Fifth Commandment

We are entering the moral laws this morning. The Ten Commandments are broken up into what we call the two tables, the two parts, the first four focusing on God and how we worship Him, the last six on how we treat one another. We're looking at the moral law that really anyone should be able to look at and say, these are good because anyone could look at them and say, I don't want someone to steal from me. Even the thief doesn't like to be stolen from. Anyone could look at them and say, I don't want to be cheated on. Even the adulterer doesn't want to be cheated on. Everyone would say we do not want to be murdered. We're entering the moral laws, and I want to make something very clear as we enter into these moral laws, because they can be somewhat dangerous. I in no way feel called to preach mere morality or manners. Because I think it's extremely dangerous. Because if I just teach and preach mere manners and mere morality, you'll build up self-confidence. You'll build up self-righteousness. And you will never realize your sin, your need for Christ, your need for His death, for your sin, your need to believe in His resurrection. So, as we look at these morals, we must first look at the Gospel. We must first see that we are called out to be God's children from our sin and then called to obedience. Obedience doesn't make us any more lovable. We are unlovely. It's only because Christ dies for us that we're forgiven. We can actually see this in Ephesians. This epistle is modeled after the gospel, then obedience. The first three chapters are all about how the father has chosen you. The son has died for you. The spirit sealed you. You were dead and you were made alive. And then chapter four begins, this is how you shall live. And it's interesting, all six of the moral commands from the Ten Commandments, are listed there in Ephesians 4-6. It's after we've been saved that we're called to obedience. It's after Christ has called us out that we seek to obey Him and worship Him. This morning, we're looking to the particular command, the fifth, Exodus 20, chapter 12. Honor your father and your mother. that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. We're looking at the fifth command that focuses upon your relationship to your parents, the family, the centerpiece of God's covenant with Israel. And we're going to be considering this command in light of Jesus Christ. Here's a summary statement of the message, but it doesn't capture everything I'm going to say. Here's a summary statement. God calls us to worship him. by honoring others. God calls us to worship him by honoring others. And the most important relationship in which we honor is the parent-child. The family is the fabric of society. As the family goes, so goes the country. As the family goes, so goes the church. Families are central to God's plan of how we relate to one another. The most basic family dynamics. How does a husband love his wife? How does a wife allow her husband to lead and encourage him to do so? And how do the parents train up their children? Let's turn to the fifth commandment and let's see. There are three parts. There's the command. Honor your father and your mother. Honor your parents. Then there's a purpose. So that you may live long in the land. And then implied as a third part, it's based upon the promise that God has promised Israel land. So there's three parts. There's the command, there's the purpose, and there's the implied, there's the promise of land. First, the imperative, the command, honor your father and your mother. A few initial comments here. Honor is personal. You honor people. Friends must honor one another. You can't have a friendship where there is not a mutual honor between the two of you. It's essential to any relationship that you honor, you look up to, you respect, you value that other person. Honor is personal. Secondly, honor is preferential. You defer to the other. You honor them. You are giving preference to their desires, their purposes. Honor is also positional. You honor those who have authority over you. That's why children are called to honor their parents. Honor is practical. It changes the way you live. Honor must change the way, if you're not doing something different towards their relationship, you're not really honoring them. So, honor, what does it mean to honor? The word usually is actually translated to be heavy. When you honor someone, you're treating them with a great weight. You're treating them with a great authority. You're recognizing that they are significant and important. You're giving them weight. You're giving them authority. We already see what your parents tell you has weight. What your parents tell you is important because God said it was important. There's already some application here. Children who are living under their parents' authority, when your parents ask you to do something, you do it because they said so. Their words have weight, and we can go deeper. You do it because they said so, because God said what they say matters. It means you listen and seek their wisdom and instruction. You resist the temptation that boils up to challenge what your parents say. You give them the benefit of the doubt. Now, your job as a child or a teenager is not to question your parents' authority. While that is the temptation, that indeed is not what you are called to do. You're to honor them. You're to learn to submit to authority. This is not just a call to children, though. We typically think of this in that a child honors their mother and father. This is for everyone. Anyone who has parents, which is