Sermon Transcript
We’re gonna start with a poll today. Be honest. Have any of you ever forgot something?Maybe a homework assignment at school, a deadline at work, or that you had a meeting that day? Did you forget that it was your turn to bring snack to small group or to school? Are there things that you do to put that a reminder in place? Like, for me, I put a post it note on my phone because I call it my paper brain because I can’t remember what I’m supposed to remember. Or have you ever shouted out for someone to help them to remember?
Like, hey, honey, don’t forget to get the eggs or the milk or pick up the kids from school or even church, because we’ve forgotten our kids twice when they were little at church and had to go get them. So. And have you ever said to your kids or to your loved ones, hey, don’t forget to text me when you get home so I know you’re home safe? There’s a lot of things to remember, aren’t there? And speaking of remembering, we haven’t forgotten that it’s Mother’s Day.
On May 9, 1914, Woodrow Wilson declared the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. And why that’s great. God had a day long, long before that to celebrate his creation of women. In the first book of the Bible in Genesis, he said, so God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created them, male and female, he created them.
And ladies and gentlemen, he didn’t say that we were just good. He said that we were very good. And why we want to celebrate every woman today. We’re really celebrating all of creation. It’s both with men and women that we have the full image of God.
And being created in God’s image is always something to celebrate, because each one of you are the pinnacle of his creation. But we do want to take a moment and to say that it’s not lost on us and it’s not lost on many of you, that Mother’s Day can be both a beautiful and good day, and a day to celebrate, but also a hard day, an emotional and complicated day, or even a combination of the both. Maybe your mom’s no longer here with us, or you haven’t had the joy of a biological child or adopting one. Maybe you’ve lost a child, whether in the womb or as a child or even as an adult. You might not have the relationship that you’ve always longed for with a parent or a child.
And maybe Mother’s Day, for too many reasons to mention in this short time, brings back up a lot of good things and everything in between. But we want you to know that God sees you and he loves you, and you’ve been on our hearts and our mind and especially our prayers as we’ve prepared this message today. So we hope this morning and throughout the day you’ll celebrate. And remember that God loves you unconditionally. He can’t love you more and he can’t love you less, and he thought you were a good idea and that your life can be impacted for generations to come as you contribute to his kingdom.
Work in the here and now, there’s much work to be done, and it really does take the whole body of Christ, and that’s you and I. God created you and your kiddos and has called you to this exact moment in time. Our lives are not coincidence or accident, as pastor has shared over the last few weeks. We can trust God and we can trust our creator. Psalms 130 913 14 says, for you created my inmost being.
You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. As mothers, fathers and members of the body of Christ, we can listen to learn and to love God with our whole heart and be able to pass down a legacy of following Jesus.
Today. We are going to take a look at Moses today. As Moses was nearing the end of his earthly life, he was giving a farewell speech. He was giving his final thoughts to the Israelites and expounding on God’s law as they entered and prepared for life in the promised land. Yes, and a few significant events in Israel’s history that led to this point.
The exodus from Egypt, the wandering wildness.
Obey God. Let’s take a look at deuteronomy together. The fifth book in the Old Testament, deuteronomy six four nine, says, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commands that I give you today are to be on your heart.
Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and your gates. In verse four of the Shema, the hebrew word lev means to love.
Every day, God’s people are called to devote themselves to God, our whole body, our mind, our feelings and our desires, the futures and even our failures. This is what it means to love the Lord your God with all your heart. It’s important to train children to walk in faith, knowing God is in control. Walk alongside them as you work out your faith with Jesus. The next part of the verse is, the hebrew word is nephesh, or meaning soul.
Appearing over 700 times in the Old Testament. Nephesh means we are to worship God with our entire being, our whole physical existence, our whole creation. And we are to love our creator, the one who granted us our amazing bodies, offering us, offering our entire meaning and its capabilities, even its limitations, to love God and our neighbor as ourselves. And finally, the word moed is mentioned over 300 times. And that’s talking about strength, not just physical strength, but the very much our total capacity, devoting every possibility, every opportunity to honor God and love our neighbors.
