The Ten Commandments
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On the screen here is another QR code. As you can see, I figured out how to do something new and so I'm going to exhaust it. Last week we had a QR code up there and it took you to a PDF on the commandments of Jesus. This week. This will take you to that cool little chart you see there and another chart on the Ten Commandments.
So what we did is we actually created a to go along with today because I've been told to stay right around the 45 minute marker. We have the commandments. We have love God with all your heart and soul and mind, love your neighbor as yourself, and then we have the ten Commandments built off of each one of those commandments. Then we have scripture references in the Old Testament and in the New Testament that comes together on how those things play out. Interestingly enough, when we talk about the Old versus the New Testament, when you see that the Ten Commandments are given in Exodus or they're referenced in Deuteronomy or Leviticus, and then you turn around and you figure out that, oh, hey, they're actually referenced in the New Testament as well, then the question on whether the Old Testament or the New Testament, which one is relevant, which one is done away with, it really doesn't matter because if it's in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, and it doesn't matter whether the Old Testament is done away with because it's in the Old and in the New Testament.
So if Aaron is back there, I do like cigars, but I can't see anybody because of the haze. So if we can stop that, that would be great. I don't like to be that guy. But you know what? We're talking about the Old Testament today, so maybe I need to be a little bit more judgmental.
So we'll see. All right, so I want to start off the entire service today with a statement that I hope you will hear my heart on. God doesn't need you to do anything for him. He does want you to do things with Him.
So a lot of us in this room, I think, can't really see you today. But a lot of us in this room come from a place where there was a lot of conversation and a lot of Bible teaching on the expectations of what we are supposed to do for God. God doesn't need you to do anything for him, but he does give us an invitation for us to do things with Him. And I say that because we have a problem in America, we have a problem in general that makes us think A lot higher about oursel than we actually are.
And I say ourself. I include myself in that as well. God doesn't need us to do anything. He doesn't need us to say that he has authority. He doesn't need us to say that he's holy.
He doesn't need us to say that he's majestic or he's powerful. If you say it, it doesn't change the fact. If you don't say it, it doesn't change the fact. But if I say God has no authority, that means absolutely nothing other than I'm ignorant. Because in the end, God has authority.
He has all authority, whether I say it or not. My statement on the matter, my opinion on the matter matters nothing to the level of authority that God has. To the level of holiness that God has. It matters nothing because it doesn't stop his authority. It doesn't stop his holiness.
It doesn't stop his power. It doesn't change his character and it doesn't change his nature.
I can say I believe God is an abusive bully God and it doesn't matter. It doesn't change his character because he's not. It just means that my understanding of the Lord is not in lockstep with his character. So God is not the problem. I am.
I need to make the adjustment. Now, if any of you have been around this church for a while, you know that I like to preach from a perspective of self reflection. I believe as long as God has given us breath that we can be redeemed, we can be changed, we can be healed, we can be set free. That you are not a product of what has happened to you unless you stop there. I believe it was last week I said that just because you might be struggling with an addiction, you're not an addict because it is just something that you're going through.
God has the power to change all of that. But who you are is identified in the nature of who God sees you as. Not the one good thing you do or the one bad thing you're struggling with. There's a truth that outlasts all of humanity. A truth that there is a God so holy, so pure, so gracious, so compassionate, that all powers, all majesties and authorities bow in his presence and they pale in existence to his name.
What many see as obligations, God sees as an invitation to a revelation. And this was hard for me because for 18 years of my life I had been told and I had walked in a way where I felt like I had this obligatory burden upon myself. Where I must do something. And so when I would fall to the left or I would fall to the right, when I would come up short in what I believed, the Lord's expectation of me, where I would constantly spiral in and out of guilt, shame, and condemnation. Now, I'm a recovering narcissist, type A, and so most of the time, I wouldn't show that.
I would only show that with more anger or more bitterness. But I learned over the last two to three years, through a lot of fasting, a lot of prayer, and a lot of time on my knees with the Lord, that God was never trying to put an obligatory weight on my shoulder. He was inviting me into a revelation. And it was an invitation that was not any different than the invitation to all of humanity. He is inviting us continuously into a relationship with Him.
In the relationship with him, he reveals through the power of His Holy Spirit, the revelation of His Word, his nature, his character, his power, his majesty. And the more you get to know him and the more intimate you become in that invitation, the less you feel obliged to have to do something, and the more you want to do something.
