The 10 Commandments
Devotional Series
Jon Robinson | Pastor of Discipleship
Week 1 - Living from God's Love: Introduction to the 10 Commandments
Today we will begin a 10 week series of devotions through the 10 commandments. Before we begin I thought it would be wise to take this week to think through why we should do something like this. Here are a few questions that come to mind: Why would modern people like us look to these antiquated rules that God gave the Israelite people in the Old Testament? Or, didn't Jesus change these rules and make them even harder during His earthly ministry? For instance, it’s not just that we can’t murder but to even hate and live with anger towards someone is wrong (Matthew 5:21-26). You might also ask, doesn’t the cross of Christ free us from the religious rule following that so many churches and people have fallen prey to through history? Isn’t this 10 commandment stuff what makes people try to live for God’s love through their works rather than do their works from God’s love?
The answer to all of those questions is that the Bible is a window. You don’t look past it, you look through it. You never question a windows relevance to your life. It’s always relevant and useful if you’re looking through it. The value in the 10 commandments or in a good rule in general is that it works to both protect you and to prod at you. So let’s dig into this a bit.
Good Rules Protect
Here’s a dramatic example of a good rule acting as protection. I tell my kids not to play in the street because I don’t want them to get hit by a car. This rule is clearly in place to protect them. I love them, I’m their dad, I helped bring them into this world. It would quite literally crush me to lose one of them in that way. It’s not because I want to make them miserable, or withhold good things from them. I want them to flourish, and experience much love and joy. Now consider if God is like that. Maybe He gave us the 10 commandments because He loves us so dearly, because He wants to protect us and doesn’t want to lose us. Maybe, just maybe, there is something better for us on the other side of our obedience to His rules. That would make sense if He created us, if He formed us in the womb, if He desires deep communion with us. God, as Father and Friend, wants what is best for us. The question is, can you see through the window of His word to the wonder of His love?
Washing Your Hands
If you go to a restaurant and visit the restroom you might see a sign that says, “employees must wash hands, and you should too.” As an adult I see the value in people washing their hands before they make my food and I see the value in me washing my hands before I handle the food made for me. However my kids, especially my boys, find this rule annoying. They know it’s a rule, that mommy always wants them to wash their hands after they go potty. There are even signs for my kids that can actually read, yet it’s a struggle for them to obey. Why is that? It’s simple. They don’t see the value in the rule. They don’t know that it’s a rule that will protect them and help them flourish. The consistent challenge in parenting is getting your kids to obey the rules even when they don’t fully understand their value. This works when they truly know that you love them and you have their best in mind. Sometimes they know that and other times they don’t. So it is with God’s children obeying His commandments. If we truly realize his love and care for us then we will obey him, not because we totally understand but because we know we are totally loved.
Commandments as a Prod
As a competitive person, and an impatient man. I’ve found little interest in rules. As an athlete I would do anything and everything I could get away with, including cheating to win. In high school basketball I remember trying to keep an eye on the angle the referees were viewing the play to see what kind of fouls I could get away with. As an impatient man, I’d rather build an Ikea coffee table based on how I think it should go rather than spend time reading directions. I say all that to make the point that I am not someone who tends to like rules. I normally see them as an obstacle to get what I want, not an avenue to a greater good. Therefore, submission to God’s word is especially good for me, obeying His commandments keeps my sinful tendencies at bay. When I examine the window of God’s Word and the commandments He gave to us they poke at my tendencies and prod at my proclivities but they offer true joy and lasting peace when they are obeyed.
Living From God’s Love
If you get nothing else from these 10 weeks please get this, you must live from God’s love and not for God’s love. In order for us to obey the 10 commandments (and we are to obey them because they are commanded) we must learn how it is that we can obey them. You see, it's not enough for us to know the commandments but we must see through the window of rules into the value it brings to our lives and the joy we experience as a result. We get the privilege to examine the 10 commandments after the cross. We have the honor of looking back to what Christ did for us already and from his brokenness we can bring beauty into our lives through obedience. Thanks for reading, I'm looking forward to next week where we will consider Exodus 21:3, “You shall have no other gods before me.”
The answer to all of those questions is that the Bible is a window. You don’t look past it, you look through it. You never question a windows relevance to your life. It’s always relevant and useful if you’re looking through it. The value in the 10 commandments or in a good rule in general is that it works to both protect you and to prod at you. So let’s dig into this a bit.
Good Rules Protect
Here’s a dramatic example of a good rule acting as protection. I tell my kids not to play in the street because I don’t want them to get hit by a car. This rule is clearly in place to protect them. I love them, I’m their dad, I helped bring them into this world. It would quite literally crush me to lose one of them in that way. It’s not because I want to make them miserable, or withhold good things from them. I want them to flourish, and experience much love and joy. Now consider if God is like that. Maybe He gave us the 10 commandments because He loves us so dearly, because He wants to protect us and doesn’t want to lose us. Maybe, just maybe, there is something better for us on the other side of our obedience to His rules. That would make sense if He created us, if He formed us in the womb, if He desires deep communion with us. God, as Father and Friend, wants what is best for us. The question is, can you see through the window of His word to the wonder of His love?
Washing Your Hands
If you go to a restaurant and visit the restroom you might see a sign that says, “employees must wash hands, and you should too.” As an adult I see the value in people washing their hands before they make my food and I see the value in me washing my hands before I handle the food made for me. However my kids, especially my boys, find this rule annoying. They know it’s a rule, that mommy always wants them to wash their hands after they go potty. There are even signs for my kids that can actually read, yet it’s a struggle for them to obey. Why is that? It’s simple. They don’t see the value in the rule. They don’t know that it’s a rule that will protect them and help them flourish. The consistent challenge in parenting is getting your kids to obey the rules even when they don’t fully understand their value. This works when they truly know that you love them and you have their best in mind. Sometimes they know that and other times they don’t. So it is with God’s children obeying His commandments. If we truly realize his love and care for us then we will obey him, not because we totally understand but because we know we are totally loved.
Commandments as a Prod
As a competitive person, and an impatient man. I’ve found little interest in rules. As an athlete I would do anything and everything I could get away with, including cheating to win. In high school basketball I remember trying to keep an eye on the angle the referees were viewing the play to see what kind of fouls I could get away with. As an impatient man, I’d rather build an Ikea coffee table based on how I think it should go rather than spend time reading directions. I say all that to make the point that I am not someone who tends to like rules. I normally see them as an obstacle to get what I want, not an avenue to a greater good. Therefore, submission to God’s word is especially good for me, obeying His commandments keeps my sinful tendencies at bay. When I examine the window of God’s Word and the commandments He gave to us they poke at my tendencies and prod at my proclivities but they offer true joy and lasting peace when they are obeyed.
Living From God’s Love
If you get nothing else from these 10 weeks please get this, you must live from God’s love and not for God’s love. In order for us to obey the 10 commandments (and we are to obey them because they are commanded) we must learn how it is that we can obey them. You see, it's not enough for us to know the commandments but we must see through the window of rules into the value it brings to our lives and the joy we experience as a result. We get the privilege to examine the 10 commandments after the cross. We have the honor of looking back to what Christ did for us already and from his brokenness we can bring beauty into our lives through obedience. Thanks for reading, I'm looking forward to next week where we will consider Exodus 21:3, “You shall have no other gods before me.”
Week 2 - Commandment 1: The REason
Today we will examine the first of the 10 commandments.
“I Amâ€
I think it would be a mistake to ignore the preceding verses which set up the commandments. So let’s do that briefly. Moses, the writer of Exodus, scribes the audible words that he hears from God. Exodus 20:1-2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.†The phrase “I am†tells us at least two things. First, if the God of the bible is true then He is your God whether you acknowledge it or not. The I am, is a statement of foreverness. He always has been and always will be and that is what it means to be God. Second, if you are to agree and live as though He is your God then obedience to the commandments will follow, not perfectly but faithfully. Remember, as I stated in our introduction devotional that we are to live from God’s love not for God’s love.
“The Lord your Godâ€
Next, the word Lord means master. This is a God that is in charge over you and a God that you are to submit to. If God is your Creator (Genesis 1:27), if He knows the numbers of hairs on your head (Luke 12:7), if He cares for you much more than the birds (Matthew 6:26), then every molecule in your body was placed with a purpose and every millisecond of your life is under His loving plan. He cares for you and He is covering you. Do you know that today? Furthermore, can you see how God would say “I am the Lord your God†if those things are true? If we understand this, if we believe this, if this is our conviction, then God will not only be our sovereign King but our merciful master and we will want it! “Who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.†Would you take this to heart today? Your freedom is just around the corner of your obedience. It's not that God will necessarily give you what you want from your obedience but that you'll get peace, a clear conscience, and a clarity that you didn't have before. Listen, it’s God who brought the nation of Israel out of the land of Egypt, out of the place that held them in slavery. It’s God who called Moses, it’s God who brought the plagues on Egypt, it’s God who parted the Red Sea. God did the work so you can do the walk. The walk in obedience. It’s when we realize all that God has done for us that we can live from His love and not try (and fail) to white-knuckle our way to His love. You were enslaved to your lusts of the flesh, eyes, and the pride of life. God offers you freedom in His love as the very foundation for your obedience. Now let’s get to the commandment. Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me.†The first question that comes to mind in this commandment is what does it mean by other gods? We can rule out that God meant other supernatural beings worthy of worship. Isaiah 45:22 states, “For I am God, there is no other.†Simply, I think we should take “no other†to mean there are no other supernatural beings worthy of worship. So, if there aren’t any supernatural beings worthy of worship, what is this verse talking about? The context of this text can really help us here. In that time people were much more superstitious and therefore much more prone to erect and worship idols. That seems odd to us but pay attention here to what these small “g†gods were and it will become immediately relevant to us . These gods were structures of the people’s own making that they would hold in reverence, serve, and honor in order to receive blessings. Sound familiar? From that, the questions we must have are as follows: What things are you holding in reverence? What or who are you serving? What or who are you holding in honor? Most crucially, what or who are you hoping to get blessings from? Think about it this way, if you’re someone who takes exercise seriously, you will make many provisions to make sure you can serve this possible god. You will eat a certain way. You will control your time and calendar a certain way, you will even say no to good things like time with your friends and family on a Friday night so that you can get to the gym early Saturday morning. The benefit from this pursuit could be the praise of mankind for your fitness and physical wellness. Neither of which are evil but both can be gods that our text is describing. This is because if they are the supreme reason for our exercising then we are serving them in some way as a god. Therefore, to have another god before our God means to have something as our reason or motivation for anything but Him. Hear this friends, make God your reason for living, your reason for loving, your reason for leisure. If you do, your eyes will be much more clear on the purpose of your life and your position to God. If you do, when life is tough, when things fall apart, you will be much more grounded in peace and confidence because your reason is not circumstantial but supernatural. Psalm 145:3 states, “Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise, His greatness no one can fathom.†He is worthy of being our reason because we can't even fathom His majesty. So all of our other reasons, yes even the good reasons, must fall under Him.
