Deuteronomy 6:1-9
We’re going to read Deuteronomy chapter 6, 4 through 9 this is called the Shema in Jewish history, hear oh Israel the lord our God. The lord is one love the lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your strength these commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts Impress them on your children talk about them when you sit at home when you walk along the road when you lie down and when you get up tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.
god has a plan for the family and so does our enemy
Well this morning we’re going to think about God’s plan for the family and there is a plan for the family and it’s found in our passage that we’re going to look at in just a little bit Deuteronomy chapter 6 But before we think about that, I want us to just think about the thought and the premise and it’s this that while God has a plan for the family and he does, so does our enemy that anything that God says this is what we need to do that in our world there’s an enemy that is opposed to God’s truths the Bible talks about three enemies that we have as Christians the world the flesh and the devil now the world by that the scripture means the world system 1st John 2:15 says do not love the world by that john means the system that is anti-god and opposed to God in his truths there’s a second enemy that we have and it’s called the flesh Even though we come to faith in Jesus and our sins are forgiven we still have a sin nature. It’s not eradicated.
And so, there’s a battle going on between the desires of the flesh and what God would have us do. Paul writes about it in Romans chapter 7 the things I want to do I don’t do. And the things I don’t want to do I end up doing and Paul says oh wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this situation. So, if the apostle Paul struggled with sin be encouraged that we probably do as well and that struggle will go on until we’re in heaven someday and have a glorification.
But there’s a third enemy and it’s called Satan Hal Lindsey wrote the book years ago Satan’s alive and well on planet earth. John 10:10 Jesus said these words the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy he’s referring to our enemy. And Jesus says I’ve come that you might have life that you might have it abundantly. And so, God has given us three Institutions in scripture that he’s ordained One is marriage and the family.
Second is government romans 13 says the powers that be those that are in control of government have been what ordained by God. And then the third one is the church in acts chapter 2 so this morning we want to think about God’s plan for the family. And of course, if you realize and are aware what’s going on in our culture today. There’s an attack on the family today a spiritual attack and a cultural attack.
Dr. Rob Rienow who started visionary family ministries years ago, and I’ve told Rob’s story Here many times that rob was pastoring. A youth pastor at a very large church in Indiana He had a youth group of about 200 kids and he was pouring his life into those kids. But rob also at that time he had four kids of his own now he has seven. And one day they were in the church and rob had his little three- or four-year-old boy with him.
And they’re walking down the hallway near his office. And Rob’s little boy looks up at him and asks a question he says daddy is this where you live. Because rob was so involved in church and so involved in ministering to the other kids in the church. That he felt like he was neglecting his own family.
When rob tells that story he says I can point you to the square footage of carpet where I was standing when he asked me that question. And that began a whole change in Rob’s life where he stepped away from the church and began a ministry called visionary family ministries. And Rob, and his wife has spent the last probably 20 years going around the country and teaching biblical principles of the family. But this is this is what rob writes about the family about the cultural attack on the family and what’s happening in our world today?
He says pornography has been normalized homosexuality is not only encouraged but celebrated the clear biblical distinction between men and women are being slowly erased. Children are increasingly exposed to sexual content and activity at younger and younger ages. Marriage is portrayed as something to be delayed avoided or just temporary and on and on he goes. There’s a cultural attack on marriage and the family.
I’m glad that we have a president that made it clear for us that there are two genders male and female that’s very clear from genesis chapter two. So, what do we do with this culture and spiritual attack? Well, we can’t stick our heads in the sand like an ostrich does. There’s too much at stake so we’re going to go to a passage that’s 3,400 years old.
And this truth hasn’t changed and think about what are some principles that will help us to kind of get back to the basics of what? That God designed for the family and it’s found in Deuteronomy chapter 6 so you can turn your Bibles there or we’ll just look at the outline on the screen.
i. the context…
But let’s think about the context of Deuteronomy the word Deuteronomy means second law. And so, the context of Deuteronomy and if you remember this that God instructed the Israelites to go into the promised land God says I’ve given this land to you. You can go in and conquer it and when Moses sent the spies in 10 came back. And said, well we can’t do this because there’s giants in the land and two came back Joshua and Caleb said.
