WEBVTT 00:00:00.479 --> 00:00:03.040 So back to the Ten Commandments. 00:00:03.279 --> 00:00:04.480 So exciting, right? 00:00:04.559 --> 00:00:19.039 We talked about it last week, and we actually saw that it is much more exciting than we think, and it's much more than just a set of rules, but they actually send us on quite a journey into much deeper things than we originally think when we approach them. 00:00:19.120 --> 00:00:23.440 So we're making our way through Exodus, and that's how we ended up at the Ten Commandments. 00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:36.960 So we've seen a lot go on, and actually that's what these first couple verses are referring to of what God has already done for these people, that He's He's brought them out of Egypt, He's redeemed them, and He's restoring them, and He's taking them on a journey. 00:00:37.039 --> 00:00:41.359 Uh, and they're going through this wilderness, it should only take a couple weeks, it shouldn't take that long. 00:00:41.439 --> 00:00:48.000 Um they end up spending about 40 years making their way through this wilderness because they just keep settling down in different places. 00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:50.880 So we get all these stories through the book of Exodus. 00:00:51.039 --> 00:01:00.320 And eventually they're gonna head into Canaan, where this is what this is Israel, modern-day Israel, this is where they build their cities and their nation, this is where these people, the Hebrews, have their life. 00:01:00.479 --> 00:01:03.759 So last week we took that macro-aerial view. 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:07.200 Uh so um tempting for me as a preacher. 00:01:07.359 --> 00:01:16.079 I want all of you to know everything from last week, but I know all of you weren't here last week, and I know all of you don't like listen to the podcast religiously all week. 00:01:16.239 --> 00:01:20.959 So uh let me give a short review which will help, and it'll help those of you that were here last week. 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:24.719 It's not gonna be so long that you're gonna get bored, but those of you who weren't here, I think it'll catch you up. 00:01:24.879 --> 00:01:33.359 So here's what we discovered last week, and what we talked about that the law, when we talk about the law in the Bible, the law is what we talk about as God's standard of righteousness. 00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:39.200 Uh it's it's the standard of what we should do, but even more than that, it's it's who we should be. 00:01:39.840 --> 00:01:41.040 The law's good. 00:01:41.359 --> 00:01:43.200 The law is holy, the law's good. 00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:45.120 We're the problem. 00:01:45.280 --> 00:01:49.280 The law breaks us because we are imperfect before the law. 00:01:49.439 --> 00:01:53.920 And so we have moral law, we have judicial law, we have ceremonial law, we have some crazy laws. 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:57.599 I mean, you read some stuff in the Old Testament, you're like, that's crazy stuff, and it is. 00:01:57.680 --> 00:02:00.239 Um, and it was in that culture at that time. 00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:04.480 And all of it begins in these Ten Commandments, this moral law. 00:02:05.120 --> 00:02:10.319 I mean, this is this is the law that it guides us, but it also breaks us. 00:02:10.560 --> 00:02:19.759 And what we said is because it breaks us, we must let it send us on, or else we end up what the New Testament talks about living under the law. 00:02:19.919 --> 00:02:39.120 And last week what we talked about is we said, so many of us have had these experiences where uh you've seen a certain church, or you attended a certain church, or you read a book, or you knew a friend, or a person, or even a parent, and uh you you saw their faith and you looked at their faith and you didn't know why, but you knew you wanted nothing to do with that. 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:43.680 You just knew what that was was exhausting. 00:02:43.759 --> 00:02:57.680 And you didn't have words for it, you didn't understand it, you didn't have a framework for understanding it, and most of the time in that situation, when it's that exhausting, it's because it's under law and grace is not involved. 00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:10.319 I mean, pretty much if you want to find law in your life, you can just if you just contemplatively root around a little bit and find out what areas of your life you're exhausted in, you'll probably find law at work. 