The Shema prayer was a wonderful reminder to put God first and in his rightful place. Shema means hear or listen. It can also mean hear, pay attention, hear, and obey, and to act and to respond. In fact, Jesus was very familiar with this prayer. And in the New Testament, when one of the teachers of the law asked him of all the commandments which is most important, Jesus quoted part of the Shema when he answered in mark 1229 31, the most important one, Jesus answered, is this.
Hear, o Israel, the Lord your God. The Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. And the second is love your neighbor as yourself. There is no command greater than these.
The Lord is one, and he’s the only one who’s deserving of our worship. No one. Not political, no social media likes, not your family or even us. Nothing can compare to his love for us. He’s to be our focus and our purpose.
And having only one God and not putting other things first was what set the Israelites apart from all their neighboring people. The shema was a reminder, because we can be forgetful people, just like the Israelites, to put God in his rightful place and first in our life. Not just on Sundays and not just an hour of the week. First in the morning when we rise and throughout the day, and in the evening when we put our head on the pillow at night. The Israelites would use tangible things, like a small scroll box filled with scripture with a long string and wrap it around their arms.
Or small boxes that were attached to their doorpost of their house. And Pastor Paul made us a slide because I wasn’t even gonna try to pronounce their correct names. But those are examples. But we too, as Christians, sometimes have reminders. Maybe we have an artwork or a favorite verse displayed in our home.
The shema reminded the Israelites that they were brought out of Egypt. It was God who did that. And we, as Christians, need to remember our own exodus, our journey through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It should be a joy and a privilege to live out our faith and have our own relationship, not one of our parents or our ancestors, but our own relationship with God. And help teach the next generation that God isn’t some fable or fairy tale that we’ve made up inside of our heads.
His words are truth and life, and they’re for all of us. Our time on earth is so short, no matter how long we live. It really is, Justin. In fact, there’s some statistics that from birth to 18 years of age, you have 6574 days with your child. From five years to 18 years old, you only have 4745 days.
And from ten years to 18 years, you only have 2920 days. And then from 15 to 18, you only have 1095 days in which your child may still be in your home. I know that when we have littles at home, the days might seem long and the nights seem long, but in the end, the years really are short. If we look, we can see as leading the children. I look at when your kids come for Sunday school, and if we had them from birth to 18 years old, we would have only had them 936 hours hours, which only comes to 39 days if we added it all up for 24 hours days.
So you can see, as a parent or a grandparent, an aunt or an uncle, how imperative it is for you to speak truth into the life of those children. It is your job to teach them. You are to talk about them when you sit in your house, when you play games, when you lie down, when you get up, when you walk along the road, because they are your first disciples. Yes. And the reality is we can’t teach them something that we don’t know for ourselves.
So no matter what age you are, or whether you’re male or female, it’s important for each one of us to maintain a teachable spirit. As you start or continue to grow closer to God and your family and your church family, every single day, you have the opportunity to grow and hide God’s word in your heart. Just take the next step, whatever that is, for you to have a more intimate relationship with him. If you’re still breathing, and I think all of you are, it’s not too late. Maybe the next step for you would be reading the Bible, dusting it off, opening it up, and reading the book of Genesis or one of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John.
You could even try reading the Bible out loud to yourself or writing out the scripture and putting it on a note and placing it on your bathroom mirror or refrigerator or wherever you frequent a lot so you can see it. Remember? I remember one vbs, the kids were working on a project, and they were drawing and writing on the inside of their lids of the boxes. And I saw a young girl, like, writing out the scripture, and I said, that’s awesome. And she goes, my grandma has it on a note, on a mirror, and it just was a good reminder that little ones are always watching and people don’t even realize it.
