SPEAKER_00: It is great to be with you all this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your prayers.
SPEAKER_00: I got a new knee a couple weeks ago, and uh it has been an exercise in patience, in endurance, in humility, three things that I'm not typically or naturally good at.
SPEAKER_00: Um I I think there was a time, I I remember maybe there was a time, one time, long time ago, where I was accused of being stubborn.
SPEAKER_00: Um and uh and it this is this is definitely a working through that.
SPEAKER_00: So uh my name is Ben Shoning.
SPEAKER_00: If I haven't had a chance to meet you, I serve on the team here at Silverdale Apisin, and I don't think I've ever been more excited to go through a passage of scripture together as a church than I am with this passage today.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you have your Bibles, open up to Deuteronomy chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: And then you can also pull out your worship guide.
SPEAKER_00: We will be following, uh, you can follow along with that as well.
SPEAKER_00: You know, some of you know, many of you know that for nearly the last 20 years, I have I have um worked in the field of mental health.
SPEAKER_00: Both both I've practiced in the field, I still teach in the field of mental health.
SPEAKER_00: So for nearly 20 years, I have been face to face with the mental health crisis that has been declared in our country.
SPEAKER_00: And specifically, when we talk about this mental health crisis, it usually falls under these two diagnostic umbrellas of both depressive disorders and anxiety disorders.
SPEAKER_00: That's where we've seen a spike in mental health.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's been this major kind of this offensive front to attack the symptoms that are plaguing these individuals.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what's interesting there is there is one very common element or dynamic, there's one common denominator that almost everybody who struggles with anxiety or depression has.
SPEAKER_00: And it's so common, it it's so it's so normal that it almost is overlooked because of how common it is.
SPEAKER_00: You know what it is?
SPEAKER_00: It's a breakdown, it's a disruption, it's a dysfunction in the family of origin, or foo, as you'll hear it called.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: That is that is this very common uh uh experience or dynamic that so many who struggle with mental health find.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I know when we talk about dysfunctions or disruptions or fragments within the family, that that's that's very broad, right?
SPEAKER_00: That that can mean a lot of different things.
SPEAKER_00: But what I what I hope for us to understand this morning as we press into this passage from Deuteronomy 6 is that God's plan and his design for family was always straightforward and relatively simple.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I said this a few weeks ago because I never want to be guilty of oversimplifying the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: I know that there are there are vast treasures that are worth our effort to dig through into God's word.
SPEAKER_00: But but I believe that God, in his sovereignty, in his goodness, in his love, made the instructions for us to live a godly life, to live in righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that he made those actually attainable.
SPEAKER_00: I I don't think for one second that God would make it so difficult or so challenging that only a few people would be able to grasp it.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: That just a few people would be able to understand it.
SPEAKER_00: So I believe that in God's perfect love, he made his instructions actually available to us for us to grasp and to understand that we can obtain through obedience.
SPEAKER_00: And so I would say this my opinion, before I believe that we have a mental health crisis in our country, I believe we have a family health crisis in our country.
SPEAKER_00: And I and I do believe that we need to address the mental health crisis, but I think a primary way that we can address these issues and even curb these issues is to look at God's plan for the family, and that we could return back to his plan for the family.
SPEAKER_00: And so, as we look at this passage in Deuteronomy 6, in Jewish culture, this is known as the Shema.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: The Shema means daily reminder.
SPEAKER_00: This is something that is so important in the Jewish culture that they repeat it twice a day.
SPEAKER_00: In the morning and night, they repeat this.
SPEAKER_00: But actually, what we're going to see, what we're going to discover this morning in God's Word, is that really it should be done far more frequently than that.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, this is something that we're supposed to be doing all day long.
SPEAKER_00: And so, what I want us to do, we're going to read these nine verses out of Deuteronomy.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to invite you to stand right now.
SPEAKER_00: We're all going to stand together.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you you can you can stand with me on my bum knee here.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna read, we're gonna read Deuteronomy 6, 1 through 9 out loud together.
SPEAKER_00: So let's read this now.
SPEAKER_00: These are the commands, decrees, and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children, and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, God's people, and be careful to obey it, so that it may go well with you, and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord the God of your ancestors promised you.
SPEAKER_00: Hear, O Israel, all of God's people.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
SPEAKER_00: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.
SPEAKER_00: These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Impress them on your children.
