Yep, there we go. Look at that. Now some of you can hear me.
It's wonderful. It's great to be here together as we worship the Lord together. Next week, we're going to have baptisms at both campuses, and we're excited to celebrate what God is doing in people's lives.
And if you're interested in that, it is not too late. You can go on today, go on to the website, and look at the page about baptism, and we'd love to have you sign up in order to come and be a part of those baptisms that are happening next week. We're in the middle, right in the middle of a...
a sermon series about the Ten Commandments. As we've been walking through this series on the Ten Commandments, we have talked about having a great big goal with this series. And that great big goal, we've stated like this, we want to bask in God's love as seen in the Ten Commandments and grow in our love for Him and others as we study them.
We recognize that the Ten Commandments are God's fatherly love poured out upon us, which he says, these are the best ways to to live. This is the good way to live. And he expresses his love to us.
And we also recognize that the commandments are the way in which God shows us pathways that we can properly love him and love each other. And we want to grow in that love as we meditate on these commandments. Now, friends, we've also had a small goal as we've been walking through these commandments, right?
What's the small goal? By the time we're done, we want to know the commandments. And in order to do that, we've been walking through the commandments. with some silly finger motions.
And we are doing it today. Last week I said I was giving you a break, but we were coming back to it today. And so I need one finger up.
Yes, there we go. All right. Commandment number one, there is only one God, right? No other gods besides him. Commandment number two, you shall not make or bow down to any graven image.
Commandment number three, looks like a W for our words, and so what is it? Do not take the Lord's name in vain. Commandment number four, stop, halt, and observe the Sabbath. Commandment number five. Five, honor your father and your mother or else.
All right. Somebody's not letting me get away without that. All right. Thank you.
Commandment number six, do not murder. Commandment number seven, there are two people in a marriage, not five. Do not commit adultery.
Commandment number eight, do not steal. In some countries, they cut off your thumbs. In others, they throw you in jail.
Commandment number nine, five is not four, four is not five, do not bear false witness. And finally, commandment number 10, don't covet your neighbor's things. Don't covet your neighbor's things. Nice work.
Nice work, you guys. We'll continue to come back to that over and over again. Today, we are on commandment number five.
Which one is that? Yeah, that's right. It actually says this, Exodus chapter 20 verse 12, honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
Now, we're going to come back in a few minutes to the promise that is a part of this about living long in the land. But for right now, I want us to focus on what it means to honor father and mother. The Hebrew word translated honor here means to give weight to something. To show something proper weight or glory or respect.
And so when we talk about honoring father and mother, we're talking about... respecting mother and father and treating them well. Let me say that again.
When we talk about honoring father and mother, we're talking about respecting father and mother and treating them well. Right now, how do we do that? As I look around this room, most of the people in the room are adults. And so let me start off talking to those of us in the room who are adults. We're not living in our parents'homes any longer.
How do we honor father and mother as those who are adults? Let's start with this. We honor our parents with our words. We honor our parents with our words, whether they are alive or not. We honor our parents with our words.
We don't gossip about our parents behind their backs, and we don't belittle them to their faces. I think parents are one of the most gossiped about groups that there are. In America, who do we gossip about? We gossip about our boss, we gossip about politicians, and we get together with our siblings and friends and we gossip about our parents. And we can never honor our parents and be gossiping about them.
We can never honor our parents and be belittling them. Now you might be saying, but my parents were deeply dysfunctional. Maybe even abusive. Are you telling me that I just have to pretend none of that ever happened? Are you telling me I have to pretend that's all okay?
That is not what I'm saying. I'm not suggesting to you that any wicked or evil things that were done to you or were done within your home, you now have to call right. What I am suggesting is that even though those things happen, you don't now need to gossip about your parents and share the very worst of who they were with those around you. And we don't belittle our parents.
We use respect as we speak to them. We edify them and show them respect with our words. Right now, there may be some of you who are in situations where your parents were deeply damaging to you in your life.
And today, you have spent some time setting boundaries with them so that they are no longer deeply damaging and have an opportunity to hurt you or those that you are around. And so this may not apply to you, but for most people in the room, while your parents were highly imperfect, you also recognize they did the best they could. as they were raising you. And so now a part of honoring them is giving them thanks.
Giving them thanks for what they have done, bringing you into the world, raising you up, and then speaking edifying words to them, as you would with anybody else around you. Words of encouragement, words that strengthen them. And so we honor parents with our words.
