Navigate Podcast
Welcome to Navigate, we are two long term friends doing life and ministry together. I got tired of the same ole answers when I started looking for help when it came to my walk with God. So together we go deeper than most would on topics that most people have heard or were taught but never fully understood. It is our way of simplifying concepts that we may have over complicated throughout our lives. Bringing theology and life experience into each episode. It is our hope and desire to help Navigate your Christian walk with you
Navigate Podcast
Embracing Love Through Commandments Pt. 1
tjbhpodcast@gmail.com
What if the Ten Commandments are more than just a set of rules? Discover how these ancient guidelines are expressions of grace and love, designed not just as a moral checklist but as a pathway to freedom in Christ. Our journey through Exodus 20 reveals the context and significance of these divine directives, encouraging believers to view them as invitations to live a life firmly rooted in God's love and wisdom. We explore the concept of moralism and remind ourselves that these commandments are not about ticking boxes for salvation but understanding the heart of the lawgiver Himself.
Hey guys, welcome back to Navigate. I'm with Justin again. What's up, dude? What is up bro?
Speaker 2:How are you? I'm doing good. Fantastical, now that you're here, fantastic, I'm going to be fine, majestic.
Speaker 1:Wondrous. I'm glad, I'm glad. Thank you, I got my presence does that for you.
Speaker 2:I really am your presence is just a captivating thing, Tim. That's why you keep showing up. I'm just trying to catch some of the light coming off your sails, Captain. Yeah, good luck.
Speaker 1:I'm still trying to catch some of that too.
Speaker 2:You are my Moby Dick Tim. The cannibal part, I mean why that doesn't work is because that whole story is about somebody's whole existence being torn apart by his inability to capture this thing. But it's still good. I thought it was about a fish. Well, it's about a whale. It's a joke. It's a Ron Swanson joke, anyways.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right. I hope everybody enjoyed last week's because that one was a lot of fun with Nick.
Speaker 2:Oh man, Go check that one out. That was so good. We'll have him on again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, I think yeah, but now Justin and I have been talking about this for a while, about doing a, I guess maybe a 10-episode series. I guess I'm going to call it that. We'll see, we'll see, yeah, we'll see, but going through basically the Ten Commandments.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Not your Sunday school version of the Ten Commandments.
Speaker 2:I mean, it might be you may have been in a Sunday school. They're like we're going to take an hour, this isn't posted. We're going to talk through this, yeah, no, I just think there's significance to this. We've done a couple of podcasts on the law, but I thought it'd be really good to just kind of start walking through the whole idea of what are the Ten Commandments, why are they significant and what do they have to do with our life.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, yeah, because I think everybody knows the term Ten Commandments. Most people haven't actually spent a lot of time thinking through, I guess, the value of these things or the heart behind a lot of what's being said. So I mean, I just think it'd be good to talk through the significance of the Ten Commandments to us as Christians today and the significance of the Ten Commandments to us as Christians in the current environment that we find ourselves in, and then kind of walk from that.
Speaker 1:Okay, Interesting. Well, I'm curious because when you see the Ten Commandments, like well, yeah, don't kill anybody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's duh, Boom Done. Some guys are like blew it.
Speaker 1:How much of this can we actually get out of?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Let's find out, all right, all right, well, I guess We'll start with the first one today.
Speaker 2:We'll definitely get into the first one. I think the goal, though, that I would want to set up is this Getting into the Ten Commandments. What you need to realize is that if you land in Exodus chapter 20, without realizing how you got to Exodus chapter 20, you end up in moralism as opposed to like realizing that they're a product of grace. So the first thing that you need to understand is what is the context of what has led up to this moment where God is actually giving them the Ten Commandments? Because if you just start with Ten Commandments, it's kind of like. It's like not having a dad and just having a government.
Speaker 1:You know what.
Speaker 2:I mean.
Speaker 1:Like think about it that way A bunch of freaking rules no benefits no heart, no one who cares.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly Exactly. Get the 36 booster, anyways. So what has happened up to this point is God has seen his children suffering and struggling in Israel. He then sends Moses to redeem them and call them out of Israel through signs and wonders. He is utterly destroyed and mocked the demon gods of the Egyptians. He calls them out of Egypt. He splits the Red Sea. He feeds them manna from heaven. He gives them victory in all these battles that they should never win in. He loots all of Egypt. He's providing all these different things. He finally brings them to this mountain so that he can then give them the way that they should actually live.
Speaker 2:Okay, so if you don't see, first and foremost, the redeeming, grace-giving, electing God, who has brought them out of things, who has already set them free, you're going to miss a lot of the heart behind this, which is him telling them here's how you live like. You are free. I brought you out of Egypt. Now live like you're out of Egypt. I brought you out of this, I've adopted you. I've Now live like you're out of Egypt. I brought you out of this, I've adopted you. I've created a family with you. I've invited you to my mountain as opposed to Egypt, and now I'm going to teach you how to actually walk in light of that.
