When to Cancel Your Parents

Well, howdy, Spotify. Thank you for tuning in to Pastor Mark's sermon this week. I wanted to tell you real quick, we'll get you to the sermon in just a second, what real faith is. Real faith exists for one reason, to get bold, practical Bible truth to as many people as possible. Pastor Mark and his family launched Real Faith to help people grow strong in faith and live out God's truth in real life. What started as a simple online library of sermons and daily devotionals has grown into a global Bible teaching movement. By God's grace, real faith content has reached over 800 million people and generated over 2.8 billion impressions and impacted over 150 countries. All that to say, we are trying to reach the nations with Bible teaching, and you're one of the people that are helping us do that. And when you share, like, subscribe, whatever it is here on Spotify, it is a huge blessing to us. And we want to give something back to you guys. If you're enjoying this sermon, we create a resource every week called Daily Devos. They happen every single day of the week, Monday through Friday. And we send them right to your phone right in the morning so you can start your day off with Jesus from a word from Pastor Mark. So if you text DEVO to 99383, that's DEVO to 99383. We will send you a short, practical, Bible-oriented daily devotional every single morning. And if these sermons and teachings bless you, we invite you to partner with Real Faith. You can do that by sharing this content, praying with us, or you can give financially. We couldn't do what we do here at Real Faith without financial partners because we are a nonprofit and we are donor-supported. So if you text PARTNER to 99383, that's PARTNER to 99383. you could join with us and help get Bible teaching out to 150 nations, hopefully more whenever you get the internet there. So with that, guys, it's sermon time. Oh, my God. All right, we're going to have a great time today. I'm excited. Welcome to church. I hope you guys are ready to get to work. Amen? It's going to be a good time. So we are studying the book of Exodus this year. We're starting with the Ten Commandments in Exodus chapter 20. And today we hit one of my favorites I've been particularly looking forward to. It's about family. So let me just set this up. If I don't know you, my wife Grace and I, We had our first date, March 12th, 1988. So we've been together a while. We've got five kids. We've got six grandkids, five in the world, one in the womb, four boys, two girls, and we've got a wonderful family that is one of the great joys of my entire life. And so far today, I've already seen two of my grandkids. I've seen all of them this week. This morning, I started with my granddaughter. She came over with my daughter-in-law and I was trying to prep a sermon and she wanted to play. So pray for me. The sermon is not quite finished. When I have to choose between a granddaughter and a sermon, it's the granddaughter who wins every time. And we had fun playing together. She has this ministry of helping me finish my breakfast and I'll let you in on a little secret. She found this little bag that has like fake lipstick and rouge and a little mirror that Nana got her. And so this morning she came over, she's like, bop, she calls me bop. And so she tried to put lipstick on me and rouge and tried to make me pretty. I was on the horns of a horrific dilemma that is loving my granddaughter and destroying my entire brand. And so I won't tell you what happened, but that's my morning. And so, So here's where we find ourselves today. I'm a grandpa. I love my kids and my grandkids. I love my son-in-law, my daughter-in-laws. And what we're dealing with today in the 10 commandments is God literally writing on tablets of stone with his own finger, his foundational law about family. And so when it comes to family, it can't be more important than what this statement has to say as the foundational framework for family. So we're dealing with commandment number five. You're all probably familiar with it. Exodus chapter 20, verse 12, honor your father and mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. So here's where we find ourselves. God's people had been enslaved in Egypt for about 400 years, and they're a nation of a few million. God delivered and liberated them. They're now in the wilderness and they're headed to the promised land, the nation of Israel. So God calls a meeting with his people surrounding Mount Sinai, and he gives them the Ten Commandments. These are his decrees, his laws to establish a new nation. And so you need to know this. For there to be any sort of civil order or civilization, there needs to be the establishing and the enforcing of laws. Amen? Somebody send that word to Portland, to Minneapolis, to Seattle. There needs to be laws that are enforced. So God gives them laws knowing that they're going to form a nation. And that being said, the first four laws are in relation to God. There's only one God. You only worship that God. You don't take that God's name in vain. And six days you work hard under that God. And one day you rest to worship that God. So the first four of the 10 commandments are about relationship with God. the next six are about relationship with each