WEBVTT 00:00:04.639 --> 00:00:10.320 So the first sermon in this series, we looked at an overview of Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 9. 00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:13.679 And this is the kind of crux of this sermon series. 00:00:13.919 --> 00:00:22.320 Understanding the first part of this Shema, what we talked about last week in that verses uh four and five is the greatest command. 00:00:22.559 --> 00:00:29.120 And we see this revelation that God gave to Israel of who he is, what he's about, and then the command that followed it. 00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:30.480 So here's God. 00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:37.520 He says that I am the Lord, I am one, and you shall love me with all your heart, soul, and strength. 00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:38.399 So we looked at that. 00:00:38.479 --> 00:00:44.799 Now this week we're gonna look at the second part of the command because usually what happens is we leave it there. 00:00:45.039 --> 00:00:46.719 What is the greatest command in Scripture? 00:00:46.880 --> 00:00:49.439 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul. 00:00:49.520 --> 00:00:52.880 If you're reading New Testament, Jesus, mind and strength, right? 00:00:52.960 --> 00:00:56.159 They add mind in the New Testament as they're teaching them. 00:00:56.240 --> 00:00:57.439 But the principle stays the same. 00:00:57.520 --> 00:00:58.719 That's the greatest commandment. 00:00:58.880 --> 00:01:05.439 But there's this whole section that follows the greatest commandment here in Deuteronomy that we tend to pass over. 00:01:05.599 --> 00:01:14.000 And when we look at what does it mean to love God with all of our heart, soul, and strength, we typically come at it from a personal point of view, right? 00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:16.959 We come at it from what does that mean for me? 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:24.959 And so we start to filter our understanding of what it means to love God through our own experience or through this sense of individualism. 00:01:25.120 --> 00:01:28.560 Well, this is how I love God with all my heart, soul, and strength. 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:31.200 However, that's not the end of the command. 00:01:31.359 --> 00:01:48.319 The command actually continues throughout the remaining verses that we're going to cover to where it's not just about how will you love God, but it is imperative and tethered to how will you also teach others to do the same, specifically in your family. 00:01:48.480 --> 00:01:51.200 And so that's what we're looking at through family discipleship. 00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:54.239 And this morning we're in six through seven. 00:01:54.480 --> 00:02:06.959 So if we were looking at verse six, and we were just trying to summarize that itself, we'd say say this that to know God and to love him must be held tight before it can be handed down. 00:02:07.200 --> 00:02:12.960 To know God and to love him must be held tight before it can be handed down. 00:02:13.120 --> 00:02:16.719 He says this in these words that I command you today. 00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:18.800 So what are what are those words? 00:02:19.199 --> 00:02:21.759 Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:24.800 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. 00:02:25.039 --> 00:02:30.800 That, these words shall be on your heart. 00:02:31.439 --> 00:02:35.039 When I read through this verse, what came to mind was kind of like a locket. 00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:37.520 Anybody ever have a locket, right? 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:38.879 Any dudes have a locket? 00:02:39.120 --> 00:02:40.159 I had a lo, it's cool. 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:41.199 I had a locket. 00:02:41.919 --> 00:02:42.479 No one? 00:02:42.639 --> 00:02:42.960 All right. 00:02:43.039 --> 00:02:47.680 You guess you guys just don't love as hard as I do, is probably what the problem is. 00:02:47.840 --> 00:02:49.759 Um I'm a I'm a hard lover. 00:02:49.919 --> 00:02:53.199 Not a hard person to love, but a person who loves hard. 00:02:53.360 --> 00:02:55.360 Uh and so I had a locket, right? 00:02:55.439 --> 00:02:58.800 And I know family members have had lockets, but what do we do with lockets, right? 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:05.360 Sometimes they're in the shape of a heart, or they might be in some other type of shape, but we put pictures in there of people that we love. 00:03:05.520 --> 00:03:12.639 It's our kind of tangible way of putting things on our heart, putting people on our heart. 00:03:12.800 --> 00:03:22.159 We place pictures of our loved ones near our hearts to symbolize that they're dear to us, held tight, never to depart from us. 00:03:22.639 --> 00:03:26.080 You see, that's what the Lord is kind of instructing us to do. 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:27.199 He's revealed himself. 00:03:27.439 --> 00:03:28.319 This is who I am. 00:03:28.479 --> 00:03:38.800 I'm the Lord your God, the one, the one who will never stop loving you, the one who is committed with his own steadfast love to never give up on you or fail you. 00:03:38.960 --> 00:03:44.479 I'm the one who loves you more than you'll ever be able to love me in return. 00:03:45.120 --> 00:03:49.439 But you are to love me with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all your strength. 00:03:49.520 --> 00:03:55.439 And so to place these words on our heart is kind of like taking this cosmic locket, right? 