You just heard a testimony about how frightening it is to be vulnerable, to be in a dangerous situation. And here in America, most of the time we feel fairly secure in our situation that we’re

in, but there are times that you can get into a place in which you realize you have no protection, no recourse. I have not been in that kind of situation but a couple of times, but one that’s very vivid

to me was several years ago I had the privilege of going to Myanmar. That’s Burma. Myanmar is under

a dictatorship and at that time the United States government had absolutely zero relationship with Myanmar. We did not even have a consulate in Myanmar so we were warned that when we went

there we would be on our own. No political protection or recourse and the country was out of control.

We were not going to just be in Yangon, but we were going to go way up into the hills. We had to take two flights to get there.

We were going to be at a conference with about 1,500 workers from the hills, Chin Hills, up near China, I mean near India. And so it was an

exciting time, but, you know, it’s a bit challenging. So we flew on our first stop, and we got there and found out that the flight to our final destination up in the Chin Hills had been canceled.

And this was a bit unnerving because there weren’t many ways to solve that problem. And number two, We only had permission to fly into Kalimio.

We did not have permission to drive, and that’s hard to explain what that’s like in a place like that, but every stop along the way,

you have to have permission to move about in that kind of a country. We were with a couple of folks from Myanmar, and they tried to mask their fear,

but they realized that we were in a very, very vulnerable and dangerous situation. more than we knew. I’m glad I didn’t know it all at the time.

And so it took them several hours, and they actually went apart and prayed for two hours. And that was the key to this whole thing.

So we’re waiting in a very hot city there, and we were finally escorted to a very old car with a driver who did not even own that car, and it was intensely hot,

and we were going to have to drive 8 to 11 hours on very difficult roads through the jungle to get to where we were going.

Exciting thought, especially when you’re an American citizen with zero protection, and America was seen as enemy, and we did not have permission to be there.

Well, anyway, long story short, we got in the car. you finally just sort of settle into being extremely uncomfortable. You know, it’s hot and you’re just all squished up with all the luggage.

And so it’s 2 o’clock in the morning. Boom. The tire blew.

And it never occurred to us to worry about a spare tire. There was one, but they couldn’t figure out how to get to it. This was not this man’s own car.

We are out in the middle of nowhere in the jungle area, bush area with no protection, no way to fix the car, no hope. That’s the first time in my life that I

totally felt helpless. There was no recourse. It was a dangerous situation.

Plus, we were not authorized to be there, so we couldn’t ask help even from the government, and we had a major checkpoint that we had to go through a couple hours down the road that most likely we would

be apprehended and very possibly incarcerated. So, I mean, this was the kind of situation, it wasn’t real pleasant, wasn’t an exciting time.

Well, these folks had been praying and they knew what we were up against. And it was amazing.

In the midst of that situation, as we cried out to the Lord for wisdom, we did not know what to do. All of a sudden, lights came up behind us.

Now, we’re out of nowhere with nobody traveling on this road. We hadn’t seen anyone. And lights in a brand new white car comes up.

Guy, well-dressed, comes over to the car, looks under, boom, boom, boom, pulls out the tire, changes the tire, puts the new tire on, All in a matter of a very few minutes, brushes his hands.

We all say thank you. He gets in the white car and takes off. Now, that was strange.

Then we’re driving, and this guy could have outpaced us. You know, he had the kind of car that he could handle those roads a whole lot better than us. We’re chugging along, but he stays right in front of us.

We get to the checkpoint. He says something to the checkpoint. he goes through, the gate stays up, and they wave us through.

We look up, the white car is gone. Now you can decide what that was. Whatever it was, it was from heaven.