Speaker 2:So if you start with if I do these things, then I'm saved. You're missing the grace of the gospel here, which is no. God saved them. He brought them through the Red Sea, which is no God saved them. He brought them through the Red Sea, which is a symbol of baptism, to the place where they would learn how to worship him, which is the commandments.
Speaker 2:Does that make sense? So, like you come as a son, not to become a son, you're learning the family rules. You're not learning to do the rules so that you can be part of the family, because if you start without grace, you're not saved and you'll end up being a Pharisee who does this thing where they love the law more than they love the lawgiver. They loved the Torah, they loved the Mishnah, they loved all the boxes to check and all the things that came along with that, to the detriment of the person who actually gave it to them.
Speaker 2:So you love, if you love the house that your dad gives you, but you don't actually love your dad. You kind of missed the whole point. He's the only reason it's there. Those rules exist for him to be able to bless you and help you live and survive and thrive, and I would want us to understand that, which kind of leads to a second part of this, tim, which is really that rules are a good thing, like they're fantastic. Like I have young kids. Tim, you ever had a kid get away from you?
Speaker 1:Okay, it's a game for them, it is.
Speaker 2:I'm telling you. It's like a real thing, right when. It's like you start to realize oh, that's why that was there. Oh, that's why my parents told me that. Oh, that's why that kid's on a leash. And I listen, don't put your kid on a leash, Okay.
Speaker 2:But my point is this the difference between somebody playing in the street and playing in the yard is a fence. You know what I mean. The difference between somebody having an environment to exercise and have freedom and do things and them being in an unsafe environment where they're no longer just freely doing things, they're actually putting themselves in danger or offenses. Those things are put there so that you can exercise liberty within virtue. But if you remove virtue from the word liberty, you end up in vice, and that's God's idea of freedom starts with. Let me teach you how to live and have fun and enjoy life and enjoy the whole house, but not blow it up and put yourself in a place where it's actually going to kill you. And that's the heart of a father. So if you read the 10 commandments and you hear government and not my father gave me these, who already saved me and redeemed me and brought me out of slavery so that I could live in a way that was righteous, and I would know how to worship and live and do my life, Then you're going to end up with what I think a lot of other people do, which is these are the rules, this is what we're supposed to do, and we do these things because Sky Daddy will kill us if we don't. It's not that you have a father who's invited you to his own table and now he's teaching you how to be part of his family, now that you're adopted in. So that's the beginning.
Speaker 2:That's what we start with, and so Exodus chapter 20 starts with these words. Then God spoke all these words saying I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. And then he says this you shall have no other gods before me. And then he says this you shall have no other gods before me. Okay, so this is important, because this is how every kid in Israel would start off their day. This is how they would start most of the stuff around their dinner table. This is frequently referred to as the Shema.
Speaker 2:You see this it's echoed in Deuteronomy 6. Hear O Israel, the Lord, our God. The Lord is one. That's what they're starting with. You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. This is that first commandment. So even when you hear Jesus say love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, love your neighbors yourself, he's really giving you a pitch of hey.
Speaker 2:It starts with a love for God and it's important that we see that it's actually knowing who God is. I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. I wouldn't say you shall have no other gods before me is the commandment. I would say it's part of the commandment, which is I am the Lord, your God. I brought you out of the house of Egypt. Serve me. And if we don't get this, we screw up a lot. This is part of what I was getting at. If you don't know that, he's the God that saved you and brought you out and did all this stuff and you just start with serve me.
Speaker 2:You missed the heart of the 10 commandments, which is I bought you, I redeemed you, I've saved you, I'm the Lord, I'm the self-existing one. Who is God? He's telling you who he is before you get to don't serve anyone else. So the first commandment really starts with this who is God? Who is this God? Who is the one that we're actually serving? What has he done? And the context is he's the only one that's ever worth serving. He's the only one who would actually redeem you and save you and bring you out of these things. Don't forget that he's the one who chose you. You're not speaking to him right now. He's speaking to you. You're not saving him. He saved you. You didn't choose him, he chose you.
Speaker 2:Everything in the 10 commandments starts with who God is and what he's functionally done. The law is then given as a gift to his people, and the first response to grace from our father should be fidelity. All right, okay. So think about it this way you got a knight and you got a princess, and the knight saves the princess so that the princess can have the knight and her guy on the side Right. See how that doesn't work. Fidelity is really the first commandment. It's saying knowing who God is and worshiping him alone, and we need to understand that, because every addict knows this. You can't be told what not to do. You need to find something that has a higher value and actually do that. If I'm an addict and I just tell you not to do drugs anymore, what am I now thinking about Doing drugs? The drugs I'm not allowed to. I just tell you not to do drugs anymore. What am I now thinking about Doing drugs? The drugs I'm not allowed to do? Yeah, right, and where does that end More?
