From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Because parenting is so critical and so important, it might be one job but it's so multi-faceted. God gives us instructions in His word as to how to do this well. How to be a good parent, how to be a successful parent. And the instructions are found all through the word of God, but Deuteronomy chapter six is really critical because it really zeros in on parents.

Guest (Male): Being a parent is the most important job on the planet, and it's also the most challenging. Are you raising godly children who are prepared to face this hurting world? Today's message on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve is entitled "Preparing Our Children for Life, Part 1."

Thank you for joining us today as we begin the second message from the second family series we've aired this month. It's called "We Are Family," and we'll be in it for the rest of the month. It's about how to be the parent God wants you to be, and how and why you should allow Him to direct your path. You can get a copy of today's message online at FromHisHeart.org, click the "Listen" link, and also the entire series "We Are Family."

Also, you can download the sermon notes and outlines from Pastor Jeff for free. But don't do that now. Instead, open your Bible to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter six. Let's get started. "Preparing Our Children for Life."

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Ultimately, the one job of a parent is to see their child come to faith in Christ and walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what God wants from every parent. If you do that, you are a success. If you don't do that, I don't care if your kid grows up to be the president of Amazon, you've missed it. So what? So what if my son's a doctor? So what if he's a lawyer? So what if he's a billionaire? If he doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ, all that ends in a Christless eternity.

Because parenting is so critical and so important, it might be one job but it's so multi-faceted. God gives us instructions in His word as to how to do this well. How to be a good parent, how to be a successful parent. And the instructions are found all through the word of God, but Deuteronomy chapter six is really critical because it really zeros in on parents. Deuteronomy six is Moses on the plains of Moab. The book of Deuteronomy is three sermons that Moses gave on the plains of Moab before the people go into the Promised Land.

Moses didn't get to go into the Promised Land. God said, "Because when I told you to speak to the rock, you struck the rock and you failed to keep Me as holy before the people," and God held Moses to a high standard. So God said, "Moses, they're going in, you're not going in. I'm taking you home to heaven and Joshua is going to lead the people in." Moses so wanted to go into the Promised Land, and the Lord let him see it but He didn't let him enter.

So Moses is preparing the people in the book of Deuteronomy, giving them his last farewell sermons, so to speak. This is what he says in Deuteronomy chapter six: "Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments, which I command you all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey."

That's how they described the Promised Land, the land of Canaan, the land of Israel—a land flowing with milk and honey. And then he says this: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart, and 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, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

Critical information that God, through Moses, gives to the people, and so much of it has to do with parenting, with raising up kids who will love and follow the Lord. So I want to share with you three encouragements on this subject of parenting, "Preparing Children for Life." Encouragement number one: Parenting starts in your own heart. It starts in here for moms and dads. I'm speaking to those moms and dads, grandmothers, grandfathers, those who want to be a mom or a dad someday.

It starts in your own heart. The poem says, "No written word, no spoken plea can teach our children what they should be. Nor all the books on all the shelves; it's what the parents are themselves." Parenting is a lot like a relay race. In a relay race, you've got to learn to pass the baton. If you don't pass the baton right, if you don't pass the baton in the given zone period—those 20 meters or whatever it is—if you drop the baton, you're out, you're disqualified.

A parent's job, if you want to just look at it as what is the most important thing that parent does: he passes the baton of faith to his son, to his daughter. David said in Psalm 145, verse four, "One generation shall praise Your works to another and shall declare Your mighty acts." The generation of the parents pass on the baton of faith and praise and a relationship with God to their children, to the next generation. If we drop the baton, moms and dads, then the faith doesn't get passed on. Christianity is just one generation from being extinct if we don't continue to pass it on.

So parenting starts in your own heart. You can't pass on what you don't possess. If I'm running in a relay race and I'm the first leg and I don't have a baton, there's nothing for me to give the next guy. I have to have a genuine faith and a genuine relationship with Jesus so I can pass that on to my kids. If you want to be a good parent, you jot this down: A good parent is a good disciple. A good parent is one who is being discipled by the Lord himself.

She herself is somebody whose heart has been given over to the Lord Jesus Christ. You yourself, mom, dad, you're walking with the Lord and you're a good disciple yourself. You are growing in the Lord. It says in verse two of what we just read in chapter six, "so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord, to keep all His statutes and His commandments." It says in verse five, "and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." It starts with you.