I’d also encourage you to find and spend time with a mentor or somebody you respect in the church, and it could just be someone who’s just a little farther along in their journey. Ask others what their favorite bible verse is and why. It’s a wonderful way to hear part of their testimony and how God’s working in their life. Just think about this. If your family and friends know your favorite sports team, they know your favorite drink to pick up for you or what band?
How much more should we be sharing a gospel, you know, like the scripture, that’s important to us or has helped us through a hard time? We’re only going to regret the things that we didn’t share. So we can’t stress enough to include prayer time, whether it’s in God’s word or alone. In fact, like, sometimes at suppertime, I’ll say, Mike, it’s your turn to pray. And he’ll say, you know, it’s your turn.
And we kind of go back and forth, but the importance is that you do it, even if it’s awkward at first. Sometimes when we’re not even. We’re having, like, a hamburger or something, we’ll just say, thank you for this fish, because that was one of my dad’s prayers all the time. Thank you for the fish. Amen.
But just spend time in prayer, and it will become some of the most special times you have with your family. I agree. What we do today will directly influence multigenerational cycles, for good or for bad. What we do today will shape our kids for tomorrow. God doesn’t want us or our children to settle for lesser gods.
Jess, you shared with me over the years how the impact of hiding God’s word in your heart has affected you. Would you share some of those stories, please? Sure. Two main things come to mind. First was my small.
First small group here at central. And they didn’t tell me this when I signed up, but scripture memory was gonna be part of it. And so every week, we had to learn another scripture. But before we started the Bible study, they would pair you up in two, and then you would have to say them to one another, and it was fine, because sometimes we’d say, well, I don’t know it. And they’re like, I don’t know it, too.
And we just talk a little bit before the group, but not when you were paired up with Cheryl Higbee. Okay? And I would say, cheryl, I don’t know it. And she’d say, well, that’s okay. I’ll help you.
And then she’d go, th. And I’d say, I need a little more than Th. I don’t know it. And she’d go, thuh. And I’d say, I still don’t know it, Cheryl.
And then she’d make me repeat the verse after her. And even if the group was all gathered and back together, she’d say, now, let’s start on the next one. And I’m like, oh, my goodness. And she’d make me say it after her, but I’m so thankful that she did, and she invested in me. And then the second was an email that was sent to me by a friend, Jim Walker.
And he encouraged me to take a portion of God’s word and to hide it in my heart. And he emphasized, memorize it with an exclamation mark. But he also told me why it was important to do this. And his exact words were, to hide it in your heart so that the potent promises of God are available anytime, night or day. Both Cheryl and Jim poured their love of knowing God’s word and were such an example to me.
And because of them and so many others of you, when my daughter went home to be with the Lord, suddenly I didn’t have to go searching for comfort. I didn’t have to go looking in scripture, trying to find something to bring me peace. God’s word filled my mind for days and nights, especially those first initial days of waiting to see her. The word of God was there, and it literally flooded my heart and my mind. And yes, of course, we were utterly devastated.
But we did experience that peace of God that passes all understanding and utter devastation. And the peace of God can coexist. We can trust God to guard our hearts and our mind if we are in a relationship with him, because all of his promises are true. Jessica, you reminded me of a scripture from Hebrews 412 that says, the word of God is a living and active, and it’s our offensive weapon when our hearts and minds get overloaded. It’s part of the full armor of God.
Jess. Yeah, we need that. Share Darlene, a little bit about how it’s impacted you hiding God’s word in your heart. I know from my own experience, my mom did the best she could. She raised six kids, and she made sure we were dressed and ready to go every Sunday morning, every Sunday night, and every Wednesday night.
