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

Amen. Okay, so it's Mother's Day, or perhaps more accurately, in the UK, Mothering Sunday. And I'll just explain that quickly. So the original name in the UK was Mothering Sunday, and it started as a Christian day of celebrating actually someone's mother church. I don't know if anyone was aware of this. So it wasn't actually mums originally, it was the Mother Church, which was, generally speaking, where they're being baptised, which due to child baptism then therefore usually included a day with their mothers because people weren't travelling around as much relocating as we probably do nowadays. So it did include a day with their mums, their families, and it does actually go all the way back to the Middle Ages, sometime before the 15th century, this tradition here. It was always on the fourth Sunday of Lent, Lent being the 40-day period leading up to Easter, if anyone's unsure about that, where various Christian denominations encourage fasting and being a little bit more holy than usual, reading a bit of Bible or something, and those sort of far-out things that they do, the extreme stuff, right? And in case you're worried that, you know, what's all this about, you know, has our pastor been spending too much time really about the Church Fathers and not the Father, and are we getting into all this kind of Middle Age, sort of Catholic-like type stuff? Mothering Sunday did merge in the end with the secular Mother's Day tradition in the US to become a nationwide celebration here, okay? So it's a nationwide thing, it's just on a different date because it's been merged with what was Mothering Sunday, commonly called Mother's Day. Nowadays, it does continue, like I say, so it continues to be the fourth Sunday of Lent, which this year is today, the 30th of March, hence it's Mother's Day today in the UK. Now, in case you're thinking, well, why are we celebrating Mother's Day? And I'm sure there's someone here that's already in their mind going, this sounds pagan. I bet there's someone, right? Okay, it's pagan, it's got to be pagan, hasn't it? If it's not, you know, if it's not of the Bible, it must be pagan. Well, I don't believe that there's anything sinful about it, okay? I don't think there's anything sinful about about every tradition. It doesn't mean that just because it's a tradition that's not necessarily biblical, it's sinful, and it is a good opportunity to appreciate the mums here, and I think often mums just don't get appreciated much, right? So it's a good time to appreciate the mums, it's a good opportunity to honour the mums here, and obviously those that aren't here too. And in Deuteronomy 5 16, so it's the fifth of the Ten Commandments, we're told in verse 16 of Deuteronomy 5 to honour thy father and thy mother, that as the Lord thy God hath 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 the title of the sermon this morning is honour thy mother, honour thy mother. I'd like to pray before we get going. Father, thank you Lord for the mums here, thank you that, you know, we're able to come together and think about mums and celebrate the mums here today. Help us to do that in the right way, Lord, help me to preach, you know, just what's accurate, biblical, about how we should treat mums, how we should treat all our mums here, how we should behave towards the mums. Lord, help me to preach this sermon I'll be thinking about for a little while now, actually, in an accurate way, in a clear way, in a bold way, full of your spirit, help everyone to have attentive ears, and I want to respond to this to want to go away and honour their mothers. In Jesus' name, promise. Amen. Okay, so yep, mum's here, it's time to kick back, relax, and let everyone else feel uncomfortable. Maybe not entirely, because, you know, I think a lot of mums here maybe do have mums still as well, so maybe not entirely, but you're going to get a bit of a relaxing one compared with maybe usual, okay, and for good reason, because God, through Moses, said in verse 16 to honour thy father and thy mother. He said honour thy father and thy mother. Now keep something here in turn of 1 Peter 1, turn of 1 Peter chapter 1. So aside from the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilling the Sabbath, representing that resting Christ for salvation, God hasn't now changed his mind about general morality, okay. Some people would love to think that he had, would love to pretend that he had really, about, he hasn't changed his mind about how he wants his living though, okay. Galatians 3 24, your turn to 1 Peter 1, Galatians 3 24 does say, wherefore the law is our schoolmaster to bring us under Christ that we might be justified by faith. So yeah, the law shows us that we come short, the law shows us that we're sinners, the law shows us that we need a saviour, but the law wasn't just arbitrary commandments for fun. God didn't just go, oh we'll come up with these ones because they'll never be able to fulfill that, therefore they're going to turn to Christ. No, God's standards haven't changed, okay. These are still standards of morality. Hebrews 13 8 says Jesus Christ saying yes they enter down forever. So that hasn't changed, and today just like three and a half thousand odd years ago he wants us to be holy, okay. Here in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 15 it says this, but as he which has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation because it is written, be ye holy for I am holy. God still wants us to be holy, and by the way he's quoting the Old Testament, he's quoting Leviticus chapter 20 and verse 7, but a good summary if you like of how to be holy is found in the 10 commandments, isn't it? It's a good summary of the law is found in the 10 commandments about how to be holy. How, you know, if you go, well what, how does God want me to be holy? Well I'll tell you a good place to start. Let's look at the 10 commandments. That's a good place to start with trying to be holy. He said be ye holy for I am holy, and the fifth of which says here in Deuteronomy 5 16, the fifth of the 10 commandments says honour thy father and thy mother as the Lord thy God has commanded thee that thy days may be prolonged and it may go well with thee in a land which the Lord thy God hath, sorry, the land that the Lord thy God giveth thee. So today we're going to look at the what the why and how of honouring your mother. Okay, the title is honour thy mother, and point number one is what does it mean to honour thy mother? So what does it actually mean? What does that word honour mean in this context here? Turn to Leviticus chapter 