The Tenth Commandment (Exodus 20:17)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

The Tenth Commandment

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Good morning my name is Chet I'm one of the pastors excited to get to study the word with y'all this morning go to grab a Bible and go to Exodus chapter 20. if you don't have a Bible with you there should be one stuck under the chair in front of you if you don't own a Bible take one of these blue ones home with you that's our gift to you we want you to own a Bible but we are working our way as a Church through the book of Exodus and we have slowed down over the past 10 weeks to walk through the Ten Commandments and we are on the 10th commandment.

And so we are studying the Ten Commandments together and learning one of the things that we've discussed throughout is that we are predisposed As Americans to have a certain type of morality that makes sense to us primarily we think of things as being wrong or right based off of does it hurt someone so even say things like do whatever you want as long as it doesn't hurt someone we also consider things right or wrong based off of fairness but there are other categories that we disregard.

But we need to God's approach to morality is broader than ours it's greater than ours and that we need to adjust and learn and one of the things we've seen is we've studied the Ten Commandments is that God uh promotes human flourishing through these Ten Commandments that if we learned to practice these and follow these life would be better our culture would be better society would be better and that in the Ten Commandments we see God's General design and we'll see the rest of the law kind of grows out of these.

First ten but we're on the tenth one and it's Exodus chapters 20 verse 17. and so it says this you shall not covet your neighbor's house you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbors now in order for this to be understandable at all we need to know what the word covet means because if you have no definition for that it's like what what did I do to my neighbor's donkey what is coveting coveting is desire wanting.

But it's a specific type of desire a specific type of want craving that is by its very nature sinful there are some desires that are not sinful and so we're going to take our time this morning to try to understand where does desire where does this want become sinful so we're going to pray for our time and then we'll pick right back up there Louie asks that as we study your word together that your Holy Spirit would be at work as we study covetousness which is primarily something that happens inside of us that your Holy Spirit would help us to.

See it so that we might turn from it and turn to you and we ask for your grace and your presence and we ask that all this will be done for your glory in Jesus name amen so there are some desires that are not by their very nature sinful Jesus got hungry Jesus in the garden prays that this cup would pass from him that he wouldn't have to go through with what was about to go through but he submits himself to the Lord's will.

So just wanting a thing isn't necessarily bad there are certain things that we're told in the Bible that are good to want like it's good to want to be a pastor it's good to want a spouse it's fine to want children like there's things that are good things that we should work towards but coveting is a desire that is in its own on its own sinful and and we're going to give a definition to it but let's read this you shall not desire your neighbor's house you shall not want your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbors it's this desire.

Of this wanting that is sinful and I think there's two ways that we'll see that it's sinful one is is a desire for something or someone that is not yours to desire your neighbor's spouse is not yours to desire so by having any desire for your neighbor's spouse you are Desiring something that is not yours to desire and therefore it's out of bounds but I think also as we study this together see that it is Desiring something that is good or.

Okay to desire but Desiring it inordinately Desiring it too much and that is where we suddenly have a lot of questions because this commandment is distinct from the other ten the other or the other nine this is the tenth one there's not another ten you can watch someone commit the other ones you can testify to it you can see it happen you can if you practice one of the other ones no yes I stole that you might have some questions about whether or not this was slander or gossip or whatever.

But you you there's something that's physically taking place you're speaking you're there's words being exchanged when you lie about somebody when you steal something when there's a murder the tenth commandment happens inside of you and it changes our understanding of the Ten Commandments drastically God is giving the law to the people of Israel and he's telling them things like You're Going To Worship me you're not going to have Idols there's going to be a day of worship set aside you're going to be you're going to honor your mother.

Father just helping you all out since the kids are in here this morning they're going to honor your mother and father you don't murder don't steal don't commit adultery he's given all these commands we're going right right right and then he says and don't covet and suddenly it's like wait that hmm that happens just in here that's something I do here and here like if we were talking about laws for South Carolina and we were like and this is a law about property and this is all about driving oh and you're not allowed to sink this you'd immediately be like not allowed to think a thing.

First thought might be how they going to catch me I think whatever I want problem when God gives a law like this is that he knows what's going on inside of you this is some ways terrifying he's talking about what's happening in your heart what's happening in your mind and he cares about it and he's prohibiting things that can't take place inside of us not just things that happen outside of us and so this one's different and suddenly I think rightfully we should have a lot of questions how do I know.

If I've done this how do I see this in myself one of the things I said when we were introducing the Ten Commandments was that much of American consumerism is based off of covetousness we see something we want it we go get it and immediately we had a lot of questions and I think good questions I'm going to give you some examples of the type of questions that I was Fielding after that week and I know some of you all have been looking forward to this week to try to.

See how do I discern this someone said Okay I want shoes I need shoes and I just want them I need them mine have worn out I have a certain type of shoe that I want so I do a little research I then see a person I know wearing the kind of shoe I'm looking for I asked them where they got that shoe I go buy that shoe was that covetousness I think that's a good question I'm at my friend's house and he has an air fryer and I learned new information to me that air fryers can reheat fried chicken which is a problem I've had my entire life on the off chance that Fried.

Chicken escapes the first plate I'd like for it to show up on a second but for anyone who's ever microwaved Fried Chicken you know how utterly disappointing that is so I go buy an air fryer I don't wait till my friend's not looking hit him over the head with a vase and take his air fryer I just go get my own have I coveted I think we have questions like nobody asked me this one I've added this one just to try to help us continue to think.

But I think we have questions like okay leaving consumerism leaving how we approach that and how we know about things if I see an advertisement or whatever we're going to talk more about that but I don't want my neighbor's wife I don't want my neighbor's husband I just want my husband to be more like that is that covetousness so what we're going to do is I have eight tests eight questions for us to ask ourselves to try to identify covetousness in our hearts some of them are similar to other ones some of them are different it's just trying to come at this from different angles to try to say hey.

If this matters to God and if it's something that happens internally and I won't always have external evidence of it how do I know if I'm coveting first test are you Desiring something that is not yours to desire this one's pretty straightforward but wherever there is scarcity meaning some limited resources you could actually say no I don't just want my husband to be like that I want Carl I want Tina that's coveting it's clear straightforward I actually don't just want a house like that I want that house and I'm longing.

For that house and I'm trying to work my situation such that I could eventually have that house I want that job so I want to get this person out of the job so I can have that job that's coveting that's specifically what he is talking about very clearly here this happens when on a small scale when one of my children is holding a popsicle and the other kid immediately wants a popsicle as you do and then the one with the popsicle says oh this is the last popsicle.

And so now I I went from new watch a child go from wanting a popsicle to wanting that popsicle and so when that is happening that's covetousness and so it's one of the first questions to ask do I want that specific one that I would take it that I would get it from that person that I'm going to Crave it desire it second test are you willing to sin to obtain your desire I think if you would consider this for a moment you'll.

See that covetousness is actually behind much of the Ten Commandments then it happens first when you commit adultery you have first desired your neighbor's spouse we see in Joshua 7 21 and Micah 2 2 and in the story of Adam and Eve that they first desired a thing and then took it so they coveted something that was not theirs to covet they belonged to someone else and then they took it so that covetousness is behind theft and other types of Disobedience to.

God James 4 2 says you desire and do not have so you murder you covet and cannot obtain so you fight and quarrel so that covetousness shows up in our actions so let's say if we spent this past week realizing that there are things that you lie about you slander people and you need to work on this one of the things you need to do is not just go I shouldn't lie I shouldn't lie about people but actually go why am I doing that in the.

First place and go a level deeper and begin to repent of your covetousness that you wanted this thing so bad you were willing to sin to have it one of the things they look for in a lot of crimes is motive and I honestly think if you're watching those kind of shows one of the things you could replace that with is just what type of covetousness was present prior to this crime being committed was it Financial was it relational was there adultery.

And then murder that sort of thing so are you willing to sin to obtain it and I think it's worth understanding that even in the small ways that we sin maybe you haven't committed murder but in the ways that you walk around angry at your neighbor that you might understand there's something underneath that third do you believe stuff equals The Good Life if you don't welcome to the United States we'll catch you up Luke 12 15. Jesus teaching and someone in Middle from the crowd says.

Jesus tell my brother to share the inheritance with me Jesus responds to the whole crowd he responds to that guy but then he responds to the whole crowd and he said to them take care and be on your guard against all covetousness four which when you're studying your Bible pay attention to words like four and therefore or because it helps you understand four lot one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions I think this one is very helpful.

For our air fryer question is it wrong to own an air fryer I hope not I own one is it wrong for me to buy into the LIE that life is made better by stuff and that life is made up of stuff yes and I should be on guard against that but if we're honest that's what we're trained in if you could just have this new Gadget if you could just have this type of clothes if you could just have this thing life would be better life would be more full.

If you consider how we think about things when we hear that someone wins the lottery we're like ah take it to the good life you hear that someone got a a big promotion they're going to make a lot more money that's the life when you dream about your future is it just you with more stuff what are you what are you working towards it's like well in 10 years I'm on a boat well there's a good chance that you've believed a lie that stuff equals The Good Life that life consists in the abundance of possessions this is what advertising does what it tries to convince you of a lot of products.

If you'll pay attention to the advertising it's not just saying some some of it does some of them says here's the problem and here's how our product fixes that problem but a lot of times the product just sells you on being a type of person or living a type of life this type of man wears this watch if you like skateboards you'll like Mountain Dew or whatever or if you like Mountain Dew you'll be cool enough to like skateboards their professionals are kind of confusing.

But they're selling you on some sort of like car commercials where it's just cool people riding around in the car I don't tell you anything about the car you just know cool people drive that car one of my favorite examples of this that has stuck with me forever I used to work at Sears selling appliances and so I'd be in the mall a good bed and I would take my lunch breaks he had like 20 minutes to walk down get some food go back and I would.

See people carrying Abercrombie and Fitch shopping bags like they went there and they bought stuff now I don't know if Abercrombie and Fitch is still cool but it was when I worked at Sears it's a clothing company that sold expensive cool clothing on their bag was a guy with no clothes on the top half of a naked guy and this is a clothing company if you buy their clothes you will be cool enough to not wear clothes I don't but it proves the point that what we're being sold on is this is a piece of the good life this is a piece of identity this is a piece of who you want to be this.

Is a piece of fulfillment and Jesus says be on guard against that and for us that means 24 7 being on guard against that because we are bombarded with that message so Maybe when you buy an air fryer it was absolutely covetousness maybe when you buy those shoes it was absolutely Covetous maybe when you hear the words come out of your mouth hey where'd you get that shirt it's a hundred percent covetousness and it's worth investigating and trying to figure out what's going on in your heart and what's happening in your belief system as far as where is life found four the next three come from Kevin Dion's book on the Ten Commandments I thought.

He worded them well I thought they were helpful tests and so the next three are from from Kevin to Young and the way he approached us in his book on the Ten Commandments number four are you preoccupied with accumulating more how do you spend your time how do you spend your downtime how do you spend the majority of your time what do you daydream about I think we'll find that there are times when we say I'd love to help I'd love to be able to hang out with our community group I'd love to be there on Sundays.

But too busy I think it's always worth asking too busy with what what does your life look like what are you preoccupied with in the parable of the sower Jesus says there's a sower that goes out and sows the word and there's one where it believes the word and it begins to grow and then it says the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of richers choke the word out so that it is unfruitful and some of you maybe are Christians and you've believed in.

Jesus but you've bought into the lie you're preoccupied with accumulating more and that's what your time goes to it's what your energy goes to what do you what do you spend your time doing what gets the bulk of your energy I understand Bible says that work is good and that we're to pay our own way and that we're to be busy all those things are fine but is that all you care about is that all you work on I think asking the question what do you daydream about is a good question is it just you and the future with more stuff sometimes it gets real specific you just daydream about how cool it would be.

To own a motorcycle and yeah we daydream about some stupid stuff sometimes I have sat around thinking about how great it would be to own a shed and you're like that's a sad little wife yeah that sounds pretty sad just to be like pumped about owning a shed but there are certain things that we'll sit and think man it wouldn't be great if I had this one if I did this if I could and so are we preoccupied with um accumulating more can you not rest can't Sabbath can't take a day off you got.

So much to do because your whole life is built around getting more fifth test do you lack generosity are you unwilling to give up what you already have this is an indication that you may be struggling with covetousness that you believe that life is made up in the abundance of possessions and so therefore anything that takes anything away from you robs you of the point of life robs you of life and therefore any amount of generosity is hard hurtful frustrating you guard your money.

Because your money equates to fullness life Delight Joy I think sometimes we say things like I would I would I'd love to give to that I'd love to get in a place where I could be generous but my budget's just too tight and so I think if that's you take a look at your budget because it'll tell you what you care about we make room for stuff I in general we're taught to make this much money and make your budget here often we make our budget here.

Therefore we actually spend up here but as Christians we should make this much money and make our budget here and if we start making more money our budget can go up some maybe but maybe what we give also grows exponentially that we get to be generous and so if you can't be generous there's a good chance that you believe and I'm not saying if you make very little money and you're fine but I everybody can find ways to be generous in some form or fashion.

And so if that doesn't ever happen for you and you've said this for years if I could just get to there but you've actually gotten a promotion you've actually begun to make a little more money you've actually both of y'all are working now or whatever and it still hasn't happened there's a good chance you struggle with covetousness number six do you Grumble and complain about life do you say must be nice a lot I must be nice this is where I think I don't actually want to marry that guy I just want my guy to be more like that guy I think that shows up here I just wish that my wife cooked like that.

Or would go get a job like that I wish that my husband would treat the kids like that or would fix things instead of breaking things or whatever what we often do when we're doing that is we compare somebody else's best qualities with somebody else's worst qualities but do you find that you complain a lot you Grumble a lot I wish I had that car everybody else gets to have this kind of thing everybody else gets to do one of these like you spend time on Facebook.

And then you're just frustrated everybody else gets to go on vacation everybody else gets to smile in pictures everybody else smile looks good in pictures I wish I had those parents I wish I had that hair as if life not lamenting sin not lamenting the Brokenness in the world but lamenting your lot in life as if you're owed more and that everybody else is succeeding around you and you're the only one as if if you had those things that would fix what what's going on in your heart.

So do you Grumble and complain I think this is where the TV show HGTV comes in or the channel I think you can watch that you can learn things it can be just whatever so I'm but I also think that you can watch HGTV and then hate your own house go to someone else's house ever been to someone else's house and it's nice and you walk around and go this is nice wow and then you go back to your house and you go what a dump have you ever been mad at the amount of bathrooms your house had like more people need to go to the bathroom in my house at one time or your.

Functional perfectly functional bathroom now doesn't have the things that it should have to make it feel like a special fancy like this that's this is this I I now have created a desire a want a frustration and I'm grumbling and complaining and no longer content this next one goes with it number seven does the joy of others make you discontent you ever been just having like a normal day and then someone else comes and has a happy day next to you.

So your day is now worse you ever been enjoying a meal eating with some people but there's that table that won't stop laughing and having more fun than you and so now your meal is worse I my sons showed me this stuff periodically and I can see it clearly in them but it helps me see it more in myself but I know there have been times where one of my sons has to go to school wakes up normal day rocking along going to school.

Then suddenly discovers that his brother does not have to go to school whoa whoa his day is now worse he's going to do the exact same stuff but somewhere out there his brother is not suffering also and now things are worse but we do that something that actually has no effect on our life whatsoever but they have a new car they got to go on a vacation they got a promotion you're hanging out with your community group someone announces something you're like oh that's.

So good you but then you get in your car and you're like why God why is it always them never me and so someone else's Joy rather than you getting to be included in the joy makes life worse that's covetousness that someone else is getting married someone else is having kids someone else got a job someone else gets a vacation and therefore your life is worse but that's not actually how it works and the truth is if we can learn to do what Paul says which is to Rejoice with those who Rejoice you can actually increase your joy by getting to share in the joy of others.

So to tell my sons if you'll learn how to have all your own victories and then share in your brothers you'll get double the victories if you learn how to rejoice when he rejoices in your community group if you learn how to genuinely rejoice when other people rejoice but so often it happens the other way because of covetousness number eight test does what you desire make God-sized promises to you okay there are certain claims promises that only God can deliver on hope true Delight satisfaction salvation fixing what's wrong with you.

But then there are things that promise to do that for us this is idolatry this is this is Paul talking about this he does it in Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3 Ephesians 5 for you may be sure of this that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is Covetous that is an idolater has no inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God for Colossians 3 5 put to death therefore what is Earthly in you sexual immorality impurity passion evil desire and covetousness which is idolatry.

So in the Ten Commandments the first one was you will have no other gods before me and the second was you will make no Idols you have no graven images you'll have nothing that you look to and worship and long for and then Paul is saying that's exactly what covetousness is and that makes a lot of sense that's why we'd sin to get it if I if you're willing to sin to get something it's actually because you believe that it will satisfy you in a way that Christ can't.

So it's worth disobeying him it's worth running from him it's worth doing something that you know he says is out of bounds because you really want this thing that's idolatry it'll bring me more joy it'll bring me more hope it will fill me up I'll be satisfied so what in your life do you say if I could just have blank everything would be fixed if I could just get this job I could just make this much money one of the scariest ones.

If I could just get married oh Lord help your future spouse because you need them to be Jesus and they are not if I could just have kids oh Lord help your kids you need them to fix what's wrong with you you need them to satisfy bring you hope and this isn't just struggling in life and saying Lord help provide I'd love to get another job and trusting in Him in the midst of it that's what Jesus prays in the garden he says.

If if this can happen but I trust you but idolatry is I just need this I don't need you and if you won't let me have this then I'll get rid of you so I can have it I'll sin to get it I'll chase after it no matter what you're you're the one who's disposable if you'll serve my real God I'll follow you but if you won't serve my real God I'm out this is why you'll sleep with your boyfriend it's where your real.

God is this is why you'll embezzle or steal or lie or whatever is because this is the real thing I want and as long as God's lined up and helping me have the kids I want to have then great but if God won't give them to me then I'm over here this is why often when we get the thing we don't need God anymore we've got the thing we wanted it's idolatry and it can be seen easily at times sometimes we have little ones actually I love this tweet.

Because it just resonates with me so well this is a tweet in 1998 I begged my mom to buy Me jinko jeans she agreed but only on the condition we do a photo shoot to prove to My Future Self how stupid I looked Look Who's laughing now Mom I love this I'm gonna move out of y'all's way so y'all can appreciate jinkos now some of you are like what on Earth is a jinko gene it could be bell bottoms it could be a perm it could be a type of car it could be a type of jacket we've all done this.

If I could have this thing y'all when I was in Middle School I died just the top of my head White why not your whole head you ask I don't know I was in Middle School and it was awesome for like a week I was like nailed it and then I had to keep looking at myself and I was like this is stupid but your hair doesn't grow that fast you just have to deal with it you know eventually I had those little frosted tips you know this is a clear example of.

If I could have this thing be all we hadn't stopped since middle school some of us have just picked a bigger one if you'd actually think back through your life there's 10 things you've already gotten and they just didn't do it so you quit daydreaming about them you quit putting your hope in them and you just picked a new thing to put your hope in and that's covetousness and that's idolatry those are our eight tests and I think if you take the time to consider them they will help you figure out what is going on what it is that you truly are chasing after and whether or not you were walking in covetousness.

But here's the wonderful thing this commandment I said at the beginning it's kind of terrifying because God's looking inside of you and saying this is a problem too but y'all that's wonderful if the Ten Commandments were all only things that we did rules about things that you're not supposed to do that mess up society that would be good and helpful but when he puts this one in here he does something in the tenth and in the first that tie together and the.

First he says you'll have no other gods before me and when he talks about idolatry in the second one he says he's a jealous God meaning that he desires our affection and when he gets to this one he says I care about your heart you should look at the Ten Commandments tenth commandment and no that Jesus loves you that God loves you you that he cares about what is happening inside of you you know I care about my children's Behavior that they don't make my house a terrible place to live.

But yeah I care about what's going on inside of them I care about their heart I care about their relating to me to their mom to each other and when God puts this in here the Ten Commandments go from don't mess up the nation I'm building to oh no no no no no it's so much more than that because we would look at this as Americans and go okay I understand why covetousness is bad down the line I understand how it can tear things up later.

If I steal or I murder or whatever but just what's going on inside of me is my own business this is a victimless crime and God says no you're the victim of your own sin and your own Brokenness and you're robbing yourself of joy and delight and you're robbing yourself of me and I won't have it and we know he won't have it we know he cares this much about our hearts not just because he gives us the tenth commandment.

Because Jesus comes to Earth to die to claim us pay for our sins certainly but because he loves us and wants us to belong to him forever he doesn't just come and say I'm going to pay for your sin so that you won't be sinful and you'll quit annoying me and you'll quit messing things up he comes and says I'm going to pay for your sins so that you can belong to me forever so you can be adopted in so you can be my cherished possession.

So that as Paul says who loved me and gave himself up for me this is wonderful and in Christ we have hope that he redeems sinful broken Wicked Ten Commandment breaking Rebels and he does it because he loves us and cherishes us and is unwilling that we would love something else but that we would know fully who he is and how wonderful he is so the hope of finding out are we Covetous is not so that we'll quit being bad.

So that we might Delight in Jesus who is the only one in whom we will ever find satisfaction salvation and Delight that we might clear out the Clutter so we can have more of Christ it's worth it because he's worth it and because he loves us enough to take our hearts and claim them let's pray Lord we pray that we would not covet they would help us to see it in ourselves that we would repent of it that we would cherish you above all else that you would be our highest affection.

Because only in you what we find satisfaction and Delight we ask that your Holy Spirit would be at work in us right now to help us to begin to see this that you'd help us to grow and fight against be on guard against all covetousness so that we might know that life is found in you in Jesus name amen the band's going to come back up in a moment we're going to sing and we're going to take communion communion is a celebration a practice of the Church to.

Remember physically remind ourselves and physically Proclaim that Jesus died to save Sinners to Proclaim his death until he comes and so if you are a Christian communion is for you to partake in in Repentance and faith so that you would take a moment to consider what Christ has done for you the cost of your faith and that you might repent that you might come to him once again saying I need you I need you to work in my heart I need you to claim my heart I need you to keep me you.

But I have you but I get to par take in your salvation so we partake and it's a physical thing that reminds you that you feel the reality of what he's accomplished for us if you are not a Christian communion is not for you but Christ is Christians to celebrate what Christ has done just as baptism is and we would invite you to come to him and say I need you to save me I need you to change my heart because I'm on I want you could follow all the Ten Commandments to the best of your ability you would still fall short and you would still not fix what is going on in you.

You would still miss the point which is that Christ is good and he redeems sinners so may you come to him and ask for forgiveness and ask for Grace and trust in him today so take a moment where you are to consider ask the Lord to help you see where you are Covetous repent and then Delight in the sacrifice made on your behalf.

The Ninth Commandment (Exodus 20:16)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

The Ninth Commandment

Chet Phillips

The Eighth Commandment (Exodus 20:15)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

The Eighth Commandment

Spencer Cary

The Seventh Commandment (Exodus 20:14)

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Unfortunately, we had technical difficulties with this week’s sermon and none of the audio was recorded. If you questions about the content of the seventh commandment as you prepare for group meeting time this week, email spencer@millcitycayce.com.

The Sixth Commandment (Exodus 20:13)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

The Fifth Commandment (Exodus 20:12)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

The Fifth Commandment (Exodus 20:12)

Chet Phillips

Transcript

My name is Chet I'm one of the pastors here grab a bobble and go to Exodus chapter 20. if you have one of these blue baubles in the seat in front of you it'll be page 35 we are back in the book of Exodus we took a few weeks off around Easter but we are working our way through Exodus and we've slowed down some as we've hit the lawn we've been working our way through the Ten Commandments and we have covered the.

First four and the first four Commandments to deal with our relationship to God who he is who we are how we're to relate to him how we're to worship him and that the last six Commandments deal with our relationship with each other so it's there's a vertical aspect of the Ten Commandments and there's this horizontal relational aspect of the Ten Commandments and we are in the fifth commandment today when Jesus is asked what is the greatest commandment he says love the.

Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind with all your strength and he says in the second is like it that you would love your neighbor as yourself on these two hang all the law and the law grows out of the Ten Commandments and the Ten Commandments is structured in that way the first four to love the Lord our God and the last six are to love our neighbor and how to do that so let's read it's the Exodus chapter 20.

Verse 12. honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you I'm gonna read that one more time honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you uh Lord uh let's pray together um Lord we we're thankful for the way you designed the world to work we're thankful for the way you designed families to work I know as we read this that there's much difficulty um in how did we apply this how do we live this out there's much pain in these relationships there's a lot of joy in.

These relationships and so Lord we just pray that you would help us to listen well to your word this morning grow together as we seek to submit to you and to have the blessing that comes with honoring our fathers and mothers in Jesus name amen um so we said when we first started off looking at the Ten Commandments that there are different moral foundations for uh how are we to understand what is right and what is wrong and we said that there was a book called The Righteous Mind whereas a guy who's doing clinical psychologist who was just studying this he was studying the psychology of morality and he came up with categories and we.

Said that those categories were helpful and that you see them in the Bible although they're not listed out that way in the Bible and that in general God has all the categories and then cultures focus on highlight different ones and so we showed you this chart this is Western cultures the cultures that we're in right now the categories are at the bottom care and harm fairness loyalty Authority and sanctity but we're primarily versed in trained in we know all the lyrics to care and harm and fairness we we are concerned with Justice with Equity we're concerned with does everybody get a fair shake these are things that we discuss does everybody have an equal opportunity.

These are things that we are worried about and we are worried about harming someone we know that that's immoral to harm someone we say do whatever you want as long as it doesn't hurt someone like we we're practiced in this but this commandment rests in authority which in general we're pretty low in if I was actually to to ask you or ask the average American to list off what are the dangers that come along with authority what are the things that are immoral and wrong that go along with authority most of us would turn this direction and talk about the abuse of authority that those who are in authority lorded over others those who are.

In Authority abuse their Authority that people are oppressed because of authority you would not have many people who would turn this direction and go the rejection of good authority is harmful we need more Authority and we need more submission to Authority imagine for a moment that you are at a child's birthday party for some of you this is not difficult to imagine you've been to four this month you raise your children and then you hang out with their friends on the weekend.

But imagine you're at a child's birthday party and you see a mother and she's wearing a shirt that says raise them kind yeah that's good that's a good way to raise your children uh uh no problem with that that's a general good concept like raise some kind you might think that's a little bold to think you need to wear that like you got to coach up all the other parents let's see how kind your kid's being but then that's just because you're a little aggressive and have some problems that's fine.

But in general it's a good statement nothing wrong with that t-shirt it's a good idea we should raise your children kind but imagine you're at the party and and that's not what her shirt says her shirt says raise them obedient now immediately we're like hmm I know that's not a mass-produced shirt so you went out of your way to make it um obedient how obedient to whom obedient why obedient all the time like we have honestly the shirt could say overthrow the government and we would give that less thought than raise them obedient and that tells you something about our culture and about our approach to understanding respecting and valuing good authority.

Because the Bible is not anti-authority it's anti-bat Authority but it's pro-good Authority it just bad things are bad and good things are good which isn't super insightful so we need to understand what what is good authority and why has God designed it this way so as we study this I think the first thing we need to see it says honor your father and your mother I think the first thing we have to ask is what does the word honor mean what is that word.

Well the word is coved and it means heavy or weighty there are a few times where it's used that way like in Genesis somebody's eyes are conveyed with age which means heavy with age they can't see well there's in Sodom gomor their sin is described as conveyed and it's translated Grievous but mostly this word is used to mean Glory honor it's mostly used the way we're supposed to treat God that we're supposed to honor God we're supposed to respect God we're supposed to approach him that he holds the weight I don't know.

If you've ever been in situations where you could tell that the room tilted to one person they were the weighty person at the table they were the weighty person in decision making people would discuss things but then they would all look to one person to like you're the person who's actually going to decide this and that's what's meant to happen with parents that they're to have weight that they're to have Glory and if that's the word that's primarily used for how we're to treat.

God you have to understand that this is learned in your relationship with your parents that they're the they set the framework they're the first people you know they're your primary relationship they set the framework for how is this ultimately going to translate into the rest of life and how's this ultimately going to translate into worshiping the Lord the second part of this that's what honor means that weightiness would shift to them I think we do need to acknowledge that in much of our culture and much of our relationships we flip this and that our children hold a lot of weight a lot of families are built around what did the kids want what do they.

Want to watch what do they want to eat what do they want to do with their time what are the kids doing our whole culture has shifted towards youth culture we are not a culture that reveres elderly people when we ought to and the Bible calls us to that but we're not a culture that does that we argue that they you know got to move out of the way make room for the next big thing we in our consumeristic culture we aim everything at like 15 to 25 year olds.

And so we have some work to do to try to learn how to apply this but the second part of this is that there's a promise it says honor your father and your mother that the days that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you and that's not just the I brought you into this world I'll snatch you out of it God's saying something more here Ephesians 6 when Paul was writing about this he says children obey your parents in the.

Lord meaning this is a Godly thing to do even as Christians we anchor it in Christ for this is right honor your father and your mother this is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land there's a promise attached to this commandment and it's not simply a one-to-one promise it is generally true for each child if they learn how to do this it blesses them it helps them live long in the land it helps life go.

Well with them but it's not a specific one-to-one promise it's not like if you meet someone who's a hundred that means definitively they were excellent at obeying or if someone's life Is tragically cut short that we can be like well I guess you didn't eat all your peas at home when you're it's not how that works it's not a direct one-to-one thing it's a promise to the nation that's why he says in the land that the Lord your God is giving you that this is a blessing to the people and that makes a lot of sense your initial primary relationship is to your parents it is where you learn what relationships are like.

And so it's a Proving Ground a practice ground for what this should look like and it's bad for society when children do not learn how to respect the authority of their parents Augustine is an African Church father says if anyone fails to honor his parents is there anyone he will spare this is why it has a capital offense execution is applied in cases of rejection of authority of parents in Exodus in Leviticus and in Deuteronomy for cursing your parents striking your parents and long lifetime rejection and Rebellion against your parents all of those are capital offenses one of them actually says bring them together Stone them and let the community.

See and fear but it's not a far jump to understand that if we raise Sons who don't learn to respect authority if we raise sons who don't learn how to understand where boundaries are specifically mothers if you raise sons that don't have to listen to you and they never learn to follow a boundary set by another lady it's not a far jump to understand how that translates into society and so this is the place where we are to learn to live in relationships and there's a promise of blessing.

When we do this well that the the nation is blessed Kevin De Young Who out quite a few times because he wrote he's a pastor and wrote a book on the Ten Commandments and I thought some of his Insight was helpful he said is it not too much to say that loving your neighbor begins with Mom and Dad I think that's helpful to understand why this matters so we're going to ask three questions today we're gonna try to answer three questions.

Today how do we honor our parents how do we raise children to honor us and what do we do when our parents are dishonorable how do we honor our parents how do we raise our children to honor us and what do we do when our parents are dishonorable okay first question how do we honor our parents John Calvin says that this word honor includes three things and I think they're helpful for trying to break it out a little bit reverence obedience and gratitude.

So good handles on what should honor look like reverence obedience and gratitude reverence you show them respect you show them deference he treats them the way you would treat think of someone that like if you met the president how would you act that's the weight that's supposed to shift towards your parents some some sincere genuine honor glory weightiness reverence it means that we should watch how you speak to your parents there should be yes sirs and yes ma'ams there should be uh you shouldn't cut them off.

When they're talking you shouldn't disregard what they say you shouldn't roll your eyes you should stop and let them speak you should hear them out it should be genuine respect in how we speak to and interact with our parents you should watch how you speak not only to your parents but about your parents some of us are in a habit of dissecting our parents belittling our parents speaking ill of our parents and it's dishonoring and we need to be careful that we honor our parents there to be treated with reverence my granddad was a missionary in Nigeria and he I was at his house.

For Christmas and somebody came by and he said when did they get here I was like I think they've been here as one of my cousins and he said I miss Nigeria and I was like why he said you didn't go to a house without first presenting yourself to the Baba and you didn't leave a house without presenting yourself to the Baba and he's like I don't like people just being in my house they need to come present themselves to me and culturally we don't have a lot of that.

But we need to figure out as Christians how to how to build in respect and deference to our parents so reverence obedience do what they tell you to do this is specifically most clear for the children that live at home with your parents right now when they ask you questions like will you sweep it's not really a question you just say yes not no thank you when they say go do this you go do it it shouldn't be a labored discussion you should obey and you should obey.

When you're asked to do something yes ma'am yes sir you should um no huffing no stomping no eye rolling no groaning it shouldn't be hey I need you to go do this and you go foreign that's irreverent dishonoring you are to obey now immediate American question is what are the limits on obedience what if I'm getting older what are the like how much do I obey that's great for I'm glad you said that to my kids but me obey I'm older how do I do that in relation to my parents I will say I think Kevin young has a helpful Point here.

So I'm going to read his quote he said parents should not expect the same obedience from grown children as they did when their children were young so for those of you who have grown children you can't call them up and say hey my pastor said obey your parents clean your room quit that job I hate break up with that person I dislike and come back here like you can't it's not going to be exactly that he says we see a Divine Design in Genesis that.

Jesus later reiterates in Matthew 19. a man will leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and the two will become one flesh there is a making of your own household that loosens the obedience but you still have to operate in the honor category and I will submit to you that because that is often our first question it is not something we are in drastic danger of what I mean is I don't think there's many people in this room who have become adults and think I just got to learn how to not immediately directly obey everything my parents tell me to do that's the thing I have a problem with I would submit.

To you that you actually need to begin heading in the other direction and start showing more honor and obedience to your adult parents in a gracious way because we don't celebrate that culturally but there is a need for some of that even as you are older in a way to show deference and honor to your parents it's difficult should be carried out with wisdom but it is a way to honor our parents even as we grow older and as they grow older.

Third one gratitude be thankful y'all I have two sons and I'm not exaggerating that I have literally not figuratively saved their lives thousands of times sometimes multiple times in the same day should I wear a cape probably but this is parenting you are here because your parents literally not figuratively saved your lives thousands of times mostly what your parents did we're going to talk about some mistakes and some sins we'll talk about that in a little while but for most of us mostly what your parents did just try their best feed you clothe you help you go to school sought to help you succeed in life gave you counsel that you disliked.

Because they like you told you things you did not want to hear because they love you mostly what your parents did was lose their hair give up their waistline give up their money give up their time so that you could exist as a real person in the world and they need to be told thank you they need to be treated with some appreciation and gratitude and for those of you who live at home with your parents everybody can make a phone call.

Today everybody can set up a meal everybody can just say how I want to talk a little bit I want to check in and see how things are going everybody can do that potentially but for those of you who live at home with your parents you will have multiple opportunities this very day to say thank you because I'm willing to bet that your parents go out of their way quite often to help your life be better it's quite possible when you get home there will be food there will be some clothes there will be parents they're genuinely trying to help you enjoy life and succeed in life and there will be many opportunities.

For you to just say thank you they fix a meal that you don't like well guess what they still fed you so you don't have to say I don't like this meal you can say thank you for cooking yeah you can show gratitude for the care that has offered you and we ought to so how do we honor our parents reverence obedience and gratitude next question how do we raise our children to honor us if your children are going to obey their parents.

If they're going to honor their parents they're going to be taught to do this by their parents because you teach them everything you do this all the time and so you have to understand that this is a thing that you ought to be teaching them for their good the reason you do this is not because they will annoy you if you don't that's just a perk it's not the reason the reason you do this is because you want them to to live.

Well and long in the land you want them to have joy you want them to have life that's the whole thing that you're doing all the time with your children is you're working for their good and so this has to be added as a category of a thing that you're going to help them do and we're not set up well as Americans to do this because the wielding of authority makes you feel uncomfortable potentially there's a potential for you to feel like I just feel.

So bossy I feel so demanding I feel like I'm just in my child's way we've been trained by our culture that what your job as a parent to do is to help your child blossom into the person they're going to be help them find themselves almost in some ways they're perfect on their own you just kind of get out of their way we're taught that your parents mess you up they don't help you y'all we're Christians we know that's nonsense if your child figures out who they are on their own we know what that is a sinner.

Look at little Timmy he's blossomed into a real jerk well I'm glad God gave him some parents somebody needs to help him out because on their own they're not just going to find every good and perfect way that God has designed for them to be some good authority in their life and so you need to understand that this is one of the roles that you occupy and you do this naturally with other things you're you're doing this all the time with your children you're helping them know what is right and what is wrong what is good and what is not and you need to understand that part of that is that they would honor.

