Exodus: Thinking Rightly About The Ten Commandments

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Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, we've come to bask in the goodness of who you are, to see you for some of us differently, but from the biblical perspective, to see you rightly, to understand what you're all about, instead of just assuming that we get it because of some bad experience we had with church people or because of some bad experience we had with the earthly father.

We take out our wrath on our earthly parents.

And yet we don't have sufficient motivation to worship our perfect Father.

And so, uh Lord, we take off the cultural contacts today.

We want to see you clearly.

We look at you through a cracked lens when we don't look at you through the lens of the Bible.

Because the Bible brings you into focus as you are.

And when people see you as you are, they respond to you with worship and allegiance and affection and love.

And so help us to see not just you, but the Bible clearly this morning.

We ask this in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.

You can have a see.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Exodus chapter 20.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

And while you're finding Exodus chapter 20, I want to introduce you to somebody.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

I'll have them stand in just a minute, but you hear us talk about uh our work in Costa Rica that we've adopted a village up in the mountains of the Guime Indians, and we talk about our missionaries, the Cardies, Bart and Heather Cardi.

They were members of our church.

She was a band director at a school.

He was a shop teacher.

They went on our first mission trip to Costa Rica and basically never came back.

They went down there, came back, sold all their stuff, sold their house, and now they live there in Costa Rica and our missionaries.

They're here in our service today.

I'm gonna ask Bart and Heather if they would just stand up.

This is Barton Heather Cardi, your missionaries.

And so, you guys can have a seat.

You'll hear more from them next week.

We have a luncheon for them.

So we talk about the Cardies, that is them.

I also want to say this they don't have lunch plans.

And so you let the Spirit lead you.

Otherwise, they're gonna get stuck with me and they don't want to go out with me.

They see they see enough of me, okay?

Uh if you're a guest, let me just say welcome, relax.

We're on a journey.

Uh we're going through the book of Exodus episodically.

Well, last time we talked, we talked about in Exodus 17, uh uh the the Sunday after Christmas.

Uh and then Exodus 18, let me summarize and get to where we are.

Exodus 18 basically, the Bible tells us that Moses is a workaholic.

He's working so much he's abandoned his wife and kids or kind of forsaken them.

His father in law Jethro comes out because uh Moses labors under the illusion, I gotta do it all.

So he's making all the decisions for these millions of people, and he's just wearing him out.

He's working from early in the morning to late at night.

His father-in-law Jethro comes out with his wife and two sons and says, Remember these people?

And he says, Hey, it's not good that you're doing all this.

He says, Hey, set up a system where you got people that they can't judge over a thousand, but some men can judge over tens and fifties and hundreds and thousands and put them in different, and it's kind of where we get this modern sense of our judicial system that there's there's appellate court and there's all this different kind of stuff, district court, and and that all is based on what Moses does in Exodus 18.

Exodus 19, basically they get ready to go up and meet God, and we'll we'll we'll finish by reading from there this morning.

But in Exodus 20, is where God gives the Ten Commandments, okay?

I want to talk to you before we get into the Ten Commandments, and somebody asked me, so what are you gonna do?

Preach the Ten Commandments.

This is novel, and I made this up my own.

Each Sunday we're gonna focus on one commandment.

We're not gonna do all 10 on a Sunday, okay?

We'll just unpack what this looks like with our life wrapped around it.

But I want to talk to you this morning, kind of as an introduction to the Ten Commandments, about this topic, thinking rightly about the Ten Commandments.

Thinking rightly about the Ten Commandments, because it's my belief that most of us don't think rightly about the Ten Commandments.

And let me demonstrate.

When I say Ten Commandments, when you hear the Ten Commandments, what's the first thing you think of?

Somebody just say that loud.

No killing.

No killing.

There you go.

What else?

No lying.

There you go.

What else?

No idols.

No what?

No idols.

Yeah.

Don't tell me the Ten Commandments.

What do you think of them in general?

Rules.

There you go.

That's pretty much exactly what it is.

Uh I was at my in-laws this past week, which means I escaped every chance I got and went to the coffee shop down the street.

And I would be in there, and people are like, what are you working on?

I'm like, Well, I'm working on, I'm a preacher from Texas and I'm here and I'm working on the Ten Commandments.

Oh, what do you think about the Ten Commandments?

