Home Starts Here | Turn Your Heart Toward Home - Deuteronomy 6:1-7 | Travis Jones

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Man, it's good to see all of you sing with you, worship with you, gather together and study God's Word. Um, I'm grateful for you if you're joining us on the app. Thank you for being with us, and I would just welcome you to be a part of this as well. We what could we all, everyone, if you have your Bibles, go ahead and get your Bibles out. You can get a Bible app as well. And I want you to go to the Old Testament. We're gonna be in the book of Deuteronomy, that is the fifth book in the Old Testament. I want you to go to Deuteronomy chapter six, we're gonna be picking up in verse one. And so we're kind of in this short little series on family. It's three weeks we're gonna be doing this, and we're gonna jump into a longer series following this. But um, last week we began, and we began by looking at mothers, the influence of a mother, and we honored mothers. Um, today our focus is going to kind of widen up, widen a little bit from the influence of a mother. Today, we're gonna look at the foundation of the family. And so um, yeah, we're gonna look at family, and um as I look around in this room, I understand we all have family. I mean, um, what do they say? They say, they say you can choose your friends, um, you might can choose a coffee order, you can even maybe choose where you're gonna sit in church, but it's a sovereign God who places you in a family. Come on, man. Family is one of God's great gifts. Now, when I say that, I realize it is a gift that may not always feel like a gift, but it is a gift. A family is one of God's greatest sanctification tools, right? Because nothing reveals your need for Jesus like your family. You know what I'm saying, man? We know that's true, man. Like, you know, we can do this, we can do this today, man. You you come to church, you come to church, and we can all look kind of spiritual in church, right? You can be in the lobby out there and you can smile. We've all been shaking hands, you can hug necks, you can even say, bless you. You can come to church and you can give the appearance as though you have been abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ all week long. But that's here at church, you know. You're gonna leave church and you're gonna go back home and you're gonna be with your family. You walk in the door, and there's a lot of different things that might mess with you, but you can walk in the door, you're gonna look in the sink, you're gonna see there's some dishes that were not washed. Maybe, I don't know, maybe, maybe, maybe someone's turned the thermostat to a degree that you did not think was appropriate. How about this one? This happened in my house, man. You go to the refrigerator and somebody drank the last of the milk, but they put that milk container back in the refrigerator as though they'd never drank anything, you know, man. And then all of a sudden that smile you had maybe at church has disappeared, and you can say, Thank you, family, right? Family does that to you. Family has a way of showing us what is really in our hearts. That is why when God talks about the foundation of a family, and we're gonna be getting into this, he doesn't begin with your family schedule. He's not gonna talk about vacations, rules, and traditions. Those things may matter, but they're not the foundation. God begins with the heart, and that's what we're gonna be looking at in Deuteronomy chapter 6. Now, real quick, just to set up in Deuteronomy to where we're at. Here's what's going on the nation of Israel is preparing to enter the promised land. They're about to receive houses they didn't build, cities they didn't establish, fields they did not plant. I mean, God is preparing them for a great blessing. But the deal is this blessings without a spiritual foundation can become dangerous. They absolutely can, because we all know this. It's possible to have a full house, but have an empty soul, man. And so, God, before Israel enters this promised land, he's going to give them some information, a word about the home. And we're going to see that the home is meant to be a discipleship center. The home is meant to be a place where God is loved, his word is taught, ways, his ways are modeled, his glory is displayed, and we get great joy from all of that. And so, what does God have to say about the foundation of a family? This is important. Deuteronomy 6 gives us the answer. We're going to walk through the seven verses and see what God would teach us about the family. We'll begin this way, chapter 6, verse 1. You can follow along in your outline. First thing I want you to see is build on God's authority. All right? Verse 1. Here's what the word of God says. I'm going to read this verse, then we're just going to walk through it. Here's what it says. Now, this is the commandment, the statutes, and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me. So this is Moses, commanded me, Moses, to teach you the people of God, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it. Now