I was in a totally vulnerable situation humanly. And those who were from Myanmar knew the danger we were in even more than we did.

but the God of heaven protected us and even during that time we had incredible peace not knowing what could happen it’s quite a story by the way it is true it is exactly how that happened I still look back and marvel at God’s goodness but young people you’ve heard a testimony

this morning and then this simple illustration but did you know that your pathway of life is also very vulnerable. And for us to think that we can live life

through our own strength is really not well informed. You’re heading into many, many challenges

as you develop into adulthood, make key choices, and you go through life. And without sensationalizing it,

we are living in a dangerous world today. We’ve been in a little bubble here in America. but we don’t know what the future holds.

But let me say, no matter what pathway we’re on and no matter what situation, it’s wonderful to know that we’re right with God

and he’s orchestrating things and that when we’re in his hands, the God of the universe will work on our behalf.

Now, I want to speak to you today about how to stay in that protective, wonderful care of God.

And let me just quote you this verse. I’ll have you turn to another verse. You could quote them probably.

Ephesians chapter 20 verse 12. Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

And it has the idea of protected. The nation of Israel would be blessed.

The nation of Israel would be lifted up and that God would shower his goodness upon the people if they would honor their parents. Young people, you are still very much in the homes of your parents at this stage in your life.

And your future is going to be directly affected by your obedience or disobedience to this very important commandment. And those of us who are a little farther down the road, the reason you see the urgency in our hearts to call you to trust the Lord

is that we know you can’t walk the path of life without the protection and blessing of your God. And more than that, you want to honor that God that created you,

saved you, and loves you. But you know, a lot of teenagers, you may have heard this story. there was this little boy and he was just going on his tricycle and he had a rather small block in

which his house so he’s going around and around and around and this policeman was sort of chuckling you know this kid was just it was just amazing and he finally came up stopped the little boy and he said son what are you doing he said i’m running away from home and uh he said you’re running away

from home. Well, you keep going by it. You say, well, my parents told me I can’t cross

the street. You know what? So many teenagers are like that.

We get on our tricycles. And we think we can do it. And we resist our parents.

And we want to do our own thing. And yet, in you is an awful lot of, don’t

cross the street. Don’t do this. And you have enough

love and respect for your parents and understand what they put in you is right, that really your life just goes in circles.

But you are outside of the blessing of God. Your parents have endeavored to teach you the importance of this. I’ve got to give you this story.

Some of you have heard me tell it. My son Daniel, that you have now met, was my youngest. And I remember when he was a little boy,

He was quite expressive. I know it’s hard to imagine, but he was quite outgoing. And we, downstairs, my father-in-law sold all kinds of novelties,

and he sold all kinds of stuffed animals, big Georgia bulldogs and things like that. Well, one thing that he had gotten from our kids was this huge tropical bird. I mean, it was huge.

It was twice the size of Daniel. And it had sort of been put in a corner down in our basement. My wife was cleaning out some things, and Daniel was there playing,

and just a little two-year-old, I think. And this tropical bird is opened up, and he’s just, you know, he’s going to hug the bird, you know, and it’s just twice his size.

And my wife, always trying to teach our kids, said, Now, son, this is a parrot. And Daniel goes, oh, children, obey your parents.

Let’s turn to that passage, Ephesians chapter 6, please, Ephesians chapter 6. However, it has a little different meaning than that. He got a little bit of a wrong interpretation there of the Greek word for parent,

but you may think your parents are birds. But anyway, chapter 6 of Ephesians, two verses, three verses, excuse me, that most of you learned early on like we taught Daniel. Verse 1, children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.

Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. The young people, this message on the fifth commandment,

here reiterated in the epistle to the Ephesians, this is one of the most important truths. It has a huge impact on you right now,

and it will have a direct part in the development of your life, your success, lack of success, your protection, your care or lack of ability for God to care for you.

All of it’s going to come down to how well you obey this commandment. It is the commandment with promise. Anyone who ever honored their parents and truly did throughout their life

will tell you it is absolutely amazing what God does for you. It is one of the most glorious realities because honoring your parents has a direct impact on your relationship with God.

Now think about it. Where is the fifth commandment in the ten commandments? Right in the middle, isn’t it?

