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[0:00] Thank you, BK, and thank you for indulging me when I booked my flights and said I'm coming, I guess. It's been 17 months since I was here. A lot of life has happened, hasn't it?

[0:12] I got to meet Abigail tonight. That was a thrill. When I was here last, Abigail was still in the oven and making her mom miserable. And look at her now.

[0:24] I don't know. There's Josh. It's great to meet Abigail. And I just want to thank you again for the time I had last year in the spring.

[0:36] And it's a thrill to be here in the fall. And it's just as beautiful. I don't know why you guys would go anywhere other than here. But thank you for your hospitality and your kindness, your friendship.

[0:46] The chief is very important to me. It's very central in our home. You all gave me a gift at the end of the weekend last time, a big picture of the chief.

[0:59] Well, I took it to a really an artist who framed it. And it is now hanging on the wall in the room in our home where our family gathers, where guests gather, where we have Bible studies every other Monday night.

[1:15] And I still talk about the chief because they all want to know what is that. So it's a reminder of a great weekend. It's a reminder of great people. It's a reminder of an afternoon when Dustin pushed me up the mountain to make sure I got to the top.

[1:31] And it is a reminder of this beautiful place. I also want to thank you for being a faithful church, your faithful leadership, the faithful people of this church. It's exciting to hear what has happened here even since I've been here.

[1:45] And it is encouraging to all of us when you hear of a church that's doing well and thriving and representing Christ in a dark world.

[1:57] And Squamish Valley needs Jesus, doesn't it? And I'm thrilled that you're here. You're the beachhead. And I want to give you a plan for the weekend. I guess Chris was going to give you the grand plan.

[2:08] He can tell you the real plan. But let me tell you what we're going to do in the next six sessions. In this session, I'm going to talk about the Deuteronomy 6 home. You've heard about the Proverbs 31 woman.

[2:20] We're going to look at the Deuteronomy 6 home. So if you want, you can grab your Bible and turn to Deuteronomy 6. That's where we're going to spend our time. Tomorrow we have three sessions.

[2:31] And there's a progression in these sessions. First of all, we're going to talk about leadership in the church. I think that's what the title is. That's going to be out of Hebrews 13. We're going to talk about the central role of the church in your home and your role in leading in the church and being led by the church.

[2:49] And that has a direct impact on your home. Then we're going to talk about taming the tongue out of James chapter 3. And this is going to be a practical review of what the Bible says about speech with particular application in the era of social media.

[3:06] Some of you have kids. If they aren't involved in social media yet, they will be. It's ubiquitous. And it is. So we're going to talk about that.

[3:17] Then we're going to talk about biblical decision making and really the interaction of the facts of family life, making decisions, the intersection of that with the providence of God.

[3:29] And I think you're going to find that an interesting perspective because it's from the Bible, obviously. And then on Sunday, we're going to talk really. We're going to really focus on the practical application of God's providence and sovereignty over the affairs of this world.

[3:47] And the idea is for all of us to think through that as we raise a family, as we prepare our children to enter that world.

[3:58] We're going to talk about 2 Peter 3, 8 to 15, God's promises. And we're going to illustrate those principles. What are the elements of God's promises?

[4:09] How should we understand God's promises? And we're going to look at the example or illustrate it with Agag, Saul, the Amalekites, and the nation of Israel through 1 and 2 Samuel.

[4:20] It's a fascinating story to illustrate how God orchestrates the events of the world in his own time and for his own purposes. And we'll do the same in the second session on Sunday, our last session together.

[4:36] We're calling it The Tale of Two Leaders. It's a look at the leadership in an epic, historic conflict between Moses and Pharaoh and God's interaction with that.

[4:49] And the idea is not to talk about politics, but to talk about how do we teach our children and our families how to view leadership in the world in which we live in light of who God is.

[5:01] So that's kind of the plan from my perspective. And I'm looking forward to it. I hope it's helpful to you. I encourage you to bring a Bible. It's going to be a lot of Bible.

[5:12] And we're going to move over vast stretches of Scripture, hopefully in a helpful and an interesting way. So let's look at Deuteronomy 6.

[5:23] Deuteronomy 6. This is a chapter that is a sermon. It's a sermon that was given by Moses. He was probably about 120 years old when he decided he needed to go to the people of Israel and to tell them what they needed to know about family life.

[5:45] From beginning to end, Deuteronomy 6 is for the family. And in it, you will find a description of the Deuteronomy 6 man. We're not going to cover that, but we kind of are.

