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continuing our series on the Ten Commandments. And obviously you got Exodus chapter 20 where you have the Ten Commandments that we had originally read. But notice there in Deuteronomy chapter five you got the Ten Commandments all over again. And the reason for this, if you don't know already, is that obviously when God used Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, you know when Moses went to Mount Sinai, God gave Moses those Ten Commandments. But you know the story, the Israelites, they were disobedient to the Lord, they didn't go into the Promised Land, they had a lack of faith, and then their judgment was to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. And we know that the generation that would come would be a brand new generation, those that were under 20 years old, they would come and they would be the ones that would become adults, and they would be the ones that would go into the Promised Land. And so when we get to Deuteronomy, the book of Deuteronomy, it's kind of like the word duet. You know when someone's singing a duet, you've got two voices. You know, Deuteronomy is basically a retelling or a second telling of the law. And so we have the Ten Commandments, and plus a whole bunch of other commandments, of course, found in the Bible, that have been retold to this new generation that has been made right with God, that are ready to get into that Promised Land, and they're hearing it again. And brethren, we're a new generation, 2022, there's a new generation here. We need to hear it again. We need to hear it again and again and again. Every generation needs to be reminded what God requires from us. So we are up to our next, in this series of the Ten Commandments, please look at verse number 16. Deuteronomy chapter five, verse number 16. We are up to this commandment, honor thy father and thy mother. So kids, this is for you. Children, honor thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God have commanded thee, that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. And so the title for this afternoon, brethren, is honor thy father and thy mother. Honor thy father and thy mother. Notice that this commandment comes with a promise. What promise? Well, let's look at it again. Why should I honor my parents? Because God promises you here that thy days may be prolonged. You know, you can live many days, you can live a long life, right? There's a direct correlation between how well you honor your parents with how many days God will give you on this earth. All right? And not only will you get a long life, because sometimes they say, well, I don't want to live a long life. There's so many misery, there's so much issues in the world, maybe I don't want a long life, Pastor Kevin. All right, well, look, that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee. Okay? So it's not just a long life, for the sake of having a long life, but that you have a good life, that you have a happy life, that things go well for you. And look, you're gonna have problems, everyone has problems, but if you just start, children, if you want to have a good, successful, happy life, you know, even in the face of problems, that things will still go well with you in the long run, then you can start by honoring your mother and your father. Okay? Now, you say, well, that's the Old Testament, Pastor, you know, yeah, that was the Israelites that came with Moses, then there's Israelites that went into the Promised Land, but just a reminder, this is also a New Testament teaching. It's a New Testament teaching, because we think about, you know, a day's been prolonged, and we think about having a good life, you might say, well, God, you don't need to step in there and do a miracle. You'd have to give us those extra days, and, you know, sometimes people think of the God of the New Testament as a God that doesn't perform the same level of miracles as you did in the Old Testament, but it's the same God that we worship. Old Testament, New Testament, it's the same Lord God, and so we have this teaching in Ephesians, I'll just read it to you, Ephesians chapter six and verse number one, Ephesians six, verse number one, it says, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. And then verse number two, honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment we've promised, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And so we can't just get away with, oh, that was just the Israelites, that was just the Old Testament. No, this is written to the Ephesian church, a New Testament church, a church of Gentiles. The same promise is given to believers of the New Testament. Children, this is your commandment. You know, if you've ever wondered, as children, what do I do for the Lord? Well, this one says, children, obey your parents in all things, in all things, for this is right. You wanna do which is righteous, you wanna honor the Lord God, well, begin by obeying your parents. So we see in this, at least in Ephesians chapter six, we see this idea of honoring mother and father tied in with obedience. And so children, obey your parents, your mother and father in all things. I'm glad I get to preach this today, actually, to my kids, all things, all right? It's not like, hey, son, can you clean up your room right now? Oh, I'll do it later. No, no, no, in all things. If your parents said now, you do it now, okay? If your parents say, can you do X, Y, and Z, and you do it, hey, do it with a happy face. Don't have a sour face, because, I mean, you lose the purpose behind it, like, you lose the meaning. It has a similar thing, like, you know, coming to church and we're praising the Lord, and, you know, your heart might not be in it. If your heart is not in it, the Lord does not receive it. Okay, it is not a sacrifice worthy for the Lord God if you're just going through the motions and you don't mean it. Well, you know what, children, your parents feel the same thing. When your parents tell you, can you do X, Y, and Z chore, or task, and you're, and you do it, you do