Fear, Fire, and Justice: How the Fear of God Shapes Everyday Life (Exodus 20:18–21:32)

[SPEAKER_00]: So today's message title, I mean it's nothing fancy, but I'm calling it fear, fire, and justice, and I'll try to explain some of this as we go.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the big idea here is proper fear of God leads to proper worship of God, and it should also start to

[SPEAKER_00]: affect in a good way the relationships around us as we see in Exodus we're going to get into the law there's a lot of things you're going to have questions about and probably today you're going to be like what the Bible says that I never knew that and you're going to learn something new today and this is a good thing but what I want you to see is that what God's saying without his law he's given us gave us the 10 commandments which we went over last week and the

[SPEAKER_00]: God, all right, could this man and gold star, all right, dealt with God, and then the second or the second half were the last six commandments dealt with our relationship with who?

[SPEAKER_00]: people, others, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And so really, what it's telling us and what we're going to see as this gets deeper, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to read a lot of laws, and this is basically the 10 commandments in application to our life.

[SPEAKER_00]: What does that look like?

[SPEAKER_00]: What does that mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to see that throughout all of this, or I hope you see this, is that it all deals with our relationship with God and our relationship with others.

[SPEAKER_00]: My pastor says, often, he says that he believes that one of them, if not the most important thing that God cares about, obviously it's our relationship with him, but like the second thing or most important other than the obvious is our relationship with others, how we treat people.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's how God cares about how do you treat those around you.

[SPEAKER_00]: You might love Jesus, believe in Jesus, but if you go to work in your angry, bitter, and using foul language, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, God would not be pleased with that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's God's word, his law, shows us how to

[SPEAKER_00]: properly honor God and also respect people.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to look through these laws, a lot of them are going to be, you know, you just have to have the context.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's an ancient world.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is thousands of years ago, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And so things are different.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can we just agree on that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like things were different then.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was thinking about it yesterday.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, we're just a bunch of like weird people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like if someone from

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just see if they say 100 years ago came here to 2025.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wouldn't you think they just think we're a bunch of weird people like, like, wait a second.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have screens that you, like, you don't talk to people.

[SPEAKER_00]: You just watch things online.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or you just watch videos, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And I was thinking about this too, because I'm a fitness enthusiast, I guess, I could say.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I drink, you know, supplements.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, they probably think I'm a super weirdo, like, wait, you shake up a protein shake, and you just drink it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, why don't you just eat some meat?

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just thinking I'm like we're just in a weird time, but just keep that in mind as we go through some of this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of it is ancient and you got to understand things were different back then and God's talking to a very specific people, a very specific audience at a specific time.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm not saying that it doesn't apply to us today, but I want to say that it applies.

[SPEAKER_00]: a little bit differently or looks differently.

[SPEAKER_00]: The message and the truth, though, it's the same.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so last week, we saw the Ten Commandments, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: The people are at the base of Mount Sin either.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's lightning flashing, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, there's thunder and the mountains shaking.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's on fire and there's a loud trumpet.

[SPEAKER_00]: And let's just, again, as I've said the last week or two is like, that's just an odd scene.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe to see a mountain on fire wouldn't be odd.

[SPEAKER_00]: I grew up in Tucson, Arizona, surrounded by mountains.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of the most beautiful things ever just seen mountains.

[SPEAKER_00]: How many of you ever seen, saw a mountain before?

[SPEAKER_00]: In real life.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, and the biggest mountain out here is the, like, the dump, all right, over here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I'm like, that's not a mountain.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry, but yeah, that's a hill at best.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know to me, I'm anyways, uh, I could hit a baseball over that thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not a mountain.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're talking mountains.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, and

[SPEAKER_00]: So there's mountains, though, and they're so, and growing up in Tucson, there's many times there'd be lightning storms and mountain lemon, which is like the biggest mountain there.

[SPEAKER_00]: It would be on fire, and it wasn't like unusual.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was sad, it was concerning for sure, but not unusual, but the site they're seeing, there's lightning flashing, thunder, the mountains on fire.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's an earthquake if you will, and there's a loud trumpet, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: The presence of God is coming.

[SPEAKER_00]: to his people.

[SPEAKER_00]: God spoke the 10 commandments, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: His covenant, law revealing his holiness, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: His standard, like you shall have no other gods before me.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you remember that's not just like priority list, like I'm number one, anyone else can be two, three, four, five, no.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, nobody in my presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is no other.

[SPEAKER_00]: I am the one in the only.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he reveals his holiness, his standard, his heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just about rules, which I know a lot of us growing up in church.

[SPEAKER_00]: We kind of get turned off from church in Jesus in the Bible, because I guess just a bunch of rules of what I can or can't do.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we like to try to explain away like, oh, like, don't judge me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we try to use scripture to argue against scripture.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the truth is this is God does have rules.

[SPEAKER_00]: He does have standards, and a standard is holiness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what his word, his law, is all about.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what he's doing here with the Israelites, if you don't just to pick you up to speed or remind you, he's freed them from Egypt.

[SPEAKER_00]: Their life of slavery, where they grew up, that was their culture.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Egypt, they worshiped many gods.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not just one or two, but probably hundreds of gods.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, when you read through the Ten Commandments, just think of what they've just come out out of, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: So, you shall have no other gods before me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Egypt had hundreds of gods, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: It says that you shall not make false idols.

