MELVIN NEWLAND, MINISTER RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
TEXT: Deuteronomy 4:9-10, 20; 5:15-19; 6:5,10-12; 11:2,18-21; Judges 2:10; Joshua 24:14-18; 1 John 2:16;
(The inspiration for this sermon came from an excellent message by Esther Collins which she contributed to Sermon Central.)
(FREE POWEPOINTS: FROM NOW ON Please email me at NewlandSermons2024@gmail.com & request #388)
At the beginning of this year we began a chronological study, a story of God’s dealings with man, beginning with Adam & Eve, Noah, His promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob & his 12 sons, one of whom was Joseph.
Joseph was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, & through his trust in God, became 2nd in power only to Pharaoh in Egypt, ultimately bringing his father & all his family to Egypt where God continued to bless them.
But during the next 400 years the Egyptian Dynasty changed, & the new Egyptian dynasty feared the descendants of Jacob, & began oppressing them.
Finally, God raised up Moses to lead his people to freedom, to make a distinct nation of them, giving them His commands & laws to guide them. Many of these laws & commands dealt with the functioning of a family. And I want to highlight a few of them.
I. PASS IT ON!
A. First, pass on to your children all that God has done for you.
Deut. 4:9-10 says, “This is what Moses told them, “Be careful never to forget what you yourselves have seen. Do not let these memories escape from your mind as long as you live & be sure to pass them on to your children & your grandchildren.“ (NLT).
As human beings, our memories are limited. We tend to forget. Therefore, God reminds us not to forget the wonderful things He has accomplished in our lives.
And what are we to do with them? Pass them on to our children & grandchildren. I remember times when it seemed God stepped in to give guidance, provision & protection in my life. I think these stories can encourage & help strengthen faith in my children & grandchildren too.
B. We are also to lead them to love God above all else.
We read in Deut. 6:5 these words of Moses, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul & with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart & you shall teach them diligently to your children.” (NKJV)
We ourselves are to love God so much that our children will realize this themselves. When we love God with all our heart, soul, mind & strength, our children should be drawn to follow in our footsteps & love God the same way.
C. We are to have no idols in our lives. In Deut. 5:15-19 Moses warned against any form of idolatry, & he gave the reason for his warning in Deut. 4:20.
He said, “Remember that the Lord rescued you from … Egypt in order to make you His very own people & His special possession, which is what you are today.” (NLT)
So God’s purpose was clear. He told the Israelites that He was their God, & they were not to worship any other so-called gods.
I believe that is what God want today as well. We are His people & He will not tolerate any other gods or idols in our lives. He desires to have top priority in our lives.
D. And we must not forget God when all is well.
We read in Deut. 6:10-12, “So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac & Jacob, to give you large & beautiful cities which you did not build,
“houses full of good things which you did not fill, hewn out wells which you did not dig, vineyards & olive trees which you did not plant – when you have eaten & are full – then beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.” (NKJV)
This was a caution Moses gave to Israel. They were moving into the land of Canaan – a land of abundance that God was giving them & he knew what could happen.
The Bible clearly tells us that every good & perfect gift comes from God. If we do not acknowledge this we will be ungrateful people who have overlooked the Giver because we are obsessed with the gifts.
The commands of God to families can be summarized this way.
First, remember the goodness of God & pass it on to our children.
Second, our love for God must surpass everything else.
Third, there should be no other gods or idols on the throne of our hearts.
Fourth, when enjoying the blessings, we must never forget from whom we received them.
II. WHO SHOULD BE TEACHING ABOUT GOD?
A. Who should be teaching about God? Parents should be teaching!
Moses spoke to the Israelites about that in Deut. 11:2-3. He said, “Remember today it was not your children who saw and felt the correction of the Lord your God. They did not see His majesty, His power, His strength, or His signs and the things He did in Egypt to the king and his whole country.” (NCV)
Moses told them that it was their duty to share with their children all the wonders of God they had seen & experienced first-hand.
Moses went on in Deut. 11:18-21, “Therefore you lay up these words of mine in your heart & in your soul… You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house,
"when you walk by the way, when you lie down & when you rise up… that your days & the days of your children may be multiplied …”
This is our responsibility also - to share from the Bible & the experiences God has taken us through, so that our children will understand that we believe in & worship a living God. We must not fail to share our faith with our children.
The people of Israel moved into the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua. And as long as Joshua lived, the people who outlived him served the Lord & were faithful to Him.
They were a generation who had seen the mighty works of God first-hand & had experienced God’s deliverance, provision, protection & healing. They also saw God’s awesome power on Mount Sinai.
