Man, this morning I'm preaching on the subject of being thankful to your mother.
Today, of course, Mother's Day, and it's a day when we stop and recognize the mothers
among us, most notably our mother.
We express our love and gratitude to them.
And of course, the Bible is very clear that we should honor our father and mother,
so it's important that we be thankful to our mother today.
The one verse in this passage that I wanted to point out is in verse 16, where the
Bible reads,
And what I want to point out here is that our mothers have gone through sorrows and
suffering and have made sacrifices in order to bring us into this world, in order to
raise us.
The Bible talks about there's a sorrow associated with that.
Obviously, there's great joy in having children, but at the same time, the process is painful
even to bring them into this world.
And let's face it, there are some painful things all along the way as well, whether
you're dealing with toddlers or teenagers, there are going to be sacrifices that are
made by mothers.
Mothers do a lot for their children, and we don't want to grow up and just completely
ignore or disregard the things that our parents have done for us, and especially our
mothers.
If you would flip over to Proverbs, chapter number one, the book of Proverbs has a lot
of instructions that deal with mothers and fathers because it's a book that's directed
at young men, and it's a book that is to give wisdom and guidance about how to
live your life.
And of course, there are many mentions of mothers and fathers throughout this book, beginning
in chapter one, verse eight, it says, my son, hear the instruction of thy father and
forsake not the law of thy mother, for they shall be an ornament of grace under
thy head and chains about thy neck.
Now, what does that mean there, an ornament of grace under thy head and chains about
thy neck?
Basically, it's saying that it's going to make you a more beautiful person, right?
The literal interpretation here, an ornament is some kind of a decoration or accoutrement
that you have on, chains about thy neck.
Obviously, we're not talking about like some kind of a slave or something that has
a chain around their neck, but we're talking about more like a gold chain, like the kind
that was offered to Daniel if he would interpret the dream.
It's some kind of a decoration.
And so the idea here, when it says an ornament of grace under thy head, chains about thy
neck, is that your mother's instructions, her laws, her commandments, her rules, if
you actually take those things to heart, learn from them, and then live by those
precepts for the rest of your life, it's going to make you a better person.
It's going to make you a greater person.
It's going to make you a classier, more elegant person in your adult life.
It'll be an ornament of grace under your head and chains about your neck.
So many young people, they just can't wait to get away from their parents.
And then they can just do whatever they want.
But the smart thing is to take the things that your parents taught with you and continue
to follow those precepts and those wise counsels for the entire rest of your life.
Don't forsake the law of your mother.
But when it comes to being thankful for your mother, we should be thankful for the
things that our mother taught us.
We should be thankful for the law of our mother, the rules that she had for us.
And you know, at the time when we're kids, we don't understand our parents' rules.
We don't know why they have these seemingly arbitrary rules sometimes.
But as you get older, you see the wisdom in those things.
I mean, I remember when I was a kid, my mom had a bunch of rules that I thought about
and followed.
And to this day, I follow.
Like I remember she had a rule, you eat four cookies.
You are not allowed to have more than four cookies.
And to this day, that is a rule of thumb for me.
It's just like, hey, if I'm eating cookies, four is the norm.
If I go above four, I feel that I'm overindulging.
Now look, obviously, my mom made sure that we did not overindulge on sweets and treats
and everything.
And of course, that's a good habit to carry into adult life, right?
We live in a society where we're surrounded by abundance, and it's easy to overindulge
and be greedy.
That was something that my mom taught me.
You know, she taught me never to use the same utensil on the mayonnaise and the tuna,
or I would, quote, kill the entire family, okay?
If any of that tuna got in the mayonnaise, and then it would just get in there and
just, because mayonnaise, I guess, lasted for a long time in our house.
And so, you know, if the tuna gets in there, and it'll just decompose, and you will
kill the entire family, you know?
If you go in the backyard and touch the toadstools, and then eat without washing
your hands, you will die, okay?
These are teachings that I grew up, and I'm joking around.
Obviously, those are just kind of funny things or silly things.
But you know what?
My mom taught me a lot of great things from the Bible, and she taught me just a lot
of great rules for living.
And I didn't just turn 18 and decide, you know what?
I'm just going to go out and just break all my parents' rules.
I'm going to show them, you know, even the rules that my parents had that were
a little bit arbitrary, I still live by those things just for no reason, other than
the fact that my mom and dad said those things.
And so we should have respect for our parents.
We should follow their rules.
When we grow up, obviously, yeah, we are our own authorities.
Now, obviously, my mom and dad are not directly an authority over me anymore.