Hey, let’s claim God ‘s promises and so the majority said don’t go two said let’s go. And Israel ended up not in faith believing God and they didn’t obey him. And so, there was a punishment for that God judged them for that and, here is the judgment. It’s found in numbers chapter 14.
I think we have time to read it this morning. Let me tell you what happened God said to the nation of Israel this is Numbers 14 verse 29 In this wilderness Your bodies will fall Every one of you 20 years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home except Caleb and Joshua as for your children that you said would be taken as plunder. I will bring them in to enjoy the land.
You’ve rejected so God said Everybody 20 years old and under is going to die in the wilderness. So, for 40 years, they wandered in the wilderness a whole generation died off and now Israel is at the edge of the Jordan river. Joshua is the new leader and they’re ready to go into the promised land. And so, God had to give the law a second time because a whole generation died off.
And that lets us know that Joshua and Caleb were the oldest ones to enter the promised land It was a whole younger generation that followed him in there. So that’s the context of Deuteronomy chapter 6 and let me just begin reading in verse 1. These are the command decrees and laws your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land so that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. If you look in chapter 5, it’s the giving of the 10 commandments again.
So, these are the laws and the commandments and the truths that I want you to follow as you enter the promised land. Verse 2 so that you your children and their children after them notice the generational impact there. May fear the lord your God as long as you live by keeping his decrees and commands that I give you. And so that you may enjoy long life hear Israel and be careful to obey.
So that it may go well with you and you may increase in the land flowing with milk and honey. Just as the lord the God of your ancestors promise you. And so, there’s the context they’re ready to go into the promised land after 40 years of wilderness wanderings. And now they’re giving some instructions some truths that they need to obey so that what life will go well.
You notice the principle that’s found in in verses 2 and 3. As we’re reading these verses that says fear God live by keeping his commandments so that you may enjoy long life. Be careful to obey so that it may go well with you. The basic principle is this life goes much better when you obey God. Life goes well when you follow his commandments and his principles and so the context of this whole passage is entering into the promised land. And the truth in verses 2 and 3 is this obedience brings blessing all right. So, let’s look at the commands.
ii. the commands
What are these commands that the God’s given to Moses is given to the Israelites and 3,400 years later. We’re reading them so let’s think about these commands and the first one as we think about the first word in verse 4. the word here and I mentioned that earlier it’s the Hebrew word Shema and therefore these verses 4, 5,6 and 7. Are probably the most well-known verses in Jewish life in fact, it became a prayer, and the Jews were to pray this prayer two times a day.
And it’s called the Shema because the Hebrew word for here is Shema. And in it contains God’s plan for the family God’s plan for passing on truth. Small group ministries and churches is very popular today, but God’s original small group was what the family. And that’s where truth is to be passed on and so three imperatives three commands.
1. we must pursue an all-consuming passionate love for God
And let’s look at the first one and this is this is what we need to take home with us this morning number one. We must pursue an all-consuming passionate love for God we must pursue an all-consuming passionate love for God hear oh Israel the lord our God. The lord is one what does he say in the next verse?
Love the lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your strength and as we mentioned. Jesus quoted this verse in Matthew 22 and the pharisees says what’s the greatest commandment? Jesus quotes Deuteronomy chapter six of these verses he has the word mind in it and love the lord your God with all your mind as well. And so, we must pursue an all-consuming love for God we must continually fan that flame in our life.
You might ask well, what does it look like what does this? All-consuming passionate love for God looks like and let me just give you a couple words here that might encourage us. What are some evidences of love for God number one is obedience. Jesus said if you love me keep my what commandments if you love me, then you need to know my truth.
