All right. Well, hey, welcome to Compass. How are you liking this weather? It's pretty good, huh? It's almost like the Lord just flipped the switch and said, "We're just going to go from summer straight to winter." Right? Like, wait, wait, wait. Where's the fall? Where's the fall? Well, that's next week. You think we should have done Flannel Fest this week? It's perfect weather.
Yeah. Instead of 56 and rainy on the one extreme or 113 on the other, we'll be somewhere in the middle. So make sure you bring a friend of yours. You know, we do Flannel Fest not so we can say, "Hey, this is a cool event for us." Kind of just get out on the lawn and eat some food and do some music. We do an event like that so that you have an easy invitational opportunity to invite somebody that you care about.
And like you're praying for your one, right? Is there three of you praying for your one? Okay. Maybe five. Okay. Let's step it up, people, right? We're praying for that one that is not connected to Jesus. And maybe you've got a neighbor or a friend or a coworker, a teammate, classmate that, man, we're giving you an easy invitational opportunity instead of saying, "Hey, come here. My preacher preach," right? They're like, "You know what? I'll take you up on that another day." But if you say, "Hey, we're going to have some cool music, some food, we're going to be out on the lawn, you know, games for the kids." That's a great, easy invitation.
That's a great, easy invitational opportunity. Plus, you know, we're in this series, it's four parts. I was trying to think what would be the best message for your friends who are trying to connect to church so it doesn't feel like we're, you know, in a message they don't understand. And so I actually switched these around a little bit. Next week, I feel like the message is going to be a little more easy to connect with for your friends you're bringing.
So take advantage of the opportunity. Pray about it as you go out this week. Don't just go into fault mode thinking about yourself. Think about somebody that you care about that's not connected to Jesus and give them an opportunity just to have some fun with us here at Compass.
And, you know, we're praying like Matthew did. Remember Matthew? We call it the Matthew party. He was one of the disciples that really got what Jesus was trying to teach. He was the tax collector, and he was so blessed by the community he was part of and by the salvation he had received from Jesus. And he finally was thinking about his lost friends back at the tax collecting office.
And so what does he do? He throws a party and he invites Jesus and the disciples, and he invites his lost friends, and they show up. And he's standing back by the punch bowl watching these conversations happen, and he's so excited that maybe a spiritual spark is going to get ignited in somebody's life. So let's pray about that and let's use this as a great opportunity next week. Hope you'll do that and hope to see you in your flannel.
We'll make it. We will. It's getting there. So we're talking about how to survive the desert, which is pretty applicable to this. It's also the place we live. But if you remember, this series is not just about where we live. It's about where we find ourselves sometimes. We all find ourselves sometimes in a dry place, in the desert, in the wilderness, wandering around trying to figure out how to do life.
And I believe that God doesn't want us just to survive those times. He wants us to actually thrive during those times. So we picked four narratives from the Scripture, four stories that are set in the desert or in the wilderness. And last week we talked about the children of Israel just wandering around because God brought them to the edge of the Jordan. They were supposed to go in and take the land, and they decided they didn't want to do it. They didn't want to obey God.
And so they missed their opportunity to go into the promised land, and they wandered around in the desert for 40 years. This is another story about the children of Israel today, and we're going to see what happens as they're wandering around. Okay? So God's people spend over 400 years in slavery in the land of Egypt. But God hears their cries. He sends his deliverance in kind of an unlikely way through an 80-year-old stammering vagabond shepherd named Moses.
God calls to him, speaks to him from within a burning bush. We're going to do that story in two weeks. And he says, "You're going to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt." So he empowers him to do some incredible things. After 10 plagues, Pharaoh, the king of all Egypt, his heart is softened because the last plague was the plague of the firstborn. Firstborn in all of Egypt died. He finally says, "You guys just get out of here." And he allows the Hebrews to leave Egypt. Millions of Hebrews. They left. They headed out.
