The Second Commandment

The Second Commandment

Landon Patrick. Your your first job might not be in Lincoln, but your second job is in Lincoln. We’ll leave the light on for you. Welcome back if you guys want to come back. But we sure love students. Thank you for doing that guys. I was smart. Um, let’s let me share a quick story. I was driving back from church last week and I was asking one of my sons like, what do you think of church? It was good. I’m like, what? What about about the sermons? Like? It was good. I’m like, all right, I have a question, dad, Why are we xing out the commandments aren’t commandments a good thing. I’m like, son. There’s this thing called roman numerals. You’ll get to that eventually. Or or your mom already covered in school, but there’s roman numerals and this is the 10 commandments. And so why why would we spend 10 weeks looking at the 10 Commandments? That’s a big thing. We’re given prime real estate, 10 Sundays looking at the 10 commandments. Why are we spending so much time looking at something that happened so long ago? There’s a reason why the main reason why we’re looking at the 10 commandments is it gives you a glimpse a picture into the values and priorities and character of the God who wrote them, who said them to the nation of Israel. The bible tells us all about the character of God. The righteousness of God all about God. And the idea is that after spending 10 weeks studying the 10 commandments. You get a better idea what the mind of God is, what he cares about, where we’re going, what he values and us as people, you won’t have a perfect idea of God after this seven, but you should have a more structured, focused vision of what God’s vision is for our relationship in the future based on the 10 Commandments. And so before we go much further, I like to take a moment here and bow our heads and pray, Let’s let’s ask God to bless our time. Lord. We’re attempting to do a supernatural work. God looking at your word of the Lord, the Lord trying to communicate what you’re teaching us today. This is a is a weighty heavy thing where we don’t want to take this lightly. We don’t want to gloss over this. We don’t want to move quickly through this Lord. I pray that you just help us to settle our hearts down so our minds down and focus on eternity. Focus on our relationship with you, focus on what you’re saying in the second commandment. I ask that you just really multiply our time. Help us to cover a lot and a limited amount of time together, Lord, but I ask that you just help protect us from the trap of listening learning and not doing anything. I don’t know why we’re doing what we’re doing, helps us lean into our our theology so it can impact our live Ology as christians I said, you just grow our understanding of you, our love for you and our desire to want to live for you, make this Word of God come alive and convict our hearts. Like only you can we commit this time to you in jesus name Amen. Alright. So let’s read over the passage together. Exodus chapter 20 starting in verse one. And God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord, your God who brought you out of the Land of Egypt out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. That was last week. This is this week, verse four, The second commandment. 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 waters under the earth. 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 3rd and 4th generation of those who hate me. But showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments who love me and keep my commandments. So it’s important for us to realize that these 10 commandments were not communicated in some sterile vacuum. Like your mind’s understanding of the 10 commandments is probably pretty limited. I feel like if I were to wager, I’ve spent more time this week looking at the 10 commandments than any of you get what I’m saying. I’ve spent more time studying these few verses than interview. So I don’t want to like super mystify it, I want to make it practical. I want to stay in my lane, which is the second commandment. But God does not communicate this in a sterile vacuum. There’s a thing called context where when and how it was communicated to the people of God. And so if you were to think, I’m gonna get your head in that space about the context of when this was communicated. 10 commands were rolled out. An amazing situation. If you were there there and you saw and you heard this exact thing communicated by God, you’d be standing around a million other people that would all be Israelites there standing at the foot of Mount Sinai. After the whole rescue op out of Egypt occurred, they walked through the Red Sea and you’ve seen your new God, you were introduced to systematically dismantle the largest economy on the planet. The Egyptian economy, the largest religion on the planet, the Egyptian religion, the largest military on the planet, just drowned in the Red Sea, the largest, you know, technology and the planet just got dismantled. The largest government in the world at the time just got dismantled by this God. You just saw this God flex on the top 10 gods of the Egyptian gods and systematically dismantled them, one after another