it, but, come on, other things, whatever comes out of your mouth. It's disrespectful to your parents. You're not, oh, but I did what my parents asked. Yeah, but you had a sour face. You were miserable, okay? You've created a negative environment by those actions. Children, if you wanna obey and honour your parents, do all things that they ask of you, okay? And do it straight away, and do it with a happy face. Okay, say, well, this is the time for children. No, no, no, well, yes, because we're all children. We're all sons of the Lord God. The moment you were saved, you were made a child of God. You know what, God also asks a lot of things. You've got the whole Bible. You've got all these commandments. God asks many things from us, brethren. You know, you don't have to be a child in age, but, you know, we're all children if you're saved. And the Lord God asks us to keep his word, to follow his path, to fulfil his will, and we better do it with a happy face. We better say, yes, Lord, I'll do that. Yes, I'll honour my Father, my Heavenly Father. So yeah, you know what, there might be some, in this sermon this afternoon, there might be some areas that fall for the children, and I want the children to learn this well, but really this applies to all of us, because we're all children of our Heavenly Father. Now, so honour, you know, is, yes, obey, that's part of it, but really honour has to do with esteeming or respecting your parents. You know, respecting, esteeming. We've lost this in the generations that have come. We've definitely lost this respect for the elderly. You know, I grew up in a suburb, it's Canley Vale, but it was close to Cabramatta. Cabramatta was known for a lot of gang violence back in the days, but really the reason for it is because there were many refugees coming from countries like Vietnam or Cambodia, things like this, and you had a lot of young people coming into the country without their parents. Their parents had stayed behind, or stories of parents dying and perishing in the sea, and the children making it, coming to Australia, things like this, there was a lot of gang violence, but one thing in my primary school that I developed was a lot of friendships with many of these Asian children. And you know what, one of my best friends, he was Asian, he was half Thai, half Lao, and when I would invite him to my house, as soon as he saw my parents, you know what he did? He'd bow. As soon as he saw them, they're not his parents, but he goes, that's my friend's parents, and as he walked past, he would always bow, okay? As a sign of respect, as a sign of honor. And my parents were like, no, look, we don't do that in Australia. We don't do that. And it's true, obviously I'm not saying you ought to do that, I'm not saying that every time your parents are there, you just bow to your parents, but I'm just trying to say that in some cultures, in some countries, they do respect the elders, they do respect the parents, and I feel that in Australia, sadly, in the Western countries, we've lost a lot of this. We've lost it. It seems like the children are the ones that run families these days, and the parents are behind the children. In fact, the children ought to be obedient and respectful, esteeming, honoring the parents. This is the commandment of God. This is what God instructs, the proper structure of things, is that children would obey their parents. And so, yeah, children, the best thing you can do right now to have that mindset, if I wanna do what pleases God, what is right in his eyes, if I wanna be blessed by God, I'm gonna start by honoring my parents. When they give me an instruction, I'll do it and I'll do it with a happy face. But you know, honor is not just obedience. Can you please turn to Matthew chapter 15? Turn to Matthew chapter 15 and verse number one. Matthew chapter 15 and verse number one. Many times in the Bible, to honor is to ensure that someone's needs are being met. To honor, okay? You'll find this in many passages in the Bible, especially in the New Testament. The idea of honoring is to make sure someone's needs are being met. Look at Matthew chapter 15 and verse number one. Matthew chapter 15 and verse number one. The Bible reads, then came to Jesus, scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread. So Christ is not honoring or not respecting the tradition of the elders. Who cares? The traditions of man, who cares about honoring that? So Christ responds with this, verse number three. But he answered and said unto them, why do you also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? Oh man, he flips the table. Because who cares about the traditions? You know, you disrespect, you transgress the commandments of God. We know that's sin. Sin is the transgression of the law, okay? Verse number four, it says, for God comm, so this is how they transgress. Jesus Christ is very specific about this one. Verse number four, for God commanded, saying, honor thy father and mother, and he that curseth father and mother, let him die the death. Hey, we learned something else. Not only should we honor our parents, but the flip side of that, if you curse your family, you curse your parents, that this is worthy of death. So it's not just a sin, but in God's eyes, it's worthy of capital punishment. I mean, think about all the things that God instructs for capital punishment for the death sentence, well, cursing your mother and father is part of that. Okay, so you can see, this is a big deal for God. This is a major issue, worthy of the death penalty. So we learned something else there, okay? We wanna make sure we honor our parents, make sure we don't curse our parents. But what's the issue here with the Pharisees? Verse number five, but ye say, whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, it is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, and honor not his father and mother, he shall be free. Thus have you made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. Now, I know the wording can be a little bit complicated here, but let me explain to you what this is talking