I don't want my kids to take out the trash. I mean, they do, but I don't want them to just say, fine, dad, I'll take out the trash. I don't want them to just say, well, I'll take out the trash, because Crash got into the trash and it's all over the kitchen. That's not what I want from them. I don't want them to just walk in and be like, fine.
So as an earthly father who doesn't even have the smallest amount of majesty or power or grace that God has, I would really struggle with a thought process that our Heavenly Father would be like, okay, yes, Lord, I'll keep Passover. Yes, Lord, I'll do this. No, he wants you to come to his table with a happy heart. Does it sound familiar for any parents, or am I the only one? Are you going to do this with a happy heart, or am I going to make you do it with a happy heart?
That's the difference between my leadership style and God's. God's, like, if you don't want to do this with a happy heart, that's fine. I'm not going to force you. But you won't receive the blessings that come with. With this experience with me.
You see, the invitation to revelation is the fact that there's a Savior that has come into this world, that he took the burdens of you and me upon Himself, and that he invites us into a relationship that is better than anything we will ever experience. I've had the testimony, we're almost coming up on 21 years. I've had the testimony that I believe for the majority of my marriage, not every moment, but for the majority of my marriage, I've had an amazing marriage. I have a little bit of a data point in there. Both my parents and my wife's parents have been married multiple times or in at least long standing relationships.
My grandparents at least, and some of her grandparents also were married multiple times. So in a short group of data, I've seen multiple marriages with multiple different people. I would say we beat them. Not that it's a race or not that it is. I'm better than you.
I would say that my experience in 21 years of my marriage, even in the worst parts of it, that I have had a better marriage even in the hardest times than our parents or our grandparents. I'm turning my phone on. Do not disturb this afternoon. Mom. Don't call me.
That's my personal opinion. Personal opinion I'm allowed to have that. I'm 43 years old, March. Not that I'm counting or anything. Why do I say that?
Because I still believe that my wife and I are experiencing even greater things recently in the present than we did previously in good years of our marriage. So that tells me that if my wife and I, according to scripture, are to become one, to become a cod, they Hebrew word for one, and that is a reflection of the Lord. If I'm experiencing better things over the last couple of years of my life and my marriage with my wife, that tells me that most likely I can experience better things with the Lord too. So I shouldn't become comfortable where I'm at in my relationship with God just because my relationship is good. I should pursue and want more because my heavenly Father is more.
And in that, that's a driving factor for me and how we've lived the last two to three years of our life. Personally and in this church. I want more for you because I believe the invitation and the revelation is more for you. And I believe as you consistently go after Jesus, consistently go after God, consistently go after the ways of the world that he has told you to live in, not the ways of the world as in the ways that Warren Buffett or Jeff Bezos or Donald Trump, the greatest ever, has told you to do, the ways that God has told you to go into this world. I believe he's got more for you than you could ever fathom.
Remember The Jewish concept of eternal life isn't something that we get to punch at some point in time. It's something we start to experience now. We're hoping to bring the kingdom of God to Earth now, not just someplace or something we'll do. Yet I want to make sure we understand something. Church While I believe that this is an invitation and we're in an invitation season, there is a time coming where this will no longer be an invitation.
This will no longer be a save the date on your refrigerator. This will no longer be something that you're, like, looking forward to. The possibility of. It won't be negotiable either. The day when Jesus comes back and he sits and establishes his throne on this earth, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess, every Republican king, every Democratic king, every wannabe libertarian king.
Sorry, Isaac. They will bring him gifts and they will worship him. It will not be negotiable, and it will not be an invitation. It. It will be a requirement.
I don't do well with requirements. I don't do well with being told what to do. I know that's shocking. It's not the first time I've testified to my weaknesses. I prefer to look at the invitations.
I prefer to look at the positives that are there and not get to where it's a requirement. Not get to where I have no choice, but I normally end up there anyways. Your opinion doesn't matter at that time, Your desire to RSVP in the future or your desire to move around your schedule. It just won't matter. Because no longer is it an invitation.
Now the world will be required to honor and recognize something that they debated for centuries.
And it's coming quicker than I think any of us know. Bow your heads with me. Dear Heavenly Father, we bless you, we praise you, we extol you.
