(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Man, the title of my sermon this morning is Reasons to Honor Your Mother. Reasons to honor your mother, today's Mother's Day, it's something that's on our minds. And there are a lot of good reasons to honor your mother. I'm going to start out with a really obvious reason to honor your mother, and then I'm going to get into some other reasons that might not be quite as obvious to you. But the first reason is given right here in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 1, where the Bible reads, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. So the first reason to honor your mother is because you want it to be well with you, and you want to live long on the earth. And I can't emphasize this enough, I mean the Bible is saying this is the first commandment with promise. The Bible is giving preeminence to this commandment and saying, look, this is something that's special. This is different than a lot of other commandments because this is a commandment that has a specific promise associated with it, that if you honor your father and mother, it will be well with you and your days would be long on the earth. And who would not want to claim that promise? Is it really worth it, your pride or bitterness or bad attitude or whatever excuse you have for not honoring your father and mother, is it really worth it to sacrifice this promise of it being well with you and your days being long on the earth? You know, I don't know about you, but when I go through life, I want God on my side, I want God blessing me, because there are a lot of things in life that can kind of go either way. We're not just in total control of our own destinies, there are a lot of things about our lives that are out of our hands. You know, we get on the road, we can be the best driver in the world, but you know what, other drivers are out of our hands. You know, we could go to our job and put in our best work, but there are a lot of other people in that company doing a lot of things that are just out of our hands and the weather is out of our hands and the economy is out of our hands. Many, many things in life we don't have control over. And so if we are in God's good favor and he's blessing us, you know, God can make these things line up either for us or he can make these things line up against us. So we definitely want it to be well with us, we definitely want to live long on the earth and so want to honor our mother. That's an obvious reason to honor your mother. But here's another reason, go if you would to Hebrews chapter 12. The next reason to honor your mother is because your mom trained you. Your mom taught you and trained you and raised you, including the fact that your mom disciplined you. She trained you, she taught you, she disciplined you, she raised you. You know, it always blows my mind how many people are so negative toward their parents but they feel pretty good about themselves. They feel pretty good about where they are in life or what they're doing in life and they kind of wish that their parents would be X, Y, and Z but they're totally satisfied with the way they are. Well newsflash, you're a product of your parents. So you would not be where you are right now if it weren't for your parents. So you know, I'm seeing you here today sitting in Faithful Word Baptist Church, you don't know how bad my upper, you don't know my mom, you don't know my dad. They clearly did something right because you're here right now. Here you are. Other people are out there hating the Lord, reprobate, but somehow you ended up here and I know there were a lot of different factors that led you to be here this morning, but you know what? Your parents somehow played a role in who you are and got you to this point. So you need to be thankful for your parents, honor your parents, because your mom is the one who trained you. So be thankful to her for teaching you and raising you and training you and disciplining you. Look what the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 5. And you've forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him, for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourges every son whom ye receive it. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which correct us. And let me just stop right there and point something out to you in verse 9. When it says we've had fathers of our flesh, you have to understand that the Bible often uses the masculine words to refer to both genders, okay? So for example, when the Bible says chasten thy son while there's hope, it's not saying like don't discipline your daughter, only discipline your son. Wouldn't that be a ridiculous interpretation? Or when the Bible says as many as received him, to them gave you power to become the sons of God, is that saying that women become sons of God? No. The Bible uses words like fathers, sons, et cetera just to refer to that in general, okay? So when it says fathers provoke not your children under wrath, he's really talking to both parents there. He's just using the math. Just like when it says son, son, hear the instruction of your father, obviously that's also telling the daughter to listen to her mother. You have to be able to extrapolate that. The Bible isn't using, you know, today's 2021 gender neutral pronouns. It uses masculine pronouns. It comes from a masculine perspective, but it still is applicable to both in many cases. So when the Bible says here we've had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, it's not just talking about the fact that our actual dad corrected us, it's also our mom that corrected us because when we were growing up, we didn't just get disciplined by dad, we also got disciplined by mom. You know, I got a lot more spankings from mom than I did from dad growing up and the reason why is because mom is the primary caregiver. Mom's the one who's there all day every day and so typically mom ends up doing most of the discipline. And so it says here, furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us. Our physical parents corrected us and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now here's the key verse that I really want you to home in on, verse 11. