Shema, Lion of Judah - Listen, understand and obey.

Guest preacher today, a young man, anointed, half crazy, deep in the Lord, set apart for the kingdom of God from his childhood, who when he leads the praise of children we fly in the clouds, I would like to introduce Jonatan Toledo who come on. I mean, this doesn't always happen to me, but the first time I met Jonatan, I remember we were in the parking lot, Sister Carmen had brought him. He gets out of the car, Sister Carmen introduces him to me, I know him, he tells me, 'My name is Jonatan' and I felt the presence of God suddenly, but suddenly. And it turns out that we named him Jonatan as the middle name of my son that we were expecting, it wasn't totally for that, but I say to myself, 'I like that name'. God has something.

But he really has a calling, he is studying at Cume, a Cume seminary which is Cornwell here in Boston and this is the first time he preaches on a Sunday here in León de Judá and he has a word related to children and families that he wants to share with us. Forward.

Father, thank you for Jonathan, Lord. Thank you for your heart, Lord, sincere and simple. Thank you that he knows what it is to rejoice in front of you and I ask that this word be fresh bread from heaven and that he and we be blessed in your presence. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Jonatan: Well, good morning, brothers. God bless you. It is an honor to stand here today, but it is also a great responsibility. And I thank God for the opportunity and all those who carry me in their prayers through this adventure for all these years.

[Let me see if this works as a PowerPoint]

How many of you are familiar with the word “Shalom” from the Hebrew language? What does that word mean? It means peace, truth, prosperity, well-being and everything else. Today I want to teach you a phrase in Hebrew. We are going to learn a little bit of Hebrew and it reads from right to left, right? And this phrase is 'Shema Yisrael,' okay?

I want you to repeat after me: 'Shema Israel'. Very good very good. Now you can give an 'applause' there and it means 'Listen Israel'. What it means this sentence? Listen Israel and that is what we are going to be talking about today.

If you can go with me to your Bibles to Deuteronomy Chapter 6 verses 4 through 9 and we are going to read the verses that the passage is going to be based on today. I am going to read from the new international version because I liked some words as they have already been translated there.

And the word of God says: “Listen Israel, the Lord our God, is the only Lord. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Record these words that I command you today in your heart, inculcate them continuously in your children, talk to them about them when you are at home and when you go down the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them in your hands as a sign, wear them on your forehead as a mark, write them on the posts of your house and on the gates of your cities." We'll see.

Heavenly Father we thank you for your word, Lord, because your word is new every morning. I ask God that You help to share this message faithfully to the text, Lord, and that You prepare our hearts to hear what we want to hear about you today. In the name of Jesus, amen.

OK. How many of you have a cell phone? Let me see your cell phones, I want to see everyone who has cell phones here. They always tell us to turn them off in the church but today I want you to show me your cell phones. OK. Very nice, very nice.

What do we use cell phones for? To communicate, right? We use cell phones to communicate and the important thing about communication is that we can hear what they are saying to us, right? Many times we don't have a signal and you see people saying 'Wait for me, wait for me' and sometimes they are, 'Can you hear? Can't you hear?'; I like the expression in English, 'Can you hear me now?'.

You see this as in the commercials that always say 'Can you hear me now?' because the important thing about communication is that one can listen and understand what the person is trying to communicate, right? Right? Because you are trying to carry a message through this device.

Did you know that God is still talking to us today? But God does not speak through cell phones and I have a photo that I want to put there. A photo that I loved the first time I saw it. There is. It says “God speaks to you today, but not by cell phone. Please turn it off."

So we are going to turn off the cell phones or put them on vibrate, but we are going to be talking about that concept of hearing the voice of God today. So I want you to pay attention and put your cell phones aside.

When God speaks to us it is important that we listen but it is not just the act of listening. We have to understand what God is saying because it is useless to listen if we do not understand. Those of us who don't speak French, for example, or Chinese can spend a whole day watching the news in Chinese and we won't understand anything.

So it's no use, right? So when one listens one has to try to understand what the Lord is saying through his word. But for what? For the simple fact of understanding? No, we have to obey what God is saying through his word.

It is not just listening for listening or understanding for understanding. We have to obey and many times we understand what God is saying but we don't necessarily obey.