other. And the first of those commandments are in regards to family, because family is the foundation of society and civilization. They're going to found a nation. You can't have a nation if you don't understand family. Family is the social institution that is the cornerstone for everything else. And if you don't understand family, eventually you won't have a nation or a civilization. Jesus understood this when they came to him and they asked him, of all the commandments, what is the most important? And in the laws of Moses, of which the book of Exodus is a part, there were 613 laws. And Jesus said, love God, love neighbor. He was actually summarizing all of the law and the 10 commandments. The first four, love God. The next six, love neighbor. So we're gonna talk about family. We're gonna talk about marriage and family and sex and gender and children and grandchildren. And you need to know that the state knows nothing about marriage and family. You need to know that unbelievers know very little next to nothing about marriage and family. Marriage is God's idea. Gender is God's creation. Sex is God's gift to marriage, and it is for the procreation and the population and the extension of family. And we're God's people, so we want to hear God's word, and we want to live under God's blessing. And we want our family to be included in that. So I'll start with five observations from the fifth commandment. Number one, the Bible is the only perfect guide for marriage, sex, parenting, and family. Every academic trend that undermines the Bible is doomed to fail and from the father of lies. Some of you, because you respect different social disciplines, and I do, I like sociology. I like the social sciences. I subscribe to a lot of journals. I find general revelation to occasionally be helpful. But any trend that defies the word of God, it is doomed to fail. We've seen that even in recent years. Oh, there's an infinite number of genders. No, there's not. Children that have confused genders should be seized from their parents and mutilated. No, they should not. Now what we're seeing is entire pediatric groups and also groups of doctors saying, well, now we should wait until 19 because maybe they have mental health. Yes, now you're catching up with the Bible. Keep going. Number two, marriage is only between one man and one woman. Any changes to this are immoral. I don't care what the government says because the government is usually stupid. It just is, it just is, okay? the government didn't create marriage, God did. It starts in the word of God with one man and one woman. The government can think whatever it wants. Above the government is God. We're the church, we're not the world. We're the church, we're not the government. We belong to God, God is over the government. I don't care what the government defines marriage as, we believe God, we obey the word of God, and God doesn't change his mind. and if the government does, we don't change our mind. We continue to agree with God. Number three, sex is only for marriage. If you're single, write that down. If you're here with your girlfriend, have her write that down. Sex is only for marriage. All sex outside of heterosexual marriage is sinful and destructive. Every sociological data point proves this is incontrovertible fact. Number four, the best environment to raise a child in is the home of a married mother and father. This is statistically incontrovertible. The fifth commandment establishes this. Honor your mother and father. This is no denigration to single parents, but even a single parent would tell you it's really hard, and it would have been easier if both of them would have stayed together obeying God and living in the spirit. The best environment to raise a child is in the home of a married mother and father. Any government that undermines or encroaches on parental rights has declared war on God by violating his fifth commandment. The Bible doesn't say that ultimately the government has authority over mother and father. It says that God delegates authority to mother and father, and then they exercise authority over the child or children. Any government who tries to usurp parental authority is defying God and is desecrating the fifth commandment. We saw this during COVID where they wanted to, you know, inject your children. They wanted to subject your children. And the answer is no. Children are given to parents. They're not given to governments. And as the church of Jesus Christ, leadership needs to draw a very clear line and stand with the parent against the government because ultimately God stands with the parent and stands against the government when the government seeks to encroach on the rights given to the parents by God in the fifth commandment. Number six, and this is critical. Family is the foundational unit for all other institutions like church and state. If there's no family, there's no church, and if there's no family, there is no state. Family blesses women and children. It puts them in a loving, secure covenants environment. It gives men responsibility before God to protect and provide, and it secures generational wealth. The undermining of the family leads to the expansion of the government, followed by the collapse of the nation. Let me explain