Untitled Sermon (13)

Knowing God and the Family of Faith:

Deuteronomy 6:1-25

Welcome & Context

Good morning! Welcome to Redeemer Community Church. 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 summarizes so much of God’s work in the lives of His people. My hope, this morning, is that as we work through this passage it 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 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 in response to the people’s 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.

Moses stresses, as we will see, that being a part of the covenant family means 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.

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

Let’s read together Deuteronomy 6, verses 4-9… We will look at other parts of the passage but focus most of our attention on verses 4-9.

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

LORD, thank you for this morning and for gathering your people to worship You. Would you give us focus, understanding, and joy in the Spirit to hear what you have for us. Capture our hearts with your love so that our lives and the lives around us would be changed for your glory.

I pray as your servant, that the words of my mouth and meditation of my heart would be glorifying in your sight. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

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.

Andy Crouch, in his book The Life We Are Looking For, writes: “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. They aren’t numb or jaded to the beauty, glory, and grandeur of the world around them. They want to know all about it! Many of their questions are prompted by us – parents, grandparents, babysitters, etc. They see us 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.

These sermons were essential to prepare God’s people, but we need these reminders just as much 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!.” This passage became the core confession of Judaism 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. We could do an entire sermon series on the first four verses. But this morning I want us to consider two primary ways that we can know God, as highlighted in this passage.

Knowing God means Loving Him Supremely (verses 4-6)

Knowing God means Sharing His Story (verses 7-24)

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. I believe that if we listen to Moses’ words – to love God and share his story – then everything around us will begin to change, from the little questions-askers to everyone in between.

—

Knowing God means Loving Him Supremely (vv. 4-6), Let’s look together at verses 4 through 6… We are going to unpack these verse by verse.

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

Loving God means loving him exclusively

4 “Hear, O Israel: 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 appease. 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. To know God is to direct our devotion to the one Lord who was, and is, and is to come.

We can’t brush past this just because we don’t live in a world with hundreds of gods. In Birmingham AL, we 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. Idolatry can be defined as anytime we take “a thing” and elevate it to the “ultimate thing.” These aren’t always bad things, but often they are good things that have mutated to gain a powerful influence in our lives.

In our day, the problem with idols is that they feel hidden and subtle – easily justifiable – which makes them dangerous. For example, money is often a powerful idol that can be all-consuming. You can never have enough and there is always someone that has more. Reputation is another idol. As it gains its stranglehold, it makes us obsessed with how people perceive us. Perhaps the most insidious idol of our present age is “the self” where You are the sole determiner of what is true and real. Whatever you “feel” has the authority to determine who you are.

Idols are like weeds in a garden. They exert their will and choke out the beauty of what is growing!

If we are going to know God we must forsake and weed out the seductive idols vying for our hearts. God demands that we worship Him alone!

This is the direction our love must travel. Our love is designed for God. He hasn’t designed us to give portions of ourselves. We must love him with everything. We must love him supremely.

Loving God means loving him Supremely

Let’s continue. Look at 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 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 LORD’s affection for Israel, using strong metaphors about 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 part of a bigger story than what is happening at that moment. The vows recited are rooted in a covenant that seeks the flourishing of the other person, even when sacrifice is necessary.

God does this with his people! He has covenanted Himself to a people by his superabundant, free grace. In the same way a bride and groom promise to stay together through whatever life throws, God promises to never leave nor forsake his people (Heb 13:5). He doesn’t simply tolerate us but delights in us as he holds us fast.

If that is our God, how can we not respond by loving Him with our whole being?

And isn’t it incredible that not only are we commanded to love God, but he has actually designed us to love him? We are created to express our love and devotion to God in a myriad of ways – spiritually, physically, emotionally, and intellectually. Verse 5 describes three ways, in particular, that God has designed us to love Him. Let’s look at each word individually:

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. To be human is to have a heart. You can’t not love. The question isn’t whether you will love something as ultimate; the question is what you will love is ultimate.

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.

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.

