Would you take your Bibles, please, and turn to Deuteronomy chapter 5? So we look at our fifth commandment tonight. Commandment that we are familiar with, but maybe one of the least, maybe the most unpopular one in our culture today. Commandment to honor our Father and Mother, and that is because, as I said this morning, if we're living in a culture of spin, we're certainly living in a society that is bordering on anarchy. Our 21st century America is much like Israel in the days of the judges, where it says not once but twice in that book, each man did what was right in his own eyes, because there was no king in the land in those days. In fact, that's how the book of judges ends with that verse. In those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Arthur Cundle, who wrote a commentary on the book of judges, says in Israel, every man pleased himself, but since to do what was right in one's eyes is tantamount to saying that a state of anarchy existed, the inference is that this led inevitably to undesirable and a disorderly situation. We live in an age where, for reasons I'm not really sure why, we are highly suspect of any and all authority. In fact, the very word anarchy comes from two Greek words. A or on means no, an archaic ruler or overseer or authority. No authority, no ruler, no law, no one to tell me what I don't want to hear and to command me to do what I don't want to do. Anarchy is divine this way in the dictionary. The lack of rulership or enforced authority, a social state in which there is no governing personal group of people, but each individual has absolute liberty. It's the absence of government, a state of lawlessness due to the absence of or inefficiency of supreme power in political order. Anarchy is political disorder. The absence or non-recognition of authority in order in any given sphere. It's acting without waiting for instructions or official permission. The root of anarchy is the single impulse to do for yourself what you yourself want and everything else flows from this. Because society is bordering on anarchy, people have become desperate for authority. Anarchy can never support a society for very long. It can never bring the order, the decency and the cooperation that we need. So one of the things we have to face as a lesson of history is that whenever anarchy rains for a while, it inevitably corrects itself by going through the opposite end of the continuum to totalitarianism. When people finally get sick and tired of everybody doing what's right in their own eyes, in order to gain control and safety again they go to the other end and they bequeathed to those in authority unlimited and unreasonable powers. History has shown in the life of one nation, one society, after another that when anarchy has rained for a while as it did in pre-war Germany in the 1920s and 30s, that the attempted correction to that is to find a führer, a great leader and to give him all the authority and power he needs to bring order out of anarchy's disorder. And I don't know which is worse. Anarchy or a dictator. Why is this so? Because God has devised this world and designed us as individuals to live under some structures of order and authority. From our parents and our pastors, our governors, we have three basic parameters of life, the family, the church and the state. And all three are instituted in order to guard and to guide the government, the family to guard us and youth, the church to guide us through light and the government to govern us while we are here. Even more essential is that three basic institutions bring what sociologists call the three sinews or the three strands that tie life together, tradition and authority and power. Tradition has primarily been found in the family. It's the family that from the birth of a child passes on, the accumulated wisdom, the values and the folklore of the people group into which they've been born. It's in the family that we learn the basic tenets of right and wrong. It's in the family that we learn almost unconsciously what Americans do and what they don't do. When we hear our minds or our conscience tell us we don't do that sort of thing here, that is the family speaking into our hearts. Authority belongs to the realm of the church because it alone is the guardian and trustee of the word of God, which is the supreme authority for life and practice. It is the church over time that brings along with its preaching and teaching this apostolic cotorugma, this proclamation of the apostles and the tradition that it brings us. James I. Packer informs us that this biblical tradition comes from the church, serves us in four definite beneficial ways. Number one, it gives us our roots. It tells us who we are and where we've come from and why we believe the things we believe or don't believe certain things that we don't believe. It gives us realism. We find that we're not the first generation in the world or in the history of mankind to struggle with the things we struggle with. We don't blow things out of proportion. We are realistic about our troubles and challenges. It gives us resources, tools and information to help us in our difficulties and to navigate our way through the different challenges of every age. And finally, it gives us reminders how the people of God before us either succeeded or failed in facing the same problems that we face. Listen to James I. Packer. North American evangelicalism steeped in individualism, often seems to have no real sense of historical belonging or rootedness. As such, it is radically prone to destabilization. North American evangelical has been a spiritual-loan ranger who has proudly or impatiently turned his back on the church and his heritage. Rediscovering the corporate and historic nature of the Christian faith reduces the dangers of entire communities of faith being misled by some charismatic individual. And it affirms the ongoing importance of the Christian past as a stabilizing influence in potentially turbulent times. So we have tradition coming from our family and authority coming from the church and I think secondarily the school that is attended to it. And thirdly, we have power. Power belongs, quite frankly, not to parents, authority belongs to them. It does not belong to the church, but it belongs to the state. The state is given what the Bible calls the power of the sword to enforce the law. To apply God's word, to undergird and respect the traditions of the American family. Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those who exist have been instituted by God, therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God is appointed. And those who resist will incur a judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is an authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for you. But if you do what is wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. Romans 13, speaking of the government. The government has the power to enforce the law. Policemen, military officers and personnel, the FBI, different statues and ordinances and policies and public procedures give us the rule of law. And they reinforce parental authority and respect for Christian tradition when they operate as they should. Family fails when church becomes feckless, when schools will not allow religion or the Bible or the name of Christ and the classrooms anymore. Then all that is left is power, raw, unadulterated power. And with it, a lawless society becomes a litigious place to live. Because lawyers and judges have to settle all the problems that should have been settled by parents and their children and congregants and their churches. That's an undeniable fact. That with the decay of the American family and the cowardice of the American church, we wonder why the government is so intrusive? Why the president takes himself so much authority? Why the state is always pressing into our lives was because they are naturally as an institution ordained by God trying to push back the tidal wave of anarchy. Now listen to David Wells as he talks about these three sin-use and what happens when they become unraveled. In the past, Western society was held together by three sin-use, tradition, authority, power. Tradition is the process whereby one generation endut six successors into the accumulated wisdom-worn values of the previous. The family once served as the chief conduit for this transmission, but the family is now collapsing, not merely because of divorce, but as a result of affluence and the innovations of a technological age. So at the same time, society finds that it can no longer recognize appeals to authority. For any transcendent realm in which these appeals might be lodged has vanished from the American site. This is evident in many contexts. The Christian theism on which Western society was built has been replaced by an idealism of one kind or another, but this idealism still had a transcendent interest, although it was no longer God-centered. Then that idealism collapsed in postmodernity during the 19th century. Initially it was replaced by a kind of humanism that was elevated and ethical and aesthetic interest, but as such it had no durable conceptual base, and so it too, like tradition, fell apart. The three tendons have thus been reduced to one. Tradition and authority have been severed, only power remains. But it is a power severed from moral order that might contain and correct it and cut off from the values of the past that might instruct and inform it. In a strange testimony to this inner vacuum, the profession of law has risen to such prominence in America. Are you ready for this? That 70% of all the lawyers in the world practice in the United States. In the absence of moral obligation and a sense of what is right, disputes are extraordinarily difficult to resolve, and so the set of rules that has emerged under the law must take on duties that were one-shouldered by a variety of institutions, meaning the family, the school, the church. Now all we are left with are the lawyers. David Wells is not making fun of attorneys. God help us where we would be without them. But he is simply making the fact that when anarchy comes and each man does what is right in his own eyes, what really is behind it all is raw power. The power of the individual against the institution, the power of a rebellious teenager who says to his parents, don't tell me what to do. I am 18. If you do that, mom and dad, I am running away. I will hit you forever. I won't visit you when you are in the old folks home. You know what that is? That's the exercise of illegitimate power. That's a threat. That's striking back. Or when the church don't tell me what to do, let me tell you something pastor, you keep talking like that, and people will vote with their feet right out of this place. That is a threat. We will take you to Presbyterry. Well guess what? I am now the moderator of Presbyterry. Go ahead. It's a threat. We say to the police officer, who gave you the right to stop me? He is the only one that doesn't answer. Because he has raw power, he just writes a ticket. Tips is hat and says, welcome to North Carolina. We think that we can get by with raw power. God says when you do, things fall apart. So we give us this commandment. Commandment number five. Do you want to be five, 16? The honor of your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving to you. Some people think, in most commentators believe, that this is the beginning of the second table of the law. Our duty to men, whereas the first table of law, our duty to God. I don't necessarily agree with that and explain that in a minute, but before I do remember that with each commandment we're looking at three things. What does the commandment say about the character and nature of God? Secondly, how does each commandment reflect the person and work of Jesus Christ? And thirdly, what does each commandment offer to us who are made in the image of God and who love the Lord Jesus Christ to help us through life? So let's take it in that order. What does this commandment say about God? Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. First of all, this fifth commandment tells us that God is the source of all legitimate authority. God is an authoritative God. It is, as I mentioned, the beginning of the second table of the law in our reformed theology. In Westminster Confession of Faith says, this law after the fall continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness and as such was delivered by God on Mount Sin, I intend commandments. And written on two tablets, the first four containing our duty toward God, the other six are duty to man. But I for one, think that it should not be in the second table, but in the first. I ask you to turn with me to several scriptures as I look at them to justify what I'm saying. Look, if you will, the Romans 13, the passage we just talked about concerning the power and authority of the state. The Romans 13 let every person be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God. That passage goes on to say that believe it or not, our government is a minister of God, same word used for a minister of the gospel, a minister of God for good. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 11, where Paul is talking to husbands and wives in the church, and what we call the cosmological order of the universe, who is on top and what is the hierarchy of authority in God's creation. First Corinthians chapter 11, verse 3, but I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. Here's the order, God's over Christ, Christ over the husband, the husband over the wife, the wife and the husband over the children. It's God's order, God at the top. Look at Ephesians chapter 5, verse 22, wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, wives, submit to your husbands, why, as you would submit to the Lord. Look at Ephesians chapter 6, verse 1, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Children, obey your parents, why, for the Lord's sake. This is what God wants, and first Peter chapter 2, verse 13, be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governor sent by him to punish those who do evil, and praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free not using your freedom as a cover up for evil, but living as servants of God. Now listen to this order, the staccato order of commands, honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. Did you notice that in every one of those spheres of authority, the government, the marriage, the home, they all refer to obeying authority as to the Lord, or in the Lord, or for the Lord's sake to honor God. Why? Because God is a source of all ordained in legitimate authority. Parents and husbands, pastors and teachers, coaches and policemen, magistrates and presidents, bosses, employers, to obey God is to obey them and to obey them as to obey God. We must give to God's ordained authority what is rightly do them. The Bible says that is obedience and honor, support, cooperation, respect and trust. This is why, at the end of Romans chapter 13 verses 1 through 7, when Paul was talking about the government, he said, this is why for conscience sake, we obey the authority. And we give to them what we owe them, taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. God is not a God of anarchy or rebellion. He expects men and women and children to obey him through all the agencies that he has established in the family, in the church and in the state. He is placed on the earth in our lives not a structure of anarchy but of ordered and principled discipline and not permission for unmerited rebellion but to obey the authorities and God's name so that we can be blessed. Now, we like to think of God as our loving father and he is. But our loving father also happens to be the creator God of the universe, the Lord of all lords, the master of every man and the king of the universe. So he makes laws and he issues commands. He expects and dictates obedience. He judges those who disobey and rebel. He grants us grace but expects in response an effort to cooperate with him and he disciplines his elect children to improve their character and their conduct. Now, you know this passage, but I ask you to turn to it anyway to Hebrews chapter 12. This may be. This may be the reason why we struggle with authority in our culture in Hebrews chapter 12. But God is talking about how the Lord disciplines us like a father naturally disciplines the children he loves. He brews chapter 12 beginning in verse 5. I want you as we read through this to pay attention especially to verse 9. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons. My son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord nor be weary when repud by him for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure God is treating you as sons for what son is there whom his father does not discipline. If you are left without discipline in which all have participated then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live for they discipline us for a short time as seem best to them. But he disciplines us for our good that we may share in his holiness for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Now the author of Hebrews writes with two assumptions both of which are not valid anymore in our culture to be candid with you. He assumes that fathers will lovingly discipline their children for their moral and spiritual good. And he assumes as he says that we have earthly fathers who discipline us and we respected them and that is no longer true. Fathers do not discipline their children except out of rage and anger and perhaps frustration over inconvenience they are not thinking of the eternal spiritual good of their children. They discipline out of necessity or out of reaction and not out of thoughtful and proactive gracious love. Most fathers are horrible disciplinarians in our society and therefore as a result children do not respect them. They see through the empty action and they do not respect the one who is inconsistent hypocritical or sometimes abusive in the way he disciplines but God is not like that. And our modern age of self-centered anarchy resents the idea of God as father and disciplinarian long giver judge and so forth because we have a idol for our God. We have