[SPEAKER_00]: Egypt, pride filled with them, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We can see some of them, even today, like there's people that would worship the pyramids.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can go visit and see some of the pyramids and the things that they made even today, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And then go to some of the other ones where I says, you shall, I was thinking of one, I forgot it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was on a roll and I had no.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what he's calling us to be is, I'm set apart.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to come back to me, all right, set apart.

[SPEAKER_00]: What he's doing is he's making a people set apart.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's called them out of Egypt.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's redeemed them or saved them, delivered them, and now he's showing them how to live, which is a total 180 from the world that they just came out of.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what I want you to understand, and I want you to, we can take that and apply it to our lives today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I know for us like we're free in Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, people are like, well, we don't have to keep the lock as Jesus fulfilled the lock, but understand this that the law is good, because it shows us our sinfulness and it shows us God's goodness and his standard.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so what God has done is he's taking them out of Egypt, out of bondage, and he's given them a new life with new instructions.

[SPEAKER_00]: And for many of you who have given your life to Jesus, he's done the same for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's brought you out of sin, out of bondage, so you can be free to live for him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he gives us a specific set of rules.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he says he gives us a new heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you've experienced this, but if you've given your life to Jesus, I'm sure you have to some degree where your heart has changed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like the things you cared about before, the things you were pursuing, right, you had a five-year, 10-year, a whole life plan before you met Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then Jesus came in and he totally flipped your life upside down.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody experienced something like this?

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, I never thought I'd be a pastor at a church, serving at a church or any of this stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: But when I came back to Jesus, God had other plans for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he's set me free and now he's given me a life to live and he does that for us and he's doing that for the Israelite people in the book of Exodus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we're still in this scene, they're at Mount Sinai, the 10 commandments have just been given.

[SPEAKER_00]: The dust hasn't settled, the mountain still on fire, maybe God's voices still echoing in the air.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what we read next shows how the people

[SPEAKER_00]: respond to this, this holy, amazing moment, all right.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we'll read, we're going to pick up in verse 18, Exodus 20.

[SPEAKER_00]: says now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountains smoking the people were afraid and trembled and they stood far off and said to Moses, you speak to us and we will listen but do not let God speak to us less we die.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the idea or the picture going on here, and they've just seen, they've heard the word of God for the first time that we know of, which is pretty incredible.

[SPEAKER_00]: They've seen God work before for sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like he said them free.

[SPEAKER_00]: He split the red sea.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a pillar of fire, a pillar of cloud to lead them by day and by night they've seen God's miraculous work in their life, but they haven't heard

[SPEAKER_00]: God's voice yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: Moses, he's had encounters with God, but the people know not yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is new.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they get out there and they're like, we've seen his work and then all sudden you hear his voice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just imagine if you were there and you could see and feel the presence of God, how would you respond?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, for one, I think it would freak us out.

[SPEAKER_00]: This doesn't happen normally.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, again, this is a miracle happening.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they've seen, now they've heard, they've felt this, and when their responses, they were afraid.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, they've seen God working.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now they've heard His voice, but what happens, I think it's interesting, it says that they stood far off.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were afraid, and it's almost like they backed up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Which maybe that's a normal response for us, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: When something out of the ordinary happens, we were like, whoa, I don't know what to do that, or something terrifying, or something that makes us afraid.

[SPEAKER_00]: We want to back up for a minute, but says that they stood far off, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And then they said, in verse 19, to Moses, you speak to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: We will listen, but do not let God speak to us, less we die.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I just think it's telling of their heart, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: They're so afraid of this God who's delivered them.

[SPEAKER_00]: He only wants the best for them, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: He's making a way.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's literally the Jehovah-Giara provider, getting them through the wilderness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they're like, don't let him speak to us anymore, Moses, only you.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need a mediator.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what they want.

[SPEAKER_00]: They want a mediator between them and God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they're not wrong about

[SPEAKER_00]: needing a mediator, we need a mediator, and the good news is we have a mediator, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Scripture tells us that we have one mediator between God and man that is Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: By just think it's interesting that their reaction is they withdraw, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: In verse 20, look at what Moses says, he tells them, he says, do not fear, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: They're afraid and he says, do not fear.

[SPEAKER_00]: For God has come to test you,

[SPEAKER_00]: at the fear of Him may be before you that you may not sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, don't fear, but at the same time, he says, fear.

[SPEAKER_00]: As you catch that, he says, do not fear.

[SPEAKER_00]: For God's come to test you, that the fear of Him may be before you, that you may not sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a right kind of fear,

[SPEAKER_00]: fear of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's a healthy fear.

[SPEAKER_00]: Scripture says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like when we fear our heavenly Father in the proper way, it's proper for our relationship with Him and it's our proper with our for our relationship with others.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there's also a wrong kind of fear.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, the wrong kind of fear makes us run from God.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're afraid of the unknown.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to be seen.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want God to get all up in my business and we retreat.

[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe for some of you that's been you and you don't want to go to church because you know if you do, God's gonna confront your sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so you're like, I'm afraid if I'm gonna be found out, I don't want to be found out and we're like Adam and Eve in the garden and we go and try to hide our sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you didn't know that doesn't work, God knows everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the wrong kind of fear makes us run from God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Try to hide from God, hide from others.

