This is “The Blessing of Showing Honor”. To hear more inspiring messages from Jentezen Franklin, visit http://jentezenfranklin.org/watch?cid… & subscribe to this channel: http://goo.gl/yfkXHy
♪ ♪
>> I want to wish a very,
very happy Mother’s Day
to all of the wonderful
mothers watching.
I want to say
Happy Mother’s Day to
my own mom, Katie Franklin.
She’s an amazing woman of God
and mother, and to my wife,
Cherise, mother of
our five children.
Now I can’t believe
I’ve got two of my own
daughters who are mothers
of our precious grandchildren!
Aren’t we blessed?
And thank God for our mothers,
and this message is going
to build your faith
and encourage you
in amazing ways.
Open your heart and let
God speak to you today,
and I’ll come back
and pray with you in just
a moment.
♪ ♪
>> If you have your Bibles,
I’d like for you to open
them with me to the
Book of Ephesians,
Ephesians 6.
We’ll begin reading
with Verse 2.
I’m going to read it off
of the screen, just like you.
Everybody out loud, “Honor
your father and mother,”
which is the first commandment
with promise:
“that it may be well with you
and you may live long
on the earth.”
That’s it.
“Honor your father
and your mother,”
and then He adds a blessing.
Of course, it is one
of the top ten commandments.
Out of all of the things
that God could have said,
“This matters the most to
Me about,” one of them is,
“You shall honor your
father and your mother.”
You say, “Well, Pastor, what’ll
happen if I’ll do that?”
The Bible is very clear.
It’s the only commandment
that comes with a promise.
He said that you will live long
and your life will
be full of blessing.
We equate blessing only to money
and stuff like that – no,
no, no, no, no.
Blessing means that there
is the help of God no matter
what life brings –
good, bad, or ugly.
The blessing never leaves
that house, and He said
it’s connected how you
honor God – listen carefully.
How you treat and honor God
is connected, and God says,
“As you honor your parents,
you honor Me.”
“Well, Pastor,
you don’t understand.
My parents are flawed.”
Well, that’s funny,
because every parent is flawed.
Your parents are flawed,
their parents were flawed.
If you’re a parent now,
you’re definitely flawed,
and when your children
become parents,
they’re going to be flawed.
And God designed it that way,
that there are no
perfect parents,
and that way there’s no excuse
to not honor the position
that they have given you,
even if you don’t feel like
you can honor the person.
The second reason that you ought
to honor them is because
you would not be alive
without them.
God chose them to be the method
through which you would come
into this world.
God used their DNA to make you.
In Psalms 139:13, it puts it
like this, and Verse 16,
I’m going to combine
them together.
“God knit me together
in my mother’s womb,
and He recorded every day
of my life before I was born.”
God had a plan for your life
and God understood
that you would not be you
if any other two human beings,
your mother and your father,
had not been who they were
and not gotten together.
It would not uniquely
have created you.
You would have been
someone else.
You wouldn’t be you without
your father and your mother.
There are no accidental babies.
There are accidental parents,
there are illegitimate parents,
but there are no accidental,
illegitimate children.
Your parents may not have
planned you, but God did.
That’s what the Bible teaches.
[Applause]
“Well, why did God give me
the parents that He gave me?”
Because they had the exact
DNA needed to create you –
no other two individuals,
the exact chromosome
and DNA to create you.
That’s why you should
honor them.
That alone is a reason.
God was more interested
in creating you than
their parental skills.
God was more interested
in that than He was…you know,
I tell a story sometimes.
I’m not going to take time
to do it, but it’s the truth
that sometimes some of you
may say, “Well, I can’t honor
my dad because he was never
in my life,” or,
“I can’t honor my mother
because she was
a terrible mother.”
But please understand
that sometimes God will give you
a parent and He trusted them
to get you here,
but not carry you through life.
Because had they stayed
with you, they would have
taken you into all kinds
of addiction, pain,
sorrow, or whatever.
And so, but God said,
“I so want you uniquely to
be here, I need these DNAs
and I’ve planned every day
of your life.”
We’re not all moms,
but we all had a mom,
and the Bible said if you
had a mom, you are the one
that is required,
one of God’s top ten,
to honor your mother.
How do I honor my mother
the rest of my life?
Three quick ways,
a real simple message.
See, in life, you have stages.
You have childhood,
where you honor your mother
one way, and then you move up
into young adulthood –
teenage, late teenage,
and young adulthood.
You begin to relate to
your mother in a different way
and honor your mother
and your father in
a different way.
And then, finally,
there’s adult to adult.
As your mother or your father,
or both, get older,
you relate to them
in a different way.
So, how do I honor my mother
all the days of my life?
Well, when you’re a child,
you honor your father
and your mother
by obeying them.
