Holy Work In A Messy House

[00:00:00] Now for those who are part of our church, you know that usually we go through sections of the Bible. We actually just finished a study looking at the death and resurrection of Jesus. Uh, in a couple weeks we're gonna be starting a new study in the book of Philippians, but being Mother's Day, I wanted to take, take Mother's Day and kind of do a, a unique study talking about more focus on not only parenting, but I'll, I'll explain the difference more broadly, raising our children.

And we're gonna be looking at a passage, uh, in Deuteronomy chapter six. If you have a Bible, I'd invite you to turn there with me and to, and to keep your Bibles open throughout the time. Uh, this is a passage that is seen by the Jewish people as being foundational to what it means to, to be a Jew, what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

And, uh, so we're gonna be looking at really verses four through nine. Let me begin our time by reading this passage, Deuteronomy chapter six, starting in verse four. Hero, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might.

And [00:01:00] these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and you shall talk about them when you sit in your house, when you walk up by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise. And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontland between your eyes.

You shall write them on your doorposts of your house and on your gates. May God bless the reading of this word. Let me pray. Father, I thank you for the privilege that we have to come together this morning, and Father, to be able to look at this incredible passage. Thank you for where you're continuing to challenge me even in my own understanding and application of these truths.

And Father, I pray that you'd help. Help us to now hear your spirit, that you'd get me outta the way. Allow me just to be a vehicle by which you communicate your truth. And Father, help each one of us to have hearts that are open to hear and to respond to whatever your call may be to us this day. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Let me begin by asking you a question. You know, if you were to set out and establish [00:02:00] your family, and you could choose a couple core principles. You know, short statements that kind of are define who your family, what would they be? The fact is many of us kind of in practice do that. We have certain things, uh, principles that we tell our kids.

It's almost these things that if you were to ask your kids, what is it that I always tell you in the past, as our kids have gotten older as adults, now we've asked them that, you know, so what are the things that you heard always heard us say and some of the responses that they said, you know, the world doesn't revolve around you.

Um, they always loved it when we said that, you know, it's just life isn't fair. You know, work first and then play, or you know, we'll say, you know, people make exceptions for exceptional people try to be exceptional or they say, love you so much for always, oh, that's great that they would hear us say that one common response might be, well, the golden rule.

Yeah, I remember when I was a child, you know, growing up in our family, my d dad would tell us to do something and, and if I didn't do it, you know, my dad would say, you know, this family's governed by [00:03:00] the Golden rule. Do you know what the golden rule is? And early on we might say, yeah, you know, do unto others is, is you should have them do unto you.

And he said, no, the person who has the gold, gold makes the rules. Do what I told you. You know, and I remember that. And, and another common one from Mother's Day might be appropriate. If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. You know? So we've heard that. What if the challenge wasn't establishing a family, but establishing a nation, what pro foundational principles would we put a nation upon?

In fact, let me ask another question. If God were to establish a nation, what do you think he would tell that nation? What do you think he would tell them? Remember to do this, and if you're going to do this, then you'll prosper. You see, actually, it's not a theologic or theoretical question. The Bible tells us that over 3000 years ago, God did establish a nation, the nation of Israel, and he gave them principles to govern their nation.

And the passage that we're looking at today is the passage that the people of Israel from that day on until the [00:04:00] present saw as the most important, the most foundational passage for them to know and to follow. Now, the context is this, uh, that God's people were about to enter the promised land and the leader who had been the leader for the past 40 years, Moses isn't going with them.

So as they're preparing to go into the promised land, Moses gives his people these final words of, of warning and instruction. And much of Deuteronomy is him retelling the law that God had already given them and and especially emphasizing the most essential parts. He begins by telling the people the things they need to remember.

And in Deuteronomy five, he tells them the 10 Commandments. And, but then he anticipates that there may be a time that people know these, but they actually don't do them. And so that's the context. Now when we come to chapter six. And throughout the centuries, this passage in Deuteronomy six has become the best known, the most highlighted passage to the Jewish people.

