Before I start my lesson, I would like to tell a little story of how this lesson came about. One Wednesday night after church; my mother was speaking to our preacher Mr. Jon. She told me to have a seat while they spoke. I did everything except sit down. I wanted to hear what they were talking about. She didn’t tell me once or twice. She had to tell me to sit about 4 times and I still refused to listen. After the fourth time my mom told me to sit, our preacher Mr. Jon pulled me over and asked me to read Ephesians 6 verse 1 “Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.” He then told me to repeat what my mom had told me to do earlier. That’s the moment Mr. Jon and I realized I needed to do more studying in obeying my parents.
My mom must tell me over and over to do lots of things like feeding or watering the dogs, making my bed, picking up my toys, or quit playing video games when she asks. I always choose to not do what she asks and put off whatever it is until she is yelling at me, and I get frustrated wondering why she is yelling at me. Many times, my mom will give up and do the task she asked me to do herself. This behavior is not obeying the word of God. Paul says in the letter of Colossians chapter 3 verse 20 “Children Obey your parents in Everything, for this pleases the Lord!” Why would Paul say this? Let’s read Matthew 15 verse 4 “For God commanded “Honor your father and mother.
When you disobey your parents, you are showing them you love yourself more than you love them. Being selfish should not be part of a Christian’s life. If being selfish takes root in my own heart, how can I ever love God the way I should?
Disobeying your parents always starts with something small, like not cleaning your room. I don’t think most children, even myself, go out to be selfish and disobedient. Satan is tricky. He knows as a child; I can’t see the bigger picture of how being disobedient will grow into bigger things! Disobedience is a learned behavior! The importance of parents correcting and teaching us when we disobey is crucial to our growth as Christians. Disobedience leads us away from God and learning how to be obedient starts when we are a child with our parents. I don’t like being corrected, but if it helps me make it to Heaven then I’d rather be angry at my parents for a moment.
Jesus is our example to follow and even He obeyed His parents! Let’s turn our Bibles to Luke chapter 2. Jesus was a young boy who had gone off by himself to the temple learning God’s words from the teachers. His parents became worried when they couldn’t find Him and went looking for Him. In Luke 2 verse 49, Jesus said, “why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be about my father’s business?” However, Jesus’s parents did not understand the saying He spoke to them, BUT Jesus obeyed His earthly parents anyway and became submissive to them and left the temple to go back to Nazareth with them.
Jesus who is the Son of God, who knew learning about God was the BEST thing He could be doing, and yet He still obeyed His parents the first time they asked Him to come home. We should be like Jesus. Obeying the first time.
We are a light to the people around us. We have influence! People are watching and following our example. It’s easy to forget that. We have the power, through Jesus Christ, to change someone’s life for the better. Obedience is the key to bringing others to Christ and it all starts as a child with our parents.
In closing, let’s remember in Exodus 20:12 one of Gods commandments “Honor thy Father and Mother”. wherever we are, no matter our age we always need to obey our parents for this is the Law of God and the Law of God is key to our eternity with Christ!