mondayschoolblog

(click on the pic to listen) One man challenged another to an all-day wood chopping contest. The challenger worked very hard, stopping only for a brief lunch break. The other man had a leisurely lunch and took several breaks during the day. At the end of the day, the challenger was surprised and annoyed to find that the other fellow had chopped substantially more wood than he had. “I don’t get it,” he said. “Every time I checked, you were taking a rest, yet you chopped more wood than I did.” “But you didn’t notice,” said the winning woodsman, “that I was sharpening my ax when I sat down to rest.”

The fourth commandment is  Exodus 20

8 “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 You have six days each week for your ordinary work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you.

This commandment is on those commandments that we treat like a  “no biggie” commandments.  It’s  not like do not murder, do not covet, do not commit adultery, don’t lie, and the other real biggies that are part of the last six. But it comes before all of these “real biggie” commandments – the ones we see in the papers, on the internet, in our twitter feeds, and on the news.  The ones we talk a lot about. Those commandments we can see the results of.

This is commandment number 4 which  means it is a bigger deal to God than the last six. The first 4 commandments have everything to do with our relationship with God.  One could mount an argument that the last six are the result of not spending enough time on the first four.         

We never hear anybody talking at work or at home about somebody missing the Sabbath. Missing the Sabbath does not make the  big news in the papers, facebook, twitter, or on late news. You never hear anybody gossiping about Pastor Tom working on  his Sabbath day. Missing the Sabbath doesn’t create “water cooler” talk nor is it commandment that creates any kind of gossip.  For many of us commandment #4 is not that big of deal. We don’t spend a whole lot of time  talking about it but a lot of people have trouble keeping it. The breaking of this commandment doesn’t create anything good to talk about when it is broken.  It’s  hardly ever talked about at all. This commandment is never really taken seriously.  In fact, never taking a Sabbath day is celebrated.

Taking a Sabbath day is more than taking a vacation or having a day off. These things can help the Sabbath rest be more profitable but it goes way deeper than just time away. We will explore that a little later in the blog.

It is hard for us to take a day off. Why?

#1 We are living in a time where more and more are jobs insecure. If you job is not needed, you will lose it. If you don’t perform well you are fired. You can be easily replaced by someone more eager or more talented than you.

#2 People who are at top of the working ladder (financially speaking) are expected to work more and more hours. People who are on the lower end of the pay scale are having to work multiple jobs to stay afloat. They can’t afford time away from their jobs.

#3 Technology – today you can work anywhere – meaning you can work everywhere.

(special note: if I don’t respond to an email on Friday or a text or I don’t come to the hospital on Friday – please don’t be offended. Friday is my Sabbath day).

#4 We are the first culture (USA)  in the history of mankind to find our worth in our work and how much we money we make.

Taking all these factors into consideration, our mind, heart, body and soul have no time to rest.  We are living in the restless era. We can never have enough. We can never buy enough. We are never satisfied with have and don’t have. We are never satisfies with who we are and how much we make. We work harder to have things or pay off things we should have never bought in the first place. We have become a slave to cars, slaves to our homes, and slaves to our jobs because we just don’t have enough.

Are whole life we feel like all we are doing is ……..  (click here it is only 28 seconds long) We can’t rest because we always want more, need more,  we gotta keep everything going. We gotta keep all the plates spinning. If we were to take a rest all the plates would come crashing down.  God  makes it a commandment (not a suggestion) to take one 24 hour period away from your ordinary work.

When the Israelites were slaves in Egypt  they never got a day off.  If you didn’t work a day you might not get to eat that day.  They were slaves and couldn’t afford to take a day off. God was  now telling them that it is okay to rest. Like the Israelites, we become slaves to whatever we serve.  You see everybody is serving something.  Whatever we serve dictates what we do with our time and energy.  We become its slave. It dictates our time. It dictates where we spend our energy.

Today, we use the suffix “a-holic” to describe when someone becomes a slave to something.

Examples:

• Work-a-holic
• Alcoholic
• Stuff-a-holic
• Church – a – holics

When you are an “a-holic” you never find rest. You are always restless.

Like the Israelites, God is telling us it is okay to rest.

Sleep experts tell us that we need rest. Not just any kind of rest  but a deep rest. There are four stages of rest: (WebMD.com)

Stage 1 rest : Polysomnography (sleep readings) shows a reduction in activity between wakefulness and stage 1 sleep. The eyes are closed during Stage 1 sleep. One can be awakened without difficulty, however, if aroused from this stage of sleep, a person may feel as if he or she has not slept. Stage 1 may last for five to 10 minutes. Many may notice the feeling of falling during this stage of sleep, which may cause a sudden muscle contraction.

Stage 2: This is a period of light sleep during which sleep readings show intermittent peaks and valleys, or positive and negative waves. These waves indicate spontaneous periods of muscle tone mixed with periods of muscle relaxation. The heart rate slows and the body temperature decreases. At this point, the body prepares to enter deep sleep.

Stages 3 and 4: These are deep sleep stages, with stage 4 being more intense than Stage 3. These stages are known as slow-wave, or delta, sleep. If aroused from sleep during these stages, a person may feel disoriented for a few minutes.

During the deep stages of REM sleep, the body repairs and regenerates tissues, builds bone and muscle, and appears to strengthen the immune system. It is in this deep stage of rest that the body repairs itself. Isn’t that amazing? The kind of Sabbath God is telling us to take is a stage four rest. It is what I call a deep soul rest.

According to the scriptures , rest is about more than just taking time off. After creating the world, God looked around and saw that “it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). Did God need to take a day off after creating the work in six days? No, he didn’t. God was utterly satisified to what has been done. God did not just cease from his labor; he stopped and enjoyed what he had made. He enjoyed what he first did. What does this mean for us? We need to stop to enjoy God, to enjoy his creation, to enjoy the fruits of our labor. The whole point of Sabbath is joy in what God has done.

