Well, thank you very much for this wonderful time that I can bring God's word to you in this afternoon seminar. And the theme or the title of our seminar is family devotion and parenting. I was looking forward to this moment and I pray that the Lord will definitely draw us to himself and will also educate us in this area of family devotion. The scripture reading which was earlier read, which is Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 1 to 9, is a very important and ideal place for us to engage ourselves in this seminar. And so before we go to the Lord in prayer once again, as was already prayed, I'll invite you to turn your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 6, Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 1 to 9. Now this is the commandment and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded. to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear the Lord your God to keep all his statutes and his commandments which I command you, you and your sons and your grandsons, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. Therefore, hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you. and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you, a land flowing with milk and honey. Here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a signet on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Well, let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, I do acknowledge that this is a great task that engages both the heart and the mind to relate to the fact that Lord, you would invite us parents and homes to set up altars in our homes around which and upon which we are to be engaged in introspecting and reflecting and hearing from your word together. And Lord, in this passage of scripture, you did command so the nation of Israel through Moses that this must be an establishment in their homes and also in the nation, that Lord, they would take time to learn who you are, to reflect again on your works, on your very law, and on all the teachings, and thereafter pass them on to the generations after. And this is that the world may know the ways of the Lord. And now, Lord, you invite us to a moment when we should prepare our hearts and make this as a command to our homes and to our lives. and to obey it. So, Lord, I pray as we learn that you would teach us, both teacher and listener alike, that you will engage our hearts, Lord, to consider this as that which honors you. Praying now that, Lord, you would speak your word. In Jesus' name, amen. Well then, as we have read here, we find God engaging Moses and instructing him to command, instructing Moses to command the Israelites to be able to gather their families and teach them God, teach them the law and go through all over again what God has written and has said that should be communicated to the nation of Israel. Israel has just crossed over into the wilderness. They've spent over 40 years or almost 40 years. They are now right at the banks of the Jordan. There's definitely a lot of excitement. They are looking forward to enter the promised land, the place of milk and honey, as we read here, God indicating that he has promised to give them that land. And they cannot wait. But while they have that excitement, Moses invites them to a moment here in the whole book of Deuteronomy in about five sermons in which he recounts and takes them all over again the whole history that they have had throughout the wilderness into the time of Egypt before that. And he tells them to go back through it all and be reminded of a lot of things. And after he does that, he then passes on and lets them go into the promised land. But in our text, what Moses does is he reminds the nation of Israel that this is what God is commanding us to do. And he says, these are the statutes and the judgments which the Lord, your God, has commanded you. And he's saying you should teach them to your children. And he goes on further to even say, not only to your sons, but to your grandsons. What Moses is doing is simply saying that this must be passed on from one generation to another. And so from this text we take the whole leaf and teaching of the from the scriptures of about family devotion being a parenting area that we must be engaged in. We observe that if the nation of Israel in the Old Testament is here being engaged to be found again and again, to be sitting, standing, walking, nailing on the doorpost when they are sleeping and whatever moment they are given or have to spend time to speak to their children, to pour out the truth of God to their children. If this is the order to which the people in the Old Testament are invited to, We also, the Christians of today, go back to the scriptures and need to learn a lot from this. It was not only a communication of the truth of God, but it was also a parenting tool. It was a means to which parents are going to pour out God's word into the lives of their children and to their children's children. And therefore, among many areas of parenting God has given us as parents, as part of our responsibility in raising up the children in the home, in the church, in the community, and in the rest of the nation, There is this one area which is commonly called family devotion, family devotion. Some people would call it family altar. Some would call it family time. At least in my home with my family, we call it family time. Obviously, all the time when family eats together, talks together, plays together, and all other moments of togetherness in the family should generally be considered as family time. However, at least for my home, when we use the phrase family time, we usually make reference to a specific time. that my wife and children and myself have cut out as a moment in which we are going to think through introspect on a number of things reflect upon what the day was like and but primarily engage ourselves on the person of God and find out what he has to teach or tell us through his word. It is an opportune time that we even engage to talk to him in prayer. It is a time we have set aside for our spiritual ministry by ourselves to ourselves. Now we know ministry is ministering or serving God but I want to use those phrases because I want to make a point. It is ministry by ourselves to ourselves implying that we are both their teachers and the audience. When I gather with my family it is a time in which I am not just teaching my children but I am teaching the home. It is a time we pray and I I just love this family time which in our in our sermon we're calling family devotion. In our time, we have a great time in my home, and that is we pray, we sing, we share testimonies, we have a teaching from God's word, we read a particular passage, we've been reading occasionally, reading from one book to the other, and we are having some consecutive reading. And interestingly, so we also have a Q&A question and answer. And so my children tend to have a time to ask any question that pertains to life in general and also from the scriptures. And I take the time with my wife to answer those questions. And those are very good points in which you pick up and teach a lesson. And