formed our opinion of God the father more than likely from our human fathers who were fallible sinful men as we are. They were not bad men they just weren't perfect men and our father in heaven is often attributed with their characteristics and their inconsistent conduct. And so we see our father as a sugar daddy on one side who gives us and spoils us and gives us everything we want and then who inconsistently and selfishly pounds on us when we are in inconvenience. That is how most people see God the father no wonder then that God comes along and says look here's a commandment and it's the first one fact it's the only one with a promise. What are your father and your mother as the Lord your God commanded you that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving to you. The author of Hebrews Paul says children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right on your father and mother this is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long on the land. What I want to say is that if we obey authority mom and dad at home pastors and elders at church magistrates and governments in the state it will number one it's a twofold promise. It will lead to a long life number two it will go well for us in society we will live long and the blessed life in the land that God has given to us. The non-stop listen to me often speaks of listening in two directions one listening to the word of God as it speaks to the culture and two which were not very good at listening to the culture as it reacts to God's word. I think here we have an example of listening in two directions we have an ability it seems to hear what God is saying. If we obey authority we will preserve our lives we will live longer I wonder how many people have died prematurely because they rebelled against authority and God's will ask physicians. And the second promise is our culture will be a better place we live long and pleasant lives in the land that God has given us. Now we understand that I think what we're unwilling to accept is listening in the reverse direction why is there such violence in our culture why are families falling apart why is there such economic and social and racial and generational tension and pain why are things not well in paradise why is life going so badly. Well the truth my loved ones works in both directions and I for one tend to look at what's wrong in the world and find out in a reverse way what it is we're not doing right just as I stand there on Sunday mornings and evenings and tell you in the front direction how we can live a long and blessed life. The fact that we are struggling is evidence that we are not obeying authority and it's just simple as forward and backward as we look at God's commandment here. If we had time the night and we don't I could take you to the Westminster larger canekism to the Heidelberg canekism to a number of authors who say that this commandment really is the commandment that binds society in a healthy functional unit. In fact the man named Zacharias Yosinius who was the principal author of the Heidelberg canekism said the design or end of this commandment is the preservation of civil order which God is appointed in the mutual duties between subordinates and superiors. The superiors are all those whom God has placed over others for the purpose of governing and defending them and subordinates are those whom God has placed under these superiors that they may be governed and defended by them. Michael Horton in his book on the Ten Commandments says so Yosinius like most Christian thinkers of his time saw society as a family. God of course was the church the body of Christ and yet the civil society influenced by Christianity ought to mirror this heavenly family. There must be order at the same time that the superiors have two duties to govern and defend as the father exercises the duty by looking out for the best interests of his children so the superiors in society must seek the good of those whom they serve. The best rulers are always like good fathers they are servants those who govern best defend those within the scope of their authority because they love them as a father loves his children. Our human family is falling apart because this commandment is violated in two directions. Unloving fathers and rebellious sons and that points us you know we're headed to the hero of it all Jesus Christ who is the perfect son and the king of kings. What does this commandment say about Jesus Christ it tells us that Christ fulfills the demands of this law by his perfect obedience to his father. I don't know how many times in Matthew Mark Luke and John Jesus said I have not come to do my own will but the will of my father who is in heaven. Jesus Christ is called the son of God and as the son of God he offers to his father perfect willing and joyful obedience. You know what's amazing about the gospels is that you never hear Jesus Christ say to his father in heaven or to anybody else now you know this is really going to be a bummer but I got to do it. That's never his attitude even in a garden one evening when he's hours from crucifixion he says father if this cup could pass from me I would prefer that but not my will be done but yours. It is almost unimaginable to think how perfect Jesus Christ is as a son. Backed if you read the first three chapters of Hebrews first four chapters it dwells upon that all that theme is all the way through the introduction to that great epistle how Jesus Christ as the perfect son obeyed he obeyed Joseph and Mary. He knew sinful people over him two people he would save as a savior he said yes ma'am and no sir and did what they wanted. This is amazing to me probably more so to me than you Jesus sat under a rabbi who was a complete nincompoop compared to him he had some little old Jewish guy trying to tell him with the law meant he didn't have a clue Jesus Christ wrote the Bible that this guy is preaching from one but he honored his pastor. He submitted to Pontius Pilate to the kangaroo court of the Sanhedrin and to all the laws and regulations of an oppressive empire called Rome Jesus