everyone I'm looking at. Everyone is called to honor their father and mother. It looks different, obviously, when you're five and then when you're 10 and when you're 18 and 25 and 30 and 40 and 50. But it's a call for everyone. It's a call to ask your parents what they think. To trust what they say is good. To not be suspicious of it, but to be trusting. Now, it's not blind obedience. If your parents are telling you to do something that is contrary to scripture, obviously you weigh it, but you never treat it as light. We must seek to trust our parents. And this is important because we live in a culture that lacks honor. Pop culture, which is young person's culture, it's a youth culture. It wants to throw off honor. It's expected that you rebel. It's expected you do not honor. So we need to be careful as we look at this and we see that honor is a high calling. The second part of the command, the purpose that you will have long days. You will have many days. And really, this symbolizes prosperity. This, for the Israelite, is prosperity. If you honor your mother and father, you will prosper. And prospering is having many days in God's land. If this were said in America in 1930, it would be said it this way. You would have a car in the garage and a chicken in the pot. That was the idea of prosperity. That was the promise of a president. That America, all Americans, would be prosperous. To live long and to have children. This was the Israelite dream. It's interesting as we compare the Old Testament and the New Testament as to what is the great ideal. The Old Testament talks a lot about living long days and having many children. The New Testament doesn't talk about that a lot. On the contrary, the New Testament talks a lot about the afterlife. The New Testament talks a lot about heaven and hell. There's so much detail about the afterlife and the New Testament where the Old Testament, both heaven and hell are described with the same word, Sheol. There's a great transformation that takes place between the old and the new. The old is focused on the here and now, the long life with many children. The New Testament, the new covenant changes things. There's a great emphasis on the new heavens and the new earth. There's a great focus and interest in death and life after death. Let's go to the third part. The promise. I will give you land. I will give you many days in the land. The assumption there is that God is giving them a land. Now, this is all tied to what we've been studying in Exodus for a long time. Israel, they were slaves in Egypt. And God said, I'm going to take you out. And he wasn't just going to free them from slavery, he was going to put them in his special place, his appointed land. Everything is about taking them out, making them a people, and putting them in a land. This land is part of the redemption that is the bigger picture of Exodus. They're out of Egypt, out of slavery, and into a new land. Now, we're not the nation of Israel. We haven't just been saved from Egypt, Now, our redemption is much greater. Our redemption is from sin. Our rescue is from death and God's judgment and hell. As Christ's redemption is greater than Moses, so is our promise. Again, the New Testament doesn't really bring back the promise of land. Rather, the focus of the New Testament is on the new Jerusalem. We're not citizens anywhere on this earth. We're citizens of heaven. We're citizens of the new Jerusalem. We're citizens of Zion. We're not supposed to call anywhere here home. We're supposed to long for where Christ is and what he is establishing for us there. In short, Christ coming, it not only changes the day of worship, hinting back to last week's sermon, it changes how we worship and where we worship. Now, what did this command mean to Israel? This command was a very important command for Israel. We can see that in Exodus 21, 17. If a child curses his mother or father, he will be put to death. This is a serious command. Secondly, the family unit was everything in the Old Covenant. Honoring your parents was an essential aspect of the covenant because parents were supposed to pass the law down to their children. And the honoring of parents was the essential way in which a parent did this. The most important verse in all of the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 6.4, Hear O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. Right after that it gives instruction. Parents, you will be teaching. Fathers, teach your children. The honoring of parents is essential to the passing down of the law. Now, sadly, the parents never obeyed the law, never taught the law, and the children followed them. There's a number of implications and applications that we can look at for this, for Israel, and we're still just thinking about what this means for Israel. The first implication and application would be that young children are to recognize the authority that God has given their parents. Listen to them, submit to them, obey them, even cheer them on in their leadership. Now, I typically want to save all application for the end, but since it's going to be a long sermon, as always, no longer than normal. I don't think. I'm not going to give the children's application now, and I want to say I actually relied upon many sources within the church. I did not honor my parents until I was late in my twenties. I was not converted until later in life and I regret it. And so I have asked others to help me know how they honor their parents. And so here for young children under your parents roof, which is how we're going to define under your parents authority. This