Lord, you are the name above all names. Whether it be from the garden, whether it be on the boat in the floods, whether it be on the mountain, whether it be in the wilderness, whether it be in the times in captivity and in the times when you've brought back, whether it be in a manger, in a trough, whether it be in a little stone cabin. Lord, you have always been and always will be holy. You have always been and always will be loving. You have always been and always will be king.
And so, Lord, today as we look at your words, as we look at your scripture, we ask, Lord, that you would give your spirit in each and every one of us. Lord, that you would lead us and guide us into a Place of understanding that you would show us places in our heart and in our walk where we need to make an adjustment, Lord, and you would empower us to help bring your kingdom to this earth. We love you, we bless you, and we thank you. For it's in the name of Jesus. Amen.
And Amen, Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses? Jesus replied, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and the greatest commandment. And secondly, it is equally important, love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and the demands of the prophets are based upon these two.
I believe our capacity to love God is tied directly to our ability to love ourselves and to love our neighbors. I believe there's a direct proportionality to them, that if we struggle with ourselves and we struggle with our neighbors, that we're going to struggle with God. If we say we love God with all of our heart, soul and mind, but we don't love our neighbors and we have super big issues with ourself, then I feel like we maybe don't understand what it means to love God. Because if we truly love God and we truly love our neighbors, then we will walk in love in all capacities. Many would disagree with me that your connection to God equals your connection to people.
But over the last 18 years and seeing the shift that I've seen over the last two years, I. I just, I've got too much data pulled from my personal experience to believe anything else. If you struggle with loving people, you struggle with loving God. And if you struggle loving God, you struggle loving people. It's interconnected.
And in that little chart that we put up there that you can download, there's an interesting thing I did in the middle. And I've seen a lot of different teachings and there's some wisdom in all of them, but they'll say, these commandments teach you how to love God, these commandments teach you how to love others. And then normally there's six on the love others, and there's four on the love God side. The one that really stuck out to me this week was honor your father and mother in the Lord. And if you don't, there's a promise that says your days will be cut short.
I actually believe that's a transitional commandment. Personally, I believe that it not only is to help you understand how to love others, but it is to help you understand how to love God. Because in the end, when we look at the New Testament, we see God shift from this kind of sky God, this kind of ambiguous thing that's out there into the terminology of a family. I know that this is somewhat uncomfortable for some people, but if you have a problem with it, you're not taking issue with me, you're taking issue with God, because God is the one who gave the words to the prophets and used these analogies. God references himself in the prophets as both a father and a mother.
Now, I need to clarify before we get into this whole mother Yahweh nonsense that's out there, which I didn't realize was a thing until Feast of Trumpets, but God has the nature of both feminine and male. It doesn't mean he's both male and female in the sense. So, like, don't call me and say, like, this is like some woke message. That's absolutely not the case. But he does say in the prophets, he uses terminology like a nursing mother.
Guys, we can't do it. This isn't even debatable. Like, we can't nurse. So, like, it's not a masculine thing that God is using to talk about the intimacy that he has. And so when we shift towards the New Testament, when we shift towards the Gospels, we start to hear more mom and dad and family talk.
We start to hear more about sons and daughters. It's family, it's relationship. But just like we talked about almost a year ago in the Orphan Spirit series, if your relationships in this life are transactional, why do you believe that your relationships and how you approach God are not going to be transactional? There is a very real connection between the spiritual realm and how you approach the spiritual things and what you do with your physical life, whether it's your relationship with God, the church, the Bible, marriages, friends, parents. We struggle in the 21st century to establish deep, meaningful relationships.
We just do. And social media has not helped us in any capacity. It is as surface level as it can be. We can fight over everything until we get face to face. It's amazing how the dynamics of the conversations change when they're face to face.
This is partially why we see struggles in our relationships with marriages, with siblings, with our own children. Our relationships just are not deep.
We don't have to wait 25 minutes for the kids to get the milk from the cow anymore. We don't have to sit down and wait. We got air fryers and we've got instapots. Did you know that you could make a baked potato in like 10 minutes in an instant pot? It used to take a day and a half at 250 in my mom's old oven.
We live in a blessed time.
Every one of us has some damage in some relationship, whether it would be with our mother or father, whether it be with a sibling, whether it would be with somebody at work. Maybe it's a casual relationship or maybe it's a friend. And yet last week we talked about to fulfill the law of Christ, you must bear each other's burdens.