“I Amâ€
I think it would be a mistake to ignore the preceding verses which set up the commandments. So let’s do that briefly. Moses, the writer of Exodus, scribes the audible words that he hears from God. Exodus 20:1-2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.†The phrase “I am†tells us at least two things. First, if the God of the bible is true then He is your God whether you acknowledge it or not. The I am, is a statement of foreverness. He always has been and always will be and that is what it means to be God. Second, if you are to agree and live as though He is your God then obedience to the commandments will follow, not perfectly but faithfully. Remember, as I stated in our introduction devotional that we are to live from God’s love not for God’s love.
“The Lord your Godâ€
Next, the word Lord means master. This is a God that is in charge over you and a God that you are to submit to. If God is your Creator (Genesis 1:27), if He knows the numbers of hairs on your head (Luke 12:7), if He cares for you much more than the birds (Matthew 6:26), then every molecule in your body was placed with a purpose and every millisecond of your life is under His loving plan. He cares for you and He is covering you. Do you know that today? Furthermore, can you see how God would say “I am the Lord your God†if those things are true? If we understand this, if we believe this, if this is our conviction, then God will not only be our sovereign King but our merciful master and we will want it! “Who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.†Would you take this to heart today? Your freedom is just around the corner of your obedience. It's not that God will necessarily give you what you want from your obedience but that you'll get peace, a clear conscience, and a clarity that you didn't have before. Listen, it’s God who brought the nation of Israel out of the land of Egypt, out of the place that held them in slavery. It’s God who called Moses, it’s God who brought the plagues on Egypt, it’s God who parted the Red Sea. God did the work so you can do the walk. The walk in obedience. It’s when we realize all that God has done for us that we can live from His love and not try (and fail) to white-knuckle our way to His love. You were enslaved to your lusts of the flesh, eyes, and the pride of life. God offers you freedom in His love as the very foundation for your obedience. Now let’s get to the commandment. Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me.†The first question that comes to mind in this commandment is what does it mean by other gods? We can rule out that God meant other supernatural beings worthy of worship. Isaiah 45:22 states, “For I am God, there is no other.†Simply, I think we should take “no other†to mean there are no other supernatural beings worthy of worship. So, if there aren’t any supernatural beings worthy of worship, what is this verse talking about? The context of this text can really help us here. In that time people were much more superstitious and therefore much more prone to erect and worship idols. That seems odd to us but pay attention here to what these small “g†gods were and it will become immediately relevant to us . These gods were structures of the people’s own making that they would hold in reverence, serve, and honor in order to receive blessings. Sound familiar? From that, the questions we must have are as follows: What things are you holding in reverence? What or who are you serving? What or who are you holding in honor? Most crucially, what or who are you hoping to get blessings from? Think about it this way, if you’re someone who takes exercise seriously, you will make many provisions to make sure you can serve this possible god. You will eat a certain way. You will control your time and calendar a certain way, you will even say no to good things like time with your friends and family on a Friday night so that you can get to the gym early Saturday morning. The benefit from this pursuit could be the praise of mankind for your fitness and physical wellness. Neither of which are evil but both can be gods that our text is describing. This is because if they are the supreme reason for our exercising then we are serving them in some way as a god. Therefore, to have another god before our God means to have something as our reason or motivation for anything but Him. Hear this friends, make God your reason for living, your reason for loving, your reason for leisure. If you do, your eyes will be much more clear on the purpose of your life and your position to God. If you do, when life is tough, when things fall apart, you will be much more grounded in peace and confidence because your reason is not circumstantial but supernatural. Psalm 145:3 states, “Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise, His greatness no one can fathom.†He is worthy of being our reason because we can't even fathom His majesty. So all of our other reasons, yes even the good reasons, must fall under Him.
Week 3 - Commandment 2: The Reflection
Exodus 20:4 - “You shall not make for yourself 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. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God…â€
Welcome to our devotional series through the 10 Commandments. Today we will look at the second commandment and see what we can draw out of its purpose and relevance for us today. First, I want to point out the difference between a god and an idol. We often use the terms interchangeably and there are many similarities but there is a difference. An idol is the representation or the image of a god. The idol is what you look to in order to communicate or experience a god. For example, Christ should be our idol. Jesus is the “image of the invisible God.â€(Colossians 1:15) So we worship the Godhead through Christ. We are granted access to God by Christ through the Cross. It’s not a physical picture or statue of Jesus we are to worship but by the reality of Jesus, the person of Jesus. In fact, if we had an authenticated physical picture of Jesus today people would certainly go to worship the picture of Jesus not the person of Jesus and that’s the point. Images and idols, even ones of God, can distract us from truly worshiping God because they can only fall short of His wonder and majesty.
Make
The beginning of our text says, “You shall not make for yourself…†The Hebrew word for “make†sâh, means to appoint, to bring forth, or to have charge of. An idol is something of human construction. It’s something we build from an understanding we’ve gained because of an affection that we have. In the Old Testament we see this manifested in the making of structures like the golden calf built in Exodus 32. Furthermore, consider what God says through the Weeping Prophet in Jeremiah 2:13. “My people have committed two evils: They have forsake me, the fountain of living waters to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.†The take away is that idolatry is a double sin. It’s first rejecting God as the treasure, then making something else, something broken and empty as the treasure. Let’s not forget that our God looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). What was behind the building of the statutes is a heart issue, a love problem, and ultimately a salvation matter. We certainly have the same problems today; they simply look different.
Creation
Next, our text condemns the worship of creation. “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.†Many of us have experienced some of the beauty of the world. Things like the Northern Lights, the Rocky Mountains, or a redwood tree. Maybe you have experienced the beauty of the horse cantering in a field, a child laughing with glee, or a bird singing in the spring. There is certainly wisdom in viewing these things with wonder but there is a temptation to worship the beauty. Consider how many men have fallen prey to worshiping the body of women. Unfortunately, it’s rare to see a billboard or commercial that doesn’t abuse the body of a woman to gain the gaze of men to sell their product. Marketers know this works because they know men worship the bodies of women. They know that even women are so body conscious that the woman with the “perfect†body promoting the product entices them as well. The thought goes like this, “if she is that beautiful and uses that product then I should use it too, and then I’ll be like her.†Ahh, do you hear what that sounds like? It’s the same language the Devil uses in the garden to entice Eve with the fruit. “You will be like God.†(Genesis 3:5) A woman enticed by the billboard thinks (probably subconsciously) that “I will be like†this woman. Which makes the billboard woman, or at least the idea of the billboard woman an idol. Idols are an attempt to put us in the place of God because we are the ones creating it but possessing an idol is having the meaning of your life backwards. We aren’t the creator of God but the creation of God. Likewise, any construction in our mind of God certainly falls short. So we must be biblical on how we should view who God is and what he’s like. The bible is a window. We can’t see everything but God has given us enough, he has given us what we need to know who he is.
Bow Down
“You shall not bow down to them.†To prostrate yourself before something is a sign of submission, or a sign of weakness in comparison to the object that you are bowing to. Our modern and western idols can seem hard to identify because of how immersed we are in the culture. but the image of bowing down can help us. If you are sacrificing your time, talents, or treasure for something it has the potential to be an idol. It could be good things like a spouse, children, or a friend. Or it could be a hobby, a job, or an addiction. For you it might be something even more subtle like respect. It could be that people’s perception of you is so valuable that you will sacrifice much time and effort to make sure that people show respect to you. We all have idols and our call as Christians is to cut them down so we can more clearly see Christ.
Serve
“...Or serve them.†What struck me with the term serve is that service is done willingly. This speaks to our will or desires. Some of the idols we have are given to us by our family. Maybe your family really idolizes money, education, or athletics. You can in a sense inherit those idols from your family. Or your idols can develop as a reaction against your upbringing. If you were poor growing up, being rich can be an idol to you. No matter how you got your idols God is showing us that an idol is not just something you make, it’s not just something that you bow down to, but something that you desire. It’s not just something you inherit but something that you think has great merit. Merit enough to bring your affections away from God.
A Jealous God
"For I the Lord your God am a jealous God" Our Lord is jealous. He desires our time and attention. He is the ultimate idol and wants us to order our desires under Him. When we do that it not only puts us in a proper relationship to God but it makes us begin to love, reflect, and even act like God. Listen to this Psalm.“Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see, They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.†(Psalm 115:4-8) In other words, it is in our very nature to become like the thing that we idolize. The Christian goal is to bring Christ to the top so that we begin to look like Him. We are image bearers of Christ, or mirrors of God. The way we reflect Him most clearly is by facing Him and drawing close to Him.
Welcome to our devotional series through the 10 Commandments. Today we will look at the second commandment and see what we can draw out of its purpose and relevance for us today. First, I want to point out the difference between a god and an idol. We often use the terms interchangeably and there are many similarities but there is a difference. An idol is the representation or the image of a god. The idol is what you look to in order to communicate or experience a god. For example, Christ should be our idol. Jesus is the “image of the invisible God.â€(Colossians 1:15) So we worship the Godhead through Christ. We are granted access to God by Christ through the Cross. It’s not a physical picture or statue of Jesus we are to worship but by the reality of Jesus, the person of Jesus. In fact, if we had an authenticated physical picture of Jesus today people would certainly go to worship the picture of Jesus not the person of Jesus and that’s the point. Images and idols, even ones of God, can distract us from truly worshiping God because they can only fall short of His wonder and majesty.
Make
The beginning of our text says, “You shall not make for yourself…†The Hebrew word for “make†sâh, means to appoint, to bring forth, or to have charge of. An idol is something of human construction. It’s something we build from an understanding we’ve gained because of an affection that we have. In the Old Testament we see this manifested in the making of structures like the golden calf built in Exodus 32. Furthermore, consider what God says through the Weeping Prophet in Jeremiah 2:13. “My people have committed two evils: They have forsake me, the fountain of living waters to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.†The take away is that idolatry is a double sin. It’s first rejecting God as the treasure, then making something else, something broken and empty as the treasure. Let’s not forget that our God looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). What was behind the building of the statutes is a heart issue, a love problem, and ultimately a salvation matter. We certainly have the same problems today; they simply look different.