that's the blessing. You got word of God to the people of God for the purpose of a blessing. Now notice it starts with God's authority. It's based in God's authority. Moses says, this is the commandment. That word matters. It matters, man. It lets us know. It lets them know. This isn't a suggestion. This isn't something for you to, I don't know, maybe consider. He doesn't say, this is good advice if it fits your particular liking or life style. No, Moses says this is the commandment. Let's talk about the word commandment in just a moment, because I understand this. This is true for me, and I think it's true for all of us. The natural ear does not like to hear the word commandment. My flesh doesn't like that. As soon as I get a command, as soon as someone tells me something that I don't know, men, I want to, the flesh wants to kick back against it. The flesh, know this church. The flesh doesn't like to be told what to do. But I don't want us to be that way. I want us to understand, we can take this all the way to the New Testament, but once again, it's all over the Old Testament. We're going to get into this in a minute. But in John chapter 10, verse 10, Jesus says this, and this is important when it comes to the commands of God. He says, the thief, which is Satan, he comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus says, I came. God in the flesh says, I came, that you may have life, but not only life, and have it abundantly. Now you think about that. That means every command in the Bible, every statue, every rule that you're going to find in the Bible is given to us by God for two purposes, really. Bring Him glory and give us the abundant life. You got to understand that. Every rule, every statue, everything you see in the Bible giving you a command is from God to lead you to the abundant life. Moses is saying, this is what leads to God's glory. This is what leads to your good. Now you may not see it, but you can be reading the Word of God. Now the Word of God says things. I'm like, man, I don't know about that. But I got to go back to what Jesus says. Got to go back to what God says really in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, Deuteronomy being number five. This is where your joy is found. This is where the abundant life is found. If you want to navigate your life in a manner that leads to the abundant life, do these things. There's no need to push back against it, right? So you begin with the authority of God. Now, when it comes to the home, we should all know this, I think we do. Every house is built on some authority. It absolutely is. Some homes are built on the authority of, maybe you've been in these homes, feelings. You know, like feelings are what dominate. That is what everything yields to. We're going to yield to the feelings of the people in the home. Some homes yield to the authority of culture, right? Culture says follow your heart. Culture says joy is found here. Joy is this direction. And so we yield to that. We follow that. Some homes will yield to maybe achievement, you know. And so you're always trying to do, man. You want success, you want trophies, you want grades, but that's a terrible foundation. God says, the commandment, this is what you build a home on. This is what you build a family on, the statutes and the rules. That's the foundation. The world word commandment points to God's authority. Rules. You get statutes and rules. That's instruction. So just to be clear here, God's not speaking vaguely. He's not under some, I'll know, mist, smoke, and mirrors. He's being very direct. God is speaking to his people, right? He's telling us, this is how you live, this is how you walk, this is how you order things. You live under him, and it leads to the abundant life. So we begin with this. Now watch this. Look what it says. That the Lord, follow along in the text, that the Lord your God may what? Teach you. Teach you, that's the people of God. That the Lord your God may instruct you. So you can follow the flow here. You get this flow. There's a principle here, and I'm gonna work it out. Moses is not the source of truth. I mean, he's speaking here. He's not the source of truth. Moses is the messenger of truth. So his assignment was to teach what God command meant. Now he commanded. So now here's the principle. And this is a principle for all of us and all of our home, for every parent, every grandparent, every son, every daughter, right? We do not create the truth for the next generation, right? We by God's grace receive God's truth. Check it out. Then we submit to it ourselves. There's an order here. Receive, submit, then you model it, then after you've done that, you teach it faithfully. You get it? You got it? You got it? Receive it, submit to it personally, then you model it to those around you, and then you teach it, right? And this can work out in so many different ways, right? Families do not need parents who are trendy first. We need families and parents who are faithful first, right? Receive, submit, model, teach. A home does