this. This will be very controversial and very helpful. And if you're a young progressive woman, hear me. I love you. I have two daughters in their 20s. You've been brainwashed. Let me explain this to you. I was researching this week. There is an entire field of study It is fringe now approaching mainstream It is called family abolitionism Family abolitionism it takes queer studies It takes feminist studies It takes social justice and Marxism. And it combines them together into an overarching ideology that has one shared agenda, the abolition of the nuclear family. This is a demonic attack on the fifth commandment. it ultimately finds its strongest argument in the works of men like Karl Marx. Karl Marx is the father who works for the father of lies, and he promulgates communism and socialism, the difference of which is simply marketing. And the result is that Marxism, it seeks to eradicate any sort of hierarchy or sort of order of power like honor your mother and father. And also any sort of distribution of wealth that is not completely equal. and so if you go back and you look at this it starts all the way back in the communist manifesto and Karl Marx is asked do you believe that we should deconstruct that we should eradicate the nuclear family a father a mother and a child or children and in the communist manifesto you could read it for yourself. He says yes. Now, following in the, and let me say this about Marx. While he was writing his first book on economic theory, his child, I believe it was a daughter, starved to death because he refused to work a job. He's a father who would rather let his daughter starve to death than work a job. How many guys at Real Men would want to have 15 minutes behind closed doors with no witnesses with that guy? So lay hands on him for prayer, of course. so then there is a man named Frederick Ingalls he is a contemporary of Karl Marx he wrote a book called The Origin of the Family and Private Property and the State and it is considered the foundational text for Marxist theory and the abolition of private property and he makes this case, and it is brilliantly wicked. Brilliantly wicked. Here's the thesis. What motivates a man is a family. A man is motivated to get married and have kids. And once a man has a wife and she has his kids, he will move heaven and earth to provide for them and to protect them. Is that true, men? If you're a functioning, decent man, especially if you're a Christian man with the Holy Spirit, that absolutely resonates at the soul level. That's my wife. Those are my kids. It is my responsibility and my privilege to be the protector and provider. That's my family. Those men will get up and they will move heaven and earth to feed that family, to provide for that family, to protect that family. They will work until they nearly die to come home and see that family. when they see the face of their wife welcoming them, when they see their children running to them, when they see that their family is safe and that they are fed and blessed and that their wife and children are glad to see them because they are a blessing to their family, that man will move heaven and earth, that man will bleed and die, that man will go into combat and run into harm's way for that woman and those children. And that man will generate wealth and he will secure property and land so that he can give it to those children. So that then when they have children, his grandchildren, he can bless for generations, because he has the heart of God, the father heart of God. So the Marxist documents say, including Frederick Engels, if we get rid of private property rights and ownership, we will eliminate and eradicate the motivation for men to get married. And it's true. see later in the 10 commandments you're going to hear a commandment called thou shalt not steal which is the establishment by our god a private property ownership it means the government doesn't own everything you do you got your house and you got your wealth and you got your portfolio and you got your investments and you got your possessions and and because you own it, you have heirs, you can give it to them. Because our God says in Proverbs, a wise man leaves an inheritance for his children's children. Let me say this, it's really hard to get wealth two generations from you because the government keeps trying to take it. Now they will call it taxes and Proverbs would call it stealing. So would the commandments. So the communists have decided There is a point to all of this. Stick with me. If you eradicate private property ownership, if a man can't own anything, guess what? He has no motivation to work. Why work for something if you don't own it? If the government owns it and you don't own it, why work for it? Men, does that make sense to you? 100%. And if you don't own it, why get married? Because if you don't own anything, why have any heirs? Make sense? Why would I work my whole life if I can't own anything? And why would I get married and have kids if I can't give them anything? So the Marxists decided, let's try to eradicate private property ownership. That'll disincentivize men from marrying. and that'll cause the collapse of the nuclear family because men are inherently oppressive. And if a father is the head of a family, then