Formed by Jesus Podcast

Why We Go Slow: Peacemaking, Discipleship, and Honoring Your Parents | Formed by Jesus Podcast

In a new studio format, the hosts explain why their church focuses on one spiritual practice for months rather than covering many topics quickly, arguing that transformation and discipleship require slow, repeated formation and that practices like peacemaking need longer than a few weeks. They discuss how the Sermon on the Mount may be a condensed synthesis of Jesus’ teachings and why sermon-based group guides help people process teachings beyond Sunday. They outline a revised group rhythm influenced by Practicing the Way—learning, practicing, and reflecting/processing—emphasizing deliberate practice and debriefing to avoid ingraining unhealthy habits. The conversation applies this to honoring parents, clarifying honor versus affection or control, exploring thresholds in relationships, and distinguishing lament from contempt, including how to respond when parents have caused deep harm without slipping into gossip or bitterness.

00:00 New Studio Banter
01:26 Why Long Practice Series
03:03 Sermon on Mount Strategy
05:50 Discipleship Over Content
07:50 Rethinking Group Guides
11:14 Learn Practice Process
13:36 Deliberate Practice Debriefs
16:27 Honor Parents Nuance
17:07 Life Relationship Thresholds
20:33 Culture Contempt Authority
23:52 Honor Not Friendship
24:49 Honor Across Cultures
26:26 When Parents Are Abusive
29:45 Gratitude For Survival
31:54 Lament Versus Contempt
34:58 Gossip And Control Traps
38:39 When To Confront
40:49 Biblical Parenting Limits
43:30 Hebrew Greek Banter
44:32 Closing Blessing

Our church gathers every Sunday at 8:30am & 10:15am at Queen Creek Junior High.
20435 South Old Ellsworth Road, Queen Creek, AZ

https://passioncreek.church/sundays/

In week 7 of our Peacemaking practice, we turn our attention toward our relationship with our parents. Regardless of how old you are now, all of us have parents. And just like with our marriages, our relationships with our parents can be both a blessing and a burden. In Ephesians 6, Paul gives us instructions on how to navigate these relationships. He begins by telling children to obey their parents. But then he moves from obedience to honor, quoting the fifth commandment from Exodus 20. The distinction matters because obedience is seasonal, but honor is forever. As children, we honor our parents’ authority of command. As adults, that authority changes into an authority of counsel. The authority changes, but the honor doesn’t.

The word honor carries the idea of weight, value, and significance. To honor someone is to give them weight, to recognize their value rather than treating them as insignificant. Honoring our parents, then, doesn’t mean giving them control of our lives or pretending they’re perfect; it means learning to recognize their value, give them appropriate weight, and love them well as the relationship changes.

00:00 Why Thresholds Matter
01:32 Relationships Shift With Change
03:12 When Kids Become Adults
05:35 Peacemaking With Parents
07:47 Obedience Versus Honor
09:32 Exodus And The Ten Words
13:06 The Promise And Authority
18:18 Command Versus Counsel
21:08 Jesus Confronts Corban
23:42 Honor Means Action
27:47 What Honor Is Not
29:18 Seat At The Table
32:51 Honor Versus Contempt
35:15 Identity In The Father
37:16 Practices For This Week

In week 6 of our Peacemaking Practice we take all that we have learned about peacemaking and apply it to our marriages. Our marriages can be both a tremendous blessing and a painful burden. In Ephesians 5, Paul addresses this tension by giving commands to both husbands and wives. He starts by commanding both to submit to each other with humility in verse 21. Then he commands husbands to love their wives sacrificially and wives to submit to their husbands respectfully.

Both of these commands challenge our tendency to focus on what our spouse owes us rather than what Christ is calling us to give. Peacemaking begins when we stop trying to win and start allowing Jesus to form us into people who love, serve, forgive, and pursue one another.

In week 6 of our Peacemaking Practice we take all that we have learned about peacemaking and apply it to our marriages. Our marriages can be both a tremendous blessing and a painful burden. In Ephesians 5, Paul addresses this tension by giving commands to both husbands and wives. He starts by commanding both to submit to each other with humility in verse 21. Then he commands husbands to love their wives sacrificially and wives to submit to their husbands respectfully.

Both of these commands challenge our tendency to focus on what our spouse owes us rather than what Christ is calling us to give. Peacemaking begins when we stop trying to win and start allowing Jesus to form us into people who love, serve, forgive, and pursue one another.

Sometimes the hardest things we endure are not the things done to us, but the things we have done to ourselves. We carry past failures, mistakes, and missed opportunities with us throughout our lives. All of us have stories of relationships we have never repaired, chances we have never taken, and regrets from both things we have done and things we have left undone.

But in Ephesians 5, Paul gives us a way forward. He reminds us that our past is real. All of us began in darkness. But now, through Jesus, we are in the light. We can make the most of our time today by learning to make peace with our past, confessing darkness, and accepting the life in the Spirit God has called us to live today.