A Practical Charge to Parents and Children, Part 6

Take your Bible and turn with me back to Deuteronomy chapter 6 and we want to continue looking at what we talked about the last five weeks and that's the the practical charge to parents and their children and it really goes way beyond that because Moses had gathered the nation of Israel together and was going to reiterate to them the law of the Living God He wanted them to understand that as they embark on a pagan culture.

They needed to be prepared And they needed to know how to stand for the Living God and how to be used by the Living God and it becomes the the the pivotal passage in the Old Testament that deals with how you handle a pagan culture Israel was about to embark on this land called the Promised Land God had given it to Abraham And they've been in bondage for a number of years 430 to be exact and they were about to embark on this land and they needed to know what to do and how to do it And so in chapter 6 of Deuteronomy Moses tells them exactly what needs to happen and we've told you that it's centered around four words the words to hear the word to love to teach and to worship And those four words give us four principles That is in order to be effective in a pagan culture in order not to compromise But to stand strong There must be an attention to truth There must be an affection for truth.

There must be the articulation of truth and there must be the adoration of Truth So Moses spells that out for them in very simple terms He wants them to understand that there must be an Undivided attention to God and his word With that undivided attention there must be an unparalleled affection for God and his word And with that unparalleled affection there needs to be an uncompromising articulation of God and his word and Then there must be an unrivaled adoration of God and his word It's just that simple And whenever Israel Did not fulfill one or all of those principles They suffered greatly when they did they would be successful and They would survive In fact, that's what Moses tells them in verse 24 of chapter 6 He says so the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes to fear the Lord our God for our good always and for our survival as It is today It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all this commandment before the Lord our God Just as he commanded us So your success and Your survival is all determined by how you hear love Teach and worship the God of truth.

That's it You do those four things and You will be successful in the kingdom of God You will be able to survive in a pagan culture You don't do that It will not go well for you And so Moses reiterates that and all throughout the book of Deuteronomy There are the same principles given over and over and over again Said a little different way With a little different emphasis, but the same principles over and over again We've covered the first two We've told you there must be an Undivided attention to God in his word.

You must hear all that God says verse number four here Oh Israel the Lord our God Is what are you listening?

Hero Israel the Lord our God is one. He says earlier. He says Oh Israel verse 3 You should listen and be careful to do that It may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly Just as the Lord the God of your fathers has promised you in a land flowing with milk and honey Just listen.

I love the words of our darling black men when she said these words so many times I cry Lord help me hear from you if I could only hear your voice. I'd know what just what to do if You would only speak to me through a soft and gentle hush or like Moses Let me hear your voice through an endless burning bush So softly comes the answer back.

I've spoken but you've not heard for all you need to hear from me I've written in my word All you need to hear from the Lord is written in his word Everything that God has to say to you has already been said Right here in the living and abiding Word of God You just need to listen And we've seen through our study already that Israel had just a very difficult time with an undivided attention to God and his truth Nix was an Unparalleled affection for God and his truth. He says in verse number five He says you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your might God says I want an unparalleled affection in other words as Christ says in in Matthew chapter 10 these words he said he loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and He who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me And he does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me He was found his life will lose it And he who has lost his life for my sake Will find it Christ says I want an unparalleled affection.

I Want you to love me more than you love them I Want all of your affection? I want all of your heart all of your soul all of your mind all of your strength I want it all Because I am your God hero Israel the Lord our God is one God and you shall love that God with all your heart all your soul all your mind and all your strength an undivided attention and an unparalleled affection If those two things are true then point number three follows and that's this an uncompromising articulation of truth So he says these words for six These words which I am commanding you today Shall be on your heart You shall teach them diligently to your sons Sure what you shall talk of them when you sit in your house And when you walk by the way when you lie down and when you rise up You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates in other words He wants you to realize that If you're listening to all that God says You will love him If you love him, you will teach others about him and the primary emphasis on the teaching is with your children Need to pass this truth down to your children that they might understand that there is one God That's me and that God is to be loved with all that you have It's just that simple and So he tells them These were these words need to be on your heart I Want you to pass this down to your children Now, why is this important?

