And I think that's very healthy for a child to know that his or her parents are growing, are learning, are developing from their God. So love your God personally, learn the truth inwardly.
Third is lead your kids diligently. The people around you are watching how you live your life. Do they see you following God every day? Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares how you can live diligently to inspire those around you to follow Jesus. But before we begin, we want to tell you about an opportunity you have to see the Bible come alive before your eyes.
Nothing tops studying the scriptures in the real life locations where it all took place. That's why I'm eager to announce our upcoming trip to Israel in 2022. And if you register by November 30th using promo code ConnectIsrael, you'll receive $150 off the tour price.
Find out more about the tour at inspirationcruises.com slash C-A-B-Q. Thanks Skip. Now, here's a resource that will nourish your soul with God's amazing truths. Listen to what Sean McDowell said about the book Tactics. This is the book I've been waiting for.
I enthusiastically recommend Tactics. Here's Skip Heitzig to comment on how Jesus spoke out for truth. We might think that Jesus never raised his voice, that he would never call anybody out. However, there was a side of Jesus that was contentious. The Jesus that took tables in the temple and overturned them and took out a whip and drove people out of the temple.
Yeah, that Jesus. Get equipped to defend the gospel and guard against false teachings with Fight for the House, a six-message series through the book of Jude with Skip Heitzig. This teaching series on CD is our thanks when you give to keep this Bible teaching ministry on the air. And when you give $35 or more today, we'll also send you a book by Gregory Kochel called Tactics, your game plan for communicating the truth about Christianity with confidence and grace.
To give, visit connectwithskip.com or call 800-922-1888. Okay, we're in Deuteronomy chapter six today as we get into the teaching with Skip Heitzig. Elizabeth Elliot, and you'll know that name because of her missionary background, very, very famous story of her and her husband reaching out to the Alka Indians. Elizabeth Elliot said, the word of God I think of as a straight edge which shows up our own crookedness. We can't really tell how crooked our thinking is until we line it up with the straight edge of Scripture. You found that to be true, right? If you're going to build a house, you need a set of blueprints, right? If you try to build a house without a set of blueprints, you're going to have a crooked house. That looks good. I like that. I think, yep, the door closes.
Yeah, today. You need blueprints, you need plans, you need specs. God has given you and I a blueprint, and if you want to build your life and you want it to be a straight life, you build according to the blueprint.
If you want a crooked life, then you'll wing it and you'll fly by the seat of the pants and go, yeah, it's good. So these are the blueprints. The word of God is the instruction manual so your life can operate smoothly. Another analogy might be it's too easy to read.
Analogy might be it's the sheet of music that we all read from so that our lives can be in harmony together. Or if you will, it's the download that we need to keep the system running. And I discovered I need daily updates, daily upgrades to the system. There's an old Chinese proverb that says, one generation plants the trees, the next generation gets the shade. And that's the father's job. Plant the trees so your kids can get the shade. My dad reminded me of this a lot. You know what it takes for you to eat that meal?
You know what it takes for you to drive that car and live in this house? He'd always remind me that he planted the trees. But to this day, I'm grateful that he did plant the trees and that I got the shade. What kind of shade will our kids have? What kind of planting are we doing right now? What are we doing to protect them from the harsh rays of this cultural sun that is beating down on them daily?
So we plant the trees, our kids get the shade. That is not to say that it's a guarantee that your kids will all walk with the Lord every step along the way. You say, wait a minute, I did all the right things. I made all the right moves. I said all the right things.
I gave the right example. But my kids aren't following the right way right now. And that's because we're all volitional creatures. We all make choices. You discover that like a week in, right?
In parenting. That little guy has a will of his own. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You'll discover that the whole time, the whole life.
But just because they're making bad choices now doesn't mean they'll always make bad choices. You have sown those seeds. You're going to see, you're going to reap from it.
I believe you're going to reap from it. The influence of a godly father, the godly father's influence, his presence in the home is inestimable. We have one son. You know, I always tell people, they say, how many kids you have? I said, I have an only begotten son.