he is by nature abusive and oppressive to women and children. So let's liberate women and children from men and put them under governments where they are free. okay now women you believe this not you women i'm talking to those who are watching online both of them who are still tuning in this is where i explain the cult of feminism them. What has happened is young men have sensed this and they have rebelled because it's indoctrination from the father of lies. So we now have the most conservative generation of young men in 50 years. Okay, we do. So, and this actually isn't in my notes. I'm just thinking about it. So bear with me. I'm working it out. So young men are saying, forget that. I'm not going to college. Those people are crazy. I'm going to go get a trade. Okay. And I'm not going to the debt to pay the government for some school loan. And I'm going to get married to a girl. And then we're going to have a lot of kids. And I'm going to go buy a house. And we're going to have a family. So then the Marxists decide, well, we can't get the men. will go get the women because they're more easily deceived. We got Eve, we'll go get all of her daughters. We'll take them into college, we'll get them all brainwashed. We'll tell them that fathers are evil, husbands are oppressive, marriage is a very abusive relationship. We'll encourage them to murder their children. will tell them to maybe mutilate their own bodies, will tell them to never marry, and will tell them that the only institution they can trust is the government and that the government will house them and the government will educate them and the government will feed them and that if they vote for progressives, then the government will mother them from womb to tomb. And then what happens is, the men aren't motivated to work enough, and so there's not enough money. So then the women have to go to work. There's not enough money, so then we go into debt. And then there's not enough people being born. And so then we're headed toward an economic crisis because in the future we don't have population growth. And then we've got about 40 years until it falls off a cliff, and so then we open our borders and we say, everybody please come in but a lot of those people don't want to work and some of them want to do crimes and they want to be a drain on the system and the men decide we don't want to be paying for all this we just wanted to have our money so that we could take care of our family and it's called America. I'm not running for office just thinking aloud. Does this make sense? Ladies, you don't need to believe in men. You just need to have a husband that loves Jesus and loves you. That's all. Just one guy. Just one guy. And men, you don't need to trust women. You just need to find one girl who's not crazy. She could be crazy adjacent, you know. And marry her and love Jesus and have a family. and go to work every day and honor the Lord and obey the other commandment where six days you work hard and one day you rest well and you don't steal from other people. You work to provide for your own family. Do you see where all the commandments work together and then the whole civilization flourishes? You provide for your family and then guess what? Then you raise children and you raise them to what? Honor their mother and father. You think I'm making this up. Man, I'm not even into my notes yet. But see, what happens is what we do, we look at the Bible and we're like, oh, that's for personal application. Actually, this is for national application. The 10 commandments are given to a bunch of people and he says, when you enter the land, that means when you go get a country and you become a nation. This is political. Let me tell you this, the establishing of the nation of Israel is not just personal, It's highly political and national. And those who are like, well, I just have God in my heart. Well, we need God in everything. Okay? I'll give you a quote. You can throw it in your mouth, and then I'll move forward. So where does this family abolitionism find its manifestation? A few years ago, there was a group called Black Lives Matter that kind of hit the, I told you you're going to throw it in your mouth. It hit the mainstream. Right It was schools were promoting it NFL sports teams It was everywhere Here was their original mission statement It been removed since What we believe, and here's what it says, we disrupt the Western prescribed what? Nuclear family. You know what that is? A mom and a dad and kids. You know what that is? The fifth commandment. Prescribed. You know where it's prescribed? in the Bible. Do you know who prescribed it? Our God. Tell me this isn't spiritual warfare. We disrupt the Western prescribed nuclear family structure requirements by supporting each other as extended families in villages that collectively care for one another. I don't even know what that means. So here's a summary. BLM co-founder Patrice Colliers, who was teaching in Arizona, two of the three founding members, by the way, are connected to Arizona, publicly identified herself and co-founder Alicia Garza's trained Marxist in a 2015 interview, as well as queer. One Counterpunch magazine commentator writing in support of BLM's position made the revolutionary aspiration explicit