Leaving Egypt: Loving God First

Exodus 20: 1 - 17

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SPEAKER_02 0:18

Would you now stand for the reading of God's Word? Our passage this morning is Exodus chapter 20, beginning at verse 1. That is page 67 in your Red Pew Bibles. If you didn't bring a Bible of your own, should be one that looks like this. If you want to hump one of those up and turn to page 67, we'd like for everyone to be able to see the passage as it's being preached. Again, that is Exodus chapter 20, beginning of verse one.

SPEAKER_03 0:51

And God spoke all these words. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above, or on the earth beneath, or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will hold will not hold any guiltless who misuses his name. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping 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, neither you nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreign foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father and mother, so that you should may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. The word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Thank you, Carrie. We do have for our young people, we have some uh note-taking sheets over here if that would help you, one for older kids, one for younger kids. Uh we'd like for children to be with us in the service, because we feel like that they are a part of the body of Christ. They have a part to play and that God is at work, even in ways we can't imagine in their hearts as they worship with their families. Uh let's pray as we come to God's word this morning. Father, as we come now to your word that you tell us is living and active, its power is beyond what we can imagine. Lord, it is by the power of your word that you have made all things, everything that we can see, uh, everything um that is in fact in this room and out in the world, Lord, you have made it by your word. And yet it is also by the power of your word that you make all things new, including our hearts. We need that this morning. We need you to bring about a deep renewal in our hearts because they are so prone to drift away and become cold and hard. We need to see Jesus and encounter your glory this morning. Would you come and be our teacher in Christ's name? We pray. Amen. So here's a question to get us started. This can be for adults too, but I I like to address our kids and our young people here. Um any any of our young people here, are you like a you like rules? You're like a rule follower? Okay. Yeah, it's okay. Put your hand up. And you and maybe a little irritated when others don't follow the rules. Any anybody in that crowd here? And then maybe some others of us, we don't like rules. When I see a rule, I actually become a little irritated and want to do the opposite thing. Anyone like that? You know, almost everybody's probably in one of these two categories here. You know, some of us like we see a rule and it just feels good to get up underneath it, you know, and to cross it off the box. And when others don't seem to pay it any attention, it's deeply irritating in us, deeply unsettling, right? Maybe sometimes even a little prideful in the way in which we follow the rules. And others of us, man, a rule is just a suggestion. You know, I'm I wouldn't say I'm a rule follower, but I I tend to kind of err in that way a little bit. When I see a rule, I kind of feel like, oh, we probably should follow that. But one of my best friends is the complete opposite. I mean, I'm always stunned. Like when he breaks a rule, crosses a line, I mean, for him, it's almost like, yeah, what's the big deal, right? It's it's almost like they're suggestions. And I think of just one example one time where we were we were fishing together on a river, and we're making our way up the river, and we come to this place on the river where it become, it became private. And there's this sign that says, you know, private waters above this sign. You cannot go. And you know, as you look across that boundary, man, does that water look good. I mean, you're like, oh, I I even see some up there, and maybe, maybe I can just inch, but I'm I see the sign, and I'm like, hey, we we need to stop right here, okay? We're done. And he's like, no, no, no, let's let's just ease across a little bit. You know, there's a little give and take on where a line is. We don't really know. And the whole time I'm like, ah, I feel a little uncomfortable here. And for him, you know, especially when he gets caught, he would talk his way out of anything, you know. It it it just kind of drives me up the wall. Why don't I share this? You know, I think so often we can approach the Christian life in this way. That for so many of us, as we think about the Christian life, as we come to the Christian life, it feels like kind of morality, like there's a set of rules that really defines what Christianity is all about. And becoming a Christian, becoming a faithful Christian is about figuring out what those rules are and where those lines are and getting on the right side of the rules. Right? If I'm doing the right thing, then I'm good, right? And that that kind of becomes our Christianity, and there's a certain enjoyment that comes from kind of getting on the right side of the rules, and sometimes as we look out to those outside the church, we're just irritated by people that don't understand the rules, that don't follow the laws. Others of us in the Christian life, especially in the Bible Belt, because we're so familiar and we hear the words like grace and forgiveness and gospel, and we hear that, and it's glorious that we hear that, but we become inoculated to it. We fail to see the real depths of what does that mean? And it just tends to feel like, you know what? Christianity is about grace, so it doesn't really matter what you do. I just kind of be a general good person and don't do anything really bad and just be better than those people over there. And we're good because God is a God of grace and He's not really worried about rules and laws and all of those things. And so we come to the Christian life and we we have all of these confusions about like, how am I to live? Does God care how I live? What about God's commands? What do I do with this? So often we have confusion with that in the Christian life. Here's what we're gonna see as we come to our passage today, and we're gonna be looking at the Ten Commandments, and here's what we're gonna see: God's law leads us to experiencing the grace of the gospel. It is God's law that drives us into the gospel and makes the gospel so liberating and powerful. And it is experiencing the gospel that energizes our love for and obedience to God. So the law leads us to an experience of the gospel, and experiencing the gospel energizes and drives our love and obedience. That's what we'll see. Let's jump in here. So