Eventually, they're pinned in by the Red Sea. But God works a miracle. He spreads the sea apart. They're able to walk across on dry ground, and Pharaoh's army is drowned in the Red Sea. Now, here's where we are in the story today. Three months later. Okay? It's like it comes up on the screen. Three months later. We pick up the story, and we find the Israelites are all gathered together, and God is speaking directly to them in Exodus chapter 19.
So grab your Bibles. Second book of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus. We're going to be in chapter 19. We're going to work our way toward the 30s today. But Exodus 19:4 says this. God says, "You yourselves have seen what I did in Egypt and how I carried you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Now, if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."
So God is telling his people, "I want to advance my plan to get you back. I want to give you some guidelines. Some rules." We're like, "Oh no. Here we go with the rules." Right? We need some guidelines when we're lost in the desert, don't you think? And I want to come down, God says. I want to dwell with you again.
Listen. This is a huge transitional point in the scripture. Because God is not going to just interact with certain individuals or just talk to a few people. He's going to begin to share life with all of his people again for the first time since back in the Garden of Eden. He says, "But for me to do this," declares the Lord, "there are some things that have to be worked out."
You see, God is going to ask the Israelites to make some serious commitments. Just like in a marriage. Both partners have to have skin in the game, right? So he invites Moses to come up to Mount Sinai, where he verbalizes to him the Ten Commandments and some other important guidelines. And Moses comes down from the mountain. He shares the commandments that God has given with this huge throng of Israelites.
And here's what they say in verse 8. The people all responded together, "We will do everything the Lord has said." Wow. Okay. So they bought in. They said, "We're going to make this covenant with you, God. We're going to make this commitment to you. Everything you say, we will do it."
So what happens next is that God's going to write these commandments down with his own hand. He's going to write these commandments on the stone tablets. He's going to make this agreement with Israel, God, the one who led them out of slavery in Egypt. So Moses goes up on the mountain, and he's going to receive these written commandments, the Ten Commandments.
Now, some scholars think there actually might have been 15. And the reason why is because of this rare footage that we found. Watch this. No, that's not Moses. Mel Brooks, Monty Python. But isn't it interesting? We kind of laugh about the Ten Commandments. I believe the Ten Commandments are sorely misunderstood by most people.
To unbelievers, they're the common reason that you use for like rejecting the faith, rejecting God, rejecting the Bible. They say, "The Bible is just a big book of rules. That's all it is." And yeah, I guess it might seem that way to you. But guess what? It's because you're outside the family. I want you to back up with me for a second and understand this pivotal transition in the big God story.
Let me say it like this. These commands are not rules for outsiders, friends. They are protective boundaries laid out by a loving father to bless and shield his children. That's a big difference, isn't it? I don't know about you moms, dads, parents. But sometimes my kids growing up didn't understand. They didn't understand what my commands were all about.
Right? I mean, they confused my loving protection of them with fun busters. And they would ask the big question sometimes that we've all asked. That one word question that we like to ask people when we don't understand. It's the word, "Why?" Like, "Why, daddy?" And sometimes I would just have to say, "Because I said so." Right? And other times I would explain how doing something or not doing something would actually bless and protect them because I love them.
Now, they are in this service, so I'm not going to embarrass them. They are 21 and 19. But when they were 10 and 8, they couldn't see everything from my perspective. They didn't understand all the ins and outs of every decision I made about them. But if they could have entered my mind and they could have entered my heart, they would have quickly discovered everything I asked them to do, I did it out of a heart of love for them.
And my heart is still full of love for those precious girls. I would never do anything to hurt them in any way. I always have their best interest in mind. So my job as a dad growing up when they were in my house was to lovingly guide and direct and shield them if necessary. And I made every decision from a heart of love that flowed out of my special relationship with them.
Now, every family is a little different. But every family, whether they know it or not, has a set of stated or unstated rules, right? That kind of govern how things work and kind of set the tone for what's expected of each member in the family. The strongest families have some standard operating procedures that everybody agrees to. Everybody goes by, and then they start to become patterns.