19. Obviously keep a finger in Deuteronomy 5 and turn to Leviticus 19. So the first time we see the verb, okay, the verb to actually do it to honour your mother is in Exodus 20 12, the first relaying of these 10 commandments which says honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. We're in Deuteronomy just because there's a little bit more in there, there's a little bit more explained about it and the repercussions of it, but that was the first time we see it. Here in Leviticus 19 32, verse 32, we're going to see some context. It says here in Leviticus 19 32, thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, which is talking about someone who's elderly, who's old, who's got grey hair, it's showing that there's some sort of respect, giving respect, rising up before them, and honour the face of the old man and fear thy God, I am the Lord. So what's it talking about here? Honouring the face is basically showing respect, reverence isn't it? That's what it's talking about, okay. However, with that in mind, if you turn over now to Matthew 15, we also see a financial implication too. So we've seen in Leviticus 19 32, it being combined, it's kind of used interchangeably almost rising up, honour the face of the old man, it's showing respect, showing reverence to someone who's older than you. But in Matthew 15, there's a financial implication to that. In Matthew 15, the Jerusalem scribes and Pharisees are looking for trouble with the Lord as usual. It says in verse 1 of Matthew 15, 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. But he answered and said unto them, why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded saying, honour thy father and mother, and he that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. 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 honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have you made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. So here, if you look, there he's clearly talking about a financial supporting, basically, financially supporting your parents in later life. That's what he said. He said that they've basically said, yeah, well, if you just say it's a gift by whatever you're profited by me, then now you no longer have to honour them. So it includes there, it's talking about financially. And notice as well, it's talking to adults here as well, isn't it? Well, for me, that's why, and look, you know, sometimes dictionary definitions are good, sometimes they're not. Sometimes modern definitions, words change. I like the Webster's 1828, first definition of the verb honour. I think it's accurate with those verses that we've just seen in other places in mind, where it says this, it's to revere, to respect, to treat with deference and submission and perform relative duties too. So he said to revere, reverence suggests really even a slight fear without respect and affection. So it's kind of the whole lot, right? So reverence, there's respect, there's affection, there's maybe a little bit of kind of, you know, appropriate fear with that. Respect, it said here, which is to esteem someone of high value, of worth. So you're putting them up in importance, you're respecting them, and you're giving them a sort of worth in your opinion as well when you do that. Deference is a yielding in opinion, a submission of judgement to the opinion or judgement of another. So you're basically, you know, kind of, where possible, and of course, we're going to look at times where this wouldn't apply, but you're going to yield and you're going to say, okay, well fair enough, what you say is right. You're my mother, right? I'm not going to try and challenge you on everything, argue with you on everything. It's yielding in opinion, submission of judgement, then submission, it said as well, as another kind of way of describing this honouring. It's basically yielding to their power and authority, and again, where appropriate there. And then it said to perform relative duties too, and you know, the duties expected basically, which includes supporting them if needed in later life. And you would say other things as well, you know, there are duties and just submitting for a child especially to the rules of the house, things like that would be included. So it's not just the duties that apply in later life, okay? So the adults here also should show a level of reverence to their mother, okay? So it's not just, okay, well, well just, you know, we just need to make sure that we pay for them if they need it, if they haven't got a pension or something. An adult is still meant to reverence them. Turn to Proverbs 15. We're still to respect our mothers as an adult. We're still to treat with deference and submission all these descriptions of honouring. Now, of course, Romans 13.1 still applies. Your turn to Proverbs 15. Romans 13.1 says, let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God, the powers that be are ordained of God. So we're not to submit to anything that goes against God's commands. So if your mother tells you to do something that's clearly sin, not because, well, I don't agree with that. I think if you do a 10-hour study on it, you might come to a different conclusion. No, it's just obvious sin, right? Then you're not going to do that. And obviously, once you leave and cleave to a spouse, you have your own home. The area of authority changes as well. So it's not for your mum to come and tell you how you need to do everything in your home and everything else. But usually these don't overlap often. In the real world, do these really overlap that often? Now and again, you might have a pushy, pressury mum, but in general, they don't overlap too much, right? The command to honour thy mother, though, with that in mind, just didn't end when we became adults. The Lord was addressing the adult scribes and Pharisees, didn't he? And he said your command to honour them. He was addressing adults, right? And here in Proverbs 15, he's talking about an adult son despising his mother. He said in Proverbs 1520, a wise son makes the glad father, but a foolish man despiseth his mother. Now, did he mention whether or not that mother is deemed to deserve it or not? He didn't, did he? Something that seems to play a part in it, you know, is often sadly this in Proverbs 23 22, hearken unto thy father that begat thee and despise not thy mother when she is old. So so often people start to get, maybe hatred, you might think that's a bit strong. Well, they start to at least not want to do loving things, not want to do good to their mums when they start getting older. And I believe probably the main reason is because of the relationship