Respect you and that's not prideful it's good for them so this is how we oh I want there's four C's we're gonna talk about I'm going to say them to you quickly and then we'll get into running through them fairly quickly as well you need consistency this is four keys to helpfully trying to train your children to honor and to respect to obey consistency correction consequences and celebration the last one could be reward but then it wouldn't be four C's so you're welcome four C's all right here's what we often do in parenting this is what parenting should.

Look like sorry Freedom should increase with age when your children are little when they're first born they have no choices whatsoever the older they get they should have more choices but two and three and four-year-olds should have very limited choices do you want to go to bed now or do you want to read a book first and then go to bed do you want to eat green beans or corn these are do you want this haircut or this haircut you want me to tighten it up or shave it all off those are the choices I give my sons like what you got some limited choices sometimes they have no choices at all eat this I.

Don't like this no that's incorrect you're supposed to say thank you sometimes they have no choices I give this choice to my children quite a lot when we went out to restaurants I would say you can calm down and eat your food with a good attitude or we can go outside I will spank you and then we will come back inside and you will calm down and eat your food with a good attitude which would you like to do and I had someone tell me one time we left and they said that was really manipulative and I said no it was not those were his actual choices he had no.

Third option and I'm trying to help him learn how to choose well but over time we increase the freedom The Hope being that when it's time to leave our house they're ready they know how to make choices we've helped get them there we've helped them think through that but here's what happens quite often is this chart we start off no rules let them just figure it out because a defiant three-year-old is cute they're a rascal a defiant little mischievous four-year-old in some way.

So many ways is precious because they can't they can't really harm you they can't really harm the people around them they can be aggravating and frustrating but you love them and so often as a parent you're just like oh well you know but the problem is at 10 11 12 13 14 those cute behaviors of rebellion and Defiance and disrespect are not cute they are dangerous and you freak out and you clamp down well then no phone no no you bring the hammer down and it doesn't go.

Well and your problem is not a new problem you say what is going on with them it's like this has been going on for 12 years so we don't want this chart if you're there by God's grace you can labor well but the Hope being that we would have the other chart so let's go through really quickly consistency all that means is do the same thing all the time all the time all the time isn't that tiring yes it is exhausting that you have to have the same rules all the time whether you are tired or they are tired whether you have eaten and whether they have eaten like these are these have to be.

The same all the time otherwise they don't know where the boundaries are it's a good way to make somebody psychotic you've got to have some good structure on this is what this looks like all the all the all the time I uh my when my oldest son was three and four I'd wake up in the morning stretch lace my shoes up because I was about to fight a three-year-old for 12 hours he was not easy there's a there's a quote from Jurassic Park.

When they're talking to the game warden and they ask are the Velociraptors smart and he goes oh they're smart and he looks at him and he says they were testing the fences for weaknesses systematically and they remember that was my four-year-old so the fence had to be there every day all the time and I would just look at him and go it hadn't moved like we're gonna you want to keep running into it it's the same thing but it has to stay.

So you need consistent correction you correct your children all the time you say things like no that's not green that's blue no that no that's not a cat that's a dog you you already all the time correcting your children one of the things you have to put in there is that you correct them on disrespect you say to them I have my oldest son at times will just come in hot with a question he'll start off with okay but why did I say stop I'll say try again I'm your daddy you want to talk to Ellis like that go.

For it or I'll say oh boy who are you talking to he'll say mama and I'll go okay no you ain't not like that sometimes I say who are you talking to and he'll go Ellis I'm gonna carry on but you're just correct you just said that's not no no that's not how you respond like I'm telling you I give my boys food and they'll say I don't like this and I'll say no that's incorrect that's not how you respond when someone gives you food.

Because you want people to feed you and you're dependent on other people to feed you what do you say when people give you food thank you there you go you nailed it and it's just correction because you expect that they're going to have to operate in a way because you're working towards their joy that you're going to train them up to understand how to live a life where there's Authority because I y'all your world is a fake little world where you have to mimic some of the real world things.

Because you're going to send them out into the real world if you don't train your children how to interact with people all the people in their life who do not love them will teach them and they will teach them by not being their friend they will teach them by being really mean to them every teacher they have will stare at them with this angry look every face they meet people won't want to watch I've explained to my boys before if you don't learn how to.

Listen to me your granddad won't take you fishing and he won't tell you he's not taking you fishing but he'll think Hmm should I take them fishing and then he'll think no because they're the most aggravating children in the world and he won't call you up and say this to you you just won't get invited and he loves you and I love you and I want you to get to go fishing so do what I'm telling you to you coach them up that's the whole point.

Okay consequences should be consistent consequences and celebration this is very simple good behavior should get good results and bad behavior should get bad results that's it and you just need to think through was this a good behavior how does it get a good result was this a bad behavior has a bad result and you have to do that all the time so the thing that I said about the restaurants that's true I've done that with both of my sons because I want us to be able to go eat at restaurants it's one of my wife and I favorite things.

If we get more disposable income we just eat more y'all but that's it and so I want to be able to eat at the restaurant and they'll terrorize me so if they throw a fit at a restaurant and I pick him up and take him outside and let him play in the grass guess who's going to throw a fit at the restaurant again because he got a reward if you've ever watched me taking a child out of a restaurant who was screaming they're already screaming I'm pinching their leg.

So that you can't see you just think he's throwing a fit on his own he is not enjoying the walk outside because I don't want him to think that this is a good thing to have happen I'll pinch his leg real hard but just enough to like us uncomfortable I'm not trying to harm him it's just got to be a negative consequence we get outside we talk often they get popped we bring them back I've done this I've ruined whole meals like this.

Because I don't want every meal ruined and I want them to learn this isn't a good behavior there's a there's a better one so there should be consequences and you should have them and know what they are you should have set ones your children should know what they are I was hanging out uh was one of the first times I ever met this guy who ends up he ended up joining our community group and his daughters were there and they were doing something he told them to stop and they said they kept on he looked at him and said do you want a consequence and they both went like this one no sir I didn't.

Know what the consequence was but they knew what the consequence was I asked him later he said sometimes he just uses the word consequence so it gives him time to make up what it's going to be which I thought was brilliant he doesn't like signing himself up for something he's going to have to stick to in the moment so he just says consequence and he'll figure it out later but they knew there was going to be one and that's all I'm saying is you've got to figure out real consequences that actually translate help them understand that's the whole point.

Because there are real life consequences to all the things they're going to do for example if I tell you to sit down and you don't sit down or if I tell you to come to me and you don't come to me there's going to be a consequence and I try to explain to my sons one day we're going to be in a parking lot and I'm going to say stop and if we haven't practiced this a thousand times in our house you're going to get hit by a truck and I don't want you to get hit by a truck.

So you're going to get hit a little bit at my house with my hand popped just a little so that there's a deterrent so that we don't ever get there and that's that's what I'm talking about and for you it may be time out for you it's just got to be real to them that's all right greater consequences for defiance and Rebellion if you saw your son I came in the other day I saw my younger son holding some of the sharpest tweezers I've ever seen in my entire life and he was near his brother's face I have no clue what they were doing.

But on the off chance it was eye surgery I walked in I saw that I went hey no you know sometimes you just make noises at your children because you don't have words or the words you have aren't good ones to shout foreign hands up put the tweezers down and to do that because the risk levels through the roof well I at one point had to explain to my wife I said hey I've realized something I'm going to have to crank up the intensity on some of the things with our children it's not.

Because I've lost my cool or I'm enraged it's because what they're doing needs to be met in their mind with the same amount of intensity because it's got the same amount of problems coming down the line one of my sons turns and yells at his mother no I am up out of my chair boy if you lost your mind because I want him to understand this same level of this is not okay I need them to do like this for just a.

Second and then we get to the next part which is celebration your house if it's going to have consistent correction and consequences it needs consistent celebration it needs to be a place of Joy that's what you want so good things need good results you need to celebrate I often after disciplining my children well then I'll hold them I say look I love you I want good things for you I'm not out to get you I want our home to be a happy place I'll tell them all the time after they get disciplined I say.

Look we're going back out there and we're reset this isn't going to hang over our head all day this is a fun place this is Joy here y'all if I I learned I used to look at my little babies and I'd be like you're gonna eat that food because they fight you over every little thing and then they would eat it and I would just stare at them like you turn right you're gonna eat the food and I realized that was.

So messed up it just did what I asked so they eat it and then I go good yeah yeah multiple occasions with my son I've said do you want to leave the restaurant go get spanked you want to calm down and eat your own food and they go calm down and eat my own food and I go that's how would it be I'm proud of you that's brilliant do that because it's the truth there ought to be times where you brag on your children make it a rule don't speak negatively about your children in front of your children speak positively about your children in front of your children brag on them to your spouse do.

You know what he did do you know how good he is you can watch them swell up when you're going to rehearse something with them rehearse what they're going to do that's good I'll put them in bed at night instead of just saying if you get out of bed again and run down the hall you're going to get popped what I'll say is hey you're going to do a really good job tonight you're going to lay in bed you're gonna calm down you're going to go to sleep we're gonna have an enjoyable night this is the moment that's going to end our night this hug you're not going to have to get bopped we're going.

To build in that direction but there should be celebration sometimes it's a high five sometimes it's a smile sometimes it's ice cream you pick sometimes it's an extra book at night or whatever sometimes it's uh they get to go on a trip if they're older kids you get to do I know most of my illustrations are I got all illustrations up to eight I'll get them more as I go over time but you think about it what's a real celebration what's a real way to honor this what's a real way.

Because y'all it's not bribery it's how the world works bad behavior gets bad results good behavior gets good results and you want to train that one last one I know we got a lot of parents with smaller children one of the rules at my house is if you pout or cry or throw a fit you don't get whatever you were pouting crying or throwing a fit for that's just simply that I don't want to train you that in order to be happy you have to be miserable it's a weird psychological thing.

So we just learned you can be okay without getting the thing you want and if you throw a fit for it you won't get it but those sort of rules you design your own they're your children they just should have consistent things because we love them and God has designed for them to have a family we have Isaac and Spencer worked really hard to get a road map for parenting that is designed off of the age of your children things you should be talking to them about things they should know about.

Jesus it's on our website you should use that you need all the help you can get we all do and you should help train your children to love you to respect and honor you both mother and father specifically to dads don't get in a situation where you may get a point of Pride that your children listen to you and they don't listen to their mother don't do that you help design a household where they listen to their mother as well because they're supposed to honor both their.

Father and mother and their needs training in them okay yeah what do we do when our parents are dishonorable God by Design on purpose made it to where your parents have great weight in your life and parents that's a that's a heavy weight you need to understand for your children he by design made it to where what you do and say matters and that's good when it's good and that's bad when it's bad it's like when you go to take a test and this one's 50 of your grade.

For the whole semester that's kind of how parenting works it's parents have a lot of impact on their children and so for some of us that means that there were things that our parents did for most of us there are things that our parents did that were hurtful stuck with us changed how we thought about ourselves changed how we understood our place in the world some in this room had truly genuinely horrific parents then when I was saying earlier that mostly what they did was care.

For you that that wasn't even true and I'm sorry because that was not God's good design but we live in a fallen world if that's on this end even as you come back this way all of us have things that our parents did that they said that they did and they responded our parents are sinners who made mistakes who had lapses of judgment for for many of you your parents might have had you when they were quite young and just figuring it out some of you might have had parents that weren't Christians or became Christians later in life some of us had parents who had addiction issues anxiety issues problems with how they treated.

Spoke to people like did we grew up in difficult situations so what do we do for those who are currently at home with parents like this or for when you're thinking through how you to understand obedience in those sort of situations I want to read as we first start looking at this I want to read a quote from Kevin De Young he says are there limits to honoring parents in a word yes Authority can be abused in Acts chapter 5 we.

See a principle that has to do with governments but also parents Church leadership and any other authority over us if the choice is between obeying God or obeying Men We obey God if you're com if your parents command you to do what God forbids or forbid what God commands you cannot and must not obey your parents I'm going to read that again if your parents command you to do what God forbids or forbid what God commands you cannot and must not obey your parents.

But even in those hopefully rare cases there's still a way to be respectful and honor your parents even if they are asking something of you that they don't have the authority to ask yes there is a limit to obedience but as we follow this command we are all called to honor to show respect which is extremely painful to consider in some cases and what I would like to submit to you is that you cannot do this outside of Christ but in Christ we can do something that is radically counter-cultural we can honor parents who do not deserve it which does not translate it is not a conclusion you will come to in our culture.

But it is a conclusion that we can come to and something that we can operate in as Christians in a way that is counter-culturally brings great glory to Christ displays the love of the father and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit you see often we are trained culturally to dissect our parents to play up their weaknesses and the things they did to harm us and to understand that those have changed us in an immutable way that we are forever marked by what they did.

But as Christians we understand that Christ changes us that he renews us that he covers not only the things that we've done but the things that have been done to us and that we get to be made new in light of his goodness and we do not have to be forever marked forever stained forever held captive to what has happened to us and that is a glorious reality in Christ and from that position of being renewed from the position of being adopted with a good.

Father who loves us the way a father ought to we get to do something that only can be done in Christ we get to prayerfully by the empowerment of the spirit extend forgiveness and Grace and honor and the reason that can only be done in Christ is because it can't be done in you can say all the time I just don't have the ability to do this and that's right I can't forgive them that's right not on your own not in your power and it can't be done in them.

Because they don't deserve it so if it's about you or if it's about them it won't work there's no way to do it but if it gets to be anchored in Christ the love of the Father the empowerment of the spirit then there gets to be Grace and forgiveness and by God's grace Lord willing some of us will get to lead our parents who deserve great condemnation we'll get to lead them to Christ Who Bore great condemnation so that Sinners could be justified and the only way to do that is in his goodness and in his grace.

And so by God's will and by his empowerment we can be people who honor our parents and raise children to honor us through the Gospel let's pray God we thank you for our parents we thank you for the role that you designed for them to play we thank you for all the moms and the dads in this room who have so often failed and so often succeeded we thank you for the role that you've given them we pray that they would take it seriously that they would walk in the grace that you provide we pray specifically.

Lord for those this morning who do not have a good relationship with their parents that you would help them to First have a good relationship with you that they would know the grace provided them in Christ that they would know the love of the father that they would know the comfort of the spirit and that they then then by the empowerment of the spirit might begin to work to learn how to walk this out in a difficult situation we love you and we praise you in.

Jesus name amen the band's going to come back up and we are going to sing together I know that some of you are in a difficult spot with your parents I know that some of you are in a difficult spot with your children and we would be happy as your pastors to help you think and help you pray and help you process so I would invite you to go on to our website to the care forum and fill it out and we can get something set up with you love y'all.

The Fourth Commandment (Exodus 20:8-11)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Due to a technical error the last minute of the sermon was not recorded. What was recorded is posted below.

The Fourth Commandment (Exodus 20:8-11)

Spencer Cary

Transcript

My name is Spencer I'm one of the pastors here so we are in Exodus chapter 20 verses 8 through 11. uh we are in the fourth Commandment as we continue to walk through Exodus and we're walking week by week through the Ten Commandments so you can go ahead and follow along the text we'll also be on the screen uh have you ever approached something that should have been fairly simple but the more you got into it it was incredibly complicated like you got the mechanics and the details of it it was just super super complex and complicated I read this story from back in the fall that the city of San Francisco as a homeless.

Crisis and they one of the problems with the homeless crisis in downtown San Francisco is that there are a lot of homeless people that are using the bathroom and the streets this kind of created an unsanitary situation so someone had a very good idea they said let's build a bathroom specifically let's build one toilet all right this this can it's not going to solve the problem but let's it'll it'll help we're gonna build one toilet so the reason this became national news is.

Because the cost came back on building the one toilet 1.7 million dollars for one toilet and people went what what why how does it cost 1.7 million dollars to build one toilet and it's because there's a crazy amount of red tape and regulations that made something that was so good and so simple so complex there's like a 300 000 architectural uh and Engineering fee there was a hundred and fifty thousand dollar construction management fee for someone to oversee the building of one toilet and you add up all these fees and it's 1.7 million dollars and more to the point that was in 2022 the fall the construction completion date would be 2025.

Because of all of the Committees it would have to go through to build one toilet because of all of the red tape something such a good thing and yet became so complicated and that is how it feels when I approached the fourth Commandment that's how it feels when you get into the fourth Commandment and the call to Sabbath rest out of all of The Commandments this is by far the most difficult to understand as a Christian I just want to read it and say do it the band's going to come up that's just that's just.

But you can't it's not it's not that simple and we're going to see some of the complexities that is built into this and it gets added on to this that makes this not as simple and straightforward as just reading the fourth command and doing it and it's not going to be as practical today we we're not going to give a lot of practical application on how to rest we did that in a series called the hammer and the hammock I would encourage you to go back.

Listen to that but we're also Sabbath is going to come back up and Exodus 31. so we're going to spend some more time on the Practical uh parts of rest but today we need to get into the why so I want to walk through this and some of the complicated parts of this and then at the end as much as possible I want to simplify why and help us see why the Sabbath was made why it is good and why we should engage in Sabbath rest.

So why this sabbath was made why it's good and why we should engage in Sabbath rest so let me read it we'll pray and we'll want this together verse 8 remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God on it you shall not do any work you or your son or your daughter your male servant or your female servant or your livestock or the Sojourner who is within your Gates.

For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth and the Sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy let me pray heavenly father I pray that you would help us understand your word that we would be able to listen that we'll be able to work through this and see something that is so good that you have given us and then live out your word in faith and live it out in Repentance and live it out and delighting in you through the rest that you provide we ask this in.

Jesus name amen all right so if I tasked you to take the Bible let's just say you've never read the Bible before start in Genesis read all the way through okay and I gave you the task of I want you to take note of when the word Sabbath is mentioned this idea of Sabbath rest I want you to take note of it I'm going to give you the quick kind of run through the Bible of what you would see you would.

See in Genesis 1 and 2 out right out the gate that God made the world in six days and he rested on the seventh the seventh and he gave us the Sabbath now that's not because God needed to rest God was not tired he didn't work make the universe in six days and went oh man I need this like our God is inexhaustible he is all powerful he did not need rest but he gave us the gift of Sabbath he modeled it and he invites us into it as you can.

See throughout the rest of the Scriptures so that's when Sabbath was made that you get two the fourth Commandment that's the next time that you see it and you see remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy Sabbath day is literally just day of rest a day of rest and keep it holy means don't work on the Sabbath not just you but the whole nation not you not your son not your daughter not your male servant not your female servant now your livestock not the Sojourner who is within your Gates the whole nation is going to cease from work and rest.

And then you keep reading and you get to Exodus 31 when this shows back up again in the book of Exodus and then you'd hear this you shall keep the Sabbath because it is Holy for you everyone who profanes it shall be put to death whoever does any work on it that Soul shall be cut off from among his people and then you see how serious the Sabbath is that that if you don't do this the command is you put to death that shows up again in Exodus 35.

This capital punishment linked to the Sabbath and then you read The Book of Leviticus and Leviticus is going to have more things to say about the Sabbath and some of the nuances of different Sabbath days and that you get to the book of numbers and the Book of Numbers you hear a story about a man who went out on the Sabbath to gather sticks he's working by gathering sticks he is caught they take counsel together and then they obey Exodus 31 and 35 and they put him to death.

Then you read and the Book of Deuteronomy where this is taught and reinforced yet again and then you watch the nation of Israel as they throughout the rest of their history in Seasons where they are uh not loving the Lord their God with all their heart with other Souls other might when they're chasing after other Idols they one of the key markers of disobedience is they give up the Sabbath and they work and you'd see in the book of Nehemiah a call to repentance to Sabbath you'd.

See a celebration of Sabbath keeping in the book of Isaiah you'd see a call to repentance in the book of Jeremiah for Sabbath profaning you'd see a call of condemnation for Sabbath profaning and Sabbath breaking in the Book of Ezekiel and you see throughout the Old Testament a consistent call to honor the Sabbath and keep it holy do not profane this this is bad it's clear when you read the Old Testament the people of God were not practicing the Sabbath they didn't know how once they learned they strayed and they did not practice the Sabbath it's very clear.

When you're in the Old Testament that is what happens and then you'd read through the Old Testament and you'd get to the New Testament and the first time you'd see the Sabbath is in the Gospel of Matthew and you would start to notice a tone change in the Gospel of Matthew and everything that follows in Matthew 12 Jesus and his disciples are walking through a grain field and the disciples begin to pluck the heads of grain and the Pharisees who are watching these are the religious leaders they say you're breaking the Sabbath you're profaning the Sabbath I mean in The Book of Numbers the man was stoned.

For collecting sticks you're breaking the Sabbath by collecting grain and Jesus says wrong and then he starts to combat them from the Scriptures and then he says this in verse six I tell you something greater than the temple is here and if you had known what this means I desire mercy and not sacrifice you would not have condemned the Guiltless for the son of man is Lord of the Sabbath and if you just read that the Old Testament and you read that story you might think uh was that.

Okay I mean the Sunday School answer is Jesus did it yes but is that okay like it I I don't know I just read a lot of things in the Old Testament like this is a really big deal but all of a sudden it's and then he doubles down on this and he starts healing people on the Sabbath intentionally in Luke 4 Luke 13 Luke 14 John 5 John 9 he starts intentionally healing people on the Sabbath to make a point about the Sabbath.

And then he fulfills the law perfectly and he dies on the cross for our sins and then he rises on Resurrection Sunday and ascends into heaven and the Church is left with okay what do we do with the fourth Commandment we just saw Jesus we we saw these teachings that he's done what do we do and if you read the rest of the New Testament there's only three really places that deal with this and the Book of Romans The Book of Romans is a letter that was written to a Church in Rome where there is clear Gentile and Jewish division and it shows up in a lot of different ways.

But one of them when you get to chapter 14 is you can see it's the Sabbath because Gentile Christians this would be Romans and Greeks and whomevers in the city who's not Jewish but they have no background in practicing the Sabbath that's the one thing that made Israel unique amongst all the nations everyone else worked every day that was that was normative the Sabbath was way different wait they take a whole day off and they don't work and then there's Jewish Christians in the Church of Rome who have Sabbath background and this is what Paul writes in Romans 14.

Verse 5 he says one person esteems one day and day there is Sabbath as better than another or another esteems all days alike each one should be fully convinced in his own mind the one who observes the day observes it in honor of the Lord and he says it's you should be convinced in your own mind is that a matter of conscience and then verse 10 you see some of the context here why do you pass judgment on your brother or you why do you despise your brother and it's clear from there that he's pushing on don't make this a matter of judgment or division amongst you don't do that.

And then in Colossians 2 he's writing to the Church Paul is writing a letter to the Church at colossae and he says therefore let no one pass judgment on you and questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon those are all Old Testament practices or a Sabbath huh and then he says these are a shadow of the things to come but the substance belongs to Christ and everything in the front end of that list makes a lot of sense we don't practice festivals anymore like these things that we don't those are part of the Old Testament law that was fulfilled.

But Sabbath too it's part of the Ten Commandments but is that that's a shadow of Christ who is to come and a shadow of the future rest that he offers and then you get what we read uh in our liturgy earlier you get Hebrews 3 and 4. and in Hebrews three and four the author of Hebrews is commenting and Expo and expositing psalm 95. and then as he's doing that he's pointing back to the nation of Israel of how they wandered in the wilderness.

For those 40 years after Exodus and that they are ultimately seeking to have rest in the promised land and that is a picture of the people of God that that are sojourners in this land waiting for the future rest that Jesus provides and that's it and if you look at the holy New Testament it's like if you're honest it feels a bit like whiplash that real seriously the Old Testament about this in the New Testament is a bit of a curve both and the question is why why does it feel like that that is the million dollar question in approaching the fourth Commandment as a new testament Christian why and are we still supposed to.

Do this as Christians I know we're not supposed to murder that's clear but are we still supposed to do this now there is a missing puzzle piece that we need and that missing puzzle piece is the period of time between when the Old Testament was written and when the New Testament is written and that is an essential puzzle piece that will help help us see why it feels a bit like Whiplash and it's during that period there are a lot of abuses that happened to the fourth Commandment.

So if you're going to understand why a single toilet took 1.7 million dollars to build like if you're going to understand and figure that out you got to go back through all everything that led to that all the red tape and regulations and everything that went into that that made such a good thing a headache and in the same way if you understand the fourth Commandment you got to see during this period of time between the old and the New Testament all of the red tape and regulations that got added on to the fourth Commandment that abused the fourth Commandment.

So that's what we need to see all right so where did all this red tape come from in this period this period is often called the inter-testamental period between the Old and New Testament it's also called second temple Judaism okay so the last of the Old Testament was written in the 6th Century BC and then you've got centuries that lead up to the coming of Christ and then uh when they receive when they in the sixth century as the temple is being rebuilt the people of.

God are realizing we we have made so many mistakes that led to the Judgment that God brought on the nation of Israel where the temple was destroyed and their centuries removed from when the law was given which when this when when Exodus is being written somewhere around 14th 13th BC Century BC so there's centuries that have passed and now they're looking at the law and they're they're seeing the the Old Testament now it says remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy six days you shall work.

But in the seventh you shall rest they look at Exodus 31 and it says you shall keep the Sabbath everyone who profanes it shall be put to death and they react and listen I little bit understand their reaction I want to be a little bit cheered about the reaction like what we we uh my wife and I we've LED groups for years we've been in uh groups for years and the past seven years our groups have had lots of children like upwards of 22 children at one point.

If everyone came that's a lot of children and you try to lead discussion with a lot of children like we in our in our uh downstairs is where we'd have discussion right above us was the playroom where all the kids were and you'd hear I mean just think this uh every now and then I just have to go up there guys open the door just about y'all are being too loud you need to quiet down and shut the door now imagine.

If I opened the door back up and said you are being too loud and that this continues you're gonna die and then close the door I went back downstairs I just if I was a seven-year-old I'd have some questions I'm sorry what Define loud what activities are considered too loud like what is quiet can you can we have a hall monitor outside that can determine like what the the level of loudness were being too loud also they'll serve as the sacrifice.

When you come up to kill someone like I just I'd have some questions and I understand a little bit when they open up the law again and they see how serious it is to where they want to go Define rest Define work what activities are considered work can we have a whole monitor to determine what is work and what is rest I understand that reaction of what the religious leaders were doing but man oh man they took that and ran with it and the most legalistic and burdensome Direction they developed an entire set of extra laws called the melacon laws 39 different categories of work that would profane the Sabbath and those categories had subcategories.

Like you'd have the category of planting and then within that category you'd have planting and harvesting and all the things that went into that and those subcategories you'd have all these different rules so much so that like during that time period climbing a tree was considered profaning the Sabbath why because if you accidentally broke a branch off and that Branch had fruit on that Branch you just harvested and you profane the Sabbath and they had hundreds of those extra laws I mean someone said that this the the melkat laws that were established during this period of time between the sixth century and the coming of.

Jesus like that it's still God's Orthodox Jews today I mean you cannot in Orthodox Judaism you cannot open an umbrella you cannot tear off a piece of toilet paper apply lotion blow up a balloon on the Sabbath when I went to Jerusalem years ago we were staying at a hotel we were up on one of the higher floors you could not push a button on the elevator because that was considered preventing the Sabbath which meant that you got on the elevator and every floor opened and it closed opened and closed open and closed which was super annoying.

If you had to be somewhere and any like that still exists that right there is the context of the coming of Christ all these different rules and red tape that you had to follow you had to make sure that you had to do everything perfectly and the Pharisees and the Sadducees these religious leaders were the hall monitors and they're looking and they're saying are you are you preventing the Sabbath are you preventing the Sabbath and made everyone paranoid about the fourth Commandment to where it was not restful it was a burden.

Now here's where they went wrong when they opened up the law and they started taking the Sabbath seriously again they misunderstood the context of how the Sabbath was given they misunderstood it misunderstood the fact that God created the Sabbath as a gift Genesis 1 2 makes that so clear this sabbath is good it is a gift for the people of God so that we might not just continue to work and work and work and then the people of God for centuries were slaves and they did not Sabbath.

For hundreds of years they worked and they worked and they worked and they worked and they worked for Pharaoh and they did not rest all they did was work and then God redeems them as we saw earlier in Exodus and he is aggressively trying to get their attention you are not a Slave you are not the sum of your production you matter more than that you will not work anymore you will not endlessly work anymore this will not be the pattern you will work six days and on the seventh you will rest.

Because you are not a slave and you belong to me and you will rest in me they miss them they missed the the aggressiveness and the severity was help it was it was meant to call them back into not being slaves but being the people of God but unfortunately the religious leaders took that out of context and ran with it and added all types of red tape and burdensome regulations and centuries leading out to the coming of Christ the people were burdened by the Sabbath they were burdened by it.

So it's clear when you look at the Old Testament the Old Testament is written to a people that do not practice the Sabbath the New Testament is written to a people they were forced to practice the Sabbath and do it in very Unholy ways and for centuries leading up to Jesus the people were feeling the weight of this burden and then Jesus does the most punk rock thing ever I mean he just Kicks Down the door and says I am the.

Lord of the Sabbath I'm the captain now I am the Lord of this you know why because I wrote the Sabbath loss that's Jesus wrote the Sabbath laws he gave them to Moses because he is God he knows what they what the intended meaning was is some people call authorial intent the intent of the author because he wrote it like right now we in the Southern Baptist convention we're Southern Baptist uh and then the Southern Baptist convention there's a bit of a controversy right.

Now which I know will shock you um based on our history but there is and I'm not going to get the details of it but what's happening a little bit right now is we have something called the Baptist faith and message Baptist Faith Message in the 2000 version it's kind of a guiding bit of a confession for us a binding set of beliefs that we have as Baptist and there are some Churches and some pastors who are looking at one part of that bad mistake the message they're saying ah just I don't I don't know about that I don't think that's what that I don't think that was what was intended.

When it was written and they're starting to stray from the Baptist Faith the message you know what's great the man who wrote the Baptist Faith Message is still alive that's my former president my Seminary Al Mohler he wrote it on behalf of Baptist and he's saying y'all I wrote this for y'all like I I I'm the author I know what was intended when I wrote it because I wrote it for you like at the last year's annual meeting he walked up the mic and went hey guys I'm here and he started to say I know what I meant like he started to explain you're taking this in the wrong direction.

Jesus walks up to the mic and the New Testament and goes I'm the lord of the Sabbath I wrote all of this I know the heart of the Sabbath and what you are practicing is not the heart of the Sabbath at all and that is the missing puzzle piece that we need to understand why the Old Testament feels very different than the New Testament Jesus was reclaiming the Sabbath from the religious Hall monitors and also he's taking a spear and just like right at the heart of the Pharisees and their self-righteous religiosity like they just the Sabbath was their way of being holy and holier than thou and he's just destroying it with every teaching.

And when you understand that you understand what the Old Testament New Testament feel different but still The Logical question that follows is okay but are we still supposed to obey the fourth Commandment that's helpful I can understand now while the old New Testament feel a little bit different but are we still called to obey the fourth Commandment and boy oh boy is that not is that not the question I mean I I have wrestled with this for years and then Monday I got reacquainted with all the arguments again and I just I Monday was not fun I just was like oh my goodness I forgot how unbelievably difficult this is to understand.

Because y'all and listen there are different approaches to the fourth Commandment now and we're shaped by different traditions and those approaches like some of y'all some of you all love the fact that Chick-fil-A is closed on Sunday God's chicken they honor the Lord they do not work on Sunday because Sunday is the Sabbath it's the Lord's Day and it is the new Sabbath whereas the Jews had Friday to Saturday night we now have Sunday and that is the Sabbath where we don't work some of y'all have that background that understanding of the Sabbath and you understand that's shaped by a tradition called sabbatarianism lots of different donations to practice that bad this Presbyterians Methodist.

But the idea is is that Sunday is the new Sabbath and one day a week the people of God worship and we rest and we obey the fourth Commandment still because the fourth Commandment still has moral Force just as the other non have moral Force so does this one and then there are others that go well I'm actually a little annoyed that Chick-fil-A is closed on Sunday because I really love Chick-fil-A and I miss some Chick-fil-A sauce I I like for it to be open on Sunday and the reason why is.

Because I think sabbatarians are wrong I think that God calls us to rest one day of week but that I mean the New Testament kind of pushes on the legalism of this like we don't have to have it on Sunday you just need to rest obey the Sabbath principle still there's some moral Force there but we don't have to be so dogmatic or legalistic about which day it is you just need to make sure that you're resting sure Sunday is a good day to do it.

But any day will work and therefore Chick-fil-A could be open and then there are others to go no no Jesus fulfilled the law and and Romans and Colossians 2 in Hebrews and Jesus is teaching on the Sabbath show that the Sabbath has been fulfilled in Christ it was a shadow of Christ that is to come in the future rest that he offers and I mean we need to rest still that's still something we need to do but it is not bound by a calendar at all and you do not have to do it one day a week and how you practice a Sabbath is a matter of conscience all three of those views all three.

Of them have scriptural support all three of them you can make arguments from the Bible it is incredibly complicated to understand the fourth Commandment so I'm not going to resolve a theological dispute where thousands millions of brothers and sisters who deeply love Jesus and know their Bibles well have disagreed on this for centuries I'm not going to resolve that for us and to be honest with you even within our eldership there's differing opinion on this but I do believe that we can arrive at the same set of functional beliefs I do believe we need sun guard rails I do believe that on one side you need guardrails to keep you from the pitfall of legalism.

Pharisaisms of being a Pharisee and all the problems that they were bringing into the Sabbath I think you need guard rails to keep you from that Pitfall and I think you also need guard rails to keep you from the pitfall of never resting at all so I have a statement that I think will be a helpful kind of guardrails that keep us on the center line together and that is this the Sabbath is a good gift that God has given us it is not meant to be a measuring stick.

For righteousness nor a wedge for division amongst his people a lifestyle that dismisses this gift is a faithless and sinful rejection of God's good design for human flourishing let me read that again the Sabbath is a good gift that God has given us it is not meant to be a measuring stick for righteousness nor a wedge for division amongst his people a lifestyle that dismisses this gift is a faithless and sinful rejection of God's good design for human flourishing so let me work through that in some in a few different chunks the Sabbath is a good gift that.

God has given us I think we can all can agree on that it is so clear from Genesis 1 and 2 that the Sabbath is a gift it is good to rest with the Lord and to rest in him it is a good gift that God has given us I mean Jesus in his rebuke of the Pharisees in mark 2. as he said to them the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath and that not man for the Sabbath is what we focus a lot on.

Because he's taken a shot at the Pharisees and the religious leadership and he said Don't You Realize by all of your regulations by all of your red tape by all of everything that you've added on to this that we're serving the Sabbath you misunderstand this but don't miss the part where he says the Sabbath was made for men the Sabbath was made for man it is a good gift that God has given us and that is why Jesus rests over and over and over again.

Jesus is fully God and fully man and in his Humanity he needs rest you see this all over we have a few examples but you see it all over the gospels in Mark 1 verse 35 isn't Rising very early in the morning while it was still dark he Jesus departed and went out to a desolate place and there he prayed that Jesus regularly rests and gets away from the crowds in the midst of his ministry and praise you see in Mark 6 it says the apostles.

Verse 30 the apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught this is after their missionary journey their side I want to tell Jesus everything that we've done then Jesus pause and says hey verse 31 and he said to them come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while I want to hear all about it but y'all are tired and you need to rest he's teaching them to rest in Mark 6 46 he says and after uh it says and after he had taken leave of them he went on the mountain to pray this happens over and over and over and over and over again.

Jesus gets away to rest the God man gets away to rest so whether you believe that the Sabbath still has moral force and it should be on Sunday every Sunday or you believe that it has some moral Force but you kind of there's some some freedom in choosing wind to rest or whether you think it's a more matter of conscience it has been fulfilled it lacks moral Force but we still should rest in general we can all get in the same page it is a good gift that.

God has given us and we should take it we forget that sometimes like last Saturday we we had a baseball son had a baseball game and it got canceled because of the rain and my wife and I like we just had the whole morning and afternoon off we just we're just we're so happy we needed it it's like oh man we need this rest is a good gift that God has given us next part of the statement says it's not meant to be a measuring stick.

