SPEAKER_01
0:20 So there's this old quote that I absolutely love that's attributed to the Prince of Preachers, Charles Spurgeon. 0:25 A Bible that's falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn't. 0:30 So one of the fortunate things about my strange job is that I've been able to meet some incredible people. 0:34 And one of those people that has left really an indelible impact on my heart and soul is the late patriarch of the Robertson family, Phil Robertson. 0:42 So the thing that I notice, amongst many things about Phil, in the time that I got to spend with him, his Bible was always within arm's reach. 0:51 So it didn't matter if we were at his house, by his truck, in the duck hunt shop or the studio, his Bible was either in his hands or near him. 1:00 So I took that as an inspiration. 1:02 And I went to a third generation Bible bookbinder here in Oklahoma City called Ace Bookbinding. 1:07 And so I got two Bibles made. 1:09 So black leather with my name and the undaunted logo stamped on the front, and then the gospel symbols that Phil made famous stamped on the spine. 1:16 And those Bibles will be passed down to my son someday. 1:20 And my hope is that they are falling apart by the time that they inherit them. 1:23 And hopefully the bookbinder is still in business and they can kind of patch it up for them. 1:28 But the reason is, is I had those Bibles made for a purpose. 1:31 It wasn't for vanity. 1:33 I mean, trust me, I mean, nobody needs my name stamped on the front of their Bibles for my ego's sake. 1:38 I had them made because I wanted my sons, decades from now, to open a Bible and know without a doubt that their father held this exact book. 1:48 Their father believed in the sufficiency of the words in that book to address the most important questions a man could ask. 1:56 I want them really to look at those Bibles and see a copy of God's word marked with their father's name. 2:03 And they would never need to question where their father's faith came from because it was undergirded by the words of that very Bible that they are holding. 2:11 So if you go to Deuteronomy 6, most people recognize that's a chapter where we get the Shema. 2:16 So we see that in verses four and five. 2:17 Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 2:20 You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your might. 2:25 But I actually want to focus in on the next verses. 2:27 So we're going to look at verses six through nine here. 2:30 And these words I command you today shall be on your heart. 2:34 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 2:42 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 2:48 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. 2:52 So what is God saying here? 2:54 God is telling Israelite fathers to make his word, the Holy Scriptures, physically unavoidable in their homes. 3:02 They don't want them to be decorations. 3:04 I mean, I remember growing up we had a big Bible on a stand in the foyer of our house. 3:08 Now, no one in the family read the Bible, but by golly, we had one collecting dust in the foyer, right? 3:14 You want to talk about country music theology. 3:16 I mean, it was decorative in my home. 3:18 It certainly wasn't instructive. 3:20 But again, we should make Bibles unavoidable in our homes on the doorframe as they walk through every single day. 3:27 And as described in Deuteronomy, God wanted his word to be something a household bumped into constantly, not something that was confined to an hour or two on Sunday or on, you know, at some random church camp, right? 3:38 And look, they should be covered in Bible verses, your children, even if they don't know that they are. 3:44 So my wife and I years ago built a house, and this was before we had our first child. 3:49 And after the framing went up, we had a bunch of people come over and we just prayed over the foundation. 3:55 We prayed over the future home. 3:57 And then we spent the next half hour or so writing Bible verses on every available piece of wood that we could reach. 4:03 So even if my boys wanted to, he's living in this house, they can't avoid being surrounded by scripture. 4:09 It's literally on every doorpost. 4:12 I mean, we made it personable and personal and undeniable and really unavoidable. 4:18 And most of you know this verse from Joshua 24. 4:21 You know, Joshua is old and he's near the end of his life and he's standing in front of the whole nation, and he says this in Joshua 24, verse 15, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. 4:32 So that is a public and permanent stake in the ground. 4:35 So Joshua didn't hedge with this statement. 4:38 He didn't say, Hey, I'm really, really going to try my best to make sure my house serves the Lord, but hey, whatever happens, happens. 4:44 Like he declares with power and passion the decision that he has made as the head of that home and that family. 4:51 And everyone with an earshot was a witness to that statement. 4:55 And look, simply ordering a Bible with my name stamped across the front is not enough by itself to make that declaration. 5:01 However, if I spend time in those Bibles and the cover and the pages are worn from use, and my boys see me spending time in that Bible, and then see me living out the principles of God thereafter, then they will know that when I say, as for me and my house we will serve the Lord, that I mean it. 5:20 So that is something solid that they can inherit. 5:23 It's like what the Apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 1 4, where he writes about being born again, quote, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, unquote. 5:36 You see, eventually every truck stops running and rusts. 5:41 A watch can be lost or stolen or broken, but this, the inheritance that Peter is describing, cannot perish. 5:47 It cannot fade, it can't disappear. 5:50 It is the only inheritance that is actually guaranteed to reach my children untouched by decay. 5:55 So, men, let me ask you, if your kids found your Bible today, what would they notice about it? 6:02 Is it still in the plastic? 6:04 Has it even been opened? 6:06 Is it still in pristine condition? 6:09 Or is the cover broken in? 6:11 Are the pages worn? 6:13 And better yet, can they see evidence of your time in the Bible by how you treat their mother, how you treat other people, how you treat them? 6:21 Because let's be real, guys, you cannot hand your sons a conviction that you don't actually carry yourself. 6:27 Putting your name on a Bible cover ultimately means nothing if the pages inside are unmarked, unread, and unlived. 6:33 The name on the cover should serve as a promise. 6:36 A promise to your children that you believed what was inside of there and that you did just what the Bible said to do. 6:43 So, men, get in that book. 6:45 Get somewhere on your Bible. 6:47 I mean, and get a physical Bible because your kids are watching you and they can't tell the difference if you're reading the Bible on your phone or if you're scrolling social media. 6:56 Get a physical Bible. 6:58 Let your sons, let your daughters see the spine cracked and the corners soft. 7:04 Let them see the proof that you actually believe the words inside the book and that you didn't just own the book. 7:09 And when my sons inherit these Bibles someday, this should be plain to them. 7:14 Everything else that I've given them, the truck, the watches, those are pictures meant to point at something. 7:22 And that something is the truth that is inside the pages of these Bibles. 7:26 It is the gospel of Jesus Christ in print with my name on the cover as a declaration of what I believe and whom our house will serve.