and love. And people love to be around those kind of I would say friends and families. Ways to honor parents. And um I put over here five points, but show respect in words and attitude. Like I said, no parents are perfect. Um my parents I grew up they were good parents but they were not perfect. I am a parent. My parent my kids they say that they love me but trust me I am not perfect. And when they're going to be parents I know they're not going to be perfect too. Right? And so we have to understand also that our parents are not perfect but they still need to be shown the honor because when we're going to have chance to be parents we ourselves are not going to be perfect and and to honor parents even though uh pastor Tim have some points but let's say in a very practical life there comes a point where maybe you have a position that is is much higher than your parent. Maybe you become a authority in a government, uh you become a president and all that stuff. Yeah. And how can a person in a higher authority uh honor his parents? Well, when a mother or father walks in, even though you're higher in authority in a government maybe, but you will actually honor your mother or father by coming and showing the respect. you you actually if other people comes in maybe you will not do that is to your parents you will walk you shake their hand you will hug them and everyone knows that's your parents and and that's how we being practical and another thing in your life let's say that uh some of you had extremely bad experience with their parents how can you honor your parents right now because this this actually a commandment come with a blessing So now I have to find how to honor my parents. Well, maybe you call them and uh whatever they did bad to you, you tell them, you know, you are my parents. I forgive you and I wish the best for you and the best for you. Maybe you should come to Jesus Christ. You've been very practical how you show them an honor because I care about you. But number one, it will start from forgiveness. Number two, you actually help them out. And that's the honor in action in your life right now. If you need to do something about it, you do something about it. Yes. And to to add to that point of Pastor Henry um where in Romans uh 12:17 it says, "Repay no one evil for evil. Have a regard for good things inside of all men." And to to show honor is also to not repay evil for evil. We forgive them. We forgive them. And uh like Pastor Henry says, we tell them about Christ. We bring them to Christ. We we bring them to the to the uh realization that without Christ, they're going to perish. Also, not slandering them out of anger. Uh how many times uh have we maybe heard or maybe even did where we talk bad about our parents? This is dishonoring God. It doesn't matter how bad your parent is, but we cannot talk bad about them. We can talk to somebody about maybe what they did. So either the pastor or the church or our friends can help us but just to slander them uh that's dishonor also even if they were abusive we still help them when they ask that shows honor and and I'll tell you why this is important uh like later on but also learning from their mistakes mistakes. This is a huge one, learning from their mistakes. Uh, Proverbs 14:16, it says, "One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool is reckless and careless, learning from their mistakes." If we see what they did wrong, we don't repeat that. Why are there generational curses? Because kids repeat the wrongdoings of their parents. But we have to break that curse. If we are repeating, we have to break that curse. And like it's it says uh in proverbs that a wise man is cautious and turns away from all evil. Also forgiving them knowing that Christ has forgiven us. Ephesians 4:32, "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as Christ God forgave you." Uh there was one person who shared a very emotional story with me and he said, "You know, Tim, I grew up in a house that was very abusive, very abusive. And uh my parents were doing drugs, they were drinking. Um, I grew up in a house like that and it came a point where because of their addiction, they could no longer have me. So, they put me into a foster home and like I was on the brink of suicide. I grew up in a foster house and I was driving by and I stopped at a church. and in the church is where I got saved, where I saw Christ. And he's like, "But I still had all those memories of what my parents did, how I grew up in an unfair household." And I was praying, "God, help me forgive them. Help me forgive them. Help me forgive them." And he's like, and I got this realization how much harm I did to Christ and all those people that were abusing him, that were torturing him when Christ was hanging on that cross. He said, "Father, forgive them for they not know what they do." And sometimes the people do us harm because they not know what they do. And he's like, when I understood that Christ forgave his abusers and he forgave me, he said that I was able to forgive my parents. And now for many years, they have a very good relationship with each other because sometimes people do us harm not knowing. And that's why it's important to to to forgive. and praying for them even if we have to keep our distance because God he breaks through even the hardest of hearts and makes them soft in Ezekiel 11:19. And I will give them one heart and a new spirit and I will put uh within them I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh. So God, he can change any heart. And if you want your parents to be saved, then pray for them. Pray for them because God, he will do his work. Is there anything that you wanted to add? Well, I'm not sure where we at in the slideshow, but what what we came to maybe sum up some of the things we were talking about honoring your parents, it's not base on if they worthy or not. So, the Bible tell us honoring your parents is just because the position they had, they're your parents. So regardless if they're worthy or not then uh since you're honoring your parents there is a blessing with that. What's interesting I think maybe pastor Tim will come to that but uh right here it says honor it's that's in Ephesians honor thy father and thy mother which is the first commandment with promise. Well we know it's not a first commandment. Yeah, but it's a first commandment with a promise. That's the only commandment that will tell you just because you honoring your parents regardless if they're worthy or not, there is a blessing comes with that and the blessing that you will have long life. And you want to put yourself in that position. If you're not a perfect parent, do you want your kids to slander you? No. You probably want your kids to come to you and help you out. Do same thing to your parents as well. How you wanted your kids to do to you, do same thing to your parents. Help them out. Let's make this world to be better and let's bring people to Christ. Doesn't matter if they're even your