This weeks sermon

If any of you were here over winter break, you may remember that I made a lot of references to my shirt in my last sermon. I want to assure you that I will not be making any references to it this week- although, like the last one, this is an awesome shirt.

For the past few weeks Robert has been walking us through the first half of the first chapter of Ephesians. We dedicated the first three weeks of the semester talking about the first 14 verses of the text. Because I am not the lead pastor, however, I don’t have that privilege, so I will have to talk about the rest of the chapter in only 1 sermon. Also, because of the time constraints, I can’t give the 4 hour sermon I planned, so we are just going to have to move relatively quickly through this section.

If we remember the first few verses of Ephesians, Paul was telling the church some important truths about who they were- about their identity. Paul tells us that if we are Christians we have been chosen by God, in love, that he has adopted us, that we are holy and blameless before God, that we have an inheritance in Gods kingdom.

We were told last week that if we faithed in God we would be privy to an inheritance, and not only this, but that once we did take that step of faith, we were sealed with the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of this inheritance. You may remember the analogy that Robert used last week of a trust fund. We can’t get all that we are inheriting now, but it is there. We get to have a little bit now and again, and part of this is the Holy Spirit.

This is where we pick up the text today. In light of the past 14 verses, the past three weeks sermons Paul writes:

15For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

The first thing Paul does here is thank God for these people. He says I do not cease to give thanks for you. And the reason for this is because he has heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus and their love toward all the saints. Paul hasn’t really met most of these converts in Ephesus. Yes he planted a church there, but then he left. Now he hears of all these new Christians, and thanks God for them. Why God? Simply because of what we have been talking about. Repeatedly throughout Scripture, Paul is praising God for Christians. He is praising Jesus for calling us to himself. He is thanking God that there were people that God not only called to himself, but then responded to the call and faithed in Jesus. He is not excited about the good works they have done, or how well they follow tradition, he is excited because of their faith, and that is all.

Not only does Paul give thanks for them, he remembers them in his prayers. Paul is telling the church here that he cares for them. It ii one thing to be thankful for something, it is quite another to sacrifice time and energy over it. He doesn’t just see this church and think, well a church, that’s nice. He is proactive in his love for them. He takes time out o his day to pray for them.

What Paul is praying is very specific though. Lets look back at our programs and re read this prayer of Paul’s. It says:

17that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe

We are going to stop and camp out here for a while. What Paul writes is very dense, so lets unpack it. The first thing that Paul prays for these people is that they would have a spirit of wisdom and revelation of the knowledge of God. This is the foundation for everything else. They have faithed in God, and now Paul prays that they would get to know God more. It is from this knowledge that the other part of Paul’s prayer flow.

At the simplest level, this is also how our faith can grow. I would guess that most of us knew very little for God when we first became Christians. I am not necessarily talking about head knowledge. May of us may have had a firm grasp theologically about God before we got wet, but we didn’t know God. He wasn’t our friend yet, and as such, we had no part in him. Just as we were taught last week that you can know about parachutes, yet you do not know a parachute until you have used one, so can we know abut God, but not truly begin to know him until we faith in him.

And this is part of what Paul is talking about. But from the next few verses, we can also infer that Paul is talking about straight knowledge in part as well, about knowing some facts. In fact, as we read on, what we will se is that Paul is talking about taking some facts that he is going to tell us, and making them a deeper knowledge.

Paul continues in his prayer that their hearts would be enlightened. Now today we think of the heart as being the center for emotions and feelings, right. We would never say use your heart to figure out that math problem, or just follow your heart when it comes to chemistry. We use our head for that. We follow our heart when it comes to love, but not for rational thought. This is not how an ancient would have thought about the heart. When we are told in the Old Testament, and by Jesus to love our Lord with all our heart and soul, we are not told to just love God emotionally. We are to love God with all we are. The heart, to the culture of the time, was both the rational and emotional. It was the epicenter of everything.

This is the context into which Paul asks that their hearts would be enlightened. He is praying that they would know truly and deeply, both on an intellectual level, on faith level, and on an emotional level. He is praying that their whole being would hold to the truths he is about to speak.

And what is this revelation that Paul prays the church at Ephesus would know? It is the fllowing:

that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might

This revelation is the knowledge of the hope to which we have been called, the knowledge of the riches of our inheritance, and the knowledge that we are able to gain immeasurable power through the hand of God, through the working of his might.

Before we go any further, I want to just point out a minor detail that is in fact very important. Notice in the previous statements who is the object, and who is the subject. It is God’s hope to which we have been called. It is God’s inheritance, into which we have been adopted. It is God’s power being given to us, and it is God working out his great might. Paul is not teaching some prosperity message. He is not spouting some name it and claim it message. This power is not in fact ours, it is God’s, and by his miraculous grace, we are able to share in it if we have faith.

This faith is not some mystical belief that is we just believe enough we can over come anything. It is not this idea that if we loved God enough, had enough faith, we wouldn’t get sick or have struggles. Like I said before, this is not a prosperity gospel message. This faith is the faith that Paul has been talking about all along. It is the faithing in God. It is, again, the idea of a knowing how a parachute works, and jumping out of the plane.

All that being said, Paul is telling the church a truth that I believe we here at MERCYhouse need to hear. We have been called to a hope that is Gods. We have an inheritance that is so right, we could not possibly imagine it, and we have immeasurable power being poured out on all of us who believe in Jesus.

Often we as Christians have decided to live a defeated life. I imagine that some of those at Ephesus also were living as if they were defeated as well, so Paul reminds them of what them have. In the earlier sections we read that we have an inheritance, and what we get now is the Holy Spirit. What Paul is telling us in this section is that even though we don’t get the entire trust fund now, what we have is so much more that we could ever use. God doesn’t just give us enough to get by, he gives us riches in the here and now.

So often I hear Christians talking about their addictions and struggles, and the general tone of the conversation is that they can not over come it. I here people say that if we are all sinners, what is the point of trying not to? If we all struggle, what is the point of fighting? They hear stories of other Christians who are struggling to over come some problem and wonder if it is worth it. They try and they try to stop what ever they are doing that is wrong, and they can’t, and they wonder is it worth it.

But listen to what Paul is saying. We have an inheritance right now! We have Power right now! We have a hope right now! This call of Paul’s is not for some future life. We have access to the trust fund God has set up. God is pouring out his riches upon us right now.

I know what some of you are thinking, “Well that’s great, but how do I get it? It is wonderful to talk about all this power and inheritance, but how does it look in an actual life?” Well, as you may have guessed, I am going to tell us.

I want to first just say that I don’t have a magic formula. There is not necessarily some list of things we need to do, and then we get to cash in our weekly check form Jesus. That is called legalism, and id a-biblical. What I do have to offer is a bunch of examples of how I was living less that godly in word and deed, and was able to over come the sin that had he in its grip and live more of the redeemed life that God has called me to live.

My first example is always my first example. The reason is that it is so dramatic. I used to be an alcoholic. I say used to because I know longer even think about alcohol. It has lost its grip on me. However 6 years ago, it was a much different story. All I could do was drink. I drank when I was happy, I drank when I was sad, I drank when I was angry, I drank when I was lonely, I drank when I was surrounded by people, I drank… well you can see where this is going. I was also a Christian at the time, but I was hopeless. I saw no was out of my alcoholism. I knew I was redeemed, but my heart was not enlightened. I had forgotten the hope to which I was called. I had forgotten the Power of God that was given to me, if I would only accept it.

I tried everything to not drink. I tried not drinking hard alcohol. That didn’t work. I tried only having a few beers… that didn’t work. I tried not drinking… that definitely didn’t work. I tried everything I could, and nothing worked. So eventually, like so many Christians before me and today, I resigned my self to sin.

