The sermon by Jason Dohm, based on Deuteronomy 6:1-9, emphasizes the importance of home education, presenting it as a biblically sound method of passing faith and values to the next generation. Dohm argues that education should prioritize teaching children to love and fear the Lord, with emphasis on Deuteronomy's call to diligently teach God's commandments at all times. He outlines three main headings: what is primary, assets for education, and liabilities in education. The primary focus is on instilling faith as a daily practice, integrated into all aspects of life. Dohm highlights assets such as the fear of the Lord, the role of mothers, faithful generational support, and the time spent with children as crucial to influencing them positively. He warns against liabilities like unequal yoking, bad company, and hypocrisy, which can undermine the educational process. The sermon concludes with a reminder that successful home education depends on God's grace and that parents, especially mothers, play a vital role in their children's spiritual upbringing.

Our sermon text is Deuteronomy 6 verses 1 through 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 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, 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's pray Oh Lord our God, I thank you that you have told us what to do and how to do it. And we pray, God, that you would bless this time now, that you would bless the preaching of your Word, that you would bless Jason as he brings your Word. Lord, Please give him strength, give him energy, and the ability to preach your word with the full authority and power of scripture behind him.

God, please speak to us through him today. We pray your blessing on the rest of our service. In Jesus' name, Amen. So our second very unusual week in a row, where we're having a topical message instead of sequential exposition, which has been almost without exception what we've done every Sunday for the last nine and a half years. But James and I have decided it was an opportunity while we were between books, between preaching through a few minor prophets and going to Ephesians next.

We'll start Ephesians next week, I can't wait. To take an opportunity to preach a couple of topical messages, two topical messages. Last week we talked about the rod, today we're talking about home education. Why are we doing that? Well, My wife Janet grew up in a church that was theologically sound, and overall sound in practice.

We might nitpick a little of their theology or nitpick a little of their practice. But overall, if you were to plot them on a line of bad churches to good churches, they were well down the path to being on the side of the line where theology was just very sound and the practice was just very sound. Her observation about growing up in that church was that there wasn't much on why they believed what they believed, and why they did what they did. Successive iterations of leadership, and that includes sort of a generational shift in the leadership, began to lead, then because it wasn't anchored to knowing why, the why behind the what on both doctrine and practice, that over time there was just incremental change in both the theology of the church and in the practice of the church. The sense was that they led in the way they thought they should lead, and now we're leading and we'll just lead in the way we think we should lead.

But that's not how the Church of Christ should be run. It is the Church of Christ. It's His Church. To the degree that our children and the succeeding leaders, the succeeding generations, can see our blind spots and be more faithful to Scripture, we say a hearty Amen. But we hope that the things that we are doing and can see clearly are rooted in Scripture.

That they understand how we have grounded both that theology and that practice in Scripture so that they'll take the things that are sound and continue forward, and build on them and go further than we did. Today, I'll be making the case that the choices that we make about the education of our children matter tremendously, that the Word of God gives clear principles to guide us, and that home education is a thoroughly biblical method. I have an hour, tops, and I'm gonna spend my hour making what I hope is a convincing, compelling, positive case for home education. I will be doing very little sniping at other options, other choices for education. I want you to see that the choices we make matter a lot, that scripture gives us a grid through which to see education, and that educating our children at home ourselves is a thoroughly biblical method.

Also, before we get started, a plea for leniency in advance. What do I mean by that? There are week long conferences on this topic. So it won't be comprehensive, it won't be exhaustive, There will be so many things that could be said that won't be said. Give me a break.

All I got is an hour. As we go to our topic, let's ask the Lord to help us. Our God, thank you for the sacred trust that you've given every husband and wife in this room in placing the lives of precious children in our homes, making us the most influential people in their lives. I pray that we would use every ounce of influence that we've been given to point them towards the Lord Jesus in all of His beauty and grace. Please help us in Jesus' name.

Amen. So if you're taking notes on the handout, there are three main headings, there are really three questions. The First is, what is primary? So if you're taking notes by filling in the blanks on the handout, primary fills in the blanks. What is primary?

