Good morning.  Today, we are going to continue our series Extreme Home Makeover.  So far, we have taken a look at Mothers Who Love, and then last week we looked at How To Have A Good Fight.  And this morning, as we approach Memorial Day, it is appropriate that we are talking about Making Memories.

Someone once said, “The best things you can give children, next to good habits, are good memories.”  Well, that is what we will be taking a look at this morning.  But, before we do that, allow me to open out time with a word of prayer.  Let’s Pray!

Now, there are 3 basic kinds of memories that I want us to take a look at this morning.

First, There Are The Tender Memories:

We love telling the stories and remembering the details of these kind of memories.  I have many tender memories about growing up.  These are the memories that you go back to and remember as special moments in your lives.  Family, friends, events, trips, and all sorts of other things help add to the tender memories that we store up in our lives.

Parents, what are you doing to build some tender memories into the life of your family?  Sometimes these good memories just happen but most of the time they need to be purposely planned.

Secondly, There Are The Tough Memories:
I suspect that some of you have memories that are anything but tender.  Many of your memories are tough ones.  Some of you remember a parent who never took the time to listen to you, to play with you, or to just be with you.

God wants us to know that we don’t have to be paralyzed by our tough memories.  He can help us move on from them, and even lead us to healing, if we’ll ask Him to.  Psalm 102:17 says that, “God will respond to the prayer of the destitute; He will not despise their plea.”  You see, God can be the healer of your damaged memories.  Don’t let what happened in the past control your present or your future.  The Apostle Paul put it this way in Philippians 3:13 when he said, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.”

Sometimes we can’t prevent tough memories because life is often very difficult.  Maybe your family has been rocked by illness, by the loss of a job, or by some other significant stressors.

So, parents, what kind of memories are you creating for your children?  Are you leaving a legacy of tender memories or of tough ones?  You see, every day we’re making memories for the people around us.  The stakes can be very high.  Now, that doesn’t mean we have to be perfect because none of us are.  But, we do need to do all that we can to give the people around us more tender memories than tough ones.

And Finally, There Are Godly Memories:

We’ve talked a little about tender memories and tough memories.  I want to spend the rest of our time discussing what I call Godly Memories.

God knows that we have minds that forget.  That’s why as a country we celebrate Memorial Day so that we don’t forget the sacrifices made by our men and women in uniform.  And that’s why as a church we celebrate the Lord’s Supper every week so that we don’t forget the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf.

The Bible continually emphasizes the importance of our memory when it comes to our spiritual lives.  God knows that we have an uncanny ability to forget Him.  This week I looked up the word “remember” in the Bible and found 165 references.  Here’s just a sampling of some of those passages.

Numbers 15:39 says, “Remember all the commandments of the Lord”
Deuteronomy 8:18 says, “Remember the Lord, your God”
Later in Deuteronomy 15:15 says, “Remember what you used to be”
Nehemiah 9:17 says that, “They failed to remember and became stiff-necked and rebellious”
Ecclesiastes 12:1 tells us to, “Remember your creator while you’re young”
And finally, in II Timothy 2:8 it says, “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead”

Obviously, God wants us to invoke our memories of Him.  He knows what will happen when we don’t remember Him.  And, when we don’t remember Him, not only will we lose out, but so will the people around us.  God challenges us to make each day count.  Listen to what He says in Deuteronomy 4:9.  It says, “Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live.  Teach them to your children and to their children after them.”

We all seem to have a built-in capacity to forget.  That’s why God appeals to each of us to recall, by drawing upon our memories.  He knows that they’ll slip our minds unless we do something about it.

Now, if you have your Bibles with you, turn with me to Deuteronomy 6:1-12.  We’re going to see in this passage that as adults, we have 4 main responsibilities in developing family memories of God.  Much like a chair that requires 4 legs in order to properly support someone, God has created 4 pillars for adults as well, and particularly for parents.

We need to:
1. Learn it (6:1-2).
2. Live it (6:3-6)
3. Teach it (6:7-9)
4. Protect it (6:10-12)

Listen to this passage.  Deuteronomy 6:1-12 says, “1”

Learn It:

The first thing we need to do related to God is to learn it.  We see this in verses 1-2 which says, “These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land you are crossing the Lord to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all His decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life.”

If you want to pass along memories of God to those around you, then you first have to learn how to trust God for yourselves.  Part of trusting Him is by taking Him seriously and knowing what He says in His Word.  It’s important for us to know as much of the Bible as we can.

Live It:

The second pillar is to live it.  We see this in verses 3-6.  Notice verse 3, “Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers promised you.”  It’s one thing to learn something, it’s another thing all together to live it out.  We are to be careful to obey.  It’s not enough to just know information, it must lead to personal transformation.
Verse 4 is the Jewish Shema, which literally means, “Hear.”  It is the defining relationship that God’s people are to have with Him.  “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”  God is the only God, there is no other.  He is totally unique.  Notice that He is “our” God.  He is personal and relational and His people can enjoy intimacy with Him.

Verse 5 continues with a challenge to love God with everything we’ve got.  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”  Our obedience is not to be based on necessity and duty, but on love.  Our love is to be wholehearted and is to take up every aspect of our life.  As we determine to love God, we will want to obey Him as Jesus said in John 14:23, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.”

Verse 6 reminds us that God’s Word is not to just be in our heads, but to also be in our hearts.  The Bible is to be lived out, it’s not just something we give mental thought to.  “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.”  The people knew that God’s commands were engraved on tablets of stone, which were in the Ark of the Covenant.  God wanted them to be in their hearts and fleshed out in their lives as well.