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Now look, our parents' chastening is not grievous, it seems grievous. Does everybody see the difference? It's like when the Bible says that the love of God is that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous, but you know what? Sometimes God's commandments might seem grievous to us. Sometimes our parents' rules might seem grievous to us. Sometimes things that are being preached from the pulpit at church might seem grievous to us, but let me tell you something. Just because they don't seem joyous, just because they seem grievous, the Bible says nevertheless, verse 11, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore teenager, lift up the hands which hang down. Right? Teenagers can sometimes mope and oh man, such a drag, man. You know how teenagers could get down in the mouth? No, lift up the hands which hang down, right? Put your shoulders back, stand up straight, don't mope, don't pout, don't grieve. Lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. Now let me give you an illustration of this. You know, think about how many things in life where there are, where we go through some kind of a preparation so that we can enjoy something later, some kind of a reward later or a prize later. The Bible says here that no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous, but afterward it yields this peaceable fruit of righteousness. So here's where a lot of teenagers don't understand this. They think to themselves like, oh man, it's so much better to be moved out. I'm so much happier, you know, living on my own, being moved out, than living at home with my parents. You know what I say to that is, amen. It's better being an adult than being a teenager living at home with your parents. I mean, none of us, when we were 18, 19, 20, 21 and we became adults, got married, moved out or whatever, you know, just kind of wished we were back living at home with our parents. You know, I just wish my parents would spank me and discipline me and I just, I just wish I could just live at home and be told what to do and have those rules again. I mean, is that how you felt as a newly married young man or a newly married young lady? Probably not. You're probably thinking, hey, this is great. This is wonderful. I'm enjoying doing my own thing, being on my own. Amen. But the stupidity is when you then turn around and say, oh, that's because I'm better than my parents. Oh, that's because my parents, they made me miserable and it just feels so good to get out from under my breath. No, no, no. Wrong, wrong. You know what? Boot camp. Does anybody enjoy going to boot camp? Does anyone like boot camp and just be like, man, I wish I could be back at boot camp. Sometimes I just miss boot camp. It was so fun. No, no one feels that way. But here's the thing. Boot camp is necessary to make you the right soldier. So you needed boot camp to train you to be the soldier. What are you going to enjoy more? The soldiering or the boot camp? Enjoy the soldiering. Okay, let's use another illustration. How about training for some kind of a sporting event or something? Let's say you're training for a marathon or something. What do you enjoy more? Being in shape or the training? You enjoy the fruits of being in shape, right? But you hate the training. I mean, it's like, oh, it's just so good not to be training anymore. But here's the thing. You're enjoying the fruits of that. Obviously it's good not to be in boot camp anymore, right? Amen. But does that mean that boot camp did you dirty? No, they trained you. Okay. Well, listen, your parent's job is not to just give you the funnest possible childhood. Now look, I do everything I can to make childhood fun for my kids. And I like to do fun things for them and have a good time with them. But you know what? That's not my main goal. My goal is to train them for life, okay? So here's the thing. Getting a bad attitude about your parents having rules and making you work and making you get up in the morning and making you do stuff, look, my friend, they're training you for life so that you can enjoy the next 60 years of your life, okay? They don't want you to go out and party and have all the fun now and then have a messed up 60 years for the next 60 years of your life because you had no rules. You had no guidelines. You had no training. No. They're going to make things a little uncomfortable for you sometimes. They're going to put you through some pain sometimes because of the fact that they know you're going to enjoy your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s because you were trained right. So don't be grieved by your parents' training and get bitter toward your mom and your dad. Oh, they were so mean. They were so strict. They were so, it's on my case. Yeah, but here you are succeeding. Here you are making it at your job, right? Here you are a productive member of society. Here you are following the Lord. Why? Because your parents didn't just hand you everything on a silver platter, make everything easy for you and cut everything up into tiny little pieces and put it in your mouth and just make everything perfect for you. No, they made you do some hard things. You know, I thank God that my parents made me do some difficult things. And you know, a wise man looks back over his upbringing and thinks about the time that his mom punished him or was hard on him or rebuked him and is thankful for that and honors her for that and says, thank you for the training. You know, people pay money to have somebody yell at them and insult them. You know that? It's called Setan Gym in Chandler. It's a Muay Thai gym. I've been there. And I'm telling you, look, those guys worked you hard, they made you suffer, they put you through pain, they'd walk up and just shake their head at you sometimes and just act like, you know, why do you even come here if you're not going to try? And people are just paying money for that. Why are they paying money for that? Why are people paying 100 bucks a month or 70 bucks a month or whatever in order to be treated roughly, in order to be disciplined, in order to be forced to do hard things? Why? Because they want the outcome. They want the result. They want to get good. Okay, well guess what? Your parents are sometimes going to be hard on you because they want you to get good. They want you to be a good, productive member of society. The chastening doesn't seem joyous at present, but afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. And you know what? You can't just leave boot camp early because it would be more fun to be a soldier. You don't understand, you know, commanding officer. I'm just looking forward to being a soldier so much that I'm going to leave boot camp a little early. No, you