Sometimes this lends itself because we get distracted. We have so many things in life that happen to us that we don't have time to put into practice what God says and we forget. We forget the principles that God has taught us.

How many remember last week's message? We forget, right? And those of us who remember it, how many of us have put it into practice? We forget, right?

And that is something that we have to pay attention to as a church. Many times it is useless for us to come every Sunday, listen to the word and understand it if we are not going to put it into practice. And I am the first brothers. I forget it. I don't put it into practice, I have thousands of things to do and I'm not necessarily focused on what God wants me to do. Thank you. Oh! I feel like a Pastor, today.

OK. So our passage today is 'Shema Yisrael.' Repeat after me 'Shema Yisrael'. Very good. So I'm going to say Shema Lion of Judah. I'm going to play a little bit here with the words.

I am going to say Shema Lion of Judah and every time I say Shema Lion of Judah, I want everyone to respond 'Listen, understand and obey'. Because this is what the word 'Shema' means in the Hebrew language. It has a meaning of those three words. So when I say Shema Lion of Judah, what are you going to say? Listen, understand and obey.

Very good. So I am also going to say that because this message is for all of us today. That's what we're going to do then. And keep this in mind as we explore this passage that God wants us to hear, understand, and be able to obey.

Shema Lion of Judah. Listen, understand and obey. Very well, they are attentive. Let's see if we stay that way. This passage in the Book of Deuteronomy appears to be the fifth book of the Bible and is a reminder that Moses is giving the children of Israel to the tribe of Israel.

And when Moses tells him 'Shema Israel' he is saying 'Listen Israel', he is saying understand, obey. I want the people of Israel to suffer from amnesia. You guys know what amnesia is, right? When people forget things, right?

And it is that these people, the Lord dealt with them in such special ways and repeated things to them over and over again, over and over again, over and over again, but they forgot. That is why they spent years in the desert. Because they heard the voice of God but did not obey him. And one of the problems they had was idolatry.

This town was idolatrous. He went after other gods and forgot that God brought him out of his captivity in Egypt. The miracles that the Lord did. The Lord did a miracle and already tomorrow they were complaining because there was something else.

Do you know that I believe that we have a lot in common with the people of Israel? We forget things. We forget God's promises and we forget what God has done in our lives. That is why every time the word Shema appears in the Bible, it is for one to remember, right? It is for one to pay attention. Shema Lion of Judah. Listen, understand and obey.

Now who is Moses addressing in this passage? He is addressing a new generation that is about to enter the promised land. To the land that the Lord had promised the people of Israel. The older generation had been lost in the desert because of their disobedience and was no longer going to enter the promised land. So Moses is talking to these people saying “Okay. Listen. I need you to understand what God has dealt with your parents since the beginning of time so that the same thing that has happened to your parents does not happen to you. I need you to pay attention so that you know how you should conduct yourself in the new land in which we are going to inhabit”.

And God is a God who from the beginning has been speaking about these things.

This word appears more than a thousand times in the Old Testament and the first time it appears is in Genesis, Chapter 3 verse 8 when it talks about Adam and Eve hearing the voice of God. It translates as “heard”, right?

And the verse says “And they heard the voice of Jehovah God and hid themselves”. This was immediately after they had disobeyed. They see how the language lends itself. But they had disobeyed God's command not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But they ate, because they clearly heard when God told them, but they understood. But they played crazy and disobeyed him.

So when they heard that God was coming they hid because they knew they were in disobedience. The word appears again in Genesis 11:17 when it says that 'God came down -when the people were building the Tower of Babel- and said 'We are going down to confuse their language so that they do not understand each other', that is, God wants to interrupt communication between the people who are building the Tower of Babel so that they do not understand each other and so that they do not carry out their plan.

And this word is used with a tonality of understanding.

Then, very interesting, in Exodus 5:2 we see a picture when a Pharaoh appears. When Moses goes to Pharaoh, Moses sends him to Pharaoh and tells him "I want you to let the people of Israel go because the Lord says that you have to let the people of Israel go" and Pharaoh says "Who is God that I obey you?" That is the word Shema in that passage: so that I obey him and let the people of Israel go. "I don't know God and I'm not going to let Israel go."