You have the first four commandments and how did the Lord Jesus sum up the first four commandments love the lord thy god with all thy heart soul and mind how do you sum up the final five commandments love thy neighbor as thyself this fifth commandment is

the commandment that bridges the two of the great commandments together if you do not honor your parents you will not know how to honor god if you do not honor your parents you will not honor your fellow human beings and you will not love your neighbor and so young people that refuse to give

their hearts to their parents injure their relationship with god and injure their ability to have relationships with other people and and frankly put themselves in a terrible position for life you right now may be all boggled up in an attitude issue with your parents but you got to

realize it’s bigger than just the here and now. I mean, it’s like you’ve taken poison into your life. It’s like you setting up just disasters one after the other.

You’re planning them by not understanding how important this is. Now, the word honor in the fifth commandment and reiterated here in the Greek, both have the idea of giving full reverence.

In fact, it is the exact same word used to honor God. You see, God gave the fifth commandment. He gave parents for you to learn initially what it means to follow authority,

to follow and love God’s authority. And so right now, no matter what you say, no matter what you testify, your honoring of God is directly related to how you treat your parents right now.

You cannot say, I love my God and not love your parents. You cannot say, I’m honoring God and not honor your parents. This is God’s way to develop your heart to honor the ultimate authority.

He delegated it to your parents. And so when you disobey them, when you dishonor them, when you have a wrong attitude toward them,

it goes right directly above them to God. That’s why some of you are just struggling with this. Why are people so excited about serving the Lord?

Why is there such joy with some people about just all there is to the Christian life? It just seems so unreal to me. I can tell you what, it may go right back to your relationship with your parents right now in your life.

So let’s just talk practically about this. And this is something I hope you’ll listen to very closely here. the first verse is children obey your parents you start off by honoring your parents by just

obviously simple obedience you never honor an authority by disobeying them and there are four things we teach our parents about their enforcing of obedience they need to enforce obedience immediately completely respectfully and with the right heart attitude

now on the other side of the coin you as a child need to ask god to enable you to actually respond to your parents authority immediately completely respectfully and with the right heart attitude now a lot of times parents it’s very hard for them to enforce immediate obedience

let me just ask you right now when your dad calls you or your mom says your name

do you immediately look respectfully to them and when they give you a directive

is your obedience like this we could stop right there and that would tell you probably

about everything we need to know about your relationship to your parents you see a child who’s right with God

A child who really respects who they are in Christ and all that their life is and who God is, is a child who by the grace of God, when the parent says something, they do it immediately. Your parents ought to have an absolute confidence that if they call your name and tell you something,

it’s as good as done. You know, there’s really no parent-child problem when the kid always obeys. ever notice that

say but you don’t know my parents well good parents bad parents obey your parents a lot of

tension is going to go because it’s God’s plan starts with you doesn’t start with dad here mom

starts with you and unless your parents directly tell you to disobey God

you need to obey no matter whether they’re right with God saved or unsaved obey

immediately take your mom to tell you something before you do it? Why do you think there’s tension?

Why do you think you’re unhappy? Why do you think there’s pressure? Because you are almost trained

that make your parents get a little bit exercise to get you to do something. If you just get it settled here this morning,

this is God’s plan. This is all about glorifying Him. this is all about my life having purpose.

I’m just, when my parents tell me something, that’s it, I’m going to do it right now. I’m telling you, your life would change dramatically.

It’d be worth coming just for that one simple truth. Obey immediately. You know, it’s a novel idea.

Try it. Your parents may have heart attacks. We may have to explain what happened to you.

But, I mean, you know, you really will enjoy life. family will get a lot better. You know, your parents will even look better to you.

A lot of your problems with your parents’ wrong reactions is your lack of obedience. And God says, children, obey your parents.

And then completely. You see, you need to listen. You’re old enough now.

Whatever your parents say, the full intent of what they want you to do, you need to take it and even further to please them.

Obedience is not partial obedience. That’s disobedience. It’s doing the whole thing.