For righteousness it is abundantly clear when you look at the New Testament that it is not a measuring stick for righteousness and that the Pharisees the religious leaders they were doing that they were using it as a measuring stick and they were dogmatic that it had to be down like this you had to perfectly make sure you check all the boxes and make sure that it's done exactly right and some of you may be the kind of person that is dogmatic about your Sabbath rest and wants to make sure that you check all the boxes got to make sure that everything got to make sure that that obey this fourth Commandment.

Well and that I rest well and if that's you you're in danger of being just like the Pharisees you're like a like you're like a bride who was planned every single part of her wedding every single detail has to be just like this and then the wedding day comes and she doesn't enjoy it at all because everything had to be so perfect that she misses the most important part of the wedding the person the man that she is marrying and the moment that she has with him.

And if you get dogmatic and legalistic about your Sabbath you'll miss the moment that you have with Christ don't do that don't do that the Sabbath was made for man do not make it a measuring stick for your own righteousness nor the next part of the statement a wedge for division amongst his people it is not meant to be a wedge of division at all but it's so clear from the New Testament go back to Romans 14 it says one person that seems one day as better than the other.

While another esteems all days alike each one should be convinced in his own mind that it goes on to say why do you pass judgment on your brother it was clearly not meant to be a wedge a division and the people of God they were clearly of different approaches and they don't don't do that do not make this a wedge of division amongst the people of God so all of us should look at that on whatever wherever you land on your understanding of the fourth Commandment and you should come to that conclusion I will not make this a wedge of division I will not be a hall monitor to make sure that people are doing.

This right there will be differences of opinions in our own Church and we will not make that an issue of disunity lastly a lifestyle that dismisses this gift is a faithless and sinful rejection of God's good design for human flourishing you may be a sabbatarian and didn't know it and then you think no every every Sunday is the Lord's day and that is the day in which we will rest and you may see the moral Force the fourth Commandment still so I don't need to convince you of that statement right there the group I need to convince of that statement right there are those that view it more as a matter of conscience that the.

Sabbath has been fulfilled by Christ you're the one that's more in danger of never resting so let me talk directly to you if that is where you land if that's you I've got some questions do you believe that the design of God was for you to endlessly work it never rests so much so that in a calendar month you could work every single day of the month do you believe that was the design of God for you does your body show that how's your body holding up over working and working and working and working and working are you getting sick are you getting muscle pains and spasms stomach aches headaches how's your body holding up.

If you're rarely resting and always always always working like you've got a career that you are working so hard for that you work every single day what makes you any different than the the Israelite slaves who served Pharaoh and never rested that you are serving and living for a career and working and working and never resting and if Jesus needed rest if Jesus the God-man needed rest why don't you at a minimum the idea that you can work and work and work and work and work and never rest is a prideful view of self and a rejection of.

God to think that you can endlessly strive without resting it is a it is a prideful view of self and a rejection of God I've seen people physically burn out because they they work and they work and they work and they work and their body is breaking down and they're getting sick and then I've seen spiritual sickness arise to where they just get numb to God they don't spend time with him they don't rest in him and a lifestyle that works too much and does not rest is a sinful rejection of God's good design.

Listen I don't need the fourth Commandment to prove that I'll I need the first two I can point out the different Idols that you are serving and working the shows you need to rest in God you have elevated yourself too highly if that is you and you believe to yourself to be adequate and I want to say very clearly you are not you are not unexhaustible but I also want to tell you who is and that is the Lord the God is inexhaustible.

God is all-powerful God never sleeps and he never slumbers God is the only one who can do all things uphold all things God is the only one who is strong enough to Bear it all and that same.

The Third Commandment (Exodus 20:7)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

The Third Commandment (Exodus 20:7)

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Is here we are in Exodus chapter 20. we are working our way through the book of Exodus if you don't have a Bible there should be a blue one in the little Rack in front of you it'll be on page 35 if you don't own a Bible take that one home with you we want you to have a Bible and so that's our gift to you we are working our way through the book of Exodus and we've made it to the Ten Commandments and we are slowing down and going through the Ten Commandments looking at each one in turn and trying to wrap our heads around as.

God has rescued this people out of Egypt he's making them into his people and he's saying this is what it's going to look like to follow me we're trying to understand what that is and what he commands them to do and how that applies to us so Exodus chapter 20 verse 7 the third commandment you shall not in vain that is the verse we're looking at today that is the Commandment we're looking at today I'm going to read it one more time you shall not take the name of the.

Lord your God in vain Lord we pray that you would help us this morning to understand what is being taught to understand what you are calling us to and calling us away from and then we ask Lord by the empowerment of your spirit for us to to walk in Repentance and obedience to this command and to um enjoy praise and glorify Christ as we do them in Jesus name amen now as we started the Ten Commandments one of the things we said was that it was we thought it was helpful I'd been reading some books on morality and how cultures think about morality and we had we mentioned two books The Righteous Mind.

For our good always and we said that the psychologist Jonathan height had come up with uh some Concepts as he studied morality in different cultures he had come up with some Concepts that we thought were helpful he's not a Christian and so he's not talking about God's version of morality but he is looking at culture and talking about morality and he gave us five categories that we mentioned a few weeks ago when we started he called these moral foundations Authority loyalty sanctity fairness and care that these are moral foundations.

For how people understand what is right and what is wrong and that different cultures value or appreciate different versions of these different ones of these with to a greater or lesser degree and so the first two Commandments deal primarily with authority and loyalty you shall have no other gods before me and you will make no graven images you'll have no carved Idols with which to worship me or to worship other gods that's mostly in the Loyalty Authority category of Jonathan Heights categories not a Bible category as far as like a moral Foundation.

But it's trying to help us understand how we approach this culturally to what we're looking at today is sanctity and so we showed this chart a couple of weeks ago which is this is in general how Americans westerners decide whether or not something is right or wrong and we're going to talk more about this at our upcoming training weekend so if this is interesting to you we're going to spend a little more time diving into that but basically care and harm is our highest one does it hurt somebody.

Then we know it's wrong if it doesn't hurt somebody it's probably not wrong but then we have fairness some sort of of Liberty justice for all those kind of ideas we also care about and so we ask questions about is it fair is it just and if it doesn't break one of those zones if it's not sideways with one of those then it's probably not bad we don't really care and you'll notice that sanctity is way down on the list we aren't a people culturally that holds much as sacred.

Therefore not to be tread upon as I was looking at this and thinking about this I was reminded of there's a a little science experiment you can do where you have three bowls of water the bowl in the middle is just regular room temperature water you put one ball on one side that you put ice in you put one bow on the other side that you put hot water in and you place your hands in the ice water and the hot water.

And when you do this this feels very hot this feels very cold I mean you just stand there I feel like a minute and what happens is this hand gets used to the Heat and this hand starts getting used to the cold water and then after a minute two minutes something like that you take your hands out you place both hands in the room temperature water and then a very weird things happens to you one is your brain knows this is room temperature water.

But your right hand thinks it's cold and your left hand thinks it's hot and you can see both hands sitting next to each other in what you know to be room temperature water doesn't mess with your head if you're bored this afternoon go for it and what what I want us to understand is we approach God's law is assume God's law is the room temperature it's the right temperature let's just assume that that's the right temperature that God says this is how the world ought to work.

But our cultures are like the hot water or the cold water that as Americans we've been soaking in the icy cold water of secularism and so as Christians when we move our hand over here when we show up on Sundays and we open our Bibles and we're going I'm going to learn this I'm going to follow this and we read a command like this that God cares about the use of his name we can mentally say that matters that's important but it's like telling this hand you're in room temperature water there's no way to change how it feels not easily not quickly we actually have to soak here.

For a while before it'll change on us and so I want us to understand as we approach this that we are not culturally well set up to understand or appreciate sanctity because we don't hold much sacred and we think if you do you're wrong and you should just deal with it as I was reading through Jonathan Height's book he has this quote and I want to read through the quotes and talk to you how I was processing it as I read.

Because I think it's helpful he says when an artist submerges a crucifix in a jar of his own urine or smears elephant dung on an image of the Virgin Mary do these Works belong in art museums can the artist simply tell religious Christians if you don't want to see it don't go to the museum now as I was reading this um I don't know if you picked up on this so far but I'm not Catholic and so I'm not especially attached to crucifixes or the Virgin Mary.

But not the same way that a Catholic would be but still this is a representation of Christ a representation of Mary and they're being Dishonored but as I'm reading this I'm kind of used to it I don't think my heart rate went up and when it says if you don't like it don't show up I feel like I've heard that a lot that's a general if you don't go to the museum you don't have to like all art and then he says this or does the mere existence of such Works make the world dirtier more profane and more degraded he's pressing on this idea of where is your line.

For what is sacred where's your sanctity line that's what he's trying to do in the book he's not a Christian he's just trying to press on this and so then he says this it's the next paragraph if you can't see anything wrong here try reversing the politics imagine that a conservative artist had created these Works using images of Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela instead of Jesus and Mary could such Works be displayed in museums in New York and Paris without triggering angry demonstrations and might some on the left feel that the museum itself had been polluted by racism even after the paintings were removed I read that paragraph and I felt that I.

Thought oh don't don't do that now I'm a Christian and I'm supposed to respond that way specifically to the name of Christ to the representation of Christ to how he's treated but I read this one and I thought okay yeah no that would be a problem and I was really stuck on the line where he says might some feel that the museum itself had been polluted by racism even after the paintings were removed and I thought yeah there would be a call.

For a cleansing a removal of certain people that worked there would be call for some sort of something some sort of a sacrifice some sort of a a a ceremony where you redid and re-made this a place where people could be I could feel that now maybe that's still for you politically you're like which I think we should care that people are represented well and treated well but maybe for you it would be if uh in London and Paris that there are museums they submerged an American flag in urine and put dung on George Washington maybe that's the thing that would make you think this is unacceptable.

But the reality is we do have some things that we hold sacred we do have some lines of sanctity we do have some understanding of pollution and what God is saying is that his name his glory matters and the way we speak of him matters and the way we think of him matters and that we are not to Sully or dishonor his name so as we look at this you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

For the Lord will not hold him Guiltless who takes his name in vain I think there's three things three things three words that we need to Define and we're going to spend our time doing that this morning we're going to Define name vain and take and we're going to Define name and vain quickly and then we're going to spend the rest of our time looking at the word take but in order to understand make this coherent we need to know what he means by name we need to know what he means by Vain and we need to know what he means about take.

And then we can apply this name when he says name what is he talking about do you not take the name of the Lord your God in vain what is the name of the Lord God well in Exodus chapter 3 Moses asks what is your name and God said to Moses this is Exodus chapter 3 verses 14 and 15. I am who I am and he said say this to the people of Israel I am has sent me to you now that I am who I am and that I am is four letters in Hebrew no vowels yhwh or j h v h depending on how you translate it into English this is where we.

Get the name Yahweh or Jehovah because they go in later and add how you would pronounce it but it means I am I exist I'm the ever existing all sufficient one that's what he's saying I am what I am I will be what I will be that he is he stands on his own and he is the only being that stands on his own that is not derived from something else that is not in need of something else pre-existent ever existing sufficient that's what he's saying.

But then he says this and we need to look at this real quick says the Lord so he says go tell them say this to the people of Israel the Lord the God she lured there where it's all caps that's the way that that yhwh is going to be treated in most Bibles English Bibles from then on so if you see all caps Lord It's the Divine name of the Lord there but it's keeping in a tradition where the Jewish people would not pronounce the Divine name as they try to keep the.

Third commandment and so they actually at times wouldn't even write the Divine name they would write out some sort of shorthand version of it and our English translations instead of putting the Divine name put this in keeping with the same idea of how do we keep the third commandment but it's not just that Divine name there that if as long as I don't say Jehovah or Yahweh I'm okay then I can say whatever I want because when he describes himself he says things like the.

Lord the God of your father is the God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob has sent me to you this is my name forever and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations when he shows back up in Exodus 34 as he's declaring his name he does the same thing he says the Lord the Lord but then he gives descriptions of him and so his name is whatever we invoke to bring him to mind call him to our mind or the minds of others.

So that you can't say well as long as I don't say this or do this about this one particular name but I can refer to the God of Abraham however I want it's not how it works it's whatever would bring him to mind whatever would invoke him whatever would call him to our minds to the minds of others and so it's any version of speaking about him you've got him wonderful counselor if you called him Mighty God if you called him.

Jesus if you called him Christ all of these would be under the umbrella of his name so that's defining name it's anything you would use to bring God to mind to invoke God as you prayed or as you spoke about him or that other people don't understand what you're talking about that's name what does vain mean nothing nailed it that's it vain means empty it means nothing means wasted he tried in vain to get a date and then hung out at the house by himself like that's that's the idea it means nothing it means it was wasted.

And so what he's saying is you won't do anything that takes my name and treats it like it's nothing you won't take my name and treat it like it's nothing like it's empty like it's worthless like it has no value like it is not precious like I am not precious and valuable and holy and Worthy you won't speak about me treat me take me so this that's what vain means and it matters to him Ezekiel 20 verse 9 and he says this repeatedly in Ezekiel I just took one to try to help us.

See this he says I acted for the sake of my name that it should not be profaned in the sight of the Nations among whom they lived in whose sight I made myself known to them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt he's talking about this The Exodus where he brings his people out and he says that he worked for the sake of his name that God cares how his name is perceived because it is through that that we perceive who he is it's his name that calls him to mind that invokes him.

So is he powerful is he good is he just is he righteous so he cares about his name he cares about his glory it matters because he matters in humans caring too much about your name can be Petty or sinful but God is Worthy is Holy and that to belittle his name is to not just get sideways with God but it's to get sideways with reality and it's ultimately very bad for us and you need to hear that because the thing that we care most about as Americans is care and harm and you need to know that it is harmful to disregard the name of.

God because it puts us sideways with reality and it puts us sideways with a glorious God who is very good but that will not be mocked so what does take mean if he says you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain the Lord will not hold him Guiltless who takes his name in vain what does take mean and I think after studying and looking at this and looking how the Scripture is treated take means to there's two primary ways to take his name one is to speak it we can take his name in vain with words we can also take his name in vain with actions and again.

If you'll think about invoke or this idea of bear or carry the name that we can do this with words or with actions we're talking about words first within in general this is how we often think about taking the lord's name in vain that's what Jesus says when he says as he's teaching his disciples how to pray to pray Hallowed be thy name or may your name be honored as holy that we would treat your name with honor and respect so certainly it means we don't use God's name as a swear word we ought not to say oh my.

God if you would pray if you would come in here and sing my God my God and you would mean my God and you would be calling that God and you would be talking to that God you shouldn't say oh my God when you hear that Justin Bieber has released a new album you shouldn't say oh my God when your favorite pizza place runs out of a topping or is closed on Mondays now because they can't get people to work we shouldn't say.

Jesus in some sort of a way like it's an expletive like we're calling him in because we stubbed our toe we we should certainly not do that but it's beyond just that we should speak in a way that honors him that glorifies him that treats him with respect and dignity as if he's precious to us as if he's glorious because he is Psalm 139 verse 20. it says they speak against you with malicious intent your enemies take your name in vain they the enemies of.

God speak about him as if he isn't holy as if he isn't good as if he isn't glorious but the people of God shouldn't they speak about him in a way that's flippant so this means we should consider how we joke I was talking to um Jamie Kern who's currently she's doing Mission work in uh Lebanon and she's learning Arabic she said one of the first things she did in Arabic she was hanging out with the people in the Kurdish Church and they were talking and they talked about Pastor Ben which is Ben Johnson who she works.

For and they were talking about Pastor Ben Pastor Ben and she said in Arabic one of her first phrases she'd learned she said oh Ben Ben's crazy which if you know Ben but that's a normal thing we'd say he's crazy she said the whole room it was like someone just sucked the air out of the room everybody went and then the lady went we don't say that about pastors and she told me I was talking on the phone she said they've drawn a line and anything that has to do with the.

Lord anything that has to do with Scripture anything that has to do with the Church anything that has to do with anything in that zone they treat with a lot of reverence to try to honor the Lord and not dishonor the things that matter to him now if you hang out with us long enough you will know that we don't take our pastors too seriously and we have said before that we don't want to take ourselves too seriously we want to take the.

Lord seriously but one of the things that is a danger for us we're most of us are not in danger of of honoring our pastors too much or taking this all too seriously but we can be in danger of dishonoring the Lord with the way that we speak I'm not talking about how you talk about me or Spencer especially Spencer we will joke about things that that aren't funny that aren't light that aren't jokes we will read cartoons about people meeting at the Pearly Gates and Peter's talking to them we'll we'll have little cartoons or little jokes about how.

God created the world we'll tell jokes about Jesus playing golf we'll joke about things that are precious and worthy and dear and we'll hold them like they're a joke we ought not to joke about the spirit we ought not let familiar familiarity with something wonderful and holy make it less valuable to us and we ought to be very mindful and this isn't just how we joke but it seeps into how we think y'all we just gathered in here as the people of.

God those Redeemed by Christ and we sang about Jesus and how about how beautiful this name is but were we paying attention were we really worshiping yeah I'm back there I know I'm gonna say this my phone buzzed in my pocket and I had it in my hand before I have his reflex and I'm still singing the words but I'm not worshiping we come in here and we sing there are times where you're singing to the Lord about how glorious his name is and you're thinking I wish the bass guitar was louder you're singing to the.

Lord and you're thinking I don't really like this song you're singing to the Lord and then you stop and just whisper to someone about what you want to eat for lunch and then you go right back into it you don't even notice that we so devalue his name and his glory when we treat him with no respect so it matters it matters how we think about the Lord and how we approach the Lord I was trying to think about how to help us wrap our mind around this.

Because we we just don't have this things are sacred Things Are Holy so let's talk about babies for a second we all agree babies are precious and it's a nice thing to say if you see an ugly baby say what a precious baby because not all babies are cute but they are all precious they're all valuable they are all love they are all dear and one of the reasons they're precious is that they're delicate God is Not delicate but he is Holy.

So don't put delicate in there but but keep the word precious valuable deer if someone says you want to hold my baby and you're doing something you don't keep doing something with one hand and go yeah toss it here you prepare yourself to hold a baby you clean your hands you get ready I because of the preciousness of baby babies have both rejected holding a baby or letting someone else hold my baby I've had people be like you want to hold my baby and I've said no no I do not and it's not.

Because I don't like your baby I'm sure he's fine it's that he's precious and I don't know you that well I don't need to hold you like just and I've also had people go can I hold him and I've gone no but you can look at him back up a few feet because he's precious we prepare our minds for it we think about it we we hold in a specific way you've never been like oh can I hold your baby and grabbed its foot and just picked it up like it was a catfish good one we're mindful and y'all our culture doesn't care about.

Jesus but we ought to we ought to be mindful of how he's spoken about and how he's treated and how he's how we speak and treat we ought to be mindful of that I was at my grandmother's house and she had a doormat and I was talking to her I like the design on and she said well you can have it as you're sitting in a garage this was when I was in high school I took it home stuck it in my room I had it I think at the door to my room my dad came he opened the door and he just stopped he looked at the doormat and he said that belonged to.

My sister Cindy and she had passed away when he was 18 in a car accident and he said I want that because I don't want anything to happen to it and he took it now last time I was at his house I was in one of his his like work rooms and he had a doormat high up on the wall well cared for he was afraid I was going to treat it like a doormat it's not a doormat to him it was precious and how how dare we not care about the preciousness of Christ and the glory of our.

God who not only is he really Worthy but he is personally good to us that he would rescue and redeem us and make us his we ought to watch how we speak we ought to care about how other people treat the name of our Lord we can do that in a gracious way we can do that in a way that exempts us from certain movies and shows and interactions with people but we ought to care way that we can do this that we can take his name is through actions that we carry his name we read this a.

Second ago it's Ezekiel chapter 20 verse 9 but I want you to see something there's something assumed here that we need to wrap our head around God says but I acted for the sake of my name that it should not be profaned in the sight of the Nations among whom they lift they being the people of Israel in whose sight I made myself known to them that's being the Nations and bringing them out of the land of Egypt what he's saying is I put my name on the people of Israel.

When I rescued him out of Egypt they carry my name they bear my name that's what we read in chapter 19 where he says you're going to be a kingdom of priests you're a holy nation that you're going to carry my name that in some ways it's like they have a banner that has the Lord on it and they March under his Banner so that there is a way to carry the name to take the name of the Lord that has nothing to do with how we speak.

But has everything to do with how we behave and Daniel that we're going to read through a handful of passages because they understood this Daniel says and and Daniel chapter 9 he says oh Lord hear O Lord forgive oh Lord pay attention and act delay not for your own sake oh my God because your city and your people are called by your name so he says work on our behalf for your own sake because we're marked by your name Isaiah 43 6-7.

Because I will say to the north this is God speaking give up and to the South do not withhold bring my sons from afar and my daughter's from the end of the Earth everyone who is called by my name whom I created for my glory whom I formed and made that God marks people with his name and they represent his name and they're called by his name and somehow his name is attached to him this is what the writer in proverbs 30 understands he says remove far from me falsehood and lying give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with the food that is needful.

For me lest I be full and deny you and say who is the Lord or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of the Lord the name of my God sorry as he's speaking when he profanes the name of the Lord no he's stealing when he profanes the name because he's marked by the name he's waving that flag but then acting that's what Jeremiah 34 God speaking to the people of Israel he says but then you turned around and profaned my name.

When each of you took back his male and female slaves whom you had set free according to their desire and you brought them into subjection to be your slaves so he told them to set him free they'd set him free and then they changed their mind and took him back and he says you've Dishonored my name y'all carry my name but you don't care Leviticus 22. so you shall keep my Commandments and do them I am the Lord and you shall not profane my Holy Name that I may be Sanctified among the people of Israel I'm the.

Lord who sanctifies you who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God I am the Lord she says you'll obey me and he says you won't profane my name and certainly that has to do with how they speak and how they worship but it also has to do with how they obey that they won't dishonor His Name by being his people and running after sin and acting in ways that dishonor him the same way that you might have had a parent.

Look at you and use your last name to remind you how to act you might have had a friend over and he said my friend does that and the parent looked and said yeah there are Williams Phillips says don't act like that you belong to a different name you belong to a different people and that's what he's saying and this applies to the Church second Corinthians 5. all this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that is in Christ.

God was reconciling the world to himself reconciling means making things good again bringing us back into relationship not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation therefore we are ambassadors for Christ God making his appeal through us and we implore you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled for God so Paul's writing and says we're ambassadors for Christ and as Christians I think that it generally applies to us as well we've been given the name of Christ we are ambassadors meaning we represent Christ to the world.

And so it matters that we don't carry his name in vain we don't take his name in vain so this is you getting a job and saying hey I can't work on Sundays and I can't work on Tuesday nights because that's when my community group meets and I can't work on Sundays because I'm a host team or I serve in Kid City um and then being the laziest person at the job having other people clock you in or out lying to get sales you're bearing the name in vain it's showing up to work and looking like all your other co-workers and caring nothing about whether they know Christ it's carrying the name in vain is.

Being a boss and making a big deal about how you're a Christian and being unfair unkind unhelpful it's a dating somebody and it's not going well so you sit them down you say I think the Lord's leading me into a season of singleness you make God co-sign the fact that you don't want to deal with the uncomfortableness of breaking up with somebody and you've prayed how much about this it's not the lord it's just easier to have them be mad at the.

Lord or for you to sound holy as you walk through this process it's getting into a relationship and I'm so thankful for God he's finally answered all my prayers as you and your new boyfriend or your new girlfriend are actively involved in sexual sin when the people in your community group point that out say I don't think this is a good relationship for you you say things like well I prayed about it and I don't feel bad and God wants me to be happy you made.

God cosign things that he doesn't co-sign and you carry his name in vain this is Instagram posts of being blessed and highly favored but really you just want to brag about your shoes or your job or your car and you don't want to say looking at my great shoes job in car without you just say you make it look like you're praising the Lord but you actually aren't really all that thankful and you've never actually submitted your finances to him so you're just carrying your name in his name in vain we can do this all the time in.

So many ways this is actually the other half of the Church discipline process Church discipline when we think about it so often we think of it as just the last step in the process which is the the one that I think maybe most sticks out in our mind but when we talk about Church discipline it's actually just the Church caring about the Church and so it happens all the time if you've ever had someone in your group say you probably shouldn't talk to your wife like that hey you need to repent here hey I'm going to hold you accountable here hey that's Church discipline and it's good and we.

So often because culturally how we think about things we so often think about it in relation to it's good for you to have people care about you because sin is harmful but also we care about Church discipline because we don't want to solely the name of Christ by co-signing unrepentant sin that we care about the name of Christ we care about our witness as Christians who say we belong to Jesus and if someone's an unrepentant sin it matters this is what Paul says in.

First Corinthians 5 11 now I'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who Bears the name of brother if he's guilty of guilty of sexual immorality or greed or as an idolater reviler drunkard or swindler not to even eat with such a one that someone who would carry the name but walk in sin and not care unrepentant Paul says that's a problem because carrying the name matters um I like documentaries and I especially like Ken Burns documentaries because they are better than all other documentaries and I don't want I'm not trying to make you think that my wife and I are cool.

But we did specifically pay for a PBS subscription just so we could watch Ken Burns documentaries but in Ken Burns the war is this this quote this this interview that really stood out to me there's a Japanese American his name was Daniel inoue he ended up becoming a he ended up getting a medal of honor and becoming a Congressman this is World War II and at the beginning of World War II when Pearl Harbor happens they rounded up the Japanese Americans and they put them in basically concentration camps and would not let him join the military would not let him they took away their freedoms.

Because they were just like on the east on the west coast it was like we don't know how this is about to play out and Japanese have attacked us and they reverse course on this and this is a Japanese American whose dad worked now for the government and who was signing up to go be in the military and he says that his dad took leave from work I had to get permission from the government to take three hours off to to take his son.

So that he could enlist so he could leave he was he's leaving and he said his dad they get on the streetcar and they're going he said his dad's quiet he's not on a man who talks much he's just riding with him until they get close to where he's going to be dropping him off he said my dad cleared his throat and I knew something was coming and he said I know he's not a man of words so this was hard.

For him but he said his dad looked at him is he was taking him to drop him off for him to go be in the military in World War II he said my dad looked at me and said this country has been good to us and it's given me two jobs it has given you and your brothers and your sister education we owe a lot to this country do not dishonor this country he looked at his son and said you're about to put on a uniform that carries the name and don't dishonor it how much more should we care.

If we've been purchased by the blood of Christ that we carry his name in a way that honors him how much more should we care and how we sing and how we speak and what we watch and how we treat him and how we teach others to treat him how much more precious and valuable and good is he that if we would look at someone and say you've Dishonored the badge you've Dishonored the uniform and think that means something which it does how much more should we carry care about dishonoring the name of Christ the band's going to come back up in a moment we're going to sing in a moment we're going to take.

Communion and I want us to reckon with something for a second Exodus 20 verse 7. the third commandment you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain for the Lord will not hold him Guiltless who takes his name in vain we're guilty we're guilty of disregarding the glory and worth and preciousness of God so what do we do well second Corinthians 5 we got right to it and we stopped he says therefore we are ambassadors for Christ.

God making his appeal through us we implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God now here's the message for our sake he made him that's God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God Jesus saves us up from our sin and he saves us from the law which holds us accountable for our sin that's what he says it was for our sake that Jesus did this the message that we Proclaim is not I'm really good.

Because I'm a Christian yes we care about honoring the name but the message we Proclaim is that he's really good that he who knew no sin became sin so that I might be made righteous that my hope is in him so in the midst of us realizing that we ought to love and care about the glory of God Way Beyond the bounds of where we are right now yes we repent and we praise God that he became sin so that we could be made righteous.

Because our hope is not in our good actions but in his his work on our behalf and the cross and that's what we celebrate at Communion so if you are a Christian in the room we would invite you to repent to spend some time with the Lord and then take communion which is where we celebrate that his body was broken for us that his blood was shed for us and there's a new covenant for us for Covenant of forgiveness of sins.

If you are not a Christian communion is not for you to not partake but we would invite you to trust in Jesus because he became sins and we could be made righteous the message of the Gospel is not come be good the message of the Gospel is that you are in sin and you need forgiveness and there is hope in Christ and that's offered to you today by faith Jesus let's pray Lord forgive us forgive us for valuing you so little forgive us.

For being the people who should worship and glorify with focus and energy in our hearts who should care about how we treat your name and carry your name who should represent you well in the world and we fail and the Lord we ask you to save us for the sake of your name for the sake of the name of Jesus who will not fail to rescue any who trust in you we ask you to forgive us for the sake of the glory of Christ who has come to redeem Sinners and will not fail we pray these things in.

Jesus name all around the room right now take a moment to sit with the Lord ask him to help you see your own heart here to repent and to confess and then to celebrate by taking communion.

The Second Commandment (Exodus 20:4-6)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

The Second Commandment (Exodus 20:4-6)

Spencer Cary

The First Commandment (Exodus 20:1-3)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

The Second Commandment (Exodus 20:4-6)

Spencer Cary

Transcript

Good morning my name is Spencer I am one of the pastors here we're going to be in Exodus chapter 20 Verses 4 through 6 today we are walking through the Ten Commandments we're going to one by one we're in the second commandments uh today that'll be on page 35 in your blue Bibles uh you can follow along also on the screen so my family and I have owned owned two homes over the last seven years and both of those homes were complete remodels they required a lot of work and I've learned a couple things in completely redoing houses the.

First is is that I never want to move again and I never would do another remodel uh that was that's an important lesson we are staying until I die the second uh is I've I've actually learned quite a bit in the process of doing some of these these remodels I've learned on the fly a little bit how to do these different projects in the house uh which you know I didn't I learned a lot of things growing up but there's a lot of things that I just rejected like my stepdad tried to show me how to do quite a few things and I just said no I appreciate what you're offering.

But one day I'm going to be an attorney and I'll make lots of money I'll pay people to do this and that was a poor life choice based on the profession that I chose uh because I can barely pay anyone to do anything so I've had to learn on the Fly which has been helpful like I've had to learn these different things but there's been some there's been some successes and there's been some failures and the greatest failure was the back porch at my last house.

So we converted a screened porch into a sunroom which raised the flooring about a foot off the ground which meant when you stepped into the backyard you stepped about a foot down which is dangerous and I said we need to make this kind of a back patio area so I said uh you know what let's do a concrete pad that'll be the patio that we do and I never poured concrete before but uh but I said you know what I think I think this is doable I got on YouTube and I was like oh yeah I got this and I kind of just scanned through the process of looking at how to pour a concrete.

Pad and just said I got this so I went to Lowe's and collected concrete materials came back and then started and about halfway through I realized that this was a huge mistake that one is not simply just stumble upon the art of poor concrete there's a lot that goes into it I think it's one point my wife came out it was kind of looking and it's like oh no this is this is a disaster when it was done I looked at it and I was like this this is awful this is this is terrible like this looks horrible I don't know.

If you know this about concrete but once you do it like it's done you know you don't just fix that like it just it's over and uh so I just was like the only option how I'm not about to get a jackhammer and rip this thing up so I just decked right over the top of it and to this day whoever owns that house right now one day they're gonna change those deck boards and they're gonna pull them up and go what is that monstrosity who did this I did that I guess I had the right idea like I need that that back porch was necessary right it was dangerous to not have that it.

Was going to look good I had the right idea but I did it poorly I did it wrongly and I've heard pastors and theologians describe the first and second commandment like this at the first commandment is worshiping the right God and that truth gets pulled down to the second commandment and the second commandment is worshiping the right God rightly so worshiping the right God but not doing it wrongly and that's what we're going to see as we walk through this today we're going to be in the.

Second commandment we're going to see how the people are designed to worship God and God alone like we talked through last week in the first commandment but also to worship the one true God rightly I'm going to read it and then we'll pray and they'll want this together verse 4 You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the Earth you shall not bow down to them or serve them.

For I the Lord your God and may jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children to the third and fourth the fourth generation of those who hate me but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my Commandments let's pray and we'll want this together heavenly father I pray that you would continue to expose the Scriptures and these Commandments to our hearts I pray that we would have hearts to receive your word so that we might.

See your truth and your Commandments as good and that we might walk this out in faith and obedience and a repentance and ultimately delighting in who you are as our one true God we ask this in Jesus name amen Okay so let me start at the beginning of this he says in verse 4 You shall not you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the Earth You shall not bow down to them or serve them.

So let's pause this we're going to spend quite a bit of time this phrasing is a broad condemnation of idolatry okay it's a broad condemnation of idolatry but as we're going to see as we walk through this it's a little more complicated than initially appears there are two different main ways to violate this commandment there's two types of idolatry condemnation that is happening here the first is the one that we're most familiar with and that is worshiping other gods through idols as a violation of this commandment.

So it's building off the first commandment that you shall have no other gods before me in my presence amongst my people in this land you will have no other gods before me it's pulling down that truth and the second commandment to say you want worship foreign idols my people will not do this this condemns all idolatry in the ancient near East now it's important to understand the nature of idolatry and the these worship and practices in the ancient near East okay.

So one commentator he describes it this way he says since the ancient near Eastern gods were viewed as being present in Idols that represented them bowing down before such an image was considered an appropriate way of showing respect to the relevant God so what he is saying is ancient near Eastern worship viewed these Idols as containing somewhat of the essence of that foreign deity of that foreign God in the idol itself and in a lot of ways that Idol contains some of the essence of that.

God and it correct it created kind of a pathway a portal a telephone line it gave you access to that God while the idol itself contained some of its Essence in the idol so ancient near easterners they needed Idols that they could touch they could having their home that they could visibly physically bring wherever they wanted to go it was a tangible way to have access to that God now if you were here last week as we walked the first commandment.

God doesn't want anything before him he wants our wholehearted worship and devotion and we don't run to foreign idols and anything those things may promise you don't run to those don't do that and then we kind of wanted this last week I don't think that any of you are the type of people who are going to go home today and you're going to have a little wooden Idol in your office or in your kitchen that you bow down to that's not what we do.

But what we do is we worship other things in the place of God that we create Idols out of created things in this life like you can have a career which is a good thing that God has given us but you can make it God by giving that career all of your attention all of your devotion all of your time all of your energy that you ride the highs and lows of that career that your happiness is banked on what happens in that career and that's idolatry that's worshiping something in the place of.

God that is elevating something created to the stage of Creator and worshiping it so the second commandment includes this broad condemnation of worshiping anything and for us anything that we think gives us ultimately the good life but that's not the only idea that's being conveyed here that's not the only type of idol worship that's happening here it's not merely addressing the worship of foreign idols but it is taking that practice this ancient near Eastern practice of believing that the essence of your.

God is bound up in that Graven image bound up in that created Idol and applying that Worship in practice too the Lord believing that you can worship the one true God through Idols that is the second type of idolatry that's being condemned in this second commandment and it's where we're going to spend the most of our time today is believing that any creative thing can represent God and that we can bow down to it and worship it and the place of.

God so remember the surrounding Nations believed that that false God that its Essence was in the idol itself and the people of God have been surrounded by the Egyptians and surrounding Nations for centuries this is commonplace practice to believe that your God could be represented that you could make a grave in a created image but you could carve an idol and it could contain your God you could have access to your God and God is saying don't take that practice and apply it to me that you're to worship me and me alone and you were to worship me rightly not wrongly The Great I Am who we've seen throughout the Book of Exodus Yahweh this.

Wonderful glorious slow to anger abounding and stuff I love steadfast love and faithfulness this wonderful glorious God whose attributes are unsearchable his Beauty and his Holiness and his goodness and his mercy and his love and his grace and everything that we try to describe or Indescribable God do not reduce Our God down to a created substance do not believe that you can make anything in His image and bow down to it don't bring that practice into this land that I'm going to give to you don't do it that is blasphemous that is a Blasphemous form of worship irreverently corrupting the name and the character of.

God by reducing him down to something that is not holy as he is Holy it is Blasphemous now that type of idol worship makes a whole lot more sense when you get down to Exodus 32 which we will get to when you get to the story of how they worshiped a golden calf so we get to Exodus 32 Moses we're going to see over the coming chapters he's going to spend a lot of time receiving the law on Mount Sinai from.

God and he's away for quite some time so long that so long that the people are like where is he where's Moses who brought us out and they start panicking and I started this is the man who's been telling us what we need to do this is the man who's been representing God as the mediator this is the man who's been like what what are we going to do and they go to Aaron second command and they're like Aaron you got to do something we need to be able to worship.

