Think Orange: Create Synergy

Now as we have announced the title of our present message series, some of you have maybe wondered, “What are we going to be talking about with a title of “Think Orange?”

Well first let me say what we are not going to be talking about …

We aren’t talking about Sun Tan in a Can or any particular representative in congress. We aren’t going to be talking about the Orange Barrels of Construction Sites … Tennessee Volunteers … and definitely not the Cincinnati Bengals!

Instead, we are going to be Imagining Together the Impact when Church and Family Collide! You see Orange is the color that is created when we combine the influences of two primary colors: Yellow and Red.

To illustrate Yellow, I have on stage this morning, a yellow flashlight, because …
Yellow - represents the church which exists to shine the light of God’s love and God’s Son!

The Bible describes in the extremely encouraging and symbolic book of Revelation, the church as a light in a dark world. As John the writer of the book describes the Revelation that he received from Jesus he wrote …

12 When I turned to see who was speaking to me, I saw seven gold lampstands …20 … and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. Revelation 1:12, 20 NLT

You see the church and the people who belong to it are called to be a light in this world. And yet this light is a reflective light of the True Light of the World, Jesus. In another book that the Apostle John wrote in the Bible, he quoted Jesus as saying that he was the Light of the World. John also recorded that Jesus taught,

32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” John 12:32 NIV

Now I think this is an important reminder for us as a church that our responsibility as a church is to make sure we shine the light on Jesus Christ. He is the one that is going to draw people to Himself! You see a temptation for churches is to shine the light on themselves, their building, their programs, their ministries. And yet everything the church does should result in one thing and that is to point people to the “True Light” Jesus Christ!

Does the church have a responsibility to influence young people and future generations to follow Jesus? Absolutely and yet we are going to learn today that the church by itself will have limited impact on the younger generation without combining efforts with our other entity represented by the color red.

To illustrate Red, I also have on stage a warm, bright red pillow, which reminds us of the warmth and love of the home. And by the way, I am not sure why wives and mothers have so many pillows in the home, but I have accepted that is part of the female influence of the home. 

Red – represents the family which exists to demonstrate love and unconditional relationships!

God has created family to be a nurturing influence in the lives of human beings. In fact, the entire Old Testament (portion of the Bible) is a description of God leading an extended family of people who all descended from Abraham and specifically his grandson, Jacob (or Israel) and this extended family is typically described as the children of Israel. In the 5th book of the OT, Moses who was the greatest leader in Israel’s history is trying to prepare them for his upcoming death. Moses assembled the people of Israel and reminded them that they had a responsibility to pass on to future generations their faith in God and their understanding of His teachings for their lives. Moses reminded them of the LORD’s promise:

10 But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands. Deuteronomy 5:10 NLT

So as we combine Yellow, which represents the enlightening influence of the church and Red which represents the warmth and acceptance of God’s unconditional love in the family, we discover Orange, which is represented on stage with my new orange shirt or this book:

Orange – represents the synergy of church and family working together to influence children and teens!

The inspiration for this message series came from a wonderful book written by Reggie Joiner entitled, Think Orange. This is a book that our ministry staff has been reading together as we seek to rethink how we can be more effective in influencing this next generation to become whole hearted followers of Jesus! I would like to read to you a powerful excerpt from this book (read page 93-94).

You see as a church by the time you count in vacations, sick days, and other miscellaneous reasons for missing church meetings, we will have possibly only 40-50 hours in a given year to influence a young person’s life and faith. (Each of the dots on the page represents an hour in the life of that child.) And yet, the average parent has 3,000 hours per year to influence a young person’s life and faith.