so in this seminar or in this moment of the sermon, I want you to understand that if I use the word family time, I am simply using it interchangeably with family devotions because I am coming from a background where in my home, that is, we have so much used the phrase family time than the word family devotion. Nonetheless, I'm talking about the same thing. There is no greater privilege, dear friends, in an area of parenting comparable at least in my home, to family time. Now, we tend to have various moments when our children are being parented, and there's a one-on-one occasion. There are deliberate occasions. There are specific occasions. There are topical occasions. There are moments when we teach lessons out of games and out of just a fun time. At times, we watch a movie, and then we go and review it in our informal discussion. And all those are points of teaching and parenting. But family time is seemingly very unique. This week I was engaged in a discussion with family members and somebody quickly said, at least for you, you are a pastor, you can understand whatever topic we're talking about in this manner. I quickly said, no, my friend, we are all pastors. And he said, what do you mean? I said, I may be called a pastor of a church but may I suggest to you that you're also a pastor of your home. Every man should consider himself that he has a little church in his home and God considers you as the shepherd of that church to guide and to lead to protect and to provide to teach and all else that a shepherd does to a flock you are to do to your home. And so we laughed about it and said oh okay now I get it. So During our time of family time, I have addressed quite a number of crucial issues in the life of my daughters. At times they ask questions that leave me very uncomfortable. I wish they didn't ask, but nonetheless it is an opportune time to answer those questions. There was a time we were just the two of us with my wife and we would have our time together. The nature of our family time or devotion time was very different. We would have quite a theological talk, a theological discussion. There are times when I felt my wife was behind and so I would try to bring her to speed And there were times when my wife felt that I was perhaps too much of in a hurry expecting her to learn what I already know. And so she would slow me down. And still, it was a healthy time. Well, years down the road, three years later, we had our first baby. And our first baby came into the house. Her name is Hannah. And so we had to retailer our family time in such a way that we would prepare and be speaking to the heart of a little one. And so we would read the Bible, not so much from the vision that I was reading from, but would read from a children's Bible vision, trying to communicate in a childlike language. A few years later, one or two years later, Grace, our second, came in, and we continued with our family time in a childlike manner. Before long, the children were about seven and eight years old, and we saw a certain level of maturity. Again, the dynamics of our family devotion changed because we had to accommodate a new age that has come in in the home, and that is the youngest was about seven. Lo and behold, our last came in, Carissa. And so we wound back to having it in a moment in which we speak with the mind that there's a baby. The two girls were so excited because now they would also be involved in ensuring that the little one is learning just like everybody is learning. Fast forward. We have a 10, 15 and 17 year old girls in our home and the dynamics of our family time has again evolved into something else because the youngest is 10. They're all able to read the Bible. They all are able to read apart from the Bible, another devotional book or another material for their study and for their own personal God and I time. And so the girls have matured and it looks different. Now I'm taking you through all that because I want you to realize that there's no exact science when it comes to a family devotion that it has to be shaped and patterned in this way. If you don't fit in the box, you drop off. That is not the approach to family time or family devotion. It is sensitive to the ages of the children. It is sensitive to the maturity of the people that gather in the house. It is sensitive to the spiritual maturity of the people that are involved in the family house and primarily the children. And I will stick to the children because this is in relation to parenting and not just so much devotion of a gathering in a home. So one of the most challenging aspects of family time, for us at least, has been consistency. We have worked at that for the most part of our marriage life. We've been married for 19 years now and we have not reached that perfect level of consistency. Many demands of life have continued to challenge us. Ministry, career, education, relocation, economy, and the list is endless. And at times the challenges to family time or devotion time is also just our own laziness, our own sinfulness, our own poor priorities in life, our own poor management of time, and at times it is those dry spiritual seasons in our walk with the Lord when we are dragging our feet and those are quite painful moments and challenging moments to try to be consistent with our devotion time. And obviously the major one simply being the continuous attack from the evil one who has never enjoyed to see us have family time. Now I say that beforehand because at times when you're dealing with such a topic, you tend to appear like you are the specialist, like you are the one who knows it all and has it perfectly. I want to quickly indicate to you that as much as this is a valid and very important area, Yet even my home tends to have some inconsistencies time and again. Nonetheless, or regardless of those challenges, we have believed and we have practiced and we have chosen to remain faithful to the biblical means of grace, here being called family devotion. Much of our family's spiritual growth, our ministry to God and to the church, and response to life in general, has been well-natured in and from the cradle of family devotion. Well then, for that reason, I will take to show you from the scriptures by answering just about three or four questions. And then we will be done with our seminar. And I pray at the end of it, all you would have prepared yourself with a good number of questions that I would love to address or to answer. Well, therefore, let's go straight into our text with Deuteronomy chapter six. And the first question is simply this. What is family devotions? What is family devotions? Well, a man, a pastor in the state of Ohio some many years ago in America, by the name of John Ashbrook, wrote a little book that I have read all over again, which is a very beautiful book. It's entitled Family Fundamentals. In this little book, he teaches the need for the church families to get back to the basics of the home while living in the world which has lost its biblical family values. John Ashbrook writes, the home is the most basic institution of mankind. No nation can survive without the knowledge, the