Speaker 1: So we're starting this series, stepping stones, and we're looking at the 10 commandments.
Speaker 1: That's what we're going to be talking about over the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: And I encourage you to take some notes today.
Speaker 1: I think that it will benefit you when Christie and I moved to Hawaii.
Speaker 1: A number of years ago, we had planted a church in Chicago and I knew it was time for us to leave that church.
Speaker 1: And, uh, and so we did, we made that transition, but we, we turned that church over to another pastor and that was going well, but we didn't have anywhere to go.
Speaker 1: And so, uh, previously we had been introduced to the idea of going to Hawaii and, and taking a church that had an existing church that was there.
Speaker 1: Uh, but at the time this was about a year.
Speaker 1: But prior to this, I, I, we didn't feel like it was right for us to leave Chicago at that time.
Speaker 1: But now a year later we knew it was time.
Speaker 1: And so we had been preaching at different churches and we were at this church, this great little church in South Carolina that, uh, Orangeburg South Carolina, you might know where that is.
Speaker 1: It's like three people on earth that know where that is.
Speaker 1: And, and they're all in Orangeburg, ironically.
Speaker 1: And so we're, um, and so we're, we're there and it's, uh, it's a really cool town actually.
Speaker 1: And so we're, we preach for the church and they, and they said to us that the, uh, the elders met with us after the service and said, you know, we really like, what would like for you guys to move here and become our new pastors?
Speaker 1: And then the conversation, uh, I just, I just knew it wasn't a right fit.
Speaker 1: I knew it wasn't right.
Speaker 1: And so we got in the car and Christie said to me, Hey, uh, so this isn't it.
Speaker 1: And I said, well, how do you know this?
Speaker 1: Isn't it?
Speaker 1: She said, well, I could see your body language.
Speaker 1: And the, as we were having the conversation, and I could tell that you don't think this is what we ought
Speaker 2: To do.
Speaker 2: I was like, okay.
Speaker 1: So she said, why don't you just call them and tell him that we're coming to Hawaii?
Speaker 1: I said, because I don't want to go to Hawaii.
Speaker 1: I mean, I want to go to Hawaii.
Speaker 1: I don't want to move to Hawaii.
Speaker 1: She said, well, why not?
Speaker 1: I said, because it's going to be paradise for six months.
Speaker 1: And then after that, it's just real life, but it's real life in the middle of the Pacific ocean, 3000 miles away from anything else.
Speaker 1: And to go anywhere else, it's going to cost a boatload of money, which we do not have.
Speaker 1: And so I don't want to go.
Speaker 1: And so we went and it was right, but when we got there day number one or two, I don't remember what today.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 1: I got the west Hawaii today, which is the main newspaper.
Speaker 1: And by main, I mean only newspaper in Kona.
Speaker 1: And I opened up the paper.
Speaker 1: And on the front page, on above the fold was the news story of the day they were replacing or refer fishing, refurbishing the stepping stones at the captain cook monument.
Speaker 1: That was number one, leading news story in Kona that we had just moved from Chicago murder was on the front page every day.
Speaker 1: Now we're talking about stepping stones and I just started laughing.
Speaker 1: I said, can you believe that we have moved to a place where stepping stones is leading news in this place, but that's before understood the importance of stepping stones.
Speaker 1: And now years later, I'm preaching a sermon series on stepping stones.
Speaker 1: I didn't know the value then.
Speaker 1: And the, the stepping stones at captain cook monument.
Speaker 1: I'm still not certain why that was front page news.
Speaker 1: But I have discovered that stepping stones matter a whole lot more than I ever thought they did.
Speaker 1: Stepping stones intentionally lead to an injury result.
Speaker 1: If you put stepping stones in your yard, if you install them yourself, you don't just stand there and take a stone and toss it into the yard.
Speaker 1: And wherever it lands there it is.
Speaker 1: If you ask somebody and hire someone to install it for you, you don't just say to them, Hey, I'm going to say a random number of stepping stones and I'd like them to go randomly in the yard.
Speaker 1: No you say I'm trying to get from here to there.
Speaker 1: And not only do I need to get from here to there, my stride is about this this long.
Speaker 1: And so I want to make sure that, that I can walk from this place where I'm at to the place that I'm trying to get to without having to step on the grass or the gravel or the dirt or whatever it is that this stepping stone, these stepping stones are helping me navigate my way through.
Speaker 1: That's what stepping stones do.
Speaker 1: In fact, in life today, you did not just arrive randomly where you are right now, there were steps that you took along the way.
Speaker 1: Some of those steps were intentional, and some of those steps were accidental.
Speaker 1: And some of those steps were just absolutely passive steps that you were just thrust into, but they got you where you are right now.
Speaker 1: You just didn't appear in this moment.
