In his sermon on 'Home Education', Jason Dohm addresses the importance of home education from a biblical perspective, emphasizing its role in passing faith to future generations. He reflects on the drift observed in theology and practice when foundational beliefs are not actively taught to new generations. Dohm makes a scriptural case for home education, primarily using Deuteronomy 6 to illustrate the significance of integrating God's commandments into every aspect of life, arguing that passing on the faith is more important than academic subjects like math or science. He outlines three main questions: what is primary, what are our assets, and what are our liabilities? The primary focus, he states, is teaching children to love God and live by His commandments, which should be the foundation around which all other education is built. He identifies four assets aiding this endeavor: the fear of the Lord, the role of mothers, the influence of faithful generations, and making the most of available time. Dohm also warns against liabilities such as unequal yoking with non-believers, the influence of bad company, and the danger of hypocrisy in practice. He underscores the importance of living out the faith genuinely as a model for children. Ultimately, Dohm calls for reliance on God's grace, acknowledging that home education itself is not a guaranteed path to success but should be rooted in a deep love for God and commitment to His teachings.

Thank you. Well, I relish every invitation from Hope Baptist Church, and it's always sweet to be here I appreciate the invitation. Our topic this afternoon is home education. My wife grew up in a church which was theologically sound and overall sound in practice but her observation was that there was never much on why they believed what they believed and why they did what they did. And as a consequence of that over a period of time as the generational baton was passed, the next generation seemed to assume that their parents had done what they thought was best and now that they had the baton they would do what they had best.

And there was significant drift in both theology and practice. And in our church we realized that we fought the wars maybe 15 years ago in terms of recovering what we thought we should do in the category of education and what we thought we should do in the category of church practice. And our older kids know all about it. Our older kids could probably preach on it. But our younger kids, as time went by and these things have been established, we really stopped talking about why we believed what we believed and why we're doing what we're doing.

And so we saw a risk in that. So this has been top of mind for us and so today I'll be making the case that the choices that we make about the education of our children matter tremendously. They matter tremendously. And that the Word of God gives us clear principles to guide us and that home education is a thoroughly biblical method. So I'm actually going to be building the positive case from scripture that home education is a thoroughly biblical method for the education of our children and that I'm trying to hand to you a grid from this book through which to view and measure in any educational decision and choice that you make and implement.

And that we not only want to engage in the practice but also lay down a foundation of Scripture so that we're passing to our children not only an experience of the methodology but grounding it in Scripture and laboring to convince them that the why we did it was simply because it was from scripture and God is the wisest. So as we come to our topic, let's ask the Lord to help us. God, I thank you for the sacred trust that you've given every set of parents when you place a child in our home. We feel often insufficient for these things, but we know where you've given us a duty that there's also grace to be had. Thank you so much for that and I pray that you would give us grace that you would help us to mine out of Scripture the best and to do that to engage those things with all of our hearts in Jesus name amen.

Well here's the structure of our time I'm gonna I really have three main points and it is the asking and answering of three questions the first one will be what is primary The second will be what are our assets? What's in our favor? And the third one will be what are our liabilities? What are pitfalls that we'd be fools not to be aware of and looking out for. And then I'll give you some final thoughts.

So number one, what is primary? Turn to Deuteronomy chapter six. Deuteronomy chapter six. Deuteronomy chapter six says with such clarity, what is primary, what is foundational, what we should be building everything else around and giving the most and best to. So I'll be reading Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 1 through 9.

Deuteronomy chapter 6. 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 son and your grandson, 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. Hear O Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and 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 and 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 sign 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 Let me state the obvious Deuteronomy 6 is after Deuteronomy chapter 5. Why is that significant? Deuteronomy chapter 5 is the second giving of the 10 commandments. Deuteronomy chapter 6 is what you ought to do with the 10 commandments, what you ought to do with the moral law of God and the Ten Commandments and the explanation of what you do with these commandments of God are being given by Moses to a people who are coming into a hostile and pagan land.

That is the context. How do the people of God survive when they're surrounded by a hostile pagan worldview? Just look further in the chapter at verses 20 and 21. Same chapter, Deuteronomy 6, 20 and 21. When your son asks you in time to come saying, what is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you.