[SPEAKER_00]: We try to isolate.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't want people to know about us because if they do, what might they think about us?

[SPEAKER_00]: And then we don't want to go to God because we know we've messed up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we fear what he's going to do or what he's going to require of us.

[SPEAKER_00]: For a while, I stood far off from God.

[SPEAKER_00]: I knew he was real.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believed in him my whole life.

[SPEAKER_00]: I grew up in church.

[SPEAKER_00]: I even served in church before I walked away.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I never once doubted God.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I went my own way as the prodigal son, story, when did my own thing?

[SPEAKER_00]: thought, you know, God wants me to be happy, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: It wants me to make memories.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I sold myself a bunch of lies in that sense.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I went down any path that I wanted.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was like a Solomon, but with a much more limited budget.

[SPEAKER_00]: But not denying myself anything I wanted.

[SPEAKER_00]: If it was there, let's just do this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's have a good time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just whatever it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: But when I was trying to come back to church, like I had this sense where I didn't want to go,

[SPEAKER_00]: God was going to confront my sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: When I first started coming back to church, every single Sunday, and in Calvary 2, it's kind of a mega church.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's 1,000 people or so in each service, and there used to be five services a weekend, and then there's two Wednesday night services, as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there's probably anywhere from seven,

[SPEAKER_00]: or six to 8,000 people a week going through there.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so when I come there, it's an easy church to go in, sitting in the back, nobody knows me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe the reader says hi to me, but you know, I can get over that and just say, hey, good morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm walking on to my seat where I'm going to be by myself.

[SPEAKER_00]: But every single Sunday, man, God would confront my sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: My me being withdrawn, because every time Robert would say it's whatever it was, whatever he's preaching.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was like the exact thing I was going through,

[SPEAKER_00]: that day and I knew I'm like this is God confronted me but again there's this wrong kind of fear that keeps us from God because we're afraid of what might happen if we actually surrender unto him but the right fear of God should draw us closer to God right that we know that he's holy yeah we know he's powerful and we understand that he can do anything but we should also understand

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so Moses says, do not fear that this fear may be before you, so he's basically saying, don't worry so much, but also don't take this lightly.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's not playing games, Moses says this is a test.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's revealing who he is to the people around.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's holy.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's set apart, and he's showing what he expects of the people.

[SPEAKER_00]: What we know and we'll see later on is that the people, they didn't really pass this test very well, spoiler alert.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, this is the story of our lives too, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We come to know Jesus, we give her life to Jesus, and we think we're all man's awesome, and we've got a new life.

[SPEAKER_00]: And all this, and then we fall and stumble into something we never thought we'd stumble into again.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've got to get back up.

[SPEAKER_00]: got to come back to Jesus right and keep going, but we know with the Israelites not long after this, 40 days or so after this, they've made a golden calf that they're dancing around and worshiping, saying this is our God.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we know that they're not going to pass the test, but God's coming to test them, testing is a good thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And us in the same way, why we got to learn to fear God and he's testing us, it's a good thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And fear shouldn't keep us from God, but fear should hopefully build our faith in God, as he test us.

[SPEAKER_00]: and as we persevere.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 21 says the people stood far off while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is interesting.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a parallel or an opposite of what the people do.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Israelites, they fear, they stand back.

[SPEAKER_00]: Moses, he's in this, he fears a little bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure he was afraid, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Every single moment God spoke, what's he going to require of me next?

[SPEAKER_00]: He's asked me to go to Pharaoh to tell him to let the people go like, I know he's going

[SPEAKER_00]: Moses drew near, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the same mountain, same moment to different reactions.

[SPEAKER_00]: The people there are afraid distant from God overwhelmed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Moses though draws near.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because Moses knew God more than the people did.

[SPEAKER_00]: Moses wasn't perfect.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, this is interesting because we're going to get into this part about murder in a little bit, but Moses was a murderer.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is a wanderer, he's a man who's failed, but God met him and God called him into this new life that he has for him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so as Moses' relationship grew, his fear of God, I'm sure grew in a healthy way and he drew near.

[SPEAKER_00]: He could walk into this darkness here, this dark cloud, knowing God's here.

[SPEAKER_00]: That God doesn't want to hurt me or harm me, and even if he does, then so be it, maybe.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what Moses attitude is.

[SPEAKER_00]: By picture Moses, he's just that leader who's willing to do anything, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: He's just like, hey, it has to be done.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if no one's gonna do it, then I gotta do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anyone ever felt that, maybe just at work even, where there's just like that one task that nobody will do, and then you're like fine, I'll do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cause I know no one else is gonna do it, and I know our boss is gonna come around and you're meeting out and ask if it's been done.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just feel like Moses is the guy, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna be faithful to what God's called me, no matter the cost, and Moses is a picture of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now Moses is not Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's understand that.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's a picture of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's a mediator between the people and God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is the mediator between us and God, but Moses is the picture of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: picture of Jesus, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus walked into the darkest place of all when he went to the cross, when he bore our sin on the cross, when he was buried in the grave, so that you and I could draw near to God, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: What a mediator we have, one who would have toned for our sins, who would face darkness, toe to toe, Moses is a picture of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: But a question to consider for yourself when you sense God, working, stirring, speaking, whatever it may be for you, his presence, how do you respond typically?

