What You Do Matters

Sermon Script - “What You Do Matters”

Hillside Church of Marin - 8 June 2014

What you do in the life of a child and teenager this week matters.

Today we as a church are celebrating the influence and significance of the family.

During the first service, we celebrated the dedication of Baby Vienna to the Lord and committed together as a church community to stand by Paul and Megan as they raise Vienna into a little girl who grows up chasing after God’s heart.

In between the services today, we will celebrate the graduation of ALL of our students across all age groups from their current faith-formative environments to their new ones for the Fall! This is not only a significant moment in the life of a child and teenager, but for a parent as well.

For some of our parents, one season has come to an end and another new season - full of new challenges, new concerns, and new adventures - awaits them and their family. If you see a parent today who’s child graduated from elementary to middle school or from middle to high school, give them a hug and keep them in your prayers.

Finally, for the first time in the history of Hillside Church, after our services today, ALL of our Family Ministry Leaders will be gathering into one room, sharing stories of how God has formed the faith of the children in our church from birth through graduating seniors, and honoring God for our amazing volunteers who have dedicated their time and energy to Hillside Family Ministry. Praise God for their service, and Praise God for our Hillside Parents who leverage the influence of our leaders and maximize the faith-formative potential of what happens at home.

Huge day in the life of our church! And we choose to invest into all of this… Because ultimately, what each of us does over the course of a week… personally… with others… and especially in the life of a child… matters!

It matters!

Early in the history of Israel, we can read historical accounts from Genesis to Deuteronomy of God acting in radically different ways than people during that time expected ‘a god’ to act.

Many people then - and some even today - expected ‘a god’ to act like an angry, terrible, beastly character who sought enjoyment by causing death and destruction.

Personally, I cannot imagine a quicker way to make the concept of god obsolete or irrelevant than to create an image of ‘a god’ in your mind who could care less about you.

Generally, during that day and age, people only understood the concept of god as fear. You must appease the gods for rain, sustenance, children, protection, and so forth. The concept of god did not at all carry any connotation of how we know our one, true God as relationship, redemption, salvation, or love.

That is, until God broke into our world through the person of Abraham in Genesis chapter 12.

Here, God encounters Abraham, and God does something radical - he tells Abraham this:

“Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:1-3

God reveals a much different kind of personality than what many people expected ‘a god’ to have. God wants to partner with us, bless us, and bless others through us.

WOW! What a radical concept? Even today - right now - some people still feel amazed and bewildered that God wants to partner with us, bless us, and bless others through us.

And so over the next several centuries God carries forth on his promise through Genesis, until through a series of circumstances, the chosen people of God become enslaved and tortured by a nation far greater than them.

According to the author of Exodus, God saw this, and it broke his heart, so God did something radical. God executed a massive rescue plan of extraordinary measures for his people… and succeeded.

Moses led the people into the wilderness, not expecting to stay for long, but found themselves wandering with little direction for how to find their new home.

As an aside, I sometimes consider this the teenage years of Israel. While the people groaned during these years and sought for a time when they would finally arrive at the home to where God would lead them, many scholars believe that God used the wilderness years more so than any other time in Israel’s history to shape their identity into one who trusts in the Lord.

They enter into the wilderness as a child-like society and leave the wilderness more mature than when they entered.

They continue wandering through the Book of Exodus into the Book of Leviticus where God keeps his promises once again and does something radical.

Remember what I said about how people understood the concept of ‘a god’ - demanding, shaming, angry.

Well, God leverages the years of Israel wandering in the desert to shape them into a society who can worship God in a right, healthy, formative way, as well as live in healthy relationship with one another.

The Book of Leviticus contains numerous laws that we read today as pedantic and mundane. But for a society who only understood ‘a god’ as distant and chaotic, rules for healthy, sustainable, and intentional worship were freeing!

Yet, Israel deals with the same issues that every society of people face at some point: dissonance, conflict. The Book of Numbers chronicles the pit falls and failures of Israel’s ability to maintain the covenant between them and God, along with the consequences of their actions.

But once again, God does something radical in the Book of Numbers that affirms once more the true character of God: God shows mercy and forgiveness toward those who seek repentance for their sin.

Wait, you mean God does not shame me? God does not remember my mistakes and use them against me?

That’s right.

Which all then culminates in the book of Deuteronomy.

The author of this book builds upon this progression of observing these radical movements of God throughout the first 4 books of the Old Testament, and then writes in Deuteronomy about what God does with this now gathered, formed, more mature, covenant community known as Israel.

God calls them in Genesis.

God redeems them in Exodus.

God instructs them in Leviticus.

God shapes them in Numbers.

Finally, in Deuteronomy, God does something radical one more time.

The Book of Numbers records a very tumultuous period during the time of Israel. It gives account of some of the most turbulent times between God and Israel while they wandered through the dessert.

And Deuteronomy begins with a radical move by God: God takes a fresh start with the people. I think God would have been right in telling Israel to wander in the dessert for another thousand years. But instead, God calls Moses in front of the crowd, and they end their time in the dessert with how it began: by reviewing the core 10 Commands of God as the foundation for their relationship together.

Because sometimes you just need to get back to basics.

So in Deuteronomy 5, Moses reviews their covenant relationship with God, brings everyone back to the same page, and then in Deuteronomy 6, God uses Moses to do something radical.

God speaks through Moses and says this, beginning in Deuteronomy 6:1-9:

1 “These are the commands, decrees, and regulations that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you. You must obey them in the land you are about to enter and occupy, 2 and you and your children and grandchildren must fear the Lord your God as long as you live. If you obey all his decrees and commands, you will enjoy a long life. 3 Listen closely, Israel, and be careful to obey. Then all will go well with you, and you will have many children in the land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.

In other words, in light of everything that God has promised you and done for you, the author goes onto write:

4 “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. 6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands. 7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. 8 Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

So…

God calls them in Genesis.

God redeems them in Exodus.

God instructs them in Leviticus.

God shapes them in Numbers.

And then God restores them in Deuteronomy.

And God does so… through the Family.

God chooses the very core unit of society and humanity at large to carry out the first promise that God made to Abraham so long ago - you are blessed to be a blessing.

The author writes in verse 4 and following:

The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. 6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands.

… So that you may be a blessing to everyone with whom you come in contact!

The author goes onto say that you should do this by placing reminders of God’s goodness and faithfulness to you everywhere. Never find yourself in a position where you forget about God and his love for you!

Because what you do matters!

It matters personally. Your regular rhythms and devotion to God on a daily basis matters for your faith and relationships.

It matters to others with whom we influence and lead. How you love God and keep God’s commands matters to others, even when you cannot see the direct impact and implications.

But perhaps it matters most in how we raise and disciple our kids - because your influence as a parent knows no bounds!

As a parent, you possess the greatest influence of anyone in the life of your child.

According to what the author wrote in Deuteronomy 6:7, it matters what you do on a weekly and daily basis:

Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. 8 Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Even Solomon wrote in the Book of Proverbs that a Parent must,

“Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.” Proverbs 22:6

I believe that God wanted Israel to know - and wants us to know right now - that what you do personally, for others, for your family, and especially for our kids on a weekly and daily basis for your faith matters to God.

And I think this could not be more urgent than right now.