Episode 258: Freed to Enjoy God

Great to see you all today. My name is Justin. I'm one of the pastors here.

And if you have a Bible, you can grab it now and turn to the book of Exodus.

We're going to be in Exodus chapter 20. We're starting a new sermon series.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

We're going to be going through the 10 commandments and it's going to take us

10 weeks, 10 Sundays. All right. And so if you can turn to Exodus 20,

if you're using one of the Bibles under the chairs in front of you,

Exodus 20 is on page 64 in those Bibles.

So as we get into the 10 commandments, the absolute most important thing for us to see,

the very most critical thing for us all to start with and focus on is actually the very first word

of Exodus 20. Look at that very first word, Exodus 20 verse one, it says, "Then."

Then. That is the absolute key to understanding the 10 commandments. If you don't understand that

word, then, you'll never understand what the 10 commandments are about. That then is there for a

reason. So what does then tell us? Here's what it tells us. It tells us that our God frees us.

Our God frees us. Our God gives us freedom. What do I mean? Well, this then is there to tell us

what the commandments come after. You see, God didn't just show up out of nowhere and command

his people, give his people rules, right? He did it after he had already done something else.

And what did God do before the commandments? He freed his people. You might know the story.

There's a summary of it there in verse two where he says, "I am the Lord, your God,

who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery."

See, God has been loving and blessing his people since he called them to be his people during the

time of Abraham, but this world is broken and sinful. And the story of most of Genesis is how

God's people end up finding themselves in slavery in Egypt. In Exodus 3, God speaks to a guy named

Moses and he says this up on the screen, "I've observed the misery of my people in Egypt. I've

heard them crying out because of their oppressors. I know about their sufferings and I have come down

to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and bring them from that land to a good and

spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey." God hears his people. He knows what they're going

through and he comes down to rescue them and bring them into freedom. He raises up a rescuer,

this guy Moses, who goes in and liberates God's people. And it's after the rescue that then,

then God gives his people these commands. God gives freedom first, grace first, and then

his commands. That's just how our God works. We see this all over. We see this back in the

beginning where we see that God is the creator who created everything. He created everything

good and then in Genesis 1, he says he gave it all to us. He created us and said, "It's all for you."

He blessed us. He put us in this perfect place of freedom, gave us all this blessing,

all this grace, and then after all that gives one command, "Don't eat of this one tree."

You see, we tend to think that following God's commands is the way that we achieve freedom

in life. That if we can just be obedient enough, follow God's rules enough, then we'll get the

freedom and blessing that we long for because that's kind of how life tends to work, right?

We don't typically get the promotion, the pay raise, the corner office just because of the

kindness and goodness and love of our boss, right? That doesn't normally happen. We get it because we

work hard. We grind it out. We meet or exceed expectations and then we get blessed. We obey

all the commands, follow all the rules, we kill it, and then the blessing comes. That's typically

how life works. That's not how God works. That's not how God works. God blesses us first. God loves

us, blesses us, and gives us freedom before he commands us, which means this. God is ready and

able to bring you freedom right now. Like right now, today. Maybe you're like, "No, no, no. I'm

super new to this. I don't even know the Ten Commandments. Neither did God's people when he

rescued them from Egypt. He hadn't even given it to them yet and God rescued them and brought them

into freedom." God wants you to experience freedom in this life. Freedom from guilt, freedom from

shame, freedom from striving, freedom from slavery. God is absolutely ready and able to give you

freedom right now. He isn't waiting on you to get better, follow his rules more. He isn't waiting

on you to figure it out and keep these commandments. These commandments aren't given as the

way to get to God and experience life and freedom. God frees us first, but then, even then, after God

frees us, he does something else before he even commands us. Look at the rest of verse one.

"Then God spoke." Then God spoke. This is massively important and here's why.