And these patterns bless and protect the family. And they instill a sense of security in the hearts of the children. So we had rules. Yeah, we did. Like words that we could or could not use. Or what you can or cannot watch on TV. Or listen to on the radio. Or how we think and relate to each other in this family. Appropriate responses. Even tone of voice when you're speaking to your mother, right? I mean, that was part of it.
Now, this is our family. I know it's different for others. And I learned that pretty quick. I mean, we would be out in a public setting sometimes, maybe even out in the mall. And there's another family we're talking to. And one of the adults actually would say something like, "Shoot." And one of my kids would go, "Oh." And I'm like, "Hey, wait. Don't do that. Don't do that."
And we told them, like, "You say that, you might as well say what you're thinking," right? Because that's what it means. But here's the point. Sydney and Sophie had learned from me and Marie what it means to live in and be a part of the Job family.
Now, friends, that's not a far cry from what the family of God's doing right here in Exodus 20. While they were on their way to the promised land, God began to teach these Hebrews what it was like to be a part of his family. How you think, how you live when God is your father. How you relate to each other.
When a transaction occurs, listen, that brings you out of slavery and adopts you into the family of God along with a lot of other adopted children into the family. Over 400 years of thinking like a slave had to be reversed. I'd say it like this. God got them out of Egypt, but he had to get the Egypt out of them. Right?
And so that's what he's doing. God has Moses begin to articulate what it looks like to live in the family with God as our father. So these Ten Commandments, they're listed in the Old Testament twice. And this is important because it's not like we just get these 10 simple rules. Don't, don't, don't, don't. No, that's not it.
In both Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy chapter five, the Ten Commandments are followed by lots of commentary on what they mean, how they're to be applied. But here's the basic idea. I'm going to boil it all down for you today. You ready? As free followers of God, you've got two responsibilities if you want to be part of his family.
Here's the first one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And here's number two. Love your neighbor as yourself. That it? Yeah, that's it. In fact, when Jesus was asked to identify the most important law in the Old Testament, that's what he said. Mark chapter 12. Let me read it to you.
One of the teachers of the law asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" See, they're trying to trick him. The most important one, answered Jesus, is this: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these."
Wow. So the command is to love. Love God. Love others. It's pretty simple. But listen. I mean, we all know this. When you're trying to teach kids, little kids, and you're trying to teach immature people how to love, you have to start out by saying a lot of negative things, right? Like, "Don't talk back to your dad. Don't hit the baby," right? "Don't bite your sister. Don't take the baby's toys. Don't lie to mommy."
I mean, parents are saying these kinds of things all the time. And listen, they're not saying these things because they're trying to bury their kids under a bunch of rules. No. They're trying to define what kind of behavior is actually loving and what isn't. And they're doing it on the fly.
And I think God and Moses are doing the same thing. They're trying to teach these people, as they wander through the desert, how to survive, even thrive, as they live in the family of God and as they relate to each other. So, the Ten Commandments became a tight, succinct description of some of the elementary values that would guide the decisions of people that are a part of God's family.
That simple. And if they're that important, that they're part of the behavioral foundation of what it means to be in God's family. How many of you know the Ten Commandments? Like, eight of you? You're like, "Don't call me up there, though. I don't know if I can say them all right now." I bet you probably couldn't.
I read a survey, in fact, by Kelton Research that found that many of the Americans they tested recalled the seven ingredients of a McDonald's Big Mac hamburger more easily than the Bible's Ten Commandments. In fact, can anybody here tell me the seven ingredients of a two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, many of us can sing that because it was such a prominent TV commercial, but here's the kicker. Hasn't run in America since 1976. You just showed your age, didn't you? I was three years old when that commercial was on TV in America. Friends, 80% of a thousand respondents could name the burger's primary ingredients, two all-beef patties, but less than six in ten knew the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill."
Maybe that's why we've made such a slide toward openly accepting things like abortion and pushing propositions like Prop 139, which I am 100% voting no on. Only 45% of people, listen, could recall the commandment, "Honor your father and mother." But 62% knew that the Big Mac has pickles. Only 34% knew, "Remember the Sabbath." 29% recalled, "Do not make false idols."
