It's Your Job to Teach Them - Pastor Stacey Shiflett
- Pastor Shiflett
- Sep 28, 2023
- 4 min read
It’s Your Job to Teach Them
Deuteronomy 4:9 Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;
Grandparent’s jokes:
Grandpa: "Go hide, your teacher is probably here because you skipped school today!" Boy: "No, you go hide. I told her I went to your funeral!"
A boy asks his grandpa how come he still calls his wife "darling" after being married for over 60 years. The grandpa says: "Be quiet boy, I forgot her name 30 years ago."
Intro:
One of the greatest things about having grandparents is all the neat stuff that you learn from them.
I. The Heeding that is Prioritized
“Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently…”
One of the things that has changed about me from being a father to a grandpa is my heightened concern for the safety of my grandsons.
When my children were little, I let them do crazy things.
I encouraged them to do dangerous things.
Now, I watch the grandkids run across the room and I cringe.
I’m always saying, “Watch out!” or “Be careful!”
When I read verse 9, I see God saying the same thing to us.
Take heed to thyself!! Be careful!
We can get so preoccupied watching out for everybody else that we fail to take heed to ourselves!
The Bible is filled with admonitions just like this from the Lord. Here are just a few:
Jesus said the same thing to the disciples about the coming of Christ.
Mark 13
· 32 But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
· 33 ake ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.
Jesus said it to His disciples when they were praying in the Garden of Gethsemene.
· Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed [is] willing, but the flesh [is] weak.
Jesus warned His disciples about being deceived.
· Matthew 24:4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
Paul warned the church about getting proud.
· 1 Corinthians 10:12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
Paul reminded the pastors to take heed of themselves and the flock of God.
· Acts 20:28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
II. The Heart that is Protected
“…lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life..”
God referenced the heart for a reason.
· Proverbs 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it [are] the issues of life.
My father in law called yesterday to ask us to pray. He’s got congestive heart failure.
He’s had multiple heart attacks.
He’s had several by-passes and an interstate put in.
He’s got fluid around his heart.
But what’s worse than a bad heart physically is a bad heart spiritually.
God was warning the nation of Israel not to forget all that they had seen God do in their lifetime.
Isn’t it strange how we can remember our first car, our first job, our first girlfriend, our first big deer, but we can so easily forget the unbelievable things that we have seen God do??
God reminded them in verse 3 that they had seen how God judged those that went after false Gods.
Yet He’s having to remind them not to forget what their eyes had seen, lest they depart from their heart.
This is the worse kind of heart failure!
· A heart that fails to remember God.
· A heart that fails to thank Him all the things that He has done.
· A heart that fails to remember the miracles we’ve witnessed Him do.
· A heart that fails to recognize our own weakness and tendencies to forget God!!
III. The Heritage that is Prepared
“…but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;”
This is where I wanted to get in the message.
The chapter starts out in verse 1 with:
· Deuteronomy 4:1 Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you.
God did His job. He taught us. He taught us the statutes and the judgments.
He taught us to do them, THAT WE MAY LIVE.
Notice verse 5 and 6:
· 5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.
· 6 Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.
But notice what He said in verse 9:
· Deuteronomy 4:9 Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;
God said, I have taught you, and the whole world knows it.
Now, it’s your job to teach them!
Teach your sons.
And teach it to your son’s sons.
He reminded them of their obligation in verse 10.
· 10 Specially the day that thou stoodest before the LORD thy God in Horeb, when the LORD said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.
It is our job to teach our children.
But the job is not over.
Our responsibility doesn’t end there.
We now have to pass that down to our grandchildren.
We can’t leave it up to their parents.
We can’t leave it up to the pastor.
We can’t leave it up to the Christian school teacher.
IT IS OUR JOB TO TEACH THEM!
Conclusion: As grandparents, we must take it serious that our grandchildren know God!
That they know His law; His statutes and His judgments.
God is clear – when He teaches them to us, and we do them, WE MAY LIVE.
Grandparents, our grandchildren’s very lives depend on it!
We need to take an active role in teaching our children and grandchildren.