Or my question of the New Year's, I ask people this hey, tell me about the God that you discover in the Bible.

Well, I don't really read the Bible much, but and I'm like, okay, stop right there.

Uh but you know, I had one woman tell me, she was like loud talking, she was like yelling at me.

No one's gonna tell me what to do.

I've been told what to do my whole life.

My parents said, my first time told me what to do.

I left him sorry self, and I'll tell you what, no one's gonna tell me what to do.

Okay, to summarize, no one's gonna tell you what to do.

Okay.

What if the Ten Commandments were not God putting his thumb on you and saying, this is what you're gonna do, but this is just kind of life that comes out of you when you're rightly related to God.

Well, I've never heard that before in my life.

Why are you yelling?

I'm right here.

You're spitting on me, you're so close.

I mean, you sprinkled me so good, I could be a Methodist when this is over.

But I digress.

Anyway, see, we don't think rightly.

I love the Methodists and I hate on the Methodists, relax.

Some of y'all kind of like, I'm gonna write you an email.

Uh we we got to think rightly about the Ten Commandments because this is the way we think about them.

So here's what I want to do.

I'm gonna start reading Exodus chapter 20.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

I'm gonna read verses 1 to 21, and I'm gonna come back.

I'm gonna make four kind of introductory statements to help us kind of look at the Ten Commandments correctly, and then we'll get out of here, okay?

Amen.

That's what the Bible says.

Exodus chapter 20, verse 1.

Exodus 20:1

And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness, or anything that is in heaven above, or that's in earth beneath, or there's in the water underneath the earth.

You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I am the Lord your God.

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.

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.

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, or the foreigner 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.

Honor your father and mother, that your days may be long in the land the Lord your God has given you.

You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, 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 neighbor's.

Now, when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning, and the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off.

And they said to Moses, You speak to us, and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us lest we die.

Moses said to the people, Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.

The people stood far off while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

You see, the reason I started with a question I started with is because we're like the children of Israel.

We're kind of like, hey, we we oh, you speak to us, but we don't want God to talk to us because he may get us.

And it's kind of weird.

Moses says this, he says, Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you.

He uses the word fear twice.

And it's and it means different things.

He says, Do not fear, because God has come to test you so that the fear of him, so so that the fear in him, the understanding him rightly, may be before you and keep you from sinning.

See, when it thinks about the commandments, we think wrongly.

We think in the list of most people's summary is most people think it's a list of rules.

I want to just say this.

What if that's not, and we'll end on this note, so I'm gonna start on this note.

What if it's not about rules, but it's about relationship?

What if that's what it's about?

So if you're here, you're agnostic, you're atheist, you're you're jaded, you're cynical, you're burnt on church, you think it's all whatever.

Just just kind of let that float into your head for just a minute.

Let me make four statements uh uh about the commandments.

First one is simply this uh to help us think rightly about the ten commandments.

First one is this we must understand God's purpose for the ten commandments.

We gotta understand God's purpose for the ten commandments.

And and I want to, before I say this, let me go ahead and give you my email so you'll know who to write to.

My name is Neil.

It's not spelled N-E-A-L, it's N-E-I-L.

I spell it right.

Uh at grandparkway.org, okay?

So get that down because you're gonna want to write me when I tell you this.

But when uh understanding God's purpose for the Ten Commandments, they're not to be displayed on the wall in the courtroom in an effort to reform society.

They're not.

Uh and I could I could point you to, now I'm not saying it's bad that they have them there, we want to put them in public places and schools.

Hey, I grew up in small town East Texas.

Our first great teacher every Monday would read to us the Ten Commandments out loud in class.

That woman would be in prison right now.

Now, I'm not saying that's a bad thing, we shouldn't do that.

We talk about, okay, get the Ten Commandments in schools, got to get the Ken Commandments.

I can tell you a court case where uh somebody sued the ACLU because they wanted to get these Ten Commandments taken down off the wall in a courtroom.

What else is going on?

Someone said to me, Hey, what do you think about that?

And I said, it's a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars.

And they're like, Oh, you're a pastor.

How can you say that?

Because I understand the Bible.

And they're like, oh my gosh.

And finally I just said, Hey, does it dawn on you?

I mean, think about this.

You're in a courtroom, you got the Ten Commandments on the wall.

It's too late for the cats that are in court.

They've already stolen and killed people.