Creation
Next, our text condemns the worship of creation. “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.†Many of us have experienced some of the beauty of the world. Things like the Northern Lights, the Rocky Mountains, or a redwood tree. Maybe you have experienced the beauty of the horse cantering in a field, a child laughing with glee, or a bird singing in the spring. There is certainly wisdom in viewing these things with wonder but there is a temptation to worship the beauty. Consider how many men have fallen prey to worshiping the body of women. Unfortunately, it’s rare to see a billboard or commercial that doesn’t abuse the body of a woman to gain the gaze of men to sell their product. Marketers know this works because they know men worship the bodies of women. They know that even women are so body conscious that the woman with the “perfect†body promoting the product entices them as well. The thought goes like this, “if she is that beautiful and uses that product then I should use it too, and then I’ll be like her.†Ahh, do you hear what that sounds like? It’s the same language the Devil uses in the garden to entice Eve with the fruit. “You will be like God.†(Genesis 3:5) A woman enticed by the billboard thinks (probably subconsciously) that “I will be like†this woman. Which makes the billboard woman, or at least the idea of the billboard woman an idol. Idols are an attempt to put us in the place of God because we are the ones creating it but possessing an idol is having the meaning of your life backwards. We aren’t the creator of God but the creation of God. Likewise, any construction in our mind of God certainly falls short. So we must be biblical on how we should view who God is and what he’s like. The bible is a window. We can’t see everything but God has given us enough, he has given us what we need to know who he is.
Bow Down
“You shall not bow down to them.†To prostrate yourself before something is a sign of submission, or a sign of weakness in comparison to the object that you are bowing to. Our modern and western idols can seem hard to identify because of how immersed we are in the culture. but the image of bowing down can help us. If you are sacrificing your time, talents, or treasure for something it has the potential to be an idol. It could be good things like a spouse, children, or a friend. Or it could be a hobby, a job, or an addiction. For you it might be something even more subtle like respect. It could be that people’s perception of you is so valuable that you will sacrifice much time and effort to make sure that people show respect to you. We all have idols and our call as Christians is to cut them down so we can more clearly see Christ.
Serve
“...Or serve them.†What struck me with the term serve is that service is done willingly. This speaks to our will or desires. Some of the idols we have are given to us by our family. Maybe your family really idolizes money, education, or athletics. You can in a sense inherit those idols from your family. Or your idols can develop as a reaction against your upbringing. If you were poor growing up, being rich can be an idol to you. No matter how you got your idols God is showing us that an idol is not just something you make, it’s not just something that you bow down to, but something that you desire. It’s not just something you inherit but something that you think has great merit. Merit enough to bring your affections away from God.
A Jealous God
"For I the Lord your God am a jealous God" Our Lord is jealous. He desires our time and attention. He is the ultimate idol and wants us to order our desires under Him. When we do that it not only puts us in a proper relationship to God but it makes us begin to love, reflect, and even act like God. Listen to this Psalm.“Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see, They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.†(Psalm 115:4-8) In other words, it is in our very nature to become like the thing that we idolize. The Christian goal is to bring Christ to the top so that we begin to look like Him. We are image bearers of Christ, or mirrors of God. The way we reflect Him most clearly is by facing Him and drawing close to Him.
Week 4 - Commandment 3: Reverence
Exodus 20:7 - “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain."
Take
Welcome to our devotional series through the ten commandments. Today we will examine the third commandment in Exodus 20:7. It begins by saying that "you shall not take..." The word take, or the Hebrew word nâsâ God’s name as a swear word. This is a good thing to consider and we shouldn’t use God’s name in lowly ways. However, this is not the main point of the 3rd commandment but a micro point to the macro command. We should consider our speech and whether it honors God but if God was mainly concerned with our speech I think He would have used a word other than nâsâ and in the center of the emptiness is a small twig. As the pool fills the water carries, or lifts (nâsâ either in an honoring way or in a dishonoring way you are lifting his name up. Like the twig in the water you lift it up to the surface. The more crucial question is whether you lift up his name in vain or with value.
Name
We live in a time where people put more of a priority on the clothes a child wears than the name they bear. A time where almost everyone has nice teeth but few have a tongue of peace. There is certainly an emptiness in our words and actions today. Think about the occasions in your life, or in a book, or movie where someone is calling on God’s name. It tends to be in a time of desperation, or great pain. There is something within us that reaches out to the transcendent when life is out of our control. Hear this, the reality is that life is always out of our control. Therefore, the name of God should always be on the tips of our tongues. It should always be at the surface of our waters being lifted up like the twig. When I first married my wife Carly, her name had a significant meaning to me. She was special and precious to me but the value of her name to me now vastly outweighs the value it had when we first tied the knot. Now, when I speak her name it has weight, it holds honor, it possesses power. This is how it should be when we speak our Lord's name. It should show that we have intimacy with the person behind the name, it should show that the name has significance in our lives, and power through our pains. The point of this commandment is that when, not if, you lift the name of God up, don’t empty God’s name of authority and affection. Don’t empty God of His significance with your speech and actions.
Judgment
Lastly, the warning in this commandment sounds irredeemable. “The Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.†If we're honest all of us have failed to uphold this commandment. So are we all doomed to face the wrath of God? Consider what Paul says in Romans 5:20. “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.†It’s the law (including the 10 Commandments) that reveals our sins. The law is accountability, it's a mirror for you to examine how you’re doing and it can inspire rebelling in our sinful hearts if we have an idol the law condemns. Furthermore, we are not hopeless in our brokenness. “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.†This isn’t a license to sin but a showcase of love. As a parent that would go to the end of the earth for their child so does God’s grace cover your sins. God has removed our sins as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). So show God's impact on your life when you use His name, show his value, honor Him as your Father, Savoir, and love Him as a friend.
Take
Welcome to our devotional series through the ten commandments. Today we will examine the third commandment in Exodus 20:7. It begins by saying that "you shall not take..." The word take, or the Hebrew word nâsâ God’s name as a swear word. This is a good thing to consider and we shouldn’t use God’s name in lowly ways. However, this is not the main point of the 3rd commandment but a micro point to the macro command. We should consider our speech and whether it honors God but if God was mainly concerned with our speech I think He would have used a word other than nâsâ and in the center of the emptiness is a small twig. As the pool fills the water carries, or lifts (nâsâ either in an honoring way or in a dishonoring way you are lifting his name up. Like the twig in the water you lift it up to the surface. The more crucial question is whether you lift up his name in vain or with value.
Name
We live in a time where people put more of a priority on the clothes a child wears than the name they bear. A time where almost everyone has nice teeth but few have a tongue of peace. There is certainly an emptiness in our words and actions today. Think about the occasions in your life, or in a book, or movie where someone is calling on God’s name. It tends to be in a time of desperation, or great pain. There is something within us that reaches out to the transcendent when life is out of our control. Hear this, the reality is that life is always out of our control. Therefore, the name of God should always be on the tips of our tongues. It should always be at the surface of our waters being lifted up like the twig. When I first married my wife Carly, her name had a significant meaning to me. She was special and precious to me but the value of her name to me now vastly outweighs the value it had when we first tied the knot. Now, when I speak her name it has weight, it holds honor, it possesses power. This is how it should be when we speak our Lord's name. It should show that we have intimacy with the person behind the name, it should show that the name has significance in our lives, and power through our pains. The point of this commandment is that when, not if, you lift the name of God up, don’t empty God’s name of authority and affection. Don’t empty God of His significance with your speech and actions.
Judgment
Lastly, the warning in this commandment sounds irredeemable. “The Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.†If we're honest all of us have failed to uphold this commandment. So are we all doomed to face the wrath of God? Consider what Paul says in Romans 5:20. “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.†It’s the law (including the 10 Commandments) that reveals our sins. The law is accountability, it's a mirror for you to examine how you’re doing and it can inspire rebelling in our sinful hearts if we have an idol the law condemns. Furthermore, we are not hopeless in our brokenness. “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.†This isn’t a license to sin but a showcase of love. As a parent that would go to the end of the earth for their child so does God’s grace cover your sins. God has removed our sins as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). So show God's impact on your life when you use His name, show his value, honor Him as your Father, Savoir, and love Him as a friend.
Week 5 - Commandment 4: Rest
Exodus 20:8-11 - “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Sabbath
Welcome back to our series on the 10 Commandments. Today we will look to the fourth commandment for our devotion to the King. The word “Sabbath†(shabbat), means “cease,†“rest,†“complete rest,†or “desist.†Jesus, early and often showed a desire to get at the heart of a matter but so often we miss the forest for the trees. We get lost in the rituals, reliant on religion, and miss the relief of the presence of God stirring in our obedience. Much discussion over this command has dealt with whether this commandment still applies or how strict we are to be with our actions during the day of rest. My opinion here is that we don’t question if thou shall not murder is still a relevant commandment so why would we question if the command to rest is still valid? Additionally, the devil is in the details and underneath this debate is a much more important matter. Namely, how you can receive rest. So what is rest? My definition would be something like this: rest is the activity or lack of activity that restores one’s spirit. This is a physical, mental, and a spiritual practice but I think rest is foremost spiritual. Now, restoring one’s spirit might look different for each of us. If you work in a physical labor field then rest probably looks like a day of physical rest, a day with a nap by the pool, or a day lounging in the backyard with the kids. If you work at a desk all week, a day of rest might look like a bike ride or a long walk. Refreshing or resting your mind and spirit might come from exerting energy with your body. The mind, body and spirit are connected in ways that we can’t totally understand, we simply know that they are connected. More than anything, rest is something that rejuvenates your spirit to help you recover from the past week and to prepare you for the week to come. Whether you tend to physically or mentally rest when you truly get rest it is certainly spiritual.
Remember
Don’t forget to rest. No matter what is going on at work or at home a rested person is much more productive, profitable, and peaceful. In the middle of the deadlines will you remember to rest? In the middle of the trial will you remember to rejuvenate your spirit? Implicit in this word “remember†is the assumption that we will forget to rest. Our minds are easily drawn back to the to-do lists, the work agenda, the kids' school work. Personally, I really enjoy working. I’m excited to get up on Monday and get to work. It brings me a lot of purpose and joy but the problem is that I can easily forget to make sure I’m resting as God commands me.
