The First Commandment, He is God

Introduction

Introduce Series

Can you name the ingredients to a big mac

you know, they used to sing it on commercials

two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickle and onion on a sesame seed bun

How about the characters in the show “The Brady Bunch”

Mike and Carol - Marcia, Jan and Cindy, - Greg, Peter and Bobby and of course Alice

How about something a little easier… what are the Big 12 schools?

How about the old Big 8 schools

OK… now, name the 10 commandments you knew where I was going with this

80% of adults could name all seven of the main ingredients of a Big Mac but name less than 6 of the 10 commandments

I heard of an interview with Stephen Cobert…

Name the 10 commandments… and he could not do it

Are we really in favor of putting the 10 commandments every where, yet cannot name them ourselves

or more importantly, can you explain them and apply them to your life, or do you believe that they have no relevance now that we have the NT

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. 3 Do not have other gods besides me.

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. 3 Do not have other gods besides me.

Pray

My hope is that throughout this series, we not only learn what the commandments are, but really get into what they mean and then how to apply that to our lives.

He is God

We must acknowledge Him

This is a point that most of us in this room have down

i would imagine that very few here, or even listening online, watching on Facebook, all admit that God exists

We are not talking about not being an atheist....

We must acknowledge that He is God and that there is no other greater than He

At that time in history many different things are worshipped

not just idols, gods of the sun, moon and earth, baal, molech

asherath poles would be set up in Israel

We can name all kinds of gods today and a lot of different religions

they all confess that there is a god...

that is not our acknowledgement here...

it is that He is God above all else.

We must choose Him

but acknowledgement isn’t enough

we must choose him as God,

not that our choosing makes him any more or less of God

but we are choosing to acknowledge him and his authority over our lives… choosing to submit to him as God

that is the spirit of the commandment

Do not have other gods besides me....

we are choosing not to elevate other things as we do God

we fall to this a lot

Our relationship is like a marriage

we are guilty of it in our churches almost every week…

we call this a worship service… what else do we allow to enter into this time

this is a time that is to be all about elevating him, worshipping him… anything else we add to it, anything we do that is not about God elevates something else to that status.

we must choose him above all else, family, work, politics and country

Our relationship with God is illustrated like a marriage over and over in scripture

Like a marriage, we make a covenant to be with him and him alone

anything else that draws us away, worship of anything else God calls spiritual adultery

this is why you see the prophets of the OT constantly calling Israel an adulterous nation

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?’ 23 Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers!’

knew = Ginosko =intimate knowledge

we must choose to have an intimate relationship with him… not just acknowledge that he exists, that he is God

we must choose intimacy!

He is to be Worshipped

The world tries to lower God

I know very few atheists…

I know that the church has kind of made them out to be this anti-god militant group

I admit there are some in our country with a loud voice that would like to remove any mention of God.

But by and large, most people believe that there is god,

most even so called atheist would be agnostic

really that there is or isn’t a god, we will never really know until we die

there might be a god, but we cannot really know

so what does the culture say… Coexist

they say that all religions lead to the same god… I would agree except for one

all religions except for Christianity lead to the god of this world satan

Islam teaches that Jesus existed, but did not die on the cross, that Allah judges based on your deeds on this earth, that there is no resurrection of Christ

Hinduism teaches that god is in everything

there are those that believe in reincarnation… that based on the life we live, we come back better or worse. Karma… we get what we deserve.

We cannot simply worship a god, but The God

Adore him

Constantly hold in reverence

everything that we say, everything that we do… God must be held high.

This is a struggle for us…

we put God in certain places in our lives, or think of him separate from different things

but in everything you do do it for the Lord

Angels do not struggle with this… they are in constant praise of Him

they do not look forward to a day that they will praise him all day long as we do

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 Seraphim were standing above him; they each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 And one called to another: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Armies; his glory fills the whole earth. 4 The foundations of the doorways shook at the sound of their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 Then I said: Woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Armies.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 Seraphim were standing above him; they each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 And one called to another: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Armies; his glory fills the whole earth. 4 The foundations of the doorways shook at the sound of their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 Then I said: Woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Armies.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Armies;

his glory fills the whole earth.

4 The foundations of the doorways shook at the sound of their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 Then I said: Woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Armies.

5 Then I said:

Fear him

Woe is me for I am ruined

because I am a man of unclean lips

and live among a people of unclean lips,

Fear means fear…

Did you hear the way that Isaiah felt about himself when he was in the presence of God… I am ruined!

that is fear! We try to dress it up with different words like awe, and reverence and in fear of our souls

For we know the one who has said,

why? because we understand our sinfulness when we are in the presence of God

When we understand our sinfulness and his holiness, we, like Isaiah, realize that we are ruined

For we know the one who has said, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, and again, The Lord will judge his people. 31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

and because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Armies.

Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay,,H

and again,

Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

So am I saying that we are to worship him out of a place of fear… some yes, but at the same time no

the Lord of Armies.

The Lord will judge his people.,r

this God that should be feared because he has the authority and ability to cast our souls into Hell for all of eternity chose grace.

He sent his son for the salvation of our souls

Trust Him

He that should be fear and adored yet, made a way for has proven to be trustworthy.

31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

If he has made this type of sacrifice and had taken us from spiritual death to life, we should be able to trust him in every aspect of our lives

Trust grows as we continue to do it

it is like a muscle that you build the more you trust him, the more you trust him with

with our money, our relationships and every part of our lives

Love Him

We love him because he first loved us…

When all of this is complete, love comes pouring out.

that pouring out of love… that is our worship.

and that love pours out in song, in prayer and in action

He is to be Obeyed

Instead we often obey other gods, especially our own flesh

we feed our own desires instead of the desires of God

Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.

the phrase living sacrifice, means that we live for him… obeying his commands

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things I say?

then he tells of the man who built his house on the rock vs the sand

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things I say?

the life built on the rock, stands through all of the trials of life

life without the foundation of God collapses

and we feel this… when we are obeying God living for him and we see the blessings in our lives

then we get comfortable and we feel like we do not need God anymore and start doing things on our own

our lives kind of fall apart and we wonder why

look to other things to fulfill our longings

For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse. 21 For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

Life cannot be lived saying you love God and do what you want

He is not God, you are

You are the one who makes all the rules that you live by you are the one who controls what you do

:

You do not love God, you use God as a safety net

you simply want the blessings of God without the relationship

it would be like a young man using a woman for sex

you want benefits of an intimate relationship

Only God satisfies the human heart, idols must be destroyed and we must repent.

We must deny ourselves take up our cross daily and follow Jesus

“The sinner prides himself on his independence, completely overlooking the fact that he is the weak slave of the sins that rule his members. The man who surrendered to Christ exchanges a cruel slave driver for a kind and gentle master whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light.” A.W. Tozer