So because of her faithfulness and her great love for me, I met two amazing people that spoke truth into my life. Esther Scaff, who was our pastor’s wife at the time, and her son Jonathan, misses scaff. Sweetest woman. Every time my Sunday school class would change, she’d follow me right on up, which I never knew then, but what an amazing blessing that was, to be taught so diligently by one woman who loved the Lord so much. And then, you know, you get to them junior high years, I don’t want to do much with them, but junior and my high school years, through college, her son Jonathan took over, but I will be forever, ever grateful for the truth that they spoke into my life.
They taught me how to love Jesus. They taught me how to memorize his word, but not just hide it in my heart, but to live it and how to love unconditionally other people. They sacrificed so many things, money, time, to speak truth into my life. And they love Jesus well. And I want that someday to be my legacy, that I love Jesus well and I love others well, and I teach him his great love because that is who I want to be.
So, and I want you to not miss that. Not only did we talk about how our family impacted us, but we talked about people in the church. And that’s all of you guys, you can have that impact on other people’s lives. And I was just reading an article as Jess and I were preparing for this, and I wanted to share with you because sometimes we don’t really think about time and time truly passes so quickly. But number one was a child cherishes a parent’s presence above all else.
And you really do have a short time in which to be a major influence in your kids lives. Little time equals little influence, and you cannot buy back time. The world has deadlines and contracts and so forth, and it always will be. But your children will not always be in your home. You can never spend too much time with your family.
The thief in the american home today is busyness, overactivity. And another one that really struck me is whenever you have any intimacy with your parents and your teenagers, those teenage years, it’s almost always cultivated by the age of twelve and rarely after it. Out of quality time comes quality moments. If you make time with your children today when they’re young, there will be opportunities and even requests for them when they are older, because family there does come such a time as it’s too late. But remember, God loves our kids more than we ever could, and we can all pass down a legacy.
The question is if we’re going to be intentional about it, and what kind of legacy that we hope to leave and will it be one that points them to Jesus? We want to leave you with some thoughts. First, if you’ve never opened the Bible for yourself, or you’ve never opened the Bible outside of your Sunday school class or small group, I’d encourage you to make it a priority. Don’t let other things get in the way. Things are time killers.
Put it first and set a time aside for just you and the Lord. Just start with one small step. Paul has a saying of like, let’s just keep doing things 1% better, just getting God’s word 1%. And then the next day, and then the next day, and then there’s 365 days that you had the potential to spend in God’s word. The reality is we all have the same 24 hours in a day and we make time for what’s important to us.
In fact, we have some helpful things if you’d like bible tabs to help you navigate easier through the Bible, there’s a whole table out there and you can pick up a set if they’re all gone. Just write down your name and we’ll make sure we get you one. And if you don’t have a Bible or you want to give one away, take one from the table out there. And then also remember to trust God has greater plans than you can possibly dream, not just for your kids, but for yourself. We don’t have to be afraid.
I wish I would have worried less and trusted him more through the years because we don’t have to be afraid. Proverbs three, five and six reminds us to trust the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding and in all our ways to acknowledge him and he’ll direct our paths. And Jeremiah 20 911 says, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, and plans to give you a hope in the future. And doing this, I realized that those were some of the early verses that Cheryl made me memorize with her. That was just funny.
And thirdly, don’t ever stop praying for your loved ones or those you care about, no matter how far they seem from Christ. And I’m going to repeat this again, don’t ever stop praying for your loved ones, no matter how far they seem or whatever your relationship with them. Don’t stop praying for them because God’s relentlessly pursuing them. And the Holy Spirit is very good at being the Holy Spirit. So today, let’s remember, let’s celebrate God’s faithfulness and his goodness to us.
And we can do that by loving others and loving God. John a. Sowers in his book say all the unspoken things shares this. We don’t always get to say goodbye. We don’t know when will be our last hug, high five, smile, laugh, or I love you.
All we have is today and now and what we do in this one shining moment church. Let’s make today count for eternity. The bottom line is we all get to decide what type of legacy we want to leave intentionally hiding God’s word in your heart will help you prepare and share Jesus, and you can leave a wonderful legacy for the next generation