00:03:55.520 --> 00:04:04.960 And putting God's word of who he is and how he's told us to respond to who he is through loving him and binding it to our heart so that it never departs from us. 00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:10.639 This symbolism of that is always with us, always dear to us. 00:04:12.560 --> 00:04:22.160 You see, what's interesting about this verse too and verse six is he doesn't just instruct us to put it on our heart, or he instructs us to put it on our heart, these commands. 00:04:22.319 --> 00:04:33.040 But what that really says to us is that we have to first and foremost be a disciple ourselves if we're ever going to disciple our families. 00:04:33.279 --> 00:04:38.800 You see, the very first principle about family discipleship is to be a disciple yourself. 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:44.079 We will not hand down what we have failed to hold tight. 00:04:45.759 --> 00:04:49.120 We will not hand down what we have failed to hold tight. 00:04:49.279 --> 00:05:03.600 This has got to be the driving force about family discipleship is that you, especially men in your household, you have to set the tone for what it looks like to love God and to know Him intimately. 00:05:03.759 --> 00:05:08.160 If you don't do that, you by and large, it's not going to be picked up on the other end. 00:05:08.240 --> 00:05:34.399 Or here's what we've seen historically, and you might like this, you might not like this, uh, what I have to say, but the reality is that Christianity has become so effeminate because men have failed to take up the responsibility of loving Jesus and knowing him intimately, then teaching their families to do so, that the women, the wives, have had to pick up the slack of what the men were supposed to carry, and they were the ones that ended up discipling the wives. 00:05:34.480 --> 00:05:43.920 So if we look at the effemination of Christianity in the church, we first men have to look at us and how we failed to take up our end of the responsibility. 00:05:45.759 --> 00:05:52.639 You see, if we are going to disciple our families, men, we have to be disciples ourselves. 00:05:55.839 --> 00:06:00.160 And the reality is that we have this inerrantly within us, right? 00:06:00.319 --> 00:06:05.839 This love for something that then influences, shapes, and informs the rest of your household. 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:11.439 And I can tell you, I can spend any amount of time with you, and I can tell you what you love. 00:06:11.759 --> 00:06:15.920 I can see it simply by looking at your life. 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:17.839 Where do you spend your money? 00:06:18.959 --> 00:06:20.639 Where do you spend your time? 00:06:21.920 --> 00:06:24.319 What do you talk about constantly? 00:06:25.040 --> 00:06:27.199 What are your kids excited about? 00:06:28.160 --> 00:06:32.160 You see, you set the tone for all those things in the way that you just simply live your life. 00:06:32.240 --> 00:06:44.079 And that's what we're gonna see here in the text is that discipleship, family discipleship is not supposed to happen in such formality, but it's happening in the everyday, ordinary life of believers. 00:06:45.920 --> 00:06:49.279 So God's word is to be on our heart. 00:06:50.959 --> 00:06:55.680 But we often allow lesser things to take its place. 00:06:56.319 --> 00:06:58.480 And this is a reality for us. 00:06:58.879 --> 00:07:15.519 Our hearts are going to continually search after other loves that seem to be more tangible, more realistic, more approachable, because we treat God like He's some distant being who really isn't engaged with the everyday reality of our life. 00:07:16.079 --> 00:07:19.680 You see, you can see it in the way that when you get afraid, what do you call out for? 00:07:19.839 --> 00:07:20.480 What do you turn to? 00:07:20.639 --> 00:07:22.399 When you're worried, when you're nervous, right? 00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:23.680 When you get sick. 00:07:23.920 --> 00:07:35.439 Often in our life, God is a last ditch effort, some Hail Mary that we throw off in the distance when we can't use our own resources around us to accomplish what we actually desire. 00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:41.680 But we're supposed to have God on our heart. 00:07:42.720 --> 00:07:45.680 And when we think about how do we place something on our heart, right? 00:07:45.759 --> 00:07:54.319 So sometimes in biblical language or in Christianity, we can use these words that have really no meaning, but they sound great, like pouring into someone else. 00:07:54.480 --> 00:07:57.519 First off, please don't pour yourself into another person. 00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:00.639 Whatever that means, let's just drop that from Christianity. 00:08:00.800 --> 00:08:02.319 I poured myself out for that. 00:08:02.720 --> 00:08:05.040 I get it, kind of some measure, but we can cut that one out. 00:08:05.120 --> 00:08:12.560 I think there's a couple other Christianese type phrases that we can probably cut out, lay aside, because they don't really make sense, but they sound really nice, right? 00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:15.600 This is one that can kind of sound a little bit confusing. 00:08:15.759 --> 00:08:16.959 Put this on your heart. 00:08:17.120 --> 00:08:20.319 Well, how would I work forward to do that? 00:08:20.639 --> 00:08:21.920 Well, think about this. 00:08:22.160 --> 00:08:24.000 We simply take it in. 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:25.279 That's step one. 00:08:25.439 --> 00:08:26.879 How do we place something on our heart? 