Christ submitted to all authority and therefore the scripture says because he was willing to do that listen to this God has given him the name that is above every name. So that if the name of Jesus everyone in heaven and earth and in hell will bow down and confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God he is not only the perfect son he is the perfect Lord he is the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings according to Revelation 19 he is the Lord of Glory according to James he is the name of Lord that rules over all of the Lords and every King will someday bow down and lay the King of Kings. So that is the name of Jesus Christ. Now that also means that this Jesus meek and mild who submits to authority also is Jesus Christ commanding an authoritative in his resurrection. Jesus Christ makes it very clear that he has the same DNA as his father in heaven he is an authority who expects to be obeyed. So let me teach you and Lord he said and you are right for so I am if then you say to me Lord Lord why do you not do what I say for not everyone who says to me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven. This may be a crass way of saying it but it's true Jesus Christ purchased you he's earned your obedience and you owe it to him not out of fear but out of awe and respect and reverence and gratitude is something wrong with the human heart that can look at Jesus Christ and understand who he is and what he's done and not want to do what he says. In fact if you read the Apostles carefully loved ones they indicate that the sealing evidence of conversion is that you want to obey Jesus Christ. Please let us be done with this false view of Jesus Christ and his gospel that leads to cheap grace. The gospel calls for costly grace. It was young Dietrich Bonhoeffer in 1937 watching Adolf Hitler slowly but surely turn anarchy into an oppressive despotic dictatorship who wrote a book called the cost of discipleship and in there we don't have time to not I wish I could read you his description of costly grace but he says it's costly because number one it cost God the life of his son and number two it cost us our obedience and to do what Jesus says rather than what you want is expensive I admit it's not easy. I'm just like you I want everybody to obey me I just don't like to obey anybody and it's costly to submit to authority but that is exactly where this this little commandment takes us and it's third point the costly grace of obedience for Christians. I'm going to have a couple minutes and so I'm going to summarize this very very quickly if I were to read again the candy kism answers and questions here it's pretty thorough and if I were to read dress all the ways that we need to stop being anarchists and start obeying authority we'd be here all week. So let me summarize it in five very easy principles number one parents require your children to be respectful to you and to obey you do not tolerate in subordination or dishonor do not attempt to buy or bribe your children into compliance with your will act like a parent instruct lead guide set the example discipline sacrifice for them serve them do not tolerate rebellion. But reward obedience stop being afraid of your children you are not supposed to be their friend yet try being their parent first and remember that every time your child disobeys you you've just given him license to disobey other people in the culture and add more anarchy to our painful situation altogether. Number two children and young people honor those in authority over you by learning to listen and trust them like the candy kism says do not use their failures as an excuse for rebellion remember this I want you teenagers look at me I want you to remember this. What you do to your parents God will bring back on you God is my witness that will happen I have two sons I am often gone the Jane and say this is amazing they're just like I was everything I did to torment my parents Nathan and Aaron at one time or another have done to me in full measure. It came back to me honor your father and your mother realize that your parents are working through a process with you it's five phases when you're little this age they're your parent they keep you alive. Their commandments are the difference between life and death a future or an early end when you're an elementary school they are your primary teacher. That's why they seem so bossy because every day it's do this and don't do that they're instilling you basic principles of self guidance that will sustain your life for the rest of your life. When you get into high school junior high they're your coaches they give you life principles oftentimes by examples and help you work it out when you fail they come alongside of you they're coaching and sometimes they have to bench you that is ground you because you're not playing by the rules. When you become a young adult they become your mentors they're there to help you along to speak into your life to give you advice to maybe tweak something a little bit to the left or right as you're going along in your own life and you know something when you have your own children they become your friend. You know where my wife is even as I speak she's in Columbus Ohio with our second daughter every summer she takes a week and gives to one daughter and another week to the other daughter two weeks ago it was the girl in Chattanooga pregnant for a third time she got the nursery ready but she told me as they worked on the nursery Joanna ask her all kinds of deep questions about life and as an older friend she talked through her successes and failures what a wonderful husband she'd had what marvelous churches she'd been in and she coached her and you know what she's doing that with Abigail even this week. They may be making curtains or you're posting a chair or getting a nursery ready but it's an older friend coming alongside a young parent saying hey how are you doing I'm here to help you and back you up young people listen to me we can't invert that process we can't be your friends when you're little and try to boss you