So how do we continue on the mission series leading to the mountain where we have the new Moses and Jesus, we have the new Torah, the Torah of Yeshua, given at the Sermon of the Mount. How do we become more like Jesus and more with a heart posture of the apostles of the first century?
Well, first and foremost, we need each other.
First and foremost, we must understand that God is gracious and merciful to lead us through the times and the seasons. We're at learning more about him, learning how to walk more like Him.
The entire law and the demands of the prophets hang off of loving God and love your neighbor.
As Americans, we don't like to be told what to do in general. I've already confessed my sin to you. Anybody who knew me know that wasn't a confession of sin. It was more like a T shirt I wore. I.
I don't like to be told what to do. And so today, as we look at the Ten Commandments, I don't want to look at them as, as a lens of negativity. I don't want to look at them as a list of do's and don'ts. I don't personally do well with do's and don'ts. Don't do this.
Why the clock's not working, why this is my psyche. Even at an early age, I was taking things apart. I was. Some of it was drywall, but I was taking things apart and trying to learn how they ticked. So when somebody says, don't do this, the first question I have is why?
Why shouldn't I do this?
Thankfully, my mom lives multiple states away, so she can just hang up the phone. But growing up, it led to some very contentious conversations. And so today, if you're anything like me, I want to approach the Ten Commandments not from a do, not do. Most of you have read them extensively. There's nothing new I can teach you about that.
There's nothing new that I can share with you about that. I want to talk to you about what I believe the other side of those commandments are. And the reason why I want to do that is because I believe we see a shift when Jesus comes in and starts teaching rather than consistently be a lawyer or a legal code. Do not go 35 miles an hour over the speed limit. Yeah, that's never stopped any of us.
Do not park too close to a fire hydrant. Also, never have you gone to a progressive Hanukkah party. It's never stopped any of us.
So rather than looking at do not, I want to look at it through the lens of how I believe Jesus looked at it personally. Now, we're going to use Exodus chapter 20 as the base text for today, but I got to be 100% upfront with you. This is not the message Bible. This is not the new living translation. This is not the niv.
The all translations are mine. So if you take issue with the translation, you are taking issue with me. And that's okay. I just want to be upfront with that. How do I love God more?
Question I've asked myself a lot over the last couple years. How do I love God more? Because obviously I thought I loved God a lot. I spent almost 18 years serving in international ministries, working with people, hundreds of thousands of people. I thought I loved God a lot.
And then I realized kind of missed the mark a little bit. This much. I know I got a long wingspan. That's a lot.
How do you love God more? First, you must acknowledge it was God who delivered you and I from our shame, sin, anxiety, whatever I was held captive by. He delivered me. I did nothing on my own and I could not free myself. 2.
I get to worship and I should praise him for what he has and what he is doing. Third, give the invisible God all my praise Thanksgiving and forget about needing an image. Forget about needing something tangible to touch or something to latch onto in the physical. You've done that too long and it's not working. Jesus is far greater than that.
He wants your adoration, Thanksgiving, worship and praise. Even when all you have is just a tiny bit. That tiny bit has always been enough for Him. Fourth, God's name is the greatest in all the world. Hands down.
No discussion. I will speak, I will sing, and I will always bring glory, adoration and honor because he has been gracious to me and his name will live forever.
Fifth, I get to have a family meeting every week with Jesus because He cares about my mental, physical, emotional and spiritual well being.
This is a big one for most of us in the room. Well, they don't keep the Sabbath. I get to have a family meeting every week with Jesus because He cares about my Mental, physical, emotional and spiritual well being. He invites me to come meet with him. He invites me to come hang out with him.
And in doing so, I will praise him. I will honor him on that day because he is holy and worthy of honor.
Kind of changes the approach. I get to meet with Jesus. People argue left and right. It's been centuries old, like, when is the Sabbath day? Did the Catholics change the Sabbath to Sunday?
All this. There's historical facts on this. We can prove all of that. But in the end, the question is, which person you have ever met in your life? If you just ask the question, no other caveat, Jesus wants to meet with you.
Who's gonna say, as a believer of Jesus, I don't care what denomination you are. No, I'm good. Busy that day.
How we approach what God asks us to do or not to do sometimes matters and how we witness. As a friend of mine would say, we have to make sure we're not serving the gospel on a dirty platter. Think of that for a second. If the gospel is the greatest thing you could ever eat, Jesus says, if you're thirsty, come and drink of me. You'll never thirst anymore.