Because the greatest people in the world are teachers Spoken by the words of our Lord Matthew chapter 5 Christ says these words Verse 17 do not think that I come to abolish the law of the prophets.

I Do not come to abolish but to fulfill For truly I say to you until heaven and earth pass away Not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments And teaches others to do the same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever keeps and teaches them He should be called Great in the kingdom of heaven Greatness in the kingdom of heaven is determined by keeping and teaching the truths of God's Word Now this is not some formal setting where you are quote a teacher in a classroom James puts a warning they get said don't many of you seek to be teachers for with it comes a stricter condemnation But it is true that as parents We become the most effective teachers or the most ineffective teachers with our children and I would trust you would choose to be the most effective teacher of your children because our children are being taught everything about your child's mentality everything about your challenge morality everything about your child's maturity Depends on what they are learning and unfortunately, the major influence in the lives of your children is social media I Recommended a book to you just a number of weeks ago called raising spiritual champions by George Barna in that book He has a chapter on social media He says parents need to be involved in four particular ways with their children when it comes to social media Number one need to monitor your child's social media Most parents don't do that Parents don't want to be like helicopters and hover around their children Well, listen, I don't want you to be like a helicopter either.

I Want you to be like a fighter jet? And just destroy everything that's coming against your child see and Therefore we need to be able to monitor our children's Social media habits. Do you do that? Then he says not only do we do we monitor our children's social media habits We need to make sure that we minimize our children's social media habits minimize them We tend to let them spend as much time as they want on social media And all you can do is look at their phone.

It tells you how much time they spend on social media Once you minimize it number three, you need to moralize it That is you need to make sure that what they're watching and listening to is not immoral but moral And then he says you need to model social media use to your children One of the reasons our children are on social media as much as they are is because they see mom and dad on social media All the time.

That's all they do So when we're on our phones and we're on our computers, they see us modeling that to them So you need to model how you minimize it how you Moralize it and how you monitor yourself so that you can effectively do that with the life of your children That is so incredibly Important This past week I was I was thinking to myself What is the impact of of social media on? our Children our young people on us So I began to write down some things One day I'll preach on this not today. Do you know that social media encourages negativity?

Did you know that? In fact, there's nothing that encourages negativity more than social media Because whenever you go on social media you realize what you don't have You realize that your marriages are like that person's marriage and you begin to question your marriage You begin to realize that your family's not like that family And you begin to question your family or but look at this you realize that your church isn't like that church What does that church do this and our church not do that?

And we become very negative about our church our church family we become very negative about our husband because we see on social media this man is doing this for his wife, but my Husband doesn't do this for me And all of a sudden I begin very begin to be very negative Toward my family toward my husband my wife my children my church. I become very discontent with my life because social media encourages Negativity social media enables Superficiality It enables superficiality what you see is not real you think it is That's not really how their family is.

That's not really how their marriage is. That's not really how their church is That's not really how things are. That's just what they want you to see Then I want you to see all the grit and grind Hardship and I want you to see all that so it enables Superficiality And so your children begin to develop superficial lives Thinking that the person on the other side of the screen is real that what they do is this is the way they really are But they only put on there what they want you to see not what is real in their lives Social media also emboldens self-glory It emboldens self-glory Why because you see I think I need a podcast Because I think you need to hear what I have to say Even though I have no experience or no authority or no education in the particular area I think you need to hear what I have to say So I'm going to develop a podcast or I'm going to develop an Instagram account so that you can see and hear and learn from me Because I think I have something you need to hear And social media has emboldened self-glory like nothing else in America ever has or ever will Because we think ourselves better than what we really are.

We think too highly of ourselves And if it emboldens Self-glory all that does is empower in competency It empowers in competency Because you're really not who you think you are But you think you are so all of a sudden all these incompetent people are portraying to you all the Wealth of knowledge they believe they had so that you can now follow them on Instagram or some kind of social media platform social media also eliminates community Because it isolates you into your own little corner in your own little world Next thing, you know, you're all by your little lonesome, but you think you're surrounded by people but you're not Because everything you're surrounded by is superficial It's artificial and yet all of a sudden Social media begins to eliminate community and we need one another Personally genuinely Transparently Social media enhances lethargy and inactivity It makes you become numb Makes you not do anything anymore except Exercise your thumbs and your eyes.