We've just had this read by Tyler, but I'm going to read it again. I don't think it's harmed by repetition at all. It's probably helped by repetition. Hopefully your finger is still in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and I'd like to reread it and then kind of work quickly through it to see the main things that we can take out of it. Alright, Deuteronomy chapter 6, which follows Deuteronomy chapter 5.

Well, so you can count, congratulations, you know, 6 comes after 5. Well, Deuteronomy 5 is really significant because the Ten Commandments are in Deuteronomy 5. So it's the second giving of the law. The first giving of the Ten Commandments is at Mount Sinai in Exodus chapter 20. And then After that, the people won't obey God to go in and possess the land.

So there are 40 years of wilderness wanderings. Deuteronomy chapter 6 happens right at the end of the 40 years of wilderness wanderings, when God is about to now bring his people triumphantly into the promised land. So, that is where we pick up and there is the second giving of the Ten Commandments. Moses tells them the Ten Commandments again in Deuteronomy chapter 5 and then this in 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, 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, 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. So let's work through this and just pull out the major points. This is a passage you can preach multiple sermons on, So I'm going to go fast and just pull out the major points.

Let's do it. Verse 1 is an exhortation to teach these commandments, to know them, to understand them, and then to pass them on by teaching them so that they'll be known and understood by the future generations. God wants His commands to be known, that we may observe them. So it's not just an intellectual activity, though the intellect is engaged in teaching, learning, knowing, but it's not just about that. It's learning with a purpose.

What's the purpose that we actually keep the commands that God has given us? Verse 2. This is so that we might fear the Lord. That too has a purpose. Teaching, learning, knowing, understanding, so that we might observe, has the purpose that we might fear God.

It's supposed to work our way from our minds, out into our hands and feet, the doing, so that we fear the Lord, that our heart is also engaged in order to keep these commandments. So we can tell from verses 1 and 2 that God wants us not just thinking and fearing but also doing. Because in verse 1 he says teach them so that you'll observe, fear God so that you'll keep the commandments. God wants His commandments kept. The second The second part of verse 2 is that the idea is a multi-generational idea.

It's not flat, it's on a tree, a family tree. It's a multi-generational idea. You, doesn't stop with you. Your son, it's not to stop with your son. And your grandson, all the days of your life.

So this is an all-encompassing, lifelong occupation for us. A multi-generational idea. You, your son, and your grandson, all the days of your life. Verse 3, we have the exhortation to carefulness in observing. So I think the point is here that you don't fall into obedience.

You don't drift into obedience. It takes intentionality and care. Be careful to observe them. Pay attention. Give diligence.

So that it might be well with you. So now we see that what God has in mind is our good. If this seems sort of sterile and mechanical up to this point, throw that off. It's not sterile and mechanical. What God has in mind is our blessing.

We're coming up on a verse that says, I promised you a land flowing with milk and honey, a land of sweetness and blessing. And I want you to live there in sweetness and in blessing through many, many generations. Then it might go well with you. Then in verses 4 and 5 we have the great commandment. That's what Jesus calls it in Matthew 22.

What's the great commandment? If you threw away every other commandment and just left yourself with one, what would it be? It's here. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. We have all the law reduced down to the irreducible.

You cannot shrink it down any further. There it is. Love! Love for God. That should make us think differently about the commands and never have us thinking that it's holding us back from good things.

Just love, loving God who is all lovely, deserving of all of the love, the affections of our hearts above anything else. And then in verses 6-9 we see a very important progression. So I'm saying in verses 6-9, Order matters really almost above everything else. Look at it. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.

Job one. The words in your heart. You cannot skip this. You cannot reorder this in any way. Job number one is God's Word in your heart.

If you don't have that, you have nothing, and you cannot engage in what is being called for in Deuteronomy 6 in a meaningful way. You put the words in your heart, and the words in your heart, out of which you diligently teach your children. And then it tells us how to diligently teach our children. Listen to what John G. Payton says about this.

John G. Payton was a missionary to cannibals in the South Pacific. If you want a fast-paced, exciting missionary biography, You find a missionary who went to people who eat people, and you find an exciting biography. It really is exciting reading. Listen to what John G.

Paton says about his upbringing. If you want to know what kind of upbringing makes someone ready to go share the gospel with cannibals, here we get the answer here on what he says. John G. Paton says, it has been amazing to me occasionally to meet with men who blamed this catechizing for giving them a distaste to religion. So let me say where we are so far.

