7th November 2025

7th November 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Exodus 20:12)


Message (Alan Burke)


I’m going to give you a list of some sins and think about them briefly. Envy, now that is a a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else's possessions, qualities, or luck. Murder we might see this more egregious than envy, I’d say most people would. Strife, you know someone who is always in disagreement, whom there is always conflict with. So envy and strife we might but on a similar footing but murder is still more egregious, what about haters of God? Well in society that isn’t really that big of a thing but in scripture well you face the eternal consequences but let’s say we did a pole it would probably fall below envy and strife then murder on top. Ok how about this, those who are disobedient to their parents? You might be thinking come on now, that’s not really a big deal, sure all of us have been disobedient to our parents at some point, but what I have in mind is a continual disobedience, what then? It’s probably not seen as that much of a big deal. But go read Romans 1:28-32 and the Lord lists disobedience to parents along with evil, envy, murder, strife, deceit, gossip, slanderers, haters of God, inventors of evil. We are told that these things along with others are wickedness. 


There Paul was making it clear that when people reject God that he hands people over to their sin. In 2 Timothy 3:1-5 we are again told how the Lord hands people over to their sin and those who disobey their parents are included. There is a gravity in this command that we might want to ignore or diminish but there is also a wonderful promise that is given in this command as God commands his people to honour their father and their mother, the reason he gives is “so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.”


What then does that mean for us? Does that mean that we honour our father and mother and we will get our three score and ten or many another twenty or thirty on top of that? Well not that is not what we are promised, rather here what is being conveyed to us is that abundant life, a life that is well lived, a life that is good. Think of the practicalities of this, of honouring, of obeying our parents and I’ll be talking to the boys and girls about this on Sunday. But why did our parents tell us to tie our shoe lace or brush our teeth? I hope I don’t need to draw out the answer for you. Why were we told no? Why were we told not to do that? Well it might have been because our parents were horrid, or that they wanted a quite life because we were playing that stupid recorder in their ear but more often than not it was because they were doing the best for us. Like there was a reason I was not allowed a motorbike at 17 and at the time I was not happy but I’m here because my father and mother knew my heart better than I did and rolling a Vauxhall Corsa three times is testament to that, if it had have been a motorbike I’d have not been here.  


Many of us wish that we could go back, that with hindsight we’d have brushed our teeth better, we’d have worked hard at school, we’d have avoided the trouble we got in. You see that practically as you think through this that if we had honoured our parents as we should then we would have avoided much hurt that we have faced and life may have been very different. God gives his people, he gives us this commandment because it is good for us. In truth though none of us have kept the commandment, knowing that we have failed, knowing our sinfulness should drive us to him, to look to what he has done for in him there is forgiveness from all our sin, remembered, forgotten, even that which we are blind to and didn’t even know was sinful. Know the grace of God, for Grace comes first and then when we know that grace do we seek to live in new obedience to him, for if we love him we keep his commandments even though we do that imperfectly we can be thankful that he kept the law of God perfectly for us. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q13 Did our first parents continue in the estate wherein they were created?
A. Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate wherein they were created, by sinning against God.
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