need to complete the training. You've got to complete the training. Well that's how life is. You know, complete the training. And by the way, I believe that it's God's will for you to live at home with your parents until you get married. That's the perfect plan. That's the perfect world. That's what God's original intent is, for a man to leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh. And especially for daughters, the dad gives them away in the wedding ceremony for a reason. Because he's passing them from his care and authority over to their husband's care and authority. That's what that precession, that precession is supposed to even mean, where the dad walks her down the aisle and passes her off. That's the meaning. So the point is that yeah, look, you that are 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and you can't wait to get out of the house, hey, I'm sure there's a lot of people in boot camp that can't wait to finish either. Right? Now I've never been in the military, so this is all, you know, second hand for me. Who's been in the military and you've done boot camp? Weren't you kind of like counting down for it to be over or looking forward to it being over? Is that right? Yeah, you're counting down. I mean, you want it to end. You're excited about actually getting out there and doing the job. I guarantee you that people that are in college right now, guess what they're looking forward to? Graduating. They're counting down. People that are in some kind of a training program for a trade or a job or something. Look, there's nothing wrong with wanting to reach the destination. You know, there's nothing wrong with wanting to be an adult, with wanting to have your own family and be married and have your own household. There's nothing wrong with looking toward that goal and working toward that goal. But what is wrong is when you get bitter about your current circumstance, which is a necessary step to get you to that destination. It is necessary that you be raised by your parents and taught by your parents and that your parents make you do things that you don't want to do. Guess what? People who only do stuff they want to do are going to fail in life because all of us that are out there adulting every day and every week, every single week we do stuff we don't like. Who here has to do things that you don't enjoy every single week, every single day? It's called being an adult. It's not like your boss comes to you, okay, here's your next assignment. I don't like that assignment. Find something else for me. He's going to tell you to find another job. Yeah, I'll find something else for you. Looking for a job, that's your next assignment. So look, obviously, you know, we all do things we don't want to do. And here's the thing, if your mom never makes you do stuff that you don't want to do, then she's failing as a parent because it's a mom's job to make kids get out of bed when they don't want to get out of bed. It's a mom's job to tell them that they can't do certain forms of entertainment that they want to do. It's a mom's job to have rules and to tell you no and to make you eat your vegetables and to make you eat things that you don't like. And look, when you grow up, you can eat whatever you want, amen. Like nobody in my house forces me to eat things that I don't want to eat. I'm not saying somebody's shoving peas in my mouth or something. And I like peas, by the way. But here's the thing about that. Somebody forced me to eat. But kids at home are just fantasizing like, someday I'm going to be able to eat whatever I want. I'm going to get out there and I'm just going to be able to eat whatever I want. But here's the thing. By the time you get there, your parents will have taught you so well that you'll start forcing yourself to eat things you don't want to eat. I know it's sad, isn't it? But it's true. You know, I force myself to eat things that I don't want to eat. And I'm constantly skipping things that I do want to eat because of my parents teaching me to have a brain in my head. Because I know that if I just eat only the things I want to eat and never the things I don't want to eat, I'm going to be super unhealthy. Am I right? You know, because I need a balanced diet, okay? And you know, I know cereal is part of a balanced diet. You know, you know, Cinnamon Toast Crunch is part of a balanced diet. Yeah, but except what they're not telling you is that in order to balance out that diet, you have to eat like five barley loaves, 72 eggs, you know, 12 oranges, you know. So you know, it's part of, they show this giant spread of like it's part of a balanced breakfast. Yeah, it's not really the important part though. So the point is that, you know, yeah, your parents are going to make you eat stuff you don't want to eat. They're going to tell you, you know, when I grow up, I can hang around with whoever I want. But when you're a kid, your parents tell you, you're not allowed to hang around with that person. Stay away from that dude. Stay away from that girl. Your parents have those rules. And then when you grow up, guess what you do? You end up avoiding certain people as an adult because your parents taught you, right? Now look, do I want to go back and be a teenager again? Absolutely not. Am I enjoying life more as an adult than I did as a teenager? Absolutely. Being a teenager is hard. Being a teenager is a difficult period in life. It's hard because you're in that transition and you kind of, you want to be out there having freedom, but you're still under your parents' rules and you have the brain of a child in an adult body. And the thing is, you know, it's a difficult time. I get it. I wouldn't want to do it again. Who wants to go back to high school again? Who wants to go back to junior high again? No way. I'm glad it's over and done. But you know what? I never regret doing it. I never go back and just think, man, I wish I would have just skipped junior high and just skipped high school and just ended with a sixth grade education. Or, man, I just wish I would have eaten more cereal and more ice cream. I've never felt that way. So be thankful to your mom and honor your mom because she trained you. Instead of whining about, oh, she made life so hard for me. Yeah, that's what made you such a strong person. Oh, my parents yelled at me. Yeah, that's why you're so patient and you can take it when your boss at work yells at you. Everybody else cries and goes home. You get overtime because you stayed for the extra