about. This honoring mother and father is not about little children here, okay? This is about making sure mother and father needs are being met. Obviously, this comes later in life. Obviously, this comes to a point when your parents are elderly, okay? And sometimes, yeah, you know what? When you're a little child, you need a lot of help. You know, when you get elderly and your body starts to break down and you can't work the job that you used to work, you're gonna need your children to step in and help out, okay? This is the next lesson that we get about honoring our parents. Yeah, maybe you're no longer under your parents' roof, but if your parents get to a point when they're elderly and they need help, it's your responsibility to be there to help them in a situation like that. That is also honoring the parents. Now, the tradition that the Pharisees and the scribes had created is this, if you go back there to verse number five, but you say, whoso shall I say to his father or mother, it is a gift. So basically, this idea, okay, you know, instead of you helping your parents, let's say financially, okay? Your parents are in a financial situation and they need some assistance, but if you say, well, the finances, mom and dad, it was for a gift. I had set that money aside for another issue, for another reason, okay? Instead of, you know, I can't help you, mom and dad, but you know, this money is set aside for something else. It says there, then at the end of verse number six, it says, sorry, at the beginning of verse number six, and I am not his father and mother, he shall be free. So the Pharisees are saying, well, you don't have to help your elderly parents. As long as your money and your resources were allocated to something else, then you don't need to honor your mother and father. You can go free. You're not transgressing God's law. So they've created this tradition. As long as you allocate your funds to something else, you don't have to help your mother and father. And by doing that, they're not honoring their mother and father, okay? So the Pharisees, they're trying to help these disobedient children, you know, you're not sinful, you haven't transgressed God's law, as long as you carry out these things and you allocate it to something else. That's the issue. And Jesus Christ is calling them out for their hypocrisy, calling them out for their sin here, okay? Let's keep going to verse number seven. It says, ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you saying, this people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain, they do worship me, teaching for doctrines, the commandments of men. All right, so you can see Christ is speaking about these Pharisees, about these people that are not honoring their mother and father as well. And he says, look, yeah, okay, out of your mouth, you praise me. Out of your mouth, you're speaking great things of God. Hey, but your heart is far from me. It's hypocrisy. You know, in verse number nine, but in vain, they do worship me. It means nothing again. It's pointless, it's worthless if your heart is not in it. If you're just trying to over, you know, I've got some, you know, my life is different. I don't need to keep the commandments of God. I've got some other way to get around this. You're just worshiping Christ in vain. It's worthless, okay? But the reason we read this passage, I just wanted to show you that obviously in Australia, we live in a welfare state. Obviously we have a system of superannuation and pension. And so even when you get to an older state in life, you know, you are looked after by the states in many ways. So in many ways that burden does not fall upon us as much as it would in a situation like in Israel, where truly the children, yeah, it was their responsibility. You know, they were raised by their parents. The parents looked after them while they were little. And you know, and then when the parents get older, yeah, it was the responsibility of the children to make sure the parents' needs were being met. And you know what, the more kids you have, the less burden there is on each of those children, because that burden gets to be shared. That's the proper way of doing things according to God's word. But you know, we're robbed of that blessing a little bit because we live in a welfare state, okay? So our elderly don't need as much assistance. Like even my parents, my parents are senior citizens. They tell me, oh, we get discounts on electricity. We get discounts on the rates. We get discounts on the train. So it's like, we don't even need you guys, you know? You know, we're kind of well taken care of. But obviously if my parents get to a point where they need a lot of help, you know, with health, maybe they can't get around, then obviously it would be my responsibility to make sure I'm there to support them on their final years of life. All right, please go to 1 Timothy 5. Please go to 1 Timothy 5 and verse number three. So this is just an introduction. Just trying to draw out different ways that we can honour mother and father, all right? 1 Timothy 5 and verse number three. And the reason I'm turning here is just to show you once again, this idea of honour is about providing for someone's needs. Because, you know, just because you have mum and dad, you know, yes, and as children under that household, you also obey your parents. But you know, one day, you know, most people, they get married, they start a new family. And when you start that new family, obviously you're not under the authority of your parents anymore. You know, you become the authority, okay? The husband is the head of his wife. And of course the parents are in charge of the children. And so you start a new family unit. I'm not saying that if you're a married man with family, children, that you need to just obey your parents every little thing they ask of you. No, you're a separate family at this point in time, okay? But you're still required to honour your mother and father. Okay, and again, in what sense? If they have needs, if they need help, they're getting older, then you can