Not long ago, a talk show host asked his audience if anybody could stand up and name one of the Ten Commandments. And there were crickets for a while. And then finally, one man raised his hand, thought he had one for sure. And he said, "God helps those who help themselves," which, by the way, is not in the Bible. You're not going to find it in there anywhere.
Now friends, listen, not honoring these values is having a really dark effect on our culture. A survey conducted recently by James Patterson and Peter Kim showed that 74% of Americans admit they will steal from someone they think won't miss it. 64% of Americans say they will lie for convenience as long as they think nobody's hurt over that. 93% of Americans surveyed said that they alone decide moral issues, basing their decisions on their own experience or their own whims.
84% say they would intentionally break the rules of their own religious faith. And 81% of those surveyed said that they have violated a law that they felt was inappropriate. I don't care if it's a law. I don't like it. I read a news article that said you can possibly be court-martialed in the military for talking about Jesus and sharing your faith.
We have a so-called human rights movement trying to redefine marriage and gender while offering no protection, no human rights for pre-born babies. Our culture in the United States is getting darker and darker and darker. You know, Ernest Hemingway wrote about this in 1970 in Newsweek. You know what he said? "What is moral is what I feel good after. And what is immoral is what I feel bad after."
Really. In other words, if you want it, if you like it, if it makes me feel good, then it's right. Because I, my friends, am the moral center of my universe. I mean, who cares if it's good for me but it's not good for you? Or who cares if it would be horrible for society if everybody was doing it?
And what's disturbing is that this disregard for God's clear instructions is positioned in our minds, listen, as freedom. Like, "Hey, I don't want to go by the rules. And if I could just not go by the rules and do what I want, that's freedom." Friends, it may feel like that for a few moments. But the Bible teaches that real freedom is found in obedience to God's word.
You want to have real peace when you lay your head on your pillow at night? It's not because you're sinning all day. It's because you're obeying the word of God, not disregarding it. God's way is different. And here's the thing. Let's go back to the father-daughter analogy. The father-son analogy. God is giving us a heads up because he loves us. Because he's a good father. He knows how life works best.
You know, Jesus said something like that in a parable in Matthew 7. He said, "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, the winds blew and beat against that house. Yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock. Yet everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
So, obviously, this is pretty important stuff we're talking about if we want to survive the desert. And since it's that important, I'm going to have us read them. Now let's read the ten words, as the Hebrews called them, or the Ten Commandments as we call them today. Exodus 20, verses 1 through 17. It's going to come up on the screen. Let's read these together. You ready? You with me? We'll read them. We'll start over if you're not with me. All right, here we go. Ready?
Here we go. "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery." So here we go. Number one, "You shall have no other gods before me." Number two, "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything." Number three, "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name." Number four, "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy."
Number five, "Honor your father and mother so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you." Number six, "You shall not murder." Number seven, "You shall not commit adultery." Number eight, "You shall not steal." Number nine, "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor." And number 10, "You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor."
Now, if anybody felt like a moral anchor was just dropped in the room, you'd be right. These are lofty values that have literally shaped Western civilization as we know it. Whether people take them off the walls in schools or courthouses and public buildings or not, it's true. The Ten Commandments describe the moral standard, but here's the deal, that only Jesus kept perfectly. Only Jesus kept it perfectly. None of us will ever keep these perfectly, which is not an excuse. It's just a reality.
And here's the point. God knows that and loves us anyway. God knows that and loves us anyway. So let's all together, after hearing all that, give a collective whew, all right? I mean, he gave these 10 words to his family. These aren't just words that he gave to his family. He gave these 10 words to his family. These aren't entrance requirements to the family. These are family guidelines that protect us all who are in the family.
Now, I don't want to take a lot of time here, but I think it's important that we acknowledge the intimacy of what's going on with this. Sometimes we hear the 10 big rules or the 10 commandments, and it sounds so impersonal. It sounds so rigid. We always seem to think about our failures first when we start talking about the 10 commandments.
