Note to readers: Although I have re-written this text extenstively, most of the main points, illustrations, and quotes of this sermon are from a sermon originally preached by Dr. James Merritt at the Pastor’s Conference of the Southern Baptist Convention held at Orlando Florida in June of 2000.
Read Deut. Chapter Six (the whole chapter!)
God’s people were about to enter the promised land. They were less than one month away from the death of Moses, and the leadership of Joshua where, in a few more weeks, he would lead them to cross the Jordan river. There were giants in the land. There were over 40 other people groups inhabiting the place where God had promised His people a land flowing with milk and honey. There would be many battles and much anxiety.
What was God’s plan? What was the first and foremost item on the agenda to prepare for this most difficult time?
Did He say increase defense spending? Or stockpile weapons? Did He tell them to roll over their 401K plan, or take out a savings account or a CD to prepare for a possible depression?
No, He says you should diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and teach them diligently to your children. Why? That it may be well with you in order that you may go in and possess the good land which the LORD swore to give your fathers, by driving out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has spoken.
This promise is for a nation, and it is a conditional promise. It is predicated on parents diligently instructing their children in the Word of God. Seeing to it that EVERY day, God’s Word stays in their hearts.
It doesn’t matter what they teach in school. It doesn’t matter how corrupt the government, or the Judges, or the City council gets, if you aren’t fortifying your family with God’s Word and Godly living, you are just putting a different label on the same bottle of poison.
The greatest problem we have in this nation will not be fixed by who is in the White House, it must be fixed by the parents in our house.
Four lessons on building the family in this text.
I. Teach your children to have a personal relationship with the Lord (v. 4).
This is the heart of God’s plan for you and your family, and there are four specific points concerning this personal relationship that you must teach your children from the time they are born until the time they leave home:
1. There is a God
2. There is only one God
3. That God is “The Lord.”
4. That The Lord is to be “our” God.
The number one responsibility that we have as parents is to teach our children that we must have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. There is no other option. If your children leave home without a personal relationship and a lifetime commitment to Jesus Christ their only other option is a man made religion. That means man gets to make the rules. That means whoever has the most influence gets your kids. Think about that. Guess who is in charge right now? Are you sure?
One person has said, “Why is it that in this nation we spend so much more time with our homes, our cars, our entertainment, and our finances than we do with our children; to whom one day we will relinquish it all?”
Question: What good does it do to raise a child in the finest home, in the finest schools, with the finest education, and in the greatest nation, to give him the greatest job in order to get the nicest things; only for him to end up in the grave, in the most beautiful casket standing before the Judgment of a God that he does not even know?
We must teach our children to have a personal relationship with God. It is the primary relationship for which we were originally created.
If we can’t influence our own children for Jesus Christ, then we will have failed in our primary mission as parents.
There is not a more important job for a parent on planet earth than to show your children this basic training step of life – to have a personal relationship with God.
II. Teach your children to love the Lord (v. 5).
And I’m not talking about the run of the mill attitude that is seems most folks have for God. It is one thing to acknowledge God. It is completely another to love God.
There is a special kind of love that God is seeking. There is a special kind of devotion that God deserves, God desires, and God demands – just as you rightfully seek from your own family.
First of all we ought to love God:
1. Completely and Faithfully (repeat v. 5)
Do you love your spouse the way you love God? Do you love your children the way you love God? Or is it the other way around. The Bible says that you must put God first. Then family. Therefore, you must love God first. And you must do so faithfully.
Nothing breaks the heart of God than a half hearted love for God. A Half hearted love doesn’t satisfy your wife, your husband, or your children, and it certainly doesn’t satisfy God either. And I personally believe the reason most people do have a half hearted love for God is because they just don’t fear God. So secondly, we must also love God...
2. Reverently (read vv. 13-15)
For some reason, today’s society believes that a loving God shouldn’t resort to punishment, judgment, or wrath – or that a loving God shouldn’t have to be feared. People say that it isn’t right for a God to restrict His people to certain lifestyles or any other parameters – after all, He gave us freedom didn’t He?
We live in a nation where freedoms bells ring loudly. Over time, the abuse of this freedom has been turned into a license to live any way we choose. God put limitations on us for our own good. He didn’t give us laws to live by to see if we would cross the line, or to dare us, or tempt us to disobey Him.
God is to be feared because He is the Creator of the entire universe, and therefore we are not independent creatures.
The reverential fear and respect for authority is the glue that holds any society together, and is therefore the safety net that keeps a nation from falling into anarchy and chaos. How much more then should we fear the very Creator, redeemer, and Savior of the world; Who is the Lord Jesus Christ?
