Raising the Roof
Your Dream Home • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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This morning we are going to get straight into God’s word.
In Genesis 3 Adam and Eve ate the fruit…they sinned…
they realized they were naked and tried to cover themselves up.
God comes along and eventually basically asks “what are you wearing….?”
and then God does this verse 21
21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
They were already clothed…
…but their covering wasn’t enough.
God had to cover them.
God had to make sure they were covered.
now flip over to Deuteronomy 6:4-9
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.
This morning we are going to continue our “your dream home” series.
With a message I’m calling
Raising the Roof.
Pray
VOYAGER SPACECRAFTS
One of the craziest things humans have ever built is Voyager 1 and Voyager 2.
And the reason they even exist is wild.
In the 1960s, a college student named Gary Flandro discovered something incredibly rare.
About once every 176 years…
the outer planets align in a way that allows a spacecraft to use the gravity of one planet to slingshot to the next one.
Jupiter to Saturn.
Saturn to Uranus.
Uranus to Neptune.
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
And NASA realized:
“If we miss this window, none of us will ever see it again.”
So Voyager was born.
Officially, Voyager was only approved to go as far as Saturn.
That was the mission.
Get to Jupiter.
Get to Saturn.
Take pictures.
Collect data.
But the engineers knew something:
Once you launch something into deep space…
you don’t get to pull over and fix it later.
So even though the mission officially stopped at Saturn…
they engineered Voyager for the long haul.
Backup systems.
Redundancies.
Power conservation systems.
Because they believed it could go farther than people expected.
And they were right.
A mission that once sounded like it would take lifetimes…
has now traveled faithfully for decades.
Almost 50 years later…
Voyager is still moving through space.
Still transmitting.
Still operating.
And what’s crazy is that recently they almost lost communication with Voyager 1 completely.
A corrupted memory chip caused the spacecraft to start sending back gibberish instead of usable data.
And engineers had to dig through decades-old manuals and rewrite code from the 1970s just to keep Voyager communicating with Earth.
Tiny corrections.
Small adjustments.
And those adjustments helped preserve the mission decades after launch.
And honestly…
I think raising a family feels a lot like that.
Because raising a family is not just about managing today.
It’s preparing people for a future you will not always be there to control.
You are building values.
Convictions.
Patterns.
Instincts.
You are forming trajectory.
And sometimes the most important moments are not massive overhauls.
They’re small corrections.
Conversations.
Boundaries.
Prayers.
Repeated truths over time.
Because eventually your kids leave your house…
…and what was built into them is what keeps guiding them.
Parenting is not controlling every future decision.
It’s:
Building
Training
Correcting direction
Forming trajectory
And eventually…Releasing.
MOSES END OF LIFE
And honestly… that’s exactly where Moses is in Deuteronomy.
This is after 40 years in the wilderness.
He’s been on the mountain with God.
He’s received the commandments.
He’s seen God move in miraculous ways.
He’s spent decades leading and forming these people.
And now this is basically Moses’ final moment.
His swan song.
And what does he want to do with the time he has left?
Remind them.
Remember what God said.
Remember what God did.
And make sure the next generation knows Him too.
Don’t let the mountain experience die with you.
That’s the context of Deuteronomy 6.
Moses is looking at the next generation saying:
“Remember what God has done.
Remember what God has said.
And make sure your children know Him too.”
So let’s walk through this passage again together and I want to give you 6 truths about raising a family straight from the Bible.,
And honestly, whether you’re a parent or not, this should challenge every person in the room because what you will find this isn’t just about parenting it’s about life.
Look how Moses starts:
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Israel is surrounded by Baal, Asherah, and competing gods everywhere.
But Moses declares:
“The LORD is one.”
What does that mean?
TRUTH #1— GOD IS NOT COMPETING FOR ATTENTION
God is not competing for attention.
He is not one option among many.
He is the center.
There is no rival to Him.
And we have this weird picture sometimes of:
God vs Satan.
Like they’re somehow equals fighting it out.
But the Bible never presents Satan as God’s equal.
Never.
Satan is not God’s rival.
Look what 1 Peter 5:8 says:
8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Whose adversary?
Yours.
Not God’s.
Because God is not threatened by Satan.
But you are absolutely vulnerable to distraction, deception, compromise, and divided devotion.
And that’s exactly Moses’ concern in Deuteronomy 6.