He is looking back on his upbringing and the upbringing of many other professing Christians that he knows. He is saying, my dad catechized us. My dad taught us scripture and what scripture teaches in the systematic method of catechizing. But it's really just a way to bring the truths of scripture and make sure that you know them to teach the words of scripture. And he's saying, my dad catechized me and I know many other professing Christians from professing Christian families that had catechizing like I had." So that's where we are in the quote.

Then he continues, "...everyone in all our circle, " he's meaning me and my brothers and sisters, everyone in all our circle thinks and feels exactly the opposite. So he's saying, when I look around and see professing Christians out of professing Christian families who look back on their history of being catechized and it gave them a distaste for religion. Me and my brothers and sisters were exactly the opposite. The catechizing that my father and mother did in my years of growing up gave us a sweet taste of religion. He continues, After years have given these questions and their answers a deeper or modified meaning but none of us have ever once dreamed of wishing we had been otherwise trained.

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. So there is no skipping past this. There is no skipping past having the words of God, not just in your mind, but in your heart. Embracing at a heart level the truths of scripture, and therefore embracing the God of scripture at a heart level. If you skip past that, then you end up with task work that makes your children have a distaste for religion.

But if the words are in your heart, if you've embraced the God of Scripture in your heart and your diligent teaching of your children comes out of that, it makes religion lovely to your children, lovely to them, and not distasteful. So if the words aren't in your heart, you've built in a fatal error. And if you were to ever delegate to an unbeliever or to a false believer imparting the truths of scripture, you could never do it. You are by definition building in a fatal error because it begins with these words being in your heart, and then you teach them diligently. Then in verse 7, he says, Moses says, to teach the commands diligently.

And I am going to substitute the word of God. Teach the word of God diligently to your children. Why am I messing with the words of the text? Because Christ is the sum of the Bible. The Bible is about Jesus.

So it's not illegitimate here to teach these commands diligently to your children and say that's really about imparting Jesus to your children. It is. Jesus is the fulfillment of the law. Verses, the late in verse 7 through 9, Tell us how to teach them diligently. Talk about the Word of God when you sit at home, talk about the Word God when you sit at home.

Talk about the Word of God when you walk through the day. Talk about the Word of God. When you lie down at night, when you conclude the day, talk about the Word of God. When you rise up in the morning, let the Word of God be the first thing in your mind and on your lips. You put the Word of God everywhere.

You bind it on your hands. You put it as a front lip between your eyes. You put it on the doorposts. You put it on the gates. So that it saturates your life.

God in Deuteronomy 6, you sense before our eyes a vision with the Word of God saturating your life. When you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up, what's not caught up in that? That's a net that catches it all up. Isn't it? Nothing slips through that net.

That's really the sum total of your day, literally from start to finish. Literally from start to finish. Putting the word of God everywhere so that it saturates your life. Now you might say when I think of home education I'm thinking about teaching my children math and English and science. What does Deuteronomy 6 have to do with teaching my children math and English and science?

This doesn't say anything about that. My reply is, my point exactly, or better yet, Deuteronomy's point exactly. Deuteronomy is teaching us what is primary. What is most important? Find anything that says you should talk about math when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up, that it should saturate your life.

Now, my objective isn't to devalue math or English or science. Math is important, English is important, science is important. It is to elevate the passing on of the faith to the succeeding generations, to the place given to it by the Word of God. What's that place? First place, first place, all day, every day.

It has first place. Listen to Deuteronomy 32. I'm going to come and go here fast, so just listen to it. Deuteronomy 32, verses 45 through 47. This is right at the end of Moses' life.

Deuteronomy 32 verses 45-47. Moses finished speaking all these words to 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's your life. And by this word You shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess." Put it in your hearts.

Command your children to be careful to observe it because it's not a small thing, it's your life. Don't be bothered that in thinking through the education of our children that Deuteronomy 6 or Deuteronomy doesn't mention math or English or science, it's telling you what's most important. You work the math and the English and your science around this, not the other way around. Not the other way around. This is primary.