after another. You just walked through that whole red sea experience where there was skyscrapers of water on either side of you. And you walk through on dry ground through the red sea, you walk through the desert for a season of time and now you’re standing at the foot of Mount Sinai, the million other peers listening and watching God talk to the people of God with no mediator, there’s no pastor, there’s no p A system, there’s no moses saying speaking on behalf of God because that’s too much God is speaking directly to the people of Israel for the first time. And there’s this there at the foot of the mountain, at the very top of the mountain, the pinnacle, there’s this cloud of glory and lights and lightning occurring up there and God is speaking in an audible voice to the nation of Israel. And so last week dan covered the first commandment which prohibits worshiping or honoring anything before God in thought word or deed. If you missed it, you missed a lot. You need to go play some catch it this afternoon, we’re gonna, we’re gonna leave that. And last week it was excellent. Go check that out yourself. But this week we’re looking at the second commandment and so some background, you need to understand that helps you understand what where this came from And we’re going at this commandment is in the ancient world, they believed in a multi God culture. They had to harvest God of fertility God, uh fall gotta spring God all sorts of gods and different seasons and they worshiped the gods and those gods had teams and coalitions of gods and they would, they would fight, they would make babies. There was multiple things happening in this polytheistic worldview, which was very common in Egypt and very common all throughout the ancient world at this time. And so you grew up in this culture that was saturated in multiple gods for different days of the week and you saw all those 10 gods get dismantled. The top 10 gods in Egypt got dismantled and earlier in the book of exodus and you’re learning about this new god. So last week, dan covered the first commandment, No other gods, a monotheistic worldview, a monotheistic god, one god, Not hundreds of Gods, one God. So that’s a big paradigm shift for you because you’re an Israelite who came out of Egypt. That’s a huge shift that occurred in your life. The second big shift happens in this passage, as we look at idols and the Egyptians made a sport out of religion, They made a sport out of idols and many of their idols are amazing, artistically created, pieces of artwork, we have a statue that’s either small or large that varies in size and scale and they’re covered in gold and silver and it’s supposed to be a physical representation of a, of a god that you can’t see and those idols you can watch and look at those idols in museums all around the world. And those Egyptian idols is like the most premier idols that were created throughout all the ancient religions that’s occurred on this planet. So, you know, not only multiple gods, but you know, multiple idols and idols are everywhere and they’re beautifully crafted things to show and help a person think and value and worshiped that deity, that God. And the second commandment we’re looking at today. Slowly, the second commandment looks at idols and I propose to you, it goes deeper than just idols that goes into the heart behind idol worship and how that heart that worship is idols rex one’s relationship with God. And so this is not laid out very complicated and it’s very simple for us here. If you look at me at verse four, it says don’t make idols is the first point of verse four. Don’t make idols, 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. Point # one of today’s sermon is don’t make idols point number two, Today’s sermon will find in verse five. Don’t worship idols, you shall not bow down to them. Don’t make idols and don’t worship idols don’t make and don’t worship idols The second half of verse five don’t serve idols, don’t make don’t worship. And don’t serve idols. Are you tracking with me where I got that in the passage, We go to verse five. The rest of verse five. Why this address is why the rest of this passage for I the Lord, your God am a jealous god visiting the iniquities of the fathers on the Children to the 3rd and 4th generation of those who hate me. But showing steadfast left to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. It’s important to stay true to the negative posture. The negative stance that this this commandment has. I should not take this and spin it to the positive. We should stay in the negative. Don’t make don’t worship and don’t serve idols. And we get to the y you’re like mike, I’m good, I don’t have idols, I’m good. I mean I traveled to Nepal for 10 days of a number of you a couple of years ago and we literally had to like step over idols. We had to walk around idols, there’s huge idols, small idols, there’s like incense and flowers and a little dish from the night before the morning of and they would change out those flowers daily and the incense daily and it’s just there’s a smoldering incense and you’d see them in the middle of the street on the sidewalk in front of businesses in front of homes. You see them