SPEAKER_00: Talk about them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, when you get up.
SPEAKER_00: Tie them as symbols on your hands, bind them on your foreheads, write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You can take a seat.
SPEAKER_00: So, did you did you catch the one instruction that we are to establish as the foundation for our families, that we are to establish as the foundation for our homes?
SPEAKER_00: It's this it's teach your families to love the Lord God with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their strength.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, this is the summary of the law, right?
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus was asked, what's the greatest commandment, he goes back to the Shema.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and strength.
SPEAKER_00: Apparently, what God wants us to realize is that if we can if we can understand this one good and right thing and do this one good and right thing, all other good and right things will flow out of it.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: There's this importance here that God is is telling Moses, gather all of my people together.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Have them all gather together and pay very close attention to what I'm gonna say.
SPEAKER_00: So let me just say this right off the bat, right?
SPEAKER_00: There's a couple things.
SPEAKER_00: Because primarily I'm gonna be speaking to parents and even grandparents today.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be looking at God's design for the family.
SPEAKER_00: Now, no doubt, no doubt, as Moses was gathering all of those families around, no doubt there was brokenness and dysfunction among those families.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: If we know any history of the Israelites, there was a lot of brokenness within those families.
SPEAKER_00: But but what God is saying here is, I have a plan of redemption for that brokenness and that dysfunction.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: My mercies are greater than your mistakes.
SPEAKER_00: My hope is greater than your hurt.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So he's reminding God's people listen, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter what has happened, I still have a plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: But then also he's gathering all of God's people.
SPEAKER_00: There would have been people there too that didn't have children.
SPEAKER_00: And so the the implications here are for all of God's people.
SPEAKER_00: It's for all of God's people.
SPEAKER_00: It's to follow this commandment.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, pay very close attention, remember it and do it.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: What Moses is inferring here, yes, yes, I want you to memorize it, but that's not gonna be all that hard.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.
SPEAKER_00: There, it's memorized.
SPEAKER_00: I I want you to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We have to do this.
SPEAKER_00: We have to actually put into practice the Shema.
SPEAKER_00: And and herein lies the problem.
SPEAKER_00: Now the Bible says this in James, it says, don't just listen to God's word.
SPEAKER_00: You must do what it says.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, you're only fooling yourself.
SPEAKER_00: So here we're given the single greatest commandment, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, oftentimes what we struggle with is the pragmatics of it.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: How do we, how do we fulfill this commandment?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Now, now, surely, surely God's commands are not so just arbitrary and punitive.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that he doesn't just say, hey, here's this law, you have to do it regardless.
SPEAKER_00: Now, he could, by the way, he's God.
SPEAKER_00: God could say, here are the commands, you gotta do them regardless of what it means for you.
SPEAKER_00: But again, in God's loving kindness, he, as we read in verse 2, he wants us to enjoy long life.
SPEAKER_00: And so there are these implications for the impact that God's commands have on our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And I want us to be mindful of just a few foundations that obeying God's commands will have on our lives.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, we're gonna see daily foundations found in the Shema.
SPEAKER_00: There's daily foundations that's found in this command.
SPEAKER_00: It says this in verse 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Impress them on your children.
SPEAKER_00: Talk about them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, when you get up.
SPEAKER_00: Tie them as symbols on your hands, bind them on your foreheads, write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.
SPEAKER_00: Now, now we read this.
SPEAKER_00: We can read this at face value.
SPEAKER_00: It says, talk about this command when you're sitting at home.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And so if I just read this and I'm thinking, okay, so when I'm sitting there, I'm just supposed to repeat over and over again, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.
SPEAKER_00: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, surely that can't be what Moses meant.
SPEAKER_00: That's not realistic.
SPEAKER_00: It can't just be that I'm reciting back and I'm repeating back the Shema.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, this commandment is to be written on our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, we we tell our spouse, we tell our kids, I love you with all of my heart.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Meaning they are central to who we are.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I think of my wife, Jen.
SPEAKER_00: I can't imagine, I can't begin to imagine life without her.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same thing with my kids.
SPEAKER_00: They are central to who I am.
SPEAKER_00: My hope would be that if you've ever interacted with me or my family, what you would realize is that there is this deep love that I have for my family.
SPEAKER_00: They are central to who I am.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what I'm reading here is that my love for my God must be central to who I am.