When our hearts, souls, and strength – along with our “mind” as Jesus would later add – are all engaged and in sync, we are experiencing what it truly means to be human! It is all of these working together that make us a person.

The command of the Shema isn’t meant to guilt-trip you into doing more or trying harder. In a real way, Moses is simply calling you to return to the "allness" of how God created you to live. Author/counselor Paul David Trip reflects on this call to wholeness, saying:

“God created you with this capacity so that you would have what you need to live in a deeply loving, heart-controlling, motivation-producing, worship-initiating, joy-stimulating relationship with him. Your capacity to love was created for him. Your desire to love was meant to draw you to him. Your heart was designed to long for love, and that longing was meant to find its final and complete fulfillment in him.”

We should regularly take time to give ourselves a heart examination and ask where our heart is today. As I said, the question isn’t if, but what will you love as ultimate. If you are unsure what that is, consider these questions:

What are you elevating to be ultimate in your life?

What demands your respect above God?

What competes for your joy?

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

If we want to know God we must start with loving Him above all things. It’s how we have been fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps 139:14). Unlike the Ten Commandments that were written on stone tablets, this command is meant to be etched on our hearts. It’s meant to change us, but not only us. This love is meant to overflow to those around us, which takes us to our next point.

II. Knowing God means Sharing His Story (verses 7-24)

Throughout the rest of this passage, Moses describes what it looks like to pass on this love, to help others know God. I want you to notice that sharing God’s story doesn't require an advanced degree. It’s about the ordinary rhythms of everyday life, where we simply share what is most important to us to those around us.

Look at verses 7 through 9. Moses provides the starting point…

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 it’s easy for us to read these words and immediately think about family devotions in our home with our kids. However, Israel was a collectivist culture. This means 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. Moses isn’t abdicating 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. It’s not only up to the parents. The entire covenant community is called to help raise children who worship and love the LORD with all their heart, soul, and strength. This is the way God’s people are intended to function. Unfortunately, this ideal doesn’t always happen. Israel’s story shows them regularly failing to live into this mission.

We aren’t much better off. Even in good churches, it’s not uncommon for a youth or kids ministry to take place in the church’s building but be disconnected from church life. The danger in this is that children fail to catch a vision of the covenant family.

Not to mention, churches are composed of families fractured by the curse of sin. Even the healthiest of families are broken. At best, priorities may be misplaced making participating in the covenant community an afterthought. At worst it’s unnecessary. There are a plethora of choices where parents and children can enjoy life with others away from the church.

This way of living is not the vision of the Shema. The Shema calls you and me, regardless of life stage, to fully participate in the family of God. Families need the community. The community needs the family.

So what does this relationship look like where both the parents and the community are leaning into their shared responsibility to pass on the faith?

For parents, grandparents, or caregivers it looks like this…

Teaching God’s Word to your kids

Talking about your faith with your kids and how it expresses itself in everyday life.

Modeling repentance, grace, and forgiveness within your marriage and friendships.

Praying for your kids

Praying with your kids

These might happen in scheduled times, but most of what is described in these verses is about infusing a love for God throughout the ordinary moments of a day. It’s about living life in such a way that when kids look back on their life they can’t help but notice that God was just always there.

I often say, as a youth minister, that my desire for your kids to grow up, and when they are asked to share their testimony they can’t help but say, “... I’ve just never known a day without knowing Jesus.”

The nuclear family plays an essential role in helping pass along the faith but we can’t simply this passage to only emphasize family devotions, though important. We can’t do that because that environment isn’t everyone’s reality. In the United States alone the poverty rate for children is nearly 17%. Not to mention that the percentage of children growing up in a traditional family structure is at an all-time low.

If all the responsibility falls on the nuclear family then there are a lot of children who might never hear about the LORD. This is where God’s people step up and step in.

The community supports the family by…

Inviting children into your home for meals and play

Teaching children in the kid's ministry

Mentoring a small group of teenagers in the youth ministry

Serving at Monday Night Ministry

Seeking ways to care for children without a stable home, from mentoring programs to foster care.

