Untitled Sermon (9)

Knowing God and the Family of Faith:

Deuteronomy 6:1-25

Welcome & Context

Good morning! If we haven’t met, my name is Connor Coskery and I have the privilege of leading our youth ministry. Two weeks ago we finished up our study through Ecclesiastes and next week we are going to begin a study through The Lord’s Prayer that will carry us through the rest of the summer.

This morning we are going to spend our time in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 6. Deuteronomy is one of my favorite books of the Bible, particularly because Moses uses it as an occasion to summarize much of God’s work in the lives of His people. My hope is that what we talk about this morning will refresh some of the themes we considered in Ecclesiastes as well as prepare our hearts to study the Lord’s Prayer.

So if you have a bible please go ahead and turn there with me — you can find Deuteronomy sandwiched between the book of Numbers and Joshua. As you are finding the passage, let me provide you with context to the book of Deuteronomy and orient you to where we are in God’s story…

Up to this point, the Israelites had spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness after being freed from slavery in Egypt. Finally, they were on the cusp of entering the Promised Land but Moses will not lead them past this point. His disobedience and lack of faith in the face of their grumbling meant that he would hand over leadership to Joshua. Instead of enjoying the bounty of the promised land, Moses would merely glimpse it from the top of a mountain.

Deuteronomy, then, is Moses’ farewell address. He wants to prepare God’s people for what’s ahead by reminding them of what God has done and what he promises to do. He wants to remind them that they are God’s people and He has covenanted himself to them and made them extravagant promises.

Being a member of the covenant family means that our world must look different. Our individual lives, our family rhythms, the way we talk, what we value, what we dedicate our attention to — all of it must look different because we are God’s people.

In the passage we are going to unpack this morning we read Moses making a clear and powerful exhortation, that God’s people are to love God with everything we’ve got and that this love must necessarily overflow and impact the community around us.

Let’s read together Deuteronomy 6, verses 4-25

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Pastoral Prayer

Introduction

Each one of us is created with a desire to know about the world around us. We as humans, far more than any other creatures, are capable of reflecting on the world, remembering and interpreting our experiences.

One author wrote: “The desire for knowledge is matched only by the delight that comes when we find that the world does indeed make a kind of beautiful sense, whether in the rhythm and rhymes of a great poem or the mathematical elegance of the planets orbits. We not only seek truth, but from time to time, we feel sure we have found it.”

God has hardwired us to desire to know - really know things. One of the ways that we grow in our understanding is by asking questions. One of the first questions we begin asking – if you have a young child or have spent a few moments with one then you know where I am heading – the question, “Why?”

We don’t have to teach children how to be curious. They just start asking, “Why?” about everything! It’s a beautiful and frustrating question. It’s frustrating because if you aren't careful you might end up in a never-ending vortex of succeeding why’s.

The beauty of the question, however, is that children want to understand their world. Often times a child sees us – parent, grandparent, babysitter – focusing on something and they want to know what’s up! To the growing mind, what we do and what we pay attention to conveys importance.

Deuteronomy is a series of sermons given by Moses to prepare God’s people for the Promised Land. He knew that when they entered the land there would be rival nations with a buffet of gods prepared, each promising to satisfy their desire for pleasure, power, joy, and life. We need these sermons because our experience in the world isn’t all that different. Each day we wake to an array of options promising to satisfy our deepest longings and desires.

Moses knows this and calls us to pay attention to what is most important. He gives the Shema, which is Hebrew for “Hear O Israel.” This passage became the core confession of Judaism and for good reason. Because in these verses we aren’t just given a list of facts about God. We aren’t given a set of verses to generally believe in God.

Instead, Moses gives us everything we need to truly know God. This morning, I want to invite you to consider three aspects of knowing God, outlined in these verses.

To Know God is to Love God Supremely (verses 4-9)

To Know God is to Remember His Faithfulness (verses 10-19)

To Know God is to Tell of His Rescue (verses 20-24)

As I studied these verses I kept coming back to Ecclesiastes, chapter 3, where the Preacher reflects that “God has put eternity into man’s heart” (Ecc 3:11). We have been hardwired with a desire to know God. And I believe that if we listen to Moses’ words – to love, remember, and testify – that knowing God personally will necessarily overflow and change everything around us – from the little questions-askers to everyone in between.

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To Know God is to Love God Supremely (vv. 4-9), Let’s look together at verses 4 through 9… We are going to walk through them verse by verse.

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

4 “Hear, O Israel: The word “hear” has two meanings. It means both to listen, but it also means to do.

Moses is grabbing Israel’s attention. He’s about to say something important and it is going to require them to listen, interpret, and put these words into action.

The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Canaan (the promised land) was Polytheist, meaning their communities worshiped many gods. It’s estimated that they had upwards of 234 different gods to placate. They believed they had to sacrifice their animals, produce, and sometimes their children to these gods in order to stay alive in the land.

Moses makes clear that this is not who you are! God’s people are monotheists. God’s people have always worshiped one God. All the way back to Genesis, “in the beginning God…” Not “gods”, but God. Central to knowing God is knowing that He alone is creator, sovereign, and faithful to his covenant people.

Clarifying that we worship one God is one is important, and not just in a world with hundreds of gods. We – in Birmingham AL – might not call them gods but we have a plethora of idols vying for our attention. God calls worship of anything other than Him as idolatry. And idolatry is any time we take “a thing” and elevate it to the “ultimate thing.” Often it’s a good thing that gains a powerful influence over our lives.