character, the industry, and the obedience which comes from solid homes. Dr. Theodore Culler, a Presbyterian clergyman who was one of the leaders of the revival in New York City in the 1850s, wrote, addressing the government administration, no administration can seriously harm us if our home life is pure, prudent, and godly. The home rules the nation. If the home is demoralized, it will ruin the nation. All our best characters, our best legislation, our best institution, our best church life were credited in the early homes. Well, these two men, I know they are quite foreign to us here in Zambia, but very common in the US. Both men point to the very idea that the center of these homes, the center of the home, eventually which, that's a home which eventually rules the nation, is the family altar. The center of the home is the family devotion. You know, it is a place that the family gathers around and gets engaged with the name and person of God, reads his word and hears him speak to them as they speak back to him in prayer. One of the things we do as part of our family time on Fridays, in my home on Fridays, we call Friday, Friday night or movie night. So on Friday nights, we usually watch a movie and I have the responsibility to look for a family movie and we gather around it and have family entertainment. We watch quite a number of movies that are very educative and I preview those movies beforehand because you know our time and age. You don't want to be caught unaware by either the content and the images and even just the storyline. So one cartoon movie we have watched several times is called Over the Age. Young people definitely relate very quickly with this cartoon. Over the Age basically communicates that the National Housing Program has taken over a forest to build new housing facilities. And they are doing that at the detriment of the wildlife. And so the wildlife, the wildlife is going to suffer. And so the little animals that live in the wilds begin to try to understand this construction, especially of a hedge that has blocked them from accessing the other side of the forest. And they have no idea what's on the other side of the forest. And so through the process of trying to find out, they discover that there is humankind on the other side. And so they try to coexist with this humankind, but they don't know who this man is and what he has constructed. Fortunate enough, they have this guy who's way ahead of them. He's a raccoon. And the raccoon who seems to get to know the better side of mankind and understand how humans live, he begins to educate his fellow little animals on how man who man is and how man lives by the way these other little animals have just come from from their winter hibernation and so boom they wake up the whole world has changed and so they are they are so completely lost and so this raccoon takes the center stage and he begins to explain to them this new world that they've come in so in an effort to explain the world to them he indicates center of man. Unfortunately he's so ignorant for him as he has watched man's life his conclusion is the center of man's life is food. And so he begins to tell his friends that man dresses food, he drives food, he runs and exercises to bend food. And everything about man is food. And as he's taking them through that explanation, he finally sees through the window of a home that has sat around a table for dinner. And he says, in a very informative tone, he says, and that's the altar. where they worship food. And so his friends are confused and he emphasizes, it's all about food and food and food and food. The philosophy of that cartoon is simply, all that pertains to man is food. Food is the center of man. Well, in a sense, the raccoon is right, but obviously in a biblical sense, he's totally wrong. Today, man worships food. It's like it's satisfying the appetites of man. And so somehow food seems to have taken a certain center stage to a point that man has forgotten who his creator is and who is the very creator of that food. If food is what draws the unbelieving world together, the world has been so overtaken by satisfaction of the life and the pleasures of the earth and food standing taller among all of them. Listen, we Christians must begin to realize that God who is both the creator and also greater than food must be the center of the Christian home. The altar of the home around which the family should gather should not just be the dining table and the delicacies of food that we populate on those tables. It shouldn't be. as glorious and as wonderful that she is, it is supposed to be something that actually ushers us to begin to appreciate who gave us that, who is the center of man and whom we should focus on and it should point us to God. God must take the center stage. And that's the emphasis of Moses here in Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 1 to 9. He reminds them as he emphasizes, Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. So he emphasizes to them the need to realize that God must be the center of your life. You must know him, and after you've known him, you must teach him. And you must know what he has said, and you must teach what he has said. And in your emphasis on teaching what he has said, do it at all possible time and have avenues availed to you. Teach God when you sleep, when you are standing, when you are sitting, when you are walking. Nail that information on the doorpost. Communicate it in all possible avenues before you. Let them know, let them hear, and let them embrace the God of Israel. And so that's what Moses does in our text. Therefore, the center of the home must be God, and thus the home must establish a communion time with this God. If the center of your home is the dining table, guess what? You will work as hard as possible to fill it with the best of delicacies. If the center of your home is the TV, guess what? Almost every other time, which is very common here in Zambia, you will always gather around the TV and watch the TV from start to end. If the center of your home is entertainment of any sort, you seem to be found pouring your lives into that entertainment. But may I suggest to you if you are a Christian parent and you are in a Christian home, guess what? The scriptures are emphasizing that the center of your home shouldn't be food. The center of your home shouldn't be TV and electronic entertainment. The center of your home shouldn't be sport and all kinds of teams that you subscribe to. The center of your home must be God. And if God is the center of your home, guess what you will be found doing? Cutting out a particular time, so specific and such a darling to you and your family, in which you gather around him and his word and learn about him. Scriptures have clearly been indicated to us. Deuteronomy 6 verse 7, and these words which I command you today shall be in your hearts. You shall teach them diligently to your children, shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up, you shall bind them as a signet on your hand. They shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. In the same spirit the Apostle Paul indicating to the