make sure you step in and assist them where you can. And I just wanna bring this out again here in First Timothy, chapter five, verse number three. First Timothy, chapter five, verse number three, it says, honour widows that are widows indeed. Okay, so what does it mean to honour widows here? Well, let's keep going there, verse number four. But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home and to requite their parents, for that is good and acceptable before God. Another thing that we learn about the Church, the Church is supposed to look after the widows in the Church. But before it becomes a responsibility of the Church, it says if that widow has children or even nephews, that it's their responsibility first to make sure that widow is taken care of, okay? So again, the widow has lost her husband, of course, in this day and age, the man was the breadwinner, he was going out to work, and so this widow would be left in a hard financial position, so the children or the nephews should be the ones stepping in to make sure that widow was looked after, and if that widow was not being looked after by that family, then it becomes a responsibility of the Church. But again, I just wanna show you the word honour, the word honour there, about making sure that person's needs are being met. Please drop down to verse number eight. And this is why it then says this in verse number eight. But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he have denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. The word infidel means an unbeliever. You're gonna be worse than an unbeliever, you don't look out for your own, you don't provide for your own. Of course, the context that we let into that was the widows. If children and nephews do not look after their widows, if you don't look after your elderly parents, you know, when they're struggling with health and mobility, then you're worse than an infidel, the Bible says. You're not honouring mother and father, if you take that approach, okay? So, you know, my hope, my hope is that as my parents get older, I don't know, maybe they're listening online right now, I don't know, my hope is, I wanna stay here on the Sunshine Coast, pastoring in New Life Baptist Church, they would move from there, move from Sydney and come, and they would build a granny flat at the back of the house and make sure we can look after them as they get older. Because that's what God requires. I want my life to be prolonged. I want things to go well with me. So I wanna make sure that this is an important commandment that I'm keeping even while I'm an adult, okay? All right. Now, we talk about honouring, okay? So obeying, respecting, esteeming, and also making sure their needs are being met as they get older. Let's talk about the flip side of that, and that was cursing, okay? If you cursed your mother and father, then you were to be put to death. So let's go to, where can I get to turn to? Please go to the book of Proverbs. Go to Proverbs chapter 20. Go to Proverbs chapter 20. And while you're turning to Proverbs 20, I'm going to read from Exodus chapter 21 verse 17. You go to Proverbs 20. I'll read to you from Exodus 21, 17. I just wanna, you know, it might sound like a big deal if you curse your mother and father that you were to be put to death, okay? But it says here in Exodus 21, 17. And he that curseth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. See how important this is to God? You know, if you curse, what does it mean to curse? To curse is to inflict harm, you know, to desire harm or inflict harm on somebody. That's what it means to curse. If children are inflicting harm on their own parents, the Bible says they deserve to be put to death. You know, it really saddens me when I hear on the news, the media, children killing their own parents, murdering their own parents for the inheritance or whatever it is. It's just, man, I can't believe it. You know, that people again, obviously that would be cursing your parents, inflicting harm on your parents. Leviticus chapter 20 verse nine. For everyone that curse of his father or his mother shall be surely be put to death. He have cursed his father or his mother, his blood shall be upon him. So again, just confirmation, Exodus, Leviticus. I mean, it's all over the place. Look at Proverbs 20, 20. Proverbs 20 verse 20. Who so cursive his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness. That's his poetic language for saying he deserves to die. His lamp ought to be put out. Okay, even in the works of poetry, we have this confirmation that it deserves the death penalty of cursing mother and father. Please turn to Proverbs chapter 30. Please turn to Proverbs 30 verse 11. Proverbs 30 verse 11. This passage of scripture that we're about to read, I truly believe we live in this generation that we're about to read of, okay? Proverbs 30 verse 11. The Bible says there is a generation that cursive their father and doth not bless their mother. There is a generation. I believe we are in that generation right now, okay? Look, it keeps going there. Verse number 12. There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthiness. A generation that lives a wicked, filthy life, but they think they're just fine. There's nothing wrong with me, okay? Look at verse number 13. There is a generation. Oh, how lofty or how lifted up are their eyes and their eyelids are lifted up. So they're being lifted up is they're full of pride. It's all about me. You know, I'm not gonna honor my parents. I'm gonna curse. It's all about me. My parents ought to rotate their life around me. I'm more important than my parents. I'm lifted up. Social media has really elevated this as well. Take a look at me, pictures of myself. Man, I'm going on a holiday. Let me show you the whole world that I'm at the airport and oh, man. If I had to do that every time I went to the airport, I'd be on Facebook all the time. How much I travel and lift it up. It's all about self. Verse number 14. There is a generation whose teeth are as swords and their jaw teeth as knives to devour the poor from