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:13.120 Because that's what the law does. 00:03:13.199 --> 00:03:16.319 It exhausts us, it breaks us, and it's meant to send us on. 00:03:16.479 --> 00:03:19.520 It's meant to send us on to the grace of God known in Christ. 00:03:19.599 --> 00:03:22.000 That's where it's meant to send us. 00:03:22.159 --> 00:03:23.199 So we get this list. 00:03:23.360 --> 00:03:25.039 We get this list, these Ten Commandments. 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:28.639 This is what you should be, this is how we should honor God. 00:03:28.879 --> 00:03:30.159 This is perfection. 00:03:30.319 --> 00:03:34.800 This is what builds a healthy life, this is what builds a healthy society. 00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:36.719 And all we have to do is this list. 00:03:36.800 --> 00:03:38.000 This is all we have to do. 00:03:38.240 --> 00:03:40.400 We just just do this list, just do these ten things. 00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:49.520 If we all just do these ten things, our families, our marriages, our parenting, our friendships, our society, just do these ten things. 00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:50.879 And I think we want to. 00:03:50.960 --> 00:03:52.639 I do, I do think we want to. 00:03:52.879 --> 00:03:55.680 I actually think that we want to be perfect. 00:03:56.080 --> 00:03:59.759 I think that that's below a lot of the other stuff that we do. 00:04:00.159 --> 00:04:02.319 That's why we drive ourselves so hard. 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:05.759 That's why we react so strongly to failure. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:09.120 It's because you just wish you could just get it all right. 00:04:09.599 --> 00:04:12.719 That's why we run to crazy things for escape. 00:04:12.879 --> 00:04:19.519 That's why we beat ourselves up over inadequacies because we just wish we had it all together. 00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:23.439 We wish we were able to accomplish that or win that person's approval. 00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:25.839 And we do all this because we just want to be perfect. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:30.319 We want to be able to come to this list of ten things and just be able to do them. 00:04:31.040 --> 00:04:34.399 But instead, we're faced with a very different reality. 00:04:34.959 --> 00:04:38.240 And that's just each one hammers us. 00:04:38.480 --> 00:04:40.399 And we realize, oh, that's great. 00:04:40.480 --> 00:04:41.519 That would be great for my life. 00:04:41.680 --> 00:04:42.399 I should do that. 00:04:42.560 --> 00:04:43.120 I should do it. 00:04:43.279 --> 00:04:44.959 And we're gonna look at the first two this week. 00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:47.759 And we'll look at them, we'll go, yeah, I that's what I need to do. 00:04:47.920 --> 00:04:49.360 This is what I should do. 00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:51.759 As a Christian, this is what I should do. 00:04:52.319 --> 00:04:56.240 And then you realize at the same time, like, oh, I don't always do that. 00:04:56.720 --> 00:04:59.360 So our text this morning, I'll reread some of it as we go. 00:04:59.519 --> 00:05:00.639 That's how we like to do things here. 00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:03.759 It just helps at least me kind of form thoughts as we go. 00:05:03.839 --> 00:05:06.959 So verses one and two, and God spoke all these words. 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:08.480 This is Exodus chapter 20. 00:05:08.560 --> 00:05:14.879 And 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. 00:05:15.040 --> 00:05:16.879 So we said it last week, I'll say it again. 00:05:16.959 --> 00:05:19.040 Uh grace comes before the law. 00:05:19.199 --> 00:05:24.959 And so before he gives these ten laws, we see him reminding the people, hey, remember? 00:05:25.199 --> 00:05:26.480 Remember what I did? 00:05:27.040 --> 00:05:30.800 Like, I graciously rescued you. 00:05:31.759 --> 00:05:37.920 The Mosaic law was given after the Lord saved them out of Egypt. 00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:42.480 So he's saying, this is what he's saying, this is what this means to us. 00:05:42.639 --> 00:05:44.240 You already belong to me. 00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:54.079 Before you start into your performance thing of like the Christian living thing, before you start into that, you already belong to me. 00:05:54.399 --> 00:05:59.199 The acceptance, the redemption, it's already sealed, it's already done. 