And then I hit a bottom and surrendered my drinking to Jesus. I finally admitted that I could not control it, and asked God to take over. And he did. The moment I asked him to, he showed up and freed me from the bondage of my sin. What I did differently as realize that it was God and not me that could fight my battles.

Remember earlier I said that it was a minor point but very important who the subject and object of Paul’s writing was. This is why. It is God’s power, not ours, God’s inheritance, not ours, God’s hope, not ours. What we need to do is to have our hearts enlighten to this fact, and allow God to work his power in our lives.

Now my drinking story id very dramatic, but it was also very long ago, and it was ruing my life to the outside world as well. I was so far in debt because I spent all my money on booze that I hadn’t paid rent in 6 or 7 months. I was never in class, and would shake in the mornings. So it was easier to turn to God, in some ways. I know many of us struggle with hidden things, or things that are not ruining our lives, so let me give a few more examples of how God has worked in my life to call me to his inheritance.

As many of you know I am married. As many of you also know I have a kid. What many of you may not know is that a few months before Kiera was born, Sarah had a missed miscarriage. What this means is that the baby died, but Sarah’s body didn’t recognize it as dead, so held on to the baby. This time was the toughest few months Sarah and I have had to go through. Because her body didn’t miscarry we kept having hope that maybe the doctors were wrong and the baby was ok. It wasn’t. Eventually Sarah had to have surgery to remove the baby before cancer and other complications took effect.

When we were told that the baby was dead, Sarah and I hade been married less than a year. We had never had to do the grief thing together, and I had not had time to learn how to be a good husband. What happened was, instead of running to God, we both ran to other things. I turned to work and began staying very late at my job at the time, working 80 hours a week because it was easier than going home and dealing with reality. Sarah and I drifted apart to the point that we were just two people living in the same house that got to see each other naked sometimes. And it seemed hopeless.

We ha forgotten the hope that we were called to. I had forgotten the riches that God promises. So instead of praying and fellowshipping and loving my wife, I worked, and worked, and worked. I had my job my functional savior, and found my hope in promotions and money.

However, I still had the Holy Spirit, and just like my drinking, he doesn’t let us live unconvicted forever. This time, though, instead of resigning my self to the sin, I had known God better. He had brought me out of dark places before, and so this time I could turn to him as well. I could give over my grief and sin and reclaim the hope he had for me.

And yet again he was faithful. He brought me and Sarah back together, and allowed us to have a marriage again. He then went on to give us the cutest kid you have ever seen.

After Sarah got pregnant with Kiera, it also became apparent that I needed to quit smoking. I don’t know how much you know about smoking, but it is awesome. I never wanted to quit, and there are still days that I wish I smoked. I struggled day after day with quitting. Trying everything on the market. And nothing was working. But then I began to pray about it, have others pray for me, confess to friends when I relapsed and bought a pack. I cried out to god for the riches he has for me, and was able to quit.

I had struggles with lust and pornography, with anger, with control, with feelings of inferiority or superiority. And God has worked in me throughout to call me to a higher life.

I know what you are thinking, you don’t struggle with what I struggle with. Your addictions are no where near as bad as mine. I am such a worse sinner than you. I am in such a dark place that I could never have victory over my sins. And on some level you are right. YOU can’t have victory over your sin. That is not what Paul is saying. What he is saying is that Christ can have victory over your sin. He says we can have all this in the strength of God.

One of the reasons that earlier I said I can not give you a formula to follow to gain power over your sin, is that you are not the one who is gaining the power, but rather God is. It is God’s power, God’s strength, God’s inheritance, God’s hope.

And this Power is mighty indeed. Here is how Paul describes it:

20that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Now I don’t know about you, but I know some relatively powerful people, and have seen some amazingly powerful things, but I have never seen a power that can raise from the dead.

I used to do research for some professors at Umass, and one of my projects was in the astronomy department. My job was to take the largest Radio Telescope and remotely control it to look at the center of galaxies and collect data from it. This was the world most powerful radio telescope. More that this, I was looking at regions of our Universe that are so powerful light itself can not escape. Regions of space so full of energy the very atoms we are made of would be ripped apart. But I never saw a power that could reverse natural law and raise the dead.

I have also met a lot of famous and powerful people. I drove around Scott Wylan, the lead singer of STP and Velvet Revolver, had dinner with Slash, and even got to wear his hat. There is a family friend who I so wealthy he gave Umass their hall of fame and buys any John Adams and JQA memorabilia to give back to the town of Quincy where he believes it belongs. I have rubbed shoulders with politicians, televisions personalities, and rock stars. But I have never met anyone whose name is above all others. I have never met anyone far above all rule and authority. Even our presidents and top officials have to answer to someone.

This is the power that Paul is calling us to accept. This is the person we have working in us and for us.

The power we have access to now is the same power that raised Christ form the dead and seated him above all names and rule and authority.

\Paul is reminding us again what our identity is. Earlier he reminded us of where identity is found, and now he tells us what that means. It means that we have an inheritance right now that we can tap into. The Spirit of God dwells inside of us at every moment.

If you are here and are defeated Christian, here this anew. Let your heart be enlightened. Because of our faith in God you have access to power beyond compare. YOU can have victory over your sin. Right now.

Yu no longer need to look at internet sites you shouldn’t be looking at. You no longer need to lust in your heart or sleep with someone who you are not married to. You no longer need to hold onto anger an resentments. You no longer need to let alcohol or drugs control you. You no longer need to live in depression and despair. You no longer need to live two lives, one that appear holy, and then the real you. The real you can be holy, right now.

You no longer need to lie or cheat or steal. You can be free. You no longer need to listen to the in that has held us captive for so long. You have been called to something so much more. To a hope that doesn’t disappoint. To a life abundant.

Through the power that raised Christ from the dead, you can say no to sin. You can be righteous right now. I am not saying that this is easy. In fact sometimes it is very hard. It is hard for a few reasons, first we don’t truly believe it, which is why Paul is praying for the Ephesians hearts to be enlightened, second, we either like to sin, or don’t know any other way- we are addicted, and third to live this way is a death.

We are told throughout Scripture that we need to die to live. That we need to loose our life to find it. This is painful. We are told to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. The terms were chosen carefully. It is painful. TO say no to what ever sin we are living in kills us. But this is how we can beat it. By not fighting our selves, but dying and letting Jesus fight for us we can have this life he is calling us to. The power is God’s not ours, and we need to stop relying on ourselves and our strength to have any of the riches God is holding for us. We need to die to ourselves and accept the new life offered us. And sometimes we need to die over and over. When I quit smoking it was a death. The me I had known, the smoker had to die. When I quit drinking I had to die. When I had to be a husband, I had to die.

The other reason it is hard is that we like to sin, or we are addicted. The difference between the two is that the addict has a love hate relationship with his sin, while the rest of us just like sin. Take me for example, I loved to drink, but hated it. I knew it was ruining my life, but couldn’t imagine another life. I couldn’t see a way out. Most of us, however, see a way out, the sin hasn’t fully taken over our lives, we just chose to sin anyway. We know we shouldn’t have friends with benefits, but it feels good so we do it anyway.

Here is the thing though, God has called you to so much more. If you can’t see a way out of your sin, I tell you Jesus is it. Yes you will have to die, and your life will look completely different, but in the power that raised Christ from the dead, you can live a redeemed life know. The trust fund is there, just waiting for you to tap into it.

The same can be said to those of us who just like to sin. It is a death to not do it. I used to struggle with lust, and it was a death to not look at dirty websites. It felt good to do it. I was choosing sin. But once I died, and I have to die over and over, and still have to die daily, Christ was able to live in me. What once seemed impossible is now just life, because I know the hope to which I was call, I am daily given riches beyond compare, and the power that raised Jesus is alive in me calling me to a life anew.

