Centered

Look on the screen, this is Tom Henschel and Tom is arguably one of the biggest football fans out there.

In fact he is part of a club that includes three other men who have never once missed a Superbowl.

And three men started attending in 1967 when tickets were $12, and are still going when tickets now start at $9000

But arguably Tom is the most devoted of these three men, because in 1972 (the morning of the Superbowl) Tom actually had a serve health issue that caused him to stumble out of his hotel room and he was trying to get the game when he feel to his knees and could not breath,

He mentioned as h laid there he was convinced he was dying.

Next thing he knew he woke up in the hospital with an Iv and oxygen mask.

He said that as soon as he realized where he was before even checking in with anyone to see what happened he took off the oxygen mask, ripped out the IV and went to the game.

I mean I think its safe to say he is pretty devoted to the game of football.

But here is the thing we all have things we are devoted to right?

And those things you are devoted to will often shape almost every part of our lives

And if you have been with us we have been in this series called Everyday Disciple and we have been looking at a lot of the things we center our lives on, and really the things that shape us

and we have seen how there are good things thaat shape our lives but then there are a lot of the things that shape us and if we are honest they often times not the best things.

And so today is the last day in this series and we are going to be in Deuteronomy 6:4-12 and this is actually a passage found in the Old Testament which the Jews would call the Shema,

And in the Old Testermnt, this passage would have been considered the discipleship passage for how to center our lives on Christ and so we are going to dive into the first few verses (4-6) because they say this:

Deuteronomy 6:4–6 (NIV)

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.

So look at the very first part of this because this starts by saying “the Lord your God is one”

and this seems very simple because we serve one God right, but at this time this would have been a little bit of a shocking statement

Because in the culture this was written in they would have worshiped so many different false gods.

They had a god for the sun, a god for the moon, for the water, for the land, for the produce, for you name it they had a god.

And this got complicated because these different gods would conflict with others and make it so you were chasing them in a million directions

It would almost be like if you were playing soccer and had 3 coaches and one tells you to kick the ball one way, but then the other says no what are you doing yoou need to punt that thing, and then the other says something different

It just leaves you a little confused and anxius right.

And its probably easy to say I am so glad we do not have this issue today, but whats really important for us to recognize that we have different things that shape and pull our lives and often times in different directions

And this isn’t rocket science, because your job might pull you in a different direction, your friends might pull you another, you might have a family member that says another

And so here the passage is saying yeah there are a million things pulling on our time and resources, but when you are loving God with all your heart you begin to see what order everything falls into.

Rock and sand illustration?

We need to be a people who center our lives on God and allow Him to impact every other area.

And this has been a theme of this series, but what I love about this passage is this next part, because it tells us how we can do this even in the context of our family. Look at verses 7-9 because it says this:

Deuteronomy 6:7–9 NIV

7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

You know I love the word for “impress” when it says to “impress them on your children” is literally translated “to point”

Because if you are a parent or grandparent this tells us a huge role in our kids or grandkids lives where our job is to litterly point them to Jesus.

But the issue is we are really good at pointing our kids towards the sand (the things that are significant and matter), but we are not the best at pointing our kids towards the rock and really to God.

Because I have said this a thousand times but a lot of people have adapted this discipleship model where we take our kids to church and its the churches job to teach their kid about Jesus.

and there is truth there (I mean we love investing in our kids, and Pastor Arika does an amazing job with our kids and points them to Jesus).

But we get maybe a couple hours with your kids each week, but as a parent you have such an influnce on your kids and have an ability to point them closer or furthur away from Jesus.

I dont know about you, but thats a big responsability.

And He tells us how to do this because it says talk with them about it when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

And if we were going to look at the BSV (Brendan Shea Version, it would be that they are saying make it so as you live life you are constantly pointing your child closer to God.

and the mostly happens through the informal moments of life.

Because kids are smart and they can see whats most important in our lives.

You know I remember my mom going to a womens Bible study at someones house and I got dragged along as a kid and hated it, but it pointed me closer to Jesus because I went this is important

I remember my Dad getting home from a long day at work and still going to practice on the worship team at our church, he showed it was important

One thing I love is when I see parents taking their kids to either to RAM (the food bank in town) or to the little free food pantry to help stock it,

Because they are teaching their kids what it looks like to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

even is small moments when your kid ask a question, Liam will ask us a qustion, “Dad why are my eyes blue?”

And its tempting to say because their blue (IDK)

But maybe instead saying its because God created you and made you special,

Praying with your kid before bed

teaching them value in other

Because you have the biggest impact on your child.

And these moments can be during a formal setting (and these settings are important) but even if you look at Jesus’s life the majority of his teaching took place informally, because it was important during everyday life.

And thats why the person that writes this says in verse 8 and 9 to tie symbols on your hand and bind them on your forehead, write them on your door frames and gates

You know in Jewish culture they took this very serious, in fact they would literally take a box that had scripture in it and literally have it attached to their forehead.

Not just that, but it would dangle scripture in front of their eyes so it was awlays in front of them

And placing it on gates and door post so whenever they entered or left a building they would be reminded of scripture.

You know I don’t want you to take this necessarily as you need to litterly do this, but It is saying

If we want our walk with God and our families walk with God to be central, maybe we need to live like its a central part of our life.

Where we have God constantly infront of us.

And lets look at this last part of the passage, and this part is actually not considered part of the Shema but in this passage of scripture God give a command to the people of Israel thats really important. Look at verses 10-12. It says this:

Deuteronomy 6:10–12 ESV

10 “And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, 12 then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

To understand this part of the passage you need to know a little bit about the nation of Israels history, because they had this habbit where things would go wrong and they would pursue God,

but then God would deliver them and they would stray away,

And they did this over and over again

And at this point in history, God had delivered the Isralites from so many things and had blessed them, but He already knew they were going to start to think maybe we did this.

Maybe God did not matter as much as we thought.

and it happened very subtly, but what we would see is they would slowly slip away from God.

And I think if we are honest its easy to find ourselves in the exact same place, because we forget where God has brought us

And when we forget what God has done, to often we take God’s credit and claim it as our own.

And when that happens we find ourselves straying further from God

And so this last part of the passage God says find ways to remember How I moved.

And throughout the Old Testament you see people make altars, build monuments and even be intentional on just telling their kids how God has moved,

Can I just say for us to live a life with God as the center it is really important for us to remember those places where God has moved,

because it doesn’t just remind us where we have been but it points us closer to God.

And those moments where we go I don’t know whats next,

We can say I might not know whats next, but I know that if God was faithful then, He will be faithful now.

One thing I do is when I feel like God speaks I try to journal,

I had someone mention to me last week that they carry these pictures with them where God just spoke to them and and now they carry them with them as a reminder of it.

What would it look like to find those monuments, to journal, to tell the kids about the faithfulness of God

And as we close out today and even this series, what does it look like to make it so the things that shape us are not the sand, but it is God.

Because when we allow God to shape us it changes our life but our kids and their kids as well.

And maybe today you need a reminder that God is faithful

Maybe its a reminder that even if you haven’t God is faithful to you and your family.

While we can move God out of the center of our lives, He never moves you out of the His center.

Will you pray with me?