we've been working our way through the book of Exodus, and uh we know from the story that God rescues his people out of Egypt and this amazing scene of God coming down with his mighty power and setting his people free from their slavery and bondage through the blood of a lamb, and he brings them through the sea, and then he leads them into the wilderness, and it's a place of adversity where they uh are struggling really to wrestle with. Uh are we gonna follow God? Are we gonna trust God? We've we've seen that, we've been through all of that. And then last week we see we come to Sinai, this incredible moment that was really what God's intentions were for Israel when he rescued them out of Egypt. God didn't liberate them out of Egypt to say, You're free now. I want to set you free. Now, good luck and go enjoy your life. He saved his people in order that they might be brought unto himself. God didn't set them free from Egypt so that they would be free in the sense that now they can do whatever they want to do. He set them free in order that they might live in the freedom of covenant relationship with him. So we come to Mount Sinai, and last week we see this uh this ceremony, covenant ceremony, as God comes down on the mountain and God makes these promises to his people and lays out their requirements in the covenant relationship to him. And we saw the awesome picture of God's glory and holiness as he descends on the mountain in fire. So we're still in that place, but as Moses goes up into the storm to meet God face to face, what God gives him is the law. It's the the uh the regulations and stipulations of their relationship with him. And he comes down and he brings it to his people, and that is the Ten Commandments, and that's what we're gonna look at today. But as we come to the Ten Commandments, it's it can be very confusing for us as New Testament Christians. Often we can have the idea that the law really was an old covenant thing, it was an old testament kind of thing. It was for the Israelites, and and and God in the Old Testament was all about rules and laws and all of those things. But then whenever we come to Jesus and the gospel and the New Testament, it's all about grace. The laws don't matter, right? The law is the old way, but the new way is grace. And so we we pit these two against each other, law and grace, as if they're opposites. And let me just say, if that's what you've been taught or what you understand, it's wrong. It's not true, it's not biblical. Jesus Himself was said in the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, don't think that I've come to abolish the law and the prophets. Don't get the wrong idea here. I didn't come to abolish the law and the prophets, I came to fulfill them. I did not do away with the law. In fact, Jesus raised the law to its proper level in the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. It had been lowered by the teachers of the law in order that it could be obeyed in a way that they could put God in their debt. And Jesus comes and he raises the teaching of the law, and he's like, No, no, no, no. It's not just merely about the externals in your life, it's about the depths of your heart. Jesus was once asked, teacher, what is the greatest commandment? And Jesus didn't say in response, commandment? Well, don't worry about those anymore. That's that's that Old Testament stuff. We're into grace now. Don't don't trouble yourself with commandments. That's not at all what he said. What did he say? That's right. That's right. What's interesting is that he was asked for the greatest commandment and he gave two. And Jesus says, the greatest commandment is love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, which is Deuteronomy 6. He didn't make that up on the spot, he didn't come off the cuff. He was teaching the teaching of the Old Testament. And he said, and the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself, Leviticus 19. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. So Jesus was saying in that moment that all of God's laws, all of the Old Testament law, all of the Ten Commandments are about this. It's the summary. And the two are interrelated. It's like a photo finish, right? Which one is ahead of the other? I don't know. They're so close. Because you can't love God without loving your neighbor, and you can't love your neighbor without loving God. They're interrelated. So as we come to the Ten Commandments, the first four commandments are primarily about how we love God. They're spelling it out, they're showing you what it is, they're fleshing it out. But the goal is to love God. You know, it's interesting, you know, many of us would think, and we hear this a lot, yeah, I love God. But we can have a confusion that love is some sort of feeling apart from action. But Jesus made very clear if if you love me, you will obey my commands. That's what love looks like. We know that in our relationships. When when I love someone, when I love them for them, a part of what I do is I seek to learn what pleases them, and I seek to do that as a demonstration of my love. And that is a great way of understanding God's commandments. They are a fleshed out, specific picture of what does it mean to love God. So today we're gonna look at the first four, which primarily are this specific fleshing out what does it mean to love God? How do we do that? What does it look like in our life? And then for the next two Sundays, we're gonna take the second six, we're gonna break them up in three and three, and we're gonna look at what does it look like to love your neighbor? So here we come to the first four. Now, notice right off the bat as we're gonna look at these first four commandments, which are absolutely foundational for the rest of the commandments. Notice before we ever get to the commandments, what God says in verse two. Now, verse two is a part of the Ten Commandments. Now, we might not think that. We might think, ah, that's just fluff at the beginning. Let's get on to the commandments. No. Verse 2 is the foundation of the Ten Commandments. And what remarkably we see here is that the foundation of God's commands and laws is grace. Grace is the foundation of the law. They're not in contradiction to each other. In fact, grace precedes law. Look at what he says here in verse 2. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, and then in verse 3 moves into the commandments. Now that is absolutely crucial to see. God begins his law with the truth of his grace. He begins his law with the truth of the gospel, reminding them of who they are, reminding them of who he is, reminding them of what he has done to rescue them. He takes them back. One, he begins with his name, Yahweh. Whenever in the, especially in the NIV, whenever you see a capitalized L in Lord, it is translating the Hebrew personal name given to the Israelites at the beginning of Exodus, Yahweh. It's their personal name. It was given to his people. I am the Lord. And not only I am the Lord, I am your God. You are my people. Now, how did you become my people? Because I bought you, I rescued you. I brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. He reminds them of what he has done in his grace to rescue them to himself. So we got to see the foundation of all of our obedience, of all of God's commands, flows from the gospel. In other words, it flows from what God has done for us. That He has saved us. He has made us His people. That is our identity. We belong to Him. We do not obey and keep God's commands in order to get into a relationship with God or even to stay in a relationship with God. We obey God as a response to His grace in our life. Getting that order is vital because it is so easy in the Christian life to believe that the basis of our relationship with God is our performance or even our obedience, as wonderful as it is. As a young believer, I struggled with this greatly. When I was doing good and kind of avoiding the biggie sins and, you know, maybe feeling real affection for God, maybe I was doing good with my quiet time, I had this feeling like God loves me. He's near to me. But when I would struggle, when I would struggle with sin, when I would struggle with wanting to spend time with God, when I would see those things in my heart, I would have this sense that God is removing himself, he's pulling away. I mean, I never would have said, I really think my relationship is based on what I do, but I was functionally living that way because I believed it in my heart. And it's so easy in the Christian life to think the basis of my relationship with God is my performance. But right here in the Ten Commandments, we see that's not true at all. The basis of a relationship with God is his prior grace and rescue of us in Jesus. But out of that, he flows into the commandments. And again, these first four, and I want to run through them and then I want to summarize them and then apply them, okay? These first four primarily focus on what does it look like to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. Verse three, the first commandment. You shall have no other gods before me. Now, we're gonna expand on this in just a second, but a crucial thing to understand is that the first commandment is the foundation of all the others. Martin Luther said, You don't break any of the commandments without first breaking the first commandment. It's at the heart, and everything flows from that. God says to start this whole thing off, here is the requirements in your relationship with me. I come first before everything. You will have no other gods before me. You are to worship and delight in me above all else. And then in verse 2, it looks similar, but it's a little bit different. And it's uh the second commandment is a prohibition against worshiping God through images. Look at what it says. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. The second commandment is all about how we worship God. You know, a great tendency of the human heart is that when we come to worship, that we want to have Something tangible we can worship. We want to have something we can put our hands on, something that we can look at, something that we can make. Right? And this is not only about bowing down to idols like the nations in this day. I mean, the world was filled with all the religions of the world, filled with idols, these representations of these gods that they would bow down and worship. But it's also a prohibition of worshiping God in a way that he has not called us to worship him. It's not worshiping God through an idol. And there's a great tendency to want to do that, to want to reduce God down to something. Let me make something that can represent God. That way I can get my hands around it, I can see it, and I can control it, right? And so the second commandment is about no, you are to worship me through my word, not through the use of an image and in the way that I call you to worship me. Third commandment, you shall not, verse 7, you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. This commandment is about honoring God's name with our words. This too pertains to worship specifically, but even more broadly. This is how we speak of God, and God's name is the revelation of his character. So this is this commandment is all about understanding who God has revealed himself to be and honoring that, honoring his character, honoring who he reveals himself to be, honoring his name, having a heart of reverence and worship as we speak of God, as we understand God, as we worship God. And then the fourth commandment, which is probably the most neglected of all the commandments. I just find that interesting. Look at verse 8. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping 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. Now I just find this fascinating. One, pretty crazy that God commands rest. Just think about that for a minute. You know, I think about us right now in our pace of life in our current society. We're wore out, man. We're trying to squeeze so much into our life, so many experiences, so much stuff. I mean, I'm amazed that I go through in life, things get more and more and more. More stuff, more stuff I'm trying to carry. I mean, saying no is like moving a mountain, right? It's so hard because we think, and this is part of the promise of technology, you know, I can get a little bit more in, right? And we're so worn out and we're so tired and we're so in need of rest, but the things we run to for rest don't bring rest at all. Right? These distractions we run to, they don't give us rest. And I just find it fascinating that God commands rest. You know, it was Pharaoh that was the slave master. He was the one that was driving God's people, always demanding more. Sometimes we think of God that way. Sometimes we think that God is never pleased, that we just got to keep doing more and more and more and more and more. Look at the fourth commandment. God says, I command you to rest, to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. To keep something holy means it's different. It's set apart, it's unlike all the others. God in the fourth commandment is calling us to set apart this Sabbath day that is unlike all the other days. That it doesn't look like the other days. This is a day where I rest in God, where literally I cease. That's the heart of the definition of Sabbath. Cease, stop. And isn't that so hard to do? It was for them too. I mean, we're like addicted to work, right? You ever just sit? You ever try that? I encourage you to try it today. Today's the Sabbath. I encourage you today to go home, no phone, no TV, and just sit and see how long you can endure it. And I say endure. And when you notice how much your soul revolts around it, just ask a question.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