If you've been around our church for a while, you maybe know that I'm the oldest of three brothers

and I'm much older than my two younger brothers. And so I was in like late high school when they

were starting elementary school. And so every once in a while, my parents would go out and leave me

with my brothers. And at that time, they were in this like big Steve Irwin kick, like the crocodile

hunter. They were all about it. And so they used to find pillowcases in our linen closets and stuff,

and they'd go hunting around the house for our cat. We had this cat for a hot minute and they

would bag the cat. They would catch the cat and bag it and hold it up and go, "Crikey." And just

kind of, the cat ran away eventually. We lost the cat. But they bagged, they just loved animals.

They loved animals, these guys. And I'm not an animal person, I don't get it. But one day,

I was watching them and they ran in from outside and they were in tears, they were all upset.

They told me there was a bird stuck in our garage. And I said, "I don't care." And they said, "But

it's going to die. We think it's hurt." I'm like, "Yeah, not moving the needle for me. I don't know."

But they kept bothering me, kept bothering me. I couldn't watch whatever show I was watching. So I

was like, "Fine." So I came out into the garage and they got all excited. They really wanted to

give this bird, they wanted to free it, give it life and freedom. And so I kind of got behind it.

I was like, "Okay, let's do it." I got this net that we used to take down to Florida on family

vacation to the beach. And I cornered the bird and I caught it. One of my actually most amazing

achievements as a human. I caught this bird in a net. And then they were super stoked. And so I

said, "Okay, let's go out and give it freedom." So we opened the garage door, I kind of twisted it

so it was under in this net. And so we went out and I flipped it over on the grass and my brothers

were super excited. And so I was just going to, I said, "Let's count to three and I'll pull this up

and we'll watch it fly away and we'll have this great moment together." And so I said, "You guys

ready?" And I pumped them up. They're all excited. They're cheering. I said, "Let's count together.

One, two." And we got to three and I lifted this net up and they cheered and screamed.

They were happy and we were, you know, "Woo, it's great." This bird flew straight up and then

directly over into our neighbor's house, burst into a pile of feathers and blood and killed itself.

It was awesome. It's like the most amazing thing I've ever seen. But my brothers went from like,

"Yeah," to, "Ah!" And they started like screaming, crying. It was the most devastating thing to them.

But here's what happened. Why'd that happen? I set that bird free to live its own life however it

wanted. I mean, I gave that bird freedom. I freed it from the bondage of my garage. But then I didn't

care what happened to it. I just set it free and said, "Go, do your thing." And it went and killed

itself. See, that's not what God does. God doesn't free us and then just leave us alone to ourselves.

He frees us and then in these first three words, we see this, God pursues us. He continues to pursue

us because now He's speaking, right? The freedom's already there. He's already given His people

freedom. He's brought them out of Egypt. He's brought them through the sea. He could just say,

"Okay, you got it. Go, figure it out." But He doesn't do that. He continues to engage with

His people. He's speaking to them. Why? Why is He pursuing them? Because He doesn't want them

to fly into a side of a house. He wants to keep them in the freedom He's miraculously brought them

into so that they can experience it in its fullness now and forever. It's the reason why

when you have a baby who starts to roll, why you put them in, you know, you don't just put them on

a mattress or on the couch. You put them in a space where there's some walls, right? Where there's

some, like a crib so that that baby, why? Because you're a parent who's so restrictive and so rule

based and legalistic? No, no. It's because you want that baby to thrive in the freedom and safety of

that crib. That's what God's doing. He and His love is still pursuing His people because He wants His

people to thrive in the freedom that He's placed them in. God doesn't lead His people out of slavery

into another form of slavery. He leads them into freedom, but it's a freedom with some restrictions.

And what are those? Like what's going to keep us in the freedom that we so desperately want?

Well, it's God's words. He spoke. And when God speaks, He shows us who He is. That's what we're

going to see all throughout the Ten Commandments. It's like this window into seeing clearly who our

God is. He tells us, "Here's what I care about. Here's what I value. Here's what's going to keep

you in the freedom that you were designed for and that I've brought you into. Here's who I am."

When He speaks, He also tells us who we are. I've got kids, and if you have kids, you probably have

some family, household rules. I was also a teacher for a while, and man, I was putting, making rules

like crazy. Why? Because I knew my students. I know my kids. I know what they're prone to do.

