The NXR Podcast - March 04, 2023


BONUS EPISODE - The Fifth Commandment： Honor Your Father and Mother from the Ezra Institute Podcast

Topics
church planting honor thy father and mother elderly care responsibility inheritance
Hosted by
Joel Webbon Harrison Smith Antonio Griffith Dale Partridge Wewsley Todd Calvin Robinson
Mentioned
Paul Weiss Apostle Paul Joseph Boot David Noah Doug Wilson John MacArthur Samuel Say Karl Marx Joshua Jeff Durbin Joseph Booth Jesus Christ Jackie Chan Jamie White Megan Basham John John Joe Biden Joe Boot Augustine and 6 more
DAILY TRUTH - The Majesty Of Lord’s Day Worship SUNDAY SERMON - Gospel Fruit in Pastors and Congregations ｜ Hebrews 13_17-19

Episode Stats


Length

1 hour and 11 minutes

Words per minute

164.33

Word count

11,670

Sentence count

349

Harmful content

Toxicity

2

sentences flagged

Hate speech

22

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this bonus episode, Pastor Joel Webin joins Dr. Joseph Boot to talk about the 5th commandment, "honor your father and mother," and how it can be applied in our day-to-day lives.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00 Hi, this is Pastor Joel Webin with Right Response Ministries, and this is a special bonus episode.
00:00:05 I recently received the privilege of jumping on the Institute for Cultural Reformation
00:00:10 from the Ezra Institute with Dr. Joseph Boot.
00:00:14 I had the privilege of being invited on their show to talk about the Fifth Commandment.
00:00:18 They're currently doing a series through the Ten Commandments.
00:00:21 I was invited on to speak in regards to the Fifth Commandment, that children are commanded
00:00:26 by God to honor thy father and mother.
00:00:29 and it happens to be the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with them and that
00:00:33 they would live a long life in the land that they're inheriting. Tune in to this special episode
00:00:38 from the Ezra Institute, the Institute for Cultural Reformation, where I get to be a guest
00:00:45 with the host being Dr. Joseph Booth. Welcome back to the podcast for Cultural Reformation
00:00:54 brought to you by the Ezra Institute.
00:00:58 Welcome back one and all.
00:01:00 This is the podcast for Cultural Reformation
00:01:02 brought to you by the Ezra Institute.
00:01:04 I'm Ryan Aris.
00:01:06 With me, as always, is Dr. Joe Boot.
00:01:09 And with us for the first time on this show,
00:01:12 we're very privileged to have a special guest,
00:01:14 Pastor Joel Webin.
00:01:16 And Joel is president and founder
00:01:20 of Right Response Ministries,
00:01:22 Senior Pastor of Covenant Bible Church
00:01:24 Located on the north side of Austin, Texas
00:01:27 Joel's married to Megan
00:01:29 And he's the father of Olive, Ruth, and Eleanor
00:01:32 And Joel, we're...
00:01:34 And Franklin now
00:01:35 And Franklin, oh
00:01:37 We have a fourth
00:01:38 I have a son, the name will continue on, Lord willing
00:01:41 Many congratulations
00:01:42 I'm dealing with out-of-date information here
00:01:46 Sorry about that
00:01:47 Well, it quickly goes out-of-date
00:01:50 because my wife and I, we are having lots of children quickly.
00:01:55 So I don't blame you.
00:01:56 Praise God.
00:01:58 Yeah, amen.
00:01:59 Well, I'm glad you could be with us for this conversation.
00:02:06 Our subject today is going to be the Fifth Commandment.
00:02:12 and I'll read that out
00:02:16 and we will deal with some of the details
00:02:20 and implications and applications
00:02:21 of where that fits in context
00:02:24 and how it works itself out
00:02:27 in our daily life here
00:02:29 so this is from Exodus chapter 20 verse 12
00:02:33 where we read
00:02:34 honour your father and your mother
00:02:36 that your days may be prolonged in the land
00:02:38 which the Lord your God gives you
00:02:40 and joel i just i wanted to uh to start with you here uh when we were uh when we were corresponding
00:02:51 we were touching base on on setting up to have you on the show we were looking looking ahead
00:02:57 there were several several of the commandments that we could have chosen from and you got back
00:03:02 to me and said i'd like to do the fifth commandment uh maybe we'll just start with what uh what is it
00:03:09 that, that drew you to, uh, to this particular one? Great question. Yeah. Part of what drew me
00:03:16 to it is I think my own personal repentance in this area. Um, I, you know, I, I did my undergrad
00:03:24 in Dallas, Texas. I was born and raised in Bay city, Texas. It's a small town on the Gulf coast
00:03:29 in between Galveston and Corpus Christi, uh, went off to school. And when I finished school,
00:03:35 I just had this burning desire, woe am I if I don't plant a church, which really, to be completely honest, was I had a strong desire to preach, and I do believe that that came from the Lord, and there's a desire, I had that noble desire to be an elder, but I don't think that I was ready, and I think that I at least subconsciously knew that.
00:03:59 But there was this really nifty category that was becoming increasingly popular at the time.
00:04:06 This is around 2007, 8, 9, called church planting.
00:04:11 And with church planting, you could be a pastor before you were qualified.
00:04:16 And so, you know, so I opted towards, you know, knowing that I was a 23-year-old single man and that it was highly unlikely that I was going to get a letter in the mail of, you know, some congregation calling me to be their senior pastor.
00:04:29 So I thought, well, I'll start one. And again, I think by the grace of God, there were a lot of noble desires and right instincts. There was plenty of, by the grace of God, again, purity, but there were also plenty of sinful desires and at bare minimum, at least immature and incomplete and foolish ambitions.
00:04:53 And so I went off to plant a church and it was kind of this rite of passage.
00:04:57 I thought, you know, that, um, you know, if, if you're, if you're going to do something
00:05:01 significant for the Lord, it needs to be ministry, right?
00:05:04 I wouldn't have known these things at the time, but like two fish swimming, um, in the
00:05:09 ocean passing by each other and one saying, uh, the water sure is nice today.
00:05:12 And the other says, what is water?
00:05:14 Um, I, I was two kingdom by default.
00:05:17 I was pre-millennial dispensational, um, these things by default.
00:05:21 And so for me, I did not have a proper understanding of the kingdom of God expressed beyond simply the four walls of the church institute as Dr. Boot has so well expressed.
00:05:34 So I thought if I'm going to advance the kingdom of God, it has to be within the ecclesiastical sphere.
00:05:40 And so it must be pastoral ministry.
00:05:43 And so I decided to be a pastor.
00:05:44 And if I want to do something significant, like being a pastor, I could be even more significant by being a church planter, not just pastoring the church, but starting one.
00:05:53 And if I want to be even greater, then I could start a church in a perhaps a more difficult context.
00:05:58 So I opted for California.
00:06:00 And so I moved away, to answer your question, from my mother and father.
00:06:04 And I went to California and not saying that a child can't geographically, you know, a grown adult child move away from their parents.
00:06:11 But I think I had not outspokenly, but at least a subtle aversion and despising Texas and flyover America.
00:06:23 I bought into some of the rhetoric of the sophisticated cool kids table within evangelicalism and church planting at the time that inner city ministry is all the rage and rural areas is really kind of a subtle compromise.
00:06:41 And and so I just I bought into all of that. And as I got older, by the end of 2020, it really before COVID hit and those kinds of things, I was already beginning to think eventually I should move back to Texas.
00:06:55 My wife's parents were in Texas.
00:06:57 My parents were in Texas.
00:06:59 So we had both sides of mothers and fathers in Texas and thinking we're now having children.
00:07:05 We want them to have regular engagement with their grandparents.
00:07:11 And I was thinking about my children.
00:07:13 I was thinking one day my children are going to grow up.
00:07:16 Number one, are they going to be able to make a living and start a household in California?
00:07:22 not just it's already hard right now but 20 years from now what will that be
00:07:26 is this decision ultimately going to set the stage for the the displacement of my own family
00:07:32 and then what example am I setting I'm showing my children that honoring thy father and mother
00:07:37 means inviting them into our lives a couple times a year for a few days at a time to play with the
