Sermon Tone Analysis

Welcome

Good Morning!

I’m Pastor Wayne and I’d like to welcome you all to the gathering of Ephesus Baptist Church.Why did you choose to gather today?

We believe we are a called people!

Called to worship and exalt our God among the nations in order that His glory may be spread over all the earth!

If you are visiting with us this morning, we want you to know that ...

We are all one family of faith: “giving our all to love God, love people, proclaim Jesus, and make disciples in our generation.”

We have a connect card in the pew in front of you.

I invite you to take one and fill it out!

If you have prayer needs, you can let us know about those as well.

I promise, our prayer team will lift you up soon.

You can place those cards in the offering plate when it comes around.

Scripture Memory

Opening Scripture Reading

Prayer of Invocation

Recognition of Father’s

Video

Introduction

Kids in Church:

A father was at the beach with his children when the four-year old ran up to him, grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore where a seagull lay dead in the sand.

“Daddy, what happened to him?” the son asked.

“He died and went to Heaven,” the Dad replied.

The boy thought a moment and then said, “Did God throw him back down?”

After the baptism of his older brother, a young boy sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car.

His father asked him three times what was wrong.

Finally the boy replied, “That preacher said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home and I wanted to stay with you.”

A wife invited some people to dinner.

At the table, she turned to their six-year old daughter and said, “Would you like to say the blessing?”

“I wouldn’t know what to say,” the girl replied.

“Just say what you hear Mommy say,” the wife answered.

The daughter bowed her head and said, “Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?”

Today is Father’s Day and I believe God would very much like for us to examine one of the critical institutions he ordained, the family.

The family is the arena in which God’s glory is demonstrated in the right ordering of all things.

It is where God’s gift of marriage and later of children is something that believers should receive with great gratitude.

I hope you would agree that the family is vital to our entire existence as humanity, but also as Christians.

Speaking both scripturally and culturally, the fact of the importance of healthy families should be blatantly obvious to even the casual observer; however, the reality is that we can so easily miss the obvious.

It is almost impossible for me to imagine how Israel could so easily miss the obvious.

How could Israel, God’s covenant people, a people who experienced the oppression of Egypt, a people who experienced the miracle of the Exodus, a people who heard God speaking to them from within a fire, a people who tasted the blessing of manna in the morning; How could they forget so quickly God’s goodness to them.

Seriously, how could a people who experienced all of these things, forget God so quickly!

Unfortunately, like ourselves, they were a part of sinful humanity and sometimes a symptom of our sinfulness is that we can completely miss the obvious.

I pray that after this morning no one under the sound of my voice will miss the obvious when it comes to Jesus Christ, the family, and our need for godly fathers and grandfathers.

Today, I have four observations to share with you about the legacy that a godly father can leave to their children.

Before we turn to Deuteronomy 6, allow me to set the context for our passage.

If we are to correctly understand and interpret God’s Word we need to be sure that we are reading it in its proper context.

Context is the key to interpreting Scripture.

To set the context, I want to quickly survey Israel’s history from the fall of Israel at the hands of Nebuchadnezzer back to our passage in Deuteronomy.

At the end of 2 Kings we see in Chapter 23:26-27 that God allowed the captivity of Israel and Judah, as well as the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.

Just two chapters later we see exactly what God said was going to happen, happen as Israel entered into their Babylonian Captivity.

Two chapters later, we read in...

Prophecy fulfilled.

Exactly what God said was going to happen; happened, as Israel entered into their Babylonian Captivity.

But how did Israel get to this point?

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

- George Santayana

The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress (1905-1906) Vol.

I, Reason in Common Sense

God allowed Israel and Judah to fall because of the wickedness of the king and the children of Israel.

Remember how Israel requested a king to rule over them in 1 Samuel so that they would be like all the other nations.

God was the rightful King of Israel.

Israel was supposed to be a theocracy not a monarchy.

Yet, we know from Scripture that God had not been the King of the Israelites hearts for quite some time.

If we trace Israel’s history back a little further to Judges 21:25 we see that everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

They did not pay attention to God’s leadership over their lives.

How did this lack of knowledge, this lack of respect for God, this lack of respect for His commandments and this lack of respect for His covenant become so widespread among the very people whom He chose to reveal Himself to?

There it is!

“And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.”

- Judges 2:10

Somewhere along the way, as these great men and women of Israel’s history were taking the lands of Israel, serving and fighting for the Lord, there were children who were being neglected.

As godly as Joshua’s generation was, they failed to raise their children as God had commanded through Moses.

It is my belief that their children failed to embrace Yahweh because they didn’t see the example of nor hear the teaching of their parents.

Are our children embracing true Christianity because of our example and teaching?

Or are they learning things without solid biblical guidance?

Christian Smith, lead researcher of the now famous, National Study of Youth and Religion, recently confirmed the fears of many when his research came to this conclusion,

The majority of American Teenagers appear to espouse rather inclusive, pluralistic, and individualistic views about religious truth, identity boundaries, and the need for religious congregation.

Our research suggests that religious congregations are losing out to school and the media for the time and attention of youth.

When it comes to the formation of the lives of youth, viewed sociologically, faith communities typically get a very small seat at the end of the table for a very limited period of time.

The youth-formation table is dominated structurally by more powerful and vocal actors.

Hence…most teens know details about television characters and pop stars, but many are quite vague about Moses and Jesus.

Most youth are well versed about the dangers of drunk driving, AIDS, and drugs, but many haven’t a clue about their own faith traditions core ideas.

Many parents also clearly prioritize homework and sports over church or youth group attendance.

The average youth participates in an average of 3.5 sports today, as opposed to 1.5 Sports 30 yrs ago.

If we as churches and as families keep doing what we’re doing, we’ll keep getting what we’ve got.

And in our ignorance of these things we will raise our children as pagans rather than godly minded children.

What are we to do?

Is there any hope to reverse the tide of culture?

I believe God’s Word supplies us with much needed marching orders to turn the tide and restore our families.

Let’s continue to trace the Israelites example back to the time before Joshua’s generation entered into the Promised Land.

In the time we have left, I’d like to offer four observations from Deuteronomy 6:1-25 that if applied to our lives and homes, I believe can raise up a generation who loves the Lord.

Each observation begins and ends with the Father who endeavors to leave a godly legacy with the help of a godly wife of course.

Four ways Dads can leave a godly legacy!

1. Fathers can leave a godly legacy by living a life of true godly Devotion before our children.

Deuteronomy Chapter 5 is the second giving of the Ten Commandments.

In Chapter 6. Moses says that the commandments, the statutes, and the rules are given to us for a blessing.

To love God as commanded is to place oneself within the orbit of God’s saving grace because the Shema, the heart and core of the Old Testament law, was designed, as Paul said, to become...

Simply loving and obeying God as you live a life of worshipful faith before your children can make a world of difference in what they learn to value.

If we want them to value God and His word, then we must model a godly devotion before our children.

Fathers can leave a godly legacy by living a life of true godly Devotion before our children.

2. Fathers can leave a godly legacy by passionately teaching the great Doctrines of our faith to our children.

We cannot expect our kids to learn the things of God from a few hours at church.

It is not going to happen.