Families Dedicated to God: “As
for me and my house…”
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Introduction: Today is “Pentecost” on the church calendar, 50 days after the
resurrection of Jesus, the Lord poured out the Spirit on the waiting disciples.
It is the “birthday” of the New
Testament church, so it is an appropriate day for “dedication Sunday.” I decided to go back to a key Old Testament
passage in the book of Deuteronomy. 1400
years before the birth of Jesus, a new generation of Israelites had come
through the desert and arrived on the plains of Moab on the east of the Jordan.
It is an ancient text, with a message
for today. As Moses was calling these to dedicate themselves and their families
to God, to trust Him to give them victory over the uncertainties that lay ahead,
God is calling us to dedicate ourselves and our families to Him.
Some people from other faith traditions
have smiled and called the “dedication” of children, as we do it in Baptist
churches, “dry baptism.” That is an oxymoron! Baptism is wet, for Baptists, very wet!
This is not baptism. We only
baptize those who are old enough to understand and believe the gospel. Yet we do
want to publically recognize that our children are a gift from God, and we want
to affirm together our decision to raise them up in the way of the Lord, and to
do our best to point them to Him. That is what dedication is about. Later in the service we’ll talk more about Memorial
Day which is coming tomorrow, as we remember those who paid the ultimate price
to preserve our freedoms. What a great
blessing it is to have the liberty to worship God openly, and to devote
ourselves to passing our faith on to the next generation.
There is only one true God, He has
revealed himself in history and in the Bible, and He is worthy of our worship
and our whole-hearted love. As we seek to know Him we are called to lead our
families to Him as well.
The Big Idea: The more we know God, personally and intimately, the more we will love
Him, and the more we’ll desire to point our family to Him.
I. The Foundation of our Families: Personal faith in the God who is (6:4,5).
The passage I chose to
focus on this morning is a key text in the Old Testament. It’s in a passage
that pious Jews memorize in Hebrew and recite daily as a part of the prayers.
It is called the “Shema,” which is the first word in Deuteronomy 6:4, “Shema Yisrael, Adonai [Yahweh] elohenu, Adonai [Yahweh] ehad!” There is only one true God, He
alone is worthy of our worship and obedience: The ESV translates, "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD
is one.” That faith is the unshakable,
immovable, firm foundation that God wants for our families. Before we can
dedicate our children to God, we have to know who He is. I am going out on a limb a bit with this
verse and suggesting that most of our modern English translations get it slightly
wrong. As it reads in most versions it seems to be affirming the “unity” of
God, He is “one.” That is true, but that doesn’t seem to be the point the
writer is making. Another translation (see the margin of the NIV) seems to get the
point that Moses was making better:
“Hear O Israel, Yahweh is our God,
Yahweh alone!”
What the verse is
saying is a declaration faith in the one true God, the God of the Bible, the
God who revealed himself to the patriarchs, who spoke to Moses from the burning
bush and who brought the Jews through the Red Sea. He alone is our God,
there is no other. It is a pledge of allegiance, a vow of faithfulness, a
resolution against idolatry. They left idol worshippers in Egypt, and they
would confront pagan idols in the land, but there was one true God, the Lord,
who brought them out and who would bring them in. Well – that is no problem for us right? I mean we don’t see idols or false gods that
we might be tempted to worship, in America, in the 21st century, do
we? D.L. Moody said over a century ago,
“You don’t have to go to heathen lands to find idols, America is full of
them. Whatever you love more than God is
your idol.” Remember, the context is the foundation of the faith that we are to
pass on to the next generation. Are we making it clear that the one true God, our
creator and savior, is the one and only thing that we worship? Is it clear that
He alone sits on the throne of our lives?
True dedication is loving
Yahweh, the one true God, whole heartedly (v.5).