Now that I'm an adult, I've left father and mother, I've cleaved unto my wife,
and they are not my bosses.
But at the same time, I'm not going to just forsake the law of my mother.
You know, I'm not just going to throw away all those years of teaching and training.
And a lot of my parents' rules made a lot of sense.
I'm going to keep living by those things, not because I have to, because mom and dad
are my bosses, but because it's just smart not to forsake the law of your mother, because
it'll be an ornament of grace under your head and chains about your neck.
Look at chapter 6, verse 20, if you would flip over to chapter 6, verse 20.
The Bible reads, My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of
thy mother.
Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.
When thou goest, it shall lead thee.
When thou sleepest, it shall keep thee.
And when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.
For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light, and reproofs of instruction
are the way of life.
Everything that our parents taught us about how to live our lives is gold, right?
They taught us things that have helped us to live a better life.
Now look, other kids that are out there not growing up in a Christian home, not
learning how to live their lives, not learning the Bible at all, they are going into life
at a disadvantage, okay?
The child who grows up in a Christian home raised by Christian parents in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord has an advantage in life.
They are starting out way ahead in life.
They are way more likely to succeed than the one who has heathen parents, right?
The child of heathen parents, when they're 18, you know, it's going to be difficult
for them to do right, to live the right way, to be a righteous person.
And so we should be very thankful for any kind of godly or righteous instruction that
we got from our parents.
You say, well, my parents weren't saved or my parents still aren't saved.
What about me?
Well, here's the thing about that is that even unsaved parents can still teach you
a lot of biblical things or right things.
Why?
Even the Gentiles had the law of God written on their hearts.
Even when Israel in the Old Testament was being given the word of God by the disposition
of angels and they received the word of God at Mount Sinai and they received the
word of God through the prophets, hey, they were not the only ones who knew right
from wrong in this world.
Actually even the heathen, even the Gentiles who, you know, did not have the law in writing,
they still had the law of God written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing
witness.
And so just because your parents were unsaved doesn't mean they don't have anything good
to teach, okay?
Because first of all, a lot of people who aren't saved, especially in the United
States of America, which is a culturally Christian country, are going to have a lot of Christian
principles as part of their worldview just from being American, right?
Even if they're not actually a born-again, saved child of God, still they are hopefully
teaching you some Christian morality, some Christian things in your upbringing, and
even if they were part of some, you know, theologically bankrupt cult or denomination
or some wrong religion, you know, hopefully you could still point to some biblical truths
that you still learned as a young person growing up.
And that's something you can be thankful for, okay?
And so I guarantee you the vast majority of people that are here this morning either
A, were raised by Christian parents, you should be super thankful for all the good
things that your mother taught you, but, or B, they at least were raised around
Christian morality and Christian values, you know, and their mom wasn't just a crack
whore or something, right?
And you say, well, Pastor Anderson, my mother was a crack whore.
And here's the thing, you know, there could be a very small minority that's here this
morning that would say, well, you know what, Pastor Anderson, my parents were just
super wicked and taught me all the wrong things.
First of all, I guarantee you that's a small minority.
A lot of just disrespectful punks would just want to put themselves in that category.
Yeah, that's me, you know, and then you meet their parents and their parents are nice
normal people.
Oh, my parents are so ungodly.
You know, that's just you being a rebellious punk, okay?
But that being said, I'm sure that there are a very few, a very small minority whose
parents were super wicked and your mom was just a total whore or floozy or, you
know, drug addict or whatever she was.
And here's the thing about that, if that's the case though, you know, you can still
at least be thankful that you are here today now and you're here where you are and that
God used those events in your life to get you here where you are today.
You know, the Bible says in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you.
The Bible talks about how Joseph's brethren meant it for evil when they sold him into
Egypt but God meant it for good.
So if God somehow turned that situation around and you're here today serving God, well then
that's great.
But again, even the ungodly mother probably taught you something useful, okay?
Because even unsaved people, even non-Christian people, they still have certain wisdom of
this world.
The Bible talks about how the children of this world are wiser in their generation
than the children of light and so there are certain things that they know and certain
things that they can teach.
Look, here's what I suggest.
Why don't you just take all the things that you didn't like about mom, all the negatives
about mom, and just forget about them?
Because do they really matter now that you're 20, 30, 40, 50?
Why would I sit here and dwell on anything negative about my parents?
There's no point.
And some people, they carry that garbage around with them for the rest of their lives and
they just become bitter and just, oh, my mom, you know, when I was eight years old.
But it's like, shut up, who cares?
Get over it.