not, listen, a home does not need the word of God as a decoration. There's nothing wrong with that. That's not what we need. We need it as a foundation. There's nothing wrong with putting scripture on the walls, but I'm telling you, right? I talked about this a while ago. I was thinking about it, even in the Old Testament, you get the Ten Commandments. And we can paste, we can, we can wallpaper this room in the Ten Commandments, but it does not necessarily mean that we're obeying them. It's got to be here, right? Scripture on the wall cannot replace Scripture ruling the heart. Receive, personally submit it, submit to it, model to those around you, and then teach it. And this is for me, man. And I think about this and I'm walking through this, right? We must allow the word of God to govern how we relate to each other, how we speak to one another, how we forgive one another, how we prioritize, right? And I want to say something here. I want to say something. I want to say something. I want to say something to the husbands and the fathers for a quick moment. All right. It might be a little bit of a hot take, but I gotta tell you this. When the Lord saved me, and I started hanging out with Christians and going to Christian homes, and they're lovely. They're lovely. But I noticed something happening relatively more than I thought would happen. I would go into the homes of some families, we're talking about the husband, the father, and somehow they were really big on the word submit, but it wasn't self-submission. It was, hey, everybody in this house ought to submit to me. And it was kind of this heavy-handedness. That's not what the word of God is teaching here. And I would say this to every husband, every father, and you can text me, you should all have my phone number, you can call me. I don't care if you disagree, we can talk about this. But if your wife and your children do not feel valued, esteemed, and loved and saved and prioritized by you. Husbands, if you speak harshly to them, you are not being governed by the word of God. You're not. You're not. That's my opinion. That's not my opinion. It's the word of God. Once again, if you have a problem with what I'm saying, please call and text me. I will take the rebuke. I will take it. But I've seen many fathers heavy-handed on this word, submit, but they don't mean I'm going to submit. They mean the rest of the house going to submit, right? No, you receive it, you submit to it, you model it, and you teach it, right? You want that to be what's governing you personally and your household. All right. Then Moses said, we'll keep moving. I was like, I don't know, rabbit. I don't know, man. Maybe you've experienced that too. Then Moses says, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it. All right, so you got Israel standing on the edge of a blessing. Now God's going to bring them to the promised land, but before God says, I bring you to the promised land, I want you to know that the authority is me. The house has to be under my authority. Why? Because blessings without biblical authority can be dangerous, man. You can get all sorts of blessings, but if you're not submitted to God, that blessing then becomes, can become a stumbling block, right? I mean, it is possible to have a bigger house and a weaker home, right? You can fill your calendars up. Dude, I saw this morning, I was looking, all the things that were going on in our city today, I saw a list. It's a lot of things, and I'm sure they're all wonderful things, and you can go to all of them. You can go to all of them. But because just because you have a full calendar, it doesn't mean you're going to have a full heart. Don't mean you're going to be loving the Lord. Don't believe, don't mean that you're building your house on God. So before Israel steps into what God has given them, he reminds them who has the authority. The foundation of a family must be built under the authority of God. Not culture, not performance, not based upon what everybody else may or may not be doing. That is where joy is found. The abundant life is found in that. The question for my home, the question for your home. Who has authority here? Right? Does culture have the authority? What do you do here? What do you do here? When culture is pushing this way and scripture is pushing this way, who do you yield to? Who do I yield to? We are to yield to the word of God, what God has said. That is where the abundant life comes. Keep moving, verse two. Next thing we're going to see, walk in godly reverence. Let me read verse two. That you may fear the Lord your God. This is beautiful. You and your son, and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which give him glory, bring me joy, which I command you all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. All right, we can break this down. It begins here, it says, that you may fear the Lord your God. What is this fear? What does that mean? It means it means reverence. It means God should have the place of awe in your house. It's this what I would call holy seriousness, right? It