Speaker 2:drugs Doing those drugs or finding what A different drug I was going to say Something else that I'll do.
Speaker 1:Well, I won't do that, I'll do something else, right.
Speaker 2:So the goal is not to simply say you know, the first commandment is not don't worship these other gods. The first commandment is who is the God that you should be serving Now? Serve him, worship him, know him. I brought this up, tim, because it's important that we start in that place who is God? Who is God? Because this is what he's communicating to us.
Speaker 2:If you get me wrong, it doesn't matter what the other commandments are, because you're actually going to miss the heart of who you're serving. You won't worship me, right? I've brought this up a bunch of times before, but we transfer, or, let's say, exchange, worship for sincerity in our culture. Most people believe if I'm sincere, that counts. I could have a different belief than you do, and you could have a different belief than I do, and what we're actually weighing is the sincerity of our hearts, not the truth of what it is. All right, so think about it this way and this is a bad example, because it's the truth. Like it's this bad If your son, who is, let's say, four-year-old, cooks you steak versus you know Mario Batali or something like that, right, sure One, or let's say, both of them can have equal sincerity, but the outcome is totally different. Right? We don't see it that way. We think as long as we tried the same, then we're good.
Speaker 2:And God is saying with these 10 commandments absolutely not you will worship me, I will give my worship to no one else. And it starts with who God actually is. It's the Shema, it's the hero, israel, the Lord, our God. The Lord is one. You shall love him, you'll serve him, you'll trust him, and if you don't know who he is, you're screwed. There is no hope. There's no other name on heaven or earth by which we must be saved, and he's trying to reveal that to him. Why is that? Because Israel, and he's trying to reveal that to him. Why is that?
Speaker 1:Because Israel historically and even after this point, but coming into it is polytheistic, not monotheistic Meaning they serve other gods.
Speaker 2:Yes, worship other gods, the big joke is that the Israelites were monotheistic. It means they had one god, right, but for the entirety of Israel's history, they were constantly trying to get rid of all the other gods. They were in the process of serving All the other. They have this idol being drug along with them and this thing that was, I mean, even with you. Even see this gosh.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to think With Jacob and Rachel and Leah, right, she steals the household gods and hides them away in her stuff on their way out, and it's like Jacob's in the process of serving God. The only reason he's got Rachel or Leah and is going to make it out is because he's been serving God. And what is the first thing Rachel brings out of her house? All these other gods that I want to bring along with me? What do you think she's going to teach her kids? You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:So, throughout the wilderness, and what's the first thing that the Israelites make in the wilderness when Moses goes away? Right, he goes up on the mountain, he comes back, and they made this ox, right, this golden calf thing, right, yeah, golden calf, right, and this, ironically, is the symbol of the God who provides in Egypt, right, and it's like, oh, what are they doing? Well, we'll just resurrect another God when this one stops working for us. And it's ironic that he comes down the mountain with the first rule on the list, which is listen, you need to serve me, don't serve something else. And they're like we're going to go ahead and start with this then Right.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you something real quick. Did the Israelites know that beforehand, before the 10 commands, before this first command comes out not to do that?
Speaker 2:Well, this is the question, Tim Do you know that you're supposed to love your wife? Yeah, I mean, I would hope so. I would hope so. The other difficulty in this, though, is that people were so steeped in polytheism, in the worship of all these other deities and gods and everything else, that I don't know if they even realized how immersed in that culture they were. I mean, I think the same thing kind of for us today. To be totally honest, I think we have such a bad view of what idolatry actually is, and we'll get to the second commandment.
Speaker 2:By the way, if you were a Lutheran, luther put these two commandments together in his catechism you shall have no other gods before me and you shall not make for yourself an idol or a graven image right, some of you may have heard when you were a kid. An image, right, some of you may have heard when you were a kid, Because they're similar, but I really am trying to stress this idea of it, starting with who God is before we get to what you're not supposed to do, and at some level, they're definitely connected. There's gray here, but he's making a statement. I'm the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall not have any other gods. You shall have no other gods before me and this to me, one of my favorite stories about this, tim, is actually Elijah and the 900 prophets.
Speaker 2:Basically, you have 400 prophets of Baal. You have 450 prophets of Asherah, which always get left out in this story. I don't know why. Everyone is like the 400 prophets of Baal, right, there was also 450 prophets of Asherah that are mentioned. It's like 950 people, which, by the way, at the end of the story, he takes them down to the river and kills all of them himself, which is just a crazy story to me.
Speaker 1:Man, that was a bloodbath.
Speaker 2:You think afterwards, elijah was just like man, that was crazy.
Speaker 1:What a crazy story. I can't believe I did that. I'm pretty savage.
Speaker 2:What a freak accident. Exactly't believe I did that.
Speaker 1:I'm pretty savage. What a freak accident Exactly.