is for you. To honor your parents means you receive what they say to you with weight. It's not easily thrown off. You don't discredit it. You don't dismiss it. You receive it with weight. The simplest way that we try to teach this in our home is to say what you need to obey quickly, fully, and happily. As I know another family says, slow obedience is no obedience. To obey means you obey quickly. When your parents tell you to do something, you don't drag your feet. You don't procrastinate. You obey as quickly as possible. That means on Saturday, if your parents ask you to do the laundry, even though you think it may be a Sabbath, it's not. To obey fully. You give them your utmost attention. You do your best job. when they ask you to do something. Now, happily, this is the hardest one. I recognize that. To be asked to obey happily, I picture it's kind of like Luke being told by Yoda, lift up your X-wing with a force. He's never used a force before. He has no idea how to do this. And it's an impossible task. You can make yourself be happy. You can choose to be happy. It's called self-control. You have power over your emotions. They do not have to rule you. Further, a way to honor your parents. We obey them quickly, fully, and happily. More so, love them. This is one of the most interesting comments I had from folks to tell me, how do you honor your parents? You love them. It means you appreciate them. It's so simple. Because, as we'll see, you either love or you hate them. That's your choice. You either let love and honor and appreciation rule your relationship with them, or you let your anger towards them and their right to rule over you. Their right to give you instruction. If you reject their wisdom, it's essentially hating them. An application of this, guard your tongue, guard your tongue, do not let words of anger or bitterness, do not let grumbling come from your mouth, but as they instruct you, honor them. Another way to honor them, have a high regard for their intention. Don't second guess their intention for you when they tell you to do something and you may not like it initially. Trust their intention. Trust that what they're doing for you is for your good. Secondly, have a high regard for their wisdom. Trust they actually know more than you because they do know more than you. I appreciated this application. Encourage them. Encourage your parents to lead you. As I thought about what this looks like, my immediate thought was, yeah, it'd be nice if children weren't cats, they were more like sheep. You can't herd cats. You can't get them to gather and get them moving in the same direction. Sheep are fairly easy, so the application here would be a sheep, not a cat. Follow your parents. Be eager to learn, be easy to lead. If your father is trying to bring about it and have a discipline of family devotions, be quick to the table with your Bible. Further, your parents are trying to be good examples. Model your life after them, try to reflect them. This is what Jesus, how Jesus defined his sonship. Whatever I hear the father saying, that's what I'm saying. Whatever I see the father doing, that's what I'm doing. This is what sonship is. This is what being a child is. You follow their example. Honor them when they fail. This is extremely important. Honor them when they fail. Your parents are sinners. They're going to fail. Honor them when they fail. Be quick to forgive. and respect them for their attempt to lead you well. So I know that many in here, as I've tried to lift a high bar of what it looks like to honor your saying this entire time, but pastor, you don't know my parents are like. You don't know what my parents say to me and what they do to me. Friend, I want you to know that I want you to come and talk to me, talk to Chip, the man who was leading the service, talk to Pastor Sam. Do not leave this building if you feel like what your parents are doing to you removes your ability to honor them. If you're in danger, we want to help you. We will do whatever we can to protect you. Moving on from children, the second implication and application It's for the young adult. This is for those who aren't immediately under the roof. This is oftentimes folks who have gotten married. They have left their home and they have cleaved to a new spouse. You have a new authority structure. The authority your parents have over you has changed, but your call to honor them has not. You still listen. You still seek out wisdom. You still receive it with weight. The third implication is still for the adult. And this is actually, I think, one of the primary important implications and applications of honoring your mother and father. It's for the adult who has parents who are elderly. You are called to care for your parents in their old age in the same way that they were called to care for you in your young age. Parents, adults, if you have Parents who are elderly and aging, you have the responsibility of their well-being. We'll look at that later in First Timothy five. If a widow has children, it's their primary responsibility to care for them. And then if not, it's our responsibility. As a church. Your parents are under your care when they are not able to care for themselves. As we look at what it means for the implication application for Israel, now let's ask what does it mean for us as citizens of Zion? We're going to ask our basic questions again. Is the command rejected in the New Testament? Does the New Testament anywhere reject the command to honor your mother and father? Not explicitly. We're going to look at some pretty radical things Jesus says about the family, but I do not believe there's any evidence of this command being rejected in the New Testament. On the contrary, I believe it is upheld, which leads us to our second question. Is the command restated to be continued in the New Testament? Yes, it is. Ephesians 6, 1. Children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother. This is a commandment with a promise that it may go well with you, that you may live long in the land. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. We can also look at Colossians 3 20. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Jesus upholds the command in his teaching in Matthew 15, 3 and 4, Mark 7, 10 through 13. So it's very nice and clear. It's repeated. This is one of those commands that's repeated for us. It's fantastic because it lets us know this is continuing on, but we haven't gotten to the real pressing, hard question yet. How did Jesus Fulfill this command. Well, one way he fulfills it, Jesus always honored Mary and Joseph. We know this because Jesus is sinless. And if Jesus is sinless, that means he always honored his physical parents, his Joseph, not his biological father, but the one who was given the responsibility of him and Mary. Secondly, Jesus is God's Son and He honored His Heavenly Father. John 5 said this, as Chip read it earlier. And this is extremely important. The Son of the Father in the Trinity, He perfectly obeyed everything the Father said. He perfectly did what the Father sent Him to do. This is important for us because this is the Gospel. That is essential to the Gospel. Because that perfect Son died as if a sinner, that perfect son died for our sins so that the wrath of God would no longer be upon us in our sin, but the wrath of God be transferred over to him so that he paid the penalty. He died for us so that when we believe in him, we'll be forgiven and we'll share in his resurrection. But it's here that Jesus is clearly a an obedient and honoring son of the father. Third. If we look to how he fulfills the commandment, we need to look at these radical statements. And I want to say it again. As we read these radical statements that Jesus says about the family, these are even more radical to the original hearers than to us because they already had an idea of what it means to honor, which I'm not sure we truly have. The first is Luke 8, beginning in Luke 8, verse 19. Jesus claims that those who believe the gospel are his family. Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. And he was told, your mother and your brothers are standing outside desiring to see you. But he answered them, my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. This is this is a radical changing of categories. His mother and his brothers, Mary and his other brothers, they're there. He knows who they are. They are his physical descendants. And he will continue to care for Mary. Mary remains his physical mother. On the cross, he gives orders for how Mary will be cared for in her old age, honoring her. He introduces a radical change of categories. My brother and my brother are those who hear the word of God and do it. And as we saw in James, this is defining the people of faith. Those who believe that he is the Messiah. Those are his mother and brother. This is getting to the fact that Jesus has come to adopt us into his family. It gets a little more radical. You can turn to Luke 14. Jesus claims that to be his disciple, you must love him first and foremost. You must prioritize your affections for him and honor him above everyone else, including your own family. A repeated phrase here, as you will listen to it, you can he cannot be my disciple. He cannot be my disciple. Beginning in verse 25, now great crowds accompanied him and he turned and said to them, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish it, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any of you who does not renounce all that he has, he cannot be my disciple. We want to focus here is if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and his own mother, his own wife and his children, they can't be his disciple. There's a radical teaching here. In order to understand it, let's look at another passage, Luke 10, I'm sorry, Matthew 10, Matthew 10, beginning in verse 34. Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword for I've come to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother. And a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. We see an important interpretation here. I believe that's helpful for the Luke passage. To hate and to love is to say, I choose you not, and I choose you. Hating and loving is choice language. You don't fall in love, you choose to love. You choose to hate. That's why, children, you're responsible for your emotions and your actions. Here Jesus is saying, you have to make the intentional choice that you will choose me above everything else you love and love me most. You will choose me over everything else you honor and honor me most, even your own life. Christ claims to have a priority over the family. This is radical. First, this is radical because Jesus is claiming to be God. By saying this, he's claiming to be God. The first four commandments are about honoring God and worshiping Him as God. You will have no other God before me. You will honor Him alone. The fifth commandment, you will honor your father and mother. The only way you could claim to have more authority than a father and mother is if you're God. And I believe Jesus is making that claim. Second, part of this claim, Claiming that there is a father who sends his son who obeys