Deuteronomy 6:4-9
I’m going to read some scripture this morning. This is Deuteronomy 6:4 through 9. It’s actually called the Shema, and the Jews recited this every day, every morning.
They would recite this passage. It’s called the Shema, because the first word here in Hebrew is Shema, and this is what they would recite, and this is Deuteronomy chapter 6. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, 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.
Well, we’re going to talk about passing the torch in a little bit. And of course, in the context here, the torch is the gospel. But I want to tell you this morning, and some of you aren’t quite there yet, but here’s one of the greatest things about becoming a father is that you have the potential to be a grandfather. So here we are last Sunday.
Dianne and I make lots of trips up to Grand Rapids, actually Caledonia, where six of our eight grandchildren live. And they’re usually 24-hour trips up and back. And we wanted a picture of the six grandkids with us.
And we waited a little too long, and it was kind of the end of the day, and they had been outside playing. And so, we could not get a happy picture of everybody. So, we decided to go with this one.
So right to left, that’s Liam. He’s holding Graham. Next to him is Cameron.
And then famous Audrey, first girl in 138 years in our family line. And then that’s Weston. It was his fifth birthday that we celebrated.
He’s wearing the Lakers jersey. And then that’s unhappy Aiden. But sometimes he’s happy, and sometimes he’s not.
But that was a fun picture. Anyways, so we’re going to think about some truths from Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 4 through 9. And so, I don’t want you to get frustrated this morning like I sometimes do when I’m listening to a sermon, and the pastor’s preaching, and the speaker’s preaching, and I’m thinking, when are we going to get to open our Bibles? And so, all that to say, I’ve got a rather long introduction, and then we’re going to get to Deuteronomy chapter 6. So don’t be frustrated that we’re not there like right away. We are going to get there.
Introduction – The changing cultural landscape in America
But here’s the picture that I want to paint, and I want to think about the changing cultural landscape in America. In other words, if you’re, I’d say, 35 or older, you’ll see a drastic change in where our country is today and what it was like when you were being raised. And so, I was born in the 50s.
I was raised in a pastor’s home in Cleveland, Ohio. So, I was basically raised in the 60s or 70s. And I have to tell you that life in America was much, much different than it is today.
It just was simpler, less complex. Let’s think about television. I remember us getting our first television.
We had three TV stations available to us in Cleveland, Ohio. Channel 3 was NBC, Channel 5 was ABC, Channel 8 was CBS. Today, most of us perhaps have televisions that we have hundreds and hundreds of choices of media coming at us.
The news was a lot simpler and it was more reliable. Today, you know, depending on what news source you’re listening to, you’re going to get several different viewpoints. It was Ted Turner that started the first 24-hour news cycle, CNN.
By the way, back then when I was growing up, those three TV stations, guess what? At midnight, they played the national anthem and then you were done. They went off the air until the next morning. And the news, there was a man by the name of Walter Cronkite, who was a CBS news anchor, who for about 10 years in a row was voted the most dependable, trustworthy person in America.
And if Walter Cronkite reported it and said it, then the whole audience believed it because he was so very trustworthy. And for the most part, we were the United States of America. And there were some common values and common ground that pretty much people in America accepted.
And here’s the way one writer puts it, in previous eras of American history, parents could have a realistic expectation that Christian beliefs and values would be reinforced in their children by their larger social contexts, friends, neighbors, school, and the media. In most parts of the country, that is no longer the case today. If children are going to learn Christian beliefs and values, and this is where we’re headed with Deuteronomy chapter six, this must happen first and foremost in the home and be guided by parents.
America has also experienced a decline in moral values and spiritual values. Another quote here, religion in the United States is in a decline by virtually every measure. There are more Christians in the continent of Africa today than there are in North America.
It’s declining in North America and the continent of Africa. Christianity is exploding. So, religion in the United States is in decline by virtually every measure.
Religious affiliation, worship attendance, and belief in God have all dropped by double-digit margins since the 1990s. Over the last 50 years, the percentage of Americans who identify as having no religious affiliation has also dramatically changed. From 5% in 1972, the adults would say, I don’t have any religious affiliation, to in 2022, 50 years later, 27% of Americans said, no, don’t really have any religious affiliation.
That shift is being heavily driven by young people. That survey, those under 30, 35% said no religious affiliation. When you get to generation Z, which I believe is late teens and 20s, 46% said we don’t have any religious affiliation.
There’s been some research, and I’m going to refer to this a little bit later. This is June 2026. The Institute for Family Studies, an organization called Communio, surveyed thousands of people who grew up in Christian homes.
And their research was how faith moves across the generations. And they were looking at, like, why is there this decline in America? And they came up with a couple of reasons. Let me just share them, and then we’ll get to Deuteronomy chapter 6. Social moral values have shifted toward individualism.