And consequently, I think if we're not careful, we set ourselves up to think of a demanding, relentless judge that's always trying to point out the things that we do wrong, that we're not good enough, especially if you had a mom or a dad like that. We kind of think of God sometimes as some big, dangerous force that cares nothing for us.
So I want to stop for a second and look at this text really closely. Because if you go to the Hebrew, here's what we find. God uses his personal name in verse two. Friends, whenever you see the word "Lord" in the Bible, in your translation in English spelled with a capital L and then small caps, O-R-D, that is a rendering from the original translation of the sacred personal name of God.
We don't even really know how to pronounce that name because Jewish scribes had so much respect for it, they wouldn't even spell it out for fear of misspelling it. So they just use consonants. The closest we can guess is that it's translated Yahweh, Yahweh. That's what we think. The personal name of God. It means the ever-present one. It's the name of the father who loves you.
It's the name of the God who brought you out of your slavery to your sin. It's the one of whom it says in chapter 19, verse four, "I carried you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself." It's the image of a big, strong dad, one that loves you and one that wants what's best for you. And listen, friends, he's the only one like that. He's the only one. Buddha never died for you. Muhammad never died on a cross for your sins. None of the fertility gods that these Hebrew people were going to encounter in the promised land had heard their cries and sent Moses to rescue them, right?
No other God has sent his only son to rescue you. Listen, you have a father in heaven who's paid a high price out of love for you. And that kind of love ought to generate and ought to compel you to want to have an exclusive and loyal relationship with him, right? You know, when I think of George Washington, I mean, he's a great hero, right? Founder of our nation, one of our founding fathers, the first president of the United States.
And man, I'm grateful for what he did. And I certainly respect him for what he did. But let me be honest, I don't love him. And frankly, I don't feel compelled by his example to change my life either. But my dad, my dad, that's another story. My dad had such a foundational effect on my life. He loved me. He invested so much in me as a kid. He provided so much for me in terms of an example and an impact.
And that is still in my heart to this day. So much of my life has been affected by his life. I try to do kindness in marriage like he does. I try to father in fun ways. I try to do kindness in marriage like he does. I try to do kindness in marriage like he does. I do church consistently like he does. My life is marked by my relationship with my father.
And I think that's a pretty vital piece for us all to think about today, because here's the deal, friends, listen, just being honest. If you don't know God personally, you're not going to serve him passionately and follow him consistently. It's just not going to happen. However, if he's your father, like if he's someone you talk to every day, if he's your father, if he's your father, eventually his life and his example are going to compel you in your life.
And what you understand if you live life long enough is behavior modification doesn't work, does it? I mean, if it's just 10 rules, "Don't, don't, don't, hey, stop doing that. Hey, do something. Can you just quit that? Stop that right now, kids." How much does that work? Friends, behavior modification does not transform a human heart. You cannot legislate life change, no matter how much you think you can.
It's got to start in the heart from the inside out. So eventually we get to the real question for the day. You ready for the real question? You're waiting all this time, weren't you? For the real question. Here it is. Is God on the throne of your life or not? You want to know what these Israelites did after they said to Moses, "We will do everything the Lord God has asked us to do."
I mean, he read these commands or he shared them with him and he asked them to make this covenant with God. He said, "I'm going to do everything that the Lord God has asked us to do." And they said, "We'll do it. Everything the Lord says, we will do it." You know what happened 40 days after that? 40 days. Moses goes up on the mountain. He's going to get the written commands from God.
And he's up there a little longer than the people think he should be. 40 days. So long, right? So he's up there with God for 40 days and they get bored and they get tired and they want to do their own thing. And they forget that just not long ago, they said they're going to do everything the Lord commanded.
And so what do they do? They go to his brother, Aaron, and they say, "Hey, make gods for us." Like, wait, what? I mean, did you not just hear what Moses said and what you agreed to? Oh yeah, we heard it, but make gods for us. And Aaron, instead of being a good leader and standing up going, "Are you crazy?" You know what he does? He says, "All right, give me all your jewelry."