00:08:27.040 --> 00:08:27.759 We take it in. 00:08:27.839 --> 00:08:33.200 It's something that we consume, we absorb, we read, we watch, we listen to. 00:08:33.360 --> 00:08:37.600 We have to first take it in before it's ever placed upon our heart. 00:08:38.320 --> 00:08:47.360 And then it's something we meditate on, something we think about, something we ponder, something that we actually bring up throughout the day. 00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:49.600 And we reminisce about it. 00:08:50.639 --> 00:08:52.799 You see, this is how we put something on our heart. 00:08:52.879 --> 00:08:57.840 Think about you and if you're if you're married, think about when you guys first were dating, right? 00:08:58.159 --> 00:09:01.679 When you guys were first dating, you talked to one another. 00:09:02.240 --> 00:09:08.080 You you engaged with one another, you listened to one another, maybe you wrote notes and read them from one another, right? 00:09:08.159 --> 00:09:10.559 And then you meditated on them throughout the day. 00:09:10.639 --> 00:09:18.799 You thought about, you reminisced about the dates you had, the moments you had, and you looked and longed for the future time when you would be back together again. 00:09:19.039 --> 00:09:21.519 This person was on your heart. 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:29.279 And that's something that we have to do with God is we have to continually put them in look, look, this is a reality too for us as we're married. 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:32.480 That fight to keep them on our heart, right? 00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:39.679 That fight to have them be on our heart in the ways that they were when we were pursuing one another, that's challenging. 00:09:39.919 --> 00:09:45.519 Because in relationship with us as human beings, we simply just kind of get content. 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:47.519 This just becomes the new normal. 00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:58.960 It's expectations are set, and then we don't really appreciate one another in all the ways that we're supposed to, or we don't look for, we actually look for ways to like hide from one another instead of engage with one another. 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:00.639 Nobody else does that? 00:10:00.879 --> 00:10:01.759 That's cool. 00:10:01.919 --> 00:10:05.039 Um, but uh but this happens, right? 00:10:05.360 --> 00:10:08.480 And so how do we put something on our heart? 00:10:08.639 --> 00:10:12.159 We take it in, we meditate on it, we reminisce about it. 00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:14.639 How do we know when it's on our heart? 00:10:14.960 --> 00:10:17.440 Well, we think about it continually. 00:10:18.960 --> 00:10:21.440 We talk about it constantly. 00:10:21.840 --> 00:10:34.000 I know exactly what you're excited about, I know what you love, I know what's on your heart with every conversation that I have with you and that you have with me because it's what comes out of our mouth. 00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:40.720 What we take in and consume will come out of us one way or another. 00:10:42.240 --> 00:10:51.120 Verse 7 we see, you shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk with them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise. 00:10:51.279 --> 00:10:58.639 If I was to summarize verse seven, it would be that the rhythms of our lives must be centered on teaching our family to know and love God. 00:10:59.039 --> 00:11:04.559 The rhythms of our lives must be centered on teaching our family to know and love God. 00:11:05.200 --> 00:11:07.200 Here's the reality of the situation. 00:11:07.519 --> 00:11:11.120 Your life is centered on something. 00:11:11.679 --> 00:11:13.679 The question is, what is it? 00:11:14.720 --> 00:11:23.440 You see, for me, my life gets centered on something that I'm passionate about, something I have a lot of excitement or zeal about. 00:11:24.159 --> 00:11:24.799 Here's a situation. 00:11:25.200 --> 00:11:30.240 I could have picked a plethora of ones, but I picked uh my infatuation with guitar pedals. 00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:38.080 There was a season, quite long season, uh, where I was a worship leader on staff and I was getting into guitar pedals. 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:47.919 And here's the thing: I was consuming, I was learning everything I could about guitar pedals, how they worked, the electronics in them, which ones were better than others and why. 00:11:48.159 --> 00:11:51.519 I was joining Facebook groups to try and learn more about it. 00:11:51.679 --> 00:11:59.120 I was looking up wiring schematics, like I had any type of education on what to read and what this actually meant, but I didn't buy a work. 00:11:59.279 --> 00:12:02.000 I got to the point where I tried to build my own guitar pedals. 00:12:02.159 --> 00:12:11.840 I was down in the basement with soldering irons and cables and chipboards, burning stuff, ruining stuff, spending tons of money that I didn't have just so I could fail, right? 00:12:11.919 --> 00:12:13.120 That was kind of my whole thing. 00:12:13.200 --> 00:12:16.080 And I was constantly buying and selling guitar pedals. 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:18.720 It was the center of my life. 00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:22.559 If you talk to me, I wanted to talk about this new guitar pedal that I found. 00:12:22.639 --> 00:12:26.480 And then I influenced all my friends to spend their money on guitar pedals, right? 