God and I have that in common. God has given us one son. And when he was in grade school, and I have always known, I have one shot, literally.
I have one shot of this. So every morning when he was in grade school, we had a two-story house at the time, and so he'd come down the stairs in the morning. And for me, doing my devotions, my quiet times, instead of being in my little home office that I had, I always made sure that I was on the living room couch by the window so that the first thing my son saw as he walked down the stairs is dad every morning, Bible open, reading. So that would be always pictured in his mind. I can always remember my dad reading his Bible in the morning. I wanted him to carry that picture throughout his life. And I'll tell you why I think that is important for children to see.
And I'll tell you to see. It shows your kids that you have a boss. You know, because the kids already know you're their boss. You tell them that, right?
Rightfully so. Dad, why do I have to do that? I'm the boss. Okay. But it doesn't make sense.
Why? Because I said so, right? Because I said so. So I wanted my son to see his dad getting instructions. Basically saying, I'm reading this because my father says so. And I need to do what he says because he says so. So it's like, oh, you have a boss too? You have a dad telling you what to do too?
Uh-huh. And I think that's very healthy for a child to know that his or her parents are growing, are learning, are developing from their God. So love your God personally. Learn the truth inwardly. The third is lead your kids diligently. Verse 7, you shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your home, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up. So when they're having breakfast in the morning, you're giving them their lunch or you're driving to the store in the car, they're in the back seat, or you're at a stoplight, you're tucking them in bed at night.
Use all of the day as teaching moments. And then look at verse 8 and 9, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes, and you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. You know, the picture is surround your life with reminders so that you can teach that to your children.
So in the flow of the passage, let's just kind of look at it this way as we get through this. The flow of the passage, the first commandment is love God. The second one is store up the words in your heart. And the third one is now teach it to your kids and do it diligently. You shall teach them now.
Notice what it does not say. It does not say Sunday school shall teach them diligently to your children. Sunday school helps, we have great teachers, we have a great children's director, and they pray for your children, and they love your children. They think of all sorts of great ways to pass the word of God onto them. It does not say though your youth pastor will teach them diligently to your children, though they love to do that, or wait till summer camp. In summer camp they'll teach them diligently to your children. It says to us, you do it.
You do it. You teach them diligently to your children. In fact, get this, in Hebrew the word for parents is the word horim. And so if you're speaking about a male parent it's horay, if it's a female parent horah, together the plural is horim. That's the word for parents. It's the same root word as another Hebrew word for teacher, moray.
Horim moray is the same root word. And that's because the Jews believed that a child's first and foremost teacher is the parents. The parents will teach them.
And that's the root word for parents. The parents will teach them. And that is how the education in the ancient Jewish home was developed. For the first three years of that child's life, until the child was weaned, mom did the domestic duties. And then when the child was three years old, moms began teaching their daughters domestic housework and duties. The father began teaching his sons the law of God and a profession.
Isn't that interesting? Kids three years old, get a job. But early on they're teaching, you know, the law of God and a profession. So there's a passage in the Talmud, the Jewish Talmud, that says a father is obligated to do the following for his son, to circumcise him, to redeem him if he's a firstborn, to teach him torah, that's the first five books of Moses, to find him a wife, I won't comment on that because God found my son a great wife, and to teach him a trade, to teach him a trade. That was the father's responsibility. Now there's a Talmudic commentator scholar who later on said, oh, and also don't just teach him the law of God, don't just teach him a trade, but also teach him how to swim. I don't know why. I mean, it's a good thing to know how to swim, but I don't know why that is like up there with the law of God and he's got to learn how to swim.
But if you live by a lake or an ocean, yeah, it's a good thing to know. So I won't dispute it. I like that. Now, that's what we are to do as parents. We are to love God. We are to learn his truth.