It's known as the Shama, uh, it's named for the first word of the passage, Shama [00:05:00] means to hear. So it says here, O Israel, Shama. And it's seen as this great statement of principles upon which the people of Israel are called to build their families and their nations. And for thousands of years, Jews, um, in every time they gather, in every synagogue meeting, they will recite this passage.

Young Jewish boys, they memorized this and, and recite it as part of their bar mitzvah. And so if it's the best known passage throughout the Hebrew Bible and the most important statement of faith, we have to ask, what does it teach? You know, what is it that they took seriously? And what can we learn? What is the meaning of this great command?

Again, the heart of the first, uh, um, the command is here, hero Israel, Shama. And it's calling us to do more than just here physically audibly. I. The word translated here has, has the idea of not just hearing physically, but the idea of understanding, of listening, of applying. Uh, let me take you for example, as being Mother's Day.

I mean, how many of us who have, especially moms, how many times did you [00:06:00] say to your kids, you tell 'em to do something and they look at you, you can tell they hear, and then they totally ignore you, right? And so what do you say to them? You know, you look and say, did you hear what I told you? Now what my kids never said was they never said, yes, I heard everything that I told you.

I just chose to ignore you. Now, they wouldn't say that because they know that wouldn't go well for them, but in reality, that's what happened. If they were honest, that's what they would say. They heard me, but they didn't listen and see what God is calling us to do is not only hear, but to listen and to respond and to obey and, and so the question isn't just, are you hearing the Bible?

Are you listening to it? Are you living it? It. And what is the focus of the command? Well, it starts with something personal. It talks about hero, Israel, the Lord our God. The Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. It's basically saying the start is a personal relationship with God, that there is God, that he's one and, and that you, that you love him.

You make him first. In fact, if we have any question, [00:07:00] you know, some people might be thinking, well, that was in the Old Testament. It was a priority and, and is it still the still that important for us in the New Testament? When Mark chapter 12, Jesus was asked, what is the most important commandment? And look at what he says, he answered.

The first and most important is this hero is real. The Lord our God. The Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. He's quoting the same passage. And so Jesus is saying it's the most important. Obviously, it's really important that we start with the truth, that there's the Lord God, that he deserves the right of lordship in our life.

And when it says that he's one, what it means is that he's in charge of everything that it's calling us to recognize and to submit to God's lordship over every aspect of life. It is not like there's a religious area and we come to church and, and God's in charge there and then we go to work. And God's not as in charge and family or, or entertainment?

No. God is in charge of everything and he calls us to recognize that and to submit to him in every area. [00:08:00] Now I'll start here 'cause some people might look at it and you say, well, okay, well I'm here and what do you have to say about parenting? But starts with this personal relationship with God. And if, and if you're here and you don't have this, if you don't have this, no God in this way personally, let me encourage you, it's gonna start here and everything else isn't gonna work the same way if you don't have this foundation.

And so the core message is ultimately, do you know Jesus Christ? And, and God invites you to a relationship with him, not based on performance and what you do, but based on accepting what Jesus Christ did at the cross when he died for your sins, that you come to a point and say, God, I need you. I ask you to forgive me.

I, I want to make you God of my life one. So that, that I recognize and submit to your lordship over every aspect of of life, but it's not just this personal command. It also says, okay, when you've done that, there's also this broader focus of the command, and you see it in verses seven through nine. It says, you shall teach them diligently to your [00:09:00] children when you talk of them, when you sit in your home, when you walk by the way, and when you lie down.

When you rise shall bind them as a sign on your hands and they shall be front less between your eyes. You shall write them on doorposts of your your gates. Now we're gonna talk about what that all means, but it's saying it's not just a matter of us personally being right with God, but then he also then calls us to make it a priority to teach these truths to our children.

Now I'm gonna dig into that a little bit more in a moment and explain what that means. But before I do it, let me almost step back and see in this passage and other passages about what the Bible teaches regarding the importance and priority of parenting. You see, I think if we look at everything that the Bible teaches, it would be accurate to say that throughout the Bible, God prioritizes parenting, having and raising children as amongst the most important things that we will ever do in life.

In fact, if you go back to Genesis one at the very beginning in creation, you know what is the first command that God gives to mankind? [00:10:00] And some people might be thinking, well, he tells 'em not to eat from the fruit of the tree. Well, that's not actually the first command that's recorded. The first command is, is in Genesis 1 28.

