A God in Our Image?

pursuing God’s approval is the only good life

poll live - intro me

What Audience Matters To You?

So, a big question for us to start with this morning: Whose approval shapes your life? What audience matters to you?

Let me bring that question down to earth: Whose likes on social media mean the most to you? Seriously, who’s made a banger of a post, an epic one - and then found yourself paying far too close attention to who’s liking it? Scanning down the list and thinking “oh, George, George likes it. cool.” “oh, and Jenny too! allright.” I have to tell you - I absolutely have done this [post]!

And these social media companies - don’t make the mistake of thinking they are trying to help you keep in touch with your friends, just loving building community and connection around the world. They are trying to maximise the number of ads you watch, so they get the most money. And they’re happy to hack your head in pursuit of that, right. They really know what they’re doing - how our brains function - how much people’s likes matter to us. That’s why it’s so easy to find out who liked your post. To get a little ping - and a little buzz - each time someone does.

Look, I’m not above social media’s draw. Everyone likes to be “liked”. Me too. And I expect we all have some people we’re particularly interested in, where their opinion particularly matters to us. Think about it: Whose disappointment terrifies you? Whose approval electrifies you? Whose praise do you dream about? … Who would you just love to have comment on your post? Or think about it this way: when you’re choosing the picture, writing the caption for your post, who’s in your mind, as you make the decision between this photo or that one, these words or those?

Maybe you don’t do social media? Good on you but don’t feel too smug there! Still the same thing is going on. Let’s do a quick worked example: say you’re making a big, life-shaping decision - say choosing a career, a job - your first - or you next if you’re lucky enough to have a job just now. Or, if you’re retired, imagine you’re deciding to step back into the workforce into that job. To what extent would you want the approval of:

parents or your family? maybe kids. maybe grandparents?

ok, what about friends? how much do you care what they think of your job choice?

what about just peers - the people around you in ordinary life: your colleagues or class mates - or just the people in your street. Does what they think matter?

final one: what about your favourite celebs - or influencers. Not that they actually care at all what you do, just so you know - but does what they’d think of it actually matter to you in making that sort of choice? You know, if Jeremy Clarkson saw me taking a job as a politician, he’d choke. I think he’s right. I think I should stay out of politics!

Who voted zero stars for everyone? who? don’t care at all what other people think? really? We all live with an audience in mind, a set of people who’s opinions we care about. To some extent, we all perform for that audience. And here’s the thing: this audience shapes your life - shapes my life. Because their opinions influence how we behave. And that matters for more people than just you: it impacts the world around you - that make sense? So who your have as your audience can literally change the world.

Context

We’re just starting our journey through the Ten Commandments in the bible - if you’re not familiar with them, thousands of years ago, when God brings his people out of Egypt, rescuing them, he gives them ten ways to live, ten commands. And last week Peter helped us see no-one is above the law; no-one is above God’s commands for his world. But even though none of us can keep them perfectly, there’s still hope - because Jesus did; Christians get to share in his perfection. That doesn’t mean we’re done with these commands - which is why we’re still talking about them this morning. Instead, God, in his goodness comes to live inside every Christian, and His Holy Spirit makes us able to keep them, and helps us want to keep them. So it’s important we deeply understand them.

Ok so that’s our foundation, that’s the basics of these ten commands. We’re going to spend the next ten weeks digging deep into each of them one by one. And this morning, it’s time for commandment number one. Normally we’d have a bible reader but these commands are so short it’d be a bit silly, so instead, we’re all going to be the bible reader, and we’ll read out the introductory words and the command together. We’re in Exodus chapter 20, Exodus chapter 20. That’s page xxxxx and look for the big 20. And we’re going to read just the first three verses there. But I’m going to put the words on screen here so we’re all reading from the same translation, ok? Exodus 20.

Exodus 20:1–3 NIV

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.

Let’s read just that command one more time: “you shall have no other gods before me”.

To “have” a god?