And conversely, why don't you choose to sit down and dwell on the things that your mother
did right, the things that are good about your mother.
Forget all the bad, remember all the good.
That's how we should treat our parents.
In fact, that'd be probably a good way to treat a lot of people, like especially
your spouse.
You know, forget the negative stuff, dwell on the positives, and honor your father and
mother.
God's commandments, the law of our mother, those are things that have helped us get
to where we are today so that we're not just out there living as derelicts, criminals,
whatever, because no one taught us basic character.
You know, even just something as simple as mom and dad teaching you to eat right
foods and to brush your teeth and to take a shower, you know, at least keeps us from
destroying our bodies, destroying our teeth, whatever.
Go to chapter 10 of Proverbs.
Here in Proverbs, we're just going to kind of cruise through some of the highlights
here in Proverbs.
Look at Proverbs chapter 10, the Proverbs of Solomon, a wise son maketh a glad father,
but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother, right?
It's depressing to be the mother of a foolish son.
I mean, the best thing that you could do to make mom proud is not to be an idiot,
right?
You're going to live in a wise manner, do the right things, and then mom's going
to be happier.
Mom's going to be proud of you and not have heaviness or depression or sadness
as a result of your stupidity.
Look at chapter 15, verse 20, it says, a wise son maketh a glad father, but a foolish
man despises his mother, right?
The foolish man despises his mother.
He looks down on her.
He thinks that he's better than her.
He thinks that he is superior to her, and so he holds her in light esteem.
This is wrong, right?
We want to be wise.
We want to make mom proud.
Don't look down on her.
Don't despise her.
Don't think of her as nothing.
Look at chapter 19, verse 26, Proverbs 19, 26.
He that wasteth his father and chaseth away his mother is a son that causeth shame and
bringeth reproach.
Now that's kind of an interesting verb, wastes, he that wasteth his father.
You know, I was thinking about this, and we would probably maybe mentally go to kind
of a slang use of this word, like, you know, hey, man, I wasted that guy.
To me, that would be something like you either killed him or you maybe beat him really bad,
like in a competition of some kind or something.
That's where my mind would go when it comes to slang, like, you know, wasting someone.
We're not talking about getting wasted now, okay?
I'm talking about wasting someone, but that's modern slang.
That's not what this is saying right here.
I would say that the word waste, biblically, this word is going to mean something along
the lines of what it means today, which is just to waste something, just to let it go
to waste, or to make something unusable, to make it desolate, to make it waste, to lay
something waste as to, like, create a wasteland.
And I would say that what the Bible is saying here when it says he that wasteth his
father and chaseth away his mother, remember, this is parallelism.
These are two parallel ideas.
On the one hand, wasting father.
On the other hand, chasing away your mother.
It seems to me that the best definition here is that you're not making use of the
benefits or the teachings or just the good things that dad has to offer.
You're wasting him.
You're not taking advantage of his teachings.
You're not taking advantage of what he can do for you or what he has done for you.
Wasting away your mother is basically just saying, I don't want anything to do with
her.
I don't want to talk to her.
I don't want to be around her.
I don't want to spend time with her.
And again, that goes hand in hand with wasting your father because you're not
open to the resources, to the wisdom, to the good things that mom and dad have
to offer for you.
And so it says that if you waste your father and chase away your mother, you're a son
that causes shame and brings reproach.
And you know what?
All kinds of articles in the news over the last few years and all kinds of studies being
done about how many children are now alienated from their parents.
It's actually a huge problem in this world where just massive numbers of people
in our population just have no relationship with their parents.
They just completely want nothing to do with their parents.
They won't answer the phone when they call.
They won't get together with them on the holidays.
They just want nothing to do with their parents.
And this is a huge problem now that so many children are estranged from their parents.
They're wasting their father.
They're chasing away their mother, and it isn't right.
It's ungodly.
You should try to the best of your ability, if it is at all possible in any way, shape,
or form, to have a good relationship with your parents.
It's so stupid to burn that bridge and ruin that relationship with your parents.
And then you wonder why so many people, they just get up the creek without a paddle in life.
Well, what about your parents?
You know, your parents are people that can help you out when you're young and you need help.
And even in the middle age, sometimes your parents are still helping you out.
And that's just good to have that safety net.
I don't want the government to be my safety net.
I want family to be my safety net.
I want my brothers and sisters in Christ to be my safety net.
I want people, relationships, to be my safety net.
That's what the Bible teaches, and I don't want to sit there and just burn all those bridges in my life.
And look, even just for a selfish reason, you're foolish to burn bridges with your parents.