I Remember growing up as a kid. All we did was go outside and play. It's all we did When the streetlights came on we had we had to be home. I Mean we were in our homes. We were always outside Kids today are as white as a ghost because they're always inside not outside they're lacking vitamin D and They're not actively involved and engage you with other people So those are just a few things. I've just taken up in a matter of just a few seconds What happens with people who are on social media, but that becomes the main influencer in your child's life But you need to be the teacher you need to be the instructor you need to be the influencer in your child's life And so Moses says I'm gonna tell you how to do that So you want to you want to be able to make sure that you have an uncompromising?

Articulation of the truth that means you need to teach them compellingly That's number one teach them compellingly.

What did he say? He says these words He says in verse number six these words which I am committing you today shall be on your hearts in other words You must be absolutely convinced That your God is the only God the true God the Living God and That you love him with all your heart all your soul all your mind and all your strength In other words, you want to be able to teach your children Compellingly In other words, you are motivated to teach them because you believe in who God is you believe in what God has done and You are so convinced of the character and nature of God that you are compelled To instruct your children you are moved by that So you teach them compellingly so he says in verse number 16 Or verse 17 He says you should diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his testimonies and his statutes which he has commanded you You shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord that it may be well with you And that you may go in and possess the good land Which the Lord swore to give to your fathers by driving out all your enemies from before you as the Lord has spoken when your son asks you in time to come saying What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the Lord our God Commanded you now.

Why is he gonna ask that question? Because you are compelled to follow God you are compelled to teach God you are convinced of God So your son or daughter is naturally going to be compelled now to ask you a question About your God if no one's asking you questions about your God That means you're not giving off answers about your God That's very important to realize this and so he says Then you shall say to your son when we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and the Lord brought us from Egypt with a mighty Hand moreover.

The Lord showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt Pharaoh and all his household He brought us out from there in order to bring us in to give us the land which he had sworn to our fathers Why am I so compelled to teach you these things? Why are these things on my heart? Let me tell you what God did for us This is why I'm so compelled.

We have been redeemed. We have been brought out of bondage. We have been set free And we live in that freedom and because we do I want to tell you about that freedom That's why the Sun says why do you do this? Why do you keep all these statues? Why do you keep these commandments? What is it about these things that that makes you want to keep them every day You teach them compellingly Number two you teach them Constantly he says in verse number seven you shall teach them Diligently the word diligent from the Hebrew word Shanon which means to sharpen Well, you need to be constantly teaching your children in order to keep them sharp remember Psalm 127 There are arrows in the hand of the warrior You don't want to shoot dull arrows into the to the culture You want to shoot the sharpest arrows possible?

Well, how are you gonna do that? You've got to continue to sharpen them Teach them diligently Constantly you are always fine-tuning the arrow You're always making the arrow sharper more the next day than it was the previous day You want them to be keen in their senses? Discerning the will of the Lord understanding truth from error It it's just that constant reminder that you're teaching your children over and over and over again Never giving in never quitting Always looking for the opportunity to instruct them in the ways of God because you want to sharpen Everything about them their senses must be sharpened Incredibly that requires a constant Giving forth of the truth So you teach them compellingly?

You teach them constantly and Then you teach them Creatively Remember now Moses spells us out What was good for Moses and the children of Israel is still good for you and me today? So he tells him he says this Verse 7 you so teach them diligently to your sons. You should talk of them when you sit in your house When you walk by the way When you lie down And when you rise up In other words the best way to instruct your children is not to sit them down listen carefully And have devotions with them now.

I'm all for that. I'm not against that But it's not the best way It's not the best way The best way to teach your children is not to put them in Sunday school class Although I think you should put your children in Sunday school That's not the best way The best way is when as you're going through everyday things in life When you're sitting around the house when you're sitting around the meal table when you're tucking them into bed at night When you're on your way to school or after the game when there's been disappointment when there's been difficulty When there's been hardship when there's been difficult things that they've had to face you take those opportunities To instruct them in the ways of God When they when they've been dating a certain person for so long and all of a sudden that relationships been broken up taking them through the hardship and Discouragement at a hard time and letting them see the providence of God and what God is doing You see we forget that sometimes we are instructing our children in Areas are not asking questions And so now you begin to answer their questions When they go through everyday things in life with the truth of the Word of God When you do that it drives Home the nail it drives it down deep into the life of your child.