00:07:43 grandkids but I thought what what kind of example would it would it would it demonstrate for my own
00:07:50 children, for me as a grown child to honor my father and mother, to the extent of saying, I
00:07:56 want to physically move and reorient my life and the life of my children to where you're an active
00:08:03 part of it and position ourselves financially to where when our mothers and fathers, my wife and
00:08:09 mine, begin to age where we could financially accommodate them, where we wouldn't just have
00:08:14 to send them off to a home, but we could bring them into ours. So all that being said, I think
00:08:20 that this commandment appeals to me because of my personal failure in this area, by God's grace,
00:08:26 personal repentance, and just a recognition that the young child under his father's roof
00:08:32 is called to obedience, full obedience to his mother and father. But coming to see that the
00:08:38 commandment, not merely to obey, but to honor the father and mother is actually a lifelong
00:08:43 long commandment that applies to grown children outside of the home and recognizing that I need
00:08:49 to do better in that. Joel, I really appreciate that testimony. One thing that I wanted to
00:09:00 open up to both of you for comment, and maybe I'll press on with you, Joel, here, is that
00:09:08 It's readers of Scripture.
00:09:11 It's a common designation or observation that there are, in the Ten Commandments, two tables.
00:09:18 There's a distinction between commandments as far as relationship to God, which is the first four,
00:09:24 and then the latter six are commandments concerning relationships between people.
00:09:31 and I can't help but observe that there is a parallel between the fifth commandment and the
00:09:39 first commandment or the first commandments of either table insofar as there are certain persons
00:09:47 who are owed specific treatment specific responses and relations and I guess the
00:09:56 The question in all of that is just, can you comment further on that, on why that might be, of course, it's deliberate in Scripture, nothing is accidental or superfluous, but what accounts for that structure and what might be some significance or implication of it?
00:10:15 that's a great question um within the second table of the law so beginning with commandment
00:10:21 number five um it's also worth noting that that that's the only commandment out of the six the
00:10:27 latter six of the ten commandments that's stated in the positive sense right starting with commandment
00:10:32 six through ten um you have prohibitions thou shall not murder thou shall not commit adultery
00:10:39 thou shall not steal thou shall not bear false witness thou shall not covet but the fifth
00:10:43 commandment is the first of the second table of law in relation to our love for neighbor
00:10:48 it's also the only commandment towards neighbors stated in the positive sense not just something
00:10:55 that you should avoid but something that you should actively commit yourself to doing not
00:11:01 just thou shall not dishonor or thou shall not blaspheme but profane thy father and mother but
00:11:09 thou thou shalt honor my father and mother so that's unique um and it's also the first commandment
00:11:15 which i know we'll get to you know uh later on in this episode with a promise and so it's unique
00:11:19 and in all those senses it's the first of the second table of the law it's the only in the
00:11:23 second table of the law stated in the positive sense and it's the only one that's explicitly
00:11:27 i believe there's a promise for all obedience but it's where the promise is explicitly stated and
00:11:33 not only a heavenly promise and eternal promise,
00:11:37 but a temporal and earthly promise as well.
00:11:40 And you're right.
00:11:41 The last thing to note is that there does seem to be a stark comparison
00:11:47 and correlation between the first commandment in the second table
00:11:50 and the first commandment in the first table.
00:11:54 So the first commandment that we find out of the ten in our relation to God
00:11:57 is that we should have no other gods before him.
00:12:00 Um, even then still kind of, uh, stated in that negative sense of a prohibition, something to
00:12:05 avoid, uh, namely idolatry. Um, but, but again, uh, it's, it's, you, if we were to reverse it
00:12:12 and state it in the positive sense, it would be, um, fidelity, loyalty, allegiance, and wholehearted
00:12:19 worship, um, and love of the triune God. Um, no other idols, no other gods, um, no devotion,
00:12:28 to anyone else, no compromise, no divided allegiance, but honoring the Father of all,
00:12:35 honoring the Heavenly Father, the Father of lights from whom every good and perfect gift comes down.
00:12:40 And then we find the fifth commandment, to honor thy father and mother. And I think that that's,
00:12:45 in a sense, I think that the reason why everything seems to begin with that, our relationship to the
00:12:51 heavenly father and then our biological, familial fathers, is because that's the first relationship
00:12:58 that we have. In a very real sense, I mean, my children are small, five, three, two, and five
00:13:04 months. And their best friends are mom and dad and each other. They don't have much of a social
00:13:13 network outside of our family of six. The vast majority of their time is spent in the home.
00:13:19 The vast majority of their affections are oriented towards myself and their mother.
00:13:26 And I think that, you know, Augustine argued for properly ordering our loves, our affections,
00:13:33 that it's not just love everyone, but love has, you know, circles, like ripples in a
00:13:41 pond that build outwardly.
00:13:42 And we start with what's most near and most dear.
00:13:46 There's an order of priorities, that so much of sin is a misordered affections, that I love something more than I should or something less than I should.
00:13:55 So much of anger is at least sinful anger is is a relationship with, you know, that I, you know, I love myself more than others.
00:14:04 And so I'm more deeply offended than I should be.
00:14:07 And so beginning with this this order, this hierarchy of loves, we're called to love God, the heavenly father first.
00:14:13 but then as it relates to loving our neighbor we have 8.2 billion neighbors and what i've noticed
00:14:19 especially with younger people millennials and gen z um they they love love in theory um but
00:14:28 but they seem to really struggle in practice so they love the children in uganda they love ukraine
00:14:33 they love this they love that um but they can't share the refrigerator with their college roommate
00:14:41 um you know so they love everyone until they meet someone that ironically the only people they love
00:14:47 eight billion people they really only don't love 30 but the 30 that they don't love are the only
00:14:52 30 people that they've ever had close relationship with which should you know you would think that
00:14:56 they would naturally conclude that actually they're not good at love and that this theoretical
00:15:01 love for all these strangers out there um actually isn't love at all because whenever it's put to a
00:15:06 test. It's quickly proven to be false. And so all that being said, it's such a close relationship.
00:15:13 Honor thy father and mother. These are the first people that you come to know. You're in their home.
00:15:18 You're at their table. You're nursing from your mother's breast. You're under your father's 1.00
00:15:22 tutelage. And if you can't love the first people that you literally meet in life, the two first
00:15:29 people that you meet in your life, when your eyes open and you breathe your first breath and come
00:15:34 into the world, then it's just, it's fallacious and absurd to think that you would be able to
00:15:39 love any other neighbor if you can't love the first two neighbors that you meet.
00:15:46 I appreciate that. Thank you. I noticed the same thing, that this is the first and only
00:15:55 of the positive commandments in the second table. And it's also, in some ways, it's the most
00:16:02 demanding whereas the others are universal prohibitions you know do not do not murder
00:16:08 full stop do not murder anybody right that's fairly easy to do we're all just sitting here
00:16:15 not murdering but we have to uh there's some there's a there's something that is enjoined
00:16:25 to us something that is required of us in terms of demonstrating and showing that that honor that's
00:16:32 that we're called on to show. Joe, do you have any follow-up on that question?
00:16:40 Yeah, that was a helpful and a comprehensive answer. What occurred to me while Joel was
00:16:47 speaking is that in some respects, this commandment, the fifth commandment,