In fact, let me say this. Obedience is what your parent may have forgotten you to say, but you know that’s what they meant.

Okay. I’m telling you, it’s the greatest joy. When my teenagers got to that point,

I have six children, and when they would just, I knew I could trust them.

They would obey. They would obey my heart even beyond my words. It was almost like we didn’t have rules.

I remember when I was 15 years of age, I truly, thoroughly got right with God, surrendered to preach,

and I’m telling you, I embrace this matter of honoring my parents. I embrace this matter of obedience.

And I remember when I got to college, I went to a very strict college, and everybody was groaning and moaning about the rules.

and I’m thinking what rules and this is just life you know well what had happened was

I’d gotten such a good relationship with my parents because I obeyed them that it just all worked out wonderfully

I can tell you right now many of the students here at college don’t even think about it except they got to remember

the little stuff that they need to do if they want to obey and they trust authority it’s just we’re a family

it’s the way it is you know when you’re constantly thinking authorities against you.

The real problem is you haven’t submitted to authority. I hate to tell you, but no authority is perfect. Your parents aren’t.

Your school administrators aren’t. College leaders aren’t. Bosses at jobs aren’t.

But God says obey. And when you do, it’s amazing. The pressure’s off.

Those that are the bosses, they’re okay. Unless they tell you to go against God, you don’t have a conflict. Just obey.

And you’re free. It’s a tremendous principle. So you need to obey immediately, completely.

Now here’s the real clinker. Respectfully. Son?

Yeah? I want you to do this. All right.

Now, I don’t care if you obey immediately and completely. The whole scenario is wrong. All right?

Now let’s suppose today the trumpet sounded. That changed the Cola Clash real quick. That means that do what have won,

because there’s no more chance for Coke to make an absolutely phenomenal, I mean Pepsi to make an absolutely phenomenal comeback here. You’re going to do that, right?

You’re going to come all the way to the top, right? Okay, we’ll see. Or whatever.

you have a New York leader so I don’t know New Jersey whatever but we used to say we have we usually have four or five six different foreign countries here represented and we would add New Jersey brother Bosler is from New Jersey now Christians over

there from New Jersey so it is a bit of a foreign country but but the fact is that if the rapture were to occur today, you’d see Jesus on the throne.

The whole universe would come together in your mind. You’d have a perfect body. You’d get it.

I can tell you what, there’d be no smart aleck standing there. There’d be no, ah! Oh!

You stand before the Son of God. And you realize the only reason you’re alive is he lets you live. And he saved you.

And it’ll be more love than fear that you’ll have when you stand there. Actually, it’ll be on your face. Well, I’m telling you, folks, that’s the ultimate authority.

So that’s where, if you really want life to begin to click, you want to have that protection like I began with. If you want things to come together, get the focus off yourself.

Folks, it is Satan’s lie. It is totally that which will destroy you. Learn to love to obey immediately, completely, with the right attitude.

Your dad says something, yes, sir, try it. Works real nicely. Look at him.

What would you like me to do, dad? Again, if you pick him off the floor after he’s had his heart attack. And then he tells you, you do it, and you do it respectfully.

It’s just a sweet thing. By the way, do you love your parents? You ought to.

Aren’t you thankful for them? Think of all they’ve done for you. And just like we ought to serve God because we love them,

your parents aren’t perfect, and they don’t want to, they know they aren’t, but they deserve your love. Don’t wait till graduation to tell them you love them.

Don’t wait till, and I’ve seen it happen a number of occasions, until they’re in the casket to cry over how much you love them. just love them by obeying them treating them right just having a sweet attitude

helping them out it’s just a great thing i’m telling you it just brings joy to your home it brings dignity to who you are it gives you the open heart for a relationship to god everything becomes right when you just decide i’m going to believe god and obey

with the right heart attitude. And so the way to really know or a good question to ask yourself

as to how you’re doing, do your parents feel strain about you? Do they wonder what you’re doing?

