Love the Lord your God

One time while on a family holiday, at a resort in Samoa, my parents and all of us adult children, well I would have been 17 and I’m the youngest of 4. We were reminded of our fathers rule over us all when the clock passed 10 pm, and we were all still up playing the card game of hearts in a room not too far from his. My father comes marching over from his room informing us that the clock had passed the acceptable hour of noise and we were all to head straight to bed and sleep. Ingrained in us was a fear of our father and the reminder of a life of his rules in his house. Although we were far from home and not many of actually lived with him, as his children we all accepted his words and promptly headed for bed.

I’m sure we all have classic parent moments when you had to obey mum and dad, maybe you did all the time, maybe you didn’t. This morning we are going to look at a command that our Father in heaven gives us in the book of Deuteronomy, the words written by Moses, in the time just before the people of Israel enter the promised land. After 40 years of wandering in the Desert, God commands Moses to preach to the people one last time. We are going to spend our time this morning at the beginning of this sermon of Moses in Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy is an interesting word, it’s a Greek word that literally means second giving of the law. So it’s a good book to turn to when you study the ten commandments because this is Moses sermon about them. Which is where we start today, in Deuteronomy 6 the beginning of the first commandment: Love the Lord your God.

This sermon will discuss the passage in four parts;

The Promise (1-3),

The Command (4-9),

The Means (the gospel),

The Assurance (10-12).

Seeing this passage as four parts will help us understand its application for our lives as Christians today. As we look to Jesus and his work on the cross, we will turn the light of the Gospel onto the words of this Old Testament passage. For it is in the Gospel we understand how this passage relates to us today.

Starting with the promise, Moses records this little preamble before he says one of the most famous verses for a Jewish family. This preamble in verses 1-3 says quite a few things, but let’s follow closely what is being said. Deuteronomy 6:1

Deuteronomy 6:1 ESV

“Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it,

Depending on your translation, you may get a plural in the word command or a singular, what Moses is referring to is the ten commandments as a whole. Chapter 5 of Deuteronomy sets that context up for us as it retells the list of commands before Moses unpacks each one individually. But here in the preamble Moses is referring to the collective ten. That you “Israel” are to do them in the land which you are going. Israel, these are the commands that you are to live by.

In verse two, Moses is stating the generational imperative of these commands. Not just you, as the one who’s heard them today, but for your children, their children, and so on. Just as God gives each of the covenants prior, he makes specific mention of the inclusion of the generations to follow. He says to Abraham, Issac and Jacob that the blessings of his promise will be for their children. God’s covenant here, is applied to the entire family. That all may fear the lord your God as long as you shall live. The focus of this sermon isn’t so must on this specific theme of the fear of God, that’s going to be drawn out in the next sermon that covers verses 13-25. For now, note that a correct fear of God is achieved by keeping all his decrees and commands. That is to say, the correct response to God is to keep his commands. And all this is in order that it would go well with you.

In fact God’s concern for the well being of his people is the promise that is made alongside the instruction to obey his commands. that it may go well for you. That you would enjoy the fruits of the land that he has promised to give to you. You see God cares about his people. It’s funny when I think of my father telling us off for being loud and playing cards after 10pm. My siblings and I have come to know that my dad is so keen on adventure that he wanted us to go to sleep because he wanted us to go and do lots of stuff the next day. We couldn’t argue with that back then, we knew to listen to our father because we knew his heart was for our well being.

Moses is saying that, God knows what’s best for you. He cares for you and wants you to be well. Listen to him. Obey his commands. This is a promise from our father in heaven that responding through obedience will lead to well-being. This is the first point of the passage today. God’s promise of well-being through the obeying of his command is for you and your children. And with that promise in Moses’ preamble to the greatest command our hearts should listen knowing that God cares for us. As a note, well being is fine thing indeed, not to be confused with prosperity, God’s not saying in this preamble that you will be rich and famous. He’s speaking of a life full of God’s blessings.