lectures and chewing outs. Look, and look, you know, there were times when my parents were pretty strict with me. My parents, you know, sometimes were strict, sometimes weren't. You know, it depends on what metric you use. But, you know, I remember getting yelled at a lot and I remember working with my dad and him being really strict with me when he would take me out on electrical work. I remember the first day I got a job doing electrical with someone other than my dad. It was low voltage electrical, but I was working for this alarm company and my first day on the job, the guy tells me, hey, would you go grab such and such out of the truck? I mean, I sprinted out to the truck and I'm just like frantic, like, ah, ah, you know, found it, ran back out. I keep going like, ah, ah, ah. And he's just like, dude, relax. And he's like, you're hired, because it was like a one day trial. It was like, you work the one day and at the end of the day, you either have the job or you don't. And the guy's just like, dude, you're hired, like, take it easy. But I was used to working with my dad and it's like, hurry up, get that over here, you know. And it's like, if you don't find it, it's like, if I find it, you're in trouble. You know what I mean? Then a few years later, I had a job that was just really strict and really hard to work with. And I remember at a family gathering telling my dad, I said, dad, the guy I'm working for right now makes you look like Mr. Rogers. And I said, thank you for preparing me for this guy, because like there's no way I would have been prepared to work with this guy if you had not, you know, made me a little more thick skinned. And you know, it was a really good paying job. I was really blessed to have that job. I was really thankful to God for that job. But you know what? People were constantly quitting the job every week because they couldn't handle working with this guy. But I could handle it. Why? Is it just because I'm so patient and I just have so much character? No. It's because of one person and one person alone. My dad. Because he was hard on me. Okay. And you know what? My mom also raised me with rules and she was strict, you know, and I remember she used to poke me in the chest with those manicured fingernails and stab me right here in the sternum. But you know what? Hey, she laid down the law. She didn't just let me do whatever I want. She didn't just let me just run wild. No, she had rules and she was strict and she taught us to grow up and love the world. And by the way, all four of us kids, because I have three siblings, guess what? All four of us are all independent Baptists and we're all saved and we all love the Lord. So how about that? You know, that's a great legacy. Amen. I mean, that's what we all want for our kids. You know, we just want all of our kids to be, uh, you know, married and having children and going to church and worshiping the Lord and being a Baptist. Hey, guess what? It's a mission accomplished for my parents, okay? And so they did me right by training me, teaching me and disciplining me. So it's, it would behoove me to honor them and not to be like, oh, I like my life so much better now without you, mom. Oh, so much better being on my own. No, no, no. It's better being on my own because of you training me and you teaching me because everything I'm doing right now is possible because you won me to the Lord when I was six years old, mom, and you taught me the Bible and you raised me and you disciplined me and you poked me in the chest and whatever. And that's where I'm at because of you. That would be the right attitude. But you see how you can look at that from two different angles. It's the same data, the same data. Life is better now that I'm an adult than it was when I was a teenager. But a bad attitude would be like, oh, that's because my parents are such a pain. The right attitude is like, yeah, because my parents made me go through some hard things so that I could enjoy the rest of my life because, you know what, being a teenager is short and life is long. And the Bible is constantly teaching this principle of suffer now so you can enjoy later. Suffer now, enjoy later. Or you can enjoy now and suffer later. But the difference is the suffer now is short and the enjoy later is long. Whereas the enjoy now is short and the suffering is long. And you know what, when you're suffering because of your stupidity, there's nothing to look forward to. It's just worse, worse, worse. When you front load the fun and do the suffering later, then there's nothing to look forward to. But when you're suffering, you have the joy to look forward to, the joy that is set before you, the destination. Go if you would to the book of Proverbs. We're going to look at a bunch of things in Proverbs real quick. Go to Proverbs chapter number one. Hey, why should we honor our mother? Well number one, honor your mother because you want it to be well with you. Because you want to live long on the earth. You want everything you touch to turn to gold. You don't want everything that you touch to turn to dung. And there are people out there where everything they attempt fails. Everything they touch turns to dung. Okay. Or you could be the kind of person that just lives a quote unquote charmed life. Well it's not a charmed life, it's a blessed life. Because God blessing you because you honored your father and mother. That's what's going on. And so that's number one. But number two, honor your mother because she trained you. She trained, you're a product of your mother. And so unless you think that you're a complete loser, then how could you think ill of your mother? Well I'm just, I'm just an awesome person in spite of my parents. Come on, give me a break. Idiot parents produce idiot children, okay. That's the way life works. And so if you think that you're doing okay in life, then be thankful for what your parents did for you. That, well you don't understand what they did, you don't understand the mistakes they made. Okay, but here you are. Here you are succeeding. Here you are in faithful word. Here you are on your way to heaven. Here you are loving the Lord. So instead of focusing, and look, obviously maybe your parents made mistakes and did wrong. I'm sure that they did because nobody's perfect. But why focus on that? Why not just ignore the bad, forget about the bad stuff and just only think about the good stuff that they did for you. And here's the thing, I do remember some negative things from