One of the favorite books in our family is “Meg is Not Alone,” by Megan Hill. It’s a picture book that tells a story where Meg’s parents accidentally leave her at church after the morning service, which makes her feel scared. But Meg is not alone. The story is about the various people in the church who stay with her until her dad returns. These church friends care for her by giving her things like tissues, cookies, and storybooks, and she learns how to be a church friend to others.

Another example that came to mind is from VBS a couple of weeks ago. If you are unfamiliar with the setup, during the week girls and boys are organized into small groups and they travel with these groups from station to station throughout the evening. Based on the needs, one of our guy leaders, David Foster, was asked to step in to lead The Pink Pogo Sticks, one of the girl's small groups. Instead of leading a group of little boys, David brought the energy and helped these girls grow to love and follow Jesus.

David reflected back on his own VBS experiences growing up and how God’s people cared and prayed for him. He said, “Even though I didn't become a believer until high school, I know God worked through those crew leaders to prepare the way for Jesus.”

Both examples highlight the beautiful, simple call of the covenant community. Whether it's handing out snacks, changing diapers, teaching the bible, or leading the Pink Pogo Sticks every person has a part to play in helping the whole community grow to love God with all their heart, soul, and strength. The church must be a diverse, intergenerational, supportive, and hope-filled community that shares God's story through life together.

Conclusion

Now, jump down with me a let’s look, together, at verse 20, “When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’

Back to the questions. Moses knows that the questions are forthcoming. He anticipated their curiosity about why they love and worship God in ways that look radically different than the world around them.

Notice that Moses doesn’t say, “Because God says so!” This question is an opportunity to invite them into their story. They were once slaves in Egypt, but God rescued them through signs, wonders, and the blood of a spotless lamb. The LORD protected, preserved, and redeemed His people, taking them from the domain of death to the land of the living.

Yet there is this tension. This should be a no-brainer, but Moses knows it’s not going to be that easy. In the whole middle portion, verses 10-19, Moses pleads with Israel to remember all that the LORD has done! “That you did not...” is repeated over and over again.

You are about to enter the land and:

Inhabit cities that you did not build

Live in houses that you did not fill

Drink from cisterns that you did not dig

Enjoy vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant.

He knows what’s going to happen. They are going to get to the promised land, become enamored with everything around them, and forget.

Here is the tragedy. Sin causes us all, in some way, to forget our story and turn our backs on the love of God. Our natural disposition is to give supreme devotion to someone or something else. We seek to have our hearts filled with something other than God. We love the creature over the Creator. We love other people more than we love God. We love ourselves so much that we have little energy left to love the One who is love. We live our lives running from thing to thing, hoping our hearts will be content, only to be left empty.

Israel’s story is our story – slaves under the tyranny of sin and in need of rescue. From the moment sin entered the world in Genesis 3, the Bible has been an unfolding drama that looks like it is going to end in tragedy – but then Jesus came.

You are designed to know God and He makes himself knowable to us in Jesus. Jesus is the better lamb who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). The One who is Love enters our world to take our judgment and absorb our death.

Jesus overwhelms our weak and feeble love with his great love for us. We don’t earn it. We can’t achieve it. Our lives are filled with an endless amount of “we did not, but God DID!”

This love can’t be mustered apart from him working inside of us! If we are ever going to love God with all our hearts, soul, and strength we need the Holy Spirit to replace our divided hearts with new hearts that long to love and follow the LORD. By the work of the Spirit, the commands of the LORD are etched on our hearts, fully and finally.

Jesus rewrites our tragic story and infuses it with joy, giving it an even better ending than we could imagine where God gives us all of himself and he wants us to have all of him.

Every member of the covenant community has a story to tell. And that story is still being written today as we walk, imperfectly and often stumbling, ever closer to the destination our hearts most long for – the new heavens and new earth, where God’s people will finally be with their God – and the great glory of the gospel will be pronounced over all of us:

6 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery…” (Deut 7:6-8)

Closing prayer

LORD, give us faith to know you; love you; and pass on this story to all who need to hear. We love you, Jesus. Amen.