God and they come to Aaron and Aaron fails and they they've already had the second commandment they already they already have the second commandment and Aaron says all right bring me gold so he takes and collects they're gold they're very y'all the very gold that God secured for them in the victory over Egypt the goal that they took and I mean this they took that goal that God gave them and they melt it down into a golden calf and into an idol and in Exodus 32 it says that he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf and they said these are the are your.

Gods of Israel who brought you up out of the land of Egypt you might read that and think okay but they just think it's foreign gods that brought them out but it gets more complicated because this is how Aaron responds verse five when Aaron saw this he built an altar before it and Aaron made a proclamation and said tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord this wasn't just worshiping foreign Idols no no this will be this golden calf will be what represents our.

God taking the four and ancient near Eastern practices and bringing it amongst and into the people of God and then this makes even more sense later when you get to Deuteronomy which is the second ring of the law this is when right before they're going to enter into the promised land they're looking back at this event and Moses says this and Deuteronomy 4 he says therefore watch yourselves very carefully since you saw no form on the day the Lord spoke to you out of of out of the midst of the fire you couldn't.

See our God and you panicked but where lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves they needed a God that they could see that they could touch that they could bow down to just like the surrounding Nations and they thought they were worshiping the one true God but they were worshiping him wrongly they worshiped them wrongly and that is a heinous evil corrupted practice you may think of it they were trying they're trying to worship God they're figuring this out.

But we don't understand how heinous and how evil and how Wicked it is to do what they did I mean a small version of of that that I it doesn't even come close would be like if you if you had a family where the parents were like Elite and Rich and had power and influence and they somehow got access to a private viewing of the Mona Lisa and they got a private viewing the Mona Lisa and their child was with them and their child loved the Mona Lisa and they said I I want to paint the Mona Lisa and they let their child their child take paint and finger paint all over the Mona Lisa.

Just completely defacing it the most priceless piece of Western Art in history can you imagine the backlash can you imagine the stories across the world when people found out that a child defaced the Mona Lisa I mean it would be swift it would be severe and no matter how Earnest that child was trying to honor that piece of Priceless artwork they've corrupted it and degraded it and that comes nowhere even close to the attempt to reduce the glory of our God down to a created substance to mimic or try to reduce him down to a created thing reveals that you have a degraded and diminished view of who.

God is that you don't truly understand who God is and if you have a diminished and degraded view a corrupted view of God then ultimately what follows that is all the other corrupt practices and that's the nation of Israel that they would bow down to idols some of which they believe represented the one true God and there were all types of rebellious practices that followed all the way up into sacrificing your own children by burning them alive which happened in the history of Israel.

Because they believe they could reduce God down to something created and bow down to it and what this shows is because of this diminished worship of God it reveals they have a diminished corrupted view of God and ultimately if you have a corrupted view of who God is then you'll have corrupted obedience another way of saying that is how we worship reveals whom we worship that how we worship ultimately reveals whom we worship you may believe that you were earnestly worshiping.

God by bowing down to this Graven image but don't confuse earnestness with having the right heart and understanding of who God is it has diminished view of God and it reveals that you don't understand who God is in the first place that you could reduce the glory of God down to a career thing means that you don't actually truly know them the people don't truly actually know who their God is and there's the second commandment that is meant to so strictly guard that that not only are you do not have no you're to have no other gods before the one true.

God and you to worship him alone you were to worship Him rightly because how we worship Alton reveals whom he worships now the people of God needed to receive this they needed to walk in this they need to be corrected by this this gets a little complicated for us as Christians how do Christians obey the second commandment when the invisible God took on flesh and dwelt Among Us so that created uniquely a unique problem for Christians what do we do with the.

Second commandment now that the the God Came In the Flesh and walked Among Us that we he was an embodied person and now sits at the right hand of God the Father and it's resurrected body that created a problem for Christians for the last two thousand years as we've sought to still obey the second commandment when it comes to specifically images of Jesus around the fourth and fifth century they began to incorporate pictures of Jesus as a part of worship which ended up in a very big debate around the 7th Century between the eastern western churches of like what do we do with this is it.

Okay to have pictures in worship and they kind of just came to a little bit of a stalemate was like you can have them but don't we don't need to worship them and then this practice started to continue and get corrupted in the western Church in the Catholic Church and they began to use images of Jesus for worship I mean even to this day like I went to the Holy Land years ago and there's certain relics and and pictures and all and and places like where.

Jesus was whereas uh where this cross was that you see some Catholics it's what they're doing is they're worshiping and when it just they're bowing down trying to grab it to gain access to it's it's worship and this corrupted worship continued all the way into the Reformation and the reformers saw this around the 15th and 16th century and were like no they didn't want to see no images of G we don't mean to come anywhere close to violating the second commandment.

And when you get to one of the more foundational teachings and protestantism the Heidelberg Catechism which catechisms are just a teaching style of question and answer ask a question here's the answer we actually have a it's called the new city catechism which is out there by the bookshelf and the spiritual formation bookshelf which you can take and it has all kinds of helpful questions and answers to be able to learn more about our faith but in the Heidelberg Catechism hundreds of years ago they said question what does.

God require in the second commandment answer that we in no way make any image of God nor worship Him in any other way that he has commanded Us in his word and Protestants have largely been very hesitant about having pictures of Jesus historically up until today and what do you do today right there's historic Bibles there's there's film The Jesus film came along in the 70s The Passion of the Christ came along in the 2000 depicted Jesus now we have the chosen which is a TV show which is really.

Well done like there's a lot of Christian film and stuff that's horrible it's just really path but it's actually well done it's well directed it's well written it's well acted what do you do with that and I know that some of y'all might hear that and just go oh my goodness this feels so like tedious and nitpicky and almost Fair cynical like we're just are we splitting hairs here and I would just say don't roll your eyes it's something that the Church has earnestly sought to obey the.

Second commandment for two thousand years and understanding this so what do you do with stuff like that now I think the issue is not with the images of Jesus the second member of the Trinity I don't think that the issue is necessarily with the image of Christ that pushed back a little bit sounds bad but I pushed back a little bit on the Heidelberg Catechism because Jesus was embodied he's still embodied as the resurrected savior so he he imaged the invisible.

God imaged himself so I mean I think there's major problems if you try to represent the father God the Father God the Holy Spirit but the second member of the Trinity Christ because he was embodied he was a person I don't think the pictures of the problem I think how you approach those pictures is ultimately the problem and using any picture of Jesus to worship is highly highly problematic in a violation of this second commandment so I think the chosen is fine as long as you view it as entertainment give a general picture of the Gospel story that's fine.

But the chosen doesn't bring God into your living room Jonathan Rooney who's the actor that plays Jesus he's not Jesus so the chosen doesn't bring God into your living room when you're doing a storybook Bible with your children it's good to be mindful of what you're doing we have soilic Bibles and I love them but I really try to focus especially when it comes to pictures of Jesus try to focus on the story and then help them see that this is this is not literally.

Jesus this is just someone who's drawing Jesus we're certainly not going to have the storybook Bible out look at it and say children let's pray like not doing that and I think it's helpful to think through this I think even when I I've watched The Chosen I think it's actually really well done there have been times where I'll read it's one of the stories from the gospels and then I'm picturing stuff from that show and I'm like no no I'm not not doing that in my worship of.

God am I my quiet time before him I don't want to be picturing things I want the word of God to be what's molding and shaping My Worship so again so I might say that's nitpicky but I think it matters and seeing how to apply the second commandment because how we worship reveals whom we worship that matters I think that's a that's a clearly taught principle it's established here in the second commandment and it's pulled through the rest of the Old Testament like the rest of the Old Testament law is going to be there will be moments where they're teaching this is how you're supposed to worship you don't worship this way and the.

Second commandment but here's how you were to rightfully worship God that gets pulled into the New Testament where we're going to see teachings of how you're a rightfully worship God through hymns and Psalms and spiritual songs and reading Scripture and and teaching that all of that matters and as a principle this is a Down the Line application okay that I'm that I'm taking us to so not the main point here but but how we worship matters because it reveals who we worship that's why.

When we worship on Sundays as the corporate Church together we think about these kind of things that Matt who oversees or or worship Gatherings is thinking through the setting and lighting and songs and what we what we're seeing on some of that that matters because I mean there are I mean just there are some churches that that are so stale and so cold and so lifeless they can sing How Great Thou Art and I can sing when Christ shall come with shout of acclimation take me home and joy shall fill my heart and it's just lifeless and it's like do you realize what you're singing and how wonderful that truth is about Christ coming to.

Take us home and that's highly problematic if your worship is going to show who we're actually worshiping and I know oh farther into the Spectrum you've got churches that is just about the emotional high of worship and it's just emotional manipulation it's just it's hype culture on steroids like I remember when the last Church I was a part of we were hiring a worship pastor and we were interviewing some guys this guy came in from Texas and this guy was currently at the time he was leading Worship in Texas being flown out to a mega Church in Colorado and he wanted to get out of that culture.

Because they were it was so produced and manipulative that they were in his in their monitor telling him when to raise his hand in worship and it's just that so like I said not the main point of the passage but that principle matters and it comes out of the second commandment and flows to the rest of the Scriptures how we worship reveals whom we worship we are to worship the one true God and we are to worship Him rightly as we seek to obey the.

Second commandment just as the Israelites were called to do now they received this second commandment don't call don't incorporate these ancient near Eastern Pagan practices and worship of me and then what's listed are consequences and rewards for doing so so verse 5 you shall not bow down to them or serve them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my Commandments they're both consequences and rewards.

For obeying or disobeying this second commandment now the consequences have to do with your children and your grandchildren and their children and a bad reading of this a bad reading of the second commandment is that children are punished for their parents sins and that's not what the second commandment is teaching Ezekiel 18 chapter chapter 18 verse 20. helpfully frames this it says the soul who sends shall die the son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father nor the father suffer.

For the iniquity of the son the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself children are not punished for their parents sins that's not what the second commandment is teaching however the parents sins can certainly affect their children I love how John Piper explains this he says that just because you get the flu does not automatically mean that your child is going to get the flu and start showing symptoms but don't be mistaken that.

If you get the flu there's a greater chance that your child will also get the flu so if you have a father who is raising his kids and he shows up to worship every Sunday suit and tie presenting the best this is we're a Christian family but at home he's an alcoholic and he's abusive and he's cruel and he belittles his children just because the father's sins doesn't mean the kids will be punished for it but don't be mistaken but if that's their view of what it means to be a Christian and that's their view of.

God there is a chance they're absolutely going to hate God and they're going to reject him so absolutely parents have an impact on their their children and he's trying to help them see that if you bow down to idols if you do this your children and your grandchildren and their children will continue the same practice of bowing down to Idols don't do it we sometimes forget that the Commandments are not just written to us as individuals they're written to the nation of Israel as.

Well and that is the history of Israel that when they bowed down to idols what happens their children do and their grandchildren do you see that but the Kings of Israel they're kings that they start bowing down to idols and then their son and then their son and then you see Kings who are righteous David and Josiah and when they are worshiping the God of the universe rightly than the thousands and thousands are also worshiping the God universe so that's what's happened there's consequences and the rewards and one more quick this is another implication is teaching and this is.

For kids in the room so if you're a kid perk up for a second listen in the same way that you're not punished for your parents sins you also don't ride the coattails of your parents faith you don't inherit their faith you have to have your own personal faith you have to personally decide to follow Jesus and walk with him for all of your days for some of you've got some Godly faithful parents but you're just not going to pick up on their faith you've got to own this yourself.

So they need to understand this how this generational implications for obeying and disobeying the second commandment but they also needed to understand why why is the second commandment such a big deal why does this matter so much and it's right there embedded in the middle of it verse 5 you shall not bow down to them or serve them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God it's because our God is a jealous God who has jealous love for his people jealousy can sometimes be thought of in negative ways and it certainly can be used in negative ways.

But it also can be used in wonderful ways when I was in college my wife and I we were best friends best friends throughout College but I had a rule about not dating best friends because I dated my best friend in high school and ended poorly we were no longer friends so I had this rule as I don't date best friends so I friendzoned her and then junior year came around and I was like what am I doing she's great I like I it.

Finally like fall like winter winter break it clicked I just was like what am I doing I want to be with her about the time I decided I wanted to be with her I found out that she was going on dates with this other guy and what welled up in me was jealous love oh my God I was jealous for her attention for her affection and for her and she was going on dates with this guy they weren't official yet but she was going on dates with this guy who by the way was nothing like me he played left he's a starting left tackle.

For Coastal Carolina he was six foot four three bills I mean we could not be any different I was like what is happening but I was like The Unofficial yet this is going a few dates so I was making my intentions clear I was I was she saw very quickly that was no longer just friendship that I was interested in her now I don't want to spoil the rest of the story but she found out that I liked her and he's like bye that guy was gone and to this day.

If I saw her walking down the street holding another man's hand what would well up in me is jealous love because I have a jealous love for her I want her attention I want her affection I want her and the God of the universe even more so is jealous for us don't miss that he wants our attention he wants our affection he wants you God is jealous for you that is why the language of idolatry throughout the rest of the Old Testament is a spiritual adultery that's what a language is playing the Harlot after foreign Gods whoring after other gods that language is intentional.

For a reason because God has a Fierce and jealous love for his people and it's wonderful it's wonderful and people misunderstand that they criticize the jealousy of God Oprah said the reason she rejected the God of the Bible is because the Bible says that God is a jealous guy she thought that was petty and small as you missed it you completely misunderstand the jealousy of our God our God isn't jealous for us because he needs us Our God eternally has existed as self-sufficient he doesn't need anybody before creation even exempt.

For time existed which this is bright this breaks the brain but in what's called eternity past God the Father God the son and God the Holy Spirit eternally existed in Perfect Harmony had no need of creation had no need of people but God made the University made people he didn't need us but he desires us he wants us he is jealous for us and his jealousy is so wonderfully displayed that when his creation rejected him and chased after other idols and worshiped other things in the places of.

God that he would not let that stand and he came forth and that he obeyed the he took on flesh and dwelt Among Us and Jesus obeyed the Old Testament law perfectly and then he went to the cross for us to have his blood shed for our idolatrous pursuit of everything else and he died for us and he rose for us so that we could walk and the newness of life that experiences the Wonder and the joy of a God who is jealous.

For his people so that we could experience his jealousy for us now into eternity that is how jealous and how wonderful our God is so the first and second commandment you shall have no other gods before me and you will worship me rightly that is a good gift that is those are wonderful Commandments because it calls us to see the one true God who is completely in love with us completely jealous for us and allows us to see him for who he is.

So that we can love him with all our heart with all our soul and with all our might and we would enjoy him forever the band's going to come up and we get to worship we get to sing to our jealous wonderful God we get to Behold Him for who he is but there are probably some of us they don't see that and don't fully understand that and some of us all we can see is our sin and our Brokenness and we think how in the world could.

God possibly want me we were the first the second commandment we can see all the other things that we worship in the place of God and so how could this God still want me he loves us because of his great love and his great Mercy he loves us because he is jealous for us because of what Jesus did for us and it's based completely on the work of Christ in Christ alone so yeah we are unworthy I don't know we're unworthy to worship Our.

God and to Behold Him but through Christ and what he has done for us we get to worship our God and there may be some of you here that have never truly believed this who have never surrendered to this God who is jealous and I want you to see how wonderful the jealousy of God is I want you to see how wonderful it is to have no other gods before him but to be so deeply in love with him and my hope is that you would surrender this.

God because he's worthy worthy you pray heavenly father I pray that you would help us behold you now in worship we are we are idolaters we do chase after other things and those things leave us empty and unsatisfied and broken and weary and that you get to pick up our heads and help us see the cross in the empty tomb we get to behold you our jealous and wonderful God the Lord help us worship and if there's anyone here that is not understood that has not believed that does not know you.

God may you absolutely bend their hearts to believe and the beholding you as our one true God so that we can worship you and worship you rightly in Jesus name amen.

The Ten Commandments Intro (Exodus 20:1-17)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

The Ten Commandments Intro (Exodus 20:1-17)

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Grab a bomb and go to Exodus chapter 20. that'll be on page 35 if you grab one of the blue baubles that's in the chair on the seat in front of you in that little rack we have been working our way through the book of Exodus and we've made it to the giving of the law at Mount Sinai and the Ten Commandments and we're going to spend the next several weeks in the Ten Commandments um some years ago there was a an Indian food buffet over in West Columbia in the shopping center where Hobby Lobby is and I had never really had Indian food and I thought Buffet is a good place to start.

Because you can see it you can try different things you're not just locked into um and so we went this is the type of stuff this is like street food you get this you dip this and that she'd be like for for you know probably what this is she's like all right don't eat that and she'd be like the filled up plate went and sat down and she's excitedly like watching us about to eat and then I had one of the weirdest experiences of my life I took a bite of the food stuck it in my mouth and my brain knew that it was food.

But my body did not recognize flavor a texture a smell the weird I put it in my mouth and might have ever come to just sticking to my mouth immediately just spitting it back out on the table but she's excitedly like watching so I was like but it was weird because I did not recognize any of it it was so foreign to me that I just wanted to immediately reject it I ended up enjoying my meal we went back a couple of times I did grow my palate a little bit and trying to eat some Indian food um still not my favorite though.

But the reason I tell that illustration the reason I'm telling that story is that we're looking at the law that God gives the people of Israel and what happens to us when we receive the law so often there are parts of this that taste good to us that you read this and you go yes amen thank you Lord praise God you're so wise you're so wonderful and there's other parts of it that are foreign to us odd to us confusing to us as you work through Not Just the Ten Commandments you.

If you will consider them today and you're probably used to them so I'm going to have to press on a little bit of how we kind of Nod along but then disagree but as you read through the books of the Bible as you read the rest of the laws you read how God interacts with man there are times where you're reading stuff and you're just confused as to why he cares about that why does that matter and there are other times where you're probably reading the Bible and it's not just confusion it's disdain being.

For several weeks and we're going to zoom in each one and kind of walk through and take them in turn today we're doing a bigger picture overview and we're really proculture what are the ones that we kind of shy away from or dislike and then what do we do with that that's where we're going to start as we study the Ten Commandments because if we think if we don't do this there's a chance that we'll all nod along boldly important to.

God and and therefore to us through the Ten Commandments this morning God we ask for your help we ask for the work of the Holy Spirit to help us see ourselves one so helpful and so much for our good and Jesus and God spoke all these it calls them the words a lot and it'll even say at times that they're we're to follow his words and his statutes and these are the work and if you haven't sometimes they're called the decalogue God's ten commandments and in some ways.

If you want to try to think about it it's the 10 most important things if God is giving you these are the 10 most important foundational things for following him it's these and the rest of the law is extrapolation from this it's further explanation of these when he says you will have no other God before me the rest of the law is explaining what that looks like when it says you won't steal it's not just how you define stealing he explains it he explains what you're like all right.

Well I didn't really steal but I borrowed something and I broke it does that count it's like yeah he's going to explain some of those things and try to help us understand I didn't steal an item I stole a person yeah that's a problem he's going to explain those things further on but this is where we get kind of the 10 foundational items God's top ten these are wildly important and I think it's helpful for us to understand that because there are things in this list that would not make your top ten there are things in this list that we may be used to hearing.

But they wouldn't if you were setting a code of laws I'm guessing there's some things here that you would think well okay maybe but probably not in your top ten so that's where we need to grow in understanding what is God saying and why does this matter and why are we wrong not him verse 2. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery y'all verse 2 is so wonderful.

Because I think sometimes we think that our approach to God is okay what does he want from me all right God what are your rules what are the things I need to do to be one of the good ones what are the things I need to do to make you love me to make you uh you know to to be saved what are the things I need to do to be a good Christian some of you might even be here this morning and that's why you're here you're you you realize that you got your life sideways and you're like I just got to get back in Church I'm gonna get straightened back out I'm gonna.

Go get it together and no you're not but we're glad you're here that's not how it works the the hope for the Israelites is not he didn't come to them in their slavery and say hey I got 10 rules and if y'all can start following these I'm gonna Circle back around and rescue you what happens first is redemption then Commandments and it's the same way for us in in the cross we need forgiveness then we follow in obedience we follow in obedience.

Because he is gracious and good and he redeems and he rescues we read that together a moment ago that we're by Grace we are saved and then later it says it's nothing that we've done it's not by works but he's prepared good works for us so that we are redeemed and rescued by his good work on our behalf and then we follow in obedience but it's we've got to get that in the right order because if you think I'm going to get it together I'm going to work really hard.

Then God will save me that's not how it works Redemption comes first and that's really good news so that we get to come to Jesus and ask for forgiveness and Rescue and he does through his work not ours and then calls us to follow him in obedience and humility okay rescue before command salvation before obedience but now let's look at the Ten Commandments we're gonna like I said we're gonna move through these fairly quickly and then we're going to discuss some stuff we're going to come back through.

But we're taking all of them together today and we'll spend more time on in the coming weeks you shall have no other gods before me God says I'm it it's not a Pantheon it's not like I'm the top one and you can have some other ones it's me and you worship me and me alone you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the Earth you shall not bow down to them or serve them.

For I the Lord your God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me but showing steadfast love to the thousands of those who love me and keep my Commandments first ones you'll have no other gods before me the second one is you will not make a Graven image you won't make an idol you won't have other things that you worship and bow down to you won't approach me that way or worship other gods in that way.

Third one you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain for the Lord will not hold him Guiltless who takes his name in vain we will not speak blasphemously or flippantly about the name of God and we will not use his name to co-sign our lies that he will be treated with respect and honor verse 8. remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the.

Lord your God on it you shall not do any work you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your livestock or the Sojourner who is within your gates for in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day therefore the Lord blessed this sabbath day and made it holy so he sets us out a day and says this is a holy day and you will rest and worship and no one will work on this day.

Verse 12 honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God has given you and some of y'all didn't realize that your parents quoted that to you in shorthand periodically you better do what I say or I'm going to snatch you up I brought you in I can take you out you will not live long in the land that God gave you but we will honor and show respect to our parents and our elders 13 you shall not murder you shall not commit adultery you shall not steal you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor you're not lie to harm others you will not.

Lie at all and the last one you shall not covet your neighbor's house you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbors that we are not to sit and look at those around us and desire what they have to long for it to daydream about it to think must be nice not to do that that's God's Ten Commandments that's the ten words that he gives to the people of Israel and everything else like I said is going to fall out of that is going to be explaining that it's going to help us understand it's almost like these.

Are the laws and the rest of it is like case law it's saying in this situation this in this situation this two of those are positive commands things that you will do eight of them are prohibitions negative commands you will not the word shall is a mixture of Will and should not only will you but you should not only should you but you will shall that's kind of a way to understand we don't use that word that much anymore you're not like actually I'll go to the bank.

Today but that's what he's saying is this is what you will do and it's what you should do and this is what you will not do and what you should not do now some of those we read and they make sense to us we think they're good some of them it's like okay I don't know I I don't I know as Christians if you're in here and you're a Christian you're you're trying to bend your will to the will of God I understand that like I read these and I go I want to obey all of these I understand these I want to follow them as the Holy Spirit is at work in me I.

Want to be submissive to this but I'm just saying that culturally some of them track with us very clearly in other ones we have a little bit harder time with so I want to take a moment to try to help us understand that get a better vantage point on that as we walk through there are two books that I have found helpful one of them is the Righteous Mind by Jonathan height and I said I was going to look up how to pronounce his name and I didn't.

So height is how you pronounce it and uh the other one is for our good Always by Brandon Clements Jonathan height is a PhD and he does studies in moral psychology he is not a Christian but he was looking into how do people make decisions and how specifically do people make moral decisions and decisions where they're saying this is a moral issue meaning that it is right and wrong whether you think so or not that's morality this is right or wrong whether you think.

So or not but he's approaching it from a psychological standpoint he does a lot of research and it's interesting research that he does Brandon Clements is a Christian he's a pastor at Midtown Lexington I when I did my residency at Midtown um I worked with him a lot he's he's a very wise helpful guy and this is a very good book but he takes a lot of what Jonathan height says and says yeah the Bible talks about that and he pairs it up with the Ten Commandments and helps us.

See kind of how that applies but Jonathan height outlines as he's done studies around the world he realized that uh most of the studies done on how people make moral decisions are done with middle class Americans so he was like well let's go do some studies in other parts of the world and see how they think about things and he outlined what he calls five moral foundations places where you anchor morality he also calls them moral taste buds I was on a plane one time we were headed to New York and I heard someone loudly saying from across the plane and she was.

So excited to go back to New York because biscuits are awful and she missed Bagels and I thought well no wonder she's loud she's from New York and she's wildly wrong she complained that biscuits are crumbly that's wonderful that's part of what makes him good you have to gnaw on a bagel could you imagine eating a bacon egg and cheese bagel that sounds awful it's like if you gave me one of those I'd be like I'm just gonna fast and pray this morning.

For the people for the people in the northern U.S who have to eat this all the time that's a matter of taste there may be some of you in here who are like bagels are awesome and good for you you're wrong but that's okay it's a matter of taste and when Jonathan height talks about morality he's talking about it like it's a matter of taste but it's not a matter of taste it's a matter of divine decree but this is the way he's talking about it what he says is that culturally we have some that we like we have certain moral foundations that make sense to us culture that have been infused into our culture.

And so he lists out five and this is what he says care and harm as a moral Foundation fairness and cheating is a moral Foundation loyalty and betrayal is a moral Foundation Authority and subversion is a moral foundation and sanctity and degradation is a moral Foundation so I'm gonna try to explain these and I'm gonna try to help us understand why this is integral to our approach and understanding of the Ten Commandments Karen harm it's bad to hurt people it's good to care.

For people virtues or gentleness and kindness sins it's anything that hurts somebody this will make sense to us fairness and cheating the virtues are honesty Equity Justice that oppression is sinful and bad that lying and cheating are bad that we ought to be fair and equal and that this is a moral foundation for whether or not you can judge if something is right or wrong loyalty and betrayal it is good for people to be able to join groups and trust one another it's good.

For you to enter into relationships and be able to trust others that together we can make things better so from this we get things like the way you care for your family or your friends or patriotism this is where I can tell one of my brothers he's being an idiot but you better keep that to yourself I'll handle my own Idiot Brother you shut your mouth that's where that comes from this idea that it's wrong to be disloyal it's wrong to betray the trust of others or to commit treason whether you think.

So or not Authority and subversion that we need as humans to flourish to form beneficial relationships inside of hierarchies and that sentence hurts Americans feelings but it's true how much do y'all like the idea of authority and submission you're a big fan of it think about it a lot this insists that not all hierarchies are evil or exploitive we should have respect for legitimate Authority whether that's God the government a parent a teacher a boss if these things are actually integral to human flourishing and that it is good to exist with some respect deference and submission in these hierarchies.

Therefore disrespect disobedience is wrong the fifth one that he outlines is sanctity and degradation that some things are right and wrong simply because God says they are he says there's this understanding that there's a vertical axis and at the top there are things that are holy Sanctified and at the bottom there are things that are degraded defiling and profane so if you think about the idea that humans are made in the image of God and then how can we treat dead bodies.

And if you just base things off of harm it's like well you can't hurt them but no there's there's definitely a way to defile and degrade and to be profane and it's wrong just because it's wrong and because God says it's wrong versus things that are holy and set apart now culturally and Brandon Clements helps outline this we uh we have differing viewpoints depending on where you come from culturally so Asian cultures values loyalty and Authority followed by sanctity and then care harm fairness all that care and harm and fairness show up in every culture in some ways.

But loyalty and Authority matter more this is why Disney can't make good movies about Asian cultures this is why in Moana and Mulan they start off by singing a song about how you're supposed to fit into your role in society and you're supposed to be submissive to your elders and that it ends with the Disney character going but not really do what you want listen to your parents unless you hear a voice inside tell you something else and then do that mulan's like I should submit and figure out how to be a wife and fit into culture and that's a very Asian thought process.

And then she turns American is like but not really give me a sword I'm about to stick it to the Huns and that's the stuff we celebrate but culturally loyalty to your parents to your ancestors submission to Authority this is why when there was a giant I believe it was an earthquake in Japan I just remember seeing the picture of the lines for people to get water it was like a two mile long single foul line and I thought you're not getting Americans to line up like that.

For water but the order and authority and submission to Authority that's how they handled it Middle Eastern cultures sanctity is the highest God says some things are wrong so they're wrong then you have authority and loyalty and then care harm and fairness are lower down this is why a lot of Middle Eastern cultures hate Western cultures because they think that we're promoting a free sexuality a rejection of authority an inverted sense of autonomy and that the world would be better off.

If we weren't running around defiling it and they say that some things are wrong because God says they're wrong and we disagree with some of those things as Christians but they're not wrong about all of that all right let's talk about us Western cultures we have a very inflamed sense of care and harm and fairness this is how we think about it this is why we'll say things like do whatever you want as long as it doesn't hurt somebody that's care Harmony this is why.

When they were trying to convince people to quit illegally downloading music and movies you remember back in the day some of y'all when you would use Napster or LimeWire like you had like let's say you had an older brother and his name was hypothetically like Logan and he was like hey I was downloading this song but our dad took a phone call so now it's not going to download even though we were seven hours in so we're gonna get it downloading tonight before we go to bed.

And when we wake up we'll probably have this song by Incubus or Third Eye Blind or whatever y'all remember that but when they were trying to convince people not to do that they ran in ad campaigns and what did they say piracy is not a victimless crime because in order to talk to us they needed to convince us that you were hurting somebody what they didn't say is piracy is stealing and stealing is a sin piracy is disloyal to your fellow citizens who have copyrights on this music how much would we care.

But what they said is you have a secret victim and every time you piracy something you've stabbed them and robbed them of a meal and it's like oh wow that matters a little more that we have a victim here this is how we have to communicate to us because that's all we care about now this matters because when we approach The Ten Commandments or we approach the law of God when we're reading how God deals with humans what happens is so often we go why would.

God act like that or we approach in some sort of hubris some sort of Pride that we have a beautiful view on what morality ought to be when actually we have a stunted and disfigured view of morality that has things out of place Karen harm matter fairness matters but they're not the only things that matter and when we read The Ten Commandments there are things that are wildly massively important to God that don't register with our culture at all and there are times that you're reading your Bible and you might be thinking.

Well that's a bit of an overreaction wow God's being really harsh there why would that be such a big thing I don't understand why he would treat those people that way most often it's in a sense it's in a case where someone seems to be harmed by God for a thing that we deem not that important so let's look at our Ten Commandments you see for us to say that we have the best view on morality is like me asking you to paint a sunset or a rainbow.

And then giving you two green crayons you're going to immediately respond with I'm gonna need some more things here to fill this out and that's actually what we need when it comes to morality we need a little bit more of God's understanding of how to approach right and wrong because there's things that we are missing and therefore rather than disagreeing with God and thinking we're right we ought to see every disagreement with God a place that we need to grow be submissive walk in obedience and Trust his wisdom over ours I have a I know how to build some things I've built built some things I'm not the best at it.

But I'm not terrible but there have been times where I've gotten to do a construction project with Brad arneson and Chris Rocky um Brad arneson oversees a steel plant and Chris Rocky's finishing building his own house with his own bare hands and so when I'm in construction projects with them what I don't do is walk over and gosh yeah I got this I don't know if you know this I've built a porch before like I don't do that what I do is I come over like this and I go what do you want me to do boss.

And then I say things like and when they tell me to stop doing a thing I say okay and I stop and then I sometimes I'll ask why was what was I doing that was dumb and they'll explain it to me and if you hung out with us on a job site you would think that was the right way to behave how dare we approach our Bibles with with less respect and deference than we would give to a human who knows some more than us how how dare we approach our Bibles.

Look and go well I don't really like that or I don't know you're going to need to explain yourself a little more to me God foolishness so let's look at our Ten Commandments let's try to grow a little bit I want to show you the ones you like care and fairness ones these are the ones if I said hey pick your favorite Ten Commandments pick the ones that if you were going to choose for your neighbors to follow if I said hey you're going to live in a neighborhood and you get to pick four Commandments that everyone in that City or that neighborhood is going to follow I can guess with great accuracy which ones.

We'd be picking you shall not murder you should not commit adultery you shall not steal you should not bear false witness I want to live in a place like that those are the ones that were like yeah I mean it's a big deal like if you had a child and they started showing homicidal Tendencies you would care you'd be like I don't know he keeps just hurting things this is terrible he's going to grow up to be a murderer but some of us have wildly disrespectful children and we're like.

Well maybe he'll be a cowboy and it's like that's not good for him he shouldn't be acting like that some of us continually teach our children that treating the name the name of the Lord in vain doesn't matter as much these are the ones that we care about these are the ones that make sense to us there are some that are kind of in the middle we understand a little bit we're we're tracking somewhat with you shall have no other gods before me that's primarily loyalty and Authority you should have no other guys before me go to the the here we go that's primarily loyalty and Authority we at least understand this logically that.

If God's going to be the one who rescues then God can tell you he's the only God and you're going to submit to him the problem is culturally and for a lot of us it just is like well okay I mean it makes sense it's like a house rule for God but it's not that important but it's actually massively important for Humanity to know the one true God submit to the one true God and not follow any other God and this command carries the death penalty with it in the law.

So God takes it seriously the next one that we take halfway honor your father and mother that your days may be long in the land the Lord your God is giving you we yeah that makes sense to be respectful to your parents that's something in general is a good thing like I came in the other day and I asked my younger son he's five I said something about dinner and I was asking him basically what type of bean did he want do you want green beans you want something like that I said you want green beans and he stood up and went nowhere do what he said that's how I say no.

Now and I said not to me it didn't not to your mama not to your teachers you can say it to your brother which is very funny to watch him say that to his older brother you want to play this game but we understand in some sense that respecting your parents is this is important that this matters but again we can only go so far the beginning of the new one of the new Disney movies called turning red starts off like this it's like you know somebody doing narration over the top of some stuff and it says this the number one oh it's about an Asian family.

So you're going to get watch again how how we treat this the number one rule in my family honor your parents they're the Supreme Beings who gave you life who sweated and sacrificed so much to put a roof over your head food on your plate an epic amount of food the least you can do in return is every single thing they ask of course some people are like be careful honoring your parents sounds great but if you take it too far.

Well you might forget to honor yourself the opening of a Disney movie quotes The Ten Commandments and says follow me children and part of us as good Americans thinks she's not wrong can't have your parents telling you what to do all the time but this also carries a capital punishment in Exodus 21 and in Deuteronomy disregard for your parents striking your father or mother or living wildly licentious rebellious lives ends in execution but we have an inflamed sense of harm and we say.

Well that sounds ridiculous that God would act like that but maybe we're wrong and not him there are several that don't make much sense to us at all you shall not make yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is heaven above or Earth beneath okay so no idols I guess God can set that rule I guess God can make that but as far as like I mean shouldn't we just let cultures kind of do what they want should we let people do what they want does it really matter that much what we worship or how we worship I mean I don't really want to live in a society that dictates that.

But again as far as the people of Israel goes and how God relates to them this also in Deuteronomy 13 and 17 carries the death penalty to reject God as your one true God and to pursue and worship idols is something that he takes wildly aggressively seriously because it is against human flourishing that it harms us ultimately and eternally when we reject the authority and Leadership and worship of God you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

For the Lord will not hold him Guiltless who takes his name in vain there's a man who blasphemes and curses the Lord in Leviticus 24 and he is put to death now we might be understanding that if someone commits murder they received the death penalty but not that we would have to treat God's name this way but that's because we don't have any understanding of Holiness and sanctity the way that we ought to it's not because our vantage point on morality is better it's.

Because it is stunted and disfigured and that we ought to take the things that God says to take seriously seriously and some of us need to begin to pay attention to how we speak about God and his name remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six days you shall labor and do all of your work but the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord your God that certain days will be set apart as holy for worship and rest and that that wasn't just something that was nice that.

God blessed us with rest but that it was something that was commanded as a thing that needed to be practiced in order to love and Worship the Lord is foreign to us we're likely to want to just spit it out of our mouth because it doesn't taste right now Jesus comes in and Spencer's going to talk us through some of this but Jesus comes in and he adjusts how they were viewing this sabbath and how we get to view this sabbath as a blessing.

But I want us to see that it's one of the ones that we read and just think optional this last one I think is a very good example you shall not covet your neighbor's house you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbors if I pressed you on this I think you might would be able to say that you could see how coveting a lot could make you unhappy like.