Putting the Ten Commandments on the wall is not changing them one iota.

They're just kind of looking up and going, yep, God hates me too.

Thanks for that reminder.

But the court case played out and they appealed and they appealed and they appealed, and finally they settled the court, and the ACLU won.

And these people had to pay$500,000.

Most of that was the lawyer fees for the ACLU.

It's one thing to lose to the ACLU, it's another thing to pay their bills.

That will gall you at a place that you don't talk about at a church picnic.

And the guy's like, well, I guess you were right.

I said, No, no, I'm not right.

I'm just, I understand God's purpose for the commandments.

It's not putting them in a courtroom or in schools or on a monument in the park or whatever.

And I just want to say, let's just stop wasting taxpayer dollars around the Ten Commandments to get them back in these courtrooms, these public venues, and instead, let's get them into us and let the life they produce kind of waft out of us.

Another thing I want to say about the purpose of the commandments is simply this the commandments are not guidelines for humanity in general.

They're not guidelines for humanity in general.

People can see the Ten Commandments and they can not kill and they can not commit adultery and they can not do all those things.

But let me ask you something.

When you die, do you want that written on your tombstone what you didn't do?

Nobody does.

Here are lots of man that didn't commit adultery.

What do you want?

A cookie?

You're not supposed to.

Here lost a man who didn't kill anybody.

Matter of fact, why don't we make that a question for your community group tonight?

When you die, what do you want written on your tombstone?

Because the Bible and the Ten Commandments, believe it or not, is not about what you shouldn't do, it's about what you should do.

The Bible's yes, it's not no.

It's not you shouldn't, it's you should.

It's not restrictive, it's redemptive, and we'll get to that in just a minute.

But the purpose of the Ten Commandments is they're not guidelines for humanity in general.

They don't function to keep American culture running smoothly, but instead they're intended to produce a people who are in our daily lives where a sign and a symbol and a signal and a witness that God's not left the world to its own devices.

Maybe that's a bit a little bit bigger.

Maybe this will help us get at it.

Uh, the purpose of the commandments in a phrase is to drive people to Jesus.

Uh but the problem is most of us think about the Ten Commandments the way we think about AA.

AA being Alcoholics Anonymous.

You say, what do you mean?

Now, some of you are probably thinking, how are you going to connect AA in the Ten Commandments?

I want to see how you do that.

Uh, here's what I mean when I say we think about the Ten Commandments like we do AA.

Let me make a statement.

And before I make the statement, let me tell you where I get this statement.

I I I was uh I worked as a chaplain at a psychiatric hospital for a while when I was in seminary.

Greatest thing I did, because I worked with juveniles and I worked with adults, and I assisted in AA and chemical dependency and all this stuff.

So I was around these groups, fascinating.

And I learned something that most of you in this room don't know.

You want to learn something today you didn't know when you walked in?

Here it is.

The purpose of AA is not to get you to stop drinking.

Most of y'all are like, What?

You didn't just say, Yeah, the purpose of AA is not to get you to stop drinking.

Because see, see, that's about behavior modification, okay?

Well, the purpose of AA is for you to have a spiritual awakening.

And as a result of that spiritual awakening, you stop drinking because here's what happens to the alcoholic or the addict.

They can kind of like, hey, you know, I'm gonna stop drinking, I'm gonna stop drinking, I'm gonna stop drinking.

And they'll do good for a while and then they'll fall off the wagon.

I have a friend that's an alcoholic.

He does good until his wife goes out of town.

And he says, I can feel it coming up on me.

About a week before his wife goes out of town, he'll call me and say, Hey, my wife is going out of town.

I need you to call me and check on me.

Okay, you need me to call you just, you know, a couple times next week.

I need you to call me a couple times a day.

And one of his problems is he looks at his wife as salvation.

He's kind of like, Oh, you're such a great woman.

I mean, you just, where would I be without you?

You're the only person who's believed in me.

Men, be careful that you don't idolize your wife instead of just loving your wife and leading your wife because it's a lot of pressure to put on your wife.

Because his wife thinks, I can't leave town and my husband's gonna.

And I told her, hey, you are not responsible for your husband's sobriety.

Because he doesn't understand that AA is not about not drinking.

Not drinking is a byproduct of having a spiritual awakening where you realize I came to the point in my life I was powerless over drugs and alcohol, and I need a power greater than myself.