Maybe you’re sitting here thinking, well I am pretty good. I don’t have any addictions, I am pretty moral, I’ve never been an alcoholic, a pervert, etc. Praise God for that. And I mean it. You should be on your knees daily thanking God that he has rescued you from the terrible life of addictions. If your not thanking God, because you feel you are the one who has done it, then your sin is pride, and you will have to die to that as well to be given the life that God has for you. Paul clearly tells us that it is God’s power, God’s inheritance, God’s hope, not ours. If we are looking anywhere else bu to God we are idolaters and breaking the second commandment.

Here is the thing though, Jesus will still be there. It is still in his plans to give you an inheritance beyond your wildest dreams. He still is setting forth his hope, just waiting for your heart to be enlightened. The same God who predestined you before the foundation of the world is the one who is offering you knew life. The Lord of the Universe, who has been by your side every step of the way, is still right there next to you, but more than that, in inside of you. The God whose power raised Jesus from the dead is offering you the exact same supernatural might. If oyu would only accept it.

If you are here and you are not a Christian, know that the sin that you are living with, that you feel as a slave to can be conquered by Jesus. He is not just a savior for the future; he is a savior for now. God is calling you into relationship with him; he is offering you his son, his treasure, his might. He is stronger than whatever is controlling you right now, and he wants to make you his son or daughter. He has been waiting for you since he created you, since before he created you, since eternity.

If you are a Christian, stop living a defeated life. The Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. The very same Spirit! Not some cheap imitation knock off, not some beta version, not some trimmed down version. The full Spirit! The Spirit of God! All you need to do is die. Admit defeat. You are not strong enough to stay off sin. You will loose the battle in your own strength every time. God will win though. In his power and his might, he will give you the life he has always meant for you to live.

If you are here today and you are struggling with something, tell God. He cares. He wants to help. I know I used to think that I was dirty after I sinned and couldn’t approach God, Or if I didn’t tell him, it didn’t count. Well, he already knows what you are struggling with, and it is not like this last sin made you any more filthy in the eyes of God, or your good deeds make you any more good. He calls you because of who he is. He loves you because of who he is. He is here to help you in your weakness because of who he is.

So I invite you today to come before God and ask for the life that he has for you. Ask for your inheritance, live in his might, rest in his power. He is offering you a new life, a free life, and abundant life.

Before me is the Lords Supper. It is a tradition that Christians have kept for thousands of years. It was instituted by Jesus as a way for his followers to remember him. In a minute we are going to take communion, but before we do I invite you to confess your sins to God. Ask him for this life that he has. Ask him for his strength. As you come to this table, lay down your sword and shield, and stop fighting in your own strength. Turn to God and ask him to be your champion, and fight he battle he has already won for you. As you come to this table, lay down all that is weighing you down, all the junk you can’t carry, and ask Jesus to instead carry you. As you come to this table, lay down your life to God who laid down his as a sacrifice for you. As you come to this table die to yourself and accept the life that Jesus has for you.

On the night he was betrayed, Jesus took the bread and he broke it an said, ”This is my body, broken for you. DO this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."

Semester Plans

In my attempt to be more disciplined, I am blogging twice this week. Hurray! I just want to fill all of you in on my plans for the semester. If you read the last post, then you already know that I hope to do an outreach bible study, so I got that going on.

The next thing I am planning on starting is a help group for self mutilators. As I study the community, I see more people with this problem than you might think. Also, there is very little to no help for them. Sure there are trained therapists, but even they would tell you that the best cure is hanging out with others with the struggle and hearing how they have succeeded in not hurting themselves anymore. Since I used to do this, I think I can be a real help to people who do it. The plan is to have a 12 step type group that meets in MERCYhouse on Saturday afternoons. At least that is plan for now. We will see how it goes. Both the time and day are able to be changed, but I figured I needed a starting point.


I plan to continue the leadership house church. It continues to grow, and I don't know where we will put everyone, but it is bearing so much fruit I would hate to not have it.

I also am planning to devote 20 hours a week to Umass. To meeting kids on campus, eating lunch on campus, doing that doubt night on campus, getting all my coffee on campus, and even getting a table on campus. I figure if I want to start a church on campus in September, I better start fishing now.

The general idea is to find some seekers who are not really Christian yet, and get them to become Christians, and then get them to start a church with me. The only way to do this is to be on campus, so that is what I will be doing.

That is generally my plans I will keep you posted. I also will hopefully blog about something more interesting next week. See you then.

Recently I was on the MERCYhouse website ans noticed that Robert is blogging with intentionality, and it has inspired me to do the same. He has a lot more to offer in some sort of concerted teaching effort though, so what I will be doing is going to look a little different.

Over the next semester I plan to sow the seeds for a new MERCYhouse service starting at 7pm and hopefully meeting in the Southwest Residential Area. One of the ways I hope to sow seeds is by starting an evangelically focused house church, of sorts. The idea right no is a "Doubt Night" group. Here's how this thing would work.

Every Wednesday night, or some other day, yet to be determined, I would set up a pizza party in the dorms and invite all the non-Christians to come and ask whatever they want. I see it as a safe place where real questions can receive real answers. There won't be anything that is not allowed. I will answer what I can to the best of my ability, and find out the answers to question I don't know by the next week. I think that this kind of candid intellectual setting will draw in non-Christians, as well as give a safe place for Christians to bring their questioning friends. Food will be provided, and, since we meet every week, people will have the opportunity to build relationships and feel comfortable hanging out church guys. I hope to build a core of people who never went to church before, and through this experience decide to help me with this new service.

More than this, I will be gathering their questions, and then using them as a jumping off point for my sermon series in the Fall. The idea is that if one person asks a certain question, certainly more people have it, and if I preach on it, maybe they will come to here the answer to what their heart has been asking. That is the idea right now, anyway.


What does this have to do with me blog and being more disciplined with it? A lot. See I also intend to use my blog to answer the questions that Umass is asking as well. I will post questions that I received that night, and then through out the week, ( I am aiming for an update on Fridays and Tuesdays) I will answer the questions in a more thoughtful manner that I could during the Doubt Night meeting time. I figure both the Doubt Night, and the subsequent answer time on my blog will stretch me to the point were I am going to have to rely on God for answers.

Also, since the culture around me is very "Electronic", I have plans to let people submit questions on my blog that will be answered both at the group and online. And as I type, I wonder how cool it would be to actually record some of these questions and answers every week and make them a Podcast? That is a lot of work, so I don't intend to do it right away, but maybe someday.

What does this mean for this blog? Well there are a few possibilities. To do the question and answer thing effectively I may need a full website. If that is the case, then I will only be blogging here twice a month or so about my family and stuff to keep all of you in our lives. The theology will be moved to my website, as well as the rants. If, on the other hand, I don't get a website, you can look forward to seeing a lot of crazy conversations happening right here. More than likely there will be some mixture of the two options.

Regardless, I promise to blog more. I really do think it is important to keep all of you informed about what is going on in my life, as well as thought I am having. Thanks for reading.

Sermon and Stuff

SO the title is kind of misleading, because there is not much stuff- just another sermon. I apologize to all of you for being a slacker, and I will blog non sermon things soon.

Here is this weeks sermon though:

This week brings us to the final installment of our Winter Series, and fittingly enough, we will be talking about the final commandment. Does anyone know what Commandment this is? That’s right, don’t covet. Before we jump into the text, let me just say that I know half of you in this room are coveting right now. Who is it that is coveting? Well I think it is pretty clear that I is the men. How do I know this? Because this is an awesome shirt. Guys, stop coveting it. Now ladies, let m tell you that I got his shirt on sale, it was originally 200 dollars, and I paid 20 for it. Now all of you are coveting too. So all of you stop coveting, you’re breaking the tenth commandment. Now that that is out of the way, I think we can safely begin to look at the text.

Turn with me to your programs. In Exodus 20:17 we read:

17 "You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s."