Speaker 1: And in areas of relationship, you didn't just start in the, in the best relationship ever in the history of the whole wide world in a marriage or in a friendship, you, you didn't just start there.
Speaker 1: It developed.
Speaker 1: And if you're in a very bad relational situation right now, you didn't start your relationship by going, you know what?
Speaker 1: You don't like me and I really despise.
Speaker 1: You let's get together.
Speaker 1: No one ever starts a relationship like that.
Speaker 1: There's some that in that way, but that's not how you begin.
Speaker 1: There were steps between where you started and where you ended, and those steps got you to where you are right now.
Speaker 1: How about in a career?
Speaker 1: Some people dream of becoming a CEO of a company, but if you're a CEO of a company right now, you didn't wake up one day and become CEO.
Speaker 1: No, there were steps that got you from here to there.
Speaker 1: Some were intentional.
Speaker 1: Some were the blessings of God, navigating your world.
Speaker 1: Intentionality got you to where you are.
Speaker 1: If you're unemployed right now, there were steps that got you from where you are to where you, where you were to where you are right now.
Speaker 1: He said, well, it wasn't my fault circumstance and situation and choices that different people made may have, may have had.
Speaker 1: It played a major role in where your steps were, but there were steps that were taken to get from there to here.
Speaker 1: How about steps in faith?
Speaker 1: Most of us were not born with 100%.
Speaker 1: Faith filled lives.
Speaker 1: Some of us sitting in the room right now are still not 100% faith filled Wiles.
Speaker 1: You might not even have any faith at all.
Speaker 1: As far as you're concerned, maybe you're a believer today, and maybe you're not a believer, but wherever you are, you took steps to get there.
Speaker 1: Stepping stones along the way, specific places that you let your heart rest your mind, sit your feet, land while looking for your next step.
Speaker 1: It's important.
Speaker 1: What we allow our mind to continue to rest upon.
Speaker 1: It's important where we let our foot land.
Speaker 1: It's important where we let our emotions sit for a while.
Speaker 1: Our heart, if you will, those things are not unimportant.
Speaker 1: They're, they're not an without consequence.
Speaker 1: It matters where you place your next step.
Speaker 1: And if you're intentional about these things, you'll progress in life.
Speaker 1: With purpose, with intentionality, with certainty, you'll move toward your dreams.
Speaker 1: You'll move into the destination that God has designed for you.
Speaker 1: If you're intentional, you can move into very beneficial destinations.
Speaker 1: If you're passive about these things, about taking the steps and establishing them, then you'll randomly stumble toward often detrimental destinations.
Speaker 1: Very few people stumbled their way into.
Speaker 1: Awesome.
Speaker 1: Yes, I don't know what happened.
Speaker 1: I just got up one day and I was awesome.
Speaker 1: And it's been that way since does not typically happen.
Speaker 1: And if you think it happened, you got bigger problems than, you know, there were stepping stones and here's the reality of life.
Speaker 1: And I want to speak specifically to younger people right now, maybe younger in age, but could also be younger.
Speaker 1: It just an experience, a clearer understanding of the path is often gained looking backward.
Speaker 1: So when we've gone a little further down the path and we look back behind us, we can see the stepping stones and we can see how one stone led to the next stone, which led to the next stone.
Speaker 1: And when we're younger, younger, and experience or younger in age, sometimes when those that have gone before us are saying, Hey, let me help you get here.
Speaker 1: Let me help direct your steps for you, whether it be a parent or whether it be a coach or whether it be a teacher or whether it be a pastor, we can sometimes kind of bow up and, and say, well, wait a minute.
Speaker 1: I am my own person.
Speaker 1: I can find my own way.
Speaker 1: And we think, well, they're just controlling or they're just mean, or they just want their way, or they don't recognize that I am my own person.
Speaker 1: All of those things come to all of our minds.
Speaker 1: It's interesting when we're thinking that we often think we're the first person ever to think that, but almost everybody has thought those things at one point or another.
Speaker 1: And the reality is you just have something, someone that's gone a little further down the path and, and, and it's all, it's difficult at times to see the path clearly in front of you.
Speaker 1: But once you've gone there, you can look behind and it becomes more clear.
Speaker 1: And so a parent, a teacher, a coach, a pastor will be saying, Hey, I can see clearly how stepping here led to this result.
Speaker 1: So if you can avoid that, let me help you do it.
Speaker 1: There's stepping stones.
Speaker 1: And the path is Cleaver.
Speaker 1: Only God can see the end from the beginning.
Speaker 1: He can chart the right path forward before we ever begin the journey.
Speaker 1: And when Israel was becoming a nation, God was charting a path for them.
Speaker 1: He was saying, Hey, listen, you've been slaves in Egypt for hundreds of years, you've never had to make your decisions.
Speaker 1: You'd never had to tell, say where you're going or what you're going to do.