in an article July 29, 2020, titled Black Lives Matter and the Nuclear Family, the traditional family would crumble into multitudes of communal, gender-fluid, multiracial, cooperative coalitions built on dynamic definitions and institutions of love. That means bankruptcy and the end of Western civilization, if you want a brief summary. And he predicted there would no longer be a need for a, quote, tyrant protector. That's their definition of a father. To all you tyrant protectors, God bless you. Thank you for doing your job. Let me say this. If we don't have those tyrant protectors, we end up with governments that don't obey the fifth commandment. And then we end up with children who are from womb to tomb being raised by governments. I'm way off my notes, but let me just say this. We're seeing this in New York right now. government childcare, government food, government transportation, government education, and the eradication of fathers and mothers having to work all day so that it is not honor your mother and father, it is honor your Marxist government. You see it? Okay. So now to begin my sermon. We're back to the fifth commandment. Honor your father and mother that you can live a good life. So God wants good for you. So let me shift now. And again, I didn't mean to get into all of that, but let me say this. These are such important concepts. We're going back 3,400 years in history and we're reading something that God gave as one of the 10 foundational principles for the only nation that he has founded in the history of the earth. and it is so important that he wrote it on tablets of stone with his own finger. And then other people are like, I disagree. First of all, you're not right. And second of all, you can't be blessed unless you obey the God who says these things. And I want to be blessed and I want you to be blessed. So when it comes to the fifth commandment, one way we really hurt ourselves and our future and our families, we just disregard, disobey, and defy it. That's what's happening in culture. Let me shift now. Another way that we hurt ourselves in the church, we abuse God's word and religious people misquote it. Okay? So the culture hates God's word and religious people weaponize it. Okay? So what is the difference between honoring and obeying your parents? So let me say this. Religious people will use the fifth commandment when you're 62 years old. They'll go, you know what? You need to obey your parents. You're like, mom, I'm in a walker. I think at this point I get to make my own decisions. You know, okay. Without raising your hand, how many of you have got a religious mom or grandma that still quotes this verse? Somebody just raised their hand. I didn't ask for that. Okay. So there are three different things the Bible says about relationship with your parents. I'll share them with you. Ephesians 6, 1, children, what? Obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. The word there means little kid, little kid, not grown adult. So when the kids are little, they live under your roof. You're their mother and father. They need to obey you, okay? I'll show it to you here. This is from the Leave and Cleave series that I did. 21, what do I call it? Then fix your family system. So God is the highest authority, mother and father, and then child. So in the family system of the Bible, God is the highest authority. It's not the dad. The dad is under God's authority. So it's singular headship, father is the head, plural leadership, mom and dad are the leaders. They're over the child. That's a young child. So when the fifth commandment says, you know, honor, when Ephesians 6.1 says, obey your mother and father, that's what God says. You see that? Okay, next scripture, Genesis 2.24. This is for adult children. A man shall leave his father and mother, hold fast to his wife, the two become one flesh. So you grow up, you become an adult, and here's what happens. You leave your mother and father. So she has her family, he has his family, they form a new family, okay? So when you're a child, one circle, you, your mom, your dad, your siblings. You get married, the husband doesn't join the wife's family, the wife doesn't join the husband's family, the husband and wife, they leave their mother and father and wife. They start their own family, their new family. So their extended family no longer gets to tell their new family what to do. can I get an amen? Okay, I get grief online for this, but if you want to have a relationship with your adult children, you cannot control them. You have to earn their respect. They need to invite you in, and if you're always bossing them around, eventually they're going to move. and that's how we got Arizona. You're all here from somewhere else, okay? So when you're little, you obey your mother and father. When you grow up, you leave your mother and father and you start a new family and then back to the fifth commandment, Exodus 20, 12, honor your father and mother. This applies whether you're a little child or you're a grown adult. When you're little, you'll honor your mother and father. When you're an adult, do you obey your mother and father? No. Okay, now, your mother and father should conduct themselves in a way that you should consider their opinion if you invite