[5:58] We're going to talk. We're going to end there is the role of the church in your family. We are going to talk about that. The role of parents. The role of kids.

[6:09] Grandparents are talked about in here. It's a glorious sermon. And it talks about what's important in a family. And it lays out what a man should do and be as the leader in the home.

[6:21] It portrays the goals for a mom and dad as they lead the home. The grandparent has a unique role that's referenced in here. And as I said, it references the role and importance of the church, which we'll make note of.

[6:38] So it paints a picture of what a Deuteronomy 6 home should look like. And there's several identities of a Deuteronomy 6 home. And all of this should be your goal.

[6:49] So I want to go through, first of all, fairly quickly. And there's so much more that could be said about Deuteronomy 6. I'm going to cover this pretty quickly. My goal is that you'll leave here and maybe tonight or tomorrow or in the next week, that you sit down with your Bible, open it up, and actually read through Deuteronomy 6 from beginning to end.

[7:10] And what I want to do is prepare you for that. Just give you some hooks to hang your thinking on as you go back and review this amazing sermon by a man who had, by any human stretch and standpoint, had done and seen it all at that point.

[7:28] And so in there are what I'll pick out now are four identifiers of a Deuteronomy 6 family. The first one is that it is full of learners.

[7:40] The Deuteronomy 6 home is full of learners. And it starts right in verse 1. It says, Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments, which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you.

[7:55] This is Moses saying, I have learned, and now I need to pass it on to you. And you need to learn. And he references the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments.

[8:07] Do you see that wording? That is the identical wording to Psalm 19, verses 7 through 10. You can look at that later. It is a classic passage talking about how God views his word, the Bible.

[8:24] Whenever you see in Scripture the terms, the judgments or the statutes, the commandment, or the judgments of the Lord, it is talking about the Bible. In Psalm 19, it says, The law or the statutes of the Lord is perfect.

[8:41] The commandment of the Lord is pure. The judgments of the Lord are true. And it goes on and talks about what the effect of the Bible is in your life. So what Moses is saying is, This is the word of God, in verse 1, Which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you.

[8:56] And of course, the expectation is they're going to do what? They're going to learn it. It's a great effect. And remember, this is a sermon about family.

[9:08] The application here is everyone in your family, including you, are to be under the teaching of the word of God. That is the basis and the foundation of a Deuteronomy 6 home.

[9:21] And then verse 7 says, You shall teach them diligently to your sons, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

[9:32] You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house, and on your gates. You see, the culture of a Deuteronomy 6 home is training.

[9:45] It's learning. And it never stops for mom and dad, and it shouldn't stop for the kids. And that takes us to the second mark of a Deuteronomy 6 home, and that is obedience.

[9:59] None of this is surprising to you, probably. I promise you, none of this probably will be. Obedience. The tone and tenor of a Deuteronomy 6 home is that there's obedience to the Word of God.

[10:13] In verse 1, it makes clear that he is going to teach them, not so that they have a lot of knowledge, not so that they can answer trivia questions about the Word of God, but so that it says that you might do them.

[10:32] Okay? The purpose of learning is to know what the law is, what God says, therefore how should I live? Verse 2, it says, to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I command you, or to be obedient.

[10:47] Verse 17, you should diligently keep the commandments. That means obey. Obey the commandments of the Lord your God and his testimonies and his statutes which he has commanded you.

[10:59] You shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which the Lord swore to your fathers. All of this turns on obedience.

[11:13] And you can't obey unless you know. And so we're all learners and the result of that is we are obeyers. Okay?

[11:24] Now, there's a question that might arise in your house. It certainly did in our house. In fact, it did at some point in my own heart. And Moses addresses this question and the question is this.

[11:40] Why should I obey? Have you ever heard that question? Anybody who has children or anybody who has been a child, I think that covers the whole room, has probably thought about this question or heard this question.

[11:55] And he answers the question in verses 24 and 25. The answer is scripted here. He lays out reasons that, poor reasons that you and your children should obey.

[12:08] And I think you'll really like the first one. Verse 24. So the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes. You know what the first reason is why we obey? Because he said so.

[12:21] I see parents smiling because you know what I'm about to say. When your children say, why should I obey you? What's the first answer that you want to say?

[12:32] Because I said so. That's exactly what God says. And that is a legitimate reason to motivate us to obey God.