Second, We honor our parents through care. 1 Timothy 5.8 says, But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. One of the primary ways that we care for parents is when they enter into a season of life in which they need extra care, we provide it. That season of life, whatever that looks like, whenever it comes, when they need extra care. we as kids help to provide that.
And I see that happening from people in this church all the time. I think of the woman who is a part of our congregation that drives an hour to go and care for her mom twice a week, every week. I think of the guy who is a part of our congregation that drove six hours up in order to help his parents move from one facility to another, all of which he is paying for.
I think of a couple that invited the wife's mom into their home during the final months of her life. So that there could be a very personal care going on there. We honor our parents when they are in need of care and we supply that care in their life.
Again, you may very well have been raised in a home in which there wasn't a lot of care and there wasn't a lot of kindness. And this is an opportunity for us to show the difference that the gospel makes in a person's life. because the gospel is all about the Son of God showing a group of people care who didn't deserve that care. And we have an opportunity to now live out that gospel impact even if our parents weren't particular. particularly kind and caring towards us.
And so we're caring for them. That's how we honor them. Third, we honor our parents by treating our siblings well. When my kids were growing up in my home, and they were, I don't know, this high, they were fighting all the time.
And there was nothing more frustrating and discouraging to my dad's heart. than their disunity and fighting. Over the course of time, as they grew into their teenage years, a shift took place. And they began to care for each other, look for time to spend with each other.
They began to fight. for each other and to stand up for each other. They grew in unity and love for each other.
And I found this to be deeply encouraging and honoring to me as a parent. And so one of the ways, let's recognize that parents'hearts, they ebb and flow with the unity of their kids and the care that their kids have for each other. And so one way we can honor our parents is by the way we treat our siblings, by loving our siblings well no matter what age we're talking about here.
And fourth, and finally, how do we honor our parents? We honor our parents by listening to their stories. to them well.
One of the most honoring things that we can do with our parents is be quick to listen with them, to ask them questions and then just sit and listen as they tell us stories, stories from five years ago, stories from 50 years ago. We ask about their hobbies, their friends, and we just spend time listening to them. Listening shows honor to anyone that we listen to, particularly to our parents. our parents as we spend time interacting with them and listening well to them. We honor them in that.
Now, there might be other areas, but these cover a large way in which we honor our parents. Now, what if my parents were unhealthy and dysfunctional? Deeply dysfunctional, hurtful.
I mean, all of our parents were imperfect. Every one of us in here has imperfect parents, right? Let's all acknowledge that. But what if my parents were damagingly dysfunctional in my life?
deeply unhealthy. I want you to understand this morning that honoring your father and mother does not mean giving them whatever sort of relationship they want in your life. All right, do you understand that? Honoring your father...
Father and mother may mean setting up appropriate boundaries around the sin issues that they have in their life that are damaging themselves and others. As a matter of fact, to give them opportunity to damage you and hurt you more, to damage your family and hurt your family more, is not what is best for them. Do you get that? It's not what's best for them. And ultimately, what we are doing when we are honoring father and mother is not giving them whatever they want.
We are treating them with respect. and doing what is best for them. And so for those who have grown up in households that are abusive or deeply dysfunctional, honoring father and mother does not mean giving them whatever they want in a relationship. It means doing the things that are the very best for them. Now, every situation is different, and so I can't just apply this to everyone in a way that is overly effective.
But I will say, honoring father and mother, if you have come... out of a home that's deeply dysfunctional, damagingly dysfunctional, may mean sitting down with your parents and having very frank, very firm conversations about the sins that are damaging their life and have damaged your family dynamic. That is honoring father and mother. Honoring father and mother may be setting up very clear boundaries between them and the things going on in you and your family's life so that they understand that they're not alone.
these things that you're doing are damaging. Parent after parent has had things brought to their attention through the boundaries their kids have set up in order to say, wait, I do what? This affects people how? And so please don't understand honoring father and mother mean to give them whatever they want in relationship with you.
We're seeking their best. We're seeking what is good in this. Now what if your kid...
who's still in the home. We've been addressing adults, because most of us in the room are adults, but what if you're a kid between the ages of, I don't know, let's say birth and high school graduation, what does honoring father and mother look like? Well, it looks like all of those things that we just talked about, those four things we just talked about, and I would add to that, it means obeying your parents. In Ephesians chapter 6, Colossians chapter 3, Paul talks about this fifth commandment. And in both of those situations, he talks about obeying parents as the proper application of the fifth commandment to honor father and mother for those kids who are in the home.