in community spaces, There’s this massive idol that people came from all over the country to worship around and it was, it was huge. And so there’s idols everywhere. You physically saw these little statue beside it, little cake or dates or fruit and it was changed out religiously by the people that worshiped those idols be like mike, I don’t, I don’t worship idols. I’m good, I’m good. I propose to you. The more advances the society gets, the more advanced it’s idols get. And before we get serious, I’m gonna have a little fun. I’ve been watching a show called we are the champions on a live streaming platform. Um it’s just an intriguing deep dive for 30 minutes into some very, you know, fanatical people and some very unusual things last night I think I watched frog jumping, competitive frog jumping, the world record for frog. Frog jumping is 21 ft. And I watched these people that train, these frogs, read these frogs like have frogs, you know, test how far they can jump and bring the best to this contest. And then they’re living for glory of frog jumping. I learned a lot about it and these people are a lot of fun and they’re very intense on frog jumping. And then a couple of days ago I watched something on chili eating contest and how hot it is, insane to see what people do to their bodies to eat hot stuff chili eating contest. It’s insane though! These fanatics for Chili eating and how they ate the most hottest things ever. And then they went to this cheese racing where they rolled this ball of cheese down a 45° angle and these people run down this insanely steep hill 45 degree angle. It’s like a free fall spring and they’re rolling and tumbling for 100 m. It is insane. They get hurt. That’s what we’re watching for. Their flipping and rolling in any way competitive yo yoing they’ve given their life their whole life just sitting in the room practicing yo yo tricks or I watched you last night like a good american there 30 minutes long competitive dog dancing 7-10 hours a week dancing with a dog, no phones, just mirrors around watching and working on a routine in a skit. We can laugh, we can laugh, we can judge another culture and we can laugh at our first world culture around the world and around the globe. Don’t make idols, don’t worship idols and don’t serve idols. But the reality is we do make and we do worship and we do serve idols as a culture. Now as I work through this and try and practice for you just because I may not name your particular advice doesn’t mean we’re off the hook. We have the holy spirit that’s part of this christian walk that is there to help out more pastors, can’t get everywhere and he’ll get to you eventually don’t make, don’t worship and don’t serve idols but think yourself where do you run to after a long week. What do you run to when you have a free moment? What do you run to in your mind on your phone and your thoughts in private and public? What do you go to when things are hard or you want to celebrate a big win when you don’t feel like you’ve been affirmed at work like you should or you don’t feel like you’ve been accepted by your friends. What do you run to define affirmation, acceptance and approval? Don’t make don’t worship and don’t serve idols. Where do you go to escape when you’re face to face of pain in your life? Help cope with the pain you deal with don’t make, don’t worship and don’t serve idols. The thesis statement for this. This passage, this these verses is, we all worship wrong gods the wrong way instead worship jesus. If you do a word search of idols throughout the bible, you’ll see there’s 100 11 times in the old testament. You can find the word idol and 17 times the new testament. You’ll find this word idle and you’ll find idols today in your life at the end of the sermon, we’ll get there, john one first, john 11 versus 21 says little Children guard yourselves from idols. Big people guard yourselves from idols. Young christians guard yourself from idols. Old christians guard yourself from idols. Idols are everywhere in our christian experience in Lincoln Nebraska today, idols are idols are more complex than just a statue or more life, you know consuming than that documentary I was talking about earlier and it’s not just as simple as images. Images like they’re talking about images don’t have images and statues. It’s not that simple because it’s deeper than just images because a few chapters later next to this, you see uh the author is compacting like how the Tabernacle should be made and it’s just completely drenched in images and the new testament. We talk about images and worship like about communion, which will take later in the service and how baptisms that you had a few weeks ago or a cross on the wall or things like that. Images are everywhere in your bible and the image is supposed to help you think and focus and worship on God, but it’s deeper than just images. The heart behind an idol. The heart behind an image is of worshiping hearts, a man or woman who is worshiping something that is not God. We all worship wrong gods the wrong way. Instead worship jesus the God. We’re supposed to worship jesus the God who calls us into a relationship, the God who is a jealous god. I believe this is very