Help me regain this measure of control.

So if you think AA is about drinking, you you think the Ten Commandments is about don't, don't, don't, don't, don't.

And just like with AA, God has something bigger in store for you.

Something better and beyond what you can, your mind naturally goes to.

That's why I say you got to understand God's purpose for the commandments.

I said earlier, by the way, when I said that hey, the purpose of AA is to have a spiritual awakening.

Let me demonstrate.

This is the 12th step from AA.

It says this having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all of our affairs.

Hear that first phrase again.

Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps.

That's the goal of AA.

And I remember sitting in a room and just thinking, that is fascinating.

Because up to that point, I thought AA is about don't drink.

No, it's about having a spiritual awakening so that your behavior is the byproduct of this spiritual awakening.

Because without the spiritual awakening, you're just trying to modify your behavior and you're going through life.

Just don't, don't, don't, don't.

Ask yourself this question: is that really the way God created you to live?

Because I'm going to say to you, that's not the God of the Bible.

Don't, don't.

The God of the Bible is due.

Yes, absolutely.

I said that the purpose of the commandments is to drive us to Jesus.

Uh, don't turn there, but in Matthew 19, the Bible tells the story of Jesus and what's called the rich young ruler, young man goes up to him and he says, Teacher, what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus said, You know the commands.

You're not murder, honor your father, mother, list off some commands.

The guy goes, All these I've kept since I was a youth.

What do I still lack?

You see, because keeping the command, you can keep all the commands and still never know Jesus.

You know that, right?

You can follow the rules.

It's not about rules, it never has been.

That's why I said it's not rules, it's relationship.

You can be a very moral, scientific-oriented, mental person and follow all those things and never have a relationship with God.

He said, All these I've kept since I was a youth.

What do I still lack?

And Jesus said, uh, go sell all that you possess and give the money to the poor, and then come follow me, and you'll have treasure in heaven.

The Bible says that this, the man went away sad because he had a lot of stuff.

And the disciples are freaked out.

They're like, Oh, what's this mean for us?

I mean, we've left everything to follow you.

And Jesus said, Whoever's left houses or land or brothers and sisters, mother and father for my sake will receive ten times as much in the resurrection.

Don't sweat that stuff, fellas.

But see, it drives him to Jesus because Peter and all the disciples, they're kind of looking, kind of thinking, okay, if that guy can't get in because he keeps the rules, how are we getting in?

The commandments.

The purpose of the commandments is to drive us to the feet of Jesus.

Second thing I want to tell you about the commands is you cannot separate the commandments from the story.

You cannot separate the commandments from the story.

You say, What do you mean?

When we do that, it becomes just another list of rules to follow blindly, and God's this other authority figure to obey.

Look at verse 2 of Exodus chapter 20, after he says, God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

The first thing God does is remind them who he is and what he does.

Now, if you separate, and that's the story, that's the summation.

Exodus chapter 20, verse 2 is a summary of the entire book of Exodus.

Exodus 20:2

God says, I am the Lord your God who brought you out, excuse me, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

It's a summary of all that God has done.

And then he says, and by the way, this is what you do.

When you separate the commandments from the story, then God's just another dictator who's shaking his fist at us and telling us what to do.

And we're like, you're not gonna tell me what to do.

When we were singing earlier that song Good, good father, uh, in the first service, especially, and kind of in this service, there's some of you in this room, uh, uh this is the thought that went through me.

Some of you in this room, you're gonna waste your life if you're not careful being mad at your mom and dad for not being perfect.

And here's a news flash your mom and dad aren't perfect.

They're not gonna parent you perfectly, they're not gonna make perfect decisions.

Some of you are in your 60s and you beat yourself up because you look at the way your kids turned out and you think, what did I do wrong?

Nothing.

Oh, I'm now take that back.

I'm sure you did some things wrong, but your your adult children's behavior is not your fault.

It's just not.

And they will use that against you, they'll they'll beat you up and accuse you of that because without that, how do they explain someone loving and sacrificing for them as much as you did and them just going off the deep end?

That's not between you and your kid.

That's between your kid and God.

Now, for the kids in the room, and like myself, I have a mom and a dad, and and and it's yeah, I was talking to somebody after the first service, and he's like, Man, I think that was for me.

Here's let me just say this.