Speaker 1: Your steps have been designed and declared to you by your masters.
Speaker 1: And, and you've not had to navigate your own world.
Speaker 1: It's been navigated for you by the declaration of those who own you.
Speaker 1: And now I'm changing that.
Speaker 1: You're my children.
Speaker 1: And now I'm, I'm going to begin charting a course for you.
Speaker 1: That's going to allow you to a mighty nation on this earth and have a great relationship with me.
Speaker 1: And so he took them through the red sea.
Speaker 1: He took them across part of the wilderness.
Speaker 1: He kept them at Sinai and he said, let me give you the commandments.
Speaker 1: And let me give you the law.
Speaker 1: The 10 commandments.
Speaker 1: He gave them 10 stepping stones stones, that if they would step in that those places and walk in that direction, it would lead them to become everything that God designed them to be declared them to be and wanted them desired for them to be in life.
Speaker 1: And as a nation, they would have peaceful lives with others.
Speaker 1: They would have prosperity as a people, and they would have a strong relationship with God.
Speaker 1: They were the 10 commandments.
Speaker 1: As we know them now carved upon stone tablets as God was acting with purpose and on purpose.
Speaker 1: So he outlines these things and he says, now, now live by them.
Speaker 1: And so we're going to look at the first two commandments today.
Speaker 1: And throughout the series, we'll look at the different commandments.
Speaker 1: So let's, let's read the first two Exodus chapter 20 verse.
Speaker 1: Number two says, I am the Lord, your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of, you shall have no other gods before me stepping stone.
Speaker 1: Number one, you shall not make for yourself a carved image, stepping stone.
Speaker 1: Number two, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is an earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Speaker 1: You shall not bow down to them nor serve them for I the Lord, your God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers, upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments.
Speaker 1: So God is describing himself to his people.
Speaker 1: He's saying, I want you to recognize that I am your God.
Speaker 1: I am God.
Speaker 1: And what did I do for you?
Speaker 1: I delivered you from.
Speaker 1: He's kind of, he's kind of, uh, stating his, his resume.
Speaker 1: If you will.
Speaker 1: He's saying, this is why I have the right, the privilege of declaring these things to you.
Speaker 1: And this is why you ought to listen to me.
Speaker 1: Almost every child has heard this and almost every parent has said this.
Speaker 1: At some point we've said to our children, Hey, I know what you're saying.
Speaker 1: I hear what you're saying, but let's put this relationship into perspective.
Speaker 1: I am the parent.
Speaker 1: You are the child.
Speaker 1: I brought you into this world.
Speaker 3: [inaudible]
Speaker 1: Everything you have belongs to me.
Speaker 1: The clothes on your back, belong to me.
Speaker 1: I know you're strong.
Speaker 1: I know you're an individual.
Speaker 1: And I know you got all this and more, and I know you're bad to the bone, but if you leave this house with what you own, I'll loan you, your toothbrush, but nothing else.
Speaker 1: And you're going to pay me back.
Speaker 1: I don't know too many parents that have that part, but anyway, I fought it before.
Speaker 1: I don't know that I've ever said it, but, but what we're telling them is let's, let's get, let's bring some perspective to the situation until this moment in your life.
Speaker 1: Everything that you have has been provided by me, not because I had to, because I love you.
Speaker 1: Not, not because you could demand it.
Speaker 1: You could demand nothing, but because I love you.
Speaker 1: When you were a child, when you were a baby, when you were a toddler, when you were in elementary school, everything you enjoyed was by my grace.
Speaker 1: You had no right to it, but I loved you enough to give it to you.
Speaker 1: And I want to give it to you, but let's understand.
Speaker 1: God's saying to Israel, I am God, and I've done this for you.
Speaker 1: And then he continues the process.
Speaker 1: He says, I'm a jealous God.
Speaker 1: When we think jealousy today, we think envious or possessive.
Speaker 1: It's a bad thing, but that's not what he's talking about here in the original language.
Speaker 1: That's not how that word would have been used.
Speaker 1: He would have been saying, I'm passionate about you.
Speaker 1: I'm enthusiastic for you.
Speaker 1: I'm, I'm dedicated to your good, that's what I am toward you.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to fight for you to have a good life for you to have good things in your life.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be passionate about this.
Speaker 1: And so I'm defining who I am and who you are.
Speaker 1: And then he says, hating me brings tragedy.
Speaker 1: Why does hating God bring tragedy?
Speaker 1: It brings tragedy, just like hating parents brings tragedy because of a parent wants to cut you off.
Speaker 1: They can, because if a parent doesn't want to meet that need, they don't have to.
Speaker 1: If a parent wants to discipline, they can.
Speaker 1: And God says, if you hate me, it's not going to go well for you.