As soon as that God has created man and woman, the very first thing he tells us, tells them, God bless them, and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. The very first command is have babies, have kids. I mean, it's something that is actually God has called us to do because it's investing in this, this bigger, this thing bigger than us.

It's foundational and this whole idea of parenting, we see it not only here, but then we go to Deuteronomy and if this is the central passage to the Jewish people, and look what it teaches. Not only in the passage we read, but before and after. The whole chapter is emphasizing the importance of teaching children.

In fact, if you go to verse two, it says, you know that you may fear the Lord, um, your God, you and your son and your son's son. Now I'm teaching this so that you not only have this personal faith, but that you're teaching it to your kids and your grandkids. But we saw [00:11:00] in verse seven already that he says, okay, you need to have this faith in yourself.

And then it says, but then you shall teach them diligently to your children. Or we go down to the end of the chapter in verse 20, and it says, okay, so when your sons ask you in time to come, to come and tell 'em these things, so the whole chapter. It's all about emphasizing the importance of, of teaching it to our children.

So what is it saying that, again, God prioritizes this. It's critical for the ongoing success of the kingdom and, and God calls us to do it, not only back then, but even today. And I will say in most cultures, through human history, people have celebrated. And, and honor the role of parenting and seeing it as something that is vitally important from a Christian perspective.

It's always been understood as a God-given responsibility, a God blessed responsibility as a fundamentally selfless act where we give of ourselves investing in something that is bigger than ourselves. Parents give themselves to raising children who [00:12:00] will live beyond us. We teach them eternal values and eternal principles and purposes.

And then, and then we give of ourselves to that end. But while that has been true in history, there's a persistent at been a persistent attack on the priority of parenting in our culture. Over recent decades, over the, uh, our culture is seek sought to confuse even much of what parenting is, why we do it, why it's important, and in the process it's attacked the, the value and the importance of parenting.

Yeah, there's been a lot of ways, but let me just point out two things that I think that are really significant in playing out increasingly in our culture. One is it's tried to redefine parenting in selfish terms, and so for many in our culture, the question of whether you have a child or not is seen not as a matter of calling or a matter of obeying God's command or as a matter of investing in something bigger than yourselves, but most people make the decision of parents, do I wanna have kids?

Are they gonna make me happy? I [00:13:00] wanna have 'em because I think that kids are going to make me more happy. And since that's the motive, then increasingly more and more people are saying, well, if I don't think they're gonna make me happy, I'm not gonna have kids. And so you probably have heard about, you know, there's a, um, um, you know, a serious decline of the number of kids to the point that not only our country, but many countries are facing this population, you know, implosion of, of, you know, just not having enough children.

Why? Because, you know, it's too expensive. They get in their way, they're get, you know, we have personal agenda. I can't do the things that I want. And so you hear about people now choosing to have pets instead, and, but we're gonna call 'em fur babies because that's our children now, that's not children, that's not, that's not the same thing.

Or it's become big on social media for women to post about how happy they are in their freedom in pursuing their selfish pursuits unhindered by children or marriage. And when I see some of those, my first thought is, if you have to work so hard telling me how happy you are, I wonder why you [00:14:00] have to tell me, work so hard telling me how happy you are.

If I'm really happy, I don't need to tell anybody. Are you trying, you know, as they say, you protest too much. And um, and so you see people at the same time, these same people, you go and in go on the website and they're talking about, yeah, and here's my depression problems. Here's my, no, there's a problem here.

Now I'm gonna say something. It might sound offensive at first. Please stick with me. If the primary reason that you seek to have children is because you'll think they make you happy, you're wrong. That's not the primary reason to have children. If you have children, why? If you have children make you happy, what you're doing is they now become tools to serve you.

That you're looking to somehow how to manipulate them so that they are going to make me happy. They, in a sense, are little Gods trying to fill a spot in your heart that only God can fill. The primary reason to seek to have children is because God has called us to do it. Those who are married to be fruitful and multiply, he's called us to make it a [00:15:00] priority to raising the next generation.