It doesn't devalue the other things, it elevates the passing on of the faith to our children. The Word of God gives it the place of preeminence. Remember in Malachi 2, God tells us why marriage. Have you ever thought how strange it is that God brings a man together with a woman and just forms a whole new family entity? Why does He do that?

Well, God answers the question in Malachi chapter 2. Listen to Malachi 2, a portion of verse 15. And why one? Why bring a man and a woman together, God? He seeks Godly offspring.

Any union of a man and a woman can produce offspring. That's not what God's after. God is after godly offspring. So he wants to bring one of his sons together with one of his daughters so that the means of passing the faith along to the next generation, it's not just offspring, it's godly offspring, it's worship extending down through the generations. And Is this an old covenant thing?

This is Israel and national and sons of Abraham, genealogical. This is just an Old Testament thing. Not at all. Paul in 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. What is that if it's not a restatement of Deuteronomy chapter 6?

What is Paul saying in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 4 if it's not a concise summary statement of what we find in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and the exhortation to diligently teach your children. Fathers, bring up your children in the training and admonition of the Lord. It is not an old covenant thing. It is not a new covenant thing. It is the truth of God affirmed in both testaments of Scripture.

In summary, math and English and science is important, but passing the faith to the coming generation is primary. And God wants it not to be sectioned off into an isolated block. So we've got the math block, and the English block, and the science block, and the Bible block, and the provision block. No, no, no. This is something that is an overarching objective in life that the other blocks actually sit beneath.

God doesn't want the passing of the faith to the next generation to be sectioned off into an isolated block, as if it's just like every other category. No, a thousand times no. God wants it to permeate life. God wants it to permeate my work life, and your work life, and your school life, and our family lives, and our church life. He wants it to permeate life.

Ok, major heading number two. What are our assets? Assets, fills in the blanks. What is the wind in our sails? What are things that are for us and will help us?

What things has God given us to help us engage in a way that honors Him and delivers the objective that He set forth. Let me give you four. Number one, an asset is the fear of the Lord. Listen to Proverbs 1 verse 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Knowing God is understanding. The fear of the Lord is the beginning, the starting point for wisdom. Now think of the implications of that for a second. Just think about what that means for our educational choices.

The fear of the Lord, a healthy, right reverence in our hearts for the God who made us is the beginning of knowledge, the beginning of understanding truth, knowledge, and the beginning of wisdom. What is wisdom? It's rightly applying that truth. Okay, I know this, now what should I do with it? That's wisdom.

What's the right thing to do with things that I know? That's wisdom. So if it's the starting line for knowing truth, and the starting line for rightly applying the truth, how could you ever divorce the fear of the Lord from an undertaking of knowing things and rightly applying it? If it's the starting line, if you don't really rightly understand things until you understand their relationship of the God who made everything. Until you have that, you can't even begin to rightly apply it.

How could you divorce that from an endeavor to educate? You understand that the Christian worldview, this is all I mean by the Christian worldview, that we believe this is revelation from heaven, God telling us what truth is, the Christian worldview often draws different conclusions from exactly the same objective truths. Isn't that true? You see that all over the place. We got the same facts.

Normally we're not arguing over the facts. Normally we're arguing over what it means, what the facts mean. The fear of the Lord changes everything because it is foundational. It's the foundation of the building. You can't even start to build up unless you're fearing the Lord.

You can learn facts. You can learn facts in other contexts, but you just don't understand them until you understand how they fit with the God who made us and revealed this to be true. And you certainly can't apply it rightly without understanding how it relates to the God who revealed this to be true. So asset number one, the fear of the Lord. Home educators have to fear the Lord and then they have to work diligently to impart a healthy, good, right reverence for God as part of teaching the facts.

The facts might not be in dispute, but what we do with those facts goes in a completely different direction because of the fear of the Lord. Number two, asset number two, wind in our sails. Number two, mothers. Mothers. Listen to 1 Timothy 2.15.

I debated whether I should do this or not. Because it's a dangerous verse to hit quickly. But in 1 Timothy 2, Paul talks about circumstances in which a woman might appoint herself to something that God has given to a man. So God gives women certain things to do and men certain things to do and he's talking about this crossover where a woman might say I'll take that to something that God has given to a man and then he says this the very last verse of the chapter, 1 Timothy 2, 15. Nevertheless, she, a woman, will be saved and childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with self-control.