Speaker 1: But if you will love me, then it will bring great blessing in your life.
Speaker 1: But then he does something that we don't like.
Speaker 1: And he correlates loving him with keeping his commandments.
Speaker 1: Jesus said, if you love me, keep my, yeah, it's the seaward commandments.
Speaker 1: We don't like that.
Speaker 1: We don't like this idea of obeying, but here's, here's the big idea today.
Speaker 1: The first step to eternal success is worshiping only God worshiping only God.
Speaker 1: And I have three thoughts for us today and thought, number one is this.
Speaker 1: God alone is divine.
Speaker 1: Now the language here in some translations almost lend itself to the understanding that I am one of the gods, choose me over the other, but in the original language, that is not how it's written.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 1: I am God.
Speaker 1: There is no others.
Speaker 1: And I am your God.
Speaker 1: God is one, not one among many.
Speaker 1: Now, why is that important to understand it's important, because think about how Israel has just come out of the nation of Egypt.
Speaker 1: Age Egypt is a polytheistic nation.
Speaker 1: They believed in many different gods.
Speaker 1: And so after being there for many generations immersed in the Egyptian culture, yes, Israel would have known their history.
Speaker 1: They would have known that they are the people of Abraham, uh, people of the God, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they would have had a connection to that.
Speaker 1: But just like modern culture has such a profound influence on the church today.
Speaker 1: So would have Egyptian culture had an influence on Israel in that day.
Speaker 1: Today you have people that are walking away from biblical truth.
Speaker 1: They're trying to explain why the Bible's okay with things that the Bible clearly says are not okay because they're trying to appease culture.
Speaker 1: They're trying to ease the tension between what scripture says and what God declares and what culture has decided.
Speaker 1: And so we try to make it match when it don't match.
Speaker 1: And so God is saying to Israel, I want you to recognize that I alone am God.
Speaker 1: Now, now they were polytheistic.
Speaker 1: The Egyptians were, and many of the religions around the world of, from generation to generation and many different cultures are polytheistic.
Speaker 1: Why does humanity to lean toward polytheism polytheism is the belief in many gods?
Speaker 1: Well, here's why I believe that is true.
Speaker 1: Many gods gives power to the consumer.
Speaker 1: The consumer says, ah, there are many gods.
Speaker 1: They court me.
Speaker 1: They show me what they offer.
Speaker 1: They show me what they can deliver.
Speaker 1: And they show me what it's going to cost me to be a devoted or a follower of that.
Speaker 1: God.
Speaker 1: And I get to choose.
Speaker 1: I get to choose.
Speaker 1: If I'm going to follow this God that God or that other God they'll be the God that I'll worship.
Speaker 1: The other gods can be there if they want it to be.
Speaker 1: But that's the one that I'm going to worship because it fits me.
Speaker 1: We really, we really kind of jive and get along to people say jive anymore.
Speaker 1: I don't know that I've ever said jive in my entire life until just now.
Speaker 1: And so y'all are here for the very first time.
Speaker 1: And so it's very exciting moment when we get to say, I connect with that God, and what they require of me, I'm willing to deal with.
Speaker 1: And so, and so that consumer mentality is in there.
Speaker 1: When there's many gods one, God means he has all the power.
Speaker 1: And the only option I have is to submit to him.
Speaker 1: I don't really have another option because he is God and I am not.
Speaker 1: Therefore he is greater and I am lesser.
Speaker 1: Therefore, if I'm going to be right with him, then submitting to him is the only option.
Speaker 1: It's the only option.
Speaker 1: And so stepping stones, this stepping stone puts us on the path to real relationship relationship.
Speaker 1: Isn't real until there's a commitment until there's a commitment to say that I choose you over all others at Christie.
Speaker 1: And I've been married 24 years.
Speaker 1: And if I had said to Christie one day, you know what?
Speaker 1: I really love you.
Speaker 1: I love you so much in relationship to how I love so many other people.
Speaker 1: And, and I just there's, there's about 15 different people that I really love and you're one of them.
Speaker 1: So let's just, let's just build this relationship.
Speaker 1: I don't think we would be married for 20.
Speaker 1: I don't think we would have been married at all much less for 24 years because she would have said, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: That's not the kind of relationship I'm looking for.
Speaker 1: I'm looking for a commitment in relationship.
Speaker 1: And now that relationship becomes real.
Speaker 1: But, but we as consumers, we like many options.
Speaker 1: We liked the need and the desire to be ours, not there.
Speaker 1: You might be an avid sports fan today.
Speaker 1: We have a lot of sports fans in the church, a lot of sports fans, online, lot of sports, sports fans all over the world.
Speaker 1: And if you're a sports fan, good for you, I enjoy sports myself.
Speaker 1: And so here's the thing about sports though.
Speaker 1: It really is about me.
