Teach Your Children
(Deuteronomy 6:1-9)
I. We Teach Our Children About God Through Our Words
A. The historical situation
B. Our present situation
II. We Teach Our Children About God Through Our Lives
A. Actions do speak louder than words
B. Our orthodoxy should impact our orthopraxy
C. Our children are watching
Introduction
Please turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy 6:1-9.
The text we just read is perhaps the best-known portion of the OT among those of the Jewish faith. Jews commonly refer to verses 4-9 as the Shema, which means, “hear,” the first word in this section. The Shema is the Jewish creed that opens synagogue worship and is recited twice a day by devout Jews. It is a text that is in the forefront of their minds. Because of its constant reinforcement, it has had a profound affect upon Judaism. I believe that the title Shema or Hear is an appropriate injunction for us this morning, especially for those of us who are parents.
I have a very simple message to deliver to you from this passage of scripture. I won’t be bringing you any great new insights or hidden nuances. Rather the purpose of this message is to serve as a reminder of some fundamental truths that we often times neglect. I petition you to “Hear” once again what has been plainly said to you before.
I want to give you the outline of this sermon at the beginning. There are only two main points, so I encourage you to go ahead and jot them down. Then I want you to take that piece of paper and put it in a place where you will see it often—perhaps on your refrigerator or a mirror—so that it can serve as a reminder. The first point is, we teach our children about God through our words. The second point is, we teach our children about God through our lives.
It is my observation that when it comes to the matter of instructing our children, most parents have a tendency to limit themselves to and/or gravitate toward only one method of teaching. We generally lean toward teaching them through either words or modeling. Rarely do we intentionally set out to bring these two methods of instruction together to bear upon the lives of our children in a consistent manner.
What the Bible presents to us is that we must try to incorporate a balanced diet of instruction. We must be deliberate and spend time teaching our children the essential truths concerning God and His word, AND we must be careful that those truths are lived out through our lives. In this scripture, we are called as parents to teach our children about God through our words and deeds.
Before we take a look at these two points, I’d like to make one brief aside. You will quickly notice that most of the illustrations that I use this morning focus on fathers. I have done this intentionally for three reasons. The first reason is simply because this is Father’s Day. The second reason is because I believe that the Bible places a special burden of responsibility upon fathers with regard to leading their families into a deeper walk with God. The third reason is because I observe that to a greater or lesser degree fathers, and I include myself in this, have “dropped the ball” and shifted the responsibility on to the mothers. I am convinced that child-rearing is the job of both parents and by using these father-oriented illustrations I hope to call the fathers in our congregation back to their role of raising their children in partnership with the mothers.
With that in mind, let’s look at what this passage has to say.
We Teach Our Children About God Through Our Words
The first reminder this passage confronts us with is that we teach our children about God through our words.
The Historical Situation
Let me give you a little background information concerning the occasion in which these commands were first given. These instructions were given to the Israelites under the leadership of Moses on what we might refer to as the eve of their entrance into the Promised Land. Moses had led the people through the wilderness for 40 years. The disbelieving generation that did not seize the land when they first approached it had passed away. Moses is speaking to their children and grandchildren—those who had not witnessed firsthand God’s deliverance from Egypt. They are just about to enter into the Promised Land, so Moses gives the people these solemn instructions.
There is a sense of urgency in Moses’ voice. He is coming to the end of his ministry as the leader of the people and will soon pass the baton on to Joshua who will have the responsibility of leading the people to the attainment of God’s promises. Moses gives these words in preparation for the many changes that are about to take place in their lives. His foremost concern is for their spiritual welfare. He knew that the quality of their spiritual and physical well-being was directly related to their obedience to God.
The land of Canaan, the Promised Land, was inhabited by people who worshiped many different gods. In v. 4, Moses reminds the people that the God who brought them out of Egypt and led them through the wilderness is not like the gods of the people whose land they were about to possess. The God of Israel is God—the one God. They were to give their entire selves to Him—with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. He tells them that the means through which this truth was to be passed on was through consistent, intentional instruction. Look at vv. 6-7 again.
Our Present Situation
When we read these words, they should cause us to sense a similar urgency in our own lives and especially with regard to raising our children. While we are not on a journey leading us to a physical Promised Land, we are strangers in a world that is hostile toward God—a world that seeks to entice us away from serving Him. Like the Israelites of old, we are tempted to pursue after many different false gods. We do not lack competitors vying for first place in our hearts.
Some of your may be thinking to yourselves, “False gods? What are you talking about? You won’t catch me bowing down to some idol made of wood or stone. That kind of stuff only happens in the underdeveloped nations of the third world. I don’t need to concern myself with falling into the trap of idolatry. I’m not sure you know what you’re talking about, Pastor.”