Is this teaching that the salvation of a woman's soul has anything to do with having children and raising children? It's not teaching that at all. It's saying she'll be saved from jumping onto a man's turf to do the things given to men by doing the things that have been given to her. By spending her life on the things that God has appointed to her, she'll be saved from stealing away the things that God has given to men. Read the verse again.

Nevertheless, she will be saved in child bearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control. By the way, it's also not teaching that a mother can make a child a Christian. It's not teaching that. Don't misunderstand that. Now listen to 1 Timothy 5 verses 9 and 10.

1 Timothy 5 is talking about widows. A woman is married, her husband dies, what should we do? And Paul says it depends. It depends on if they have believing family members or don't have believing family members. It has to do with if they are 60 years old of age yet or they are not 60 years of age yet.

Here is part of this discourse on how widows should be treated in the church and in Christian families. 1 Timothy 5, 9 and 10. 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, if she has brought up children, if she has lodged strangers, if she has washed the saints feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has diligently followed every good work. A widow is eligible to be supported by the church if she's 60 years old and if her life has been given to the things that God has given her to do. Her life has been poured into the things that God has given her to invest her life in.

So there's a list and the list is headed by the bringing up of children. Finally, let me just read out of 2 Timothy 1 verses 3-5. Paul says, 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." So Paul is writing to Timothy. I'm praying for you, I'm praying about you, and I'm thankful for the genuine faith that is in you.

Now listen to this, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also." Paul traces Timothy's faith up the tree to his mother and his grandmother. And If you go to 2 Timothy 3, you'll find that they, from his youth, taught him the words of God. So it really is an example of what he's talking about in 1 Timothy. It is on display in his letter in 2 Timothy. Fathers are heads of households.

So Deuteronomy 6 and Ephesians 6 calls on fathers, you, your son, and your grandson. Then Ephesians 6, fathers bring up your children in the training and admonition of the Lord, but mothers are the suitable helpers. They help their husbands in the mission that God has given them together in life. So it is right and good that they pour their lives into their children. From a practical standpoint, Talk to any classroom teacher.

Find a teacher that teaches a classroom full of students and ask them about their biggest challenges and you're going to hear these two things. There might be other things on the list, they might be in whatever order, but they're going to say, discipline, I can't do much at all about unacceptable behavior. There's only a very little bit that I can do to bring to bear, to confront unacceptable behavior and class size. I'm expected to teach 20 to 25 students at once. And so my efforts are so diluted among class size.

Discipline and class size. This is where families and moms come in. Moms actually have the full range of discipline tools to bring to bear to confront unacceptable behavior in a way that a classroom teacher with 20 to 25 students doesn't. She doesn't have those tools and she has this large class size. Mothers are the secret weapon.

If you want to know, what's the wind in the sails? What can have us engage in this in a meaningful way and win and not lose mothers, mothers. Keep going mothers. I know I'm preaching to the choir. I'm glad I'm preaching to the choir.

There's a lot of young people in here who haven't joined the choir yet. They haven't joined the choir yet. We want to encourage them to do whatever the Bible says. Whatever the Bible says. Number three, asset number three, faithful generations.

Wind in our sails, faithful generations. We already saw this in Deuteronomy 6. You and your son and your grandson, parents you're not done with your kids. We should think about ways to be wind in the sails of our children as they raise their children. Like how can we be wind in their sails?

How can we help them do what God has charged them to do and tasked them to do. We know it's not easy, so we should help. God is calling on us to help. Maybe you didn't have this with your parents. Maybe you didn't have this with your grandparents.

Well guess what? Have you noticed the gray hairs are popping out in this congregation? It was not long ago that we were the young marrieds. Or the marrieds with young children. But now we're marrieds with marrieds.

As the gray hairs continue to pop out. And So we might not have received it, but that doesn't mean that God's not calling us to give it when it's when it's time God is listen to Psalm 78 Listen to Psalm 78 verses 5 through 7 So we already saw it in Deuteronomy 6, you your son and your grandson. Now listen to Psalm 78 verses 5 through 7. For he established a testimony in Jacob. 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 may set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments.