Speaker 1: If they're not on playing at a convenient time, I'm not there.
Speaker 1: If they're, if they raise the rates to go to the game more than I'm willing to pay, then I don't go it.
Speaker 1: You know, if they're having a down year and a bad time and maybe their finances aren't working out really well, you know, the manager doesn't call you and say, Hey, listen, we need you to pay triple for your ticket because we really need to pay these players what they're worth.
Speaker 1: And, and so if you'll just come in and kick in a little extra for the good of the team, then will, you would just say, this is a weird call and hang up the phone because you're not really there for them.
Speaker 1: You're there as long as they entertain you.
Speaker 1: And if something else matters more in that moment, then you go do that.
Speaker 1: Instead.
Speaker 1: It's the same way with restaurants.
Speaker 1: We show up to a restaurant.
Speaker 1: If they don't cook it the way we want it, when we want to, if they make us wait too long for it, if the services and how we like it, et cetera, et cetera, we say, you know what?
Speaker 1: There are other restaurants in town.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to go there.
Speaker 1: It's a consumer mentality.
Speaker 1: Shopping's the same way.
Speaker 1: It's not about them.
Speaker 1: It's about my need, about my wants.
Speaker 1: Uh, family and friend relationship changes a little bit.
Speaker 1: It starts off all about the baby because the baby just sits there and screams until you make it stop.
Speaker 1: They cry and the parents go, what can I do to stop this from happening?
Speaker 1: But as the child matures a little bit, eventually the parents starts teaching the child how the child can interact with the parent.
Speaker 1: And then eventually it gets even older and more mature.
Speaker 1: And then eventually there's actually mutual respect that happens with between parents and adults.
Speaker 1: It's happened with my family, my parents, and myself, and I'm watching it happen between me and my sons.
Speaker 1: And it's a beautiful thing, but there's a, there's a mutual benefit that happens.
Speaker 1: But when the relationship is with God, it is only one way.
Speaker 1: It always benefits only me.
Speaker 1: And it is always on his terms.
Speaker 1: He is all and he needs nothing.
Speaker 1: So I can bring nothing to him.
Speaker 1: I can offer him nothing that he needs from me and he can demand everything from me.
Speaker 1: But what he does is bless me.
Speaker 1: So th th this isn't a reciprocal relationship from the point of need, Like a friend or family relationship could be, and it's not a consumer relationship because I can't back out.
Speaker 1: I can say, he's not God.
Speaker 1: I can say he doesn't exist at all.
Speaker 1: And it changes literally nothing about him.
Speaker 1: It only changes how I interact with him.
Speaker 1: And so it's not a reciprocal relationship.
Speaker 1: And a real relationship says you alone are God recognizing that you alone are God and enables us to take the next step.
Speaker 1: So sometimes people say, well, you know, I'm a child of God and I know the Bible.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to approach God boldly.
Speaker 1: I'm going to approach his throne boldly.
Speaker 1: And I would agree with you that you should.
Speaker 1: And you can, if you're a child of God, you can approach his throne boldly.
Speaker 1: But Hebrew says we boldly approach the throne of grace.
Speaker 1: And the reason we approached the throne of grace boldly is because number one, approaching the throne of grace means I know that I'm not worthy.
Speaker 1: And I need the grace of God poured out into my life.
Speaker 1: But I approached the throne of grace boldly because he has offered us relationship.
Speaker 1: The scripture says that Jesus understands our infirmities.
Speaker 1: He understands our issues.
Speaker 1: He understands where we're at.
Speaker 1: And so when we approach him and we approach him humbly as approaching a throne, needing I in, I am in need of grace.
Speaker 1: He says, oh, you need my grace.
Speaker 1: I'll give you my grace.
Speaker 1: I'll pour out my grace.
Speaker 1: And he says, I can come boldly before him because I can know for a certainty that if I call him father and he calls me son, then I can be bold in my response, knowing that he will pour out his grace.
Speaker 1: Isn't that a beautiful thing, knowing that his grace is complete and it's new every morning.
Speaker 1: So there's no chance that if I be, if I come before his throne of grace, that he will not pour out grace, or he would re withhold grace from me, Jesus sympathizes with us.
Speaker 1: The boldness that we have coming before his throne is due to the relationship that we have with him, the relationship that we have with him, and we miss this step, the step of him being God and God alone.
Speaker 1: When we elevate anything over God, when we prioritize things with our time or, or our resources or our attention, or our memory at the expense of what God defines as important, maybe we, we elevate our family over our faith.
Speaker 1: Nah, you, if you know me at all, if you've listened to me, teach at all, you know that I, I talk about family all the time.
Speaker 1: I'm big on family.
Speaker 1: I think family is vitally important, but family, no matter how great my family may be, my family is not the thing that will get me into heaven.
Speaker 1: My awesome family is not the Fe.