So we see this word which is a very strong word that is used in these three different contexts. And the message is to listen, it is to understand and it is to obey. So every time you hear this word or read this word in the Old Testament I want you to keep that in mind, what is God saying to me? What is it that God wants me to understand? What is it that God wants me to do?

The verb to obey is: I obey, you obey, he obeys, we obey and the verbs are action words, we have to do something. So how nice "I obey", No! We have to do something with it.

So Moses invites Israel to listen, he is inviting this people to listen, to obey and to understand. And I want to share a sum that I invented with this word. Mathematics was not my strongest subject in college. I did poorly in college for math but learned to add, divide and subtract at least.

So I invented a sum with the meaning of the word Shema and it is listening + understanding + obeying = [is equal to] service. Say with me: Service. In other words, God wants us to listen to him, understand him and obey him so that we can serve him. And our service is our response to God in love for the service that he has given us and it is what Moses was saying to the Israelites: "I want you to respond to God with the same love with which He gave us have tried so far."

Now, I also learned subtraction in college, and I'm going to tell you the counterpart of this. Listening + understanding [less] obeying is disobedience. If you listen and understand but do not obey, you are in disobedience. If we listen, forgive, understand and do not obey, we are in disobedience and therefore we are in sin.

And this was Israel's problem. They listened, they understood, they saw the miracles of God there: a column of clouds and a column of fire, manna fell from heaven and all this. They saw, more clearly not a rooster crowed to them, as they say. But obedience remained. They did not obey and this was the problem of these people and it is a problem that we also suffer today.

This sum that I invented, I have put on it, the sum of love. Because? Because when you're in a relationship, communication is very important, right? I always listen to women 'It's that you don't hear me, you don't understand me, you don't know what', right?

But the parents also tell the children 'It's just that this boy doesn't hear me, this boy doesn't understand me, this boy doesn't obey'. We see this language right?

If these elements are present in our relationships, we are showing our love for our loved ones. If the husband listens, understands and dialogues, tries to find a solution with his wife, they will live in love, they will live happily. "Listen to me, understand me."

If parents and children listen to each other – many times children have things to say and want to be heard and want “my dad to understand me. Because things have changed and I need you to help me”. So if you love your children, you have to listen to it, you have to understand it, or it is only to obey it. You get the point, right? So that sum I want to leave with you today. You forget everything, remember this.

Shema Lion of Judah. Listen, understand and obey.

Excellent! All right, they're awake. This story from the passage that we just read, God is speaking to the people of Israel through Moses and Moses wants them to respond in the following way; Moses wants them to respond by saying "I hear you, I understand you, I obey you." And that is the same response that God wants from us: that we listen to his word, that we understand his word and that we obey his word.

Remember that if we subtract obedience we are in disobedience and therefore we are in sin. So this is something we have to pay attention to. But what is the message of “listen Israel”? In verse 4 the Bible says: 'Engrave these words that I command you today in your heart and inculcate them continually to your children'.

And he says 'Listen Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord, love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. When God tells him that the Lord our God is the only Lord, he is not saying it just to say it, he is saying it, he is paying attention to the problem of idolatry that the Israelites had.

When he tells them 'The Lord is the only Lord' he is telling them "Remember that the god of the sun and the god of the rain that you worship was not the one who brought you out of Egypt, it was God who is the only Lord". He is telling you, you have to be faithful to the only God and not to the other gods.

Many times we have many gods in our lives. Because how many times when we have problems we go to the counselor. “Oh, I need counseling” or I need this or I need that and we forget that God has the power to deal with our problems. Many times we give more attention to pastors than to God himself. And if the pastor is becoming our God, we are idolaters, because the pastor is taking God's place in our lives.

God must be given first place in our lives. From the beginning God has wanted to communicate through us through his word. God is a speaking God and He wants a personal relationship with you not through the pastor. With you, without barriers, where He sees you without titles, without faults, without anything and tells you "You are my son, I love you". And that is what Moses is telling them, the Lord is a unique God and He wants you to listen to him, understand him, obey him.

The other thing that Moses tells you here is that you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might, right? Love – I like to compare this word with serving as we saw previously – if I say “I love God, I am going to serve God, not out of fulfillment; I comply but I lie, right? No! I'm going to do it for love.

