The Family and Discipleship
Notes
Transcript
Welcome back to our series on family matters. As I have said many times before, family does matter. It is the cornerstone of a healthy and strong society. When the family is weak, society crumbles. When the family is healthy, society is stronger. We desire for every family, no matter the makeup, to be as strong and healthy as possible. When we do life according to God’s design, we enjoy God’s blessings. When we stray from God’s design, it leads to brokenness.
I used to not be a big beach guy. I have grown to tolerate and even enjoy it, but it is not one of my favorite activities. Sand is messy and saltwater tastes horrible. But I do enjoy going now more than I used to. Imagine the perfect beach day. The sun is shining, it’s not too hot, the waves are not too calm but not too rough. You go to the beach, and you find your spot. You lay your towels down, slap on some sunscreen, and get out in the water. After a while, it’s time to go back in, grab a snack and some water, but you notice your spot has moved away on you! The reality is you notice the waves have carried you far from where you set your belongings. You drifted. Now you either must fight the current to get back where you belong or get out of the water and walk back to your spot on the beach.
In the same way, the distractions and busyness of life can sweep us away from the place we set down our spiritual foundation. We can become so engrossed in the "surf" of life that we lose sight of what truly matters—the spiritual well-being of our families. Just like the waves carry us away from where we initially set our belongings, the busyness of life can carry us away from our spiritual focus.
As we continue to look at matters pertaining to the family, I invite you to turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 6.
Israel was prepared to enter the Promised Land. God took this opportunity to remind them of the covenant made at mount Sinai. The book of Deuteronomy comes from two Greek words that translated literally mean, “second law.” It is called that because as Israel sits on the opposite side of the Jordan, ready to cross into the Promised Land, God renews his covenant with Israel. Scholars have noted that the book itself is structured like that of ancient treaties. Moses is reeducating the nation on what loyalty to God is all about.
“Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it,
so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.
“O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
The commands of God stand at the very center of Israel’s covenant with God. Their obedience to God’s commands was a determining factor in their continual possession of the land and the enjoyment of the blessings of God. Notice the progression here. God hands down his commandments to Moses, who in turn hands them down to the people. Now, it is the people who are tasked with handing them down to their children.
What we are looking at in verse 2 is generational impact. One of the ways that Israel was to ensure the legacy of faith was to pass it on to their own offspring. This is not just an Old Testament idea for Israel. We have previously discussed it is the responsibility of Christian parents to pass down the teachings of Christ.
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
The Great Commission is a command for every Christian, not just those who are professionally trained. Whether we are parents or not, our mission is to seek out those who are far from God and attempt to reconcile them to God through the sharing of the gospel. Every believer can engage in this mission.
For those of us who are parents, we are given our children so that we would follow the words of Ephesians 6:4:
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
We are responsible for bringing up our children in the knowledge and instruction of the Lord.
You heard last week Paul was writing to Timothy urging him to:
You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them,
and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
Timothy’s grandmother Lois became a believer and passed her faith down to Eunice, Timothy’s mother, who passed it down to him. That is generational impact. One way you grow the church is to have kids, share the gospel with them, and connect them to the life of the church.
The results of generational impact were three. First, Israel would have a fear of God, that is a healthy respect for God’s authority. This leads to the second result of keeping God’s commandments. When we have a healthy respect for God’s authority, we follow his commands. We are following God’s leadership. Third, their days would be prolonged. This is not just about a long lifespan, but a promise that if Israel followed God according to the covenant promises, they would live long in the land. Generations would see the favor of God. Their covenant was conditional. Obey God and follow his commands and stay in the land. Disobey God and lose the privileges. So, verse three contains a plea for Israel to remain faithful to the covenant.
A disciple is one who loves God, learns from God, and labors for God.
A disciple is one who loves God, learns from God, and labors for God.
Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) A disciple loves God. Do you say that you love God? What is the measure according to Jesus? Keep his commandments. A love for Christ is the beginning of a relationship with him. It is measured by your willingness to learn to obey his commands. How can you love Christ if you do not know what his commands are? That’s where learning comes in.
We learn Christ’s commands when we engage scripture both personally and corporately. The church comes together to learn what God has said and then submit to his authority in our lives. Through the learning process, we discover God’s standard and then we adjust our thinking and our behaviors to meet those standards. This is our expression of love to him. When you know Christ, part of your duty is to know what he expects.