If you're not fearing the Lord, if you're not walking with the Lord, if you're not loving the Lord, how are you going to pass that on to your kids? John the Baptist put it this way concerning the Lord Jesus when Jesus came on the scene in John three, verse 30. He said, speaking of Jesus, "He must increase, and I must decrease." That's the Christian life in a nutshell. That's growth in the Christian life—the Lord increases and we decrease. So you see more and more and more of Jesus and less and less and less of you, or of me.

More of Jesus, less of Jeff. That's how you know you're growing in the Christian life. A good parent is a good disciple. Secondly, a good parent is a good example. Your kids are watching you, mom and dad. They're watching to see: are you a good disciple? Because if you're a good disciple, then you're a good example. But if you're not walking with the Lord, then they're not going to see you as an example. Paul said this to the Corinthians in First Corinthians chapter four: "For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. I exhort you, therefore, be imitators of me."

The word "imitators" in Greek is where we get our English word "mimic." *Mimetes* is in the Greek, and it means to mimic, to copy. Paul says, "Hey, you know, you might have a lot of people come in to teach you, but I was the one that shared Christ with you. I became your spiritual father. You might have many tutors, but you only have one father. Follow my example. Be imitators of me." How could Paul say that? He could say that because he knew that he was following Jesus. Paul could say, "Hey, if you want to know how to walk with Jesus, just follow my example because I'm walking with Him, and you can use me as a pattern as to how to do it."

There's a poem I like that I think of often: "I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day. I'd rather you go with me than merely point the way. The eye is a more ready pupil than ever was the ear. Good advice is often confusing, but example is always clear. I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day." Hey, mom and dad, grandma, grandpa, you need to be a sermon for your kids, for your grandkids, so that they can see, so that they can say, "That's what it means to be a Christian. That's what it means to witness. That's what it means to pray. That's what it means to walk with Jesus Christ."

Guest (Male): What a wonderful and wanted everlasting truth about our purpose and function with our family. It's our responsibility as we do our part in preparing children for life. That's the title of today's message from the series "We Are Family," and you can find out more about the series at FromHisHeart.org, just click the "Listen" link. Pastor Jeff will continue the message in just a moment and teach us more about what an amazing God can do in your family. What God does through your support amazes us here at From His Heart; it changes lives.

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Dr. Jeff Schreve: It's interesting, there was a little study done, kind of just a questionnaire that was done in a fifth-grade Sunday School class in Brookside, New Jersey. And the ten-year-olds were asked this question: "What's wrong with grownups?" Mainly speaking of their parents. These were their replies: "Grownups make promises then they forget all about them, or else they say it wasn't really a promise, just a maybe. Grownups don't do the things they're always telling the children to do, like pick up their things or be neat or always tell the truth. Grownups never really listen to what children have to say. They always decide ahead of time what they're going to answer. Grownups make mistakes, but they won't admit them. They always pretend that they weren't mistakes at all or that somebody else made them."

And lastly, they say this: "Grownups are always talking about what they did and what they knew when they were ten years old, but they never try to think what it's like to be ten years old right now." Interesting perspective from a ten-year-old. And the thing that really resonated with me as I read that is this: when you mess up as a parent, and we all do, your kids are watching to see how do you deal with that? When you lose your temper with your kids, how do you respond? Do you just sweep that under the rug, or do you go to your kid and you apologize to your kid? "Hey, Dad was wrong. What you did was wrong, but I responded way over the top. Please forgive me."

We desperately need that in parenting, to be an example to our children. One of the greatest parenting tips I ever got was at a FamilyLife conference, and the co-speaker said this, and I wrote it down and I've never forgotten it. He said, "Parenting tip number one: Moms, dads, be the person you want your child to become." You want your child to be a trustworthy person? You be a trustworthy person. You want your child to be a godly person? You be a godly person. You want your child to be honest? You be honest. You want your child to have integrity? You have integrity. You want them to be responsible? You be responsible. Be the person you want your child to become.

Parenting starts in your own heart. So the question is this: Do you have a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ? You can't pass the baton of faith to your son, to your daughter, if you don't have it real in your heart. Christianity is all about heart. You love the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Jesus said that is the most important commandment in all the commandments. When He was asked that question, "What's the greatest commandment?", He went to Deuteronomy chapter six, verse five. That's the greatest commandment: Love the Lord with all your heart. It's not religion. We don't preach religion here. We preach a relationship with Jesus Christ. You can know Him, not just in your head, facts and figures about the Lord, but you know Him in your heart. If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.