and honors the father. The father and the son, they are the preeminent family. They are the model. They are the perfect family. I believe we can see this in Ephesians 3.14. For this reason, Paul says, I bow my knees before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. The family of God, the father and son in the Godhead, they are preeminent. They are perfect. They're the archetype of which we are built. Now, some people will say, no, God just uses the language built from our families to talk about himself. No, he is perfectly father. The son is perfectly son and we reflect them. This is important because he's the father that never fails. He's a father that never forsakes us. It's important, such as the doctrine of marriage. The marriage that we share, that is only reflecting the real marriage of the Christ, the bridegroom and the church, the bride. As I've wrestled with this family, it reminded me of the wrestling I had to have with the fact that there's no marriage in heaven. That was one of the doctrines that Christ clearly teaches that I had the hardest time with. I love my wife. I want to be married to her in heaven. But then I had to realize what takes place in heaven must be even better. What Christ is introducing here is better. The family he's bringing us into is better. Which brings us to the third point that I think Christ is making here in these radical statements of the family. Your most important family is now the one you have been adopted into by the Son and by the Spirit. Your most important identity is as a son of God, and you are only a son of God by faith in Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit that cries out in your heart, Abba, Father. This is the most important relationship you have. This is the most important identifier. This is the most important family you belong to. It takes precedence. That means that when your father instructs you, you obey quickly, you obey fully and you obey happily. If you're a Christian, there are different families that you have. First, there's a family that you've been called to. This is the divine family. You are now a son of God in Christ. There's your church family. You're called to be a brother and sister to others who have been adopted. In Christ. And finally, there's the home family, you're called to be a Christian spouse and parent and child, and we must have all these in proper place. The most important family is that in which you have been adopted into. God is your father. Christ is your brother. You are a son. The real tension is how the other two function, the church family and the home family, the brothers and sisters who are here and the spouses and children and siblings and parents. Christ introduces a major shift, but it does not deny the family. We're not going to become shakers. Shakers are a religious group that said there's just the one church family. There's no there's no reason for your home family anymore. And that group clearly and quickly died off. We're also going to go the other stream, that our home is our church. No, we gather as brothers and sisters, all from different families. There's a number of reasons why we see, actually, I think the home family is still, takes precedent over the church family. There's a couple passages that actually hint towards this very clearly. The first one is a call for elders. In order to be an elder, you have to first manage your home well. Now, that's a prerequisite because it's the family you're most responsible for immediately. If you can't handle them, how could you handle the more? It's an additional responsibility. But also, I think it shows that that family takes precedent. If you can't manage your family well while managing the family of God well, the church family well, you resign to make sure you're caring for your home family well. Another helpful verse is 1 Timothy 5. There is clearly an important focus that children have the primary responsibility for their family and then the church has a responsibility. The responsibility of the immediate family, the home family, takes precedence. That doesn't mean we don't take seriously our calling to the brothers and sisters. Let me talk about that before we go into the home family. If you look at honoring, we are to honor our mother and father. We're also called to honor one another. As I said, you must honor your friends. You must honor your brothers and sisters. Romans 12 has been an extremely helpful passage. Verse 10. I'll begin in verse 9. Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. There you see, we've all been adopted together. We're supposed to love one another in Christ. Outdo one another in showing honor. Honor in the Greek is a little different than the weight. It says have value. It has worth. We are to show one another that they are valuable, that they have worth. We're supposed to be outdoing one another in this. Now, here's the real the real key to Christian honor. The world honors people because of what they do. The world honors individuals because of what they do for them and how they accomplish things. That's not why Christians honor one another. We honor one another because of what Christ has done in each of us. Our honoring one another is completely based upon the fact that Christ has purchased each of us with his precious blood. That's what gives us worth and value. We're not utilitarian. We don't honor more those who who do things for us. No, our honor is primarily and focus upon what Christ has done for each of us. We value them because of who Christ has said they are. We must recognize that we are all forgiven, we're all