when you're old it just doesn't work you have to let us grow gracefully and we don't always do it right. I've never been a grandpa before I'm just learning how to be a father to older children and their children's children so children honor older people they really are trying to help thirdly please honor your pastors and elders and deacons because in a state of anarchy our job is difficult. The author of Hebrew says obey your leaders and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who have to give an account let them do this with joy and not with groaning for that would be of no advantage to you. Fourthly listen maybe the hardest one pray for the president and our government pray for them I can't imagine who would want that job. And I have the greatest honor respect for people who run for political office if there's a more thankless job I don't know what it is. Rather than rail against them communicate directly with them let them know you're praying for them and praying for their souls that's what the Bible says first of all then I urge that supplications and prayers and intercessions and thanksgiving be made for all people for kings and all who are in authority that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life. In all Godliness and dignity pray for them we owe them that. Fifthly those who exercise authority parents pastors supervisors teachers and government officials listen to what the Bible says about people in authority fathers do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the love and nurture and discipline of the Lord. Fathers do not exasperate your children lest they become discouraged husbands love your wives do not be harsh with them masters treat your slaves justly and fairly knowing that you also have a master in heaven. Often times rebellion that leads to anarchy is the natural reaction of authority not used properly. And the hardest thing in the world you're going to find this out children is not to be a child and do what mom and dad says but to be an adult and do what God says for your children. And so we need to give special care those of us who are in authority that we exercise that authority in such a way that we don't provoke people to anger we don't exasperate them so that they're discouraged we love them we treat them justly and fairly and we see them as a precious trust that God is given to us and our job is to nurture their souls from here to eternity. That's how God is he's a God of omnipotent in sovereign power but he always uses that power humbly and graciously and patiently God prefers to exhort rather than scold to promise rather than threaten to reason rather than overpower to forgive rather than to judge to reward rather than to punish to rule rather than to dominate to govern to guide to guard to be gracious. And in response he wants to be obeyed not because he needs it but because we do you know with this commandment really tells us if you read between the lines and we look deep behind it it tells us that God our father is an easy one to deal with most people don't believe that because most people worship a character of God and idle in their mind but a w tozer says that God is easy to live with let me close with this quote from him the fellowship of God is delightful beyond all telling he communes with his redeemed ones and an easy uninhibited fellowship that is restful and healing to the soul he is not sensitive nor selfish nor temperamental what he is today we shall find and be tomorrow and the next day and even the next year he is not hard to please though he may be hard to satisfy he expects of us only what he has himself first supplied he is quick to mark every simple effort to please him and just as quick to overlook their defections when he knows that we meant to do his will but did not he loves us for ourselves and values are love more than galaxies of newly created worlds how good it would be if we could learn that God is easy to live with he remembers our frame and knows that we are dust he may sometimes chasing us it is true but even in this he does that with a smile the proud tender smile of a father who is bursting with pleasure over an imperfect but promising son who is coming every day to look more and more like God whose child he really is honor your father and mother submit to your husband work with the pastor obey the president they can't do too much damage do you because behind their authority is the authority of God in heaven who is easy to live with let me pray for us father please forgive us for our false caricature of you where we present you sometimes in our hearts and minds and to others is one who is very difficult like an unreasonable parent very difficult to live with when in fact you are not all of your commandments and all of your statutes are for our good given for our benefit that we might share in the life of Jesus Christ and eventually his character so that we can live in glory and bliss and complete safety with you in the kingdom yet to come you do love us more than we could ever imagine in this world and part of your love for us is to contain the evil forces within us and around us from a spiritual anarchy that would destroy us and rob us of life with you and you love us enough to discipline us and to reason with us and to bear our burdens and even to weep over us as a dad does over his children who often become prodigal we love you for this we admit it and we love your son Jesus Christ our older brother who is not only set before us the God the example of the perfect son but also as the Lord and Savior of our souls has gone to the cross to pay for all of our acts of anarchy and all of our incidents of rebellion we praise you for him and we rest in him and ask you please to help us love you more so that we may love our parents and our pastors and our presidents as we should you might restore to your human family here in America tradition and authority and power that is legitimate and balanced and good and that leads us home where do you for we ask all these things in your name and in your grace for we pray it in Jesus name amen.