To the Lord your God
This is a part that we often miss. We tend to be so focused on our personal rest that we miss how we get rest in the first place. Rest is a gift from God. How often have you gone to sleep but not rested? How often have you gone on a vacation and got back home and still felt stretched thin? Additionally, have you ever noticed how we talk about rest. I’m going to “take†a nap or I need to “take†a vacation. Hear this, you don’t take true rest, you receive it. It is a gift. Ironically you get this gift by giving. You get the gift of rest by offering your day of rest to God. In a stillness you offer your hands, head and heart to God and in turn you receive His rest, a rest like no other. Furthermore, we rest because God rested. In Genesis 2:1-3 we see that God rested after he finished creation. He rested, he blessed the day of rest, and made it holy. If you want to operate your life in a restful manner following this weekly ritual of resting will draw you closer to God and you’ll be much more of a pleasant person to be around.
Lord give me rest
Have you ever woken up from a nap and felt like you were in another universe? I think God’s rest feels something like that. It lifts us above our circumstances and lays us on clouds of peace. I think we should end today’s devo with prayer. Would you take a moment and ask God to give you His rest? A spiritual impartation of peace of mind, a full spirit, and a rested body. God be glorified in our rest. We look to you as our gracious giver and we ask for you to commune with us so deeply that we collapse in your arms like a sleepy infant in a mothers embrace. We ask you for true rest. Amen.
Sabbath
Welcome back to our series on the 10 Commandments. Today we will look to the fourth commandment for our devotion to the King. The word “Sabbath†(shabbat), means “cease,†“rest,†“complete rest,†or “desist.†Jesus, early and often showed a desire to get at the heart of a matter but so often we miss the forest for the trees. We get lost in the rituals, reliant on religion, and miss the relief of the presence of God stirring in our obedience. Much discussion over this command has dealt with whether this commandment still applies or how strict we are to be with our actions during the day of rest. My opinion here is that we don’t question if thou shall not murder is still a relevant commandment so why would we question if the command to rest is still valid? Additionally, the devil is in the details and underneath this debate is a much more important matter. Namely, how you can receive rest. So what is rest? My definition would be something like this: rest is the activity or lack of activity that restores one’s spirit. This is a physical, mental, and a spiritual practice but I think rest is foremost spiritual. Now, restoring one’s spirit might look different for each of us. If you work in a physical labor field then rest probably looks like a day of physical rest, a day with a nap by the pool, or a day lounging in the backyard with the kids. If you work at a desk all week, a day of rest might look like a bike ride or a long walk. Refreshing or resting your mind and spirit might come from exerting energy with your body. The mind, body and spirit are connected in ways that we can’t totally understand, we simply know that they are connected. More than anything, rest is something that rejuvenates your spirit to help you recover from the past week and to prepare you for the week to come. Whether you tend to physically or mentally rest when you truly get rest it is certainly spiritual.
Remember
Don’t forget to rest. No matter what is going on at work or at home a rested person is much more productive, profitable, and peaceful. In the middle of the deadlines will you remember to rest? In the middle of the trial will you remember to rejuvenate your spirit? Implicit in this word “remember†is the assumption that we will forget to rest. Our minds are easily drawn back to the to-do lists, the work agenda, the kids' school work. Personally, I really enjoy working. I’m excited to get up on Monday and get to work. It brings me a lot of purpose and joy but the problem is that I can easily forget to make sure I’m resting as God commands me.
To the Lord your God
This is a part that we often miss. We tend to be so focused on our personal rest that we miss how we get rest in the first place. Rest is a gift from God. How often have you gone to sleep but not rested? How often have you gone on a vacation and got back home and still felt stretched thin? Additionally, have you ever noticed how we talk about rest. I’m going to “take†a nap or I need to “take†a vacation. Hear this, you don’t take true rest, you receive it. It is a gift. Ironically you get this gift by giving. You get the gift of rest by offering your day of rest to God. In a stillness you offer your hands, head and heart to God and in turn you receive His rest, a rest like no other. Furthermore, we rest because God rested. In Genesis 2:1-3 we see that God rested after he finished creation. He rested, he blessed the day of rest, and made it holy. If you want to operate your life in a restful manner following this weekly ritual of resting will draw you closer to God and you’ll be much more of a pleasant person to be around.
Lord give me rest
Have you ever woken up from a nap and felt like you were in another universe? I think God’s rest feels something like that. It lifts us above our circumstances and lays us on clouds of peace. I think we should end today’s devo with prayer. Would you take a moment and ask God to give you His rest? A spiritual impartation of peace of mind, a full spirit, and a rested body. God be glorified in our rest. We look to you as our gracious giver and we ask for you to commune with us so deeply that we collapse in your arms like a sleepy infant in a mothers embrace. We ask you for true rest. Amen.
Week 6 - Commandment 5: Respect
Exodus 20:12 - “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.â€
Welcome to our series through the 10 commandments. Today we are thinking through the 5th commandment for this week's devotional. Let’s get right into it. Honor your father and your mother. This is the only command with a promise and often people think this is a promise of a long life. I think a better interpretation is the promise of societal stability. “That your days may be long in the land.†In the land their days will be long. This means their society will stay intact in the promised land if people honor their fathers and mothers. Keep in mind here that the generations of parents that are around when this commandant is giving don’t get to enter the promised land because of their rebellion and distrust of God. So these parents didn’t “deserve†much respect but God didn’t make this commandment because they deserved it but because they needed it. This commandment is for the parents but to the children and both receive the rewards if it’s followed.
Honor is Taught
This commandment is the foundational rule for a healthy family and a well ordered society. If you spend any time at a grocery store or a playground you will see that we are well on our way to a disordered culture, if not past that already. Especially concerning the relationships between parents and their children. You’ll see a few things when you go into public now-a-days: Parents hovering over their kids, parents ignoring their kids, and parents who are a slave to their kids. The parents that hover think they are loving their kids by protecting them from everything but don't realize that they are teaching the child that the world revolves around the child. This is shortdighted because later on when the child realizes the world doesn’t revolve around them they will rebel against you and the world. You are developing a future narcissist. The child will then abuse you because you raised them in fear and they will use that fear to manipulate you. Additionally, if you go out today you will see parents ignoring their children. Go to a restaurant and look for a family with kids. Often you will see the parents with their heads down looking at their phones and the kids with a tablet to keep them quiet. This is evil. These kids will grow to hate their parents because they were absent and self-absorbed. That is the opposite of what it means to be a dad or a mom. You are to be present and self-sacrificing. Fathers, it is your responsibility to pull your family away from these cultural trends. Thirdly, you will certainly witness in public children that are masters to their slave parents. Whining and crying to get what they want and demanding every whim be met with obedience. This is plain sad and comes from the father being passive. This child is learning how to be a tyrant, you are training them to be evil and tyrants always, and I mean always, meet a terrible end. Simply read a history book to see that. I say all of that to help us understand that children are trained by the parents to honor their parents. If you hover over your kids, they will abuse you. If you ignore your kids they will hate you. If you are a slave to your kids they won’t respect you. Honor from your kids comes from wise sacrifice. If you sacrifice nothing you receive no honor. If you sacrifice everything and become their slave you will get zero respect. So what about when the kids get older? Well, if you trained your children in the ways of the Lord this shouldn’t be too terrible of a challenge. There can be seasons of rebellion and disrespect but that’s because your kids are sinners. The hope is that you instilled God’s word deep enough into their hearts that it nags at your children when they are in sin. What I’m trying to get at here is that you are tasked with setting your kids up for success in obeying the 5th commandment. Once the child is an adult their ability to honor you is in God’s hands. Furthermore, no matter how terrible of a parent you are or were, this command is absolute and once your children are adults it falls on their shoulders, not yours. Some of you reading this might have done the best you could but you're still not getting the respect that you deserve from your kids. I’m sure you made mistakes but nothing that deserves the dishonor that they give you. Consider here that you deserve the respect because God demands it not because you’ve necessarily earned it. God is the one that says you deserve respect. The problem just might be that you didn’t raise your kids to respect you but thank the Lord, that our God is a God of redemption. Consider the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. In the story the loving father provides a great life for his son. Yet his son disrespects him and leaves town with all of his inheritance. Then the son squanders all of his inheritance with wild living. The fathers response when the son comes back in repentance isn’t to condemn and call out his son but to run to him and offer a loving embrace. Are you ready to do that for your rebellious kid? Listen to the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:1-4. “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother†(this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.†Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.†The equation is this: CHILD + Discipline & Instruction of the Lord = Honor to Parents. Sometimes your sin or your child's sin can disturb this equation and this is where our lives get messy. Sin is the reason our society is sideways on so many issues and why our families have rebellious kids. Remember Proverb 22:15, “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.†It’s the sacrificial love of discipline that offers children the greatest opportunity for obedience.
Welcome to our series through the 10 commandments. Today we are thinking through the 5th commandment for this week's devotional. Let’s get right into it. Honor your father and your mother. This is the only command with a promise and often people think this is a promise of a long life. I think a better interpretation is the promise of societal stability. “That your days may be long in the land.†In the land their days will be long. This means their society will stay intact in the promised land if people honor their fathers and mothers. Keep in mind here that the generations of parents that are around when this commandant is giving don’t get to enter the promised land because of their rebellion and distrust of God. So these parents didn’t “deserve†much respect but God didn’t make this commandment because they deserved it but because they needed it. This commandment is for the parents but to the children and both receive the rewards if it’s followed.
