Crosspoint Baptist Church Blog

Text: Deuteronomy 6:4-15

 

Proposition: Believers are to evangelize and disciple their children in the ways of the Lord in order that they may become sons and daughters of God.

 

Introduction:

1.)    January 2005 – The day we bring Lucas home  and thinking, “what do I do now?”

2.)    This is a feeling many parents feel/

3.)    What do we do?

4.)    There is an alarming trend today of youth statistics: 9 out 11

5.)    How can this be?

 

As we look at the text set before us today, we begin to understand that the task of raising children and the formation of their spiritual lives is the responsibility of the parents, more specifically, of dads. Moses, as he begins a series of farewell addresses, reminds the Israelites of their history, commands, and expectations. The most important command was to love God completely with everything that they are. Our Lord would expand on this great command by adding that in addition to loving God completely we should love ourselves correctly and others compassionately. There is a sermon on our website that deals with these 3 ideas and how they relate. The point of our text today, though, is that Israel should teach these things to their children. The point is clear for us as well, we should teach these things to our children with the hopes that they will comes to know the Lord Jesus as Lord and Savior in order that they may truly know God the Father who made them for His glory. The idea is that of treasuring him above all things for he is the greatest treasure one can find.

 

The sad truth for us to face today is that we have substituted our duties at home to be replaced by a pastor, teacher, children’s minister, or youth pastor and thus we perhaps find an underlying reason for why we lose so many students after they graduate.

 

Edwards: “Family education and order are some of the chief menas of grace. If these fail, all other means are likely to prove ineffectual.”

 

Spurgeon: “…ministers, and Sabbath school teachers were never meant to be substitutes for mother’s tears and father’s prayers.”

 

Indeed, if we are to impact our culture with the gospel, it doesn’t start with more gadgets, programs, or resources. It begins with Fathers teaching their children the gospel, instructing their children to be disciples, and to lay the groundwork for spiritual foundations in their lives.

 

Transition: Dads, this morning I want to highlight 3 areas that I believe our text gives us as the primary reason for our responsibility as Fathers. I believe he intends our homes to…

 

 

 

 

1.)    Our Homes are to be the Center of Evangelism: vs. 6: 4-7

EXEGESIS: In this passage, Moses shares with Israel the paramount command they are to remember. He shares with them the nature of God (Shema) and the way they were to respond. The response required is that of total love for God. It would be this devotion to their God that they would then teach their children. It would be out of the overflow of their relationship with God that would communicate to their children the most important relationship of all: their relationship with God. It would model before their children what it means to have a relationship with their creator. By sharing this through their lives, it would allow them the opportunity to share with their children the truth of the gospel. The word teaching used here is of sharpening.

 

APPLICATION: Ditto for us. Evangelism is the sharing of the good news that Jesus Christ has died for our sins, been raised from the dead thus showing the Father’s approval and our imputed righteousness, and the truth that he has loved us before we loves him. The gospel should drive our lives. It should fill our hearts thus making teaching it the most natural thing we do. When we live out the great command to love God completely it becomes the most effective evangelism tool you have as a parent. It is so because no matter what you are doing, your heart is full of gratitude for your deliverance from bondage: sin.

 

2.)    Our Homes are to be the Center of Spiritual Formation: vs. 6:7-9

EXEGESIS: Moses gives 3 instructions for the Fathers here: teach diligently, bind, and write. By teaching diligently the idea is that of sharpening a sword in order to make an incisive cut. That is, Moses tells the Fathers, to be direct and decisive. This speaks of boldness and consistency. Moses then tells them to bind these instructions as a sign on their hands and frontlets on their eyes. The hands speak of action and it shows that the natural action of your life should be that modeling a living faith and a growing conformity to Christ. The frontlets on the head speak of the attitude and that the perpetual attitude of their lives should be of holiness and godliness. Then  Moses tells them to write these instructions on their doorposts and gates. The doorpost speaks of their home and the privacy of their homes. The gates speak of that public domain where laws were discussed and treated. There is to be no separation of the sacred and secular. The goal of a convert is for them to become disciples.

 

APPLICATION: The application is clear for us this morning. We must carefully yet boldly teach the truths of the faith as we live it out each day. We must be consistent to model the truth we teach. Our actions always speak louder than words so we must, as if naturally tattooed; bind the instruction to our lives. Our attitudes must reflect that of Christ. Our private and public lives must reflect the same thing. The watch care for the souls of our children have been entrusted to us. Paul teaches us in Ephesians that we are to not provoke our children but to instruct them into holiness and godliness.

 

 

3.)    Our Homes are to be the Center of the Spiritual Foundation: vs. 10-15

EXEGESIS: Moses, who would not be entering the promised land, instructed the Fathers to beware, lest when they enter the land of promise and find such good things that they do not forget the redemptive work of the Lord nor his ways, covenant, wisdom, or commands. Even more important was that their foundation be sure in order their children, who did not see the great deliverance from Egypt or works in the desert wandering, stay true to that which they have been instructed. God created people for his glory and a strong foundation built on the gospel and nurtured through godly instruction will serve to lay a foundation for the future.

 

APPLICATION: Listen, one day our kids will leave home and be on their own. Even before then, they will grow in their independence and it is imperative for them to have a strong foundation upon which to make their choices. Our responsibility is to live a life of worship and service before them, as already seen earlier, and to pray without ceasing that they will have a strong Biblical foundation.

 

Conclusion: Now listen, all of this cannot be done without you first having an authentic walk with Jesus Christ. Your children see the real you and perhaps you need to spend some time in confession and repentance to make things right.

 

Absolutely none of this can be done without a true relationship with Christ.

 

To be the Father Moses talked about here, you must be dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ.