Sermon Tone Analysis

Importance of Education

Deuteronomy 11:16-25

Every person should know the Bible because of the admonitions given in this passage.

Introduction: 

A young boy once approached his father to ask, "Dad, why does the wind blow?", to which the father responded, "I don't know, son." "Dad, where do the clouds come from?" "I'm not sure, son." "Dad, what makes a rainbow?" "No idea, son." "Dad, do you mind me asking you all these questions.?" "Not at all, son.

How else are you going to learn?"

Source Unknown.

In the verses following v. 18 we are given a list of things we can do in order to know God’s word and particularly the commands of God.

Before that in vv.

16 & 17 we are told of things we need to be careful of.

The admonitions to follow are there to help us to avoid these problems.

Warning I.  Deception

A. There are other influences in the world that are trying to pull you away from God.  Rather than being deceived by those influences God wants us to have hearts that are steadfastly connected to God.

These are false gods that are trying to deceive us.

Warning II.

Turning to other gods

A. A solid understanding of God’s commands will help to keep our hearts and our minds pure and focused on the one true God.

Warning III.

God will become angry

A. There are a few places in the bible where we see God’s anger aroused.

This is probably not something we should take lightly.

God’s anger can bring some pretty hefty consequences.

Warning IV.

There will be no rain

A. This obviously will affect the water supply.

There will be less to drink, cook and clean with.

Ther are other consequences as well.

Warning V.

No crops

A. When there is no rain it is hard to produce crops.

This is one of the things that would happen.

Warning VI.  Death

A. An inability to survive would come.

No water and no food lead to death.

All of these are consequences of living a life that is not obedient to God’s commands.

At the beginning of v. 18 the word therefore is used.

These warnings are things we would rather avoid.

The way we can avoid them is by following the admonitions that follow.

This passage is a part of the message given following the Ten Commandments.

God had given the Israelites the commandments in Exodus.

Now about 40 years later they are receiving them again.

This passage is a portion of the directions which accompany these commandments.

Admonition I.  Fix the words to your heart and soul

A. I would have to say that the construction of this is very specific.

The first place where the commands of god are to be affixed are to the heart and soul.

Everything in a person’s life would center around their heart and soul.

When we make decisions we often make them as heart decisions.

Often in the Bible the words “heart” and “soul” are used interchangeably.

This is the place where we find the operations center of a person’s life.

If a person is good we might say they have a good heart.

If a person does something evil or wrong we look at the heart.

The heart is the center of the person’s being and therefore it intentional that God would emphasize that the commands should be affixed to the heart first of all.

B.

When the commands are affixed to the heart that will influence the decisions a person makes.

It will also cause them to take note of the commands with everything that they do.

I would think of the commands, which are affixed to the heart of a person, as being a filter.

Everything to goes into the heart or out of the heart must first travel through the heart.

The heart will filter those things and allow the good to enter and exit, but the bad will be trapped.

C.