If you're hungry, come and eat of me. You'll never hunger anymore. If he is the greatest meal, he's the greatest sustenance. And we walk in and we serve it on a plate that looks like our toddlers ate on it four weeks ago and it was found under the seat of our car. We wouldn't want to eat anything off that plate.
We would. We got some homeschool moms in this room. Tell the truth, you throw that plate away, it would never make it in the house. You're not even trying to scrub that. It's going straight in the trash.
The gospel cannot be served effectively on a dirty plate.
6. I will honor God for all he has done for me. I will honor him with my speech, with my thoughts, with my actions, and I will encourage others in all times to do the same.
When we look at the commandments given on Sinai through the lens of a positive instruction, what is God asking them to try to do versus what is he asking them to refrain from? We're in a different culture than they were, and so sometimes we have to re approach what it is God is asking us to do so that we can actually have a heart posture change. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. And so if you struggle with people telling you what to do, or you struggle with actually walking Out. Do not or don't or refrain from.
Change the perspective you're looking at and see if it changes your heart, posture and your walk.
Remember, we've been programmed to not trust the adversary in the garden. Said, ha. God didn't. You're surely not going to die. He didn't tell you that, did he?
Like, I got to call Zuckerberg and fact check this because God knows you're not going to surely die, but yet he told you that. Come on. Satan from the earliest time has tempted us to not trust God, to believe that God doesn't have our best interest in mind, that he didn't really say these things.
If you think this isn't something that's not still something we're all wrestling with today, I would disagree with you. I think he's absolutely still trying to cause issues with us. Don't trust God. Don't trust God. Don't trust God.
Don't trust God to heal you from your addiction. Don't trust God to heal you from your infirmity. Don't trust God and what he says in His Word, it won't bring you blessing. That's not what he said. Don't trust God.
Don't trust God. Don't trust God. This is why some of us need to get a little bit more Type A and we need to immediately be like, zip it.
Had a conversation with somebody in the church recently. Man, I'm getting old, man. That hurt my hip. Dramatic effect.
Had a conversation with someone in the church recently and they said, you know, I'm hearing things or things, I'm seeing things. This is becoming far more frequent. Especially when you give your life to Christ and you start to try to adjust your ways towards his commandments and his teachings. The adversary kind of gets put on notice. If you think that we're not wrestling against spiritual warfare, then you haven't read the Bible.
Almost the entire Gospels is about spiritual warfare. Those casting out of demons, that's a battle. As Petra would say, this means war.
A couple of people are old enough to know who Petra is. Thank you. Some of you are like, go west, young man. I got song lyrics for day, but I asked them, have you ever audibly said, get away? I rebuke you.
Get out. Remember ex Baptist Presbyterian here? There's power in it.
Last Friday night I went down at like 6pm Honestly, it might have just been the hot chicken, but I don't know. But I went down at 6pm with the shakes. I was shaking uncontrollably and I was Cold. And every blanket we owned in the house and we own a lot. One thing my wife got from my mother, we own a lot of blankets.
And I'm still just shaking uncontrollably. And as my teeth are chattering, I'm literally, audibly speaking, I rebuke you. If this is an attack. Get out. Lord, I repent if I've done something.
I don't know. If you just want me to sleep longer, I'll take that too. And I'm audibly speaking in a room now. My kids and my wife, they know I'm crazy. I don't need to rebuke or speak out loud like they know I'm crazy.
I'm not sure it did anything, quite honestly, except I went to bed peacefully. I'm not sure. I mean, by 5:00am I had 102 degree temperature and it was gone by 6:00am Literally gone. We're not talking about 99.8, whatever. In fact, at some point in time I almost like I was like cold hearted again.
I was like 96.6. But I asked him, have you audibly spoken? This is not something I did for 18 years telling myself again, get the phone call. Brent is having the problems and he's going to the hospital. I'm yelling out loud in my car at God.
I'm angry. You want to love God more? Be honest with God. He already knows you're angry. And I'm yelling, God, I have prayed, I have fasted, I have fasted, I have prayed.
I have asked, why is he not healed? And not only why is he not healed, but why is he having an episode that's putting him in the hospital. And I'm yelling at God and I'm crying while I'm yelling at God. And at the same point in time, I'm trying to drive on 35 through construction at 240, which is as close to Dallas as we get Here in Oklahoma City, we are commanded to love God more. And sometimes we have to be honest.