Honor is Taught
This commandment is the foundational rule for a healthy family and a well ordered society. If you spend any time at a grocery store or a playground you will see that we are well on our way to a disordered culture, if not past that already. Especially concerning the relationships between parents and their children. You’ll see a few things when you go into public now-a-days: Parents hovering over their kids, parents ignoring their kids, and parents who are a slave to their kids. The parents that hover think they are loving their kids by protecting them from everything but don't realize that they are teaching the child that the world revolves around the child. This is shortdighted because later on when the child realizes the world doesn’t revolve around them they will rebel against you and the world. You are developing a future narcissist. The child will then abuse you because you raised them in fear and they will use that fear to manipulate you. Additionally, if you go out today you will see parents ignoring their children. Go to a restaurant and look for a family with kids. Often you will see the parents with their heads down looking at their phones and the kids with a tablet to keep them quiet. This is evil. These kids will grow to hate their parents because they were absent and self-absorbed. That is the opposite of what it means to be a dad or a mom. You are to be present and self-sacrificing. Fathers, it is your responsibility to pull your family away from these cultural trends. Thirdly, you will certainly witness in public children that are masters to their slave parents. Whining and crying to get what they want and demanding every whim be met with obedience. This is plain sad and comes from the father being passive. This child is learning how to be a tyrant, you are training them to be evil and tyrants always, and I mean always, meet a terrible end. Simply read a history book to see that. I say all of that to help us understand that children are trained by the parents to honor their parents. If you hover over your kids, they will abuse you. If you ignore your kids they will hate you. If you are a slave to your kids they won’t respect you. Honor from your kids comes from wise sacrifice. If you sacrifice nothing you receive no honor. If you sacrifice everything and become their slave you will get zero respect. So what about when the kids get older? Well, if you trained your children in the ways of the Lord this shouldn’t be too terrible of a challenge. There can be seasons of rebellion and disrespect but that’s because your kids are sinners. The hope is that you instilled God’s word deep enough into their hearts that it nags at your children when they are in sin. What I’m trying to get at here is that you are tasked with setting your kids up for success in obeying the 5th commandment. Once the child is an adult their ability to honor you is in God’s hands. Furthermore, no matter how terrible of a parent you are or were, this command is absolute and once your children are adults it falls on their shoulders, not yours. Some of you reading this might have done the best you could but you're still not getting the respect that you deserve from your kids. I’m sure you made mistakes but nothing that deserves the dishonor that they give you. Consider here that you deserve the respect because God demands it not because you’ve necessarily earned it. God is the one that says you deserve respect. The problem just might be that you didn’t raise your kids to respect you but thank the Lord, that our God is a God of redemption. Consider the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. In the story the loving father provides a great life for his son. Yet his son disrespects him and leaves town with all of his inheritance. Then the son squanders all of his inheritance with wild living. The fathers response when the son comes back in repentance isn’t to condemn and call out his son but to run to him and offer a loving embrace. Are you ready to do that for your rebellious kid? Listen to the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:1-4. “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother†(this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.†Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.†The equation is this: CHILD + Discipline & Instruction of the Lord = Honor to Parents. Sometimes your sin or your child's sin can disturb this equation and this is where our lives get messy. Sin is the reason our society is sideways on so many issues and why our families have rebellious kids. Remember Proverb 22:15, “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.†It’s the sacrificial love of discipline that offers children the greatest opportunity for obedience.
Week 7 - Commandment 6: Rage
Exodus 20:13 - “You shall not murder”
Welcome back to our series on the 10 commandments. Today we are thinking through the 6th commandment from Exodus 20:13 “You shall not murder.” You might have read this command like you have many times and almost see it as irrelevant to your life. The thought is that you would never go so far as to intentionally end someone's life, and that may be true. As with all of these commandments God is concerned about the heart or the affections that drive someone to murder and that feeling is certainly within you. The act of murder is the result of something deep within each of us, it’s a root that is not so easily plucked out. So let’s work through our understanding of murder and see what the Spirit does in our hearts.
What Murder Isn’t // What Murder Is
We are so far removed from death in our culture that we don’t tend to think of the cow, chicken, or fish that had to suffer for our dinner tonight. While that is a wonderful product of our advanced society it removes us from experiencing some of the revelation of the curse of sin. I come from a family of hunters and having killed animals myself I quickly realized the harshness and the spiritual element of killing when I was young. Killing God’s creation for sport makes little sense to me. I don’t think that falls under being good stewards of what He has given us but to kill an animal to feed yourself is permissible. Therefore it is not murder, sorry PETA people. The word used for “murder” in Exodus 20:13 is rasah, which means the unlawful, premeditated, or immoral killing of another human. Interestingly, this also means the unintentional causing of human death through carelessness or negligence. The verb rasah is used forty-seven times in the Old Testament, and not once does it describe killing in war, or slaughtering animals or defending one’s home from invasion. Exodus 21:12–14 states that the premeditated murder of someone deserved capital punishment (also Numbers 35:17–21). The title I gave today's devo is rage and the definition of rage is something like uncontrolled anger. Anger can be justified and can even be good. Your response to an adult abusing a child should be anger. That’s a good and proper response. However anger that isn’t under control, anger that isn’t under the influence of the Holy Spirit is rage and rage is the motivation towards violence and the ingredients for murder.
The Heart of Murder
Consider what Jesus says in Matthew 5:21-22. “You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.” But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, “You fool!” will be liable to the hell of fire.” There is a heart of murder within you. Think about the person, the boss, co-worker, or family member that you just can’t stand. I remember a time during the pandemic I had such a bad interaction with a person at a restaurant that I played up this scenario in my head where I beat them to a pulp. At that time I was a worship pastor at a church. I had spent over a decade of my life in ministry pursuing the Spirit of God, yet that evil was still within me, it's in us, and we have to fight it. My heart had rage in it, which is a heart of murder.
It’s interesting the language we use to thwart sin. You have to fight sin, or you must kill sin. I think that’s right. We must get violent with our sin in order to keep ourselves from violence. Jesus used this language as well. Matthew 5:30 says, “If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off.” Please don’t remove any of your limbs but do take your sin seriously, and do whatever it takes to kill it. To get help with your sin; talk to a friend, reveal your sin to them, ask them to keep you accountable, and have them help you think through some practical ways to keep you from your sin. Most importantly, immerse yourself in prayer, keep your eyes in God's word, and keep your heart soft to His Spirit.
The Death of Self
In Luke 9:23 Jesus tells us first to deny ourselves, then to take up our cross daily, and follow him. You are to refuse yourself your sinful desires, you are to take on the burdens, the bruises, and the beatings of the Christian life, and you are to follow Jesus in every step. When you do this you won’t boil to the point of rage. You won’t wake up in a state of misery, bitter and grinding your teeth. You will wake up with peace and joy because you have been so lavishly forgiven that nothing could corrupt your heart to such a state of unforgiveness. I often tell my kids when they’re having a bad day that there are always reasons to be angry, and there are always reasons to be glad. There is always evil surrounding our lives and there is always goodness pervading our lives. Today you are choosing to focus on the bad and that's why this day isn’t going so well. Choose to focus on what is true, what is good, and what is beautiful. You will be a much more joyful person if you operate this way. Don’t waste your life in sin, gloom, and bitterness. Win your days with joy. Look to the cross as a compass that will guide you, and a coping mechanism that will hold you. Love is the true conqueror, rage is only a means to ruin, and murder is the result.
Welcome back to our series on the 10 commandments. Today we are thinking through the 6th commandment from Exodus 20:13 “You shall not murder.” You might have read this command like you have many times and almost see it as irrelevant to your life. The thought is that you would never go so far as to intentionally end someone's life, and that may be true. As with all of these commandments God is concerned about the heart or the affections that drive someone to murder and that feeling is certainly within you. The act of murder is the result of something deep within each of us, it’s a root that is not so easily plucked out. So let’s work through our understanding of murder and see what the Spirit does in our hearts.
What Murder Isn’t // What Murder Is
We are so far removed from death in our culture that we don’t tend to think of the cow, chicken, or fish that had to suffer for our dinner tonight. While that is a wonderful product of our advanced society it removes us from experiencing some of the revelation of the curse of sin. I come from a family of hunters and having killed animals myself I quickly realized the harshness and the spiritual element of killing when I was young. Killing God’s creation for sport makes little sense to me. I don’t think that falls under being good stewards of what He has given us but to kill an animal to feed yourself is permissible. Therefore it is not murder, sorry PETA people. The word used for “murder” in Exodus 20:13 is rasah, which means the unlawful, premeditated, or immoral killing of another human. Interestingly, this also means the unintentional causing of human death through carelessness or negligence. The verb rasah is used forty-seven times in the Old Testament, and not once does it describe killing in war, or slaughtering animals or defending one’s home from invasion. Exodus 21:12–14 states that the premeditated murder of someone deserved capital punishment (also Numbers 35:17–21). The title I gave today's devo is rage and the definition of rage is something like uncontrolled anger. Anger can be justified and can even be good. Your response to an adult abusing a child should be anger. That’s a good and proper response. However anger that isn’t under control, anger that isn’t under the influence of the Holy Spirit is rage and rage is the motivation towards violence and the ingredients for murder.
The Heart of Murder
Consider what Jesus says in Matthew 5:21-22. “You have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.” But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, “You fool!” will be liable to the hell of fire.” There is a heart of murder within you. Think about the person, the boss, co-worker, or family member that you just can’t stand. I remember a time during the pandemic I had such a bad interaction with a person at a restaurant that I played up this scenario in my head where I beat them to a pulp. At that time I was a worship pastor at a church. I had spent over a decade of my life in ministry pursuing the Spirit of God, yet that evil was still within me, it's in us, and we have to fight it. My heart had rage in it, which is a heart of murder.
It’s interesting the language we use to thwart sin. You have to fight sin, or you must kill sin. I think that’s right. We must get violent with our sin in order to keep ourselves from violence. Jesus used this language as well. Matthew 5:30 says, “If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off.” Please don’t remove any of your limbs but do take your sin seriously, and do whatever it takes to kill it. To get help with your sin; talk to a friend, reveal your sin to them, ask them to keep you accountable, and have them help you think through some practical ways to keep you from your sin. Most importantly, immerse yourself in prayer, keep your eyes in God's word, and keep your heart soft to His Spirit.
The Death of Self
In Luke 9:23 Jesus tells us first to deny ourselves, then to take up our cross daily, and follow him. You are to refuse yourself your sinful desires, you are to take on the burdens, the bruises, and the beatings of the Christian life, and you are to follow Jesus in every step. When you do this you won’t boil to the point of rage. You won’t wake up in a state of misery, bitter and grinding your teeth. You will wake up with peace and joy because you have been so lavishly forgiven that nothing could corrupt your heart to such a state of unforgiveness. I often tell my kids when they’re having a bad day that there are always reasons to be angry, and there are always reasons to be glad. There is always evil surrounding our lives and there is always goodness pervading our lives. Today you are choosing to focus on the bad and that's why this day isn’t going so well. Choose to focus on what is true, what is good, and what is beautiful. You will be a much more joyful person if you operate this way. Don’t waste your life in sin, gloom, and bitterness. Win your days with joy. Look to the cross as a compass that will guide you, and a coping mechanism that will hold you. Love is the true conqueror, rage is only a means to ruin, and murder is the result.
Week 8 - Commandment 7: Ruin
Exodus 20:14 - “You shall not commit adultery”
This is Simple
Welcome to our series on the Ten Commandments. Today we are examining the 7th commandment from Exodus 20:14, “You shall not commit adultery”. The way to distract a man and destroy the family and therefore society is through adultery. This is a chief sin among men and it riddles the Christian man with guilt. It clouds their spiritual vision, and makes them weak in their bones as they slowly lose all their godly convictions. Some sins can be difficult to discern. Pride can be shrewd, cowardice can be crafty, and gluttony even can be celebrated. This isn’t the case with the 7th commandment. No man has ever had an epiphany in the middle of committing adultery and said, “Oh, you’re not my wife!” In that way this command is simple and clear. Sexual activity with anyone other than your spouse is forbidden.