So he takes their gold jewelry. He melts it down, and he fashions out of it a golden calf. And those people who just 40 days earlier said, "We're going to do everything the Lord told us to do. We're going to do everything the Lord commanded us to do." And they're bowing down to worshiping, giving praise to, and celebrating around a golden calf.
These are our gods who brought us up out of Egypt. Oh, Israel. Can you believe that? And Moses comes back down, and it wasn't a far cry from Monty Python. He didn't have three tablets. He had two, but he was so mad when he saw what the people were doing. He threw them down and broke them. God made him write them again himself a little bit later.
But this part of the story, he throws them down. He breaks, he's so mad. And his brother, Aaron, this is funny. Aaron says, "Do not let your anger, my Lord, burn hot. Moses, what's your temper? You know how mom hated it when you got angry." In fact, he calls Moses what? My Lord.
Show of hands on this one. How many of you grew up with a brother? Okay. Put your hands down. How many of you ever fought with that brother? Yeah. Every single person, right? You put your hand right back up. Yeah. Okay. How many of you, when you were in a fight with your brother, called him my Lord to cool him off? Exactly. All right. Marie and I, we get into conflicts sometimes. How often do you think she calls me my Lord? Exactly. It doesn't happen.
But Aaron's doing it. He's backpedaling as much as he can. "My Lord, don't get mad." This is classic. You know the people, he says, "They are bent on evil." Can you believe this story? Over 400 years later, King David can't believe the story either. He's telling about it. He's recalling it. Psalm 106. He says, "They made a calf and worshiped an idol cast from metal. They exchanged their glorious God for an image of a bull which eats grass. They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt, miracles in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea."
David couldn't believe it either. You're thinking, why would they do it? Why would they make such a trade? Why would somebody choose a cow over our glorious God? It's a fair question, isn't it? I mean, why would somebody do that? Why would somebody let a relationship, or why would somebody let a hobby, or why would you allow your paycheck, or your friendships, or your family members, or politics to have a more important place in your life than the perfect God of the universe who loves you unconditionally and gave his only son for you?
It's a ludicrous trade to think about, isn't it? And yet, like David, he's not going to let the Israelites who praise God one day and live like the devil the next. We too make foolish trades with regularity. Some of us, if we're absolutely truthful, have a whole herd of golden calves. But you see, we're Christians, and everybody knows Christians aren't supposed to have golden calves. We're not supposed to have idols.
And so what do we do? We hide them. And then somebody who loves us actually dares to point one out because it's just that obvious. And you know what we say? "Oh, that? That's not a cow. That's not an idol." We let work become a God to us, even though we believe work and money can't be the foundation of our lives. The sixth command says, "Do not kill." And yet most of the killing done in this world is over the hate that grows from unresolved anger or the greed that grows from unrestrained lust.
So if God is our father, of course we're not going to give ourselves and our hearts to hate or greed or lust, are we? And yet many do. And God warns us not to, not because he wants to give us a big list of things, but because he wants to give us a big list of things. He wants to give us a big list of rules, but because he knows you cannot build a life on those things.
Same is true with number seven, adultery, sexual satisfaction, not a firm foundation to build your life on. And yet you don't have to drive too many miles from this very property on any night to find people who worship that God. But if Yahweh is your father, you're not going to enslave yourself to that false God, that golden calf, are you?
Number eight is a warning against stealing. Number 10 against coveting, warning what someone else is going to do. And number 10 against letting stuff become your God, loving stuff more than anything else. And yet we all know people who spend their lives thinking, "If I could just live there, if I could just drive that, if I could just have what they have, then all would be good."
And God knows that if it's stuff you worship, you can never have enough. That's a God you can never satisfy. Just never going to happen. When do you have enough? When do you have enough? When do you have enough? When do you have enough? When do you have a little more? Friends, don't trade your loving father for any of those gods, those things that have no real power, those idols that bring no real satisfaction.