Do they wonder if you’re being honest? Do they get tensed up when they ask you to do something? Or do they have absolute confidence

that they can call your name, talk to you, you’ll be honest, you’ll obey, you’re a real person, they can be a real person with you, there’s just no fear.

I tell you what, I don’t know a better goal other than just determining to serve God with all your heart than to say, I want my parents not to have any more fear about me.

I want them to go to bed at night knowing I’m on my way to serve God. And I am honest with them. I know from being a pastor for many years that the majority seated here may well have things that you’re not honest with your parents about.

You’d agree with me, yes, I know I need to obey them. I do love my parents. I need to respect them.

I haven’t sensed hardly any of you resisting what I’m saying. But what’s holding you back and why there’s reserve and why they have fear and why you are uncomfortable is that you’re afraid to be honest with them. Now, some parents do get upset when you’re honest.

I like to teach them otherwise, but it doesn’t matter. They deserve your honesty. I remember in the sixth grade, I had some friends and went to the public school in the elementary school there that I was in.

And I remember they kept talking me into going somewhere. We weren’t doing terrible things or anything, but it was out of my parents’ will. And so for probably a couple of months, I wasn’t honest with my parents about where I went after school.

That could have gotten me in real trouble if I was seventh or eighth grade. Thankfully, I was just sixth grade. But I remember the day when God really convicted me,

and I asked my mom if I could talk to her, and I just unloaded the truck. And I was sixth grade, but that was still a very important time.

And I remember distinctly the freedom of heart and the renewed relationship I had with my parents. In fact, our relationship began to be very sweet after that point.

And I remember thinking as a sixth grader, that does it. I’m not getting into that kind of mess again. That’s miserable.

Now, let’s just be real honest here. Some of you heard the message last night, and the reason you didn’t get it settled

was you knew you’d have to talk to your parents. Right? Some of you are here today with a good heart.

I mean, you agree with the preaching. You’re here today because you want to be here. You know these things are right, but you’re just scared to death.

What does it mean if I were really honest with my parents about some of the things I’ve done? There’s so many things you can do in secret today. Listen, no matter what the consequences are, you being honest,

are nothing compared to the freedom and the joy and the future that you’d have if you would be right with your parents and right with God. It’s just a glorious thing.

And I’m telling you that the consequences spiritually and down the road are just glorious. It’s not worth worrying about the consequences. Here at college, inevitably, as the preaching goes forward,

some of the things in the past, guys and gals have to come and talk to the authorities. They’re scared to death. But I’m telling you, the moment they get that taken care of and they call home and it’s done,

it’s like you have a totally different student. And right now, if I had the time, I’d have one after another college student tell you,

the best thing in the world you can ever do is to be honest with your parents. You need to treat them with respect, as I’ve said.

You need to treat your mother with respect. Open doors for her. Carry things for her.

Don’t ever refer to your mom and dad as the old man, old lady, or whatever. I mean, you just ought to settle it in your soul.

These are my parents. They represent God to me. I love them.

And I’m going to treat them with respect. And I’m telling you, every time you do, something happens. There’s another building block in your life.

There’s a little more confidence that you’ll have. There’s a smile from heaven. Just a little touches.

A little thank you note. Left on the counter, thank you, Mom, for a great meal. You know, when you’re in public,

go up and hug your mother in front of your peers. I dare you. I love that.

Go up and stand next to your dad when all the other teens are talking to each other and just identify with him.

You’ll find there’s something very special that’ll go on in your heart. Did you know that Joseph,

after he was on the throne, after all the years and all that he had gone through, When he saw his father, what did he do?

Remember, he’s the leader of the whole world under the Pharaoh. He’s the prime minister. He saw his old, old dad that had been through so much, just a shepherd.

He bowed. Remember, my parents were older. They stepped into the room.

I don’t care who I was or what I was doing. Everything stopped. That’s my parents.

That’s my parents. See, your parents don’t cease being your parents once you get married. You leave them.