Don’t say, “I honor
my father and my mother.
I love my father and mother.”
You honor them when
you are in their household
by obeying them,
following instructions
willfully.
You do it cheerfully.
You do it immediately.
And the more you obey them
when you’re living
in their house,
the more you honor them.
Listen to this verse,
Ephesians 6:1.
“Children, obey your parents:
this is right.”
“This is the right thing to do
because God has placed them
in authority over you,”
one translation says.
They’re in authority over you.
One of the greatest life skills
that we must teach our children
is to respect authority.
There are three God-ordained
authorities that God
has established Himself,
and if anyone wants
to have a miserable,
unsuccessful life,
then you break these three
God-ordained authorities
and disrespect them,
and do not obey them,
and you will be a failure.
In some way major,
it will catch up
with you and be miserable.
What are those three
ordained authorities?
God has put authority
in the home – that is
the father, that is the mother.
God has put authority
in the church,
spiritual authority,
and you cannot – you cannot do
just any way you want to with
the authority of God’s Word
and with spiritual authority.
And then, in government,
God has established authority –
the authority of government,
that if you can’t respect
the person,
you respect the position
and you show honor.
You show honor.
We must teach our children
honor in the home, honor
in the school to teachers.
Even if the teacher is a jerk
or the policeman is a jerk,
you show honor
to the position.
It’s government, it’s home,
and it’s church.
Honor, honor your parents
by obeying them.
And then, secondly,
when you begin to deal
in the teenage years
and young adult years,
you honor your parents
differently than just everything
they tell you to do, you do it,
because you’re beginning
to get out, especially
when you start leaving
their home.
So, how do you honor your
parents at that level?
You honor them,
listen carefully,
by respecting them.
The number one thing then,
and they will try to
do to teenagers and to young
adults, is get them
to disrespect their parents.
Leviticus 19:3, “Each of you
must respect his
mother and father.”
Hebrews 12:9, “We respect
our parents.”
Even when we don’t agree with
them, even when we don’t agree
with what they’re saying,
you show incredible respect,
and God says, “I honor you
when you honor your parents.”
To respect your parents
doesn’t mean you don’t see
their weaknesses.
As a matter of fact,
the older that you grow
with your parents,
the more that you will realize
they’re flawed human beings,
just like you are.
And if you’re a teenager,
that’s all you see
is their flaws.
God says, “Respect them,
forgive them,
and show honor to them.”
Accepting and forgiving,
that’s how you honor them.
Accept your parents –
the good, the bad, the ugly.
“Well, why should
I respect them?
Why should I respect her?
Why should I respect him?
He left me,” this, that,
and the other.
“I didn’t have a choice for them
to be my parents,
Pastor Franklin.”
Well, here’s a big revelation –
neither did they have a choice
of you being their child.
They didn’t have a choice in
what they were getting, either.
Respect means accepting
and forgiving,
and if you want it,
you’ve got to give it.
We don’t diss them.
We don’t disrespect them.
But we honor them,
especially in the teenage years,
especially in the young adult –
late teen, young adult years –
by listening to them.
Proverbs 13:1,
“Intelligent children listen
to their parents;
foolish children
do their own thing.”
Going into young adulthood,
I’m not bound,
if I’m out on my own,
to follow the instructions
of everything my parents
tell me,
but I am bound to listen
carefully to them.
Even if they’re not
living right,
even if they’re terrible
in their own life
and it’s a disaster,
I believe and I’ve seen
that most of the time,
the parental instinct,
even if they’re not making
wise choices for themselves –
the parental instinct
for their children is right.
What they’re telling you,
even a heathen or somebody
crazy and done all kinds
of stupid stuff and made
mistakes, when they tell you,
as the child, they’re usually
telling you out of their
own pain and experience,
“Don’t do that.”
And even a broken clock
is right twice a day.
[Laughter]
Just because your mom and dad
didn’t have it all together
doesn’t mean that you are not
supposed to listen
ever to anything they say.
Proverbs 23:22, “Listen
to your father’s advice,
and don’t despise your mother’s
experience in life.”
God gave you your parents
for a purpose.
The older they get
and the older you get,
and when they start getting up
in life, there are ways that
you show honor differently
from just obeying
and respecting.
Number one, when your
parents are getting older,
you honor them by
appreciating them.
Proverbs 28:22,
“When your mother is old,
show her your appreciation.”
Appreciate your mother
in two ways.
Number one,
appreciate their effort.
Parenting is difficult.
Parenting is demanding.
Parenting is time consuming.
Have you ever thought how
much easier your parents’ life
would have been if
they hadn’t had you?
[Laughter]
It costs – the latest
statistic, and this is actually
about three years old,
is all I could find.