So as we begin to “Think Orange,” the church can help influence the parents to have an even greater influence in the life of a young person. And I think this is why Moses as he gathered the people of Israel together at the end of his life to remind them of God’s commands and promises, he left them with this famous charge. By the way this is described by the Jewish people as the “Shema” which is the Hebrew word for “Hear.” And even to this day, the orthodox Jews will recite this synopsis of the Law of Moses every morning and night. Let’s read it this morning and then will make a few important observations as we begin this rethinking process:

4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 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. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 NIV

The Shema begins with the reminder to individuals and families alike to …
• Start with God

The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Deuteronomy 6:4 NIV

Now there is a lot to unpack here in this first sentence. It serves as a reminder to them and to us that there is only one God and his name is “LORD.” And we come to know the LORD through His One and Only Son, Jesus Christ! This One God, the LORD will be the unifying influence in our church and our families! And not only is He One, but He should also be the number One focus of our church, our families, and our lives!!

My fear is that often God is viewed as the means to the end, instead of the end. You see if we are not careful, we can erect in our minds and hearts the false god of the perfect, happy, American family, and then we possibly even turn to the LORD to try to accomplish that end. And yet, let’s ask ourselves, do we just want a little bit of God to help our family life be better. If so, then this is starting with the wrong focus. I like what Joiner said, when he wrote, “If we don’t start with God, we may end up in the wrong place.”

So let’s resolve that instead of having as our goal to have a perfect family that doesn’t exist, let’s set as our focus to Honor the LORD with our lives, our families, and our Church. Let’s start and end with the LORD. Let’s resolve to make great effort (as the means) to accomplish the end which is to Honor the LORD!

• Fight for the Heart
Secondly, let’s fight for the heart of our children or teens and the children/teens that we can influence. Moses in our Bible passage this morning wanted to fight for the Hearts of the people of Israel. He wanted to make sure that they didn’t forget the LORD, so he reminded the people, what Jesus would later describe as the greatest commandment to …

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:5 NIV

The remainder of Deuteronomy 6 in many ways is a commentary on the six verses that we are examining this morning. In the rest of this chapter and in many ways the rest of the book of Deuteronomy, Moses warns against simply passing down traditions, rules, or doctrines for our children (or the next generation) to adhere, without the context of a loving relationship with God. Moses instead challenges parents to fight for the hearts of their children.

Are you simply trying to teach your children what is right and wrong, and the importance of being a moral person? Or are you instilling in your children a love for the LORD, for His Word, and for His People, the church?

Sometimes as parents, we can fall into the trap of focusing on helping our kids develop morals, character, behaviors, and even at times success in academics, the arts, or athletics, and yet we can overlook the most important focus is to “fight for their hearts” to love the LORD!

And of course the best way to do this is to model for them what it means to “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” This is why it is crucial that we …

• Make It Personal
Moses began with the reminder that before one generation passes on faith to another generation, that they must first make their faith personal. He wrote,

These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Deuteronomy 6:6 NIV

I like what Reggie Joiner wrote on this point when he wrote, “Moses is implying that before I can ask who my children are becoming, I have to examine who I am becoming. As church leaders, it would fundamentally change the way we look at our ministries if we really believed “the greatest thing that could happen in the heart of a child would be what happened in the heart of a parent.”

You see if we want our children to put the LORD first in their lives, then we have to make sure that we are putting the LORD first in our lives. If we want our children to be in an ever growing relationship with the LORD, then we have to make sure that we are continuing to grow in our relationship with the LORD! (Note: Possibly read page 63 excerpt or paraphrase it.)

And yet Moses doesn’t simply say to be an example to the next generation, he tells them that they are to intentionally and deliberately …
• Create a Rhythm

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. Deuteronomy 6:7 NIV

The phrase “impress them on your children” is translated in the NLT,
“Repeat them again and again to your children.” Deuteronomy 6:7 NLT

As parents, it isn’t simply telling your children once the importance of Loving the LORD and Seeking the LORD, it is the continual repetition of what is right and more importantly … who they can trust!

Do you ever feel like your children aren’t listening to you? That is why Moses says, repeat it again and again! This is another reason why parents can’t simply rely on the 50 hours or so a year that our children are in children’s worship, junior high or high school class, or Remix on Sundays, but we must take responsibility to impress upon our children the importance of seeking the LORD with all their hearts! And yet we impress upon our children, not simply with our words, but even more effectively with our actions and example in our daily interaction.