What's going on in me?

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What do I feel like I have to prove? What do I feel like I have to do? What's driving my inability to stop? You see, if we're gonna stop, if we're gonna cease, you know what it means? It means we gotta trust God all the way to the core. You can't stop unless you can trust God as the one who's at work. It's amazing. This was to set Israel apart in the world. Yeah, there's those those people that where everybody else, they're working all the time. They're always at it because if I knock off a day, I'm gonna fall behind, right? And that there's those people that they they stop on a day. It's crazy. What are they doing? But it was an act of trust that I can stop, and God's gonna make up the difference, God's gonna take care of me. I think one of the one of the most dismissed of all the commandments. So, what what do we see in these is we step back and we look at them together, and again, they all flow from the first commandment. Here's what we see that that God's commandments begin with a call to a radically God-centered life. That's what we're called to in relationship with Him. That God would be at the center of our hearts. You know, as we come to the Bible, we see that the fundamental problem of the human heart is idolatry. It's everywhere. Idolatry. And idolatry was not just the bowing down to statues. It wasn't even that for them either. An idol is anything, any created thing that takes the place of God in your heart. Any created thing in life that becomes more uh more delightful to you than God, uh more secure to you than God, uh, more hopeful to you than God, more satisfying to you than God. I mean, anything that offers you identity in place of the identity that we have in Christ is an idol. As we begin to look at it in that way, we begin to see, oh my goodness, my heart is filled with idols. John Calvin once said, the human heart is an idol-making factory, constantly chasing after all these created things. I mean, think about the things in our life that fill us with passion and joy far beyond the passion and joy we find with God. Look, think about all the things in life that we hope in and that we trust in, and you can always identify them whenever you're terrified. You know, when something is threatened in your life and you're filled with terror, it's a great indicator you got an idol on your hands. You know, anything that we look to to give us meaning and life and hope and satisfaction in place of God is an idol. Now, why is this such a problem? Why would God give us this command? And he tells us in verse 5. Look what he says in verse 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. That's a huge concept. Now that might strike us as odd because we might think of jealousy as a very negative thing, and many times it is. But there is a righteous jealousy that is right. Now, what is righteous jealousy? Righteous jealousy is when someone has been promised to you and yet they give their affections to someone instead of you. That's righteous jealousy. It's the reason why in the Bible, idolatry is primarily described as spiritual adultery. It's a very vivid description of it, right? I mean, I can think of nothing more horrible than adultery, than this sense of the one person in the world who has promised me everything, their very heart, and I to them. And the horror of taking that, that deepest affection that belongs to your spouse and giving it to another, that's how God wants us to understand idolatry. Because you see, he's jealous for our hearts. Our hearts belong to him and he will not share them. And God's wrath and his anger is driven by his love. You see, jealousy is an aspect of love. You know, if you saw a husband who cared not if his wife was running after another lover, you would look at that and say, That's sick. He doesn't love them, right? He should be enraged. It's right for you to be enraged when the one to whom their deepest allegiances belong, give those to another. That is God, that is a picture of God's holy and jealous love. A couple illustrations to help us understand this. Uh, this past week, uh we took the family to a concert. We we went to the St. Jude's Heart Strings Country Music Concert at the Memorial Auditorium. They do this each year. And and uh we went because uh my daughter, who's seven years old, her favorite singer is Ella Langley. If you listen to country music, you would be like, really? I mean, it it's it's just hilarious to me. I I won't go into her songs here, okay? I'm kind of relieved you didn't know anything about Ella Langley, but she loves, she can sing all of her songs, okay? It's kind of cute. But we went, so Ella Langley was going to be there, and at this particular concert, they have five artists on stage, and it's kind of like songwriter style, and they're all sitting on stools and they take turns and they'll tell a story about a song and then they'll sing a song, and it's a great concert. But it's very interesting. Here's one I want to share that I think maybe one of them on the stage was a believer. But most of them, the the content of their songs and just the way they carry themselves and the way they talk about things is essentially this sense of like, I'm on top of the world, I got it all. I'm running my life, right? Like I'm cool, I got it together, like I'm living up life. I mean, in all of their comments and all of their behavior, that's the essential message. And and they kind of boast in it, you know. And then for each one of them, there was this moment though where they did the God thing. It was very interesting. Like, even though all of their songs contradicted an allegiance to God in their life, they each had this moment where they're like, you know, I just I just want to give glory to God. Like I'm doing what God made me to do, right? I I just thank God for this, I thank God for his grace, you know. And you're you hear that and you're like, I'm confused, right? And when they say that, even more interesting, the whole crowd cheers. Right? Like, hold up their drink, yeah. Go God, you know? And you're like, I'm sitting there going, this is really weird. But you know, when reflecting on it, do you know what I think is going on? It's very, very prevalent in our culture, and this seeps