Sermon Tone Analysis

He was 80 years old when he saw the Nile river turn to blood.

He saw the firstborn all the Egyptians die, and he saw his own firstborn saved by the blood of a lamb.

He saw the Red Sea split in two and the Israelites walk across on dry ground.

He saw God on a mountain and then in a tent.

He saw bread come from heaven and water from a rock.

He saw his people win battle after battle because the Lord fought for them.

He saw 12 spies sneak into the land God had promised to see if it was “a land flowing with milk and honey,” like God promised.

It was!

But when the spies returned he saw them chicken out.

They refused to go into the land because they were scared!

So, when Moses was 80 years old, God told him to lead the Israelites through the desert for 40 years and in that time every adult died except for two.

He was 120 years old when he stood in the desert and in a crowd of millions he only saw two of them were even half his age.

How do you communicate miracles to millions who were too young to remember?

How do you communicate pass down the mercy of God to a generation that hasn’t seen it like you have?

How do you do Christian education?

He was 80 years old when he saw the water turn to blood.

He saw the frogs and the gnats, and the flies.

He saw the livestock die, the people contract boils, the hail fall from the sky.

He saw the locusts descend on the Egyptians and then he saw the darkness descend.

He saw the Red Sea split in two and the Israelites walk across on dry ground, he saw God on a mountain and then in a tent.

He saw bread come from heaven and water from a rock.

He saw his people win battle after battle because the Lord fought for them.

He saw 12 spies sneak into the land God had promised to see if it was “a land flowing with milk and honey,” like God promised.

It was!

But when the spies returned he saw them chicken out.

They refused to go into the land because they were scared!

So, when Moses was 80 years old, God told him to lead the Israelites through the desert for 40 years and in that time every adult died except for two.

He was 120 years old when he stood in the desert and in a crowd of millions he only saw two of them were even half his age.

How do you communicate miracles to millions who were too young to remember?

How do you communicate pass down the mercy of God to a generation that hasn’t seen it like you have?

How do you do Christian education?

She was 5 hours old when I held her.

5 hours old and already, like the rest of us, a little rebel against God.

How do you communicate miracles?

How do you put the love of Jesus into a child’s heart?

Baptism for sure!

But Jesus commanded us to baptize and teach them everything he commanded.

So how do you do Christian education?

To answer that question, let’s spend 15 minutes in the desert with Moses.

Let’s Christian education God’s way.

Moses tell us step one of Christian education.

There’s an implied “is” in verse 4. 4 Hear, O Israel: Jewish people would say Yahweh is our God, the Yahweh is one.

The people North of the Israelites worshiped Molech.

The people across the river worshiped Baal.

The people surrounding them worshiped Chemosh.

If you wanted those gods to bless you, you had to sacrifice.

If you made them mad, they would kill you.

If you were in a deep trouble, you would kill your son on their altar.

But none of those gods are real.

Yahweh is God, and his name means: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.

Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”

Yahweh is the God of forgiveness and justice.

You can’t educate anyone about God unless you know who he is.

Thank goodness, Yahweh is God!

She was 5 hours old when I held her.

5 hours old and already, like the rest of us, a little rebel against God.

How do you communicate miracles?

How do you put the love of Jesus into a child’s heart?

Baptism for sure!

But Jesus commanded us to baptize and teach them everything he commanded.

So how do you do Christian education?

To answer that question, let’s spend 15 minutes in the desert with Moses.

Let

Step two of Christian education is to live like Yahweh is God. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Your God forgives!

Love him with all you’ve got! 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be just in a book -no- only in church -no- on your hearts.

Put God’s words in your heart.

Step three is the part we always think about.

God doesn’t say we should mention his word or teach his word.

He doesn’t.

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.

Those are Hebrew idioms for making God’s word part of everything you do and every thought you think and putting it on your door so that everyone knows in this house, we worship Yahweh, the compassionate and gracious God!

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.

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.

That’s God’s steps to Christian education.

1) Know that Yahweh is God.

2) Put his words in your own heart.

3) Impress his words on children by making him part of everything you do and say and are.

So how are we doing with those three steps?

The first things that come to mind are what we do in this building.

Our education opportunities here are amazing blessings!

At Mount Olive school, every subject is taught with God’s word in mind.

Discipline is based on God’s word.

The students and teachers hear God’s word in daily devotions and weekly chapels.

We have amazing teachers, leaders, volunteers and students in our school, and today we celebrate that!

Our Sunday school teaches the true story of how Yahweh has kept all his promises by sending Jesus his Son!

We have amazing volunteer teachers and aids.

We have people in Bible class on Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

We have Life Groups connecting people to each other and God’s word.

And all these efforts are paying off.

In 2018 the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod published a study on nationwide young adults in the church and found that if a child is enrolled in a Lutheran school or active in youth ministry, they are more likely to be connected to their church.[1]

Today we celebrate that.