And you need to obey my truth and so what’s loving God look like it means knowing his truths. And obeying living it out there’s another I believe second evidence of loving God and it’s found in 1st John. Give some marks of a person who’s been born again and it’s not only obedience, but it’s love for other believers other Christians. We sang about it this morning the family of God I’m so glad I’m part of the family of God.
And this is what the Apostle John writes in 1st John chapter 4 verse 19 we love because he first loved us God initiated this love relationship whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar for whoever does not love their brother and sister whom they have seen cannot love God whom they have not seen and he has given us this command anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister and so one of the evidence of loving God not only obeying him but it’s loving the family of God It’s loving other Christians It’s loving a church family and being passionate in that love for others there’s a third evidence there are many of love for God, so it’s obedience and it’s loving other Christians, but how about sacrifice and service? Now one of the evidences of love for God is that we have the desire to serve him and to sacrifice for him the story of Mary of Bethany who just a week before Jesus went to the cross brought a perfume of spikenard that was worth one year’s wages and what did Mary do? She broke that spikenard jar and she poured it on Jesus’s feet and anointed the feet of Jesus the week before he went to the cross some of the disciples weren’t happy that was worth a year’s salary we could have sold that and given to the poor Jesus said no, this is an act of worship leave her alone loving God has demonstrated in sacrifice for him we just studied the book of the Philippians.
We’re going to finish it probably next week but remember the person that took the book of Philippians the letter from the church at Philippi to Paul. His name was Epaphroditus and he traveled 800 miles from Philippi to Rome to do what to take this letter that the Philippians wrote to Paul and to bring a gift Bible says he got sick He almost died but Epaphroditus did that out of loving service and sacrifice to God Revelation 2 and 3 there’s the seven letters of the seven churches and each one of them has a commendation you’re doing this well and Jesus also gives a condemnation or a correction for each church but when we read in revelation chapter 2 verse 4 the church at Ephesus the correction is this verse 4 I hold this against you. You have forsaken the love you had at first, you’ve lost your passion and love and appreciation for what God has done for you and so he gives a correction here.
You need to repent and you need to do the first works, very easy to happen for those of us that have known Jesus and walked with him for years and years and years and our Christian walk can kind of get very routine and in the doldrums and we need to pursue an all-consuming passionate love for God well, there’s a second command and it’s found in verse 6 in Deuteronomy chapter 6 God’s plan for the family verse 6 is these commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. So, he’s talking to the family. He’s talking to parents talking about passing on truth where does it start by knowing God’s truth and having it in our lives? Someone has said you cannot pass on what you do not possess and so if we’re going to pass on God’s truth to the next generation, we need to know it we need to live it out.
2. we must know and obey God’s truth
It needs to be in our hearts we must know and obey God’s truth; that’s the starting point now I would not be um; I would not be a very good flight instructor some of you sitting out here. I know are pilots but I would not be a good flight instructor because I know very little about aviation about aerodynamics if I was in the pilots seat I would be looking for where’s the gas pedal and the steering wheel and you know, you would not want to be on a plane where I was the instructor of the pilot the same is true because there’s so much at stake the same is true in passing on truth we first have to have it in our lives because there is so much at stake. What’s at stake the next generation? And so, the first command is we need to pursue an all-consuming passionate love for God the second one is we need to know and obey God’s truth.
3. we must impress God’s truth to the next generation through strategic communication, verbally and symbolically
We need to be that model of truth in our family’s life well, there’s a third one and this we’re going to spend a little more time on number three here because this is where the passage of truth takes place here’s the third command God’s plan for the family we must impress God’s truth to the next generation through strategic communication verbally and symbolically we must impress God’s truth the next generation through strategic communication verbally and symbolically, let me read again verses seven through nine the word impress here in Hebrew means to pierce hearts pierce their hearts we could paraphrase impress on your children what the commands he’s referring to? Here’s what he says talk about them when you sit at home when you walk along the road when you lie down when you get up tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads
Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates did you notice there’s some action verbs in these verses the word impress the word talk the word tie the word bind the word right you get the impression God wants us to do something and if we’re going to make a spiritual impact on our children and our grandchildren, we have to talk to them about God’s truth
Now in Deuteronomy chapter six verse seven, there’s four key teachable moments in family life so we might say well when how does this work out when? What can moms and dads and I’m going to include grandparents and aunts and uncles anybody who wants to make an impact in the next? generation for God’s kingdom and pass truth on how can we do this? then God gives us four key moments let’s look at them again in verse seven impress them on your children talk about them when you sit at home when you sit at home.