church of Ephesus in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 6 says, and you fathers, begins with a negative, do not provoke your children to wrath, transitions to a positive, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. The writer of Proverbs equally indicates to us in Proverbs 22 verse 6, train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. What's the point? In the home where you as a parent have established a time or should establish a time the scriptures are saying in that occasion and not only that occasion in many other occasions but I'm just being specific to this occasion in that occasion of your devotion in that occasion of your family time you are to interact you are to teach you are to inculcate you are to drive those lessons to the family, through this family altar. It is an opportune time for you to train up a child in the way he should go. It's an opportune time for you to bring up children in the training and admonition of the Lord. It is an opportune time for you to engage in the truth of God and let the children have it written on their hearts have it as a signet or a frontlet in between their eyes be able to lift their heads and look on the doorpost and the walls and the gates and just read about God therefore In simple language, when we say what is family time? In simple language, this family time or family devotion is simply a means of grace that parenting establishes or parents establish in the home as a time to come together with children with a deliberate intention of hearing from God together. This should include the father, the mother, the children, and anybody else who is under their roof. Some time back, I visited some home in one town. And it so happened that during that day of my visit was actually the day the family assembled for their family devotion. It was quite sad and also not good that they left out the living inmate or the living in house helper. So you have the house helper, but when it comes to devotion time, you don't have them to sit with you. You allow them to share your bath soap, you allow them to share your washing powder, you allow them to share your bathroom and your toilet, and you allow them to share your fridge and all the food in the pantry, but when it comes to that moment which is above all those that we so all need and should have in a time when we are quiet before the Lord to hear him speak to us, that very moment The house helper is told to be in her room and not to participate. Well, may I suggest to you that when we talk about family time, we're talking about everybody that's under your roof. Whoever has come into your house must be drawn into this moment to gather around God, to listen from God's word, and equally to learn of God's truth. So that's what family time is. Let me quickly go to the second question. What does the Bible say about family devotions? What does the Bible say about family devotion? Is family devotion of any necessity? Is there any biblical warrant for it in the home? Isn't there an alternative to this element when it comes to parenting? Can I subject my children to something else in place of parenting? Well, the Bible is filled with the theology of family devotion. Unfortunately today, we Christian parents of our time are subjecting our children to another alternative for family time. Instead of engaging the children in family time, guess what? We allow them to watch TV. We leave them to spend and be spent on their gadgets either on the phone or on the tablet or any other electronic item that entertains them. We have taken away this glorious and wonderful activity set it aside and offered our children something which is not even second place and mostly it is fourth and fifth perhaps last place in comparison to family devotion. Well, the necessity is both indicated in the Bible and the practicality of it is totally and completely demonstrated throughout the scriptures. Here are four things that I think would be very helpful. Number one, God commands parents to establish family orders or family devotions or family time. God commands us to do that. when God was engaging Abraham in Genesis chapter 18. This was at a time when Lot had gone to be involved in the areas of Sodom and Gomorrah and God was trying to retrieve Lot from there. The two angels or the two beings that had come with the Lord before Abraham have already gone out to go and sort out Lot to bring him out of that place. And God in his engagement with Abraham in verse 19, Genesis 18 verse 19, he says, for I have known him, meaning God has known Abraham. What's happening in the verses before, God has asked should I keep secret this information from Abraham. And God said no, I should let Abraham know. And so in verse 19 he says, for I have known him, known Abraham. in order that he may command his children and his household after me, that they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him. So way before any other person gets to talk about family devotion, God himself says here in Genesis 18 that he has known Abraham and he has given Abraham a command and God has revealed himself to Abraham that Abraham can gather that relationship and knowledge of God and he may communicate that to his children who will in turn also communicate to their household and there will be the knowing of the ways of the Lord. They will be the doing of righteousness. They will be the living with justice and the Lord will be made known not only to Abraham's time but even to the many times of many generations to come. The scripture transitions to Moses when we skip from Genesis to Deuteronomy which brings us to our text. In the first verses of our text, Deuteronomy 6 verse 1 to 3, he says, now this is the commandment Now we heard to Abraham, he says he may command his children, which means if God is telling Moses, Abraham to command his children, that means God has already commanded Abraham to do that. He comes to Moses, he uses the same word. Now this is the commandment. And these are the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear the Lord your God to keep all the statutes and his commandments which I command you, you and your sons and your grandsons and all the days of your life and that your days may be prolonged. So the first thing we observe is that God commands parents to establish family orders, family devotions, and family time. It is a crucial thing as far as God is concerned. God is insisting on it because it concerns him. It is about him. It is all about his relationship with his mankind or humanity. And so he's telling those who already know about him and says turn around and tell your children and they will tell them the next generation. It's a command. Commands are given to be obeyed. And here God tells him that if you will follow this command, guess what? Your days may be prolonged. The second thing is that the Lord Jesus demands or commands parents to bring children to him. He indicates it in Mark and also in Matthew. Mark 10 verse 13 to 16. Mark 10 verse 13 to 16. Similar to the same incidents recorded for us in Matthew. Jesus' teaching, which was the characteristic of the time of the