off the earth and the needy from among men. No respect, you know? People that are going that are having hardships. Those that are poor and needy, they don't care. It's all selfishness. It's all self-desire. It's all pride and that same generation curses their father and does not bless their mother. You know, we live in a, you know, I remember like just going to school and using these examples of being a child and I thought the generation that I lived in was wicked. I just thought, man, you know, wow. You know, I should share with you, when I was young, like 10, I don't know, I kind of thought, I had a different view of the world. I thought, well, even if people aren't Christians, they still, surely they still believe in the 10 commandments but surely they still believe, you know, theft is wrong and murder is wrong and lying is wrong. Right, and I just kind of had this mindset. I guess everyone's just trying to do the best they can. Then I became a teenager and I said, you know what? I'm so, I was so deceived. Like I was, I was just so, what's the word I'm looking for? Like when you're easily gullible. I'm gullible, you know, and I just realised, man, this world is wicked. It's not that people are trying to do their best. People are actually doing their worst. It started to dawn on me when I started to see the wickedness of this world and I'm still mad. You know, what a wicked world that I live in but then I look at my children's generation. So how far can this world fall? You know, it's just gonna progress worse and worse, isn't it? It's just gonna keep going worse and worse as we reach those end times events and we live in a generation that does not honour their father and mother, for sure. I see this, you know, you go to the shops and see children having fits because they don't get what they want, you know? Just children disrespecting their parents. Little children not getting what they want and then they lash out and they smite their parents. You know what I'm talking about? I've had that, you know, little kids. It happens, you gotta train that out of them. You know, my little Elias, when he gets pretty upset, he gets upset, those arms start going everywhere. You know, you gotta teach your children, no, you don't strike. Because that, and I'll show you in a minute, that's an example of cursing mother and father. You know, smiting, smacking, you know, hitting your parents. You know, we'll have a look at that in a moment, okay? In fact, let's turn there, let's go there now. Exodus chapter 21, Exodus chapter 21, verse number 15. Exodus 21 and verse number 15. Not that Elias is a little horror. All children go through this and you gotta train that out of them, okay? Exodus please, chapter 21, verse number 15. Exodus chapter 21, verse number 15 reads, and he that smites of his father or his mother shall be surely put to death, okay? You beat your parents up, you know, you smack them around, you know, you abuse your parents in that sense. Again, the death penalty. This is cursing father and mother. So how should we treat our parents? We should honor them, respect them, esteem them. Say, Pastor, you know, my parents are not Christians. In fact, they're quite worldly and you know, they're a bad influence. Hey, they're still your parents, okay? I understand we don't all grow up in a Christian home. They're still your parents. You still want a long life, you still want things to go well with you, honor the mother and father that God gave you. I mean, if not for them, you would not have life. You know, if not for your mother going through labor, you would not be born. Regardless of how they are, they still deserve our love. They still deserve our prayers, okay? They still deserve to be esteemed. And look, maybe if you esteemed your unsaved parents a little bit more, they might be even more open to hearing the gospel from you. You don't know how your outward behavior can influence people to desire the word of God. Now, actually, I didn't want, anyway, can you please go back to Deuteronomy? That's where I wanted you to turn originally. Deuteronomy chapter 21, Deuteronomy chapter 21. These are passages of the Bible that rarely get preached and I think, partly, it's just people don't know how to preach it. Because, you know, there are so many people that are contrary to God's word, there are so many enemies to God's word, so many people just trying to find some issue to cause you to lose your faith. You know what, those passages that they turn to, they're passages that ought to be read, understood and preached. Okay, so we get the right teaching that's coming out of it. Deuteronomy chapter 21, verse number 18. Because you might say, well, Pastor Kevin, you know, your little Elias, or my little child, he did slap me around, you know, he did have a tense tantrum and I got hit, does that mean my child deserves to be put to death? Well, obviously not little children. Not little children that are training and learning and if a little two year old smacks you, you're not going to die, you're not gonna break an arm or anything like that, obviously, okay. They need training, they need discipline, okay. But look at Deuteronomy chapter 21, verse 18. It says, if a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother. So they don't obey, that's all they, they're not honoring mother and father, right? And that when they have chastened him, chastened him, he will not hearken unto them. No matter how much discipline you've done to this person, they still don't listen, they still don't honor mother and father, okay. Now let's keep going, and basically, you know what, if your children disobey parents, you do need to chasten them. You have to, use that rod of correction. That's God's method, okay. Not super nanny timeouts, all right. Not take away their privilege. You know, sometimes I have that desire sometimes, like let's say we're gonna have ice cream in the afternoon and one of my kids are disobedient. Part of me wants to be, okay, you're not having your ice cream. That's not right. The right thing is to take out that rod, make things right, make sure they say sorry, apologize, all right, it's all forgiven, and then they can have the ice cream. They should've just missed, that's not a way to discipline your children. That's not what God instructs, okay, it's the rod. That does the job, okay. Hey, if they miss out on the ice cream, they're gonna be angry with you for the rest of the day. You pull out that rod, they're angry with you for about 20 seconds, okay, and then the tears are over, forgiveness sets in, and you move on, you have the ice cream, you have a good day together. It's a big difference. God's way is so much greater than what man can come up with, all right. But anyway, verse number 19. So this child, this one, you know, that is just completely stubborn and rebellious. Say, well, how old is this kid? You know, he's like a five-year-old or something. Well, let's keep going. Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him and bring him out unto the elders of his city and unto the gates of his place. And they shall say unto the elders of his city, this, our son, is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. Now, notice this child. He is a glutton and a drunkard. This is not a five-year-old kid. This is not a 10-year-old kid. This is obviously a child that's grown up. Like, he's obviously developed, he's a teenager or an adult, okay. He ought to know better, okay. Instead of working a job, he's just a lazy bum. He's a glutton, he's a drunkard. Okay, he's just a misery, he's just destroying his life. He's making the life of his parents hell, okay. We're talking about a grown child here, okay. This is what it's about. This person who acts this way. It says in verse number 21. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones that he die. So shall they put evil away from among you and all Israel shall hear and fear. Now, here's the thing. Obviously, if this was the law of the land, it's not like we're just gonna have thousands of kids being put to death all of a sudden, okay. It just takes one. And then what happens? It says, and all Israel shall hear and fear. This is the wonderful thing about the death penalty is it just needs to happen once. And then people are like, whoa, let's not do that anymore, all right. It's not like you're just constantly putting people to death, okay. Once you realize, hey, the law of my land is serious here about this business, then we need to fix this up in our lives. I'm just gonna show you the cursing, the not blessing the parents, just how serious this is to the Lord God, okay. I guess I'll take the advantage of teaching my children. You know, we can always do better. You know, I'm very thankful for my children. I think my children are great. I hear a lot of good words about them, but then I see them at home and the normal children. They disobey sometimes, okay. But you know, because they're sinners, amen. And I'm a sinner. I don't always obey my Heavenly Father, do I? I sin against the Lord and I need to go to Him. Same way, you know, just like that rod of chastisement that falls on my children. Hey, sometimes that rod falls upon me. And I need to go to my Lord God and say, sorry, Lord, please forgive me. Please help me to walk back on your paths. Please help me to overcome this sin. Okay, so let's not just take the physical lesson, you know, on physical families here, but also the spiritual lesson in our relationship with our Lord God. And if you can please, you're in Deuteronomy. Please turn to Deuteronomy chapter 27. Let me just show you another way that people may curse their parents. And I wanna be careful with this as well because a lot of you guys know that I like to muck around. I like to be sarcastic and joke around and sometimes I can offend people. Isn't that right, pastor? Joking around can offend people. It happens. But I want you to see this about parents. Deuteronomy chapter 27 verse 16. Cursed be he that's set off light by his father or his mother and all the people shall say amen. So what's that saying? So there are certain people that are cursed, you know? And amen, okay. Cursed be he that's set off light. It's basically saying, if you make light of your mother and father, you know, it's about joking around and saying we're making light of a situation. Yeah, you know what? If you just mock your parents, you know, you don't respect them. You just belittle them. Well, you know, you just mock around, my parents are so dumb. They're so old fashioned. You know what? Cursed be that person. Again, the seriousness of God's word as to how we ought to consider our parents. Please go to Matthew chapter one. I know we got a lot of Bible verses here. It is about, this 10 Commandments series is a bit of a Bible study. Okay, so please go to Matthew chapter one and verse number 20. Matthew chapter one and verse number 20. And of course, we're looking at Jesus Christ here. And you might say, well, pastor, you know, you had the blessing of growing up in a Christian home. Praise God, I did. You know, your children have the blessing of growing up with Christian parents. Praise God that they've got that. Okay, you say, well, in my situation, you know, I've got an unsaved family. We're not a Christian home. We've got a broken home. You know, my mother's been remarried. My father's been remarried. I've got step parents. I've got this and that. You know, my life is not the ideal, pastor. And you know, am I still required to honor my mother and father? How do I apply this in a life where my family's kind of all over the place and I've got step parents and this and that? Well, let's have a look at a few things about Jesus Christ here. In Matthew chapter one, verse number 20. Matthew chapter one, verse number 20. You know who else had a stepfather? Jesus, amen. He had his heavenly father in heaven, but then his mother married Joseph and Joseph was his stepfather, okay? And Jesus, don't forget who Jesus is. He's God. Okay, he created Mary and Joseph, right? He's above all things, okay? But this is a time when God was manifest in the flesh. Jesus Christ, born of Mary. And who was the head