into our heart. This idea that we can have our life do whatever we want to do, we can have the world and have God too. That's just in the current of our culture. We're breathing it in everywhere. This idea that I can I can be in charge of my life, I can be the ruler of my life, I can do what I want to do and yet tack God on. Just put him on in, just like I accumulate all the other things in my life, I'll accumulate God too. Like that works, right? You can do that. And sometimes we hear that and we're like, well, at least they're acknowledging God. But I think it's a tremendous deception because it is this lie that we can have the world and have God. And scripture is very clear. The first commandment is about this. It's impossible. Either God is first or you don't have him. That's what the first commandment's about. Another little illustration. Gene told me about this. If if you were at CCS, it was a CCS devotional this past week. Baptist minister came in to do their devotion and just killed it. Leave it to a Baptist to just get clear about the gospel, right? Love them. Um but he came in and he brought one of these little things. Have you ever seen this? I'm I'm new to this, okay? Here's a little Jesus, a little pocket Jesus. I'm like, only in America do you come up with something like this. I mean, you barely see it. You know, he's got Jesus Loves You draped around right here. Barely see it. So you can put Jesus in your pocket. Isn't it so cute and little? The cool thing is you can just fit it in wherever you want. And now the guy who came in and he did this illustration with the kids, he had a little bend that he set before them. He said, This is like our life. And we fill our life with a lot of good stuff, don't we? And he holds up a baseball, you know. Does anybody play sports in here? Yeah, all right. So we put that in our life. He holds up an iPad, he's like, anybody have these, you know, do we love video games, all those things in our life? And and and then he held up something of like uh a sports team, you know, do we like our we like our sports teams? And he puts all this stuff in the bin. He said, you know, we fill our life with all this stuff, and then we can just fill it with Jesus too. And he drops the little Jesus in there and he's like, you know, he's in our life and he's somewhere in there. I mean, look, I can pull him out whenever I need to. The thing that we don't understand is that he's too big to fit in your life with everything else. He's bigger than the whole thing. He's bigger than the universe. If you think you can stick him in your life alongside everything else, the first commandment is telling us you're mistaken. Either he goes in first or he doesn't go in at all. But that's what the first commandment's about. You shall have nothing before me. I will be your ultimate, your joy, your security, your delight. I must capture your affections more than anything in the world. But that's what the first commandment's about. So when you see that, what happens in you? What happens in me is, oh no. It exposes us. You see, when we come to the law, not only is it a picture of how we're to live in love with God even more than that, it is like a humongous mirror. It's like a spotlight on our hearts. It it exposes us. Like you, you don't even know you got idols till you come to the first commandment. It says, You shall have no other gods before me. And then you let it search your life and you say, Oh my gosh, my heart's an idol making factory. My heart is always running after created things, becoming captured and enamored by these created things rather than enamored by God alone. The intention of the law is to expose the full depths of our sin and drive us to the gospel. The Apostle Paul in Romans 3 says this there is no one good, not even one. There's no one who seeks God, no one who understands God. All have turned away, all have run after created things in their life. And then he says this in chapter 3, verse 20. Therefore, no one will be justified before God by works of the law. Rather, it is through the law we become conscious of sin. That's an enormous statement. Paul's saying, you know, the law cannot justify you before God. Rather, it brings you to a consciousness of your sin. You see the law, you realize, I need rescue, I need a savior. And as we let the law search our hearts, it brings us under conviction and we realize, God, I need your grace, I need a savior. And then in verse 21, it's one of the most glorious verses in all of the Bible, Romans 3, verse 21, he says, but now. It's one of the greatest transitions in the whole Bible. But now the righteousness of God is revealed. A righteousness that is by faith, not by works. And it is not our righteousness, but rather the righteousness of Jesus. That is the hope of the gospel. That as we come and put our faith in what Christ has done in our place, we get his righteousness. His righteousness is credited to us. It was only one person who never had any gods before God, Jesus Christ. Only one who perfectly worshiped God, who perfectly kept the Sabbath, who perfectly kept the commandments, Jesus alone. And when we are united to Him by faith, His righteousness becomes ours. That's the most stunning thing in all the world. If you think you get that and that doesn't turn you on and light you up, let me tell you, you don't get it. It's unreal. When we see the law and we see our hearts, and yet in Christ, we get his righteousness. That is the miracle of the gospel. You see, it is the it is the law that reveals our need of Jesus. And that drives us to Jesus. And as we trust in him and receive him and believe again and again and again and deeper and deeper and deeper, the gospel like releases a joy in our heart. It creates a power in our life that actually motivates love for God. So you see, our obedience and our love for God is driven along by our experience of the gospel. So let me stop there and just give us a few moments to discuss. If you're new here, we do this each week: an opportunity to respond and react to the truth of the passage and share how God's work, his uh word, is impacting us. We do this because we want to be doers and not just hearers of the word. It's an opportunity to hear what God's doing in each of our hearts. LG will start us off here.