means that God is not to be treated casually in your home, right? And you know this. You've been in different, we all go in different homes, man. You've been in different homes. Every home, every home has a certain tone, right? Homes have tones, right? Some homes are marked. Some homes are marked by fear of people. You know that. You go in there and everybody's trying not to make one person mad, you know? That's a tone, man. Some are marked once again by fear of failure. You know, everybody's trying to perform. It's easy to see that tone in a house. And once again, some tones are, some homes are marked by the, you know this, dude. Either they're marked by, they're marked by the calendar, man. The calendars, you know, the calendar, calendar, calendar's the master. That's the master, man, and that's just the tone in the house. But Moses says the home of God's people should be marked by this reverence, awe, fear of God. The Lord God is to be the tone in our homes, man. It means God carries, God carries weight in the home, man. He's a weight. Wait. His words matter in the home, his presence matters in a home, his commands matter, right? And when the Lord is rightly revered, if he brings awe, if he is feared in this way, the family will be ordered correctly, right? And then get to that. I love that. I love this. It's special. Look, you do this, and who is it for? Where does the blessing flow? He says, he goes, it's gone. You're gonna be blessed? Oh, you're gonna be blessed. Not only that, your son, your son, daughters, they're gonna be blessed. Not only that, your sons, sons are gonna be blessed too. Well, that's a lot of that's three, four. I don't know math. Point is, point is this, dude. Point is this, man. God is thinking generationally, and you see that. Parents and grandparents, we're not just raising children, we're shaping a legacy, and you do these things. I've seen this. What you normalize in your home will become what they inherit. What you excuse in your home, they will later embrace what we worship, they chase. I love that. What you worship, they chase, man. They're always, they're always, children are always, children are always, they may not listen to your words, but they're always noticing what you love. I've noticed this, I've noticed this whole kind of thing when it comes to say sports or sports teams. I've seen this, right? Um so I've I meet people and I talk to people, and I've run into people, there's some people they love baseball. It's crazy about baseball. And I've asked them, I've asked them, you know, where did you get this great love for baseball? Whatever sport it might be, many of them will say something like this you know, I grew up watching baseball. My dad watched baseball. We spent time together at the baseball field, man. It's just part of who I am. And when I hear that, I think that's beautiful. That is absolutely beautiful, okay? But my desire, our desire is. Is to have the exact same thing said, but about God, right? We want that generational impact, right? When our children, our grandchildren, we want to say, I grew up reading the word of God. You know, I saw my dad, I saw my mom reading the word of God. You know, we went to church together and we worshiped together, man, and it was some great times, and I worshiped Jesus, and I saw that they loved the Lord. I saw that they yielded to the Lord. And I'm telling you right now, that's just who I am. I'm that because God saved me, but I'm that because, man, I saw it modeled and I seen it, man, and it is just a part of who I am. I want me, my son, my son, son. I don't even know. I ain't gonna, I don't know, maybe I'll live a long time, man, but I don't know if I'm gonna see some, you know, great, great grandson. But my prayer today is that one, man, that man, that young woman, man, they're gonna love Jesus, and it's just going to be a part of who we are because we're modeling it in the home. That's not to mean that obedient families will never have problems, man. You know, I don't know about your home, but my home, my home is full of a bunch of sinners, you know. And and and you know, sinners, you know, I'm the chief of them, man. I'll tell you that, dude. Every home has problems, and we work through them. They can get messy, and it's hard. Every home needs grace, but God is saying this way leads to life. This is where the abundant life is found. Verse 3. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful. Ooh, that's a good word. 