And God knows us. He knows what we're prone to do, how we're prone to wonder, how we're prone

to leave the freedom He's brought us into and run right back to slavery.

See, knowing who God is and knowing who we are, that's what we're going to see all throughout

these Ten Commandments. And here's the first thing that God speaks about who He is and who we are.

The first commandment, verse 3, He says, "Do not have other gods besides Me."

This is the first guardrail to keep us in this freedom. God's telling us He is the only God,

the only God who can lead us to freedom and the only God who can keep us in freedom. No other God

can do it. Now, what does this mean, though, "have no other gods"? Are there other gods?

I mean, the message we get all throughout the Bible is that there are no other gods,

actually, living beings who are competing with God for supremacy. And so what does He mean,

"have no other gods"? Well, what He's showing us is exactly how prone we are to wander away from Him.

We're prone to turn other things in this world into gods. We're prone to elevate things that we

can experience and things of this world, we're prone to elevate them to the position of deity

in our lives. We're prone to fall in love with other things, turn them into functional gods,

and believe that they will give us what only God can give us. You see, only God can give us true

freedom and security, but we're prone to believe that money can do a better job of it. And so we

start to fall in love with money and pursue money and go hard and fast after money more than we do

God. Only God can give us true lasting pleasure and love, but we're prone to believe that other

people and really good sex can do it, and so we think that that'll just do a better job of giving

us those things, and so we start to worship those. Only God can give us true peace and rest,

but we're prone to believe that travel and experiences and leisure can do better. And so

we elevate those things, we start to give our hearts to them, even start to functionally worship

them, and we leave God in the dust. We leave the only one who can truly bring us freedom behind,

and we pursue things that can't deliver. We run back to slavery. And that's why God says,

"Don't have any other gods but me. Don't give your heart to anything else other than God. Don't

sacrifice God for money or relationships or experiences. You're giving up freedom for slavery."

And here's what God's really telling us with this command, this first command. He's telling us

that He wants us. God wants us. God wants you. God wants an exclusive relationship with you

and Him, with me and Him. This isn't a command where God's saying, "Well, you should want me

more than anything else." This is God saying that He wants you. He wants your total allegiance,

your full affection, because He wants you to experience the freedom He's won for you.

He's loved you and cared for you and brought you into this freedom, and now He wants you to

experience it in its fullness. God wants the best for you, and He knows that having your heart fully

committed to and satisfied in Him is the only way to truly experience this freedom. And so that's

what we get from these first three short, quick verses here in Exodus 20. God has freed us from

all the slavery that binds us in life. He's pursuing us to stay in that freedom. He wants

us to stay in that freedom. And so now, there's likely two groups of people here this morning.

There's likely one group here who've never experienced God's freedom. They've never

experienced the freedom of turning from everything else and trusting in Jesus and tasting the freedom

that God has for you in this life right now. Maybe there's people in here that are in that group. Let

me make this clear. From what we see in Scripture, the invitation is there. That's not just for some

people. You don't have to qualify for that. The invitation is there for everyone. You can experience

that freedom today. But maybe you know you've been rejecting it. Maybe you've been content to stay

in slavery. There was a guy who kind of came to that decision point in the Bible. Look at what

happened when he came up to Jesus looking for freedom in Luke 18. It says, "A ruler asked Jesus,

'Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?'" We learn a few things about this guy later.

He's not just a ruler, but he's young, which means he's full of life, and he's rich. He's

super loaded, right? He's got it all. He's got all the things that we think will bring us

satisfaction in life. He's got money. He's got power. He's got political success. He's got this

good reputation. He's got all these things that we long for and we tend to elevate and love and

chase after more than God. He's got the three houses. He's got the retirement plan. He's got it all.

But notice he leaves it, descends from it, comes down to the streets, and finds this

wandering homeless rabbi and says, "I know there's more. What am I lacking?" You see,

for everything that this guy has achieved and all that he has, he's still in slavery.

Do you see that? He's still in slavery. He knows there's something else. He knows there's something

else he's need. He's grabbed it all. He's tasted it all. He's got it. And he says, "But good teacher,

what else is there? There's got to be something else to satisfy my soul."

