Relationships 1: Family
Week of January 19th
This Semester’s Theme…
Last semester we spent our time talking about who
Jesus is – the way he lived when he was on this earth and what exactly that
means to us, all these years later. If
you missed any of that or have questions about who Jesus is, please come talk
to us! We want nothing more than for you
understand the impact of his life, his death and his resurrection from the
grave.
This semester we’re changing gears. We will be
doing short mini-series about different topics that we think are relevant to
YOUR life in Middle/High School. Our hope is that they will make you think,
that they will start some great conversations and that they will help you grow
in your relationship with the Lord.
Our first mini-series is on RELATIONSHIPS. In Genesis 2, right after God makes Adam, he
says, “it is not good for the man to be alone…” (verse 18). You see, from the beginning we were meant to be in relationships with other
people. We were created to be around people beside ourselves!
Family - the Relationship that Started it All
Now before you jump straight to a romantic
relationship (don’t worry we’ll get there in a few weeks), we want to talk
about some of the other important relationships you find yourself in. It only makes sense that we start with the
earthly relationship that started it all, your relationship with your parents.
We all come from different family backgrounds and
make ups (together, separated, divorced, step parents, etc), but regardless we all
have some sort of picture of family. What we may not know is that the bible
actually talks about how we, as believers, are suppose to treat our family,
specifically our parents.
Exodus 20:12
“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may
live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.”
Let’s unpack what’s going on here. God is giving Moses, Aaron, and the Israelites
the Ten Commandments - ten, just ten, commandments for them to keep and to
hold. Don’t have any other Gods before
Him, don’t use his name in vain, keep the Sabbath holy, don’t murder or commit
adultery, don’t steal and don’t covet… also, HONOR your FATHER and your
MOTHER. God thought honoring your father
and mother was important enough to make a list with things like MURDER and
THEFT, so shouldn’t we take it pretty seriously too?
Not only does the bible tell us to honor our parents, it also tells us to obey our parents. That’s right, obeying your parents is a
command of scripture!
Ephesians 6:1-3
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord,
for this is right. ‘Honor your Father and Mother’ - which is the first
commandment with a promise - ‘so that it may go well with you and that you may
enjoy long life on the earth.”
You’ll notice that neither of these passages are
conditional. Never does the bible say
“obey your parents IF…” or “honor
your parents AS LONG AS...” It’s
obey and honor your Father and Mother, period.
No ifs, ands or buts about it.
Now some of you out there may have parents that
aren’t believers, and the question is, do you still honor and obey them? Yes. As a child we are called to respect,
honor and listen to our parents regardless of their beliefs, but don’t stop
there. The bible also calls us to be examples in life, love, faith and purity -
no matter what our age is!
1 Timothy 4:12
“Don’t let anyone look down on your because you are
young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in
faith and in purity.”
It’s important to always remember - believers or
not believers, our parents are sinners too, just like us. Romans
3:23 tells us that “all have sinned
and fallen short of the glory of God,” and that all certainly doesn’t exclude mom and dad! Our parents will mess up, they will do things
that make us mad or make decisions that we don’t understand, but God still
calls us to honor and obey them.
*The only person he calls us to obey above our parents is HIM (not our friends,
our boy/girlfriends, boss, older siblings, etc)!
Acts 5:29 (ESV)
“We must obey God rather than men!”
Conclusion
It may seem silly to spend a whole week at Ozone
talking about our relationship with our parents, but remember that it was
important enough in God’s eyes to include in his top ten commandments, so it should be important to us, too. Our parents are not perfect, just like we are
not perfect, but they have lived longer, experienced more and LOVE US more than
we could possibly understand. God has called us to honor them, and that is our
challenge for you this week. Each of you
will have to decide how you can better honor your parents - not talking back,
helping out around the house, speaking kindly
of them even when they’re not around - there are so many ways that each of us
can grow, and our hope is that this week your relationship with your parents
would begin to look different. Our prayer is that all of your relationships
- parents, friends, significant others - with both believers and non-believers,
would be centered and focused on Christ first
and foremost. Let’s start this week with our parents, and we’ll pick up next
week with our friends.
Other
Misc. Resources
- Honor (v): to regard with great respect.
- Proverbs 1:8 “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your
mother’s teaching…”
- It is difficult not to address students with
parents that are absent - a very real reality for some of our kids. If you feel like it would be beneficial
for your group to hear about that topic, then feel free to add…
- John 1:12-13
“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who
believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God -
children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a
husband’s will, but born of God.”
- Hebrews 12: 7- 10 “God is treating you as sons.
For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are
left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are
illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly
fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more
be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for
a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our
good, that we may share his holiness…”
- Proverbs 30:17 “the eye that mocks a father,
that scorns an aged mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the
valley, will be eaten by the vultures.”
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