of Mary in that family? Joseph, the stepfather of Jesus. But it says here in Matthew chapter one, verse 20. And while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, this is unto Joseph, in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring forth a son, look at this, and thou, and you Joseph, you stepfather Joseph, okay, shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Do you notice how God upholds even the stepfather in that situation? Jesus has no blood relation to Joseph in that sense. It's Mary and the Heavenly Father. It's the Holy Ghost that came upon Mary. And even though Joseph is the stepfather, God sees fit to send him the angel, okay? Because he's in charge, all right? And in fact, he gets the honor of calling Jesus by that name, Jesus. Okay, so you can see, okay, what do we take out of that? That even if you have a stepfather, you live under that roof, stepmother, stepfather, whatever your situation is, honor them. They've got authority. God honors that authority, okay? Go to next chapter, Matthew chapter two, and verse number 13. Matthew chapter two and verse number 13. That's not the only situation we have. We know the story where Joseph had to, and the family, they had to flee into Egypt because Herod wanted to kill Jesus Christ. This is in chapter, verse number 13, Matthew chapter two, verse 13. And when they departed, behold, that's the wise men departed, the angel of the Lord appearth to Joseph in a dream saying, arise and take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. Just again, just showing you, God honors the stepfather. God is honoring Joseph. Joseph, you're in charge. You need to flee. Get out of Israel, go into Egypt, until I tell you it's free to come again. It's free to return back to that land. Please go to Luke chapter two. Luke chapter two and verse number 51. Luke chapter two and verse number 51. So we see how the Lord treats Joseph as the stepfather. Now let's see how Jesus treats his stepfather as he grew up in that family. I won't give you the whole context, but look at Luke chapter two, verse number 51. It says, and he went down with them and came to Nazareth, speaking about Jesus, look at this, and was subject unto them. Jesus Christ was subject. He was submissive to mom and dad, well, to mom and stepfather, Joseph, okay? It's his stepfather. Jesus is God, and Christ came to set us the example of being subject unto the parents, okay? So look, as hard as it might be sometimes, kids, and look, parents are sinners. You know, we're not perfect. We make mistakes. As hard as it can be, you know what? You set Jesus Christ as your example. If the God of the universe could lower himself and be submissive to earthly, sinful parents, then so can you. You can honor your mother and father as well. There's no excuses, is what I'm saying, okay? No excuses. Yeah, so obviously we know that Jesus Christ was subject to his heavenly father. You know, not my will be done, but thy will be done. You know, Christ came, the father gave him the works to do and he did the works. The father gave him the words to preach and he preached those words. Christ was submissive to the heavenly father, but he's also submissive to his earthly father. So I wanna use that as a platform, obviously, and if you can please turn to Malachi in your Old Testament, Malachi chapter one. I'm almost done. Please turn to Malachi chapter one. And while you're turning to Malachi chapter one, I'm going to read to you from John chapter eight, verse 48. John chapter eight, verse 48 reads, "'Then answered the Jews and said unto him, "'Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan "'and hast a devil.'" So these unbelieving Jews said about Jesus, hey, you're a Samaritan and you've got a devil. Verse number 49, Jesus answered, "'I have not a devil, but I honor my father "'and ye do dishonor me, and I seek not mine own glory. "'There is one that seeketh and judgeth.'" Jesus Christ says, I honor my father, speaking about the heavenly father. He says, I seek not mine own glory. He's seeking the glory of the father. So let me transition this sermon back to the spiritual side of things, okay? We have a heavenly father. Do you honor your heavenly father? How obedient are you? Take the same lessons to an earthly family. Are you subject to the heavenly father? Do you submit yourself to his word? Again, every time we sin, sin is the transgression of the law. Every time we sin, we dishonor the word. We dishonor our father, okay? Our heavenly father, every time we sin, which is why, get things right quickly, okay? Come with a broken and contrite heart, get right with God, be back walking in his light, okay? Because we know that God can have no darkness in him. Let's honor our heavenly father. And we know that he's merciful, he's long suffering, he's slow to anger. I can't always say that about myself. Sometimes I find myself being quick to anger, okay? But even, hey, parents will to be slow to anger, just like our heavenly father is with our children, okay? Thank God that he has his qualities, because I have no doubt I would have been wiped out by now. In fact, you all would have been wiped out by now if God was not slow to anger. Yeah, we've received his mercy, and he deserves honor. Christ says, I honor my father, and we ought to honor our heavenly father as well. Look at Malachi chapter one. Now, quick context on this. Don't forget the southern kingdom of Judah was taken into captivity by the Babylonian empire and under the Persian empire, 70 years later, they were to come back to the land, and they rebuilt Jerusalem, they rebuilt the house of God, the temple. And so when we get to Malachi, and look, I don't know exactly the timeframe, but I've heard some people say that it could be about 100 years after this. Obviously, a few generations have gone through this, right? Now, they're back on the land. I mean, things don't went really well when they went back to the land originally, but then just like anything in life, a few generations later, they're back away from, they're not serving the Lord the way they