And now the person, we’re the final authority. And now there is no such thing as absolute truth. In fact, a recent survey showed that 60% of American adults reject the concept of absolute objective moral truth, instead believing that truth is relative.
And so that may be true for you, but that’s not true for me. And when you reject absolute moral truth, you reject the truth of the Bible. They also recognize social media platforms that have exposed younger generations to doubts and other types of thoughts and belief systems.
And so social media has had an effect. I don’t know if any of you saw this on the news this week. This was from last Sunday.
I printed off the article. Britain unveils sweeping ban on social media for under 16s. So, if you’re in the country of Britain, you’re not going to have access to social media until you are 16.
Let me read a little bit of the article. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced a sweeping ban on social media use for those under 16, joining other countries around the world seeking to protect their children online. It’s a big step for our country, Starmer said.
Social media is making our children unhappy, unsafe, and as a parent, as much as a prime minister, I can’t let that go on anymore. The ban will include social platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X. This decision gained momentum after Australia became the first country to pass a law barring children under 16 from accessing major social media platforms, an effort aimed at addressing the concerns about the physical and mental health effects of excessive online use. The announcement in Britain follows a national consultation survey that received more than 116,000 responses and soliciting public opinions on children’s use of technology.
More than 83% of parents who responded said the risks of social media use outweigh the benefits, according to the consultation, and 90% expressed support for a minimum age of 16 before children can access social media platforms. Well, there might be a few reasons why things are in decline in America. So, what we want to address this morning, though, is like, well, what are we to do? And how do you pass truth on to the next generation, our kids, and our grandkids, and our great-grandkids? And so that’s why we’re going to go to Deuteronomy chapter 6. So, if you want to follow along in your scriptures, you can turn to Deuteronomy chapter 6, and we’ll have the verses up on the screen.
So, we’re going to talk about three imperatives, three commands that are given to the nation of Israel. And you know the context of the book of Deuteronomy, that it’s called second law. They were given the law in Exodus, they rejected God’s going into the land of Canaan, they wandered for 40 years in the wilderness, and now there’s a whole new generation that’s raised up, and now Moses is giving them the second law, he’s giving them the law again.
And as we mentioned when we read this scripture passage, this is called the Shema, and the Orthodox Jews today still recite this passage every day. So, we want to think about passing the torch. And let me say, we’re going to talk about some imperatives.
There’s no guarantee, there’s no guarantee that our kids are going to accept our values and grow up to follow Jesus. There is no guarantee, because children have an individual will. But as we look in Deuteronomy chapter 6, and we think about these three truths, I think we can say, if you’ll try to implement these three truths, it will give you the best chance for your children to walk in the way of truth.
God’s primary plan for evangelism is the home
And as third John says, I have no greater joy than to see my children walk in truth. And so here it is, God’s primary plan for evangelism is the home, the home. Small groups became a big thing in churches in America about 30, 40 years ago.
That was God’s idea. The first small group was what? The family. And God’s primary plan for building into the next generation is, lays at the doorstep of the home.
3 imperatives
So, here’s the first imperative from Deuteronomy chapter 6. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Here’s the command. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
1. Parental passion for God
And so, the first command is that we need as parents to have a parental passion for God, a parental passion for who got it. Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. It’s personal.
Someone has said you can’t pass on what you don’t possess. Isn’t it interesting that in the New Testament, in Matthew chapter 22, Jesus is having a discussion with the religious leaders, and they’re asking Jesus a question, a teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? And they’re really doing that to try to trap Jesus. They wanted to try to get him to say something controversial.
And what does Jesus say? Matthew 22:37, here it is. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.
And so, here’s the first thing that God says to parents, I want you to have a passion for me. It’s okay to have other passions, and I love sports, and I love various other things, but you have to have a passion for God. And if your kids just see, if they see a major disconnect between like, kind of go to church Sunday, but it doesn’t impact us on the rest of the week, and we live a totally different life, they’re going to get very confused.
They need to see a parental passion for God. And I tell you what, it’s so easy to have spiritual drift in your life. This is what Jesus said to the church at Ephesus, in the seven letters of the seven churches, the church at Ephesus, you’ve lost your first love.
You used to have a passion for God, and somehow, some way, that passion doesn’t exist anymore. And so, the first imperative is a parental passion for God. There’s a second imperative in Deuteronomy chapter six, not only love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, but then verse six says, these commands that I give you today are to be on your hearts.
2. Teach God’s truth to your children
Here’s the command, impress them on your children. Command number two, imperative number two is this, teach God’s truth to your children. Can the church help? Yes.
Can Awana help? Yes. Can other things help? Yes. But the responsibility to do that lays at the doorstep of the home, and of moms, and especially dads.
Ephesians six gives the same command in the New Testament. Bring up your children, what, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And so, Deuteronomy six, seven, the NIV says impress them, God’s commands on your children.
