Questions! Questions! Questions!

Enjoying the Journey

(Deuteronomy 6:20-21) Life is full of questions that ebb and flow with the times. However, God has given us His Word to provide eternal answers. Join us as we start a unique study! (08271241111)

Automated Transcript:

Life is full of questions. Ironically, they begin very early. Most children start by asking why a lot. And you think that as you get older, some of the questions will be answered. But in fact, for some of us who've lived a little while, I think we could all testify that the questions don't go away. They may change. Maybe, we're still asking why, but, even later in life, you have questions, questions, questions, questions. The, real question is not will we have questions? The real question is, what will we do with them? Where do you go for answers?

Today, we are beginning a series that will have no end. That's right, a series that there will be no end to, because I want to begin talking to you about current questions and Bible answers. You see, when you come to the Bible to find answers, you're coming to eternal answers. So the questions, they ebb and flow. They may change. they may be different at different seasons. every current question comes from the context we're living in. But the Word of God, it's eternal. It's forever settled in heaven. It is the one thing that never changes, and it speaks in every situation and in every generation.

So my intention is to lay a little groundwork for this series to look with you at what God's word says about questions, and then we'll begin to tackle them one at a time. Questions, submitted from listeners will give you an opportunity to ask your questions. questions that may be bearing on our mind or bearing on society at this particular time and periodically on enjoying the journey. We will set aside a few days just to take some current questions and go to the Word of God for answers.

I want to begin this study in Deuteronomy chapter six. Now, if you know Deuteronomy, chapter six, you know that this is the classic passage about parents teaching their children. In fact, in the opening verses, we have, I think, some of the greatest summary, statements in all of the Word of God about loving the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, all your might, and then teaching God's truth diligently to your own children.

Pastor Sexton, who I served under for so long, used to take this passage and talk about the golden moments in life. When you walk, by the way, when you sit in your house, when you lie down, when you rise up. He said, don't miss those moments. May I testify as a father for just a moment, whose children are grown, the moments go so quickly. Time passes. Life moves on. Don't miss the little window of opportunity you have right where you are to instill God's truth in your children. But this is what I want to bring you to.

The passage we're going to look at today is at the end of Deuteronomy 6. It's after the teaching. It's after the training. It's after the rearing. You see, our work doesn't stop at the beginning of Deuteronomy chapter 6. Once we've told them the truth. It really starts at the end of the chapter when they begin to ask questions. You see, questions are opportunities to teach. And God gave very explicit instructions to Israel about what to say when your children ask. And every parent, can say with me right now, ask. They will be certain that young people are going to ask questions. And sometimes we don't want to hear the questions because we haven't fully found the answer ourselves. You can't give an answer that you haven't already discovered. And so we've got to learn what to do with our questions.

Begin here. Deuteronomy chapter 6. And verse number 20 says, "And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying what mean the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments which the Lord our God hath commanded you, then thou shalt say unto thy Son..." Now, let's pause here for just a moment. Let me point out two or three very obvious things. The first is that he does not say if your son asks you, he says, when. Be, sure of this, questions will come. And that's not a bad thing.

Questions are a part of life. As long as people are asking questions, they're open to instruction. That's why they shouldn't be ignored and they shouldn't be demeaned. They should be encouraged. Don't scold people for asking questions. And if you have questions yourself, don't feel like you're the only person thinking. People think so. You've got a mind. Our God gave you that mind. He gave you the ability to reason, to, logic. That's a gift from Almighty God. In fact, the Creator, God the Redeemer says that, we can reason together with him. That's the secret. By the way, our human reasoning is so flawed, our way of thinking is so fallen that, we must develop the mind of Christ. We must begin to see things not from our perspective, but from God's perspective. Remember, his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. So it's not bad to have questions. Don't feel guilty for wondering about things, but what are you going to do with those things?

So he says, when your son asks you, then a second thing that I think is very significant is that the son is not asking what the testimony, statutes and judgments are. He's asking, what do they mean? Isn't that the great question, the great meaning of life? Where do we come from? Why are we here? Who are we? Where are we going? these are the deep questions, not the surface questions, not the peripheral questions. In fact, in my own experience, I found that when you answer the deep questions, the other questions take care of themselves.

Very often, what people are asking is not really the question. Those are fruit questions. You got to get to the root questions. So let's get to the meaning of things. Let's get to the spiritual meaning of things.

Early this morning, I was reading devotionally in the Book of Daniel. I'm well acquainted with Daniel's vision of the image. You remember, the image with the head of gold that represented Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, and then all of the succeeding empires that would come out of him. Well, did you know that just a handful of chapters later, he gets another vision? And it is a parallel vision, of the same kings and same kingdoms, but instead of seeing them as an image made of gold and, iron and all of that, instead he sees them as animals, as beasts. I wonder why.

Well, I believe that in the early vision, it was a picture of those kingdoms from man's perspective, as they would be viewed by history. But, in the latter image, the latter vision, it was from God's perspective. They were acting like animals. They were wild beasts. They were destroying and devouring one another. It just reminded me again that we don't always see right and we don't always think right. And that is why you have to bring your questions, drag them, if need be, kicking and screaming, into the presence of a holy God.

One other little observation here. He says in verse number 21, "then thou shalt say unto thy son." I think this is very important because the original context of dealing with questions is in the home. Questions, should not be answered first at school. Questions should not be answered first by society. Questions should not be answered first by strangers. Questions should be answered first by mom and dad, by grandparents, by those who know the child, who love the child, who want to invest in the child.

May, I say that questions and the opportunity to teach arise first in the privacy of our own homes. I thank God for the church family. I'm glad that we preach and teach the Bible, but I want to tell you that the great Questions of life, should begin to be answered in the context of a child's upbringing and then reinforced by what they hear in the local New Testament church. In fact, in the very same book, the book of Deuteronomy.

Remember, Deuteronomy is the book of the second law, a book of repetition. In, the very same book, in chapter 32 and verse number seven, he says this to the children of Israel. Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask thy Father and he will show thee thy elders, and they will tell thee. You see, it's important that you know who to go to to get your questions answered. It should be someone who can be trusted, and it should be someone who will tell you the truth. And that is why we're going to, in this very special series, talk about how to bring our current questions to the word of God to find Bible answers.

I want to thank you for listening to this first, episode of this special edition. for the next several days, we'll talk more about this and then we'll revisit it periodically on the broadcast. But, I want to encourage you to go to www.enjoyingthejourney.org or www.ETJ.Bible, that's, www.ETJ.Bible to find further helps on how to get Bible answers to current questions. I look forward to studying with you again next time on Enjoying the Journey. God bless.