It depends on how you take one phrase in here, but this is either, as I count them, either three generations or four. This either gets you to grandchildren or great grandchildren. God has designed a cascading effect that we learn to love and trust God, and then that we pass it on to people who pass it on, to people who pass it on. John Calvin, commenting on this, says, this is God's system to get the gospel to the last generation on earth until he returns. That's true.

That's asset number three, Faithful Generations. Asset number four. Hours Math. H-O-U-R-S. Not minutes, but hours.

Math. Adding up the hours. I want to make this proposition. Whoever has the best hours and the most hours has the influence. Anybody want to take up the other side of that debate?

The one with the best hours and the most hours has the influence. In other words, you can't give away your children's best hours and their most of their waking hours and to expect the place of dominant influence. You cannot. You say dominant influence. That sounds a little dark.

It's not dark. God wants us to exert the influence that he's given us in the lives of our children to bring glory to him in the earth. To set him forward as majestic and beautiful and all worthy of our lives. That's all that means. That's all I'm trying to say by saying that.

You can't give away your children's best hours and the most of their waking hours and expect to retain the place of dominant influence. It's hours math. She who has the hours has the influence. Period. Well, you can think of an exception.

I congratulate you. Exceptions prove the rules. Exceptions don't invalidate the rules. You cannot give away the genius of walk along, talk along discipleship and expect to get the same results. What do I mean by walk along, talk along discipleship?

When you sit in the house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. So that teaching something about God might not have been on the agenda today, but you encounter the circumstance that is the perfect inroad to talk about what the Bible says here. So while you were walking along and talking along, you were discipling. You were teaching. You were training.

You cannot give away the genius of walk along, talk along discipleship, the hours, and expect to get the same results. Does that mean you think you're a better parent than the other parent? Listen, here's what I'll tell you. I know it means this. I'm a better parent than I would have been had I given the hours away.

So I don't need to compare myself to anybody else and anybody else's results. I just know that if I compare me to me, me giving away the hours, to me maximizing the opportunity afforded by the hours, that one is the winner. That one is the winner. Ok, Major heading number three, what are our liabilities? We just talked about our assets, the wind in our sails, what can help us.

Now we're talking about our liabilities. What can be headwinds, push against us, Make it harder. Let me give you three. Number one, unequal yoking. Please turn to 2 Corinthians 6.

I know I've been sort of stealing the thunder all along and just reading it fast and moving. But now I want you to actually look at this. We're going to spend a minute or two here. 2 Corinthians chapter 6. 2 Corinthians 6 verses 14 through 18.

2 Corinthians 6 verses 14 through 18. 2 Corinthians 6 verses 14-18. Paul writes to the Corinthians, Paul writes to the recovering pagans who are still living way outnumbered by people who don't fear God or love God at all. By the way, that is the context of Deuteronomy chapter 6. I meant to say that way back when.

The context of Deuteronomy chapter 6 is, you're getting ready to go into a land where you're going to be outnumbered by pagans, people who don't understand the fear of the Lord, people who don't love the Lord, and here's how you can survive and the faith can continue in a land like that. So Paul is doing something very similar here. Hey Corinthians, you who are swimming among pagans. 2 Corinthians 6 verses 14 through 18. 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 and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from among 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 this is a passage that's almost what's it always applied to marriage believers don't be marrying unbelievers And that is a great application and a very appropriate application. It's just sitting right there on the surface.

But think about engaging with a hostile entity for the education and training of your children. Or think about engaging with a neutral entity for the education and training. Oh no, I'm going to back up. I'm going to back up and give it air quotes, a neutral entity. Because the truth is the Bible doesn't know anything about neutral entities.

It knows about kingdoms of darkness and kingdom of light. It knows about those who hate God and those who love God. It acknowledges that you can be very respectable among your peers even while hating God. But you don't obey the Gospel. Never forget what Jesus says in Luke 6 verse 40.

A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher. Everyone who is fully trained, everyone who's training has been completed, is going to be like his teacher. That's the point. Let me say this. Whether or not we understand this, the people that hate our worldview and hate our God understand it perfectly.

And that's why they do what they do. They know that you might be beyond their reach in your faith. But they know that your children are much more malleable, much more formable. And they can write you off, but if you give them the hours, they can make your children like them. They can make your children just like them.