[12:42] And that should be a legitimate motivation why your children would obey you. Is that always the answer? No, probably you have to move past that at some point. Okay?

[12:54] It's not always just because I said so. And that's why Moses goes on. The Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God for our what?

[13:05] For our good. Obedience, obedience, obedience, obedience, we obey because God said so and second of all because it's for our good. It reminds them, it's good to remind your children and to remind yourself of the blessing of obedience and a right relationship with God.

[13:24] And he goes on to say, and for our survival. Practical example of this is hopefully you taught your children not to play in the traffic.

[13:36] And there's a reason why you taught them not to play in the traffic, right? You wanted them to survive. And it's a practical example of that those who are obedient survive and those who do not don't.

[13:51] Okay? So it's for our good and for our survival, he says. And then, so it's because God told us to, it's for our good, it's for our survival, and then it's for the glory of God.

[14:06] Verse 25, it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all his commandments before the Lord our God just as he commanded us. There's the four motivations, the four reasons to obey.

[14:19] Moses lays this out for his people. It's in the context of home life. That is very, very practical help from the leader of the nation of Israel.

[14:32] So you can't obey if you don't know what's required. That's why we're always learners, learning. And then learning what is required will produce obedience, hopefully.

[14:44] And that leads us to the third mark of a Deuteronomy 6 home, and that is the fear of God. The culture of a Deuteronomy 6 home is a love for God, fearing God.

[15:00] And it's probably important, well, let me show you where that is. Verse 2, so that you, your son, and your grandson might fear the Lord your God. Verse 13, you shall fear only the Lord your God.

[15:14] Verse 24 of Deuteronomy 6. So the, I just read this, so the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes to fear the Lord our God.

[15:25] They go together. So it's important to understand what is the fear of God. And the definition of the fear of God really depends on where you stand before God.

[15:39] There's two definitions of the fear of God. The first is for those who are unsaved. For the unsaved, the definition of the fear of God is terror.

[15:51] It's the prospect of harm, doom, destruction, darkness. Why terror? Well, Moses addresses this.

[16:03] He kind of explains what the fear of God is for those who don't love God, who reject God. Verse 14. He says, you shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the people who surround you.

[16:20] There's a lot of gods of the people who surround us. Isn't there? I know where I live. It's more and more obvious every day. This is a direct command to the families.

[16:32] Don't follow those gods. But for those who do, verse 15, for the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God.

[16:44] Otherwise, here's the terror. The anger of the Lord your God will be kindled against you and he will wipe you off the face of the earth. Family friendly message.

[16:57] Isn't it? It's a very serious, very serious message. That a Deuteronomy 6 home is a home that teaches the fear of God and it is both sides of the fear of God.

[17:11] It's the full counsel of God. You reject God. You have nothing to look forward to. You should fear nothing more than God himself who will wipe you off the face of the earth.

[17:26] But what about those who are saved, who love God? Well, the fear of God, the definition of that is admiration, respect, worship, expressing who God is and what he's done.

[17:40] There's a reverence. That is the definition of the fear of God for those who love God. And it produces courageous living rooted in deep conviction.

[17:52] And that is why you teach the fear of God. Verse 5, he defines the fear of God for those who love God. He says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.

[18:08] That is the fear of God for those of us who love the Lord. And when you look at the original language there of heart, soul, and might, it means that we are to love God to abundance.

[18:21] We are to love God with force. I love this, with muchness. In other words, it's really hard to define how much we are called to love God.

[18:33] And that's what you teach in a Deuteronomy 6 home. So we're learners. There's obedience. There's the fear of God. And then the fourth mark of a Deuteronomy 6 home is worship.

[18:48] Worship. A Deuteronomy 6 home worships together. That is, they reflect regularly on who God is and what he's done. That does not mean you sit in a circle every night before everybody goes to bed and sing a hymn.

[19:04] That's not the definition of worship. What we want to do is to be constantly, as a family, recognizing who God is and what he's done in every walk of life, in every phase of life.

[19:19] And Moses lays out three elements of this worship in verses 10 to 15. And I'll read this to you and I think it'll be obvious to you.

[19:31] The first element is humility. There's humility in a Deuteronomy 6 home worship. Verse 10, It shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you great and splendid cities which you did not build and houses full of all good things which you did not fill and hewn cisterns which you did not dig vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant.

[20:04] You get the message here? They're benefiting from what the Lord has done and he goes on to say and you eat and you are satisfied. You worship the one who did it all for you.