Sometimes we have to be audible with God. What is hindering us from being able to love you more? God, right now, I don't trust you people. Like, how can you say that? Everybody thinks it.
Be honest with God. He's always honest with you. You may not like it, but he is.
And that helps us learn. How do we love people? First give your parents some slack. I really thought there was going to be some parents in this room who were going to say amen to that. But it's kids class, so your kids wouldn't have heard you, so I get it.
I see you. Give your parents some slack. They did the best they could. You will also make mistakes. As a parent.
You're going to need some slack too. Thank your parents. Praise your parents for keeping you alive, giving you life, and enjoy the time you have with them. Second, Speak life and help other people thrive spiritually, emotionally, physically. You will never go wrong trying to help another person thrive whenever you can.
Third, love only Jesus.
Love only your wife. The grass isn't greener on the other side. The grass is greener where you water it. So sow into those relationships and stop worrying about the ones you don't have. Fourth, you have enough.
You have always had enough. You don't need somebody else's things or money. They look a lot better in front of that car than you would. Stop thinking about other people's spiritual gifts and start focusing on yours. They're not your gifts.
You're not owed them and they're not owed yours.
Fifth, tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth or shut up.
There's enough drama in this world. Don't bring it upon yourself by lying. 6.
You're blessed. I'm blessed.
We could be living on a bench. We could be living on a van down by the river.
But you have a beautiful life.
There's people in this world who envy and covet what you have. So why are you envying and coveting what somebody else has? Recognize the blessings in your life and thank God countlessly for those blessings. If you can remember or grow into it, do it daily.
I can say that I love my wife as much as I want. Stupid Instagram had a reel where it said the more that you say you love your wife or that your wife is hot, the more you're trying to convince yourself. Now I've got to completely change 20 years of praying on Friday nights for how hot my wife is.
Instagram screws everything up.
I can say it as much as I want, but words are meaningless without fruit.
I can wake up every morning and I can tell my wife that I love her, but if everything I do from that point on tells her that I don't, then my words are meaningless.
I can tell you until I'm blue in the face that I love you. And yet if I don't do everything in my power to be there for you when you need me to speak into your life to shepherd you, then I'm a liar. The words are meaningless.
So I'll ask you this question.
If you love God and even 1% of you loves others. It's just people are people. I get it. I'm a pastor. I get it.
I've been in ministry for 18 years. Trust me, I get it. You have good days and you have bad days there. Literally. I mean, I don't look like a monk.
There's nothing about me that looks like a monk. There has been days where I was like, I'm going to a monastery somewhere off in the place. I'm never dealing with people again, and I'm going to serve the Lord. By the way, my understanding is when they fast for bread, they get to have a Guinness every once in a while. This sounds some days like a winning recipe for me personally.
But I cannot fulfill the law of Christ if I'm not willing to take on the burdens of others. I cannot love people if I run away from them. And so here I am as a shepherd who has spent seven of nine. That's right. We're like two weeks away from our ninth anniversary.
Praise the Lord, who spent seven of nine years failing miserably. I cannot run away from my obligation to continue to learn how to love God more and thus love people more. And when I approach them, I ask questions of myself in the car. What is it I love about my church?
What is it I love about Michael Stallsworth? What is it I love about Tim Davis? What is it I love about worship music? What is it? I ask myself pointed questions.
Why do I love? What is it I love? I ask myself this question. Sorry, babe. I asked myself this question all the time.
What is it I actually love about my wife? Why do I think my wife is hot? All of these statements I ask myself constantly. And some people will turn around and they'll say, oh, see, this is negative. I absolutely disagree with you.
I think this is a way for me to constantly go before the Lord and go and tie myself and define what it is I love, define what it is I hate, and then be able to do something about it.
If I look around the church and I say, I love all of you, and then I ask myself, what is it I love about you? And I can't answer the question, then I'm a liar.
I love how calm you are all the time, Chris. Your life. You are in school, you've got two young ones, all kinds of things, and yet every time I see you, it's as if you had a cbd. Gummy. You are just chill, Ray.
One of the things I love the most about you is the fact that every time I see you, you Have a smile on your face. You could have had the worst possible day out there, but you have a smile on your face.