00:12:26.639 --> 00:12:29.279 Because they wanted to be excited as I was about something. 00:12:29.360 --> 00:12:32.320 It was this contagious zeal that I had. 00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:36.320 My life was centered on that. 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:41.840 You see, our lives are constantly centered on something. 00:12:42.559 --> 00:12:44.960 We have to at work to answer what? 00:12:46.960 --> 00:12:49.840 What does the rhythms of your life revolve around? 00:12:51.440 --> 00:12:52.240 Think about that. 00:12:52.399 --> 00:12:55.039 When you think about your day, right? 00:12:55.120 --> 00:13:07.200 When you're looking at things on your phone or you're Googling something on your laptop or you're trying to read an article or you're having a conversation, what's some things that the rhythms of your life revolve around? 00:13:08.159 --> 00:13:09.120 Here's another one. 00:13:09.279 --> 00:13:12.240 What do you creatively find ways to engage in? 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:19.600 Don't act like you don't try to like take longer in the bathroom so that you can scroll and look for certain things, right? 00:13:19.759 --> 00:13:22.799 Till your legs fall asleep, and that's never happened to anybody. 00:13:22.960 --> 00:13:23.600 Yeah. 00:13:24.080 --> 00:13:24.399 Right? 00:13:24.480 --> 00:13:34.159 Or you like hide in bed for a little bit longer so that no one else comes and bothers you so that you can look up that one thing that you've been thinking about all day long? 00:13:34.639 --> 00:13:43.600 Or what kind of loopholes throughout your work or throughout your day do you try to find so that you can engage in something else than what you're in right now? 00:13:44.720 --> 00:13:46.240 You see, we get really creative. 00:13:46.320 --> 00:13:51.440 When we want something bad enough, we get really creative to discover ways that we can engage in it. 00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:56.720 When I'm at my creative peak, is when I'm trying to figure out how not to work. 00:13:56.960 --> 00:14:01.519 I I labor in figuring out ways to not work anymore. 00:14:01.679 --> 00:14:03.759 It's very, it's very creative of me. 00:14:03.919 --> 00:14:06.960 I think that I'm quite good at it at times. 00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:11.039 What is your center? 00:14:12.960 --> 00:14:14.240 What is your center? 00:14:14.399 --> 00:14:20.720 And I'm trying to communicate to us that what God is saying our center must be is Himself. 00:14:23.440 --> 00:14:27.440 Our lives should be centered around Him. 00:14:29.279 --> 00:14:34.159 But also in this text, what we see in verse 7 is this reality of you to your. 00:14:35.039 --> 00:14:41.600 He says, verse 7, you shall teach them diligently to your children. 00:14:41.840 --> 00:14:47.279 There is no one else who bears the responsibility to disciple your family. 00:14:47.600 --> 00:14:48.240 No one. 00:14:49.279 --> 00:15:01.679 The way that God created the family, the way that He commanded the family to live in the which He's designed them, is He said to them, You are to teach them diligently to your children. 00:15:01.919 --> 00:15:20.799 This you to your paradigm that we see here in the text means that we as fathers, we as men have a primary responsibility, not just to know and love God, not just to bind that on our hearts, but to hand it down to our very families. 00:15:21.360 --> 00:15:26.159 That is our responsibility that no one else can take the place of. 00:15:27.120 --> 00:15:28.720 We have to pick that up. 00:15:28.879 --> 00:15:31.200 We have to bear that with joy. 00:15:32.320 --> 00:15:39.200 The commands of God to know and love Him in response are to be diligently taught to our family. 00:15:40.159 --> 00:15:41.200 What does that mean? 00:15:41.279 --> 00:15:43.519 What is this diligently that God talks about? 00:15:43.679 --> 00:15:49.360 Well, when we look at the word diligence, it's characterized by three primary things. 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:56.159 Diligence is characterized by a steady, earnest and energetic effort. 00:15:57.279 --> 00:16:00.559 Steady, earnest and energetic effort. 00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:02.960 Let's look at number one, steady. 00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:15.440 So you, speaking to parents, speaking to those who are listening to the commands of God being declared over them, shall teach them diligently to your children. 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:20.480 So diligence, number one, steady, consistent labor without immediate reward. 00:16:20.799 --> 00:16:22.080 What does steady mean? 00:16:22.399 --> 00:16:25.519 Consistent labor without immediate reward. 00:16:25.679 --> 00:16:30.879 We live in such a self-gratification, gratify me now type of culture. 00:16:31.039 --> 00:16:33.279 Everything has to be instant. 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:36.240 But here's the reality of some things. 00:16:39.360 --> 00:16:40.320 Let's look at coffee. 00:16:40.399 --> 00:16:42.480 How many of you like good coffee? 00:16:43.120 --> 00:16:45.200 Instant coffee is trash. 00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:47.120 Let's just be honest, right? 00:16:47.759 --> 00:16:49.840 Instant coffee is trash. 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:52.320 You want to know how you have the best coffee? 00:16:52.960 --> 00:17:06.640 By a slow process that's thought through, that is weighed out and measured, that takes some time to produce the results of what you're supposed to get out of coffee. 