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. So much goodness just dripping off that verse, church. So look, hear therefore, O Israel. That means receive and respond. He says, be careful to do them. When he says, be careful to do them, that means there's gonna be a tendency not to do them. That's what that means, man. Our our fleshly tendency is not to do what we have just been commanded to do. So we need to be careful, right? You don't drift into a God-honoring home. No parent wakes up and says, Look at this, we just accidentally built a godly home. It don't happen that way. Moses says, You gotta be careful. Church, you gotta be careful. Be intentional. Why? That it may go good, go well with you. That's that's why. That you may multiply greatly. Look, I'm telling you, that's Old Testament. That's chapter five, that's that's that's that's book number five. That's that in the Old Testament. But that is connecting. You could do it, you could do a you could do a direct line straight to John 10, 10. That's exactly what it says. This is where the abundant life is found. You do this, you get the abundant life. God is not trying to rob joy from you. He's not trying to rob joy from your home. He's showing us, do these things, right? Set the tone. The foundation is Jesus. Set the tone. Father, speak kindly, be loving, you know. Repent when repentance needs repenting, model that, show that, right? Where you got a house full of sinners, I know that Christ died on the cross for them. We're gonna work that out on this side of heaven. I'm telling you right now, man, do these things. That is where the abundant life is found, right? These commands are not prison bars. They're guardrails, you know? Think about guardrails. Guardrails don't keep you off the road, they keep you out in the ditch. That's what it is, man. And Moses says, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you. That's my king right there. That's my God. He made a promise. You do these things, these things follow, man. The God who commands is the God who gives promises. So build your house in godly fear. Let your children see that God's not an accessory, man. He's got authority in the house. Go to verse 4. We'll see this next. He's gonna say, Love God above all. Yeah, come on. Verse 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord one. One. Love that. I think in Hebrew it's like a khad. This is no benefit to you, but um you guys know this. Um I speak Swahili and we were in Africa for a minute, and I remember um reading that, and it's um wana n D A. The word for one is moja, but in the in Swahili you get this double M meaning the intensity, the singularity. I just love it. The singularity in nature, the singularity in worth, your Lord God Almighty is moja. Man, I I I I love it, man. It means a lot of things. Means a lot of things. It's very textured here. You know, the confession is called the Shema. You get that from the Hebrew word to hear. The Lord your God is one. One. He's saying, listen to this deeply, Moses is. You can do this for your home too. Listen to this deeply. Before you enter the land, before you build your homes, before you raise your children, before you enjoy the blessing, you gotta know who God is. And God is Moja. He's one. Singularity. He is one in essence, man. And you can build this out, but it means in part, it means he's not an option among many, you know? He's not to be an influence among many, right? He's the one true God. And because he is the one true God, he deserves what? The whole heart. He don't deserve nothing less, man. You get the whole heart. Our Lord, God Almighty, sovereign of the universe, creator of all things, the giver of life, breath, heartbeat, everything that you enjoy. Know this, he is one. There is no other. There is no next another way to be made right with him, other than Jesus Christ, and he deserves, he deserves it all. Anything less is subpar. You know what I'm saying? That's why verse 5 says this. Check it out. Jesus says the same thing. You shall love the Lord your God with what? All your heart. He's one. And with all your soul, and with what all your might. Once again, we could hyperlink that to the New Testament. Jesus said, Jesus said, when asked, what is the greatest commandment? This was one of the two, right? Right? That's it, man. That's it, man. You notice the order, man, but before God tells his parents to teach, that's gonna be found in verse 7. He goes, before you teach them, I want you to love him. I want you to love him. You've got to love your God because that is foundational. Man, we ain't trying. I ain't, listen, we're not, my goal is not to raise just simply obedient children, man. I've met, dude, I've met, I've been in a lot of places, man. I've met a lot of lovely people, got a lot of lovely children, and none of them love Jesus at all. So behavior modification cannot be the end goal. That's not the end goal. The end goal for me, myself, the end goal for my children is this. I want them to love God. I want them to love God, man. God's after the heart, man. You can have a kid, you can have a kid that knows how to behave, but doesn't know how to worship Moja, God, one God, the supreme God in character, in nature, in importance. Love him with all your heart, all your affection. Love him with your soul. That's the deepest part of you. Love him with all of your might. That's your energy, your strength, your reasons. Every one of you have been entrusted with the gift by God to serve this body to build it up for his glory, right? Your decisions. You know that calendar, that calendar, that calendar's his calendar. Yeah, listen, I'll tell you, you know it's his calendar because