So for the last year I’ve been slogging through the final requirements of my major project. You're sick of hearing about it and I am sick of talking about it! I created a project proposal, submitted it to the doctoral program director, got the green light from the ‘human rights in research’ committee (they didn’t want me damaging any young minds), spent months on the internet and in libraries researching my project, read almostone hundredbooks, prepared aneighty page manual for a Masters-level course on leadership, developed testing instruments to measure the effectiveness of my course, taught the course, sent off my first two chapters, and got my first two chapters back with instructions to rewrite them. I rewrote those chapters.
Yesterday I sent off my rough draft which consisted of three copies of atwo hundred pluspage paper. This summer they’ll probably send it back for me to make more changes. Then the oral defense. If I survive, I graduate in December 2008.
The major project is a major pain! It’s a black hole that you pour your heart, mind, body, and soul into. You want to give up and quit a dozen times through the process, but you just keep going and going and going. Over two hundred pages. Over three thousandparagraphs. Overseventhousandlines of text. Almost fifty thousand words. Almost three hundred thousand characters. And Lara still loves me. It will be read by three people, put in a library, and forgotten for eternity.
You know, a lot of people feel the same way about the Christian life. God has all these requirements, regulations, laws, and rules. Do this, but don’t do that. There’s guilt and shame. Is there grace? Is there mercy? Is there forgiveness? Is there love? Does my effort matter? Is the Christian life worth it? Sixty-six books in the Bible. 1,189 chapters. 31,173 verses. 807,361 words of instruction. God’s word can seem a bit overwhelming!
I’ll tell you what the world says about God. Theworld says, "Who cares what God’s word requires? You don’t need religion. Religion is a crutch. It’s a weight, a hindrance, and bondage. Religion suffocates you. Religion turns you into an irrational, loveless, vile fanatic. You’ll be happier if you’d shed your religious ways."
You are familiar with the Ten Commandments which are detailed in Exodus 20. God says that you,"Shall have no other gods before me,shall not worship idols, shall not misuse the name of the Lord,shall remember the Sabbath by keeping it holy,shall honor your father and mother, shall not murder,shall not commit adultery,shall not steal, shall not give false testimony, andshall not covet."
The world hates these Ten Commandments. The world has its own commandments.
- Thou shall not be intolerant.
- Thou shall not show undivided devotion to thy god(it makes me uncomfortable).
- Thou shall blaspheme God freely in the name of free speech.
- Thou shall treat Sunday as a day for every other priority except worshiping God.
- It’s not cool to respect your parents.
- If you’re not young, healthy, attractive, strong, clever, intelligent, and wealthy,your life doesn’t matter.
- Marriage is for a while, not for forever.
- It’s better to take from the rich than it is to give.
- Tell the truth only when it’s to your advantage.
- If you want it you should charge it, seduce it, or sue for it.
Friends, there is God’s way and there are the ways of the world. You can build your life around God’s principles or you can build your life around the world’s principles. You have a choice. But once you make the choice, you must live with your choice.
I have come to see God’s laws differently than most people. I believe that God’s laws are given out of love and are given for love. I believe that God’s laws are intended to liberate and to breathe the life of God into our souls and relationships. I cannot think of a single instance where a person was better off for having violating one of God’s commandments, can you? We can break ourselves against God’s laws, or we can trust them to set us free.
You shall have no other gods before me.
For this morning let’s take the first commandment which relates to loving God. Exodus 20:1-3 (NIV) says, "And God spoke all these words: 'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.' "
I want you to think about this phrase, "You shall have no other gods before me." I want you ask yourself whether this phrase is something a loving God would ever say. I know that unloving Christians repeat it. But is it something a loving God would say? Would a loving God ever say, "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Nehemiah, Ezra, Jesus, Peter, James, and John?"
Would a loving God ever say, "I have chosen Israel" or"The Church is the bride of Christ?" Would a loving God ever say that there are right beliefs and wrong beliefs, right religions and wrong religions, orthodoxy and heresy, right and wrong moral choices, light and darkness, good and evil, or truth and error? Would a loving God ever say there is only one gate, one path, and one way to eternal life?
This is what Exodus 20:1-3 is all about. God is saying, "This is who I am. I am the God who brought you out of Egypt. I am the one who set you free. You are to have no othergods before me. I am this. I am not that."
A few weeks ago a video by a professor went viral on the internet. Millions of people bookmarked it, linked to it, ande-mailed it. At the time theforty-six year old professor and father of three children (ages 5, 2, and 1) was dying of pancreatic cancer and only had a few months to live. He was videotaping one "last lecture", not so much for his students as for his own children.
His children were young and he wanted them to know what kind of man he was, what kind of father he was,what he believed, and what was important in life. He talked about his childhood dreams to win big animals at carnivals, to walk in zero gravity, and to design Disney rides—all of which he accomplished.
He talked about the obstacles he faced in life. He paid tribute to his parents who were so proud of him and believed in him. He talked about the studentswho he had poured his life into and how he had helped them fulfill their dreams. He talked about his accomplishments and the legacy he hoped to leave. He did one arm pushups to show his kids he was once strong and healthy. He brought his wife out on the stage and celebrated her birthday. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119024238402033039.html
If this loving father of three young children wanted so badly for his children to know him, how much more do you think our Father in heaven would want to be known? Have you ever considered that God sheds tears over not being known by his children? Have you thought that he sheds tears over the confusion and violence that occurs in his name around the world?
In the first commandment God is saying, "I am not everything that every personand every religion wants to believe. This is who I am. I am the God who brought you out of Egypt, the God who just set you free. I have acted in history."
The world believes that the first commandment is utterly dangerous. The world says, "There are many gods! There are many paths to eternal life. Everyone worships the same god,but in different ways. There can be no certainty in regard to belief. There is no right or wrong religion."
The first commandment is a challenge to discover the identity of the one true God. It is also a challenge for us to commit our lives to him in undivided devotion.
We can know the one true God.
John 1:1-18 (NIV) says thatJesus came near to us so that we could know the one true God. Listen to John's words in this passage.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."
"There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world."
"He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God."
"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, 'This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' 'From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only,who is at the Father's side, has made him known."