dynamic changing. So you've gone from needing your mothers most of your lives, and even as an adult, often people need their mums, don't they, in various ways, to them needing you. And when that happens, a lot of people just find that hard to give. They start to despise them and find reasons to not love them, to not do good for them, because they've got to be selfless to do that, right? And it's easy to just go, well, I want, what can I get from someone? And then when you stop getting it from them, you stop loving them. Well, here we're told not to despise them. Proverbs 15 20 said that a foolish man despises his mother. And back in Deuteronomy 5, we're told instead to honour her, to honour her. Verse 16 said honour thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath 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. So the title is honour thy mother, and we've looked number one at just what does it mean to honour thy mother? The answer is that it's to revere, to respect, to treat with deference and submission, and perform relative duties too. And there's a lot of cultures in the world where that's still the case. Sadly, that's been eroded a lot in our culture, hasn't it? Okay, that's reduced massive, oh, you know, should I should I revere, respect my unsaved mum? Yeah, where possible, where it's not going outside of what the word of God wants you to, what God would want you to do. And we've seen it applies to all of us, young and old. But point number two, why is it important to honour our mothers? Why is it important? And first off, purely and simply because God commands us to, okay, God commands you to honour your mother, right? That's a clear command in the Bible. Verse 16 said honour thy father and thy mother as the Lord thy God has commanded thee. So how is it in what way has he commanded us? Well he commanded us, maybe he's referring to Exodus chapter 20, but it could just be referring to the fact he said honour thy father and thy mother as he's commanded you. It's in a simple way, it's in a simple way to honour your father and mother. Don't try and find the ifs and buts and the where, the ways out. You know, well, you know, dad gets honoured because he's the boss, but mum, I just give a bit less honour. No, just honour her, just honour her, she's your mum. It's not honour her only if you agree with her. You know, it's a good way of showing if someone really, you know, is doing what they're meant to be doing, for example, when it's submission or when it's, when it's loving or when it's, here when it's honouring and it's kind of a combination of respect and, and a degree of submission and other things. Can you do it when you don't agree? You know, someone, well, you know, it's only honour her if she's done enough for you to warrant it and people have their kind of parameters of, well, do they deserve it or not? No, just honour her. It's a really simple command and, you know, a lot of commands in the Bible, the easiest thing to do is just to do it. A lot of the time people try and find ways out and find loopholes. Well, yeah, but would you in this situation, it's like, just, just honour her. It's easier to do that, right? And whether one of, you're one of the kids or the adults here, just honour her. Just honour your mother because you're commanded to honour her. He said in verse 16, honour thy father and thy mother as the Lord thy God has commanded thee that, notice of that, thy days may be prolonged and that it may go well with thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. So he said that thy days may be prolonged. And there are a couple of ways that this applies. First off, it applied to their time in the promised land itself. So Exodus 20 verse 12, the other, the other relaying of this says this, honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. You're talking about that promised land, that your days will be long upon that promised land. Here we've seen honour thy father and thy mother as the Lord thy God has 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 we've just read the Lord rebuking the religious teachers for not doing this. And, you know, probably, what would you say, about 1500 years after this point. And in Matthew 21 43, what did the Lord say to these same people? Therefore say unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. And with that came the destruction of the land itself in 70 AD, at least Jerusalem, and the scattering of those physical people. It was no longer their land in God's eyes, right? Now, I'm not saying that that was just because they'd stopped honouring their parents. There were other things that played a part in that, but I am saying that when God's people honour their parents, they're more likely to remain as God's people in the long run, in terms of their line and their seed after them and their seed after them, because they're more likely to give heed to those statutes and judgments, aren't they? You know, if you're a child of a believer, you're more likely to stay in the things of God if you're honouring the person who's raising you in the things of God, right? You're less likely to think that you know better. A lot of people just love to think they know better. A lot of, like, you know, especially, sadly, there's an age where kids get to, and it varies a little bit. A lot of the time it could be around those teen years, and sadly it goes on, often into, like, adulthood. Sadly, even up, like, you know, you get a lot of, like, cocksure sort of young men, and young women as well, just think they just know it all. They know it all. They know better than everyone. They know better. They know better than their parents. What do their parents know, right? And that starts young, and it can continue for a long time, right? And then you start to get to the point where you're like, actually, they did know quite a lot, because then your experience, and you're saying, actually, yeah, I can see all of that playing out, and they were right about this. They were right about that. Why didn't I listen? Well, it applies today to those. So God's given his people in this part of the world, he's given us this land that we live in, isn't he? You know, he's given us a house of God here as well. He's given us, he's given us something in this nation, somewhere to gather, somewhere to go out from, and if you, you know, if you kids, the kids here especially, you're the future of this church. If you want it prolonged, you need to honor your parents, and particularly today we're looking at honoring my mother. You know, you want this to continue. You want to, you want to still have a proper house of God