I don’t want to assume that we all know what this commandment means, and before we unpack what the entire commandment means, I think we need to define the word covet. Merriam Webster defines covet as follows

Pronunciation:

\ˈkə-vət\

Function:

verb

Etymology:

Middle English coveiten, from Anglo-French coveiter, from Vulgar Latin *cupidietare, , from Latin cupiditat-, cupiditas desire, from cupidus desirous, from cupere to desire

Date:

14th century

transitive verb 1 : to wish for earnestly <covet an award> 2 : to desire (what belongs to another) inordinately or culpably intransitive verb : to feel inordinate desire for what belongs to another

So coveting is simply desiring or wanting something that isn’t yours. That commandment tells us not to want anything that isn’t ours, a woman, a man, property, status, servants, money, reputation, job, anything.

It seems fitting that this is the last commandment. The other commandments either had to do with God directly, or with our actions against people. This commandment is completely different though. This is a prohibition against the heart, against out thoughts. It is also impossible to break one of the other commandments without also breaking this one. Why? Well, why do we steal? Because we covet someone else’s stuff. Why do we commit adultery? Because we covet someone else’s spouse? Even the command to keep the Sabbath relates to not coveting. Why do we work on the Sabbath? What is the real motivation? Because we covet someone else’s success, we desire to look as good as other people, we covet their Puritan work ethic. So God saves this commandment for last.

As I just mentioned, the other reason that God saves this commandment for last is because it deals with motivations, with the heart. Before we go any further with this, we need to take a step back for a second. We have to put this commandment is context. At the moment when God is giving these commandments, what is happening? Israel has just been brought out of 400 years of slavery. God has rescued them from Pharaoh. He then leads them through the desert. They have no food, water, or road maps, so God provides all of this. He leads them by day with a pillar of smoke, and by night with a pillar of fire. He gives them water from rocks and bread from heaven. He is leading them to the Promised Land, but first they make a brief stop at a mountain in the middle of nowhere. God meets Israel’s leader- Moses- on this mountain, and here he is going to give Israel the rules by which they will be known as his people.

The entire reason that God has done any of this is because way back in the day he made a promise to a cowardly idol worshipper named Abram. God changes Abrams name to Abraham and begins a relationship with him, even though he was unworthy. God’s promise was this, that he would be Abraham’s offspring’s God, and they would be is people. So hundreds of years later, on a mountain named Sinai, God is telling this man’s offspring, who become known as the nation of Israel, how to be his people. He gives them Ten Commandments. But he gives these commandments is a specific order.

The first thing God does is remind Israel of who he is and what he has done. He says I am the LORD who brought you out of slavery. Then he tells them to worship him, and him only, then he gives some behavioral laws, and then he ends this tutorial on how to be his people with the tenth commandment, do not covet. Why I am making such a big deal about this? Because it is a big deal. There are two things happening in just this simple giving of the Ten Commandments. The firs thing that is going on is that God is reminding them of Grace. He brought them out of Egypt before any of these rules were given. He remembers them because of who he is, not because of what they have done. That is why before giving any of the laws, he points them backward. The first thing he tells Israel is that he is the LORD who brought them out of slavery.

This is possibly the most important point in this sermon. God gives them the rules after he establishes a relationship with him. He doesn’t give these rules to Israel while they are slaves and tell them he will see them in another 400 years if they follow them. He saves them, calls them his people, and then he gives them the Ten Commandments. These rules are not the way that Israel gets God to love them, he loves them already. It is necessary to see the rules in this light. God is not some tyrant trying to impose his will on humanity. He doesn’t demand that they perform to gain his love. Israel had his love when he brought them out of slavery. The rules he gives them are ultimately for their good. He is a loving Father who wants his children to thrive.

As many of you know I am a father. As many of you also know my daughter Kiera is kind of dead weight. Let m explain. She doesn’t do anything for me. She has no job, she sleeps like 16 hours a day. She eats my food and uses my house, and doesn’t even do chores. She craps her pants, and I have to clean it up. She doesn’t say thank you for changing her diapers or giving her clothes to wear so she doesn’t freeze to death. Now I know what you’re thinking, she is only one, but that’s not the point. She is lazy, selfish, and rude. But I love her. I love her in spite of all this. How evil would it be of me to say to her I will only love you if you follow these 10 rules? Pretty evil, huh. One the other hand, her mother and I do have rules that Kiera must follow. She isn’t allowed to touch the stove, or electrical sockets. She is not allowed to play in traffic, or use sharp pointy objects.

We love her because of who we are, parents, not because of what she dos, but we still have rules that we need her to follow. Occasionally she breaks these rules. She is always trying to eat the cat food, which me and my wife have a rule about. We discipline her, pull her away from the food, and lock her out of the kitchen, but we don’t love her less. She is no less our daughter, I am no less her father.

This is the relationship that God has with Israel, and with us. He tells them remember that I am the loving Father who brought you out of slavery. In light of this grace, obey these next rules. He sets them up, not for His sake, but for Israel’s.

The first thing God is doing is showing his grace with the giving of the commandments. The second is just as important. After setting up his grace, he gives them a list of things that they should and should not do. Do not have idols, do keep the Sabbath, do not murder, do honor your parents, don’t steal. As Israel is hearing these, I imagine they are setting up check boxes in their head. Don’t murder, got it. Don’t steal, got it. Most of them are thinking that they are all set. It is relatively easy not to murder someone, right? How many of you in here have ever murdered someone? How many of you know a murderer? I do, so that makes one of us. See, it is easy to follow that commandment.

How many of you have ever committed adultery? How many of you know an adulterer? I know one. I know a lot of commandment breakers, huh. I just noticed that. Not too many of us though. It is relatively easy to follow that one too. Just don’t have an affair. More of us have probably stolen or know a thief, but for the most part, we can follow these commandments right. So could Israel. So we, like Israel here them, and we start patting ourselves on the back.

Hey, I’m alright with God. I have never stolen or had an affair. But then we get to this last commandment. Don’t covet. Have you ever wanted to steal? Have you ever wanted to have an affair? Have you ever, not even wanted to steal, but been jealous of someone else’s things. Have you ever wanted what they have? Have you ever looked at a married man or woman and wish you could be with them, even if you would never have an affair? Now we are in trouble. I mean all of you coveted my shirt earlier, so you are all in trouble.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus speaks to this also. He is teaching about the Ten Commandments, and he says:

21 "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' 22But 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. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.^] 27 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' 28But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

He is speaking here to Jews, who, like us, for the most part feel like we keep the commandments- at least the first nine. He is reminding them that the tenth commandment has to do with their hearts. It seems like God is setting us up to fall, sort of, doesn’t it? Here are all these rules, can you follow them? Yeah, you think so, well here is one more. But what is God really doing? What he is doing is calling us back to himself. He is calling for Israel to have a greater dependence on Him. He is calling us to have a greater dependence on him.

We are going to break these commandments. God knew that, Jesus knew that. The question is not then will we break the commandment, but when we do, what do we do? Do we run back to God and the cross, or do we try to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and just try harder. The reason God saves the tenth commandment for last is to let us know that our outward actions are of no value. It does us no good to follow 9 of the 10 commandments. We must follow all of the law, or we have broken all of it. God is not concerned about how holy you look, but with how holy you are. The tenth commandment is given at the end as a final reminder that we are not holy. It is to call the people to a greater dependence on God. Remember, like Kiera and myself, God does not change based on Israel’s actions. His relationship with us is not based on what rules we have kept. He loves us the same. He loves us because of who he is, not because of what we have done.

Not only does Jesus talk about the Ten Commandments, but Paul also has something to add, and it is right along the lines we have just been talking about. Paul says in Romans 7

Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." 8But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness.