Speaker 2:I just woke up and looked around like whoa got a little extra over here. In this story one of my favorite lines is he says the word how long will you teeter between two gods? If Yahweh is God, serve him. If Baal is God, serve him. He's trying to evoke this picture for them. Serve the God who is real. Serve the one who actually saves. Serve the one who actually acts. Serve the one who actually does stuff. Serve the one who is the true God.
Speaker 2:When all the chips are on the table and they were constantly looking for somebody else on the side and I think honestly I bring it up all the time. But our relationship and our marriage and how that relationship is supposed to function speaks so much to our relationship with God. Like it's the wedding feast of the lamb. The, you know, the beginning of the Bible starts with Adam and Eve and the Trinity, the oneness they're creating, the, you know, the husband and the wife, and it ends in this wedding supper of the lamb with a bride and the groom come together. I mean it's constantly speaking to us of fidelity, covenant, relationship, one and one. Don't pick anything else. This is what it's supposed to look like.
Speaker 2:Before you do anything else get this right. There can be no one else in this equation. And the only way that you can have no one else in this equation is if you actually have allegiance and a deep love for your actual spouse. You can only it's only going to work that way If you actually end up loving them at the end of the day and it becomes a thing, and that means knowing who they are. Because, back to the, uh, the, the analogy I was giving you, tim, if I tell you, um man, I, I love my wife so much. Uh, you know, let's see, let's make it funny Her name's Brett, she's wonderful. And uh, we have two kids, um, freya and uh, liz Liza, sorry you ever call her Liz.
Speaker 1:No, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I sit here and have this conversation with you and you're looking at me and you're like no, tim, I'm serious, she's just the best. She means the world. We've had so many years together and it's been. You're going to be like you're a crazy person. That is my wife. Those, yes, exactly.
Speaker 2:And it doesn't matter how fervent I tell you or how much I spell out the things that I love about them, it's not true, it's not real, it's a lie, it's a fabrication. And we have so many people doing this thing with, like. You know, god's like an elephant and there's five blind men. You know what I mean. One of them's grabbing the leg and one's got the trunk. They're all trying to describe who God is like and in that illustration, you get the vantage point of the person who apparently is all-knowing and actually knows what God is. And everyone else is wrong, and I'm right. That's a very for the record. That's a very arrogant position to take. Everyone else in the world is wrong and I'm the only one that sees every path. You're welcome, but no, the picture is wrong. And I'm the only one that sees every path. You're welcome, right, but no, the picture is. Fervency doesn't get you there. Fervency is only helpful if you're worshiping the true God. Fervency is only helpful if you understand who he is and actually what he's doing.
Speaker 2:And I would like to take us to that passage in Deuteronomy real quick, tim. If you're cool with that, to talk about the consequences of fidelity and how this actually works out, I'll go ahead and read it to you because I think it's good. This is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments that the Lord, your God, has commanded me to teach you that you might do them in the land where you're going over to possess it, so that you and your sons and your grandsons might fear the Lord, your God, to keep all his. And he says this hear, o Israel, the Lord, our God. The Lord is one, shema Israel, adonai Elohenu, adonai Achad. There you go. That's for free. You got that today All right.
Speaker 2:There's a little Hebrew for you, but this is what he's saying the Lord, our God, the Lord is what he's saying, all this stuff. And then he's saying hear me on this. This is where the first commandment starts. This is the command. Start here. The Lord is one, serve him, follow him. And what is all of this for? So that your son and your grandson might fear the Lord, your God. Why is that important, tim? Why do you think fear is important? Fear, yeah, oh man.
Speaker 2:Probably so you know what you're relying on. Okay, that's good, that's good. I mean a little bit back to the illustration you ever seen, uh, man, you ever seen those videos, tim, like compilations of people doing stupid things all the time? You know what I mean? There's, this one is my favorite. It's this guy who's always got like a hard hat on and a vest and it just shows little clips of him looking over and stuff that's happened on, like you know job sites and stuff.
Speaker 2:Just horrifying things. Okay, that should invoke in you a yeah, I probably shouldn't do that. Yeah, that's not actually going to work out for me. It's supposed to awake a fear that would stir obedience. If you understand, if I cross that fence, it will not go well for me and my dad put that fence there to protect me, right? Then I understand how I'm supposed to live, because I trust my dad, I trust his heart, and that should give me a deep fear of what happens when I go outside of that fence. Why? Because I'm no longer under God's protection. In some sense, anyone who's not under his protection is under his wrath. So if I go out there, that's where the wolves are.
Speaker 2:I think I brought this up the other day. It was. The man lives in a home and wolves continue to come in and are trying to attack and take his livestock. So he builds a fence around the home. The woman thinks that the man built the fence around the home to keep her in. The woman destroys the fence. The wolves come in and kill the woman.