Ephesians 6 is a great example here. Do I have it? Yes.
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. Paul is saying, the proper application of the fifth commandment, if you are a child who is in the home, right?
He uses a Greek word for child, technon here. That means a child that is being nurtured by their parents. If you are in that position, the proper application of the fifth commandment is to obey your parents. When they tell you something.
Go and do this, you respectfully do it. That is the proper application, to go and do, to be obedient to our parents. The call here, around the fifth commandment, is to honor father and mother.
What does that look like in your wife? What does that look like for you this week? Maybe you're a kid still in your parents'home. What does obedience look like this week?
Respectful, immediate obedience. What is that going to look like in your life this week? Maybe you have adult or elderly parents. What does honoring them look like?
Maybe your parents have been gone from this. world for a while. What does honoring them look like this week?
How can we respect and do what is right by our parents over the course of this week? Take a minute and just think about that. Now, the rest of the time that we're going to spend talking about the Fifth Commandment, I would like to address parents.
We've talked about our role as kids. Now, I would like to address parents, and this will apply to anyone who's ever going to be a parent. It might even have some application to grandparents as you walk through this. And you may say, why are we going to talk to parents at this point?
Isn't the command for kids to obey parents? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.
But we're going to talk to parents at this point because it seems obvious to me that the parents were the ones who were to train their kids in submission and obedience to parents. The commandment is given here. And then immediately afterwards in Deuteronomy chapter 6, what do we read? We read that kids are the commandment educator.
I'm sorry, parents are the commandment educators of their kids. Isn't that what Deuteronomy 6 is about? We read the second giving of the 10 commandments in Deuteronomy. chapter 5. And then in the very next chapter, Deuteronomy chapter 6, we read that parents, night and day, are to be educating their kids in these commandments. And so it was the parents'responsibility in order to educate their kids and train them in honor, submission, and obedience to parents.
And this is... A first line issue. Obedience to parents is of the utmost importance, you guys. Absolute utmost importance. We are training our kids to obey.
We live in a world where obedience to parents is optional. Not even considered to be particularly important. There are other qualities that are exalted among kids in our society today.
How cute are they? How good do they look on Instagram? How funny and precocious are they? How smart are they?
You wouldn't believe my kid, my grandkid. They're a genius! But ultimately, God's great priority is that parents would be devoted to helping their kids grow in obedience.
When their parent tells them to do something, they do it. That's God's great priority. priority in this. When their parent tells them to do something, they do it.
And this is of fundamental importance because submission and obedience to parents is forming a child's heart. It is formative for a child's heart. Every child is born with a strong sense of self on the throne in their life.
Every child is born with a primary concern for me and my way and living with themselves at the center of their own universe. We call it the terrible twos. But it's really just the first time a child is able to express what is genuinely within them.
A strong sense of me first. Now in order for them to understand what life is all about, they have to move from a sense of me first, I'm on the throne of my life, pride, to I am humbly bowed before my maker, humility. Where does a child live?
that they're not the center of the universe? Where does a child learn that life isn't primarily about them and their way? It's in the obedience to their parents. Obedience, submission, and honor of parents is forming their heart in a way that is making it more likely that later on they will be submitted and obedient to the living God. Every child...
is exercising their heart in one of two directions. Their heart is either being exercised in my way, I'm the center, pride, or their heart is being exercised in humble, submissive obedience. And when a kid's primary exercising of their heart is towards prideful, I'm the center, I get my way, it makes it far less likely that later on in life they will bow down to God.
the knee to Jesus Christ. When a child grows up with humble, submissive, obedient hearts to parents, it is exercising their heart in the direction that will ultimately help lead to humble, submissive obedience to Jesus Christ. That is why there is this promise as a part of the fifth commandment, right?
Honor your father and mother that your days may be long and in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Why does God connect honoring and obedience to parents with living long in the promised land that he is giving them? Well, the answer is because ultimately, as he says multiple times, living long and living well in the land was connected to their submission and obedience to God. Right after the giving of the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy chapter 1, 5, God says this, you shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.
What is God saying here? He's saying living long in the land, in the promised land that I'm sending you to is directly connected to whether or not you honor me, submit to me, and are obedient to me. That is what God is saying. But do you recognize in the fifth commandment that God is saying the key to someone growing up to honor God, submit to him, and be humble before him is that they have learned to do it with their parents in the first place. They are molding their hearts towards humility, submission, and obedience.