Because the Bible says, honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise,
that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
I mean, even just from a selfish perspective, if you have any faith in what the word of God is saying,
honoring your father and mother, obeying your parents, is going to get you a long and prosperous life.
That sounds pretty good to me.
I want to live long.
I want it to be prosperous on this earth.
Well, God says if you honor your father and mother, that's the promise associated with that.
And so we want to do it because God commands it and because it's just smart.
It just makes sense.
And because our parents have something to offer us.
And one day, your parents will be gone.
And then you can no longer tap into that wisdom.
You can no longer ask them those questions.
I guarantee there are tons of people here today whose parents are dead and they wish they could ask them a question.
And they can't ask them anything because they're gone.
Well, you know what?
You should be having those conversations now, asking those questions now, getting that learning and education from them now while you still can.
And so don't waste your father.
Don't chase away your mother.
Look at 20 verse 20.
Proverbs chapter 20 verse 20, it says, whoso cursed his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.
You know, God does not smile on those who curse their parents.
There's a lot of scripture about how we need to bless our parents.
You know, another verse that comes to mind is Deuteronomy chapter 27, cursed be he that set at light by his father or his mother and all the people shall say amen.
And what that means when it says cursed be he that set at light by his father or mother, we would say that in our modern vernacular as cursed be he that
esteems lightly his father or mother or makes light of his father or mother or looks down upon his father and mother, despises his father and mother,
does not honor his father and mother.
Cursed be he, the Bible says, and all the people shall say amen.
I mean, this is a list with some pretty wicked things in Deuteronomy 27.
Listing a bunch of horrible, malicious, wicked crimes and perverted things even, and then he says, hey, do not set light by father and mother or you will be cursed by God.
We need to take this thing of honoring our father and mother seriously.
You should call mom today and wish her a happy Mother's Day.
You should call mom today, express your love, express your gratitude.
And here's the thing, if you haven't done that already and you're a person like me who forgets everything now, I already did it.
So I'm in the clear because, you know, my wife reminded me that said the moment I woke up this morning, not that I would have forgotten anyway.
But the point is, I'm very forgetful.
I'm very prone to forget.
I'm not good at remembering things.
I'm not good.
So here's the thing about that is you write things down, right?
The way that I get things done is because I write everything down.
I log everything.
I'm a big geek, so I do everything on a spreadsheet.
I, you know, my whole life is logged on a spreadsheet that I look at like literally 10 to 15 times a day.
OK, and I'm not telling you that you have to geek out like that.
But the point is, you know, set a little alarm on your phone right now and just set an alarm that says, hey, you know, when this thing goes off, I'm going to call mom and wish her a happy Mother's Day.
Tell mom that you love her, show some gratitude for all of the sacrifices and sorrow and suffering that she went through to get you to this point.
Having children is not always a picnic.
Giving birth is certainly not a picnic, and this is what mothers have done.
You say, well, my mom didn't even give birth to me.
She got a C-section.
That's not a picnic.
You know, a lot of sometimes women think like, oh, man, a C-section is my easy way out.
No, it isn't, though.
Because that has its own pain and suffering and sorrow associated with, you know, when somebody is cutting a child out of your stomach, that's going to hurt.
Even if you're anesthetized while it's happening, it's going to hurt the next day.
It's going to hurt for the next week.
It's going to, you know, obviously there's just no way around it.
I don't care how your mom gave birth.
It hurt.
It was painful.
She suffered.
She went through the torment of that.
Flip over to Chapter 23, if you would.
And so, yeah, you know, giving birth, there's just no easy way out.
Not to mention just the difficulty of just pregnancy itself has its own challenges of, you know, just carrying around that sack of potatoes for all that time.
But look, if you would, at Proverbs 23, verse 22, it says, Harken unto thy father that beget thee and despise not thy mother when she is old.
Buy the truth and sell it not.
Also wisdom and instruction and understanding.
So do not despise your mother when she's old.
Now, why would someone look down upon, lightly esteem, not think someone's important because they're old?
You know, despise not thy mother when she's old.
You know, a lot of people have this attitude that says, well, you know, older people, they don't really know how the world works today.
They're from a different time.
There's a generation gap and they don't really know.
And this is totally false because there's no new thing under the sun.
And it's like, no, our society is totally different.
Yeah, but is it though?
Because obviously superficially, every generation is dramatically different than the last, superficially.
But underneath, when you get into the actual warp and woof of human nature and society and human relationships, really things are always the same.
Human nature is human nature.
People are people.
