Scripture Introduction: Deuteronomy is known as the second law. It’s
written to the second generation of Israelites that had come out of Egypt. They
are sitting right in front of the Promised Land. God gives Deuteronomy to his
people to define what their lives should look like as a redeemed people.
Deuteronomy teaches very practically what it means to truly follow the LORD.
Let us explore the treasure that Deuteronomy 6 has for us today.
Introduction: (FCF) Like the Israelites Moses addresses. We
all tend to forget our responsibility to raise up the younger generation. Yet, Because of God’s promises, we should
teach the next generation to pursue him.
Preposition:
Because of God’s promises, we should teach the next generation to pursue him.
{Transition: You may ask well, Anthony, “What do
we teach the next generation about pursuing God?}
1. Because of God’s
promises, we should teach them to love God alone. (4-5,13-15)
a.
Read
with me verses 4 and 5: "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. This passage teaches that the LORD is one. God is not
multiply gods, but he is one God. This one God desires that mankind love him with all their hearts and with all
their souls and all their might. This phrase means that with our entire being
we love God. There is not one ounce
of our being that should not love God. The LORD goes on to say in verses 13 through
15 what this love looks like. He says in verse 13:“It is the LORD your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his
name you shall swear. We show our love
and dedication to God so much that we do not even swear to anything without
out including his name in it. We also show our love to God by serving him only. Verse 14 also teaches that loving him means that we do not pursue
anything as God: 14 You shall not go after other
gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you-- 15 for the LORD
your God in your midst is a jealous God-- lest the anger of the LORD your God
be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.” Our
God has a jealous love four us. As these verses teach we should teach our kids
to love God alone.
b. Illustration:
I want to highlight Timothy. Paul was a spiritual father to
Timothy. We are not told much about Timothy’s father in scriptures, but we do
know that Paul taught Timothy how to pursue God and love God alone. Paul saw
the need to pass on the gospel to the next generation. He was able to see that
he needed to come alongside what Timothy’s momma and grandmamma taught him. Timothy’s
mother and grandmother’s faithfulness taught Timothy how to love God. They probably sent him to
synagogue, but I am willing to bet that they trained him in loving God and pursuing his
commandments. That training that Timothy received resulted in Timothy pastoring
and leading one of the first churches to exist ever. His mother and
grandmother’s faithfulness led to the gospel moving forward as a change agent
in this world. In the same way God wants to use our faithfulness in teaching
the next generation to love God
alone.
c. Application: We
as older believers have to stop focusing on just our problems today. We need to
help our kids prepare to face the problems today as well as tomorrow. If we do
not teach them to love God alone, then something else will capture their
hearts. Just think in our neighborhoods. The churches in our neighborhoods have
stopped focusing on passing on the gospel to the next generation. More and more
youth and young adults have not been discipling our kids. We left it as the job
of the pastor or the job of the youth minister to disciple our kids. There are
kids and young adults out there struggling with self-worth, sexuality, justice,
right and wrong. I know numerous kids that are experimenting with which
identity they will have. They experiment, because we have taught them
implicitly that they should love themselves more than they love God. Personal
fulfillment and Happiness are the gods today that we all are tempted to serve.
Yet, the call today is to teach our kids and whatever young person that comes
your way how to love God. You may say to yourself “I am in a nursing home, how
do I disciple people”. I will tell you that that’s a lie from the enemy. For me
personally, it encourages my faith to come here and see all of your faces.
It get encourage to keep persevering,
because I say to myself “ If these brothers and sister are still following him
after all these years of experience, then there must be something to that
Jesus” So do not let enemy tell you that your life is done being a witness.
{Transition: You may say in your heart, when do
we teach the next generation? }
2. Because of God’s
promises, we should teach them at every opportunity we get. (7-9)
a.
Read with me verse 7: 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. The LORD says to teach the commandments
diligently. Diligently means that great effort and strength need to be put
forth. It means that the effort has to be intentional. We have to take the opportunity to teach our kids about the
LORD every chance that we get. The LORD says take the opportunity when they are in your house. Take the opportunity to teach them when we are
driving in the car, when they come visit you. Take the opportunity to teach them when they go to sleep. Take the opportunity to teach them when they
rise. The LORD is saying to us that we will have every opportunity to teach our kids the fear of the LORD. We know this fact because look at verse 8-9
read with me:” 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.”
b. Illustration: A good
coach of any sport knows that practice is the best opportunity to train his team. Yet, he also knows that when his team
fails that that also can become a teaching opportunity.
A good coach always has antennae open for teachable moments in the life and
functioning of his team. For instance, The Miami Heat won the NBA championship
2 times in a row. They have been to the finals 3 years in a row. That is a
remarkable accomplishment. The first year they went to the finals they lost to
the Dallas Mavericks. That was the 2011 NBA finals. After that year Coach
Spoelstra was finally able to get through to his team. I would argue that the
2011 finals lost was the best thing to happen to that Heat team. In the same
way Coach Spoeltra had the opportunity to
reach his team, our kids will give us opportunity
to teach them about the LORD. We will have many coaching opportunities if you walk with the younger generation.
c. Application
i.
Who?
You all have
young people all around you here in this nursing home. All the people that take
care of you are a part of the next generation. It’s just not little kids or teenagers
or college students. All the people that you are older than represent the next
generation.
ii.
What?
God will provide you opportunities
to speak into the life of the next generation. If you see a blind spot in
me, please point it out. I need older believers to invest in my life. Although
my flesh
iii.