Brilliant. Well, if you know me, you know I like to ask questions. And not just ask questions. I like to take things other people think are perfectly straight forward and wonder about them, wondering if we’ve really understood and thought things through. And that’s exactly what I do when I’m looking at what God has to say to us in the bible. So here’s my first question. We’re to have no other gods, right - well, what does it mean, to “have” a God? When do you “have” a god, and when do you not? what makes the difference? what does it look like to keep this command? or to break it?

I mean, do I just need to say “I take Jesus as my God” and it’s done? Is it like a speech-act thing, where the words change things? and so long as I don’t take any other names, I’m ok?

Or is it about where I go to worship? So if I’m a regular at church, I’ve taken Jesus as my God, and if I’m a regular at a mosque I’ve taken Allah? And if I do a bit of both, I’ve got both? If I’ve grown up in a Christian family, do I automatically have Jesus as my God? What does it mean to “have” a God?

Jesus’ lens

But am I jumping the gun here? This stuff is three and bit thousand years old. Isn’t it well past its sell-by date? Peter showed us last week that Jesus doesn’t think so: Matthew 5:17 ““Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” And Peter explained to us “fulfill” can have the sense of bringing out the full meaning - which is exactly what Jesus will go on to do in his famous Sermon on the Mount: showing us “do not kill” is really about the heart and hate, not just the act of murder; and “do not commit adultery” is really about the heart and lust, not just physically breaking the marriage covenant.

So what does Jesus give us on this command? Not so much an expansion, a bringing out of the full meaning - because this command is already pretty full. But a restatement, one that comes from the Old Testament, the Hebrew bible: Matthew 22:37–38 “Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.” Jesus tells us having no other gods is about loving God with all of who we are: our hear, our soul, our mind. Every corner of our being. And if we love God with every corner of our being, there’s no room for anything else - so we have no other gods, see?

But again, I can’t help but ask more questions: what does it actually mean, to love, to love God? Our world wants to persuade us love is nothing more than a warm fuzzy feeling that can make you go a bit coocoo. But that really doesn’t work given we are to love with all our mind, with all our soul. And that doesn’t seem like a filling out of this first of the ten commandments either, ‘you shall have no other gods before me’ - as if all that required was stirring up a bit of emotion towards God; some mood music and the right lighting. So what does it mean?

Well, fortunately Jesus spells out what love means for us: John 14:21 “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.” Or similarly John 14:23 “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.” Yes, it’s a bit circular when the command or teaching is to love God, and to love God means obeying the command or the teaching. A bit of recursion for our programmer types!

An audience of one

But I think there’s a clear way through here - and that’s why I started with all this chat about whose likes, whose approval, matters to us. About what audience it is that we are performing for, aiming to please. Because that is what it means. To have someone, or something as your god, means for you, they’re your supreme audience. The one you want to please. The one whose approval matters. To love someone with all your heart, soul, and mind means they’re your supreme audience, the one you want to please - so you keep their commands, obey their teaching - seeking to please them. Having no other gods, loving god with all that we are, means having no other audience alongside him.

So imagine you’re on stage. Normally there’s a whole pile of people out there looking at you. And normally, if you’re in a show, it’s them you’re trying to please. What God wants from us, what God commands for us, is like being on stage in a huge theatre … but no-one else is there. Or at least no-one else that matters. An audience of one. There’s no-one else you’re trying to please. No-one else whose approval I care about. Imagine you’re in a play, the school play though perhaps that’s a long way back for you, and then, just before you go on stage, the king, the king arrives and takes his seat. Do you care what the drama teacher thinks any more? The reported from the local paper? Or the cool kid in S4? No - the only audience that matters is the king. That’s what I’m getting at: we have the supreme audience in front of us; their eyes are on us - and they’re the only one that matters. An audience of one.

A living sacrifice

I think that picture helps us begin to understand and unpack what it means for us to have no other gods before the Lord. And Paul, one of Jesus’ first followers, gives us another angle on this same thing. Come with me to the book of Romans, chapter 12, and listen to how he puts it:

Romans 12:1–2 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Does it make you want to sing? “therefore I urge you..” If not, you’ve obviously not listened through our Arts’ Team’s arrangements of Romans 12 enough yet - and you are seriously missing out. A brilliant way to anchor this amazing chapter of the bible in your head and to meditate on all that it means. Go look in the app, on the media tab. Also available on all good streaming platforms. But I digress!

