Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

10 Commandments Video

Tension

This morning we have arrived at everyone's favorite part of the Old Testament.

Now that we have finally gotten through all those great stories full of fantastic miracles we are finally at the part of the Old Testament that we all have been looking forward to: The list of Rules!

I know right!

You are so excited because we all love rules, laws and commandments - they are so much fun, that’s why I thought you would enjoy that whimsical presentation on the big 10 ten, the 10 commandments because who doesn’t love to have a long list of things they can’t do.

If I am communicating well this morning then you are all clearly hearing the sarcasm that is dripping from my lips.

The truth is that one of the most common excuses that people give for ignoring the Old Testament is that it is just full of rules that we don’t have to follow anymore.

We are New Testament Christians and so the Old Testament rules don’t really matter to us.

We are New Covenant Christians so the Old Covenant is irrelevant so why even bother reading that part of the Bible let alone spend any time studying what it has to say.

That is exactly the question that we are going to go after today.

What is a New Testament Christian to do with all the Old Testament Laws?

Do they matter to us today?

If they do what role should they play in our Christian life.

Our Bias

Before we dive into that, however, we have to be honest with ourselves and own our bias in this topic.

Because it is impossible to do any sincere exploration of this topic without first recognizing that we lean pretty heavily in a certain direction when it come to rules: We don’t like them!

We don’t like someone telling us what we can and cannot do, so our dismissal of the “rules of the Old Testament” might have less to do with the fact that they are in the Old Testament and much more to do with the fact that they are rules at all.

What would say if I told you that New Testament contains over 800 different commands or restrictions.

There are more than 1,000 of them but 200 of them are repeats.

Compared that to the only 613 written laws of the Old Testament.

Maybe the Old Testament is getting a bad wrap?

If nothing else it tells us that God has always related to his people through some kind of command, rule or law.

That is a tough sell for us “Independent, American, I did it my way” mentality.

Guess what was on the mind of every dad that day.

Few of us really like lists of rules, laws or commands.

There is something in us that bristles when we come face to face with a long list of things that we “have to do”.

These same dads who undoubtedly had lectured their children on how important it was to follow the rules were now sitting in the middle of this ethical dilemma of wanting to see the funny little goats tip over and yet not wanting to disobey the rules in front of their kids.

and it seems that the idea of having c maybe we are he Old Testament which only has 613 laws, maybe it is the New Testament that we should ignore.

Or maybe we need to take a different perspective on God’s Law all together.

Listen to the way in which the Psalmist speaks of God’s law...

So for me at least, my “rule following” leaning doesn’t reveal an appreciation for rules in and of themselves, it only reveals my disdain for unmet expectations.

Maybe some of you other “rule following” types can relate to that.

But whether you are rule follower or more of a rebel type personalily, when you get right down to it, most of us understand the need for rules, laws or commands, but that doesn’t mean that look upon them with any level of affection.

This common experience makes verses like very puzzling.

It is that comman experience that makes verses like this one so puzzling: says:

So it makes things a little puzzling when we come upon Bible verses like

Psalm 1:1

We can roll with this, right?

It is better for us to not hang out with a bad crowd.

Alright, then what should we do?

“Delight?”

When was the last time you used the word “delighted” when it came to obeying rules?

Yeah, but Psalms is part of the Old Testament.

The Old Covenant.

Nobody under the New Covenant would say something like that…really?

Then what do we do with the Apostle Paul when he said:

We don’t have to worry about it…I think that is our bias speaking, because in the Apostle Paul said,

It is a tough to argue that delighting in the law of God is just an Old Testament thing when the person who wrote the most books in the New Testament declares it for himself.

if we know that especially ones that keep from something that we really want to do.

What are we to do with this?

Are those the words that we use when we speak of “God’s Laws”?

Delightful?

Daily Meditation? holy?

righteous?

good?

What are we to do with the fact that Bible takes something we often meet with disdain and tells us to look upon it with delight?

I would like to suggest to you this morning that the key to “delighting” in the law of God is found not in the laws themselves but in the effect of obedience to those laws.

What is to be gained by obeying the commands, compared to what is to be lost if we don’t.

This is something that we do on a regular basis when it comes to obeying rules.

Even if we can accept these things in principle, can we say that we opperate out of them in practice?

Let me give you an example...

I was reading this story recently about this Dad who took his kids to a petting zoo with a bunch of other dads.

The staff person who was guiding their group around brought them up to a pen with a heard of little goats inside.

She explained that these goats were special in that when they were excited or startled their muscles would all tense up and they would freeze up, tip over, and land on their backs with their legs in the air.

Maybe your have seen this - it’s the funniest thing.

So the Dads are getting all excited but as they walk into the pen there are two signs.

Right next to the sign labeled “fainting goats” was another sign that said, “Please don’t do anything to intentionally startle the goats.”

tour guide that was leading them around brought them up to the next pen where there was a heard of little goats and she explained that when startled these goats had a response mechanism that would cause their muscles to tense and they would fall over.

You might have heard of these little guys, they call them “fainting goats”.

Well these dads were given strict instructions to not try and startle the goats.

Guess what was on the mind of every dad that day.

Seriously!

What is a dad to do in a situation like this?

These same dads who undoubtedly had lectured their children on how important it was to follow the rules were now sitting in the middle of this ethical dilemma of wanting to see the funny little goats tip over and yet not wanting to disobey the rules in front of their kids.

These same dads who undoubtedly had lectured their children on how important it was to follow the rules were now sitting in the middle of this ethical dilemma.

They desperately wanted to make the funny little goats tip over in front of their kids and yet they did not want to disobey the rules in front of their kids.

And it was almost completely ignored.

I don’t know what you would do in that situation, but I would have a hard time keeping myself from disobeying that second sign.

I would do whatever ethical gymnastics necessary to justify my actions and find some way in which this particular rule did not apply to me.

Why would I do that?

Because I wanted to see those funny little goats on their backs more than I wanted to obey some sign.

The key to truly “delighting” in the laws of God is to want what obedience to those laws offer more than you want what you think disobedience will bring.

The key to delighting in the laws of God is to desperately want what obedience to those laws offer, especially in comparison to what disobedience to those laws would most certainly bring.

Understand I am talking this morning about what it takes to “delight” in God’s law, not just doing it out of duty.

Any of us can just grit our teeth and do something out of a sense of duty - but duty is not the same thing as delight.

Those are different motivations.

When it comes to the law of God, they will not produce the same outcome even if they motivate the same action.

You can still have disdain for a law, even as you obey it out of duty.

Understand I am talking this morning about what it takes to “delight” in God’s law, not just doing it out of duty.

Any of us can just grit our teeth and do something out of a sense of duty - but duty is not the same thing as delight.

Those are different motivations.

When it comes to the law of God, they will not produce the same outcome even if they motivate the same action.

You can still have disdain for a law, even as you obey it out of duty.

So how do we get to the“delight” that both the Psalmist and the Apostle Paul spoke of?

Well one of the best ways of understanding any aspect of being better at being human is to look at how the best human who ever lived did it.

How did Jesus, the Son of God, the author and perfecter of our faith respond to the Old Testament Law.

What did he teach about the Old Testament Law?

Did he think value it or did he encourage us to just slap a “Not Applicable” sticker on them and walk away?