SPEAKER_00: It must be impressed on the hearts of those around me.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the deal.
SPEAKER_00: My hope would be, my hope would be that if we were to ask any of the children on the other side of that wall, or any of your kids in here, any of your teenagers in here, any of your adult children in here, if we were to ask them, hey, what does your mom and dad love the most?
SPEAKER_00: What do they love with all of their heart?
SPEAKER_00: My hope would be that they could very quickly and definitively say, Jesus, they love the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: That's the thing that they, that's the person, that's the thing that they talk most about is their love for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now, again, we've already established the fact that that doesn't mean that I'm just sitting at home saying, Love God, love God, love God, love God.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's I need to be mindful.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, what are what are my words, what's my tone like?
SPEAKER_00: I love what it says in Colossians.
SPEAKER_00: It says, let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
SPEAKER_00: Am I mindful of my words, of how I'm saying what I'm saying, and the impact that it has on my family, even in my correction or my frustration, right?
SPEAKER_00: Am I being mindful of speaking truth in love as I'm instructed to do in Ephesians 4?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I'm afraid, if I can be, if I can be transparent, I'm afraid that most often what I am speaking most regularly and passionately about to my kids are their responsibilities at the house.
SPEAKER_00: So what they might think that I love with all of my heart is their responsibilities at the house, right?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe what they hear the most from you, what they most hear regularly, consistently, and passionately is how busy you are.
SPEAKER_00: So what they might assume that you love with all of your heart is your busyness, right?
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe what consumes our conversations with our kids more often than not is their sports, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so what they assume you love with all of your heart, what they assume their identity is wrapped up in is sports.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: What are the things that we are speaking most consistently and most passionately of?
SPEAKER_00: But then it also says that we are to tie them as symbols on our hands and on our foreheads.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's it's symbolic of both thought and behavior.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, contrast it with this.
SPEAKER_00: This is disturbing.
SPEAKER_00: Contrast it with this, what it says in Revelation 13, where we read about the mark of the beast being on the hand or the forehead.
SPEAKER_00: It says the beast forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: The enemy is going to take control of these ones.
SPEAKER_00: He is going to seal their fate as they offer him their thoughts and their behavior.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says it like this in Matthew 12.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Whoever is not for me is against me.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Here's the reality.
SPEAKER_00: Either you are actively, either you are actively thinking and behaving in ways that glorify the Lord, or you are passively thinking and behaving in ways that glorify the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say it a different way.
SPEAKER_00: Either you're actively letting God do his good work in yours and your family's lives, or you're passively letting the enemy doing his sinister work in their lives.
SPEAKER_00: There's no in between.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: But the final part of this passage, it says, to write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this one I suppose we could all leave here.
SPEAKER_00: We could literally go and write, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength on the doorframes of our houses.
SPEAKER_00: We could have handed out Sharpies or stencils, and we could have literally written the Shima above our doorframes.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't necessarily think it's that legalistic.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think necessarily that's what Moses was talking about.
SPEAKER_00: So how do we pragmatically write the Shima above our doorframes without writing the Shima above our doorframes?
SPEAKER_00: You know, I remember several years ago, I was very convicted by prayer that I prayed over our kids.
SPEAKER_00: It was a weekday morning, they were about to head off to school, so I was praying with them, which is which is something I said now for years, I pray every morning and every night over my kids.
SPEAKER_00: As long as my kids are living at home, I never ever want there to be one single day that goes by where they don't hear their dad's voice bring prayed over them.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way, I never want there to be a day in my wife's life where she doesn't hear her husband's voice being prayed over her.
SPEAKER_00: But as I was praying for them that morning, I pray that they would know and sense the Holy Spirit's presence with them.
SPEAKER_00: I prayed that way for a few reasons, right?
SPEAKER_00: I wanted them to know and sense his his um his confidence, his boldness with them.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted them to know his safety over them.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted them to know his conviction over them, right?
SPEAKER_00: If they're about to do something they shouldn't do.
SPEAKER_00: But but as I got done with that prayer and they left, the Holy Spirit very much prompted me by saying, you know, Ben, I live in you.
SPEAKER_00: And a primary way that they are going to know my presence is through you.
SPEAKER_00: So what are you doing to usher in my presence?
SPEAKER_00: That was a punch in the gut.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's been plenty of times where I know that my presence does not induce the Holy Spirit's presence.