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you back away or do you draw a near?

[SPEAKER_00]: Scripture says that God will draw a near to those who draw a near to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to encourage you guys like today.

[SPEAKER_00]: It might be frightening.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, what God want?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if I'm ready to give up my whole life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he's going to require you to give up your whole life, but he has a new one, so I'm going to give you a abundant life.

[SPEAKER_00]: So how do you respond when God's speaking?

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you draw near, do you back away?

[SPEAKER_00]: Moving on, verse 22.

[SPEAKER_00]: So as in the Lord said to Moses, does you shall say to the people of Israel?

[SPEAKER_00]: You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: You shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make yourselves gods of gold.

[SPEAKER_00]: In altar of earth, you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen.

[SPEAKER_00]: And every place where I cause my name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it on hewn stones.

[SPEAKER_00]: For if you wield your tool on it, you profane it, and you shall not go up by steps to my altar that you're nakedness be not exposed on it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So again, verse 22, he says, you've seen that I've talked with you from heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is God speaking.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, you shall not make God's of silver or of gold to be with me, which we know later on, they fail in that and they do what they shouldn't do.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I mean, that's really the story of humanity.

[SPEAKER_00]: We do what we shouldn't do.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what he's saying here is like, I don't want you to make an idol of me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want you to make a statue.

[SPEAKER_00]: a trophy, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Of me, I don't want you to build something that represents me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I am who I am.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what God would say.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he's like, don't make these little gods with me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Things that you would worship, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: They're like, well, it represents you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we just worship and bow down to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's like, no, I want you to bow down to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Worship me, not make a statue or something that represents me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the thing is, God doesn't share the stage.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, he says, have no other gods before me.

[SPEAKER_00]: No idols.

[SPEAKER_00]: in my presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as he asks and talks about how should they respond and what worship looks like, he says, to build him an altar.

[SPEAKER_00]: But look at this first altar, he asks him to build.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, in altar of earth, you shall make for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think this is, I don't know, for me this was,

[SPEAKER_00]: One of those were like, it's highlight this.

[SPEAKER_00]: They got speaking something here to me, and it's important, and even though it might be obscure, right, but he says, an altar of earth, you shall make for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, not an altar of gold.

[SPEAKER_00]: of the finest things you can find.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want you to make big steps, right, says it shouldn't have any steps at this point later on.

[SPEAKER_00]: They'll build the tavernacle and that'll be a little bit different.

[SPEAKER_00]: But at this point, God's saying, I just want your faithful obedience.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want anything fancy here.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't need anything fancy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And here's the point, I think.

[SPEAKER_00]: God doesn't want our performance.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, he wants our faithfulness, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And he wants,

[SPEAKER_00]: the people simply to build out of ordinary common things.

[SPEAKER_00]: The word altar, and Hebrew, it literally means a place of slaughter or killing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, we think of today, 2025, again, that's ancient times.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what they would think, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We're making an altar.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a place to sacrifice, where things go to die, where we worship unto God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Today we call the altar, like, oh, come to the altar, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Which is like, we call it the stage, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: But it's not a little weird.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, people from back then would be like, wait a second.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're calling people to the altar.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you going to kill them?

[SPEAKER_00]: Have you a little weird?

[SPEAKER_00]: But God's asking in this point, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want anything big and fancy.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's not asking for performance.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, I want you to build a place where you can worship and sacrifice unto me.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's not asking for a stage for a show.

[SPEAKER_00]: Any of that, he's asking again for faithfulness to build this altar, which would be a sign or a symbol that would point to an altar later on where Jesus died on the cross.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, a place of slaughter, a place of death that would be for the atonement of sins for the people.

[SPEAKER_00]: So God says, I don't want anything big and fancy.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just want you to make it here.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the thing is about it, if people made it all fancy, they're probably gonna worship it.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, it's like, oh man, it's all dirt sweet.

[SPEAKER_00]: Who made this?

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, hey, good job, Joe.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, it's like, and then all of a sudden, the focus is off of God and God's like, no, I want you just to come to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Come to me, verse 25.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 25 says, if you make an altar of stone, you shall not build it on hewn stones.

[SPEAKER_00]: For if you wield your tool on it, you perfane it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he's like, I don't want, I know you got skills.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cool, you're a carpenter or you're a masonry person.

[SPEAKER_00]: What's the word for that mason?

[SPEAKER_00]: Night?

[SPEAKER_00]: No, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's probably something else.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't want this thing to be fancy,

[SPEAKER_00]: So then you shall not go up by the steps to my altar that your nakedness be not exposed on it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, this is the way of saying, right, don't make worship about you and what you can do is not about performance, not about presentation, not about perfection.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's about just obedience, simple obedience.

[SPEAKER_00]: And moving on, verse one of chapter 21,

[SPEAKER_00]: says now these are the rules that you shall set before them.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so we got the 10 commandments that have happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now we're gonna get some rules.

[SPEAKER_00]: of engagements.

[SPEAKER_00]: How do we apply this to our life?

[SPEAKER_00]: This is kind of like we got the big bullet points.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now we're going to get all the little sub points in a sense that are going to make they all apply to the 10 commandments essentially.

[SPEAKER_00]: So these are the rules that shall be set before them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as we get to this, again, some of it, you're going to be like, wow, this is in the Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to try to explain the best I can.