Jesus says to him, "You know the commands. Don't commit adultery. Don't murder. Don't steal. Don't

bear false witness. Honor your father and mother." He says, "I've kept all these from my youth."

When Jesus heard this, he told him, "You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and

distribute it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

Now man, doesn't this show us that keeping God's commands can't bring us the freedom we're looking

for? Because this guy says, Jesus tells him, "Here's the commands. You kept these." The guy says,

"I've kept them. I've kept them perfectly." And what's interesting is I think Jesus would be like,

"Yeah, you think you have, but you haven't. Here's how you haven't." But he doesn't do that. Jesus

just kind of takes that. I mean, this guy must be squeaky clean, goody two-shoes,

like just so super moral. He really has kept these commands.

But even our morality, even our exterior actions can't produce freedom. There was still something

inside this guy that Jesus exposes because the commandments were never meant to bring us freedom.

Freedom comes first. So Jesus tells him, "You want freedom? You can have it. Trust me for it.

Trust me for it. Stop trusting in money for the freedom of your life. Trust that I'll give you

the freedom you long for. And show me you trust me by giving it all away." So here's what Jesus was

telling him. "You've taken money, which is a thing of this world, which God gave us in order to bless

others, to bless us and to bless others and to be used to glorify him. You've taken it and you've

elevated it to be a God in your life. You're putting your trust in it. You're banking your life

on your bank account." And Jesus says, "Dethrone it. Take it off the throne of your life.

Don't trust in it anymore. Trust in me. And then you'll experience freedom like you could only

dream of." Verse 23, "After he heard this, he became extremely sad because he was very rich."

Jesus gives him the invitation to freedom, but he rejects it because he thinks money can give him

more freedom than Jesus can. Jesus is inviting him into a freedom that neither money nor politics,

power, fame could ever achieve for him. And as far as we know, this guy, man, he never experienced it

and maybe that's you today. Maybe you've never tasted and experienced the true freedom that the

God of the universe, your creator, can give you because you've always been trusting in other

things to give you the freedom you're looking for. Today, God's calling you to dethrone those things

and trust him. Trust him to step into the freedom that he has for you.

Maybe you're in another group. Maybe you've tasted that freedom. Maybe you've done that.

Maybe you've said, "Okay, I'm going to stop trusting in everything else. I'm going to follow

Jesus. I'm going to bank my life, not on my money, not on anything else. I'm going to bank my life

on Jesus. I'm going to give my life to him, believe who he is, what he's come to do for me."

And you've tasted it. You've tasted that freedom. Maybe that happened back when you were a kid or

in college. Maybe it's happened in the last couple years, but you've tasted that freedom.

The freedom of knowing that your guilt is taken care of, your shame is covered, your sins forgiven,

that you have life now and forever because you're a child of God. Maybe you've lived in that freedom.

But lately, life has actually felt a lot more like slavery.

That's how God's people feel for most of Exodus. I mean, they saw the miracles, the plagues,

the parting of the sea, the pillar of fire, the cloud, the bread from heaven. They experienced

God's power, God's provision, God's guidance. And it seems crazy that they turn away from it

all and go back to slavery, the slavery of Egypt. But that's exactly what they do.

There was a time where they actually said, "It would be better for us to go back."

That's exactly what we do over and over again. Maybe you've been doing that.

Maybe you've drifted or run recently back to the slavery that God's already delivered you from.

Here's a good way to maybe know, a question to ask. Does God feel distant to you?

Does God feel distant to you?

Intimacy within relationship thrives in exclusivity. That's why we take the covenant

of marriage, right? When one person makes a covenant commitment to another person, they say,

"I am exclusive to you. I won't go wondering after anyone else." And intimacy can thrive in that kind

of relationship. But in a relationship where there's not exclusivity and someone starts to wander away

and give their heart to others, the intimacy will crumble and maybe even be broken.

So this is why God says, "Be exclusive with me. Don't give your heart to others. Don't give your

heart to money or experiences or travel or leisure or sex. Be exclusive with me."