If I spend all my time on Instagram and Facebook I could see how that would like lead to depression if I was just looking at everything that everybody was happy about and always wishing that my life was better and all you'd really be able to articulate is that if you did this to the point of harming yourself then it might be bad but the idea that I'm not supposed to look at something someone else has and want it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to us you ever seen someone's shoes and thought those are nice shoes and asked them a question like where'd you get those ever seen someone's jacket and thought that's.

A nice jacket where'd you get that jacket ever seen someone's truck and thought wow what a nice truck where'd you get that bullet antenna you ever seen you ever seen some bodies things and just thought like I like to get that I'd like to figure out where you have that I'd like to be able to to be able to have something like that that's our whole system that's not covetousness that's marketing that's capitalism this is what we operate off of you ever been watching a show and thought oh wow I need to check into seeing about that you've been scrolling through Facebook and thought I'd like to vacation there where is that and you've desired.

Something that someone else had and then you needed it in order for you to be happy that's covetousness you ever had something you were enjoying seeing someone else enjoying something else more and now you weren't enjoying what you were enjoying anymore you ever had a house you liked until you visited someone else's house and now your house is stupid I only have two bathrooms I want to let three or four people go to the bathroom at once this is normal for us we have whole TV shows dedicated to this we don't care and we read this and we nod and we go you're right.

But we walk off and we don't care because he hasn't convinced us that it harms someone he hasn't convinced us that it fits into our approach to morality and we are wrong and we don't need God to convince us we need to repent and submit and see that we have fallen wildly short of God's ideal for what we ought to be and rather than in Pride judging him we need to in submission and humility fall on our face and ask for help this is why Americans have no ability to articulate why you cannot participate in all the sexual activity you want to as long as it doesn't hurt someone this is why we have no.

Words to articulate to someone that you can't do that even though it's your own personal autonomy and even though you aren't actively hurting someone you're not allowed to do that because we don't have any words for sanctity we don't have any words for being able to say to someone that's wrong just because God says it's wrong that's degrading to being a human but that doesn't mean that God's wrong it means that we are I want to read a quote from Brandon Clement's book he says many Americans tend to think God's Wrath isn't fair showing our heightened moral category.

For that concern but part of that reasoning is because we don't think sin is that big of a deal and certainly not sins that don't seem to harm someone we don't care as much that people violently rebel against God's Authority betray his loyalty or degrade and debase the holy so we don't think of those things as deserving of Wrath and God's Vision all those things are serious offenses and sometimes deserving of Swift wrath death and even Eternal separation from him all of which makes the sacrifice of.

Jesus that enables us to approach God's throne with confidence all the more astounding do you know why so often we'll say things like I just don't understand how God could judge people who are good I don't understand why God would send good people to hell it's because we've trimmed the Ten Commandments down to about three or four things and we say it's not because they're murdering people they don't really steal maybe once when they were little they're pretty honest they seem to you know they might have had some sexual sin.

But they're pretty faithful to their spouse seems like they've had a good relationship he's a nice man he's a gentle man she's a good woman and all we mean is by our stunted reduced view of what God would want from us in an Americanized sense and we have cut out all the ways that we have heinously offended God by rejecting his authority by rejecting worship of him by honoring and loving and serving other things by treating his name like dirt and by walking around wildly coveting.

And then even the ones that we agree with still failing at and then excusing because Rebellion against God just isn't that big a deal and it's not that God's wrong it's that we are and what we need is forgiveness and obedience what we need is repentance we need Jesus to save us it makes his sacrifice all the more astounding that he would rescue people who have utterly rejected the authority of God and then walked around strutting in their pride I read a quote the other day that says whenever you feel like you've sinned just.

Remember that God sins far outweigh yours and then a bunch of people saying what a great quote and it's just because we've redone what we think morality is and then we can sit and judge God based off of it rather than in humility submitting to him and saying thank you Lord for correcting me where I am so wildly wrong every place that you disagree with him is not a place where he is wrong it's a place where you are and it's an opportunity.

For trust and obedience Romans 3 23 24 and 24 says for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus we need to turn to Jesus and ask for forgiveness because we have failed and we are deserving of Wrath but he offers forgiveness and grace through taking the penalty of our sin on the cross and then after rescue and Redemption comes obedience this is why.

Jesus says things like uh whoever believes in the son has eternal life whoever does not obey the son shall not see life but the wrath of God remains on him this is why first John says by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his Commandments for this is love of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not burdensome that we are rescued first but then we walk in humility and obedience grow our understanding of what.

God will have from us as the band comes back up this morning foreign seriously I want you to look at your Bible at Exodus 20 and I want you to consider the places where you run afoul of God's law or the places where you just kind of think that one doesn't matter I want us to consider before the Lord where we need his grace and then we get to ask him for it we get to say Lord I'm sorry help me change me forgive me.

Because of the work of Christ he will and then we get to say through your Holy Spirit Empower me to walk forward in obedience that I would not walk forward in Pride judging your law but that I would sit under the authority of your law knowing that I am judged by you but that ultimately because of Christ I get to escape that judgment because he was judged in my place for my sin but help me to obey let's bow our heads.

Lord I ask that by your grace that you would help us to see goodness and the wisdom of your law but I pray that by your grace and by your spirit that you would help us to see our sin so that we would not stand condemned or that we would not judge you in our arrogance the Lord May there be repentance this morning in the days to come we thank you for the rescue provided by the work of Christ for without it we are lost.

God's Holiness (Exodus 19 & 20)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

God's Holiness (Exodus 19 & 20)

Chet Phillips

Treasured Possession, Kingdom of Priests, & a Holy Nation (Exodus 19:1-6)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Treasured Possession, Kingdom of Priests, & a Holy Nation (Exodus 19:1-6)

Spencer Cary

Transcript

Good morning my name is Spencer I'm one of the pastors here we're going to be in Exodus chapter 19 verses one through six as we continue to Journey Through The Book of Exodus so a few weeks ago I was on my phone I saw a video uh with a kind of a clickbaity type click baity type title pop across the screen and I was like I have got to watch this and the title of video was some form of uh this is why you need subtitles to watch movies and television nowadays and I went what I thought it was just me I thought my children just blowing on my eardrums and I can't hear anymore.

That it's not a unique problem to me that people needs subtitles so I was like yes I will give you 10 minutes of my time I'd love to know why I need subtitles and I'm not going to get into all the nerdy details because there's multiple reasons but I'll give you a couple one of them is because back in the day there used to be One mic above each scene so they have a mic above that scene and those actors were trained uh to very be to be articulate to project their voice at that mic.

So that all these words could be caught and then nowadays because there's mics everywhere they can put them on their person they can put them in all parts of the scene that actors have gotten lays here and they've started to slur and Mumble their words together which for someone like me who if you've ever been an informal conversation with me who slurred in my words it's like oh I'm not alone even the pros do it uh but then I kept watching and I thought that there was uh uh something that I found to be very helpful is that they shoot movies and television primarily.

For a surround sound experience okay so like that and they shoot it for in the theaters to have all the speakers from front to back and all around and at home if you have like an expensive Sonos system that's what it's made for and what they do is they shoot up for that type of quality and then they start to reduce it down to the lowest kind of common uh listening experience and one of the more popular listening experiences is what I do I have a flat screen TV that is thin and has one tiny speaker on the back and that shoots sound back at the wall.

Then comes back to me and by the time that I'm listening like there's moments where I'm watching this a show or a movie and I'm like I know that this is important I can tell by the setup that this is a very important scene but I can't hear in the word so I have to rewind put subtitles on and be ah there it is to catch some of the most important pivotal parts of the story you need the full surround sound experience and that is a little bit of where we're at in Exodus.

Today that is our passage we're going to look at what is one of the most pivotal an important and foundational passages in the Old Testament this passage clearly outlines who the people of God are supposed to be who God's people are supposed to be in order to hear it clearly there's these major descriptions that are given for the people of God and each of those is like a different speaker the front the back and the sides you need all of them to help hear who we are supposed to be.

Now as the Church so we're going to walk through this together and we pray for us and then we will see what God has to say to us Heaven heavenly father I pray that you would help us be present this morning I pray that you would help us listen that we receive your word with glad and generous hearts that we would be willing to be molded and shaped into your image whether that's through correction whether that causes to repentance whether that causes cause us to just simply delighting in you I pray that you would help that happen this morning and you'd work in our hearts we ask this in.

Jesus name amen okay we're gonna start from verse one says on the third New Moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt on that day they came into the Wilderness of Sinai so most of us aren't well versed in Jewish calendars when it says on the third new moon this is about seven weeks okay and a lot has happened in the last seven weeks when they left Egypt we've seen the the Great Red Sea Crossing and everything that went into that with.

God uh destroying the enemies of Israel and saving his people we've watched as they've been in the wilderness the highs and the lows we've seen them suffering with starving and thirsting we've seen God provide through Manna through Quail through water from the rock they have fought a war with the amalekites and then last week we saw Jethro Moses father-in-law visit there's a lot that's happened in seven weeks but now finally we're at a big shift in Exodus they are out there they have arrived they're arriving at Mount Sinai Mount Sinai is where Moses and the people are going to receive the Ten Commandments it's where they're going to receive the law.

So in verse 2 when it says they set out from rephidem and came to the Wilderness of Sinai then can't end the Wilderness there Israel and Camp before the mountain the mountain being Mount Sinai while Moses went up to God so they get to the mountain the people of God and Camp below it Moses goes up to meet with God and this is what happens the Lord called to him out of the mountain saying thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore You On Eagle's Wings and brought you to myself.

So Moses the prophet is going to tell the people this y'all remember what I did to the Egyptians right the very people that enslaved you for centuries who brutalized you you remember what I did to them and what I did for you because you were helpless in your state you were slaves you had no hope of saving and redeeming and freeing yourselves but he used the language of I bore you on the Eagles wings just you were helpless and hopeless and I swooped in like an eagle and picked you up and carried you to myself this is a picturesque of uh Return of the King uh the final book final movie of.

Lord of the Rings when Sam and Frodo have completed their Journey the ring has been destroyed now Mordor is going up in flames and there's lava all around them and they are exhausted and they're they they're starving and they've got nothing left in them they're completely hopeless about to die and then all of a sudden Eagles come in and scoop them up and carry them to safety that's us that's the Israelites that's our story hopeless and helpless on our own.

God in his Rich mercy and his love for us redeeming us scooping us up and it says Like an Eagle he bore us on his wings to himself it is this save us away from destruction he brings us to himself that we might live with him and Delight in him that's what he's trying to help the people of God see that the God who saved you is now about to teach you what it means to be my people so what he's telling Moses and what the people of.

God need to hear out the gate is Grace I saved you because of my great love because of my power over the Egyptians I redeemed you and now you're going to learn as my people what it means to be the people of God in these next two verses are foundational for them so verse 5 it says now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my Covenant let me pause there for a moment he says since I'm the God that is.

For you that's redeemed you I want you to listen to what I have to say my words that's going to be the law that he's getting ready to deliver obey my voice but he says keep my Covenant now amongst Bible nerds which is a tribe that I've got a foot in they really love to debate this word covenant what does he mean because there's two possible options for what he means by Covenant so the first option is the Covenant that God made with Abraham in the Book of Genesis this will be the the abrahamic Covenant and this is the Covenant where.

God chooses Abraham there's nothing special about Abraham but God chooses Abraham and says I'm going to make a great nation out of you your descendants are going to be the means by which I bless the Nations so you'll see the different commentaries that go this is the abrahamic Covenant you look at the language and how it Compares some of the Covenant language that was earlier in Exodus it goes back to Abraham of Genesis and it's like oh this is a compelling arguments.

But on the other side they're like no no this is the Covenant with Moses What's called the Mosaic Covenant that's the Covenant that we're entering into right now that we're seeing in verse 19 20 and following this is the Covenant of Moses the law where the language that flows out of this is obeying the Lord and you listen to both of their arguments oh that's that's compelling oh that's compelling but as I've looked at the text this week what's become clear is that this passage is actually a bridge between those two Covenants that it's it's one plan the whole time and two promises two uh covenants that.

God has made with his people and this really brings them together you have the one of God's grace that Abraham chose and trusted God in faith and you have the outworking of that and the Mosaic Covenant which is obedience it's trusting God at his word that it is good and following him but this kind of holds both of those together with faith and following that's what's happening faith and following are bound up in when it says keep my Covenant so verse 5.

Now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my Covenant you shall be here it is here's the big descriptions okay the big surround sound descriptions of who we're called to be as the people of God you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples for all the Earth is mine verse six and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests second description and a holy nation and that's the third these are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel treasure possession Kingdom of priest holy nation this is what it means to be the people of.

God now we're going to spend most of our time in that before we get there I want to help tie this whole story together for us because What's Happening Here is profound it's beautiful so if you go back to the Covenant with Abraham and specifically when God is reinforcing it when he calls Abraham to sacrifice Isaac they're on the mountain and then he's about to sacrifice his son but then God intervenes and says no I've seen your faith Abraham and that what follows that is the reinforcing of this Covenant in Genesis 22 verses 17 and 18 it says I will surely this is.

God speaking I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply your Offspring as the stars of the heaven as the sand that is on the seashore and your Offspring shall possess the Gate of his enemies and in your Offspring shall hear this all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice okay as the promise that he made with Abraham that I'm going to bless you with a great nation and through your people I will bless the Nations.

And then you get to our passage today which is hundreds of years later when one of Abraham's descendants Moses is on the mount and God tells them now therefore if you indeed obey my voice same language and keep my Covenant you shall be my treasure possession amongst all peoples for all the Earth is mine you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation now we're going to get more into that and that language of what's happening there.

But what the people of God are called to be is the kingdom of priest to the surrounding Nations and this gets reinforced by the book of Isaiah in chapter 49 when it says God's speaking he says is it too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel I will make you as a light for the Nations that my salvation May reach to the end of the Earth and what you.

See is you're pulling this thread from Genesis all the way through the Old Testament is that God chose a people that they might be a holy nation a kingdom of priests a light to the surrounding Nations and then he brings them into his Promised Land into his presence and if you just look at the geography of where he chose that Israel geographically is this land bridge between two continents between all these different surrounding Nations all these different surrounding Nations that did not know.

God that did not love God they did not follow him they did abominable practices like sacrificing their children to foreign idols they don't know God but this people you're going to know me you're going to be like me and you're going to be a light to these surrounding Nations but when you read the rest of the Old Testament you see a rejection of that calling they don't want to be a treasure possession they don't want to be a kingdom of priest they don't want to be a holy nation they don't want.

God and they reject them over and over and over again they love the gods of the other nations they fall in love with their practices all the way to sacrificing their own children to foreign gods they failed they were not the light to the Nations but that promise Still Remains the promise that Abraham Still Remains the promise to Moses through Moses to his people still remains and God makes good on his promises despite the failure of his people and in steps.

Jesus and Jesus steps in and he becomes the light to the Nations that he fulfills the Mosaic Covenant obeying the law perfectly and that when he goes to the cross and dies for the sins of the world and when he rises out of the Tomb he is making a way for the light Nations to expand and for all the nations to be brought in and then when you get to after his resurrection before he ascends you get to the Great Commission which happens on a mountain you.

See a mountain thing there too from Abraham to Moses to now Jesus commissioning his Church and what does he say go therefore and Make Disciples of what All Nations you see it of all Nations This Promise is being pulled through at its coming true guys that this is biblical theology this is it right here like this is the sweet reward of reading the Scriptures and seeing these it's not a bunch of disconnected stories that's not all linked together it's one grand story from Genesis to Revelation the whole way through.

And then when you keep pulling that thread you get towards the end of the Bible and you get to second Peter it's coming alive you guys second Peter chapter two it's going to bring us home this is God through inspiring Peter speaking to this new these new testament churches here it is but you are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for his own possession sound familiar see same language of Exodus the same calling that the people of.

God are about to receive in Exodus that continues for thousands of years it doesn't change if you belong to God this is it that you're a royal priest to the kingdom of priests that you are a people for his own possession God's treasured possession that you are a holy nation same language but then you get the purpose right for what God's people and why they're called to be this and it goes on that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of Darkness into Marvelous Light that you are these things as my people.

So that not only you would know God but that you would Proclaim God to the world who needs him that you be a light to the Nations as God's people bearing the Light of Christ that you proclaim the excellencies the glory the goodness the Gospel of him who called you out of Darkness into Marvelous Light you were once enslaved to sin but now you've been made free as my people to Proclaim the Gospel that's why he continues in First Peter he says in.

Verse 11 beloved I urge you as sojourners and as Exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which waged war against your soul keep your conduct among the Gentiles that's Outsiders who don't believe that's the language there the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak evil must speak speak against you as evildoers they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation that how you assemble as the people of God and what you look like how you walk in this faith and the message that you have that they might.

See it and they might want to know Christ they might want to follow him so that when the day of visitation happens when judgment happens they might stand joyfully that's what the people of God have been for thousands of years that means that in this Exodus passage we really need to be very familiar with this language of what it means to be when he says now therefore if you want to obey my voice and keep my Covenant you shall be my treasured possession.

When he goes on to say my kingdom of priests he goes on to say a holy nation we need to be very familiar with those that language and we need each of those descriptions so we can have this surround sound experience of hearing who God is calling us to be as the Church so we're going to spend the rest of our time looking at those descriptions and why they matter so let's look at that first one my treasured possession or as.

First Peter says a people for his own possession okay so you shall be my treasure possession among the peoples and a people for his own possession in First Peter God looks at us and says you are my treasured possession out of everything and everyone that's ever been made God is the creator of the universe that means that from the farthest Galaxy and all of its stars to the very atoms beneath our feet that he looks at his people and says you are my most treasured possession how wonderful is that how beautiful is that.

God loves us that much that he calls us his treasured possession the Israelites they so needed to hear that they so needed to hear that for years for centuries they were pharaohs abused possession and God says listen you are my treasured possession and the same thing is true of the two of us with Christ that in Christ were God's treasured possession and we need to believe that because the enemy would love to would love to lie to us and like let us believe.

So many other things that God doesn't love us that God doesn't care that you don't matter I'm gonna walk as one of the things I do is I do pastoral Counseling in our Church not walk with people that had this internal Narrative of just I don't matter no one loves me God doesn't love me God doesn't care I'm worthless I'm terrible I should just end it I mean the the thought patterns that people have that just this reinforcing of the exact opposite of the language of.

God that you're a treasure possession we walk in this negative feedback loop of just it just continues and it continues and it continues and God in the middle of all of it is just trying to break through and says don't you see you're my treasured possession that you belong to me that I love you that I love you so much that I sent my son to die for you I I sent him to give you new life that what's while this moment in life might be filled with suffering it is light and momentary compared to the surpassing worth of the glory and the weight of Glory that awaits us at this moment in life it.

Feels long but it's like a vapor it's here and then it's gone when you compare that to the vast expanse of Eternity that God has secured for us in Christ and all the joy and endless peace and his presence that awaits us you don't realize how treasured you are Christian is what God is trying to help us see you're unbelievably treasured you're far more loved and cheers than you ever possibly imagine or dream I love the language that continues in Exodus of how.

God views his people because here he says treasured possession but when you flip to the next chapter in The Ten Commandments which we're going to spend more time in and the second commandment he says you shall not bow down to them or serve them talk about Idols for I the Lord You Are God and they jealous God our God is jealous for us his tragic possession how great is that the God of the universe cares that much about you like if I.

If my with one of my children came to me and said father well Daddy they don't use the language Daddy I've been playing with some kids down the street and that family is awesome dad they have all kinds of toys like their parents make a lot more money than you do they've got all the things they their dad drives a full-size truck that's like a tank it ain't like your Prius or your little pickup truck they drive the real deal they provide all the things and you know what we've decided I've decided that I'm I'm going to move in with them and I'm going to call them dad and I just think that family's better.

If I heard that you know what I feel jealous Wrath I'm jealous for my children they're my treasured possession I've looked at them and say you're not going to anywhere you were riding in the back of that Prius until it dies you are a part of this family you are mine I love you more than you could ever possibly imagine you ain't going nowhere because you're my treasure possession that's how God feels about us and then some feel that believe that Christian you're more valued than you could ever possibly understand your life was literally bought with the blood of.

God you are as treasured possession you need to hear that because what happens is is that we we when we endure suffering when we endure suffering we question them and we question the goodness of God if God's really good it really does value me as a treasured possession then why is life so hard why do I feel so sad or why do I feel so alone or what fill in the blank that's a longer discussion that sometimes you're not going to get the most satisfying answers answers to.

But you're not alone the Israelites felt that I mean they wandered in the wilderness through all types of Trials and they questioned the goodness of God and God's not trying to help them see and help us see you don't understand how treasured you are that our minds are so focused on this moment and the and the sufferings that feel great but pale in comparison to what await us we are absolutely treasured and loved by God and you need to believe that.

And if you believe them if you walk in them these next two descriptions are going to make a lot more sense when he says Kingdom of priests and holy nation okay now these are similar similar language here Kingdom of priests and holy nation all right but there's there's some differences here that is worth separating out to see the Nuance of the language that's being used we're going to look at the Kingdom of priests first so priests are a specific group of people.

Okay they're distinct from the rest of the people that we're going to see this later on in Exodus when God establishes this literal the priesthood of God and you're going to see these laws that show how they were different and distinct that they uh they had to follow all types of of different rituals and uh to to be holy to be Pious they had to even dress differently their dress was I mean later on in the New Testament that it gets used as a place of arrogance.

But the original design of of the dress and the difference was you all are distinct you distinct because you're called to a higher calling they were called to uh to maintain Holiness and to consecrate themselves make themselves holy for different rituals and the reason why is because the priesthood had special access to God the priesthood had unique access that the rest of the people did not that when the temple gets built there are different parts of the temple that the rest of the people cannot enter and and there's only the priest could enter into that.

Because they devoted themselves to God and to this pursuit of holiness and what we see coming out of that is not only for the end itself knowing God it was so that with their special access they might teach the people they might teach the law that they might be in charge of corporate worship helping people bring their sacrifices to God that they had special access to God to know him so that the people could know him that's what it means to be a kingdom of priest is that we as Christians have special access to.

God that we're called the priesthood of all believers now because we no longer need a preach between us and God that we have Jesus our great high priest who gives us access to God the father that we can approach him in prayer and in worship at any moment and with that special access it's not just for our good it's for the good of others that we might know God and the Overflow of knowing God and loving him might be poured out.

For the good of others that's why in First Peter he says keep your conduct amongst the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak evil against you they may see their good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us on the day of visitation so that the people can hear the excellencies of him who cauldron of Darkness into Marvelous Light a kingdom of priests Proclaim who God is that the invitation to God ultimately is flowing through them as teachers of the law and as those who facilitate worship and in Christ we have that message of who.

Jesus is and we get to as a kingdom of priests Proclaim who he is to the Nations who need him that the Church we say this every week I don't know if you've heard this the Church is plan a not plan B There It Is say that every week in our closing and I just missed it did the Church's plan a there is no plan B it's the means by which God proclaims his Gospel to the world because we are the kingdom of priests who give the invitation the Gospel to those who need him.

So second third is holy nation he says in verse 6 of chapter 19 you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation first Peter he says a royal priesthood and a holy nation now the word holiness it's a bad rap in our culture okay I caught a glimpse of the Grammy's performance that was talking about unholiness and I was a good night this is crazy also you misunderstand Holiness completely I've misunderstood Holiness completely when I was a lost teenager and rebellious like I got around some people that were very self-righteous and judgmental and you know I used to not be Baptist and they were and I thought Baptists were the worst.

Because what I equated I equated Holiness with holier than thou Holiness with self-righteousness and I think largely when you use the term Holiness that's what people think they think of self-righteousness no you think you're better than me that's not what Holiness is at all Holiness quite simply as seeking to be like our maker it's seeking to be just like him when he says Holiness that you've been set apart to be like your God that's the pursuit of Holiness is this trying to be like.

God and in any other listen any other phase of Life any other example like you no one looks at a at a boy that you know who loves his dad and he looks up to his dad and he wants to dress like his dad and look like his dad and talk like his dad no one looks at that and says oh you're just trying to be better than me you're just gonna be like your dad no one looks at a little girl who wants to be just like her mom or or a student that wants to be just like their teacher or a player that wants to be like their coach and says anything negative.

About that we all look at that and say that's awesome that's great but when it comes to God I said oh you you think you're better than me you must be self-righteous and it's like no no I Holiness is not I'm better than you as Jesus is better and I just want to be like him because he is better and what he has to offer is better and I trust him at his word that the God who saved me who redeemed me and set me apart and gave me these Commandments that show me what it means to live in life with.

God that these things are actually truly better that I'm going to trust what the Scriptures teach on this over what my gut says my trust with the Scriptures teach on this of what the world says because what Jesus offers is better and I want to be like my God and the people of God had a unique opportunity to be a holy nation amongst all types of surrounding Nations that did not know God and we as Christians get to be a holy nation not.

Because we're great because he is and his light gets to shine through us to people that desperately need to know God that's what it means to be a holy nation so with these three different phrases the Israelites we're hearing a picture this surround sound every part of it this is what it means to be the people of God that you are a treasured possession no longer the abuse possession of Pharaoh but you are treasured possession that you're no longer a kingdom of slaves.

But you're a kingdom of priests that you're no longer subject to the Egyptian Rule and reign as that Nation you are a holy nation that belongs to The Great I Am and with each of those descriptions you have an essential pick they're an essential part of a grander picture of what it means to be the people of God and you need all three I think all three descriptions to see your to try to embody what it means to be the Church all three of those matter.

So chat now this week uh we're talking through this and and we put together this Venn diagram um one because Venn diagrams are awesome they just are uh but it's just a helpful tool to be able to actually see kind of what happens if you don't have all three of them now if you're the kind of per if you're cynical you can try to poke holes in this all right that's nice or you can just kind of every illustration can break down eventually.

But we're going to look at this now and you have time and in your groups this week and group content actually work through this so treasured possession royal priesthood Kingdom of priests and a holy nation okay that's the three descriptions now here's what happens if you just have one of these individually go to the next slide please so if you just believe that you're a treasured possession and you post up and that that that's what you believe the Church is supposed to be that ultimately you just believe that.

Well just God is good and he is that's one part of it God is good but what can happen is is if you just believe that God is good and you're not concerned with being a royal priesthood an invitation to those who don't believe you're not concerned with holiness then ultimately what happens is you just think God okay is all of whatever we want to believe whatever we want to live the God's just gracious and he's good and you get this nominal Christianity this this Christianity that's a name only.

But as it doesn't actually ever take sin seriously doesn't reckon with what the our sin cost us that doesn't see a need to go therefore Make Disciples of all Nations and that can go all in all kinds of directions and go towards even universalism they're just like God just gonna be good to us it's all going to work out in the end and that's a misunderstanding of the Gospel if you just have this okay not we're not there yet go back the big reveal is coming you guys all right.

So if we just have Kingdom a priest royal priesthood then we have is just do good okay it's just you're doing a bunch of good you're just concerned with being uh you know an invitation and and missional and if you're just concerned with doing good but you actually don't see the part of the Gospel where God has Grace towards us if you don't see the calling to really this personal Holiness to be like Christ then what can happen is you really just have a bunch of good works that you reduce our faith down to really just kind of like a social Gospel of just doing good and doing good and doing good and ultimately you.

Don't have the essential parts of the Gospel that tell us that God is graceful towards us and his Mercy towards us that he calls us to be different for a reason and if you just have holy nation you understand what it means to be a Christian is to be a holy people but you don't have these other two you don't see the grace of our God you don't see but he's called to make us missional people that bear the Gospel then what you have ultimately is a holy huddle that's where you get the self-righteousness.

For people that are just like oh we're so great we're so concerned with being good and being good and being good but that's not the Gospel now what if you have two of these next slide please all right so if you have two of these if you see yeah we're a treasure possession we believe that God is and his grace and his Mercy and we believe that yes we're called to go and do and and serve the poor and and do good.

But you're not concerned with Holiness in any form and pursuing God and being like him that what you ultimately have is compromise you won't see that oh like sin is real and we should put it to death goodness one of when I became a Christian one of the most popular phrases at the time he's like 15 years ago I think it still lingers a little bit is we got to be relevant we got to be relevant I heard that over and over and over again and the people that bang that drama like the problem with the reason the Church is dying in America is we're just we're not relevant enough like they they they hit.

That drum over and over again to the point of Ad nauseam and a lot of those people aren't even following Jesus Anymore because they may compromise after compromise after compromise and listen what I don't know if you know this I'm going to totally break your brain if you don't know this Christians aren't cool to the world we're not we're weird we are Guided by a book that's thousands of years old we're not relevant at all in the sense of what people might think.

Today and that's okay you get to be distinct and different for a reason you don't have to look like or be like the rest of the world that's not how you make disciples of all Nations you're missing it if you don't have no we're actually called to look differently and if you just have a royal priesthood the invitation and a holy nation and it's just about doing good and being good that what you have is moralism are due to gain God I do to to be seen as good before.

God that's not the Gospel gospels that we were dead in our sin and Brokenness in our mess and is by his grace he Scoops us up and redeems us and sets us apart to be the people of God you just have moralism that's not the Gospel if you just have that you're a treasured possession that God is good and that you're a holy nation that you're called to be like him but you don't ever see the need to be a royal priesthood who proclaims the excellencies of him who calls us out of Darkness into moral of his life.

Then you just have a retreat you I mean you you and I'll be honest if we're going to air anywhere as our Church it's going to be in that category right there that we we have we love theology we talk about God's grace and his mercy and the richness of his kindness and that we see a need in our groups if you've been with our groups long enough we love each other we don't want each other to live and sin so we hold each other accountable and correct one other and pulling us to Christ.

But the one thing we might be lacking is evangelism and being the people that take the invitation to the world you need all three and if you have all three of them that that sinner sweet spot if you have all three of them you're never going to see this coming we get to be a Gospel-centered community on Mission boom nailed it that's it but it's true it's true we talk about that all the time that we believe the Gospel that God's grace and his Mercy claims it's redeemed is.

Because of what he did on the cross in the empty tomb and it sets us apart to be a holy nation and a people that know him that love him so that we might proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of Darkness into Marvel's light so that the world might taste and see that the Lord is good and take refuge in him that's the calling of what it means to be a Christian and that's the calling what it means to be the Church of.

Jesus Christ as the people of God were called to be thousands of years ago in Israel and that's what we're called to be now and that calling is beautiful and it is good and it is wonderful and we get to press into that together as a Church the band's going to come up and we're just going to worship and sing one last song as the Church that's seeking to be these three descriptions so let me very clearly this morning need to hear that.

God loves you that he sees you as a treasured possession that he does want you that he does desire you that he does want you to live in relationship with him and some of you may not know our God and the invitation is there that you don't have to clean yourself up you don't have to be good to gain him that you get to trust in the finished work of Jesus that he died for our sins and that he rose to give us new life in him and you get to experience what it means to be a treasured possession some of you need to feel the correction that we are called to be a holy.

Nation we are called to be different for a reason that distinctness and that separateness does not make us better but it does help us enjoy God and be a newer and beautiful better ways and then if we do that we do get to be a kingdom of priest and you got friends and neighbors and co-workers that lead Christ they don't know him that's our surrounding Nations I don't know him and if you lean into and press into who God calls us to be that maybe just might they might get to know him by the way that you live and the Gospel that you Proclaim.

So let me pray heavenly father I pray that you would help us really own what it means to be the people of God that you would help us see what it means to be a treasure possession and a kingdom of priests and a holy nation you would see this as unbelievably beautiful and good and if there's anyone here that does not even begin to know where to start I don't know what it means to be your treasured possession I pray that right.

Now they would see that the work that you did for them 2 000 years ago and the offering that is there for them right now that they would take it and if the rest of us who are sinners in desperate need of a savior for daily growth and wisdom and strength and insight as he mold us and conform us into your image may you make us be the holy people that bear the Gospel to a world that needs in Jesus name amen.

Jethro's Advice (Exodus 18)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Jethro's Advice (Exodus 18)

Spencer Cary

Transcript

Good morning my name is Spencer I am one of the pastors here we're going to be an Exodus chapter 18 today so if you have a blue Bible around you that's on page 34 you can follow along with us the text will also be on the screen so you know when you've got family that's coming to town for a week or if you go you know if you're not from here you go back and visit family for a week that that one week can sometimes feel like three or four weeks this is a lot that gets packed in in one week and I'm not saying it's always bad it's it's not like.

But there's a lot of emotions that can get packed into one week there's a lot of conversations and not just like that conversation but it's linked to like a conversation from two years ago and ten years ago like there's all kinds of things that are happening when family comes to town that's Exodus 18. that's what we're going to see today is that Moses's father-in-law Jethro comes to visit and there's a lot that's packed into this chapter that we're going to walk through together and as we walk through it towards the end I want us to help help us.

See three helpful truths that comes from Jethro's visit and how those truths still apply to us as Christians today and then we're going to end in one overarching theme that ties this story to out so I want to pray for us then we're going to walk through this together heavenly father I pray that you would help us receive your word that you would help us be present that we would not just be hearers of the word but doers of the word and that is by your power and your power with them.

So we ask this in Jesus name amen all right we're going to jump straight into it verse one Jethro the priest of Midian Moses father-in-law heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt so the last time we saw Jethro was when Moses was leaving there to go back to Egypt to respond to God's call to lead the people out of Egypt and Jethro gave his Blessing to Moses.

Now we're going to see him here again it goes on in verse 2. now Jethro Moses his father-in-law had taken zipporah Moses wife after he had sent her home along with her to Sons which pause for a moment if you've been following closely with us in Exodus you might be wondering when did that happen when did the poor and the boys just disappear we don't know Exodus was not concerned and telling us that part of the story it's possible that when things got heated between Moses and Pharaoh that he said you got to leave town.

For a bit it's possible that when they left initially out of Egypt that he sent her and the boys to Jethro to tell the good news it's possible that the whole throwing the foreskins incident that happened was just too much and he just said you got to leave for a bit we don't we really don't know when this happened or how this happened we just know that at some point he sends them away and now they're coming back so continue to get more information about his sons the name of one was gershom.

For he said I have been a so I've been a Sojourner and a foreign land the name of the other eliezar for he said the God of my father was my help and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh and that's very common in the Old Testament it's very common Bible times to name your child with meaning so that these names have meaning gershom sounds like the Hebrew word for Sojourner that's a Wanderer who has no home and then an Eleazar it's kind of a prophetic name this is.

God my help in the Hebrew and it's pointing forward to what is happening and what has happened so on to verse 5 Jethro Moses father-in-law came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was encamped at the Mountain of God and when he sent word to Moses I your father-in-law Jethro am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her which upon hearing that had to be some excitement that he's going to be able to I mean we don't know how long it's been.

But he's going to get to see his wife and his two sons this reunion is getting ready to happen and here's the reunion verse 7. Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him that's it that's the reunion you all know you've seen the soldiers coming back home videos where gets off the plane his wife and his kids are at the fence and he's excited and then he just runs right past them and then hugs his father-in-law kisses him on both cheeks bows down it's odd it's like why like why I'm sure that there was a reunion between him and his family that's just not mentioned here and that begs the.

Question why is Jethro the focus of this chapter and we're going to see how and why that happens so continues and they asked each other this is Moses and Jethro they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent verse 8 that Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh to the Egyptians for Israel's sake all the hardship that had come upon them in the way and how the Lord had delivered them so he update some you.

See I believe what happened how we were how we left Egypt and how Pharaoh came back for us at the Red Sea but God divided the Red Sea and we safely went to the other side and then he brought the waters down upon our enemies and we've had some good times we've had some hard times so far in the wilderness we've had some water shortages but God provided and he's teaching us to trust him some food shortages but now he's raining down man of from Heaven we've got some grumblers and some complainers.

But we're working on that too here's all the good here's all the bad he's recounting all of this and then verse 9 it says in Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel and that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians Jethro said blessed be the Lord who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of fear and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.

Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods than all gods because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people and here's the significance of Jethro here Jethro as we taught earlier in Exodus is a midianite he is not an Israelite and he's a priest of Midian and probably not at all a priest of God the gods of the midianites and he declares here now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods that an outsider sees the work of.

God and says now I know this is profound now that doesn't mean that the midianite people and the books of the Bible that you continue to read are going to follow suit with Jethro they don't uh but Jethro Taps into something that the others can't see he'd recognizes what Pharaoh and the Egyptians could not when God was displaying his power Pharaoh and the Egyptians could not see it that's the repeated phrasing that we saw earlier in Exodus was the Egyptians shall know that I am the.