And these are things I would have never thought of for years in ministry. Well, yes, I love them, but do I actually, yes, I love God. Well, I struggle in my prayer life. I'm not really reading my Bible as much as I should. Struggling to honor my father and mother.
I'm struggling not to wonder where that six figure salary went. I'm screwing up even the basic of the 10, the basic of the 2. We have to ask self reflective questions to ask us. Are we actually allowing the Lord to be our Lord? Are we allowing the Lord to be the potter and us to be the clay?
Or are we trying to tell the Lord, hey, you can mold me in this way. By the way, I saw this 32 ounce tumbler. Can you mold me to look like that? The Lord gets to be the one who molds and makes worship team. You can come back.
Too many people approach their physical and spiritual lives focused on their issues, their shortcomings, their expectations that aren't met, and goals that they probably will never achieve. They do exactly what they accuse others of doing and they self sabotage themselves. Then like all good narcissists, you know, Brent has said multiple times he believes all of us are wounded narcissists. Then we play the victim. Oh God, why are you persecuting me?
Why are you allowing them to persecute me? Because you were an idiot. Because you did something you know you shouldn't have done. Woe is me.
And then we become armchair hypocrites, ones who secretly judge the walks of others while not not being willing to judge our own and make adjustments. I believe the law at Sinai was given to the Israelites to help them undo the nonsense they learned in Egypt. And here we are 20 something centuries later and we're still struggling with the same things.
This reminds me that I'm still a man in need of a savior.
Before I act like I'm observant, before we attempt to model and teach the depths of the beauty of the teachings of Jesus on the sermon to mount, we have to be honest about whether our walk models the walk that Jesus called us to model. And then we should probably start with the basics. And for each person that could look very different. Maybe some of you need to go to a fishes and loaves only diet. Maybe some of you need to go to 40 days of fasting.
It'll be different for every person because every person is at a different spot in their relationship in their journey with the Lord.
But the basics are important because my son is a good baseball player. But it doesn't matter how beautiful his swing is, if he doesn't get his foot down in time, he's not going to hit the ball. He'll look really good striking out, but the goal is to hit the ball. You have to get the foot down before the ball is there in order to hit. Before we look at how Jesus lived his life and taught others to live his life, next week, can we attempt to reflect this week on the invitation we still have?
The invitation to walk in a relationship with the Lord, an invitation to confess our sins, to repent and to grow and be made whole.
Because again, there's a day coming where it's not an invitation anymore. There's a day coming where this is going to happen whether you like it or not. Your knee will bow to Jesus. It doesn't matter whether you read the ESV or the NLT or the Message or the Passion. You're bowing.
You might call it prostrate, but you're bowing.
Let's not wait until it's not an invitation. Let's accept the invitation of the Lord to meet with him not only on the Saturdays, but on every day of the week so that he can transform us and renew us and how to love God more and to love people.
I'm just a simple man.
If my kids struggle with algebra 2, we go back to addition and subtraction.
If I struggle with something, I go back to the basics of it, whether it's a sport, whether it's a hobby, whether it's a craft, whatever it is, I go back to the basics. So if we find ourselves in a season, remember, everything is cyclical. If we find ourselves in a season where we're struggling with the basics, like loving God and loving our neighbor, doing charity and kindness to one another, don't you think we should maybe strip away all the other nonsense and we should just focus in on the first? I did really, really good on Leviticus, chapter 23 this week, but I really, really struggle with the two commandments Jesus gave me. I think personally, looking at the heart of God in the Scripture, and I think we're going to see this more when Brandt really breaks down the text of the Sermon on the Mount.
People matter a lot more than we think they do.
What good is building houses for God if God's not there? What good is building straight streets to the houses of God if the people of God aren't there? What good is all of your piousness and all of your righteousness if you walk by a man with a withered hand every single day that's not righteousness, that's self righteousness. There's only one righteous, there's only one holy, there's only one worthy and that is God, not us. And so today as we respond I'm asking you to reflect this week before we go into the nature and the leadership style of Jesus next week.
Are there areas in your life that you struggle to love God? It's okay if you do. I've already confessed I haven't. Are there areas in your life that you struggle to love others? It's okay if you have them.
Confessing your sins and being honest with yourself is the first way to actually do something about it. And if you do what could you do this week? Just a little win to become more like how God has created you to be in those areas. If you will stand with me, let's respond.