my childhood only because I've spun them in a positive light in my mind. Because anything that's just negative, I'll just push that out of my mind because there's no point. Just rest it and think about bad things about other people, right? But here's the thing, you know, the only negatives that I focus on from childhood is when I'm focusing on like, yeah, I'm glad that my parents, you know, made me do that because it made me a stronger person or, you know, it helped me to get where I am now or something. But we need to have the right attitude toward our parents and our upbringing. Proverbs chapter 1 verse 8 says this, my son, hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother. You know what that's basically saying? It's saying, look, when you move out and live on your own, the rules that your parents had, you know, you should actually live by a lot of those rules. You know, you're not necessarily going to have all the exact rules because some of those rules may have been arbitrary but, you know, things that your parents taught you, you should stick with those teachings for life and not just say, oh man, my parents made me vegetables but now that I'm out of the house, I'm not going to eat them anymore. Well you're shooting yourself in the foot there. Take not the law of thy mother, why not? For they shall be an ornament of grace under thy head and chains about thy neck. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. Now what does that mean, chains about thy neck? You know, it's funny because when I was a kid, I remember being a super little kid and, you know, the men in my life around me, they didn't wear necklaces. My dad didn't wear a necklace, guys at church didn't wear a necklace, it wasn't a thing. And so, you know, they were too manly, they didn't wear these jewelry to that extent to decorate themselves. So whenever I read in the Bible about a chain around somebody's neck, I always pictured like the only chain that I knew, which was like on the dirt bike trailer, when you attach it to the truck, there were like big chains that were like a backup so that if it fell off the trailer hitch, who knows what I'm talking about. It was like, we're talking about like big metal chains. And I remember just picturing Daniel with like a gold chain around his neck and I was thinking like, that's got to be incredibly heavy, you know, because I mean gold's a pretty heavy metal, you know. So I was thinking like, man, what in the world, like, but that's, you know, you know how kids think, that's how I picture it. You know, one of my kids said that they thought the seven seals in Revelation were the animal, like this, like a seal like, like, you know, so, you know, you know, kids think when they're little kids, they think about these things. But you know, what's funny is that when it says here, it shall be chains about your neck. You know, it's funny how that's almost like a play on words or a double meaning. Because when we think of a chain around the neck, you could think of it as some kind of a device to enslave you, right? You could think of like a slave with like a metal collar around their neck with a chain coming from it, right? Or someone being chained up in shackles or something. So you could look at it that way, but what the Bible is saying here when it says that your parents' rules and commandments are a chain about thy neck, it's not talking about what I pictured as a three-year-old. It's talking about a decorative chain, because look at, I mean, look at the context. It says, it shall be an ornament of grace under thy head and chains about thy neck. So obviously the context there, this is a, an ornament, a decoration. This is something making you look classy or that you have money or some kind of a sign of wealth or something. That's the illustration that's being used. But notice how you could think of it as like, oh man, I got to get this chain off my neck. I want to be free. But here, the chain around the neck is actually a blessing. And guess what? Your parents' laws and instructions and rules, they're not making you look worse. They're making you look better. They're an ornament. They're a decoration, okay? And when people see you out in public following your parents' rules, you know what? That looks good to them. It looks sharp to them. You look like a classy individual when you're dressed right. Because, you know, nothing screams class like, you know, having a big earring in your nose and your hair punked out, blue and purple, and you're covered in tattoos, right? I mean that just screams class, right? You know what actually screams class is actually dressing like a lady as a woman. Oh, it gets a little quiet in here, huh? You know, I'm telling the truth right now, my friend. The Bible says thou shalt not print any marks upon thy body. So if you want to get upset about me saying something about tattoos, well, take it up with the Lord God Almighty who said thou shalt not print any marks upon my body. Now look, if you have tattoos, I have nothing against you because guess what? It's permanent. That's what a tattoo is. If you get it, it's permanent. And I guarantee you that people who are here right now who have any sense wish that they hadn't gotten those tattoos and they should want me to preach about tattoos for other people who haven't made that mistake yet of printing marks on their body. And you know what? Sorry, God says that we should wear modest apparel. What does modest mean? Not drawing attention to yourself. And when your hair is all punked out, purple, green, and blue, guess what you're doing? Everybody look at me. I'm a clown. I'm from the circus. You know what I mean? It's like look, no, actually, if you actually as a lady go somewhere dressed the way your parents wanted you to dress, you know, your parents told you to wear a long skirt, right? They told you to wear a skirt that's at least knee length. Your parents told you men to put on a belt and pull up your pants. They told you to wear clothes that fit. They told you to wear pants that fit. They told you to wear a shirt that fits. Hey, if you wear that, you'll be considered classy. That's an ornament unto you. That's a gold chain around your neck in a sense of making you look good. Whereas if you go out there in the short shorts that your parents told you not to wear, guess what people are going to think? Oh, that's a cheap girl right there. Short shorts. Hey, and you know what? If it's not for sale, then take down the for sale sign. The