Not atheism.
Competition.
Divided hearts.
People who know God…but slowly give their affection to other things.
Which leads straight into verse 5:
5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
This is total allegiance.
Not partial devotion.
Not occasional attention.
Not God getting whatever energy is left over.
Everything.
Heart.
Soul.
Might.
And here’s the hard truth:
You can’t raise kids to be fully devoted to a God you are partially devoted to.
Your kids will learn what actually matters by what consistently gets your attention.
verse 6
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.
That word diligently literally means sharpen…
That word “diligently” literally carries the idea of sharpening.
Repeatedly shaping an edge over time.
Not one moment.
Not one conversation.
Not one church service.
Consistency.
Repetition.
Formation.
And look at where Moses says this formation happens:
“When you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
In other words:
ordinary life.
Dinner tables.
Car rides.
Bedtime conversations.
Morning routines.
Moses is showing us something incredibly important:
Spiritual formation is not built primarily in big moments.
It’s built in repeated moments.
Small corrections.
Repeated truths.
Daily rhythms over time.
This is not: “Have a spiritual talk occasionally.”
This is: Build a home where God is part of everyday life.
Honestly, this is where a lot of us miss it.
Because we want dramatic moments.
But God often works through repeated patterns.
We want the sea to split instantly.
God sends wind all night.
And over time…
those repeated moments begin shaping trajectory.
Because raising a family is not just about behavior management.
It’s about formation.
Formation for what?
Not jut life but eternity
TRUTH #2 — EVERYDAY MOMENTS ARE ETERNAL FORMATION
Too many parents are outsourcing their child’s eternal formation.
We’ve convinced ourselves:
“Bring them to church once a week.”
“Drop them off at youth.”
“Let the pastor handle it.”
But look at who Moses is talking to.
Parents.
Families.
Homes.
Moses does not say: “The priests will teach your children diligently.”
He says: “You shall teach them diligently.”
Because according to God, the primary place of formation is not the temple.
It’s the home.
Every ordinary moment is training for eternity.
God never intended faith to be visited occasionally.
He intended it to be woven into everyday life.
TRUTH #3— YOUR HOME IS TRAINING FOR SOMETHING
verse 8
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.
“Bind them… write them…”
Why?
Because repetition forms identity.
Whatever is repeated becomes normal.
You are training your kids for something… whether you mean to or not.
The question is: What are you training them for?
Comfort?
Success?
Image?
Achievement?
Popularity?
Or eternity?
Because eventually what is normal in your house…becomes natural in their life.
GIVING
Can I give you a practical example that is going to make all of us uncomfortable?
Your kids learn what matters by what consistently gets prioritized.
Not just by what you say.
By what you sacrifice for.
You can tell your kids: “God comes first.”
but if tithing isn’t apart of your spiritual practice.
Giving first.
That 10%.
Trusting God before yourself.
Then what are you actually teaching them to believe?
Because kids are not just listening to our theology.
They are watching our priorities.
And eventually what we repeatedly prioritize becomes what they naturally value.
Now listen to me…
I am not here to shame anybody…
I know there is a lot of opinions and thoughts around giving and tithing.
but that’s what they are opinions and thoughts.
Let me give you some truths:
tithing is not old testament law, it predates the law.
tithing was not just fruit and grains. anyone that says otherwise is being intellectually dishonest.
There are entire social media ministries built around convincing Christians they don’t have to give, don’t have to serve, don’t have to commit, don’t have to submit to spiritual authority…
and people binge-watch that content for hours without realizing they are being discipled by it.
That’s why this matters.
Because repeated voices form beliefs.
And some of us are being spiritually formed more by YouTube than by Scripture.
And listen to me…
Jesus Himself affirmed tithing in Matthew 23.
And in Mark 12, the Bible says Jesus literally sat down opposite of the offering box and watched people give….
If you’re not uncomfortable yet…
Let me get super honest with you….
Right now, in our church, about 7 people consistently give.
And I’m not saying that to shame anybody.
I’m saying it because discipleship is not theoretical.
It shows up in priorities.
I want you to think about something for a moment:
If everyone gave 10% no one would ever have to give 11%.
Now listen to me, if it is ever between tithing and paying your electricity.
Pay you’re electricity.
If it’s ever between tithing and feeding your family…Feed your family.
Want to know why I care so much about tithing?