SPEAKER_00: My presence very much induces Ben's presence.
SPEAKER_00: That's not primarily what I want them to know.
SPEAKER_00: I want them to know the Holy Spirit's presence.
SPEAKER_00: I I know I'm guilty of there was a there was a season, hopefully it was a season that's that's long gone, Jen.
SPEAKER_00: But there was a season where I would I would come home and I'm afraid that Jen's response to my presence being home was not, oh good, Ben's home.
SPEAKER_00: It was more like, oh great, Ben's home.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And she would say that not because she's a jerk, but because I was in the habit at times of walking into our house from the garage into the kitchen, and you know, the clutter from our kids putting their stuff there and they're doing their work and just the aftermath of the day there in the kitchen was present.
SPEAKER_00: And I would say to Jen, So what'd you do today?
SPEAKER_00: I know, I get it.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: In that moment, I am not ushering in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: In that moment, I'm ushering in my presence.
SPEAKER_00: And so sometimes what I'll do, I know it sounds silly, but sometimes what I'll do is I'll put, you know, the fruits of the Spirit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
SPEAKER_00: Well, sometimes I'll just put those like on a spinning wheel in my head on my way home.
SPEAKER_00: I'll just let it spin.
SPEAKER_00: And whatever it lands on.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, goodness, faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: How can I walk into my house and demonstrate goodness and faithfulness to my family?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna go in there and start preaching and reciting a bunch of verses.
SPEAKER_00: How can I do these things to demonstrate the presence of the Holy Spirit to my family?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: These commandments have these daily implications, daily foundations that we must put into practice in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: But God's commands are not only foundational in our daily lives, but they also have generational foundations.
SPEAKER_00: They have these generational foundations.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: These commandments that are given are not just for the people there.
SPEAKER_00: Their obedience or their disobedience is going to have generational impact.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it says: these commands and decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children, and their children after them may fear the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, our whole perspective changes when we realize that our choices, my choices, don't just impact me.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: I'm married and I have four kids.
SPEAKER_00: So every decision, every choice I make directly or indirectly impacts five other people.
SPEAKER_00: But really it's more than that, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because more than likely my four kids are gonna get married.
SPEAKER_00: So there's four more.
SPEAKER_00: And then they're gonna give me grandkids, and hopefully a lot of them.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So now my decisions and my choices, they just got a lot weightier.
SPEAKER_00: And and the Bible warns us of it, warns us of this.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the chapter before this in Deuteronomy 5, it says this in verse 9 The Lord your God is a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.
SPEAKER_00: There are natural consequences, natural fallouts that come from disobedience.
SPEAKER_00: We see this all the time in family dynamics, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, dysfunction begets dysfunction.
SPEAKER_00: Addiction begets addiction, brokenness addicts or begets brokenness.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, those that come from these types of home are far more likely to repeat those same problems.
SPEAKER_00: There's this natural progression that comes from disobedience.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, let me demonstrate it like this.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you might be familiar with this story in the New Testament, where Jesus is in a conversation with some Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: And once again, they're trying to they're trying to entrap him, they're trying to find some contradiction in him.
SPEAKER_00: And so the issue of taxation comes up, right?
SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows how corrupt, how fraudulent all of the Roman taxation system was.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus says, well, give me a coin, right?
SPEAKER_00: They give him a coin, he says, whose face is on it?
SPEAKER_00: They say Caesar's.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Okay, give to Caesar's what's Caesar's and give to God's what God's.
SPEAKER_00: But but what Jesus is also saying here is, now are you asking me, is this fair?
SPEAKER_00: Because no, it's not fair.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing fair about it.
SPEAKER_00: Again, we all know how corrupt it is.
SPEAKER_00: But let's go back a couple thousand years ago when when your ancestors wanted a king.
SPEAKER_00: And God said, Yes, I am your king.
SPEAKER_00: You have a king, and it's me.
SPEAKER_00: And the people said, No, no, no, we we want them we want a man king, you know, like the other nations have.
SPEAKER_00: And so God told Samuel, okay, give him Saul.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Saul was good until he wasn't, and then you had David, who was better than Saul, but he's still not God.
SPEAKER_00: And now, thousands of years later, this generation is dealing and reaping the consequences of the decisions that were made by their ancestors before them.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, do we think we as a culture, as a society, as a country, are reaping some of the consequences of some really bad choices that were made generations before us?