Now that being said. I think if we have children with the right motive, they will bring great joy in life. Why? Because if we align ourselves with God's design for our life, and if we do the things that God has called us to do with the right motive, we're gonna find as a byproduct of that, a byproduct of obeying God, of aligning our lives with His.

His design is that there's a joy, there is a contentment. There is a peace that comes from living in God's design. Of knowing that our lives have meaning and purpose. And not only that, when we aren't looking for our kids to make us happy, when we aren't asking them to fill holes in our heart, see what happens now is that I'm not seeking to use them.

I now am free to love them. I'm free to love them better. I'm free to be able to say, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to give to you because I don't need you to fill this hole. And that allows me to not only be a better parent. [00:16:00] But to enjoy it. Why? Because I'm doing it the way that God designed. So the first way that our culture attacks parenting is by redefining it so that the decision to have children is defined by selfish motives.

If we have kids, it's not because our purpose is to serve them. We want them to serve us. But the second way that our culture has been attacking parenting is by elevating good things, good and important things at the expense of the best and the highest priority. Specifically, our culture teaches us that the most important thing that we can do in our lives, especially for women, the most important thing you could do is you can have a career.

While the Bible on the other hand teaches us that the most important and significant thing we can do is raise our children well. You see, I think this is a lie that is, is specifically directed at women in our culture now, but I also want to back up and say that I think it's a lie that finds its roots in the failure of men.

Now lemme explain that. [00:17:00] You see throughout most human history, most people worked in an agricultural setting and, and so people lived and worked and, and even went to school at the home or close to the home. You know, most fathers worked the land or they had a shop that was right next to their home, and so their kids were actually there working with them and they taught them in the context of work.

Now, both in moms and dads then would be heavily involved in parenting because parenting was, was involved in what they did everyday life. But starting with the Industrial Revolution, men began working outside of the home. And increasingly, not only men worked outside, but then women stayed within the home to do the, the significant work of parenting, maintaining the home.

But over time, it became common belief of many that the men were doing the more important work of business and making money while the women were doing the less important work of caring for the home. Many became many men became less and less involved in parenting [00:18:00] because they said, well, I'm doing the important thing.

And, and, and here you take care of the kids. That's not important. Now, here's what I want you to see when we think about this, it's men who failed First. It was the men who have led the way of devaluing the importance of parenting. And, and I wanna speak to men for a moment and say, men, I wanna call you out.

God has called us to be spiritual leaders in the home, and we therefore need to take the P, take the lead in prioritizing our role as dads. See if indeed the most important thing we do, the thing that lasts forever is raising our children, then we should take the lead in making that our priority. And, and not only should we take the lead of doing that, but then we should also celebrate and encourage our wives for how they invest in the home.

But what's happened is we live in this culture where, where people increasingly believe that, well, what men are doing well, this really, that's the important work. And over time, women have started to follow men into that lie. [00:19:00] And so increasingly they said, well, if that's important work, well I can have a career and I can do that.

I can do all those things as well. And so now even to the point that if you say to a woman, what you, I'm a homemaker. Well, you know, that's, you look down at that because that's not seen as valuable. You know, why should women waste their time and, and their abilities by staying at home? They should do the important things.

They should build a career. Now, let me give you a great example of this thinking. Uh, it happened a year ago, a year ago today, May 11th, 2024. A guy named Harrison Bucker was, is a kicker of the Kansas City Chiefs. They had just won the Super Bowl and he had been asked to give the commencement addresses at Alma Marter Benedictine College.

It's a Catholic college in Kansas. And his speech made national, national news. You may have remember, heard about this even. It was all over the place. And um, and the thing is, is he praised the role of women being wives and mothers. In fact, he spoke directly to women talking about they were being lied to, and he said, this is what's most important.

And, [00:20:00] and, and what he said was so controversial. He was attacked. It was made national news. I mean, you had people that were calling for him, the chiefs, to cut him. There were people calling for the NFL to suspend him from ever playing in the NFL. Now, what did he say that was so in incredibly offensive?

Well, let me show you the clip from his speech that caused such great controversy and see what you think. I. I want to speak directly to you briefly because I think it is you, the women who have had the most diabolical lies told to you. How many of you are sitting here now about to cross this stage and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you're going to get in your career?

Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world. I can tell you that my beautiful wife, Isabelle, would be the first to say that her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.

I'm on this stage today and able to be the man I [00:21:00] am because I have a wife who leans into her vocation. I'm beyond blessed with the many talents God has given me, but it cannot be overstated that all of my success is made possible because a girl I met in band class back in middle school.

What converts to the faith become my wife and embrace one of the most important titles of all Homemaker.

You rightly offended, who was so offensive about that? You know what's really significant if you listen to what he said. He didn't say anything negative about women having a career. He said, many of you graduated, you're gonna walk across, you're gonna build. He didn't say anything negative about that, but what he did is he said, you're gonna do that, but this is even more important.

This is of greater value. He lifted up the role of wife and mother. He then praised his wife for [00:22:00] her decision to make that her highest priority. Later on, he called out men and he called out men to be dads. And here's what I want you to see. That shows the problem in our culture. It's not only that we're saying, Hey, this is the important thing, you know, work, but it devalues parenting.

So why? Why would you waste your time? You know, for women, especially for Mother's Day, it's devalued that's attacked. And what we need to see is from God's perspective here in Do Deuteronomy, that God is saying that the most important thing and the thing of supreme value importance is that we not only celebrate the family, but we celebrate the role of investing in our kids.

I. Now I'm gonna realize that there may be some people that are sitting there saying, ah, I don't know if I should come today. I don't have kids. You know, you know, I'm a teenager, I'm a, you know, my kids are all grown. You know, beyond that, maybe you've never had biological kids. And, and if that's you, let me take a moment and point out that part of this passage at least, is very much applicable to you, even if you've never had biological children, [00:23:00] because this isn't just to parents.

See, again, remember Deuteronomy six is all about God speaking to the whole nation of Israel. In verse two, he says, therefore, Israel, be careful to do them. Verse four, hero Israel, the Lord our God. And then in verse seven, when he says, you know, you shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might.

These words I command you shall be on your heart. What he doesn't say is, and now to those of you who are parents, you need to teach this to your children. No, the whole thing is written to the whole people of Israel. And so when he says, you shall teach these to your children, it's not just parents, your children.

It's like, no, the community, he's speaking to everybody. These are our kids. And I spent eight years in, in the south in Greenville, South Carolina, and in my time there I learned that there's a distinctive southern dialect. They have unique words and ways of saying things. I mean, it's not unique to the south.

We have some of it even here in Ohio. I mean, lemme give you an example. If you're here [00:24:00] from Ohio, I mean, what do you call this? Pop? No one else in the country calls it pop. I mean, I was raised here and then I moved around. I've lived in six different states. No one calls it pop. You know, it's usually at soda.

And I've moved back now and been back here. 59 pop still sounds weird to me. That's kind of this unique Ohio dialect. Now southerners have all kinds of words, all kinds of sayings. In fact, you could write a whole book about the uniqueness of learning the southern language. Actually somebody has, you know, how to speak Southern.

And, um, in, in, now, I, I would say though, if there's one instance where the southern dialect is superior to the way that most of the rest of America speaks English, it's in the way that they express the second person, uh, pronoun. Uh, see when, for most of us, when we have it, we just have one word. So when we seek speak second person, it's you, but you don't know if it's you personally or you as a group or a big group or, and southerners, they have more than one word.

So it's not just, if it's [00:25:00] you personally, it's it's you. But if it's you, Pearl, it's y'all. And every once in I'll still fall into the all, you know. It's just that that's a great, great thing. In fact, southerners have not only two words. They have three words. So if you're talking to one person, it's you. If you're talking to a couple people, it's y'all.

If you're talking to a big group of people, it's all y'all, you know, just to help you. Here's a, here's a southern grammar chart, you know, a, you know, so it's you, y'all All, y'all be, you know, a big group. Okay, now you say, what in the world does it have to do? Deutero? Deuteronomy six. See here, the command isn't to you singularly, it's to the whole group.