Then you shall say to your son, we were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Now look at verse 24. And the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes to fear the Lord our God for our good always that he might preserve us alive as it is this day. So the commands of God have been given to us for our good and these commands preserve us even in the middle of a hostile environment. This is how the Word of God not only survives but flourishes in enemy territory.

Now let's work through this and pull out the major points. Deuteronomy 6 verse 1 is a command that the commandments that God has given to the people be taught. He wants them to be known that they may be observed. So this isn't just an intellectual exercise. This is not simply that they be known.

It's that they might be known so that they can be done, so that they can be observed or obeyed. Verse two, this is so that we might fear the Lord. The commandments have been given to us to teach us to revere God, to honor God, to fear God, again so that we can keep these commandments. There's an eye towards the keeping of the commandments in all of this. The second half of verse 2 we get that the idea is a multi-generational idea.

You, not limited to you, your son, not limited to your son, your grandson, all the days of your life. So this is to be a lifelong endeavor, not just in your life, but also in the life of your children and in the life of your grandchildren. In verse three, there's an exhortation to carefulness. This is not to be engaged thoughtlessly, frivolously, but carefully so that it might go well with them and that they could possess this land of abundance, a land flowing with milk and honey. Verses four and five, we have the great commandment.

How do we know it's the great commandment? Because Jesus calls it the great commandment in Matthew 22 that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart with all our soul and with all our strength this is really the irreducible principle if you if you boil everything else out of the passage what are you left with we are commanded to love God It is our great privilege to love God with everything that's in us, all the heart, all the soul, all the strength. Now in verses six through nine, we have a very important progression. Verse 6 commands that we put the Word of God in our hearts. Listen to John G.

Peyton. John G. Peyton was famously missionary to the cannibals. So this goes to the heart of a very important question. How do we raise children who love the Lord such that they would take the good news to people who eat other people?

Will your discipleship survive that test? Well John G. Peyton's father's discipleship in this son survived that test. His son stuck it out in ministry to a cannibalistic island in the South Pacific. Here's what John G.

Payton says, it has been amazing to me occasionally to meet with men who blamed this catechizing for giving them a distaste to religion. So what does he mean? So he has friends they were raised in homes, professing Christian homes, where they they catechized. It's a way of teaching Bible truth where a question is introduced and then the Bible answer is given and you memorize the question you memorize the answer but it's a way to acquire biblical truth. These friends of his had been raised in homes where biblical truth was taught in this way and it had given them a distaste to religion.

It had made them not like the things that they were being taught. Here's what he says, this is fascinating to me. Everyone in our circle thinks and feels exactly the opposite. It laid the solid rock foundations for our religious life. After years have given these questions and their answers a deeper or a modified meaning, but none of us have ever once even dreamed of wishing that we had been otherwise trained.

Listen to this, I think this is the big point. Of course if the parents are not devout, sincere, and affectionate, If the whole affair on both sides is task work or worse, hypocritical and false, results must be very different indeed." What's he saying? He's saying, I have friends, they grew up, they experienced the exact same things that I experienced, but in their home it was just task work. It was not done out of affection or out of devotion to the Lord but it was hypocritical and false so they did the same thing that my parents did it gave my friends a distaste to religion it gave me bedrock upon which to build a religious life because my parents did it out of love for God. Same thing, radically different results.

There is no skipping past the step of having the word of God in your heart. It's not enough to have it on the shelf, it's not enough to have it in your mind and to teach it to your children. The word of God must be in your heart and when it's in your heart, you have something to give to your children, not out of task work or hypocrisy but out of love for God. Then in verse seven, we're told to teach the commands diligently. Step one, have the word of God in your heart where the affections are.

Step two, teach the word of God diligently. I'm substituting the phrase word of God for the commands of God. I think It's legitimate to use those interchangeably. The second half of verse seven through nine tells us how we're to teach them diligently. We put the word of God in our heart, we're committed to teach them diligently, how do we do that?

Well, we talk of them when we sit in our house, when we walk by the way, when we lie down, when we rise up. Wait a minute, that's from sun up to after sundown. That's the whole day. Yes, exactly. You might have heard this called walk along, talk along, discipleship.