00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:13.920 Some of you like trash coffee so much that you just are you've been doing it for so long, you just got acquainted with the taste. 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:17.119 And when you actually taste good coffee, it tastes bad to you. 00:17:18.559 --> 00:17:21.359 We can do that with our spiritual lives as well. 00:17:21.759 --> 00:17:24.559 You see, we won't always want this instant gratification. 00:17:24.720 --> 00:17:29.839 We want instant results, but that's not what it's going to be with when it comes to family discipleship. 00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:40.400 When you set forth to diligently teach these things to your children, you are going to have to work in consistent labor without immediate reward. 00:17:40.720 --> 00:17:41.359 Steady. 00:17:42.640 --> 00:17:43.119 Steady. 00:17:43.279 --> 00:17:47.039 The best thing that your family can get from you is consistency. 00:17:48.720 --> 00:17:57.200 Because look, this is what we talk about, this ebb and flow of doing it and then not doing it and getting excited about it for three weeks and then we don't do it for six months, right? 00:17:57.359 --> 00:18:05.440 This is the kind of thing where we're teaching our children that there's not consistency in the way that we pursue God and we teach it to them in all kinds of ways, right? 00:18:05.519 --> 00:18:09.200 How many different diets have we told our kids that we're gonna get on and you have to eat the way that we do? 00:18:09.279 --> 00:18:13.920 And then it happens for a couple weeks, three weeks, four weeks, and then it dies off for years to come. 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:22.160 Or we're gonna start working out, we're gonna go on family walks every day, and then you go on two family walks, then you don't go on family walks for six years, or whatever kind of happens, right? 00:18:22.319 --> 00:18:28.000 We kind of get in these rhythms where we say, we're gonna do this, and then we fizzle and fade. 00:18:28.640 --> 00:18:33.920 This isn't about getting all amped up and starting a seminary in your living room. 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:35.920 That's not what family discipleship is about. 00:18:36.160 --> 00:18:44.240 Family discipleship is about small, consistent steps forward in teaching your family to know and love God. 00:18:44.400 --> 00:18:46.960 You are not going to get immediate rewards. 00:18:47.119 --> 00:18:58.240 I can't tell you how many hours we've spent in like teaching them the Bible, uh, being able to go through devotionals, having family worship, and it still just doesn't click a lot of the time. 00:18:58.400 --> 00:19:00.799 Not just in like obedience type of things, right? 00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:05.119 Where they still are just mean to one another, they hit one another, call one another names, whatever it might be. 00:19:05.279 --> 00:19:07.920 That stuff still happens, that's going to happen for a long time. 00:19:08.079 --> 00:19:12.240 But there's a lot of just simple things of like, this still just doesn't click. 00:19:12.400 --> 00:19:15.599 How many times have I told you Jesus died for your sin? 00:19:15.680 --> 00:19:18.319 And like they can't answer that, right? 00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:27.759 Or we talk about other different types of uh of conversations that we've had in the past about God and about his word, and it just doesn't click. 00:19:27.839 --> 00:19:37.279 And it can get frustrating, but it can't it can also get frustrating when like they just don't want to be there with you at that time doing that, right? 00:19:37.519 --> 00:19:50.079 You're you're trying hard to be vulnerable, you're trying hard to lead them, you're cracking open the word, and you're trying to explain things that maybe you don't even have that good of a grip on, and you're trying to lead them in prayer, and they just don't want to be there. 00:19:50.319 --> 00:20:03.759 Like morning devotions is the hardest thing sometimes for for our family because one, you've got everybody thinking about, oh, I gotta get this in my book bag, and I've got to get this for my breakfast, and I'm oh, I forgot about this assignment last night. 00:20:04.160 --> 00:20:09.680 And they're running, and I'm just I like most of my morning is just yelling, sit at the table. 00:20:09.920 --> 00:20:14.960 Like that, and I just, you know, and then it's like, okay, children, we're gonna teach you how to love God now, right? 00:20:15.359 --> 00:20:19.200 Uh and then they're like in the middle of it, you're like, they're like getting up and walking away. 00:20:19.440 --> 00:20:20.559 Like, why are you walking away? 00:20:20.720 --> 00:20:22.319 And they're like, I forgot my shoe. 00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:24.079 It's like, well, you only have one shoe on. 00:20:24.160 --> 00:20:27.519 What's so this happens, it's so frustrating. 00:20:28.240 --> 00:20:32.160 You've got to be consistent, consistent. 00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:35.519 The second part about being diligent is earnest. 00:20:36.079 --> 00:20:36.559 Earnest. 00:20:36.799 --> 00:20:39.440 This means treated with utmost importance. 00:20:40.640 --> 00:20:43.519 You've got to treat this like it's utmost important. 00:20:43.680 --> 00:20:48.480 When we're talking about discipling our family, this has to be the top thing in our life. 00:20:48.799 --> 00:21:17.279 Look, discipling your family to know and love God is better and more important than anything you'll ever eat, any way you'll ever spend your money, anything that you'll ever do as a hobby, any sport or recreation that your kids will be involved in, anything, to know and love God has to be treated with the most utmost importance because this is what you're doing. 