And so we don't want to despise mom's experience just because she's from another period, just because she's from another dispensation, you know, from another epoch.
We should not think that her wisdom and her truth doesn't matter, right?
Buy the truth, sell it not, wisdom, instruction, understanding.
These are things that you can glean from mom even when mom is older.
Don't look down on her.
And by the way, we shouldn't despise elderly people in general.
Here's the thing about elderly people is that they begin to slow down, don't they?
But that doesn't mean that they're not smart.
That doesn't mean that they don't have knowledge or wisdom or understanding just because they talk slow or maybe have long pauses where they have kind of a senior moment and have to get their thoughts together.
You know what?
They still have something good to say in many cases.
It's just that they don't move as quickly as they used to.
Especially people who are lifelong learners.
You know, I've talked to men in their 80s and even 90s who I was able to have a good conversation about the Bible with and bounce ideas off one another.
And, you know, you can still have great conversations with grandma even when she's in her 90s.
You know, I had great conversations with my grandma when she was in her 90s.
And so don't despise mom when she's old, for those of you who have a mom that's old, okay?
And don't bring up this verse when your mom's like in her 40s or something, okay?
Say, hey, you know, I got to, I don't want to despise my mother when she's old and she's like, you know, 37 or something, you know?
Okay.
That's not old.
Old is like older than anyone in this room.
No, I'm just kidding.
But old, you know, we're talking old, old, but obviously we shouldn't despise her when she's young either.
Look at verse 24.
The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice, and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.
And obviously the same goes for a mother.
A mother is going to rejoice in a godly son or daughter.
Verse 25, thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bear thee shall rejoice.
Look, you want to bring joy and rejoicing and gladness to your parents.
Be righteous.
That's the best Mother's Day gift that you can give.
Look at chapter 29, Proverbs chapter 29.
Bible reads in Proverbs chapter 29 verse 15, the rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother's shame.
That tells me that we should be thankful that mom didn't leave us to ourselves because otherwise we'd be bringing her shame right now, right?
The fact that mom took an interest in us, and you know what, sometimes you say, well, my mom took too much of an interest in me.
She was too interested.
She was too overbearing or too protective or whatever.
But you know what?
That's still better than just being left to be semi-feral, just out there doing whatever, because a child left to himself brings his mother to shame.
The Bible says in chapter 30 verse 11, the last place we'll look in Proverbs, it says, there's a generation that cursed
their father and did not bless their mother.
And that's what we're seeing today in America, where you have record numbers of people who grow up and are estranged from their parents, right?
They grow up and they curse their father and they don't bless their mother.
And we should not be so as God's people.
We should be different.
Flip over if you want to 1 Timothy chapter number 5.
1 Timothy chapter number 5.
What's the title of the sermon?
Being thankful to your mother.
There's a lot to be thankful for.
Her teachings, her wisdom, the upbringing that she gave us, or how about just the pain and sorrow and misery she went through to bring us into this world?
All the sacrifices that she made, because let's face it, virtually every mother makes a lot of sacrifices for her child.
You know, if there's only one blanket and it's cold, she's going to give it to her child.
I mean, that's the way mothers are.
Mothers take care of their children.
Mothers sacrifice themselves for their children all the time.
If there's only one piece of food, it's going to the child.
I mean, this is the way mothers think.
This is the way mothers are.
The Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 1, rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father and the younger men as brethren, the elder women as mothers, the younger as sisters with all purity, honor widows that are widows indeed.
But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home and to requite their parents for that is good and acceptable before God.
Now, let me first of all point out, this is one of the rare cases where a word in the King James Bible is truly archaic because a lot of people throw this around like, oh, the Bible is filled with archaic words and it's translation.
The Bible is filled with words that I don't know because I have a small vocabulary.
That's basically what they're saying.
And I don't care who your favorite little Bible teacher is who gave you a list of all the archaic words in the King James.
Every list I've ever seen like that contains words that are being used today that are in newspapers in 2024 that are being used from the mouths of lay people every day.
And they think it's archaic because they don't know it.
Newsflash, we all have gaps in our vocabulary.
I don't care how well read you are, I don't care how educated you are, I don't care how smart you are, there are a lot of current English words that you just don't know.
Nobody knows all the words.
They don't.
And you know what?
Some of the words that I've looked at in the Bible and thought, oh, this word's archaic, guess what?
It's just because I didn't know that word.
And so people are just like, oh, the King James is filled with archaic words.
No, it's filled with words.
And you have a small vocabulary and you need to get some smarts.
Now, also, the Bible is often filled with specialized vocabulary.