So if you say 'I love my wife' I'm going to serve my wife, I'm going to bring her breakfast, I'm going to wash the dishes today, right? Things like that. I love my husband: I am going to serve my husband, I am going to wash his clothes, I am going to remove dandruff from him.

All this, right? I love my husband. If you are not married, like me, I love my car; well in my case a bicycle. I love my bike, I'm going to serve my bike: I'm going to clean my bike, I'm going to change the oil in my car, I'm going to wash it. Love is shown through our service.

So Moses is telling the Israelites, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. You have to serve God with all your heart, you can serve God partially or poorly, but not insincerely. It has to be sincerely and your mind has to be on it. And again not for compliance. What does compliance mean? I comply but I lie, right?

It is not so that God wants: Alas! Lord I have to do this to… no, no, no. You have to do something natural, that comes from your heart and that you do it with love. So Moses is telling them this: "You have to love God unconditionally as God loved you."

Because we have to be imitators of Him and if He loved us unconditionally, no matter how many times we sin, how many times we fail, he loves us and serves us through his blessings. We also have to love God like this.

And not put conditions on it: When you bless me I love you, when you punish me, 'I need a break'. No. We have to love God unconditionally. This is the kind of agape love spoken of in the Bible. A love that goes beyond, a sacrificial love, right? And our sacrificial love for Christ is being able to get up at 6 in the morning to talk to God, because God wants to talk to me. But many times we don't want to talk to him. I need to talk to my friend, I need to talk to him, I need to call him. I'm going to call work.

Many times we start the day and do not talk to God. And we see that the Lord says 'Okay, mi son. I love you anyway'. As parents, it would be very sad if your child goes in and out of the house without speaking to you. We live in God's house and our planet belongs to God. Many times we do not speak to him more than when we need it. ['OK. Now you need me. OK']

And perhaps that is why He sends us tests. He says, “well since you don't talk to me, since everything is going well for you, let me send you a test to see if you remember who your Creator is, who loves you”, right? Then maybe you...

So Moses is telling them “Love the Lord, love the only God” and all that. Shema Lion of Judah. Listen, understand and obey. God is one and to love God is to serve God.

Now what is the message for? Moisés is telling them something, so I imagine, why are you telling me this? I have already heard this request a thousand times. I already know by heart. Wait Moisés let me repeat it…

But Moses tells them in verse 6: “Engrave these words that I command you today in your heart. Continuously teach them to your children.” It is for you to engrave it in your heart and to engrave it in your heart is for you to live it daily. Every day we must live keeping in mind that God is one and that we have to love him. We have to love him at work, we have to love him at school, we have to love him at the park. Not only in church, daily we have to love God.

And that is what it means to "carve it into your heart". You see how things are recorded. When one records something, for example, on a telephone or on the wall, one has to scratch and that. I don't know if you've seen the rings –I don't get an example- but you have the idea. It is recorded and stays there, right? It is not erased. It is for one to always keep it in mind, we have to love God.

But he says “instill them in your children”. It is not enough that I love God, that I serve God and stay with it. Because when I die it's going to stay with me and it's not going to pass on to the next generation.

Generational language is used a lot in the Old Testament. We always see the verse that says that it speaks of "generation to generation" and it always says "to the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" and that this and that. In other words, children are very important to God.

If you look at the wives of the patriarchs – of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – all three were barren and it was a great thing for them not to be able to have children and the Lord miraculously allowed each one of them to have children. Because? Because that was the importance of children, the Lord was sending them a message: 'children are important because through your children I am going to continue promoting my word.'

But many times we are selfish and we do not love God and as soon as I love him, as soon as I serve him, I love to be. No, the Lord wants you to pass it on to children, to pass it on to the next generation and it doesn't necessarily have to be your child. If you are a teacher in a secular school, the Lord wants you to love God and to know that God is one and to model that for your students. If you don't have children, your nephew, your little brother, your little cousin.