[SPEAKER_00]: I understand also this is a different time.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is written with different people.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is God's speaking.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, you shall serve six years and in the seventh, he shall go out free for nothing.

[SPEAKER_00]: If he comes in single, he shall go out single.

[SPEAKER_00]: If he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with them.

[SPEAKER_00]: If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters and he shall go out alone.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if the slave plainly says, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go out free, then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the door post, and his master shall bore his ear through within all, and he shall be his slave forever.

[SPEAKER_00]: When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.

[SPEAKER_00]: If she does not please her master who has designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed.

[SPEAKER_00]: He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people since he has broken faith with her.

[SPEAKER_00]: If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as a daughter.

[SPEAKER_00]: If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights, and if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing without payment of money.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, some of you are like, wow, I didn't know this was in the Bible, I'm sure here today.

[SPEAKER_00]: But understand, again, this is a different time, a different day in age.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I know for us, the 2025, we're here in America.

[SPEAKER_00]: When we hear slavery, we often probably think for the majority of us, we think of like the African slave trade, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And the Colombian trade and all those things that happen in the 1500s, 1600s, things of that nature.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's where your mind goes when you hear that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe not, I don't know, that's what I think I just got out of a history class last semester.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's where my mind goes to, but understand this is a bit different.

[SPEAKER_00]: What we see, he's moving from worship, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Building altar to sacrifice, which I do believe is interesting too, because like they don't have rules or laws about sacrifice, but God's going to give those to him, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: He's preparing them.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's how you worship.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's how you give unto me, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And now he's moving to what justice looks like.

[SPEAKER_00]: From loving God, worshiping God, to how do we love people in chapter 21?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's this what's called the Book of the Covenant.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's God's way of saying, here's how to live this out in real life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, verse two again of chapter 21 says, when you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years and in the seventh, he shall go out free, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Right away, what we see here, God's addressing servanthood, and that's what I want you to hopefully start to bring to mind as you hear the word slave, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: This is something in their culture, their day and age, that would be normal.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now again, it's not the modern history view of slavery that we think of today, slavery in those days, and I'm not saying there was, wasn't that, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: They just came out of Egypt, where they were oppressed, beaten, where all those things that were, would probably mimic the modern slavery we think of.

[SPEAKER_00]: But in that day and age, slavery would be more of a way of thinking it's temporary, voluntary,

[SPEAKER_00]: And one way I think of it today, 2025, it's like we have jobs.

[SPEAKER_00]: I back then, it's like you couldn't go work for UPS, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't have a UPS back then or go on to indee.com and look through all these listings or go get the local newspaper.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like if you wanted to go work, if you wanted to make money, provide for yourself, you had to find someone you could work for and oftentimes it would look something like slavery where it's like, I will work for you if you provide for my needs.

[SPEAKER_00]: They'll give you a place to live, they'll give you food, but they're also going to give you a job.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what it would look like and what God's doing here in this, I think it's powerful, something we do need to understand is like,

[SPEAKER_00]: God's not saying the slavery we think of the modern day, slavery is right, and I want you to understand it, because there are people out there who will try to debate the Bible, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, how could God let all these things happen, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And they call it like Christopher Columbus, and all those people, I forget what the name is for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: But like,

[SPEAKER_00]: Sadly, they're bold for Jesus, let's be clear about that in a way, but they did it in such a wrong way.

[SPEAKER_00]: They would go into places, say they came into America, and then they find places, and it basically is almost like modern day Islam.

[SPEAKER_00]: But they're preaching Christianity, you convert.

[SPEAKER_00]: or die, or whatever, you're gonna give us to your land.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it was very oppressive, and that's not God's desire.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not what He's for.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I just want you to understand that, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: When people try to argue, well, what about the things that happen in past history, like people are messed up?

[SPEAKER_00]: And each and every one of us, like, we have places where we failed.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so if someone wants to come to you and say, well, you've done this, and, you know, if God is real, how could you do this?

[SPEAKER_00]: I will be because I'm sinful.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm falling, we all are, we live in a broken world.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like all of this is biblical.

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't negate the truth of the Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: So when they try to argue this slavery thing, it's like, no, God's hearts, not for slavery in the way that we think.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's talking about, again, temporary, voluntary, protected way of pain off dead, essentially.

[SPEAKER_00]: So after six years, right, you're a slave for six years.

[SPEAKER_00]: After that, well, then you're free to go.

[SPEAKER_00]: Attall is supposed to be, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: You work for him six years on the seventh year, your free God's building redemption or freedom into this system.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's teaching them something important that people are not property.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, something in history of Christianity, people have gotten wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: People are not properties.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 5, he says, if the servant says, this one I love, says, if the servant says, or the slave says, I love my master, I'll not go out free, his master shall pierce his ear and shall serve him forever.

[SPEAKER_00]: So this is interesting, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: So say the seventh year comes.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've worked for this guy or this family for six years.

[SPEAKER_00]: Seventh year comes around like, hey, you're free to go.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then the slave, he says, the servant says,

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I don't want to go, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to go out free.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, if that happens, says then the master's going to pierce his ear with an owl, which maybe might be like ancient gauges who knows.

[SPEAKER_00]: I like to think of it that way.