So if I were to translate God's word here into the SSV, the southern, uh, standard version. Um, it would read. Now all y'all shall teach them diligently to all y'all's children. That's the idea. The fact is that you know that, that you know that God is speaking in this general sense to the community of his people and says, okay, no, you have to do this.

Our, our kids as a church, as a [00:26:00] community, face incredible challenges. I mean everything from social media, depression to confusion, moral confusion, even, you know, gender confusion. All these different problems with the covid and all these things. And the reality is they need help. There are many kids who do not have a parent involved in their lives, who knows God, who, who makes God a priority?

Are there gonna be people that are gonna step under their lives? There are other kids that you know that you have single parents. And there are single parents that are here, and you realize, okay, okay, I don't have that, that man to be a godly man speaking into my, my child's life or this, your dad, you know this to be this godly woman.

And we need men and women to be spiritual fathers and spiritual mothers. I'm thankful for grandparents that are stepping into their kids' grand, you know, their grandparents' lives and say, okay, if my, my parents aren't gonna do that. You're doing that. And I'm thankful for that. There are many others, and we heard even Todd share a little bit today.

People in our, that are in their neighborhood and you know that there are kids in your neighborhood and you get to know them and, [00:27:00] and they, they have a spiritual hunger and you're bringing them to church and mom and dad don't care. You know, then, you know, it's, is just, it's free. And, and, and the thing is, is that we see kids coming to Christ.

We're getting to celebrate that, right? Because people are being faithful to this call, this general call of being involved in kids' lives. It's a huge part of our children's ministry, of our youth ministry. So we need people that are seeing not only I'm gonna teach a class, but no, I'm gonna be a disciple, or I'm gonna come alongside and I'm going to get to know these kids, invest in their, I'm thankful for the people that do it.

We need more, especially in when our Wednesday night ministry, it's small groups and we have kids that are, you know, parent or men and women that are investing in these lives of these kids. And I know of people now that are young adults that will talk about the person that led their Wednesday night group and say, oh yeah, that's my spiritual father.

Because there were people that were step faithful to that. Now, think about in James one, James challenges us in the end of chapter one to have a, a true faith. A faith that not only [00:28:00] hears, but acts. And look what he says at the end of the chapter. He says, um, religion that is pure and undefiled before God The father is this, to visit orphans and widows and their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Now, what's that mean for us today? To look after orphans and widows and their affliction. Clearly part of it is their financial need and, but let me suggest that it's also speaking single moms, that they're single moms, you know, that, that need men to step up and to be a father figure in the lives of their kids.

That, that when we look at it, we have spiritual orphans who are, who are there that, that don't have anybody speaking spiritual truth into their lives. You may not have biological kids, but God still needs you to call is calling you to this ministry of spiritual parenting. There are kids that need it.

That's why we added that question in the baby dedication because as I'm studying this and I'm realizing there's something missing, we're asking the parents, you commit [00:29:00] to do this, but we need to be committed to it because God's call is not just to the parents to raise their kids. It's to the community of God's people to do it.

Some of you might be thinking, okay, I've even seen our, our teens and the young adults and, and you say, well, I don't have kids. I don't have God's still calling you to do it. I mean, the fact is, I remember it was in 11th grade when I started teaching Bible clubs as 11th grade and I'm in high school and I started volunteering and saying, Hey, I can help junior hires.

God is calling you to do this. Each one of us, no matter where we're at in life. You know, there's others in other places, foster care and adoption. I'm so thankful for people that are faithfully doing that and God is using that faithfulness. It's literally saving the lives of people through the faithfulness of embracing these kids into your family.

Now, that's a call to all of us, but there's also a general, a specific call to parents, and let me go a little deeper now to parents, because when we look at this call to parents, what is it calling us to teach it in your homes? And so why [00:30:00] it's true to all of us, specifically as parents, we've gotta embrace this all the more.

Again, remember this was originally written in an agricultural setting. You know, people lived and worked and our kids were with us all the time. But now we think about kids in the way they're raised now at, they read a study recently, it said Kids on average spend 25 minutes a week with their dad, 25 hours a week watching TV, and 50 hours per week at school.

Now, if that's the proportion that our kids are experiencing, should we be surprised that there's some problem? And that's where again, we need to say, men, we need to step up. We need to be involved, we need to be intentional. And so what God is calling us to do here is He's calling us to be intentional in our teaching.