OK, so, for example, all kinds of words about sailing, you might not know these words if you're not a sailor, if you've never sailed.
OK, and by the way, it's like this when you learn a foreign language.
I remember studying Greek and you're studying Homer's Iliad and Odyssey in Greek and you look up a Greek word in English and then you don't know what the English word is.
And you end up learning a ton of English words while you're learning a foreign language because of the fact that, you know, in the Iliad and the Odyssey, there's all kinds of specialized wording about, you know, equipment used in battle, you know, armor, sailing, ships.
So, you know, like I remember learning Greek vocabulary for the Iliad and the Odyssey and learning words like the forced day and, you know, but see, that's what it's called.
But the thing is, somebody would come along today and be like, forced day, what's that?
Oh, the King James, now the King James doesn't use the word forced day.
I'm just saying that's a word that, you know, if you know about sailing or something or like how about the word greaves, right?
What are greaves?
You know, oh, greaves, that's when I get sad at a funeral or something, you know.
And these people just, they just show their ignorance.
Look, it's okay to be ignorant.
What's not okay is to pretend I'm God, I know everything and so if a word is something I don't know, it must be a wrong word, it must be archaic.
You know, greaves are these shin guards that warriors wear when they go into battle.
Now here's the thing, today's military are not outfitted with greaves.
And so therefore, this isn't a word that we use very often, but okay, what should the Bible say, shin guards or something, you know?
That's what they used to be called back when they were being used.
There are just some old things, that's what they are, they're greaves.
But how about this word?
I remember studying Exodus and reading the word selvage, is that what it was?
Right, selvage?
I read the word selvage and I thought like, oh man, this must be some archaic word.
My wife said, every woman at the fabric store knows what that means.
She says, if you go to the fabric store, every single woman knows what that means.
That is not an archaic word, it's a sewing term.
And if you don't do sewing, you might not know words like habergen or, oh habergen, what's that?
You're just showing your own ignorance.
And I mean, you have these guys, you know, James White is like, a doe, what's a doe?
Well, it's a doe, you know, doe, a deer, a female deer, you know.
It's a doe, like without any further ado.
Okay, it's not, or choler, it's not choler, it's collar.
And people today use that word all the time.
Talk about being choleric or filled with collar.
I learned that in elementary school on a spelling list.
Collar, c-h-o-l-e-r, collar, right?
And so, you know, what is that?
Look, we all have blind spots in our vocabulary.
On every list I've ever seen, they always bring up the word angle, meaning fish hook.
And yet, literally, if you get a fishing license in Phoenix, Arizona,
it literally says right on it, this is an angling license, right?
Oh, but so archaic, speak American, or whatever.
Folks, and then this bozo, I made a video the other day about this bozo,
because this bozo had a video called Errors in the King James Bible.
You know, the errors he brought up were totally stupid and ridiculous.
He's basically mad at the King James for accurately translating the Hebrew and Greek.
He really has a problem with the actual Bible itself,
because that's what the Bible said in the original, and the King James is translating it.
Oh, it's a contradiction.
Well, it has nothing to do with the King James,
it's just that's what the original says, buddy.
Deal with it.
But I made this video about this guy, and the guy literally said,
he's like, yeah, these King James people,
they tell you to look things up in a dictionary.
And this is what the guy said.
He's like, why should I have to look things up in a dictionary in my own native language?
That's stupid, he said.
No, you want to know what's stupid?
What's stupid is to think that a dictionary is for looking things up in another language.
Because last time I checked, the only use for an English dictionary
is to look things up in English.
That's literally the only reason the English dictionary exists.
Do you think that the English dictionary exists for Spanish?
Is it for Chinese, is it for German?
It has one purpose, looking things up in your own language.
If I speak English, mate, why the guy's Australian, you know?
If I speak English, mate, then why should I have to look up words in my own language?
I'm sorry I can't do a good Australian accent.
But why should you have to look up words in the dictionary in your own language?
Because that's what dictionary is.
Book you use to look up words in your own language.
That's literally...
If I walked into the store and said, give me a dictionary,
I'm here to buy a dictionary, well, what language?
No, they'd assume that I meant an English dictionary.
Because it's actually a pretty popular item.
You'd be shocked how many of these suckers are in circulation
and when they have no purpose.
Because, I mean, you either know English or you don't.
And if you know English, you don't either.
Folks, a dictionary is for you to look up words in your own language
that you don't know because we don't know everything about our own language.
No one does.
Literally no one does.
Every difficult word in the King James,
you can look up in a modern English dictionary and it's there.
