Hey, hope you're doing well. Tim here, and uh we are diving deep into the ten words of life. So I wanted to uh I think in this episode, and maybe the next episode for the beginning of next week, I wanted to just talk about um the first word, you know, the first word of the ten words, you shall know other gods before me. And then the second word, um, you should, you know, you shall make yourself know of idols. Um they're very closely related. Um, in fact, a whole nother thing we could talk about is how um some traditions actually order the ten words differently, and some of them combine these two into one. Um but for today, I'm not gonna go down that rabbit hole. Uh today, uh I what I want to do is these these two the these two closely related ideas, you shall know other gods, you shall not make idols. What I want to do in the next couple episodes is talk about just just how connect these to Jesus. Like how do these connect uh to uh Jesus? And the the you know, for this um the comment I want to make today, the thought I want to give to you is the recognition that um we, you know, God invites us, God invites our exclusive loyalty to Him. Um and the reality is, uh, and like I talked about last time, our hearts are our um fact, you know, our hearts are factories pumping out idols, that the reality is that we will fall short in that. When we, you know, whenever God first calls us to to into his kingdom, part of that is the recognition of all the other ways that we've worshipped other things other than than than than God. And that um, and then even as we we place our trust in God, there will be ways, times that we stumble and fall short and recognize there there are these other things that we're putting our hope in. We need to repent of those. Um and uh and the recognition that ultimately only one human being ever fully lived out total exclusive loyalty to God, and that is Jesus of Nazareth. And um, and it's and that our hope um is is in Jesus, is is that Jesus is the human, the God man who lived out this full loyalty, and by put and and and it's and it's um we need his we need kind of the human side of the the the the the the the part of Jesus that knows what it is to be a human living in full exclusive loyalty to God, we need that in us, and that happens by the Holy Spirit, and so um yeah, maybe let me just flesh this out. And so uh that the idea of um kind of the inevitability of failure, I think about the Exodus account itself, and even before Moses comes down the mountain, like while while like if you read through Exodus, while this is taking place, while Moses is getting the Torah from God, the Israelites are making a golden calf to worship down in camp. And you like even before these ten words get um conveyed to the Israelites, they are already uh pursuing idolatry, pursuing other gods. Um, and just and you know, and that and it sets this you know trajectory of failure uh for the people of God in the Hebrew scriptures. And it's so um it's so uh fitting, um, you know, in some ways you can see this line between Adam and Eve to Sinai that uh Adam and Eve, you know, God said, I want you to trust me. I've placed you in this good land. There's this one thing, don't do this, it will harm you. And they they don't trust God. God calls the Israelites, um, and they are already rebelling against him. Um uh you know, this the first as soon as he brings them out of um out of slavery in Egypt, they're already rebelling against him. And then I think we can draw a line to those things uh to Jesus, and we see in Jesus here is the one human being who fully lived this loyalty. I think about um the temptation narratives, you know, Jesus in the desert, Satan comes to him and tempts him, and um, you know, turn the uh turn the rocks into bread, you're hungry, um, jump down from the temple, impress people. I will give you all the kingdoms of the earth. And Jesus says, um, no, like you are meant to worship God alone. And it's this uh, and I think it's this uh evidence of of Jesus and his exclusive loyalty um to God. I think you see it again in Gethsemane at the end of Jesus' life. He's in the Garden of Gethsemane and he he sees the cross coming and the tremendous pain the cross will be, and on there in Gethsemane. Jesus says, Not my will, uh Father, but your will be done. Um I think you see it in the book of John a number of times where where um where Jesus is kind of he's explaining kind of how he uh thinks about his ministry. Um you know, some of these verses um uh you know, in John, let's see, some of these that I looked up, John 850. Let me just flip there. Jesus says, I am not seeking glory for myself, but there's one who seeks it, and he is the judge. Um uh he's talking about uh that he's seeking glory for his father. Um uh verse 829, that same chapter. Let's see here. The one who sent me is with me, he has not left me, and I always do what pleases him. Um and then later on, John 17, this is in his uh his prayer. Uh they call it the high priestly prayer. John 17, 4, Jesus says, I have brought you glory. He's speaking to his father, I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And so there's this, just this theme of Jesus' exclusive loyalty uh to his Abba Father, to Yahweh God. Um, you know, uh it reminds me, Soren Kierkegaard had a line. Um he said, Purity of heart is to will one thing. Purity of heart is to will one thing, to not have a divided mind, a divided heart, a divided focus, but to know the one thing. Jesus knew his one thing, and it was to um love and please his Abba um and to do the work his Abba had given him. And uh and he was exclusively um devoted uh to the living God in a way that no other human has ever done. And so I just think, you know, how does this one of the ways I think when we're looking at these the ten words, especially the beginning here, one of the ways it connects to Jesus is Jesus is the one, the God man, who has lived this out. And we need his spirit in us to give us strength to walk in that same path. And so may we turn uh to Jesus, the one who his uh yeah, his heart was pure because he willed only what his Abba Father desired. Grace and peace.