We are so glad you chose to celebrate Mother’s Day with us today. Lara andI love wildlife. A few weeks back she sent me some photos that tug at the heart strings. After each photo, I give you permission to say "Awwwww…"
These photos really make you appreciate the bond between mother and child. (Note to reader: Congregation was shown pictures of mothers and babies from each of these animal groups.) Squirrels,polar bears, elephants, tigers, dolphins,giraffes,and finally--- homo sapiens.Let’s give our mothers a round of applause for the way they show their love!
Mothers are true survivors!
Mother’s Day serves a number of important purposes. One purpose is to appreciate everything that mothers do for us. Someone with a lot of time on his hands pitched his idea for the next "Survivor" series. Six married men will be dropped on an island with one car andthree kids each for six weeks. Each kid will play two sports and either take music or dance classes. There is no fast food.
Each man must take care of his three kids, keep his assigned house clean, correct all homework, complete science projects, cook, do laundry, and, pay a list of 'pretend' bills with not enough money. In addition, each man will have to budget in money for groceries each week. Each man must remember the birthdays of allthe family'sfriends and relatives, and send cards out on time--- no e-mailing allowed.
Each man must also take each child to a doctor's appointment, dentist appointment, and haircut appointment. He must make one unscheduled and inconvenient visit per child to the Urgent Care. He must also make cookies or cupcakes for a social function. Each man will be responsible for decorating his own assigned house, planting flowers outside, and keeping it presentable at all times.
The men will only have access to television when the kids are asleep and all chores are done. The men must shave their legs, wear makeup daily, adornthemselves with jewelry, wear uncomfortable, yet stylish shoes, and keep their fingernails polished and eyebrows groomed. During one of the six weeks, the men will have to endure severe abdominal cramps, back aches, and have extreme, unexplained mood swings, but never once complain or slow down from other duties.
A test will be given at the end of the six weeks, andeach father will be required to know all of the following information: each child's birthday, height, weight, shoe size, clothing size, and doctor's name. He also needs to know the child's weight at birth, length, time of birth and length of labor, each child's favorite color, middle name, favorite snack, favorite song, favorite drink, favorite toy, biggest fear, and what they want to be when they grow up.
The kids vote the dads off the island based on performance. The last man wins only if he still has enough energy to be intimate with his spouse at a moment's notice. If the last man does win, he can play the game over and over and over again for the next 18-25 years, eventually earning the right to be called mother!
Mothers and dads play a critical role in each child's development.
In addition to appreciating all mom has done, it’s important that we appreciate the critical role mom and dad are to play in our growth and development. Toward this end I have entitled this message, "How to be a Kid."
If you are like me, you may wonder when you will officially stop being considered a kid and instead be considered an adult. Lara’s mother often refers to Lara and me as kids. This used to annoy me."Hey kids,hey kiddos!" For heaven’s sake, I’m a balding man with hints of gray hair! But then one day I heard Lara’s grandmother, who is almost 100 years old, refer to Don and Margaret as kids. Nice! Go grandma!
As long as your parents are alive you will always be a kid, and they will always have a valuable contribution to make in your life. And that is what this message is about— appreciating the contribution moms and dads can make in our lives. This is the essence of being a kid.
The Bible speaks to us about how to be a kid.
Our text this morning is one of the least popular and most hated verses in all of scripture. Just reading it makes children cringe, teenagers vomit, and parents drool. But let me assure you, this verse was given for one purpose and one purpose alone. It was given so that everything may go well for you and that you may enjoy a long life on the earth.
People who ram this verse down your throat will do it for two reasons. First, they love you and care about you and want you to live a long life on this earth. But second, they feel that their lives would have been better had they listened when their parents read it to them!
The verse is Colossians 3:20 (NIV) which says, "Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord."
Around the same time that this was written, Paul wrote a similar instruction to the church at Ephesus. Ephesians 6:1-3 (NIV) instructs, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 'Honor your father and mother'— which is the first commandment with a promise — 'that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.' "
Few things will set you up for greater success in life than Colossians 3:20. The secret to success in life is to obey your parents. Be thankful that you even have parents. Go to Mexico City. Go to Haiti, where kids grow up on the streets without parents. Where they never learn basic hygiene, or not to drink contaminated water out of a puddle, like a dog. Those kids die as kids, because they're left to themselves without a mom or dad or home. That we even make it to adulthood is a testimony to the value of parents.
Our society is failing right now at every level because we have the idea that children always know best. We even have the idea that childrenknow better than mom and dad! Parents are ridiculed for being old-fashioned, traditional, out-of-touch, and prudish. Our music conditions us to rebel against our parents, to assert our freedom, and to live as we please without any regard for consequences. When you are a kid, to live is to be set free from the tyranny of mom and dad’s rules!