00:21:17.359 --> 00:21:18.319 You're setting a tone. 00:21:18.559 --> 00:21:32.240 And we set certain tones in our homes where we're saying this is more important than God, this is more important than his people, this is more important than uh pursuing a relationship with him. 00:21:32.799 --> 00:21:35.359 We do this in so many different ways. 00:21:35.440 --> 00:21:41.279 And so one of the things that we've tried to do as a family is just look at what do we kind of center our lives around. 00:21:41.359 --> 00:21:47.839 And we saw that through the summer, we were we were kind of centering the mornings of our lives around TV, right? 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:52.960 You get up in the morning, got your coffee made, and you just sit down and you're watching shows. 00:21:53.039 --> 00:22:02.000 Like my kids just like to watch different shows, as I'm sure many kids do, and we try to we we have way Little amount of screen time, right? 00:22:02.079 --> 00:22:14.720 But what we discovered is that in the summer when mom and dad didn't have to wake up at 6 30 in the morning, they were still getting up at school time, going downstairs and watching shows, and they were just getting as much as they could as the uh before we woke up, right? 00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:20.960 So we said, okay, our life is centering around getting to the television and watching a show. 00:22:21.119 --> 00:22:22.559 So you've got to read a chapter. 00:22:22.880 --> 00:22:25.680 Now we have eight kids that can read at that age group. 00:22:25.839 --> 00:22:28.960 You have to read a chapter of your Bible before you're allowed to turn on a show. 00:22:29.119 --> 00:22:35.759 If you don't, if you come downstairs and you turn on a show without reading a chapter of your Bible, you will lose screen time for an entire week. 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:39.279 And I'm going to double your chores for the day. 00:22:39.519 --> 00:22:41.039 Now they hated that. 00:22:41.599 --> 00:22:50.319 And they read through a good chunk of uh different books of the New Testament and Psalms as they were waking up for summer in the morning. 00:22:50.480 --> 00:22:58.880 And it was making that small step to reorient their life, to not be centered around television, but trying to be centered around something else. 00:22:59.039 --> 00:23:09.279 And then we supported that through different supplemental things throughout the day where we talked about the gospel, we talked about our relationship with the Lord, we did family worship and so forth. 00:23:09.440 --> 00:23:17.359 But we have to try and show them that to know and to love God is the most important thing that we can do. 00:23:17.599 --> 00:23:20.799 The last thing about being diligent is it has to be energetic. 00:23:20.960 --> 00:23:28.240 What qualifies diligent is our diligence is energetic passion for what is being taught. 00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:30.319 Are we excited about this? 00:23:31.119 --> 00:23:36.880 Your kids, your family, your wife knows when you're excited about something. 00:23:37.119 --> 00:23:39.119 And they know when you're not excited about it. 00:23:39.279 --> 00:23:43.279 There's something that changes in your voice, the look in your eyes, whatever it might be, right? 00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:52.160 And your wife know your wife knows that when you get a call from the guys to go hang out, what your face looks like compared to when she says, What if you just stayed home with me? 00:23:53.680 --> 00:23:54.319 Huh? 00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:55.519 Right? 00:23:56.000 --> 00:23:58.559 Your wife knows what's exciting to you. 00:23:58.720 --> 00:24:00.559 Your children know what's exciting to you. 00:24:00.640 --> 00:24:04.720 You don't want to be like Ben Stein trying to teach Bible study at the table. 00:24:04.960 --> 00:24:06.319 All right, everybody. 00:24:06.640 --> 00:24:15.119 Um, so they just know, and then when you're sitting in front of the football game or you're sitting in front of whatever, and your face lights up and you're getting excited. 00:24:15.440 --> 00:24:17.920 What do you think you're really communicating to your kids? 00:24:18.079 --> 00:24:20.960 You think that they're that naive that they don't see that? 00:24:22.720 --> 00:24:26.880 How laborious are we making knowing God and loving Him? 00:24:28.480 --> 00:24:36.880 We have to be energetic, we have to have a passion for what's being taught, and that is going to primarily come from us being disciples first. 00:24:37.200 --> 00:24:39.200 And this is what's going to set the tone. 00:24:39.359 --> 00:24:55.359 If we're not chasing down God with all of our heart, soul, and strength, if we're not enamored by Him, if we're not madly in love with His presence, then it's going to show in the way that we try to do family discipleship. 00:24:56.640 --> 00:25:06.079 You see, God's word is meant primarily to be handed down by ordinary people in ordinary homes living ordinary lives. 00:25:06.400 --> 00:25:07.759 This is what we see. 00:25:08.079 --> 00:25:09.759 Teach them diligently to your children. 00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:10.400 When? 00:25:11.039 --> 00:25:16.640 When you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise. 00:25:16.799 --> 00:25:18.400 This is ordinary. 