[SPEAKER_00]: See, his biblical, guys, I belong to the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he says that when the servant finishes his term, it's like, he's like, I could leave.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to, I love my master, I love this place, I love the job, like I'm willing to stay and what again they do, they take him to this doorpost, they have like this ceremony essentially where they pierce his ear, they mark him with the mark where it's like now you are going to be a servant for me forever.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what this is, it's a picture of two things, most importantly a picture of Jesus,

[SPEAKER_00]: picture of Jesus, the perfect servant, right who said, not my will, but yours, father, be done.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he was literally pierced for us, willingly bound by love, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, creator of heaven and earth, he could go free if he wanted, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Didn't someone even accuse him of that?

[SPEAKER_00]: If you are God, once you come off the cross, you could do it, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: But he willingly stayed on the cross for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, he was a servant, Paul writes in Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, he came as a servant for us, not to be, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: He came to serve.

[SPEAKER_00]: Secondly, this is also a picture of us when we come to know Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: We serve not out of obligation, but out of devotion.

[SPEAKER_00]: We realize, man, God, you have been so good to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: So merciful, so forgiving, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: You know the things that you've done, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes, I don't know, I look back on my past, like God, how could you even redeem and use a person as messed up as me?

[SPEAKER_00]: But man, I look at how it was such grateful and it's like, God, you are so good.

[SPEAKER_00]: That you would even forgive me, yet alone use me to do anything.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when you see the goodness of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God, playing out in your life, hopefully it spurs like,

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not doing it because I have to because God's making me do it, I'm doing it because I want to.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to be a servant of Jesus because of all that he's done for me because he is a good master.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's a good heavenly father, amen?

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like an that's the idea, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: So I just want you to think about that and that's a beautiful thing about God.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't force you into a relationship with them.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have the choice.

[SPEAKER_00]: but God allows us, he puts it out, he offers a relationship with him.

[SPEAKER_00]: In verse 7 through 11, we read through it already.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll just kind of mention about it, but we talked about female servants or slaves.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a section that speaks to protecting women in a society that often didn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: If a father places daughter in a household right soldier as a slave with the intent of marriage, God say, and she needs to be treated with dignity with respect, not his property.

[SPEAKER_00]: If that arrangement fell through, God even speaks to that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, hey, if that doesn't happen, like I gave him her to you, to be married to you, but that didn't happen, then it says that she has these rights, rights, three things, food clothing and protection.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're to provide for a protector.

[SPEAKER_00]: or she's free to go.

[SPEAKER_00]: But God's giving laws here that protect women, even protect the vulnerable in that day and age, and even in this day and age, verse 12.

[SPEAKER_00]: God says whoever strikes a man so that he dies, shall be put to death.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if he did not lie and wait for him, but if he did not lie and wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will point for you a place to which he may flee.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if a man will fully attacks another to kill him by cunning, you shall take him from my altar that he may die.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death, whoever steals a man and sells him and anyone found in possession of him shall be put to death, whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death.

[SPEAKER_00]: when men choral and one strikes the other with the stone or with his fist and the man does not die but takes to his bed then if the man rises again and walks out doors with his staff he who struck him shall be clear only he shall pay for the loss of his time and shall have him thoroughly healed.

[SPEAKER_00]: When a man strikes his slave male or female with the rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged for the slave is his money.

[SPEAKER_00]: When men strive together, when men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her child children come out,

[SPEAKER_00]: But there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined.

[SPEAKER_00]: As the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judge is determined.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life.

[SPEAKER_00]: I for I, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

[SPEAKER_00]: Burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

[SPEAKER_00]: When a man strikes the eye of his slave male or female and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free because of his eye.

[SPEAKER_00]: If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free because of his tooth.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now we got a lot that's going on there, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: A lot happening, but some things we know right in verse 12 to 14, there's murder and there's manslaughter essentially.

[SPEAKER_00]: Pre-meditated murder, God saying, if this happens, death penalty.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, what does that tell us?

[SPEAKER_00]: It tells us that God cares about life, the sanctity of life.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if I've said this here before, but the God, he cares about every single life.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now we live in a day and age, which I mean a big topic, hot topic out there is abortion, which is wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can see it even in this text in Exodus 21,

[SPEAKER_00]: But he cares about every single person, the unborn, the born, everyone.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now the only person who has the right to take a life is God.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know sometimes we'll get upset.

[SPEAKER_00]: You lose a loved one and it is hard, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's very hard to go through a grieving morning process, but God has his ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're far above ours.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes he'll take someone from us that we love, we care for why it was too soon.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know all the answers, but God has the authority to do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's created everything in everyone and he can do what he wants with everyone.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you and I, we do not have that authority, do we?

[SPEAKER_00]: And we take a life.

[SPEAKER_00]: especially with abortion in his sin life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, we don't have that authority.

[SPEAKER_00]: Only God does, and he mentions here, right pre-meditated murder.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you do that, well, death penalty.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, if you accidentally kill someone, there's a little grace here.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, I'm gonna prepare a place, basically this refuge city, because he's like, you can't stay here.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is spoiler for more to come later.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you can't stay here because you've spilled blood on the ground.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now you've defiled the ground and the only way to make it right is to spill your blood.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like the person who killed has to be killed.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was the way to like a tone for it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he made this city and this will come up later and other books of the Bible, where they would go while they can wait for their trial.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he says essentially what's going on is like intent matters a lot, motive matters.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God says he's like, don't try to hide behind my altar.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't try to come to me, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, remove them from my altar.