00:16:53 feels like a transitional commandment that has a foot on both tables because your parents
00:17:02 your father and your mother are the source of your life in the human sense so we we're required
00:17:10 to honor god as the creator as and worship him as creator and king and of course in christ as
00:17:17 redeemer as well but there is a sense in which you know the the image bearing nature of of human
00:17:25 beings and especially male and female made in the image of god the establishment of the family
00:17:30 we do have the the the holy family father son and holy spirit and the so god's covenantal
00:17:40 revelation of himself is in familial terms and so when we honor our parents we are actually
00:17:46 honoring god that's how um significant this is then in a certain respect as joel was saying you
00:17:54 know when our children are young um especially we represent god to them we represent the fatherhood
00:18:04 of god to them uh we we represent the nurturing aspects of god the mother the mothering character
00:18:12 of god also as jesus said as a hen gathers her chicks beneath its wings so there is because
00:18:19 male and female are made in the image of God. So parents are imaging God to their children and
00:18:26 in the temporal sense are the source of our life. And so God regards the dishonoring of parents
00:18:34 extremely seriously and as very much an offense against God. That's why there's this promise of
00:18:43 life, there's such a direct blessing and cursing attached to it. And Jesus in Mark 7, and perhaps
00:18:51 we'll come to this later, takes it so seriously that he really rebukes the Pharisees for saying,
00:19:02 well, I brought these gifts to God, therefore I don't have any obligation towards honoring my
00:19:06 parents he says you you make void the law of god by your tradition and he talks about um uh of course
00:19:14 the cursing of of parents you know there's a there's a the the older covenant takes so seriously
00:19:20 the dishonoring of parents the abuse of parents that it actually carried the death penalty
00:19:25 so there is a there's a great seriousness attached to this and you when you read this
00:19:31 fifth commandment you feel like there is a foot on either uh table of the of the law here that's
00:19:38 this transitional um uh command because we really do as parents in the early lives of our children
00:19:47 really represent god uh to them so there's of course an obligation on parents there too
00:19:52 focus of this command is the obligation of of children uh towards their towards their parents
00:19:58 But it's certainly one of the reasons why Karl Marx understood, he says, the secret to the holy family is the earthly family.
00:20:06 And to destroy the former, you must destroy the latter in theory and in practice.
00:20:13 So he was convinced, Marx and Engels were convinced, if you destroy the earthly family, you can get rid of God.
00:20:19 So if we can get rid of honoring parents in our society, we create an atheistic, irreligious, blasphemous society.
00:20:26 right with one thing that i want to add with what joe mentioned in terms of 1.00
00:20:33 a breach of the fifth commandment carrying with it the penalty of capital punishment
00:20:38 that's another would i i would cite as another biblical example to support the point that
00:20:44 although obedience full practical in every regard obedience children obey your parents in everything
00:20:52 for this is pleasing to the Lord, Colossians 3.20.
00:20:55 Although full obedience is, I believe, a temporary command
00:20:58 for young children under their father's roof.
00:21:01 The commandment, the fifth commandment to honor thy father and mother,
00:21:04 I really do see as being a lifelong commandment
00:21:07 that the grown child who has now established his own household
00:21:10 is still called to honor his father and mother.
00:21:13 And one of the proof texts for that would be what Joe mentioned
00:21:17 in terms of dishonoring the father and mother,
00:21:20 carrying with it the penalty of capital punishment,
00:21:22 Because what's mentioned in that particular text is, this is not, the descriptive terms is not, you know, indicative of a five-year-old child dishonoring his parents with a temper tantrum.
00:21:36 It mentions drunkenness.
00:21:38 So I don't think it's mentioned, I don't think it has in view the five-year-old child throwing a fit.
00:21:44 it has in view a grown adult child who likely has left his father's home and has now started his
00:21:51 own household but he's he's a deadbeat he's a he's a public drunk he's um and and he's and he's
00:22:00 bringing shame upon his father and mother um and that he's the one that's described as being worthy 0.63
00:22:07 of the death penalty which means as joe used that text it means that the commandment to honor the
00:22:12 father and mother is incredibly serious because it carries such weighty penalties, but in addition
00:22:17 to its seriousness, it also shows the longevity of the application of that command, that it
00:22:23 doesn't cease simply because you've grown up. Right, absolutely. I think, and it's interesting,
00:22:34 The New Testament, the Greek word for this word translated honor is temeo, and that's
00:22:43 where we get our English word to esteem or to assess something in your estimation.
00:22:52 And I think it probably gets at the sense or has space for that sense that adult children
00:22:59 are also to rightly esteem their parents and that as you say Joel that looks different
00:23:06 when you're five years old as opposed to when you're 45 years old but but it's the same the
00:23:13 same principle I wanted I wanted to spend some a bit more time before we dive into that I just
00:23:22 wanted to follow up on the question of children specifically, and a sense of younger children,
00:23:30 I think, is implied in the text in Ephesians 6, where it recapitulates this commandment.
00:23:39 So this is Ephesians 6, 1 and 2, where Paul says,
00:23:43 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
00:23:47 Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise,
00:23:51 so that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth.
00:23:56 And this is, we're obviously meant to hear the Ten Commandments
00:24:02 and Exodus 20 ringing in our ears,
00:24:04 but there's also a modification of that commandment.
00:24:08 And Joe, I know that you've spoken about this several times
00:24:12 and written about it in other contexts,
00:24:14 So maybe I'll get you to lead off here. How that commandment is modified from the first instance to its application here in the New Testament?
00:24:28 well first there in ephesians paul as joel says there um rightly there is a um there's a there's
00:24:38 a more detailed description of what is in mind for children and the the obligation of of children
00:24:46 to honor their parents and the reason given for that is not um simply some sociological reason
00:24:55 or some cultural reason, but because God says for this is right. This is right. It is what God
00:25:03 requires. It's what God commands that children are obedient to their parents. And we're living
00:25:08 in an age of radical rebellion against parents, of radical disobedience. And of course, that is
00:25:17 encouraged by a secularizing and re-paganizing western culture um that uh that parents are set
00:25:25 aside they're an object of ridicule you only have to look at um many of the sitcoms that are so
00:25:32 popular today and the way the family is portrayed to see in particular um fathers are the object of
00:25:39 ridicule um and uh and and children you know the the rebel teenager i mean don't forget that
00:25:46 even terms like teenager were invented by sociologists in the 20th century to encourage
00:25:53 and, you know, parents are led to expect. It's almost a norm now that you are led to expect
00:25:59 that your teenagers will be defiant and rebellious. And this will be that this is normal.
00:26:07 This is even good. And the state and its education system loves to encourage that and to drive a
00:26:13 wedge between parents and children. But Paul there, first of all, enjoins obedience upon
00:26:18 children. And I think Joel is right in saying that that's talking about the younger child
00:26:25 that is living under their parents' roof, that has not reached an age of independence and
00:26:33 responsibility. That's where obedience is required. But the other change there that we don't see in
00:26:41 exodus 20 and this is a more subtle modification is the and it's very interesting that it's it's
00:26:46 still there and this isn't a special uh especially of note for the more two kingdoms type people uh
00:26:53 and the tendency that we have to think of the commandments purely in negative terms that they