When?
These opportunities could look like correcting sin. Yet,
they are not limited to correcting sin. You can complement a young person when
they do something well. That can do wonders to the soul, if you have someone
encouraging you. It will actually provide you more of a voice to correct sin in
that person’s life, because they know it’s coming out of love and not judgment.
It could look like offering to pray for
one of your nurses if you see they are having a bad day. Let the spirit
minister to you and give you wisdom.
iv.
Why?
On the behalf
of the next generation, I want to say that we need you. We often do not
acknowledge this fact enough, but we need your voice in the life of the church,
even if it is from a distance.
{Transition: You may say in your heart, how do we
teach them to follow God without legalism, which teaches people that the way
into heaven is through all the good works?}
3. Because of God’s
promises, we should teach them the story they inherit. (3, 10-12, 18-19
a.
The LORD bases
everything he commands the Israelites on the story that they inherit.
Read with me verse 3: “Hear
therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you,
and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has
promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.” The children of Israel teach their kids and they
themselves follow the commands that the LORD give, because they inherit a story. They inherited the
promises that God gave Abraham in Genesis 12. They engraft themselves into this
story. God continues to give them the story that they inherit. Read with me verses 10-12: 10 "And when the LORD your God brings you into the land that he
swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you-- with
great and good cities that you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good
things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards
and olive trees that you did not plant-- and when you eat and are full, 12 then
take care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of slavery.” God reminds them of the story that they inherit. The
reason they follow the commands is not because they got all together, but
because they are inheriting promises
not based on their merit. That means they did not do anything to deserve
them. They did n’t build the cities or
plant the vineyards etc, that they inherit.
The LORD tells them don’t you get to big remember the story about the Red Sea. I
took you out of slavery. God goes on with reminding Israel of the story that they inherit. Read with me verses
18-19: 18 And you shall do what is right
and good in the sight of the LORD, that it may go well with you, and that you
may go in and take possession of the good land that the LORD swore to give to
your fathers 19 by thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD
has promised. They story is at
the center of all the commandments. You cannot have commandments without
properly inheriting the story.
Moses’ point is that you can’t inherit the
story if you not willing to follow
the story writer. As we are teaching the next generation the LORD knows that
the question of “Why do we follow all these statues, rules, and commandments?”
The LORD’s answer is to point them back to the story that they inherit.
Please read with me and when I say read with me I want you to read it aloud
with me. Let us read verses 20-23 together and hear the story we all inherit: 20 "When your son asks you in time to
come, 'What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules
that the LORD our God has commanded you ?' 21 then you shall say to your son,
'We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a
mighty hand. 22 And the LORD showed signs and wonders, great and grievous,
against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. 23
And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the
land that he swore to give to our fathers. Our job is to help the next
generation inherit the story.
b.
Illustration:
Inheriting stories about our past help us
orient ourselves in the present. There are a lot of people searching for
meaning in our culture. That is way genealogy has taken on importance in our
cultures. A person researching
geneoglies says: “Results indicated that the search for factual information
often led to one for orienting information. Finding ancestors in the past was
also a means of finding one's own identity in the present. Family history is
also an activity without a clear end goal; after the ancestry chart is filled
in the search continues for more information about the lives of one's
forebears. Thus, family history should be viewed as an ongoing process of
seeking meaning. The ultimate need is not a fact or date, but to create a
larger narrative, connect with others in the past and in the present, and to
find coherence in one's own life.”[1]
We need to help the next generation inherit
the gospel story. This story is the best story to inherit in
order to find meaning.
c. Application
i.
Who?
We
ii.
What?
Help the next generation inherit the story
iii.
When?
When you here young people inheriting the story of
the world help them to understand what they are going through in light of the story scripture gives to us. When you
see them struggling with story that
sexuality defines them and gives them worth. Help them to understand themselves
in light of the biblical story that
says that you are not defined by your sexuality, but you are defined by being
made in the image of God. When you see young men being sucked into the street
life, help them inherit the story that says that the people of God
can become a stronger and more positive family for you than what the streets
have to offer. That means that we might have to change some of the ways we do
things in order to welcome them into the community of the story. When you see one of your caregivers get discourage help them
inherit the story that says that “weeping may endure for a night, but joy come
in the morning”, because the LORD shall fulfill his promises.
iv.
Where?
You do not need
not preacher’s license or church building to help people inherit this story.
v.
Why?
The future of our world depends on the promises of God, but
it also in some ways depends on us helping our next generation inherit the story. If we do not start helping this next generation inherit the story, then they will continue to leave the church.
4.
Conclusion: This morning we
know that Because of God’s promises, we
should teach the next generation to pursue him. We saw that we help them pursue him by
teaching them to worship God alone. We saw that we help them pursue him by
teaching them the way every opportunity that we get. Lastly, we have seen we
help them pursue him by teaching them to inherit the story. We have the great
story that they can inherit, which will lead to them love God alone and to help
us teach at every opportunity and to teach them to inherit the story. That
story is that we inherit the Israelites narrative not through our own merit. On
the contrary, our good works do not help us pursue God. No it is the fact that
we have been engrafted into the greatest story on earth. That the Messiah Jesus
Christ has come into this world to redeem it and save it through his death on
the cross. The Israelites inherit the Land of Canaan, but we shall inherit the
earth. In light of these great promises let us be agents to help the next
generation get engrafted in the story. Cuz after all we have the greatest story
on earth to tell.
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