Honor Your Parents
Ephesians 6:1-3, NIV
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."


♬ A Mother’s Heart
(Yang Ju Dong, lyricist, and Lee Heung Ryeol, composer)

1. You have forgotten your labor pains. You raised me up day in and day out.
You changed my diapers. Your hands and feet are worn out.
What else is wider than your sacrifice? Your sacrifice is endless.
2. When I was young, you carried me on your back.
When I grew up, you always waited for me, leaning against the door.
You cared for my health and my life, and deep furrows line your forehead.
What else is higher than your love and care?
3. Men have many desires, but a mother has only one desire.
You willingly give your flesh and bones for your child.
What else is more holy than your love? Your love is boundless.

1. The grace of giving us birth and nurture.
1) Ten months with a heavy body.
2) Risk mother's life to give birth (Isa 45:10).
3) Mother raises a newborn baby, changing its diapers.
4) Conflict during adolescent period.
5) University, job, marriage.

2. The ways to honor our parents.
1) A thankful heart (2Ti 3:1-2; Col 3:15).
2) Do not cause anxiety to parents (Pr 15:20; Col 3:20).
3) Stay on close terms with every sibling (Ro 12:10).
4) A life that receives compliments from neighbors and society (Pr 17:6; Ro 14:18).
5) Meet parents often (Pr 23:25).
6) Material and mental help (1Ti 5:8).

3. The first commandment with a promise.
- Among the Ten Commandments, God commanded us to honor our parents, and He promised us long life (Ex 20:12).
1) In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in Bethlehem in Judah.
2) Elimelech, with his wife Naomi and two sons Mahlon and Kilion, went to Moab to live.
3) They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion died.
4) Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. When Naomi tried to persuade them to leave her, Orpah left, but Ruth chose to stay with Naomi (Ru 1:16-17).
5) According to Mosaic Law, a Moabite could not enter the assembly of the Lord (Dt 23:3).
6) Since Ruth had filial piety, she met Boaz, married him in Bethlehem, and became the great grandmother of David.
- When we have filial piety, the law of God cannot touch us (Ru 4:13).
7) Filial piety is the source of blessing for long life (Dt 5:16; Eph 6:2-3).

Conclusion: Since the end of the agricultural era, the extended family system has been disappearing, as well as filial piety. Many people today focus on their own personal life and family. They hardly think about their parents and siblings. For this reason, the world is full of curses and disease?rather than blessing.