Who is teaching them to love God? The society. But sorry, society does not believe that God is one. Society does not love God. Who is teaching you? Let's see later, Moses tells him: "inculcate it to your children"

If we go to Deuteronomy, you don't have to go with me, I just want to note something here, 4 verse 9 tells you: “Therefore watch yourself and watch your soul diligently so that you do not forget the things that your eyes have seen, nor do they turn away from your heart all the days of your life. Rather, you shall teach them to your children and to your children's children."

It is a responsibility that goes from generation to generation. And then if we go to chapter 9 it says: “Remember – use this word to make it remember – do not forget that you have provoked the wrath of Jehovah your God in the desert. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you entered this place, you have been rebellious against Jehovah.”

Why is he telling them that they have been rebellious? Because they have been disobedient. Because they have heard it, they have understood it and they have not obeyed. Many times we are in rebellion too and especially when it comes to our children. If we deny our children the opportunity to know God as a God and to love God above all things unconditionally, we are not obeying what God tells us in his word.

God does not want his message to stay in this generation. We have to pass it on to the future generation but we have to pass it on today, not tomorrow. And that is the message that Moses is telling these people.

So I want to give you three ways in which we can do this for our children or the children in our lives: our nephews, our cousins, my students.

Number 1: imitate. There are three "I's" that I am going to give you today. Imitate. We have to imitate God and love our children unconditionally but seek that our children imitate us too. And that happens automatically. You see the children who want to put on the shoes of dad and mom. If the dad is a doctor, you see that he is putting on the doctor's clothes. And all children intentionally imitate us. But what we want them to imitate is our love for God. So we have to model it.

If they don't see us loving God, they're not going to love God, 'because my dad doesn't. I don't care what they say in Sunday school. My dad and my mom don't do it, I don't care. Imitate, imitate your love for God. Teach by example. Your children are watching you 24 hours a day, everything you do, everything you say they repeat. So you have to imitate so that your child can imitate.

Number 2 instruct. When he says “instill it in your heart”, he is talking to you to teach him, right? So you have to teach him. Just as you teach him to dress himself, you teach him to tie his shoelaces, as you teach him to comb his hair and all of that has to teach him that God is one, who is the true God and you have to teach him to love God.

These are basic things that many times we do not do. Make sure they learn and change because if you are teaching but your child is not understanding and changing, one of two things is either he is not listening well to what you are saying or you are not teaching well.

But we have to teach them, we have to instruct them. The famous verse from Proverbs: "Instruct a child in his way and even when he goes far he will not turn from him." Careful. How many children do you know that have been instructed in the church and everything and then when they become adults they turn away from the ways of the Lord? This verse is a warning.

The Lord is saying. "Instruct a child in his way and even when he is old he will not turn from it." If you instruct him and let him go his own way, if the teaching that I give you, when he is old he will not stray from that path. That verse is also telling you that, but it also tells you: now if you instruct him in my way, when he is old he will not stray from it.

Whatever path you instruct your son he will not stray from that path when he grows old. So we have to pay attention to that and it's something that always happens. It is not “he learned the verse. Yeah, congratulations." No, it's ongoing. We have to instruct the child.

Speak their language, communicate with them, keep up with the lingo out there so you can talk to your kid and your kid says “my dad is a cool dad”. For your son to love you. Because if you are not "cool" to your child, they will imitate "the cool guy next door". So you have to stay active and present in your child's life.

The third is: get involved. Just get involved. You need to be present to your child. Here at the church you can teach Sunday school. It would be nice to see dads involved in their children's lives. And we have many families thank God in our church that are actively involved and teaching their children. It is not the responsibility of the church to teach its children about God. It's his responsability. You spend more time with your children than we do.

And one hour of Sunday school on Sunday morning is not enough against six days a week at school and at home with you. So it is you who has to do it and you have to get involved but not just get involved, get them involved too. Remember that you have to imitate and model. So that your son sees you doing your devotional in the morning, reading the Bible so that he wants to read the Bible; when you are driving that you are listening to music: Hey! Let's sing this song. Okay, what song do you like from church? We are going to buy the CD. Okay, you and I are going to sing it.

I imagine that your son is going to go crazy when you tell him “we are going to sing and we are going to jump. You and I are going to jump.” They love that. And there is nothing for it. You have to get involved and be present in their lives.

In the Bible we see that, for example, Ana and Eli and Cana, they were actively involved in Samuel's life. In the New Testament we see Loire and Eunice and Paul who were involved there always, always in the lives of their children.