And so he says, those who learn to do this with parents will live long in the land because what? They'll be submissive and obedient to me. That is why there is this beautiful promise.
Those who learn submission and obedience to parents are far more likely to be submissive and obey God. And that is what living long in the land is all about here. And so there is nothing more important for us than to help our kids to understand you are not the center of the universe.
God is the center of the universe. of the universe. And the appropriate position in life is not prideful exaltation of self to the throne, it is humbly bowing on your knees before God.
And so we are to be training them constantly their hearts towards submission and obedience. Towards God, yes, but it starts with submission and obedience to parents before they even begin to understand the concepts of who who God is. That's great. But how?
How do I do that? It's great that you're telling me I need to train my kids, I need to train my grandkids in submissive obedience to their parents. How do we go about that? Let me give you a few things that I think can be very helpful here. in terms of how we train our kids towards that kind of submissive obedience.
The first one is this. When you're raising them in your home, have a few principles instead of a lot of rules. Right? When you're raising them in your home, have a few principles instead of a lot of rules. Right?
Kids who grow up with hundreds of rules in the home tend to become exasperated. Instead, we want to have a few biblically grounded principles that apply in every situation of life. This is probably easier to understand with an illustration.
Let me say that my kids are young, and we have someone over to our house for dinner. And we all go, the food's on the table, we all go to sit down at the table, and before everyone has even gotten to their chair, there's my son. Food all shoveled onto his plate.
Spoon in his mouth. The guests haven't even sat down yet, and I say to him, Isaiah, we wait for the guest to be served first, right? Then we serve ourselves. What is the reason for that? is the reason for that because we have a lot of rules about how we conduct ourselves at the dinner table.
Right? There's a rule about not being seated until everyone else is seated, and there's a rule about not taking food until others are served first. There's the rule about using the outside fork for salad, I think, and there's a rule about where the cup goes. Like, do we just have 25 rules for the dinner table?
And this is one of those rules. Or... Is there a larger principle here that the Bible teaches us about love being about putting others first?
And since we treat others as better than ourselves and put others first, that... gets applied here at the dinner table as it gets applied to every area of life. It's a big principle, but it applies in a lot of different areas. Kids who grow up with 25 rules at the dinner table, 12 rules for car trips, 26 rules for how we go to church, right, 32 rules for what bedtime looks like, ultimately they get overwhelmed with the rules.
And what happens to a kid who grows up in a household that is just filled with dozens and dozens of rules? They go in one of two directions. Direction number one, they find out they are very good at keeping the rule. and they become, through that rule keeping, a people-pleasing hero of the family and a budding legalist.
Or they find out, I'm not that good at keeping the rules. particularly when compared to my sibling over here, and they rebel. Because attention is attention, and I'm going to get it one way or another.
And so we see these two things going on in homes that are filled with rules, people who are becoming budding, people-pleasing legalists, and people who ultimately rebel because they can't keep the rules, and particularly not as well as their sibling. Neither of these are particularly healthy positions. And so...
Rather than a home filled with rules, we want to have homes that are filled with a few guiding biblical principles that get applied to every area of our lives. Now, related to those principles is point number two. We always want to point to Jesus with the why.
Our kids, as we tell them, you're not to do this, you are to do this, are going to say, why? Even if they don't say it all. loud in their mind, they're going to say, why? And it is extremely healthy for us to communicate with them the why that is behind these things that we are saying. Anybody in here ever had a kid that went through a why phase in life?
Everything you said was why, why, why, why? Why? There are times... Right? When maybe we have to stop answering why.
But for the most part, it is extremely healthy for us to explain to our kids why we are asking them to do the things we're asking them to do. And to always point back to Jesus with the... why.
Isaiah, I don't want you eating all of that food before the guests have even been served. Why? Because ultimately, Jesus teaches us that we're to put others first. Because ultimately, that's what he did on the cross. Because ultimately, this is the very center of the gospel that we live out in our lives.
Now, there are other directions that I could go. When we explain the why... We could go the old-fashioned route. What's the old-fashioned route?
Because I said so. That's right. We could go the route of tradition.
What's the traditional route? Hey, that's not polite. We could go the route of people-pleasing.
Hey, don't eat before the guests because they'll think you're rude. See how I'm enforcing different motivations in him with any of those things that I come to? And ultimately, when my kids reach the teenage years, If all I have given to them is because I said so, or because people will think you're rude, or because that is what is polite in our society, they will not continue in submissive obedience.