As I have mentioned already in this series, kids have a radar for hypocrisy and empty religion.  They can spot it in their parents immediately.  If you’re interested in passing along a legacy of trust memories, then you need to live your faith authentically.

It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, “Who you are speaks so loudly that I can’t hear what you’re saying.”

According a recent youth survey, the surest way to lose your kids spiritually is to be uncommitted yourself.  The survey said:

If both parents are faithful and active 93% of kids have an authentic faith.
If one parent is faithful and active 73% have an authentic faith.
If both parents are semi-active 53% have an authentic faith.
If both parents attend infrequently only 6% have an authentic faith.

And so, first, we’re to learn it.  Secondly, we’re to live it.  Now, we come to the third leg of the stool, and that is, to …

Teach It:

Drop down to verse 7: “Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

As you love God with everything that you have, then you can be in a position to impress these truths upon your children.  You are to show your kids that you have a close relationship with God, not just that you are religious.

As you trust God you will then be able to help your children trust Him.  Notice that this should be more than just getting them up for church once a week.  We are to make an impression upon them by talking about God at home, in the car, at bedtime, and when they wake up.  Developing these Godly memories should be of the most importance in your life.  And as you do that, your kids will develop their own trust in God as well.

The word “impress” literally means to “be sharp, precise, and to the point.”  You are not to just throw your faith out as an option for your kids.  Rather, you should take it so seriously that you look for ways to precisely pass along what we are learning and what we are living.  The task of teaching is a never-ending, full-time assignment.

You are to show your kids who God is, not just in formal spiritual settings, but also in the casual classroom of everyday life.  Look for those teachable moments.  Those spontaneous, unplanned opportunities to teach and impress your children with Godly wisdom.  When those times happen, gently introduce God’s perspective by sharing a verse or a principle from Scripture.

Verses 8-9 show us that the Israelites had visual reminders everywhere about their God.  They were on their hands, their foreheads, and on their doors.  This is sort of like the W.W.J.D. bracelets today.  The principle here is this: whatever we need to do to remind us of God, we should do it.

Parents, I challenge you to have your homes so full of the Word of God that your children can’t help but see and hear it wherever they go and whatever they do.  The bottom line is this: you to make God real to your kids.

The Puritans were right when they referred to the home as a little church.  They were so serious about this that if a father neglected the spiritual training of his family, he could be brought before the elders for church discipline, and if he refused to take his leadership role seriously, he could be disbarred from taking communion.  Such an idea seems strange to us, which perhaps says more about our own carelessness than it does about the strictness of the Puritans.

So, we need to make sure that we are teaching what we learn.

Protect It:

We come now to the fourth and final leg.  Once we learn it, we live it, and we teach it, we then need to do all we can to protect it.  God knows that once we experience Him and see Him work, we not only have the propensity to forget, but we can also think that we’re self-sufficient.

In verses 10-11, God looks ahead to the time when His people will finally arrive in the Promised Land.  They will have things like flourishing cities, furnished houses, and an abundance of food and refreshments.

God knows that these “things” may zap their spiritual vitality and that they will lose their sense of trust as a people.  God doesn’t want them to just downgrade their faith to the realm of a distant memory.

Look at verse 12, “Be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”  God wants us to be “careful” to not forget.  We need to be alert or the “things” of life will crowd out the Giver of our things.  Did you notice that God wants them to remember what they used to be?  They were slaves in the land of Egypt and God brought them out.  We need to remember that we were at one time slaves to sin, lost and separated from God.  It is only by His grace that we’ve been set free.

In the book of II Peter, Peter reminds us how much God has given us.  Then, he writes this in chapter 1:12-14, “So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them...I think it is right to refresh your memory...and I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.”

Do you get the point?  Memories of God are extremely important.  But, they’re not to remain as something that’s filed away in the deep recesses of our memory.  God wants Himself to be in the forefront of our minds at all times.  When we start to forget, we’re in danger of losing our edge spiritually.

So, first you, then others.  In order to turn our houses into homes, we need to develop a family portfolio of tender memories and Godly memories, and in the process, when it’s possible, to do all that we can to minimize the tough ones.  In particular, before you can pass along your faith to your kids, and to your grandkids, you have to have faith yourself.  If you want your children to be truth tellers, then you need to practice telling the truth.  If you want your kids to be kind with their words, then you need to make sure that you learn to tame your own tongue.

Let me ask you a question.  Have you trusted Christ yourself?  Have you engaged your will and received the greatest gift of all time by being baptized into Him?  You can’t give your kids what you don’t have.  You can only pass along what has first entered your own life.  Most Americans want their kids to learn about God and to have faith in Him.  But, if that’s truly what we value, then we’ll make sure we develop this in our own lives first.  Kids need to see it lived out in us!

Let’s learn it, let’s live it, let’s teach it, and let’s protect it.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge had a dinner guest one time who was an atheist.  During the meal his guest expounded the virtues of freedom of choice and how religion prevented people from being truly free.  He was especially upset with how parents train their children in the faith, claiming that kids should be free to believe what they want without any outside influence from their parents.

After dinner, Coleridge got up and asked his friend to come outside with him to take a look at his garden.  Coleridge was known as an expert gardener so his guest was expecting to see beautiful flowers, sculpted shrubbery, and flowering plants.  Instead, he saw weeds everywhere, out-of-control vines, and general disorder.  Everything was overgrown.  The atheist looked puzzled and said, “This is your garden?  What happened?”  Coleridge responded, “Well, I just took your advice.  I wouldn’t want to impose myself upon these young vines.  I just let them grow like they wanted to.”

So, as we close this morning, let me ask you one question.  What kind of garden are you growing in your home?

Let’s Pray!