[20:18] The worship of a family begins and is based in a humility of recognizing everything around us family is from the Lord.

[20:30] Our family is from the Lord. Our home is from the Lord. The provision of food is from the Lord. It is all the Lord's. There's a humility. And then Moses goes on and describes another element of that worship and that is a good memory.

[20:44] A good memory. Verse 12. He continues the sentence. He says, then watch yourself that you do not forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery.

[21:00] One of the things you'll see throughout Deuteronomy 6 is Moses continues to take them back to their history. to remember this is where we used to be and this is where we are now.

[21:17] And why does he do that? Well, there's a number of reasons and we'll see this in a minute. The main reason is to inform their worship. That they are where they are today because the Lord brought them there.

[21:32] And that's why we're going to spend a couple sessions really focusing on the providence of God in our life in very practical ways. How we make decisions.

[21:44] How we view the promises of God. How we view what's going on in the world among political and economic leaders that we'll never meet and never know and have no influence over.

[21:56] How do we view all of that in light of the providence of God? And it's because as a family, as families, we have to remember. we have to understand who God is, what he does, and why he does what he does.

[22:13] And Moses continually takes them back to their own history with God. Because one of the marks of worship is a good memory.

[22:24] And all of us have to have a good memory. We cannot forget the Lord who brought you from fill in the blank. If you're saved, it's easy to fill in that blank.

[22:37] Who has brought you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. Like it says in 1 Peter 3. We're to proclaim the excellencies of him who did that.

[22:48] That is what Moses is doing constantly and he's telling the families this is how you worship the Lord. And then the third element of this worship in the home is an exclusivity.

[23:03] And you've already heard this but verse 13 you shall fear or love only the Lord your God and you shall worship him and swear by his name.

[23:16] You shall not follow other gods. Verse 14 any of the gods are the people who surround you. There is an exclusivity here, a demand by the God of the universe that we worship only him.

[23:30] That we fear only him. And that is the message to the family from Moses to the fathers and the mothers for them to teach their children so that their children will grow up and teach their children.

[23:47] So, a goal of your parenting, of your home, I would hope would be to be a Deuteronomy 6 home. A home where there's constant learning, parents and children, where it's known for obeying God, for fearing and loving God, and for worshipping that God.

[24:09] So, I kind of raced through that, kind of gave you a high level overview of Deuteronomy 6. I would love to hear from you that you read it and you came up with a few more because they're there.

[24:21] We're just limited by time. So, those are kind of the high points. Now, I want to think through together what all of this might look like. This is where we get very practical. Some application.

[24:33] How does this look or how could this look in your home? And the first thing I want to talk about is learning. And I recognize there's a wide range of people in this room.

[24:44] Some of you have very small children. Some of you have children that are maybe toddlers. Some of you have teenagers. and some of you are watching them leave the nest.

[24:56] And mom and dad said, Amen. We loved the empty nest. We miss them, but we love the empty nest. But in whatever stage you're in, even if you have no children at home and you have grandchildren, this is relevant to everyone in the room.

[25:17] Learning. Learning. Let's talk about learning. This process requires a teacher and a what? A learner. A student. That's right. And we have to talk about both roles.

[25:29] First of all, if you're a parent, you are a learner, but your most visible role in the home is to be a teacher. And let me just say that again.

[25:41] You are a teacher. And I know the reaction of some of you because it's just like the reaction of me at some point in my young parenting or reaction of people in my church.

[25:54] I am not a teacher. I will never be a teacher. And I'm here to tell you you're wrong. You see, the Lord appointed you. He knows you.

[26:04] And when He gave you children, He, at that moment, He puts you in the role as the primary influence and teacher of that young life.

[26:17] For life. As long as they're in your home. It's a primary imperative on a parent to teach. And it has implications on your relationships in your home, the education of your children, and the goals you have for your children for someday when they leave your home.

[26:37] Now, obviously, you can delegate training to school, Sunday school teachers, others. But whenever you do that, you never lose the primary responsibility of teaching your children.

[26:56] And you may feel unqualified. You have no training. You don't have a teaching credential or a degree in teaching. None of that matters. God knows all of that. You are the teacher.

[27:07] None of that is necessary. God, the creator of the universe, and the creator of your children, appointed you as teacher and God has equipped you to teach them.

