Practice What You Preach

Last week we talked about discipline, but the discipline is no good if we as parents don’t practice what we preach to our kids.

Today, as we conclude this series, I want us to look at discipleship.

The Best Discipleship is Modeled at Home.

When we look at what the scriptures tell us we need to remember that God tells us to teach our children the ways of the Lord. As a matter of fact, He doesn’t just tell us, He commands us.

As parents, if we are not discipling our kids, then we are not doing the job that God is calling us to do.

There is one thing that the Jewish people make a part of their daily lives. It is known as The Shema.

The Shema is the most fundamental expression of the Jewish faith.

We actually talked about this a couple of Wednesday nights ago.

If you have your Bibles it is found in Deuteronomy chapter 6. Look at verse 4.

Deuteronomy 6:4 NIV

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

The first word of this verse is telling the people you better listen up. This is something important that I am about to tell you. Do not shut me out. Listen carefully. Then after making them listen, Moses says what some people call the Great Confession. He says, “The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Now go to verse 5.

Deuteronomy 6:5 NIV

5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Verse 5 is known as the great commandment. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew. A Lawyer was trying to trick Jesus by asking him what is the greatest commandment and Jesus responded by quoting this verse. Look at Matthew 22.

Matthew 22:36–38 NIV

36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.

So, in verse 4, the Great confession is made, The Lord is one. Then in verse 5 the Great Commandment is made “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

Now, lets read through verse 9.

Deuteronomy 6:6–9 NIV

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.

This commandment is so important for us to know that Jesus called it the first and greatest commandment. This commandment is a complete heart devotion that bonds our covenant relationship with God. And, not only is the individual to make this confession and to keep this commandment, but the family and the community are also to come under the governance of the covenant stipulations.

That is why it is so important for us as parents to engrain this commandment in our children. We must teach them to love God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our strength.

Let’s break each one of these down. First, the Heart.

Heart

The word Heart here in this passage in the Hebrew is pronounced leb. It means the centre of things. The heart is in the center of the body. We refer to the middle of something by saying, “the heart of the matter or the heart of the sea or the heart of worship.”

The heart can also refer to the man himself. The heart is the seat of the emotions and passions, even our appetites.

When we talk about giving of ourself to someone we say, “I gave them my heart.”

When we talk about getting saved, we talk about giving our heart to Jesus.

When the heart stops beating we die. The heart is at the center of all we do.

The heart is naturally wicked and it contaminates the whole life and character. Therefore, the heart must be changed and regenerated before a man can willingly obey God. You must give God your heart.

Soul

The soul is the life-force of the person and often refers to the whole being. It needs to be sustained in order for life to thrive, and it is the seat of desires, emotions, and the will. The soul can be in intimate relationship with God or be under God’s judgment.

The soul is the entity that thinks, feels, acts, and desires. The soul can be connected to God and desire God’s presence, but it can also have wicked desires and renounce God. The soul can receive deliverance but can also receive God’s wrath.

When you die, it is your soul that leaves your body and goes into eternity.

Strength

Strength is the inner resolve or the physical ability to accomplish an endeavor, influence an outcome, or prevail in a conflict. God is the main source of strength, with people being strong either for or against the Lord, or his ways.

Our strength can lead to rebellion against God on account of a belief in human self-sufficiency.

The strength of God is made known in creation and redemption and in his empowering of believers to live faithfully.

Have you ever wondered why God used these three parts of the body when wanting his people to love him?

If we give God our heart, soul and strength, then we give God our everything.

And He doesn’t just stop there. God doesn’t just command us to do something, but He goes a step further. He wants us to talk about it. He wants us to keep them on our hearts. He wants us to talk to our children about it. He wants us to talk about it at home. He wants us to talk about it when we are walking. When we are sitting. When we lie down and when we get up. He wants us to put it on our hands and foreheads. He wants us to put it on our doorframes of our houses and on our gates.

As a parent if you don’t know God’s Word then how are you going to tell it to your kids. If you are going to talk about it, then you need to memorize it.

These commands were so much a part of the Israelites life that they would place written commandments in leather pouches and then literally bind them on their arms and forehead with leather straps. They would also practice writing passages of Scripture on a small piece of parchment that was rolled and inserted in a case affixed to the doors and doorposts of their private homes.

That is where worshipping God came from. They would go from entering a relationship with God to living faithfully before him.

As believers now, we don’t understand Worship very well. We associate it with the things of Sunday services, like singing, praying, and listening to a message. These are not the whole of what worship is. The heart of worship is far simpler. The heart of worship is the beholding and adoring of something. We learn what God is like and we commit ourselves to him. And then we teach our children to do the same. Many times our relationship with God ends at ourself, but that is not what God wants us to do. We are to get our life right and then share the blessings of God with someone else.

We cannot leave the discipleship of our children to the church alone. We have to show them the love that God has for us. We have to teach them why we love God so much. We have to teach them why we give. We have to teach them why we go to church. We have to teach them why we pray and sing songs of praise.

We have to teach our children why we have given our life to God. Why we have loved God with all our heart, soul and strength.

The kind of love that God wants from us is full time and we must love God under every circumstance. We don’t just love God when the mood hits us just right. We love God in the good times and in the bad times. And we must teach our children to love God in the same way.