What is right and wrong!

And God spake all these words, saying,

I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (first)

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: (second)

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. (third)

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. (fourth)

Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. (fifth)

Thou shalt not kill. (Sixth)

Thou shalt not commit adultery. (Seventh)

Thou shalt not steal. (eighth)

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. (ninth)

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's. (Tenth)

INTRODUCTION

Good evening Southpointe!! I am going to be talking to you for the next several Wednesday night about “What is right and wrong!”

Let’s look at the Ten Commandments!

As we read through these we are a little uncomfortable with some of them because we know we have a problem.

Let’s look at the first one:

As we read through these we are a little uncomfortable with some of them because we know we have a problem.

You shall have no other gods before me.

This is one I don’t think I have problem with. A survey revealed that 76% of Americans consider themselves completely true to the first commandment.

In other words, the majority of Americans say I have that first one down. I don’t have any other gods before Him.

Is that True?

Most Americans never had another in the place of the true God.

I think it is very doubtful. a better understanding of what it means will explain it.

It all comes down to the place of God in your life. that is where the commandments start.

What is the place of God in your life? If this isn’t right, everything is going to be a mess.

If you have another god before Him then your whole life is going to be in a big mess.

You want to make sure that the Lord is in the rightful place.

This is what I believe: You will serve what you worship.

"Get out of here, Satan," Jesus told him. "For the Scriptures say, 'You must worship the LORD your God and serve only Him.'"

When you worship any god, if it be passion, pursuit or person, you will serve and channel your energies into the pursuit of that thing that you worship.

If the Lord is number 1 in your life everything else will find its proper balance. If He is not, everything else will be chaos.

Look at the wording that Lord uses in verse 2:

I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Understand what that means> Lord your God.

Do you know what Lord means? It means that He is the boss. He is in charge of your life.

Sometimes we forget as a Christian that the Bible teaches that we are not our own. We have been bought with a price.

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

This means that we were living in sin separated from God.But God loves us so much that He sent His own Son Jesus to die on the cross for us.

Jesus shed His blood for our sins. He purchased us. We were like slaves on an auction block headed to certain destruction.

It was as though Jesus Himself came up and paid the amount for us. As he was taking us off, He undid the shackles and said you are free now.

I have purchased your redemption. you are bought with a price.

You and I belong to God. So we should be saying Lord, what do you want to do with my Life, not Lord here are my plans.

Now bless it, instead you should say here is a life that you have taken hold of. Here is a person that you have forgiven.

I dedicate it to you. I want to go in the direction you want me to go, because you are my Lord.

If He is not the Lord, then you are the Lord or someone else.

"So why do you keep calling Me 'Lord, Lord!' when you don't do what I say?

There’s a lot of people saying Jesus is Lord but is He really the Lord. If he is, then you need to do what He tells you to do.

If you look back at verse 2:

I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Look at “which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”

God is reminding them of the fact “what He did for them.”

God identifies Himself as the Lord their God. Then He goes on to remind them of what He has done for them.

He is the one who got them out of Egypt. He is the one who got them out of that miserable state they were in as slaves.

He is the one who answering your prayers. He is the same God that is now giving you rules for living because He loves you.

If you will notice that God does not start by threatening them or scaring them.

God starts by reminding them of the love that He has for them and what He has done for them in the past.

And we need to remember this: when we look at the Ten Commandments or any other standards laid out in the Bible we have to understand that they are there for our own good because God loves us.

I read a story the other day, about this man who looked out in this backyard and saw his dog staring at this object over in the yard.

The man goes out to the backyard to see what this object was and it was a little bird. The man reaches down to pick the bird up and it just goes right on his finger.

He takes the bird into his house and remember that he had a cage, and He open the cage door and the bird jump right into the swing that was in the cage. The bird starts chirping and swinging. This bird is happy.

The bird seem to be a lot happier inside the cage then outside. The bird had security.

Some will say it is cruel to keep him in the age. The bars are keeping the bird in. I think the bird saw it differently.

In his little bird brain I think his thoughts went like this: The bars are not keeping me in so I can’t get out but the bars are keeping that very large dog out so i can stay safely in. It was security!

This is how we need to look at the commandments of God.

Let’s look at the first commandment. “You shall have no other gods before me.”

What is it to have another God before Him?

Here what we need to know. Everybody has a god. Not just religious people.

So the big question is “What or who are you worshipping?”

What gets you out of bed in the morning? What do you think about more than anything else? What do you find yourself day-dreaming about, planning for or maybe scheming for?

What are you the most passionate about? Then that is your God.

Most of us would say the Lord is God. It is not just who you name. It is who you serve. We can all say the Lord is God but what we are really passionate about it is something else.

"No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other.

Closing with this: God did not give us these commandments to make us perfect. But instead God gave them to us to show that we are not perfect.

Nobody can keep these commandments in their own strength. You might describe the Ten commandments as a moral mirror.

When you look into the mirror it reveals the truth.

The commandments tell you that you have sinned and broken God’s commandments.

God’s commandments keep you safe and secured.