Sermon Tone Analysis

Deuteronomy 6

 

! Introduction

            One month from tomorrow, we will have been parents for 28 years.

How exciting it was when our first and second and third children were born.

We could hardly wait to share the news and to have everyone see our child.

Now as I see the look in parents eyes as people admire their baby, I can understand.

It is a time of rejoicing.

However, a few weeks into parenting, we realized how hard it might be as we couldn’t get our baby to stop crying.

A few years into parenting, we realized what a great responsibility it would be as our son imitated what we did - and not only the good habits.

Someone has writen, "The footsteps a child follows are most likely to be the ones his parents thought they covered up."

A decade into parenting, that realization was reinforced again when our child came home with words we weren’t used to hearing.

And then, eighteen years into parenting, we suddenly realized that we better have done a good job because our future influence would be much smaller, because they were on their own.

Parenting is a great blessing, but also a great responsibility.

Today, on Mother’s Day and also on a day when we have celebrated child dedication for six children, the thought of parenting is very much on our minds.

What is the nature of the parental role?

How can we carry it out well?

!

I. Have You Got It?

            Some of you enjoy watching The Amazing Race.

There was an episode a month or so ago when one of the teams made it to their final destination, but when they got there, the host said to them, you are at the right place, but you don’t have your ticket with you and you have to go back.

How disappointing to get to the end and find that you haven’t got it.

In a relay race, four runners in turn do their laps around the track.

When the first runner gets to the second runner, she hands a baton to her.

That baton must be handed from runner to runner and must be there at the end of the race.

If one of the runners would drop the baton and keep on running, it would be useless.

They would get to the end and they may have the best time, they may have the best looking uniforms, they may have made the greatest effort, but if they don’t have the baton, they will not win the race.

How disappointing it would be to get to the end and find that you haven’t got it.

In the child dedication, we make a commitment as a congregation to the children being brought for dedication that we will provide an exemplary environment of faith.

We say that “By our example and our words we will help them come to faith.”

As parents, you make a commitment to “a home atmosphere of devotion, prayer and daily dedication to the Christian way…” If we are people who attend this congregation and especially if we are parents of children, we must have it if we want to pass it on.

Deuteronomy 6:6 says that it is “…to be upon your hearts.”

This passage says a lot about having it.

What is it that we must have before we can pass it on to our children?

!! A. Truth

It is about knowing God.

Deuteronomy 6:4 was the “John 3:16” of the Old Testament.

Every Jew knew it from memory, it was the foundation of their faith.

The truths communicated there are truths which are still significant today.

There are two truths spoken here.

One is that The Lord is our God.

This speaks of relationship.

It reveals the good news that we have a relationship with the one who is above all.

God is the sovereign one.

He is creator, has all power, knows everything that happens in the world.

But understanding that as head knowledge is not it.

The key concept is “our.”

It is about knowing God.

It is about having a relationship with God who is above all.

The second truth is that this God is “one.”

There is only one God.

People develop a relationship with many supreme concepts.

In the Old Testament and even in many cultures today, people put their hope in idols.

They have a superstitious view of religion and place their confidence in some spiritual source of power.

In our modern world it is much more common for people give themselves to power in government, some give themselves to the power of money.

These are their gods.

But none of these gods really have power.

We have the privilege of giving ourselves to the one and only true God who is above all power and authority.

There is no one like Him.

Having it, means that as parents, we need to have a living relationship with this one and only God.

If we do not have such a relationship, we will have nothing to pass on to our children.

We may have the most money, the best clothes, provide our children with every earthly comfort, but if we do not call God our God and have Him as the only God in the every day practice of life we will have nothing to pass on to our children.

Have you got it?

!! B. Love

            Furthermore, it’s about love.

Deuteronomy 6:5 says “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

This command is foundational to having it.

Jesus repeated this command in the gospels in Matthew 22:37.

What does it mean to love the Lord?

It means to recognize how amazingly God has loved us first and has given us life by sending Jesus to die on the cross for us.

Our love for God is a response to His first love for us.

How does it feel to love someone?

If you have ever experienced love as a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, child or parent, you know that in a true love relationship there is a longing for the other person.

In a deep love relationship there is commitment.

When those who love each other are together there is joy and peace and it is good.

My prayer for each of us is that we will have such a love for God.

The Bible calls us to such a relationship of intimacy.

The text says that we are to love God with all our heart.

What does that mean?

The heart is the seat of emotions.

If we really love God, we must feel something towards Him.

To love God with all your heart means that there can be nothing half hearted about it.

Sometimes our heart can be divided, but in our love to God, there must be no division.

Do you love God with all your heart?

The text further invites us to love God with all your soul.

The soul is the center of personality.

That is who you really are.

Loving God with all your soul means that it is not a show we put on or a mask we wear.

Our love for God must be fully a part of who we are.

The text also indicates that we are to love God with all our strength.

True love acts.

It is demonstrative.

Our love for God must be shown in everything we do!

If we love someone, it will be obvious in many ways - in the way we think and especially in the way we act.

If I say, "I love to play hockey" but never show up for a game, is it really true to say that I love hockey?

If I say that I love my wife, but then put her down or seldom speak to her or take her out can it really be said that I love her? Love must be demonstrated in some way or it isn't really love at all.

How do we show our love for God?

Let me ask a question - What are you showing your children, do’s and don’ts or love for God? Have you got it?

!! C. Obedience

            The third part of it is obedience.

Obedience permeates the text.

It is mentioned in 6:1, 2, 3, 17, 24, 25.