EPHESIANS 6:1-4
A young single preacher took his first part-time church while he was going to seminary. He preached a message one Sunday called, “10 Facts On How To Raise Perfect Children.” A few years later, he got married and they had their first child. He pulled out the old sermon to preach it again, but decided to retitle it, “10 Suggestions on How to Raise Healthy Children.” After the second child was born a couple of years later, it was time to preach it again. This time he titled it, “10 Possibilities for Parenting Children.” Well, the third child came. This time he revised the whole thing and called it “10 Prayers for Parents.” Several years later when they became teen-agers, he burned the message and wrote a new one simply titled, “Help Me Jesus.” By no stretch of the imagination is parenting an easy job. While parenting can be one of the biggest blessings God gives us, it can also be one of the most frustrating. When parents leave the hospital with their newborn babies, they aren’t given an instruction manual. At least we aren’t given one by the hospital. But God’s Word gives very specific instructions on how to raise our children the right way. That is what we’re looking at this morning. We’re looking at this very familiar passage that we love to pull out on our kids every time they mess up. But they aren’t the only ones this passage speaks to. Be careful mom’s and dad’s when you start to poke them with that elbow. Because this passage pokes an elbow in all our ribs. In it, Paul continues with the subject of submission that he started back in verse 21. Except here he does it in the context of the parent / child relationship. Some of you might think this message doesn’t apply to you. But, guess what? You’re wrong. Everyone here is either a parent or a child. All of us are in different stages of our lives, but so were the Ephesian Christians Paul was writing to. Remember that his teaching on parents and children is in the bigger context of verse 21 that we looked at a couple of weeks ago. All Christians should be filled with the Spirit. And in order to be filled with the Spirit, we must submit to one another. The first picture of submitting to one another he gave us was the marriage relationship. This morning we’re looking at the second picture—the parent/child relationship. The next time you find yourself complaining about the way kids act today, I want you to ask yourself a question—is that the way I act in the church? Do I act spoiled rotten and selfish? Do I throw a tantrum when things don’t go how I think they should? See, even though these verses talk specifically about parents and children, in reality they talk to each of us. We’re going to be looking at the two requirements for having a Spirit-filled home. Whether it’s the family that lives under the roof of your
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