Speaker 2:Wow, I was like oh man, there's a truth there. Not even necessarily about the man and woman thing, right, but about the idea of how we tend to think about stuff yeah, god put these things in place and then people tore them down, thinking that God did it to oppress them. And then they find out the hard way that God put those there because he loves you. So when it talks about your sons and your grandsons and wanting to instill a fear, a healthy fear of what happens if you pet the bear right, then we would actually get to a place, if we would listen to him, where we would live long. It would go well for us. We would actually be able to walk things out. If you have fidelity to God, it will go well with you. The second you want to anchor from him, it will not go well with you so that your grandsons and your sons might fear the Lord to keep all the statutes and his commandments which I command you.
Speaker 2:Why I like this is because it's almost like it's set up as a promise. Like, think about it this way hey, if I do this thing in my home, it will go well for us. It may not be everything that every other person is looking for from a financial or whatever standpoint. Oh, this will happen. No, but it will actually go well for you. God will see to it that you're under his covenant and he's going to take care of you, and at least then you know what happens inside the house is what my dad is doing, not what some other stranger is doing what happens inside the four walls. I may not like it, but I at least know that he has my best intention at heart, and this is for a good reason, even though I don't totally understand it. Yet what happens outside the house is something else entirely. What happens outside the yard is a different story. You know what I mean. So he's trying to tell us this is how you should functionally live is a different story. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:So he's trying to tell us this is how you should functionally live. This is what it's supposed to look like.
Speaker 2:So let me ask you is it okay, then, to not like that fence? That's a great question. I think it would be a sin to hate the fence, right? Yeah, yeah, I mean, I would say, oftentimes our heart is I hate fences because they're keeping me from something. Yeah, oftentimes our heart is I hate fences because they're keeping me from something, and God's heart for you is, yes, it's keeping you from all the things that you should never be and never do, and never, you know, never supposed to possess you.
Speaker 1:What came to mind was the Garden of Eden with Eve and the fruit and the whole original sin concept. Really is like I could be God if I know everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So when you were talking about the fences and stuff and turning them down, I'm like yeah, I've done that.
Speaker 2:All of us have. You know what I?
Speaker 2:mean yeah, I know, yeah, wouldn't you say our current right-wing political agenda is basically trying to emulate the Ten Commandments at some level. Without the First Commandment, we'll do all the good things. We're just going to add some other gods in. Yeah Right, we're going to do some. We're just this, stuff's fine. We're just not going to anchor ourself to one god we want to. We're going to be more careful than that, in case you let us down or somebody is uncomfortable with that. It's kind of like saying, hey, we're going to have four dads, it's your house, but we're going to have four of us. How's that going to work?
Speaker 2:Everybody's going to die, that's not that's not going to work out at all. Listen, I've done counseling with people with multiple dads and multiple moms and blended families, and it is always a nightmare. I can't even imagine if you put them all under the same roof, how that would go. But that fidelity piece is real. We shouldn't hate the fences, we should learn to love the fences. Now, why do I say this?
Speaker 2:You ever read through the Psalms? Yes, you ever. You ever gone there before? Here's a. Here's a fun one real quick. This is a. This is Psalm 19. Let me see if I can get there real quick.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to pull it up, one of my favorite places to teach on, if we're teaching about the value of the word of God. The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgment of the Lord are true. They are righteous altogether. They're more desirable than gold, yes, more than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey, honey and dripping off the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping him there is great reward.
Speaker 2:Imagine a kid like leaning up against the wall of the house, like the wall of this house is amazing, you know what I mean. Like the door posts that hold the door are fantastic. The lock on the door is wonderful. You know what I mean. He's praising God for all the things that he has put in place so that he doesn't shipwreck his entire life. God has set all of these things in place for comfort for you, for solace for you. Comfort for you, for solace for you, for safety for you, for joy for you.
Speaker 2:Think about the difference between a kid who grows up having a home and a kid who grows up without a home. Home means everything. Home is how you actually you know, learn who you are and how to live. It's the place that you do holidays. It's the place where you learn your hardest lessons, you know, and it's the place where you're growing and listen. We can get into the when we get out of the house and the rules and how that grows. But I'm saying if a child does not have a home, there's a lot that goes wrong, because then they're only relying on the family. And if a child doesn't have a home or a family it's. It's a disaster, Like it's all going to go south.
Speaker 2:But what's interesting about this is he doesn't say the law is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony is perfect, making wise the simple. The precepts are rejoicing the heart. He says the law of the Lord is perfect, the testimony of the Lord is sure, the precepts of the Lord are right.
Speaker 2:What's central in all of that is I love these things because I trust the father who gave them to me. I love my home, not because of the home itself, because it's a prison if it's not my father, but if I have my father, I know it's not a prison. I can trust that it's his home and he's made this for me. I don't trust the table of my enemy, I trust the table of my father. I don't trust the lock on the door of my enemy, I trust the lock on the door of my father.