unique to Christianity, a jealous deity. So if God is God and he’s his who he says he is, he’s created everything we see. Taste, touch, smell everything will ever experience in this lifetime and everything. Elon musk will find off this planet, every single God that created everything has all knowing power, wisdom, authority strength, everything, all knowledge that God should be worshiped in and of itself. But if that God desires to have a relationship with you and that God that created everything is jealous of your affections place and something else you want someplace in him that’s even more compelling. It’s not like we’re just worshiping him because he’s really wealthy and really powerful and really all knowing and really everything and he’s extra and we’re not, it’s not that simple. Were worshiping him because of that. We’re also worship because he wants to have a relationship with us. We have relational God with him and the son and the Holy Spirit or in a relationship you have a relationship with us as people, God is a jealous god who is jealous of the relationship, wants a jealous relationship with you. God knows how you spend your time better than you do. God knows what dominates your thoughts better than you do. God knows what drives your feelings more than you do as a person. God wants to be in a deep meaningful relationship with you. The God of the universe wants to know you intimately and personally and have an intimate relationship with you. God caesar capable of having deep meaningful relationships with other people. He sees your capable having deep meaningful relationships pursuing other things. He wants to have a deep meaning relationship pursuing him and him pursuing you and knowing each other in a relationship. We are prone to worship everything but God and that that makes God’s heart jealous because he loves you. We all worship wrong gods the wrong way. Instead worship jesus. Let’s keep digging into the Y because the y helps this sermon last beyond this afternoon. Because why why does this matter? Because God won’t have a relationship with the people of Israel. God wanted to have a face to face relationship with the people with his people. That amazing, powerful just God is is right here in this passage defining what that relationship looks like. He’s laying out the ground rules for how to have a relationship with him. God is holy and chosen and righteous and better than us people. And he wants to explain to us how to have a relationship with him. And the Y is is in the last chapter Exodus 19 Exodus 19 versus five and six says this. Now, if you will listen to me and carefully keep my covenant, you will be my my own possession out of all the people throughout all the earth is mine. And you will be my kingdom. A priest and my Holy Nation. God desires us to be his kingdom of priests. Holy Nation and intimate loving relationship with him and he’s jealous for us. My affections are placed in something that’s not him. God says, don’t bring those other gods into this relationship with us. God is hyper relational and this wording of jealous god is jealous love for you. It’s not unintentional. And illustration is like if you’re staying there on your wedding day, you stand there on your wedding day looking in the eyes of your future spouse and they’re standing before and they say, I vow to have and to hold sickness and health till death. Do us part unless I’m on a weekend business trip, unless that secretary started batting your eyes at me, unless the opportunity presents itself, then boys will be boys. I mean, what would you, what would you think? What would, what goes through your mind if that’s what they’re communicating to when you’re having your vow moment, talking through what your commitments and covenant, you’re stepping into a marriage and what your relationship will look like. No, you weren’t exclusive, you’d have a jealousy or hatred or you have a lot of feelings occurring in your heart, but it wouldn’t be benign love. Men and women. This is the ultimate, define the relationship. Talk occurring. Chapter 19 talks about the terms of the relationship and chapter 20 gets into the details of that relationship and God knows the heart of these, his people. They came out of a God saturated world and they had an idol saturated world where they worship gods and worship idols as part of their culture and they were immersed in this in the Egyptian life and he’s re focusing their mind on the one true god of a relationship with him. See, we don’t get to tell God how the relationships works. The creative thing is not gonna tell the creator how things will be A theologian, Anthony Berg rest in 1646 said it’s this concept is like having the sun follow the clock or the tell wag the dog. We don’t get the luxury of telling God how things will be. If our relationship with God, this define the relationship talk, it’s illogical for us to think. We get to tell God how things are. It’s very american of us to think that, but it’s not how we are allowed to think and communicate with God, us created people leading this to find the relationship talk is illogical and intentionally unintentionally places us on the same level as God in your mind. Like I’ll