SPEAKER_07 43:19

Um, so I feel very convicted. I walked into church today and I had a plan for my Sunday. I was like, okay, I'm gonna go to church and then I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna get all this stuff on my to-do list done. It's gonna be amazing. I have like four hours before youth group. We're gonna lock in. And I was like, oh, well, it's Sunday. So we'll make it fun. This is fun for me, I promise. I will turn on a Shakespeare show and watch Julius Caesar today, because it's the Ides of March, while I do my to-do list. And as you were talking, I realized like that's actually the opposite of what we are called to do on the Sabbath. Because what I was planning to do, I was thinking about adding something that my heart turns very easily towards. I love Shakespeare a lot. And I was very convicted by hearing actually, we're supposed to stop and take a moment to look at Jesus. And my way of celebrating the Sabbath was to actually add things that turn my heart easily away from Jesus. That was really impactful to me.

SPEAKER_01 44:19

Wow. LG. That's deep stuff. Thank you for sharing that.

SPEAKER_04 44:38

You know? I I'll be honest, I feel like a lot of times I hear the, oh yeah, you can have the nice things and you can bring Jesus in. You can have the nice things and Jesus is there with you. Right? How do what like I'm finding the balance of how do I enjoy the things that God has created for us to enjoy without them becoming the idols? But then also confront the lie that we're told that, like, oh yeah, we can have sports on Sunday. Yeah, we can do these things, you know. And how are we not just dumping out our lives almost like monastery monks, just like Jesus is all I have and that's all I want. Yeah. Like, how are we not just dumping out our lives for this?

SPEAKER_02 45:23

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Kevin. I I think the tension that you're wrestling with is a beautiful thing, and it's something we should all wrestle with. I think where we naturally want to go is like, so what can I do and not do? Right? What is it okay to do? What is it not to do? Can I watch Shakespeare? Can I watch, you know, an NFL game? Can I do all that? You know, that's where we want to go. Because we want to say, where's the line? Let me get on the work, the right side of the line. And I think the whole point is not how many things do I have in my life and are they the right things and everything. The whole point is treasuring Jesus. Like that's in and that is in fact the way to unload the things that that have grip on our heart. This uh this this Puritan named Thomas Chalmers once preached this sermon called The Expulsive Power of a Greater Affection. And in the sermon, because we often think, oh, I gotta take some things out of my life, and we might need to. But you you see, if we just focus on taking things out, something else will take its place because the heart is created to delight in something, to worship. We're worshipers. That's what it means to be a human being. We are going to worship something. And so you might take out one thing in your life, but immediately it's going to fixate to something else. You know, it's kind of like, you know, if you've ever got a child, you know, a little a little child who's just locked in on something you you you want to get from them, what do you do? It's like automatic. You show them something they want more. And then whatever they had in their hand, they just immediately drop. Y'all have seen this, right? We're all that way. We're all that way. So we get these little things in our life, we're just like, this is life. I gotta have this, gotta have this. And so the way to break the grip of that is to see Jesus, to fix our gaze upon him in his word, in prayer, in worship, to fix our eyes on Jesus to where he becomes more beautiful and attractive and satisfying than the things of this world that just grab hold of us. So the point is to see him. And and and you know, like anything else, you gotta behold something for it to really grab your heart. And we're just not very good at beholding. Because we got attention spans like this, you know. And sometimes you gotta I mean well beholding takes work and time. So I I I think that's I relate to what you're saying. I relate.