Our text gives us four daily opportunities to impress upon our children the way of the LORD!

Talk about them when …
“When you sit at home.” When do we sit at home? Typically… at meal times. Meal times are a great opportunity to have more formal discussions with our children not only about the activities of our day, the current events of the day, but also what is the most important things to remember! Reggie Joiner cited a study in his book that reports that “the more meals families eat together, the better chance their children have of never taking drugs or going to prison.”

Are you making every effort to protect and make the most of your meal times with your family? For some of us we need to turn the television off and reinstate the importance of family meal time. Also, something that my wife and I weren’t as consistent as I wish that we had been when our children were younger was having weekly brief family devotionals.

In our attempt to begin to “Think Orange,” we have started including a family devotional in our bulletin and also in our weekly e-mail newsletter. I would love to receive input from you on whether these are practical. And I would also encourage you to make it part of your weekly routine to have at least one evening meal a week a time for a family devotional.

“When you walk along the road.” When do we walk along the road? Well I am not sure how much we walk today, but I know from experience that as our children get older, we spend quite a bit of time driving them to activities, practices, games, and events. These times in the car are a great time to have informal discussions. I found this was a great time to listen to your child and what was on their heart to really deepen your relationship with your child.

“When you lie down.” Bed time, is a great time to develop the routine of Bible Stories and prayers in the life of our children. This is also a great time not only to build faith, but also to build intimacy within the family as often it is at bedtime that children will open up with great questions and also sometimes sharing their worries and fears. Of course sometimes those questions can simply be stall tactics to delay the need to go to sleep, but it can be a great time to develop that personal connection between parent and child.

“When you get up.” The morning routine of waking up, eating breakfast, and preparing for the day ahead can be very influential on the outlook of the child as he/she begins her day. It is through the encouraging words and positive atmosphere that we seek to establish for our children, that we can set them up for success in the day and life ahead. When our children were younger, we had the practice of praying with them prior to them going out to the bus stop. Joiner writes, “Parents should ask themselves the question. What can I say or do to give them fuel for dealing with whatever they have to face today?” … I like that! Many teachers will tell you that they can get a sense the atmosphere of the home by the attitude of the student as he or she arrives at school.

Now I wish that I could stand up, here to tell you that as a parent, I have lived out this passage consistently and perfectly with my three children and yet the truth is I haven’t. The truth is that I am humbled by the task at hand in this series to stand up here and talk about parenting. Although I love deeply my three children and am very proud of each and every one of them, in retrospect I recognize ways that I fell down as a parent. At times, I focused too much on the wrong things (whether it was emphasizing too much athletic development or academic pursuits or at times being a bad example with either having a bad attitude or using harsh words in my interaction with them.) And yet none of us are perfect in our parenting and that is why we need the help of others who share a common faith and common values. This is why we need to …
• Widen the Circle
In closing, we need to remember the context of this text we looked at this morning, it was in the context of the reminder to an entire nation. And it began with the phrase …
Hear, O Israel Deuteronomy 6:4 NIV

You see not only are parents responsible to impress upon their children, but the entire nation was reminded of their responsibility to pass on to the next generation! Actually some of you who don’t have children or no longer have children at home, might be tempted to think well these messages don’t apply to me. But the truth is as we begin to Think Orange, we will learn that every person of faith has an opportunity to impress upon children through word or deed the importance of Loving the LORD.

If you are a grandparent, you have a very important role in the life of your grandchildren to impress upon them the way of the LORD. If you are single or a married couple without children, you can help be an inspiration to those who are younger, by investing time as a mentor. You see as we widen the circle, we can have a great impact on the next generation!

Closing: Belgian Plow Horses can pull 8,000 lbs. But trained to work together in an integrated strategy can pull up to 32,000 lbs. Now that is synergy! Let’s learn to work together. Let’s Pray!