SPEAKER_00: Of course we are.
SPEAKER_00: Parents, grandparents, we can't be so naive in thinking that our scission, our decisions, our choices don't impact the generations beyond us.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I hear it all the time in counseling.
SPEAKER_00: I I grew up in a home where I learned what not to do.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Ever heard that before?
SPEAKER_00: Well, just because you know not what to do, that's all that doesn't mean you you have the recipe or you know the ingredients of what to do.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I always say it like this if all my life all I ever eat is Twinkies, and you tell me, hey Ben, don't eat Twinkies.
SPEAKER_00: They're not good for you.
SPEAKER_00: But you don't tell me what to eat, I'm just gonna go grab a ding-dong.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go grab the next unhealthy, dysfunctional thing for me.
SPEAKER_00: Just because what I know what I what I shouldn't be like doesn't automatically mean I'm gonna know what I should be like.
SPEAKER_00: So let's go back to Deuteronomy 5, where we read the Lord your God is a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of their parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but but showing love to A thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
SPEAKER_00: A thousand generations.
SPEAKER_00: Not very many of you maybe have ever heard of the name or the person, George McCluskey.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, several of you in here, many of you in here, have been impacted by him.
SPEAKER_00: George McCluskey was a man who he would he would have lived in the in the 19th and 20th century.
SPEAKER_00: And as a young husband, he committed that every single day he would pray for his wife, for his children, his grandchildren, and his great-grandchildren.
SPEAKER_00: And every day he would pray specifically that they would know and follow Jesus and serve him.
SPEAKER_00: And so George and his wife, they had two daughters.
SPEAKER_00: They grew up loving Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They both married pastors.
SPEAKER_00: Love Jesus, they're serving him.
SPEAKER_00: Between those two daughters and son-in-laws, there were five kids.
SPEAKER_00: There were four daughters, all of them loved Jesus and married pastors, and then the one son became a pastor.
SPEAKER_00: Now, from these five, right, these are the grandchildren of George.
SPEAKER_00: From these five, there were 17 great-grandchildren of George McCluskey.
SPEAKER_00: All 17 served in vocational ministry, with the exception of one.
SPEAKER_00: There's one guy who went rogue and he studied psychology.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And even his cousins were like, dude, you know great-grandpa's prayers.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you're messing it up, dude.
SPEAKER_00: But but he had this passion for this relatively new field, and eventually this guy wrote some books.
SPEAKER_00: He started a radio program, and Dr.
SPEAKER_00: James Dobson founded Focus on the Family.
SPEAKER_00: And Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Dobson would talk about, he would credit his great-grandfather's prayers and the impact that it would have had on him.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: There is this understanding of this generational impact that God's commands have on our lives.
SPEAKER_00: There's a prayer in Lamentations, it's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: It says this rise during the night and cry out.
SPEAKER_00: Pour out your hearts like water to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Lift your hands up to pray to him in prayer, pleading for your children.
SPEAKER_00: For in every street they are faint with hunger.
SPEAKER_00: Can I just for a moment speak to just the fathers, just the dads in the room?
SPEAKER_00: And know this you are not secondary in your home.
SPEAKER_00: You don't play a subsidiary or have an auxiliary role in your home.
SPEAKER_00: You are the primary protector and you are the leader of your home.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to start taking these roles seriously in our homes.
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
SPEAKER_00: This billboard is cute.
SPEAKER_00: It says, take time to be a dad today.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, there's a variation of this that I've seen off the 153.
SPEAKER_00: It's a great billboard.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what's kind of sad?
SPEAKER_00: You'll never see this same billboard where it says, take time to be a mom today.
SPEAKER_00: You know why?
SPEAKER_00: Moms don't have to be reminded to be moms.
SPEAKER_00: Us dads do.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to start taking the role in our home seriously.
SPEAKER_00: That we are to lead our families, showing them, demonstrating them, impressing on their hearts to love the Lord their God with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their strength.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll say it to all parents, all parents, including me, including my wife.
SPEAKER_00: You are the primary, you are the primary people to lead your families to know the person and the love of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Don't solely rely on Amber and Samantha and Rachel and our kids' quest team.
SPEAKER_00: Don't solely rely on Josh and John and our Vive Student Ministry team.