My mom was a woman of prayer, she is a woman of prayer. She told me that she always prayed for me before I met my dad. He would say “I want a son who is a Pastor and I don't know what and all that” and he would tell me and say “Oh! Mommy, the Lord answered you in half because she already had the child, and you named me and everything, but I'm not going to be a Pastor”.

But today I am here. Like what? My mom got away with it. Because my mom prayed, right? He prayed for me but he not only prayed but also got involved in his life, my mom was with all my siblings. I grew up in a church where my father was one of the Pastors and my mother was director of the Children's Ministry, that is, I saw my mother at home, I saw her at church and at school also because I went to a Christian school and everyone knew my mom, everyone knew my dad… the Pastor. So sometimes I didn't like that they were so involved because I didn't feel free to do my crazy things, right? And my antics. My mom even came out in my soup.

But thank God today I can look back and say: Thank the Lord my mom was involved in my life. And it was the joy of the Lord through my mother that motivated me to continue in the ways of God. I saw her that for her the church was a joy and it was not: 'Oh! I have to go because of the sins' and all that. No no no. For her it was a joy and she liked being in church and in all things. She said, 'Church is fun. You know?’ I like church too. When I was growing up in my teenage years, I was embarrassed because my mom told me "Come, let's make puppets and let's sing" and my friends, one of them is a teenager and the girls and hmm, I don't want to be there singing go ahead mommy ‘But no…’ But my mom was involved.

How nice it would be to see many fathers getting involved in their children's lives! And not because I am telling you, but because the word of God tells us to get involved, to be an example and to teach by example. It would be nice to see you guys jumping up and down with the kids back there on an Awana Sunday school night. Take one Sunday a month for you to see.

There is nothing more exciting than bringing your dad. 'Hey! Look, my dad came today. It would be nice if you give your child such a gift one day. Wow, show up to Sunday school and jump with them so they look at you and say, 'If my daddy does it, I can do it too. Because my dad loves God and I want to love God.

Brother, the best gift that you can give your son is the Lord. I know that many parents worry and say “Ouch! That I don't have money to buy him clothes" or "I can't pay for the school where I want to put him to study" that this, that that. If you give to the Lord, the Lord will supply all the needs of your children.

My mom always complained: “Ouch! that I wanted to send you to another school”; I told her 'Mommy, don't worry, you gave me God and with the foundation that I have I'm going to survive, I'm going to be fine'. And the Lord for me has been more than enough brothers. Against all the social pressures that young people go through and everything, the Lord has been more than enough and that's what my mom gave me.

She didn't give me a very nice shirt, some very nice shoes in the latest fashion, because all that happens. But the Lord does not pass. The Lord does not pass. Then give your son the Lord, that's the best you can give him. And when you pray for your child, remember that prayer, faith without work, is dead.

I remember a Sunday school teacher said: "To God praying and with the mallet -the hammer, right?- giving". The one of faith without work is dead. If you sit in front of the wall and pray “Lord may it fall down, Lord may the wall fall down” you will not fall down. Grab a hammer and say drop the wall [tang], Lord drop the wall [tang].

So when you pray for your son: "Lord, I want my son to serve you", get involved and let your son see you serving, right? To God praying and with the hammer giving. Shema Lion of Judah. Listen, understand and obey. Remember, good!

Loving God is serving God and teaching children as well. If we serve God and do not teach our children, it stays with us and the message dies. Brothers, something I want you to keep in mind is that if you do not teach your child to love God, society will do it for you.

But I don't want to say that as in future terms, I want to speak in the present. If you are not teaching your child to serve God, society is either teaching your child to serve God or it is not teaching your child to serve God. Here in this country they removed God from the schools, it was the first thing. Society has a very clear concept of working with children.

They removed God from schools and this is desensitizing [thanks] to God's belief in the one true God. Society has a very clear agenda. Because if we teach children in five years they are going to be the professionals and the people who are going to be at the forefront. And since they did not grow up with a fear of God in their hearts, they are not going to listen to any evangelical who rises up later, because that is not how they grew up.

Society is very clear about that and is doing it. And it is a war between society and television and media and the Internet and the church. And they are winning the war.