The question again is who is on the throne of your life? What do I mean by that? The throne represents the control of your heart, the control of your life. And somebody is on that throne, whether you want to talk about it or not. I mean, for some of you, the devil's on that throne, man. You're living however you want. He's just kind of pulling the strings and throwing you down the roads that he knows are tempting to you. And you're just going right down them.
Or some of you, maybe it's not the devil, but maybe it's your own ego and your own lusts. Yet at some point, if you're not going to be your own God, if you actually love the Lord and you're going to ask the Lord Jesus to take control of your life, then he's got to be the exclusive leader of your life. And he's got to sit on that throne. And then everything else in your life has to be submitted to his leadership.
But friends, here's the good news about all this. All God ever wanted was our hearts, our love, not to make us follow a bunch of rules. He created us to be in relationship with us as a good father who loves us. In fact, the verses say again, "If you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations, you will be my what? Treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."
Friends, God knew that the law could not manufacture us. He knew that we could not manufacture a love relationship with us. And I'm assuming that you're just like me. You look at these commands and man, you read that list and hopefully you realize pretty quickly that you're not a good person. You're not a good person who just sins occasionally. You're a dirty, rotten sinner who's racked up a lifetime of selfishness and impatience and lust and greed and unkind words and actions.
And now you've got this enormous sin problem and there's nothing you can do about it by yourself. There's nothing you can do about it. You can't undo a single sin you've committed. Wish we could. No matter how good you are, you'll never be able to take back the sins of your past or completely delete the sin from your present. You've got a malignant terminal sin problem that's going to kill you unless you get some help from outside yourself.
But this is good news. Bob Russell says, "When we compare our lives with the straight edge of the law, we realize how sinful we are." And friends, the moment that happens for you, that's good news. It's not bad news because God, our loving father, he knew this. He knew we couldn't solve our own sin problem. That's why he sent his son, Jesus.
Galatians 2:21 says, "If righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing." You know what that means? There's no way we can keep the law perfectly. That's why we needed Jesus. Colossians 2:13 and 14. "When you were dead in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all your sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us, he has taken it away. How did he take it away? Nailing it to the cross."
Romans 8. "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus, the law of the spirit, who gives life, set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do, because it was weakened by our flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. He went to the cross for us."
That's what he's saying. And so he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. You see, friends, this is not just a big, heavy book of rules. This is the story of a loving father who cares about you so much. He put these protective boundaries out there so that you could have your best life, so that you wouldn't have to live with regret, so that you could go to sleep at night, put your head on your pillow and sleep in peace, knowing that you're not perfect, but praise God, Jesus paid the price for you.
So friends, I don't know what you thought when you walked in here, especially when I started talking about the Ten Commandments, but I just want to remind you that God wants you to be a part of his family, that he put these guidelines together, not because he wants to burden you or bury you in rules, but because he actually loves you very much. And he wants your life to be the best it can be.
So if you've never experienced being in the family with a father like that, I want to invite you to experience it today. We're going to have prayer partners come up here in just a moment. We're going to sing a song of invitation, and it's an invitation for you to take a step. Friends, you don't have to have it all figured out. You don't have to say, "Okay, now I've got to live perfectly." We already said you can't do that.
But all you have to do, all that's required of you is to take a step toward Jesus, right? God's not going to force you because he's a father who loves you. He's just like the father in the story of the prodigal son. You know that story? There's a son, he has a brother, older brother. The younger brother comes to the father, and what does he say?
Well, let me boil it down for you. I want to live as if you were dead now. Is that really what he said? Yeah. He said he wants his inheritance now. You don't get your inheritance until your father's dead. He said, "Dad, I want to live like your dad right now." And amazingly, in the story, the father says, "Okay, here's your portion of the inheritance." And he's like, "Yes, no more rules. I can do whatever I want. Freedom!"
And so he goes out and he spends all of it doing what he wants. And then he finds out he's spent it all. And all the friends that were friends when he was spending money for them too are now gone. And he's in a pig pen. And because he's a Jewish boy, he's taking the worst possible job a Jewish person could take. He's tending pigs.