00:25:19.039 --> 00:25:27.599 The word of God is not reserved to be only taught in ivory towers or behind pulpits, but just through everyday life. 00:25:28.880 --> 00:25:32.480 This is why our lives have to be centered around that. 00:25:32.640 --> 00:25:36.160 We think so much as in space and place. 00:25:36.559 --> 00:25:40.799 So we think when we're at church, we talk about God and we learn about God. 00:25:41.039 --> 00:25:46.400 When we are uh here at school, we talk about education and what we're learning. 00:25:46.480 --> 00:25:53.519 When we're at work, we talk, we kind of compartmentalize these things because our minds drift into thinking in space and place. 00:25:53.680 --> 00:26:02.160 But we have to realize that to know and love God is something that should consume every aspect of our extremely ordinary lives. 00:26:04.319 --> 00:26:13.920 You see, the main idea this morning is that with the faith bound to our hearts, we teach and lead our families to bind it to theirs. 00:26:14.400 --> 00:26:18.400 Notice what we put first there, with the faith bound to our hearts. 00:26:18.640 --> 00:26:21.279 Same thing that God put in Deuteronomy 6. 00:26:21.440 --> 00:26:28.720 Now take these commands and place them on your heart, and then you teach them diligently to your children. 00:26:28.960 --> 00:26:35.119 We have to have this bound to our hearts as we teach and lead our family to bind it to theirs. 00:26:35.440 --> 00:26:42.720 This is our responsibility to first be a disciple and in return disciple others. 00:26:43.359 --> 00:26:46.640 Our families will treasure what we treasure. 00:26:47.359 --> 00:26:51.759 And more true, our families will treasure what we teach them to treasure. 00:26:52.559 --> 00:26:53.920 And you can look at this. 00:26:54.160 --> 00:27:04.960 You can look at this as your children grow up, you'll see, just think, just think about, because as I look at the demographic of who we are as a church, we're have a lot of young families who are still in the process of growing up. 00:27:05.039 --> 00:27:07.759 But just think about your relationship with your parents. 00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:11.359 Think about the things that you guys got excited about in your home. 00:27:11.519 --> 00:27:14.799 Think about the things that you grew up to love that was handed down. 00:27:14.960 --> 00:27:21.920 Maybe not even directly taught, like you are to love this sports team or you're to love this hobby, or you're supposed to, whatever it is. 00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:26.480 But you saw the passion that your parents had for something. 00:27:26.720 --> 00:27:28.640 You saw the excitement that they had for something. 00:27:28.799 --> 00:27:34.400 Even if it was just excitement to sit in a recliner and watch TV and eat a dinner in front of them, right? 00:27:34.480 --> 00:27:37.440 Like some people just get real excited about that. 00:27:38.079 --> 00:27:41.599 And that was taught to you, and that became a culture of your home. 00:27:42.240 --> 00:27:48.960 You see, when we center our lives around certain things, that's what's handed down to our children. 00:27:49.119 --> 00:27:51.359 That's what's handed down to our families. 00:27:51.519 --> 00:27:54.720 They will treasure what we treasure. 00:27:56.000 --> 00:28:00.720 And men, we are the pastors of our family. 00:28:02.640 --> 00:28:04.400 We are the pastors of our family. 00:28:04.559 --> 00:28:11.200 We have to take up this responsibility to lead and shepherd our families' hearts to know and love God. 00:28:11.759 --> 00:28:13.359 It has to be on our shoulders. 00:28:13.440 --> 00:28:17.599 We can't hand it off to somebody else like we've so been consistent doing. 00:28:17.759 --> 00:28:18.799 You know where we learned that from? 00:28:18.880 --> 00:28:20.160 You know where we got that from? 00:28:20.480 --> 00:28:22.240 Our first father, Adam. 00:28:23.680 --> 00:28:28.960 We've been shifting the blame or shifting the responsibility on somebody else from the very beginning of time. 00:28:29.200 --> 00:28:30.160 God comes in the garden. 00:28:30.240 --> 00:28:30.720 What happened? 00:28:30.880 --> 00:28:32.400 That woman you gave me. 00:28:32.960 --> 00:28:34.000 She did it. 00:28:34.240 --> 00:28:34.960 No, no, no. 00:28:35.119 --> 00:28:36.720 Adam, where are you? 00:28:37.119 --> 00:28:38.960 This was your responsibility. 00:28:39.200 --> 00:28:46.240 You were to lead and protect your wife, whom I gave you, the garden of which I placed you in, and you have failed to do that. 00:28:46.400 --> 00:28:48.160 You didn't take up the responsibility. 00:28:48.319 --> 00:28:49.359 And so what did we need? 00:28:49.519 --> 00:28:53.279 We didn't need a second Eve to come in and redeem mankind. 00:28:53.440 --> 00:29:06.079 We needed a second Adam because it dictated that a man who could bear the responsibility of image bearers of God was casted upon that cross and taking our sin upon him. 00:29:06.960 --> 00:29:11.279 Men, we have to step up and be pastors of our home. 00:29:11.440 --> 00:29:19.119 And when we are, when we're operating that, what we have to realize is that we're actually create the liturgy of our homes. 00:29:19.839 --> 00:29:22.240 As pastors, we create the liturgy of our homes. 00:29:22.319 --> 00:29:23.359 Here's what I mean by that. 00:29:23.599 --> 00:29:27.839 Liturgy is simply just a public order of worship. 00:29:28.160 --> 00:29:31.839 How are you going through worship in your home? 00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:35.680 You see, every church has a liturgy. 00:29:35.920 --> 00:29:40.640 Whether it's been thought through and intentional or not, that's the question. 00:29:40.799 --> 00:29:42.480 It's not, do you have a liturgy? 00:29:42.640 --> 00:29:44.079 Of course you have a liturgy. 