Speaker 1: And my relationship with my family is not the thing.
Speaker 1: That's going to allow me to have great connection with God.
Speaker 1: No, it's faith.
Speaker 1: It's my faith.
Speaker 1: And I know people that will walk away from their faith in order to appease their family, thinking that family is important.
Speaker 1: But what we can do is make family God.
Speaker 1: How about this sports over spiritual things.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Pastor Micah.
Speaker 1: That is great preaching right there.
Speaker 1: That's just really good.
Speaker 1: How about work over worship?
Speaker 1: How about wealth over generosity?
Speaker 1: And let me give you some questions that you can ask to test your test, your priorities.
Speaker 1: Here you go.
Speaker 1: Here's some questions.
Speaker 1: What do you skip to make time for the other?
Speaker 1: What do you say?
Speaker 1: You know, I'll, I'll catch that next time because this is the priority.
Speaker 1: How about this question?
Speaker 1: What gets your full attention versus getting your multitasking attention?
Speaker 1: Now, if you're with us online right now, I'm not trying to pick on you, but I've had people tell me the reason why I really love church online, because while I'm in church, I could eat breakfast and I can read the news and I can, okay.
Speaker 1: And my mind can be many different places.
Speaker 1: Now, what gets your actual focused attention?
Speaker 1: Don't bother me.
Speaker 1: My son's up to bat right now.
Speaker 1: Your son's on playing T-ball I know it's the most important thing in the world right now.
Speaker 1: Your son playing T-ball is the most important thing in the world.
Speaker 1: Not knocking it.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying where's your focus.
Speaker 1: Okay, Mike, next question.
Speaker 1: What are you faithful to supporting versus hit or miss about it?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that I don't miss, but this, okay.
Speaker 1: We miss the step elevating anything over God.
Speaker 1: And those are some good questions to test your priorities.
Speaker 1: How about this?
Speaker 1: We hit the step.
Speaker 1: When his priority becomes the factor that makes our decisions.
Speaker 1: I was going to do this, but then I saw in the word that God's priority is that, so that's what I'm going to do.
Speaker 1: I was going to go in that direction, but I saw in the word of God that his priority is this.
Speaker 1: So that's what I'm going to do.
Speaker 1: God alone is divine thought.
Speaker 1: Number two, God defines himself.
Speaker 1: He says, no carvings or likenesses of deity, Jehovah being the one, true God, any other God, being a lie.
Speaker 1: God often defines himself through scripture, through his work, through his word, through his power.
Speaker 1: But why does God define himself often?
Speaker 1: Because your control, what you define.
Speaker 1: If you to be the definer of the thing, you get to control, what the thing does, you get to control how big it is, how little it is, how great a reach it has, what it looks like, what its appearance is.
Speaker 1: You get to decide a whole lot of stuff about it.
Speaker 1: If you are the definer of the thing.
Speaker 1: And so we created them and the image informs our definition, or our definition informs the image in Romans.
Speaker 1: It says that they glorified God, not as God, they weren't thankful.
Speaker 1: But then they began to create idols.
Speaker 1: They carved idols out of four footed beasts and creeping things and all this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: And, and we say, well, Hey, you know, I don't have any forefoot of the beast idols around my house that I bow down to.
Speaker 1: I haven't carved any lately.
Speaker 1: And you know, that order of the wood hasn't come in yet.
Speaker 1: So we're good.
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 1: Well, we might make idols out of different things.
Speaker 1: You say, Hey, uh, I'm, I'm holding this picture of who this is, but I have no relationship with that thing.
Speaker 1: And the Renaissance people started painting pictures of, of Jesus and, and Jesus was fair and blonde headed and blue eyed and looked like no Jewish person from Israel in the history of ever, if you are dedicated to worshiping a white Jesus, you're disappointed because this is, he is Jewish from Israel and get the, the painters were defining something.
Speaker 1: And so for many years, I've actually people, Bible studies within my lifetime.
Speaker 1: And I've said to them, uh, you know, Jesus, the Bible says that he was not beautiful.
Speaker 1: And I've had people say, wait a minute.
Speaker 1: Every picture I've seen of him as well, beautiful.
Speaker 1: That's because you have an artist's rendering of their imagery of Jesus, but that wasn't Jesus.
Speaker 1: Wasn't Jesus at all.
Speaker 1: Here's the fact to, to, to understand Jesus and his definition of himself, his definition of himself requires a personal relationship to understand.
Speaker 1: It's not just propping up the, the picture frame that you got at target with the models picture in it and go on that's that's aunt Susie right there.
Speaker 1: No, her name made me Susie, but you don't know it's it's a picture without a relationship.
Speaker 1: You cannot understand the definition of God without a relationship with God, this stepping stone put you on the path to truly knowing God, second, Peter chapter one says, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ or Jesus.