You cleaved your wife as a man. You are on your own, but they are still to be honored because honoring your parents is a lifetime matter.

You need to take their counsel. You need to listen. And above all, you need to be a real person with them,

Communicate your heart to them. We often quote Proverbs 23, 26. My son, give me thine heart,

and let thine eyes observe thy ways. Now, I’m not going to quote the verse that’s next. Are any of you familiar with what the next verse is?

It’s the warning about the strange woman. The very next verse. And then the next verse is a warning about alcohol.

Isn’t that interesting? my son give me thine heart observe my ways and you’ll have victory your best friend will be your parents just stay open with them they love you more than anybody on earth they they are the best

people to talk to you say my parents don’t really know how to talk well then you talk don’t wait for them you know you’re you’re getting more advantages than they had probably they’re sacrificing for you to have what they didn’t have.

They may not have had good homes, but you’re learning how to talk. You’re getting to hear preaching and teaching.

Open up. Give your heart to your parents and realize that your life

reflects upon their name and their reputation and that you want to honor them. I have lived with the fact

that I have at the end of my name a J.R. And that means my dad’s name and my name are the same name. It doesn’t matter whether your name is the same as your parent or not,

but for me, I was very aware of it. And I realized with my dad traveling broadly and being involved in things that anything that I did would reflect upon him.

Now that can be, oh, or, wow, what a privilege. And what do people think about your parents? as they see your attitude.

I remember a guy in his junior year, no, sophomore year of high school, years ago when I was pastoring in Chicago,

we had to expel him. It was sad. It was tragic.

His parents were so embarrassed. They were actually from Wisconsin, good old farm folks,

and they were devastated. It was their oldest son. And for a while he was a rebel,

but then he got right with God. We had a revival, and God did a mighty work. It was really exciting.

this kid got right got right with the church got right with the school came back into school and uh we had a wrestling team back in those days in a big state tournament it was a big deal and um he was our heavyweight i mean he was a big boy he was a big boy and he won the state

heavyweight category i’ll never forget that i mean we were gold bananas but here’s what was special I’ll never forget. The awards were announced,

and his parents cheered when he was announced, of course, as the one that had come in first place. But then, the Christian Testimony Award

was stated for the whole tournament, and his name was read. Now, it wasn’t clapping with the parents.

It was tears. I remember standing next to him. Their dad was just a little short fellow, but he was about 6’10 at that point.

I mean, just the joy. You think that kid’s life was affecting those parents? Yeah, it affected it terribly before.

It was now a joy, and that man went on to serve God. Amen. It’s a glorious thing.

Every time I get with those parents, we talk about what a great God we have. That’s what you want to have for your parents. Now, let me finish, and I want you to listen closely for the last couple of minutes.

Let me finish with where we run into trouble, okay? See, your parents are commanded by God to discipline you. They are commanded by God to teach you.

They are commanded by God to restrain you. It is God’s idea for them to not let you do certain things. It is God’s idea for them to develop you and put you through hard things

so that you can be disciplined and be all that you ought to be. But we often respond wrongly. And so let me give you just a couple of thoughts.

I find that there are two responses that are disastrous for a child. Parents are not perfect. They’re growing.

They’re on the same journey you are. You don’t need to turn there, but in Hebrews chapter 12, we have that famous part about chastening.

But then we go to the matter of failing the grace of God and having the wrong choice. You know, when you fail God’s grace and do not have victory

and you’re miserable and things aren’t going well, you’ll either get right and take responsibility or you’ll blame somebody else.

Blaming somebody else, that’s bitterness. Bitterness is the sense of not taking responsibility, but because my parents are the way they are,

and because of what somebody did to me, and it wasn’t fair, and people don’t understand me, that’s why I don’t do well.

And we read in that passage, looking diligently, lest any man fail to the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you,

and thereby many be defiled. now there are two things that occur from this number one young people the minute you blame your parents for whatever and by the way are there things you can blame your parents for

yeah have your parents ever gotten mad at you probably not a parent here that hasn’t gotten mad at you i don’t blame them no uh you know uh you know it’s not right they should never and boy I preach hard about it.

