Survival of the American Family

If you want your home to be a haven for your family, if you want it to be a place where God is honored, then you must love God and you must love one another. Thus, being an example to a lost world that seeks to know who Jesus Christ is. God has given us his word. And in his word, Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1:3 that he has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. And so our desire is to look at the Word of God to see how God outlines a strategic plan on how to raise the family in a society that's That's immorally corrupt.

In fact, God gave a strategy to the nation of Israel. He asked them to follow that strategy. And the reason they failed is because they refused to adhere to what he had to say. So turn with me in your Bible to the Old Testament, Deuteronomy chapter 6.

And we will look at what God said to the nation of Israel through his messenger Moses. And listen to what the Lord says in Deuteronomy 6, 24. 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. Whatever these words contain, whatever the commandments God gave to Moses to give to his people, they're not going to hurt the family. They're not going to destroy the family. They're going to help the family. They're going to move the family in the right direction.

And ultimately, help mom and dad, and boy and girl, brother and sister, survive in this gener. And the next. If you remember, Israel was about to invade a culture that had nothing to do with the living God, the creator of the world. And so Moses was given the task of preparing them for the challenge. And so Moses took them aside and began to reiterate the essentials. Of following God, telling them that if they obeyed what God said, then survival would be theirs. And success would permeate their nation.

Over Deuteronomy chapter 4. Listen to what it says in verse number 37. Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their descendants after them. For the very first time, the love of God is mentioned in the Old Testament.

Isn't that interesting? It's mentioned in Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse number 37. Again in Deuteronomy 7, 7 to 8, 7 to 8. Deuteronomy 10 Fifteen in Deuteronomy twenty-three, five. From Genesis to Numbers, the love of God is never spoken of. But now you come to a new transition, a new revelation. God loves his people. Now, he's always loved them, but now it's literally spoken and written down. And Moses knew that God's answer to the turmoil and the chaos of a pagan culture was the family. And he wanted to grip Israel's family or to equip Israel's families to stand str.

That 's how they were going to combat a pagan culture. In the context of Deuteronomy chapter 6 is Deuteronomy chapter 5, where God gives again the Ten Commandments. And it says over in chapter 5, verse number 29, these words: Oh, that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always. That it may be well with them and with their sons forever. My friends, that's the heart of God. Oh, if they would just get a hold of what I have to say. And so, Deuteronomy 6, verse number 1 says, Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you.

That you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it. So that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I commanded you all the days of your life. And that your days may be prolonged. O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it. 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. In honey, if you want a home and a nation to last They must follow the commands of God.

What has happened in America? The problem with America is that it refuses to adhere to the truth of God's Word. God's Word is absolute truth. Pilate said to Jesus, What is truth? And Jesus said, My word is truth. And so as we begin this study on the survival of the American family, we will address the issue of truth. In four ways. Centered around four words. The word to hear, the word to love, the word to teach. And lastly, the word to worship, all in Deuteronomy chapter 6. Look with me at verse number 4.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is one. For there to be survival in your family, the very first thing you need to understand is that there needs to be an attention to truth.

And attention to truth. Hear, O Israel. Verses 4 to 9 is known to the Jews as the Great Shema. And it's from the Hebrew word translated here. And so to this day, Orthodox Jews recite the Shema daily, along with Deuteronomy 11, 13 to 21, and Numbers 15, 37 to 41. And in Mark chapter 12, verses 29 to 30, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6, 4 to 9, as the foremost comm. And then you must respond to what he says. Listen to what the psalmist said over in Psalm 81. Psalm eighty-one, verse number eight: Hear, O my people.

And I will admonish you. O Israel, if you would listen to me, let there be no strange God among you, nor shall you worship any foreign God. I, the Lord, am your God. Who brought you up from the land of Egypt? Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. But my people did not listen to my voice, and Israel did not obey me. So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart to walk in their own devices. Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways, I would quickly subdue their enemies, and turn my hand against their adversaries.

Those who hate the Lord would pretend obedience to Him, and their time of punishment would be forever. But I would feed you with the finest of wheats and with honey from the rock. I would satisfy you. That's what God says.