where the word of God is being preached, where you're going out to save souls, where, where we're getting no salvations week in, week out. It relies a lot on the kids here. You go, why? I'll tell you why, because out of all those thousands of salvations we've got, how many have been able to stick out even a few services in an actual church? It's hard, you know, and you've got kids here who have the, who are being raised in a church like this, who have the, who have such a great head start in life, and they should therefore have at least, there should be more chance of them being able to persevere and go on to keep this, this torch alive in this church, keep this candle alight, but it's not a given, is it? It's not a guarantee. If you want it prolonged, you need to honor your parents. Turn to Ephesians 6, but it also applies to life in general. Turn to Ephesians chapter 6. You want this vapor of a life here to be prolonged, then you need to honor both your parents, right? Both your parents. You want to have a longer life? The Bible says honor your parents. Ephesians 6 says in verse 1, Ephesians 6.1 says, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. So we're looking at kids here, right? Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. And again, it's not as long, it's not, you know, as, as here he's, he's not saying, okay, just obey them in anything and everything, you know, whatever they tell you to do, it's in the Lord. As long as it's in the Lord, it's something that, that doesn't go against the Lord. And kids, if you're not obeying, you're not honoring, that should go without saying, right? You're not obeying your kids, you're not honoring your parents, you're breaking just clear commands, yeah, when you disobey. He said in verse 2, Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and, and thou mayest live long on the earth. So here, it's just clearly talking about your life, right? The, the years to your life. You want to live long on the earth, honor your father and your mother. Yeah, we've got a short, short amount of time here. You want it, you want those years to be long, honor your father and your mother. And aside from perhaps a supernatural element to this, on a practical level, it also works too, okay? So when you choose to just, to just honor your parents, right, you, you do just straight off, I would say, reduce the massive amounts of stress that are caused by parent issues. There's a lot of stress in life, my parent issues. A lot of people hang on to all sorts of issues from, from, you know, I can't believe my mum did this, my dad did that, I can't believe this happened when I was young. It's like, cut it all out and just honor them. Honor them and you take out so much stress out of your life. So much heartache, so many problems. Proverbs 17 22 says this, a merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones. Yeah, that broken spirit will dry your bones. It's going to give you, ultimately, stress is a massive part to play in so much illness, isn't it? It'll kill you. Now, you could also add that in later life, looking after elderly parents gives you purpose, doesn't it? It keeps you busy. Whether that's due to financially supporting, look, you need to financially support your parents to some degree, well, you're going to probably have to work a bit later. That early retirement is, is going to be less likely, isn't it? Which is a good thing, usually, because a lot of people aren't very healthy when they do things like that. But also, you know, just the increased workload as well. So even if you are retired, even if you aren't doing very much, suddenly you've got a parent to look after, you're honoring them, you're giving them that honor you're meant to, you're going and taking care of them, helping them, looking after them, something that cults have done throughout history. And people are getting so hard-hearted in this nation and others that that seems to be ending. But when you're doing that, well, you're going to be busy. And when you're busy, when you're active, when you're doing stuff, you're generally healthier. But it also goes hand in hand with things just being well with thee as well. So it said in verse two, 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 he said it's just well with you. Verse 16, back in Proverb, sorry, back in Deuteronomy 5, said, and that it may go well with thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. So life is generally longer when it goes well with you, okay, when things are successful, when you're healthy, happy, you, you avoid pitfalls. Now turn to Proverb 6, because Proverb 6, even the most worldly mother even the most worldly mother will have at least some element of care for their children. Okay, look, I know there are people that lack natural empathy, right, they're few and far between. Normal people, even them, even the least, you know, kind of God-fearing person will still have some care for their children. However, here, here he was writing to his people, his people back then, and it applies to his people now. And kids said, you know, not, look, again, kids, if you're listening, not only do you have parents that care, and there are parents out there that don't, okay, but you have parents that are hopefully teaching you according to God's word. So not only do they care, they're teaching you according to God's word, and Proverb 6 says this in verse 20, Proverb 6 says, my son, keep thy father's commandment and forsake not the law of thy mother. Find them continually upon thine heart and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee, when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee, and when thou wakest, it shall talk with thee, for the commandment is a lamp and the law is light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. So that godly mum is teaching you things that will lead you in the right path. You know, your mum cares about you, and then you've got a mum, the kids here, you've got a mum that actually comes to church, a mum that's listening to the word of God, that's reading the Bible, and you know what, the path she's trying to teach you is likely going to be the right path. It's going to be as close to it, right? You've got a mum that will keep you safe at night, and what she tells you will keep you safe at night. She's trying to help you to be safe, to be happy, to be content, and what she's teaching you, basically she's going to talk with you in the morning, and however that apply, well ultimately the word of God, right, is talking to you, that the commandment is a lamp and the law is light, said in the verse before it shall keep