Speaker 1: Our Lord as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue twice.
Speaker 1: He say the knowledge of God, the knowledge of him who called us, God said, Hey, I want you to know me.
Speaker 1: I want you to know, man.
Speaker 1: If you know me, it will result in greater peace, a greater grace in your life know it'll reveal that you've got you've, you've received power and authority from me to live a life successful life of light of godliness and a successful life here on this earth.
Speaker 1: I've given you what you need, but he also says, I want you to know me.
Speaker 1: Like I define myself in our world today.
Speaker 1: It's interesting that people question God's ability to define it himself while demanding their own ability to define themself, the creature, questioning the creator's right to Def itself the definition.
Speaker 1: But while being the creator,
Speaker 3: Being demanding
Speaker 1: Own self ability to define it's an interesting thing.
Speaker 1: When you start thinking about how God says, this is who I am, and this is how I define myself.
Speaker 1: I want you to know me, but as I define myself, and here's the thing, his thoughts, his acts, the scripture tells us repeatedly are beyond our comprehension, how he created all that he created is beyond my ability to, I understand.
Speaker 1: And yet our pride can tell us that we can understand him enough to, to capture his likeness or to define who he is or, or put him within the parameters that I say are appropriate for him.
Speaker 1: God.
Speaker 1: So we miss this step.
Speaker 1: When we elevate traditions or objects over a relationship, a relationship that the traditions and the objects point toward.
Speaker 1: If we're not, if it's a non-Christian, that's doing this, maybe you're a non-Christian today.
Speaker 1: Sometimes people worship the earth.
Speaker 1: You, you, you see people worshiping nature all the time.
Speaker 1: You read about it, you hear about it.
Speaker 1: People worship people probably more than anything else.
Speaker 1: Humanity has become its own idol where we lift ourselves up and say, oh, how great we are.
Speaker 1: We are so smart.
Speaker 1: We have so much intelligence.
Speaker 1: We have so much education.
Speaker 1: We have so much knowledge now that we have no need of God.
Speaker 1: Some people even teach that ancient people had need of God, because they didn't understand everything.
Speaker 1: And we have no need of God today because we do understand, oh yes, we still don't understand everything.
Speaker 1: If we understood everything, there would be no further exploration or discovery, but humanity continues to discover because we still do not know everything, but we, we worshiped the earth.
Speaker 1: We worshiped self.
Speaker 1: Uh, how about statues of like in, in Buddhism, uh, the statue of Buddha is considered sacred or Hinduism.
Speaker 1: The idols of all, the many thousands of idols of Hinduism are considered sacred.
Speaker 1: How about if we're believers, sometimes we can elevate the building that we're in over the Christ that the building's supposed to point to, or we can elevate the cross over the Christ that hung upon the cross.
Speaker 1: We hit the step when we surrender to God's definition of himself and let God be God.
Speaker 1: And that brings us the thought number three, live and grow in the knowledge of the one.
Speaker 1: And only God, see he is willing and he is able to define himself, the question is, are we ready to receive him?
Speaker 1: As he's defined himself?
Speaker 1: We are a very accustomed to people saying, this is who I am.
Speaker 1: Let me just, let me just tell you why I'm Jody.
Speaker 1: I am.
Speaker 1: I am just a very dependable person.
Speaker 1: I mean, everybody knows what they all is.
Speaker 1: Everybody says about me.
Speaker 1: Number one, everybody doesn't know me and most people don't care to know me, but you know what everybody says is I'm a very dependable person.
Speaker 1: And then inevitably, I'm going to let you down somewhere along the line, Mr.
Speaker 1: Dependable will not able to be dependent upon this.
Speaker 1: This is how this happens to you.
Speaker 1: This happens to me and we don't intend it.
Speaker 1: It's just where humanity, where we're fallen.
Speaker 1: We, we mess up.
Speaker 1: So we try to judge things based upon people.
Speaker 1: So sometimes we'll say about somebody.
Speaker 1: So they think they're like this, but they're really like that.
Speaker 1: Am I the only one that's ever had that conversation?
Speaker 1: In other words, am I the only one telling the truth in this room right now?
Speaker 1: I'm kidding.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So we, we are to people falling short of their self-definition.
Speaker 1: So we do all kinds of things like categorize people in groups, by taking tests and stuff.
Speaker 1: Anybody ever heard of the Myers-Briggs test about the disc profile test.
Speaker 1: How about the, the Enneagram is everywhere right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I've heard of that.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 1: Some of these are good.
Speaker 1: Some of these, I don't care for some, everybody has their thoughts on this stuff.
Speaker 1: And so I'm not trying to get into the details of that.
Speaker 1: But what I am saying is we use these things to understand ourselves better, either who we are as a person, how we work as a team, how we may be compatible with other people in certain, uh, certain environments.