00:26:59 are just a few prohibitions that uh that god things that god doesn't want us to do now there's
00:27:05 always a positive connotation to all of the commands and this one is stated in crystal clear
00:27:10 terms that it may go well with you and you live long in the earth of course in exodus 20 um the
00:27:17 commandment is that you may live long in the land because the the immediate positivization here is to
00:27:23 the hebrews who are in canaan that they would live long in that land but paul now doesn't
00:27:30 dispense with the promise of long life and essentially prosperity uh as the as the general
00:27:39 direction of providence with regards to obedience and don't forget that there are always there will
00:27:46 always be exceptions to a general pattern but this is what scripture indicates here's the general
00:27:51 pattern you honor your father and mother it will go well with you and you will live long in the
00:27:58 earth so paul continues uh the application of the promise of of blessing and long life but he doesn't
00:28:06 restricted to a strip of land in palestine that the land expands it just like the the fullness
00:28:13 of the gospel is expanded to the whole earth so the promise is that if we honor our parents
00:28:19 um the we can expect our gen the general experience of human beings will be that they will live long
00:28:26 in the earth uh that god will bless them um and one of the things he'll bless them with is
00:28:32 longevity um for for an honoring of parents and it's only a radical secularization a humanism
00:28:39 that's crept into the church that we overlook this command and um see paul's important covenantal
00:28:46 modification of it it goes beyond the strip of land in palestine now that we may live long in
00:28:51 the earth yeah thanks joe joel do you have uh anything to uh to add to that to that comment
00:29:03 yeah i completely agree and i've just encouraged when i see um you know i've i've preached on uh
00:29:11 psalm 127 and it talks about children are a heritage from the lord a blessing from the lord
00:29:18 inheritance from the lord uh blessed is the man whose quiver is full um and you know that that
00:29:25 they uh the father would not be put to shame that his sons would be with him in the city gates
00:29:30 and there's so so much that comes out of that but i remember using ephesians chapter 6 as a subtext
00:29:36 as i was preaching three weeks on a five verse psalm psalm 127 it's a very short psalm um but
00:29:44 I was talking about, you know, the blessing of having children, having many children and
00:29:48 having children in your youth, that it's not just that they replace their father in the
00:29:53 city gates, but they're with him, meaning that when the children come of age, particularly
00:29:58 his sons, and they're of ruling age, fighting age, that the father is not been sent off
00:30:08 to pasture, so to speak, that he's not retired.
00:30:10 he's still in the fray and now he just has his sons with him and it's almost like this imagery
00:30:16 of the father sitting back and uh and looking to his sons with you know a twinkle in the eye
00:30:21 maybe a wink or a nod and saying take care of my light work right that the city gates were the place
00:30:27 of uh prestige and power and um where the elders would sit and render judgments and decisions um
00:30:34 it's also um an entrance to the city and a defense for the city so if there's any attack
00:30:39 The gates would be the first point of entry and the first place of defense.
00:30:44 And so it's as though the enemies of the father are coming
00:30:49 and he no longer is really even required to make his own defense.
00:30:56 He's so trust in his sons who are well-shaped and formed by this point,
00:31:01 chip off the old block, so to speak, that he doesn't even have to get up.
00:31:07 his sons can take care of his handiwork. And so all that being said, and that's not just for the
00:31:12 record, meaning that, you know, that we benefit by having many children automatically. Doug Wilson,
00:31:19 I think, is fond of saying that Samuel would not have benefited by having five sons who took bribes
00:31:25 rather than two. So we want to have quality children and not just quantity children. But
00:31:30 I say all that to say that as I was preaching through that and looking at Ephesians 6 in
00:31:34 relation to exodus 20 um i just again you know continually in my congregation my my local pastoral
00:31:42 ministry i'm continually pushing back against um uh this you know pietism and continually pushing
00:31:48 back against antinomianism i'm continually pushing back against the notion that um that that it's
00:31:55 only the gospel um and and that it's only uh eternal promises and eternal inheritance and
00:32:02 And so I said that if we look in the New Testament, we see the Apostle Paul utilizing the Fifth Commandment from the Decalogue, and he not only restates the commandment, but he also restates the promise.
00:32:14 He assumes that the promise is just as good now under the New Covenant, that the promise is just as good as it was for Israel back then, and that the commandment is just as sound and just as applicable as it was back then.
00:32:31 And I can hardly even imagine, I feel like most of our big Eva types today, if they were preaching Ephesians chapter six, verses one through four, I can't imagine how long that sermon would need to be in order for them to present the sufficient caveats and disclaimers, hedging their bets and protecting against any kind that might be construed as a works-based theology.
00:32:57 um you know that what now they might be accused of being theonomist joel but worse still right
00:33:03 exactly exactly so they you know but they would oh well you know now there is a promise but not
00:33:09 really and this promise is really if there's any promise at all it's a it's certainly not a guarantee
00:33:15 and it's a it's a spiritual promise an eternal promise land here doesn't mean land um you know
00:33:22 and they would have to do a similar thing with the sermon on the mountain the beatitudes where
00:33:25 jesus says that the meek will inherit the earth um there are there are multiple places in the
00:33:30 new testament it's not just an old testament old covenant notion of taking over the land
00:33:36 and people you know people often will cite you know perhaps you know um israel in exile for 70
00:33:43 years in babylon you know and seek the welfare of the city right jeremiah 27 seek the welfare of
00:33:49 the city for if the city prospers you will prosper also and so we're called to live like
00:33:53 mordecai um we're called to live like um you know as as as fugitives um who are being winsome 0.58
00:34:02 and careful and shrewd um to benefit you know babylon benefit the enemies of god benefit pagans
00:34:10 those who have taken us captive um knowing that you know if they benefit their hearts won't 0.51
00:34:14 necessarily turn an allegiance towards God, but if they materially benefit, then we'll get some of
00:34:19 the trickle-down economics that come with that. But what about the book of Joshua? Like, what if
00:34:26 the more accurate analogy, correlation for New Testament Christians living in the land,
00:34:34 the physical, literal land that we live in today, this earth, this dirt, what if we're called to
00:34:39 live like the people of Israel in the time of Joshua? What if we're not called to live as 0.84
00:34:45 fugitives in the land, but what if we're called to live in such a way that we believe that our
00:34:51 inheritance is that we overcome and take over the land? That we're not just in exile, we're not just
00:34:58 in captivity, but we're actually conquering the land. And certainly we do this in a very shrewd
00:35:05 fashion and in a gracious fashion and a loving fashion, but I do believe that that is the mandate
00:35:10 of the New Testament Christian, and I believe that one of the secrets to accomplishing this
00:35:15 is given to us in Ephesians chapter 6 in relation to Exodus chapter 20 and the fifth commandment.
00:35:21 One of the ways that we inherit the land and live a prosperous life in the land, one of the principles
00:35:27 is by honoring our father and mother. David, I think of David and his view of the law of God
00:35:32 in Psalm 119 and multiple other places. But David doesn't just begrudgingly submit to God's law,
00:35:39 but he delights in God's law. And he sees it not only as that which is morally right,
00:35:44 but he sees thy law is good, holy, and right. It's the morally right thing, but it's also,
00:35:52 and that's what we see in Ephesians chapter 6, children obey your parents and the Lord for it
00:35:55 is right. But immediately on the heels of that, it's not only morally right in the sight of God,