thee, when thou wakest, it shall talk with thee. So she's hopefully teaching you the word of God, she's teaching you things that are at least in line with the word of God, and believe it or not, your mum wants the best for you. Yeah, your mum wants the best for you. You know what mums do? They spend ages thinking about what's best for you. I mean, you know, sometimes it's like, oh man, you know, I don't really have the time to talk about this again. Do I like her? She's like, well, what do you think about this? What do you think about with this kid? It's like, okay, yeah, you know, because she's constantly thinking about it. What would be best? What should we do about this situation? How can we improve that? She's thinking about it a lot. She, you know, your mum thinks about what's best. Your mum worries about what's best. Mums just generally worry a lot, don't they, about you. What's the best way of doing this? What's the best way of doing that? What's going to be the best thing for their future with this? That's what mums do, right? You know what a mum also does is she should be doing is praying about what's best as well. Kids, you've got mums here that are praying for you. They're praying for you in those, you know, those awake hours at night. They're thinking about you. They're caring about you. So if you honour her, it's likely going to go well with you, isn't it? If you respect what she's telling you, respect what she's advising you, respect what she's trying to guide you to do, it's likely going to go well for you. She's thinking more about your future than you are, usually. But it will also go well with her. And we want that, don't we? You want it to go well with your mum, don't you? Don't you want a happy mum? Mums like being honoured. You know, a happy mum is, you know, a mum's not going to be happy if she's not being honoured by her kids. They want to be honoured, right? They want to be respected by their kids. They don't want to be disrespected. They don't, you know, it's hard enough as it is, you know, a lot of jobs that a mum does, you know, by the world standards can be pretty degrading, they believe, right? A lot of the world would be, you know, there's a lot, sadly, especially you've got a lot of kids, that's a lot of bottoms, right? Okay, there's a lot of other things, there's a lot of vomit, you know, especially not just with babies, sicknesses, illnesses. They have to do a lot of rough jobs. There's a lot of cleaning up after kids and doing, and a lot of just serving them, isn't there? Cooking for them, cleaning for them, dressing them, doing all this stuff. You know what wouldn't go and miss is a bit of honour. A bit of honour for that, right? And when you do that, you're going to have a happy mum. And do you know what that does? It makes you wise and righteous. Proverbs 23, 25 says of the wise and righteous child, thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bear thee shall rejoice. So you're wise and righteous if you're honouring your mum, and the result of that is that your mother's going to rejoice. And that's a good thing, right? And aside from the age-reducing effects of the stress of domestic rifts, like I mentioned, just for a generally happy life, a happy mum will massively help that. A happy mum's going to help you have a happy life. Are you going to be that happy if your mum's just upset, your relationships just torn apart all the time? No. And do you know what? A simple solution to that is just honour her. Just honour her. Honour your mum. Deuteronomy 5 said, honour thy father and thy mother as the Lord thy God has 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. So the title is honour thy mother. Point number one, what does it mean to honour thy mother? And the answer is that it's to revere, to respect, to treat with deference and submission and perform relative duties to, and like I said it applies to both the young and old. Point number two is why is it important to honour our mothers? Because God commands us to so that our days are prolonged so it may go well with us. Now point number three, so how can we help with the honouring of mothers? And this is what I want to focus on now for the rest of this sermon. How can we help with that? How can we achieve that? How can we help our kids to do that? How can we help others to do that? Deuteronomy 5, we saw it spelled out that it's both parents. It said in verse 16, honour thy father and thy mother. Just to make it really clear, yes both, right? We saw that it was commanded by the Lord. It said as the Lord thy God has commanded thee. We saw that it positively affects the length of life, whether as a church or an individual, that thy days may be prolonged and also we saw the quality of life too it said and that it may go well with thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. So it's a pretty important commandment wouldn't you say? I mean that is an important commandment and if you're not honouring your mother, basically you're just breaking this commandment. Just a clear commandment of the Bible, you're not honouring your mother, you're breaking it. So what can we do to help ourselves? What can we do to help ourselves? What can we do to help our kids? Help each other to honour our mums? Turn to Titus 2, Titus 2. First off, okay, first thing that's sprung to mind while I'm thinking about, well how can we help people to do this? What prevents people honouring their mothers? First thing, you need to get your heads out of this feminist nonsense out there. You need to pull your heads out of that. This satanic brainwash that judges women on their masculinity, that honours women for masculinity. You need to get your head out of all that, right? Get out of that crap. This female hating feminism, which is what it is, it's female hating, it's woman hating, that looks down upon femininity and only encourages the respect of women that behave like men. Get your head out of that. In Titus 2, the inspired Paul said this to Titus, he said, but speak thou the things which become sound doctrine, so by default not femi-nazi propaganda, that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. That's how men should be, right? The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed, and put on their trouser suits, and win the world in their career. No, he missed that bit out, didn't he? Because that wasn't important, because in fact he didn't want that. He said to be keepers at home. God wants younger women to be tall, and really that's by example, by the way. He wants that example of the older women to show the younger women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. That's