You know, that, that we, that we make, you know, our kid's spiritual development, the highest priority that we say, okay, this is what God is calling us to do. And we do it by being intentional. Look at again, verse seven. You shall teach them diligently to your children. It's not just something that we do once a week.

It's not just bring 'em to church. Hope they [00:31:00] do it. No, that we do this and we talk about it. When we sit at home and we walk along the way. When we lie down, when we rise up, it's more than just bringing our kids to church. It's making it a priority. Having devotional time learning to pray with him. I love what Todd's doing within our children's ministry of, of, of, of developing not only resources that if you're here, they're gonna send every week, they're gonna send home stuff and say, here's how to have these devotions with your kids.

Joseph's doing it with our, our youth ministry. Take advantage of these things that we live out this faith before God making it a priority. And so often we can say, how much time do you spend doing homework with your kids? And how much time do you do, do you know, doing, taking the sporting activity, extracurricular?

And those are good things. How much time do you spend spiritually? And if there's way more time on these things than on spiritual, nurturing, nurture, how can you say that that's what you really believe is most important? Our time tells what we value, and part of that is focusing spiritually is also commu, [00:32:00] prioritizing God's community.

I. You know what happens is that oftentimes we come to church and, and life's busy. You know, it used to be that, you know, Sundays would be the day that they wouldn't have sports leagues and they wouldn't have activities. It was a day that was protected because the culture recognized church was important.

That's not the reality we live in anymore. What happens now is that you have teams increasingly putting everything on Sunday morning, because that's a time that people are available. Again, I don't wanna be legalistic about this. I'm not setting rules, but let me challenge you on something. That if you are saying, okay, well, well we're gonna church, but you know, we got our this league game here, so we're not gonna go to church, or we usually go to Wednesday night, but we're gonna drop out because we want to be in the sports thing.

What is that saying about your priority? What is the priority that everything moves around? And what if we do that? What we're telling our kids is the most important thing is that you're be involved in sports and secondary is church. Because we'll make, we'll make our commitment to church move around these other [00:33:00] things that we're doing.

My friends, if, if the first priority is truly spiritual nurturement nurture, then we need to model that by saying, okay, that's the rock in our schedule. That's the thing that everything else moves around. And even if they can't be involved in some things, well, you know what? I wanna make sure that they're involved in what matters most and and some people would say, but you know, my kids wanna do this.

And okay, so do, are your 10 year olds what they want? Is always what's best for them? No. That's part of our job as parents to say, no, this is a priority when some people, I don't want them to grow up hating church because you know, they don't like to go and, oh, so is that the rule that you use when you take 'em to school as well?

If they get up and say, I don't want to go to school today. I don't like it. Okay, you can decide. I don't wanna hate up hate learning. No, you say this is important. This is a priority. So we make 'em go to school and we try to teach them to like it. And my friends, the same thing is, is, is justice as true even more true when we talk about these spiritual things?

See? But it's not only [00:34:00] about bringing them to church, it's ultimately living out our faith through the modeling of our example. Again, look at what it says. You teach them diligently to your children. You shall talk about them. When you sit in your home, when you walk along the way, when you lie, when you lie down, when you rise, you shall bind them as a sign on your hands.

They shall be as frontlets between your eyes. Write them on the door, praise posts of your house. You know, some of the Orthodox Jews misinterpreted this very literally, so they'll literally have, have, have little things that they put on their hands with scripture. Little things that they tie on their forehead with scripture and, and, and, and they're missing the point.

The point is, what are your hands? The hands are what you work with. And so you should live in such a way so that when your kids see the way that we work, they see scripture, they see us doing it biblically. When they look at our face and they hear our words, that they see scripture, they see us doing it biblically when they walk into the home.

It is it on the doorframes? No. It should be like it is because it's, it's lived out. It's proclaimed in our actions, my [00:35:00] friends. We've gotta realize that our kids learn far more by our example. Than by our words. In fact, if our words don't agree with our example, we're teaching them that we're a hypocrite and, and what's a hypocrite?