00:36:02 but it is practically and tangibly productive and beneficial.
00:36:07 The right thing is also the good thing.
00:36:10 And those two sentiments are never opposed.
00:36:13 That which is right in the sight of God, morally right by God's eternal and immutable standard,
00:36:18 is also that which produces good for the individual and for all their neighbors.
00:36:23 One of the ways that we can love our neighbors, our first neighbors being our parents,
00:36:27 but then love neighbors beyond that familial circle is by honoring our father and mother
00:36:34 and raising and training our children to do the same.
00:36:38 Cultures that honor their father and mother are more prosperous cultures.
00:36:43 They're better cultures.
00:36:45 Cultures are not equal.
00:36:47 In terms of ethnicity, no ethnicity is inherently superior or inferior to another.
00:36:53 But when we speak of culture, we don't embrace egalitarian principles with culture.
00:37:00 Cultures are better or worse insofar, nothing inherent to the culture itself, but a culture
00:37:06 is better or worse insofar as it has inherited and applied the principles of the Bible.
00:37:13 So Christendom, cultures that are immersed in Christendom are better cultures and have
00:37:18 better tenets of those cultures because they've been saturated in the Word of God for centuries
00:37:25 and multiple generations. And so a culture that embraces the fifth commandment and this principle
00:37:30 of honor for fathers and mothers is not only a culture that is pleasing to the Lord, Colossians
00:37:36 3.20, children obey your parents in everything for this is pleasing to God, or Ephesians chapter 6
00:37:41 verse 1, children obey your parents in the Lord for it's morally right in the sight of God, but
00:37:46 those same cultures that do that which pleases the lord and that which is morally right according
00:37:51 to his immutable standard are also the cultures that are tangibly and practically blessed not only
00:37:57 spiritually in the life to come eternally but temporally here and now you can expect as a
00:38:03 general principle as joe said earlier to live a longer life literally a longer life in the earth
00:38:10 and that things will go well with you.
00:38:12 So it's both quantity and quality of life,
00:38:15 a quantity of life, longevity,
00:38:18 but also quality that things will go well with you
00:38:20 in this land that you're inheriting.
00:38:23 And again, I don't think that the land moves
00:38:25 from Exodus 20 to being the physical land of Canaan
00:38:28 for Israel.
00:38:30 And then in Ephesians 6,
00:38:31 the land is now this heavenly land.
00:38:34 But I think if there's any movement at all,
00:38:36 any transition from Exodus 20 to Ephesians 6,
00:38:39 I think the only transition is not from earth to heaven, but from one geographic concentrated place on earth, namely the land of Canaan, to the whole earth. 0.99
00:38:50 Now, the meek shall inherit the whole thing. 0.99
00:38:52 All of it belongs to the Christian and our children. 0.97
00:39:00 Amen. Amen.
00:39:02 Joel, we started this episode with a bit of a memoir from you about where you had needed to repent of imbibing a lot of modern ideas as relates to this commandment.
00:39:21 can we can we move or take a cue from that now and just without presuming to bind anybody's
00:39:28 conscience where would you say and I'll throw it open to both of you in turn but where would you
00:39:34 say are some areas where we have in the in the modern west we have failed to honor our fathers
00:39:42 and mothers what what do we uh culturally need to be repenting of in this regard the the first
00:39:51 thing that i think of and i think joe will have even better insights on this particular point but
00:39:56 the first thing that i think of that i'd be remiss as i've been praying about coming on this episode
00:40:00 and what the lord would have for me to share the one thing that i haven't gotten to yet that i just
00:40:04 i feel like i it would be a um a large failure if i missed it so i'm just gonna get it in now
00:40:10 because I think it generally deals with your question,
00:40:13 and I think Joe can answer more specifically.
00:40:14 But on a pastoral note,
00:40:17 one of the things that I find with my congregants,
00:40:21 adults, not their children still in the home,
00:40:24 young children, but adults who are saying,
00:40:26 you know, Pastor, I see that this is a lifelong commandment
00:40:29 to honor our father and mother.
00:40:31 Even though I'm grown now
00:40:32 and I've moved out of my father's house
00:40:34 and I've started my own household,
00:40:35 I'm still called to honor him.
00:40:36 And one of the things that I hear again and again and again
00:40:39 And as I hear it expressed from Christians, well-meaning Christians, and Christians who I think genuinely desire to honor their father and mother, they just express how difficult it is.
00:40:50 And particularly, the most common conversation that's had is it's really hard to honor my father and mother, Joel, because they have bad theology or they're lukewarm.
00:41:09 in their convictions and their faith um or or you know they're the typical boomer at least in
00:41:15 america i can't speak for for you guys but uh that drive around with a bumper sticker that says i'm
00:41:21 spending my children's inheritance which is a wicked a wicked thing um and i do think that
00:41:26 there's a sense in which millennials in particular feel um as though their father and mother just
00:41:32 failed them um that you know i mean the guy who started hobby lobby you know is is going to be
00:41:39 giving all of it you know to charities um is something that was recently uh published a piece
00:41:44 of news and instead of keeping the business and allowing it to pass down within his family to his
00:41:50 children uh jackie chan and i'm sure there's some strategic tax avoiding you know strategies uh
00:41:56 employed in this but you know recently announced that he's going to be giving all of his money to
00:42:01 charity, you know, and a trust, you know, wrapping it up in some charity trust instead of giving it
00:42:07 as an inheritance. And so I think there's this notion of that, at least for Christians,
00:42:12 I think in the West and particularly America, that boomers, they did a lot. They worked a lot
00:42:20 of hours. They clocked in a lot in the workplace. They made relatively a lot of money. Economically
00:42:27 speaking if you look at the last 200 years of history i mean it was just um that generation
00:42:32 made a ton of money disproportionately um with virtually every other generation in modern
00:42:38 history in the west um at least in america uh many of them are reluctant to pass the baton as it were
00:42:45 to to their children's generation and creating space for them and opportunities um gen x feels
00:42:52 completely like they were just the forgotten generation, skipped over. There's not always
00:42:58 this, you know, inheritance being given. They were counseled by their parents, you know, my generation
00:43:04 to go to college. And then, and then, you know, and I don't think that our parents, I don't think
00:43:08 it was malicious, but many people in my generation went to college and now they have 60, 80, a hundred
00:43:14 thousand dollars of school debt and are no more positioned to actually be employable than had
00:43:20 they not gone to college you know and so there's a lot of pent-up frustration i think um now the
00:43:26 reality is i'm i'm suspicious i've given multiple practical examples to say why it's particularly
00:43:32 hard for my generation to honor their father and mother but uh i think of you know peter in one of
00:43:39 his epistles it says speaks of sin that is common to man and i think that if i could if i could speak
00:43:44 to the saints of past generations in heaven they would they would probably be able to cite you know
00:43:49 15 examples of why it was their generation it was the hardest to honor their father and mother and 0.71
00:43:54 this other generation was the hardest and the reality is I think that yeah boomers I think
00:43:59 boomers failed in some unique ways but every generation failed in some unique ways boomers
00:44:05 didn't just they weren't created in a vacuum everybody is the product of their parents and
00:44:09 their parents and their parents in a particular context the greatest generation had some
00:44:13 particular failures and beyond that beyond that beyond that and so I think what I've come to
00:44:18 realize is that it's just hard to honor your father and mother, period, no matter what generation
00:44:23 you're in. And you can try to make a particular case to say why it's uniquely difficult for
00:44:27 millennials or Gen Z or Gen X or whatever. But I think it's always been hard to honor your father