Do you have that genuine relationship? First encouragement: Parenting starts in your own heart. Second encouragement: Parenting needs to firmly establish a godly foundation. A godly foundation, so I can pass along the baton of faith. And I need as a parent to not only be a good disciple and to be a good example, but I need to pass on to my children what it means to know the Lord and walk with the Lord. See, look at verse six again: "And these words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your sons," and daughters too, not just sons alone, "and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up." You teach them to your kids all the time.

Now, when it says "teach them diligently," that's the New American Standard, the version that I use. The Contemporary English Version says this: "Tell them over and over again." The Amplified puts it this way: "Teach them diligently, impressing God's precepts on their minds and penetrating their hearts with His truth." That's what God says a parent is supposed to do. So I first have to work on me, but then I have to do the job of diligently teaching my children. That's a command from God to me as a dad, to Debbie as a mom, to all moms and to all dads and grandparents and those who are training up kids in that parental type of role.

Two things to diligently teach. Number one: You diligently teach your children who the Lord is, so there's no mistake, so that they know the truth. Jesus said, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." Teach them the truth about who the Lord is. What does the scripture say who He is? He is God alone. The Lord is God alone. Now, as the scripture talks about the Lord here, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!" The "Lord" is in caps, all in caps. Anytime you run across "Lord" in the Old Testament all in caps, that's the special name of God, the Tetragrammaton, the four letters Y-H-W-H. We translate that as Yahweh or Jehovah.

The Lord is our God, He is our Elohim, the Lord is one. Now to the Jews, the first verses that any Jewish child would learn: Deuteronomy chapter six, verses four and five. And the Jewish parents would teach their Jewish children, "Hear, O Israel." It's called the *Shema* because the word in Hebrew for "hear" is *shema*. And in Hebrew, it would sound like this: *Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad.* "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one." *Echad* in the Hebrew means this: it means He's the one, He's the only, He's united, He is alone. There is no other God.

In the book of Isaiah, we read that. The Lord says, "I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no other God but God." Now, there are false gods all over the place. And in the Old Testament, people worshiped all kind of false gods. In our day and age, people worship all kind of false gods. They worship the god of money, they worship the god of pleasure, they worship the god of success, they worship the god of fame. There's only one God. He is the creator God. And so we teach our children that God is God alone. And Jesus is the Lord God. "Know that the Lord Himself is God." In the New Testament, what do they call Jesus? They call Him Lord. And as Thomas, who we call "Doubting Thomas," when he finally saw the Lord, the resurrected Christ, what did he say? "My Lord and my God!"

Jesus is the Lord God. He is the creator God. So we teach our children right off the bat who the Lord is; the Lord, He is God alone. And secondly, He is good and He is mighty and He is faithful. We sing that song, "Faithful God, You reign forever." Look what it says in verse 20: "When your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What are the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the Lord commanded you?' Then you shall say to your son, 'We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand. Moreover, the Lord showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household; and He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers.'"

He brought us out of the house of slavery and into the land of promise. Now, they spent 40 years in the wilderness. That wasn't God's plan. God wanted them to come out of the land of slavery, He wanted them to come to Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, and then go into the land of promise. But if you remember in the scripture, in the book of Numbers, they didn't go in when they were supposed to. They said, "The giants are in the land, we can't go in. Let's go back to Egypt. We'd rather be slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt than to face the giants in the Promised Land." And God was frustrated with them. But see, here's the faithfulness of God: He took them out of Egypt and He wanted to bring them into the Promised Land so that they'd experience the land flowing with milk and honey, all the blessings of the Lord. God is God alone. He is good and mighty and faithful, and He is worthy, worthy, worthy.

Guest (Male): Well, what a great teaching today on From His Heart called "Preparing Our Children for Life," from Pastor Jeff Schreve's seven-lesson series, "We Are Family." On Tuesday on the broadcast, we'll continue right there after a short review, so make sure that you're with us then. And as has been said, this is one of seven messages in the series "We Are Family," and if you'd like a copy, you can go to FromHisHeart.org, type in "We Are Family" on the resources page tab. You can get it in the format of your choice.

Well, our time has flown by today. Thank you for being here, and we pray the message was a blessing and that you'll return on Tuesday for part two of the lesson, "Preparing Our Children for Life," from the "We Are Family" series. Join us Tuesday when Pastor Jeff will open up God's word and share God's truth here on From His Heart.