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:09.120 So, thus, what this means is that the motivation for obedience is not like I'm gonna pay it back or I'm gonna earn it or I'm gonna earn some favor with God or I'm gonna need to maintain it. 00:06:09.439 --> 00:06:12.160 The motivation is just gratitude. 00:06:12.399 --> 00:06:15.680 Because I'm already accepted, it's already over, it's already done. 00:06:16.079 --> 00:06:18.000 So now let's look at these two commandments. 00:06:18.160 --> 00:06:19.439 A few points as we go will help. 00:06:19.519 --> 00:06:25.600 Uh, point number one is this our supreme loyalty should be to God alone. 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:28.480 Our supreme loyalty should be to God alone. 00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:29.600 It's pretty clear in the text. 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:33.120 Verse 3, you shall have no other gods before me. 00:06:33.360 --> 00:06:34.639 I didn't have to get creative here. 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:37.279 I mean, it was just it was so easy to outline this passage. 00:06:37.519 --> 00:06:40.160 Just our supreme loyalty should be to God alone. 00:06:40.319 --> 00:06:43.360 Your loyalty and your love should be to him. 00:06:44.079 --> 00:06:46.399 Now, that's easy to say. 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:58.560 It's really hard to do when you consider that gods are stuff like work and, or it can be, stuff like work and family and finances and stuff and a lottery worth$800 million. 00:06:58.879 --> 00:07:02.480 Last night,$1.3 billion from now on. 00:07:02.639 --> 00:07:03.839 Not sure if you're aware of that one. 00:07:03.920 --> 00:07:04.480 I'm aware of it. 00:07:04.639 --> 00:07:08.079 Shows you where my heart can be on Sunday morning that I checked, hello. 00:07:09.279 --> 00:07:12.959 As I reviewed from the sermon, I checked to see if anybody had won. 00:07:14.800 --> 00:07:19.680 So we say things like God's number one in my uh in my life, right? 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:25.680 Like, God's number one, number two's like family, like we look we like to like give the list. 00:07:25.839 --> 00:07:27.920 And I get that, like I understand that. 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:31.120 That's good, it's good stuff, good stuff. 00:07:31.360 --> 00:07:35.120 Uh for me, it's just me, maybe that's the way for you to view priorities. 00:07:35.439 --> 00:07:36.240 It helps you. 00:07:36.399 --> 00:07:41.839 For me, it's always helped to think more in terms of like I'm a being, like I'm a living being. 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:46.160 And so for me, it helps to think more like the core of my being. 00:07:47.040 --> 00:07:50.160 God is holds supreme loyalty. 00:07:50.319 --> 00:08:02.000 And out of that core uh fuels all these other uh things in life: family and work and friends and different things. 00:08:02.319 --> 00:08:08.480 But I but there's a core to my life and being, and that's where God holds supreme loyalty. 00:08:08.560 --> 00:08:19.920 And what this verse is talking about, this commandment is saying, don't take like one of the other things and put it into the core of your being where you hold supreme loyalty for something. 00:08:21.759 --> 00:08:23.360 And that's what we tend to do. 00:08:23.680 --> 00:08:28.319 Even though he should be the starting point for all the other things in our lives, we don't always do that. 00:08:28.399 --> 00:08:33.039 We don't perfectly hold him as supreme loyalty and love. 00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:40.559 Uh we often make the other little gods into supreme loyalty and we let them drive us to some extent. 00:08:40.879 --> 00:08:50.720 So his call for us to love him for supreme loyalty in the core of our beings, uh it demands us to go past like surface love. 00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:54.960 And yet, surface love is the easier way to go. 00:08:55.200 --> 00:09:00.639 It's just so much easier because you can just pretend and you don't, well, you don't have to you don't have to face a lot of things. 00:09:00.799 --> 00:09:05.440 You would never have to face the fact that you actually had work in the core of your being. 00:09:06.080 --> 00:09:14.320 Or family, or uh approval, or achievement, or the lottery, or whatever. 