What does this mean? What is the point of this commandment? It would seem from what Paul says that the point of the Law is to point out our sinfulness. Not to beat a dead joke, but let’s quickly get back to my shirt- because it is an awesome shirt. I assume no one was really coveting my shirt, or even think about it until I pointed it out in my introduction. And the, because you have good taste, you did begin thinking about and coveting my shirt, and the awesome deal I got on it. In the same way, Kiera didn’t know that she should not play with our fire place until we told her. Once we told her she couldn’t go near it though, it attracted her more than ever. That doesn’t mean that she could touch the fire before we told her she couldn’t- the prohibition was always there- however, once we made it taboo, it became even more an object of desire. She coveted it.

This is the same way in which the Law works, according to Paul. Remember, though, that the law didn’t produce the sin. The prohibition was always there. The Law just told us that it was wrong concretely.

But again, the point of the law has always been to point out our iniquities. Again in Romans 7:10 Paul tells us that,

…the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.

The commandment was death. Not because the commandment was bad, but because we are broken. In these Ten Commandments are Gods standards of holiness. We see them, and slowly we realize that we don’t measure up. Maybe we have broken some earlier commandments, and so even outwardly are seen as unholy. More likely we have broken this last commandment about the condition of our heart, and although we may appear outwardly holy, we are inwardly sick, twisted, broken and dirty.

The point of these commandments has always been to draw us closer to God. I don’t know if you remember, but in the first sermon on this series, I said the way to keep all the commandments was to remember the first. The commandments were given the way they were to first, draw us to God, next, point out our fallenness, and finally, draw us back to God. Never did God require that we keep his commandments to be loved by him. He pulled Israel out of Egypt before these commandments were given. The first thing he tells them is who he is. I am the LORD who brought you out of Egypt he says. He is teaching these people, us, to depend on him for everything.

And this brings me to the practical part of the sermon. The final reason for the prohibition about coveting was so that the Israelites would rely totally and fully on God. How? Well let’s take a step back and examine why we covet. Why is it that we see someone else’s stuff and want it? Why do we see someone else’s spouse and want them? Why do we see someone else’s position and want it? It is because we are not fully trusting in God.

One of the ways we may not be trusting in God is not believing that he is going to provide all that we need for us. So we start looking at others things and wanting them. We think that we need whatever everyone else has. Maybe we are having problems in our marriage (I know this doesn’t effect most of you yet, but someday it will), and instead of trusting God to help us work through them, we think that we can make ourselves happy by coveting another’s husband or wife. We don’t trust God to give us a family, so we covet another’s. We don’t trust god to give us a house so we coven another’s promotion.

We don’t depend on God for what ever it is, and so we start seeing all that everyone else has, and we want it. But there is even more that this. Our desire to covet goes deeper than just not trusting God. When we are coveting we have not only broken the Tenth Commandment, but the second also. We elevate something to the place of God. We worship money, so we covet another’s house. We worship sex, so we covet another’s wife. We worship security, so we covet another’s promotion. We worship power, so we covet another’s promotion. This prohibition against coveting is, as all the other commandments, a call to worship God, and God only. As I said before, if you don’t have the first commandment, none of the pothers matter. In fact, they all point to the first. This commandment is teaching us to rely solely on God.

And this truly is the heart of the commandment.

I want to take it a step further and say that the reason we break this commandment, and any of them for that matter, is that we truly don’t believe the Gospel. Saying this is during a worship service, I am sure the Christians in the audience are saying, “But we are Christians, so how can we not believe the Gospel.” And I will answer that if you break any of these commandments, you don’t fully believe the Gospel.

Let me explain. Again, I ask, why do we covet? It is not simply because we want more money, or a better job. It is because we don’t believe that God is good and gives good gifts. It is because we don’t find our security in Him. It is because we don’t fully recognize that we are God’s children, and that he loves us.

God himself tells us that he has plans to prosper us and not to harm us. Jesus tells us that God gives us good gifts. Paul says that God did not withhold his son from us, how will he not give us all things also. But we don’t really believe all this, so we covet. Instead of finding our security in God, we find it in money, so we elevate money to a place of worship, and then we covet it. Instead of looking to God for our happiness and joy, we look to others, and when we don’t find it in our marriage, we begin to covet other people’s marriages. Instead of finding our worth in Christ and his resurrection, we find it in our reputation and job title. We really don’t believe the Gospel.

But the only way to obey these commandments is to believe it. We can’t do it on our own. The law, with out the Gospel is a dead end. The commandments lead only to death if we don’t have this Gospel. God brought you out of Egypt first. Follow him, and then stop coveting. Follow him, and in his power, stop coveting.

Believe the Gospel, and find your all in him. Find your security, your happiness, your joy, your love, your self worth, your salvation. See how God has brought you to his holy mountain. See how he has had a relationship with you all along.

If you are here and you are not a Christian, hear all this again. God doesn’t require you follow all these rules before he loves you. He loves you right now. He desires a relationship with you right now. Have you tried to follow these commandments and failed? He knows. He is there anyway. The good news is that he did what you could not. When God gave Moses these commandments, he was talking to a murderer. The people were at the bottom of the mountain breaking every commandment given. He knew they could not keep them. When Jesus was telling those people in Matthew 5 that if they became angry they broke the commandment against murder, and if they lusted they broke the prohibition against adultery, he knew that they couldn’t keep his words. He knew as he spoke to these masses that he was going to die for them. He knew that, just a few years later, he would hang on a cross, dying as sacrifice for all the mistakes, blunders, and sins they had committed. He knew that you also could not keep his commands, and he died for that too.

The way to God is not following some rules, even these rules. It is through the crucifixion. Jesus did what we could not. He followed all the rules that we break, and he went willingly as a sheep to be slaughtered. As he hung from the cross, his last words were “It is finished.” What does this mean? What was finished? Everything. The Law was finished, these Ten Commandments were finished, God’s redemption of his people was finished.

When God gave these rules on Sinai, he gave them as a way to point to Jesus. The laws themselves were never supposed to give us salvation. Following these rules makes you no more or less loved in God’s eyes. These laws were supposed to point out our insufficiency. It is of infinite value that God saves his people first.

If we look to the last to save, we are going down a dead end. Paul said that the law lead to death. So it is for us. Bu the free gift of God is life in Jesus.

God calls us when we are sick, broken, and alone. He can heal you now. He can fix you now. He can forgive you now. All he demands is that, as the first commandment states, you would call him your God. All he wants is for you to accept his embrace, ask for his forgiveness, and become his child. These commandments brought death, but Jesus is offering you life.

It is not God who demands you follow rules before he calls you his child, but religion. God calls us as we are, not as others would have us be. We can not follow these rules on our own. In the Old testament there are 613 rules, the Ten Commandments being just the first. If we can’t follow these first 10, how can we hope to follow all the others? We can’t. That is why Jesus came. These Laws point the way to Jesus. They were set up to demonstrate God’s holiness and call us back to him. They were never designed to be our salvation.

Religion demands you become clean before you are rescued from slavery, Jesus only asks that you would follow him as he rescues you. The Gospel the good news is that it is finished. You can be with God right now, if you would only ask.

If you are a Christian know that Jesus is still the answer for your coveting. Remember your slavery in Egypt and worship God once again. Cast out your idols and ask God to purify your heart. Search yourself, ask God to search you, and bring all the baggage, jealousy, and coveting to the cross, where it has already been paid for. God is no different today that the day in which you first followed him.

If you have heard me preach before, you know that this is where I usually stop, but not today.

Usually the structures of my sermon are a weak introduction, some commentary on the text, and then I try to break all of you and show you how you need Jesus, and then I end. But I realize that at times I am doing a disservice. Yes it is true that you, whether a Christian or not need Jesus. Yes it is true that in your own power you can not follow these commandments. And I want you to hear that. Apart from God we are powerless. We are told that we were saves to sin, dead in our transgressions before we were redeemed through the work of Jesus Christ.