And it'll give you the King James definition.
It might not be definition number one, but it's on the list.
But so with that being said,
the number of supposedly archaic words in the King James is exaggerated big time.
Well, that's not how we talk.
Well, nobody talks like you.
You're from Australia, dude.
Plus books are never the way we talk.
The way we write and the way we talk are different.
But here's the deal, okay?
There are a few truly archaic words in the Bible in the King James
because the King James is over 400 years old.
So yeah, every once in a while there's a truly archaic word.
And here's what I mean by a truly archaic word.
A word where it used to mean something different.
And we've kind of just pretty much totally forgotten that old meaning.
And so you could actually get a little bit confused.
How often does that really happen in the King James?
You can find very few examples of that.
This is an example I bring up all the time just because there are so few.
So I'm always going to this as an example because there are really that few.
But then what people will try to do is try to snow you with the mountain of evidence, right?
This is a tactic people use to manipulate you when they're wrong about something
is to hit you with the mountain of evidence, right?
Instead of having like a few good pieces of quality evidence, they just kind of snow you
with just, here's a list of 600 archaic words.
And then you look at the list, you're like, what?
These aren't archaic, dude.
Okay.
But it'd be smarter to just point out, these are the words that are actually archaic in
the King James.
But the problem is the list would be so small.
People would be like, that's not a big deal.
I don't think we need to translate the whole Bible again if we just have a few
archaic words.
Why don't we just learn what those words mean in their biblical context?
And by the way, this is part of what preaching and going to church does for you is
it explains to you archaic words.
It's sort of like when Saul and his servant go to see Samuel and then the text of scripture
explains, now the guy that we call a prophet today, he used to be called a seer.
And then they say, is the seer here?
And then we all know, okay, when they say seer, what do they really mean?
They really mean prophet, right?
That's what preaching does for you.
It explains things.
Okay.
And so here's, this is a truly archaic word in the King James, a rare example.
Thank you, Daniel Reiter for teaching me this about 10 years ago or whenever that was
eight years ago, I learned this from brother Daniel Reiter, but the word nephew here
is grandson is what that actually means.
And if you look up the word nephew in the dictionary, it will say it has an archaic
meaning of grandson.
So when the King James Bible was translated, this did not mean your sister's son.
This did not mean your brother's son.
It meant your grandson.
Okay.
Now it's not, oh, the King James is wrong.
No, the King James isn't wrong.
The King James is just old.
And so in a few places, rarely you'll have a truly archaic word where you might
need this explained.
Now, even from the context, you can kind of figure out that something's going on
here because it says in verse four, if any widow have children or nephews.
And again, what that actually means is children or grand sons.
Okay.
Children or grandchildren.
Let them learn first to show piety at home and to requite their aunts and uncles.
No, to requite their parents, right?
Because the children and grandsons are requiting their parents, meaning parents,
grandparents, great grandparents, not aunts and uncles.
So the good news is you are off the hook when it comes to your aunt and uncle.
Okay.
But you got to requite your parents.
Now I know that was a little bit of a rabbit trail, but I have no regrets because we
need to continually emphasize this thing of the King James Bible because there are
so many bogus translations out there that twist and chop and change the word of God.
And they make all these lying arguments about the King James being so super archaic
and it's exaggerated, of course.
But the Bible says here that if a widow have children or nephews, let them learn
first to show piety at home and to requite their parents for that is good and
acceptable before God.
Now, let me point out the obvious to you.
If God is telling children and grandchildren to requite their parents, then that means
that they owe something to their parents.
How can you requite your parents?
What does that mean?
What does it mean to requite?
Well, again, not an archaic word, just a word that's not in your small vocabulary
possibly.
But if you think about the word quit, if you pay someone back, let's say you owe
someone money and then you pay them back.
Now you are quit.
Have you ever heard this word acquittal, right?
You know, requital?
There are all kinds of different words that come from the same root.
And so the idea here of requiting your parents is to recompense your parents.
It is to pay your parents back, right?
If any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home and
to requite their parents.
That means that you owe a debt to your parents and you pay it back.
So your parents took care of you when you were young.
And when they get old, if they end up needing your help, you take care of them.
You requite your parents.
Now there's a mentality that's out there that says, well, I don't owe my parents
anything.
That's just what parents do for their kids.
And the way that I repay the debt is by doing it for my kids.
So my parents did it for me.
I do it for my kids, but I don't owe my parents anything.
Well, is that what the Bible says?
You know, the Bible says trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not under
thine own understanding.
And so a lot of people lean under their own understanding.