This is a serious demand: “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice” - it means giving yourself to God completely - the picture Paul had in mind was the sacrifices at the temple: grain, oil, wine poured out or burned up - totally given over to God; animals killed - totally given over to God. That total giving over of yourself - but doing that while you’re still alive. Just like having no other gods, that exclusive focus on the audience of one - giving yourself to God completely. And loving God with all your heart, mind and soul - no room for anything else - giving yourself to God completely.

A loving Lord

Is it scary to say “yes” to something like this? It would completely change your life. Dangerous even? For me, when I became a Christian, the last step in my journey, the final decisive moment was when I consciously let go of control of my life and handed it over to God. Invited him to “take the wheel”, if you will, and become the driver of my life. And absolutely it was scary - because it is so far-reaching, so significant: this changes everything. And it’s a decision Jesus is calling us to make again and again: to let him take the wheel. Scary yes - but dangerous? no.

Let me show you why:

Remember how last week Peter told us “God’s grace precedes God’s laws and the motivation for obeying them is gratitude”? Well notice how this bit of Romans starts: “therefore .. in view of God’s mercy … offer your bodies” - it’s the same thing, see: God’s grace, his mercy precedes the command, the law, if you will - and his grace is the motivation for obedience.

But it goes one step further when we move from the Old Testament into the New: The one who calls us to have no other gods, the one who calls us to love him wholly, the one who calls us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, first, before asking anything of us, he gave his body as a living sacrifice. Jesus offered his body as a living sacrifice - and that giving up of control took him all the way to the cross and the grave. It’s only after that, in light of that, he asks anything of us.

So ask yourself why would he offer himself as a living sacrifice? … His love for us is the only way to make sense of it - even though I know many of us find it hard to believe he actually loves us. But Jesus loves you. Loves you enough to hold nothing back, to go all the way for you. These commands come from the one who loves us deeply enough to give His life for us, to die in our place so we could live. It would make no sense, then, for these commands to be designed to crush us, to waste our lives - or even just spoil our fun. Why would one who loves us so deeply do that? Instead their intent must be love. More of God’s love for us.

God’s path to life

Like the good parent gives their child rules to protect them and to help them to flourish. Look both ways before crossing the road. Brush your teeth. Go to bed. Teenagers, PLEASE go to bed! These are expressions of love. And so it is with the Ten Commands: they are an expression of love - they are God’s path to life. This first command, giving yourself to God completely, is the path set out for us all by the one who loves us. That means it’s the path to life and to flourishing - life to the full, as Jesus puts it.

Come back to Romans 12:1-2 with me again. What does giving yourself to God completely actually look like? See here it means being “holy and pleasing to God”. And how does that come about? by “being transformed by the renewing of your mind” - with the result that you are able to “test and approve” - to identify - what God’s will is, what he wants you to do, what he wants to come to pass in his world. But notice in particular those last words: God’s will, his plan, his desire is “good, pleasing and perfect.” Good for us. Pleasing to us. Perfect for us, in fact - but also absolutely good, perfect in every way, and - get this - pleasing to God.

Think back to that stage, and our audience of one, the king. There it is: living for the approval of the God who loves us. Living to please God is the flawless guide to what is good - and good for us, the ones he loves. This exclusivity God is calling for is not to serve his ego, but to serve your good. Having other gods, seeking to please other masters instead, is not good for you. It is not loving to you. It is not life, but only death in the end.

All other gods harm

Think about this: if it was just fine for us to go our own way and do our own thing, if it was the best way, then a god who truly loved us would have left us to it. But it’s not fine - seeking others’ approval ultimately harms us. Because their love for us, if they have any, is imperfect. So what they approve of and applaud is not always and exclusively for our good.

Sometimes it’s not malicious - they don’t know what’s best or just have the wrong idea. Do your parent really know what the best job for you would be? Or your friends for that matter? So can their approval really guide you to the good? But many times the truth is darker: people use their approval and applause for their own ends, and draw us into wrong and harm for their ego.