He knows that certain types of behavior will have adverse physical effects on our nervous system, and our body functions. That’s why He warned us thousands of years ago not to eat certain foods, not to get drunk, and not to live in a sexual relationship outside His designed guidelines that include only a man and a woman living in a lifetime covenant relationship.
Limitations are to be respected because God is the one who placed them on us. He warned us because He designed us; and because He designed us, He knows what is good for us and what will harm us. It’s like the law of gravity. You may not like it, but you better fear it.
We ought to have a healthy respect for a hot stove. If we don’t, we will suffer the consequences. If you want to keep your car running, you follow the instructions in the owners manual. If you don’t want to fill up the engine with oil, you don’t have to. But unless you really like walking, you will follow the designer’s instructions.
If you really care about your kids, you will teach them to fear the Lord.
If you really care about your kids, you will set the example by living out those limitations.
You may not like those limitations, but if you don’t abide by them, your children will suffer the consequences.
*** And the ones with the most influence, THE ONES THEY FEAR THE MOST, will have their way with your children, and they will be assimilated in to the way of the world.
We must teach our children to have a personal relationship with the Lord that is a loving, faithful, and reverent relationship. We must also:
III. Teach our children to obey the Lord. (read vv. 6, 18)
The families of today are going to decide how the next generation will live. We must teach our children to obey the Lord diligently, daily, and deliberately. And we must set the example.
Your children will walk your walk before they talk your talk. It has been well said that the footsteps a child follows are the ones that the parents thought they had covered up.
The Word of God ought to be on display in your homes, in every area of your life. It ought to be hung up in your living room, your kitchen, your laundry room, and if you really expect your children to follow the Lord, the Word of God had better be hung up in your bedroom.
IV. Teach your children to remember the Lord.
The is a danger of forgetting God. (v. 10) Then there is the danger of forsaking God. (v. 13-15)
When a nation forgets God, it begins to ask the question “Who is God?” Then when a nation begins forsaking God, they ask the question, “Who needs God?” – this is exactly what happened to the nation of Israel.
If you study the history of Israel in the Bible you will see four stages of spiritual corruption that cannot be missed.
Independence
Indulgence
Indifference
Irreverence
If that gives you a sick feeling about what is happening to America, it ought to. We are living in the most irreverent time in the history of this country. Think about these things:
We can hand out condoms and clean needles on the streets – paid for by our tax dollars, but we can’t hand out Bibles (or any other religious material) because that is an establishment of religion.
We allow profanity as an exercise of free speech, but we deny prayer and nativity scenes on public property because it is a religious intrusion.
The government indoctrinates our children with the propaganda of evolution without God, but refuses to allow the clear and present evidence of a creation by God.
Abortionists are the heroes protected by the government, pro-lifers are the villains arrested by the government. We used to teach our children that God’s forgiveness comes through the blood of Jesus Christ, now we cover our own sin up with blood of our unborn children. By the way, if any of you still think that the Abortion issue is over a woman’s choice – then I’ve got some lake front property for you at ten bucks an acre.
The government takes our tax dollars for a crucifix to be submerged in urine, and pictures of religious significance to be assaulted by animal dung and put on display in a gallery as fine art – yet refuses to give us our money so that we can use it to send our children to the schools of our choice; all in the name of separation of church and state.
In this country we have gone after the gods of hedonism, materialism, intellectualism, humanism, and secularism. The result? The building block for the family is fractured, it is falling, and it is failing.
There is only one solution. We must strengthen our families with the Word of God. And it’s the responsibility of the parents – NOT the community or the state.
How can you re-enforce your families today?
1. You must show them how to get saved.
2. You must show them how to pray.
a. Family prayer time.
b. Daily devotion time.
3. You must show them that there are consequences to sin.
4. You must show them that attending church activities and services are not something they have to do, they are a part of your life that is essential – they are things that you love to do and look forward to every week.
5. You must be consistent with your worship.
a. Do you children see you in church on Sunday never to say anything at all about Jesus Christ until the next Sunday?
b. Do they hear you complain about the preacher’s message?
c. Do they hear you complain about other Christians?
d. If you don’t like the way things are going in church, pray for the church, and do something constructive instead of saying something that is destructive.
e. If you want a better pastor, pray for the one you have.
f.
Christian families have almost been completely destroyed by the apathetic attitude of today’s parents. You know, there is no such thing as an illegitimate child. There are only illegitimate fathers and ineffective mothers who refuse to put in the hard work and sacrifice necessary that will ensure their children a place in the Kingdom of Heaven.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the Proverb says. If you don’t live by it, your children will die by it.