You know, think about a hypocrite. You want a good definition of a hypocrite. As a Christian, a good definition of a hypocrite is assist someone who isn't themselves on Sunday. Someone who the real me is what you see Monday through Saturday. And then, and then I go and put on an act on Sunday. And what do our kids learn if we are doing that?

Oh, this faith thing, this relationship with God, it isn't really important to mom and dad. It doesn't change who they are. See, we need to realize that, that we need to let God's word work within us so that we teach first and foremost by what we do. And even when we mess up, be honest with them. You know? So if you're driving and somebody pulls you off and you end up, you know, losing your temper and saying things you shouldn't say.

You know, you just, that's where we need to have the courage to come to our kids and say, you know what? Dad said things I shouldn't have said. [00:36:00] I'm sorry, and I apologize to you. I'm, and people will even say, well, I can't say that to my kid. What would they think? They would think, you're honest. They were there when they saw it happen.

You know, you're just acknowledging what they already know. But you're also saying, and here's how in sin we surrender to God. Here's how I model even my humility. And seeking to let God shape me where I still struggle with sin. And that's an example for you to follow friends. That's what God has called us to do.

But just even in close sometimes it's hard. Why? Because as important as parenting seems to be, doesn't it seem to just drag? And, and if you've got young children, you're chasing 'em around. We realized this and reminded when we have a, a new grandson that was born, said we had our 2-year-old for three days.

And we realize that there's a reason God gives you kids when you're young and, and, and he wars out. It's great to have 'em for a few hours and send 'em home for three days. Man, worse, Andy out and it's hard and you're changing diapers and you're tuned into fixing meals and you're [00:37:00] doing this. And then they get older and you're driving here and you're doing your homework and you got all these things and then, and they get older and you're like, okay, where do I be involved?

And what difference does it make? Well, here's what we need to remember before God. It's doing little things that makes a huge difference. There's a story of a, uh, 19, in 1666, there was a great fire that destroyed most of London, and uh, after that they decided to, to build the, the great cathedral there in London.

This is St. Paul's Cathedral. This is what it looks like now. And, um, and so a guy named, uh, Christopher Redden was the most, uh, famous architect of the time, was commissioned to rebuild it. And, and after five years in 16 71, 1 day he was there on the work site, and he wrote about this. He talked about, as he's on the work site, he and he, and he saw three brick layers that were there working side by side by side.

And he said that one was kind of just, you know, stooped over and kind of going slow. The other one was, you know, kind of halfway and [00:38:00] just didn't seem fully engaged. The third one was, was fully engaged. He was working faster, better than anyone else. And so he goes to the first brick layer and he said, you know, what are you doing?

And the guy looked up and said, well, I'm a brick player and I'm, I'm just laying these bricks to, to make money to provide for my family. He goes to the second guy and, and he says, well, what are you doing? He said, well, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a builder and I'm, I'm, I'm building this wall. And he looks at the third guy, the guy that's up and he's working hard and he's motivated and he says, what are you doing?

And he said he stepped back and he looked up and he said, I'm a cathedral builder and I'm building this great cathedral to the glory of God. And friends. All three were doing the same work, but they saw it very differently. And here's what we need to realize. Sometimes parenting, it feels like we're just laying bricks.

We're just making it through. We're just, you know, we're just, we're just enduring. It's hard. It's, it's what it's wearing, but that's not what you're doing. You're building a great cathedral to [00:39:00] the glory of God. And don't lose sight of that. That's why we have a passage like this every once in a while that reminds us this is the importance that God places on it.

This is the value, this is the significance. And sometimes you feel like you're laying bricks, but remember, you're doing something that God says is of supreme ultimate importance and value that he celebrates and that we need to come together as parents. And a spiritual appearance is a community of God's people and say, together, we need to invest in doing this.

And the more we do so the more we'll sense God's blessing, not only in our children, but our own lives in our community. If you have a question about the Message Community Church or Jesus Christ, send us a text to 3 3 0. 432 42. You can learn more about our events and community groups at CCP Life slash Connect There you can also send in a prayer request.

We [00:40:00] would love to pray for you. Have a blessed Lord's Day, and we'll see you on Sunday.