Speaker 2:And so if you start and you get into the first commandment and you miss the heart of the father that is trying to give you the rules of the house so that you would know how to live and walk these things out, you're going to be a mess and everybody, everyone, struggles with this because you can let your love for God grow cold very quickly, you can start to stare at the walls and very quickly become a mess. I mean, this was really the first lie from Satan. Did God really say? And what is he questioning when he questions that Not just the word of God, but more specifically, he's attacking the character of God. Would God really keep you from something so wonderful? Would God really tell you you can't have something good? Would God really keep you from something that would be tasty and look good and great for gaining knowledge? Would God really do that? Man must be a cruel father. You should try this right.
Speaker 2:It's the character of God that is under attack at the same time that the word of God is under attack, which is another way of saying the character of your father is under attack when you're scorning the rules and laws he's put in place to protect you. The character and the heart of God, the heart of Jesus, is under attack when you scorn the rules that Jesus puts in place. If you say I love Jesus but I don't like his rules, what you're actually saying is I don't trust his heart. I don't think he knows best for me. Actually saying is I don't trust his heart. I don't think he knows best for me, I know better for myself and then you enter into every nightmare that comes along with that and abandoning God and what he said in place. So I just I think about the home. I think about the household, I think about raising kids, I think about God inviting us to his table and the first thing that he starts with is, hey, none of this home matters, and it will all become a prison to you. If you don't start with me, this will all be a mess. If you don't know my heart, this will not go well for you at all.
Speaker 2:And when I look at our nation, when I look at households today shoot, tim. When I look at churches today, there are people abandoning a love for God all over the place in the name of doing religion. Today, we call it spirituality. You know what I mean. Or we just go farther, like I'm doing witchcraft. No, no, it's good, I'm a white witch, right? The whole idea of Wicca, tim.
Speaker 2:There's such a massive following on TikTok of all these. I think it's just. I'm trying to think if it's just called Wicca or what it is. But you got girls you know what I mean From like 12 years old to like 45 that are lighting candles. You know what I mean and talking about flying around in brooms and like the witch life. You know what I mean. Especially, the farther we get to Halloween, the more people you're going to be seeing doing this stuff. But it is one of the largest followings that we have online is witches or people that are taking part in this Wicca or this kind of area. It's people that are essentially like I'm walking this way. Everybody is trying to decide no, no, no. I want all the benefits of the house, I just don't want that. God, I'll be God.
Speaker 1:I'll decide who I want to serve. It's like I want it to make sense for me. So they go out and try to find something. Yeah, I'll decide who I want to serve. It's like I want it to make sense for me, so they go out and try to find something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's, I just think it's, it's the um, it's man, it's a creepy way to put it, but it's almost like grooming. You know what I mean. Somebody wants to do something shady with your kid. What they do is they convince your, your kid, that they're friends and then they start to, let's say, disrupt the trust that you would have in your own family, and then they start to do things to you that they never should. You know what I mean. And then it goes south really fast until your allegiance is more to that person because you're actually more afraid of what might happen with them than you are of your own parents.
Speaker 2:Right, and I think about how the demonic works just like that. The demonic comes in, satan comes in, he tries to convince you that he's your friend, and then he tries to convince you that he knows better than God does, and then he does something to you or works in such a way that now you're actually more afraid you know what I mean of walking away for this or the wrath that's going to come from God if any of this comes out. So you stick with the one instead of the other. It's a terrifying reality, but Satan really does come to steal, kill and destroy. And what's sad again, tim, is that if you doubt the character and love that God has for you, then you start to leave the doors unlocked for people that you shouldn't. And I would say this to people right now If you're dating somebody who doesn't know God, what you're saying is I don't really trust the heart of God, I'm going to leave the doors unlocked, right?
Speaker 2:What you're saying? If you're getting into stuff that you shouldn't be getting into, or you're allowing, let's say, sin patterns to make inroads that you never used to make inroads, what you're saying is you know, I just don't like this fence anymore. I'm going to tear it up. I make inroads. What you're saying is you know, I just don't like this fence anymore, I'm going to tear it up. I don't trust God, I don't really love God. I don't think he really has the best for me, or I love Him, but in all honesty, I think it's time that I grow up and do my own thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah you don't really ever outgrow God. He's not the dad where. No, I'm an adult and I can do what I want. No, he's there to protect you and walk with you and help you grow to the fullness of what you're supposed to be. So at one point you would enter into his kingdom and he would say well done, good and faithful servant, come into the joy of your master. You're here. There's no more fences here. There's no more rules here, because you don't need them anymore, because there is no street outside. Now we just get to live together in harmony and beauty and all these different things.
Speaker 1:What's a good way to identify the fence?
Speaker 2:Well, I guess there's two ways, and maybe the way that you're asking is how do I identify the fence in my life that I'm trying to tear up?
Speaker 1:That might be more what you're saying, Not knowing. Perhaps you know.