[27:19] The exact teacher your children need. It's not a vocation. It's a calling. It's a command. And by the way, none of this means that you're not going to have to work at it, that it's not going to be difficult.

[27:34] But it is why God has put you in the role he's put you in. I'm not talking about standing up and giving sermons at home with an introduction, three points, and a conclusion with great illustrations and transitions.

[27:49] It is the day in, day out, interaction with your children, finding ways to explain to them the word of God, the fear of God, who God is and what he's done.

[28:02] And by the way, you're required, you're taught, you're expected to raise teachers. Think about that. If you have teenage sons, you probably can't imagine them teaching anybody anything.

[28:17] I don't know. Guess what? They're going to leave your home. You're raising men. You're not raising sons. You're not raising boys. You're raising leaders who are going to teach their own home someday.

[28:29] 2 Timothy 2.2 is a great summary of what happens in the church and what happens in the home, a fully functioning and faithful Deuteronomy 6 home.

[28:40] It says this, 2 Timothy 2.2, you know it, the things which you've heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

[28:53] That is such a parallel to Deuteronomy 6. You are called to raise faithful children who will raise faithful children. That's the, as they say, the chain of custody.

[29:08] Deuteronomy 6 covers four generations. Moses learned, says that in the first, these are the things which I was told which I'm going to tell you now.

[29:19] That's the first generation. Verse 2, he's teaching the people of Israel. Verse 3, they were to take it home and teach their children and then it would pass on to the grandchildren.

[29:32] That's in verse 2. Those generations are all right there in the first couple verses of Deuteronomy 6. And I have good news for you. Some of you may be saying, well, I wasn't raised in a Christian home.

[29:44] I had no influence. You're not left out. You're not excluded from this chain because you're in the church. We have the church.

[29:55] And Deuteronomy 6 reinforces the role of the church in training you and I then to go home and be equipped to train our children.

[30:08] You should be faithful with the truth that's been entrusted to you. Raise faithful children, men and women, not sons and daughters, but men and women then who will entrust it to others.

[30:20] You've been given the job, but the Lord has also equipped you. He's given you the tools. For example, Proverbs 1 through 7. Particularly men, I throw this at you.

[30:34] You need to read Proverbs 1 through 7 very carefully. In those seven chapters, it says, my son 17 times. Proverbs 1 through 7 is a record of a father training his children.

[30:53] And in those seven chapters are some of the greatest lessons and honestly, some of the most difficult. We used to read, some of you have heard me say this, we raised three daughters.

[31:08] We used to read Proverbs every night. I think today is the 27th. Is that right? Yeah, I don't know what day it is. 27th, we would have read Proverbs 27.

[31:20] Okay? And every month then we went through Proverbs. Well, there are some chapters in chapters 4 and 5 that are very difficult to read to a group of little girls.

[31:31] And if you're intrigued by why, maybe you'll go read it. But Proverbs 1 through 7 deals with life. He talks about money, time, work, sex, marital, and extramarital.

[31:49] That's the difficult stuff. Immorality, friends, bad company. He addresses specifically how you identify bad company and the consequences of bad company.

[32:02] He addresses the value of wisdom, the foolishness of foolishness, discernment, sleep, entertainment, integrity, making decisions.

[32:17] Does that sound like stuff you need to teach your children? It's all there. It's all there. And it's there for you and it's there for me.

[32:28] And so God has called us to teach and Proverbs 1 through 7 is just one example of the tools that our loving, gracious God has given us to help us fulfill that responsibility.

[32:42] There's a couple disciplines I want to talk about when you're trying to create learners in your home. And I want to talk about these. The first one is curiosity. The discipline of curiosity.

[32:54] There isn't much worse to me than a young person with no interests, no questions, no sense of what they do not know.

[33:05] Have you ever met people like that? Ann and I have been involved in youth ministry in our church for, I guess we can say, decades now. And we're actually now very involved in what's called young professionals.

[33:19] These are young men and women who have graduated from college and they're not married yet. and it is sad to me, stunning to me when I meet people like this at that age.

[33:32] That's a problem. That's something you want to avoid. That is a young person who either thinks they know it all, and there's some people like that. It's called arrogance.

[33:43] Or they've been trained to squelch their natural curiosity. Either trained or they've been shamed into it. Your job as a parent is to feed that curiosity.

[33:57] To wake it up. To cultivate it. To grow it. What is the meaning of life? How does the world work? Who is God?