SPEAKER_00: You are the primary responsibility to teach your children about the love of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I read this recently, it says this when one generation tolerates a sin, the next generation will celebrate that sin.
SPEAKER_00: And then the generation after that won't know it's a sin anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, do we kind of see how we've gotten there?
SPEAKER_00: That's not the world's problem.
SPEAKER_00: That falls on us as family.
SPEAKER_00: It falls on us as parents, not doing and not being what God has called us to be.
SPEAKER_00: Your children have been entrusted to you by God.
SPEAKER_00: You give an account for them.
SPEAKER_00: I give an account.
SPEAKER_00: Jen and I will give an account for the lives of Connor, Ethan Mason, Brooklyn.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to start taking these roles here.
SPEAKER_00: They have generational, our lives have generational impact on those.
SPEAKER_00: But then finally, what we see here is that there's this eternal foundation that are found in these commandments.
SPEAKER_00: This eternal foundation.
SPEAKER_00: You know, initially, when I when I started working on this message, I really, really thought that this message was just going to be on this one verse, on verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that we would look through how do we love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength.
SPEAKER_00: That's another series, really.
SPEAKER_00: We could spend several weeks on that alone.
SPEAKER_00: But but when we consider the soul, right, love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: The soul refers to our eternal being.
SPEAKER_00: Our souls are the seats of our of our appetites, of our emotions, of our passions.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what's in our soul is what ultimately drives us and motivates us.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, our souls have this endless desires and these infinite desires.
SPEAKER_00: And the desire to both be loved and to love.
SPEAKER_00: And as Christians, as Christians, we have this holy fear.
SPEAKER_00: We have this burning desire that our children would know the love of Jesus Christ so that we could spend eternity with them.
SPEAKER_00: That's our greatest desire.
SPEAKER_00: I had a conversation not too long ago with an old friend of mine, not a believer, but he but he's open to it.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things he kept going back to, he kept going back to the problem in his mind was, okay, if if I follow Jesus, I mean I have to provide for my family.
SPEAKER_00: I need to provide for him.
SPEAKER_00: So if I follow Jesus, like what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: I I can't just give up working.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I can't just not work and like surrender my life to him and not provide for me.
SPEAKER_00: And he kept going back to this idea of providing for his family.
SPEAKER_00: And the truth is, he's a good husband, he's a good dad.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I affirmed him, as a man, that is a good thing to want to provide for your family.
SPEAKER_00: And I also I said, I also want to provide for my family too, but not just here and now.
SPEAKER_00: I want to provide for them into eternity.
SPEAKER_00: It isn't just about here and now.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in 3 John verse 4, it says this I have no greater joy than to know that my children are walking in the truth.
SPEAKER_00: That's the greatest joy.
SPEAKER_00: You notice, it doesn't say, I have no greater joy than knowing my children are successful.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say I have no greater joy than knowing my children make more money than I do.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say I have no greater joy than knowing my kid made the team.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say I have no greater joy in knowing that my children achieved the American dream.
SPEAKER_00: You know, many of you, you've seen this illustration before.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You know, imagine this rope, right?
SPEAKER_00: This rope is your life.
SPEAKER_00: And it just it just goes on and on, right?
SPEAKER_00: And it's just this eternal rope, right?
SPEAKER_00: But but this little red part of the rope, this demonstrates your time here on earth.
SPEAKER_00: This is about 80 years of your life.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We get so focused.
SPEAKER_00: We talk so much to our kids about about this.
SPEAKER_00: We fail to mention all of this.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We get so focused on teaching them or really pushing them to do well so that they can work hard and have a good job and make a lot of money so that they can live comfortably and live the American dream.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, do we really think, for one moment, do we really think that Jesus left his throne in heaven?
SPEAKER_00: He made himself susceptible to all the temptations that we we have yet was without sin.
SPEAKER_00: That he was, he, he, he took on all this baseless criticism and judgment.
SPEAKER_00: He was mocked and he was spit on and he was beaten and he's ultimately crucified.
SPEAKER_00: And then he goes to the grave and he conquers the grave and he conquers death and he imparts that victory to us.
SPEAKER_00: Do we think that he did all of that just so we could live comfortably?
SPEAKER_00: Just so that our kids could achieve the American dream?
SPEAKER_00: There has to be more to this life than just this temporal satisfaction that we are pushing for, that we are trying to teach our kids.
