Sunday, May 24, 2015

Families Dedicated to God: “As for me and my house…” Deuteronomy 6:4-9

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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