ought to. They're not sacrificing the way they ought to. Their hearts have gone cold to the Lord God. So this is the context that we're in. And I want you to notice what God says about the nation of Israel here, the nation of Judah. It's a southern kingdom, really. But verse number six, Malachi chapter one, verse number six. This is what God says. He says, a son honoreth his father. Now, look, that ought to be just a given. It's not like, you know, maybe we should honor our parent. No, it should just be a given. A son honors his father and a servant his master. It should be a given that if you're an employee, that you honor your employer. And you're not trying to, you know, cut hours or cheat on a job or whatever, you know, be lazy. It should be a given that you should be a hard worker and you honor your employer, okay, your master. Then he says this. If then I be a father, which he is, where is mine honor? You see, this nation, this generation now of the Jews here, they were not honoring the father. He goes, look, sons honor their earthly father. Employees honor, you know, their employer. He goes, where is my honor? You say, well, surely then they must not be doing the sacrifice, surely they must not be doing this temple worship, that must be the issue. But that's not the issue. If you keep going there, look at this. And if I be a master, where is my fear? Hey, we ought to fear the Lord. They've lost the fear of God, okay? Say if the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests that despise my name, and ye say wherein have we despised thy name? The priest going, what do you mean God? We've not despised your name. We're still serving here in the temple. You know, what's the issue? Well, verse number seven. It says, ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar. So are they doing the sacrifices? Are they doing the tasks that God wanted them to do? Yes, but they're offering polluted bread. Hey, you know, when we serve the Lord, we ought to bring our best. If we honor our Heavenly Father, we give the best of what we have. When we sing our praises and hymns, we ought to give our best. When we come to God's house, we give attention to the preaching of God's word. We want to do the best we can. Don't offer polluted bread. Oh, but I was here, but was your heart polluted? Is your heart polluted? Look, and you say, wherein have we polluted thee? In that you say the table of the Lord is contemptible. Look, and if you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? So you know, they're bringing their sheep, they're bringing their sacrifices. They're meant to bring the best. They're meant to bring one without spots because it's a picture of Christ who is without sin, our Christ who is perfect with a broken body, a perfect sacrifice for us. That creature was to represent what Christ will do. And they got lazy. They go, oh, we'll bring the blind. They'll bring the best. We'll eat the best. We'll have the lamb chops for ourselves. Oh, that one's blind. Let's offer that one for the sacrifice. Polluted bread, polluted sacrifices, is it not evil? And if you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor. Will he be pleased with thee and accept thy person, sayeth the Lord of hosts? Because man, look, even someone that you respect and honor, someone that has a high position, you're not gonna give them the blind. You're not gonna give them the sickly animals to eat. Look, you honor men, but you don't honor God. And brethren, we come to church, don't forget. I know we don't follow the Old Testament sacrifices, but don't forget everything we do for the Lord is our sacrifice. Our praises are sacrifices. How we serve in God's house is a sacrifice. You've sacrificed your time. You've sacrificed your morning. You've sacrificed your afternoon to be here in God's house. Offer your best. Offer your best. Preachers, when you get behind this pulpit, do the best. Give your best. Give your heart to the Lord God. Ask Him to move you. Ask Him that He would use you to be a blessing and to be fruitful to the hearers listening to you preach. Give your best to the Lord. Don't offer the polluted bread. If we wanna honor the Lord, okay? What did God say? If then I be a father, where is mine honor? Reverend, I love this church. I love in your life at this church. I love each one of you, each member, each family. You know, yes, we come for the Lord, but hey, when I see a full house, it encourages me as well. You support me. When I hear feedback that you enjoy the sermon, it encourages me, praise God. We're here to encourage and motivate, provoke each other unto love and good works. I don't want to be in a church that brings polluted bread. I was in church some day, yeah, but did God receive it? Oh, yeah, yeah, we sang his praises. How was your heart? Was it polluted? How was your sacrifice? Was it polluted? There was rubbish on the floor. I use these examples all the time because they're just basic ones. Did you pick it up? Did you put it in the bin? Oh, no, I left it because it was, you know, it's a pool for the kids again. Just offer your best. Who cares? Who cares who made the mess? Give your best to the Lord. He deserves it, amen? We want to honor our Father, you know, and so I want to make sure this church remains as long as the Lord wants it to remain. You know, ideally, it remains till Jesus Christ comes back, but I don't want it to just remain for the sake of remaining, okay? I want to make sure that our hearts are clean, we come to God's house, get right with God, ask the Lord that the Holy Spirit would move in your heart and that you would learn something, that you would walk away a little bit changed, a little bit at a time, every service you come to, you come a little bit changed, a little more knowledge, a little more wisdom of God's Word so you can then apply it for your week. And, brethren, if we do this, we do give our Heavenly Father honor because he deserves it. He definitely deserves the honor, you know, the praise, the worship coming from our hearts and coming from our mouths. Okay, brethren, let's pray.