(This was a Mother’s Day sermon.)
This Mother’s Day, I want to share a foundational word from Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Let’s read it, and then I’ll point out to you a truth, a command and an application.
4“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.5You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
The Truth
4“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
These opening words in the original Hebrew can be translated several different ways, but they all mean the same thing:
– “Israel, hear! Jehovah, our God, is one Jehovah;” or,
– “Jehovah is our God, Jehovah is one;” or,
– “Jehovah is our God, Jehovah alone;” or,
– “Jehovah is our God, Jehovah who is one;” or,
– “Jehovah, who is our God, is the one Being.”
The truth is this: There is ONE GOD.
It has been said that many Christians are functional atheists, living as though there is no God; but I would argue that we’re more like functional polytheists, living as though there are many gods. Whatever we ultimately love is our god. Whatever we ultimately live for is our god. Whatever we ultimately exert ourselves toward is our god. We, like the cultures surrounding Israel, worship several gods.
But the God of Deuteronomy 6 is the one God. This means that he must be the unifying principle of our lives. He is the most important factor of reality, and he has a command for us.
The Command
5You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
We have ONE GOD and we are to LOVE HIM, not just obey, acknowledge or identify with him. Are parents satisfied if their children merely obey, acknowledge or identify with them? No! They want their children’s love. Our heavenly Father is this way too. He wants our hearts, souls, and strength.
The heart is the mind, will, desires and motives. It’s your thinking, feeling and desiring part. The soul is your life—you’re very being. The strength is literally your “much-ness”. It’s your substance, possessions, resources, energy and effort.
This is all-encompassing. This means that there can be no love left in your heart, soul or strength for anything else but the ONE GOD. This means that all incompatible loves (sins) must dissolve and that all compatible loves must be absorbed into this one great all-consuming love. They must move from competing loves to expressions of your one true love for God.
For example, when a mom’s love for her children is independent of her love for God, those children can become little gods. Her sense of wellbeing can become totally dependent on them or she can grow to fear them. When her love for her children is absorbed into her love for God, it grows instantly stronger and sturdier. There is now a deeper purpose behind it than only their wellbeing. It becomes worship in the highest sense of the word.
Now, this is a good place to remind ourselves of the gospel. Thank God for Jesus Christ, through whom we can be forgive for our failure to worship the one true God and love him with our entire being! Thanks to Jesus, we don’t just have to beat ourselves up as we look at this command. We can know that we are forgiven in so far as we trust and follow Jesus. And we can grow into the kind of men and women who get this right.
The Application
Note that God’s first application of his command is aimed at parents. I think this is significant.
Every generation brings a new batch of people who need to be taught this truth and this command. How would you ensure that these treasures are passed on? Have you ever thought about the fact that it didn’t have to be this way, parents raising limited amounts of children? God could have designed it so that people grew on trees or a single queen birthed 100’s of babies in each city. As bizarre as that sounds (Is it really any more bizarre than our current system? Hatching babies out of our bodies?), God could have done it differently but chose instead to have two parents raise a limited number of children.
By God’s design, parents are the primary mechanism for transferring God’s truth and command to ensuing generations. The church will always be supplemental to parents in this endeavor. Even in situations where there are no godly parents or no parents at all, the church can only attempt to counteract parents’ primary influence their children.
Parents are the primary discilpers of the next generation. How should we who are parents go about this task? God gives two specific instructions:
Example
6And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
Beware: children are hypocrisy detectors. Read what Jerry Marsellino wrote in his book, Rediscovering Family Worship,
Often, so often, a child sees behind all the religious garb of his parents, and find what is really precious to them. He sees patterns of heart which lure them toward a pursuit of wealth, leisure, athletics, entertainment, television, shopping, and religious business. A child can easily see when these things are more exciting to his parents than devotion to Jesus Christ. When this proves to be the case, a child will embrace those same affections to the detriment of his own soul. However, when children see parents who pant after God, parents who are constantly pouring over the Scriptures and going to god in prayer about everything, parents who have proper balance between enjoying legitimate recreation and seeing to conform to everything that would bring God glory, their children can be expected to adopt the same balance. Whatever or whoever is precious to you, the same will be precious to your children.
Parents, it’s not that you should be an example to your kids. It’s that you are an example. What sort of example are you?
Teaching
7You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
You’re an example. You’re also a teacher. How? When? Here are five suggestions from the passage:
- When you sit in your house. What does your home life teach them? Do you have any time when you’re all home together? Family dinners may be a good first step here. Eat together and, Dads, share a Proverb for discussion or ask a few questions from a children’s catechism.
- When you walk by the way. What does your commute teach them? This is a good time to expose them to good, truth-filled music or to just talk about life and bring the gospel to bear on things.
- When you lie down. What does your bedtime ritual teach them? Bed time rituals are some of the richest times with kids because they’ll do anything to stall sleep. They’ll talk with you for hours if you let them. Read the Bible to them. Pray with them. Sing Bible songs with them.
- When you rise. What does your morning routine teach your children? Could you have a morning devotion together? Could you simply bring everyone together for prayer before heading out?
- On your hands and homes. What does your decor teach them? Literally post Scripture where they can see it every day.
One thing should stand out about all this: It all requires lots of unhurried time. If you’re like me, your schedule is the first thing you need to address in order to diligently teach your children about the things of God.
Parents, you are God’s chosen method for making disciples of the next generation. So let’s get to it!
Discussion Starters
- What difference does it make that our God is one? What other gods do people in our culture serve? Which gods are you tempted to serve?
- Read verse 5. What does it look like to love the Lord with all your heart, soul and might? Where do other good loves fit in (ex: for your friends and family and church)? How can one obey this command?
- How can we obey the command in verse 6? How can we ensure that these words are on our heart rather than merely in our memory? What’s the difference?
- Did your parents teach you God’s word? How did they go about it?
- Do you/have you had success teaching God’s word to your children? What works/worked for you?
- How can those without children be a part of this process?
Great teaching
Thank you John!