Value the Promise
I read an article recently about the actress Drew Berrymore who was asked if she felt like a failure after having three divorces. She said no, in fact she stated that she felt “liberated.” I’m wondering if you believe her? If you have been through a divorce you know how painful they are. It’s months and sometimes years of lawyers, paperwork, and pain. It’s a season of confused kids, and wondering how to parent with someone who is no longer committed to you. It’s a season of agony not liberation. It is indeed a failure but we have a God who lavishly pours out his love and forgiveness on us. If we simply turn away from our sin and ask for his help in the midst of our pain He won’t hold back His rivers of healing power. Don’t buy this “liberated” crap from our culture. Berrymore sounds free but she’s not, just watch her talk show. It’s painful. Unfortunately, she seems to not hold a high value of the promises she’s made to her husbands therefore blurring the lines of where the promise begins and ends.
Freedom in a Frame
In order to be free you must have borders. I’m very tempted here to talk about our southern border but I won’t. There is however evidence for this with children at a playground. If they have no border fence then they use a very small amount of land for their activities. If they have a border fence then they will use the entire space to the very edges of the fence. Or if you’re an artist you need edges for your drawing and a frame for your painting. Before the beauty can even be created the edges must be clear. Freedom needs a frame. Freedom only exists within a border and beauty is only created in boundaries. So it is with sex. Sex is given by God to express love and create children. This can only be done between a man and a woman. It’s something that is beautiful and the result is a miracle. This miracle creating is to be done in the border wall of marriage for many reasons. I'll give you three: the protection of women, the ideal situation for rearing children and the sexual regulation of men. When the sexual nature of men isn’t given borders they commit all sorts of debauchery. If you have read through your bible you will notice that every time someone is indulging in promiscuity or polygamy they are having a terrible time. Unfortunately our creativity doesn’t end there even in the bible. In Exodus 22:18-19, bestiality was an issue, so it was condemned and given the death penalty as a consequence. In Leviticus 18:22, we see that homosexuality is happening and was also condemned. You might have noticed lately that American laws have slowly been softening to some of these debased acts and the results are predictable. Men are getting more out of control, not less. What keeps their sin at bay is the boundary and when that gets weak or murky the freedom for everyone suffers. Women are left vulnerable with no protection and little provision and children lose out on the greatness of living under a roof where masculinity and femininity harmonize.
Additionally, this command assumes marriage and condemns acting improperly to anyone but your spouse but what if you aren’t married? Does it still apply? Yes, here’s why. Think for a moment that you’re sitting with your future spouse and you ask if it was okay for you to sleep around before you were married because you were lonely? If your spouse is honest they will say no because the idea of you sleeping with another person hurts them. It’s painful, it creates jealousy because God wrote this law on your heart. Sex outside of heterosexual marriage is adultery. Furthermore, our culture is getting married later and later and men are often getting to their thirties before they “settle down.” Leaving them without regulation in their immature teens and twenties. In many cases, not all, I think this is a mistake. Get married early and be financially poor with the person you love so you can be relationally rich. Be regulated by the marriage covenant and you will live in freedom because freedom exists in a frame. This law is for both men and women to obey but the Ten Commandments are written to patriarchs. Exodus 20:17 tells men to not covet their neighbor's wife. That of course applies to women as well yet it’s written to men because if the patriarch falls everyone is devastated. If the woman falls its impact is painful but not ruinous. Men, get your passions under the law and you will create a wonderful legacy and live in freedom not chained like an animal to your desires. Women, your standard for a man must be high in today's culture. Pornography is not acceptable. If you’re dating, one of the first questions that women should ask is: when is the last time you watched porn? If it’s recent then he is too weak to lead you and he won’t stop just because you get married. You won’t live with him in freedom because he won’t know where to build up the border walls of protection. His spiritual eyes will be dulled and his courage will be stricken. Adherence to this commandment is central to the health of a marriage, a family, and a society. You shall not commit adultery.
This is Simple
Welcome to our series on the Ten Commandments. Today we are examining the 7th commandment from Exodus 20:14, “You shall not commit adultery”. The way to distract a man and destroy the family and therefore society is through adultery. This is a chief sin among men and it riddles the Christian man with guilt. It clouds their spiritual vision, and makes them weak in their bones as they slowly lose all their godly convictions. Some sins can be difficult to discern. Pride can be shrewd, cowardice can be crafty, and gluttony even can be celebrated. This isn’t the case with the 7th commandment. No man has ever had an epiphany in the middle of committing adultery and said, “Oh, you’re not my wife!” In that way this command is simple and clear. Sexual activity with anyone other than your spouse is forbidden.
Value the Promise
I read an article recently about the actress Drew Berrymore who was asked if she felt like a failure after having three divorces. She said no, in fact she stated that she felt “liberated.” I’m wondering if you believe her? If you have been through a divorce you know how painful they are. It’s months and sometimes years of lawyers, paperwork, and pain. It’s a season of confused kids, and wondering how to parent with someone who is no longer committed to you. It’s a season of agony not liberation. It is indeed a failure but we have a God who lavishly pours out his love and forgiveness on us. If we simply turn away from our sin and ask for his help in the midst of our pain He won’t hold back His rivers of healing power. Don’t buy this “liberated” crap from our culture. Berrymore sounds free but she’s not, just watch her talk show. It’s painful. Unfortunately, she seems to not hold a high value of the promises she’s made to her husbands therefore blurring the lines of where the promise begins and ends.
Freedom in a Frame
In order to be free you must have borders. I’m very tempted here to talk about our southern border but I won’t. There is however evidence for this with children at a playground. If they have no border fence then they use a very small amount of land for their activities. If they have a border fence then they will use the entire space to the very edges of the fence. Or if you’re an artist you need edges for your drawing and a frame for your painting. Before the beauty can even be created the edges must be clear. Freedom needs a frame. Freedom only exists within a border and beauty is only created in boundaries. So it is with sex. Sex is given by God to express love and create children. This can only be done between a man and a woman. It’s something that is beautiful and the result is a miracle. This miracle creating is to be done in the border wall of marriage for many reasons. I'll give you three: the protection of women, the ideal situation for rearing children and the sexual regulation of men. When the sexual nature of men isn’t given borders they commit all sorts of debauchery. If you have read through your bible you will notice that every time someone is indulging in promiscuity or polygamy they are having a terrible time. Unfortunately our creativity doesn’t end there even in the bible. In Exodus 22:18-19, bestiality was an issue, so it was condemned and given the death penalty as a consequence. In Leviticus 18:22, we see that homosexuality is happening and was also condemned. You might have noticed lately that American laws have slowly been softening to some of these debased acts and the results are predictable. Men are getting more out of control, not less. What keeps their sin at bay is the boundary and when that gets weak or murky the freedom for everyone suffers. Women are left vulnerable with no protection and little provision and children lose out on the greatness of living under a roof where masculinity and femininity harmonize.
Additionally, this command assumes marriage and condemns acting improperly to anyone but your spouse but what if you aren’t married? Does it still apply? Yes, here’s why. Think for a moment that you’re sitting with your future spouse and you ask if it was okay for you to sleep around before you were married because you were lonely? If your spouse is honest they will say no because the idea of you sleeping with another person hurts them. It’s painful, it creates jealousy because God wrote this law on your heart. Sex outside of heterosexual marriage is adultery. Furthermore, our culture is getting married later and later and men are often getting to their thirties before they “settle down.” Leaving them without regulation in their immature teens and twenties. In many cases, not all, I think this is a mistake. Get married early and be financially poor with the person you love so you can be relationally rich. Be regulated by the marriage covenant and you will live in freedom because freedom exists in a frame. This law is for both men and women to obey but the Ten Commandments are written to patriarchs. Exodus 20:17 tells men to not covet their neighbor's wife. That of course applies to women as well yet it’s written to men because if the patriarch falls everyone is devastated. If the woman falls its impact is painful but not ruinous. Men, get your passions under the law and you will create a wonderful legacy and live in freedom not chained like an animal to your desires. Women, your standard for a man must be high in today's culture. Pornography is not acceptable. If you’re dating, one of the first questions that women should ask is: when is the last time you watched porn? If it’s recent then he is too weak to lead you and he won’t stop just because you get married. You won’t live with him in freedom because he won’t know where to build up the border walls of protection. His spiritual eyes will be dulled and his courage will be stricken. Adherence to this commandment is central to the health of a marriage, a family, and a society. You shall not commit adultery.
Week 9 - Commandment 8: Rights
Exodus 20:15 - “You shall not steal”
Welcome to our series through the 10 Commandments. Today we will consider the eighth commandment from Exodus 20:15 "You shall not steal." The Hebrew word for steal is gânab, which means to take and deceive. There is a little more to this word though. It's to take in a stealthy way, or to steal in a crafty way. The idea here is that stealing in the Hebrew mind is something that happens in the dark. One has to become familiar with doing things in the shadows, comfortable with a deceptive nature, and eventually numb to the consequences it has on others. I recall being in New York City for the first time and interacting with a kid that was selling his rap album on a compact disk. I’m somewhat of a music connoisseur and so being able to hear the local rap scene was very interesting to me. However, when I arrived at my car I realized that I had been hoodwinked and the disk I paid for was a deception. It was blank. I remember feeling like a fool and even confused how that kid could be so disconnected from the impact his thievery had on others. If I were to do something like that my conscience would eat at me and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. It even seemed like this thief enjoyed his “job.” He sold that blank disk with a smile. I’m sure he finds tourist-looking people to do this all the time and he might even make a decent wage. It’s not surprising I suppose. If you commit a sin enough it starts to dull your conscience. It’s like a drug, the more you do the less you feel its impacts and this guy certainly made an impact on me and my view of the 8th commandment.