Which brings us to the command the second part of this passage. This section of the passage is known as the Shema, this is the Hebrew word for the beginning of verse 4, Hear, O Israel, Shema simply means to hear. That’s rather academic, so what’s important here is that God is making a stress on the importance of this command. All of God’s word is for the people to listen to, it’s unnecessary to say listen to this because everything God says is worth listening to, so when the bible does say specifically that we are to listen, this is a stressed point, it’s like underlining words or putting them in bold.

Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV

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

Now if you were raised as a religious Jewish family you would know these words by heart by the time you were 4 years old. This is a foundational statement of faith for the Jews. The purpose of its recitation is primarily for unity and communal belonging to the covenant God. Israelite families recite this because they belong to this community of God’s people. Contextually, the Ancient Near Eastern world had a multitude of gods, each with their own influence and limitations that were worshiped in a variety of ways. You see Israel was different. They have one God. Monotheism is the theological term you would use to say that. God is making it very certain that everyone knows God is one.

The instructions within the Shema are profound indeed; they leave no room for allowing a priority in one’s life that is not God. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut 6:5). These three words; heart, soul and might are deep and profound the more you unpack the meaning of each. God is commanding a covenantal commitment that resonates out every fiber of ones being. There is nothing left that one can have or own that one can keep to themselves if one is to submit to the God of Israel. The implication is that the command to love God is to be written on the heart and bound to the body.

This is the greatest command... I can say that because Jesus that said when a Jewish man wanted to know how to inherit the kingdom of God.

You see the all encompassing nature of this command is beyond just words of a faithful follower of God. To love God with your ‘might’ is the essence of one’s energy output, that is the use of resources you own, the economic nature of your work, the social aspect of your life or your physical ability to do stuff. That is your family, house, and workplace; everything is to be devoted to God. Thus spoken as a daily prayer, the faithful Israelite is reminded each day to place God above all else in their life.

God goes on to say Deuteronomy 6:6-9

Deuteronomy 6:6–9 ESV

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 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. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

God even gives the instruction for how to raise children in the faith. This is good news and it’s what’s largely fueled my convictions to work as a next generation worker. I’m a father to a young family and so I’m particularly interested in what scripture has to say on the subject. But more so, I’m a member of Grace Community Church and so all of the kids here are my children in Christ as they are yours. So everyone should be interested in the raising of children even if only for the point that God chose to say this directly after the command to love him. So let’s see what God says.

The NIV gives a helpful word for understanding this section, slightly different from the ESV or the KJV, one word but it gives a clearer picture of the emphasis of this passage. That word is “Impress.” The NIV uses the term impress upon your children. The others use the term teach. Don’t get me wrong teach is a great word, but if you compare it to impress, you must know that teaching is more than simply speaking words. Impressing upon someone is more akin to discipleship, and using all of life as a lesson in the first commandment, the way you love and express joy, the way you celebrate and relax, the way you discipline and vent anger. All features of your life are moments to impress or teach the children what it means to follow God.

God gives an extensive list of how all encompassing this task is. When you talk and walk, when you wake and lie down. Bind them, be front-lets, write them on doorposts on the house and the gate. That’s really to say, everywhere you are, everything you own, you must declare your devotion to the Lord God.

Your entire life as a parent is to be a lesson of devotion to God for your children to witness. That is to say Discipleship is foundational to God’s design for a family. And the same goes for the church family. In no uncertain terms, every day and everywhere church is to reflect a devotion to loving God with all our hearts souls and strength.

And you know what... you can’t do it! You will not succeed!

Well at least not in your own strength. You need help.

It’s funny how we often search the internet for help to succeed. Like I want my child to learn maths, Hey Google, whats the best way to teach mathematics? Or I want to learn to play the guitar, Hey Google, what the best way to learn guitar?

So here I’m asking God, Hey God, what’s the best way to raise my kids?

And the good news is that God gives us not only the answer but also the means in which to do so.

However, we don’t see it all in this passage. We only see a glimpse. We need to shine the light of the gospel onto this passage to help us truly understand our task at hand today. You see unfortunately many families have succumbed to the tantalizing formula of raising religious children. It’s tempting isn’t to see a formula for raising your kids and think, great, I’ll do that I’ll wear religious stuff and have religious words all over my house. I’ll tell my kids religious lessons and then I will have raised Godly children. People will respect me, and life will be good.