I agree that it is doubtful that anyone present could be found guilty of worshiping or following after false gods in the traditional sense. But I want to remind you that idolatry is not limited to figures of wood and stone—an idol is anything that causes your focus to shift from complete dedication to God. Anything that can divert your attention and causes you to pursue after it rather than God alone is an idol and makes you and idolater.
Perhaps you still see no cause for alarm, there’s no danger of you drifting away. Let me ask you to think back over the past week. What I want you to especially focus on is the content of your conversations over the past seven days. The reason I ask you to perform this little exercise is because it will reveal your true heart. The matters of chief importance in our lives are the things we talk about. With our mouths we confess where our loyalties lie.
What was your conversation about this past week? God? Money? Work? Sports? Things? What did you focus on when you had the opportunity to talk with others and share the things that weigh heaviest on your heart? What did your children hear you talking about? If you have not noticed, our children are quick to pick up on what is important to us. They are learning from our conversations what their ambitions and dreams should be all about. What are we telling our children is most important in life—our lives?
Woodrow Wilson said in an address in 1904, “If you wish your children to be Christians you must really take the trouble to be Christians yourselves.”
President Wilson’s statement leads me to air one of my pet peeves concerning a common misconception about the duty of the Church. I ask you to listen very carefully to what I have to say because it is an error that desperately needs to be addressed and corrected if we desire to have a positive influence on the future of our children and our church.
In opposition to the opinion of many people, both inside and outside the Church, Christian education is not the job of the local church. The local church is involved in Christian education, but the primary place where Christian edu-cation must occur is in the home. It is completely nonsen-sical to believe otherwise. One day a week meeting at a church is not going to have as profound an effect upon our children’s understanding of God and His word as what is being taught the other six days of the week in the home. As one commentator points out: “God emphasized the importance of parents’ teaching the Bible to their children. The church or Christian schools cannot be used to escape from this responsibility…Eternal truths are most effectively learned in the loving environment of a God fearing home” (LAB, Notes, p. 291).
“The Hebrews were extremely successful at making religion an integral part of life. The reason for their success was that religious education was life-oriented, not information-oriented. They used the context of daily life to teach about God. The key to teaching your children to love God is stated clearly in these verses. If you want your children to follow God, you must make God part of your everyday experiences. You must teach your children to see God in all aspects of life, not just those that are church related” (LAB, Notes, p. 291)
We Teach Our Children About God Through Our Lives
Not only are we to teach our children about God through our words, but also through our lives.
A father and son were climbing in the mountains, when the father hesitated for a moment. He had come to a place were he had to choose between two paths, and there was some danger. As he stood there, trying to determine the best path, his son reminded him of his great responsibility when he said, “Go ahead, Dad, I’m right behind you.”
Actions Do Speak Louder Than Words
What we say is of great importance and I don’t want to minimize the value of speaking to our children about God—how to know Him and serve Him. I hope I have made that clear in the first part of this sermon. But how we live and the paths by which we choose to lead our children, has an even greater impact upon them. It is the daily choices we make concerning what we will do and strive for that reveal to our children what things we value most in life. Our words are only as good as the actions that support them.
I’ll never forget a commercial I saw on TV as a child. It was about the relationship that exists between a father and son. The commercial was made up of a series of events in which the son mirrored the actions of the father. The father washed the car, so the son picked up a sponge to help him. The father painted the fence, so the son grabbed a paintbrush and dipped it in the paint can. The father lit up a cigarette, so the son reached for one—he wanted to be just like Dad. Then the commercial faded to black.
The simple images dramatically drive home the message: our children are watching us. They trust us without reservations. They are determining their values in life based upon how we live. What we do, they assume to be the best, most advantageous course of action to take. They will emulate our actions because it’s only natural to want to be like our parents.
James Michner in his book, The American Idea of Success, writes these sobering words: “Many a father who has spent the years of 22-52 in a mad race to accumulate now finds himself powerless to answer his children who ask, ‘Why did you do it, Pop? What did you get out of it? What have you to show for the rat race except two cars and three picture windows?’”
Our Orthodoxy Should Impact Our Orthopraxy
I am convinced that one of the reasons we gather here Sunday after Sunday is because we believe that there is more to life than pursuing after and acquiring the things the world tries to persuade us are of utmost importance. We hold within our hearts certain truths concerning those things that God would have us strive for, things of eternal consequence. And I am fairly confident that the majority of us could agree as to what those things are. We have our theology and doctrine correct in our minds.