Mealtime I don’t know if families do this anymore in our busy culture gets increasingly difficult but sitting at home at least when I was growing up we had family mealtime together and It’s a great time to connect as a family to eat a meal together and spend that quality time together we’ve all seen this today in our culture today and in restaurants and quite frankly we’ve probably been guilty of it at some point in time you look over across the restaurant and there’s this family eating dinner together.
And they’re sitting at the table and what are they doing? Everyone’s got their phone out we need to talk we need to talk to one another and so mealtime is a great, great opportunity to connect with the family and look for opportunities to pass on God’s truth. I grew up in a pastor’s home and we had this little wooden I’m going to call it a wooden bread box. I think it might have said our daily bread on the top of it and you open the top of that inside were Bible verses.
In fact, I’ve got something similar it’s called Ruth Scripture Treasures It’s referring to Billy Graham’s daughter, Ruth Bell Graham and so there’s these little cards and there’s a scripture verse on each one and not every night but maybe three or four times a week after dinner would get that little our daily bread box and open up the top and take out one of these scripture verses and when we were really young
My dad mom would read them all and we got to be old enough to read we would read them as well and then we’ll just spend like five minutes talking about what does this verse mean? And then we would pray It’s called family devotions Dr. Rob Rienow at visionary family ministries has done his research and he says you know how many families this is church families that do anything like that today?
Four percent four percent and so meal time is a great time to uh to pass on God’s truth. There are all kinds of help today I mentioned I think last week keysforkids.org Got some great just short stories and Bible truths that that you can share with the kids when our kids were a certain age and we weren’t very consistent in this and in our own lives.
We tried hard but uh, we tried to make it fun because if it’s not fun, the kids aren’t going to want to enjoy it but we would like also act out mimic Bible stories and the kids would and then would try to guess what it was and that was just a way of connecting with them and passing on God’s truth so here’s the four key moments impress God’s truth when you walk along uh is the second one when you when you sit down the second one is when you walk along the road in verse 7 talk about them when you sit at home when you walk along the road well, we don’t do too much walking today.
Although that’s a good thing to do, but this would be travel time when you’re when you’re in the car and you’ve got a captive audience and it’s a good time what to connect with the family so for I don’t know eight or nine years maybe longer than that. um, we lived in in Chelsea and we had our kids in public school, but in about sixth or seventh grade, we transitioned them to Lenawee Christian school but that was in Adrian 32 miles my wife did all the driving 32 miles down 32 miles back afternoon 32 miles down 128 miles a day I finally said hey see if they’re hiring anybody there maybe get a job working at the schools and cut down the travel time and I remember being at one of the school events and here the middle school principal. Mr. Howard was his name and I guess I was looking for a little bit of sympathy.
I’m just complaining about like, you know how long of a drive it is and how much time in the car says hey use that to your advantage use that 40 minute drive to what engage with your kids and talk to your kids and turn the whole perspective around now the few times that I went in the morning they were sleeping but the afternoon they were awake and talking on the way home and so talk about God’s truth when you sit down at dinner time when you walk along the road travel time two others here when you lie down night time any parent knows that bed time is a key time, isn’t it? With our three boys, we used to call it popcorn time because we’ll put them to bed like, uh, I’m thirsty I’m hungry. I need to go to the bathroom. I don’t feel good and pop, pop, pop, pop. But bedtime’s a crucial time to talk to your kids time to pray with them I don’t know why we stopped doing this when we get when they get older.