They've got their own ideas.
They've got their own philosophies.
But at the end of the day, the Bible says that children and grandchildren should requite
their parents, meaning that they owe their parents.
Their parents have raised them, and now they owe their parents a debt of gratitude.
And that when their parents get to a point, like let's say the mother is widowed, and
she's a widow, and she doesn't have a breadwinner, and she doesn't have any
money, she doesn't have a retirement package or whatever, then it's time for the
children and the grandchildren to step up and take care of their parents.
You know, I have a lot of children.
That's my retirement package.
Now, I don't plan on retiring.
I plan on working until the day I die.
God willing, I hope that God gives me the strength and the ability to work until the
day I die.
I have no desire to retire.
I don't want to retire.
I want to be preaching in my 90s.
You know, hopefully God will allow me to do that.
I maybe even, you know, pass 100 or whatever.
I want to, you know, work as hard as I can all the way until the bitter end.
I don't anticipate being a burden upon my children or grandchildren or great-grandchildren.
But you know what?
I would expect that if I ever got to a point where I, you know, crashed and burned financially
or something or got old and couldn't take care of myself and were handicapped in some
way, you know, yeah, I would expect for my children to take care of me the way that
I took care of them.
And if my wife were in that situation and I were dead and my wife's in a situation
where she can't take care of herself, which again, I can't really see that happening.
My wife is, I'm sure, going to be self-sufficient under the bitter end, like I am hoping to
be.
But at the same time, if that were to happen, well, then guess what?
You know, we would expect our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, to step
in and take care of us.
It's their duty.
You know, and the nice thing about having 12 of them is that, you know, somebody's
got to pan out.
You know what I mean?
Then you get all the grandchildren cranking.
I mean, something's got to pan out, man.
I have a diverse portfolio when it comes to my retirement package.
But you know what?
You say, well, I don't have children.
Here's the thing.
Forget children.
You know, just invest in other people.
Invest in people.
Because you know what?
Even if none of my children and none of my grandchildren took care of me, I believe
there'd be somebody out there that would take care of me just because they like the
preaching.
You know what I mean?
Just because, you know, or just because I've done something for someone in the
past.
You know, if we spend our lives ministering to other people, helping other
people, taking care of other people, then that's the retirement package.
Okay.
I don't know my parents anything.
You know, that's just, that's, you know, children are just God's gift to parents
and therefore, you know, the, the, the, what they get in return is to have me.
But no, my friend, that's not what the Bible teaches.
The Bible teaches that you should requite your parents.
Your parents do a lot for you.
You should do a lot for them.
And this should be done in love.
God loves a cheerful giver, not a bitter like, Oh man, we got to take care of
grandma.
When is she going to die?
You know, quit being a burden.
Maybe we, I don't know, doctor, can we pull the plug or what?
You know, obviously it's supposed to be done cheerfully.
God loves a cheerful giver.
Requite their parents.
The Bible says in verse five, now she that is a widow indeed and desolate
trusteth in God and continueth in supplications and prayers night and
day.
But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.
And these things give in charge that they may be blameless, but if any provide
not for his own and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the
faith and is worse than an infidel.
Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old,
having been the wife of one man, well reported up for good works, if
she have brought up children.
Notice that's first on the list of good works.
If she brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have
washed the saints feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have
diligently followed every good work.
Look, the Bible is saying that raising children is work.
It is good works.
And it is something that is worthy to be requited.
We should requite our own parents and grandparents.
And not only that, but when it comes to these widows, they deserve to be
taken care of if they don't have children or nephews.
And nephew, of course, in this context is the archaic meaning of nephew,
which is grandsons.
If they don't have the sons and grandsons to take care of them, then
the church is taking care of them.
Why?
Because they've done these good works.
What were the good works?
Bringing up children, lodging strangers, washing the saints feet,
relieving the afflicted, diligently following every good work.
But notice one of those things is raising children.
Because raising children is hard.
It's work.
It's a virtue.
It's a good work.
It's a godly work.
And we need to be thankful to mom for the good work that she has done,
bringing us into this world, raising us.
Today, many women are just selfish.
And they just abort their baby and do these terrible things.
Folks, thank God for women who go through the pain, the suffering,
the sorrow, the sacrifice to bring children into this world,
to feed them, diaper them, train them, teach them, and raise them.
Be thankful to your mother.
Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord God,
and we pray that it would sink down into our ears,
that it would become our worldview.
Lord, help us to think the way that you think
and not rely on the understanding of our own heart
or this world's philosophies.
Lord, bless us as we go our separate ways.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.