called to serve one another up, we're all called and set apart by God for his glory. This is important because the way you live this out is by modeling Christ. You honor one another by seeking others above yourself, by seeking others' interests above your own. This is what you're supposed to be doing on the Lord's Day as you fellowship with the saints. We actually have a beautiful picture of this in the Lord's Supper. We're all going to take this together. Families aren't going to huddle around and serve it just within themselves. No, we're all going to take it. I really wish we had the one piece of bread that you break to symbolize the oneness of the body. And I have to be honest, it's my fault that we don't do that yet because I'm a germaphobe. But the Lord illuminated my desire for this and saying, what is set up sanitizing lotion stations throughout the church so we can do this? But it's a beautiful picture. To break off the one piece of the bread represents the body, because we are all the one body of Christ whose body was broken for us. It's a unity. We value one another because we value what Christ has done for each of us. Now, let's turn to the family, the home family relationships. We've discussed this for the children. Let me talk to the parents. You're to be training your children up to honor you. You're to be training your children up to honor you. And so I ask, what is your attitude towards authority figures? Your children's attitude towards other is going to reflect your attitude towards authority figures. Do you come home and complain about your boss? Do you come home and complain about your employees? Your attitude is going to be reflected in your children. Training up the child. Do you want your child to love and respect your wife? If they're not, it may be because they don't see you doing it. Wives, do you want your children to respect and honor your husband? If they're not, it may be because you're not doing it. They reflect what we do more than what we say. We are responsible for our children. We are called to train them. We all love the proverb that sounds very much like a promise. Proverbs 22, 6, train up a child in the way he should go. Even when he is old, he will not depart from it. It's interesting, someone just pointed out to me that the context of this parable is actually in the midst of a bunch of warning parables, which means maybe we should read this as a warning rather than a proverbial promise. And we'll go like this. If you train your child up to only do what he wants to do, that's what he's going to do. If you train your child to not honor and respect authority, your child will grow up to be a monster. What you're doing is training your child. If you're training them to do what they want to do, that is creating someone who never learns to trust and respect other's authority. It's interesting, when Christ teaches them to love, they're the greatest commandments. Love God, love your neighbor as yourself. The assumption is that you love yourself. That's what we should always assume. Our children naturally love themselves. That's the nature of sin. We love ourselves. What we're supposed to be doing as parents is teaching them not to just love themselves, but to love others. Consider others as more worthy of their affection and their attention. We must learn to discipline our own affections and model this for them. Another application, adults with living parents. Are you planning with your parents how they will live well in their later years? This is your responsibility. Again, I believe this is one of the clearest implications and applications of what honoring meant. It's not the government's job to take care of your parents. It's not a nursing home's job to take care of your parents. It's your responsibility. It will be a blessing for you if you take care of your parents. It's your responsibility. Now, let me talk to the elderly. You have to let us care for you. You have to let us know as a church if your children aren't caring for you. You have to let us know how to best care for you in your latter years, because that is our conviction and what we want to do, because Scripture clearly tells us to do it. Children, obey quickly, obey fully, obey happily. Trust the parent that God has given authority over you. Trust their intention. Trust their wisdom. As we all looked at this, I hope you have the same conviction I have. Just overwhelmed. That's why I'd ask others, what does it look like to honor your parents? I'm guilty. I have broken this commandment. And without Christ, God's wrath would be upon me and upon all of us for breaking this commandment and every other commandment. God is just, God is holy, God is righteous. That's why we need to first recognize Christ as our Savior and then our Lord and Master, who calls us again, even a higher calling to obey those who are in authority over us. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we praise you. We praise you for your allowing us to call you Father and know you in that intimate and personal way. We praise you that you sent us your Son to give us new life and a new identity. We praise you for inviting us in to be in your family. Help us to rejoice in you. And what you've done for us, help us to rejoice in the families you've given us with our spouses, our children, our parents, help us to love them and care for them. Well, help us to rejoice in the family, the church you've given us. Help us to stir one another up. To be to quickly shake off the sin that entangles us and to love you more. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray, amen.