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:29.360 But when you have to go under the surface and you have to go like a little bit deeper to where supreme loyalty is held, you see some really beautiful things about yourself and you see some really dark things about yourself. 00:09:29.679 --> 00:09:35.039 And now all of a sudden the law crushes you because you realize that you have not lived up to it. 00:09:35.759 --> 00:09:45.679 And so, unless you let it send you on, you will stay under the law, and you will feel exhausted and you will be in despair. 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:59.600 So, to know joy and freedom, we must go deeper, but when we go deeper, we see something we don't necessarily want to see, and yet that's where the law is revealing to us, like, hey, hey, you don't do this perfectly, and so we must let it send us on. 00:10:00.879 --> 00:10:10.639 And that's how we get free from the life of pretending that we can move into confession and the full acceptance that we already have in the grace of God, and there we begin life. 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:14.720 So, point number one, our support supreme loyalty should be to God alone. 00:10:14.960 --> 00:10:18.240 Point number two, uh, this comes around the second commandment. 00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:22.080 You receive God, you don't form God. 00:10:23.840 --> 00:10:35.519 Verse 4, you shall not make for yourselves a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 00:10:35.600 --> 00:10:41.279 You shall not bow down to bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, I am a jealous God. 00:10:42.159 --> 00:10:44.000 So, no substitutions. 00:10:44.240 --> 00:10:45.679 So he's saying, no substitutions. 00:10:45.759 --> 00:10:50.080 Don't take a lesser God and make him the supreme loyalty of your life. 00:10:50.240 --> 00:10:56.080 Don't substitute, but also, and I was reading this week, this is new to me, no manipulations. 00:10:56.960 --> 00:11:09.759 So no substitutions, but also like don't carve him up and like reform him to be what you want him to be versus the revelation of who he is in the scriptures for us. 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:12.639 And we do that a lot. 00:11:12.799 --> 00:11:17.679 Like maybe, okay, maybe the substitution thing, maybe you don't do that too much, maybe you go, I got a handle on that. 00:11:17.840 --> 00:11:20.799 But we can do the manipulation thing pretty easily. 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:23.600 And really, at the end of that, you're you're worshiping yourself. 00:11:23.679 --> 00:11:30.240 You're deifying your own idea of who God is versus receiving who God actually is. 00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:34.240 That's why we come to the scriptures to receive who God is. 00:11:34.480 --> 00:11:38.000 We don't just like self-create it out of our own desires. 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:41.120 And then you're just really worshiping yourself. 00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:54.159 So the irony to all of this, especially these first two commandments, is this is that uh chapter 32, 12 chapters from here, Moses is like on the mountain, there's more, a lot more to come. 00:11:54.240 --> 00:11:55.759 We're gonna dig into all this content. 00:11:55.919 --> 00:11:57.279 He comes down the mountain. 00:11:57.360 --> 00:12:02.000 It, you know, we're not that far off from like, hey, don't have another God. 00:12:02.159 --> 00:12:04.159 Like, don't create another God. 00:12:04.320 --> 00:12:05.200 He comes down the mountain. 00:12:05.279 --> 00:12:06.559 Do you remember what happens? 00:12:06.799 --> 00:12:09.200 The people have gone and like made a golden calf. 00:12:09.279 --> 00:12:14.000 Like they went and they're like worshiping a golden calf that they made. 00:12:14.240 --> 00:12:15.600 And it's just so ironic. 00:12:15.679 --> 00:12:16.799 I mean, it's so incredible. 00:12:16.960 --> 00:12:23.759 They just right away, like he hadn't even been off the mountain very long, and they've already failed. 00:12:24.960 --> 00:12:29.600 They just so badly wanted something to grasp and cling to, something to love. 00:12:29.679 --> 00:12:32.080 So, I mean, so for us, here's what we see. 00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:35.360 We see, okay, point number one, our supreme loyalty should be to God alone. 00:12:35.519 --> 00:12:35.840 Got it. 