[34:07] Who am I? How do I fit in that? That's curiosity. Proverbs 1.5 says, A wise man will hear and increase in learning until he becomes a grandpa.

[34:23] You think that's what it says? It doesn't. A wise man will hear and increase in learning until he's done with college. It doesn't say that either. It is open-ended.

[34:36] It is as long as you're on the earth, a wise man will hear and increase in learning. And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel. And then two verses later it says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of what?

[34:50] Wisdom or knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and knowledge. And I guess what I would say is don't raise a fool. You want to feed their curiosity to go exactly the other way.

[35:07] There is no age limit on curiosity and learning. And this process should, should continue throughout life. and I know that some adults never started that process.

[35:18] We've met some of them. Or if they did, they think they've reached a full tank. And you can't let that be a description of your children. You want to feed a curiosity. Now this can be a really uncomfortable application for very tired parents.

[35:34] Especially if you have kids at a certain age where they wake up in the morning with a question and they ask questions all day long. Anybody have children in that era?

[35:46] Or you remember it. Some of you are smiling. I think you remember it. It is craziness. Right? The idea is you need to see questions as divinely inspired curiosity.

[36:00] And I recognize that a tired parent can't always feed that curiosity when it's the 3,000th time they've asked that question. But the trick is as a parent to know your children and to not see those questions as a challenge to your authority or a bothersome interruption of your day.

[36:22] Because when they reach the teenage years sometimes those questions can seem like a challenge to your authority. Why do I have to obey? That is an opportunity.

[36:35] That might they probably don't ask that nicely. Right? But still that is an opportunity. It's an opportunity to feed the curiosity but also to answer their questions.

[36:49] A shepherd of a child's heart will draw out questions. There's two significant questions that you should be listening for and anticipating and be prepared for in particular.

[37:01] And I want to show you that the Bible answers these questions. The first question is what does the Bible mean? What does this mean? Another form of this question is why are we going to church?

[37:13] Why do we do this? Why do I have to read my Bible? What is the point? And again the Bible is very helpful. In Deuteronomy 6 Moses lays out the answer to this question.

[37:28] Listen to verse 20. Look at verse 20 if you have it. When your son asks you in time to come saying what do the provision statutes and judgments mean? I'm going to stop there. What are the provision statutes and judgments?

[37:41] What is that? Come on. I know you know it. Those words refer to what? The Bible. Right? When your son comes to you and says what does the Bible mean?

[37:56] What do the provision statutes and judgments mean which the Lord our God has commanded you? There's the question. Moses is laying it out for the nation of Israel. Your children will ask you this question.

[38:10] How does Moses say to answer it? Verse 21 Then you shall say here it comes. This should pique your interest. How do you answer that question? Well he says we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

[38:26] Moreover the Lord provided great and terrible signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt and Pharaoh and all his household. He brought us out of there in order to bring us in to give us the land which he had sworn to our fathers.

[38:40] There's a whole lot we could say about here and the first one is you don't necessarily answer their question talking about the history of Israel. What he's doing is he's saying to them this is our history this is what I said earlier take your children back to our history and show them how that was God.

[39:03] That's how you answer the question what does this mean? Why are we learning about God's word? Why are we learning to fear God? It's because this is what God has done and this is who God is and these are the words of life.

[39:23] He answers the question by rehearsing history biblical history that's a good response but he's also telling his story and the idea is your children should know your story.

[39:39] They should hear from you. This is where I came from. This is what the Lord did to me and for me. That is what it means and you explain it in the context of what does the Bible say?

[39:55] Why do we have a Bible? It's to know God. And why do we want to know God? Because he's the God of the universe. He is their redeemer and he is who created all of this and who explains all of this.

[40:12] You should tell your story of who God is and what he's done in your life and your family. Your mistakes, your successes, your struggles, your challenges, all of that.

[40:23] Obviously age appropriate. I don't think you should tell your three-year-old what you did when you were in college necessarily. But as your children get older, this is so encouraging to them that what they are questioning you might have questioned and that you came to an answer and you walk them through that.

[40:46] Biblical and personal history is best told through the lens of the attributes of God and those are learned by reading God's word. And that's another discipline of learning is teaching our children to read the Bible, to go to the Bible for the answers, to understand that the Bible has the answers.

[41:08] Let's talk about another aspect of Deuteronomy 6 home and that is the aspect of fear and worship. And I'm going to do this quickly and then we'll wrap this up.