It costs, to raise a child
to 18 years of age,
before college, $249,000
per child, average –
to clothe them, to feed them,
to take care of them.
$249,000 per child –
that is before college
and before they move back
into your house.
Amen.
[Laughter]
One of the most unselfish
decisions a human being
will ever make is to
become a parent.
They’re giving up…
think of the car they
could have had.
Think of the stuff
they could have had,
but they chose you.
So, honor your father
and your mother.
Appreciate the effort.
[Applause]
The definition of a parent,
according to
“Webster’s Dictionary,”
is someone who has a photo
where they used to have money.
I made that up,
but it’s the truth.
[Laughter]
It’s unselfish.
Proverbs 23:25,
this is a powerful verse.
If you don’t get nothing else
out of this sermon,
you ought to get this verse.
“Give your parents joy!
May she who gave you
birth be happy.”
Are you doing that?
Are you doing your best
of your ability?
You say, “Well, how do you give
your parents joy?”
Well, if they’re Christians,
I can tell you.
It’s not in anything you can
achieve in this world.
The Bible put it like this.
John said, “I have no greater
joy than to know my children
walk in truth.”
That text says –
everybody out loud,
“Give your father
and mother joy!
May she who gave you birth
be happy.”
Clap your hands if you would
say Amen at every campus.
That’s the truth.
That’s the truth.
[Applause]
As we get older,
not only do we appreciate
their effort, but we are
to provide for our elderly
parents all that they need.
It’s sad that in
western culture,
we’re the only culture
that doesn’t honor people
as they get older
like we should.
The Asian culture
is totally the opposite.
The most honored person
who will show up in a gathering
is the elder.
They will all give up that seat,
and put that person,
and make a big deal
about that person.
In Middle Eastern culture,
it’s exactly the same.
In African culture, they honor
the elderly more than any.
But only in western culture,
in America, the older you are
the less you are respected
and valued.
And in western culture,
we put emphasis on the younger
and we forget about the older,
and look where that has
brought us to as a culture.
What I’m saying to you is value,
and esteem,
and respect the elderly,
especially aged parents.
Stay in touch with them.
Appreciate them
and provide for them.
See, what happens is as
they get older,
the roles reverse.
You can’t just say,
“Take care of yourself.”
That’s not what
a Christian does.
You are responsible.
You and the siblings have
to get together and take care,
and it’s not have to,
you want to.
They took care of you,
and now you are
to take care of them.
That’s natural, that’s normal,
and that is exactly
what the Bible teaches.
To not do it is to not honor
your father or your mother.
1 Timothy 5:8 says,
“Anyone who does not take care
of his or her immediate family
has denied the Christian
faith and is worse
than an unbeliever.”
Jesus!
If I don’t take care
of my family, if I neglect
and abandon my family,
I am worse than an infidel.
Now, see, this isn’t going
to excite a congregation,
but this is the Word of God
and it may be the key
to amazing things that happen
in your future
if you’ll heed it.
Don’t fake it.
That’s what I’m trying to say.
It’s not faking it when you
sit down with somebody
and you’ve got real issues.
Face it!
Face it!
Quit running from it.
It’s not going to get better.
Time heals all things – lie!
[Laughter]
It does not.
Life is short.
Time’s running out.
You don’t fake it, you face it!
There’s things
a family goes through –
you just have to face it.
It takes courage to make peace
with your parents.
I close with this.
The reason you ought to do it
is you stop the cycle
for the next generation,
by the way.
[Applause]
You say, “Well, Pastor,
my dad left me.”
“I never had a father
in my life,”
or, “My mother was on something,
or got off and I feel
like they abandoned me.”
Well, then God pronounces
a special blessing
over you that those of us who
were blessed with a two-parent
home do not have.
You have special attention
by God according to this text,
Psalms 27, I think it is.
You know…there you go.
Everybody out loud,
as bold as you can say it.
“When my father and my mother
forsake me, then,” who?
“The Lord will take care of me.”
[Applause]
Clap your hands.
Every single mother,
clap your hands.
Every single father,
clap your hands.
You’re worrying yourself
to death about your kids.
The Lord gives special attention
to any children
that are abandoned – always!
And I close with this.
Romans 12:15 commands us to,
“Rejoice with those
that rejoice,
and weep with those that weep.”
For many, Mother’s Day
is an extremely difficult day.
“What do you mean?”
There are many in this room,
and in all of our campuses,
and watching online
who have lost their mother –
maybe in the last year,
maybe in the last few years.
How many of you have lost
your mother in this room?
Let me see your hand.
So, today is a day of weeping,
and yet, rejoicing.