But Scripture doesn’t end there. That is not the final chapter in our life. Paul says that although we were dead, we have been raised, that although we were slaves to sin, we can now become slaves to righteousness. The Good News, this Gospel that Jesus proclaimed, wasn’t just that he was going to die for our sins and then we could be in heaven. The Gospel was also for the here and now. In the book of John we have some of the final conversations that Jesus is having with his Apostles- the people closest to him. And what does he tell them? Well, lots of things, but one of the final words spoke was this:

John 10:10

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

He also says that his peace- the peace of God- he is going to give. Paul tells us that he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him. He also states that it is no longer he who lives, but Christ lives in him. We are told that we can be slaves to righteousness, that the Spirit who raised Christ from the dead now dwells in us.

So what does this mean. It means that we can now follow these Ten Commandments. It means that we are already holy in God’s sight, and can also be holy right now, today. It means that, in the Power of Christ, we may truly live.

This Gospel isn’t for some far off land called heaven. I mean it is, but that isn’t all. It has something to offer right now. We don’t nee to be stuck in the same patterns. Our hearts truly can be changed, and we can stop coveting. Through what Jesus has done, we now have the ability to live as God would call us to live. You don’t need to be stuck in the same sns. YOU don’t need to be a slave to your addictions. You don’t need to live in despair, just waiting for the day when you will be in heaven. You can have it all now.

The first thing we see Jesus doing in the Bible is walking around and saying he Kingdom of God is here. It is not some far off land we need to u down and wait to arrive. It is here.

W I am not saying that there won’t be struggles, or hardships, or pain. I know we will all screw up again, and if you are like me, again, and again, and again. But we can live redeemed lives now. You no longer need to bow down to sin in your life. This Gospel, this Good News, is for today. This salvation that God is offering is right now. This Redemption is as much for the present as for the future.

I don’t know what you are coveting, I don’t know what you have stolen or what your idols are, but I do know that God is offering you freedom and new life right now. He will never abandon nor forsake you. He knows that by yourself you can not keep these rules, but he also offers you himself that you may live a new life, that you may truly be holy.

In front of me is a symbol of that new life. On the night he was betrayed he took bread and broke it and said, “This is my body, broken for you, do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup and said, “This is the blood of the New Covenant. Do this in Remembrance of me.”

At this table is offered more than bread and juice. It is new life. It is freedom. Christ paid the price we could not pay, that we may live the life we were meant to live. If you are a flower of Christ, whether you have been one for years, or have just decided that you too want to follow this Jesus and have a life abundant, I invite you to this table. Bring before God all that you have coveted, all that you have worshipped, all your brokenness and sin. Come just as you are, broken and imperfect. Come to the table and worship the God who died for you. Come and believe this Gospel that offers a life abundant.

This Weeks Sermon

This week begins our January series at Mercyhouse. We will be taking a closer look at the Ten Commandments. Each week we are going to be looking at a different commandment. For those of you who are math whizzes, you may have noted that there are not ten Sundays in January, yet there are ten commandments, so how is this going to work? Well, we are simply not going to look at all of the commandments in detail. Some will have to be skipped.

Before we jump in to the sermon, let us pray.

I feel like it would be irresponsible to just jump in to a discussion about the commandments without first recapping Israel’s history up to the point at which God gives them these laws. I debated where to start, and I think we need to go all the way back to Abraham. Abraham was the Father of the Israelites. It was Abraham that we see God initially making the covenant that is going to come to fruition with Moses and this generation of Israelites. The promise that God made to Abraham was that he would bless Abraham’s offspring. He would give them the land of Canaan- what became known as the Promised Land. Now at the age of 100 Abraham had a son as a sign of this covenant. He named him Isaac. Isaac also had a son, Jacob. Through various experiences, trials, failures, and wins, Isaac and Jacob also come to know the Lord God. Jacob has a son, Joseph, who is sold into slavery by his brothers, and ends up in Egypt. Joseph also had faith in God, though, and God uses this evil for his own purposes. Joseph climbs the ranks of Egypt’s nobility because of gifts that God has given him, and eventually is able to save his family because of the influence he had with Pharaoh.

Now because of the favor they were receiving in Egypt, Jacob and his family decide to stay there, and a “Jewish”, although they are not called that yet, root takes hold. Later however, we read in Exodus that a Pharaoh emerged who didn’t know this Joseph and what he had done. This Pharaoh then enslaves the Israelites. This is where the book of Exodus begins. Israel had been enslaved for over 400 years when we pick up the story of Moses. The Promised Land was looking more and more like a myth, however God is still at work.

At about this time, it just so happens that a Jewish baby named Moses makes his way into the royal family of Pharaoh. It happens through a decree that all male Israelites should be killed, and once again, like with Joseph, we see God using evil for his good purpose. I want to make it clear here that God did not cause the Evil, he was not excited that Pharaoh was killing all these babies, He is just bigger that the Evil that Pharaoh caused, and was able to cause His good plan to come about anyway. He was able to use the evil for good, but he in no way caused the evil. I also want to note that this is also not an excuse to sin. We should never say that it was good that evil happened simply because God was able to use it for His plan.

Back to the history though. Moses is raised by Pharaoh, but knows about his slave roots, and one day he murders and Egyptian. He flees the country, and soon is going to have the experience of a lifetime. He encounters God face to face. From this experience he has a real conversion, and God raises him up to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land. Eventually Moses goes back to Egypt and demands that Pharaoh, “Let God’s people go.” Pharaoh says no, and one by one God causes plagues to come upon Egypt. If you were here in October, you may remember that each plague God caused had a corresponding Egyptian God, so not only is God punishing Pharaoh for his evil, he is at the same time showing the world that he is bigger that Egypt’s Idols.

Eventually, after the curse of the firstborn son, in which any house not marked with the blood of the lamb lost its first born son, Pharaoh lets Israel go. He changes his mind though, and God has to protect this fledgling country from Pharaoh’s armies. God leads them tot the Red Sea, where he allows Israel to cross, but drowns Egypt. God then provides water for a thirsty nation, and after that bread from heaven. A pillar of fire lead them at night, and a pillar of smoke by day. Every step of the way god was teaching this new nation what it meant to depend upon him. Finally they come to Mount Sinai, and Moses goes to get the Ten Commandments from God, which is where we pick up the story.

Up to this point, all the Israelites know is slavery and Egypt. Once God has brought them out of the immediate danger of death, he brings them to Sinai for some laws. This seems kind of strange, doesn’t it? Why doesn’t God just bring them to the Promised Land right away and then set some ground rules? Well it has everything to do with their slavery. Up to this point, God has been Israel’s God. He knows how to do this. He has never stopped doing this. He had always remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He had never forsaken his people.

Israel on the other hand is a different story. God’s covenant with them read as follows, “I will be your God and you will be my people.” But all Israel knows is how to be slaves. Sure there are still people who worship Yahweh, but Egypt’s culture has slipped in as well. Israel had no idea how to be God’s people, because they had never done it. So the first thing God does for them is tell them how to be his people. This is the reason for the Ten Commandments. This is why it is of first importance. Israel can’t keep their part of the covenant if they don’t know what it is. So God tells them on Mount Sinai what it means to be his people.

This is the same pattern for us today. God calls us from slavery, he frees us from what ever god is ruling our life, he brings us to a safe place, and then he starts to give us some new ways to live, right. Just like God doesn’t demand that Israel obey these rules before he saves them, Jesus doesn’t demand that we become clean and obey his rules before he saves us. He saves us before we know what it means to be his children, his people, and then teaches us later.

So there Israel is, half way between where they came from and where they are going, with no clue what it truly means to be God’s people, and God gives Moses the Ten Commandments- which would make you think that we have gotten to the sermon, but you’d be wrong. Before we get to the second commandment, we need to have the first. And here it is

"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 "You shall have no other gods before me.”