00:44:32 and mother because the children have a front row seat, especially once they've grown and gained
00:44:38 perspective. They have a unique front row seat into the failures of their parents. And so all
00:44:45 that being said, one pastoral note that I would say for just a wide broth of Christians seeking
00:44:52 to honor their father and mother is the question I most often get as a pastor in relation to this
00:44:58 topic is how do you honor a dishonorable father? How do you honor a dishonorable mother? The first
00:45:04 thing that I would say is I don't think anything is quite that black and white. I don't think that
00:45:09 any father and mother exclusively falls into a honor category, honorable category, or dishonorable
00:45:15 category. It's usually a hodgepodge of things that are honorable and things that are dishonorable,
00:45:20 but with those dishonorable things, I continually think of the illustration of the sons of Noah.
00:45:26 What we can't do as Christians, as we seek to obey this command of honoring our father and mother,
00:45:31 is we can't be given to lies. Live not by lies. We cannot flatter, we cannot gossip,
00:45:37 and we cannot slander gossip is is saying it can include true statements about someone but but not
00:45:44 in their presence and in such a way that it's meant to tear them down it's not productive it's
00:45:48 not for their welfare and good so gossip can be true statements but it's it's outside of the
00:45:53 presence of an individual with the intention of breaking the person down slander is making
00:45:58 quantitatively false statements about someone but flattery but but with the intent of tearing
00:46:06 them down, false negative statements. Flattery, likewise, is similar to slander in the sense that
00:46:11 it can be like gossip outside of their presence, but often flattery is actually in the person's
00:46:16 presence. Out of gossip, slander, and flattery, flattery is most commonly to the person's face.
00:46:22 And it's also false statements like slander, except it's unique in the sense that it's
00:46:26 positive statements, saying very nice things, very positive things, but that are false things
00:46:33 to the person's face in order to position yourself better, in order to gain their graces.
00:46:39 It's manipulation.
00:46:40 It's trying to gain favor with someone.
00:46:43 And so in our quest to honor our father and mother, we cannot be given to slander.
00:46:47 We cannot be given to gossip.
00:46:48 And we also cannot be given to flattery.
00:46:50 And the sons of Noah, what we don't see the two righteous sons doing is they don't say,
00:46:55 they don't go around the rest of their lives saying, our father is such an honorable man
00:46:59 that he's never been drunk.
00:47:01 Our father is such an honorable man that he's never passed out naked in his tent.
00:47:06 They don't say positive statements that are untrue.
00:47:11 But what I've realized is this.
00:47:13 We don't get to choose what is true and what is false about our father and mother.
00:47:18 But we get to choose what to emphasize.
00:47:21 We get to choose the headline.
00:47:23 We get to choose what's going to be a footnote in the story that we tell about our fathers and mothers
00:47:28 and what's going to be the headline of the story.
00:47:31 What we're going to shine the spotlight on.
00:47:35 We have that choice as grown children
00:47:38 with a unique perspective, front row seat
00:47:41 in our father and mother's lives,
00:47:43 seeing their successes, seeing their failures
00:47:45 that many other people did not see.
00:47:48 We get to choose not what's true,
00:47:50 but we do get to choose what to share
00:47:52 and what to emphasize,
00:47:54 what gets the headline of the story.
00:47:57 And we live in a generation, I think, currently that is choosing to emphasize the failures.
00:48:04 We live in a deconstructing generation.
00:48:07 We live in the critical race theory, critical theory beyond just race, but critical legal 0.93
00:48:11 theory, critical queer theory. 0.91
00:48:13 It's a jackhammer. 0.99
00:48:14 It's a deconstructive tool.
00:48:16 What it does is it takes something that sure, everything has flaws, nothing's perfect, but
00:48:20 it takes something that's generally good and and and it emphasizes its weaknesses and failures but
00:48:28 only for the purpose of deconstructing and tearing it down with no intention of building something
00:48:33 better in its place it it lies and says well we have this grand utopia this this better substitute
00:48:38 that will replace um but it doesn't it it doesn't all it's doing is it's taking things that are
00:48:44 generally good imperfect as they as they may be but generally good and and emphasizing highlighting
00:48:51 putting the magnifying glass over all of their their faults and fractures and making the headline
00:48:56 of the story america is bad our civil fathers the headline of the story uh the church is abusive
00:49:02 and covers up you know this and that like right now what's happening with uh dr john mccarthur
00:49:07 you know and and makes that the headline of the story or um or uh families are bad and and
00:49:13 And patriarchal, you know, immediate families and households are bad.
00:49:17 It makes that the headline of the story.
00:49:18 And so I think that that is just an epidemic in our culture today and with my generation, younger generations today, is to deconstruct, to take the faults of systems and families and all these things and make that the headline of the story.
00:49:37 And those things may be true.
00:49:40 They may be true.
00:49:40 but we get to choose. We don't get to choose what's true or false, but we do get to choose
00:49:46 what to emphasize. I think a large lion's share of what it means to honor thy father and mother
00:49:51 is not slander. It's also not flattery. It's not gossip, but it's saying like the righteous
00:49:58 sons of Noah, it's covering the failures and emphasizing the successes. And each of us have
00:50:05 something about our mother and father that's good that we can say that's going to get the headline.
00:50:10 mm-hmm joel i really appreciate that that's uh that's a timely word and i've uh i as a guy of
00:50:20 a younger generation i feel that conviction as well i recognize that in myself and my peers
00:50:25 i think you're uh you're right on there with the with your own counsel joe uh same question
00:50:34 I guess, which was, where are some areas where we need to repent of going along with culture
00:50:40 with regards to the fifth commandment?
00:50:45 Well, first, I think it's important to reiterate something that Joel said earlier, and that
00:50:52 is that as Christians, we need to be reminded as we ask and answer that question, that the
00:51:00 law of God is described in scripture as, as we heard, right and good. And we have the metaphors
00:51:12 of it's sweeter than honey from the honeycomb. It's more precious than gold and silver.
00:51:19 um it is uh it's something that is going to be for our real blessing in this life
00:51:27 um with our families and our communities now in the here and now these are not merely eternal
00:51:35 blessings with some reference to the consummation these are about our temporal life now that's the
00:51:42 goodness and the blessing of god's law so that when we obey it god is not the cosmic killjoy
00:51:48 When we obey God's law in the honoring of our parents as families, as a society, as a culture, the result is very real, very concrete blessing.
00:52:01 And remember that Jesus really in the Great Commission tells us that because he says all authority in heaven and earth is mine.
00:52:10 The whole of the earth is mine.
00:52:12 Therefore, go and disciple the nations and teach them everything I have commanded you.
00:52:19 And that's for the blessing of the nations.
00:52:22 So when we think about this and we think about the condition of our culture and what it's rejected, what it's set aside,
00:52:28 Perhaps the place I would start very quickly is the place where where Joel left off there related to what he was saying about critical theory and the way that what we would call sort of wokeism, wokeery, jiggery, wokeery, as I like to call it, is inflicting our culture.
00:52:49 is that one of the areas we see this commandment despised
00:52:54 is in the disrespect that our culture has for the elderly.
00:53:00 We idealize youth.
00:53:04 We idealize youth culture.
00:53:10 We almost want to make adolescence a sort of semi-permanent state. 0.81
00:53:18 I mean, it used to be something that would attract ridicule for a 60- or 70-year-old man to be dressed in the fashions of a European teenager and see him behaving like one, thinking he was hip and trendy.