Bible talks about the attire of a harlot. You know, you go out dressed like a harlot, you think you're going to be treated with respect? You think you're going to be taken seriously in this world? No, no, no. If you dress the way your parents taught you to dress, you'll actually be taken seriously in this world. You'll actually be respected in this world. And you know what? If anybody doesn't like this kind of preaching, well then you know what? You can go to whatever church you want and get the other kind of preaching. Because very few people will hit on these subjects, but I'm telling you something. Yes, the way you look does matter. God tells us how to look and it matters. God tells us to obey our parents and it matters. Being classy, being righteous, because we followed our parents' teachings is biblical. And so God is saying here, it shall be an ornament of grace under your head and chains about your neck. So instead of looking at it as a three year old would look at it, like I foolishly looked at it when I was three years old, man, chains around my neck, what a drag. You know, you look at it as an ornament, as giving you grace. Look at chapter 6 verse 20, chapter 6 verse 20, Proverbs chapter 6 verse 20. And you know what, somebody needs to call out the stupidity of the generation that we're living in. We live in a stupid generation where people walk around looking like clowns, trying to draw attention to themselves, and looking like absolute freaks and weirdos. And you know what, God's people aren't supposed to look like cannibals that were discovered on some island somewhere out in the Pacific because they haven't had any contact with mankind or worshiped God. Look like a Christian, not a cannibal, amen? Live in a weird society, gender-bending society, men dressing up like women, women dressing up like men. It's wickedness. And you know what, the same libtards who are promoting all this filth and sodomy and transvestites and everything else, you know what, these same people, they tend to have a bad attitude toward their parents. Have you noticed this generation that's wicked and liberal? They all have issues with their parents and hate their parents and they're bitter against their parents. Do you think that's a coincidence? It's not a coincidence at all. It's because it's wickedness is what it is. And they have a problem with all authority. Because they have a problem with their parents, that includes God Almighty, the ultimate authority. That's the person that they have more of a problem with than anyone. Or his rules. So then there's a whole new brand of Christianity that emerges now that just says, man, let's just not worry about the dos and the don'ts, man. It's just a relationship, man. Okay, is that what I'm going to do with my kids? I'm going to sit my kids down and say like, hey man. Like my toddler, right? Hey Peter, man. Hey Boaz, Chloe, man, I don't want, let's get rid of all the dos and don'ts in this house, man. Let's just have a relationship, Peter. You think that's going to work? You think Peter's going to grow up? No. If I did that, then Peter's going to grow up to be a criminal if I did that. He's going to grow up to be a complete failure in life if I just have no rules for him. Proverbs chapter 6 verse 20, my son, keep thy father's commandment and forsake not the law of thy mother. Bind them continually upon thy heart. Tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee. When thou sleepest, it shall keep thee. And when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. You know what? If your parents raise you with Christian rules and morals, you know what? When you go through life, these things will go with you the rest of your life and keep you company, protect you, and care for you. The commandment is a lamp and the law is light and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. You know what reproofs of instruction are? It's when someone tells you that you're wrong so that you can learn something. Reproof means to tell someone that they're wrong. Reproofs of instruction are telling you what's wrong to train you to do what's right. So what do your parents do when you're growing up? What do they do? They're constantly giving you what? Reproofs of instruction. Reproofs of instruction. Don't do this. You need to do this. Change this. Do this. Do that. Oh, man, what a drag. No, no, no. That's the way of life. Now, what's the opposite of the way of life? There's the way of death. So choose life, my friend. Don't choose death. Don't go down that dark path that leads to death. There's a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. The reproofs of instruction are the way of life. You go to church and the pastor tells you, hey, you're wrong about that. No, what it is is that it's called the way of life. Way of life, Baptist Church right here. Your parents telling you you're wrong and correcting you, that's the way of life. Parents who won't correct their children, you know what they're basically doing? Just say, okay, just go the way of death then. Just go the way of death because we don't want to offend you. We don't want to hurt your feelings. We just want to have a relationship with you. And you know what? I want to have a relationship with my kids. I want to have a friendship with my kids, but you know what? If I had to choose right now, if there were two buttons on the pulpit that said be friends with your kids or your kids turn out right, I wouldn't even have to think for one second about which one I care about more. Be their buddy or turn out right. Love me or love the Lord. Come visit me or visit the house of God, house of God all day long, every day and twice on Sunday I would push that button. Because I'm telling you, the most common prayer that I've ever prayed for my kids is I pray that they will grow up and love the Lord. God, I don't care where they live, I don't care what they do, I don't care if they're rich or poor, I just want them to grow up and love you and serve you. You know what? Even if I don't get to see them, I want them to love you. I want them to serve you. That's the most important thing. For proofs of instruction are the way of life, verse 24, to keep you from the evil woman. To keep thee from the evil woman from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. Now look, if I teach my kids, hey, don't go with those kind of girls, that girl is malus cosas right, don't go with that girl, she's bad news, don't do that, am I trying to save myself