As we learn from God, we naturally move into the area of laboring for God. You cannot say that you love Jesus, are committed to learning his teachings, and not go out and labor for Christ. To be a Christian is to be on mission for Christ. We exist to go out into the world and make disciples of all nations. That is labor. When all these things are in alignment, we have healthy disciples. This is what Moses was hoping for Israel before they entered the Promised Land, and this is the hope for the church. Our hope is to continue to make generational impact in the hope that we will continue to seek out those far from God to reconcile them to God, and mobilize them to do the same.
Let’s look through the rest of this passage. We know what we are supposed to do, but how are we supposed to do it?
“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
“These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.
“You shall teach them diligently to your sons 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 up.
“You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.
“You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
This section affirms the oneness of God and the fact that we belong to him. He alone is God and there is no other. There is none for Israel or for us to be loyal to. Israel was surrounded by multiple false gods. None of them have ever existed. A false god is either a figment of our own imaginations, or a demon in disguise.
Moses reiterates that love for God requires all of one’s heart, one’s soul, and one’s might. To love God involves the totality of a person. It is all-consuming. Loving God is not a part-time endeavor, yet so many American Christians treat it as such. Part of the reason is because of failure to do the next verse. The commands of God are supposed to be on our hearts. That is, we must prioritize internalizing the word of God. We are to do this for ourselves, and then for our children.
The charge is to teach the commands of God diligently to our children. There are four opportunities listed here: as we sit in our houses, as we walk by the way, when we lie down, and when we rise. The lesson to learn here is to use every opportunity for teachable moments. How are we going to teach our kids in our homes? These are important questions to ask.
Walking by the way could be interpreted as the coming and going of life. The Israelites would have walked everywhere. Now we drive. What is playing on your radio in the car? What conversations can you have about biblical things while you are driving? If you go to Kenedy or Beeville, you have about half an hour to talk to the people in your car about anything. Which would you rather talk about? Small town gossip, or how to live out biblical principles?
When you lie down would be bedtime for us. Do you prioritize family prayers? Do you pray before bed? Do you read anything before bed? Every night we begin bedtime by reading Christy a bedtime story. There are a lot of children’s bibles available where the creators have rewritten biblical stories in a simplified manner for kids. Christy gets one read to her every night. What can you do to reinforce biblical principles in the home?
The same can be said of morning time. When you rise refers to getting out of bed. What have you set as the standard for your morning routine? Personally, I pray and read scripture every morning. I guard that time as best I can. I’m now looking at options to start mornings off as a family that sets our minds on Christ. Our goal should be to look for every opportunity to instill biblical values into the people in our families.
We are developing a strategy to help families achieve this. We will be switching our curriculum to one produced by D6 Family, an organization developed from the principles of Deuteronomy 6. Their mission is to align the church and home to accomplish God’s design for generational discipleship.
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The final verses speak to binding the words of God as a sign on your hand, as frontals on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your home. Some in Israel took that literally, and you will see people even to this day write scriptures on pieces of paper and place them in little boxes and wear them on their heads like a headband.
The point here is that whatever you do to instill biblical principles in your home, make it visible and memorable. Maybe you want to display scripture in places you will see it in your home. Maybe it determines the kind of artwork you hang on your walls. What you see in your home is likely what you will pay attention to.
The point here is this:
Discipleship is an everyday process, not a Sunday event.
Discipleship is an everyday process, not a Sunday event.
If we hope to turn the tide of the moral decline in America, we must be serious about making disciples. We cannot hope to change our culture by committing an hour a week to the faith we say we have. There are 168 hours in a week. If we are making only a one-hour investment of our time in our faith, that equates to 0.6% of our time every week. Discipleship is an everyday process, not a Sunday event.
If we only have an audience for an hour a week with no discipleship taking place in the home, we cannot hope that there will be a generational impact that will outlast us. But if we can get parents to love Jesus, commit to learning from Jesus, and begin laboring for Jesus, then there is hope that we can then train them to pass it on to their kids, who will pass it on to their kids.
This is why we are changing the way we are going to do Sunday school and our Wednesday night program. This is why everyone who arrives here will learn the same lesson so they can go home and use every opportunity to talk about it when they sit in their house, walk by the way, when they lie down, and when they rise.
I’ll do my job to educate people and partner with parents to raise their children to be difference makers in the community and beyond.
What does discipleship look like in your life? How are you loving God with all your heart, soul, and strength? How are you teaching others to do the same?