But after that generation & their children’s generation passed away, things changed drastically for the children of Israel.
Judges 2:10 says, “After that whole generation (their children’s generation) had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord, nor what He had done for Israel.” (NIV)
Their parents hadn’t done what God had told them to do. So the younger generations did not know much about the Lord.
B. What happened when they forgot God?
Not knowing God’s commands, the people did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They were so absorbed with their good life that they forgot God. They even began to worship some of the idols of the nations around them.
So the Lord handed them over to their enemies. Then in their distress they would cry out to God. The Lord heard their cries & raised up leaders for them.
The leader would, with God’s help, rescue them from their enemies. Peace would be restored, & they followed the Lord for a while, & then resumed their idolatry & evil practices. They went through this cycle time & time again!
III. HOW ABOUT US TODAY?
I wonder if we have fallen into a similar cycle, where we’ve become far too comfortable with all that God has given us?
We’ve received so much from the Lord & have become so preoccupied with them that we have forgotten to give the Lord His rightful place in our lives & in our families.
We may not be bowing down to idols, but there are other things that we have made into idols in our lives. The idolatry of greed - a constant desire to have more & more or bigger & better things.
There’s also the idolatry of ego & pride which often reveals itself in our jobs & careers. These consume the major part of our waking hours & sadly, instead of taking time to teach our children about God, we have given them lots of things, but left them starving for attention & love.
1 John 2:16 says it this way, “For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, & the pride of life – is not of the Father, but is of the world.” (NKJV)
God’s Word is clear - He will not accept idolatry in any form. So we really need to give God, (in our individual lives & in our families) the rightful place due Him.
Let me repeat a few points. The responsibility to teach our children the ways of the Lord is ours as parents & grandparents (if God has given us children or grandchildren).
We must share with them the experiences that God has taken us through, the good things that God has done in our lives, the answers to our prayers, the sins & temptations that He helped us overcome, so that we encourage them to follow our God, too.
In 1 Timothy 6:6, there is a beautiful equation that should be a part of our lives. It goes like this, “Godliness + Contentment = Great Gain.”
Our relationship with God must be so genuine & dynamic that our children will see that we really love God & are walking in His ways. Someone wrote, “More is caught than taught.”
We have left our children’s education to the “professionals”, which has its benefits, but in recent years we have discovered its very dangerous side.
We have even tried to outsource the responsibility of sharing about God & His Word to the church, only to discover that some churches can be dangerous too.
If you look at the situation in the world today, many churches see only the elderly in their pews, & the younger generation wants nothing to do with them.
Other church buildings have been closed or sold. A study has revealed that many of them have been converted into tourist destinations, shops, cultural centers, museums, apartments & even discotheques.
If this breaks your heart & you are wondering why this is so, the answer is plain.
One generation or more of parents failed to love God the way they should & did not pass on their faith to their children. The consequence of this failure is that the next generations grew up with no desire for God in their lives.
I believe for far too long God has been trying to get our attention in the United States, & we have ignored His voice. But now it’s time to get back to God as individuals & families.
Let’s rebuild our families, giving priority to worshiping God, reading the Bible, praying together, & not be content to make this a once a week ritual. Jesus should be the Head of our homes, & we must live a life of faith & obedience every day of the week.
Our children must know that God is important to us every day, & they must witness it at home. Let’s share with them testimonies of God’s grace, His provision, His protection & miracles we believe He has performed in our lives.
When Joshua entered the Promised Land, he laid an ultimatum before the people. It is recorded in Joshua 24:14-15, “Now therefore fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity & truth; & put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the river & in Egypt; & serve the Lord.
“And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve… But as for me & my house, we will serve the Lord.” (NKJV)
Joshua 24:16-18 says, “The people answered & said, ‘far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, for the Lord our God is He who brought us & our fathers out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage …
“who did those great signs in our sight & preserved us in all the way that we went & among all the people through whom we passed. … We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God.’” (NKJV)
Here is how we might say it today, “Lord, we will never ignore you to run after the things of this world. It is you who died for us, saved us & delivered us from all our sins. We & our families will serve only you, Lord Jesus.”
This, I believe is God’s desire for families today. Our greatest concern for our children should be that they love God more than anyone or anything else in this world. Our families are God’s blessings, & our children are His precious gifts whom He has entrusted to us.
May it never be said of us, ‘They raised a generation that did not know the Lord’ but rather, that we were parents & grandparents who raised a godly generation of men & women who love the Lord & who are influencing the world for good, & for God!
INVITATION HYMN: Make Me A Blessing