We don’t tend to do it when they’re young Greg Speck, who’s a youth specialist, travels all over the country talking to youth, and we’ve gotten to know Greg over the years a little bit. Greg Speck says, when they become teenagers, teenagers are nocturnal. So, you may be wanting to go to bed, but sometimes night time’s when they want to talk.
And you better give them that opportunity and grab that opportunity. But when you lie down, and here’s the fourth one, when you get up. So, the next morning, breakfast time, great thing to do is pray with your kids before you send them off to school.
It’s a great thing to do, and just love on them. And so, four key times that we can capture the moment and pass on God’s truth. All right, command number three, and then we’ll wrap this up, is this.
We must impress God’s truth to the next generation through strategic communication verbally. We’ve already demonstrated that. What’s the Bible say? Bible says talk, and you need to talk about God’s truth, but also symbolically.
Look at verse eight. Tie God’s commandments as symbols on your hand, bind them on your foreheads, write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Now the Jews took this literally.
Bind God’s truth on your forehead and on your hands. Maybe you’ve seen these pictures of the Jews at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, and it’s called the phylacteries. They’ll have a leather strip around their forehead with a little box, and inside that box on their forehead is scripture.
They’ll have a leather strip around their forearm, and then on their hand is a box, and there’s verses of scripture, probably Deuteronomy chapter six. They took this literally. It says tie them or writes them on the doorframes of your houses, on your gates.
This is something that the Jews still do today, Orthodox Jews certainly. It’s called the mezuzah. And maybe you’ve seen this in some homes.
On the doorframe of the home, as you’re entering the home, there’s this little box, like what’s in that box? Probably people who are following Deuteronomy chapter six, and in that little box is scripture. Now, most commentators think that this isn’t to be taken, literally, it’s basically saying have God’s truth at the forefront of your heart, the forefront of your minds, and the forefront of your thoughts, but we need to pass on God’s truth, both verbally and also symbolically. Now, in our last five to seven minutes here, we’re just going to think about God’s plan for the family and applying this to our lives and so let’s just conclude with some questions here that will help us by way of application, and here’s the first one.
1. am I increasing in my love for God?
Am I increasing in my love for God? In other words, do I love God more than I did like six months ago, a year ago, 10 years ago, whatever? Is my love for God growing? You see, the longer we walk with God, the more we should love God. That’s the way God designed a marriage relationship to be as well. The longer you know someone, the longer you walk with them, and you meet them, and you think you love them, but you really don’t know what that love is, and as you walk together and journey through life together, your love grows deeper and increases.
Am I increasing in my love for God? It starts with spending time with God. God speaks to us through his word, and we speak to him through prayer. It’s this love relationship, and so we need to grow in what? The grace and knowledge of God, and grow in our love for him.
2. am I involved in passing God’s truth onto the next generation?
Secondly, am I involved in passing God’s truth on to the next generation? Am I involved in passing God’s truth to the next generation? And the challenge of Deuteronomy chapter six, and I think this is clear from Ephesians chapter six, is where is that main responsibility to do that? And the message of scripture is that it starts at the home, and especially with dads. We’re going to be responsible someday for the spiritual upbringing of our family, and so this is given to parents. Ephesians chapter six, fathers, don’t exasperate your children but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
This lays at the doorstep of the home. Now the church can help. The church can help encourage, and we can help with various programs at Awana, and Beyond Awana, and youth group, and junior church, but ultimately, the responsibility for the spiritual training of our families lays at the doorstep of dads, moms.
Starts at the home. I remember our previous church. One family came to me once, and they were very, quite frankly, very upset.
They had four children, and not one of them ended up walking with God, and they came and began to point the finger at the church, and like, you guys let us down. You didn’t do your job. And really, we can help, but it lays at the doorstep of the home.
So, am I involved in passing God’s truth on to the next generation? We can do this as parents. We can do this as grandparents today, can’t we? If you don’t live close to your grandkids, guess what? FaceTime, and talk to them about God’s truths.