Not classroom, sit down, make the notes on the chalkboard, but as you encounter things during the course of the day, son, daughter, do you see this? Here's what the Word of God says about this. Walk along, talk along, discipleship. When you sit in the house, you're talking about the things of God as you encounter things in life. When you walk by the way you are, when you lie down you are, when you rise up you are.

You put the Word of God everywhere. You bind it on your hands. You make it frontlets between your eyes. You write it on your doorposts and on your gates. The meaning of that is the Word of God saturates your life.

You can't look anywhere and not see it because it is the dominant feature in your life. Now you might say, oh I didn't know this is what we're talking about. You're talking about religious education. You're talking about Bible teaching. When I say home education I'm thinking about teaching math and English and science.

So what does this have to do with homeschooling? Because you're talking about religious education, not the teaching of math, English, and science. My reply is that is exactly my point, or better yet, that's exactly Deuteronomy's point. Deuteronomy is teaching what is primary, what is most important, what everything else rotates around. The foundation upon which everything else is built like math and English and science.

My objective isn't to devalue math and English and science. They're very valuable. It is to elevate the passing on of the faith to the succeeding generations to the place given it by the word of God, which is the place of honor. Passing on the faith to the next generation is given by the word of God, the place of honor. It is made foundational.

It is made the thing upon which we build math and English and science. Listen to Deuteronomy 32 verses 47, 45 through 47. Deuteronomy 32, 45 through 47. Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel and He said to them, set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe. All the words of this law, for it is not a futile thing for you because it is your life it is your life and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess.

Now how could you read that and then make the word of God second fiddle to math and English and science subservient subject to academic pursuits. Again not to devalue academic pursuits but to elevate the passing on of the faith to the next generation to the place given it by the word of God. Now is this an old covenant thing? No. Ephesians 6 verse 4, and you fathers do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

Again, Paul is giving fathers what's primary. Dads, here's what's primary. Bring up your children in the training and the admonition of the Lord. What is that if it's not a restatement of Deuteronomy 6, the things that are being taught by Moses to the Israelites and Deuteronomy chapter 6 to the Gentile believers in Ephesus. It's just a restatement of what we have in the Old Covenant.

In summary, math, English, science, these things are important, but passing the faith to the coming generation is primary. It is the thing around which we organize the other things, upon which we build the other things. And God wants it not to be sectioned off into an isolated block another hour of the day separate from the learning of academic things but for it to permeate life, for it to permeate life. Walk along, talk along, discipleship. So That is question number one, what is primary?

Deuteronomy six tells us, Ephesians six tells us. Number two, what are our assets? What's the wind in our sails? What are the things that can help us with what God has charged mothers and fathers to do. Let me give you four.

Let me give you four assets. Number one, the fear of the Lord. The Lord's people if they have anything ought to have the fear of the Lord and this is wind in our sails, this is a help to us in the category of education. Listen to Proverbs 1 verse 7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Listen to Proverbs 9 verse 10, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

I think about the implications of that for a second. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. What is knowledge? Just understanding truth. If you want to understand truth, you start not with textbooks but with fearing God.

You don't know anything as you ought to know it unless you know its relationship to the God who made everything. So there are people who know lots of facts but don't understand where they fit in the world because they don't understand its relationship to the God who has made everything. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of the pursuit to understand truth And it's the beginning of wisdom. What is wisdom?

Rightly applying the truth, doing the right thing with the truth that you have. You understand that the Christian worldview, like this, this book, the Christian worldview, often draws different conclusions from exactly the same objective truths. You have a set of facts. A Christian says because of the way, because of where the Word of God positions this relative to the Creator, here's what we should do with these facts. But a worldling, someone who doesn't fear God, takes the same group of facts and ends up in a completely different place.

They draw a different conclusion. You know nothing until you fear God. Though you might have a head full of facts. That's asset number one, the fear of the Lord. Asset number two, Mothers.

Mothers are our wind in our sails in the category of education. Listen to 1st Timothy 5, 9 and 10. It might seem a strange place to start. It's what would qualify a widow in the church for support from the church. 1 Timothy 5, I'll read 9 and 10.