tell you how things are God, I’ll create the relationship all create how we’re supposed to interact with each other in your mind, you’re in charge, but nowhere else if you pretend if you want to pretend that you are at the same level as God and you can communicate to God like an equal and you self identify at the same level as God and then you want to be treated like a God. I just actions have consequences and decisions have a destiny and the bible teaches that the zip code of that destiny is in a place where God does not exist because you’ve created a God, a god in your own image, a god that doesn’t exist. Not the first commandment. The one true god, one true god, no idols. He’s laying out what that relationship looks like. You can’t just self identify as being a billionaire and you can’t self identify that you’re gonna tell God how the relationship with him and you will look, don’t pretend, don’t deceive yourself. God is in charge and he knows how to communicate and have a relationship with people. God knows you, he created you if you want to have a relationship with God, it will be on God’s terms, not yours. The relationship ship of God has found God’s way, not our way The purpose behind the 2nd commandment we’re looking about about no idols. God starts at the relationship, he’s physically speaking from the top of the mountain with lightning and smoke and the glory of God’s and that cloud up there, communicating the people of God and his glory is revealed in the light. And he’s starting to explain the relationship to his people. He knows they have an idol heart that runs to idols and runs the other gods and this concept of having one god, not multiple gods and worshiping him, not worshiping all these idols is going to be a difficult adjustment for these people. And if there was a people that could have made this leap, it would have been these Israelites. They saw everything All the 10 plagues walked through the Red Sea. They saw everything the cloud by day, the Pillar by night. They saw him demolish the everything. They should have been able to make this mental leap. That that is the real deal. And all those other Gods lost to this God. What are we doing? We can make this sleep, but they couldn’t make that leap. Who saw it all in person? Our heart as people were incapable of not worshiping. Just like if I told you to stop breathing, you’re incapable, stop breathing. It’s just part of who you are. Were made to worship. Were made to give our love and our affections and our adoration to other things and our tendency is completely placed. Our love adoration, affection in the wrong things and to create idols. We all worship the wrong God is the wrong way. Instead, worship jesus. If you take this worship lens and you place it over all the 10 commandments, let’s let me roll through the 10 commandments. Help you kind of see there’s a harder worship behind these 10 commandments. First commandment don’t worship any other gods. They are fake. Worship the real God. Do not worship fake gods worship me the real God. 2nd 2nd commandment don’t make any knockoff images of me and worship that instead. Don’t do it. Instead worship me. Third commandment. Don’t misuse my name in your worship or in your mundane life. Do not do it worship me The fourth commandment don’t misuse the day I gave you to worship. Do not worship before the sabbath. Instead worship me the fifth commandment. Don’t dishonor your parents I gave you. Do not worship them instead. Worship me the sixth commandment do not kill the people I put around you. Do not worship them instead, worship me the seventh commandment. Do not commit adultery. If any of the people around you do not worship sex, which I gave you instead, worship me. Do the eighth commandment. Do not steal. Do not do not worship things instead, worship me the ninth commandment. Do not lie with your mouth. Do not worship Yourself of your speech. Instead, worship me the 10th. Do not worship your neighbor’s stuff. Don’t do it. Americans. Instead, worship me. We all worship the wrong God is the wrong way. Instead we’re called to worship and love jesus. The first four commandments focus on our relationship and how we worship God. The six. The next six commandments focus on our relationship with other people. Were still prone to messing up those relationships with people and with God. We do it wrong all the time. Matthew Henry said this. The sin against this commandment which we are most in danger of is giving the glory and honor to any creature which are due to God. Only pride makes a God of self covetousness makes a God of money sensuality. Makes a God of the belly, whatever is esteemed or loved, feared or served delighted it or dependent on more than God that whatever it is we do in effect make a god of and john Calvin said the human hearts is an idol making factory, don’t have to train people, they do it naturally. Little kids worship the wrong things. Big kids worship the wrong things and grandparents worship the wrong things. We all put our hope, our affections, our our release from pain and escape into the wrong things. We all worship idols as people verse five and six, it talks about what is visiting the iniquities of the father and