Stealing in the Bible
So what is stealing? Robert Carver (Professor at Clearwater Bible College) did the biblical work for us by pulling out the different forms of theft we see in scripture. He states “Stealing can take many forms, including robbery (Mark 10:19), kidnapping (Ex. 21:16), human trafficking (1 Tim. 1:10), receiving stolen goods (Prov. 29:24), fraudulent business dealings (1 Tim. 3:8), using false weights and measures (Prov. 20:10), trespassing property boundaries (Deut. 19:14), injustice in contracts (Deut. 24:15), extortion (Ps. 62:10), unethical loan arrangements (Ps. 37:21), borrowing without returning (Ex. 22:14), unjust lawsuits (1 Cor. 6:7), plagiarism, and so on.” You never start big when it comes to being a thief. You start small and build from there. Parents, this is a law that you want to build into your kids' psychology. They need to know that taking their friend's toy from their house (however small) is wrong and the solution is simple. Just ask! Ask your friend if you can borrow the toy. Communicate your desire, and ask for kindness from your friend. Don’t let your kids stay in the shadows of thievery because they will get comfortable there. Stealing happens when we cut off communication with God and with our fellow man. It’s a deaf action and a blind ambition with no care for the effects it has on others. All we can see is what we want and all we can hear is our desire.
The Heart of Theft
What is at the root of stealing? We’ve said over and over that Jesus looks at the heart. It’s not just the act of stealing that God condemns but the heart of stealing. I believe at the root of stealing is the belief that you’ve been slighted. That God hasn’t given you enough. That He has unjustifiably blessed others with more. Here’s the problem, that is a material view not a spiritual view. If you were to put spiritual glasses on you would see that God’s blessing is lavish to you and you would be so consumed by His love and blessing over you that you wouldn’t even think to consider what others are receiving. Yes God has allowed some people to be born into wealth, good genetics, and great abilities but all of those things fade. His spiritual blessings are eternal and your ability to see that will keep you from stealing. Dwell on His blessing, walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16).
The Consequence of Theft
We now know what stealing is but the feeling of being stolen from is a little more difficult to pin down. The consequence of stealing for the thief is clear. They will be judged by God in the end or Christ will absorb that sin on the cross. However, the person that’s been stolen from faces another consequence. The kid that stole from me left me with a feeling of emptiness. It’s like he spread his feeling of voidness, or his emptiness to me. It’s like if he had a cold and sneezed in my face and I immediately felt the symptoms that he felt even though I didn’t participate in the evil, I felt the effects of the evil. It darkened my view of humanity and helped me realize more deeply our need for Christ.
Luke 19:45-46 shares Jesus' actions in the temple, “And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.” As New Testament believers we are now the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are made to be prayer factories. Constantly in communication with God as the Spirit moves within us and we move in tandem with the Spirit. Listen closely, as soon as we step out of that communion we begin to steal. It starts with stealing from God. We steal our time, attention, and affections from Him and give it to other things. However it won’t stop there. If we don’t love God we won’t truly love our neighbor either. Eventually, we will start stealing from them. It might not be material things but it could be reputation, or out of jealousy steal a moment from someone at work, or out of selfishness steal our family time and give it to a hobby. There is no shortage of things that we can steal. So guard your heart from this sin, and keep your kids and grandkids from falling into its snare. You shall not steal.
Welcome to our series through the 10 Commandments. Today we will consider the eighth commandment from Exodus 20:15 "You shall not steal." The Hebrew word for steal is gânab, which means to take and deceive. There is a little more to this word though. It's to take in a stealthy way, or to steal in a crafty way. The idea here is that stealing in the Hebrew mind is something that happens in the dark. One has to become familiar with doing things in the shadows, comfortable with a deceptive nature, and eventually numb to the consequences it has on others. I recall being in New York City for the first time and interacting with a kid that was selling his rap album on a compact disk. I’m somewhat of a music connoisseur and so being able to hear the local rap scene was very interesting to me. However, when I arrived at my car I realized that I had been hoodwinked and the disk I paid for was a deception. It was blank. I remember feeling like a fool and even confused how that kid could be so disconnected from the impact his thievery had on others. If I were to do something like that my conscience would eat at me and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. It even seemed like this thief enjoyed his “job.” He sold that blank disk with a smile. I’m sure he finds tourist-looking people to do this all the time and he might even make a decent wage. It’s not surprising I suppose. If you commit a sin enough it starts to dull your conscience. It’s like a drug, the more you do the less you feel its impacts and this guy certainly made an impact on me and my view of the 8th commandment.
Stealing in the Bible
So what is stealing? Robert Carver (Professor at Clearwater Bible College) did the biblical work for us by pulling out the different forms of theft we see in scripture. He states “Stealing can take many forms, including robbery (Mark 10:19), kidnapping (Ex. 21:16), human trafficking (1 Tim. 1:10), receiving stolen goods (Prov. 29:24), fraudulent business dealings (1 Tim. 3:8), using false weights and measures (Prov. 20:10), trespassing property boundaries (Deut. 19:14), injustice in contracts (Deut. 24:15), extortion (Ps. 62:10), unethical loan arrangements (Ps. 37:21), borrowing without returning (Ex. 22:14), unjust lawsuits (1 Cor. 6:7), plagiarism, and so on.” You never start big when it comes to being a thief. You start small and build from there. Parents, this is a law that you want to build into your kids' psychology. They need to know that taking their friend's toy from their house (however small) is wrong and the solution is simple. Just ask! Ask your friend if you can borrow the toy. Communicate your desire, and ask for kindness from your friend. Don’t let your kids stay in the shadows of thievery because they will get comfortable there. Stealing happens when we cut off communication with God and with our fellow man. It’s a deaf action and a blind ambition with no care for the effects it has on others. All we can see is what we want and all we can hear is our desire.
The Heart of Theft
What is at the root of stealing? We’ve said over and over that Jesus looks at the heart. It’s not just the act of stealing that God condemns but the heart of stealing. I believe at the root of stealing is the belief that you’ve been slighted. That God hasn’t given you enough. That He has unjustifiably blessed others with more. Here’s the problem, that is a material view not a spiritual view. If you were to put spiritual glasses on you would see that God’s blessing is lavish to you and you would be so consumed by His love and blessing over you that you wouldn’t even think to consider what others are receiving. Yes God has allowed some people to be born into wealth, good genetics, and great abilities but all of those things fade. His spiritual blessings are eternal and your ability to see that will keep you from stealing. Dwell on His blessing, walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16).
The Consequence of Theft
We now know what stealing is but the feeling of being stolen from is a little more difficult to pin down. The consequence of stealing for the thief is clear. They will be judged by God in the end or Christ will absorb that sin on the cross. However, the person that’s been stolen from faces another consequence. The kid that stole from me left me with a feeling of emptiness. It’s like he spread his feeling of voidness, or his emptiness to me. It’s like if he had a cold and sneezed in my face and I immediately felt the symptoms that he felt even though I didn’t participate in the evil, I felt the effects of the evil. It darkened my view of humanity and helped me realize more deeply our need for Christ.
Luke 19:45-46 shares Jesus' actions in the temple, “And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.” As New Testament believers we are now the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are made to be prayer factories. Constantly in communication with God as the Spirit moves within us and we move in tandem with the Spirit. Listen closely, as soon as we step out of that communion we begin to steal. It starts with stealing from God. We steal our time, attention, and affections from Him and give it to other things. However it won’t stop there. If we don’t love God we won’t truly love our neighbor either. Eventually, we will start stealing from them. It might not be material things but it could be reputation, or out of jealousy steal a moment from someone at work, or out of selfishness steal our family time and give it to a hobby. There is no shortage of things that we can steal. So guard your heart from this sin, and keep your kids and grandkids from falling into its snare. You shall not steal.
Week 10 - Commandment 9: Represent
Exodus 20:16 - “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor”
I hope that this devotion is hopeful and helpful to you as we consider the 9th commandment from Exodus 20:16, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” The devil's tool to keep you stuck in your pain and trapped in your trials is to help you bear a false witness. We speak of this commandment today as lying. Whether that’s lying by commission or omission. Whether that's actively participating in a falsehood or cowering from the truth. It’s pretty easy for the devil to put the temptation to lie in our path and that is exactly how we should see lying, as a blockade to progress. Something as simple as the fear of embarrassment encourages you to lie and will keep you from growing. Something as common as pride will encourage you to lie and stop you from ever changing. Something as distracting as a critical spirit will encourage you to lie and keep your focus on someone else’s issues while avoiding your own. However, we shouldn’t put all the blame on the devil. We are often very willing participants in the lies that we put forth with our words and our actions. He puts the obstacles in the way yet we are responsible for all of our lies.
Have you ever had the chance to get close to someone who is somewhat famous, or someone who had a lot of influence in a community? I got this chance in my early twenties. I was able to watch, learn, and be loved on by a man who to this day had more of an impact on me than anyone. I was able to watch him use his gifts and make a huge impact on people across the country and yet in the closest proximity he was even more humble and honest than the stage could ever show. There was no change in his character, no fluff, no mask. Very often we hear stories of people who abuse their influence. People who manipulate, lie, cheat, and steal to get more power, money, and influence. They bear a false witness to gain a false position. They may have a personality for one thing and a different demeanor for another thing. This even happens in ministry. Some pastors and worship leaders are “bold” and “honest” on the stage but when you talk to them in a normal setting they are shallow and withholding. Don’t worry, I’m not talking about Pastor Frank. Believe me, he is just as brutally honest in a normal setting and equally as kind. However, some people use the stage as a tool to gain influence over people to fill their own emptiness with praise from the people they are manipulating. This isn’t something that happens occasionally, it happens often and it’s one way the devil is able to divide the church, the family, and marriages. This is why you must tie your affections to God and not a leader. Tie your love to Christ first, and your spouse second. Some of you have experienced this kind of situation in your family or in a dating relationship. Maybe there is someone who you’ve let linger around far too long. Listen, a person who is a worthy leader or close friend is often the first to disclose their weakness and doesn’t seek power over you. Rather they want to be peers with you. On the other hand, some people never stop talking as a way of never letting you in. This is a long and exhausting way to lie. They will talk about many things but never get personal. I get this with men who love talking about the bible but don’t want to discuss what’s going on at home. They want to debate politics but don’t want to let anyone into their pain. Just think about how much more powerful the church could be if its people were upfront and honest. We’d be much less distraught and distracted and much more whole and humble. Our masks, our half truths, our lies stop us from experiencing the freedom in Christ that is possible through honest, loving, and messy relationships. Your marriage and family are worth vastly more than any amount of money. Your healing and your recovery are so much more valuable than your reputation. Don’t wait until everything is in order to be there for your family. The time is right now! Don’t wait to start the healing process and get good counsel, jump in now! So take off the mask and offer your pain to someone you trust and watch how God heals you and grows everyone around you. Revival comes from repentant people who reveal themselves. A people that bears a true witness. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
I hope that this devotion is hopeful and helpful to you as we consider the 9th commandment from Exodus 20:16, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” The devil's tool to keep you stuck in your pain and trapped in your trials is to help you bear a false witness. We speak of this commandment today as lying. Whether that’s lying by commission or omission. Whether that's actively participating in a falsehood or cowering from the truth. It’s pretty easy for the devil to put the temptation to lie in our path and that is exactly how we should see lying, as a blockade to progress. Something as simple as the fear of embarrassment encourages you to lie and will keep you from growing. Something as common as pride will encourage you to lie and stop you from ever changing. Something as distracting as a critical spirit will encourage you to lie and keep your focus on someone else’s issues while avoiding your own. However, we shouldn’t put all the blame on the devil. We are often very willing participants in the lies that we put forth with our words and our actions. He puts the obstacles in the way yet we are responsible for all of our lies.