Lord the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord and they didn't so much so that they came back to claim the people of God after they left that the amalekites which we saw last week have certainly heard about what God has done for his people and they don't know that Jethro does that you the Lord are greater than all the Gods cool picture of an outsider believing who this God is and then now he gets to participate in something that Moses declared earlier in Exodus 2 Pharaoh in Exodus 10 25 he said you telling pharah you must also.

Let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice the Lord our God and now that's happening and Jethro gets to be a part of that and verse 12 it says Jethro Moses father-in-law brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God and Aaron came with all the Elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses father-in-law before God that a media9 Outsider gets to participate in this joyous celebration and worshiping the lord it's just a very cool picture they're going to get into more next week.

Now that is part one of Jethro's visit there's a whole part two that we're about to see in a moment which is Jethro witnessing something that is happening and then giving advice to Moses and that's we're going to spend the bulk of our time today so pick up in verse 13. the next day Moses sat to judge the people and the people stood around Moses from Mourning till evening so it was common in that time for if you were the leader and Moses is the leader he is the prophet he's the man between in the middle between.

God and his people that if you're the leader people come to you wanting you to judge their cases you see that here we continue to see this throughout the Old Testament even Solomon was seen as a judge they would come and ask for him to weigh in on things this is common in their time but it says that he was giving judgment on issues from morning until evening now we don't know if that was every day but it certainly had to be some part of the regular schedule that from morning till evening he's bringing judgments upon judgments upon judgments.

For the people and that is exhausting I have three children seven five and three and every now and then I like to give my wife a break and just say just just just go go get your nails done I'll see you at dinner I'm gonna watch the kids today and as that happens when you have a seven five and three year old and they're at their house all day they're going to have arguments right they're going to have disputes a lot of times they're bringing them to me and I'm actually pushing them away not literally.

But I'm just saying you no I'm not going to settle every dispute that you have you're going to learn to figure this out yourselves because I don't want to be I don't want to raise kids that are the kind of adults that when they get to College they're having to call their parents to sell a dispute with the professor I'm not doing that you're going to learn how to have conversations and work through things but every now and then there's seven five and three and I've got to settle a dispute and I.

Listen to both sides and I'm the judge and I make the Judgment call on how this is going to go down who's going to get disciplined all all of that and by the time my wife gets home at dinner I'm tired that's tiring and that's three children that's not tens of thousands of people that Moses was leaving I mean that's I mean you can see some of the disputes they had in the Old Testament law but I let my neighbor borrow this mule.

Now he's brought it back and it's got a broken leg and that was that was the only meal we have what are we gonna do Moses I think my neighbor is having an affair with my wife Moses helped settle this dispute those are some of the things you can see from the Old Testament all the way down to some of the stuff that I'm sure he also had to deal with the rubinites are getting all the good water and all the petty stuff that would have been brought from great to small Moses heard every one of those from morning to leaving that's exhausting as a pastor who does conflict resolution that is probably the most.

Exhausting part of pastoral Ministry and if you're a group leader you know exactly what I'm talking about it is hard from mourning until evening he's doing this and Jethro Witnesses this and goes oh no no no listen good so verse 14 when Moses father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people he said what is this that you were doing for the people why do you sit alone and all the people stand around you from morning till evening now it's a classic father-in-law move to phrase your suggestion as a question.

Because you know where this is going what are you doing all day and all night what is this and Moses answers and Moses said to his father-in-law verse 15. because the people come to me to inquire of God when they have dispute they come to me and I decide between one person and the other and I make make them know the statutes of God and his laws so Moses gives the obvious answer because I'm the leader and they just keep coming to me and I'm I'm learning what God's will is.

For the people and they and I have to tell them what it is and I'm I'm the I'm the guy and Jethro is like this this is unsustainable so in verse 17 Moses's father-in-law said to him what you were doing is not good you and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out for the thing is too heavy for you you're going to wear yourself out you're going to burn yourself out Moses and and I in teaching team this week I use the word burnout and I watched Chet have a conniption he was just twitching I said what are you doing like it and he's like I can't stand that word burnout.

Because it gets very overused in Christian circles I was like that's a fair point I want to fight him on it because I think that we don't need to lose that word I will fight for words that think that matter because burnout still is a thing but there is a real thing with Christians that overuse burnout as an excuse to basically say I don't want to do a thing anymore as we're gonna see in a moment that he doesn't actually quit what he's called to do here he's actually going to do this in a more sustainable level the burnout is real and you really can crash and burn and Jethro sees this and he says.

You're going to wear yourself out you're going to burn yourself out this isn't good this isn't sustainable for you to listen this all day and all day and all that you don't wear yourself out you're going to wear the people out who are involved in this you're going to have to change this is too heavy for you which praise God that there are people like Jethro in our lives that are willing to say difficult things to keep us from crashing and burning should praise.

God for the people like that in your life I've had some of the other Elders mad or Chet step in and just look at my life and say I think you need to rethink this is this unsustainable you we need that we shouldn't reject that be so prideful to push that away blessed are the wounds of a friend but Jethro makes this observation he says you are not able to do it alone verse 19. Now obey my voice I will give you advice.

God be with you you shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do so he says you're still doing this you're not just opting out here but then he tacks on to this the more sustainable way to do this verse 21 moreover look for able men from all the people men who fear.

God who are trustworthy and hate a bribed and place such men over the people as Chiefs of thousands of hundreds of fifties and of tens he says what you need is men who fear God men who are trustworthy who hate bribes and you're going to place them over thousands over hundreds for 50 over tens and that is how this is going to be more sustainable verse 22 says and let them judge the people at all times every great matter they shall bring to you.

But any smaller small matter they shall decide themselves so it will be easier for you and they will bear the burden with you if you do this God will direct you you will be able to endure and all this people also will go to their place in peace he says you're still going to do this you're still going to do what you're called to do Moses but you're not going to do it alone you're going to handle some of the bigger disputes and the bigger things that need your wisdom and your judgment.

But you let a team of qualified men handle some of these smaller issues let them bear the burden with you it's too heavy for you to handle this alone so Jethro pitches his plan and then Moses responds verse 24 so Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said which as a father of two daughters is something that I will read at their weddings one day to say listen to the voice of his father-in-law did all that he said.

While winking at those Grooms verse 25 Moses chose Abel men out of Israel and made them heads over the people Chiefs of thousands of hundreds of fifties and of tens and they judged the people at all times any hard case they brought to Moses but any small matter they decided themselves then Moses let his father-in-law depart and he went away to his own country so he listens to the advice of Jethro and he implements this system that is more sustainable.

Then it has to be a rare one of the rarest of occurrences he releases his father-in-law all right it isn't beg him to go he's like he's had him stay and he's like okay now you were free to go and his father-in-law departs and goes back to his own country so that's jethroat's visit there's a lot going on there what I want to do is spend some time in the back part of this I want to look at three different truths that come out of this that still apply.

For us as Christians the days that are still wise and good and then we'll look at one overarching theme that ties our stories together so the first truth order matters order matters when I say order I mean order structure bringing order to chaos that type of order matters I heard a clinical psychologist named Jordan Peterson comment on this which just for the record if you like Jordan Peterson just know this he's not a Christian at all at all he's kind of a sage at this point a philosopher.

But he's not a Christian but he's been getting into Exodus lately and he's been commenting on it and I listened to some of it and I was like man this is a really terrible observations and some of it it's clear that you're not a Christian and you're just grasping at straws but he did make one observation and I thought oh actually that that was pretty on point he said this is like one of the earliest examples that we have of an of an ordered Society.

And then if you look a lot of Western governments they're they're based off of an ordered system like this that heads over people Chiefs of thousands of hundreds of 50s and of tens that's order an order matters that's a theme that you don't just see in government it's the theme you see from the old test from Old Testament all the way into the new then in Genesis 1 when God is creating and ordering the universe there's intentional structure and order you pull that threat all the way to this passage where he is using Jethro to order his people you.

See this through the Old Testament law that we're getting ready to walk through in the coming weeks the order and structure of the Old Testament law that they might be a people that reflect God's glory to the surrounding Nations that you don't know him we're going to see order as you pull this thread all the way into the New Testament when Jesus establishes his Church in order God is a God of order in order matters it matters immensely I'm coaching baseball again this year rookie ball which is Step Above t-ball coach t-ball last year with my son.

If you've ever coached t-ball it is chaos four-year-olds and chaos and if you don't have structure and order out the gate which we didn't last year out the gate it was wild to step in and bring order and once you've finally brought order to that chaos the kids started slowly pick up the game a little bit some of the basics and fall in love with the game order matters and adults aren't much different than children the people of God had problems at issues they needed order.

Because without order you have a lawlessness and God is not a God of lawlessness he's a God of order and they needed this ordered system that would help than be a people that ultimately results in how that passage from 23 ends peace order promotes peace that is a good thing that we should absolutely Embrace as Christians we talk about this that we need to order in our lives for those of us to have children like you need order in your children's lives and our families that that matters that it matters that our kids have structure and Order and and discipline it is good.

For them we want our children to to grow up and to be Jesus loving competent ordered structured adults that's a good thing that we should hold out for our families that there's order within the Church and that matters and how we assemble as the body of Christ matters we talk about in our Church that we are an elder-led Church there are four Elders pastors myself Chet Matt Ras it's elder-led that it's Decon served we have deacons who are servant leaders that it's congregational affirming as the Authority resides in the collective Body of Christ that order and how we assemble ourselves matters the order matters and how we worship on a Sunday.

Because disordered worship isn't good that's what Paul was addressing in First Corinthians 14 when he sees a Church that is disordered and how they worship and he says for God it's not a God of disorder but of peace and then it goes on to give advice on how they're to structure their worship order matters from our families from our lives from the Church I mean order matters on a government level that's one thing you see in the New Testament that the government is a social good that.

God has given that helps restrain evil now there's plenty of disagreements on how much government you can have that debate but unless you're an anarchist which is clearly outside the bounds in the will of God it is a good and it brings order God is a God of order and within order and how much order matters for God's people requires leadership but it also acquires submission within that order right that's one of the reasons that we talk about submission in the home submission in uh the Church submission uh uh and local governing authorities that matters.

Now we as free Americans don't like that idea that's something as Western individualists we don't like that idea remember when I was 18 I was being recruited for the military I was just like I ain't taking orders from anybody there's a lot of a lot of arrogance to say I I do that and then to learn as a new Christian now wait a second God causes to submit and that's part of his ordered world so if you do this verse 23.

God will direct you you'll be able to endure and all this people will also go to their place in peace order promotes peace and it is good second leaders matter leaders matter verse 25 Moses chose Abel men out of out of all Israel and made them heads over the people the chiefs of thousands of hundreds of 50s and of tens that God ordained that leaders step into the place of leadership that they were called to step into this system of leadership that we.

See here in Exodus 18 it precedes what's ultimately going to be the leadership in the priesthood and you follow that threat to the rest of the Old Testament into the new that when Jesus begins his Church he chooses 12 disciples 12 Apostles 11 of whom will go on to lead the Church and then out of that you continue to see this when Paul starts planting churches and he's writing to Titus and Titus 1 5 he says this is why I left you in crates that you might put what remained into order his design his desire and appoint Elders in every town as I directed you these churches needed leaders.

God chooses leaders to step into the leadership that he has created for them and in that period they had leaders whoever saw thousands who oversaw hundreds and 50s and tens this leadership was necessary you see multiple levels of it that God's order is dependent upon leaders that begin to the leadership that he has ordained for them to step into and it is good that leadership is a good gift that he's given us it's the reason why that we have Elders here and not just one we have four of us that we have leaders as a plurality that bear this load together and it confuses people sometimes.

Because we first of all that word Elder especially if you didn't grow up especially if you didn't grow up Presbyterian the word Elder can throw people off and say what are you talking about you Mormon um the Bible uses it interchangeably with pastors so that's what we do okay we have multiple Elders that lead the Church together and that leadership matters we have deacons in our Church that assist us in the work of ministry that have different servant service areas that they lead in and that's unbelievably helpful we have deacons who serve and Kid City we have deacons who serve and host team and Community groups and all that matters immensely.

Because of if if we wanted to do it all ourselves we implode it's too much we have community group leaders who bear the load on a regular basis leadership matters and it is good and it's also something that you should pray for you should pray for your leaders if you're in a group you should pray for your group leaders because leadership is hard but you pray for your pastors because we need your prayers we lead you should pray even beyond the Church.

For your governing authorities as the Bible commands us to do should pray for leadership because leadership is difficult but it is good and God wants leaders so let me address one thing head on really quickly that I don't want us to miss coming out of this that Moses specifically raises up men to be leaders so something that we've taught we'll continue to teach that God's designed for humanities that men would step up into the roles of leaders that he calls us to and that.

When we do this when we step into the leadership that God calls us to that ultimately is that as it shows in this passage results in peace the world is better when men step in to that type of leadership the problem is is that culturally right now we're not in America there's so many problems that you can read study after study and and see stat after stat that shows how men in our culture are not stepping into the leadership that God has called us to has resulted in broken families has resulted in broken lives leadership matters especially.

For men as men for those of us that have families and have children that means that we need to step into the leadership that God calls us to in the family we have the unbelievably unique opportunity to be a force for good in our children's lives to promote a peace that surpasses all understanding and resounds into eternity we have that opportunity in front of us so the reasons that we talk about reading the Bible with our children and praying with our children.

Because God has designed you as a leader in their life to promote what is ultimately good Christ in their lives and that if we're not doing that to be very blunt we're failing and there's Grace for our our failures absolutely but that that doesn't mean that we don't actually step into this and repent of where we have failed so that we can be the leadership that our kids need but as designers be leaders and families for those of us families for those who are married that means they need to lead in marriage and the example of leading in marriage is loving your wife as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up.

For her that's it and we need to step into that and I look in the mirror on this one that God has called us to love our wives with this unbelievable sacrificial love that he has called us to and when you do this you have the opportunity of having a joyful home that has peace and where we missed up we lean into his grace and we walk it out in Repentance because leadership matters in our homes it matters I'll give you one more just it matters in the workplace workplaces in America need men who will lead goodness gracious I mean women are killing it in the workplace they're killing at every level they're killing it.

And K-12 for those who go to college they're killing it in college and the workplace they're killing it in the workplace and the stats right now on younger men that are between 18 and 24 are not doing anything is startling and we as Christians get the opportunity to be men that step into that void and be a city on a hill that you step into the work that God has caused you to do and that doesn't mean that you'll be a CEO whoever sees thousands you might be you might oversee hundreds or 50s or tens or whomever.

But that does mean that you step into the leadership that God has called you to and the workplace and reflect what it means to work unto the Lord it matters and it's lacking and we get the opportunity to promote peace in our culture and the way that we step into don't miss that he calls men to lead and we desperately need to own that lastly we don't just need leaders you need leaders who have character character matters it's the third thing I want us to.

See out of this Character Matters he says in verse 21 moreover look for able men from all the people men who fear God who are trustworthy and hate a bribe and place such men over the people's Chiefs of thousands of hundreds of fifties and of tens he says you need men who fear God and that's not just a phrase that gets thrown around as a as like this person's a God fear this is someone who fears God I'm not just talking about the reverent worship type of fear no that actually fear is the power of.

God so much so that we be a people that do what is right that are trustworthy that hate bribes Character Matters immensely and God wants leaders who have character and is the reason why when you look at the story of how Samuel chooses David in first Samuel then in first Samuel 16 7 after Saul has been rejected as a leader verse 7 it says but the Lord said to saying well do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature.

Because I have rejected him I've rejected Saul for the Lord sees not as man sees man looks on the outward appearance but hear this the Lord looks on the heart that God cares about character character trumps competency every day and twice on Sunday character unbelievably matters it is the reason why when you look at First Timothy 3 and the qualifications for elders and for deacons that overwhelmingly those qualifications are character driven because if God has people leading his Church they don't have the character it is a disaster and I know many of you.

Listen to the rise and fall of of Marcel podcast last year when it came out and you know I it was a difficult one for me because I actually grew up as a young Christian listening to Mark Driscoll and really appreciated some of the things that that I heard it was also difficult because one of my former pastors is the one who did that podcast and I didn't like some of the editorial angles that he shows and some of the gossipy stuff that came out of it.

But there's one thing that was very clear in listening to that is that man had no business being an elder and no business being a pastor because he lacked character and character Trump's competency it matters I mean you need to believe that we we should believe that we should be looking for that in our own lives we should so value character over over so many things I I have I have two main goals for my children I have other ones but like they're.

So far beneath these two it's not even funny I want my kids to love Jesus and then second I want them to be virtuous people I want to have character I want them to have love joy peace patience kindness goodness gentleness faithfulness self-control that everything else is so far beneath that it's not even funny and I'm serious they they could choose whatever they want to do they can work in sanitation they could be a surgeon I don't care it's so insignificant our culture inverts that and says that what you do and the career you take and who you turn out to be is.

So much of a Paramount importance that is so far beneath the concern of the Scriptures in comparison to Faith In Jesus and virtue it's not even funny because character it matters and we need to believe that and it was so important for the nation of Israel to have leaders who had it and when Moses finds these men of character and he establishes them as Leaders to judge the people so that they can have this ordered Nation promotes peace he says if you do this.

God will direct you 'll be able to endure and all this people also will go to their place in peace which means that Jethro fixes it he did it you guys if you I don't want to spoil the rest of Exodus for you but it goes rather well that the people joyfully receive the law with obedient hearts that they don't take the gold that God literally earned for them out of the Egyptians hands and melt that down into an island worship that they don't go into the Promised Land.

Now you you know how this story goes that if you read ahead that it's still not enough but the advice that they receive from Jethro is not enough and that is because good advice on its own it cannot save it cannot redeem can I call us to be the people that God has called us to be because Moses y'all Moses was the prophet of prophets in the Old Testament he was the Michael Jordan of prophets they look back and Moses was it and Moses and his proxies and his and his leaders could scarcely restrain the people from absolutely rebelling against the people of.

God let alone themselves joining in it and if Moses couldn't do it with this unbelievably good advice then boy oh boy good advice is not enough we need something more than advice we need a perfect judge we need the judge and the leader who unlike Moses can actually Bear the weight of judgment we need a man who has ultimate and perfect character who comes to bring about his kingdom of order and everlasting peace and his name is Jesus Jesus is ultimately our only hope the people in this story did not have Christ and that is the difference between us and Them that is the difference in what ties our stories together the advice of Jethro.

Is good it is Some solid advice but a good advice and all the strategies in the world it's not enough and it never will be listen I right now I love the season that our Church is in I do there's so much good that's going on I love our groups are growing I mean what's happening in Kid City right now is just awesome I'm seeing people that are hungry they're are loving Jesus and inviting people to come and experience Christ I.

See people that are reading their Bibles I see all kinds of people of character stepping up into leadership it's incredible if we think for a second that that is what's going to guide us alone we are mistaken and it's not enough the only hope we have is Christ if Moses could not do this by his strategy and his work and his effort then we don't have a shot but thank you Jesus that we have him and that ultimately through believing in the one who obeyed the law perfectly on our behalf who took on judgment on himself on the cross to set apart a people who reflect his glory as an ordered Church with Godly leaders.

I'm thankful that he's our chief Shepherd and I'm thankful that we have him so yes we will look at these principles we'll look at this advice and we'll absolutely seek to be a people that apply but we won't miss for a moment who our chief Shepherd is who our only hope is in the middle of all this the band's going to come up we're going to take the Lord's Supper and we're going to be reminded of who our God is and what he has done.

For us so that we can be the people that God has called us to be there on the night that Jesus was betrayed he took bread and he broke it and he said this is my body that was broken for you that he took the cup which is the cup the New Covenant he said this is my blood that was shed for you that as often as you eat and drink this you Proclaim my death until I return the we as Christians get to come to the table hearing the word seeing our shortcomings and saying thank you.

Jesus that you're enough and we get to come to the table joyfully worshiping Christ to come to the table when you are ready there's gluten-free back in that corner over there if you're not a Christian we don't want you to take part in the Lord's Supper we want Christ for you because you can apply all the good advice that you want to in your life you can do all the different adjustments you can do all the different moral changes but if your hope isn't completely and fully in Christ in Christ alone you'll never understand what it means to be his people and you'll never understand what it means to happen to this Everlasting peace that.

He wants for us so don't take part in this take part in Christ we pray for us heavenly father I pray that you would help us receive your word that would be a people that see you as our only hope and out of that hope we'd see some of the things that are so good about Jethro's advice in this chapter we'd see order in leadership and character as unbelievable good things that you've given us to step into and it would be an immediate an obedient people stepping into it.

And if there's anyone here that has not tasted and seen that you were good that has not placed their only hope and you and I pray that you would bring them to faith in you right now in Jesus name amen.

Battle with Amalek (Exodus 17:8-16)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Battle with Amalek (Exodus 17:8-16)

Chet Phillips

Water from the Rock (Exodus 17:1-7)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Water from the Rock (Exodus 17:1-7)

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Good morning my name is Chet I'm one of the pastors here grab a Bible and turn to Exodus chapter 17 with me we are working our way through the book of Exodus it's on page 34 if you grab one of the blue Bibles that stuck down in the seat in front of you if you don't own a Bible then this is our gift to you we'd love for you to take this home with you we'd love for you to read it and follow along with us as we continue to walk through Exodus um we are picking up a story where we left off last week we're about six weeks from not in our time.

But in their time from when the crossing of the Red Sea happens when God I mean definitively shows miraculous victory over the Egyptians and the rescue of the people of Israel after the the ten plagues there's the crossing of the Red Sea the Egyptians are defeated that was about six weeks ago so for us that would be like December 11th somewhere around in there so if you think back about that far if we were the Israelites that's about how far back the crossing of the Red Sea is and what we've seen is the Israelites have been uh traveling in the wilderness and grumbling being kind of hard to get along with complaining kind of wondering.

Where is God going to provide how was this last week they said I wish God had just killed us in Egypt because at least I'd have died sitting next to a meat pot so that's the way you want to go you know just a pot of meat and then boom full belly death that's what they said I wish that had happened because this wandering around in the wilderness with no food is the worst and that's kind of where we were.

God begins to miraculously provide Manna and so we're going to pick up they're following the pillar of cloud during the day the pillar of fire at night and moving around the Wilderness Exodus 17. let's pray and then we'll start reading this together Lord ask for your help we ask for your wisdom as we study your word we pray that you would bless us um with the ability to hear this morning we ask for your Holy Spirit to work in our hearts.

For us to be soft and willing to listen to you this morning in Jesus name amen Exodus chapter 17 it says all the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the Wilderness of sin and we said last week that that's not like a title that's just they've transliterated the word into English so some translations will put a z there Zen it's just a name Wilderness of sin by stages according to the Commandment of the Lord encamped at rephidim but there was no water.

For the people to drink so there's two things we need to see in this first verse that are important for us and important for us to understand this story the first one is this they moved at the Commandment of the Lord as I just said they're following the pillar of cloud so if the pillar of cloud moves they move when the pillar Cloud stops they get there they stop so it's at the Commandment of the Lord that they move from one place to the next.

And so they move at the Commandment of the Lord and they move to a place with no water now if you're leading people through the wilderness the way you choose where to stop is where is water you might rest on the way to water you might stop for a night if you have enough water but you don't go I think this is good let's set up camp here in a place with no water this is done by every human standard incorrectly this the cloud stops.

God stops by his commandity stops and it's like no no like keep going we can't stop here it it would be like if you found out about a a commander in the Army who sent everyone out and then was like it was like why did the battle go so poorly we forgot guns as we got out there and we kept thinking there was something missing and when they shot at us we were all like guns that was what we were supposed to have it's I mean it's gross incompetence you.

If they on one of those uh shows where they're fixing a house and they're like move that bus move that bus and the bus moves and the house doesn't have a roof it's like move the bus back finish it up so they stop in the wilderness in a place with no water and that's very important for us to understand in this story but it's also important for us to see as we try to learn about the nature and character of God.

Because some of us right now feel like in life we're in a place where there's no water but they moved here by the command of God now I don't know what you're missing in life but I know it's not water it may hurt it may be painful it may be wildly something that you think is essential to life but I just want you to be able to understand that that you can connect to this story because water is up there in the things we need.

And so to move there with no water it shows that God sometimes puts us in a place that doesn't seem right and by all of our standards we could say this is this is incorrect this should not be the way this is we all know this is wrong that's the way this would feel it's obvious and so God moves into a place where there's no water verse two therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said give us water to drink and Moses said to them why do you core with me why do you test the.

Lord okay so last week they were grumbling and we're going to hear they Grumble again here but they've ratcheted it up it's not just grumbling grumbling is like side sideways complaining um grumbling is is I'm complaining a little bit I'm complaining a little bit maybe to Moses but it's it's in general it's like a murmur when Moses walks by everybody gets quiet maybe they give him dirty looks but it's it's not as aggressive as coral and quarreling is now they've come to him they're arguing with him they're fighting with him the aggression level has gone from from some grumbling to.

Now we're getting close to like a mutiny we're going to say that's what Moses says in a second so they're bringing this complaint to Moses and they've ratcheted up the aggression and he says why do you quarrel with me why do you test the Lord and you got to feel Moses here for a second because Moses is a little bit of like hey y'all see the cloud too right you see the presence of God I didn't pick this place we've moved here by his command we've moved here in obedience.

So why are you arguing with me why are you testing the Lord he's the one who's put us here why are you putting him on trial and why are you with your attitude trying to see what he's going to do that's that's like when your parents said don't test me that's what he's saying why are we testing the Lord y'all were in Egypt right it doesn't go well he can do stuff so he says verse three but the people thirsted there.

For water and the people grumbled against Moses and said why did you bring us out of up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst now this question feels a little ridiculous but it's understandable so let's think about this for a second I I think you could ask in your right mind like I can ask we can ask why would God bring you out of Egypt to kill you with thirst as a rhetorical question which means he wouldn't that's a dumb.

But he's bringing us to the promised land he's rescued us out of Egypt why would why would he do that like I have to ask those questions of my my older son every once in a while will have this moment where he thinks that I'm not going to take care of him and I'm out to get him I've had times where I'm like hey let's let's get ready I need to get your shoes on we're going to leave the house and he'll he'll be like we hadn't eaten supper I gotta eat supper and it's like.

First of all when have I failed to feed you your mom might but I like eating she might forget about a meal I don't forget about meals buddy I like eating your mom will remember eventually she just is okay without eating I'm thinking about food right now it's like I'm gonna feed you we're gonna take care of you also we're going to supper so put your shoes on you've made us all hungrier like when have I ever failed like that could be the question is why would he do this and the answer being he wouldn't we can trust him.

But that's easy for me to say because I'm not thirsty in this moment my lips aren't chapped I'm not looking at my kids and saying I don't know how to to I don't I'm not looking at a one of our like cattle that's that's slobbering and drooling because it can't it's panting and I have nothing to give it I'm looking at a child and I have nothing like I'm not in that spot but they are and in that moment of thirst everything they know about.

God is gone everything they know about his power everything they know about his provision this very morning that they're asking this question God miraculously provided food that appears for them to harvest bread do miraculous bread that shows up you go get it it tastes like Wafers baked with honey like not even just like like good bread and that that why is he going to kill us why is he out to get us and I want you to feel that too because it's possible.

For us to be there I became a Christian I thought this was supposed to be better I'm following Jesus now and everything's gotten worse why would God why would I suddenly believe in Jesus start showing up to Church and then he punches me in the face I don't understand like why why would he do that I don't know if I'm going to believe this I don't know if I'm going to follow this I don't like I signed up for something different why is this working out this way and everything you would know about God's just gone.

Because of the way life is going that's where they are and on one hand it seems ridiculous and on the other hand there's part of me that goes I feel that so Moses cried to the Lord verse 4. what shall I do with this people they are almost ready to Stone me so this has gotten this is not it wasn't like a nice question that they asked this is aggressive they're coming at him it's a mob like it's it's getting dangerous down here Moses is like I think that like I think I'm grossly incompetent they're about to get rid of both of us they're going to get rid of me they're going to get rid.

Of you they're gonna do their own thing that we have failed so miserably in their eyes they're about to kill me it's like they got together and said hey we don't know who's the last person to die because of the thirst but we voted and we know who the first person to die is going to be that's what Moses is saying like they're they're about to Stone me this is about to be an execution because of their anger because of their frustration.

Because of their doubt and mistrust five and the Lord said to Moses pass on before the people so do this publicly taking with you some of the Elders of Israel so Elders are brought together for counsel for judgment for Witnesses they're the leaders of the people said get some of the leaders of the people I'm sure some of the elders are some of the people who were having these conversations with him bringing their complaints pass on before the people taking with you some of the Elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile.

Okay so this staff struck the Nile the Nile turned from water into blood just take that staff and go behold I will stand before you there on the rocket Horeb and you shall strike The Rock and water shall come out of it and the people will drink so God says take the staff get some of the elders go I'll Stand before you know when he stands before him I believe my best understanding is that he is standing in the cloud that the cloud stands before the rocket horror this is the way it's worded in other places Exodus 33 9 says.

When Moses entered the tent the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent and the Lord would speak with Moses or Exodus 34 5 the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord so I think that God's presence goes and stands over the rock now it's possible he does this a different way but in the context of Exodus this makes the most sense it's the cloud that stands there.

And so Moses is going to go he's told to go and strike the Rock and water is going to come forth and the people are going to drink now just for us keep keeping up with this keeping score at home here do you think God brought them to this place had forgotten humans needed water had no real plan and because of their bad attitudes was like oh yeah if they're going to kill you Moses I'll provide some water here's a miraculous way I just made up to do this I would think.

God knew what he was doing the whole time even though they couldn't see it I would think that God had intended to again show his miraculous ability to provide to rule over all things even in the midst of them not seeing how that would work and I want I want that to encourage you because there are times where it's like there's no water here I'm going to die and in those moments we get to go but Lord you can snatch water out of a rock you can make food miraculous appear Out of Heaven like you you've got this I trust you it's not what happens.

So Moses is going to bring the elders the the Lord is going to stand before the Rock and he's going to strike the rock with with the staff now uh if if you just are you know if you're having to choose between what's harder than what rocks are harder than sticks just letting y'all know so in general when you strike a rock with a stick it's bad for the stick it's not bad for The Rock but the Rock's gonna break and water is going to pour forth and there's going to be life in a place where there was a death.

But something very interesting happens in the way this is written the last part of this verse is and Moses did so in the sight of the Elders of Israel that's it it doesn't tell us anything else God tells him to do this and then it just says and Moses did so now we've read enough of Exodus to know this just broke the formula because there's a bit of a formula that's been running through Exodus which is number one God tells them to do a thing tells Moses to do a thing and the.

Lord said go do this thing second Moses does the thing it'll say and Moses did the thing there's one verse that says and the Lord did the thing he said I'm going to do this thing tomorrow and the next day he did the thing like that's this is we're fine we're on step two but step three is telling us about the thing that was done now sometimes it's longer and sometimes it's shorter sometimes the explanation of what's going to happen is longer.

But then they'll say he does it and it'll give a little short thing sometimes it so like what we would expect next is for it to say so on the next day or that afternoon or Moses went straight away and he gathered elders and sometimes it could list the elders and we'd make some kind of joke about if you're naming babies here you go alipa has or whatever like we would pick you know but we would read through these names or maybe it would just say shortened version and it would say.

And so Moses did this and The Rock broke and the people drank yeah we don't get to hear anything about the people's reaction about how much water that's not what marks this moment look at the next verse and he called the name of the place Masa which means the testing and meribah which means quarreling because of the quarreling of the people of Israel and because they tested the Lord by saying is the Lord among us or not that's the conclusion we didn't even hear that they said that earlier.

But that's what we're going to end with that's the taste that's left in our mouth is the Lord among us or not that's what marks this place now you would think that this could have been called holy spring flowing Rock Fountain of delight like they could have named this place water in the desert the place of provision God is good like what's his name quarreling and testing because it wasn't marked by the miracle it wasn't marked by what God did it wasn't remembered.

For that it was remembered and marked by and the thing that we're supposed to see is there heart towards the Lord is the Lord among us or not now I used to when I was little I would watch uh little Bible cartoons if you grew up in Christian home you might you might have watched little Bible cartoons if you didn't you were able to allowed to watch you know the Simpsons and the Smurfs I was not they were going to turn me evil.

And so I didn't watch them and if you watch The Simpsons and the Smurfs and you're here well done overcoming all that evil that would have led you astray but I wasn't allowed to watch that and I watched little Bible cartoons and uh in the little Bible cartoons there was one where they would open the Bible and then like four kids would get sucked into it and they would have to go on adventures and so if they had done this one though it feels like the adventure would be short.

Because when they showed up and they're like what's going on and they're like we don't know if the Lord is among us or not you'd feel like the kids would be like oh do you see that big Pillar of Fire there he is all right let's head on back it wouldn't even be a 15-minute show it would just be over the credits would roll but they're not basing it off of his actual presence what are they basing it off of his provision.

When they say is the Lord here or not they mean has he provided for me in the way that I expect him to and if he hasn't I don't know if he's trustworthy if he hadn't done what I think he's supposed to do by now I don't know if I'm going to follow him I might just be out if he's going to act in a way that's outside of my controller if he's going to act in a way that some way that I don't understand or.

If he's going to tell me that this is where we're supposed to be when I don't want to be here then I might just be done so the New Testament talks about this I want you to to turn to First Corinthians 10. this is Paul he's writing to the Church in Corinth so he's writing to People Like Us Christians a Church people who have gathered saying they're Christians people who are gathered because they believe in the Lord they've heard about Jesus.

First Corinthians 10 if you have one of these Bibles on page 557. it's also on the screen Paul writing says for I do not want you to be unaware Brothers Church This Is Us I do not want you to be unaware of Brothers that our fathers were all under the cloud okay Cloud we've been talking about all passed through the sea that's the Red Sea that's the part of the Red Sea we talked about and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea that he used the word baptized there on purpose.

But what he's saying is that that was a thing that marked them all as belonging to this community those who had gone under the cloud and through the sea it's like a baptism says I'm a part I belong all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and the Sea and all ate the same spiritual food that's manna and I'll drink the same spiritual drink for they drink from the spiritual rock that followed them and The Rock was Christ so that's referring to the story we just read.

And so far what he's saying is all good stuff these people all belong they were all participating they were all there and he tells them I don't want you to be unaware I want you to know this he's looking at the Church and saying I need you to know this but then here's why nevertheless with with most of them God was not pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness now these things took place as examples for us so he says Church read Exodus and learn that we might not desire evil as they did I don't want to ruin a whole bunch of the rest of the Exodus some of this is in numbers in.

Deuteronomy but we're going to run through quickly it doesn't get better from here he says do not be idolaters as some of them were as it is written the people sat down to eat and drink and Rose up to play we must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did and 23 000 fell in a single day we must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents nor Grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.

Now these things happen to them as an example but they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come what's the end of the ages Jesus Christ coming to rescue a people for himself so he says the end of the ages have come Jesus has come the Gospel is proclaimed will listen it's possible for you to be here and miss it it's possible for you to show up sing songs read the underlying portions pray listen to the Bible it's possible.

For you to be in a community group it's possible for you to lead a community group it's possible for you to be baptized it's possible for you to partake in communion and it's possible for none of that to have any effect on your heart and for you to not belong to Jesus you can grow up in the Church watching Bible cartoons as an eight-year-old and not know Jesus so Paul says this was written down so that we wouldn't think that just.

Because they were there just because they were around it that it changed to them this is the way this passage is treated this is Masa and mariba are reused like if someone says that this situation was someone's Waterloo they're referring to to the downfall of Napoleon they're saying that that's marked his whole story that's what when they talk about Masa and Mary but I want to show you this this will be on the screen because we're going to stay in First Corinthians as we finish up Psalm 95.

Today if you hear his voice do not Harden your hearts as at meribah as on the day at Masa in the wilderness when your father's put me to the test and put me to the proof though they had seen my work if anybody should have known how good he was and how he could provide Israelites should have walked into a place and said there's no water everybody buckle up take a seat watch what God can do watch what he can do.

Because I've seen him do so much this one's about to be good this story could have been the valley of provision but just seeing the stuff and just being around the stuff hadn't affected their heart it doesn't tell us how they drank it doesn't tell us how they responded it almost feels as if when this happens you can almost feel the people of Israel being like that's what I thought yeah you should provide for me there's no it doesn't seem like there's any amount of thankfulness it seems like this whole place is marked by the wickedness of their hearts Hebrews 3 picks up quotes psalm 95.

