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“ The Forgotten Code ”

This Sunday, being the one before Father’s Day, we are beginning a new mini-series on what it means to be a father and the challenges of being a young man in today’s world. A man, in the view of God, has a unique role to play in a marriage and a family, in a church and in the world. So, I want to inspire young men to be the man that God called you to be.


There is a song from 50 years ago called: “Teach Your Children", written by Graham Nash in 1968 … It was written out of his own experience… he had an absentee father who spent time in prison. And the first line of the song says: “You who are on your road - must have a “code” you try to live by.”


What the song is saying is that a man who's been around for a while has a set of values and beliefs that he needs to adhere to excel in life. In the Christian context we need to live by the “code” of loving and serving God and being the man that God has called us to be.


I’m going this week to the book of Judges and the character of Gideon…it was about 150 years after Israel entered the Promised Land. They had forgotten about God, they had adopted the idolatry of the nations around them; they had let down their guard spiritually. So, the nation was in trouble: they were suffering under the strong arm of the Midianites who were oppressing them.


Judges 6:7 And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of the Midianites, 8 that the Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them…. 10 ….I (Lord) said to you, “I am the Lord your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.” But you have not obeyed My voice.’


The people knew better - they should have known; they should have remembered the “code”. There was a Biblical code that the people of Israel should have remembered. It was reiterated to them by Moses.


Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.


 The Lord is One - Love the Lord…..  Love him with all of your heart, talk about the Lord when you sit in your house and when you walk, live it in front of your children and teach your children well. God called Gideon into a leadership role, a military leader that others would follow. If you're going to be a leader who loves and serves God you have to be able to lead in your household; teach your children, be a spiritual leader. It's not easy to be a leader when you've never seen one. How do you know that you're a leader? Well, if you look over your shoulder and you see others following, you're probably a leader.


What are the lessons that we can derive from this scripture?


If as fathers we fail to teach our children it has a disastrous effect on future generations.


 That God may call a young man in spite of the shortcomings of his father.


 That God can take a young man who feels inferior and shamed and turn him into a mighty warrior.


Join us in person on Sunday at 10:00 a.m. or via livestream by going to https://www.firstbaptistsudbury.com and clicking on livestream for “The Forgotten Code .”     


Blessings,


Kevin

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