Israelites. They believed that if you take a child to an elderly person, he lays his hands on him and he pronounces a blessing or speaks words of God to him, it has a certain curing or nurturing or preparation for him to face a godly life in the world that he's going into, which is a good thing. We seem to be practicing that in our African culture. When I was growing up, I would visit my grandfather my grandmother and I would hear words like please go to the elderly and they will bless you and in my language they would say words like literally meaning let them bless you with saliva that is though that's literal translation but it is a it has a figurative idea to eat that let them speak upon your life So the Israelites practiced this. And when they identified a prophet in their world, an elder, a person of repute, and they would take their children to him that he may definitely speak God's word upon the child's life. And so these people begin to bring their children because they've acknowledged Jesus is a great teacher. And so they want him to touch their children. and so they bring those children to him verse 13 says and they brought mark 10 13 says and then they brought little children to him that he might touch them but the disciples rebuked those who brought them but when jesus saw it i want you to hear this he was greatly displeased and say to them Let the little children come to me. Do not forbid them, for such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it. And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them and blessed them. My point is this. The Lord Jesus Christ, first of all, commands or demands parents to bring children to him. Here, in a literal sense, he was not pleased with the disciples. The Lord himself desires that the children be brought to him in their early life. With emphasis, he despises the disciples and anybody else who denies the children this glorious privilege of pointing them to God. Now that passage includes you and I who are parents this hour. God is saying, the Lord Jesus is saying, I'm commanding you, don't hold back your children from bringing them to me. Number two, I am insisting on you, make every effort to bring those children to me. May I suggest to you that if there is one of those great platforms, the Lord would love you to always take your children to. To him, it is through family devotion. That's why Jesus insists on that. It is paramount, it is of paramount importance to him. And so he says, as early as your child, as early in life of your child, quickly draw them to me. One of the ways you will do that, don't do it haphazardly which is common, everybody just takes a child to the church, throws the child to this and that Christian and exposes them to this book which talks about God and that book which talks about Jesus and all the stories of the Bible. As much as those can be wonderful things in their own right, The Lord is interested in you establishing a deliberate occasion in your life and in your home in which you are able to sit down and deliberately begin to screw in those lessons, to teach those important truths of God. Thirdly, Not only did God command this idea of establishing a time of family devotion and the Lord Jesus Christ equally demanding parents to bring children to him, the psalmist declares it to the nation. in psalm 78 and verse 4 the psalmist again talks about we will not in any way hide these words of God. In verse 4 he says psalm 78 verse 4 we will not hide them from their children telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he has done. So thirdly the psalmist equally declares We can go through the Psalms and we will observe time and again and also through the Proverbs. The children are daily being pointed to the truth of God. That the next generation is being prepared to know and embrace the truth of God. Fourthly, the Apostle Paul taught the church family to have family devotion. Apostle Paul talks about it in the book of Colossians, he talks about it very deeply in the book of Ephesians, but I want to focus on how he handles it in the book of 2 Timothy. There is quite a great reference when we go to 2 Timothy that the Apostle Paul does to Timothy by taking him here and there to show him how wherever he has arrived, either in his spiritual walk or in his ministry of God's Word, it has not just come by chance, nor has it come by way of his own intellect and his own ability. The apostle Paul reminds Timothy of the number of people that were engaged in his life. In 1st Timothy chapter 1 verse 2nd Timothy rather chapter 1 verse 5 he reminds him of the involvement of his grandmother and then of his mother. And then he also reminds him of himself, that is Paul, having taken quality time to teach and engage Timothy in spiritual matters. Then when we get to chapter two of second Timothy, he tells him that now you also in the same light manner, take this what you have learned, teach it to faithful men who will all equally take it to the next generation. So there is a generational communication of truth of the truth of God. Timothy's life it is from his grandmother to his mother and unto Timothy from another dimension it is from Paul to Timothy now he's being told to teach faithful men who eventually teach others also at the close of the book in chapter 3 towards the close of the book in chapter 3 verse 14 Paul says But you must continue in the things which you have learned, and be assured of knowing whom you have learned them. Listen to 15. And that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. What's happening here? Why such a heavy reference? All this has not just happened haphazardly. Listen friends, it is not that Timothy's grandmother just occasionally would say something about God and Timothy picks it or the mother picks it and later on the mother would do the same and Timothy picks it and later on Timothy as he's watching and walking around Paul he picks it when Paul says something. No, Poi is actually making reference to something that was well known in the culture and the tradition of the Jews. You must remember that Timothy has a Jewish parent and he has a Jewish heritage from the mother. And so these have learned from the beginning that they have been told in Deuteronomy the importance of communicating God and his truth to their children. And so in the tradition and culture of their time, Timothy's mother is going to sit under the teaching and the grooming by the grandmother. She has learned so much and the Bible says the faith which was in her has been communicated to the mother. The mother equally takes a deliberate intention for a period of time of Timothy's life to communicate the truth. The apostle Paul comes into the picture when he leads him to the Lord. He continues to communicate deliberately in particular, well-structured occasions, the truth of God. Timothy here in the book of second Timothy, he's very ready. He's probably already in the pastorate or he's about to enter the pastorate. Oh, at least he's prepared for the pastorate. and he is being told what to do with God's truth. Friends it goes without argument that from the context of the Bible that one of the