or am I trying to save them? See it's to keep you from the flattery of the strange woman. Because here's the thing, if one of my sons gets involved with the wrong girl, who's ultimately going to suffer most, me or him? You know, if my son marries a wicked woman, who's going to suffer the most, me or him? I mean, you know, obviously it's going to grieve me and I'm going to be sad, but he's the one who's going to have to live with that like every day. I'm going to think about it every once in a while and get sad. And then I'm going to go back to my happy life, serving God. Hey, I'm serious. I'm serious. Because I have the serenity to accept the things I can't change. You know, if something goes wrong in the lives of my kids because of their stupidity, then it's going to grieve me and then I'm going to just go in the bathroom, wash my face and just be happy and live a happy, joyful life. Because you know what, I'm always happy because I'm serving God, all things work together for good to them that love God, I got the fruit of the Spirit, I got love, joy, peace, and you know what, I'm just enjoying my walk with God, enjoying serving God, and you know what, no one can ruin that for me. No one. All of my kids could band together and do everything wrong and I would still be a blessed Christian. Right? Because no one can destroy me except me. I am the only person who can destroy me. No one else can do it. I can self-destruct, and many people have, and let him think of his sanity lest he fall, but no one outside of me can destroy me. Only I can destroy myself, okay? And here's the thing about that, if I'm warning my son, hey stay away from that girl, you know what, he's the one who's going to have to live with that girl. And she's going to make his life a living hell because the Bible says the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping. It's better to dwell in the corner of the house top than with a brawling woman in a wide house. You know, it's you that are going to suffer from your actions. And you know, if you, young lady, you marry that guy that your parents tell you, no, no, that guy is the wrong guy, stay away from that guy's bad news, oh I just love that bad boy image. Okay, well you know what, you're really going to enjoy that bad boy image when that bad boy is out getting drunk, committing adultery, blowing all the money, gambling, doing stupid stuff, while you're at home with crying babies and he doesn't even care. He's already got some other little thing on the side. He's got something else going on. Hey, you know what, who ultimately suffers the most? Yeah, you know what, children do make their parents suffer when they do wrong, but they make themselves suffer a hundred times more. And so it's to keep you from the evil woman. It's to protect you from that monster. It's to protect you from that wicked, flattering tongue. Don't lust after a beauty in your heart, hey, listen to your parents. They're warning you, they're right. Lust not after her beauty in that heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids, for by means of a whorish woman, a man's parents are brought to a piece of bread. Is that what it says? No. It says by means of a whorish woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread and the adulterous will hunt for the precious life. I gotta hurry up, I'll just wrap up quickly with this. Go to 1 Timothy chapter 5, 1 Timothy chapter number 5. So we said, reasons to honor your mother, number one, that it may be well with you. Right? I mean, just the fact that God commanded it and gives a special promise if you obey, that, I mean, we could just pray and go home at that point. That's enough for me, I'm sold, done. That's all the reason I need. But number two reason is because you ought to be thankful for the fact that she trained you and disciplined you and taught you not to be a complete idiot because you would be a complete idiot if your mom and dad had not trained you. Because kids whose parents don't train them are complete idiots. So therefore, instead of being puffed up and proud about how smart you are or how much of a hard worker you are, remember that the reason you're smart is because your parents taught you to be smart. Because the reason that you work hard is because your parents taught you to be a hard worker. Okay. No, no, no, they don't get any credit for that. You're full of baloney because they did contribute to that. And then thirdly, lastly this, you should honor your mother because you owe her that. You are indebted to her. You owe her that. Look what the Bible says in 1 Timothy 5 verse 4. But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home and to requite their parents. To requite their parents. What does it mean to requite? To requite means to pay them back. To pay them back, right? To repay is to requite. Have you ever heard this expression? Now we're quit. We are quit now. You know what that means? We're even. We're quit. To requite is to make quit, to make it even, to pay back what you owe. The Bible says that it is good and acceptable before God for children to requite their parents. So if you think that you owe your parents nothing, you're wrong. You do owe them something. Number one, you owe them honor and respect. And number two, if they get old and get to a point where they cannot care for themselves, it is your job to step in and make sure that they are taken care of. Make sure that they have what they need. If they can't take care of themselves, you know, that's what, look, someday, God forbid, I ever get to that point. You know, hopefully I can just work and take care of myself till the bitter end. I'll get the government social security check or whatever and work and do whatever and get by. Hopefully I'm not going to need anything. But you know what? If I ever got to a point where I needed something, I've got 11 kids and you know, I would expect them to step up and take care of my needs. And if my mom or my dad ever gotten a point and this is probably never going to happen because they're both, you know, well off. But if either of my parents ever got to that point where they needed me to step in and do, you know, then it would be my duty to do so. And I'm sure that my brother and my sisters would all pitch in because it's a, that's our Christian duty, you know, to requite our parents. So don't get this attitude that you don't owe them anything. No, you know what? The Bible says, oh no man, anything but to love one another. And you know