what God wants to see, and that should kind of get extra honest, isn't it? So these things should be, these should get extra honour in a woman, in a mum, right? Above the baseline of being honoured just because it's a command, right? So you should honour her anyway, even if even if your mum has got a cross on every single one of these, still honour her, because the Bible tells you to honour her, right? However, if she's got a tick on these, now let's give some extra dosings of honour, right? It's commanded, okay? You shouldn't be honouring your mum, or any other any other woman out there, we should be honouring women for being a drunken party animal. That shouldn't get honour, that shouldn't be respected, that should be, oh, she's just a free spirit, or whatever they call them, right? She's so carefree, oh, she's such a party animal, she's such a socialite, oh, she just, you know, has such a, you know, she's just got all these, all these party friends, and well, she's such a fun person, it's how they say, what they mean is she's a drunkard, she goes out and gets drunk all the time, and wrecks her life, that's not what we're to be honouring mums for, not honouring women for treating her husband like dirt, said here to love their husbands, and a lot of women get honoured for that, it's like, well, she's a, you know, you don't want to mess with her, you know, well, who wears the trousers in that home, oh, what a strong woman, what a strong mum, she shouldn't be getting honoured for that, she's told to love her husband, not walk all over him, not treat him like some filth, she shouldn't be getting honoured for palming her kids off to the world, it's like, oh, what a great mum, because her kids went to all these great schools, and university, and, and this, and it's, what's that, what, what, that's to be honoured, that's not to be honoured, that's not something to honour, they're supposed to love their children, not honoured for being loud and stubborn, said here to be discreet, not, not honoured, oh, well, she's, oh, I've got such respect for that woman, because she's so loud, because when she walks in the room, everyone has to look at her and listen to her, no, oh, oh, she's just, you know, she, oh, I've got such respect for her, because once she makes a decision, she will not change her mind, no, she's loud and stubborn, her feet abide not in her house, she's a strange woman, it sounds like, said chaste, that's how the young women should be chaste, so they shouldn't be getting honoured for being some sort of holler, and that's out there now, isn't it, I'm so proud of her, because she's just, you know, she keeps going from one boyfriend to the other, oh, she's so attractive, she's so this and that, that's not something to honour, what, she, she's sleeping around, she sounds like a whore, why are we honouring whores, not honoured, it said here to be a keeper at home, so not honoured for chasing some stupid career, not honoured for that, that's, oh, I've got such respect for her, because she just really made it in her career, oh, God wanted her to be a keeper at home, look, sometimes the situations, there's, you know, we all come from different, you know, backgrounds and things, where maybe some women have to work for some reason or another, but that's not God's will for it, and it's not something to throw out all this honour upon, the honours for a keeper at home, he said good, so not, not honoured for being a bad girl, oh, yeah, she's just, well, she's, she's so rebellious, she's so, you know, she, she dresses, like, really provocatively, oh, that's not something to honour, is it, he said obedient to their own husbands, we shouldn't be honouring women for walking all over their husbands, we shouldn't be honouring women for running, for, for ruling the roost, that's not something to honour, he said that the word of God be not blasphemed, and we shouldn't be honouring women for going against everything that, oh, God wants a woman to behave like, God doesn't want any of that stuff out there, that's what, how God wants a woman to be, and that should get extra honour, and if we get that right, and we start honouring them for that stuff, then you might find that you're honouring them more and more, right, because that's stuff that should be honoured, rather than in the world right now, this is the stuff which is frowned upon, this is looked, this is mocked, this is scorned, and if they're the opposite of that list, not the list in Titus, but the list I just made, well, they deserve some extra honour, don't they, right, how else can we help with the honouring of mothers, though, so aside from that, and aside from, look, just giving them the honour that they're meant to get for, like, the things which they're meant to be doing, the things that they're made to be doing, how else, well, as husbands, okay, as fathers, we need to lead by example too, so, so obviously, you know, with our own mums, so for starters, look, dad's out there, you want to teach your kids to one of their mums, maybe you need to honour your own mums, for starters, right, but also in 1 Peter 3, God through Peter said this, have you gone to 1 Peter 3, go to 1 Peter 3, 1 Peter chapter 3, he said in verse 1, likewise, likewise, so the likewise in 1 Peter 3 is referring to the previous chapter's command in 1 Peter 2 18, which is for those of us in the workplace to submit to authority, so he said that, because you look, you're thinking, oh, well, that was a little way back, back in verse 18, yeah, well, he said, servants be subject unto your own masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward, and then it's then followed by the example that Christ set, okay, so then it shows how Christ did that, and then it says this in chapter 3, likewise, so in the same way, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they may, they also may, without the word, be won by the conversation of the wives, while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear, so he said, get your family wrecking, marriage destroying, false Jew inspired feminism out of your household, and be in loving subjection to your own husbands, okay, get all that, get all that false, that false Jew teaching out, because that's what all the early feminist writers were, the synagogue of Satan, get, get it all out there, get it all out your home, and be in loving subjection to your husband, to your own husbands, instead of being conned into thinking that you're somehow empowered by submitting to someone else's husband in the workplace, yeah, you're not empowered for that, you haven't somehow achieved, you're just submitting