The Path to a Godly Legacy
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Fathers’ Day—I like the summary of one little
boy: “It’s just like Mother’s Day, only
your don’t spend as much for the present!” It is a day for remembering and
appreciating fathers, and also for encouraging men to embrace the role that God
has given them. It is a relationship that for better or for worse impacts the
lives of children. For some who did not have a father who was present and involved
in their lives (or for those who feel they failed at it) it may be a painful
day.
There's
a Spanish story of a father and son who had become estranged. The son ran away,
and the father set off to find him. He searched for months to no avail.
Finally, in a last desperate effort to find him, the father put an ad in a
Madrid newspaper. The ad read: “Dear Paco, meet me in front of this newspaper
office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you. Your Father.” On
Saturday 800 Pacos showed up, looking for forgiveness and love from their
fathers.
What is it
about fathers that makes that relationship so impactful on us? Of all our human
relationships, it is “fatherhood” that God has used to express His relationship
with His people: He is our Father, we are His children. In some sense,
in our relationship with our fathers we can get a glimpse of the kind of
relationship God wants to have with us. I know that is convicting, because
we all fall far short. But one thing
we can do is embrace the calling to point our children to God our Father, the
One who is always trustworthy, who never disappoints, never makes mistakes, and
always loves perfectly.
One startling bit of research conducted by the Christian Business
Men's Committee found the following: When the father is an active believer,
there is about a seventy-five percent likelihood that the children will also
become active believers. But if only the mother is a believer, this likelihood
is dramatically reduced to fifteen percent (K. Meyering, Discipleship,
49:41).
I
haven’t been able to get that complete article, but there is no denying that a
father with a heart for God will impact his family! I decided to go back to a key Old Testament
passage, Dt 6:4-9, what Jesus called the “greatest commandment,” what scholars
have called the declaration of faith of Judaism. This passage is considered so fundamental
to the Jews that it is read at the beginning of every synagogue service. The truth
should be as dear to our hearts. As Moses was preparing the nation
for life in the land, He reminded them of the foundational importance of
knowing and loving God and of teaching our families about Him.
What a
great blessing it is to have the liberty to worship God openly, and 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
wholehearted love. As we seek to know Him we are called to lead our families to
Him as well.
The Maine*
Idea: We need to teach
our children the truth, and show by example the reality of our faith.
I. The Prerequisite to a Godly Legacy:
Knowing and loving the God who is (6:4,5).
4 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is
one. 5 You shall love the
LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
might.”
It’s a simple fact that you cannot impart what you do not
possess. Moses writes here about knowing and loving God (4,5).
An exclusive commitment to the one true God.
First of all we see the absolute necessity of a commitment to God, a clear cut,
exclusive commitment to the Lord as our God (v.4). I am convinced that many traditional
translations of this verse miss what the writer intended to emphasize. The
Hebrew construction leaves a little ambiguity as to the translation, but the context
should clarify what the writer meant. Chapters 4-11 of Deuteronomy are an
affirmation of the Lord’s exclusive claim to Israel’s devotion and love. He alone is God! The NIV and ESV note in the margin, as a
possible translation: “Hear O Israel, Yahweh is our God, Yahweh alone!” That
makes the most sense in this context.
First,
the first word, “Hear!” “Listen well to what I am about to say!” It’s like the
preacher who ways “If you take one thing away from the sermon today let it be
this!” He is putting an exclamation
point at the beginning of the sentence and saying “Whatever you do, don’t miss what
I am about to say!” LISTEN…
“The LORD, Yahweh, is
our God, Yahweh alone.”
This
verse is not a statement about God in his “Tri-unity” (that is certainly
taught elsewhere in the Bible). Rather
this is a call to exclusivity. He is saying that despite the false gods the
Israelites would see worshipped by the pagans in the promised land, only Yahweh
is the true God, the God of their fathers, and only He is to be
worshipped. As Moses was writing the
nation was poised on the plains of Moab as they prepared to enter the Land, the
new generation needed to know that it was not Ra of Egypt, not Baal of the
Canaanites nor Marduk of the Babylonians, nor any other pagan deity, but only
the Lord, Yahweh, the God who is,
the One who spoke to Moses out of the burning bush and who brought their
fathers and mothers out of Egypt, only He
was to be worshipped.