00:53:35 But that is the way in which we have almost positioned our society. 0.82
00:53:40 We are afraid.
00:53:41 We are terrified of age, of aging.
00:53:44 you look at the idealizing of uh in in our culture today uh among look at celebrity culture as an
00:53:50 example but it's spread well beyond celebrity culture because they're the models as it were
00:53:55 the way we want to botox and lift and press and suck and goodness knows what else manipulate our
00:54:02 own bodies to appear as though they are young when in fact they are not and yet scripture says
00:54:08 you shall rise before the gray-headed or the hoary head the king james would say
00:54:13 so there was an inherent respect for in the bible for the elderly because this isn't this is the
00:54:22 point at which you have seen more of life you've gained uh the godly person greater maturity
00:54:29 wisdom understanding um and our culture when it was more christian used to have a respect for the
00:54:37 elderly. Today, the elderly are increasingly despised, out of sight, out of mind. And that's
00:54:43 related to the second thing I wanted to talk about, which was the way in which we have ceased
00:54:49 to be concerned with the care for our parents. As a culture, we no longer want to care for our
00:54:57 parents. We no longer want that responsibility. Out of sight, out of mind, put the elderly away
00:55:02 in an institution where they're no longer a bother to us, euthanize them as Canada would like 0.99
00:55:07 to do as quickly as possible. Get rid of the elderly. They are an inconvenience, yet of course 1.00
00:55:16 it was at least some North American tribes like the indigenous, I'm not sure we're even allowed 0.90
00:55:26 to call them Eskimos anymore, are we, Ryan? Is it Inuit? I'm not sure. The guidebook's out being
00:55:34 in its 17th revision right now goodness knows goodness knows what we're supposed to say now
00:55:41 but some pagan cultures exposed their elderly sent them away uh to to die of starvation and
00:55:48 exposure the bible uh says no um the elderly our parents are to be honored now think about
00:55:56 this for a moment when the lord jesus is hanging on the cross he's the eldest son
00:56:02 one of the first things he is concerned to do at that moment of death he's got the weight of the
00:56:10 world literally on his shoulders he's bearing the weight of the sins of the world and he's
00:56:15 concerned to say to his cousin John John your mother mother Mary your son in other words
00:56:27 uh john is responsible for your care and from that day the scripture says john took mary into
00:56:35 his home right so there is an honoring of the family there's an honoring of our parents and
00:56:43 scripture um gives us that command i was i was really encouraged to hear joel refer to one of
00:56:48 his reasons for his move from california to texas that it was concerned care for an involvement in
00:56:55 the life of his parents um and many of the things he said today have been have been challenging and
00:57:01 convicting and they should feel convicting uh for us as we um you know submit ourselves to to to the
00:57:09 word of god abraham um lived in the home of isaac isaac lived in the home of jacob jacob lived under
00:57:22 the care of joseph now i'm not saying that um uh that uh we all have to take um our parents into
00:57:30 our own home we may not be in a position to do that but i do think that um as a general pattern
00:57:36 the eldest godly son the eldest godly child uh with means is obligated to take responsibility
00:57:46 as Jesus modeled for us at the cross
00:57:49 and as God's law requires.
00:57:52 And that's why, Joe, just to interject for a moment,
00:57:55 that's part of the reason why the eldest son
00:57:57 would get a double portion of inheritance
00:57:59 is because he had more responsibilities.
00:58:03 It's not just because the father favored him,
00:58:05 but it was because you're going to receive more blessing.
00:58:08 Blessing always corresponds with responsibility.
00:58:11 God teams these things up together
00:58:13 and you're going to receive more blessing
00:58:14 because he had more responsibilities,
00:58:16 not only to care for his own household, but he had a unique responsibility to give some
00:58:21 return, which is good and pleasing in the sight of the Lord.
00:58:23 I think, you know, 1 Timothy 5, children should seek to give some return to their parents,
00:58:28 right?
00:58:28 With widows, do not let the church be burdened if she has grown sons.
00:58:32 Let them give some return to their parents, which is good and pleasing to the Lord.
00:58:35 And so the eldest son would bear that chief responsibility to care for his parents.
00:58:39 And that seems completely absent, that notion in our culture today.
00:58:43 Absolutely.
00:58:44 That's a great point.
00:58:45 and that is precisely why the the eldest godly child received a double portion we do see of
00:58:51 course at times where an ungodly child is set aside we see frequently in the older testament
00:58:57 there where the younger son receives the blessing and then receives the responsibility with it and
00:59:02 the responsibility is part of the blessing i've had the privilege of for a number of years now
00:59:07 taking my parents into my own home because they they don't have the means to support themselves
00:59:16 after many many years as missionaries overseas and the blessing to my children and to my family
00:59:22 through that has been immense it doesn't mean that every moment of every day isn't without its
00:59:28 moments of challenge because that's what it means to be human but the but the blessing has been
00:59:34 immense and so i would say that that that aspect respect for elderly care for parents um we have
00:59:42 abdicated that in our society and we've handed it over to the state and the result has been the
00:59:48 destruction of the family and uh and not an appropriate care for our parents i mean think
00:59:52 about what happened in the last few years when uh a virus struck um many of our parents who were
01:00:00 of our culture in these care homes were left on the floor to die
01:00:05 we do not give to the state the responsibilities that are given to to the family and jesus as i 0.98
01:00:16 said in mark 7 is very very clear about this he accused the pharisees of making void of nullifying
01:00:22 god's law by their tradition in saying well you know i've i've given my gifts to the temple i
01:00:26 don't need to do anything for my parents and he says you you make void the law by your tradition
01:00:33 and so i think if we look at those two just those two things honor and respect for the elderly and
01:00:40 the way we see that utterly collapsing and we we'd rather see them outside out of mind if not dead
01:00:45 um we don't want to learn from the elderly we don't want to respect the aged and we've idealized 0.99
01:00:53 youth which the bible doesn't do um and uh we need to think about that even in the life of the church 0.99
01:01:00 and and and in our in our families and then caring for our parents i think which is absolutely
01:01:06 critical to a stable society to a god-honoring society and so to a society that's concerned
01:01:12 concerned with inheritance blessing um and um and passing on the inheritance one of the reasons why
01:01:20 our culture is in freefall is that we no longer know who we are because that has not been passed
01:01:26 on because the multi-generational family life has been almost completely destroyed and we
01:01:34 desperately need to recover it if our society is going to survive. No society survives the
01:01:40 destruction of the family. It's part of God's judgment on our apostasy that we are where we are
01:01:45 But I would say those would be two critical and vital issues where we've abdicated responsibility, and we've also handed the burden over to the state, who not only do a poor job of it, but they end up destroying the family in the process and claim to be the elder brother and seize all the inheritance for themselves.
01:02:05 Right. Well, that's what I was going to say. We've handed the burden over to the state, and so by doing, God will not be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
01:02:13 we've handed over the burden and god attaches the blessing to the burden um and so like the you know
01:02:20 the death tax the estate tax you know all these kinds of things that we're part of the reason
01:02:24 we're you know we're groaning underneath the tyranny of the state well what made the state
01:02:29 so powerful what caused it to to to grow to such an oversized you know monster tyrant that it's
01:02:38 become like where did it get all this power well part of it is it got a lot of money where to get