But I’m not as confident that what we give mental assent to has any real significance beyond the facts that we have memorized and passed on to our children. We have the accumulation of knowledge, but that knowledge often times has little affect on our lives. It’s easy for us to confess truths that we hold dearly and even teach to our children, but the disparity between our faith and practice is nothing less than mind-boggling. A. W. Tozer said it this way, “An intelligent observer of our human scene who heard the Sunday morning sermon and later watched the Sunday afternoon conduct of those who heard it would conclude that he had been examining two distinct and contrary religions!” (Renewed Day by Day, 1/14).
Our Children Are Watching
We need to be careful that our lives match up to our words. Nothing is more confusing to a child than to hear us say one thing and then to see us do the exact opposite. And let me assure you that trying to excuse ourselves to our children by telling them that they are “not to do as we do but as we say” is going to have about as much influence upon them as throwing a piece of meat into a tank of piranhas and telling them not to eat it. The piranhas are going to do what comes natural—eat the meat. In the same way, our children are going to do what comes natural—they will do what they see over what they hear. Our actions speak louder than our words.
I’d like to relate to you a story that a son tells about his father that made an impact upon him for the rest of his life. He recounts:
The cold Iowa dawn was still an hour off, but already Dad and I had finished a big job on our farm. We’d loaded 100 head of cattle for market into two waiting semi-trailers.
I was 16 and this was the first time I’d seen the cattle to market. Dad had made it my job to keep the feeder full with the right mix. I’d seen them come in as scrawny yearlings and fatten up to 1,100 pounds apiece. The price was right and it was time to sell. There was just the paperwork to complete.
“Got to have your John Hancock right here,” said Mick, one of the drivers, as he handed Dad a clipboard.
“What’s this, Mick?” asked Dad.
“Something that Uncle Sam wants you to sign. Says you kept the cattle off stilbestrol for two weeks before the slaughter.”
I felt the blood rush to my head. Stilbestrol was used as a feed additive to promote growth. We’d debated its use and had gone ahead. The government had changed its regulations several times, and the form Mick had was new. I’d been giving the cattle stilbestrol all along.
“I don’t think it makes a whole lot of difference myself,” said Mick. “Don’t see how they can tell anyway.”
Dad scratched the ground with his boot. We’d be the laughingstock of the county if we unloaded our cattle because of some silly government regulation. Another two weeks and the market price would be sure to fall.
Finally Dad looked up. “Better unload ‘em,” he said.
That was 15 autumns ago and I’m a farmer myself now. Dad died a few years back. But his example lives on for me. That morning as the cattle came back down the chutes and the daylight stretched across the horizon, Dad didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. Honesty wasn’t just a value Dad talked about. It was something that he lived by (Guideposts, 1989).
Gospel musician Hilding Halverson tells the following story about overhearing a conversation between this son and two other little boys:
When my small boy was playing with his buddies in the backyard I overheard them talking one day—and the conversation was, amusingly, one of those “my dad can whip you dad” routines. One boy said proudly, “My dad knows the mayor of our town!” Another said, “That’s nothing—my dad knows the governor of our state!” Wondering what was coming next in the program of bragging, I heard my son say, “That’s nothing—my dad knows God!” I slipped away from my place of eavesdropping with tears on my cheeks. On my knees in my room, I prayed earnestly and gratefully, “O God, I pray that my boy will always be able to say, ‘My dad knows God.’”
Our children are watching our lives in order to figure out what life is all about. They want to know how to be truly successful. They want to know what is really important and worth pursuing after. What lessons are they learning from us? What are we teaching them concerning the true meaning of life? Do you think that they brag to their friends that their parents know God? What legacy do we want to pass on to our children?
Conclusion
Some years ago I heard a touching story about a humble, consecrated pastor whose young son had become very ill. After the boy had undergone an exhaustive series of tests, the father was told the shocking news that his son had a terminal illness. The child had placed his trust in Christ for salvation, so the minister knew that death would usher him into glory; but he wondered how to tell his young son that he would soon die.
After earnestly seeking the direction of the Holy Spirit, he went with a heavy heart through the hospital ward to his son’s bedside. First he read a passage of scripture and had a time of prayer with his dear child. Then he gently told him that the doctors could promise him only a few more days to live. “Are you afraid to meet Jesus, my boy?” asked his devout father. Blinking away a few tears, the little boy said bravely, “No, not if He’s like you, Dad!”
We teach our children about God through our words. We teach our children about God through our lives. Let’s commit to teaching them the truth so they can live their lives confidently and successfully. Let’s take the time to tell them the truth and be careful to live it out consistently.