[SPEAKER_00]: And again, murder goes against everything that God's for, defiles the land justice.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we can see throughout a lot of these laws, justice matters to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Justice should be something that matters to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 15 through 17, what we see is we see some family dynamics and we also see God mentions about kiddin' happening, which is interesting, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: But he says, first like, hitting or cursing your parents.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, what's the offense or the charge?

[SPEAKER_00]: What happens?

[SPEAKER_00]: Capital punishment.

[SPEAKER_00]: Capital offense, kiddin' happening, someone.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Capital offense, which again, if we put all this together, these are not contradicting laws.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if we again, we talked about slavery being a servant and all that, God's clearly saying, taking a person, doing whatever you want with them is wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you do that, you should die.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's just, again, it's like God is not for the slavery that we think of.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so in God's eyes, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Taking a person's freedom is as evil as taking their

[SPEAKER_00]: It's his way of saying, again, every person matters, every life has dignity, dignity, every person is an image bearer of him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 18 through 19, we see there's two guys fighting.

[SPEAKER_00]: One gets injured and the one who caused it will essentially has to pay the medical bills.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, and you got to pay for last time.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're the workers' comp of that day and age, because here God's saying, you got to make it right.

[SPEAKER_00]: You heard him, you caused him not to be able to provide for his family.

[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, you have to take on that bill.

[SPEAKER_00]: Justice isn't about revenge or getting even.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's about making things right.

[SPEAKER_00]: The heart of God's justice there, make it right.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's servant protection that we see, verse 20, 21.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, says if a servant dies from being beaten, the master's going to be punished, right, that'd be a radical statement in that ancient world culture, because they would treat people as property and God's saying they're not property, they're people.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I care about them, and if you're going to mistreat them, well, then there's going to be consequences for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: verse 22 through 25 we see there's a pregnant woman right if she's struck and gives birth early there's a fine right and if there's lasting harm he says I for I tooth for tooth life for life I God values every life from the womb so out in the world

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 26 and 27, there's the servant.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like right if a master knocks out a servant's iron tooth, the servant goes free.

[SPEAKER_00]: Freedom is the penalty for the master there.

[SPEAKER_00]: But again, all of this shows us, I hope, God cares about people.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you and I, we should care about people, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: In this, and this is an ancient text, where he's like, hey, this is how it's going to go down.

[SPEAKER_00]: This would make a lot more sense, probably, in their day and age.

[SPEAKER_00]: but hopefully it makes sense to us today.

[SPEAKER_00]: God cares about people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 28, I gotta try to finish this.

[SPEAKER_00]: When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stone and it's flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall not be liable, but if the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past and its owner has been warned but has not kept it in and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stone and its owner shall be put to death.

[SPEAKER_00]: If a ransom is imposed on him, then he shall give, he shall give for the redemption of his life, whatever is imposed on him.

[SPEAKER_00]: If it gores a man's son or daughter, he shall be dealt with according to this same rule.

[SPEAKER_00]: If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master, 30 shackles of silver, and the ox shall be stone.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, an interesting passage, right little obscure, but what he's saying is we need to take responsibility as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: right in the world in our actions he's saying if the the owner knew that the ox was dangerous and did nothing and he got out well then he's going to be liable right to what happens I think about it right like if you had a uh a bull right people write bulls which is I think a little crazy but if you had a bull and you just letting them out on the loose and you know he's going to go try hurt someone but you're like yeah whatever you know he's a nice bull to me

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like you will be liable, wouldn't you?

[SPEAKER_00]: And so God's saying here, like, the owner's responsible and he's even responsible unto death.

[SPEAKER_00]: If he goes and kills someone, well, then you are going to, your life is gonna be required.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's teaching personal responsibility.

[SPEAKER_00]: If it's under your care, it's your responsibility.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, that could be applied to us today in many ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're like, well, I don't have an ox.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have a donkey or any of the things that they're talking about here.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what do you have?

[SPEAKER_00]: is your responsibility.

[SPEAKER_00]: Negligence is sin, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And he applies the law to even children, servants, same law applies equal value.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's something interesting at the end of that part, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: He says that if the ox gores a slave male or female, the owner shall give to their master, how many shekels of silver?

[SPEAKER_00]: 30, which is interesting, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Does that ring a bell?

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: As Jesus was sold betrayed for 30 pieces of silver.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: 30 shackles of silver.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the price for a servant's life apparently.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the the same price Judas accepted to betray Jesus, which is just interesting because the ultimate servant, Jesus, was betrayed for the price of a slave.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he was obedient unto death.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just thought that was interesting.

[SPEAKER_00]: but kind of wrapping this up.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hope you see as we've gone through this a bit, right, God cares about us and our relationship with Him, how we worship Him, not trying to come here with performance or pretending to be perfect or having it all together, but he just wants simple obedience, nothing flashy, right, just to be all about Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says in John chapter four, where I when he's talking about what is worship, he says his father's seeking people to worship Him in spirit and in truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like it's just simply coming before Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what God wants of us, but he also wants us to care for people around us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as we've gone through it, we've seen that much of this, if not all of it points to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: As Moses entered the darkness to go meet with God, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus entered the darkness when he hung on the cross, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: The world was dark in the middle of the day.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some people were like, oh, there was an eclipse, but apparently people can do all this scientific data.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they're like, actually there was no eclipse at that time.