it. That is a very important detail. but you don't have to obey them, but you should honor them, which means when you disagree, disagree respectfully. It means when you have a problem with them, don't talk about them. Talk to them. Mom, dad, look, we got to talk about this. This is a problem. It means sometimes you just let it go. It also means if you have a problem, you talk about it privately, not publicly. If you have a problem with your parents or parents have a problem with you, should they take it to the internet. No. Let me say this. No. You're like, my mom's of this, my son's of that. If you take it to the internet, you're automatically in sin, you're in bitterness, you're in division, you're in gossip, you're in slander. You're at risk of violating another one of the commandments, and that is false witness. Okay. So how do we honor our mother and father? I'll get back to my sermon, Exodus 20, 12. Why do we honor rather our mother and father? Why? I love that God tells us the why. That all your days may be long in the land that the Lord God is giving you. So what he's saying this, if a child grows up and they learn to live under parental authority, they live a longer, better life. Is that true? Yes. There's something called gentle parenting, also known as stupid parenting. And that is your child will figure it out. Just let them try. Okay. How many of you have raised a boy? Okay. If you let them just figure it out, they will what? Die. Okay. Do you know what the difference is between raising a son and suicide watch? Nothing. There is no difference between a boy is constantly trying to kill himself. Gentle parenting is you don't want to hurt their self-esteem. No, let me tell you this. The most important thing is not their self-esteem. They have a sin nature. They need to be trained and disciplined. They need to repent and receive a new nature. They don't need to just feel good about themselves. They need to actually stay alive and get saved and not grow up to be a terrorist with a high self-esteem who thinks that protesting in Minnesota is good conduct. Okay. I wish I had more time. And so let me say this. If you don't discipline your child, if you don't train your child, if you don't lead your child, you hate your child. And you're going to let them self-destruct. Statistically, if you don't lead, train, discipline your child, they will live a shorter life. They'll become obese. They'll do drugs. They'll self-destruct. they'll have mental health. One way or another, their lifespan will be shortened because they don't know what they're doing. Children are born with a sin nature and zero wisdom, and the world that they live in is very dangerous. And if you just hand them a screen, you're going to enable them to self-destruct. And so it's this, it's discipline or death. Those are what the options are. Let me prove the point. So Jesus Christ is our God. Come to the earth. God became a man, but first he became a boy. Was Jesus a perfect child? Answer? Yes. Never sinned. Perfect child. Did he obey the fifth commandment? He did. Did he have perfect parents? No. Even though Jesus was a perfect child, he obeyed imperfect parents and he honored the fifth commandment. If Jesus needed parents and he was perfect, your kid needs parenting. Your kid ain't Jesus. I don't care if you're Hispanic and they're named Jesus. Your kid ain't Jesus. Okay. Let's throw that one in. Okay. Luke 2. Jesus grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. That's the Holy Spirit. The favor of God was upon him. That's anointing. Mom and dad did not understand the sayings. He spoke to them. He went down with them, came to Nazareth, lived in their home, was what? He submitted to his parents. He honored his mother and father. And his mother treasured up all these things in our heart. Jesus increased in wisdom, stature, and favor with men of God. Jesus was a young boy. How did he grow in wisdom, stature, and favor into a great man? He honored his mother and father He obeyed the fifth commandment And so if you got a kid who a little defiant a little rebellious like hey respect honor obey your mother and father Jesus did, and God will bless you as he did Jesus, and God will raise you up, and he'll give you a better future. Let me say this. Sometimes as a parent, you feel a little overwhelmed. You're like, I don't know what I'm doing. I don't always get it right. So just be honest. Sometimes tell the kid, I'm sorry, I was wrong. One of the greatest things you can do is repent to your kid, because then it invites your kid to repent. Oh, I guess we're all sinners here, and when we sin, we repent. Okay, but can you imagine what it was like, just tangentially, to have been Jesus' mom? Can you imagine that? How many of you think it would have been awesome? How many think it'd been like rough? Like, you're Jesus' mom, Mary. You're like, Jesus, I'm upset with you. It's like, well, I forgive you. Forgive you. She's got a wooden spoon. He's like, well, you'll need to spank yourself with that because it certainly wasn't me, mom. And it'd be rough to be Jesus like his brother or sister. Who did it? Jesus is like, wait, no, no, it wasn't me. So let me run through this quickly. Seven ways to honor your mother and father. You ready? Are we