00:29:44.240 --> 00:29:45.359 Has it been thought through? 00:29:45.519 --> 00:29:50.240 At Sacred Mission, we try to be very intentional about the liturgy that we create. 00:29:50.400 --> 00:29:59.680 So when you come here, our goal is to tell the gospel story through song, through reading and response, through the preaching of God's word. 00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:06.480 In everything that we do, we're trying to tell this arc of the gospel narrative from beginning to end. 00:30:06.640 --> 00:30:13.279 And so when we sing, we're singing about uh the uh the gospel story from start to finish. 00:30:13.440 --> 00:30:16.000 When we preach, we're working through the gospel story. 00:30:16.079 --> 00:30:20.240 All of this is to point to something beyond us, something transcendent. 00:30:20.400 --> 00:30:22.240 We're intentional about our liturgy. 00:30:22.319 --> 00:30:24.720 Some of you have been to churches where they're just not, they just do things. 00:30:24.799 --> 00:30:36.720 And when you ask them why do you do things that way, they're just like, I don't, I don't know, because you're supposed to have this the preaching up front and four songs at the end, and you take the offering right here, and then you do, you know, that's just what you do, right? 00:30:37.519 --> 00:30:43.279 And so we, as pastors of our homes, have to think through the liturgy that we're creating in our homes. 00:30:43.440 --> 00:30:47.200 You're creating a flow of what worship looks like. 00:30:47.519 --> 00:30:50.559 You're creating an order of worship in your home. 00:30:50.799 --> 00:30:55.440 Some of you are creating an order of worship to false gods and false idols. 00:30:56.240 --> 00:31:03.680 Because you're centering your lives around those things rather than around the true God, the one and only God. 00:31:04.240 --> 00:31:07.519 Some of you are doing worship unto God, but it's just happenstance. 00:31:07.599 --> 00:31:11.200 It's almost accidental that it actually even happens. 00:31:11.279 --> 00:31:18.400 Or it's when you have time and you react to this open moment where you can actually start to talk about God. 00:31:19.440 --> 00:31:32.960 Or in some cases, it's even in the sense of where we feel so much pain or we're going through so much confusion that we tend to respond to God in that alone, is like we said before, this kind of last ditch effort. 00:31:34.319 --> 00:31:38.480 The question isn't, do you have liturgical movement in your home? 00:31:38.720 --> 00:31:43.279 The question is if you have an intentional, God-glorifying one. 00:31:44.079 --> 00:31:48.079 You see, we at Sacred Mission, we start with a call to worship. 00:31:48.480 --> 00:31:58.400 That call to worship is to reorient our hearts because you've walked into this room saying no to God throughout the whole week or no to someone, right? 00:31:58.559 --> 00:32:00.240 No, no, no, no. 00:32:00.400 --> 00:32:08.799 We have and so what we're trying to do is reorient your heart so that you start saying yes to who God is and what he's done for us. 00:32:08.960 --> 00:32:17.839 And so this call to worship is not just some kind of mind-numbing, cultish thing where we repeat words on a screen and people get a little freaked out about it on their first time here, right? 00:32:17.920 --> 00:32:19.119 That's not what we're trying to do. 00:32:19.279 --> 00:32:34.559 What we're trying to do is reorient your heart in unity together as a congregation to begin to focus on God because some of you even had to fight your way to get in here because your kids didn't want to come, they threw a fit, couldn't find their shoes, someone puked in the car, whatever it might be, right? 00:32:34.720 --> 00:32:35.839 That's going to happen. 00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:42.720 So when we get you here, it's like taking a deep breath and saying, okay, God, you have my attention. 00:32:43.599 --> 00:32:46.640 How many of us are doing something like that in our home? 00:32:46.960 --> 00:32:49.200 Not a screen with call to worship and yellow words. 00:32:49.279 --> 00:32:52.000 I can give you what color we use if you want to do that. 00:32:52.160 --> 00:32:58.559 But however, how many of you are just saying in the morning, okay, God, you have my attention for the day? 00:32:58.960 --> 00:33:03.440 God, you have our attention as a family for today. 00:33:04.319 --> 00:33:09.920 And we are going to live a life that worships and glorifies who you are. 00:33:11.519 --> 00:33:20.640 What other parts of your day could you structure liturgy around to where you're actually intentionally focusing your affections on God? 00:33:21.119 --> 00:33:22.880 What about the dinner table? 00:33:23.119 --> 00:33:28.240 Look, look, if any of you are eating dinner in front of a glowing screen, stop it now. 00:33:28.799 --> 00:33:32.000 Call me or one of the other others, we'll come over and we'll shoot your TV for you. 00:33:32.079 --> 00:33:33.759 We'll just put it out of its misery. 00:33:34.000 --> 00:33:44.319 Get around a table and have a face-to-face conversation free of any electronics where your focus is on how God was good to you today. 00:33:45.759 --> 00:33:47.839 Hey, what did God do in your life today? 00:33:48.000 --> 00:33:50.400 What was the way that you saw God move in your life today? 00:33:50.559 --> 00:33:56.000 What was something hard that we can pray about and gospel a little bit in our homes? 00:33:56.880 --> 00:33:58.559 What about at nighttime? 00:33:59.359 --> 00:34:02.079 And this is something that I've been struggling with in my own, just be honest. 00:34:02.160 --> 00:34:06.000 Like sometimes we have four kids, two live upstairs, two live downstairs. 00:34:06.160 --> 00:34:08.079