Am I involved in passing God’s truth on to the next generation? And let me just add this to point number two, if I waive application, and also, don’t forget to pray, pray, pray. Just pray for your family. As a parent, it’s an obligation that you’ll carry for your entire life.
You’ll always be praying for your kids, always should be praying for your grandkids. This is what Job did in Job chapter one. Job had seven sons, three daughters, and it says he offered a sacrifice daily, a picture of intercessory prayer, perhaps my children aren’t doing what’s right. He prayed for them, and so we need to be involved in passing God’s truth on to the next generation.
3. am I using symbols to open a door to faith conversation?
Lastly, and then we’re done, here’s the third one. Third one is this, am I using symbols to open a door to faith conversations? And so, I’m taking this out of Deuteronomy chapter six, where it says, tie God’s truth as symbols on your forehead and on your hands, on the doorpost of your home.
Most of us don’t have Bible verses attached to our foreheads or our wrists, but I was thinking, this is something we can do. Now, when I was growing up, and we had this picture in our home, and I saw it in many homes, I’d walk into the living room, and there’s a picture, maybe it’s in the dining room, and it’s from Revelation chapter three. Some of you know what this picture is.
Jesus standing at the door, knocking. It’s just a symbolic picture representing Revelation chapter three, and it was in many, many, many, many Christian homes, just kind of as a symbol. Well, I don’t see too many of those pictures today, but I also want to say that I think there are some things that we can do that will show people that we’re not embarrassed of our faith.
There are some symbols that we can use to say, hey, I’m a follower of Jesus. Our oldest grandson Shane, he’s in sixth grade, he frequently goes to Clinton schools, wears T-shirts and sweatshirts, and on it is his favorite Bible verse, Philippians 4:13. I can do all things through Christ, which gives me strength. He recently told me he might be switching his favorite verse to Joshua chapter one, which is a great, great passage.
Verses six through nine. I’ve told this story to so many of you, so forgive me for bragging again, but now I’ll do it to the whole church. So, two weeks ago, his assignment in sixth grade was to talk about someone who has influenced and impacted your life, like a five-minute speech.
Guess who Shane chose? Jesus. I saw his 3×5 card notes. The reason I picked Jesus is because he goes, my religion teaches me that Jesus died on the cross for our sins.
And there are Bible verses that when you feel down, you can turn to like John chapter three, verse 16. And guess what? When you’re feeling bad, you can pray to him. He goes on to talk about the Bible and talk about all the scripture verses in the Bible.
And so, wearing a T-shirt, a necklace with a cross. I notice some of you wear those. It’s a great conversation starter, potentially verses of scripture on a wall, on a refrigerator, on a mirror.
Here’s one I’ll go out on a limb on. Don’t criticize me for it later. Maybe you can email me later.
How about a tattoo? I happen to be the only one in our family that doesn’t have one. I ask people about their tattoos. Tell me about this.
If you’re going to have a tattoo, what greater thing to have a tattoo of, of something that represents something very important in your life. My first exposure to tattoos was my uncle, one of my dad’s brothers, and he was a Marine. I always admired Uncle Rich because when he wore his short-sleeved shirts, man, he had all these tattoos on his arm, like, man, this guy’s a real man.
But even a tattoo can be an opportunity, what? To open up a faith starter conversation. Well, God’s plan for the home it’s found in Deuteronomy chapter six. And it’s crucial, we love God, that we know God, but we also take these opportunities to pass on God’s truth to the next generation because there is a battle out, a spiritual battle, the lives of your kids, our grandkids.
And I love, maybe the visual illustration that’s coming in my mind is that picture from Pennsylvania and the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania when our president nearly was assassinated and he had a bullet graze his ear and secret servicemen jumped on him and then this iconic picture of President Trump who got up with blood trickling down his face. What did he say? Three words, fight, fight, fight. I don’t know what he was referring to there, probably a political fight, but our application of that is we need to fight.
We need to fight for the next generation. Gods told us how to do that, and I trust that we will impress God’s truth on the next generation.