01:02:43 that money that that blessing that that tangible you know physical blessing um because because we
01:02:49 abdicated the burden so we said we don't want the burden of caring for our father and mother we don't
01:02:54 want the burden for caring for our children we don't want the burden of educating our children
01:02:58 we don't and the state with with with wicked and sinister intentions um but but nonetheless god
01:03:05 will not be mocked there are certain principles baked into the world that god has made the state
01:03:09 said we'll take these burdens and lo and behold they've also taken the blessing we'll take care
01:03:16 of the elderly now they don't take care of them well but in in many cases in canada the way they
01:03:21 take care of the elderly is like i'll take care of that you know i'll you know i'll you know
01:03:26 euthanize them but we'll take care of the elderly we'll give your children an education with the 0.97
01:03:30 welfare system we'll take care of your wife we'll take care of this we'll take care of that and
01:03:34 And lo and behold, what comes with their willingness to take the burden, even though they botch the job of actually meeting the burden, but they do a halfway job, and that's being very charitable, but they do half the job of meeting the burden, but they get the whole blessing in terms of the literal financial benefit.
01:03:57 So they're getting all the inheritance that the eldest son would get goes to the state.
01:04:03 And then they do a lousy job of the burden.
01:04:06 But just the willingness, you know, it's been said before that authority flocks, you know, or it just, by default, it orients to those who are willing to take responsibility.
01:04:21 That when a man says, you know what, I'll take care of that.
01:04:24 you know what that maybe even is outside my jurisdiction but nobody's picking up that ball
01:04:29 i'll pick that up okay i'll i'll do this and i'll do it well and i'll do and and lo and behold i've
01:04:35 noticed in my own life at 36 years old now you know still relatively young but as i've just i've
01:04:41 been willing to take responsibility as i've seen certain deficiencies instead of just complaining
01:04:46 about it saying i wish more that you know people in the evangelical church would would would address
01:04:51 this i wish there was more teaching on this and and then saying you know what i i i don't think
01:04:56 i'm even the best man for the job i don't have some of the credentials that i wish i had but
01:04:59 i'm going to hit the books i'm going to i'm going to study as best i can knowing that i'll still be
01:05:04 incomplete in many ways um but but i'm going to look to other guys like like you dr boot and like
01:05:08 doug wilson and like jeff durbin and like james white you know and i'm going to as much as i can
01:05:12 staff my weaknesses surround myself by these guys learn from but i'm just going to do it i'm going
01:05:16 to start a podcast i'm going to start a ministry i'm going to write a book i'm going to plant a
01:05:19 church i'm gonna um i'm gonna have four kids and lord willing have another and and i'm gonna
01:05:23 and and i've just been willing to take these uh duties these responsibilities because i've seen
01:05:28 the lack and the gaping holes in in society and in the church at large um taking the willingness
01:05:35 to take these responsibilities all of a sudden i i can't tell you it's like clockwork but um
01:05:40 authority comes with it that all of a sudden people uh i i have certain people asking my
01:05:46 opinion, who never used to care what I thought. I have people sending in donations that I never
01:05:52 had before. I have more resources. Just in the last two years of my life, as I've taken on certain
01:05:57 responsibilities and just been willing to take the burden, the blessing comes. And we have
01:06:03 essentially, as a culture, and the church particularly, and households, those two spheres
01:06:09 of the home and the church have basically said, we don't want the burden, the duty that God gives
01:06:15 to us his law and we forfeited the blessing and now that third sphere is is 10 times the size
01:06:23 of the other two and and we're so quick to say it's because of their tyranny they took it from
01:06:28 us in many ways we gave it to them we gave the burden not realizing that god will not be mocked
01:06:34 and that and that blessing follows burden and we gave them the burden and and they're half doing
01:06:41 the burden but getting the whole blessing and then using that blessing and all those resources to
01:06:46 turn their sights and the gun further and it becomes this vicious cycle and the way to break
01:06:51 it is not to demand the blessing that's ours the way to break it the first step is to take back
01:06:55 the burden that's awesome yeah and with it the authority which is a key point joel i really
01:07:01 appreciate your time uh we've taken a goodish amount of it uh for those who are interested in
01:07:07 checking up with you? We might have some listeners who aren't familiar with you and your work.
01:07:12 Where can they go and learn more? Right Response Ministries. Thanks again,
01:07:18 you guys, for having me on the show. It's been an honor. But Right Response Ministries is the name
01:07:22 of the ministry outside of my local church, Covenant Bible Church. If they happen to be in
01:07:26 Central Texas, they may be able to come. We're in Georgetown, Texas, Williamson County. But
01:07:30 the ministry that's digital and remote is Right Response Ministries. They can go to
01:07:36 rightresponseministries.com.
01:07:39 They can also, we have a free app
01:07:40 that they could download and follow all of our content.
01:07:43 But most people, it seems, you know,
01:07:44 you can find us and subscribe
01:07:46 in any podcast platform, iTunes, Spotify,
01:07:49 but it seems like most people tend to follow us
01:07:52 and find us on YouTube.
01:07:53 So Right Response Ministries, YouTube,
01:07:57 our three main bread and butter with the ministry
01:08:00 is my sermon ministry, preaching ministry
01:08:04 from the Lord's Day at Covenant Bible Church.
01:08:05 every week, you'll find a full-length sermon. And then that's on Sunday. Every Monday, you'll
01:08:11 find a live Q&A that I do for about an hour. And then every Tuesday, that's our flagship show
01:08:16 called Theology Applied. That's the interview format show, like what you guys are doing right
01:08:21 now, where we've had notable guests, such as Dr. Boot and Doug Wilson and James White and Jeff
01:08:26 Durbin and Samuel Say and a host of others, Meg Basham with The Daily Wire and lots of different
01:08:34 individuals so um yeah they can follow us anywhere they like podcast website app but people for
01:08:41 whatever reason they seem to like youtube thanks very much joel really appreciate you being here
01:08:46 i'd like to encourage all of our listeners to go and uh buy your mother some flowers this week
01:08:51 joel joe dr boot thanks for uh being on the show for everyone who's who's listening we remind you
01:09:01 as ever that from him and through him and to him, that's Jesus Christ, are all things.
01:09:08 May he alone be glorified, and we'll look forward to being with you again next week.
01:09:23 Can I be frank with you for just a second, right here at the end? Look, some of you guys,
01:09:28 you're financially supporting this ministry. And from the bottom of my heart, I say, thank you. I
01:09:33 cannot thank you enough. However, some of you, you just, you can't afford it. In fact, some of you,
01:09:40 you shouldn't afford it. Let's be honest. I mean, we're living in Joe Biden's ridiculous economy.
01:09:47 Our nation and our totalitarian political elites lost their minds over the last three years 0.91
01:09:55 due to COVID. We have written checks that we simply cannot cash. It doesn't matter if people
01:10:02 change the definition of a recession. We are living in a recession right now regardless.
01:10:09 Some of you are struggling to afford a carton of eggs at the grocery store. You cannot support
01:10:15 financially this ministry at this time, nor should you, but you could still help us tremendously.
01:10:22 I am asking you, please, if you're willing to do so, take one minute of your time.
01:10:29 Leave us a five-star review on your favorite podcast platform, iTunes, Spotify, whatever
01:10:35 that might be.
01:10:36 This is the way the system works.
01:10:38 We want to be innocent as doves, but shrewd as vipers.
01:10:42 We need to be strategic.
01:10:44 You leave us a five-star review, and our podcast shows up for more people.
01:10:49 and the Word of God and courageous theology applied in practical ways to every realm of life
01:10:56 gets out there. Help us get it out there. Thanks for tuning in.