main platforms therefore that parents should establish in their homes is a singled out moment in which they take the time to demonstrate God and his truth to their children. It is not just taking them to church and dumping them there at Sunday school like we love doing. As parents, we drive into the church grounds and quickly grab our little juniors. Some of them are crying, some of them are excited, and we quickly run with them, get into the Sunday school class, high, high, smile to the Sunday school teacher as though saying, this is a good thing for my child, when in actual sense, we are saying, whoo, what a relief from the morning. Please, you have my son as I go sit in church and learn. That is not what Paul is talking about. That is not what the Bible is addressing in its primary sense. Yes, that can be a great benefit, but you listen. What the Apostle Paul and the rest of the saints, both in the Old and the New Testament, are talking about is not in the church setting, which of course, if it's there, it is appreciated. It is in the home setting. Praise the Lord if your child has to learn a lot of new truth from God's word from the home than he would do more so from the church. Unfortunately we live in a time and age where our children learn a lot of truth per se from the church. and very little from the home. No wonder when children come home, they ask us in a childlike language a lot of theological questions that we should sit down and equally give them in a very articulate way or manner in a childlike sense. Instead, we chuckle about them. Instead, we sit back and wonder how our child has managed to reason to that measure of theology. Well the truth is simply this, you haven't been teaching your child, you haven't been having serious devotions with them and therefore the Sunday school teacher and all other people are doing the job better than you are doing instead of you doing better than they are doing. So from the Bible context, it's very clear the theology is painted for us throughout the scriptures that God commands family devotion. The Lord Jesus demands children be taken to him. The psalmists declare it that it must be among us and the apostles equally emphasize the need to have it well structured and communicated from one generation to the other. Thirdly, What are some of the benefits of family devotions? Now, I've lost track on time, so please signal me when time is there, all right? What are some of the benefits of family devotions? Family devotion, as I earlier said, is a wonderful moment that promises a lot of great benefits to the family. As earlier indicated, Dr. Theodore said, all our best characters, best legislation, best institutions, best church life were accredited in the early homes. Now, this doesn't pertain to us in Zambia, but it pertains to the nation of America, in which when they make great reference to all those characters and legislations and institutions and church life, whatever they would term is the best America has ever known. If you go and investigate on it, you will discover that the early homes that had the altar, the family altar, family devotion, family time at the center of their homes were the credos from which these sprung from. Meaning the children that were raised in those homes went out and became the best of characters who influenced America in its early years. There's so much, there's so much crisis parenting in here in our country. So much and so painfully so. There's so much crisis parenting that is happening in our churches. Parenting is not being perceived as a glorious blessing and privilege that we should plan ahead of time and get into it and therefore engage our families to parent them. In our country, it's all about crisis parenting. It is when a child does something wrong that we pull the ears, we smack them so as to drive them in the direction we want. When before they ever did anything wrong, we said nothing. We fail to bring up a child beginning from the side of teaching and with time transition occasionally to the side of correction when they go off the teaching. We fail to do that in our country. Guess what we like doing? We set them up for a fall, we leave them to walk on their own, and we watch them from a distance. and we wait for them to error and the moment they error that's when we show up with a spunk or a whip or a pull of the ear and somehow expect them to learn and somehow expect them through that they will have it right in the next stage of a challenge. We are always moving in when there's a crisis in the life of a child. Being a pastor and involved greatly in the counseling of young people, it has been so saddening to discover that a lot of issues that I get to deal with in the lives of the young people has everything to do with what the parent didn't do. Parents show up and say, my son has become like this. Pastor, help me. What should I do? You go and sit down with a child or the young boy or the young lady and you engage them and you discover that they are in a situation which is not so much resulting from poor choices of course it is poor choices but fundamentally it is resulting from the failure of the parents to to have informed the child or to have done something for the child with the child in the child's life before they ever got to that place. I'm emphasizing that to let you know that there are so many great benefits, so many great benefits. If we would establish a family time, if we would establish a family altar, we would establish a family devotion. If we did that early in the life of a child, you'll be amazed with the great benefits. Here are some of the quick ones. The benefits are innumerable. You get to talk about God in a very serious manner with your own children. That's a beauty about family. Secondly, you prepare their young minds to face the terrible world ahead of them. I still remember some years back, a dear pastor friend, he was a missionary from the US and he's since gone back to the US. He told, I was trying to talk to his sons and find out what they were doing for their family devotion. And it was very interesting. These kids were only between the age of 10 and 14 and they were looking at the adulterous woman in the book of Proverbs. I thought I found that too heavy for the sons. But you know what? Later on, I realized that's the truth of God's word. The writer, not in the psalm, sorry, in the Proverbs, the writer of Proverbs is speaking to the children while they're very young and is teaching them things to avoid. and what a blessing it was for these kids who were between the age of 10 and 14 who had already matured to a place where they are able to understand a certain measure of things and as they were studying through the book of Proverbs they got to that place and in a childlike way he communicated to them. I wouldn't be surprised that later on in life if they were to be found in circumstances that would invite them to compromise in the area of sexuality, that those truths they were taught while they are very young would quickly come strong to rescue them from those things. Great benefit. You prevent a lot of trial and error approach in the future of a