Holiness in the Home

November 29, 2006

Pastor Matt Black

Midweek Service

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

 

Open your Bible to Deuteronomy 6.  The title of tonight’s message is “Holiness in the Home”.  We are looking at verses 4-9, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: 5  And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6  And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7  And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 8  And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. 9  And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.”

 

Introduction:  Tonight I want to remind every person in the church that we have a great responsibility to the next generation.  We are examples to them.  I especially want to impress upon Mother and Father that if you are to raise godly children, there must be a bond and a trust between the parents and the child.  When that bond of trust is broke, the child begins to trust in someone else.  Some of those who begin to have great influence are:

Ø       His peer group

Ø       Some famous person (one popular show on TV is “American Idol”.  The title hits this home.  A child many times begins to look up to some one else besides Mom and Dad, and that someone else becomes their “idol” of sorts.

 

The problem with our generation is that they’ve thrown out the 5th commandment.  They do not honor father and mother.  Our children are being raised by their peers.  Though each child is responsible for his actions, the immediate fault is with the parents. 

 

How can this bond be maintained? How?  The answer is found in Deuteronomy 6.  You must maintain the focus of Holiness in the home and protect it with all you have.  

 

I.                   An Exclusive Focus

Verse 4 says it right away—unmistakable. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:”  One Lord!  One focus!  The problem with our lives is we’ve got a million things we are focusing on.  This whole passage is really an exposition and application of the first commandment—applied to how to raise our children!  What is the first commandment?  “Thou shalt have no other God’s before me.”  It’s a negative command.  Verse 5 says the same thing, but it is a positive command, “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”  One focus!! The Lord your God is to be your focus. Period.  All that you do must be for the glory of God.  That means EVERYTHING YOU DO is an act of worship!  That is what this passage says.  Everything.  That leads us to our second point.

 

II.                 We need to have a Consuming Focus: It’s all or nothing!  Lukewarm  or halfway Christianity is nothing but counterfeit Christianity!  It is a wolf’s religion in sheep’s clothing!  A sheep follows the shepherd.  A wolf is in the flock for himself.  What are you in Christianity for?  Are you consumed with the Lord in your home? 

Remember I said, everything you do is an act of worship.  We think of worshipping God with our Bibles and our hymnals open.  Dear friend you worship God with your Television, your radio, your newspaper.  All, all, all is the command!

 

Verse 5, “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”

 

A.     Your heart— the heart is the center not only of spiritual activity, but of all the operations of human life.  The heart includes the mind, for the mind is the entrance into the heart.  The heart is also the seat of the conscience and therefore has to do much with motives and inner most thoughts.  God will have ALL of you, or He will have none of you.  That is the call of the Christian life.  You cannot have God and lust.  Repent.  You cannot have God and selfcenteredness.  Repent of it.  All you heart is what God demands! 

 

B.      Your soul—that is your attitude, your spirit must be sold out to God.  Are you zealous for God?  On fire?  Is there fervency and sincerity?  Do you love God without ulterior motives?  Are you trying to get something for yourself from God?  Do you want God to serve you passions and pains, or are you willing to serve Him come what may, no matter what?  What is the attitude of your spirit?  Are you sold out?

 

C.     Your might—that is the things you do.  I Corinthians 10:31, “Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God!”  Everything you do is an act of worship.  This must take place.  God must have all of you!  Hebrews 12:29, “For our God is a consuming fire.”  He is to have all of you. 

 

Let me peer into your thoughts today.  God already has.  He sees your thoughts afar off!  Did you worship God with your thoughts and with your mind today?   

 

The family altar must begin before devotions time!  It begins in your heart.  Holiness is more caught than taught. 

 

Illustration:  Some people were arguing once over translations of the Bible.  I’m so glad that God has preserved His word in the English language.  Ten years ago, people were arguing over the modern translations.  Our church is an old time, old paths church.  The only other Bible I would allow you to use in English might be the Puritan’s Geneva Bible.  But you know what the best translation of the Bible is?  You know which one I like the best?  I believe my mother and father in law translated the Bible the best for me in my life.  They lived it!  That’s the kind of translation we need!  You can have God’s preserved Word in your hands, translated flawlessly, but how do you translate God’s word from the page to the life? 

 

III.              We need to then have an Intimate Focus

God must have your HEART, SOUL, and MIGHT.  Notice the Progression—

 

  1. There is a Spiritual Longing: seek God with all your heart, soul, and might!  Verse 5, “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”  This is what we call “walking with God.” Do you constantly long after God?  Do you constantly ask, “Lord, teach me to pray”? 

 

Application:  Christians today have a cavalier approach to God.  They do not reverence Him in their hearts, and so barge into God’s presence.  

 

  1. There is a Spiritual Filling: Verse 6, “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart”  The words which God commands shall be put into your HEART!  James says the engrafted (implanted) word is able to save our souls!  We need to implant it there!  We need to long after God and implant His word into our souls.

 

Can you say with David: Psalm 119:97, “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day”?

 

By the way, putting the Word in our hearts is simply being filled with God Himself.  When you say “I love God’s law”!  You are saying in reality, “I love God—I love what He tells me to do with my life!  I want Him to rule me.  I want to surrender all to Him!”  It is very intimate.  We must fill our lives with God. 

 

  1. Finally there is a Spiritual Giving.  Only after we have FIRST sought God are we to do what verse 7 says, “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children”.  If you are not being filled, how can you give to your children? 

 

Once you’ve experienced the longing and the filling, then you can begin the giving.  That brings us to our final point.  This giving is HARD WORK!  To be a disciple of Christ is to be disciplined!  It is to tell yourself no!  Laziness is nothing more than self fulfillment—laziness is rebellion!  It is wrong!  That brings us to our las point.

 

IV.               Finally, we need to have a  Diligent Focus

Verse 5, “5  And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”

 

Verses 7-9, “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 8  And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. 9  And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.”

 

Where does Holiness and Godliness take place?

 

  1. In Communication in the Home, (7) “and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house”.  You need to make God your conversation.  You need to talk!  You are in other words a teacher!  You are a preacher in the home every morning of every day.  Now

 

  1. In the Common Duties of Life—spend time with your children and converse with them! , (7) “and when thou walkest by the way”.  Of course this passage requires that you spend vast amounts of time with your children.

 

I hear some people say, I don’t have time for church activities because I have to be with family.  Good!  Be with family!  But if you cut out all the vain empty time wasting activities in your life, you

 

  1. Continually:  (7) “and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.   Holiness is a Dawn till dusk kind of thing!  In fact it is a dawn till dawn kind of thing.  It is something that takes place all the day and all the night!  As David said in Psalm 1:2, “…his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night…”

 

  1. Creatively! “8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. 9  And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.”  Be radical and creative about the word! 

 

Conclusion: It is only in this environment that your children will come to Christ.  I’m sure when you saw the title of the message you thought I was going to give you a method.  Do you understand that evangelism CANNOT be reduced to any program, technique, or marketing approach?  Salvation is repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is a broken and a contrite way of living from the heart.  No one can generate that intellectually.  It is a spiritual transformation.  Yet it is the simplest thing in the world.  Christ has His loving arms open to children.  He says in Mark 10:14, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.”  The littlest may come.  His arms are open.  Are we hindering them in any way?

 

Is there sin in your life that is blocking the way of a little one, or a not so little one?  What did the Lord say in Matthew 18:5?  Listen to his words, “whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. 6  But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

 

Let us do all in our power to point our children to Jesus!