Mom and dad's rules are the essence of a successful and long life.
The truth is that mom and dad’s rules are the essence of life, they are the essence of freedom, they are the essence of success, and they are the essence of living long on this earth.
I have an older brother named Chris who is just a few years older than me. Chris couldn’t wait to break free. Mom anddad’s rules suffocated him! Chris thought that he’d have a better life by going his own way. First it was smoking cigarettes, then alcohol, then marijuana, then cocaine. First it was resisting mom and dad, then it was cussing his teachers, and ultimately it was resisting arrest and being thrown in jail. First it was failing grades, then it was stealing cars, and then it mushroomed into even larger conspiracies.
Chris hated my parents' advice. But instead of becoming more free, he became more imprisoned. Imprisoned for life by choices he made in his youth. Imprisoned and controlled by desires he fed and let grow, instead of putting to death. In a best case scenario, Chris will live half as long as he could.
I get very angry at the choices I see young people making. Some of you think you will be so much better off throwing your freedom in your parents' faces by laughing off their advice and byridiculing their beliefs and values and morals. You think your parents are stupid. "How dare they tell me not to drinkandnot to hang out with certain friends? How dare they tell me to remain abstinent, to develop self-discipline, to be responsible, to do good in school, to respect my teachers, to obey the law, to not watch so much television, to exercise, to eat right, to watch my mouth, and to worship?"
As near as I can tell, my parents gave all of us kids the exact same advice. I have two brothers and a sister. Three of us obeyed, and one of us rebelled. Three of us are truly free, andone of us will never be free. Lord willing, three of us will live a long life, and one of us has dramatically shortened his life. One of us, more than any of the other three, wishes he would have obeyed his parents.I am saddened to think about what Chris might have been, or what he might done with his life, had he loved Colossians 3:20.
A word to the abusive parent.
I know that there is the occasional parent out there who acts abusively towardhis children. God reserves his most ferocious judgment for anyone who does harm tohis children. Jesus says that it would be better for a millstone to be tied around your neck and be thrown into the sea than for you to harm a little child. (Mark 9:42)
Some of my best friends growing up were foster kids whose parents abused them physically, sexually, and emotionally in every way they could. But that isn’t most parents. Most parents, even ungodly parents, want what’s best for their children. Most parents want their children to make better choices than they made. Most parents want their children to be better than they themselves are.
Most parents want the best for their children.
It’s why prodigal sons and prodigal daughters return to the church in droves when they have their first child. They don’t want their children to experience the pain of addiction,broken relationships, sexual immorality, divorce, living together, being used for sex by a boyfriend, lying, being unemployed or unemployable, not being educated,being financially ruined, orbeing disadvantaged. Do you?
Almost without exception, parents love their children and are more than competent to steer their children from danger if only the childis willing to listen and obey. Kids, at the end of the day, you are free to obey or disobey.
But here’s the deal, your friends don’t love you like your parents do. Young ladies, your boyfriend doesn’t love you like your daddy does. Your favorite artists who indoctrinate you with their music and movies and sitcoms don’t love you like your parents do. You can obey your friends, obey your boyfriend, obey your culture, and obey your desires. Or you can obey those who love you most, your parents.
What a blessing it is from God to have a mother or father riding your back every single day about righteousness. You’d do well in life to honor your mother and father, and obey them in everything. If you only care about yourself, you’d obey your parents.
Jesus obeyed his parents.
Lest you think that there are any exceptions to obeying your parents, the Bible tells us that even Jesus obeyed his parents. Jesus' entire childhood, from birth to early thirties, is summed up with just two verses in the Bible.
Luke 2:51-52 (NIV) says, "Then Jesus went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men."
Jesus, possessing the wisdom of all eternity, saw it fit to obey his earthly parents, Mary and Joseph. What’s your excuse? Do you know better than Jesus?
But it wasn’t just his earthly parents that Jesus was eager to please. Colossians 3:20 (NIV) says, "Children obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord." Ultimately it is the Lord we want to please!
Jesus didn’t just learn obedience to his earthly mom and dad, he also learned obedience to his heavenly Father. Philippians 2:8 tells us how Jesus humbled himself and became obedient unto death— even death on a cross! Hebrews 5:7-8 (NIV) says, "During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered."
Obeying mom and dad so that we may enjoy long life on this earth is just one part of God’s plan. The second part is obeying our heavenly Father, so that we may inherit eternal life. Whatever may be lacking in your parents, God more than makes up as our Father in Heaven.
As we prepare to take communion, will you commit to obeying your earthly parents and heavenly Father unto life?