If you spend all your life complaining about what how terrible parents your your mom and dad were, what a horrible dad your dad was, you're wasting the opportunity to just kind of worship the perfection of your heavenly father.

Because you can't, if for it to be so terrible, you would it would seem to reason you would really want a perfect father, and you have one in God, so why don't you worship him instead of complaining about your earthly father?

You're the biggest hypocrite anybody knows.

Because you want to stay right here between, well, they did me wrong and I don't want to do that because they did me wrong.

That doesn't make any sense.

So that's why God tells the story.

He reminds them of who he is.

He says, Hey, I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

And when we remember the story, it moves from being restrictive rules and it becomes redemptive.

Oh, this is this is what God has done for me.

He's the Lord my God who brought me out of the land of Egypt.

And by the way, if you're in Exodus, turn to the right, to the book of Deuteronomy.

I want you to see something.

If you don't have a Bible, it'll come up on the screen.

Uh, God always connects the story with the commandments.

Because if you separate the story from the commandment, then it's just a contest of wills.

Let me say that again.

If you separate the story from the commandments, it's a contest of wheels.

You look at your kids and tell them to do something, they're looking at you and they're just thinking, this is a contest of wheels.

No, no, no, no.

When you talk to your kids, tell them the story of how good God's been to you and your family.

My oldest is getting ready to go off to college.

I got one more semester with her at home, and she's like, Oh, you know, Dad, I said the other day, I said, hey, by the way, uh, when you leave this home, all you're gonna take with you is the name your mom and dad gave you.

And I don't mean your first name, I mean your last name.

And God's been good to that last name for a long time.

So don't go off to college and sully that name.

She's like, uh, I say, I ain't mad at you.

But if you do that, you're sinning against a lot of God's goodness.

That's not pressure.

Well, it feels like pressure, it's responsibility.

There's a difference in responsibility and pressure.

Well, what's that difference?

I know because I'm smarter than you.

She said, No, Dad, what's the difference?

The difference in pressure and responsibility, responsibility, that inherent in responsibility is relationship.

And not just you and me, you and God.

And so I just start telling her, hey, this is things that God's done.

This is the way God's been faithful to your mom and dad for a long time.

Why?

Because I'm telling her the story, not just telling her what to do.

I'm saying, hey, this there's more in the mix than just you doing this and not doing that.

God's always wanted it to be that way.

That's why he says in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 20, he says, When your son asks you in time to come, what is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?

Deuteronomy 6:20

See, he says, Hey, what's the purpose of the rules?

Verse 21, then you shall say to your son, we were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt.

And the Lord brought and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household before our eyes.

And he brought us out from there that he might bring us in and give us a land that he swore to give to our fathers.

See, God says, Tell the story first.

What's the purpose of the rules?

Let me tell you.

Let me tell you what God's done.

And he brought us out that he might bring us in and give us a land that he swore to give our fathers.

And the Lord commanded us to do all the stuff.

To fear the Lord our God for our good always, that he might preserve us alive as we are this day.

And it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God as he has commanded us.

For our good always, and it will be righteousness for us.

This is what God says.

He says, Hey, don't separate the story from the commandment.

Go back to verse 2 in Exodus chapter 20.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

I want to give you a question and think about in your community groups tonight.

Look at verse 2.

He says, I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Ask yourself this question.

How would God summarize in one sentence what He's done for you?

How would God finish this sentence in your life?

I am the Lord your God who blank.

What would God say?

How would God would you tell the same story God tells about your life?

Because you can get sympathy from man or you can get a measure of trust from God.

And the way we get a measure of trust from God is we acknowledge, you know what?

God's been good to me for a long time.

I don't have an excuse.

When I was 18, I walked out of my mom's house and she added me her last$10 and she said, I wish I had$10,000 to give you, but I don't.

And I said, I'll be fine, mom.

I can't blame my mom.

I can't blame my dad.

I can't go back.

I'm 51 years old.

I'm a grown man.

Choices I've made, I've made, and they got consequences, good and bad.

God says, hey, tell the story.

Don't separate the story from the commandments, because when we do that, guess what?

It's just restrictive.

But when you tell the story, I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Then all of a sudden, whatever he says to do, we look at it through the lens of gratitude.

Third thing I want to tell you about the commandments, to help us think rightly about the commandments, is the commandments keep us from falling back into slavery.