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—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: Moses is speaking of 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 He alone who sits on the throne of our hearts? As Jesus asked Peter,
“Do you love me more than these?”
The call here is for an authentic
commitment to know Him intimately and to love Him passionately. Look at verse
5, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your might.”
(6:5). Notice the repetition “…all …all …all…” The writer is saying in
the most emphatic way possible that we need to love God wholeheartedly. That
is the heart of the Christian life. In fact, when Jesus was asked about the
greatest commandment, He pointed to this verse (Mark 12:30). That kind of
Commitment will be evident in how we live.
Augustine said, “Love God, then do
as you please…” His point is well taken: if we really love him, we’ll want
to live a life that is pleasing to him.
Our kids will see that there is something real in our relationship with
God. It’s been said that a child is
not likely to find a Father in God, unless he finds something of God in his
father. We need to teach our children the truth about God, and we need to show
by our example the reality of our faith. I’ll ask it again: 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? Yahweh is our God, Yahweh alone!
True dedication is loving Him, the one true
God, whole heartedly (v.5). “You shall
love the LORD your God with all…” (see Mt 22:34-40). Jesus said, 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 to make those commands the “prime directive” of our lives.
Before we can lead our children to God, we need to dedicate ourselves to
Him. Jesus called this the greatest commandment! We need to teach our children the
truth, and show by example the reality of our faith.
II. The Process to attain a Godly
Heritage: Receive the Word, and Teach it diligently by word and example (6:6-9).
6 And these words that I command you today shall be on
your heart. 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.
Receive
the Word. Verse 6 says “These words…
shall be on your heart…” In order to teach the Word by example and through
our words, we need to know it! George Washington
said “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”
That’s true of nations, it is also true of families. Psalm 1, the righteous man “…delights in the Law of the Lord, and in his
law he meditates day and night…”
Paul told the Colossians, “Let the
Word of Christ dwell richly within you…” (Col 3:16). He told the Thessalonians, “…when you
received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the
word of men but as what it really is, the word of God…” (1 Th 2:13). Joshua 1:8 says we are to
“mediate day and night” on God’s
word. Does all of that sound
radical? Maybe, but that is normal,
healthy Christianity. Does it sound maybe too “religious”? It’s not about religion, it’s about a
relationship that is real and alive. Longing for the truth, longing for the voice of Abba, should stir our hearts! We are
called to radical commitment, and that means for us God’s Word is not a
suggestion, it is not one way to live, it is not an option, it is TRUTH,
and the only way we can live and experience the life God wants for us and for
our family.
Teach
the Word. A godly father will teach God’s Word diligently and consistently
(v.7). NB. The repetition is affirming that always, at every opportunity we
need to look for occasions to affirm God’s truth. It’s not just Sunday School,
this is true “home schooling” at its best: “…impress them upon you children…”! (NIV). We shouldn’t be surprised by the ignorance of
the Word in the world, but we should be surprised by the lack of interest in
the Word in the church. Herb told us the
story of a boy who was not paying attention to his teacher. She then asked Him,
“Give me a definition of two words: ignorance and apathy.” He replied with
growl “I don’t know and I don’t care!” We should care!
Live
the Word. According to vv. 8-9, a godly father is distinguished by being
centered on the Word. Proverbs 6:20-23
expresses this same idea,
“My son, observe the commandment of
your father And do not forsake the teaching of your mother; 21 Bind them continually on your
heart; Tie them around your neck. 22
When you walk about, they will guide you; When you sleep, they will watch over
you; And when you awake, they will talk to you.
23 For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light;
And reproofs for discipline are the way of life…”
These verses were surely intended
metaphorically, the idea being to stay in the Word always, to constantly be
aware of and reminded of God’s truth. At
some point orthodox Jews began to literally tie phylacteries on the left arm
and forehead during daily prayers, and put a mezuzah on the doorpost of their
home. Far more important is to allow the
Word to transform our mind (Rom 12:1,2) which will change the way we live, and
then ultimately our family will also begin to be changed. By the way, teaching in life, teaching by
example, will require time. It will require giving priority to our family…
Charles Francis Adams, the 19th century political
figure and diplomat, kept a diary. One day he entered: "Went fishing with
my son today--a day wasted." His son, Brook Adams, also kept a diary,
which is still in existence. On that same day, Brook Adams made this entry:
"Went fishing with my father--the most wonderful day of my life!" The
father thought he was wasting his time while fishing with his son, but his son
saw it as an investment of time. The only way to tell the difference between
wasting and investing is to know one's ultimate purpose in life and to judge
accordingly.