the Children mean, so to understand this, you got to really understand that culture there in so we all know actions have consequences and sin has consequences and the result of sin is you get hurt and others around you get hurt, that’s a reality. This whole 3rd, 4th and 3rd and 4th generation of God extended mercy unto thousands of other generations. It’s hard for individual, individualistic culture to wrap our minds around that, but to cover these verses five and six covers a concept called corporate identity and the ancient near east, a person found identity in his or her group, clan or family, there is a inner integration and interdependence were more important values. These people had a stronger bonds together as a community. I mean they just physically live closer together, they have the same kind of occupation there in the same tent, the same meals, the same work. They knew each other closer and more intimately than we do in our culture. You go home to your house, I go home to my house with my four kids, but those kids are gonna grow up and leave our house, we don’t just build a bigger house. Do you understand this, this, this group mentality, they were complicit in sin that was tolerated by moms and dads, uncles and brothers and cousins. They let people be gluttons drunks hate God, worship idols, it was a complicit sin. They were called to, it wasn’t just some casualties and they said these people hated God, your grandparents hated God, your great grandparents hated God, your parents hated God. And you went along with the image of hating God and worshiping idols. God would punished the whole family unit because they all were involved in the same sin. A judge today would laugh at us rendering a ruling that it packs a 3rd and 4th generation, but they were involved in close proximity and community together as people when there was sin and a family, all family members sharing that responsibility. As we, as we conclude here, You know what isn’t assumed in the 10 commandments. The 10 commandments assumes complete mayhem will occur. The 10 commandments assumes the depravity of mankind is gonna follow these 10 commandments. The law, the law. The 10 commandments were not given as a means of salvation. The 10 commandments were given as an instruct to instruct the believer in the will of God Theologian said this not to give, they were not to give life the 10 commandments. They’re not to give life, but they’re at a guide life. The 10 Commandments Purpose is to guide your life. You don’t find life in them, you find guidance for your life in them. We’re going to conclude, we’re gonna play the Have you ever game? Have you ever have you ever had something that’s higher value in your life than God? Raise your hand? Good, You’re engaging good. Second thing. Have you ever worshiped something with your time? Your talent and your treasure like an idol? Have ever worshiped something more than God? Look at this. Look at you guys, I didn’t expect you to keep doing this the whole thing. Have you ever used God’s name as a cuss word? You don’t need to keep raising your hands. People, it’s gonna get dark here in a second. Never use God’s name as a cuss word. Instead of using some other name. Use God’s name as a cuss word. Have you ever skipped the sabbath or work through the sabbath or done other things on the sabbath that are worshiping God? Have you ever dishonored? Your parents ever dishonored? Your parents? Have you ever murdered someone? And have you ever murdered someone jesus took Matthew 56 and seven. Jesus took Matthew 56 and seven and he took murder. And he lifted it to an even higher standard of what is murder? What’s not? He said, If you have undeserved anger for your brother, you’ve killed him in your heart. You’re like undeserved anger. It’s like road rage, that slacker at work or your group project, that roommate that owes you money. I mean, have you had angry, bad malicious thoughts towards people? You have you have, have you ever committed adultery? When I first read that adultery? I’m like, well I ain’t married. I’m just working on that. Getting an adultery that doesn’t apply to me yet. She said. If you have undeserved, if you’ve, if you looked upon a young woman, you’ve committed adultery with her? In your in your in your heart, you looked lost upon someone, you have just couldn’t adulterate the mind could have committed murder of the heart. Have you ever stolen answers on a test taxes? Have you ever lied? Never coveted the thing about this. How many? How many? How many people have to kill to be considered a murderer? How many lives have to tell to be considered a liar? Right? You think through this? I have broken systematically as a guy, as a pastor. All 10 of these 10 commandments. I’m sure you’re not much better than me. Get what I’m saying? There’s 618 commandments in the Bible 618 Commandments in the Bible? Have you ever broken the 10 commandments? The answer is yes, you have. And if you pretend you didn’t, that’s pride. We can talk more later. If you haven’t broke, you’ve probably broken all 10 of them. If you if if if hypothetically if God were to judge you based on the 10 commandments, would you go to heaven or hell? Hypothetically go to