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Text: Exodus 20:4-6
Title: Grace through Every Generation
Sermon Theme, Goal, Need:
Theme: The Jealous God shows his loving kindness to thousands of generations who follow his commandments.
Goal: to encourage God’s people live faithful lives since God will show his covenant kindness to thousands of generations of his followers.
Need: Many Christians have fallen into the belief that God’s loving kindness has nothing to do with generations.
Sermon Outline:
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Introduction about life without consequences.
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God’s jealousy.
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God’s hatred.
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God’s kindness
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Conclusion: Encouragement that God’s kindness will go for thousands of generations.
Sermon in Oral Style:
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
What difference does it make?
We are worshipping in a Christian Reformed Church.
In today’s world, we don’t notice a big difference between the worship of different denominations.
The difference in the doctrines of the church are quite similar.
After all, we might all go to church at the CRC, but we read books from Pentecostals, we listen to Baptist radio preachers and teachers.
We’ve all been inspired by the faith of Mother Theresa and the conviction of Billy Graham.
*We are influenced by Christians around us of all different denominations.*
There is lots of good and godly material out there.
We are in the faith together.
We are running the race together.
We encourage each other together.
*Denomination doesn’t make a difference to your salvation.
**But denomination does change the way we experience God.* Songs, what is preached about, how God is taught about.
It makes a difference in the way we relate to our God.
And that is important.
*Today we talk about faith as a relationship.*
In order to have true faith we need to have personal . . .
relationship with Jesus Christ.
Our salvation depends on our relationship with God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
What we do hear in the worship service is all about strengthening our relationship with God.
Its talking to God.
Its hearing from him.
Its enjoying sitting in the presence of our creator.
Its getting goosebumps knowing that our God did some much for our relationship with him.
The Christian Reformed Church teaches something incredible about relationship.
We have experienced that teaching about relationship in a real concrete way today.
In*fant baptism is a real experience of the **/generational love of God./** *Putting the water on Aiden’s head this morning is a concrete picture and reminder.
*God passes his love on through the generations of the people who belong him.
He always has.
He always will.*
We talk so much about our personal lord and savior, and having a personal relationship that we miss out on noticing this generational love of God.
We focus so much on our own battle against sin.
And we focus so much on our own expression of faith that we might not stop to just say, “Wow God thank you” for the way he passes his grace down from your parents, to you.
And even before you children were able to comprehend how big God was, you could see how big his love for them was.
The passage that we read this morning is probably one of the most familiar places that we hear about this love that God gives from generation to generation.
It comes in the second of the ten commandments.
*4 **“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
5 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 fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
[1]*
* *
* It starts with the command.
We know the command: Worship only the creator, never his creation.*
Next comes a description of God.
Then we hear a warning.
And last we hear a blessing.
*So, after the command comes the description of God.
Our God is a jealous God.*
That is good information for our theology books, right?
God is a jealous God.
Actually, this word jealous isn’t just about who God is.
It is all about God’s relationship with us and our relationship with God.
God is a jealous God.
* *
* This word jealous is a word that comes right from the relationship between a husband and a wife, one of the closest relationships ever created.*
*When God says he is a jealous God, he is saying he is like a loving husband.
He is totally into his people.*
He has an undying devotion to them.
Nothing anyone can do can make God love his people any less.
That is an awesome picture of God.
God loves us so much that he isn’t going to put up with anyone breaking in on his turf.
We belong to God.
We have a relationship with him.
He is going to shower us with grace like we could never even imagine.
*All because God is a jealous God, a God that is totally into us.*
*God doesn’t take it too lightly when we do let someone else onto his turf.*
He doesn’t takes it very seriously when we start giving ourselves away to other things, other idols we make for ourselves.
*In verse 5 we have the next part, the warning.
God will punish the children for the sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generations who hate me.*
An Israelite proverb that is quoted in Jeremiah says it so well.
*“The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”*
Such a vibrant picture of how God in the Old Covenant gave curses down through the generations of those who were unfaithful to God.
*But the punishment is not what this section of Exodus is really all about.
It’s about the blessings.
Exodus 20:6.
It says, “ but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
[2]*
God will punish, but he isn’t into punishing his people.
He is totally into loving them.
Showing them how much he loves them.
*That’s where the Reformed denomination has a lot to offer other denominations.
Our view of the way God loves his people is absolutely humongous.*
The last part of our passage says that God will show love to a thousand generations that love him and keep his commandments.
*God still shows his love in generations.
When we love God and follow his will, he will continue to pour out his blessings on us.
*
That’s what we can celebrate as a Christian Reformed denomination.
In 2005 we celebrate the CRC’s 100th year of being in Canada.
This year we celebrate 150 years of the CRC in all of North America.
Just looking at the denomination, we can see that it has had its struggles, and it has had its joys.
But we see that God’s grace has brought some meager Dutch Immigrants in the 1850’s to be a tremendous blessing throughout North America.
*Our denominations has battled through hard times, but through it all we can see God’s grace stretching through every generations.*
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