[41:19] Deuteronomy 6 is, as all of Deuteronomy and the Bible for that matter, is full of references to fearing God and I've talked about that.

[41:31] And I think we have to address the practical implications of fear. Okay? I laid out the four marks of a Deuteronomy 6 home. We talked about the learning and the obeying and the practical application of that in your home, some ideas.

[41:46] I want to wrap up talking about a very practical application of why, of how to get to a home that fears God and worships God and not something else.

[42:00] I have a question for you. Who do you fear? Who do your children fear? What do they fear? What do you fear?

[42:13] Here's another question to think about. What are you teaching them to fear? What do you want them to fear? What do you want them to be afraid of? Let me give you some examples.

[42:26] Is it their safety? Are you teaching them to fear for their safety? To fear bad health? To fear death? To fear poverty?

[42:39] That's some of the what do they fear? What about who? Very practically, do they fear their friends? the opinion of their friends? The popular opinion or the culture?

[42:55] Parents, are you teaching them to fear you? And maybe even fear you above all, maybe not even intentionally. Are you teaching them to fear failure?

[43:08] Do they fear failure? These are all questions that I want you to think about because it comes down to this. what your children fear they will eventually worship. That is the connection between fear and worship.

[43:24] That which they fear they will try to please, they will try to satisfy, even if they must change their convictions to do it. And anything that causes anyone, me or you, to compromise our convictions, out of fear, is an indication that we're worshiping and we're fearing something or someone more than God.

[43:54] And I know that's a strong statement. It's something I want you to think about. And I'll give you an example here. If your children fear rejection by their friends, they will abandon or abandon their convictions eventually to conform to their friends, won't they?

[44:11] And I think you understand that because we all experienced that growing up. If they fear God more, they might be tempted, but they will have the basis to stand firm, maintain their convictions, even in the face of the disapproval of their friends.

[44:32] You see the distinction there. It's natural to fear their friends' opinions, but in that moment of truth, who do they fear more? God or their friends?

[44:44] What do they fear more? Not being a success or God? This is how popularity, safety, health, money, all of that become idols.

[44:59] Anything that you put above God is designed to replace God, and that it's often rooted in the fear of man, fear of poverty, fear of sickness, fear of rejection, and even fear of their own life.

[45:17] Matthew 10, and we'll wrap this up here. Matthew 10, 28 to 31, are verses that I think children should have a deep understanding of before they leave your home.

[45:28] do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

[45:42] And who is that? That's God. God. This is a practical suggestion of how to think through the repeated command and the plea from Moses to the people of Israel in their home to teach their children to fear God and only God.

[46:01] Remember that? The exclusivity. Do not fear the gods of the people around you. Fear God. Don't fear the idols or don't follow the idols of the people around you.

[46:15] Don't fear those who kill the body. If they fear for their life, you shouldn't be afraid of that, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.

[46:25] Verse 29, he ends with great hope. Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

[46:40] So do not fear. You are more valuable than sparrows. There's the message to our children. Verse 28 is a heavy, heavy verse.

[46:52] It's hard truth, but it is the truth. We fear God and nothing else. And the positive side of that is the very hairs of their head are numbered by God himself, and they are more valuable to God than the rest of his creation.

[47:14] Fear God, love God, worship God, be careful about what your children are learning to fear, what they're being taught to fear. The culture desperately wants them afraid.

[47:29] A fearful people are easily manipulated, even distracted from their relationship with a loving, protective, all-powerful God. And in a Deuteronomy 6 home, the environment is where children learn with great love and confidence to fear God and to worship God in humility, in exclusivity, and with a good memory of why they do because of who God is and what he's done.

[48:00] So, a Deuteronomy 6 home is a learning home. It's where learning happens, it's where obedience happens, it's where the fear of God and worship happens, where you're considering who do you fear, what are you afraid of, and what fear is so compelling that the world would cause you to compromise your convictions, because very soon, if you can identify what that is, that is who you worship.

[48:31] Worship God. Be at home where God is worshipped, not the gods of the people that surround us. Let me close our time in prayer.

[48:42] Lord, we're grateful to you for your word and for the clarity of your word. Lord, I pray for all of the families represented here, that they would think on these things, consider your word.

[48:53] Lord, help them, guard them, protect them. Lord, we want to be homes that reflect our love and our fear of you. Lord, we want to worship you in what we say, what we do, and how our homes are conducted in submission to your word and obedience to you.

[49:10]  Thank you for your word. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.