They begin to understand. Yes, this is true Now I know how God works. Yes. God is doing this now. I know that God hears. Yes. I understand that God's faithful and true Yes, I understand the mercy and grace of God and you teach them through all those difficult times. This is what you do So you teach them creatively Looking for those opportunities The best forms of teaching with my children never came through family devotions Although we had them Not as regularly probably as we should have had them But those weren't the greatest teaching moments the teaching moments came Before and after the ballgame or before and after the recital or when there was a hardship in their life or when there was An opportunity to develop character in their lives when they went through everyday events Helping them understand the truth about the Living God Moses knows that Moses understands that So when you go through life you teach them creatively Helping them to understand the truth of the Living God Does it work sure it does Proverbs chapter 6.

I love this My son observed the commandment of your father verse 20 Do not forsake the teaching of your mother bind them continually on your heart tie them around your neck when you walk about they will guide you They will guide you that is they give you direction He says when you sleep they will watch over you they give you protection When you awake, they will talk to you They will give you conversation For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is a light They give you illumination and reproofs for discipline are the way of life Admonition to keep you from the evil woman from the smooth tongue of an adulterous They give you purification See all that makes a big difference.

I remember in 1967 My father came home from the war in Vietnam. My grandmother had just died We were living in Washington, Kansas She had died of a massive stroke and my mom had called my dad or tried to contact my dad But could not he could not find a way to get home But then all of a sudden my dad called and says I'm able to be home So we went to Kansas City to pick him up at the airport This was 1967. I was 9 Don't do all the math forgot what I am today, but I was 9 then okay. I remember going with my dad as he got off the plane in those days you could you know, you could go to Go to where the your Party was as he walked off the plane, right?

and So I grabbed my dad's hand and he grabbed my hand and we were walking through the airport My dad has dressed Browns on I can remember it as if it was yesterday. I was I was 9 years old I Said dad, how is it? You were able to come home for grandma's funeral. I Never forget the words of my dad. My dad said to me says, you know, son Without the Lord, it would not have been possible But because of the Lord I am here today That was the first time I ever heard my dad talked about the Lord.

I was 9 first time Because you see my dad had gotten saved at a charismatic camp in Laos, Thailand. I Didn't know that at the time He gave his life to Christ At the same time my mom was in the States being led to the Lord by a Conservative Baptist preacher and so my mom was giving her life to the Lord my dad was giving his life to the Lord, but he was in Thailand in the Vietnam War and That first time I ever heard my dad talk about the Lord was that the Lord Has allowed him to come home without the Lord.

It would not have been possible Now I wasn't safe. I was 14 But those words ring true in my heart today that God is actively at work in every individual's life He's never dormant he's at work in the lives of his children and That rings true even today and so those are teaching moments that stick with your children Moments that we might not think are really big moments key moments We're saying sit down and open your Bible to whatever passage of Scripture. We're gonna we're gonna read through the Bible together That's all good.

I think you should do that But the greatest teaching moments came when my dad would talk to me about the Lord as he walked by the way As you sat down in the house as he tucked me in the bed at night as he prayed with me after a loss Those are the teaching moments Teaching Creatively because you're teaching constantly because you're teaching Compellingly then you're teaching Conspicuously Says these these words You shall bind them as a sign on your hand And they shall be as frontals on your forehead She'll write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates Conspicuously Now, you know the Jews they do this They had these little phylacteries that they tie around their head and they hang down in little boxes so that Everything they think about It's thought about through the grid of the great Shema Everything they see they look through the box.