child. You help your children trust you and have confidence in the Lord in a lot of do's and don'ts. They will not say, but dad and mom said, however, I will choose to do this. No, because of those quality moments they begin to have hope and confidence and trust that what dad and mom are teaching us is representative of God and we must embrace it with our lives and therefore live with it when our lives are challenged. Great benefit. You prepare the next generation of God's servants. You are rest assured that God's hand will be upon them even when you are dead and gone. You live in their hearts the greatest heritage one can ever do and live for his children and that is simply you leave them God and his truth. I've always said that No matter how, whatever you may try to leave your children, you can give them the best of education, you can give them the best of wealth, the greatest of inheritance. If you deny them God and his truth, you have been not a good parent. On the contrary to that, If you would pour your life into your children, have nothing to leave them in terms of material, you have not given them what the world gives to their children, but you've poured your life into them to show them God and his truth. You have left them the best of heritage a person can ever have. Lastly, but while you are alive, friend, There is great benefit, the love, the friendship, the oneness, the family union that exists or is born from family devotion. I can't even explain it. It's heavenly. No words can explain it. It's glorious. I believe it brings glory to God. There is unbelievable oneness. I have seen in homes and lives of many brethren who have never taken time to school their children in things of God or to have devotion. There is no friendship between him and the children or her and the children you find that the children have a life of their own and the parents have a life of their own and they don't meet anywhere to deal with something that is so valuable and important and so sacred in the parent's life and is being communicated to the child and when they are together they blend in it And that brings them to great love, friendship, oneness, and family union. My friends, you can only attain that if you take time to establish this family devotion. So it's a great benefit. Lastly, I have spoken so much from the passage that we are looking at and brought you these four things or three things. Firstly, what devotion is. And secondly, the theology or what the Bible says about it. And in there we see how God has commanded and how God, the Lord Jesus demands it and how the psalmist have pronounced it and how the apostles have completely been teaching about it. Apart from the benefits, It is only important that I bring to you number four, how to start a family devotion. Here are some tips or tidbits. or some nuggets of truth, that would be very helpful. I also understand that those of you who are listening, the audience that we have right now, there is a number of you parents who could be newlyweds, looking forward to have your own child soon, either by way of you giving birth or by way of adoption. You are looking forward to reorient your home. Perhaps you had exposed your children to a certain luxurious life which has nothing to do with God. And I'm not saying luxury is something that you shouldn't if it is well measured, but I'm simply saying it takes over the home. children have gadgets that's all they live in and that's all they think life is all about and they spend their time just eating and fattening themselves on the dining table and after that gluing their minds and eyes to your tv and after that snoring their way through your blankets and in the morning bathing your water and that's all they know to do but now you say you know what i have missed the point I need to reorient my children. This family devotion is a command from the Lord. Jesus demands it. And the fact that I've not been doing it, it simply means as a Christian parent, I have not been obedient. I need to do something about it. Well, very quickly, here are some of the things that you would want to take care of. Number one, make a plan as a couple and commit to it as a family. Plan out. Don't just wake up one morning and say today family devotion has begun. Everybody gather around. Where are we beginning from? Um, the text should be Habakkuk chapter one verse one and you are lost and the children are equally lost. Plan out as a couple and commit to it as a family. Pick a time to begin with. Pick a time of the day that works for both you and your wife and later on your children. It could be morning, it could be lunchtime, it could be dinnertime, whichever time works for you. Don't pick one when the family members, especially children, are so tired and are not even awake. And you know very well how children, especially those who have children below the age of 12, they're ever-expanding their energy. And at night, they just drop in the bed and sleep. Guard them. Teach them to leave some energy for that family time. If you have young children that have early bedtime, it is only right for you to say, look, we'll have it either before dinner or during or just immediately after dinner. Pick on a time. My point is number one, plan it out as a couple and commit to it. Number two, include everyone, even the little ones. May I suggest to you that if your wife is expecting, in those family devotion, include that child who's still in the womb. Children in the womb, God has designed them in such a way that I cannot explain it. I don't have the science to explain, but the communication that goes on between the child in the womb and the family outside, the noise that happens outside, the music, the talk, and everything going on is amazing. I remember some time back, one of our members in the church I was in, Faith Baptist Church, when the wife was expecting, she always sat in the front row and listened to the sermons. And after she gave birth, she said, you know, pastor, I don't know why, but every time I come with my child to church, if it's preaching time, if I sit in the front row with the child, she is quiet throughout the sermon. But if we go and sit in the baby place, she will fidget and she will cry at times. I don't understand. And I said, well, I don't know. I can't explain it. And then she said, you know what? When I was expecting for the nine months, I sat in this place and most probably my baby was always listening to your sermons. We chuckled and laughed about it, but I walked away saying, well, that seems to make a lot of sense. So include everyone, do not undermine the children who are still in the womb, the children, the toddlers in the house. Ever had an experience where you are dealing with something, perhaps a question is asked and you have little junior there fidgeting, rolling on the ground and doing all kinds of things and all of a sudden, while before anybody could answer the question, he pops up and he says the answer. And you said, wait a minute, we thought you were just playing there. How did you hear? How did you listen? Well, their minds are engaged. So don't leave them out. So plan in such a way that