Have you ever had the chance to get close to someone who is somewhat famous, or someone who had a lot of influence in a community? I got this chance in my early twenties. I was able to watch, learn, and be loved on by a man who to this day had more of an impact on me than anyone. I was able to watch him use his gifts and make a huge impact on people across the country and yet in the closest proximity he was even more humble and honest than the stage could ever show. There was no change in his character, no fluff, no mask. Very often we hear stories of people who abuse their influence. People who manipulate, lie, cheat, and steal to get more power, money, and influence. They bear a false witness to gain a false position. They may have a personality for one thing and a different demeanor for another thing. This even happens in ministry. Some pastors and worship leaders are “bold” and “honest” on the stage but when you talk to them in a normal setting they are shallow and withholding. Don’t worry, I’m not talking about Pastor Frank. Believe me, he is just as brutally honest in a normal setting and equally as kind. However, some people use the stage as a tool to gain influence over people to fill their own emptiness with praise from the people they are manipulating. This isn’t something that happens occasionally, it happens often and it’s one way the devil is able to divide the church, the family, and marriages. This is why you must tie your affections to God and not a leader. Tie your love to Christ first, and your spouse second. Some of you have experienced this kind of situation in your family or in a dating relationship. Maybe there is someone who you’ve let linger around far too long. Listen, a person who is a worthy leader or close friend is often the first to disclose their weakness and doesn’t seek power over you. Rather they want to be peers with you. On the other hand, some people never stop talking as a way of never letting you in. This is a long and exhausting way to lie. They will talk about many things but never get personal. I get this with men who love talking about the bible but don’t want to discuss what’s going on at home. They want to debate politics but don’t want to let anyone into their pain. Just think about how much more powerful the church could be if its people were upfront and honest. We’d be much less distraught and distracted and much more whole and humble. Our masks, our half truths, our lies stop us from experiencing the freedom in Christ that is possible through honest, loving, and messy relationships. Your marriage and family are worth vastly more than any amount of money. Your healing and your recovery are so much more valuable than your reputation. Don’t wait until everything is in order to be there for your family. The time is right now! Don’t wait to start the healing process and get good counsel, jump in now! So take off the mask and offer your pain to someone you trust and watch how God heals you and grows everyone around you. Revival comes from repentant people who reveal themselves. A people that bears a true witness. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Week 11 - Commandment 10: Reward
Exodus 20:17 - “You shall not covet…”
I stated at the beginning of our journey through the 10 commandments that if you get nothing else from these 10 weeks please get this, you must live from God’s love and not for God’s love. It's not enough for us to know the commandments but we must see through the window of rules into the value it brings to our lives and the joy we experience as a result. The joy part is critical and that is what we are all shooting for. Everything you do is in some way an action to pursue joy. Even the hard things and even your sinning. At the root of your being is a joy battle that helps you filter your affections and make your decisions based on your loves. You have felt this tug at a surface level when deciding between two restaurants you really like. The question is, which menu would make me feel better or be happier? Sure that is insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but we make deeper and more difficult decisions in the same way. The issue for humanity is the disordered desires in our hearts. Our affections are warped (Jeremiah 17:9) and this is where not just some of our problems come from but where every single problem that we have arises. The problem is this, you want stuff that isn’t yours. Therefore God gives us the command in Exodus 20:17 “You shall not covet…”
I think the 10th commandment should be viewed as a summative statement. As if all the commandments added together in an equation culminate to ‘don’t want stuff that’s not yours.’ I think I could be faithful to scripture and say if you focus your heart on just this one commandment and obey it then you would obey the rest. Or I could say that if you simply worked on being content you would find that many of your battles fade. Now, not all of your battles would go away because you have other people in your life that are also struggling with contentment and they will cause battles in your life too. James 4:1 says, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?” Have you ever thought that the war within you causes the wars around you? The image that comes to mind is a toddler (you) buckled in a car seat and throwing a fit because they want to run around in the car. The strap holding you in is the restraint God has put in place to keep you from your desire. The tantrum you throw is your dissatisfaction with God’s plan and provision for your life. However, have you ever considered the buckle is in place to protect you? Have you ever thought that God hasn’t given you the house, job, career, and kids that you want because you aren’t ready for it? It’s well documented that when a person with disordered finances wins the lottery that it often ruins their life because many of the restraints that were in place for them are removed in an instant. They are now a toddler running around in a moving car with unlocked doors and open windows. If you really put God first in your life. If God really became as St. Augustine says in his Confessions, “My sweetness”, then you would find an inner order to your life that would bring an outer order to your family, friends, and your community. You will find peace in your bones. You would have a contentment in your spirit even in the most difficult situations. Many people wake up lost, despondent, bitter, and just plain sad because they wanted something that they didn’t get. Here's a very helpful truth: our God is massive. He is so big that He covers all things and all people. He knows all things and all people. He knows all plans and all places. The theological term is that God is sovereign. He is king over everything. Therefore if you didn’t get something that you thought you deserved, or something cheated you, or someone cheated on you, God allowed it. I know that seems harsh but it should instead be a balm to your pain and a salve to your situation. If God knows you deeply and loves you infinitely, then He is in control of everything. Then we can know that His plans for us, even the plans of pain, are for our joy. This is the gospel. The path to the cross was paved with pain and pleasure. “For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son .” (John 3:16) The Old Testament prophet Isaiah prophesied of Jesus' death in Isaiah 53:10 “...It was the will of the Lord to crush him.” It was God’s desire to go through the pain of the cross. It was through the pain of our God that we saw the greatest act of love. We will go through pain and seasons of pain that God allows. However, hear this truth today, eyes of contentment will help you see the opportunity for a greater joy in God through the pain then if there we never pain at all. God is in control and He is working for our joy. Would you say that out loud today? Let it sink into your bones. God is in control and He is working for my joy. If you can let go of your covetousness and give your disordered desire to God, He will fill the gap and pour out His Spirit into your life. God is for you. God loves you. God chases you. God cherishes you. God is in control therefore, you don’t need to covet because He works for your joy. The question is, will you let Him? I love you all, thanks for going on this journey with me.
I stated at the beginning of our journey through the 10 commandments that if you get nothing else from these 10 weeks please get this, you must live from God’s love and not for God’s love. It's not enough for us to know the commandments but we must see through the window of rules into the value it brings to our lives and the joy we experience as a result. The joy part is critical and that is what we are all shooting for. Everything you do is in some way an action to pursue joy. Even the hard things and even your sinning. At the root of your being is a joy battle that helps you filter your affections and make your decisions based on your loves. You have felt this tug at a surface level when deciding between two restaurants you really like. The question is, which menu would make me feel better or be happier? Sure that is insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but we make deeper and more difficult decisions in the same way. The issue for humanity is the disordered desires in our hearts. Our affections are warped (Jeremiah 17:9) and this is where not just some of our problems come from but where every single problem that we have arises. The problem is this, you want stuff that isn’t yours. Therefore God gives us the command in Exodus 20:17 “You shall not covet…”
I think the 10th commandment should be viewed as a summative statement. As if all the commandments added together in an equation culminate to ‘don’t want stuff that’s not yours.’ I think I could be faithful to scripture and say if you focus your heart on just this one commandment and obey it then you would obey the rest. Or I could say that if you simply worked on being content you would find that many of your battles fade. Now, not all of your battles would go away because you have other people in your life that are also struggling with contentment and they will cause battles in your life too. James 4:1 says, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?” Have you ever thought that the war within you causes the wars around you? The image that comes to mind is a toddler (you) buckled in a car seat and throwing a fit because they want to run around in the car. The strap holding you in is the restraint God has put in place to keep you from your desire. The tantrum you throw is your dissatisfaction with God’s plan and provision for your life. However, have you ever considered the buckle is in place to protect you? Have you ever thought that God hasn’t given you the house, job, career, and kids that you want because you aren’t ready for it? It’s well documented that when a person with disordered finances wins the lottery that it often ruins their life because many of the restraints that were in place for them are removed in an instant. They are now a toddler running around in a moving car with unlocked doors and open windows. If you really put God first in your life. If God really became as St. Augustine says in his Confessions, “My sweetness”, then you would find an inner order to your life that would bring an outer order to your family, friends, and your community. You will find peace in your bones. You would have a contentment in your spirit even in the most difficult situations. Many people wake up lost, despondent, bitter, and just plain sad because they wanted something that they didn’t get. Here's a very helpful truth: our God is massive. He is so big that He covers all things and all people. He knows all things and all people. He knows all plans and all places. The theological term is that God is sovereign. He is king over everything. Therefore if you didn’t get something that you thought you deserved, or something cheated you, or someone cheated on you, God allowed it. I know that seems harsh but it should instead be a balm to your pain and a salve to your situation. If God knows you deeply and loves you infinitely, then He is in control of everything. Then we can know that His plans for us, even the plans of pain, are for our joy. This is the gospel. The path to the cross was paved with pain and pleasure. “For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son .” (John 3:16) The Old Testament prophet Isaiah prophesied of Jesus' death in Isaiah 53:10 “...It was the will of the Lord to crush him.” It was God’s desire to go through the pain of the cross. It was through the pain of our God that we saw the greatest act of love. We will go through pain and seasons of pain that God allows. However, hear this truth today, eyes of contentment will help you see the opportunity for a greater joy in God through the pain then if there we never pain at all. God is in control and He is working for our joy. Would you say that out loud today? Let it sink into your bones. God is in control and He is working for my joy. If you can let go of your covetousness and give your disordered desire to God, He will fill the gap and pour out His Spirit into your life. God is for you. God loves you. God chases you. God cherishes you. God is in control therefore, you don’t need to covet because He works for your joy. The question is, will you let Him? I love you all, thanks for going on this journey with me.