SPEAKER_00: Let your kids, grandparents, let your grandkids hear how much you love Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Let it be impressed on their hearts that above all, before anything else, what you love more than anything is the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_00: Look for those godly attributes and characteristics.
SPEAKER_00: It's not too late.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter how old your children were.
SPEAKER_00: Again, Moses called all of them together.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't just call all the young parents together.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't just say, hey, parents of elementary school people, gather around.
SPEAKER_00: The rest of you, there's no hope for you.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say that.
SPEAKER_00: It's all of God's people.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just give you a preview of a passage that we're gonna be looking at next week.
SPEAKER_00: And I love, I mean, I wish I wish I was teaching for this one too.
SPEAKER_00: It says in Psalm 127, it says this like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one's youth.
SPEAKER_00: Arrows.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, if you're a bow hunter in the room, this is gonna make a lot of sense.
SPEAKER_00: Even if you're not a bow hunter in the room like me, it makes a lot of sense.
SPEAKER_00: No one just points an arrow aimlessly.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We we focus on a target.
SPEAKER_00: We're strategic on how we're finding it.
SPEAKER_00: Again, next week we're gonna be pressing a lot into this.
SPEAKER_00: But but your children, your sons and your daughters, they are your arrows.
SPEAKER_00: We are to point them in the direction in the plans that God has for them.
SPEAKER_00: Pray over your children, pray over your grandchildren.
SPEAKER_00: Pray that they would know God's purpose and God's plans for them.
SPEAKER_00: Don't pray that your kids would know your plans for them.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not interested in my kids knowing what my plans are for them.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know their future.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, one of the ways I oftentimes say, and I think it's on your worship guide there, is do my plans for my kids' lives align with God's design for their lives?
SPEAKER_00: They belong to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: My sons, my daughter, our sons, our daughter, Connor, Ethan, Mason, Brooklyn, they belong to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Before one of their days came to be, God already written them down.
SPEAKER_00: He already ordained them.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know those.
SPEAKER_00: I need to be seeking God on their behalf.
SPEAKER_00: Same thing as grandparents.
SPEAKER_00: We we can be praying over our future grandchildren.
SPEAKER_00: We can be praying over them.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be seeking God's plan, his heart for them.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be praying with them.
SPEAKER_00: We give an account to the Lord for them.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, when you walk out, I forgot to grab one to show up, but when you walk out there in the living room on the back table, our our kids' teams have written some family devotion guides.
SPEAKER_00: We have enough, one per family.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a, if you if you don't read regularly with your children, grab one of those.
SPEAKER_00: Just start reading scripture with your kids.
SPEAKER_00: Start praying over them.
SPEAKER_00: Start praying over your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren.
SPEAKER_00: Let's start praying for a future.
SPEAKER_00: Let's let's actually do the Shema.
SPEAKER_00: Let's do what God's command is.
SPEAKER_00: To love the Lord our God with all our whole heart, with all our soul, with all our strength.
SPEAKER_00: Let's impress this onto our children.
SPEAKER_00: And let's see what happens in our community, in our homes, in these generations beyond us.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna invite you to stand right now.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna respond.
SPEAKER_00: Singing these incredible lyrics of reckless love.
SPEAKER_00: And I want us to pray.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to sing this song over our kids, over our families.
SPEAKER_00: And if there's a way that we can pray with you over your families, maybe there is.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's wayward sons and daughters that we need to be praying for.
SPEAKER_00: We'll have people available for prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray over you, let's pray with you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna pray for us now and then we're gonna respond.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, God, we thank you for the gift of family.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you that you allow us to be a demonstration of your word.
SPEAKER_00: But God, that also comes with a lot of weight.
SPEAKER_00: Comes with this responsibility of this privilege of demonstrating who you are to these sons, to these daughters, to these grandsons, to these granddaughters.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, even for those of us in the room that might not have kids or are alive still have this incredible impact.
SPEAKER_00: The world is watching, these children are watching, these teenagers are watching.
SPEAKER_00: God, let them know that our love for you supersedes anything else.
SPEAKER_00: Because God, what you demonstrated to us is that your love for us is the thing you wanted us to know most.
SPEAKER_00: We love you, we thank you.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Let's respond together.
SPEAKER_00: Come forward, let's pray with you if we need to.