Respond to what I say. Listen and do what I say. If you will, the reward that you will receive is beyond anything you can imagine. Open your mouth wide, and I will feel it. An att to truth is necessary for the survival of American family. Number two, there needs to be an affection for truth.

The Lord says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. If your family is going to survive, there has to be an affection for truth. You have got to love God in two ways. There has got to be one of intimacy. Coupled with int. You've got to love him with all of your heart. The word all speaks of totality, it's all-inclusive. You don't love God partially and you don't love God casually.

You love him with all that you have. Every part of your being must be given over. To the affection of truth. So there's got to be an attention to truth to hear it, an affection to truth, to love it. How vital is your relationship with God? Is it with all your heart or is it hollow? Is it with all your soul? Or is it superficial? Is it with all your might? Or is it just with a mild-mannered att? Attempt. Believe me, they know. And thirdly, there needs to be an articulation of truth.

An articulation of truth. That's verses 5 through 9. And these words which I am commending you today, you shall be Today shall be on your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your sons, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your. Your forehead, and you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. In order for your family to survive, there needs to be an articulation of the truth in your home.

Verses 4 to 5 establish the basis for effective parenting, and that is this: lo God and know God. hearing what he has to say. And if we love God with all of our hearts, his word will be embedded in our hearts and the natural byproduct of that is an articulation of God and his word to our children. One comes after the other. Your home needs to be a place where God's law is presented. You, as a parent, are the professor in your home. God has made you the teacher. The mentality and morality of your children are being molded and shaped every day by their peers, by television, by the media.

And God has assigned you as a parent to be their mentor. And so we have to understand. That it's never too late to start teaching our children. If your children are in high school and you've never sat down and taught the truths to your children, you start today. It's never too late to start. But you've got to get started. And so I want to notice with the five ways in which we teach our children.

First of all, you teach them compellingly. You teach them compellingly. It says, these words. Which words? The commandments. The words that God gave to Moses, that Moses gave to the people, these words, they got to be in your heart. If you don't believe something. You won't be committed to practicing it, and you'll never teach it. So, in order to be an effective teacher, you must teach compellingly. That means there's got to be something that moves you from the inside out. And God's word must be written on your heart and moving you to teach others what He has to say.

In order for you to teach something, you must be convinced of it. So you teach compellingly. And when you teach compellingly, people know it. They can see it in your eyes. They can hear it in your voice. They can feel it. As you address them with the Word of God. Second of all, you teach them constantly.

The first part of verse 7: and you shall teach them diligently to your sons. Diligently, a very unique Hebrew word that means to sharpen. Very graphic word. It's a vivid word conveying the idea that the teaching is purposed to give your child a sharp edge for living. It's a keen, perceptive, discerning kind of teaching. Remember Psalm 127, verse number 4? Your children are a gift from God, and the text says that they are like arrows in the quiver, right? Well, the reason you teach them diligently, the reason you sharpen them is because they are arrows.

So, Deuteronomy 5 is a companion of Psalm 127. Verse number 4. That says you sharpen them, you make them keen, you make them discerning. The way you do that is to constantly be rubbing against them, constantly be teaching them the truth. You can't sharpen an arrow, take it out, and shoot it over and over and over and over and over again, and expect it to be sharp. You've got to keep sharpening that arrow. You've got to constantly be teaching your children so that they are keen. In their discernments.

Thirdly, teach them creatively. Teach them creatively. And you shall teach them diligently to your sons, and shall talk to them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. Be creative in your approach to teaching. Moral and biblical education is best accomplished not in Sunday school or in seminars, but in the home. Always in the home. In Proverbs chapter six says these words about God's word paying dividends in your kids' lives. Verse number 20: My son, observe the commandment of your father, and do not forsake the teaching of your mother.

Bind them continually on your heart, tie them on around your neck. When you walk about, they will guide you. When you sleep, they will watch over you. And when you awake, they will talk to you. For the commandment is a lamp, and the teaching is light, and reproofs for discipline are the way of life. God's word is going to pay dividends for your kids, but you're going to have to constantly be communicating to them the truth to sharpen them. Teaching them creatively, teaching them compellingly. I like what Socrates said when he said, Fellow citizens, Why do you turn and scrape every stone to gather wealth and take so little care of your children, to whom one day you must relinquish it all?

Wise words from the philosopher. Boy, we're doing all we can to gain all we can and take so little time to teach our children. And one day we're just going to relinquish it all to them anyway, because we're going to die. What a legacy are you going to leave behind? A bunch of things? Big inheritance of the truth of God's eternal word. And then teach them conspicuously. I like this. It says this, and you shall bind them with a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead, and you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Now the Jews took this literally. They had little boxes which they called phylacteries, and they put the Shema in them. And they tied them around their wrist. They tied them around their head. And they were pretty conspicuous, weren't they? Now, is that what God wants us to do? Maybe. You look pretty conspicuous walking down the street. Well, maybe not so today in L. You probably fit right in, but if you went around these little boxes hanging down. But I think it goes further than that. I think it talks about the outer doings.

It goes beyond the outer doings of the actual putting the Shema in the boxes. His word upon thy hand reminds us that all we do is to be governed by God, right? His word tied around our forehead is a reminder that everything we think about And everything we look upon is to pass to the truth of the Word of God. My friends, that's teaching your children conspicuously. Why? Because you will become one weird individual if you live that way. Most people don't look at things through the eye gate of the truth.

Most people don't do things in accordance with the truth. So when you begin to do that, you teach conspicuously. He says, put them on your doorposts. Again, the Jews did this by putting scripture in a box or bag called the Maz and hanged it on their doorposts. The point is, whatever is necessary to make God's word evident in your home and your life, you do it. That's what it means. You do it. Paul said it this way: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, let it be at home in your hearts. That's teaching your children conspicuously.

And lastly, you teach them completely. First number 24. So the Lord commanded us to observe. Some of these statutes? All of these statutes. My friends, I want to let you know something. To remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy is all the comm. Now I 'm going to talk to you about that. A few weeks. But that's all the commandments. Can't teach nine of the ten. Leave one out because it's not reiterated in the New Testament. We're going to tell you how you do that based on Sunday and the Lord's Day and what that means.

But you teach all, you teach them completely. Don't leave anything out. Include it all. Old Testament, New Testament, Jesus' words, Paul's words, Peter's words. It's all the word of God. And your children need to know it all. I'm afraid that if we were to ask our young people to stand up and to tell us where the Ten Commandments are, I would venture to say that less than 10% of the young people in today's churches could tell us. Where they're at. Go home and ask your kids, what are the Ten Commandments?

If they can't tell you where they're at or what they are, You got lots of work to do. Lots of work to do. Which leads me to our last point. In order for there to be survival in your family, there needs to be an attention to truth, an affection for truth. The articulation of truth, and lastly, an adoration of truth. It says in verse number 10, that it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you great and splendid cities which you did not build.

And 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 shall eat and be satisfied. Then watch yourself, lest you 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 H and swear by His name. You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround 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 will wipe you off the face of the earth. There is no survival for the family that does not adore the truth of God's only word. He wants you to worship him in the spirit of truth. The warning says, look, you're going to come into this wonderful land, large, beautiful cities, which you did not build. Houses full of good things which you did not fill. Hewn out walls which you did not dig. Vineyard and olive trees which you did not plant.

And you're going to be satisfied. You're going to be satisfied. He says, beware. You watch. Because it's at that time you will begin to forget God. When you dwell with those who worship the God of prestige and the God of power and the God of possessions and the God of pleasure. Don't get caught up in them. My friends, God says the same thing to you and me today: don't get caught up in the worldly things, don't let them swallow you in.

They'll steal your devotion. They'll steal your affection. They will steal your adoration and redirect it in another direction. Satan is going to do all he can to make the world attractive, just like he did for the nation of Israel when God gave them the commandments. So there's your warning. He says, here's your worship. You fear only the Lord your God, for certain, and worship him and swear by his name. God won't settle for any but everything. Did you get that? God won't settle for anything but everything.

He wants it all. He wants your emotions. He wants your mind. He wants your work. He wants your family. He wants your most prized possessions. He wants everything. And he's not happy till he gets it all. He wants you to fear him and honor him.