[SPEAKER_00]: And also this Passover, there's a full moon and a full moon.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the eclipse apparently can't happen together.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not a scientist.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know all the things, but the Bible says it was dark.

[SPEAKER_00]: He entered the darkness for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus became the willing bond servant or the slave out of a deep love and compassion for you and I. Jesus took on the altar, the cross with his own body, sacrificed himself.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus satisfies justice for us so that we could receive grace and mercy and forgiveness.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or as we go through the more of these rules, laws, and the next weeks to come and encourage you to come back, don't be like, oh man, there's be more of this.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, it's good.

[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the good news, as Jesus has fulfilled it all for you and I.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're like, man, I can't do all that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's true, you can't.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, we can't do it, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Bible says we can't.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're prone to sin or prone to go astray, but the good news is that Jesus has done it, because He cares for his John 3, 16.

[SPEAKER_00]: God so loved the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: He sent His Son that anyone who would believe in Him could have everlasting life.

[SPEAKER_00]: That we wouldn't perish, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the good news.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus fulfills all of these laws, all of these commandments perfectly, beautifully, sacrifitially for you and I.

[SPEAKER_00]: And at the cross, like there's the holy fear, met with the perfect love of God for you and I, what this enclosing, a couple of things to note.

[SPEAKER_00]: What this means for us, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We got a fear God, rightly.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't run from God, the draw near to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Worship, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Worship simply keep it about Jesus, keep it about his name, not about you, not about your performance.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, as we looked at some of these laws, right, live justly, take responsibility for your actions, for the things that you have care over, treat people with dignity, make things right when you've done wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes that's just as simple as just saying, hey, I'm sorry, I messed up.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know that's hard sometimes, isn't it?

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, you don't want to go tell them you're sorry, but that's what God says.

[SPEAKER_00]: Make things right if we can.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, in his word, we're to honor life every person matters to God and we need to remember, again, the cross where everything was satisfied or the work was finished for you and I.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so as we close, we're going to pray.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have a time like communion.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just want you to consider these things.

[SPEAKER_00]: Consider, especially as we go to communion, what Jesus has done for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, thank you and him.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you find yourself today that you've blown it, I really messed up.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll take a moment before God.

[SPEAKER_00]: and ask for forgiveness, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible says, first, John one nine, that if we can fess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness, which is a beautiful promise.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I encourage you to remember that by memory, because the devil is going to make you feel condemned, you blew it, you're not good enough, but if we can encourage ourselves with God's words,

[SPEAKER_00]: He's faithful to forgive you, and so take a moment, say God, I'm sorry for the things I've done.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know I haven't treated people well this week, or maybe for a long time, I haven't worshiped you how I should, I've made it more about me, not about you, take a moment and just meet with God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then as you meet with God, be encouraged that Jesus took all of your sin, all of your shame, all of the debt that you owed, right for us, like we read through this and maybe, hopefully none of us were like, oh, I did all those things, but when we look at the 10 commandments, we're like, well, you know, maybe I lied, whatever, you know, we're like, I broke some of these things, but the beautiful thing is Jesus takes all of that debt that we've accumulated on the cross and he sets us free.

[SPEAKER_00]: which is beautiful and it's just something to celebrate.

[SPEAKER_00]: So as you take communion, have a moment with God.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're new here the way we do communion, we pass them out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now you take communion by yourself with the Lord, like we're all taking it together, but I'm not going to come up here and say now we take of the bread, now we take of the juice, but it's a moment between you and the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're not a believer today, we ask that you let the tray pass there, not time to try to fit in.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible actually speaks against that and that you're bringing judgment upon you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as your pastor, I don't want that for you, so just let it pass.

[SPEAKER_00]: But maybe today you're like, hey, I'm ready to give my life to Jesus and just that you would simply just pray with God now and just say, God, I believe.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry for my sins.

[SPEAKER_00]: Forgive me of this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to turn for my sins so I can follow you and then maybe you take communion with us for the first day as a believer in Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to pray and we're going to close out service to Father.

[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you for your word.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is good.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hots.

[SPEAKER_00]: Exciting.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a little obscure at times if we're honest, but God, it's so deep and powerful.

[SPEAKER_00]: When I pray Lord, that today this morning, you've spoken to each and every one of us where we're at in specific ways, Lord, that you've revealed things that we need to repent of.

[SPEAKER_00]: I pray that you've encouraged us in ways where we're doing well, and we just didn't know it yet, but I just pray that, as we get into communion, Lord, that you would search our hearts, that we would search our hearts, and that if there's any sin, anything that we were hiding from you, and that we're drawing back or afraid, I pray that you just give us the boldness to come before your throne, and that we'd ask for your forgiveness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that your word says that if we confess our sin or that you are faithful and just forgive us of these sins or now we could be made clean.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I pray you'd encourage us in this Lord and as we take communion, meet with us in specific ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then as we close and worship Lord, I'd pray that we could just lift our voices to you because you alone are worthy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we thank you for all this in Jesus name, amen.