parents. Yes. And uh we're coming to to the end and uh like Pastor Henry read that passage. I'm not going to reread it, but the the promise is that it may go well with you. And the second promise is long life on the earth. And that it may go well with you. It's this this uh promise. It's it could be well when a person will he lives a well life he's he's satisfied. Yes not not every life is perfect but but he's satisfied and God gives that person that satisfaction. Um and also honoring your parents lays a foundation for how we treat all authority and others. If we are able to honor our imperfect parents, then we can honor the imperfect authority which in result will honor the perfect God. Um the the Bible verse I was trying to find it but there's a Bible verse that says like how can you say that you love your brother? um that you love your brother but you love that you love God but you do not love yeah like how can you say that that you hate your brother but you love God you can't and over here brother is like somebody close so so I would also translate that is to a parent how can you hate your parent or dishonor them but you say that you love God that's that's dishonoring ing God. And just to the last points that even if you honor your your parents, your abusive parents or your loving parents, the blessings will still come from God into your life because because like Pastor Henry said, it doesn't matter what household, but honor brings blessing. You honor, God blesses you. That's his promise. You honor, God blesses you because that's his promise. You dishonor your loving parents, there's no blessing in that. You dishonor your notloving parents, there's no blessing in that. So if we want the blessing of the Lord, we need to honor our parents. That's it. Okay. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. We we should we should honor even after death. It's the inside position that you have toward your parents and uh you should still not talk bad about them because we don't realize when we talk bad about parents it reflects onto us. So, and the way to stop a like generational curse like brother Tim said and pastor Tim Pastor Tim said that you actually by honoring them you breaking that curse because what's going to probably happen then your kids will honor you. So you regardless you always want to honor your parents then that attitude will be transferred to your kids and then to your grandkids and so on. Okay. Is there any more questions before we end? Okay. If not, then let's stand up and pray. Lord God, we thank you for the the fifth commandment that you have given us, Lord. God, I pray that that you give us wisdom and guidance to honor our parents to the fullest, Lord God. That they feel honored and that in this way we can honor you, God. Bless us Lord God how you uh promised all those who honor their parents. May you bless us Lord God that it may go well with us and that we may live long life. Bless this church Lord God and and everybody here may the word that was spoken today into into our hearts Lord. And if there's there's any of us Lord that needs to start doing this step of honoring our father or our mother give us that strength. give us that strength in Jesus name we pray. Amen. And the last song we'll be singing um before we end this service will be called the Lord is my light. [Music] The Lord is my light and my salvation. The Lord is the strength of my life. The Lord is my light and my salvation. The Lord is the strength of my life. So I will not be afraid. No, I will not be afraid because the Lord is my light. The Lord is my light. The Lord is my light. In the day of trouble, he will hide me. He will keep me safe. He will guide me through. The Lord is my light and my salvation. The Lord is the strength of my life. The Lord is my light and my salvation. The Lord is the strength of my life. So I will not be afraid. No, I will not be afraid because the Lord is my light. The Lord is my light. The Lord is my light. In the darkest hour, he will keep me. Evil has no power when he shelters me. The Lord is my life and my salvation. The Lord is the strength of my life. The Lord is my life and my salvation. The Lord is the strength of my life. So I will not be afraid. No, I will not be afraid because the Lord is my light. The Lord is my light. The Lord is my light. Praise God. Well, praise God, my dear friends. Our service has come to the end. I hope everybody learned a little bit of something, right? and uh may we take it with us home today, sleep on it and use it and apply it into our life. And what I noticed is that when I um my mom's birthday, right? I come up to her and I'm like, "Mom, happy birthday." It it puts a smile on the face. And it's these like small things that showed them honor, too. So, we cannot forget our parents. We need to honor them, love them, and bless them. Does anybody have any needs? Yes. Okay. Okay. Well, that prayer was better than mine. So that that was already a prayer that's that's from the heart, but but we'll add to that. Anybody else? Yeah, God is testing you, brother Mike. Got to stand strong and trust in him. Amen. Okay. Yes, brother. Okay. And if you want to come after service and talk to to us, we'd be be happy to talk to you. Okay. Okay. Let's pray. Yes. Okay. Amen. I like that one, too. Praise God. We all need that one. Okay, let's pray. Lord God, we thank you so much for the the word today, God. But but we also are thankful, Lord God, for these needs that these uh brothers have, Lord. We pray for Sean's parents, Lord God. May you bless them. May you protect them, Lord God, because they did so much for them. And we in the name of Jesus Christ, we bless them, Lord God. We also pray for Mike, God, that he needs a job, Lord God, and you look after him, Lord Jesus. Look after him and provide, God, because he is trusting in you, Lord God. We and we also are praying for the the uh brother in the back that has the need for the the jury, the the trial. God, may you may you uh with your mighty hand and your blessed hand be be in that courtroom, Lord God. And may everything go well. May everything go well, Lord God. And may your uh blessings be upon where everybody is happy, God. And we see your mercy, God, because the Bible says that mercy uh that your mercy is above the law, Lord Jesus. And we also pray for David, Lord God. May you bless him on his path, Lord Jesus. May you bless him on his path that he walks strong in all of us, Lord God. Give us that strength to walk on that path of righteousness, Lord God, that we don't depart to the left or to the right, but but that our our our eyes are always on you, Lord. May your name be praised and glorified in Jesus name. Amen. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sinned against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For your kingdom, your power, and glory forever are yours. Amen. So, next week, we're just going to uh jump into James for a couple weeks. Pastor Henry, he's leaving, but once he's back, we will continue