Years ago, Josh Harris, this is long before he abandoned the faith, when he was the pastor of an influential megachurch, declared that educational choices were quote unquote not a moral decision. And people were, homeschoolers were shocked at the time because his father is a pillar, his father is a pioneer of homeschooling in America, Greg Harris. There would have been a place to proceed if he would have argued from text of scripture that other educational choices were moral based on a grid drawn from an accurate handling of the scriptures. Or if he couldn't have done that with a clear conscience, at least argue that they're not immoral. If you can't argue that some of these other educational choices are moral, at least argue that they're not immoral.

But to say that it's not a moral decision, if the training and education, and hopefully, as God would give us grace, the discipleship of our children, is not a moral decision, I can't imagine what would be a moral decision. When we have a command to come out and be separate. We have a command not to join together, not to yoke together. What is the yoking? It's the bringing together of two to work.

It's number one, Liability number one or headwind number one. Unequal yoking. Number two. What's another form of headwind? Bad company.

Bad company. Not boring company. Not rude company. Evil company. 1 Corinthians 15.33.

Paul says, do not be deceived. Just start there. Be careful not to get tricked by this. That's what do not be deceived means. Don't get tricked by this.

Evil company corrupts good habits. Evil company corrupts good habits. The NASB translates it, bad company corrupts good morals. Or the NIV translates it, bad company corrupts good character. And I've looked at the Greek words, Those are all really good translations.

It just gives you sort of a range of translations. They're all good and appropriate. Let's see. Let's bring together a cross section just from everywhere and put them together just by age group, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, month after month and see what happens. And It's predictable.

Yes, there is the 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, with more just immature people, so that the immature are discipling the immature. That's a headwind. That's a liability. Number three, a liability, a headwind, hypocrisy.

Back to the John G. Payton quote where he said, we all had the same external patterns. Me and my brothers and sisters, our dad and mom catechized us, and I know these other people, their dads and moms, catechized them, but for them it was task work, it was just task work, and it wasn't out of devotion to the Lord. Their hearts weren't really in it, so the same external patterns yielded exactly opposite results. They came out of it saying, I want nothing to do with this faith.

And I came out of it saying, I'm made ready to go share the gospel with people eaters. They catechized, we catechized, I'm ready to be a missionary to the cannibals. You want nothing to do with religion. What's the difference? Hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy. It wasn't entered into out of the words of God being in their heart, the love of God living in their heart. Dad and Mom, we can be the bad character that corrupts. That has the corrupting effect. The proper application of that verse, bad company corrupts good character doesn't have to be, I can't let my kids hang out with the evil other kids, You might be the bad company that is having the corrupting influence.

I have seen outcomes that make me tremble coming out of the respectable homeschooling families. If you live long enough, you'll see it too. Two final thoughts. Two final thoughts. One, this is no occasion for self congratulations.

Glad you're homeschooling. I'm glad we're homeschooling. This is an occasion for self-congratulations. This is not magic. It guarantees nothing.

What does the Word of God say? The word of God says, unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. If you think you don't need to pray as much, cry out to God as much because you're homeschooling, you don't understand. You haven't found a silver bullet that's going to guarantee an outcome. We should cry out to God and engage in these things with all of our hearts, knowing that unless the Lord builds the house, we labor in vain who built it.

So I desperately hope you don't think I've been preaching the gospel of homeschooling. Homeschooling is not a gospel. Not a gospel. Number two, finally, mothers, thank you. Thank you.

May God bless you. May God let you see the fruit of your labors. You have laid so much aside to bet your life that these things are true. You're literally betting your life. You're literally spending your life that these things are true.

Thank you. May God bless you. May God give you the ability to live long enough to see sweet fruits to God's glory in this world. God, I thank you. God, I thank you.

I pray that anything that I've said that is a sound handling, an implication from your word, that it would Go into hearts, be nurtured there. Pray anything that I've said that isn't really a sound handling of your word, or a good implication of what you've said in your word, that those things would fall to the ground. Do thank you for the influence that you've given to us as parents. I pray that you would help us not to undo it all by being cold towards you. Please help us to throw off sin and to pursue you so that our children might know you.

You might enter into those efforts, command those efforts, and the end of it would be our children see you as you are, so infinitely worthy. Pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.