Because I want the church to be able to pay that electric bill for you when its arises.
I want the church to be able to help you feed your family when the need arises.
But the church cannot do that without faithful giving.
giving is not just a budgeting issue, it’s a discipleship issue.
You don’t accidently raise kids to be givers.
You raise them in homes where giving is normal…
okay we survived…
TRUTH #4 — DISCIPLINE IS A GOOD THING
On the surface this is duh…
But the reality is a lot of people hear grace and swing all the way into passivity.
No boundaries
No correction
No discipline
Now, this is the part of the message where I am not going to tell you HOW to discipline….
“Pastor is spanking good or bad?”
Here is what I want you to do…
Finish this sentence…
“Spare the rod….”
If you said Spoils the child…
You just quoted a 17th century poem by Samuel Buttler not the Bible….
Here is what Proverbs 13:24 actually says..
24 Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.
And some of you immediately heard that and were like:
“SAME THING. SPANK ‘EM.”
Hold on….
Let’s talk about it for a second.
That word rod is the same Hebrew word to describe a shepherd’s staff..
And yes, the rod was a real tool.
It could be used to strike.
But don’t miss the bigger point.
This is wisdom literature.
It’s revealing a principle:
Love is not passive.
Love corrects.
Love guides.
Love steps in when direction is off.
Paul writes in Ephesians do not provoke your children to anger…
So discipline is never:
Anger-driven
About control
About venting frustration
Discipline is training.
Discipline is not about punishment. It’s about direction.
If your discipline is driven by anger, it’s about you. If it’s driven by love, it’s about them.
Here is my advice on discipline….
Every kid is different.
What worked on one might not work on the other.
And that’s okay.
You are not raising robots.
You are raising people.
A lot of parents say: “I don’t want to force my kids into faith.”
And I understand that.
But let’s be honest: You already force what matters.
Brushing teeth
School
Saying “thank you”
Why?
Because formation requires intentionality.
TRUTH #5 — DON’T FORCE KIDS TO ATTEND CHURCH, FORM THEM INTO THE CHURCH
We’re not raising attendees.
We’re raising disciples.
Apart of that discipleship is attending church but church attendance is not the goal.
Eternal formation is.
In this house:
We pray
We forgive
We serve
We talk about God like He’s real
Faith is not something we visit occasionally.
It’s something we live.
Last one you ready?
TRUTH #6 — YOU CANNOT CONTROL THE OUTCOME
The outcome is not up to you.
The training is.
6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
I need you understand something.
This verse is not a guarantee that if you do everything right your kid will grow up to love Jesus…
Listen to me some of us in this room need to hear what I am about to say…
You are not the reason your child walked away from faith…
You can:
Teach
Model
Build rhythms
Create culture
…and they still choose to walk away.
That tension is painful.
Because parenting exposes how badly we want control.
But here’s the truth: You can train direction without controlling decisions.
God Himself is a perfect Father…and even He has children who rebel.
That does not make Him a failure.
I think that’s why Genesis 3 matters so much.
Because the first thing humanity does after sin enters the world…
is try to cover themselves.
Fig leaves.
Human solutions.
Human effort.
Human covering.
But eventually God steps in and covers them Himself.
Why?
Because ultimately only God can truly cover a person.
And some of you have spent years trying to carry a weight you were never designed to carry.
You cannot save your kids.
You cannot become the Holy Spirit for them.
You cannot force transformation.
You can train.
You can model.
You can pray.
You can create an environment where loving God is normal.
But ultimately…
God has to cover them.
I have one more hard truth for you…
God may not give you what you want, but He won’t fail and He is at peace with that discrepancy.
So what do we do with all of this?
Keep it simple.
Pray with your kids.
Talk about God in normal life.
Let them see your real walk.
Build small, repeatable rhythms.
Apologize when you fail.
Make faith visible in your home.
You do not need a perfect system.
You need a consistent direction.
Because you think you’re raising kids for life…
God says you’re raising them for eternity.
And honestly, parenting feels a lot like what we talked about in Week 3.
We want the sea to split instantly.
God sends wind all night.
We want immediate results.
God works through process.
Slow conversations.
Repeated prayers.
Ordinary faithfulness.
And over time…formation happens.
Here is what I want to leave you with...
And here’s what I want to leave you with:
The reward of raising a family is not simply your children reaching their dreams or goals.
It’s them reaching eternity.