We're to lead our kids diligently. What's interesting are verse 8 and 9, which is where we end it. It says, you'll bind them as a sign on your hand and as frontlets between your eyes, you will write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates. In Jewish tradition, men have taken this commandment to the absolute literal verbatim application.
So let me explain what I mean. If you go to Israel with us, you'll see this, or if you visit Orthodox communities, you'll see this, but the Jewish people take four passages of the Scripture handwritten on little scrolls, four tiny scrolls. They take the first passage from the book of Exodus chapter 13 verses 1 through 10.
They write that down on a little paper. They take, secondly, the book of Exodus chapter 13 verses 11 through 16. Third, Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 4 through 9, what we're reading.
And fourth, Deuteronomy 11 verses 13 through 21. They take those little scrolls, put them in a box covered with leather or made out of leather, a leather box called a phylactery, and they strap that baby to the head right there. They put it right on the forehead and they strap it around the head.
So you see a guy walking down the street with a big leather box sticking out of his head, and then they take another box with leather strap, put it on their left arm, and they bind it to their left arm. And they put those on when they pray. So you'll see them at the western wall wrapped up and on their head, and they'll be moving in devotion, and they'll be praying. You go, why do they do that?
It's because this is what it says. And to them it is a reminder that the word of God should govern my thoughts, that's why it's on my head, and should govern my actions, that's why it's on my arm. It's a beautiful reminder. Then if you're going into a Jewish home, because it says put them on the doorpost of your home, they actually put it on the doorpost of their home. They have a little cylinder on the right hand doorpost as you enter a Jewish home called a mezuzah. And if you're like really devout, you don't just put it on the front door, you put it in the doorway of every room in your house to remind you going out and coming in, I am governed by the word of God, by the law of God.
So this is the directive for parents and in particular for fathers. And to be honest with you, I would love to see a revival of biblical manhood. I would love to see a revival of responsible godly men who aren't afraid to be leaders, who aren't afraid to love God with all their heart, mind, soul, strength, who aren't afraid to memorize scripture, who aren't afraid to compassionately lead their families.
I'd love to see that resurrected. And so much of the scripture does put that on men, on fathers. Here's the sampling. Proverbs chapter 4 verse 1, Solomon writes, listen my sons to a father's instruction. Pay close attention and gain understanding. Proverbs chapter 6 verse 20, my son keep your father's commands. Ephesians chapter 6, fathers do not provoke your children to wrath but bring them up in the training and the admonition of the Lord. All of that is directed to fathers.
You train them, you bring them up, you're responsible. Finally another passage though, he's speaking about spiritual children and John being a spiritual father, he says in 3 John 4, I have no greater joy than to see my children walk in truth. I think it's pretty easy to see from just a reading through of scripture that it is dad's responsibility to set the moral spiritual tone in the home. Remember it was Joshua who said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. It wasn't Mrs. Joshua, it was Mr. Joshua.
He did it. Now I thank God for godly mothers. I had a wonderful mother and I've seen so many hard-working even single-parent mothers who give it their all. I'm grateful for that. Give it their all.
I'm grateful for that. But dads will answer to God for it. Think back to the Garden of Eden. Eve took the first bite but God came after Adam, right? Eve took the first bite but God came into the garden, Adam, where are you?
Whoa, I wouldn't want to hear that voice if I'm in trouble. God came looking for Adam. Even Socrates said to the men of Athens, he said that he wondered how men could be so careful training up a cult and so indifferent to the training of their own children.
And he was a pagan. So in scriptural biblical parlance and context, this is the role and responsibility primarily of a father. Why? Why does so much depend on dad? He says, well that's an undue burden to put on a dad, so much responsibility.
Well, there's a lot of reasons why. I mean, our view of authority comes from our dad, largely. I kind of, my relationship with my dad carried into my life in terms of how I view and respond to earthly authority. Our view of conflict resolution often comes from our father. Sometimes dads just get mad, don't talk to me, don't argue with me, not a good example, or they shut down, they don't say anything at all, yes dear, whatever you want, just want to make you happy. That's not a good way to do it. So our ability to resolve conflict is often seen there, but there are better reasons why the responsibility is placed on a father.