he's the one who gives you every single day, even to live it. He has authority over your calendar, man. He's got authority over your priorities. The truth is, you can't pass down what you don't possess. If you ain't got love for the Lord, how you gonna possess, how you gonna pass it down? Right, right, right, right. God wants families that love him. Come on. Yeah, you guys just balled an extra 20 minutes of preaching. Oh man. Let's get to verse six. Teach God's word daily, and these words that I command you for his glory and your good, you today shall be on your heart. I feel like it's a little repetition, repetitious, but we need it, and that's why God did it. But notice where the word must land first. Not on the wall, not on the coffee mug, not on the t-shirt, not on the decorative pillow that you buy at Hobby Lobby. They can land there, but not first. First, it lands in your heart. God's word must be here. I'll tell you this, man. If it's not here, how's it going to flow out here? It can't. It's an impossibility, right, man? Like if it if it's not flowing here, if it's not here, it can't flow out. So before you teach the next generation, you must receive it personally. That means family, this is what I think it means. It means family discipleship starts with personal devotion. You can't lead your family, you can't lead your family from a dry well, man. You can't teach them what you don't know. They're not you can't do it, man. You cannot model a word-shaped life if you're not digesting it. Verse 7 You shall teach them a beautiful word, diligently. Diligently to your children. And you 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. Okay, let's go back to the word diligently. That's a key word, man. Once again, it means this is not accidental. You gotta be intentional. It's gotta be repeated, it's gotta be steady, it's gotta be faithful. No one accidentally once again disciples their family. Yes, I can't accidentally leave, you know, the wet clothes in the dryer. I've done that, man. I can I've done this. I've accidentally bought another jar of hot sauce at the store because I just forgot we got three already in the pantry. I can accidentally do that. Well, I tell you this right now. I will not accidentally tell my son, my daughter, about Jesus. I will not accidentally build a home based on the word of God. You gotta go this word diligently. I gotta diligently do that. All right, all right, I gotta be diligent about it. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. When? When should I be diligent? Look what it says. When you sit down, when you sit, when you walk, when you lie down, when you rise up. That's all time. There is no time not included in the diligent right here, man. In the table, at the table in the car, man, bedtime, morning, victory, failure. Look, hey, it means it means when you're eating tacos, even that time. There is not a time that on our lips we're supposed to be talking about in some form or fashion the glory, the goodness, the kindness of Jesus Christ, right? God is saying, do not separate me from the normal moments of your family life, right? All the time, man. So build your home through God's word in the ordinary spaces. The strongest homes are not built by accident. You gotta be diligent. Gotta be diligent. All right. So, foundation of the family. There's a lot there, dude. Deuteronomy 6 reminds us there's so much, right? The foundation of the home is not found in the size of your house. It's not found in the obedience of your children, it's not found in the fullness of a calendar, it's not found in the beauty of maybe pictures on the walls. The foundation of the home must be the living God. The good news is you don't have to have a perfect home. Not asking for a perfect home. If so, none of us would qualify, dude. Ain't none of you got a perfect home. You know what I'm saying? I don't. But he is asking us to have surrendered homes. If we build our homes on this, we will find in it the abundant life. God will get the glory. Maybe the first step for some of us is not trying to fix our family. Maybe it's found in fixing ourselves. Maybe the first step is if you're here today, I don't know. Maybe you're not yielded to the Lord. Maybe you've been walking, maybe you speak harshly to your family. Maybe you try to, I don't know, manage by flexing. Maybe today is a day you need to turn, repent, and turn to the Lord. Let's stop asking God to bless our families while we try to build it in our own way. Let us let Him rule the family. And I'm telling you, the blessings will follow. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for these seven verses that remind us about the foundation of the home. I fall short. My prayer, our prayer, is that we would be a people who base our home on the Word of God. That we receive it, that we're obedient and submit to it, that we model it and we teach it in love. I pray you bless our homes. I pray you bless our families. I pray all this for your glory and for our joy and the good of the nations. We ask this in Christ's name, our Savior. Amen.