So that is the first commandment. Have no God’s before Yahweh. The first way to be god’s people is to love God. But the wording seems like it allows for other gods as well, just not in the first place of honor, doesn’t it? And this wouldn’t have been a strange idea to the ancients. This would have been common place in Egypt. The ancient world, Egypt included was full of cults. I don’t mean the kind of cult you are thinking of since they didn’t even have Kool-Aid in ancient Egypt. The cults were just people who were dedicated to one of the gods above the others. Every god had its cult, or following. Now all gods were given tribute and praise, but some people gave more tribute to certain gods in hopes that they would be blessed by them. So God telling the Israelites to give him the first place of honor wouldn’t have necessarily at that time meant give him the only place.

So after the first commandment to worship him, God tells his people the second commandment.

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, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

And in this second commandment God tells us to have no idols. There is no room for secondary gods. It is interesting to note that God doesn’t just say don’t make idols, isn’t it? He tells them not to make things and then worship them. To the ancients they more than likely would have been one and the same, but at least I find the wording interesting.

Now does this text mean that we can’t make art? It seems to almost imply that, saying not to make a carved image of anything on the earth or above it, but that can’t be what it really means. The reason for this is that later God is going to tell Moses to build the Ark of the Covenant. This was a box that held the Ten Commandments. Now on this box were 2 angels beautifully adorned. So either God is contradicting himself here, or there is something else going on. Since God doesn’t contradict himself, we need to see what is really meant by God telling Israel to not make carved images. The key is in the next sentence. You shall not worship them.

Let us take a quick digression into how Idols work. The first premise was that the gods were mischievous at best, and evil at worst. They needed to be appeased constantly or controlled somehow. There were many ways to do this, from offering sacrifices from food to your first born, to finding out secret knowledge about the god, like its name, that gave you power over it, to trapping it in an image. Idols were more than just representatives of the gods they depicted, they in some way were the gods depicted. It was believed that if you made the image right, then the god that you just carved would come to dwell in the idol. The idol literally became the god. As such, the created thing was elevated to the creator.

They would create an image, and then start worshipping it. This is the prohibition God is calling for, not an end to art. I have some images of ancient idols, as well as some modern ones, to show you what I mean.

This prohibition against creating images was two fold. As I said before, it was a way to tell the Israelites that is was not okay to have multiple gods, they had to only worship him. At the same time, God is subtly telling Israel not to make an idol of him either. He is letting them know that the rules he plays by are different that the gods of Egypt. You cannot trap him or control him with images or likenesses. He is rewriting the conversation about how a people relate to God. He is not some evil being to be controlled or subdued; he is a loving God that calls his people into relationship with him.

There is one more thing we need to notice about this commandment. It is not just a prohibition about craven images. It is a prohibition about idols of any kind. God says that we are not to bow down or serve anything but him. Now certainly there are still religions that worship idols in the ancient sense of the word. In both Hinduism and Buddhism they offer sacrifices to idols. They still make images and worship them, but the majority of the Western world has long sensed abandoned this practice. There still are Pagans and sun worshippers and those who follow Greek gods and goddesses, but that is mostly a thing of the past. The West tends to laugh and marginalize such people.

I say this, and I hope you can feel the however coming, however we live with as many idols today as did the ancients. In this text, and in Romans 1 we get a feel for what idol worship and Paganism feels like. At the heart of idol worship, paganism, is the worshipping of created things. We give honor and glory to creature and creation rather than Creator. No, there is no longer statues that we bow to, but we are in the midst of an extremely Pagan culture. I brought some pictures of the gods that our society worships.

Our culture has lifted things like money and sex and power to places or gods. We are consumes by them. We worship food, and women, and Hollywood, and in this town, learning, Liberalism, and one night stands. Let me say quickly that I have nothing against learning or liberalism, I am not a conservative attacking the left, I am simply observing that in Amherst, Ma, politics, especially the breed of politics that swings toward the left, has been raised to the position of god. It is its own religion, as is learning in our sweet college town.

What Paul says in Romans 1 is that people rebelled because they worshipped other gods. Moses, when re-giving the ten commandments to the people in Exodus 34 tells them not to just not bow down to idols, but to worship no other gods besides God. And I just said that we, as a culture, worship various things. It seems fitting to take a step back and discuss worship for a second.

What does worship look like? We call this a worship service, but is this all we need to do? Come to church for an hour, sing some songs, and hear a sermon? The bible gives some great insight into what worship really is. If you were to do a word search of the Bible and worship, you would have a ton of things to read through. But some common strands would start to emerge. One of the things you would notice is that worship is almost always associated with bowing down. What is being communicated is a place of submission. The people who are worshipping, either God or something else, and you will find both in Scripture, are elevating whatever they are worshipping. The next thing you would likely notice is that there are sacrifices associated with worship. People are giving the object of their worship material things. Something else you would notice is that there are ceremonies associated with worship. The worshippers are giving up their time. Also there are very often laments or songs being sung, depending on the situation, and sometimes at the same time. The condition of the heart is one that is in agreement with the object of worship, and as such is either grieving its sin, or singing praises to it savior.

In Romans 1 Paul says that humans were worshipping the creation rather than the Creator, in Exodus 34, as Moses re-tells Israel the law, he rephrases the first and second commandment, telling the people to only worship the LORD, and I said moments ago that our society worships many false idols. But what does any of this have to do with us? Well that brings me to today’s sermon. These commandments are not antiquated rules set up for an ancient nation, but rather the guidelines to be known as God’s people.

As I said before, the pattern that God sets up for Israel is important for us as well. It is the same pattern that God uses today. This pattern can even be seen in the order of the commandments. The first is to worship God. The second, to worship nothing else, and then all the rest. It is not the other way around. To be called God’s, we do not need to follow a bunch of rules and be good enough for Him first, and then he calls us his people. God called the Israelites and brought them out of slavery before they had any of the 613 rules he would give them. And once they were free, he doesn’t demand that they now obey to remain his people, but rather that they would just worship him. This is what makes Christianity different from every other religion there is. We don’t need to please God first, but rather just decide to follow him.

When Jesus confronts the adulterous women in John 8 he doesn’t tell her to stop sinning and then he would forgive her, but rather tells her she is forgiven, and then tells her to sin no more. God calls his people, and them asks them to respond in faith, and after that he begins to work on their character. It is not the other way around. You don’t need to be clean to be saved; you just need to want it. Gods will work out the rest of your junk with you after.

God did not demand that Israel obey his rules to be known by him, they were already known by him because of who he is, not because of what they had done. This is also the promise of Christ. You are already known by him, not because of what you have done, but because of what he did. Jesus says he did not come for the clean, but for the sick. He is here to heal you as you are. It is religion that demands you become a good person before you approach the alter, not God. He gives us the first commandment first. Love him. If you don’t have this, none of the others matter. If you are sitting here toady and don’t know Jesus, I tell you he wants you now. He is ready to rescue you from slavery and bring you to the Promise land. All he requires is that you follow him. He doesn’t need you to follow a bunch of rules to make yourself look good, he doesn’t require that you free yourself and meet up with him later. He is here now to rescue you and protect you, and lead you every step of the way until you arrive at Mount Sinai. He would be your God if you would just turn and be his people.

That is not to say that God will allow us to stay in out filth. After he tells Israel to worship him, he tells them to stop worshipping everything else. He tells them that not only does he get the first place in their hearts, he gets the only place. We are to worship God, and only God. Most of us are Christians in the room, and I suspect that we are all thinking, well I love Jesus, so I have these commandments down. But I want to ask all of us if we have them as down as we think we do? How can we tell though? Well, I will tell you. The way to tell if God has the first and only place in your heart is if you are worshipping Him. Now that seems just as simple for us Christians to answer, doesn’t it? We are at a worship service, after all. But how do we know we are really worshipping God, and only God, well as you may have suspected, I intend to tell us.