Therefore as the Holy Spirit says today if you hear his voice do not Harden your hearts as in the Rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness and then it keeps going down It quotes more of that Psalm and then it goes to verse 12 it says take care Brothers lest there be in any of you an evil unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the Living God but exhort one another every day as long as it is called.

Today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin that is possible for you to be around the Church but not be in the Church for you to not belong to Jesus for you to have an unbelieving heart and for you to be deceived by the deceitfulness of sin let astray by it it's possible that right now there's something in your life that you're saying it's not that big a deal I'm not really doing anything bad I haven't really acted on I'm just thinking about it it's not it's not that bad I don't need to talk to my group about this I don't need to talk to my spouse about this I.

Don't need to uh if people knew my circumstances if God had really provided the way he was supposed to I wouldn't have to do this maybe you're saying all right that was the last time I'm not ever going to do it again I'm I'm going to change this time and that's the hundredth time you've said that there's no real confession and no real repentance maybe you're justifying your actions maybe you're saying it's not really hurting anybody maybe you're telling yourself I'm too I'm In Too Deep.

But it's possible for us to be slowly step by step being led astray by a deceitful sin and the deceitfulness of our own hearts and this can happen to Christians this can happen to anybody this can happen to anybody who belongs to Jesus that would be around it this is this happens to people who would say I'm in I believe it but they're slowly taking step and step this could be someone who leads a group this can be someone who leads a Church this can be anybody can sit and slowly make compromises and be led astray by the deceitfulness of sin and what he's saying is that there's a possibility that there's an unbelieving heart.

In you and it's hardened to the things of God and I want you to hear what he says today if you hear his voice don't Harden your heart don't be like the people at Masa and Maribel that the Holy Spirit speaking right now and he's bringing something to mind and he's saying you're going to need to talk about this you're going to need to turn from this whatever he's bringing to you and you're thinking in that moment and I've been there I've been in that moment where the Holy Spirit Whispers something to you and you have that moment where you just immediately react and you say I can't I can't I can't confess that I.

Can't tell anybody that I can't turn from that and you have the opportunity at this moment to harden your heart to press the Lord away and to look at the Holy Spirit and say I don't want to hear from you I don't want to be led to Jesus I don't want forgiveness I don't want Redemption you have the opportunity also to not Harden your heart to hear his voice and to turn to him y'all they were around it but they missed.

Jesus that's what First Corinthians 10 says Paul says something that's very odd in First Corinthians 10. all were baptized into Moses and the cloud and in the sea all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them and The Rock was Christ this moment at Horeb was going to be a picture of this provision of God and Paul looks at this story and he says that's Jesus in the midst of their quarreling in the midst of their sin in the midst of their Rebellion what does.

God do does he strike them no he strikes The Rock and The Rock brings life he gathers the elders together and they stand in God In God's Presence they stand and they stand before the Rock and instead of them being punished for their Rebellion instead of that being the final part of the story they cry they strike the Rock and the life pours forth miraculously Paul says that's Jesus then in the midst of our rebellion in the midst of our failure that.

God brought him forward before the elders that he was presented and that he was struck and from him comes life and you can be covered by Jesus that can be the end of your story that there's a fountain filled with blood where there's forgiveness of sins and Redemption and life or the story can be quarreling hard heart Romans says do you presume upon the riches of God's kindness and patience and forbearance not knowing that his kindness is meant to lead you to repentance that.

God is kind he's patient he forbears so that we would repent so that you would see and turn to him with your sin not run away from him in your sin but turn to him with your sin and ask for forgiveness but then it says because of your hard and penitent Hearts you're storing up a wrath for yourself on the day of God's Wrath when God's righteous judgment is revealed and those are the options and if you hear his voice today don't Harden your heart in Rebellion.

If the Holy Spirit the spirit of the Lord God Almighty Whispers to you I want to take the sin from you don't Harden your heart don't run from that Praise Jesus that there's forgiveness Praise Jesus that he was struck so that we can be forgiven Praise Jesus that in the midst of our Rebellion there is life the band's going to come back up Paul says that this happened to them but it was written for our instruction that we might not be like them you have the ability to harden your heart against the.

Lord Harden your heart against his voice to press back on him as he calls you don't do that repent ask for grace and forgiveness there's something potentially right now that you're saying I can't tell anybody that it'll ruin everything can I explain to you that not confessing and not repenting is what ruins everything hardening your heart is what ruins everything but breaking before the Lord and saying I Surrender and I need help and I need forgiveness and I need life rewrites the story in Grace.

So I don't know what the Holy Spirit's telling you this morning I just know you should listen I know you should surrender so we're going to take a second let's bow our heads and let's pray and let's listen and Lord we pray that if in your grace you are speaking this morning we would not Harden our hearts as in the day of rebellion that there would not be a single person in this room that pushes you back today it's by your wounds it's by your stripes it's by your suffering that we are healed and forgiven foreign.

Lord for those who are struggling right now in a place it's like a desert rather than wrestling with you may they sit and say I know that you provide and I know that you're good and I know that you will not keep one good thing from me and that if I don't need this I don't need this I just need you thank you listen to the Lord right now he's calling you to confession if he's calling you to repentance if there's someone you need to talk to you need to talk to them the band's going to play.

For a minute and give us a moment to listen don't Harden your heart against the Lord surrender to him he's good his kindness his forbearance his patient our meant patients are meant to lead you to repentance bring you to him but there's a day when that opportunity is over when the story is pinned there's a day of Wrath and may we all meet it covered by the blood and the grace of Christ not standing in our sin Holy Spirit we ask you to speak.

Provisions & Grumbling (Exodus 15:22-16:36)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Provisions & Grumbling (Exodus 15:22-16:36)

Spencer Cary

Sing to Remember (Exodus 15:1-21)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Providing & Grumbling (Exodus 15:22-16:36)

Spencer Cary

Transcript

Foreign my name is Spencer I'm one of the pastors here we are continuing through Exodus chapter 15 verse 22 and we're going to go all the way through the end of chapter 16 today you can turn in your blue Bibles to page 34 the text will also be on the screen so uh one of the things I've realized over the last few years is that America has a new favorite pastime I'm not talking about how football clearly replaced baseball a couple decades ago as America's pastime uh America and Americans we love complaining like it it is real and it's getting worse I mean it is everywhere you go on social media.

See people rant on Facebook complain after complaint and if you're still on Twitter on Twitter and that gets like retweets and likes and you go girls and all kinds of stuff and it's not just there or in Google reviews or in Yelp reviews it's in work rooms uh break rooms and family dinner tables it's everywhere and here's what's Wild is that all of us realize that our culture is complaining and grumbling too much like we get that and no one thinks it's good right no one thinks it's a net positive.

For society when all of us are angry and complaining and grumbling all the time about things none of us like it but then we look in the mirror and then we realize how easy it is to complain like one of the things I've I've said in sermons in the past is I have chronic back pain and there's just times where it's just so easy to just complain so easy to just be frustrated and to grumble it's what we do and it's it's a it's a human problem it's a part of the Fall.

And while it may be very prevalent more now than it has been the past it is something that goes all the way back to our story in the book of Exodus today we are not alone in this we're going to see the people of God we're going to see how God provides for them and how they grumble in the midst of it so we'll see a few things happening as we walk through this story together we're going to see clearly that.

God is a provider and that he's good and his Provisions towards his people we're going to see that as he provides God is teaching his Covenant people of God what it means to be his people then we're going to see the people of God grumble and complain repeatedly and then we'll see how God responds to them so let me pray for us and we'll walk through this together Heavenly Father I pray that you would help the Scriptures come alive to us this morning that it would Pierce our hearts and that we would.

See what it means to have a God that loves us so much that provides for us that is worthy of our faith and out of that we would change and repent and be a people that grow into your likeness into your image and this would ultimately result in worship and delighting and you we ask this in Jesus name amen okay so this part of Exodus is a shift we're moving into the Wilderness part of the story the people of God are going to wander in the wilderness throughout the rest of Exodus in fact they're going to wander throughout the rest of the Old Testament law.

So the next few books in Leviticus numbers and Deuteronomy like this is what the people of God are going to be doing is wandering so we're going to pick up in verse 22 it says then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea and they went into the Wilderness of sure they went three days in the wilderness and found no water so they leave the Red Sea and they're wandering for three days in the wilderness and this Wilderness is the desert it's no small thing to not find water.

For three days that's not an inconvenience that's actually somewhat dangerous now the people would have surely had you know water packs you know lots of storage similar to I've seen some of you with your I don't think you can call this water bottles there's water gallon jugs you know with the motivational stickers to say you can do it drink a little more you go like they had some version of that but they would have been going through this water and it's a little concerning.

When you're in the desert with all these people and you don't see water it's no small thing and then in verse 23 it says when they came to Mara they could not drink the water of Mera because it was bitter therefore it was named maram so you can imagine you're traveling in the desert and then you see a water source and you're cracked lips smile and you run to that water source and you hit your knees and you scoop up some water and you bring it to your face and it's garbage it's awful it's bad water.

So bad that they named the place Mara when the Hebrew means bitter that's a disappointment and I would say it's okay it's fine to be disappointed in life it's fine to be disappointed when you're so desperate for something and you don't get it but how they respond in the midst of disappointment well that that's where things really start to go south verse 24 it says in the people grumbled against Moses saying what shall we drink they crumbled they murmured they complained what are we going to drink Moses this is not a question done from a respectful posture that's trusting Moses that's trusting.

God this is grumbling what are we going to do now Moses we've got no water we've got is This Bitter mess and it's wild because they've seen God work not too long ago in some incredible ways they saw as he brought plague after plague sign after Wonder upon Pharaoh their oppressor they walked out with gold and jewels from the Egyptians they were LED through the Wilderness by cloud and by fire they came to the Red Sea and watched God part the Red Sea and they safely went to the other side as the waters crashed down on the Egyptians who were trying to take them back they saw all of this in just a few days.

In they are grumbling baffles commentators when they look at this one commentator was like if you need evidence of Grace in the Old Testament look no further than this story he he should destroy them he should crush them after everything that he's done for them they are grumbling but we're going to see how God responds verse 25 and he cried to the Lord this is Moses and the Lord showed him a log and he threw it into the water and the water became sweet that.

God responds by providing how good is God Moses takes a log and throws into the water and now the water is sweet our God is so good in how he provides and then he uses this situation to teach the people so it says there the Lord made for them a statute and a rule and there he tested them saying if you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God and do which is do that which is right in his eyes and give ear to his Commandments and keep all his statutes I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians.

For I am the Lord your healer now I don't know if you caught that God just flexed both his unbelievable steadfast love and care and his power in the same breath like a good father whose hands provide the warmest and softness of embrace of his children but also the firmness of discipline he flexes his care and his power I am your healer but if you do not trust me and you don't walk in Covenant faithfulness with me you will see the power that I put on the Egyptians upon you and that's a lesson that the people of.

God need to learn one of the themes we're going to see Trace throughout the rest of Exodus is that the people of God are learning what it means to be the Covenant people of the Lord they've been slaves for 400 years and now they're learning what it means to be his people as they are wandering so they keep wondering verse 27 then they came to Elam where there were 12 Springs of water and 70 palm trees and they encamped there by the water they wander some more and again.

God provides leads them to water into palm trees so they get a chance as we move into chapter 16 to start fresh to trust God and then in verse 1 it says they set out from Elam and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the Wilderness of sin which is just the name of the region don't read too far into that which is between Elam and Sinai on the 15th day on the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt and the whole Congregation of the people of Israel grumble grumbled against Moses and Aaron and the Wilderness and the people of Israel said to them word that we had.

Died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the meat parts and ate the bread to the eight bread to the full for you have brought us out into the Wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger oh no uh you know the part of the movie where there's a there's a smaller guy and he's like talking a bunch of junk about a bigger guy he's talking smack and these guys are in front of them and he's just talking Sherman German chirp and also the big guy comes into view and kind of walks it behind him and he just keeps talking keeps talking that's how this feels it's.

Like oh no do you know who you're complaining against do you know what God has done for you now what you're saying is oh that we could just be back in Egypt as slaves again that we could belong to Pharaoh at least we had the meat pots and the bread to the fool this is the first time they've said something similar to uh you've brought us out here in the wilderness to kill us and Exodus 14 12 is the Red Sea there before it and they're waiting to.

See what's going to happen next they said for it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness what this shows is they don't trust God they don't trust God they don't trust him to provide they don't trust them that he's going to take care of them after everything that God has done for them they do not trust that he is good they would rather be back in Egypt as slaves at least they had meat pots and bread.

So how does God respond to this verse 4. then the Lord said to Moses behold I'm about to Reign bread from heaven for you and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not God and His steadfast love towards his people listens to that grumbling and says I will provide for you I'll provide for you I'm going to rain down from heaven in spite of your grumbling in spite of your thanklessness and your discontentment I'm going to provide.

For you I'm going to bring bread down from heaven not only that in this I'm going to teach you how good is our God that he provides and that he endures and that he teaches and his steadfast love towards his people he's going to use this as a teachable moment day by day all the way until we get to the sixth day verse 5 on the sixth day when they prepare what they bring in it will be twice as much as they gather daily.

So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel at evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt so he's going to teach his people to trust him and then when the sixth day comes which is the day before the Sabbath and it's a little unclear in the text either they're going to be commanded to gather twice as much as they need or God is going to providentially and Care caring.

For his people give them twice the amount and what's that what's foreshadowing what you're going to see more than a moment is that God is trying to teach his people what it means to be the people of God by remembering the Sabbath this goes back to Adam and Eve and Adam and Eve were created in Genesis 1 and 2 that Sabbath rest was created for the people to rest in God and they have been slaves for centuries not taking the Sabbath they belonged to Pharaoh and not to.

God and God is trying to help them see you don't belong to him anymore you belong to me and my people will pause and they will rest they needed to make the switch and realize that they belong to now when I was in Middle School all the way through Middle School I was a part of I was in public school and then in the eighth grade um well the first eighth grade I did Eighth Grade twice because middle school is awesome.

But in the first eighth grade up until then I got in a lot of trouble I spent a lot of time in in-school suspension a lot of time in after school suspension because in public school it's a slap on the wrist it's like okay fine I get to be out of class I'm listening talk this is awesome but I went to this private school out in like the sticks of Saluda and Batesburg and uh the first week I got in trouble got sent the office I was waiting.

For my slap on the wrist and my uh my principal was also my coach he said all right grab tennis shoes I'll see you after school and I went what sheena's gonna send me to a room to like read a book and then after school I ran until I almost was sick and I realized I belonged to a new people and I will not continue like this and for the rest of the eighth grade and the rest of high school I did not get in a lot of trouble the people need to unite the shift to the need to.

See what it means you don't belong to fear anymore you belong to me and you're going to remember Sabbath rest and then number seven it continues in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord for what are we that you Grumble against us and Moses said when the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the fool which pause for a moment not just bread they're getting meat praise.

God can I get to eat meat too because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you Grumble against him what are we your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord that truth needs to sink so deeply into our souls as it needed to sit and sing deeply into theirs that when we Grumble and when we complain in this life that is ultimately against God God you've not provided and the ways that I want you've not done what I saw fit and the complaints and the grumbles that we have is ultimately against and Moses makes that clear your complaint is with the.

Lord verse 9 then Moses said to Aaron say to the whole Congregation of the people of Israel come near before the Lord for he has heard your grumbling and as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole Congregation of the people of Israel they looked toward the Wilderness and behold the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud and the Lord said to Moses I've heard the grumbling of the people of Israel say to them at Twilight you shall eat meat in the morning you shall be filled with bread.

Then ye shall know that I am the Lord your God he's like I'm going to provide and you're going to know that I'm the Lord your God I'm going to teach this people who I am verse 13 in the evening Quail came up and covered the camp which if you don't know what quail are because you live in the city or you didn't hunt you didn't not Outdoors person or do you don't like birds it's a bird Quill's a bird and it covers the camp not oh they went outside and they started picking up a few Quail here and there it covers the camp they get to feast.

Because God has provided Quail at night now wake up the next morning in the morning do lay around the camp and when the Dew had gone up there was on the face of the Wilderness A Fine flake-like Thing fine as frost on the ground so they wake up after a night of feasting and they rather sleep from their eyes and they look and they see the Dew and they keep looking and when the Dew dissipates this Frosted Flake like substance like the OG Frosted Flake you guys it starts appearing and their response is.

When the people of Israel verse 15 when the people of Israel saw it they said to one another what is it for they did not know what it was I said what is this and that's what they're going to call it is what is it bread it's called Manna we're going to see in a moment Manna means what is it in the Hebrew what is this and Moses said to them it is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat this is what the.

Lord has commanded gather of it each of you each one of you as much as he can eat you shall take an Omer which we don't measure in numbers anymore but the estimates is that's anywhere from between one and two pounds each of you take an armor according to the number of persons that each of you has and your tent so I have a family of five that means we'd have anywhere from 10 to 20 pounds of manna now I don't know.

If any of you cook or bake but 20 pounds of flour has a lot of biscuits it's a lot of scones a lot of Pancakes it's a lot of non-breakfast food item bread that's a lot you can eat on that for more than a day it is enough you're going to eat to the full verse 17 the people of Israel did so they gathered some more some less but when they measured it with an Omer where we gathered much had nothing left over whoever gathered little Had No Lack each of them gathered as much as he could eat and I I love this whether they're Gathering a ton as much as they can or little.

It's all going to come out it's all going to come out the same you get a number that's going to provide for you this is God teaching them I'm your provider I'm the one who gives Daily Bread you're going to learn this whatever you gather it's going to be what you need and then in verse 19 and Moses said to them let no one leave any of it over till morning now why would he say that why would he say don't don't leave any over left over to the morning.

Because it's possible they're not going to trust the Lord the reason you would try to keep some to the next day is because you don't think the next day man is coming like the reason why when I put my kids to bed and I tuck them in I don't find a bunch of z-bars and gummy gummy stuff and all the things we put in our snack drawer and applesauce packs you know I don't find that because they know that that food downstairs is stocked they know they can go a snack drawer they know it's there not from once or their thought I need to store some food.

Because I don't know if I'm going to eat the next day they know that it'll be provided for and the people of God need to believe this you need to trust God in this word here don't leave any over to the next day they're being tested they're being taught I don't know if you've seen the FEMA today but you can kind of guess how this is going to go verse 20 but they did not listen to Moses so I'm left part of it till morning and it bred worms and stank and Moses was angry with them morning by morning they gathered it each as much as he could eat.

But when the sun grew hot it melted so they didn't trust God again they disobeyed God again and the whole Camp stank and Moses is rightfully angry because this people isn't getting it they're not trusting God what does God have to do to help you see that he's worthy of your faith and your trust and your obedience these people will not listen and they have failed again but they're going to get a chance here because day after day all the way to the sixth day the Sabbath is coming and I have a chance to obey.

Verse 22. on the sixth day they gather twice as much bread two emers each when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses he said to them this is what the Lord has commanded tomorrow is a day of solemn rest a holy Sabbath to the Lord bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil and all that is left over lay it aside to be kept to Mourning so gather you're gonna have enough for two days this time you can set it aside it's going good.

So far 24 so they laid it aside till morning as Moses commanded them and it did not stink and there were no worms in it verse 25 Moses said eat it today for today is a Sabbath to the Lord today you will not find it in the field six days You Shall Gather in it but on the seventh which is the Sabbath there will be none for things trending well they're doing so good and then verse 27 happens on the seventh day some of the people went out to gather.

But they found no and there it is they again do not trust the Lord we got to go out we got to gather because what if we don't have enough and they don't trust God that he's going to take care of them again and the Lord verse 28 said to Moses how long will you refuse to keep my Commandments and my laws see the Lord has given you the Sabbath therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days remain each of you in his place let no one go outside of his place on the seventh day.

So the people rested on the seventh day God teaches them he doesn't bring judgment upon them he's providing and he's teaching he's trying to get through to the people of God and then in verse 31 it says now the house of Israel called its name manna it was like coriander seed White and the taste of it was like Wafers made with hunting which pause for a minute it's nice that God is not against sweet bread you know even against some of our diets don't you say we shouldn't have it.

But it's not it's good it's a gift from the Lord verse 32 Moses said this is what the Lord has commanded let a number of it be kept throughout your Generations so that you may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt and Moses said to Aaron take a jar and put an ombre of manna in it and place it before the Lord to be kept throughout your Generations.

So God wants them to take take some put in a jar I want you to remember how I provided for you I want you to remember how I gave you daily manna 34 and as the Lord commanded Moses so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept the people of Israel ate the man of 40 years till they came to a habitable end they ate Manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan and Omer is the tenth of Heart of an even.

Okay and that's the end of chapter 16. this story is powerful because in spite of their lack of faith and in spite of the rebellion and in spite of Israel's sin in spite of their grumbling they're grumbling against the God who saved them who redeemed them who freed them to be in his presence in spite of all of that God provides for them again and again God takes care of his people and he teaches them in spite of their Rebellion he teaches them in spite of their sin and the good news of the Gospel is that.

God still does that with us that God still does that with us you see when he gets the New Testament and you get to John 6 and you see the feeding of the five thousand which is one of the more popular Miracles that we read about in the Scriptures when you read the feeding the five thousand you see that that entire miracle is an illusion it's alluding back to Exodus 16. there's so many things where Jesus in that moment is fulfilling Exodus 16 from the bread that is Multiplied into the people get enough to the 12 baskets that represent the 12 tribes there's.

So many things that are happening in that story that point back to Exodus 16 back to the story of manna and that's made even more explicitly clear in the teaching that follows the feeding of the five thousand so we're gonna pick it up in John 6 verse 30. it says so they said to him this is people asking him then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you what work do you perform our fathers ate the Manna in the wilderness as it is written he gave them bread from Heaven to eat that's Exodus 16.

So we get to see that miraculous sign from God what are you going to do Jesus then said to them truly truly I say to you it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven but my father gives you the true bread from heaven for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world and then they hear this and their ears perk up and they said to him verse 34 sir give us this bread always we want that you got something better than the man that was given to our people I I want that bread what is that bread.

Jesus answers Jesus said to them I am the bread of life whoever comes to me shall not hunger never Believes In Me shall never thirst I am the Eternal manna I am the bread of life and if you eat of me and if you come to me for satisfaction if you come to me for fulfillment if you come to me you will never you will never be unfulfilled and you will always be satisfied so Jesus ultimately fulfills this story now I want to.

See two clear things coming out of this from Exodus 16 into John 6. and the first is this God cares for you God cares for you there are times where we don't believe that there are times where we have these these complaints that says if God really cared about me he would do fill in the blank he provided this he'd help me hear if God truly cared for me then I'd have this I'd have the meat pots back in Egypt I have the bread to the fool fill in the blank.

If God truly cared about me why doesn't he fix this and I want to say very clearly God absolutely cares for you and he cares for you more than you could ever care for yourself because what we see so clearly from the Scriptures is that our concern is mostly and sometimes exclusively about temporary things the things that we want the things that we so deeply desire oftentimes are only temporary things and God is saying I have something better for you I have something Eternal.

For you I have eternal Heavenly bread the bread of life in Christ that is for you have not forgotten you I care about you more than you could ever care for yourself so that's the first thing we need to clearly see that God loves us so much that he sent the Bread of Heaven down for us and he lived a life that we could not live and he died death in the cross that we deserve and he resurrected it to give us a new life in him.

So that we could eat of this eternal bread and take part in Christ into eternity God absolutely cares for you more than you could ever possibly know or imagine you just have to come to him in faith and here's the second thing that we need to see coming out of this story and this is especially true for Christians we need to stop grumbling we need to stop complaining we need to repent here because complaining is so native to who we are as humans and we need to stop it's not just a principle that's taught in Exodus 16.

As an explicit command when you get to the New Testament in Philippians 2 it says do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights and the world the rest of the world complains you know why because that's a Humanity problem it's what we do and what he's teaching is that you get to be uniquely different you get to shine as light in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation you get to be different you know why we get to be different.

Because we know better because as Christians we know better when John Piper is commenting on Philippians 2. he says do all things without grumbling why you have a sovereign God who is on your side who works everything together for your good that everything including the suffering including including the loss and the lacking is ultimately for your good and the Israelites could not see God's bigger plan they couldn't go a few days without water they couldn't go a few days with limited food they could not.

See God's bigger plan and they complained and they grumbled and so do we we don't see God's bigger plan and we Grumble we need to believe the Gospel we need to believe that Jesus is the bread of life and then when we do that we replace our grumbling with something better the solution to our grumbling is Godly gratitude the solution to our grumbling is Godly gratitude it is a deep founded belief that God works everything together for our good even the parts of life that are miserable even the life parts of life that are crummy even the parts of life that don't seem fair that in those moments we want to complain and we want.

To Grumble ultimately against our God for what he has not done I know I feel this y'all you might think but you don't understand my pain is chronic my hurt is unending how could God love me allow me to suffer like this we get to as Christians replace that with a posture of gratitude that says thank you Jesus that my hope is in a resurrection that is in the future a future bodily Resurrection where I will have no more pain and no more hurt and I will be and your presence forever and all this pain will be a distant memory.

But until then praise God that I have the teaching that comes from Paul that Jesus power will be made perfect in my weakness and I will praise you and thank you all the more you might think I just want to be married I just want to have a family I've wanted this I've wanted this I've wanted this if God really loved me why hasn't he given me this we need to believe the Gospel and we could replace that with gratitude that says thank you.

Jesus how I don't know why I don't have a family in this life but I thank you that I have an eternal family that I've been purchased into now and I can experience that in part now with this Church family and in my community group but that even pales in comparison to the Eternal family of God that awaits me when I will be in your presence with my brothers and sisters with you as my father thank you Jesus that I'm a part of a better family you might think I've got just others have it easier their lives are easier they have more means they have better physical health they have better mental health they have.

All of this God why can't I just have fill in the blank and we get to from a place of faith say thank you Jesus that you bless others man I don't know why you haven't blessed me I don't know why I'm suffering I don't know why I'm enduring loss but I'm going to learn what it means for you to be my daily bread because you are enough we need gratitude for the Glorious work of Christ that is the remedy to our grumbling I don't know why.

God has ordained that some of you suffer in the ways that you do I don't know why your life is not easier than others and I will pretend to be speaking on behalf of God directly to answer why you are suffering perhaps from the Scriptures you may have some reasons maybe he is teaching you daily Faith like he taught the Israelites maybe he's breaking you of Love of this world and believing the things in this world are going to satisfy when only.

Jesus can perhaps you are suffering in the wilderness in ways that are ultimately for your good that you may not have the answers for in this life I don't know but I do know the solution is the same Church family let's not be like the Israelites who God saved and redeemed and freed and brought into his presence and then went on to Grumble and Grumble and Grumble and Grumble we get to be the people of God who are saved and redeemed and freed and are brought into his presence and from that beautiful Gospel we say thank you.

Jesus that you're enough you will be my daily bread and that is enough Matt's going to come up and we're going to take the Lord's Supper which is a reminder that Jesus is enough that we get to come to the table as Jesus did 2000 years ago and we took bread and he broke and he said this is my body that was broken for you it's for it's the Bread of Heaven he's the Eternal manna he's whom we need it's my body that was broken.

For you he took the cup of the New Covenant he said this is my blood that was shed for you that is often as a as you eat and drink this you Proclaim my death until I return and as the people between his death and his return we sit in the middle and as Christians we get to believe the Gospel we get to believe that Jesus is enough and no doubt I've got repenting to do after complaining of my life.

Because you're human so do you and we get to come to the table and say thank you Jesus that you died for grumblers like me Lord help me have gratitude and thankfulness in faith faith to trust that you're enough and if you're not a Christian please don't take part in this I don't want you to take part in this we want you to take part in the Eternal manner who is Christ we want you to believe in him I want you to.

See that he's better there's nothing in this world that will satisfy you there's nothing in this world that is going to fill the God-shaped hole in your soul the only one who can is Christ and we plead with you believe right now place your faith and trust when you are ready come to the table and remember the Bread of Heaven that we get to take part in Christ and we pray heavenly father I pray that you would help us see you with.

So beautiful so much more compelling than anything else in this world God I pray that you would help us be a people that believe the Gospel that you are the bread of life that you are enough and out of that belief that we would be a people that show unbelievable gratitude knowing that we don't know how and why and all the things that are happening in our life the way they are happening but we know that you're enough and we will praise you and I pray.

If there's anyone here that has never eaten up your Eternal bread that is never trusted in you I pray right now that they would we ask this in Jesus name amen.

The Red Sea (Exodus 13-14)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

The Red Sea (Exodus 13-14)

Spencer Cary

Transcript

Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here. We're going to be in Exodus 13, 17, all the way to the end of chapter 14. I've had multiple people this morning ask me, are you going to work in the Gamecocks into your sermon? I will not pigeonhole it into the sermon.

I will say His mercy is more because I really thought that it was going to be really bad the rest of the season, but they gave us just enough hope to be crushed on Saturday. So, we're going to be closing up Exodus for the fall. We're kind of at the first, the conclusion of the first major part of Exodus. If you're going to film Exodus, you probably do it in two different movies. This is the end of the first movie right here. So, over the last month, we have watched as God has broken the Egyptians.

He has broken them. And we watched this. It's nine signs and wonders, nine plagues fell upon the Egyptians and the enslavers who oppressed the people of God for centuries. And then finally, the last couple of weeks, we spent two weeks in the Passover, looking at the story of Passover and the significance of Passover and how God finally brought Egypt to a total military defeat. And now, the Israelites are free. They're free.

They walk out of Egypt, not just with freedom, but they walk out with riches. God loots the enemy of the Egyptians. They walk out with gold and with jewels and they freely leave the land. So, we're at the end of this. And at the end of this part of Exodus, it kind of finishes like some movies do with the good guys and the bad guys. Every now and then, you'll see a movie where the good guys, they win.

Like, the bad guy loses. And all of a sudden, you think it's about to wrap up. But then, in a last-ditch effort, the bad guy changes his mind. And he says, I want him back. And then he comes, and then the good guy takes him and drowns him and kills him. Now, I haven't seen that movie, but that's what happens here.

Is that Pharaoh, his heart is hardened. He changes his mind. And he says, I want him back. And spoiler alert, it ends poorly for the Egyptians and for Pharaoh. So, we're going to witness this today. This is one of the most miraculous events of the Old Testament.

We're going to look at the Red Sea crossing. We're going to look at this. And I just want one overarching truth to sink into our souls as we finish out Exodus for the fall. And that is this. That our God is a God who completely destroys evil. And that is wonderful.

Our God is a God who completely and utterly decimates and destroys the power of evil. And that is wonderful news for the people of God. So, we're going to see that. And then we're just going to respond. So, let me pray for us. And then we'll jump in together.

Heavenly Father, I pray that you would open our hearts to receive your word this morning. That as we close up this part of Exodus, that we would just be able to worship. We're able to see how good you are. How powerful you are. How mighty you are. And we respond in faith and repentance and in worship and delight.

Because you are worthy. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, we're going to pick up a verse 17. So, some people will go when they encounter Exodus. Why didn't the people of God just leave Egypt and go straight to Israel?

So, this is modern day Egypt and Israel. Why didn't they just go straight there? So, if you go to the next slide. They were in Goshen. Just over here to the left. There should be a little dot that shows up.

There we go. My beautiful graphics. They were in Goshen enslaved for centuries. And they're going to the promised land. Which is up there. Okay?

So, a straight line should just go on up there. But that's not where they go. They actually wander south. And they spend a lot of time here. And some folks will go, why didn't they just go from point A to point B? And it's right here in the text.

It says, if they came by way of the Philistines, they have to go up through the land of the Philistines to get to Israel. If they went there, they would have to encounter war. And it says, lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. That part of what's happening here is that they're not ready to settle in the promised land. God has fought on behalf of His people. Over and over again, we saw that.

God was the one who was working. He's fought on behalf of His people. He has not fought through His people. He's not worked through His people yet. And God loves to work through His people. And the Israelites aren't ready for that yet.

They don't have the faith for that yet. So, they're not ready to settle the promised land. So, they go a little further south. Verse 18. But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea.

All right. So, let me orient ourselves a little bit again. Throw that map back out there. They, so the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba make up the Red Sea right below it. They are down in this area. We don't know where in this area they were.

Okay? We don't know, as we're going to see a crossing here in the moment of the Red Sea, we don't know where that is. There are a lot of Bible nerds that get really, really excited about this and will debate where the crossing was, debate where they want. We really just don't know. This is an ancient map with places that we don't know where they are anymore. We don't know.

But it's somewhere in this general area that they are being led to. So, but the people of God, verse 18, but the people of, but God led the people, verse 18, around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. Verse 19. So that phrase right there is directly out of Genesis.

Out of Genesis 50. Joseph made the people of God promise. Centuries before this. He said, you're going to be here for a while, but when do you leave, you are taking my bones with you. I will be buried in the promised land. And this is being fulfilled.

The bones of Joseph being brought back to the promised land. Verse 20. And they moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day and a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way. And by night and a pillar of fire to give them light that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

So they're wandering in a place they have never been to before. They've been slaves in Egypt for centuries. They've never been in this area before. And God is leading them. The picture we get is a cloud by day and a fire by night so they can travel both day and both night. And the cloud, we don't know what that looked like.

A good guess would be that it was probably more of a smoke cloud because God is revealing himself by fire here. So a cloud by day, a fire by night. God reveals himself multiple times in Exodus in fire. We have the calling at Mount Horeb is through the burning bush. We have being led by the cloud and the fire here. Later on we're going to see the fire at Mount Sinai.

We're going to see the fire at the tabernacle. But he's leading them with this cloud and the day and this fire by night. And I just appreciate the picture of this. The fact that the people here are wandering in a place that they're not used to. And that right there in and of itself is disorienting. Like I've been in a foreign country where you're wandering through a place and you don't know the lay of the land at all.

You don't know the language and you get lost. It's disorienting. It's scary. I've also had someone who knew the language, who knew all the street corners that I did not know, and took us and led us to where we needed to be. And we looked at that person as our guide, as our hope to get us out of being lost, out of being disoriented and scared into where we need to be. That's what's happening here.

God is their shepherd. He is leading them through places they have never been to before. The picture here of God's shepherding, His care for the people, and leading them by day and by night through uncertain places is beautiful. It's a wonderful picture of our God leading us. And some of you may go, I mean, it's great that the Israelites had that. It's great the Israelites had a clear cloud that would lead them by day and a fire that would lead them by night.

But I'm just wandering right now in the wilderness. I just feel like I'm in the desert, that life is very hard. I don't have a lot of direction right now. I wish that God would give me something like that, that clearly would show me where I need to go. And I just want to say very clearly to you this morning, He gives us something so much better. That if you're in Christ, if you believe in Him, if you're a follower of Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit that lives inside of you.

You don't have God leading you in a cloud by day and a fire by night. You have God within you. You don't just have the living God within you. You have the gift of His Word. The Word of God that leads us, that guides us, that reminds us of who He is. We don't just have the Word of God.

We have prayer. We have access to God where we can call out to Him in the midst of uncertainty, call out to Him in the midst of wandering. We have His Word and He has spoken. We have prayer. We have access to call out to Him. And then we also have the people of God.

We have the church whom God dwells in and the seasons of life that are difficult and the wandering that you may be in. You're not alone. You have other brothers and sisters who can point you to what is true, who can pray with you, who can open up the Word with you. We are not alone. We spent a whole sermon on that subject right there, talking about the cloud and the pillar of fire and how God leads us and guides us. But if we stopped at every place in Exodus that we wanted to preach a sermon, we'd be here for like two years.

And I've heard that that's frowned upon. We're in Matthew for like a year and a half, like Genesis for like a year and a half, and people are like, can we just finish? So we've got to keep moving. Then we're on to chapter 14, verse 1. Then the Lord said to Moses, Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pahiroth, between Migdal and the sea, in front of Belsiphon.

You shall encamp facing it by the sea. Okay, let me pause there for a moment. So, again, we don't know where Pahiroth and Belsiphon, we don't know where any of that is. Okay? We know it's next to the Red Sea, one of these bodies of water. And then he tells them to encamp there and wait.

And we're going to see why he does that. Pick up in verse 3. For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, this is God talking to Moses, They are wandering in the land. The wilderness has shut them in. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart. And he will pursue them.