to someone else's husband, he said submit to your own husband, he said, even if it's an ungodly husband, and whether he's unsaved or he's saved and just not, not following the word, you might win them over by behaving like a godly woman should, you show by example, your behavior might show them, wow, you know, there's a god-fearing woman, look at the power of God in her life, right, he said in verse 3, who's adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair and of wearing of gold or of putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price, so you could say, don't honor mums because of their outward adorning, and I'll tell you, there's a lot of women out there being honored, being respected, they're somehow the pinnacle of at least, you know, society of the media because of how they look on the outside, but again, that's the opposite to what God says, that shouldn't be their outward adorning, and it's not that these things are bad, because obviously he mentions putting on of clothes, okay, he's not saying don't do these things, he's just saying that's not, it should be what beautifies them, what adorns them to others, he said, but let it be the hidden man of the heart, it's what's on the inside, in that which is not corrupt, relieving the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price, so basically, how about you give them some extra honor for what's on the inside, and stop focusing on the exterior like the rest of the world does. Verse five says, for after this manner in the old time, the holy women also who trusted in God adorn themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands, even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters you are, as long as you do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. So you can't read through the Bible and come away thinking that a godly loving marriage doesn't include a submissive wife, you just, you can't, it's clear as day, it's repeated time and time again, right, talks about a submissive wife here, it's Sarah obeying Abraham, calling him Lord, and the only example we see of that in the Bible is in her heart, she's, that's what she considers him her Lord. However, despite God commanding wives to submit, he also commands husbands to give honor unto the wife. It said in verse seven, likewise he husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife. It clearly says that, doesn't it? Giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered. So what men can sadly get confused about is they see the commands to submit, they see the commands not to them, to women, to submit, to be in subjection, that Sarah obeyed Abraham, and they think that it's their job to force their wives to do that, but if someone could show me how you're going to do that, I'd like to hear it. But who is Peter addressing? The wife! He's addressing the wife! What does he say when he addresses the husband? Likewise he husbands dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife. He didn't say force her to submit. Should I tell you how you force your wife to submit? You give honor unto the wife, you love your wife, you'd be not bitter against your wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered. He said give honor unto her. So rather than the verb to honor, okay, it's a noun, it's giving honor, which can include financially obviously as well, and it should do, okay, you should be providing, supporting your wife as well, and that's going to help you as well, for your wife to willfully want to submit to you, but it's value, respect, esteem, it's high estimation. Colossians 3 19 when addressing the husband says simply, husbands love your wives and be not bitter against them. In Ephesians 5 25 the command addressed the husbands is, husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. So it's a giving love, a sacrificial love. Here we're told as husbands to give honor unto the wife, and not only will that respect, that esteem, that high estimation, result in her being more likely to want to submit, to obey, to be in subjection, believe me, but it will help your children to also honor their mum. How do you expect your children to grow up to honor their mum if you're treating her like dirt? If you're like, well I'm the man, I'm going to tell her what's what, put her down all the time, treat her like, like something you trod in, oh yeah but, but your kids are going to grow up to go, oh I've just got all this honor for my mum. How's that going to work? Riddle me that. It don't work. It's not going to work. They see their dad being, being respectful, holding their mum in high esteem. Do you know what? They're more likely to do it themselves. They're more likely to show that respect themselves. Look, we can all get this long, right, men, from time to time, can't we? Of course there are times, you know, when you're going to, you know, things are maybe hard in a marriage, you might find it harder, but they're the times you really need to dig deep, and that's when you need to show that love, that's when you need to show that love, that's when you need to support that wife, that's when you need to be that stronger vessel, the emotionally stronger one, and do you know what will happen with time? Your wife will appreciate that, your wife will love you for that, your wife will want to submit to you for that, because she sees that you're strong and you're able to just, to strip, to basically plough through the hard times. Not if you're acting more feminine than she is. Of course she ain't going to submit to you. And do you know what? That's down to her, right? Your job is to honour her, to respect her, but to lead her, to love her, to be not bitter against her. You cuss them out, you dishonour them, you treat, you treat your kid's mum badly, what are your kids learning? Not to honour their parents. What's the repercussions? Deuteronomy 5 says, honour thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee that thy days may be prolonged. Do you want your kid's days prolonged? And that it may go well with thee, and that in the Lamb which the Lord thy God giveth thee. And it really is quite simple really, but what happens is the flesh wants to like find a way out of it, find a way to like justify, you know, I'm not going to, I need to like, I need to put her down, I need to like tell her what's what, I need to, it's like, that's not what it calls you to do. So even if it's solely to prolong your children's days, yeah, that it may go well with them, it's got to be worth it, right? But let's be honest, okay, you look out there at the women out there, and don't the mums in here demand an extra dose