Deuteronomy 6:4-9
More Than Good Intentions
Good intentions and a strong why can start new habits, but only identity sustains them. In Deuteronomy 6:4-9, the Shema, God tells Israel who they are before giving them practices that keep that identity in front of them every day. As we begin a new year with 21 days of prayer and fasting, our identity as God’s children takes us where good intentions can’t.
Message notes
On the first Sunday of 2026, Pastor Pat has the room shout “Happy New Year,” then reads Deuteronomy 6:4-9 together. He calls it an anchor point for the church: not a resolution, but an identity to live 365 days a year.
He starts with kids’ questions. Four-year-olds ask hundreds a day, many of them why. When Pat was a boy, he asked why the sun was sometimes on one side of the car and sometimes on the other. His mom explained the physics of the planets. His dad said, “Why don’t you just tell them we turned the corner?”
Why matters, Pat says, but it isn’t enough. Research on lasting habits points to identity: we act out of who we believe we are. We set outcomes for the new year, working out, eating better, flossing more, and good intentions fade when a hard Tuesday hits. The same is true of prayer and Bible reading. “Our why might get us started, but it’s our who that will sustain us.”
Moses spoke these words as Israel prepared to enter the promised land, where there would be new gods, new customs and no more manna or pillar of fire. Before they had kings, a temple or land, God gave them an identity: the Lord is one, and you are his. Jesus quoted it when asked for the greatest commandment. “God reveals identity before he shapes behavior.”
Then God gives practices: teach these words, talk about them at home and on the road, bind them on your hands, write them on your doorframes. Pat calls it habit stacking before it was cool. When our behavior leaves God out, it reveals what we really believe, that we mostly have what we need. That is why prayer becomes a last resort.
Pat says that in the McFall house, they talk about what McFalls do, like saying sorry when they’re wrong. He applies the same idea to the church. New Hope Hawaii Kai prays and fasts for 21 days twice a year because we are a people who can’t experience abundant life without talking to God, and who remove distractions to look at the one thing that matters.
His two steps are to practice being in God’s presence and to pass it on. He points to Deuteronomy 6:20. When a child asks why, Moses tells parents to answer with who God is and what he did. “When they ask why, tell them who.”
From the message
Our why might get us started, but it’s our who that will sustain us.
My God identity will take me where my good intentions can’t.
God reveals identity before he shapes behavior.
When they ask why, tell them who.
Life Group discussion guide
More Than Good Intentions, Deuteronomy 6:4-9. January 4, 2026.
Start here
What is a New Year’s resolution you started strong but did not keep, and what made it fade?
Read Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Open your Bibles and read it out loud together before you start.
What does it say?
In Deuteronomy 6:4-5, what does Moses say about who God is, and how are his people to love him?
According to verses 6-9, where are God’s words supposed to be, and when and where should his people talk about them?
In Deuteronomy 6:20-21, what question will children ask, and how does Moses tell parents to answer?
What does it mean?
Israel was about to enter a land with different gods and customs, and the manna and pillar of fire were ending. Why would God give them an identity before anything else?
Jesus called loving God with all your heart the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:37-38). Why do you think he went back to this passage?
In Hebrew, hearing and doing are closely tied together. How does that change what “Hear, O Israel” asks of us?
What do we do with it?
What do your daily routines, especially how you unwind at night, say about who you believe you are?
Pick one practice from the 21 days, such as morning time with Jesus, ten minutes of prayer at lunch, or fasting a meal or social media. What identity would that practice reinforce for you?
Who in the next generation could you pass your faith on to this year, and what story of God’s faithfulness would you tell them when they ask why?
Pray
Ask God to settle your identity as his child at the start of this year, and pray for the grace to practice his presence during these 21 days of prayer and fasting, not out of guilt but out of love.
New Hope Hawaii Kai. Watch the message and read the notes at newhopehk.org/sermons/more-than-good-intentions/