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:38.799 Commandment number one, point number two, commandment number two. 00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:41.919 You receive God, you don't form God, got it, okay? 00:12:42.080 --> 00:12:44.399 And then we go, okay, so where's this story going? 00:12:44.480 --> 00:12:47.120 We see Exodus 32, we know our own human hearts. 00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:51.600 Point number three, we're not real good at point number one and point number two. 00:12:54.080 --> 00:12:58.399 Maybe we're good at some moments, but we're not perfectly good at these things. 00:12:58.639 --> 00:13:00.159 Eventually we're not good at them. 00:13:00.399 --> 00:13:01.840 Our love is imperfect. 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:07.759 We made a golden calf like the day the guy came off the mountain receiving all this stuff. 00:13:09.039 --> 00:13:14.799 And this is how we see that the law both guides us, but it also breaks us. 00:13:15.840 --> 00:13:18.559 And that this list, Ten Commandments. 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:22.639 Ten Commandments, this list fails us. 00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:28.240 It fails us in terms of being able to create righteousness inside of us. 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:29.759 To create new life in you. 00:13:29.919 --> 00:13:31.679 It can't create new life in you. 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:33.840 You can't even live up to it. 00:13:34.559 --> 00:13:48.240 The law fails at that, but it succeeds so wonderfully in showing you and showing me that we cannot be our own saviors, that we desperately need an outside savior. 00:13:48.399 --> 00:13:51.600 Listen to this, Romans 7, it's in your handout there in the bullets. 00:13:51.679 --> 00:13:56.480 In Romans 7, verses 7 through 11, then we'll jump down to verses 24 and 25. 00:13:56.559 --> 00:14:04.639 And I when I make this jump, it's a painful jump because there's a lot of like fantastic stuff in there that you should go back and read. 00:14:04.879 --> 00:14:08.080 What then shall we say that the law is sin? 00:14:08.240 --> 00:14:09.200 By no means. 00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:13.279 Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:14.080 See what he's saying? 00:14:14.240 --> 00:14:23.120 He's going, okay, only by the law, this holy good principle that I should live up to, only by it do I realize that I'm messed up. 00:14:24.639 --> 00:14:29.679 For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said you should not covet. 00:14:29.919 --> 00:14:35.519 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. 00:14:35.679 --> 00:14:38.720 For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 00:14:38.960 --> 00:14:45.200 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 00:14:45.440 --> 00:14:51.759 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 00:14:52.879 --> 00:15:06.559 See, if you live under the law, if you live under principles and striving to be more righteous in your own work and how you're going to achieve an achievement and standard. 00:15:06.879 --> 00:15:12.480 If that's the way you live, you live what Paul says is death. 00:15:13.440 --> 00:15:19.120 Because you'll never get there, and it'll always be over you, and it'll always crush you. 00:15:19.679 --> 00:15:22.000 You have to let it send you on. 00:15:23.360 --> 00:15:29.759 For sin seizing opportunity through the commandment deceived me, and through it killed me. 00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:38.000 Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death. 00:15:38.399 --> 00:15:41.360 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 00:15:41.600 --> 00:15:48.639 So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. 00:15:49.039 --> 00:15:52.000 So he's saying, It sent me on. 00:15:54.159 --> 00:15:58.559 The law sent me on to the grace of God which we know in Jesus. 00:15:58.799 --> 00:16:21.600 There's this interesting passage in Jeremiah chapter 31, and this prophet tells the story of a husband and a wife, and the metaphor here is that God is the husband, and we're the wife, us as the church, we're the wife, as people, we're the wife, and says that the Lord was the faithful husband to them, to us, but we on the other hand are not faithful back. 00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:25.200 Here's what it says, verses uh 33 and 34. 00:16:25.519 --> 00:16:30.639 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. 