(Mother's day)

Lesson 91. Honor your parents (Ephesians 6:1-3)

●Song
- I love her cause she is my mom (fast tempo)
https://youtu.be/rYKg_VnDx-E
-I Love My Mom (slow tempo)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=-sbYoPF_3bs&feature=share
● Memory verse
-Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—which is
the first commandment with a promise (Ephesians 6:1-2 NIV)
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●Sermon (written by Jane Kim)
A very small seed fell on the ground. The seed did not have the strength to sprout on its own.
However, God, who created the whole world, gave rain and warm sunlight so that the seed could
grow well. God took care of the seed with love and the seed grew into a strong tree.
How about you? (See Picture 1) Just as a seed cannot sprout alone, you did not grow by yourself.
When you were in your mother's womb, you grew up for ten months eating the nutrients and food
your mother provided. What was it like after you were born? Did you grab a spoon and eat right after
you were born? No! The only thing the little baby can do is to lie on the bed and cry. Then, the
mother listens to the cry of her baby, feeds the baby, puts the baby to sleep, and changes the diaper.
Babies grow up under the care of their mothers.
Now, you are in elementary school. Then, will you be able to live well on your own? It is not! You
still need your parents' help. When your mothers say, "Eat evenly! Don't eat junk food!", you think
it's nagging. But if you eat only what you want, your health will be very, very badly damaged. It's
really grateful to have a mother waking you up in the morning. If you sleep the way you want to
sleep in the morning, your lives will be a mess. It's so happy to have parents who hold your hands
and bring you to church on Sundays. If you don't have such parents, you may not have known God
who loves and saves you.
Today is Mother's Day. Let's think about how to treat our parents through God's words today. In
today's memory verse (See Picture 2), it says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is
right. 'Honor your father and mother'—which is the first commandment with a promise (Ephesians
6:1-2)"
The Bible tells us to 'obey and honor your parents!' Why does it say we should respect them?
First, because it is right.
'Right' in the Bible means 'to live according to the Word of God'. So, obedience to parents is like
following God's word. The Bible doesn't say that obeying our parents is something we don't have to
do if we don't want to. Commands must be obeyed.
"Teacher, will I be punished if I don't obey?" Some of you may want to ask this question. There are
rules that we must follow at school. For example, 'Don't run indoors', 'Don't disturb your friends in
class', and 'Don't play around on the stairs because you might fall and get hurt'. Why are there such
rules? Did the teachers make the rules because they wanted to punish students if they didn't follow
the rules? Is it because it's fun for teachers to punish students? No! The purpose of the rules is to
make students have a safer and happier school life. As such, God did not give us rules to punish us.
He gave us the commands because he wants us to live a more blessed life. To understand this, we
need to look closely at the next verse. Let's look at the second reason.
Second, God said honoring our parents is the 'first commandment with a promise'. To understand
this, we have to recall the story of Grandpa Moses.(See Picture 3) Do you remember the story of
Moses receiving the Ten Commandments from God? God wrote the 10 rules on stone tablets that the
Israelites had to follow. 'Honoring your parents' is the 5th of the Ten Commandments. But if you
look at the verses we memorized today, it is written as 'the first commandment with a promise'. Oh,
that's strange.. It should be 5th commandment.
The first commandment here does not mean that it is the first commandment among Ten, but that it is
the ONLY commandment 'with a promise'. Usually the Ten Commandments are about 'You must do
this' or 'Don't do that'. But the 5th commandment, honoring our parents, is the only thing God has
given us with a promise of blessing. The promise is to live long on earth(Ephesians 6:3, Exodus
20:12). There was a boy who asked me the question, "Teacher, what's special about that? These days,
with the advancement of medicine, people live longer." Does the blessing of long life on earth sound
trivial to you too? This means that God meets 'our needs'.
After the Israelites left Egypt, they had no land to settle and became nomads wandering in the
wilderness (See Picture 4). So, the most important thing for the Israelites was land. They were also
Egyptian slaves for hundreds of years.The life of a slave was decided by the master. So, if the slaves
were hated by the owner, they didn't know when they would die. For the reason, they must have had
a deep desire to live long. God knew their wishes all too well.
God created the world and wanted to fill it with His blessings. So, the channel of blessing for the
Israelites was to honor the their parents more than anything else. Therefore, honoring our parents is
not simply a moral act, but a confession of faith that honors God.
Third, Jesus also obeyed his parents (Luke 2:51).
Jesus is the Son of God, but like the word in the Ten Commandments, Jesus obeyed his physical
parents, Mary and Joseph. Why? This is because obedience not only pleases parents, but also God.
The Bible says that God is pleased to see us obey and honor our parents. "Children, obey your
parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.(Colossians 3:20)"
Dear children, do you honor/respect your parents? Do you obey your parents? Or is it the other way
around? Honoring your parents is a command from God. The reason God has commanded this is
because He wants to bless you more. Also you will be the joy of God if you respect your parents. I
hope that all of you who have listened to today's sermon will make a promise like this, "I will honor
my parents!" All of you become children of faith who please God and our parents. Amen!
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- Sermon for mothers (Invite mothers to KSS)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1798504793510632/permalink/4463044253723326/
- Decoration ideas
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