what? You do owe them your love. You owe them your respect. You owe them honor. And if they get to a point where they can't care for themselves, you owe them to make sure that their needs are met and not to just let them be high and dry. So the conclusion is this, Proverbs chapter 30 verse 11, you don't have to turn there, but the Bible reads, there is a generation that cursed their father and did not bless their mother. There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthiness. There is a generation, oh how lofty are their eyes and their eyelids are lifted up. So the conclusion is this, don't be that guy. Don't be that guy who curses his father and despises to obey and does not bless his mother. Let me read it again. There's a generation that cursed their father and did not bless their mother. Don't be that one who doesn't bless their mother. And you know what? You could say, hey, there's a generation that curses their father and doesn't call their mom on Mother's Day. There's a generation that doesn't call mom on Mother's Day. They don't bless their mother. They don't respect their mother. And why would that, why would that be? Well, because guess what, that same generation, the Bible says, is pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthiness. And that same generation, oh how lofty are their eyes and their eyelids are lifted up. You know why? If somebody refuses to call their mom and wish her a happy Mother's Day, I'll tell you the reason. It starts with a P. It's pride. They're so, I'm so awesome, but oh my stupid parents, but I'm so much better and I'm going to be such a better parent and I'm such a great person and oh I'm so happy now that I'm on my own. Well it's like, well hold on a second, you have them to thank for that. Don't be all proud, you're the self-made man, you did it all yourself. Really? Because I didn't do it all myself. You know, some of the things that people listen to me and think are the greatest things about my preaching or the greatest doctrines that I preach, I could point to when my parents taught me that. You know, I didn't just come up with all this. The stuff that I preach, thousands of hours of preaching that I've done, guess what? I got it from my parents, I got it from Sunday school teachers, I got it from pastors and preachers that went before me and you know, have I come up with some things that are original to me? I don't know because I probably came up with stuff that I thought was original, probably I just forgot where I heard it. You know what I mean? A lot of it I probably just forgot where I heard it because you know what, there's nothing new under the sun, is there? And so quit being so high and mighty and you think you're so much better than your mom and dad, you know what, why don't you just be a humble person and esteem other people better than yourself? And so don't have your lofty eyes and your eyelids all lifted up and you know what, there's a generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthiness. That's because this world has a different standard of morality than what God has. Because here's the thing, if you don't honor your father and mother, even if you're doing everything else right in life, if you're doing everything else right in life but not honoring your father and mother, you're not right with God. I mean the Bible says, he that said do not commit adultery said also do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art becoming a transgressor of the law. Whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he's guilty of all. Is that what the Bible says? Whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he's guilty of all. So you go, oh look at my godly righteous Christian life, I'm doing it all right. But one thing thou lackest, did you honor your father and mother? Because the same person who said do not kill also said honor thy father and thy mother. The same person who said do not commit adultery also said honor thy father and mother. The same person that said do not bear false witness also said honor thy father and thy mother. And so if you don't have that right in your life, no, sorry, you're not pure. Well I'm so pure in my own eyes, no, no, no, you are in major sin if you refuse to honor your father and mother because that's one of the big commandments. And there are all kinds of other things that this world would say, oh I'm living such a moral life, I'm doing such a right life, but they're committing all these sins that they might not even know about or think about. You know, we should not get puffed up thinking that we're sinless. Every single one of us is a sinner, myself included. And you know, a week doesn't go by that I don't sin. A day, I'm sure that if I were really to be honest, a day doesn't go by without me committing some sin. The Bible even says the thought of foolishness is sin. And so don't be so puffed up, you know, hey, are your parents perfect? No, but you're not perfect either. And you know what, I love my parents, I'm thankful for my parents, and I want to honor them as much as I can. Number one, because I want it to be well with me, selfish reason, I want it to be well with me. Number two, because you know what, my parents trained me. I'm really thankful for both my mom's training and my dad's training, he's been very helpful. I would not be here if it weren't for my parents training me well. And that's why all four of us are all Christians, because we were all trained by our parents. And number three, I owe that to my mom. I owe her. She doesn't owe me, I owe her. I owe her. She doesn't owe me anything, but I owe her. I'm indebted to her. And so those are three great reasons for me to honor my mother. Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for our parents, Lord, and thank you for your word, and thank you for your commandments, that some people look at your commandments as grievous and a drag, Lord, but we love your law. It's our meditation night and day, we love your rules, we love your commandments, Lord. And Lord, help us also to realize that our parents' rules and commandments are also a blessing to us, even if they seem grievous, Lord, help us understand that the rules of our parents are there to bless us in the end, and to give us the good life in the future. Training now, good life in the future, Lord. Help everyone who's under the sound of my voice, especially children, Lord, to take these words of wisdom to heart, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.