00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:53.440 I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people, and no longer shall each one teach his neighbor, and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. 00:16:54.320 --> 00:16:56.480 Now I was reading commentary on this this week. 00:16:56.639 --> 00:16:58.080 Let me read that paragraph. 00:16:58.480 --> 00:17:00.480 You got it in front of you, because I wanted you to hang with me. 00:17:00.559 --> 00:17:02.480 It's a bit of reading, but it's worth it. 00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:03.679 Here's what J.A. 00:17:03.919 --> 00:17:08.960 Motyr says in his uh commentary in Exodus, and he's talking about this Jeremiah passage, and here's the goodness. 00:17:09.039 --> 00:17:10.079 Here's the good stuff right here. 00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:13.759 When the Lord's people cannot rise to his requirements. 00:17:13.920 --> 00:17:14.400 Hello? 00:17:14.880 --> 00:17:15.279 Amen? 00:17:15.599 --> 00:17:16.079 Anybody? 00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:18.079 Anybody not rising to the requirement? 00:17:18.319 --> 00:17:18.559 Okay. 00:17:19.039 --> 00:17:20.480 A little honesty, it'll be okay. 00:17:20.640 --> 00:17:28.319 When the Lord's people cannot rise to his requirements, he does not lower his standards, but rather he lifts his people. 00:17:28.480 --> 00:17:32.960 In this case, the law remains the same, but now it is written on their hearts. 00:17:33.119 --> 00:17:36.319 This is another way of expressing the truth of regeneration. 00:17:36.559 --> 00:17:43.440 God's gift of a new nature, and in particular, a new heart, a whole personality. 00:17:44.079 --> 00:17:47.440 Fashioned to match the precepts of his law. 00:17:47.839 --> 00:17:54.400 The inner true reality of the Christian believer is that our new nature has been fashioned for obedience. 00:17:54.720 --> 00:17:59.839 Thirdly, there is the way in which all this is accomplished. 00:18:00.559 --> 00:18:11.519 Sin is dealt with so completely and finally that all memory of our sinfulness has been blotted out, even from the mind of God. 00:18:12.480 --> 00:18:28.400 So the way this happens, so the way that transformation, sanctification, the way of obedience, whatever word you want to put on it, the Christian life, the way all of this happens, it's fueled by this idea that God's scorecard on you is gone. 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:32.880 That it's not even, but that's not how he regards you. 00:18:39.680 --> 00:18:41.039 That one and that one and that one. 00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:42.319 You're gonna have to work that one off. 00:18:42.799 --> 00:18:49.200 It's it's through Christ, he sees you as his forever beloved. 00:18:49.839 --> 00:18:52.880 He doesn't even remember that you're a mess. 00:18:53.279 --> 00:18:54.319 Isn't that fantastic? 00:18:54.480 --> 00:18:55.200 We remember it, right? 00:18:55.279 --> 00:18:56.799 And we bring it back up and bring it back up. 00:18:57.039 --> 00:18:58.400 He doesn't remember it. 00:19:01.359 --> 00:19:07.599 And this works so wonderfully because it relieves us of having to pretend and having to perform. 00:19:07.759 --> 00:19:12.960 It frees us to be able to confess and to begin to transform into his likeness. 00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:18.640 So there's no scorecard of being kept by God on you today or yesterday or tomorrow. 00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:22.000 You are redeemed, you're accepted based on his work and not your work. 00:19:22.160 --> 00:19:24.160 Christ crucified for you. 00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:28.079 And because of this, we should love him, supreme loyalty. 00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:33.440 Because of this, we should grasp and cling to no one except him. 00:19:33.759 --> 00:19:37.119 That's what Martin Luther, that's how what he called it meant, to love God. 00:19:37.279 --> 00:19:37.920 He said this. 00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:46.720 Martin Luther, great reformer, theologian in the 1500s, he said, to have a God is to trust and believe, and that one with your whole heart. 00:19:46.960 --> 00:19:52.000 You lay hold of God when your heart grasps and clings to him. 00:19:52.559 --> 00:19:55.839 So to love God means to cling to him. 00:19:56.480 --> 00:19:59.039 So as soon as I read it, I had a flashback. 00:19:59.519 --> 00:20:03.200 And this is what my flashback was too. 00:20:03.359 --> 00:20:04.160 Cling wrap. 00:20:04.240 --> 00:20:05.200 Anybody kicking the cling? 