Walking with God…as Children and Parents

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION

“The thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children.”

~Edward, Duke of Windsor (1894-1972)

“The first half of our life is ruined by our parents and the second half by our children.”

~Clarence Darrow (1857-1938), famous American lawyer

“To understand your parents’ love you must raise children yourself.”

“Respect for one’s parents is the highest duty of civil life.”

~Chinese Proverbs

“The ministry of the church in contemporary America is distorted because the cultural lives of many Christians, including their deep assumptions about reality, the practice and activities that they pursue guided by those assumptions, have been decisively shaped more by modern, western culture than by the church’s own account of reality as outlined in the Scriptures. This is in part because the church has too often abandoned its necessary and prophetic task of being involved in cultural formation, in favor of a more readily acceptable task of being chaplain to the cultural status quo.”

~Ken Myers, After Evangelism

“Culture is the root of politics, and religion is the root of culture.”

~Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009), Canadian born cleric and writer

“It is not the business of the church to adapt Christ to men, but men to Christ.”

~Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957), English writer

“The words of human beings are unstable things. But not so the words of God. They stand forever…. Nothing can annul God’s eternal truth.”

~J.I. Packer (1926-2020), taken from his book Knowing God

SERMON PASSAGE

Ephesians 5:15-21, 6:1-4 (ESV)

Ephesians 5

15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Ephesians 6

1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.