So you look through the grid of the scriptures They tie them around their wrists these phylacteries and they hang So that whatever their hand does it does based on what God's Word says They put them on the doorpost of their house literally In fact every room in a Jewish home has a mezuzah except for the door to the bathroom Every other door has the mezuzah on it If you're conservative Jew you walk to that door you just brush your hand across that mezuzah Why because on that mezuzah or in that mezuzah is a record of the great Shema the law of God plus The Hebrew letter shin which speaks of God as the almighty and the protector asking God to protect you as you go into the room They take everything literally see But you see it's very conspicuous when you have these little phylacteries hanging from your from your Head and between your eyes you had them around your your wrists, right?

And you have these these mezuzahs on your your doorpost of your home It's very conspicuous that these things are there And moses is not saying literally do this He's just saying that whatever you do as paul would say in colossus 3 let the word of christ be at home in your hearts Let dwell in you richly Don't let the word of god become a stranger to you. Moses is telling them you can't let the word of god Be a stranger it must be absolutely conspicuous and all you do Whatever you look at whatever you think on Whatever room you enter God's room must be the number one thing on your mind So that when you enter the room Whatever you look at whatever you do is done under the authority of the truth of the living god When you do that You're teaching conspicuously right Because when you live according to the truth of god's word you become a very conspicuous person You're not like everybody else Because you do what you do based on what god's word says you follow through what he said you might not like it But you do what it says because you want to honor the lord So you teach them compellingly You teach them Constantly creatively Conspicuously you teach them Completely because he says in verse 2 to keep all His statutes verse 24 So the lord commanded us to observe all these statutes In other words, you don't leave them out any of them You teach the completed truth of the living God so moses says God needs your undivided attention God needs Your unparalleled affection God needs your uncompromising Articulation of the truth of god And god needs your unrivaled Adoration of him So he says these words verse 10 That it should come about when the lord your god brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers Abraham isaac and jacob to give to you great and splendid cities, which you did not build Houses full of good things which you did not fill and hewn cisterns which you did not dig vineyards and olive trees Which you did not plant And you eat and are satisfied Then watch yourself That you do not forget the lord Who brought you from the land of egypt?

out of the house of slavery You shall fear only the lord your god And you shall worship him and swear by his name You shall not follow other gods Any of the gods of the peoples who surrounds you? For the lord your god in the midst of you Is a jealous god Otherwise the anger of the lord your god Will be kindled against you And he shall wipe you off the face of the earth How's our strong words? But listen if they're if you hear what god says you're gonna love that god has said it Then you're gonna want to tell others about what this god is Because you alone want to worship only him You should worship only him because he's a jealous god.

He wants you to worship him. He wants Unrivaled adoration He doesn't want to be rivaled by anything else or anyone else So he says listen when you go into a land that you're going to be given because god gave you this land You're going to have houses. You didn't build Cisterns you didn't dig Vineyards you didn't grow it's all going to be given to you You're going to eat you're going to drink you're going to live And be satisfied but watch yourself Watch yourself Make sure that you still only fear the lord your god and worship only him Worship no one else Worship nothing else Just worship the true and living god That's it in Isaiah 48 Verse number 17 Thus says the lord your redeemer the holy one of israel I am the lord your god Who teaches you to profit?

Who leads you in the way you should go? If Only Two most disappointing words in all the world if Only If only you had paid attention to my commandments, that's it Then your well-being would be like a river And your righteousness like the waves of the sea your descendants Would have been like the sand your offspring Like its grains their name Would never be cut off or destroyed For my presence If only You had listened Over the years 40 of them to be exact I have sat In my office or in my home or at a restaurant With a myriad of families Who have said those exact words if only We had listened to the commandments of scripture If only we had followed through on our original commitment If only we would have done what the bible said if only How things would have been different today But we did not those are probably the saddest days in ministry for me Because they knew what to do and they didn't they could have But for lack of intensity or just For whatever reason maybe they just did not follow through On listening to what god said Hearing Loving teaching and worshiping the god of truth This is for your survival moses says this is for your success When you embark on a pagan culture These four words these four principles Will guide you So you will not be disappointed How about you Are you willing to follow them?

I would trust that you You would because they truly promise great things in life Let's pray father. We thank you for today and the opportunity you give us to spend time in your word. We are grateful we ask lord that you would Motivate us to live for the glory of your kingdom Thank you for those who are here today Bless them immensely Because they desire to follow your word We pray in jesus name. Amen