Idols can feel hidden and subtle – easily justifiable – which is why they are so dangerous. Money is often a huge idol that can be all-consuming. You can never have enough and there is always someone that has more. Reputation is another powerful idol. Do people perceive you as successful? Perhaps the biggest idol of our present age is “the self” where whatever you “feel” has the authority to determine who you are.

If you are unsure of the idols in your heart consider these questions:

What are you elevating to be ultimate in your life?

What demands your respect above God?

What competes for your love?

What are you afraid of – that if you don’t have “that” then everything will fall apart?

If we are going to know God we must forsake the tempting idols and worship the Lord alone, which leads directly into verses 5 and 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart

Anything less than whole-hearted devotion and allegiance to God would lead to a shared allegiance, which is impossible. God will not share his glory The language used – heart, soul, might – coveys the whole person. You cannot love God in compartments. Unfortunately, ever since the Fall there has been a general and constant slide towards a divided life.

But you are created to know and love God supremely, with all of you.

The Hebrew word used, here, for love has a deeper meaning than agreeance or dutiful obedience. Throughout the Old Testament, this verb is used to express the affection Yahweh has for Israel, making use of strong metaphors drawn from family life and marriage (Hos. 3:1).

Perhaps the closest example we have of this type of love is a bride and groom on their wedding day. At the altar, the man and woman make extravagant promises to love and stay with the other person through ALL of life’s circumstances (good, bad, rich, poor, sick, and health). These promises aren’t dependent on romantic passion. They are rooted in a covenant that seeks the flourishing of the other person, forever, even when sacrifice is required.

God does this with his people! He has covenanted Himself to a people by his superabundant, free grace. Because of this, our only appropriate response is to love Him back with our whole being.

You are created for this love but what does it look like to love God with our heart, soul, and strength? Let’s look at each word because they individually highlight how God has uniquely created us to love Him.

God created us with hearts. In Hebrew, the heart was regarded as the seat of the mind and will. It was the command center for vital emotions. God created us to be driven and drawn by desire and emotion. We pursue things that are beautiful, but we can also be moved by passion and compassion for things that are vulnerable.

God created us with souls. We have a depth of self that is uniquely ours. Once in a while, if we are lucky, we may find someone who feels like our "soul mate"- someone who seems to instinctively understand the depths of who we are without our needing to put it into words.

God created us with strength. The Hebrew word used is me'od. And while this includes our physical strength, it’s not limited to that – it’s perhaps best translated as "much-ness.” Our bodies are amazing. A person who trains their body diligently can acquire not only the gross-motor ability to complete a triathlon but use fine-motor skills to sew or to play the guitar.

If you really want to understand me'od, "muchness" then go downstairs and volunteer in the infant or toddler classroom. Babies have very little command over their bodies and little physical strength compared to full-grown human beings, but babies excel in “muchness.” Everything they do, they do physically, fully, and most often exuberantly.

The command of the Shema is, in a way, simply a call to return to the "allness" of how God created you to live. He desires you to love Him with unreserved devotion, with muchness, where everything about you – your hopes, dreams, desires, and choices – is captivated and changed by his goodness and grace!

Do you love God with “muchness” or is he just another compartment in your life?

To know God is to love God supremely and this must be more than an emotion; it’s a principle of action. Love begins internally in the heart but it always moves outward in concentric circles to animate the life of the whole person. Obedience to what God commands gradually shifts from mere duty to real delight. This love begins to reverberate and overflow to impact everything on the outside.

Look at verses 7 through 9, where we see that this love is actually passed down…

7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

[Now] We live in a hyper-individualistic society so we immediately read these words and think about family devotions in our home with our kids. However, Israel was a collectivist culture, meaning the goals of the community trump the pursuits of an individual. Important tasks were expected to be a group project.

Throughout these verses, the “you’s” are all plural, meaning they could be translated as “you all,” incorporating all of Israel into the conversation. This doesn’t abdicate the responsibility of the parents. Parents know their children in ways that the community never will. Instead, Moses is broadening the vision for passing along the faith. The entire covenant community is called to help raise children who worship and love the LORD.

Unfortunately, this ideal doesn’t always happen. The curse of sin has fractured family life, the relationship between moms and dads, parents and children. Even the healthiest of families are broken. The slippery slope of a ‘divided life’ leads to displaced priorities where participating in the covenant community is an afterthought. At worst it’s unnecessary. We have a plethora of choices where we and our children can enjoy life with others.

When it comes to the spiritual lives of kids, parents might outsource their responsibility to a youth ministry or parachurch ministry. Think spiritual coach. At worst, parents might subtly begin to employ the “dry cleaner” mentality of discipleship, where they drop their child off at youth group for a couple of hours and expect them to be cleaned when they arrive to pick them up.

Churches have to be careful as well. It’s not uncommon for a youth or kids ministry to take place in the church’s building, but they are disconnected from church life. The danger in this is that students never catch a vision of the covenant family. As a result, they may view church only as games and talks catered to their preferences and tastes.

This way of living is not the vision of the Shema. So what does this relationship look like where both the parents and the community are leaning into their shared responsibility to raise children who love God with all their hearts, soul, and strength?

For parents:

This looks like teaching God’s Word to your kids

It means talking about your faith with your kids and how it expresses itself in everyday life.

It means modeling grace and forgiveness within your marriage and friendships.

It might look like listening to Christian music in the car on the way to school.

It means praying for your kids and praying with your kids.

First, while there should be moments of direct teaching, most of what is described in these verses is about infusing a love for God throughout the ordinary moments and regular rhythms of our lives.

These are the 15 second