The commandments keep us from falling back into slavery.

You say, Well, I don't get it.

These are not the demands of a religious dictator or despot who says, Because I said so.

That was my dad, by the way.

My dad was old school.

He would tell us to do something, we kind of look at him, and my older brother would pop off and go, Why are we going to do that?

It's always like dirty hair.

Because I said so.

That's why.

So I grew up and just thinking, I don't think this will, this is just a fight.

So when I tell my kids to do something, they kind of look at me kind of funny, I just smile and go, Do you trust me?

I hate that question.

You hate that question because you have 18 years of my awesomeness all around you.

Oh, Dad, you don't really believe that.

I do.

That's the scary part.

I believe that, and I think you should believe that.

When have I lied to you?

When have I not kept my word to you?

When have I not been good to you?

Okay, okay, okay, I got it, I got it.

Okay, shut up.

I actually said to mine the other day, she said something, I said no.

She goes, why?

I said, Because shut up, that's why.

And she laughed and said, That's pretty good.

I said, You know what?

I've earned the right to tell you no because I've given you so many yeses.

You can trust my no.

I know, dad, but I'd rather get a yes than a no.

But here's the thing: when you get out in the real world, you're not always gonna get a yes.

You're not always gonna get the job.

The boy you like is not always gonna like you back.

Friends are not always gonna come through for you.

I hope all that is not true, but reality is probably you're gonna have some no's out there.

I know, Dad.

I know, I know.

See, but here's the commandments keep us from falling back into slavery.

What do you mean?

Isn't that God saying, hey, because I said so?

Or look, the commands come from a God who wants you to stay free.

Let me say, what do you mean?

Let me say that again.

The commandments come from a God who wants you to stay free.

Think about this.

God has already rescued them out of the house of slavery, and then he gives them the commands.

If God really wanted to control them, wouldn't he say, hey, by the way, now that you're slaves, let's negotiate the terms of your surrender.

I'll get you out of here, but here's the 10 things you got to do.

Here's my terms.

Sign on the dotted line.

No, God gets them out of slavery, and then he says, Hey, I want our relationship to be governed by these realities.

Now, what does God believe about them and you that he would free you and then say, Hey, let our relationship be about this.

Here's what he believes.

He believes that you and I are capable of living this life.

Let me say it again.

He believes you and I are capable of living this life.

The commandments aren't thunder, they're due.

D E W.

That's stuff that shows up on the grass.

They're not thunder.

You shall have no other gods before me.

It's due.

You know what?

I was created by God for a relationship with God, and He's the biggest priority of my life.

I was stained when I was 16 years old.

Not a Christian.

Angry, hard-hearted, pot-smoking little kid.

Angry orphan.

And a man I worked for said to me with tears in his eyes, Jesus Christ is the best business partner a man ever had.

Everything I have, I have because God's been so good to me.

I work hard and he'll and I and I try to do it God's way.

But I'm telling you, I don't want you to look in me and think, you know, he's a good businessman.

I'm a blessed man.

I opened my mouth to say something back and nothing came out.

Because when I was 16, I thought rich people made a deal with the devil.

I just thought, God doesn't take care of people.

You got to take care of yourself.

What he didn't say was, You shall have no other gods, the Bible says in the old, you shall have no other gods before me.

But he used different words to say the exact same thing.

Ask yourself, when you read the Bible, do you hear the Holy Spirit churning up in you and whispering, saying, Hey, stay free.

Stay free.

Because if you start on page one of the Bible, read all the way through, the thing you'll see over and over is that God created his people for freedom.

God says to Adam and Eve, You're free to eat of any tree in the garden.

But of this one tree, don't eat.

Get to the New Testament.

Jesus says in John 8, if the sun has set you free, you'll be free indeed.

Paul says to the people in Galatians, in the church of Galatians, he says, Hey, you started off in freedom.

Why do you want to fall back into slavery?

Because that's our nature.

We want someone to be responsible.

We want someone to tell us what to do.

So if life comes off the rails, we can say, Well, I was just doing what I was told.

What God's been telling you and I for a long time is that you're free.

Which is, by the way, by the Jewish people celebrate to this day.

Every year, they celebrate a feast or festival called Passover, where they just kind of remind themselves we used to be slaves in Egypt, but now we're not slaves anymore.

Let me give you another question to think about in your groups tonight, or maybe on the drive to lunch.