00:20:05.680 --> 00:20:06.640 I mean, it was immediate. 00:20:06.720 --> 00:20:09.200 I read it and I was just like, cling wrap. 00:20:09.359 --> 00:20:15.599 Like that, I mean, and this, I don't know if you remember the cling wrap or or uh saran wrap. 00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:21.599 I think I guess saran wrap was the original, and then Glad probably ripped it off or something, changed the formula a little bit and be able to do that. 00:20:21.759 --> 00:20:24.559 So uh this is what I grew up with. 00:20:24.720 --> 00:20:26.640 It was cling wrap. 00:20:26.799 --> 00:20:39.519 And I'd put all, you know, put all my leftover spaghetti, you know, put it in that guy right there, and then you know, you pull off your cling wrap, and uh always the story. 00:20:39.759 --> 00:20:41.359 I didn't even have to pretend to do that. 00:20:41.440 --> 00:20:43.039 We all know that one right there. 00:20:43.279 --> 00:20:48.559 And you put it on there because you couldn't find the cover to the Tupperware. 00:20:48.799 --> 00:20:49.359 I mean, right? 00:20:49.440 --> 00:20:55.839 You tried, and you got so mad at that drawer Tupperware, you just like you cussed at Tupperware, and you knew that you had to give that up. 00:20:55.920 --> 00:21:04.960 So you went for the cling wrap, and the cling wrap, if to be honest, I'm it's just okay. 00:21:05.119 --> 00:21:18.480 I mean, really, it's it's kind of and that's what I that's what I remembered when I was like grasping cling to God, cling wrap, and I'm having these flashbacks of like how horrible of a product uh cling wrap is. 00:21:18.640 --> 00:21:19.759 Sorry if you're still using it. 00:21:19.839 --> 00:21:23.279 I have some better news for you coming in just like like a minute and a half. 00:21:23.440 --> 00:21:32.160 Um because I would put this in the fridge and like the other bowl of something would fall on it, you know, and then my spaghetti would be down in the fridge. 00:21:32.319 --> 00:21:36.000 Now, fortunately, I wasn't the only one who the who uh was having these issues. 00:21:36.079 --> 00:21:42.240 A guy named Peter Hamilton and Kenneth McGuire, they they were they were solving this problem for all of us. 00:21:42.319 --> 00:21:45.279 And so in 1996 they patented the formula. 00:21:45.519 --> 00:21:46.799 Anyone know this guy? 00:21:47.920 --> 00:21:48.319 Right? 00:21:48.799 --> 00:21:50.079 Press and seal. 00:21:51.920 --> 00:21:57.279 I mean, I don't know what's going on here, but this is the miracle stuff right here. 00:21:57.519 --> 00:21:59.759 So uh Glad press and seal. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:12.880 Is what this product is, and this is this is what you want because this stuff, I don't know what how it does it, I don't know the magic, but you get this stuff on here, and it is locked down. 00:22:13.279 --> 00:22:17.200 I mean, unbelievable clean factor. 00:22:17.359 --> 00:22:20.319 I mean, the picture, I'm not kidding, I didn't test it. 00:22:20.640 --> 00:22:23.839 The picture is like orange juice coming out like upside down. 00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:24.799 But I know this. 00:22:24.960 --> 00:22:34.000 When I put my spaghetti in here and I clean I cling wrap it here with press and seal, and I can put another bowl on top of this, it can it could fall over. 00:22:34.240 --> 00:22:36.000 Spaghetti staying in the bowl. 00:22:36.079 --> 00:22:37.440 It's not all over the fridge. 00:22:37.599 --> 00:22:40.160 It has unbelievable cling factors. 00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:42.240 Is anybody using the press and seal? 00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:45.359 Anybody still using the cling wrap? 00:22:45.519 --> 00:22:47.200 Just you want to convert okay. 00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:53.599 Everybody who's used it just afterwards, come up, give it a test, test drive. 00:22:53.759 --> 00:22:55.119 We'll convert you over. 00:22:55.279 --> 00:23:00.960 It might be the best thing that happens at our church this morning as we convert people from cling wrap to press and seal. 00:23:01.119 --> 00:23:03.039 I so I press it. 00:23:03.359 --> 00:23:05.279 Here's the point, silly point, but here's the point. 00:23:05.440 --> 00:23:06.319 Here's the point. 00:23:06.720 --> 00:23:09.359 Unbelievable loyalty, press and seal. 00:23:09.599 --> 00:23:11.359 Saran wrap, cling wrap. 00:23:11.440 --> 00:23:12.079 It's horrible. 00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:12.880 It's horrible. 00:23:12.960 --> 00:23:13.440 Give it up. 00:23:13.519 --> 00:23:14.720 Like, don't ever buy it again. 