I'll give you three quick reasons. Number one, did you know that a child's view of God is first of all formed by their earthly father? You say, oh come on, how is that so? Well, when you teach a child to pray, you say, when you pray son, daughter, say our father, who art in heaven, that's how the Lord Jesus taught us to pray. He's your heavenly father. Well, the only father that child is known up to that point is an earthly father. For better or for worse, good example or bad example, that's the only frame of reference a child has, is an earthly father. So a child's first view of God is formed by an earthly father.
So that's a pretty important reason. A second reason why so much depends on dad is, dads, if you have daughters, one day they're going to marry a man and they need to know what a godly man looks like. And if that godly man is you, you're going to have a daughter growing up saying, I want to marry somebody like my dad, who has that character, that integrity.
Here's the third reason. If you have sons, your son is going to get up, get married to a woman. He needs to know how to treat a woman.
He needs to know what it means to go from a boy to a man, a compassionate, loving, responsible man of integrity. I even read an article, believe it or not, in the Huffington Post. Now I rarely agree with the Huffington Post.
They're a very liberal news outlet, but every now and then they have an article in there that surprises me and here's one that I totally agree with, probably because they quoted somebody else in the article. But in this article it says, boys look for their father's approval in everything they do and girls will look for men from the pattern that is set by their father. So it's much easier to build a boy than it is to repair a man.
It's much easier to build a girl than it is to repair a woman. So this is your shot. This is my shot. I'm not throwing away my shot. If I have one shot at this, I want to make sure that it counts. So it says, you shall teach them.
Here's a better translation I found. You shall impress them. Now the idea is making an impression, a mold, but I like that. Impress your kids. Impress your son. Impress your daughter by loving God madly, by storing up his word avidly, by teaching them diligently. Impress them.
Teach them. I was having a conversation, this is many years ago, with a man who was telling me how he teaches his family the Bible. He said, Skip, I built a pulpit in my home. I go, you built a pulpit in your home? He goes, yep, I have a pulpit, a wooden pulpit.
I store it in the dining room and I take it out every night in the living room and I make my family sit down and I preach a sermon to them. And I went, yeah, no, not a good idea. It's not what it means.
It's not the idea. I mean, your kids are going to grow up hating pulpits and preachers. It's much better to build a pulpit in your heart and preach to yourself and then live out those principles for your kids.
That's the home run right there. Here's the great news. The great news is that any man who says, oh, I'm going to do this. I'm going to step into the role of fatherhood, full on, full bore. Know this, your God will be quick to help you because you're stepping into his role. He's a father. He is our heavenly father. And when any man says, I want to be a father, God will say, I'll show you how to do it and I'll give you all that you need and the empowerment to pull it off. Because essentially a father is a partner with God in making disciples of his children. So go teach your children how to swim, how to swim through this world filled with filth and values that are diametrically opposed to God. Teach them how to swim and keep their head above the water and to do it joyfully by the example that you and I set for them.
That concludes Skip Heitzig's message from the series now streaming. Right now, we want to tell you about a special opportunity you have to take your knowledge of the Bible to a deeper level. Speculation about the end times is at an all time high and Christianity is the only faith that devotes nearly one third of Scripture to future events. Learn about the future from the authority of the Bible when you take a study of the end times at Calvary College. With evening classes on campus or online, you can get an education in biblical studies that will impact your spiritual life for the rest of your life. The spring term starts January 10, so apply today at CalvaryChurchCollege.com. Thank you for tuning in today. We're passionate about helping you strengthen your walk with God.
And you can be a part of connecting others to Jesus in the same way when you give a gift to help keep these teachings you love on the air. Just call 800-922-1888. That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Thank you. Coming up tomorrow, Skip Heitzig shares what you can look forward to when it comes to heaven. You just might be surprised, so don't miss it. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.
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