And the intimacy will thrive, draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

But maybe if the intimacy that you've had with God, the freedom you've had in relationship with God

feels dry, it might be because you haven't given yourself exclusively to God lately. Maybe you've

been worshiping money or experiences or your work. Maybe you've been worshiping your schedule or your

free time, worshiping some weak gods that seem powerful, but they can't deliver on what only God

can give you. And today, God's calling you to wake up, to wake up and see that Jesus has set you free.

You're free from having to bank on those weak gods to deliver for you.

You can put your trust in the God who did deliver, the God who gave his life for you, who loved you to

death. And so man, if you're living in either of those places today, if you've never experienced

the freedom God offers or you've experienced it but you've been living in some slavery lately,

here's the question for us. How can we get in on fully experiencing the freedom that God has for

us today? How do we get in on it? Here's the first way. We listen to God's words. We listen to God's

words. I mean, God spoke. So what it says here, "Then God spoke." He has words for us. It's right here.

These words, the words of the Bible. And look, you're here. You're here today hearing God's words

that he spoke and preserved so that you could hear them today and respond to them today.

He spoke because it's the only way we can know him and know ourselves. And so are you listening?

Are you listening? Are you truly listening?

Look, I have three kids ages six and under, so I know that it is very possible to look another

human being in the face and to even have them give you vital information about your life but

truly not hear a word that they're saying. All right? I mean, it happens to me every single day,

which means that it's very possible to come sit in a room 52 days out of a year and not really listen.

Are you listening? Are we truly listening to these words as the words from our creator to us,

the words from the God who loves us and wants the best for us, words that he wants us to hear

today and respond to today? That's the first key to fully experiencing God's freedom.

Are you listening to his words? How are you going to listen to God's words this year?

How are you going to position yourself so that you're hearing God's words? How are you going

to prioritize listening to God's words this year? Maybe for you it's like, "Yeah, I got to

prioritize being in church." This is where we gather and we sit under the authority of God's

word and you're like, "Yeah, I skip church for all kinds of things." And you're like, "No, I'm

going to prioritize it. 52 out of 52 this year, I'm going to come, I'm going to listen to God's word."

Or maybe it's a community group where we discuss God's word and pray through God's word and hear

about what God's word is doing in each of our lives. You're going to prioritize that. You're

not going to miss anything for it. Maybe it's going to the women's retreat and digging deeply

into God's word with other women next weekend, next week, two weekends soon, or other Bible

studies that happen here at our church. Maybe it's just saying, "Man, of all the things I could pursue

and prioritize in life this year, listening to God's word comes first because that's how I fully

experience the freedom that God has for me." It's listening to God's word, but then there's a

necessary next step here. You also fully experience God's freedom when you love God's words.

When you love God's words. Here's what I mean. It's possible to listen to God's words, even agree

with God's words, but not love God's words. In 2 Thessalonians, Paul writes about people who've

rejected God. He says this in verse 10, chapter 2, "They perish, they reject God because they did

not accept the love of the truth and so be saved." They didn't accept the love of the truth. Not just

that they didn't accept the truth, but they heard the truth. They maybe even concluded that this,

in fact, is true, but they didn't love the truth. Paul writes to the Colossian church and he says

it this way. He says, "You've already heard about this hope and the word of truth, the gospel,

that has come to you. It's bearing fruit, growing all over the world, just as it has among you

since the day you heard it and came to truly appreciate God's grace." See, something happened.

These people heard God's word, but they didn't just hear it, didn't just agree with it, but it

says they came to truly appreciate it. There was a heart change. They saw in God's word, not just

facts to learn and memorize, but a God who loves them, gave his life for them so that they could

be free and live life forever, and it produced love. It produced love when they listened to

God's word and they truly listened to who God is and what he'd done for them. When they saw the

love of God for them, it changed their hearts. They loved God's word. They love who God is and

therefore they love what God has said. It's the reason the psalmist is able to say in Psalm 119,

47, one of the wildest verses in scripture, "I delight in your commands which I love." I mean,

when's the last time you fell to your knees, raised your hands to the heaven and said, "God,

I love your 10 commandments. Give me more. Give me more rules." How's the psalmist able to say this?