hell. Does that concern you? It should very much concern you, jesus said to enter the Kingdom of heaven that you must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect and Matthew 56 and seven. His sermon on the mount. The thing is all have sent, no one is perfect. Everyone has broken the law, the commandments, everyone is not perfect right now, these seniors, they worked hard and earned grades and eventually they’re in degrees. You work hard, you were in paychecks, you don’t work hard, you don’t earn a paycheck. Many women. We work and we earn things in life when you sin, you earn the punishment, wrath and judgment of God and there’s only one perfect person. And that’s jesus. He perfectly kept all 10 of the 10 commandments perfectly kept the whole law at 618 commandments in the old testament, he fulfilled all of God’s law and all of man’s law fully and perfectly, jesus perfectly obeyed when you disobeyed, jesus perfectly spoke up when you were silent, jesus acted when you didn’t act and jesus didn’t act when you reacted, jesus didn’t sin when you sinned. The Gospel is what is about Jesus righteousness for your own righteousness. The Gospel is when you place your hope and your trust in the righteousness of God, his son, Jesus christ, instead of your righteousness right now, if you’re living a life without christ, if you’re living a life without God is the main thing in your life, you’re living a life where you are your own savior, you are the hero of your story and you are worshiping and you’re worshiping yourself, You created God in your own image. And that story, the story you’re writing is gonna become a horror story. When your life ends in a life destined for hell. Only Jesus can be the hero of your story. Only Jesus can be the one you worship. Only Jesus was able to live the perfect righteous life, You could not live. Only Jesus could give his righteousness to you, so that you might have a relationship with God, only Jesus satisfies the wrath of God. So, you’re in a terrible situation. You know what hell is hell is an absence of God in a space, all the light, all the pain, all the suffering. The fact that there’s nothing to touch hell. The bible is a frightening horrific place and it’s not designed for you. But if you live a life, say I want nothing to do with you God, I have no desire to know you worship you love, you obey. You have any relationship with this God. Your entire existence here on earth. When you die, God will honor your decisions as a person and give you eternity without him. And hell is designed for the demons that rebelled against God, the angels that had an insurrection against God in heaven that rebelled against God. But if you live a life of rebelling against God and running from God and you still bang God and you live an unrepentant life and you die without placing your hope and trust in jesus. You will get what you deserve, what you desire. Your zip code of your future will be hell and that’s not desirable for you. You just don’t realize that you’re putting your hope and your trust in an idol. You’re trusting and hoping in this or that will save you and help you get through this life. You’re putting your hope in a false god. It’s a doctored up God. It’s not an Egyptian god. It’s a doctored up idle. It’s not an idol that we would laugh and scoff at. A few chapters after this. They make an idol, they make a golden calf and they’re worshiping it. They broke the first two commandments. A few chapters into this book we’re reading. We have idols. We lie down and worship daily as americans. Look at the character of this God who loves you, Who’s jealous for you, he says in exodus 20 verse two, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the place of slavery. God was able to lead the largest rescue op in the history of mankind. A million people leaving Egypt was able to save them and then he sent the second largest, the most largest rescue op ever was his son, jesus christ. Coming to this earth to save mankind so that they could find a way through their red sea. They could find a way to him based on what jesus christ did on the cross. The character of God is the heart of God is throughout the 10 commandments, but it’s also an exodus 34. It’s God talking about himself. He says the Lord is gracious. The Lord is merciful and gracious. Slow to anger abounding and coveted faithfulness. He forgives sins, but he will not leave the wicked unpunished. The question for you is are you trusting in a God an idol to save you? Are you worshiping an idol a God? Or are you worshiping the one true God. Who are you trusting? Is it jesus or is it something else as bow our heads and pray as john closes us out with a communion dedication. Month. Lord I just thank you for the fact that we have time to repent. We have time to have our hope and trust and faith in you. I thank you that we have an opportunity, Lord to hear the word of God and be changed by it and and live a life that is focused on worshiping and loving you. Lord, I said, you just do a special thing in the lives of these men and women. I prayed they would obey what they heard today. They dig into the scripture and see if it’s true. We just commit today to Angie’s name. Amen.