Speaker 2:The other side is hey, how do I find out what the law of God actually is? And I would say the fence starts with knowing the word of God and what he's actually said. Part of why we're going through the Ten Commandments and actually want to talk about it is hey, let's start talking about all the things, the very you know first, things that God said are really freaking important in your life. And from these 10 rules, the other 613 that we see in the law are comprised. All of them are, let's say, case studies. All of them are derived from these 10. Even when Jesus, you know, gives the love of the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, love your neighbors yourself. That was, taking the 10 commandments and putting them in the two sections would say rely on. The first four are all about how to love God. The last six are all about how to love your neighbor, right? So everything that is said is summed up in these 10 commandments, and the first one is this you need to anchor yourself to have a love for God. And if you want to know more about where the fences are, I would say start to study what your dad has actually said. Start to learn what he's actually going through. Ten Commandments are great, but I mean I just think we hoot and laugh now when we read through the Psalms and he's like I love your law, it's the best thing ever, I love it. It's the bed I lay on at night, it's the drink I have in the morning and, um, we don't say that, but I'll tell you this, tim, somebody who has made an absolute mess of their life uh comes in and it means the world to them To. To be honest, um, tim, I think about my dad when I think about this.
Speaker 2:A lot, because my dad didn't have a dad. Um, his dad left when he was I think he was two years old just walked out on him I don't brought this up before. He had a really messy upbringing. Um, I mean, it was, you know, in and out of juvie and you know smoking and doing drugs and all kinds of stuff. Um, he, you know he had his best friend, um, you know, deleted himself in front of him when I think he was like 11 years old or something. My grandma was working three jobs, you know what I mean, and is is narcoleptic to this day. Um, because she was trying to put food on the table and make it work.
Speaker 2:Uh, he was a hellion and, um, he didn't have the heart of the father and he didn't have the rules to help him know how to actually succeed in life. And it seemed like, whatever he did, he continued to fail or it didn't go well. Um, and it seemed like whatever he did, he continued to fail or it didn't go well, and it was a cycle for him. So we got into the military and he started to learn structure and he realized that if you actually have laws, you have rules. It helps you succeed so you don't smash the things that you're trying to build before you even get to see it done. And then my dad found Jesus and he realized that, oh, god has actually given me rules for my life. He's shown me how I'm supposed to live so that it would go well for me, so that it would go well for my sons, so that it would go well for my grandsons. And if I actually just do these things, I will actually have success in these areas that I'm trying to and I won't continue to hit a wall.
Speaker 2:My dad I say it all the time tended to be more structured and oftentimes I felt like on my end it was more moralistic and less gospel. These are the rules. Do a good job. And it frustrated me growing up because I was like man where was the gospel and all that? And my dad was trying to communicate love by giving us rules and things to follow along, because those were the things that he did not have and those were the reasons his life was so painful early on. If you didn't have those rules, if you didn't have structure, if you didn't have school, you don't have people teaching you the right things to do. You don't value them unless you haven't had them before. So this is what I the analogy I brought up earlier the husband builds the fence because the wolves are taking stuff away, and if you haven't had the wolves take stuff away from you, you don't value the fence when it's there. And when you stop seeing the wolves, then you start to get angry at the fence. But the reality is, if you know the heart of the person and what happened and why the fence is there, then you stop griping about the fence and you rub your hands against and say thank God, this is here.
Speaker 2:Whoever put this up must really care for me, and I think my dad learned why the law, why the rules, why God, what the statements, the statutes, the commandments, all these different things, why they were so valuable. Because he had to live with them long enough to realize that you absolutely destroy your life if somebody doesn't help provide the structure so that you actually walk it out. Because if I'm making the rules, it goes badly, but when God makes the rules, things actually go really well. And so I learned kind of after I got saved, I started to see the heart of my dad and growing up it was really hard and I could talk about you know different ways that I. It could have been better or this could have been done or that could have been done.
Speaker 2:My dad, for my entire life, was trying to show me the value of actually having rules, laws and structure, because it was something that he never had. The greatest statement of love I feel like my dad gave to me and to my family is if you do these things, this is the way you should go, and if you go this way and you don't depart from it, it will go well for you before God He'll take care of you. And he was trying to display to me the heart of the father, which is hey, if you do these things, if you walk this stuff out, if you obey these rules, I want you to know it's going to be so much better for you in your life. And these things are here because I love you, not because I'm trying to capture you. But unfortunately so often and this is true in churches too like first-generation churches love the gospel, second-generation churches assume the gospel and third-generation churches hate the gospel, because if you haven't seen the wolves on the other side, you assume the wolves are inside and it sucks. It can blow stuff up in a hurry, and it sucks, it can blow stuff up in a hurry.
Speaker 2:So I guess I would just say for anybody out there listen, if you understand this really important truth, that the reason for the Ten Commandments and the rules that God has given you is because you have a father that actually does love you and wants to raise you up and teach you the better way to live, then maybe you would view those rules a little bit different and say okay, maybe I don't totally understand this, it doesn't make as much sense to me, but I trust your heart, I trust your hand and I trust that this is a better way and I want to walk that out.