SPEAKER_05 48:21

So sometimes I think I get sad because it seems like when I have seen people that really wanted to like live this out, they're kind of relegated to like, oh, well, maybe you should like join ministry or something. Like maybe you're just like it's almost treated like you're an upper class Christian for wanting to actually take the Lord seriously at his word. And I think that that makes me sad. Um, but also just practically something I'm thinking about is one way I can very practically empty my bucket, is just offering the Lord time. Um and time specifically not in isolation. Because that feeling of like, well, you're just like kind of doing a lot is very isolating. And so instead, I think I just want to make more time to interact with other believers over this. Like I am a workaholic, I know that. I know that's a bend in my heart that bends away from the Lord. So for Cole and I to practice Sabbath is so hard, it's so hard, but something that can be wildly encouraging, and I think it's what we were made for being the body of Christ is like just talking to other people who are also trying to do it. So I just wanted to say, like, I think that that is something that I would love to make practical time for. Yes. Um, so if anybody wants to make time for those kind of conversations, let me know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:10

But yeah. That is so good, Trinity. I mean, it it would be a wonderful practice if we come together to worship and hear God's word if we had opportunities and spaces in our week where we're with other believers and we're like, all right, now let's work this out in our life. Let's let's talk this out, let's apply this together. You know, it could be lunch after church, it could be, you know, there's all kinds of ways. Community group each week, but we we need opportunities to work this out together in community.

SPEAKER_00 50:49

Um I appreciate this. I had a similar um message at another church that we used to go to, and it was around you can identify your little g guides, right? By where you spend your resources. So where's your money going? Where's your time going? And it really convicted me to think about that. Um, you know, I think to your point, I think it feeds it, but the the repentance in that can't can't just be emptying out, it's got to be filling up and and filling up with our resources focused on God as opposed to focused on, you know, what what our heart longs, and I think I've I've told you this before, right? When the scriptures I resonate on a lot is the heart's deceitful above all things. So the things that we want from a little g standpoint tend to not align with what fulfills us and what really fills our hearts.

SPEAKER_02 51:54

Yes. Yes. I I think, gosh, you make some really good points. I I I really think if if we're today confused, I'm not sure if I have any idols. One of the greatest ways to discover it is to look at your checkbook. Go look at your butt bank account. Just take through. What where does my money go? Because the reality is money is not so much an idol as it's an indicator of what our idol is. It's what money gives us. And so our money freely flows to our idol. Like if our kids are an idol, and I don't know anyone who that would actually be a problem for. Maybe there's someone here that needs to hear this, certainly not me. If your kids are an idol, your riches and treasure will freely flow to them. Right? If your treasure is your work or your treasure is your hobbies, again, don't know anybody that's like that. It's just no problem to drop just money just freely on your hobbies. Like I could just go blow some some cabbage on some duck hunting gear, okay? And not even think twice about it, right? And it's expensive hobby. Right? So it's whatever our idols are, our money flows to, our time flows to, right? Those are all indicators. What's my treasure? Because really, whatever your idol is, is really we're talking about what is your treasure.

SPEAKER_06 53:37

Yeah. Um, so I'm just, I guess I have sort of like a general question. Uh-huh. I will I'm kind of a rule follower, so I think sometimes stuff like this makes my brain like short circuit a little bit. So I will confess that up. Good. But I think I've always had, and honestly still do, like just a lot of confusion about the Christian relationship to the Sabbath, just as like is it a specific day? Did it like move from Saturday to Sunday, or like like what are we supposed to do with all the extra rules about like things you can and can't do? And like, yes. I don't know. I I guess if you could just like give a few like just pointers, because I just often feel very like I feel like there's so many different takes on it, and I don't really know what to go with. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 54:25