How do you celebrate what God's done for you and your family?

How do you celebrate what God has done for you and your family?

Because I sent an email out.

I don't know if you guys read the emails the church saying, you may go, that's from the church, delete.

But I sent an email out last week while I was in Florida.

I was down at the coffee shop hiding out, and I sent an email to say, hey, in the end of the year's coming, here's some things to keep in mind.

And one of the things I said was, hey, if you're good for this year, go ahead and get your party on.

But remember, party responsibly.

How many of y'all read that email?

Can I see your hand?

Yes.

Because somebody wrote me back and said, Hey, do you think you, as our pastor should be telling us to party?

And I wrote back, I should tell you more to party, because the problem is you don't party enough.

Now, this person was here this morning.

It's like, well, I got your response.

We can talk about that.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm gonna tell you, the Jews, the people that don't even believe in our Messiah, they party better than we do.

They have feasts, like the feast of Passover.

They spend a week every year just celebrating.

We used to be slaves in Pharaoh's house.

We're not slaves anymore.

How do you as a family celebrate what God has done for you?

One of the ways we celebrate in our home is just by going out somewhere really nice to eat, doing something really fun.

And I look at my kids and I go, is God good or what?

Like last year, someone gave us a gift card.

There's a restaurant here in town called Taste of Texas.

Somebody gave us a gift card to Taste of Texas.

Because it's not a place you take kids, okay?

Don't waste that on them kids.

All right?

So it clears the bell, the Holy Spirit said, I want you to take your kids.

And I was like, what?

I take my kids to Ryan's Steakhouse so they have the buffet.

Take my kids a taste of Texas.

So I took my kids to Taste of Texas and I said, my wife's looking at me like, I'm gonna split something.

I grew up poor white trash.

We always split something and we drank water.

I'm a grown man.

I drink what I want now.

And so I looked at my kids and I said, by the way, they ain't got a kid's menu at Taste of Texas.

I said, get whatever you want.

She was 17 at the time, my 17-year-old opened it up and I said, I recommend the filet.

It's$55.

I thought my wife was gonna stroke out right there.

Mass opened up and she goes, Oh, that sounds good.

Close it up, put it down.

They brought that seared piece of red juicy meat she cut into it.

It was, I said, at the end we're gonna have some cinnamon coffee because they give that cinnamon coffee away.

It's like little lanya, which means Creole for a little something extra.

And she's like, Oh, that was so we're walking to the car and I said, Hey, God tastes like red meat and cinnamon coffee.

Remember that.

We're feasting like this because God is good.

Don't do without and tell your kids, we're doing without because God is good.

Can we do something else?

If you want your kids to understand God, you should feast.

You should celebrate and look at them and go, we're doing this because God is good.

Go to Disney World.

And don't go, oh, Pastor, we're instead of giving to the building program, we're gonna do that, but we're going to Disney World.

No, go to Disney World.

Go eat in Cinderella's castle and look at your little kids and kind of go, hey, is God good or what?

We're celebrating.

We're here at Disney World on a family vacation, but we're we're just partying because God set us free.

Those kids grow up and leave your home and they go, man, I want to enjoy God the way my mom and dad enjoy God.

See, you're never done telling the story, mom and dad.

And some of you got 32-year-old sons and daughters that are off the reservation, they ain't too late to tell them the story.

It ain't too late to let them see, I'm I enjoy what I enjoy more than you enjoy what you enjoy.

Last thing I want to say to you about the commandments is the commandments are a proposal.

Now stick with me.

I didn't say, well, the commandments are suggestions, that God kind of says, here you go, think about this, maybe if you want to.

No, no, no.

That's not what I'm saying.

I said they are a proposal, like as in a marriage proposal.

How many of you men in this room remember where you were when you proposed to your wife?

Can I see your hand?

You better raise your hand, all of you.

Well, I've forgotten, honey, where were we?

No.

You remember that?

You're sorry, Self.

You can forget a lot of things, but you're like, oh yeah, I remember that.

By the way, look at Exodus chapter 19.

Exodus 19 · chapter mention

This is why I say the commands are proposed, and we'll be done this morning.

Exodus 19, verse 1.

Exodus 19:1

On the third new moon, after the people of Israel had gone out into the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.

They set out from Rephedim and they came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness.