Speaker 2:It would go a lot better for everybody. And the more that we've torn these things apart in our own society, the more chaos, the more brokenness and the more hurt that we've seen. And everybody wants to start writing their own set of rules, but nobody wants to return back to the big 10 and really out of the big 10, the one the Shema, the Lord, is one. You got to serve him. You got to start there. Give your allegiance to him and nothing else. Love him and then all the other rules begin to make sense. But if you don't get that one right, you literally have nothing and you'll be bankrupt in your faith.
Speaker 1:Nice, it's a lot to chew on yeah.
Speaker 2:There you go, tim. Take the meat and spit out the bone, not bad for one verse.
Speaker 1:Huh, we did a couple today.
Speaker 2:So I guess my heart for everybody would be this is we're digging into the Ten Commandments. I would recommend, hey, why don't you go and read them? Dig into Exodus, chapter 20. You're welcome to pick up the list in Deuteronomy as well. Read through them. There is one difference that we'll get to when we talk about the Sabbath, which I think is interesting and worth bringing up. Oh, cool. But I want you guys to start thinking and asking the question how am I in my life falling more in love with Jesus? How am I in my life falling more in love with Jesus? Because if you're falling more in love with God, then what happens is the rules start to make more sense and you won't struggle with trying to tear down fences because you'll trust the fences that are there. But if you're flirting with tearing fences down and you're flirting with sin in your life, it's because you're forgetting the heart of the father that loves you and has put that there for good reason.
Speaker 1:Very true. Let me ask you something real quick.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Still got some time. I don't know if this is normal or if this is all that common, but it's kind of been talking to some people, man, who are just kind of new believers within a year or so. Yeah, and, like you know, things were a lot easier a year ago for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Is that common, like before someone becomes a believer in God? Totally Like. Why is that? I mean, these are people who don't have jobs now, or their marriage is now crumbling or their kids now hate them. You know. Like just difficult, difficult stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah, it was hard for the Israelites to get out of Egypt. Yeah Right, it was hard for them. It was much they hated it in Egypt and they were ready to leave. But also, leaving Egypt is an extremely difficult process until you get to the promised land. And then in the promised land, you have the difficulty of actually maintaining the promised land and not letting it become Egypt.
Speaker 2:But I would say, anybody who comes to Christ immediately is going to have wars to fight. They're going to have red seas that they're going to have to walk through and they're going to constantly be trying to follow and make their way to a place with God where at some point it's David's kingdom you know what I mean or Solomon's kingdom. It's like, man, we're good, we did it, this is working, this is cool, god's doing stuff. But that's not a one-part process.
Speaker 2:I would say when you leave Egypt, it actually starts kind of in a war. You're thrilled when God parts the sea, but, man, there's a lot of times where you're looking back, trying to make an idol out of your gold rings, trying to hope that sustains me because he's been really quiet and my pastor's not really doing what he's supposed to be doing. He's not helping me, he's been silent for forever. And my pastor is not really doing what he's supposed to be doing. He's not helping me, he's been silent for forever. And you know, I just need something to get me out of this situation. And in those moments it's like man God is calling you, say, hey, do you trust my heart, do you trust me in this?
Speaker 2:And yeah, man it's not easier coming to Christ, but it is better. It's not easier immediately having rules, but it is better immediately having rules. Nice, yeah. So I would say, if somebody's coming to Christ earlier on in their life and they're like, or came to Christ recently and is like, you know, it got a lot harder for me, I'd be like yeah, yeah, that's what it's like when you leave slavery.
Speaker 2:Prison's easy because they pay for all your meals and it's the same system every day and you do the same stuff and you hated it there. What's really hard is acclimating and get back into real life. And a lot of people are stuck in kind of a spiritual Stockholm syndrome, where they love the sin and the thing that was enslaving them and they have a really hard time getting to a place where they're living the way that a normal person should, because their affections have been so jacked up and misaligned that they're having to learn what a new, actual, functional life looks like. And then your desire is to teach your kids to never go back to what you were a part of, but you're also keeping in the back of your head that man Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy and his goal is to get everybody back into Egypt.
Speaker 1:So yeah, right on, thanks, man Right on Well, praying for you guys.
Speaker 2:I hope you guys will dig into the 10 commandments with us. We'll start walking through these one at a time, and I hope it just blesses you. Be thinking about the good things that God's been doing in your life. Think about what he saved you from what he saved you to what he saved you for, and then start thinking about the good things that he's placed in your life the laws, the wisdom, the rules that he's placed for you so that we would live better. And as we look at our world today, as we look at the election that we're having, we look at the chaos that's ensuing in so many different places. Every time we see a law, a precept, a testimony of God, what I want you to see is an expression of the love of God for his children that he has adopted and put his laid his life down for to save you.