Yes, yes, that's a great question, Nick. Probably a lot of us are sitting here having this. Like, does this mean I need to go home and sit by myself in a room, right? Or yeah, no. So the the it there's a lot to say here, but if you look at the old covenant law, it tended to be highly specific and prescriptive. And in the in it's not dismissed in the new covenant, but there are adjustments to it. And the adjustments are like there is a fuller freedom, but rather a deeper understanding of the goal. So it's kind of like the difference. So I'm I'm answering your question by a broader understanding of how we apply Old Testament law. Like, it would be like, and and Paul talks about this of like, you know, that in the old covenant, the laws were like um, the Israelites were like a child who uh a child who is the heir of the estate, but yet is under all these regulations. But one day they're gonna grow up and inherit everything. And what he's saying is that in Christ we have the full rights of sons. So it's like we have come into the inheritance. And so whenever you think about children, we have all kinds of little laws for children, right? Like lots of laws, like don't touch the light socket, don't touch the stove, don't go near the road, right? But as you grow up, those laws are not dismissed, but rather because as you grow and mature, you understand the intent of you them, you obey them in a fuller way because you're obeying the full intent of them, right? So if you have an adult child and you're like, hey, would you go plug in this iron? And they said, No, no, you told me not to go near the outlet, you'd be like, I think there's a problem here. Or if you're like, would you cut the stove on for I can't touch the stove? You're 18 years old. Don't touch the eye, but turn the stove on. You see, it's a it's a fuller fulfilled relationship to the intent of the law. And that is my understanding of Jesus' teaching on the Sabbath. That he doesn't say, you know, that Sabbath thing was kind of a little limiting. Go on and do whatever you want to do. That wasn't what he said. What he emphasized was the intent of it. That this man wasn't made for the Sabbath, because it feels like that if if it's all about the rules of what I can and can't do, the Sabbath was made for man. It is God's gift to you. It's a gift. So the question for us becomes how do I Sabbath in a way that fully enjoys the gift of God in his rest? So that might involve those kind of things. Yep, yep, it might involve going to a ballgame with your kids. It it in and here's where you get everybody gets all flustered because we want to get into the specifics of what is and what isn't allowed. But really, it's about the heart. It's about what is the Sabbath doing for me? Because God's given this to me to rest in him. So how can I rest in him? So I think the way that we keep new covenant law is like fuller and deeper, is what I would say. So don't get caught up on what can I and can't do. But we're also tricky, right? We'll be like, well, yeah, I obey it in a different way, so I'm just gonna go spend the whole day in playing video games or whatever it is for you, right? So that's what I would say. That's a great question. There's a lot more to say around that. It's a huge kind of discussion in the church for like, say, 2,000 years. So uh yeah, it's just it's challenging to know how to do that. And the reason, by the way, that we, the Christian church, has celebrated the Sabbath on Sunday rather than Saturday, which was the seventh day, is because Jesus was raised on the first day of the week, Sunday. And so the early church recognized that every Sabbath is now Resurrection Day. So it's a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. So that's why we do it, not because we're confused about the right day.

SPEAKER_01 59:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_08 59:08

Yes, so I feel like you've already touched on this a little bit. Um for me, I definitely fall either on the side of a very legalistic Sabbath or on the side of, oh, I can really do whatever I want as long as I call it rest.

SPEAKER_01 59:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 59:24

So maybe I'm just scrolling social media all day because, oh, I'm not at work, so I'm resting, right? You know, and I think I'm kind of I think if the goal of the Sabbath is to be closer to God and to be enjoying Him and His gift of rest and not just taking it as a free pass to do whatever you want, I kind of struggle with that tension of not making it legalistic, but also finding ways to deliberately be close to God. And then kind of related to that, what are some ways that one can take joy in doing things like reading the Bible and praying and spending time with God when the heart's desire is to go do whatever you want? Yeah, you know, if I say, okay, I should be spending some time in God's Word today because that is something that will bring me closer to Him, how do you make that something where you are looking forward to that and you're finding joy in that rather than just checking off a box so you can get that out of the way and do whatever you want to do? So I think that's something I've struggled with for a long time.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:36

That's a phenomenal question. I think many of us, whether we're courageous enough or not to say it out loud, probably feel that. It's kind of like, you know, I hear people talk about the Bible as it's like so enriching. And I know I'm supposed to read it, but when I do, I forget what I'm reading. It doesn't do as much for me as anybody else. A lot of people wrestle with these things. So you're not alone if that's you. I would say, like a lot of things, you have to do it and practice it a lot to where you get to the place where it is really life-giving. And and that's like a lot of things in life, right? Like you when you start something, it's very clumsy and hard. I'm awkward when I'm doing it, I don't know how to do it. But if you'll keep at it, and in community, like Trinity's saying, that's an important part too. Uh, if you will keep at it, you develop the ability to really enjoy it. So I there's a lot more to say to that. That is a great question. That's something we can work out in community groups too. Uh, but it's a great question. And um, and I think, yeah, on the Sabbath, we are we're always gonna have that tension of like, God, what how do I rest in God today? So um, let's keep talking about this. Great cop, great topic for community groups. If you're not here, community groups are one of the best ways to get plugged in and involved here. Let me close this in prayer because uh I've taken us really long and the Baptists are gonna beat us to lunch. And um musicians, if you guys want to go ahead and come up and I'll close this in prayer. Father, we would you help us to see the the wonder of your jealousy for us, that we would just marvel at that you, the living God, want us, not just our rule keeping, you want our hearts, you want our love, you want our allegiance the way that a lover would want the affections of their spouse. Lord, help us to marvel at that. And that it would uh and and and as we see how short we fall, that it would drive us into the wonders of the gospel. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.