The second thing that society is doing is promoting homosexuality in schools, right? It's already normal, of course. When that child grows up, it's normal. We are going in a bottomless lane and we are losing the war. And if we don't teach our children, society will take care of doing it and society is doing it.

And this is something alarming, brothers. That's why we need you to get involved in the lives of your children and help the church to better serve your children. The Lord has blessed our church tremendously with children's ministry. But we need help, it's not easy. And an hour here is not enough, brothers. So we need you to get involved.

Shema Lion of Judah. Listen, understand and obey.

Good news. How are we going to apply this message that we have been talking about. Moses tells us in verse 7: 'Speak to them about them -that is, about these words that I am speaking to you- when you are at home and when you go on the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them in your hands as a sign, wear them on your forehead as a mark, write it on the posts of your house and on the gates of your cities.

Here I did not hear the word church. Did you read the word church here? Casa appeared there twice. 'Talk about them at home', you spend more time with your children than we do. And if we can teach your children about God, you can teach them too. You are even more qualified than we are because you know your children better than we do.

Take a Bible and teach your child God's word. It is in your house that you have to do it.

How nice it would be if your child accepted Christ into his heart at home! For us it is a joy when the children accept Christ here in the church because one feels that we are doing a good job, glory to God and all that. But how nice it would be if you could come and say 'my son accepted Christ with me last night! We knelt on the bed and prayed.

You are giving your child an eternal gift and you know that your child's eternal life will be spent with you in Heaven because you were involved in your child's life. The university degree that you could have given him, the clothes that you could have bought him and all that, will remain. But if your child accepts Christ into your home with you, you will have done your job because you have modeled and seen to it that the message is passed on to the next generation. That is the best gift you can give your child.

He says “at your house” at dinner time: ‘Hey! What did you learn in Sunday school?' Or should it be the other way around when they come here on Sundays we 'Hey! what did your mom teach you last night?’ 'Oh! We were watching Power Rangers or Lord of the Rings or Nemo. He played me the Finding Nemo movie.

That when we ask your child what they are learning from the Bible at home that they can tell us with encouragement and say “Oh! My dad taught me this and [sounds]” and we're like “Wow! Glory to God. They are talking about God at home. They are not waiting to get to church.” So that has to do it. When you 'go by way' it says here. Many of us drink on the bus. On the bus, talk to your child: “Hey, let's review the verse” and “What do you understand about that verse?”

If you don't take the bus and go in the car, put a Christian CD in the car. Talk to your child, get involved, always. 'When you go along the way,' Moses is telling you here. It is very clear, I understand it perfectly but I am not doing it. So I am in disobedience. And I have to pay attention. The signal got mixed up and I'm distracted. So I have to tune in again so I can hear what God is saying, understand what he is saying, and do it.

'When you go down the road, when you lie down and when you get up'. My mom always, every night, once again, we would put ourselves and say "in peace I will go to bed and likewise I will sleep because only you..." Every night. I knew it by heart and sometimes I “Oh! Mommy, I'm sleepy" and she "We're not going to wear. Find your Bible." And you had to look for the Bible because you have to read it in the Bible. We are not going to read the word.

But last night with the nerves that I had to stand here today, I looked for my Bible and I "Lord in peace I will lie down, and likewise I will sleep..." And it was a long night but I slept well thank God and I remembered my mom. Then give the Lord to your children.

When you lie down and when you get up. That the first thing you do when you get up is to sing a song, a family devotional. Five minutes, five minutes a day. There is nothing better than starting the day with the Lord.

One entrusts himself to God and says “Lord bless me today. Take me well on the bus” and all this. But many times we don't do that, we want the church to do it. 'I bring him to church because the church in the children's ministry is powerful. You see that boy there jumping. The message is not for you. It doesn't say here in Sunday school, not in Awana. It says in your house, right? So at your house, when you go down the road and all that.

It says 'bind them to your hand'. I have a little bracelet here that stands for “what would Jesus do? Every time I see that, when I get angry at work that I want to say two or three things to people, what would Jesus do? May the Lord bless you. TRUE?