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your might…”
The language is very
emphatic, notice the repetition of the word “all,” “…all your heart, all
your soul, all your might…” That is whole hearted dedication! When Jesus
was asked by a young lawyer about the greatest commandment he pointed to this
verse…
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced
the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35
And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 "Teacher, which is the
great commandment in the Law?" 37
And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind.
38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You
shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40
On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew
22:34-40).
The greatest
commandment is to love God wholeheartedly (and the second, is to love our
neighbor as ourselves). It’s pretty simple to say: love God, love people. Easy to say, but, once we have decided to
follow Jesus, we spend the rest of our lives growing and learning about what
that really means. Before we can dedicate our children to God, we should
dedicate ourselves to Him. Jesus called this the greatest commandment! That is the foundation, personal faith in the
God who is. The more we know God,
personally and intimately, the more we will love Him, and the more we’ll desire
to point our family to Him.
II. Receive the Word, and Teach it diligently by word and example (6:6-9).
Verse 6 call us to
embrace the Word He has given…
6 And these words that I command you
today shall be on your heart…”
We know God and His
will for our lives and for our families through His Word. Someone has well said
“You cannot impart what you do not
possess.” We receive God’s Word, and believe Him, we take Him at His word,
so we take his word to heart. It’s not difficult to understand, if we really
believe that God has spoken, wouldn’t we want
to read His word to discover more about who he is and what he demands of
us? We need to read it. Someone has
said, “This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.” Having
God’s word on our heart is a lifetime project. It’s not a book you simply read once. You
constantly are going back to it, re-reading, reflecting, asking questions. Because it is God’s word, learning is a lifelong process.
But teaching the Word
is not simply imparting facts about God. We need to live the Word and teach it,
every day and every way:
7 You 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. 8 You shall bind them
as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the
doorposts of your house and on your gates…
Teaching, talking,
living the Word. Most English
translations render the first verb in v.7, “teach…
diligently.” The NIV is one exception, they put it, “impress them upon your children…” It’s not a common word in
the Old Testament, only a dozen times or so, usually used of sharpening a sword
or an arrow. That made me think of the description of God’s word in Hebrews
4:12,
“For the word of God is living
and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul
and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and
intentions of the heart.”
The parents are to
bring that living, sharp, discerning Word to their children, and God will use
it in their lives. We are not only to
teach the Word, but we are to live it. Our example speaks as loudly as our
words. We read in 7b-9,
“…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. 8
You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets
between your eyes. 9 You
shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates…”
It’s almost poetical
language saying that the Word of God should shape and guide every aspect of our
lives. James said it simply: “Be doers of
the word, and not hearers only who deceive themselves…” Our kids know this
isn’t just a “religion” that we tack onto our lives, we really believe that
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, the only way to the Father. Our
example will show them what faith looks like, and they’ll know that it is possible,
as we’ve seen the last couple of weeks, to “live as pilgrims in a fallen world.”
The more we know God, personally and intimately, the more we will
love Him, and the more we’ll desire to point our family to Him.
Moses spoke the words we have in Deuteronomy to the people on the east of the Jordan as he was preparing the new generation to enter the promised land. Moses himself did not enter. Joshua, not Moses, would be the one to lead the new generation across the river and into the land. As he was calling them to dedicate themselves to the Lord, he said,
“Choose this day who you will serve …as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
I would encourage all of our parents to consider that call, to
choose God’s Way for your family today.
Transition: We looked ahead today at what our graduates have accomplished and will
accomplish, we looked at the children that were dedicated and can see the
people they are becoming and will become as they are brought up in the way of
the Lord. Today is Pentecost Sunday which reminds us of the gift of the Spirit,
who seals us for God and empowers us for pilgrim living in a fallen world. Tomorrow is also a special day on our
national calender, Memorial Day, a day that we pause to remember those who paid
the ultimate price and laid down their lives so that we could be free. It
is because of their sacrifices that we have the liberty to raise our children
in the faith, to worship publically without fear, and to acknowledge our faith.
Let’s pause for a moment to remember those who paid the ultimate price…
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