The ESV says teach them diligently to your children. The New Living Translation says repeat them again and again to your children. And you might say, well, how do we do that? And what does that look like? Rob Rhino, who used to be a youth pastor, and now he, and Rob and his wife Amy have, I think, seven or eight children, travels the country giving seminars to churches about family life, and how to raise your kids, and trying to think of the name of his ministry, because it’s a great, great resource.
It’ll come to me. But Rob Rhino’s research, I believe it’s from Rob, says that what percentage of families in our churches have a semi-regular, like, devotion time, maybe around the dinner table? Now, Diane and I weren’t very successful at that. We gave it the old college try.
It’s a challenging thing to do, especially when you have kids of multiple ages. But the answer to that question, this survey was done quite a while ago, is four percent, four percent. The one resource that we found when we were doing this with our family, we didn’t do it every night.
Schedules get complicated. But I picked up this off of the table, the ministry table. We started using Keys for Kids.
Keys for Kids is a great ministry out of Grand Rapids. I believe the president’s Greg Steyer. He comes up to Maranatha.
I’ve met Greg and know Greg well. And these are simple devotionals. I don’t know, geared maybe, I would say six to 12, 13, 14.
And it’s a simple story. It’s a Bible reading. And it has one key truth that you want to get across to your kids.
And so, if you might say, well, I don’t know where to start. I don’t know how to do it. I would highly recommend Keys for Kids.
I made some copies on the ministry table there of the website and how you could contact them. I believe they’ll send this to you at no cost. I’m not sure.
But that is a great, great resource. If you want to kind of have a formal, semi-formal teaching time, take 10 minutes, go over that lesson and pray, and you’re getting God’s truth into your children. But the passage in Deuteronomy takes a little different approach.
a. 4 teachable moments
And maybe these both approaches can work. Because when it says, impress them on your children, it goes on to talk about four key teachable moments. Oh, when are we to talk about God and to impress God’s truth on our kids? Four teachable moments.
Deuteronomy says, when you sit at home, dinner time. Do families still have dinner time together? I think they do. It’s harder with crazy schedules.
But when you sit at home, that can represent dinner time. When you walk along the road, when you’re traveling. We made the decision to, when we were in Chelsea, in seventh grade, to transition our kids to Lenawee Christian School.
And it was costly and took some time and commitment. It was 32 miles down, 32 miles back. Initially, when we made that decision, Diane was doing all the driving.
And you can do the math, 32 miles down, 32 miles back in the morning, 32 miles down, 32 miles back in the afternoon, 128 miles a day. And I finally said to Diane after a couple months, can you see if maybe there’s a job opening at the school? And so, she started working in the cafeteria. And that cut the drive time in half.
But having said all that, I remember complaining to the middle school principal once about the long drive. And of course, I wasn’t doing it. Diane was.
And I occasionally did it. And he says, you know what? Use that as an opportunity to connect with your kids. You’re in the car 40 minutes with them in the morning and 40 minutes in the afternoon.
And you can use that time to what? Talk to them and engage with them. The problem was they were sleeping in the car on the way down, but I think they were awake on the way back. I’m like, yeah, I never thought about that.
And so, teach them God’s truth. When you sit at home at the dinner table, when you travel in the car, notice the next two when you lie down. Oh, man, that’s key time, bedtime, praying with your kids.
I remember youth specialist Greg. Greg, good old, there’s another Greg, and I can’t remember his last name. I know him well.
And when they get to be teenagers, he says, teenagers are nocturnal. And so, you’re ready to go to bed and they might be ready to talk. But bedtime certainly is a key time.
3. Place visual reminders of God’s truth in your home
And then the next time is what? When you get up in the morning. And so, relating God’s truth to everyday life is key to getting God’s truth into our children. There’s a third imperative, and we’ll briefly begin to wrap this up.
And it’s found in this text in Deuteronomy chapter seven, verses eight and nine. Tie them, this is God’s truth, God’s commands. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. And so imperative number three is place visual reminders of God’s truth in your home. Place visual reminders of God’s truth in your home.
I remember growing up in my home and we had a big picture. Maybe some of you can visualize this picture. I should have put it on the screen, but it’s an older man with white hair and he’s at the table.
And I think there’s a loaf of bread and he’s like praying. And we had that; I remember that being in our living room. It was a very common picture that people had.
So, the Jews took this literally. When Moses says, tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads, write them on the doorposts of your houses and gates. And so, if you’ve seen pictures of the Jewish people, they’ll have maybe this passage or other scripture.
And it’ll be a little box on their forearm and leather wrapped around it. And then they’ll have a little box on their forehead attached to their forehead. And what’s in there? It’s scripture.
They’re called mezuzahs and phylacteries. But let me just go to some further explanation of this. The Jewish tradition of placing a mezuzah on the doorpost.