And it says in the story, at some point while he's down in that junk, he looks at the food the pigs are eating, and he's so hungry, he thinks about eating it. Like, that's how low he is. He's so hungry. He's so hungry. He's so hungry. He's so hungry. He's so hungry. He's so hungry.
Instead of thinking, "Man, this is real freedom. Look at this." He's like, "What am I doing with my life?" And it says he comes just to his senses. And then the next phrase is even more powerful. Then he got up. Because you can come to your senses and do nothing about it. You could realize everything about Jesus and his love and the wanting you to be part of his family.
You can hear all that today and do nothing about it. But it says he got up and he came up with a speech. You know, right? He says he's going to go back to his dad, like even the hired hands eat better than I do. So I'm going to go, "Father, listen, I've sinned against you. I've sinned against heaven. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired hands."
I hope this works. So he goes back home, and the story says that while he's a long way off, his father sees him. Now, why do you think his father sees him from a long way off? Because he'd been looking for him. He's hoping he would come home, but he can't force him. He's got to let him make his own decisions.
And he sees him from a long way off, and it says he runs to him. And the son starts his rehearsed speech. "Father, I've sinned against heaven and against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your..." Hush, son. It says he throws his arms around him. He embraces him. He kisses him. He calls for them to bring him the best robe. He puts a ring on his finger, the signet ring that says you're part of the family again. He puts sandals on his dirty, nasty, bare feet.
And he says, "Let's throw a feast and celebrate." And then the big lines that you can't miss in this story. Because this son of mine was dead. Is that what freedom really is? Could be. He was dead and he's alive again. He was lost, but now he's found. Now he's back home. Now he can be a part of the family again.
Just because he said yes and he came back. And of course, another sermon for another day. Big brother's not happy about it. "I've been here slaving away." But God told that story to a bunch of Pharisees who were acting like that, who didn't even care about lost people. To remind them that there are people, one car wreck, one heart attack away from hell. Right? You know them. Maybe you're one of them.
And when that son came home, that father embraced him, and he became a part of the family again. But it was a choice he had to make. And what he found is that real freedom wasn't out living the wildlife, doing what he wants, spending all his daddy's money that he gave him.
Now you know that money you have is from your dad, right? You think you make that when you go to work and that you're so smart and so talented that you could do that anytime you want. That's a gift from your father. But he gave it to you because he loves you. He's not mad at you. He's going to let you do with it what you want.
But maybe you'll come to your senses too. And maybe you'll just say, "I'm going to choose to come home." And if you do, man, God told that story. Jesus told that story so that people could understand the heart of the father who made the rules. He didn't shake his fist at him and tell him to get out of here. You're not my son anymore. He loved him and he welcomed him home.
He made those rules to protect him in the first place. And now he's home. And now he gets it. And friends, if you want to come home and you want to get it, this is your time. So I'm going to pray. We're going to sing. We're going to have prayer partners come up here. All you have to do, as the lights go down so that everybody's looking at you, walk across the room, connect with one of us, and we'll help you every step of the way.
Father, thank you. Thank you that we can call you father, that we have the opportunity as sinners who sometimes don't get it to be a part of your family and to be a part of what you're doing in this world and in our lives. Lord, you care specifically about each one of us, every detail. And you want to protect us and bless us and help us be a part of this family.
So God, give us strength right now in this moment. Meet every person exactly where they are. Lord, whether they're in the pig pen trying to come to their senses or whether they're walking down that road hoping you're going to welcome them home, I pray you give them courage right now to take the very next step and to trust that they have a good father on the other side of that choice who loves them and wants to welcome them home.
Give us courage. Give us courage to do what you're calling us to do right now in these moments, Lord. There is nothing more important we could be thinking about than this. So help us, Lord. Give us courage to obey, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well, let's stand. Let's get right to it. We're going to sing. We're right here. Walk across the room. We'll help you every step of the way.
on Oct 21, 2024