of honour? Don't they? I mean, look at, look at the state of them out there. Look at the state of what, what any of you men here could have married. They deserve some honour, don't they? Kids, your mums deserve some honour. They, they, they actually, they've actually earned some honour, apart from the fact that you're commanded, apart from the fact that it's just for your own good, apart from the, for many of that, the mums here need some honour, right? The fact they're even dragging themselves to this church in the first place to hear me shout and holler, they need some honour, right? They deserve some honour. You know, you know, you know, most of the women in our church have come from lives far removed from biblical Christianity. Did you know that? And I'm talking to the, to the husbands here, I'm talking to the kids here, right? Talking to everyone here who not only, right, not only have got married probably against what most of their peers and friends ended up doing, so not only, and, and, you know, and I'm talking about the married mums, the mums here, they're married, they, they've got married, right? Most people out there aren't getting married anymore. Most of them are fornicated, so they've got married. Not only are they having children, and often plural, and again, it is, what's the norm out there nowadays? One, one that like, you know, with IVF when you're like in your 40s or something, isn't that kind, isn't that kind of standard nowadays? Maybe they're even homeschooling those children. That ain't the norm. That's not what women are doing in, in our society, and that's not what they, that's not the background any of them have come from. So they're suddenly, they're changing all these things, they're doing things that are way out of what their comfort zone was when they grew up. They're coming to a proper church, coming to a proper church where, where it's not just the feel-good getting a pat on the back, and, you know, and let's be honest, most people don't even go to church in this nation, but they're coming to a proper church. The mums in here are hope, are Bible reading, they're reading the Word of God, they're praying, they're soul winning. Resisting so much of the common sin out there, so much of it. You go, oh well, yeah, but, you know, my mum, you know, she, she gets angry sometimes, or my mum, she, you know, she can do this, or my mum, you know what, whatever your mum's doing, ain't like what the rest of them are doing. I haven't had one, they've got a great way of hiding it, okay. You know what, they're, they're a cut above, they're a cut above the rest. But we can eat so easily, take that for granted, can't we? We take that for granted as husbands, we take that for granted as kids. All the things they're doing, all the things that they weren't raised in general to do, all the things that they, all their friends, all their peers, all the people they grew up with in school are not doing now, they're trying to do, trying to live like, and we take it all for granted, and then we're so, we're so quick to focus on the negative, focus on the fault. But you know what, every single husband here and every single kid here has a load of negatives and a load of faults as well. We've all got failings, we all get things wrong, but we want some honor, don't we? We want some respect. So why don't we give that to the mums here as well, right? Maybe us husbands here can help by giving a bit more honor than we currently do. Maybe that'll help, right? Maybe that'll help our kids to do that, our kids to grow up to do that, maybe that'll help others to do that. Maybe when you're doing that to your wife, you're leading by example and giving her the honor that you're commanded to in the Bible, giving honor unto the wife, maybe you're going to help others to do the same, maybe you help your kids, maybe you're going to benefit them in life, right? He said, honor thy father and thy mother, that's a command. As the Lord thy God hath 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. The title was honor thy mother and question number one was what does it mean to honor thy mother and the answer is it's to revere, to respect, to treat with deference and submission and perform relative duties too, it applies to all of us young and old, right? And like I said, you know, there are spheres of that of that honoring and obviously as you move to a new home and you know you don't have to have your mum around telling you what you can and can't do and what time you're allowed to get up in the morning and stuff like that, right? Obviously. Number two, why is it important to honor our mothers? Well, God commands you to, right? This is a clear command in the Bible but so that our days are prolonged though as well and so that it may go well with us, we looked at ways that that applies and then number three, how can we help with the honoring of mothers, right? How can we help that? Because this is an important thing, it's an important thing in the kids growing up here, it's an important thing for the adults here still to continue to honor their mothers, well honor them for the right things, focus on the right things to give that extra honor for, lead by example, especially dads out there and appreciate the godly mums that we have here, right? That was honor thy mother and on that we're going to finish in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you Lord for the mums here, thank you for the clear commands you give us about just honoring them Lord and how we can lead by example as dads here with that by giving honor unto our wives and showing them the respect that they deserve Lord and whether or not they do deserve it but the mums here deserve some respect Lord, they're a rare bunch compared with what's out there in the world, help them to persevere and help us to have more respect to also to want to help them Lord with what can be hard times sometimes, it can be a hard life, being a mum, homeschooling especially but whether or not they are just all the worries, all the pressures, all the responsibilities Lord, help us to respect them for that, to give them love with that Lord and to help them where we can in the harder times, the harder moments of that Lord, help us to think about that not just today but going forward this week, this the month to come and onwards Lord and to just try and make a bit of a change with that and just show more honor to the women here, Lord help us to get many souls saved this afternoon Lord and to encourage people to get into your house to start to clean up their lives with the word of God as well and in Jesus' name we pray all of this, amen.