Nothing can impact a family more powerfully than the
teaching and example of a godly father: one who is in the Word and under the
Lordship of Christ. That will take investment, especially time.
James Dobson cited a Cornell University study showing that
fathers of preschool children on the average spend 37.7 seconds per day in real
contact with their youngsters. In contrast, the study indicated that children
watch television approximately 54 hours per week (CT, 3/23/1979).
It gets better when the kids are older right? Not so much…
Josh McDowell has been trying to find out what dads are
doing in Christian families, and the news isn't good. In his book The
Dad Difference, McDowell reveals that there seems to be a parenting gap.
These statistics are from McDowell's book: The average teen in our churches
spends only 2 minutes a day in meaningful dialogue with his dad. 25% of these
teens say they have never had a meaningful conversation with their father--a
talk centered on the teens' interests.
Investing in our children requires time. A touching picture of the confusion today on the role of fathers comes
from Erma Bombeck. She paints a portrait of a little girl who loved her dad but
wasn't sure what dads do:
One morning my father didn't get up and go to work. He went
to the hospital and died the next day. I hadn't thought that much about him
before. He was just someone who left and came home and seemed glad to see
everyone at night. He opened the jar of pickles when no one else could. He was
the only one in the house who wasn't afraid to go into the basement by himself.
He cut himself shaving, but no one kissed it or got excited
about it. It was understood when it rained, he got the car and brought it
around to the door. When anyone was sick, he went out to get the prescription
filled. He took lots of pictures . . . but he was never in them.
Whenever I played house, the mother doll had a lot to do. I
never knew what to do with the daddy doll, so I had him say, "I'm going
off to work now," and threw him under the bed. The funeral was in our
living room and a lot of people came and brought all kinds of good food and
cakes. We had never had so much company before. I went to my room and felt
under the bed for the daddy doll. When I found him, I dusted him off and put
him on my bed. He never did anything. I didn't know his leaving would hurt so much
(Family -- The Ties that Bind . . and Gag! (NY: Fawcett Books,
1988, p. 2).
Men, we are all at
different points in terms of our impact on our children. There may be some
regrets about the past, about where we feel like we fell short. We can’t change
the past, but we can strive today to be men of integrity, who model a life
shaped by a heart for God and a commitment to His mission. We can still, by
word and example, impact the kids in our extended family, and in our church
family. Fathers, grandfathers, men, consider how you can encourage the children
in our extended church family by your faith and example.
What is God saying to me in this passage? We
need to teach our children the truth about God, and show by our example the
reality of our faith.
What would God
have me to do in response to this passage? Make certain of you own commitment to the Lord. Commit
yourself to being filled and controlled by God’s Word. We need time in the
Word. Someone said it was too bad kids didn’t come with an instruction manual. Well, we have a guidebook from the Maker! You
can’t do this on your own!
If our
rising up and our laying down, if every moment of our life is going to reflect
the fact that we believe God, and that we take Him at His word, our children
need to see us open the book, they need to hear us read it like we believe it! They need to see that we live differently because
we take God at His word. [One of the greatest gifts we can give our children is
to love their mother].
We live
in troubled times to be sure, but we needn’t despair. We are not alone. With God in us, with his Word, which is
absolute truth to guide us, with our wives to stand by us and the church to
support us, you have what it takes to be the family Shepherd God intended
you to be. Know your kids, and shepherd
them: feed them (spiritually as
well!), lead them, protect them. Take the responsibility
that has been delegated to you by your Maker to lead your family and to teach
by word and by example. Men, some of
you may be thinking your parenting days are past, and so are your
responsibilities to the next generation. We don’t get off that easy. We
are called to come in alongside of the younger men in our church and in our
family and to be available to mentor, encourage, and offer our support! This is
a message for families, and for the church family! Amen.
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