That’s terribly wrong. Even Jesus says so. Jesus calls that religious hypocrisy he told a bunch of pharisees as much as recorded by Matthew. and that should scare us.

You see Deuteronomy 6 is about the first command with two imperatives, first, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and might. Second, impress that love of God upon your children. Be careful then, we are not train our kids in religious ways, but rather in a faith of a loving God. The religious ways described are not the means in of themselves which creates faithful children. Religious ways devoid of an appropriate devotion to God only make religious children. That leads to hypocrisy and pride. A common trait of the Pharisees that Jesus address in the book of Matthew

You see the key to this text and how to raise our children therefore is found in the life of Jesus. Helpfully he uses this passage of scripture from Deuteronomy. Lets look to Jesus in the desert being tempted by Satan in Matthew 4: 8-11

Matthew 4:8–11 ESV

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ” Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

In this sequence of events Jesus not only knows this command of scripture, but he lives it out. Love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and might, Jesus in the face of temptation gives us the model of perfect devotion to God. He didn’t worship Satan or give into his tricks, he made no accommodation for the devils lies instead Jesus turned to the word of God. Jesus spoke the devil down with God’s authoritative scripture. This is because no love of the world could get in between Jesus and the Father in Heaven. That is what it is supposed to be for us. people devoted to God, and God alone.

Church, I draw your attention to Jesus in the dessert as the perfect model of what it means to love God with all your heart soul and strength. For only Jesus is able to live out this command perfectly. Only Jesus is able to stand before God and declare on his own name that he upheld the law, that he is righteous.

So what does that mean then for raising our kids you ask?

You see this command spoken by Moses was for the Israelite's , it’s also prophetic in that it points to the only person able to keep it perfectly. Just like Israel, You and I fail all the time at this. Don't let that surprise you. On a good day we might do this well-ish, but in reality we don’t love God with all our heart soul and might as we should. Just like Israel before us.

So what I’m saying is that we can’t do the first part, loving God with all our heart. And so you might ask what hope do we have in achieving the second part, raising our kids.

Well.... truth is..... you can’t do that either.

At least not on your own strength. Just like we need help with loving God, we need help in raising our kids.

Jesus’ life not only provides a model of how to live, but his death, Resurrection and assention provide us with the forgiveness we need in order to have a relationship with God. You see sin is the reason we cannot live up to the first command. Sin is what keeps us separate from the Holy God. It is forgiveness in Jesus name that creates a way for us to have righteousness. Forgiveness that gives us a right relationship with God. You see its the forgiveness of our sins in Jesus name that is the key to understanding our problem with Deuteronomy.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and might.

We must say “Lord I fail at this task each day. Forgive my lack of strength, forgive my doubt.”

You see God knew that this command would defeat his people. He knew that his people would fail at this task. So he made a way possible, he made a path for sinners to be redeemed through sacrifice. Because the wages of sin is death.

For the Israelite's they went to the temple, they followed God’s stipulations for sacrifice and through faith in God they lived the way God commanded them to live. And by his grace he counted them as righteous for believing that God is who he says he is. And guess what happened for Israel, every time they lived according to God’s commands, there was rest, well-being. What happened when they didn’t? Unrest, exile and death. It did not go so well for them. Interesting that. Follow the command receive the promise.

For the New Testament believer, we know that Jesus is the perfect sacrifice, the perfect first born who was blameless under the law. It is faith in Jesus that provides the perfect love and devotion to the father. When I fail to love God, I must look to Jesus, I must repent and be forgiven in Jesus name. I cannot love God perfectly, but I have faith that Jesus does. and that he forgives my sinful attitude keeping from loving God as i should.

And the good news doesn’t stop there. That’s not the end of it. Jesus also saves us for a life of loving him, and to do so he gives us the Holy Spirit. Not only does Jesus give us forgiveness, he gives us the means to love God as God expects. Through the Holy Spirit we have the power of God to love God, not in our own strength but in his. This good news gets even better when we look to raising kids.

