Sermon Tone Analysis

Putting God First In Your Life \\ Exodus 20:1-3 (NIV) \\ \\

The God you choose will either devour or develop your life.

Boundaries are something that our culture needs and yet it hates them.

We believe that our fun and freedom will be hampered if limitations are imposed on our lives.

No where is this more true than with God’s boundaries, also known as the Ten Commandments.

The sentiment of our society is echoed in the words of Ted Turner more than a decade ago.

He told a convention of newspaper executives that the Ten Commandments are out of date.

Instead, Turner suggested a set of “Ten Voluntary Initiatives” to guide “sensitive persons through the new age.”

Throughout this series I want to emphasize that God didn’t give us these commandments to stifle our pleasure.

His intent was to maximize the joy of life on earth.

He didn’t set forth these commands to curb our freedom, but to show us what real liberty looks like.

God’s boundaries were meant to lead us to abundant living.

One way the commandments achieve this is by keeping us safe: One winter a resort in Breckenridge, Colorado, posted signs instructing skiers to keep off a certain slope.

The signs, large and distinct, said, “DANGER!

OUT OF BOUNDS!”

In spite of the warnings, however, several skiers went into the area.

The result?

A half-mile-wide avalanche buried four of the trespassers beneath tons of snow and rock.

This tragedy never would have happened if the signs had been heeded.

That’s the negative end of the commandments.

On the positive side I want to demonstrate how God’s loving limits actually set us free to become the people God created us to be.

We’re kind of like kites.

The kite is attached to a string, held by a person standing on the ground.

After the kite is airborne you might be tempted to cut the string so it can fly higher.

Go ahead and try it and you’ll see what happens.

The kite won’t gain greater altitude.

Instead, it will plummet to the ground.

A kite finds its freedom to fly in a boundary and so do we.

We’re going to begin with the first commandment this morning.

It is foundational to all the rest.

If you don’t fully buy into this one, the other nine are of no use.

I’d go so far as to say that failure to uphold the first commandment is what leads to breaking any of the other nine.

The first commandment is foundational.

\\ 1.

The Foundation of the First Commandment

In three short verses God defines a proper perspective for viewing life.

And God spoke all these words: “I am the LORD your God...” Exodus 20:1-2a (NIV) From the very beginning God in the first commandment:

A.  Abolishes atheism.

In fact, the first two verses tell us who the commandments are for.

They are only relevant for people who believe in the one and only God.

Only people who have a relationship with the God of the universe by faith will buy into the Ten Commandments.

I appreciate the efforts of folks who are trying to get or keep the commandments posted in schools and courthouses, but I have to conclude that it’s the most ineffective thing you can do.

Would you really expect an atheistic society to live by laws that they assume are outdated, irrelevant and humanly invented?

Spiritually speaking, nonbelievers are dead.

They have no God-consciousness.

They will not be moved by appeals to heed the Ten Commandments.

Only people committed to God will take the commandments seriously.

My advise to all these well-meaning Christians is that they, first, start living the commandments.

Then, fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus by sharing their faith with lost people.

It’s only after they’ve come to believe and have a relationship with the God of the universe that they will even consider living by his laws.

Before actually giving the first commandment, God continues with this introductory statement: “…who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”

Exodus 20:2b

On this occasion he was communicating exclusively with the nation of Israel.

God had miraculously saved them from bondage in Egypt.

He directly intervened and brought them out.

There were no doubts about his personal involvement.

This deliverance could not be chalked up to chance or human effort.

It took God’s power and presence to pull it off.

This verse confronts an old idea that is still alive and well in our world today.

B. The First Commandment Denies Deism.

Deism is the belief that there is a God out there somewhere, but he’s really not involved in human affairs.

He created the world and everything in it, but then like a clock, he wound it all up and let it go.

He’s detached from us and doesn’t intervene.

He’s not emotionally involved either.

He could really care less what happens here on earth.

We don’t call it deism anymore.

Today it goes by the titles “inclusion” or “ecumenical” or sometimes “tolerance.”

It’s the idea that there is a God, but we shouldn’t try to define him.

This has resulted in what one author has termed the “Mush God.”

The Mush God has been known to appear to millionaires on golf courses.

He appears to politicians at ribbon-cutting ceremonies and to clergymen speaking the invocation on national TV at either Democratic or Republican conventions.

\\ The Mush God has no theology to speak of, being a Cream of Wheat divinity.

The Mush God has no particular credo, no tenets of faith, nothing that would make it difficult for believer and nonbeliever alike to lower one’s head when the temporary chairman tells us that Reverend, Rabbi, Father, or Mufti, will lead us in an innocuous, harmless prayer, for this god of public occasions is not a jealous god.

You can even invoke him to start a hooker’s convention and he~/she or it won’t be offended.

God of the Rotary, God of the Optimists, Protector of the Buddy System, The Mush God is Lord of the secular ritual, of the necessary but hypocritical forms and formalities that hush the divisive and derisive.

The Mush God is a serviceable god whose laws are chiseled not on tablets but written on sand, open to amendment, qualification and erasure.

This is a god that will compromise with you, make allowances and declare all wars holy, all peaces hallowed.

This abstract deity makes no absolute claims on anyone or anything.

The God of the Bible is profoundly different.

He is the one and only and as such can make the next demand of all who would be in relationship with him.

“You shall have no other gods before me.”

Exodus 20:3 (NIV)

This first commandment explicitly…

C.  Prohibits polytheism.

That’s not the belief that someone named Polly is God.

Polytheism is the belief in many gods.

Egypt, the place where the nation Israel had just escaped from, was polytheistic.

They had many, many gods – Ra, Isis, Horace, take your pick.

The Lord God told them to forget all that nonsense.

He’d publicly triumphed over all those so-called gods and now his people were to acknowledge only him.

If you’re a Christian you may be thinking that you’ve got this one licked.

You’ve never bowed down to another god.

You’ve never prayed to or called on the name anyone other that the Lord.

Don’t pat yourself on the back too quickly.

You may not have gone through ritualistic worship of other gods, but the way you live might just reveal rank idolatry.

You just haven’t recognized it as such.

…Whatever you love most, serve most, seek out most, give to the most, worship the most, and care about the most is your god.

Your “god” can be your career, your bank account, the way you look, a particular position or degree, influence, power, or physical pleasure.

It can even be something that is considered good, yet you allow it to dominate your life more than God, such as your marriage or your family.

Your “god” is whatever you allow to control you, to be the ultimate guide to decision making, and the source of your self-worth.

What other gods could we have besides the Lord?