Those are not strong enough bonds to continue a teenager in submissive obedience. The only way that a teenager continues in submissive obedience is if they have learned that a heart submitted to Christ lives these things out because these are Jesus'foundations for living is the only thing strong enough to keep a teenager down the path of submission and obedience. We got to point to Jesus with the why with those few principles that we are enacting with them.
Third, reward obedience. When our kids are obedient to us, when they are respectfully obedient, reward it, reward it like crazy. You might say, well, wait a minute, shouldn't my kids just do what is right because it is right? Yes, your kids should do what is right because it is right. But can we also recognize that God, as our Father, expects us to do what is right because it is right, expects us to do what is right because we love Him, and also...
says, I will greatly reward you for your faithful obedience to me. God doesn't say, for example, you guys should be generous with what I've given to you because that is what is right. I mean, he does say that.
But that's not all he says. He also says, when you're generous with what I've given to you, you will store up treasures in heaven. And again and again, God is saying, I want you to do what is right because you love me. I want you to do what is right because it is right.
And also, by the way, I am going to graciously reward you for your obedience. He doesn't have to. He's not bound to. That's why I said he will graciously reward us for our obedience.
and you better believe when my daughter was young if I told her to go and clean her room when I knew what she really wanted to do was go out and play on the trampoline that our neighbors had with the three girls that were jumping out on the trampoline and she went and cleaned her room we were going to Dairy Queen right we were sharing a blizzard so that I could tell her how proud I was of the choice that she had made to be obedient when I know what she really wanted was to be out there on the trampoline. So by all means, follow the path of our Heavenly Father and reward obedience. No, you're not bound to, but we can graciously do it as our Father graciously does it. Fourth, I know this is the one you're excited about. Discipline disobedience.
Right? Discipline disobedience. God is our model in this. As our Father, He says that He disciplines His children who are disobedient, who walk off of the path of what is good and what is right.
Hebrews 12 is one of the passages. that talks about this. Verses 5 and 6 say, And if you've forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons, my son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him, for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and changes his ways.
chastises every son whom he receives. And now for the sake of time, if we just jump to verse 11, for the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. God says, as your father, I discipline you. When you get off the path, I discipline you. And the purpose of that discipline is to bring you back to the path because I love you, because I am your loving...
Heavenly Father. And do we think then, as loving parents, that we can get away with anything different than what God does? Absolutely not. He shows us the path here of our parenting.
And that is godly discipline. Now as we read through Hebrews chapter 12, what are some keys to godly discipline that we see here? Well one, is that godly discipline is motivated by love.
Did you notice in Hebrews chapter 12? The purpose of the discipline? The purpose of the discipline is so that you will experience, as my child, what is best.
You'll get off of the path of destruction and return to the path of life. Godly discipline is about our love for our kids and our desire to see what is best for them. That's what our godly discipline is about. What other reasons might we discipline? How about sheer anger?
Anger. Sheer anger. How about frustration?
I can't take that noise anymore. Go to your room. These are never the reasons for proper discipline.
The reason for proper discipline is always with a motivation towards their best and what is good for them. This, by the way, means I think that any time we discipline our kids, there should be explanation. My dad was so good at this. He would walk into my room, and I'm of an age that when he walked into my room for discipline, there was a wooden spoon in his hand. And he would sit down on my bed with me, and he would walk me through, do you know why you're here?
Do you know what you did that was wrong? And we would have clarity about what I had done that was wrong. then he would walk me through, do you understand why in my love for you I can't allow that to go on?
Right? Do you understand how I need to discipline you so that you will correct that and go back to the things that are best for you? for you, right? And so there was this discussion that would take place before there was ever any discipline in order for clarity of communication to express the love that is involved in that discipline, right?
That's essential if we're going to discipline like God disciplines. Second, godly discipline is painful. Verse 11 says, no discipline is pleasant at the time, but painful. I didn't make this up. That's exactly what it says.
says, it's painful. Later on, it produces a what? A harvest of righteousness.
But the implication here is nobody is excited about the discipline at the time. As I look back at my parents'discipline in my life, I will tell you that there is probably nothing I appreciate more than the loving discipline that they enacted in my life. Because now that I've been a parent, I know how hard that is. I know how much discipline that takes. I know how much discipline that takes.
know how painful it is to discipline your child. And I recognize that what my parents did in my life was a deep act of love for me. But did I recognize that at the time?
Right? No, I was just like, no, I don't want this. But now looking back, I can recognize the depths of love that were shown in the midst of that discipline. Godly discipline is painful.