And I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. And they did so. So, God tells them to encamp in this area by the sea for a reason. He's not done with Pharaoh. He's not done with Pharaoh and this evil regime that has ruled over the people of God for centuries.

He's not finished with them yet. And he's going to use the people of God as bait. And he's going to lure Pharaoh in to destruction. So, he says, you stay right there. So, then we get verse 5 over to Pharaoh. When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people.

And they said, What is this that we have done? That we have let Israel go from serving us? So, he made ready his chariot and took his army with him and took 600 chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them. So, Pharaoh goes, No, I'm going to get them back. And you see a word that is repeated there multiple times. Chariots.

Chariots. Chariots. It's repeated actually seven times in this chapter. And that's supposed to stick out for two main reasons. First, having chariots makes you superior militarily. If you have chariots in this era of warfare, you have the unbelievable tactical advantage.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the flu, which, if you're thinking of holiday plans, I don't recommend it. It was terrible. But I had the flu and I was in bed. So, I'm going to watch something. So, I wanted something that was kind of encouraging. It picked me up.

So, I saw on Netflix, All is Quiet on the Western Front. And I hadn't read the book. I didn't know. I knew it was a war movie. I knew it was going to be super exciting. But I didn't know it was going to be two and a half hours of having just the horrors of war just pounded into your face.

I didn't know that. But it's World War I. And it's the horrors of World War I. And there's this scene where they're in trench warfare. And these guys are getting ready to hop the trench and storm the enemy. And then they do it.

And they storm into the fog, into the mist. And all of a sudden, they hear the machinery. And then what appears in the mist are armored tanks. And this is World War I. This is when tanks were introduced. And these guys had never seen tanks before.

And they have bayonets and a rifle. And there's a tank that is armored with machine guns and missile fire. How do you think that went? They were destroyed. That's what's happening here. Chariots, tanks, the people of God, a bunch of refugees, men, women, children.

This is supposed to convey, by human odds alone, they don't have a shot. They're about to get destroyed. But the second thing that's being emphasized here is that you have man's power and the mighty chariots versus the power of God. And that's what's being pitted against one another. It's the power of chariots versus the power of God. And this theme is going to be pulled throughout the rest of the Old Testament.

When you get to the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 20, when Moses is handing down the law, he says, when you go out to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them. For the Lord your God is with you who brought you out of the land of Egypt. He's referencing what is about to happen. You may see chariots. You may see all kinds of mighty military men, but they're just men. And I am the living God.

Do not be afraid. I am with you. This is why one of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 20, verse 7, says some trust in chariots and some in horses but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. It is a picture of trusting in your own strength. Trusting in everything that you bring to the table. Don't do it.

Trust in the name and the power of God. God is mightier than any enemy that you might face. You trust in His name because He is good and He is powerful. So when you hear chariots over and over again, that's what's being shown here. The power and the prestige of Pharaoh and his mighty army pales in comparison to the power of God. So, verse 8, And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly.

Just pause there for a moment. They left Egypt and it says they left defiantly. I picture that as they left confidently. Confidently defying the enemy that God just defeated with a little bit of a swagger, a little bit of a step. And as we're looking at it this week, Chet, he had a different picture. He pictures actually that they, this is an emphasis on they walked out not just with confidence but with all of the gold and the jewels on them.

Like he pictures this more like a hip-hop video. Like they, they roll out, decked out, iced out, like they, and almost even still, like they're in the wilderness and they didn't put those jewels away. They are still defiantly, confidently, rocking with those jewels, rocking with that gold. Like even now, like a precedent, it's even now, like they're descending upon you. And they're little kids just with all kinds of gold and stuff. Yep.

It's like, alright, listen, you can choose your own adventure here. It's not going to violate the word of God. How do you ever want to picture this? You just got to understand, they left confidently or still confidently with jewels. But, that's important as we're going to see in a moment. It says, the Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army and overtook them in camp at the sea by Pihihirith in front of Bel-Siphon.

So again, they are pitted, they're pinned between the Red Sea and the army that's getting ready to descend upon them. verse 10, when Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them and they feared greatly. They feared greatly and the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They walked out of Egypt defiantly, confidently, with a swagger and the moment they see Pharaoh again, the moment they see his chariots and his army, they feared greatly. They have been conditioned to fear this enemy for centuries. They've been conditioned to fear the people that enslaved them for centuries that the very moment that they show up, they melt. and they melt so much so that it says in verse 11, they said to Moses, is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?

What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this where we said to you and is this, is this not what we said to you in Egypt? Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. What an about face. I mean, they left confidently.

They left defiantly. And the moment they see Pharaoh, the moment they see the Egyptians. Why did you bring us out here to die, Moses? We could have just been slaves in Egypt. At least we'd still be alive. But now we're going to die.

Thanks a lot, Moses. And I love how Moses responds. Verse 13, And Moses said to the people, Fear not. Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord which He will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you and you have only to be silent.

Listen, I love the development of Moses. I mean, think back to how we were introduced to Him. Think back to He kills the Egyptians and He fears the Egyptians and He flees for His life. Think of Him being called at Mount Horeb and how self-doubting He was. I've got a speech problem. I don't know if I can do this, Lord.

Lord, Lord, fear not. Now the nation turns on Him in a moment and says, why did you bring us out here to die? And He just says, fear not. It just goes to show that God chooses the lowly and the weak to bring about His purposes. And I just, I so appreciate that about the Scriptures. Moses is not powerful in himself, but through the Lord He says, fear not.

That's a command. Don't be scared. Don't be scared of this enemy. Fear not. Stand firm. Straighten up.

Don't melt in fear before this enemy. No, stand firm. And you're going to see the salvation of the Lord. You're going to see what God's going to do because He's going to destroy the Egyptians and you're never going to see them again. You just need to sit there, watch, and shut up. That's what He says.

Because the Lord's about to work. Verse 15, the Lord speaks to Moses. He says, the Lord said to Moses, why do you cry out to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. The people of Israel may go through the sea on dry land and I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians that they shall go in after them and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts, his chariots, and his horsemen.

And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen. So backed up against the sea, He says, turn around. You're going through. You're going to stretch out your staff. You're going to divide the waters. Y'all are going to go through on dry ground to the other side and then I'm going to kill every last one of the Egyptians. that's what the Lord just declared to Moses.

And the Egyptians will know the glory of God and His power and how much greater it is than anything they bring to the table. And it says in verse 19, the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness and it lit up the night without one coming near the other at all. So God Acts in buying the Israelites time. The pillar of cloud and fire creates a barrier, creates a firewall, which I don't think that's where that term comes from, but it's computer nerds.

It's a good picture of it. Then it creates a barrier and it buys them time to be able to walk through this Red Sea divine. In verse 21 it says, And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land and the waters were divided. You just got to sit in that miraculous event and picture it. Like imagine if you're standing on the dam at Lake Murray and then all of a sudden Lake Murray completely divides into two walls of water from the dam all the way to Saluda, which is long. And these two walls of water divide and it's not just that they divide, that the ground is dry.

Like I was, we were working on this this week and Isaac, who was leading worship here, he grew up on a camp at Bethel and they would drain the pond every once in a while and one time they tried to cross that pond after they drained it and they didn't get very far. This is because it's mud. It got waist deep and it was done. That's how miraculous this is that God with an east wind drives out every bit of moisture from the ground and moves it to the side so that they can walk through and dry ground to the other side. That's the power of God being displayed before the so-called power of the Egyptians.

So he divides it. Verse 22. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. I mean, just picture that. Like, it's nighttime. You are, it's a step of faith here, taking steps, with your wife, with your children, with your donkeys.

You're looking up and you see maybe the night sky just barely coming through and every step you just see these walls of water to your right and to your left. And the nation of Israel begins to cross to the other side. Verse 23. The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea. all fear his horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. So this pillar of fire, God moves it and lures them in.

They move in with their strength, with their power, and then all of a sudden, verse 24, and in the morning, watch the Lord and the pillar of fire and of God looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. So they're in this Red Sea divine and all of a sudden, God stirs them into chaos. And they start getting their wheels and their chariots clogged. We don't know if the water is starting to come back underneath or what, but they are getting stuck. And then all of a sudden, they know they messed up. And the Egyptians said, let us flee from before Israel for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.

They understand what has happened. They have followed Pharaoh, their king, their false God into the Red Sea divine. And they know who they are fighting against. They are fighting against the Almighty God. And this is not going to work out for them. They are panicked.

They are fearful. And they're about to be destroyed. Verse 26, it says, Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea, for the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal, course, when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen of all the hosts of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea.

Not one of them remained. So morning dawns, and the people of God are safely on the other side, and Moses puts his hand down, and the waters come crashing down on their enemies. And we know from Psalm 136, this is every single one, including Pharaoh. All of them have been killed. God completely destroys evil. And it says, But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right, and their left.

Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord. And they believed in the Lord and His servant Moses. So when the waters settle, they are completely, finally, utterly free. The very people that they've been scared of for centuries are done. Bottom of the ocean, bottom of the sea, floating on the seashore.

Their completely, the evidence is there. They can look back and see that evil has completely and utterly been defeated. Can you imagine how joyous that would have felt? How freeing that would have felt to finally look at the people who have caused so much pain and so much hurt for so long, and they're done. And you are completely free. our God completely destroys the work of evil. And that is wonderful.

Our God completely and utterly destroys the work of evil. He breaks the teeth of the wicked. He destroys its power over the grip of His people. And that is wonderful. And the picture of how this finishes is is they fear the Lord. Just a moment ago they were fearing the Egyptians.

And no, they fear God. And they trust God. And they worship. It is a powerful picture. This Exodus is a powerful story. And like so many parts of Exodus, it's not just about the redemption of the Israelites.

Exodus. Exodus is a story that points forward to the Exodus that we receive. It points forward to the redemption that we receive. That if you are a Christian, you walk the same Red Sea road. That's the truth of the Gospel. That if you are in Christ, the Red Sea event is your story.

That everyone in this world comes into this world a slave to sin. Slave to our desires. Under the power of the prince of this world, the enemy of this world. That's how we come into this. That's how we are outside of Christ. And then we approach the shoreline.

We approach the shoreline and God calls us into faith with Him. He does the work and He calls us into faith with Him. And don't miss this. The Israelites, they had to take, this was faith. Hebrews 11.29, looking back in this, says, By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry ground, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. He calls us to the shoreline and He does the work and He calls us to take a step of faith.

And then when you take the Red Sea road and you begin to finally trust God with your life, what you experience is the work of Christ. That when you step up the shoreline, what is offered to you is Christ crucified on the cross. Christ crucified for our sins, our sins placed on Him. And when you get to the other side of the shoreline, what you look back is you see the evidence of what the work of Christ does for us. Micah 7.19 says, He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot.

You will cast our seas into the depths of the sea. He takes all of our sin and casts it into the sea. That all of our sin was placed on Jesus. that He completely does the work for us on the cross. And by faith we trust His work with our lives. And when you come through the other side, if you're in Christ, you get to look back at it. And you get to see what happened to sin.

That the power of sin, the power of evil is completely destroyed. destroyed. If you're in Christ, if you believe in Jesus, if you trusted your life to Him, you can look back at all of it and see that it doesn't have the same power that it did anymore. That all of my sin was cast into the sea. All of my sin was put on Jesus at the cross. And I get to worship Him. I get to delight in Him because of what He has done for me.

That death doesn't have that grip on us anymore. That sin doesn't have that grip on us anymore. That's the point of Romans 6. In Romans 6, it says in verse 3, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Don't you see that it was a baptism of death when you come through the waters? Your old self is put to death.

It is crucified with Christ. It is no longer you that lives but Christ who lives in you. Don't you see how good that is? It goes on to say in verse 4, we were buried therefore with Him by baptism and death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father we too might walk in the newness of life. That when you come through the waters of salvation you see that the waters of judgment fell upon Christ. And when you come to the other side of the shore you walk in the newness of life that He provides.

And then in verse 7 and 9 He says, for one who has died has been set free from sin. Verse 9, we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Hear this last part. Death no longer has dominion over Him. And He doesn't have dominion over us either. But if you believe in Jesus and you belong to Him death doesn't have power over you anymore.

This fall we walk through recovery. We've had part of our church that's been going through the recovery process and tomorrow is the final night of recovery. And what I love about going through recovery is that you get to slowly begin to remember that the power of sin doesn't rule you anymore. It doesn't own you anymore. The enemy doesn't own you anymore. But you get to look back at the shoreline and see the you get to see the body of sin that was put to death.

And that sin doesn't have power in you anymore. And I get to watch brothers and sisters begin to realize how good our Savior is. Begin to realize what He secured for you. The freedom that He secures for us through His death. If you're in Christ that's offered to you. And you get to look back at the Red Sea Road that you traveled through and see all of the sin that used to haunt you.

All of the brokenness that used to hurt you. you get to remember it's not me anymore. That doesn't rule me anymore. That doesn't have power over me anymore. Christ does. And I will worship Him instead. That is the good news of the gospel.

We as Christians completely trust in the work of Christ that He's done for us. We're not like the Egyptians. We don't trust in chariots. We don't trust in our own work and our own effort and our own talents. We trust completely in the power of Christ. So brothers and sisters as we close out this part of Exodus this is our story.

You did take the Red Sea Road. God completely destroys the power of evil. And that is wonderful.

The Passover: Part 2 (Exodus 12:1-20, 43-51; 13:1-16)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

The Passover: Part 2 (Exodus 12:1-20, 43-51; 13:1-16)

Chet Phillips

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Transcript

Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab your Bibles. Go to Exodus chapter 12. We are looking at the story of the Passover.

We're working our way through the book of Exodus, and we're taking two weeks to look at the Passover because in Exodus, when the Passover happens, it is an event. It is a historical moment. It takes place, but at the same time in the book of Exodus, God institutes a memorial feast and a practice that's going to take place throughout the life of the people of Israel, and so we've decided to take this in two parts. Last week, we looked at the event, and this week, we're going to look at this memorial feast that's instituted by God, this tradition that is given to them, this practice that's given to them to help them as they continue to follow Him that God puts in place in Exodus chapter 12 and chapter 13, and then we're going to hopefully see how it helps us as Christians and how we get to engage with the Passover.

I love musicals, and Spencer this week said, yeah, a lot of people looked at you and thought, yeah, this guy loves musicals, and they were right. I do. I love musicals, and there are some people who say musicals are stupid. You're stupid. Musicals are great. I mean, I wouldn't say that, but someone should tell you.

But my favorite musical is Fiddler on the Roof, and in Fiddler on the Roof, and I've seen it, I've seen the play, but I've specifically thoroughly enjoyed the 1971 movie, but in Fiddler on the Roof, the main guy's Topal, is the guy who plays it, but his name's Tevye in the play, and it starts with a fiddler on a roof. It's a bit on the nose. It shows a guy standing on a roof playing the fiddle, and then the main character, Tevye, who's also the narrator, looks at the camera, and he says, A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? I won't do the voice for the rest of the quote, but this is his start-off quote.

He says, but here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof. This story is about a Jewish family in a Jewish village in 1905 in Russia. He says, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof, trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn't easy. You may ask, why do we stay up there if it's so dangerous? Well, we stay because Anatevka is our home.

And then he says, and how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word, tradition. And then he bursts into song because it's a musical. They sing a song about tradition, and the whole point is that these Jewish people have tradition that helps them know who they are and what they're supposed to do, and that they use tradition to guide their lives. And that we're actually looking at, the Jewish people added a bunch of traditions, but they also were given traditions, given practices by God. And we're going to look at the first feast that God gives them in Exodus chapter 12, that he says, you're going to practice this.

You're going to institute this. And that happens throughout the whole book of Exodus. And so we're going to look at the first one today and try to help see how God gives this to help guide them, that they're going to have practices that help them know who they are and where they're going and help them find their way over time. And hopefully we'll see how we get to engage with this practice of the Passover for the same purpose, that it helps us to use the words of Tevye, be able to follow the Lord without breaking our neck, without losing our way. And so let's pray. And we're going to read starting in chapter 12, verse 1 together.

Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you institute practices for our good, that you help guide us in what we are to remember and what we are to hold on to. We pray that you'd help us to understand from the institution of Passover, how we as Christians get to engage in that in a blessed way this morning. In Jesus name. Amen. So what we're going to read in chapter 12, and we were in chapter 12 some last week, is we're going to read this institution of the first Passover.

So the first bit we're going to read is just for this first one, for the event. So it says, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, this month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. So he says, I'm changing your calendar. This is the first month of the year now, because this is when I'm rescuing you from slavery. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the 10th day of this month, every man shall take a lamb according to their father's houses, a lamb for a household.

And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons, according to what each can eat. You shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats and you shall keep it until the 14th day of this month when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. So on the 10th day, they pick a lamb from the sheep or the goats with it's without blemish, a male, a year old, and they keep it for four days.

And then on twilight, when the sun is setting on the 14th day of the month, they slaughter it. Verse seven, then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lentil of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night roasted on the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted its head with its legs and its inner parts. You're going to cook the whole thing.

And any part that's left, it says they're going to burn up. That's what it says in verse 10. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning. Anything that remains until the morning, you shall burn in this manner. You shall eat it. Now, this is for the Passover, the original one with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste.

It is the Lord's Passover for I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast and all the gods of Egypt. I will execute judgments. I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. So he's going to come through and he's going to see the blood on the houses and he's going to pass over them and they're to eat ready to leave there to eat quickly.

They're to not put leaven in their breads because it won't have time for it to leaven there to make quick bread, eat quickly and leave. He's going to pass over the houses and then they're going to leave. That's for this original one. And then it says this in verse 14, this day shall be for you a Memorial day and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations as a statute forever. You shall keep it as a feast. So now he's turned, he's given him the instructions for the particular one.

And now he says, and this is going to be a holiday. You're going to have a feast every year. I'm going to do this this time and rescue out of Egypt. And then every year you're going to celebrate that I did this. There's going to be a feast. And are we just thankful that our Lord commands feasting?

I mean, we understand there are times to mourn and there are times to fast, but isn't it a joyous thing that God says, I want you to celebrate in recognition of what I have done. And you're going to do this every year. Seven days, you shall eat unleavened bread on the first day. You shall remove leaven out of your houses for if anyone eats, what is leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day, you shall hold a holy assemble and on the assembly, sorry. And on the seventh day, a holy assembly, no work shall be done on those days, but what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared for you.

And you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread for on this very day, I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore, you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a statute forever. In the first month from the 14th day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the 21st day of the month at evening for seven days. No leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel. Whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land, you shall eat nothing leavened in all your dwelling places.

You shall eat unleavened bread. So it's the feast of the unleavened bread. They're going to have a Sabbath day. Then they're going to practice the feast of the whole week as a feast of unleavened bread. They're only going to eat unleavened bread. And then they're going to have another Sabbath day, another holy day where they don't do any work.

They're not going to continue to paint their doorposts. That was for the event of the Passover, but they're going to have the feast of the unleavened bread. And they do continue to have a Passover sacrifice in memorial to this. And they do often eat lamb and bitter herbs. But what is instituted is a feast of unleavened bread to remind them that we left quickly, that God's salvation was quick when he brought us out of the land of Egypt.

And to Mark that he did this with a strong hand is the way it's going to word it several times. Let's jump down to verse 43. So we read last week, the 21 onward, we read where they actually, this happens. And now we're going to look again as he's giving instructions about the perpetual practice of this. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, this is the statute of the Passover. No foreigner shall eat of it, but every slave that is bought for money may eat of it after you have circumcised him.

No foreigner or hired worker may eat of it. It shall be eaten in one house. You should not take any of the flesh outside the house. So this is for the Passover feast that the night at twilight on the 14th day when they sacrifice and you shall not break any of its bones. All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised.

Then he may come near and keep it. He shall be as a native of the land, but no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. There should be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you. All the people of Israel did just as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. And on that very day, the Lord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts. So he draws this line and he says, those who want to participate in this have to belong to the people of Israel.

And the sign of belonging to the people of Israel is circumcision. That's the covenantal sign given to Abraham in the Genesis. And so he says, this is fenced off that the Passover feast is for those who belong to the covenantal people of God. That's really all that was getting at. And it says that they followed his command. Now in chapter 13, we're going to see him reiterate some of this and we're going to see that he institutes another practice.

And then we're going to get to talk through why is he doing this? Because we're going to see a little more of why God is giving this feast and this practice to the people of Israel. Chapter 13, verse one, the Lord said to Moses, consecrate to me all the firstborn, whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and beast is mine. Then Moses said to the people, remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery for by a strong hand, the Lord brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten today in the month of a bib, you are going out.

And when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this service in this month. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. And on the seventh day, there should be a feast to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days. No leavened bread shall be seen with you and no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory. You shall tell your son on that day.

It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt and it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand, the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. You shall therefore keep this statute as at its appointed time from year to year. So there's a couple of things he says in there. He says, we're going to practice this and you're going to tell your son what it means. Part of the reason we're practicing this is so that we'll remember and so that you'll explain it as you go.

That there's going to be times where you need to stop and say, Hey, here's why we're doing this. And I parents in the room. Do y'all do that? Do you take time when we do some of the practices we have like showing up here to sing and to gather? Y'all know that this is weird, right? The only other people who gather to sing together are at concerts.

We let y'all in for free. No, but we gather to make much of the Lord, to spend time singing together, to study the word together. We celebrate Easter and Christmas and communion and baptism. There's these different things that we have. And do you take time to explain? Here's why we do that because we're meant to, they were meant to with this.

And we're meant to with the practices we have to be able to articulate. Here's why we're doing this. And it says that it's going to be, he says this twice. So we'll talk about it again in a second, but it's going to be as a Mark on your hand or front lip between your eyes. And then he says, it's going to be that the word of the Lord, the law of the Lord might be in your mouth that we speak and eat out of our mouths. And that's part, kind of a play on words in this practice is that they're to partake in what God has done to help them remember.

That it's to be a physical thing that they partake in so that they might remember as they practice this and that they might tell it to the next generation. Verse 11, when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers and shall give it to you, you shall set apart to the Lord. All that first opens the womb, all the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord's. Every firstborn of a donkey, you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it, you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons, you shall redeem. And when in time to come, your son asked you, what does this mean?

You shall say to him by strong hands, the Lord brought us out of Egypt from the house of slavery. For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore, I sacrifice to the Lord, all the males that first opened the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons, I redeem. Now the first one he said, practice the Passover and you'll tell your son. And this one he says, when your son asks you, why are we doing this? Because if your son watched a donkey be born and then you snapped its neck, your son might say, why did you do that?

That this is meant to be a perpetual practice for them. And y'all, it's kind of heavy. And it's not like the Jewish people would have loved to do this. If you have flocks and they begin, they get old enough to be able to, to give birth to young, the firstborn all belong to the Lord of every animal that is a sacrifice animal. So that would have been their sheep, their goats, their bulls.

But then it says of donkeys, you don't sacrifice that the Lord. He doesn't belong to the Lord. You redeem it or it just has to die. An unredeemed donkey dies. A redeemed donkey gets to live. And it's a practice that teaches them over and over again as they redeem every son that they have.

That's the firstborn son. It's a practice over and over and over again that reminds them that God redeemed us out of slavery at the cost of a redemption sacrifice. And without a sacrifice, there is no redemption. Without a sacrifice, there is a death. All firstborn sons that were not hiding behind the blood of the lamb died. And so we remember perpetually, continually that if we don't have the covering of the blood and the sacrifice that God puts between us and his wrath, there is death.

And they practice this over and over and over again. And that's what he says in verse 16. It should be as a Mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes. For by a strong hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt. They're going to practice this so they would remember him. It's to be a Mark on their hand or a frontlet between their eyes.

My oldest son, and he was two, he was learning how to talk and he would say some words, you know, he'd say ball, probably said stuff like milk and no, you know, the important things that you need to know when you're two. And, but he really wasn't talking, talking. And you get kind of used to your kids not talking. And it's, you know, when they say the first words, you're really excited. And, but he just, he wasn't talking. And my, uh, my wife, uh, was watching him one morning and she had put, uh, like a green skin mask on her face.

And she came walking in the room with this and our two-year-old son was watching TV and he looked at it and he went, what's on your face? He was like, I'm going to need a full sentence for this. We got to no more, just one word stuff. I'm what is happening here. And that's what he says is that this practice, these practices are meant to Mark you in a startling reminder way that you can't get away from. It's meant to be a part of your life.

Like something attached to your hand or your face. That's what he's calling them to. And so they do this. The people of Israel practice this for 1500 years. They practice this. Now they, at times don't, there are times where they rebel, there are times where they're in captivity, but in general, the people of Israel, when they're being faithful, they're practicing the Passover.

They're practicing the redemption of the firstborn. And it's just part of who they are. And they remember, they remember the Exodus out of Egypt as the moment in their history when God worked in a mighty way to make them into a people and to redeem them out of slavery and to call them to himself. And they practice this over and over and over again. Go to Luke chapter 22. We're going to see Jesus and his disciples in first century Jerusalem in the Roman empire practicing the Passover.

This is Luke 22. We're going to read verse one. We're going to read verse seven, and then we're going to read starting in 14. Now the feast of unleavened bread drew near, which is called the Passover. Now, maybe you've read the new Testament and now we've gone through Exodus and you go, Oh, I know what that's talking about. Yeah.

We just read about the feast of unleavened bread called the Passover. We now know what that's talking about. Verse seven, then came the day of unleavened bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So the Passover lamb is sacrificed at twilight because they won't their calendar sundown to sundown. So it's sundown.

It begins the next day. They sacrifice the Passover. They're going to have their Passover meal. Verse 14. And when the hour came, this is them celebrating the Passover meal together, Jesus and his disciples celebrating something they would have celebrated every year of their entire life. The whole nation would stop and celebrate the feast of unleavened bread.

If you didn't, you were cut off from the people. Like we don't have anything like that. I jokingly told one guy one time, I said, Hey, look, you've moved to the South and you don't understand this. You need to come to church with me on Easter because it's the South and everybody has to go to church on Easter. If you don't, the cops come by your house and check. And he went, really?

No, not really, but you should still come. But that's how this works. Somebody saw you eating leavened bread and it was like, Oh, you, you're not, you don't belong anymore. You're not welcome anymore. They practice this every year and it mattered. They're used to this, this Passover meal.

And it said, when the hour came, he reclined at table and the apostles with him. I just want to point out he reclined at the table because this has gone from the first event, which was belt on shoes on staff in your hand to a feast to remember the glorious work that God has done. It's now like, it's like Thanksgiving belt off. We've got to make some room here. People they're reclining at the table, celebrating what God has done. And it says a reclining at table.

And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover meal with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Okay. So Jesus is about to do and say some odd things. If you had been practicing Passover your entire life, he's about to do and say some odd things. The first thing that he says that is odd is I've earnestly desired to eat this.

I'm not going to eat it. I've earnestly desired to eat this Passover meal with you. I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Now, if you heard that and you're the Jewish person who's practiced the Passover, the past, the Passover is fulfilled. What are you talking about? I've longed to eat this with you.

I'm not going to eat it until it's fulfilled. Go ahead. That happened hundreds of years ago. Passover fulfilled. God's already done this. But he says, I'm not going to eat it until it's fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

Verse 17, and he took a cup and when he had given thanks, he said, take this and divide it amongst yourselves among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. This is for you, but I'm not, I'm not partaking. And he took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. They're practicing the Passover.

They're taking the feast of unleavened bread and he breaks it and he says, this is my body that's given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Break bread in remembrance of me. Practice the Passover in remembrance of me. You're not, unless you're Jesus, you're not supposed to do that. You don't get to.

I mean, you can try. I'd encourage you to try. The holiday season's coming up. Give it a shot. You got a few coming at Thanksgiving. Say, I'd like us to go around the table and everyone say a thing that they're thankful to me about.

Maybe a thing you're thankful for me or to me. Grandma, you want to kick us off? Thanksgiving's about me. I'm sorry. I don't know why y'all are looking at me like that. Do this.

Remember me. Just give it a shot. You can't, like at Christmas, go over to someone's house. Like if you get into DIY and you like make a little tree topper of yourself and you put it on their tree. You're like, Christmas is about me. When y'all open presents.

Think about how I'm a great gift to the world. The ball is dropping. They start counting down. You run over to people and you're like, we're counting down for me. And they're like, is it your birthday? And you're like, no.

Also, if y'all kiss, that's about me. What? Don't mind me. I'm just going to watch. You can't do this. You can't just co-op things that have been happening forever.

This one's been instituted by God. And Jesus just says, I'm not going to do this until it's fulfilled in the kingdom, which we would have thought it already had been that God had already fulfilled the Passover. This is an event that took place. But he says, no, the ultimate fulfillment of Passover is yet to come. And he says, this is about me. Verse 20.

And likewise, the cup after they had eaten saying this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. These are a covenantal people. There's a covenant with Abraham that's renewed with Isaac and Jacob, but it's the covenant to Abraham. There's a covenant with Moses. There's a covenant with David. They're covenantal people.

And he says, Passover is about me. It's going to get fulfilled. And here's a new covenant in my blood. And to institute a new covenant for them is like. Jesus says something's happening here. The fulfillment of the Passover is here.

And Passover is about me. That the blood of the lamb that stands between us and judgment is about to be fulfilled. The blood that isn't just for one household for one night, but a lamb that you know and then is slaughtered and you partake in it. That the blood covers you, but you also consume it. That's about me. And when you practice Passover, remember me.

That's what he says. So let's go to first Corinthians 11, because now we're in the church and we're seeing how Christians have taken this so that as we as Christians study the Passover, we see that Jesus says it's about me. In first Corinthians in chapter five, prior to this, Paul says, for Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. That Jesus is our Passover lamb. And then he talks about the Lord's supper and how we are to practice it. Chapter 11, verse 23.

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, we just read about this, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, also, he took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and you drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

So this Passover meal that was practiced every year, Jesus says, this is about me. And then the New Testament church starts practicing this on a regular basis. That everything that was built into the Passover, this salvation out of slavery, this protection from wrath, this divine judgment, but the death of an unblemished firstborn to redeem. All of that built in and rolling up. And Jesus says it's about to be fulfilled. And he fulfills it fully and finally and eternally through his death on the cross.

And the church gathers to remember and proclaim. That when we partake in communion, the Lord's table, we remember and we proclaim. Anyway, my wife and I went, we were in the mountains one time and we went to go see a waterfall. And there was this way to get down to the waterfall. You could stand up or you could try to, on this little perch, or you could try to get down to it. And on the way down, there was a rope.

It was tied off on one end and it ran down this really kind of awkward way. But it helps you know where to go. And if you followed the rope, you'd get where you were supposed to be. And it was something to hold on to. So that you wouldn't fall.

Because falling was a real possibility. And I think without the rope, we probably wouldn't have made it. We'd have gone a little ways. And then I'd have been like, Anna, go ahead and see how it works. And then I'll see if I can come later. I wouldn't have.

But anyway, it helped us get there. It helped us hold on. And that's some of what he's saying is these regular practices for us as a church. This regular practice of communion is tied to the death of Christ. That we're proclaiming his death. And it takes us until he comes.

We do this until. He's already died. And we proclaim it until he comes. And we hold fast. And so when we gather. And this morning we're going to take communion together as a church.

We're going to celebrate the fulfilled Passover. That there is blood of a spotless lamb that covers us and stands between us and judgment. And we're going to proclaim his death until he returns. And so there are a few things that happen when we take communion. We have bread that's been broken. We have the cup that we share.

And so there's a few things that happen. One is it reminds us that our redemption is costly. There's something that's proclaimed. Physically proclaimed to us. Every time we gather and we've got communion set up on these tables. You're a sinner.

Without a sacrifice. You're in trouble. You need to be redeemed. And if you've come in here this morning and your plan. Is to be moral and righteous and holy. In your own strength.

In your own name. By your own merit. May you look at that table and know you're a sinner who needs to be redeemed. But that table proclaims. That we have redemption. That there is forgiveness.

You need forgiveness. But there is forgiveness. If you came in this morning dragging. Feeling like you're going to be swallowed up by your sin. Wondering how on earth am I going to make it to the end. How on earth will I stand before a holy and righteous God.

And not just be crushed. The answer is. We hide behind the blood of the lamb. That there is forgiveness offered. And that we celebrate and remind ourselves. That I need forgiveness.

But I can receive forgiveness. Through the work of Christ. When we partake in communion together. We remember that our redemption is real. There's something about physically having to touch it. That when we take this in a moment.

And you dip it in the cup. And you. Every time I'm walking back. And it's kind of dripping on my fingers. Or on my hand. And I'm walking like this.

It reminds me that he really died. That his blood really spilled. That he poured it out. And it's a new covenant. That guards. And protects.

Just as the people in the Passover. When they slaughtered their lamb. And they were painting the blood on their doorpost. And they could see it. They could see the cost of their protection. They could see the cost of their redemption.

That we get to see it. And we get to remember that it really happened. That it stands as an event in history. That we proclaim. And look back to. And remember.

So that we know. That we have forgiveness. And we partake in it. That every time. I take communion. And you take communion.

You get this moment to say. Lord I need this. Without your forgiveness. Without your sacrifice. I am hopeless. And helpless.

And it helps us hold on. And then. It reminds us. That our redeemer lives. Because we proclaim his death. Until he comes.

And we have a certain future. Purchased. Not by our works. Our intelligence. Our effort. Praise Jesus.

Not by our works. Our intelligence. And our effort. But by his. And that we long. For the day.

That he returns. And claims us. And it helps us. Stay tied to him. That's why we practice it regularly. We practice this more often.

Than we used to. Because we need. More often. A reminder. That we need Jesus. That we're going to gather together.

That we belong together. That he's accomplished this for us. And that we need forgiveness. And we receive forgiveness. And we have hope in him. It's tied off.

To the death. Buried on resurrection. And it leads us. To his ultimate return. And we. Remember his death.

And we proclaim it. Until he comes. If we're not careful. We'll have a guiding line. But it won't be Jesus.

Some of us. If we're honest. If we really think about it. It's tied off. To I used to be poor. And it's tied up.

To I'll be rich one day. It's tied off. To loneliness. And it's. It's anchored up here. To romance.

If I can just work my way. I can make it. That's my hope. That's my future. And the problem is. We make all these decisions.

In our lives. That don't make any sense. Because we're supposed to be tied off. To a forgiveness. And a hope. Set secure in Christ.

And anchored to an eternal hope. Set secure in Christ. For the day that he returns. And claims us. We're supposed to live. Between those two points.

And we gather together. As a church. To proclaim that to ourselves. And to each other. I love. When I get to sit back here.

And watch our church family line up. And all of us remember together. And I need forgiveness. But I get forgiveness. And I'm proclaiming the death of Christ. Until he comes.

Because I have hope. And only in Christ. Oh it's a glorious thing. To get to participate. With a family of sinners. Redeemed by the blood of Christ.

With our hope anchored in Christ. Longing for the day that he returns. And claims his people for himself. It's a glorious thing. To get to partake in. To get to remember.

That we have a Passover lamb. We have blood that stands between us. And utter destruction. We have a redeemer. Who's died. Who's risen.

Who lives. And one day returns. To claim his people. And may we cling to that. Hold to that. Practice that.

Remember. May it be on our hand. And on our forehead. So that we can walk. This life. Between those two points.

The band's going to come back up. And we're going to practice the Lord's Supper. So that we might remember. There's going to be a moment for them. To play. And for you to pray.

For you. To remember. I'm a sinner. And I need forgiveness. Some of you need to ask for forgiveness this morning. But you need to know that you're given forgiveness in Christ.

That the purchase. The cost of your redemption has already been paid. That we have hope. Some of you need to talk to the Lord about longing for his return. Proclaiming his death until he comes. And recentering yourself on living between those two points.

With our hope fully in him. If you are not a Christian. Communion is not for you. Because it's a celebration. Of Jesus' blood on our behalf. And that we belong to him through his sacrifice.

Christ is for you if you're not a Christian. That you can come to him and ask for forgiveness. That you can ask him to redeem your soul. And he will. That you can say I need your blood to cover me. And he will.

And then you can take communion. For the first time as a celebration of what he's done. But if you're not a Christian. And you haven't taken that step. And we ask that you remain seated. Out of respect for Jesus.

And for our church family. But if you're a Christian. After a moment. Of praying. Of praising. Let's celebrate.

That we have a hope. And let's remember his death. And proclaim it. Until he comes. So you pray.

And when you're ready. To take communion.