1 Timothy 5 starting in 9, Paul writes, do not let a widow under 60 years old be taken into the number and not unless she has been the wife of one man, well reported for good works, colon, Okay, now there's going to be a list of good works. If she has brought up children, if she has lodged strangers, she has washed the saints feet, the list continues. I've already hit my point, which is a woman is qualified, a widow is qualified for support in the church if she's 60 years old, if she's been a devoted wife, and if she's engaged herself in these good works what's the first thing on the list if she has brought up children. In 2nd Timothy we actually have a good boots on the ground example of that. I just flip over one page to 2nd Timothy chapter 1 verses 3 through 5.

Paul writes, I thank God whom I serve with a pure conscience as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day greatly desiring to see you being mindful of your tears that I may be filled with joy when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and I am persuaded is in you also." He almost certainly had a Greek father, but he had a godly grandmother and he had a godly mother and they taught him the Word of God and the ways of God and it made him wise to salvation. He had a mother and a grandmother who invested in his life and engaged in the things that the word of God gives her to pour into children. Fathers of the heads of households. So Deuteronomy 6 and Ephesians 6 calls on fathers, but mothers are the suitable helpers that have been given to the heads of households to help them in their life missions. And so it's right and good that they pour their lives into their children.

That all these things that we've been speaking of they engage in with all their hearts. From a practical standpoint, Talk to any classroom teacher. So you know some public school teachers? You know some classroom teachers? Talk to any of them about their biggest challenges.

You're going to hear two things. Discipline. I can't do much of anything about unacceptable behavior. And class size. I'm expected to teach 20 to 25 kids at once.

A mother actually has recourse in the category of discipline and actually has a class size that is is is manageable. Mothers are wind in our sails in the in the category of education. Mothers are the secret weapon. I wanted to come here today and say, mothers keep going. Your days are long, your work is often thankless, keep going.

God has given you this work to do, these lives to pour yourselves into. Do it, do it, do it. Proverbs 31 says, at the end your children will rise up and call you blessed. Your husband will say, many daughters have done well. You excel them all.

They're sweet fruit in your future. Number three, Asset number three, faithful generations. Faithful generations are designed by God to be wind in our sails, something that helps us make progress and be faithful in our duties in the category of education. We already saw this in Deuteronomy 6. You, your son, and your grandson.

Listen to Psalm 78. Just reinforces that point. Psalm 78 verses 5 through 7. For he, for God, established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. I'm not sure if I understand perfectly whether that's three generations or four generations.

It depends on how you take part of it. But it's at least three generations and it might be four. Father to son to grandson to great-grandson potentially. God has designed this cascading effect for us to draw on. He desires for the knowledge of God that they may set their hope in God and not forget the works of God but keep his commandments.

He wants this to cascade down through the generations. You say, well, my parents didn't understand these things, I have nothing to draw on. Never let your grandchildren be able to say that. The testimony of your children and your grandchildren be that my grandfather understood these things and he invested in my dad and he invested in my life to help me set my hope in God and not forget his works and to obey his commandments. This is what Psalm 78 so clearly says.

Number four, the last asset. I'm sure there are many more. It's the one I'm talking about. I'm going to call it hours math, our last asset, wind in our sails, things that help us be faithful to the duty that God has given us. Hours math, What do I mean?

I just mean adding up the hours. I want to make this proposition. Whoever has the best hours and the most hours has the influence. Do you buy my proposition? If you have the best hours and you have the most hours, you're the one with the influence.

Don't give away the influence. Don't give away the best hours and don't give away the most hours. Keep them to yourselves and pour your lives into your children. Make use of the best hours, make use of the most hours to help them set their hope in in God. It's just simple math.

You cannot expect to give away your children's best hours and most of their waking hours and expect to retain the place of dominant influence. You cannot expect that. You cannot keep the place of dominant influence if you give away their best hours and most of their waking hours and most people are doing that. You cannot give away the genius of walk along talk along discipleship and expect to get the same results. You cannot.

You cannot. You cannot. Number three. What are our liabilities? What are pitfalls that are there that we need to be aware of and that we need to make sure we're staying clear of?

I'll give you three. Number one, unequal yoking. Turn to 2nd Corinthians 6. Turn to 2nd Corinthians 6. This is our last stop in terms of going to texts of scripture.