Remember what worship looked like in the Bible. It looked like people who agreed with God in their heart, gave to God, and submitted to God. The way I was able to say that society worships money, power, and most of all, sex is for multiple reasons. One, pornography is the largest industry in the US, and the world, taking in billions and billions of dollars each year. At Umass kids spend hours each night trying to see naked women. People are inclined to desire it, agree with it, seek after it. The spend time pursuing sex, money buying it, and form communities around it. Sex has become their god. They are worshipping sex.

Drug addicts spend their entire time pursuing their drug. On the show, “Intervention” a TV show on A and E that follows addicts around and offers them help, one of the users ever said that drugs were his god. He spent all his time looking for them, all his money buying them, and all his energy on them. His life revolved around them.

What about for us then? What gets the place of worship in our hearts? Are we giving money to God and his church, or to Starbucks and websites. And I am not talking about just giving in that offering basket when Robert preaches about money and you feel guilty, but week after week giving back to God what he has given you. In the Old Testament worship was associated with gifts and offerings. We usually hear that you should tithe 10 percent, but a devout Jew would have given almost 30 percent of their income. They also would have had to leave some for the poor too.

I don’t want this to turn into a sermon on money, but where your money goes is a good sense of where your worship is. I am also not saying you have to give to this church, but if you are truly worshipping God, and putting him in the first and only place in your heart, you will be giving your money away to somewhere.

I feel I can say all this because Money was a god for me. It consumed me for a very long time. For the first years of my marriage, I didn’t give anything to this church, or anyone, for that matter. When Sarah did give some of our resources away, I was always very upset. Money was an idol I had to care for and covet. God convicted me though. I took this job on church staff making less than nothing, and learned how to give it away anyway. And God provided every step of the way. I am not rich now, and I am not saying you need to sow your faith seed, what I am saying is that I turned to God and put him in the first spot in my heart, and he provided for me needs.

On the same page, when I was out drinking, I always managed to find the money for booze. It was a god that demanded worship, and as such, it needed my resources. So I ask you again, where are your resources going, because that truly is one of your gods. Jesus says where your treasure will be, so your heart will be also. Will your treasure be in God, or some created thing.

At the same time, when we look at worshippers of the Bible, we see that they not only give of their financial resources, but also of their time. Where is your time going? Are you feeding the poor, or playing video games. Are you watching hours of TV a night, or reading the Bible? Are you volunteering at church, or are you doing anything else that you want to do? Now as I say this I must confess that I still watch more TV than I should. I was raised by it, and although I have made strides in the right direction, it still receives much more time than it should. I got rid of digital cable, but still can’t cancel it altogether.

How often do we say we don’t have time to volunteer here or there because it interferes with our “alone” time, as if any of this was ours. How many of us have said we have way to much work to help out in the kitchen Sunday mornings because Monday through Saturday we are goofing off, and we need to make up for it on Sunday. How many of us make time for the internet, flag football, DVDs, music, and snowboarding, but can’t find an hour a day to read our Bible and pray. Where is your time going? It is a good indication of what you are worshipping.

Another great indication of what we are worshipping is what we are doing. What I mean is, does our heart agree with God and His word and we try to follow him, or are we doing our own thing. Do we continue to sin, refusing to confess it to God or others, or confess it but continue to do it anyway? By whose standards are we living? Do we truly want to do what God would have us do, or do we just shrug him off. I am not saying we won’t sin, or we will be perfect angels, but if God is truly the Lord of our life, when we see that we are not doing what is right in his sight it will grieve us. We will want to change, even if we can’t. God and not our personal desire will be the ultimate guide to our life.

Let me say that this is subtle, and for most of the time, seems relatively easy and straight forward. The tests come when what we want disagrees with what God wants. Let me give you an example from my past. After I became a Christian I met this great girl. We started dating, and after a while we became more and more intimate. It got to the point that we were sleeping together. We both knew this was wrong, and would pray for God’s forgiveness after each encounter, but we continued to do it. What I had done was place my own desires, as well as this girl in the place of God. I devoted my heart to her and sex instead of God, and as such was worshipping false idols. How are we still giving ourselves over to lesser gods.

We can go the other way too though. It is not always sex and drinking that takes the place of God, but religion and goodness. Are we trying make ourselves righteous and good, thereby placing ourselves or our rules in the place of God? Do we value the things we have done more than the redemption that God has given us though His Son Jesus Christ? Are we preaching false gospels, that the way to salvation for others and the world is through self improvement, education, health care, regulations, policies, and politics? Do we agree with God that salvation is free to all who would accept it, and there is nothing we need to, save ask, or do we hold to the idea that we must make ourselves clean before we enter the presence of God, demanding that others shape up as well.

Not only did people who worshipped God agree with him, they submitted to Him when they didn’t always want to. They gave their entire lives to God. It is very easy to worship when God is in agreement with us, but to see if He truly has the first and only place in our hearts, we need to look at our actions when He doesn’t agree with us. How do we act when we are in a sinful relationship? Do we repent and turn to God, or pay him lip service and continue to do what the other gods demand? What do we do when we are faced with a decision that will better us financially, but compromise our Christian walk? How good are we at doing what we don’t want to do, because God requires it of us?

What are the other gods that we are worshipping right now? What is getting our money, out time, our energy? Is it God? What are we submitting too, sin or righteousness? What idols are we asking for blessing from, and in return giving ourselves to? Do we seek our comfort in God or TV, God or food, God or sex, God or drugs, God or religion? What is competing right now for the position that only God deserves?

Before we leave here ready to get rid of all the junk we have been worshipping, we need to remember that is not in our strength that we can do this. If we just set about to stop worshipping our idols we would become very religious and legalistic. What would happen is we would create a bunch of ways to not worship those gods we had, and in so doing we would create a new god our of our rules. We would become very self righteous in our ability to follow our new rules or we would become miserable wretches because we couldn’t follow them at all. It seems like a Catch-22, doesn’t it? How then do we obey this second commandment?

The answer is the first commandment. We run back to God. We remember that He is the God that brought us out of slavery, and he is the God that will bring us to the Promised Land. We worship God again, and soon the other gods will disappear. We turn our hearts toward our Savior, crying out for him to heal us, and we receive His Grace. We remember what he has done for us, and fall on our knees at His holy mountain.

Very often we as Christians have this idea that God expects us to be good after our conversion. That our sins were forgiven when we became a Christian we are sure of, but we are as equally sure that God is keeping a tally of the sins we committed after our conversion. We have this idea that since we obeyed that first commandment for a while, we need to know obey all the rest to receive the same grace that we were first given. But the reality of it all is that we are always forgiven. We always have the grace of God. The way to receive it isn’t to try to obey out if fear, but to remember the first commandment and worship God. The way to obey the second commandment is to remember the first.

We leave our idols in Egypt as God leads us to freedom, and then when we make a Golden Calf, we confess this to God and run back to Him again. We bring ourselves before our King, asking Him to bring our hearts in agreement with his. We worship God once again.

If you are here and you are not a Christian, know that God is the same today as he was on Mount Sinai. Jesus came to die for you. He does not demand you become clean, and then give you a place in heaven; he has that place already prepared for you now. Jesus asks that you follow him, that is all. He knows that you have broken commandments, he knows that you are in slavery, he knows that you have other gods. All he wants is you to worship him. There is no other requirement to receive the grace he has for you. Only ask for it and bow to him.

If you are a Christian, hear that again. There is no requirement to receive gods grace than to turn and ask for it. It does not change because you were baptized 20 years ago, or yesterday. God will again lead you from the slavery you are enduring and free you from the Idols that have tired to fill the place of God. So run back to him with all you craven images and ask him to smash them to pieces. Worship him and be his people, as he has always been your God.

Let us pray.