Do they ever do things that are embarrassing to you? Do parents have some habits that bug you? Yeah, they do.

Okay, they’re people just like you. By the way, do you ever disappoint people? Do you have any habits that are a little gross?

Just think about it. Okay, just be fair. They’re real people.

All right. And they may not react to you right. You blame them.

Then you grieve the Holy Spirit according to Ephesians 4. If you have bitterness, and listen, you’re going to be hearing later today, you’ve got to have God’s power.

You can have victory over any area in your life if the Holy Spirit has full control of your life. But let me tell you right now, some of you cannot get the courage to do right.

You cannot get out and see God work in your life because you’ve got bitterness. You’re blaming your parents. You think you have the right to be upset.

Things aren’t fair in your life. and I’m telling you, you’re shutting down the power of God. Holy Spirit rises up in your heart, but you just can’t get it dealt with

because you are blaming your parents. You’re bitter. And let me read the next verse.

I on purpose stopped. Verse 16 in Hebrews 12 is, lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau.

Please remember this. Listen, listen, listen. If you’re bitter toward your parents,

you will, you will, you will struggle with sensuality. And the reason some of you cannot get victory in your mind or in other aspects of the matter of sensuality,

you’re so drawn to wrong music, you’re so drawn to watching entertainment, you know it’s not right,

but it just, it gets to you, is because you are bitter. You’re blaming your parents.

You’ve got a bad attitude. You’re not responding right to them. and Satan just plays havoc with your mind and your life.

Some of you are just chained by it. And the second thing is profane. You’re just flat, living a life without God.

Just earthy, profane, vulgar, yuck. I guarantee you, some of the stuff you say, as was mentioned yesterday to each other, it’s just yuck. Some of the social media stuff, it’s just gross.

It’s gross. It’s a problem with your parents. And don’t blame your parents, it’s you.

I can tell you what, no kid that loves his parents, obeying his parents, has a heart for his parents, talks like that. They just don’t.

They won’t. Because they’ve got too much dignity. Too much of sense of purpose.

Too much love for their family to get to that low level. So sensuality, as you heard last night, and being profane comes out of bitterness. And then the other thing I want you to think about is discouragement and insecurity.

In Colossians chapter 3, verse 20, it says, Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord. fathers provoke not your children to anger

lest they be discouraged now again we’re not going to blame your parents but some of you just may be flat discouraged

maybe your parents didn’t have a background and they get down on you they get angry with you

but getting discouraged and disheartened also opens you up wide open for sin and for wrong relationships

no matter what situation some of you may be from broken homes you may be adopted you may have situations that are just unique you may have one parent that’s that just doesn’t know the lord you know some of you are in tough things tough situations i know that but your choice

because the holy spirit who indwells you has saved you through what christ has done regenerated you and you are now in christ you are an ambassador for christ you’re a co-heir with jesus christ you are somebody you’re a child of god start living up to who you are i know this is

a tough thing but i’m telling you young people that just determined i’m going to quit being a victim i’m going to quit letting bitterness and frustration and discouragement get me I want my life to count because of what the Lord’s done and I’ve got to be thankful for anything my parents have done.

I’ve got to quit being discouraged. I’ve got to determine to be excited about what God has for me. Young people, the whole purpose of the fifth commandment was that the nation of Israel would show the world the glory of God.

The whole purpose of the fifth commandment in this dispensation is that every life in this room would be for the glory of God. It will be well with you.

Your life will be long. It will be full. It will be powerful.

The whole purpose here is to glorify God. There’s not, listen, get a hold of it. There’s not one of you that is not very special to God.

You’re uniquely created. He died for you. Jesus will do all that’s needed.

He will meet every need. He’ll make up for anything that has been unjust in your life. He is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

The joy of knowing him is the greatest joy in the world. Honor thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee. Let’s bow for prayer.