2nd Corinthians 6, it's really familiar. 2nd Corinthians 6, I'll be reading verses 14 through 18. Paul writes this, I do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?

And what accord has Christ with Belial or what part has a believer with an unbeliever and what agreement has the temple of God with idols for you are the temple of the living God as God has said I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God. They shall be my people. Therefore, come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean and I will receive you.

I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters says the Lord Almighty. Usually you hear this applied to marriage and it's a good application but it's certainly not the only application. Think about engaging with a hostile entity for the education and training of your children. Think about giving them the best hours. Think about giving them the most hours.

Or what about engaging with a neutral entity for the education and training of your children. Never forget what Jesus says in Luke 6 verse 40, a disciple is not above your teacher but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher. There is no neutral entity. There is no neutral entity. There are only those who who love God and those who are the enemies of God as nice and proper as they may be.

A disciple is not above his teacher. Everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher. You should want your children to be like you and their mother, fathers. You should want to have the graces of God, the fruits of the Spirit, cultivated in your life and then to be the one who your children are brought to be like as you follow Christ and learn to walk with Him. Let me say this.

Whether or not we understand this, the people who hate what we love understand it. Whether or not you understand that everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher. If you don't understand it, the people who hate what we love understand it perfectly and they are clamoring to disciple your children. Years ago, Josh Harris declared that educational choices were not a moral decision. This is before he walked away from the faith.

If the training and education and hopefully as God would give us grace, the discipleship of our children when he converts them by his grace. If that's not a moral decision, I can't imagine what is a moral decision. Number two, bad company. Bad company is a liability, a pitfall to be avoided. 1 Corinthians 15 33, do not be deceived, evil company corrupts good habits.

Or the NASB translates it, bad company corrupts good morals. Yes, there is a reality of children of bad character and the effect that that has, but there is also a dynamic of the immature together hour after hour, day after day, month after month. So it doesn't have to just be unregenerate neighbor kids. Our children, if we leave them alone in their immaturity without our influence hour after hour, day after day, week after week, will influence each other in ways that are not good. We've seen that.

Check out for a whole Sunday afternoon and then go out after things have been devolving for hours and see what they're doing. Number three, number three, hypocrisy. I'll go back to the John G. Peyton quote. His father catechized him, it built bedrock for him to stand on.

His friend's parents catechized them, it was task work and hypocrisy and it gave them a distaste to religion. Same external patterns, exactly the opposite results. Dad and mom, we can actually be the bad character that has a corrupting effect on our children. Homeschooling is no silver bullet. There's nothing magical about it.

It's to the extent that we love God and teach them diligently out of our love for God and our devotion to him that gives us hope for for better fruit. I've seen outcomes that terrify me coming out of quote-unquote respectable homeschooling families. If you've never seen it, you haven't been around long. There's no guarantee that comes with homeschooling. We have to love him with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength.

His words have to be in our heart. We have to teach them diligently to our children and pray for God's grace. Two final thoughts. One, this is no occasion for self congratulations. This is not magic, it guarantees nothing.

Psalm 127, Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. This is not purely stimulus and response. Pull the right lever, get the right result. We should be crying out to God not congratulating ourselves on our educational choices. We need His grace.

So I desperately hope you don't think I've been preaching the gospel of homeschooling. It is no gospel. Number two, final thought. Mothers. Thank you.

Thank you, devoted mothers. Mothers who are out of the limelight, laboring often in obscurity. You received the scorn of your neighbors and your family members because they don't understand how precious it is what you're doing. But we want to tell you, we understand how precious and important what you're doing it is. Thank you.

Thank you for doing it. May God bless you in your work. Let's pray. God, we're both comforted and challenged by Psalm 127 unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain. So we do want to labor, we want to plan and work, we do want to teach diligently, but we know that you are God in heaven and a sovereign God and that you determine the end from the beginning.

So we cry out to you who can do all that we can't do. We look to you to do all that we can't do and pray that there would be an outpouring of your grace on our homes, on our homeschools, that our homeschools would be built so firmly on the fear of the Lord so we might begin to have knowledge and wisdom. I thank you for your word which is a guide to us and I pray that everything that we do would be so firmly grounded on principles and commands and patterns from Scripture. I pray in Jesus name, amen.