having a good time? All right, I'm having a good time. I'm nowhere near done with my notes. Just so you know this, we did buy a new building. It's going to be gigantic. When you give a ton of money at the New Capital Campaign, then we will have very long sermons, but not today. So two of you clapped and the rest of you held your wallet. Okay. Number seven ways to honor your mother and father. Start with what you're thankful for from your folks. How many of you, when you became a parent, you're like, okay, it's harder than I thought. Start with your thankful for. Number two, put grace on as much as you can with your folks. Just put a grace on as much as you can. Number three, have the hard talks privately, not publicly with your folks. Don't blow it up in front of other people or online. Number four, forgive the failure of your folks. Bitterness against your parents will infect your children. Write that on your soul. If you take bitterness from your parents, you will imprint it on your children. Then it becomes a generational curse. So forgive them. If for nothing else, forgive them because you love your children. Number five, when you get married with kids and see how tough it is, let your folks know. All right. Oh, now that I got a kid like me, I just want to apologize for everything. Number six, make decisions looking forward to your kids, not back to your folks. Don't keep looking back to your parents, obsessed with them, running the tape, replaying the past, archaeology, digging up the ancient history. Look forward. Okay, like Paul says in Philippians, forgetting what lies behind and pressing forward now. I'm gonna make decisions for my kids and grandkids. And then number seven, honor your father and mother by obeying the other nine commandments. How do you honor your mother and father? Well, there's 10 commandments, that's one of them. Obey the other nine. Seven observations about the fifth commandment in our crisis culture. Number one, respect for authority begins at home and comes from God. If you don't teach your kids to respect authority at home, they leave your home. They're gonna be horrible employees. They're gonna be terrible citizens. They're gonna spend the rest of their life blame shifting, excuse making, and rebelling. Okay? Teach them to respect authority by being in authority. Number two, a child is born with a sin nature and needs the Holy Spirit and wisdom to avert destruction. You've got a very important job to do. They need a new nature and they need the Holy Spirit. number three a christian parent must lovingly walk their child toward christ and away from catastrophe if you don't walk your child toward christ they will walk toward catastrophe they're they're only in your home most of you for 18 summers make every moment count make every day count number four our culture idolizes youth and rebellion causing stupid parents to act like teenagers. When you see stupid moms dressing up like teenagers going to Taylor Swift concerts and taking photos and they're trying to look like they're 17, that's stupid. When you see dads who are dumping mom and trading in their 40-year-old wife for two 20-year-old girlfriends who are the same age as the daughter, that's stupid. That's stupid. Those are people who are idolizing youth culture and they are not worshiping our God. They're not thinking about their future and their legacy. They have actually bought into very foolish, destructive, father of lies, misinformation and disinformation. I'll tell you this, I'm the most blessed man I know. I'm in the most joyful season of my life. I have been faithful to my girl since March 12th, 1988. I was just holding her hand worshiping and next to us was a daughter and a son-in-law and a grandson and in the next service there'll be more kids and grandkids and we'll be holding hands and we'll be worshiping and there is nobody who is more joyful than me nobody and grace thank you for having a high pain tolerance and low expectations i appreciate that Number five, only gullible parents trust demonic government officials in schools to raise a child. Some of you are like, I don't know what to do. I'll trust the government. Have you seen the government do anything well other than suck? number six your your child needs the spirit not a screen a lot of you are like you know what they uh they just need to be entertained no they don't no they don't they need to be filled with the spirit they need to learn how to pray and worship and be in God's presence it is a devastating thing to go out to dinner and see children that are being raised by screens. Their parents are right there, not even talking to them or looking at them. Every piece of data says the earlier child is on a screen and the longer your child is on a screen, the more mental health problems your child will have because that screen is not connected to the spirit. Number seven, much of the entertainment for kids encourages rebellion and not honor against parents. True? How many of you, you let your kids watch certain shows and they just start turning into brats. It's because they're discipling your kids. It's not entertainment. It's a sermon in the form of a cartoon. Let me close by honoring all the dads. It says honor your mother and father. But let me close with