Because he tasted freedom first. Because he's in love with the God who's rescued him,

who brought him to freedom. See, there has to be an experience and a taste of grace

first, of freedom first, before God's law and God's commands can be lovely and beautiful to us.

Do you love God's word? If your love for God's word is cooled, I'd invite you to go back to who

God is and what he's done for you. Go back to the gospel. This is the God who loved you to death and

gave himself for you on the cross. Does any other small God deserve your heart?

We love God's word when we know who he is and what he's done for us. And when we listen to

God's word and when we love God's word, the next step will just naturally happen. We'll live God's

word. We'll live God's word. And this is how we get in on truly experiencing the freedom that

God has for us. When we live God's word, when we obey his commands. You see, we don't obey God to

put him in our debt or make him admire us. We live God's words. We obey him as a response

to his love for us. When you hear his words, love his words, your desire will be to live his words

and you'll be living in freedom. When you enthrone God as your only God, you'll experience this

beautiful freedom where you'll see everything in your life as from God and you'll see everything

in your life as for God. All the other small things that we tend to elevate, they'll lose

their grip in your life and they won't have any control anymore on your happiness or your contentment.

One of my favorite theologians said this, so I put it up on the screen because I love it so much.

He says, "Wake up, enthrone your God and live." Church, let's wake up where we need to. Let's wake up

to who God is and what he's done for us. Let's wake up to the beauty of the freedom that we have

and let's rightly enthrone our God as the only God and let's live in the freedom that he has for us.

Tiana Morikawa is a member at Harbor Church, Waipahu, one of our sister churches,

and she has gone through the journey of figuring out who she is, that she's someone like the rest

of us whose heart is prone to wonder, but Jesus's love captured her heart and it caused her to wake

up and live boldly for him and take something in her life, a gift, a skill, a talent that she could

have elevated and worshipped, but to actually in the freedom that God has given her, to take that

gift and actually use it to serve God and bless others. Check out a little bit of her story.

I'm Tiana and I'm a state home mom. I homeschool my two kids, five and seven years old, and I

record music on the side. I grew up in Mililani. Me and my family, we went to church from before

I can even remember. I think as a child I had these experiences of God. He's good and he created

all this. He's mighty. He's powerful, but I don't think I had intellectual roots to my faith. I

crossed paths with people who encouraged me and shared those things with me. One example of this

is I had an older gentleman invite me to help with a worship team at a small church in Mililani.

I remember practicing the song "Come Thou Fount" and there's that line that says, "Prone to wander,

Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it, seal it

for thy courts above." I remember it being a turning point for me in my faith because

that's when I realized you can embrace not being enough. You can't rely on your own works and your

own strivings. You have to rely on Christ and the work that he's done for us on the cross.

Just being shown his love and power through music, and so that always fascinated me.

I've always loved music, but I've always been somewhat shy. God's been so gracious in

kind of helping me shed some of that anxiety and helping me to enjoy him through music.

About two years ago, I was writing a song based on Isaiah 53, and it was an Easter song. I thought

to myself, "Okay, maybe I'll just go out on a limb and share it with our worship director."

As I have done so many times before, I sort of succumbed to the fear and thought, "I don't want

to be self-promoting." So I didn't end up finishing it and sharing it in time for an

Easter service. But when that Easter service came, the sermon was on Isaiah 53. I just took it as a

sign from God that it's okay and it's a good thing to just step out in your giftings that God created

you to know him and be known by him. I think about in Scripture where it says, "Seek first the

kingdom of heaven and all else will be added to you." So yeah, I guess I'd say just keep your

eyes on Jesus and ask yourself what really makes you feel alive and how you can enjoy

Jesus through that. That's a great place to start.

So I'd love to pray that we do just that. That we keep our eyes on Jesus, enthrone him as God of our

lives, and live in the freedom that he's brought in us into. Live in that freedom of being able to

use our gifting and the things we're passionate about in his service and in the freedom that we

live in. Let's pray together.