There, Israel encamped before the mountain while Moses went up to God.

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.

God says, Don't jerk with me.

You saw what?

I opened a serious can of booty trump on them people.

Get a load of this, get your tickets to the gun show.

God says, Hey, you see what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself?

Hey, don't miss that.

God said earlier in Deuteronomy, he said, Hey, I brought you out so I could bring you in.

Here he says, I did all that, and I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself.

Verse 5, here's the proposal.

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

And these are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.

Here, verse 5 again.

You shall be my treasured possession among all the peoples, for because all the earth is mine.

Translation, look at me, beloved.

Translation, all the earth is mine, and I looked over the whole earth, and I set my affection upon you.

People that understand that, they don't balk at the Ten Commandments.

No.

For all the earth is mine.

And I looked at all the earth and I said to you what I said to nobody else.

I said, You shall be my treasured possession among all the peoples.

I close with this question.

What if?

That is the way God relates to you.

He looks down and says, You shall be my treasured possession.

I want to have a relationship with you.

This is love.

This isn't war.

I didn't come to fight you.

I came to love you.

And I want you to love me in such a way back that these kind of the kind of life that these commandments talk about, that just that just flows out of our relationship.

What if that is the way God relates to his people?

Wouldn't you want to know this, God?

Let's pray together.

Let's just take a moment.

If you're a guest, we like to teach the Bible and then just say, hey, let's think about what the Bible said this morning.

And next week we're going to jump into the commandments, but this week we just want to just kind of get our head around what the commandments really are about, what God's driving at, and what he's inviting us to.

And so just take a moment and just ask the Lord, Lord, what had my name on it today?

Of all the things that were said, what was most for me?

What was it when I heard it?

My spirit kind of left inside of me.

Maybe when we're talking about our parents and our father.

Don't waste your life being mad at your earthly parents and not worshiping your perfect heavenly father.

If you want a perfect father, you want to be a Christian.

You want God as your father.

I'm a good father, but I'm not perfect.

And so the pressure's off.

Let's think about these things this morning.

Father, thanks for the reminder today.

You kind of get us ready to say, hey, just like Israel, hey, you're going to come to the up to the mountain.

I want to speak to you.

We believe in your word every Sunday we get together.

You want to speak to us.

We believe you have something to say to us in 2016 from the Ten Commandments.

So we're going to come together as your people.

We want to hear.

We want to be reminded.

We're not coming to get a religious whipping.

We're not coming to be told you stink, you need to try harder and do better.

No, that's not the Bible.

The Bible tells us that we're your treasured possession of all the peoples on the earth.

You chose us to be in a relationship with you.

And that's responsibility.

But responsibility reminds us of relationship.

And so that's not heavy.

Because you're our father.

For that we're grateful.

Continue to speak to us.

We pray in Jesus' name when everyone said.

I know that uh in the new year we started a thing where, hey, we want you to bring your kids with you to the service if they're a certain age.

So if there's anybody in the room that's under the age of 12 years old, would you hold your hand up right now?

Anybody under the age of 12?

Yes, I see that hand over there.

Are there others?

Yes, yes, yes, right here in the front row.

There we go.

Look at me, all you young people, okay?

Remembering you and your buddies are gonna be playing games.

You're gonna got a bunch of people, you're gonna pick teams.

Usually they pick a team captain and they say, Hey, you get to pick.

And you want to pick first, do you not?

You want to be the guy that gets the first pick, because when I was a kid, we had a baseball bat and we'd do hands, and whoever got to the top, he got to pick first.

Here's why you want to pick first, because you always pick the best player.

Okay?

Here's what I want you to walk out, boys and girls, if you're in the service today, and I want you to think and remember.

God got to the top of the bat first, and he picked you.

And so if you hear anything, Pastor Neil said today, hear this that God, hey, God wants me to be on his team.

He sees something in me, he wants, he believes something about me.

He just wants me to know him and be in a relationship with him.

Now, I could have said that to your mom and dad, and we've been done in five minutes.

But these old people are stubborn and hard-headed.

So I have to preach with them for a little bit.

But for you little people, walk out today and just kind of go, you know what?

I I think God really likes me.

Alright?

Stand to your feet.

Let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hand out.

God got first pick.

And he chose you.

And he's not regretted that decision one day.

Depart now and live as if you don't regret it either.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.

You're dismissed.