this. I will have a closing statement. Commandment five, honor your father and mother is easier if dad is honorable. Do you get it, dad? Will you embrace that for me? Okay, dad, will you embrace that? Because here's what I know. Sometimes dads will be like, the Bible says to honor your father. And I would say, then be honorable, make it easy. Okay, you see that dad? I just got you. All you religious dads. Honor your father. I'd say, okay, then be honorable. And then you don't have to raise your voice. They'll just honor you a little easier if you're honorable. Does that make sense? So as men, we're the head of our household. We're the leaders. We set the pace. it's going to be a lot easier for them to honor if we're honorable. Let me say this. If you honor your wife, it's going to make it easier for your kids to honor your wife. If you honor your God, it'll make it easier for your kids to honor your God. And if you act honorably, lead honorably, love honorably, and serve honorably, it'll make it easier for your kids to honor you. I'll bring the band out, but let me just read the statistics. Fatherless families are four times more likely to raise children in poverty. Children from single-parent families are twice as likely to suffer from mental health and behavioral problems as those living with mental parents. Excuse me, living with married parents. Sorry. Two things on this. We're all living with mental parents. And number one, this is not a discouragement to single parents, but it's an encouragement. Don't sleep with someone you're not married to. And when you're married, fight for your marriage and if you're a single man, don't overlook single women. Number, next, 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes. In one study, 70% of youth in state-operated facilities were from single-parent homes. 85% of children who exhibit behavioral disorders are from fatherless homes. Children in single-parent homes have a nearly five times greater chance of developing mood disorders than those in dual-parent households. drug use and behavioral problems. Children without fathers are also 10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances, and 71% of all children who abuse substances comes from fatherless homes. 75% of patients in substance abuse centers are from fatherless homes. 71% of high school dropouts are from fatherless homes. Children with an actively engaged father perform much better in school. Some data shows they are 33% less likely to repeat a class and 43% more likely to get A's in school. In a study of 56 high school shootings, only 10 of the shooters, 18%, were raised in a stable home with both a biological parent, mother, and father. 82% grew up either in an unstable family environment or grew up without both biological parents together. In a study of 75 juvenile delinquents, 66% experienced fatherlessness, 20% never had lived with their father, and 25% had an alcoholic father. Honor your mother and father, but the fathers are the head of the household and they're the leaders of the family. I just love you very dearly, and it's an honor to be a spiritual father in this house, and it's an honor to be a father in my family. So we're going to worship God who is our father now. We're going to have the prayer team forward. You need prayer for anyone or anything, don't be shy. If you're single and you want to get married, come forward for prayer. If you want to have a kid but you're struggling with fertility, come forward for prayer. If you need to forgive your parents, your mother, and or father, come forward for prayer. If you've got a struggle in your relationship, marriage, come forward for prayer. If you've got a child who's a prodigal or sick, come forward for prayer. But I'm going to pray right now, but I'm going to ask this, honor your mother and father. But let me just start by doing this. I'm going to close in prayer, but I'm going to ask all the fathers and grandfathers to stand because it begins with you and it begins with us. All the fathers and grandfathers, please stand. Amen. Amen. Lord God, as we come to worship you as our father, Lord, this fifth commandment, it comes from God, our father, and it says to honor our fathers and mothers. And God, it's no accident that it says fathers first. And so, Lord, I ask in Jesus' name that as fathers and grandfathers, that we as men, that we would honor our Father in heaven and that we would live in a way that is honorable as a father and or grandfather here on earth. God, I pray for generational blessing for their children and grandchildren, that for their children and grandchildren, their lives would be long, that they would be healthy, and they would be blessed. God, I pray against any bitterness or generational oppression that has come on them from previous generations. And God, I ask for a liberation in the spirit and a hope for the future. And God, I pray for their children and their children's children. And I pray for the kids that are born into this church that they would not be captured by the world. They would not be controlled by the government, but they would be filled with the spirit and they would love Jesus who we now worship. In his good name we pray, amen. The rest of you can stand and join us for worship. Thank you.