There are mothers who have
lost a child under
the sound of my voice,
by miscarriage, or the death
of a child in an accident,
or something horrible happened,
and it took your child
and Mother’s Day today
is like a heavy weight
on your shoulders.
There are those of you that
have children who are lost,
who were raised in KidPak
and came up in this church,
and today, they’re as lost
as they can be –
and today, it’s heavy.
We weep.
We weep with those that weep.
There are those who have faced
delayed adoption,
and you’ve tried
and you’ve tried,
and then there’s those that
are facing infertility,
and you just can’t seem…
you thought by now you would
be pregnant this year,
but it’s just not
happening so far.
We weep with those who weep,
those who wanted to be mothers
but it hasn’t happened.
And then, in the same service,
we rejoice with the mothers
who rejoice –
those mothers who had wonderful,
incredible mothers,
and we rejoice.
There’s women here who dedicated
brand-new babies.
How many of you have had
a brand-new baby in your family
in the last two years?
Let’s see your hand.
Let’s rejoice, and may God
give you sleep, sleep,
sleep, rest, rest, rest.
[Applause]
Foster parent moms,
we celebrate you this morning.
You make a home for those
precious children and give
great value.
Come on, let’s hear it
for foster home moms –
incredible, incredible.
What about grandmas raising
their kids’ kids?
Can we…can we give a big hero
thank you to grandmothers?
We honor you.
And we tell you boldly today
that the greatest way
you can honor your mother
is to give your life
to Jesus Christ.
Stand to your feet,
no one moving, no one leaving.
Every head bowed,
every eye closed.
I want to do something
a little different this morning.
I know it’s Mother’s Day,
but I need to give somebody
the invitation because
your mother has prayed for you,
and she may even be
in heaven or she may be here.
But this is your day
to honor her and it starts
with honoring her God,
and His name is Jesus.
Say, “Pastor, pray for me.
I’m not right with God.
I’m carrying a load
of guilt and shame.
I’ve abandoned some
situations I shouldn’t have.
I don’t want to waste
the rest of my life.”
It’s not about you feeling
condemned and beat up this
morning from this sermon,
it’s about do the right thing.
It’s not too late to turn
the whole thing around!
Would you raise your hands
toward heaven all over this room
and pray this prayer?
“Lord Jesus” –
come on, out loud.
“Lord Jesus,
I really want to please You.
I really want to honor
my father, honor my mother.
I really want to do what
You did when You were
being crucified.
I want to honor my mother today.
And so, I give You my life.”
Say that.
“I give You my family.
I give You my heart,
my pride.
Let me be one that reconciles.
Let me be one that blesses
my family.”
♪ ♪
>> Praise the Lord.
We are overcomers by the
blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ.
If you want Him,
all you’ve got to do is say,
“Come into my heart, Jesus.
Come into my life.
Come into my family.”
He will hear your cry.
And then, we want
to hear from you.
Pick up the phone.
Dial the number
that’s on the screen.
We would love to hear
from you today.
We do appreciate
each and every one of you.
Thank you for your support.
Pray for us, we’re praying
for you, and we’ll see you
next time on,
“Kingdom Connection.”
♪ ♪
>> Please keep praying
for the Ukraine.
I’ve met people there
and most of them are amazing,
amazing people with a heart,
mind, and soul
for Jesus Christ.
And so, today, as a ministry
we’re praying for them,
but we’re also taking action.
We’re supporting them
in very tangible ways.
This ministry has partnered
with a group called Y.E.L.,
Y-E-L, and they’re one
of the most…they’re one
of the most known
and trusted non-profits.
They have people on the ground,
right there in the Ukraine,
and we’ve extended
our partnership with them
in the Ukraine to reach out
and minister.
Today we have initiated
the J.F.M.M. Comfort Center
in the Ukraine.
From this center,
we’re providing much needed
food and emergency supplies
within the country.
Many of the people
we’re helping are Holocaust
survivors, they’re elderly
Ukrainian Jews,
because Y.E.L.
is a Jewish organization
that reaches out,
but we’re also reaching
out through all of our efforts
to all of the Ukrainians
that we can help.
We’ve committed over $400,000
to this project
just as a start
to see what God can do,
and we want to be there.
You know, it’s one thing
to talk, it’s one thing
to look and shake your head
and say, “This is terrible,”
but they’ve been through
so much and they need
our support today.
This amazing audience is one
of the most generous,
and we’ve been able to
give millions and millions
of dollars away around
the world to some of the most
needy people in the world.
Here’s another opportunity.
Will you join hands with me?
Do your very best.
We need to hear from
some of you this month.
Thank you and God bless you.
♪ ♪
♪ ♪
>> We hope you’ve enjoyed this
teaching by Jentezen Franklin,
and thank you for your
continued support
of this ministry.
♪ ♪