00:23:14.799 --> 00:23:16.880 Not when this is available right next to it. 00:23:17.039 --> 00:23:20.799 I mean, this has unbelievable loyalty. 00:23:21.680 --> 00:23:23.279 This is what we should be. 00:23:24.319 --> 00:23:26.960 We should be able to cling like this. 00:23:27.440 --> 00:23:29.279 It's what we should be. 00:23:29.359 --> 00:23:31.039 And here's what we know from the scriptures. 00:23:31.200 --> 00:23:38.720 What we know from the scriptures as we cling to him, that he redeems us and restores us, and he holds our beings together. 00:23:38.880 --> 00:23:45.839 Our shame doesn't become our prison, our addictions to merit and to perfection and to anything. 00:23:46.079 --> 00:23:47.519 It doesn't become our masters. 00:23:47.599 --> 00:23:49.759 Those things don't become our masters. 00:23:50.319 --> 00:23:51.759 But we still have a problem. 00:23:53.839 --> 00:23:56.319 That we don't even do that perfectly. 00:23:56.720 --> 00:24:03.759 It just keeps coming back to point number three that we don't, we don't perfectly cling, even when we know we should. 00:24:04.480 --> 00:24:08.559 And the scriptures call this the fallenness of man, our fragility, our sin. 00:24:08.640 --> 00:24:10.880 So we have this commandment to love God. 00:24:10.960 --> 00:24:14.720 And this commandment is good and it's healthy, it's holy, it's what we should be. 00:24:14.799 --> 00:24:16.880 And it's not just here, it's all over the scriptures, right? 00:24:16.960 --> 00:24:25.599 In Deuteronomy and in the New Testament, and love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, cling to him, is what it's saying. 00:24:26.480 --> 00:24:46.319 And here's what we find the commandment for us to cling to him is so true and it is good for us, and yet it is that calling that helps us to see that none of this, the salvation, the spirituality, the wholeness, none of this works unless He is clinging to us. 00:24:49.359 --> 00:24:51.119 That's the great truth here. 00:24:51.680 --> 00:24:54.960 That's why verses 1 and 2 come before the commandments. 00:24:55.440 --> 00:24:58.559 Because you've got to remember that the grace precedes the law. 00:25:03.759 --> 00:25:08.720 That he has supreme loyalty to his beloved. 00:25:09.680 --> 00:25:12.079 He has supreme loyalty to you. 00:25:13.759 --> 00:25:15.519 Even on your bad days. 00:25:17.200 --> 00:25:25.119 So, my brothers and sisters, may you in the core of your being rest in the reality and the truth that he has already redeemed you. 00:25:25.440 --> 00:25:27.519 And he is clinging to you. 00:25:27.920 --> 00:25:35.839 And in your imperfection, may you love him deeply out of your forever belovedness. 00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:37.359 Let's pray together. 00:25:47.519 --> 00:25:53.599 God, thank you that you cling to us even though we imperfectly cling to you. 00:25:54.640 --> 00:25:58.240 And you love us perfectly while we imperfectly love you. 00:25:58.799 --> 00:26:01.440 That you just keep dealing with us. 00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:13.119 That we let our hearts wander off to all sorts of idols, gods, messes, sins, junk. 00:26:14.960 --> 00:26:23.279 And that you graciously keep pursuing us and loving us because we are your beloved. 00:26:24.079 --> 00:26:30.960 And you have chosen us, and you have saved us, you have redeemed us, you have called us holy. 00:26:33.039 --> 00:26:47.519 Because you came and lived the life of righteousness we can't live, and you died the death we deserve, and based on work that was done outside of us on a cross a long time ago, that we have this great gift of being your children. 00:26:50.319 --> 00:27:04.160 Help us to live more deeply in the core of our beings, to have open eyes to see the great beauty of the image that we've been created in, but also to see the way in which our hearts deceive us. 00:27:05.920 --> 00:27:10.720 That we would see the way that the law crushes us and exhausts us. 00:27:11.759 --> 00:27:15.359 Would you help some of us here this morning to see that this morning? 00:27:15.839 --> 00:27:25.440 The way in which we're allowing the law to crush us, to send us into weariness and in despair. 00:27:27.359 --> 00:27:30.559 Would we begin to let it send us on? 00:27:32.480 --> 00:27:36.720 Into the great reality that you regard us with no scorecard. 00:27:37.759 --> 00:27:45.839 And that we are your redeemed, perfect and holy, even while we're greatly imperfect before you. 00:27:48.160 --> 00:27:50.160 Thank you for the gift of Jesus. 00:27:50.400 --> 00:27:51.039 Amen.