Okay, the one on the doorpost is called the mezuzah. It’s based on this passage. The word mezuzah is the Hebrew word for doorpost.
It’s a small piece of parchment usually containing Deuteronomy 6:4. The parchment is folded or rolled, placed in a small case, and attached to the right side of the doorway of a home at shoulder height. So, maybe you go into a Jewish home and you might look up at the doorpost and certainly an Orthodox Jew, they’ll have that box there because of what Deuteronomy 6 says. It goes on to say, since ancient times, Jews have practiced the tradition of using phylacteries, also called Teflon.
They’re small leather boxes that contain portions of the Law of Moses. The boxes are strapped to the wrist and to sort of a headband, so one literally carries the laws of God over his eyes and hands. Despite the literal application of these verses by traditional Jews, many Old Testament scholars believe these commands were meant to be figurative.
And so, here’s the point. The Jews took this literally, but place some visual reminders of God’s truth in your home. Maybe it’s a family Bible on the coffee table.
Maybe it’s a picture on the wall. You know what it might be today for some of our kids and grandkids? Sorry about this. Tattoo.
I watched a podcast yesterday and the subject was, is it okay for Christians to have tattoos? And I think it is, but some people put tattoos of Bible verses, of a cross, of some symbol. Place visual reminders of God’s truth in your home. Well, those are three imperatives that will maybe give us the best chance of passing on God’s truth to our kids.
What I enjoy is discovering that all truth is God’s truth. And so, I referred earlier to this study, this joint study by the family research group and Communio. They interviewed 60,000 American adults age 25 and over who were raised in a Christian faith.
And here is their conclusion, and what I want, when I read some of the details of the conclusion, I want you to see, like, this is, this is taken, like, right out of Deuteronomy chapter 6. What, what they’ve discovered is right out of what God told Moses. Here’s their conclusion. Families are the single most important factor in whether children adopt and maintain faith into adulthood.
Let me read some of these core findings here. Parental faith modeling is the most important factor in whether children adopt and maintain faith into adulthood. Church, clergy, leadership, peer networks matter, but are most effective when reinforced in the home.
Children whose parents actively share their faith at home. They, they talk about their walk with God, are roughly twice as likely to adopt and maintain that faith when they become adults. Both parents’ church attendance has an immeasurable, has a measurable effect and impact.
Forty-one percent of children of both regularly attending parents became regular attendees as adults. Only twenty-nine percent of children with just one parent attending church regularly do the same. Strong parent-child relationships boost outcomes.
Young adults with close bonds to their parents were ninety-seven percent more likely to believe in God than those with weaker ties. This is in all sorts of research. The closer the relationship you have with your kids, the more likely they’re going to impact and accept your values and your belief system.
Faith is most enduring when embedded in daily life through conversation, ritual, and visible commitment. And so, I’ll add one other spiritual discipline to this whole picture of passing a faith on to the kids and grandkids and that is prayer. The pray, pray, pray.
Pray for your kids. Pray for your grandkids. Something I do every day.
It’s modeled in Job chapter one where Job has ten children and he’s, he’s offering, he’s, it’s a picture of intercessory prayer. He says maybe my kids they’re screwing up and so I want to intercede for them and pray for them. And so, prayer is key.
Application questions
And so just a couple of application thoughts here and then we’ll conclude. The emphasis throughout all of scripture, this is consistent, is that God demands first place in your life. Exodus 23, you will have no other gods before me.
I am a jealous God. I want first place. Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.
1. Do you have a passion for God and God’s truth?
2. What is your plan for teaching your children God’s truth?
And so, my question to you this morning is, does that reflect your life? Do you have a passion for God and God’s truth? Secondly, I’d ask the question to dads and moms and I’m not being critical in any sense because we, I struggled with this. Life gets busy. But dads and moms, what is your plan for teaching your children God’s truth? Do you have a plan? You know the old saying, if you, if you fail to plan it’s not going to get accomplished.
3. do I have any visual reminders in my home, or area where I’m raising my kids?
And so, we need to come up with a plan, whether it’s keys for kids or something to get God’s truth into the next generation. And then lastly, do I have any visual reminders, symbols of what I think is really important in my home or in the surrounding area where I’m raising my kids? Do they see that that’s important? And so, I hope, I hope Deuteronomy chapter six is something that will get into our hearts and get into our minds. And you know, it’s never too late to impact our kids, even our adult children for Christ.
And I don’t want anybody to have a sense of guilt or to feel like a failure. This Christian life is a series of new beginnings. And so, we can continue to pray.
And when, you know, when you bring God into the picture, God plus you as a majority, and some might be thinking, I’m trying to do this alone and it works better with two. Yes, it does. But still, if you have God in the picture, he can make an impact into the lives of your kids and the next generation.
So let me pray for you. And then we’re going to watch a closing video. It’s entitled A Father Like You, and it’s just a tribute to dads.