The point of discipline is to move someone from the path that they shouldn't be on back to the path that they should be on. And pain is a part of that disciplinary procedure in order to get them there. When I was a kid, sending me to my room was painful.
I wanted to be in the midst of all that was going on. And to go to my room took me out of play with all that was going on. My sister, on the other hand, loved to go to her room and be by herself. She would, on her own, just go to her room for hours on end and play with her stuff. my parents had to find a different way to discipline her because that was not paying for her to send her to her room for four hours was pure pleasure right so we need to recognize who our kids are and discipline them in ways that are meaningful Finally, and this is so very important, godly discipline is for sin.
Godly discipline is for sin. Our priorities are to be God's priorities, and God's priorities are what are right and what's wrong. It's righteousness and sin. And we are to align ourselves with the priorities of God and discipline our children in the areas of sin.
Kids should not be disciplined. because they're being hyperactive. Kids shouldn't be disciplined because they're being too loud.
Kids shouldn't be disciplined because they're spazzing out and acting like kids. That's just being kids. Kids should be disciplined for sin, for things that God defines as wrong.
And that is important for us, right? If Jesus is going to be the center of obedience, he's going to have to be the center of the discipline around that obedience, which means his priorities are our priorities in what we are disciplining. And so we discipline sin.
Now listen to me. I would suggest to you that as parents we be slow to telling our kids to quiet down, to settle down. Because the moment I tell my kid, quiet down or settle down, it has now become a matter of obedience and sin if they don't. And so I don't want to say, quiet down, settle down.
settle down, sit down to my kids unless I absolutely mean it. Because as a parent, it is incredibly unhealthy for me to say, settle down, and then two minutes later, settle down, and then two minutes later, settle down. What am I teaching them? I'm teaching them that dad sets the rules and you can go ahead and break them all you want because there are no consequences for that. I need to say, settle down.
and give some definition around what that means. And then if they walk over the line, that's sin. Them being exuberant is not sin.
But the moment I put a command in place, now sin becomes a part of the challenge and the issue. And so personally, I want to be slow. I want to give my kids lots of room to be kids before I make it an issue of obedience in their life. With settle down, sit down, be quiet, whatever that is.
Godly. discipline is for sin? How do we encourage a life of obedience in our kids?
Through disciplining disobedience. Godly discipline is motivated by love. Godly discipline is painful. Godly discipline is for sin.
What are the things that we do to encourage a life of submission, honor, and obedience in our kids? Here are the four things we've seen this morning. Have a few principles, not a lot of rules. Point to Jesus with the why of those principles. Third, reward obedience.
And fourth, discipline disobedience. Ultimately, our kids'submissive and obedient hearts to parents is paramount. Because they're not. they are exercising muscles that will be important when it comes to submitting and obeying the Lord.
It's of first importance. Now before we go to the Lord's table today, I want to point out something about all of us. We are all disobedient to our Creator.
All of us are disobedient. And yet, God sent His perfectly obedient Son. Can we recognize that the king of this kingdom is the ultimately obedient child? That Jesus says in the Gospel of John, I say nothing except what I hear.
from the Father. That Jesus also says, I do nothing unless it is commanded by the Father. The King of our kingdom is the ultimately and perfectly obedient child. Obedient to the point of death on the cross, the Bible says, where he was a substitute for all of us disobedient children. so that we could enter into the family of God and call Abba Father.
Call God Dad in all of this. Why? Because I've been good enough to get there? Nope. Because the perfect and ultimately obedient child was a substitute in my place so that I can now have the freedom of being a part of God's family.
That's what we celebrate every day. Every time we go to the table, every time we go to the table, we celebrate this perfectly obedient son of God who gave his life so that we might be able to call God Father. I'd love to just take a moment right now and have you bow your heads and give God thanks for that truth and that reality.
Acknowledge your own disobedience. Confess it before the Lord. Recognize that while you are more hopelessly broken than you'll ever be willing to admit, that you are at the same time in the person of Jesus Christ, more loved than you will ever imagine? Would you celebrate him taking your place?
You being credited with the righteousness of Jesus. I'm going to invite the worship team to come out at this time and we're going to continue to praise God in song and as we do I want to invite you to make your way to the tables in the four corners of the room where you can get the bread. and the cup and bring it back to your seat. And then we'll lead you in the taking of those elements in just a few minutes. Let's continue to praise Jesus through song, praise Jesus through the taking of his great table.