you will incorporate everybody. Don't just think about yourselves as parents, which is a common thing that I've observed in many homes. Parents are so concerned about themselves and they get into theology and they discuss passages in such a way that it blows off the little ones. No, no, no. Please discuss and study with a mind that we have little ones and how can we incorporate them. Remember two-year-olds will always act like two-year-olds. Don't expect a two-year-old child to act like a 15-year-old boy. And so your devotion time should incorporate the idea that this child is only two years. Thirdly, begin small. Begin small. You know, there's a tendency when we want to begin big, we want to pull out a systematic theology book and somehow want to grind it into the little ones. If they have the maturity, praise the Lord. But I can assure you the majority will not have that. So there's no need to begin so big and try to make it look like you are having now a church at home as it is a church. There's no need to do that. Begin small. What do I mean by that? Consider the ages of your children. If your children are very young, you must keep in mind that their attention span is very short. In a very short time, they will be driven away from the environment. At times, if you do it during dinner, they are somehow still They've had a very busy day of playing, and so they are somehow tired, and so they may doze off, especially when you are praying those long prayers with them. So, assess how long they can stand. If it's to begin with 10 minutes and grow, gradually develop it to 15. Before long, you'll find that your children are enduring 30 minutes or one hour, and everybody is awake. To be honest with you, there is no perfect science or exact science in terms of how you structure your devotion time in relation to ages, attention span, spiritual maturity, and all those things, expending yourself in the day gone. There's nobody who can give you that perfect science of having it. The process is completely in your hands as a parent. Assess your children's attention span. Assess how they expand their energy during the day. Assess where they are in terms of grasping truths or teachings. And from that, as a parent, begin to devise a time that is suitable for them, how long it is, and the quantity of truth they can take at that moment. Fourthly, turn off your electronic gadgets, TVs, phones, tablets. Now, to be honest with you, these, as good as they are, they are a great distraction. First and foremost, your family is more important at this hour than anybody else. So if you have a phone call that is pending, unless it's life and death, switch off your phone as a parent. Begin with yourself. Switch off the TV. There's no need to mute the volume, but the pictures are there. In fact, the pictures will be more of a hindrance than anything else. Secondly, you need to learn to communicate to your children that God is far more important. So if God is far more important and you say this is family time, we're going to focus on God. Guess what? We can't focus on these electronic gadgets. We can't have the phone ringing, disturbing us, WhatsApp, Facebook popping time and again. No, they must be put aside. Just as much as we turn off electronics, and other gadgets when it's meal time, when it's a funeral time. Equally, we should not allow these things to be on during the family devotion time. We should turn them off as well. Now, I know also that you may be saying, well, my Bible app is on my phone or is on my tablet or is on my computer. You know what, friends? It still communicates a distraction or a destructive message to children. It still does that. So we need to be very careful. Children won't think that it's all about the app. No, they will think it's all about the, their gadget. All right number five quickly begin and end with prayer. Always engage yourself to a moment of prayer and when you do that take a number of requests and also help the children to develop interest in communicating prayer needs and prayer requests. Number six separate family devotion from personal quiet time. Don't make them the two Don't take the two in one. When you have your personal quiet time, it should be different from family time. It doesn't mean when you have family time, then you've taken care of personal time. There should always be personal quiet time as a believer, which is totally different from family devotion. Get everyone involved. Get everyone involved. I did mention this earlier on. Please don't let others stay away. Everybody who's under your roof, get them involved, draw them in. If you have visitors that have just come into your home, let them, school them early enough. Oh, welcome to our home. Please, you are going to stay with us maybe a week, a month, whatever period. Let them know, oh, in this home at such a time, we gather around God's word and we would like you to be part of it. And we can't compromise it. No, me, I belong to another church. No, me, I don't. I said, well, it's not just about you. It's about the God who is overall in this house. And also, my communication to my children that this is very important is seen by how I do it and is seen by whoever comes in the house to treasure this moment. School them. Next. Alter your layout. Don't just make it a boring layout. There are some of us who do family devotion. It's so boring for the little ones. Sorry to use that word, but that's just the truth. We subject them to a certain atmosphere and a certain temperament, a certain attitude on our face. And somehow we are trying to communicate spirituality to the children and it throws the children off. They don't know why you behave like that all of a sudden when it's family time. But in the normal time, you behave something different. Don't create an atmosphere that just throws the children of the family away. Just be normal. And if you notice things are not working well, revisit, find out. If you're the only one who always prays and everybody goes to sleep, try to ask one or two others also to sleep, to pray, to read the Bible, and to do other things as well. And lastly, pick a study curriculum or a book of the Bible, personally study it ahead of time, get yourself engaged in it, love it, and have it to yourself, and it'll be easy for you then to communicate to the rest of the family. One of the God-given platforms for parenting which should be the most treasured, listen, it's family devotion time. It may be called family altar. It may be called God and I time. It may be called family time. Whatever it is, the principle is have a set time for the family to come together to demonstrate and to adore God in his word and in prayer. Family devotion is a command from God and has a lot of benefits for the parents, a lot of benefits for the children, and it is also that those benefits can be and are usually transmitted to the rest of the nation and to the rest of the world. That's what God intended. It should begin in the basic institution which is the home. It honors God when parents are devoting themselves to the time of pointing the next generation to God. May the Lord bless your hearts. Amen.