Tie them in your hands, he says, then he says "carry them on your forehead." If you put them on your forehead, those around you will see that you love God and that you serve God. Buy yourself some Christian clothing. I have many Christian t-shirts that say: Jesus saved me. You are testifying without words that God is the only God in your life and that you love him; that you are not ashamed of being a Christian. And if you are not ashamed of being a Christian, your child will say, "It's a good thing." My dad it's not a shame. But no, my dad likes Gap or Old Navy. So I want to be like my dad and I'm going to go to Old Navy or Massey's or This & That'.

Moses is not saying that, Moses is speaking from the word of God. So Christian clothing. Buy Christian clothes for your child. I warn you, your child is not going to like: “Mom, are you kidding me? They are going to relax me at school.” But maybe later, when they grow up and can understand a little more, they will appreciate it and appreciate it. This is not a guarantee but here it goes.

Then it says 'write it on the posts of your house and on the gates of your cities'. In my house, when I went to the house of my friends, there were many very beautiful paintings. My house full of verses, on all sides. I didn't like taking people home because I said, what are they going to say? Full of verses on all sides. I think my mom took this very literally but what a blessing it is to have the word of God present in one's life! May one learn a verse that one can understand and one can apply in their life.

Something very important, brothers, is. I think many churches have forgotten the importance of children's ministry. In the seminar there is no talk of children's ministry, youth ministry. If you are in the seminary, you at least have to be aspiring to be a youth pastor because those children are entertained there by the brothers, I don't know. No! It shouldn't be like that.

You are talking about the children here, right? Why do we have to wait for young people to go through so much drama in their teens before we begin to serve and minister to them? Why not use a little preventative medicine? Because? Why do we let the school educate them and not us?

We have to model by example and we have to be present in the lives of the children around us. If they are not your children, your students. That your students see you and want to be like you.

I had some crazy teachers that I loved. I loved it. I remember once -I will never forget- they were promoting a church camp and a certain teacher said: 'Okay kids. We have to bring two things to the camp. Don't forget these things! Number 1 your Bible. Take your Bible. Number 2 a deodorant, please, so that they raise their arms freely. Please bring your deodorants.’

But she took it upon herself to show us that in church one can also have fun in a healthy way. And I saw that teacher and said: I wanna be like her. I wanna be like that. I want to be the crazy teacher that the kids like, and everything. Because if we are not like that, they are going to go with the crazy person who is on television and they are going to want to be like the crazy person who is on television.

And the crazy person on television is not acting according to these principles. So we have to catch up and pay attention to what is happening in the lives of the children around us without shame. Because the Lord was not ashamed of coming to get dirty and die on the Cross for us.

So we should not be ashamed to testify that we are children of God and that we love God above all things. Shema Lion of Judah. Listen, understand and obey.

Loving God is serving God and teaching our children, too.

Finally - don't worry, we are finishing - it is a great responsibility of the church and it is here to help but we need you to take the initiative because you spend more time with the children.

Listening, loving and teaching is obeying, serving and getting involved. They go together, they go hand in hand and if you understand that the next step is to obey and put it into practice. What are we doing for our children? What did we teach our children about God yesterday? What are we going to teach you today? What are we going to teach you today when we go home?

Parents, are you loving your children and teaching them to love God? Teachers, are we loving our students and teaching them to love God? We have to do that, brothers. What are we waiting for to hear the voice of God?

I think I have it here. OK. What are we waiting for to hear the voice of God? What are we listening to understand his message? What are we waiting for to obey his word? What are we waiting for to love and serve our neighbor? And the neighbor is in our houses. That is where our love and our service to our neighbor begins. What are we waiting to teach our children?

Shema Lion of Judah. Listen, understand and obey.

Let's pray. Loving Heavenly Father, we thank you that your word is life and effective, Lord. Because You lovingly, Lord, remind us over and over again what we have to do.

Help us, Lord, to put these things into practice, so that we can obey you, Lord. Give us enough tools to do this job with excellence, Lord. Help us to love you, to listen to you, to understand you, to obey you, to serve you, Lord. But above all to teach our children to do the same Father.

Thank you for this Congregation, Lord, and thank you for the people we have active, serving you, Lord, and ministering to your childhood, Father. Bless us today, Lord, and help us put this into practice.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.