And if you’re sat there feeling clever, feeling like you are not controlled by others’ approval, don’t have your life shaped by chasing their applause - if you gave zero stars to all those different groups we thought about as we got started, no parents, no friends, no peers, no celebs’ approval shaping your life - here’s what I realised as I was thinking about this: if you’re truly not looking to please anyone else, you know who you are looking to please? yourself.

The terrible god of self

See, we all worship something - seek to please something. That’s not a surprise because that’s what humanity was made for: to worship; we are worship machines - we have to worship something - even if that’s ourselves. And we become slaves to the gods we worship, the gods whose approval we so desperately want and need. When that audience is anything other than the true God who loves you so much that he always wants your good, it ends with harm. Even when that audience is yourself.

You know why that is? Because you are not perfectly good, not all loving, not ultimately gracious, not infinitely patient. You - and I - make bad gods. Terrible audiences to try and please. Even as audience for ourselves. Let me show you that with an exercise I was led through at a conference last year which I found really powerful and revealing. I hope you will too.

Ok, have you ever been watching TV, and the guy or gal on screen does something so stupid or bad or wrong, you have to shout at them? You know, like that classic moment “let’s split up so we can cover more ground” aaagh! doh! nooooo! Never done that? Bet you do in your head at least. Ok, well here’s what I want you to do for the next minute: I want you to imagine you are watching your own life on TV, watching back through your worst moments, where you totally fluff it, do the stupid wrong thing, let the habit win again, hurt those you love. I think we all have those moments in the library in our mind. And I want you to shout at yourself. Not out loud! But see what you think of yourself. Hear what you’d say to yourself in those moments - “no - don’t do it” - and then after them too. What do you think of yourself when you watch back? what do you end up saying to yourself?

[one min]

Ok - maybe I’m the most self critical person here but I expect not. I have a lot of bad things to say about myself and to myself. You, too? Now, many of you know Jesus, know the good news of his gospel, know the facts of your salvation. And if you don’t, here they are: Jesus loves you utterly - enough to give his life for you. He has infinite grace ready for you as a result and is always ready to forgive. He longs for us to come back to him and welcomes us when we do. Watch those same scenes again - but imagine you’re watching them with Jesus, and instead of you shouting, you’re listening to him. Think: what would he say? Say to you in those same moments? What does he make of you after them? What does he think of you? One minute for that.

[one min]

That - that - is why you must not be your own god; why your audience and your approval cannot be the one that matters. You will never truly satisfy yourself - instead, in the end, you will destroy yourself. God is the only audience that will save you. He must be your only audience.

Be transformed - offer your bodies

So if you’re here this morning, or watching online - or catching up later - and it’s someone else’s opinion or applause that’s driving you, or perhaps worse, if you’re honest, it’s your own, you can change that right now. There is an escape from the tyranny of your audience: Take hold of the forgiveness and freedom and life that Jesus is offering to you. Invite Jesus to take the wheel in your life - give him control. Choose Jesus as the audience that will matter to you, the voice you will heed from here on. And find life - life to the full.

Please - would you pray with me right now?

Thank you Jesus that you love me and want my good. I am sorry for the wrong things I have done, said, and thought. Please forgive me and set me free from them through the cross. Jesus, I want to live to please you and I give you control of my life. Renew me by your Holy Spirit’s power so I can know, and do, your good, pleasing and perfect will. Amen.

Did you pray that prayer? Then tell someone. Tell the person you came with. Tell me. If you’re online, hit ‘request prayer’ and tell Sarah, our stream host. If you’re watching later, find our church website and contact us. We want to help you make a great start in this new life you now have - life forever.

And church, if you ever wonder whether you really should speak to your friends about Jesus, worry what they might think of you if you push it too far, remember this: any other audience, even themselves, brings death not life in the end. But with Jesus as their audience, and their God, there’s only goodness and life. He truly loves them. Do you?

These commands are God’s path to life. Living for the audience of one, our king Jesus, our king that loves us, is the only good life - life to the full.

Let me pray - and then, those words from Romans we were looking at, we’re going to sing them together. Taking our time to reflect on them and inhabit them, letting them shape us. So if I can invite the band back up, let’s pray...

pursuing God’s approval is the only good life