Speaker 1: And some of these things are very, very good, but they generally compare ourselves among ourselves to get an understanding kind of how we fit with other in humanity.
Speaker 1: And the scripture says that when we compare ourselves with ourselves, we become fools.
Speaker 1: We're foolish to do so.
Speaker 1: Now I think these things are bad.
Speaker 1: In fact, Myers-Briggs Christie and I were married on our fifth year of marriage.
Speaker 1: We were thinking about divorce.
Speaker 1: She was planning, uh, to, to find a place to go.
Speaker 1: And I was trying to figure out how to make it, you know, how were we going to work this out?
Speaker 1: And we were on the edge of divorce and, and God did a beautiful work in our lives.
Speaker 1: And we started building things together.
Speaker 1: But the one thing that we did was take the Myers-Briggs.
Speaker 1: And for maybe one of the first times ever, I started trying to understand her.
Speaker 1: And she started trying to understand me and the Myers-Briggs profile test really did help us understand one another better.
Speaker 1: And today we've been married 24 years and I praise the Lord for that.
Speaker 1: It would have never had, we're not for Jesus.
Speaker 1: And a lot of hard work between the two of us.
Speaker 1: Myers-Briggs a real blessing in that.
Speaker 1: And we've, we've recommended that to many couples over the years.
Speaker 1: And so I'm not against that.
Speaker 1: The problem is when we start comparing ourselves with ourselves, we're really comparing with them wrong comparison study.
Speaker 1: God is the standard.
Speaker 1: Jesus is the standard.
Speaker 1: We start trying to, we start trying to understand him based upon us.
Speaker 1: We started trying to say, okay, well, this is how it makes sense to me.
Speaker 1: And this is how it seems to work with me.
Speaker 1: And, and when I read this, what I really get is, and what I think it should say or what it could say or how it fits this world.
Speaker 1: Or, and so you have all this stuff that, that we assume about God, that we declare about God, that God does not basically we're about God, God is not one.
Speaker 1: In fact, let's read it numbers 23 goddesses.
Speaker 1: It's not a man that he should lie nor the son of man that he should repent.
Speaker 1: Has he said, and will he not do?
Speaker 1: Or has he spoken?
Speaker 1: And will he not make it good?
Speaker 1: He's telling us that, that God neither has the fallen nature of man, nor they inherited nature humanity.
Speaker 1: When we try to make God fit, what we understand, we are making God as small as we are.
Speaker 1: And then we're calling him, God, God says, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: Don't try to define me.
Speaker 1: Let me define me.
Speaker 1: I alone him.
Speaker 1: God, beside me, there is no other.
Speaker 1: Don't try to make an image out of me.
Speaker 1: Cause then you'll start wanting to worship the image more than the creator.
Speaker 1: You'll start trying to define and put into the parameters.
Speaker 1: What I look like, how I act out what I did.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: Let me be the almighty one.
Speaker 1: And because he's God and God alone, we have one true response.
Speaker 1: Father.
Speaker 1: I submit myself to you, let your will be done in my life.
Speaker 1: Jesus says not my will, but I will be done.
Speaker 1: Let your kingdom come.
Speaker 1: Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Speaker 1: Over and over.
Speaker 1: The statement is made you are God, I serve you.
Speaker 1: Would you bow your heads and close your eyes with me for a moment.
Speaker 1: And if you've never allowed Jesus to be your Lord and savior right now is that time.
Speaker 1: It's the time to make that decision.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to encourage you to do it.
Speaker 1: We're going to pray together.
Speaker 1: The holy Spirit's in this room right now, and we're going to pray together online onsite.
Speaker 1: I'm asking everybody to pray.
Speaker 1: And if this is the first time that you've made this prayer, let it be your, let it be your heart.
Speaker 1: It's not words that save you.
Speaker 1: It's the faith that's reaches out to.
Speaker 1: Christ says, I need you.
Speaker 1: I want you commit myself to you.
Speaker 1: So let's pray together.
Speaker 1: So nobody has to pray alone.
Speaker 1: Let's pray, Lord Jesus.
Speaker 1: I love you.
Speaker 1: I believe that's you lived, that's your died and that you rose again for me, I humbly submit myself to you.
Speaker 1: Anything that I've said or done that has been displeasing to you.
Speaker 1: I repent of it right now.
Speaker 1: I turn away from it and I give my whole self to you.
Speaker 1: And today I receive you as my Lord and my savior from this day forward, you are my God and I am your child in Jesus name.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: Can we thank God for what he's done in this house?
Speaker 1: Stand to our feet, prayer partners.
Speaker 1: Would you come forward?
Speaker 1: If you need prayer for anything at all, I invite you to come up and let us pray with you.
Speaker 1: Let's close this service and worship today in Jesus.