By all means use religious stuff, God even says to. But do the first thing first. Love God through the Spirit by faith in Jesus and his work on the cross. Devote your life to loving Jesus, obeying his commands, saturated in Gods word. Do that first, live a life that loves others as Jesus loves others. Deny yourself, take up your cross, lay down your life. Don’t worry you have the spirit to help you, none of this you can do in your own strength and you shouldn't even try.

God’s got you sorted. So do that first, then impress that upon the kids. Show them a life devoted to Jesus. Bring them to Christ, bring them the gospel. Every day, pray with and for the kids, pray in secret and model prayer in front of your children, read God’s word as one who loves God’s word, Volunteer as one who works for God, help people as though helping Jesus himself. Apologize to your kids when you get it wrong, apologize to your wife or husband in front of your kids to model repentance. Show them what repentance looks like and how reliant you are on the God above to live your life.

Show them that you are not perfect but you look to the perfect father, this is something you cannot fake. You see God put this instruction directly after the greatest command that’s no co-incident. In our homes, this is either true or it’s not. In our church, this is either true or it’s not. Our children will see right through our lies, there’s no hiding anything from God, and my goodness if I wasn’t worried about God watching me, my children are like CCTV, they catch everything! So that’s the hard truth for us to reflect on, do we rely on Jesus in everything we do? Are we doing the first thing? because we cant do the second thing if we cant do the first. So look to Jesus! He is your salvation and your hope.

I can’t stress this enought, our children need the hope of Jesus because we need the hope of Jesus. They don’t need religion! They need someone in their life who is devoted to God through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. So I say again, do the first thing first. Love God!

Which brings us to the last point. The assurance.

Moses makes an appeal to history as a reason to be motivated for this task. He makes reference to the covenants given to Abraham (Genesis 12:7), Isaac (Gen 26:2), and Jacob (Gen 28:13). Claiming that the land they are entering soon is the land promised to the patriarchs. By appealing to the covenants, Moses is focusing on what God has done and promised rather than any achievement by man. Because it’s always God who receives the glory. God is reminding the Israelite’s that God alone is the reason they have hope.

Furthermore God knows the minds of men are quick to forget, the promises he made to the forefathers were often forgotten in the dessert (Numbers 14 & 16). Moses writes the little poetic couplets as a way of preparing the people to not forget God when life is going well.

Flourishing cities - you did not build

Houses filled with all kinds of good things - you did not provide

Wells - you did not dig

vineyards and olive groves - you did not plant.

be careful and do not forget the Lord who brought you out of Egypt out of the land of slavery. Do not forget… well just a quick read into judges and spoiler alert Israel does in fact forget. And we are not immune to this either. How many of us forget about God when life is easy, bible reading drops, our prayer life becomes minimal and we talk about pleasantries like weather and cricket. Moses is structuring the exposition of the first command to be rooted in history. God’s people have a history and through it God has revealed himself. You see Moses did not live beyond the dessert but he knew to trust that one day God would fulfill every promise he made. How blessed are we to have the extended version of history. To see God’s promises being made yes in Christ.

So if you want assurance to love the Lord your God, look to God’s history and read about Jesus, Jesus is everything I’ve claimed him to be today, Moses says the assurance of God’s promise is in the history of God’s people. The proof of what I’ve said today is in his promises and the work of salvation he provides his people in Egypt. We learn that Jesus is the greater exodus story providing the full freedom from slavery to sin. So be assured that God’s word is good. His promises are true and that we are to obey his commands, and love Jesus, that it may go well for you.

Do not forget to love God. Do not forget God provides, do not forget that God cares.

So love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and might. Do that in the strength of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. Devote your life to Christ in everything you do, and impress that love of Jesus upon the children. Using the the strength from the Holy Spirit calling on Jesus name repenting of your sin daily, that you would impress your love for God onto the children.

The Promise:

That it may go well with you

The Command:

Love the Lord your God

Impress upon the children a love for God

The Means:

Jesus and the gospel

The Holy Spirit

The Assurance:

God’s redemptive history

Let’s pray.