Sabbath rest means to cease regularly from and to enjoy the results of your work. It provides balance: “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God” (Exodus 20:9–10). Although Sabbath rest receives a much smaller amount of time than work, it is a necessary counterbalance so that the rest of your work can be good and beneficial. Sabbath rest is stage 4 kind of rest a deep  soul rest. Our leisurely  activities cannot satisfy  the need for a deep rest.  We need the kind of rest where you are renewed, restored, and repaired.

In our rest-deprived culture – where do you find rest?

Let’s look at Luke 6:1-5

One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples broke off heads of grain, rubbed off the husks in their hands, and ate the grain. ² But some Pharisees said, “Why are you breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?”

³ Jesus replied, “Haven’t you read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? ⁴ He went into the house of God and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests can eat. He also gave some to his companions.” ⁵ And Jesus added, “The Son of Manis Lord, even over the Sabbath.”

Do you hear what he says to the Pharisees – “I am the Lord of the Sabbath.”

You can only get this stage 4 rest, this deep soul rest in Jesus.  Only a relationship with Christ can give you rest! When you enter into a relationship with Christ you enter into his rest. Look at what Hebrew 4 says:

Hebrews 4  – God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it. 2 For this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God.  3 For only we who believe can enter his rest.

Everyone who has humbled themselves and ask God to be in control of their life experiences this kind of rest. It is amazing what happens after prayed that prayer let God be in control. There is an immediate relief. A burden has been lifted. Why? Because you have entered into his rest.

There is no rest for those who turn away from God. They never have enough stuff. They can’t buy enough stuff, they can’t drink enough stuff, there is this constant longing for more. They are never satisfied with their life.

So what does the Sabbath look like for us in the 21st century. First lets quickly look at what it is not:

• Sabbath is not just getting a day off.
• Sabbath is not just doing leisurely activities
• Sabbath is not just spending time with family.

To the Jew, Sabbath was intentional. They worked hard for six days. The Sabbath for them was not about having a day off and relaxing.  Jesus “worked” on the Sabbath. The Pharisee’s had created a gazillion man-made rules to once again get around God’s command. Jesus reminded them:

Mark 2:27   “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.

The Sabbath day was a weekly reminder of their dependency on God. It was a weekly reminder not to put their trust in their work, their money, or their stuff. It was a weekly reminder to put their trust in God to provide.

For us, we need one day week where we are reminded of our dependency  on God. We get so dependent on ourselves sometimes that we wear ourselves out. This causes us to work even harder. We need one day week to remind us not to put our trust in our money, our stuff, our portfolios, and our jobs. We need one day week to remind to put our trust in God to provide.

How do we make this personal?

1. Understand that restlessness that you feel in your life is a need for God.
2. Nothing but a relationship with  God can satisfy that restlessness.
3. Everyone needs a 24 hour period to be reminded of their dependency on God.
4. Take a 24 hour period (a Sabbath day)  and allow God to renew our passion for Him , restore our sanity, and repair anything broken inside.

I love how Tim Keller summed up the purpose of a Sabbath rest:

“The purpose of Sabbath is not simply to rejuvenate yourself in order to do more production, nor is it the pursuit of pleasure. The purpose of Sabbath is to enjoy your God, life in general, what you have accomplished in the world through his help, and the freedom you have in the gospel—the freedom from slavery to any material object or human expectation. The Sabbath is a sign of the hope that we have in the world to come.”

If you are not enjoying God, if you are not enjoying your life, or you are a slave to this material world or others expectation for  you, I encourage you  to enter His rest. He will refocus you, restore you, renew you, and repair you.

I can remember as young boy when I learned to cuss.  I was about 10 or 11 years old. Me and a few guys went bicycle riding. We rode to the high school because the high school had sidewalks all around it. We used to race around the high school.  I actually won a few times. This one particular day though we stopped to read some of the graffiti. In the graffiti were some nasty words. Like the “S” word and the “F” word and the “GD” word.  When I said those words, everybody laughed!  So I kept saying them. As I said them everybody continued to laugh. I, soon, had one of the foulest mouths on the block when my parents or brothers weren’t around.  I could cuss with the best of them. I never cussed when I was at church. For some reason, I knew it was wrong. Not only was it wrong but the words I was using were very unattractive. I was taught those words were bad because of the 3^rd commandment. Using those words are not taking the Lord’s name in vain.  This commandment came way before these words we use were even in our vocabulary.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t think it’s right to yell out God’s name or  Jesus name when  you lose your temper or something happens to you that causes you to say those words.  I simply want to state those words aren’t bad because of the 3rd commandment. They are words that are just flat-out disrespectful, sometimes ugly, and it’s our church culture that has deemed certain words as bad or not good to use. The way these words are used make people look ugly.

I had a neighbor who said “F” this “SH” that, and “GD” this whenever I was around Him. We spent quite a few evening talking together. He loved to fix my kids bike. In fact he helped teach one my kids to ride their bike in the alley way between our houses. I brought one my kids over to his garage just to sit and talk one day, thinking, “surely he won’t talk this way in front of my kids.”  Well, he did.  In this case he wasn’t being disrespectful. He wasn’t trying to teach my kids these four letter words. I knew that because I knew him.  In fact he was the son of a Southern Baptist preacher. Since I was a kid I was always taught that this is what this 3^rd commandment referred to (just four letter words). Since then I have been taught that “GEE” and  “GOSH”,  “O My God”, and “O My gosh” and God Bless America are bad.

This 3^rd commandment has a much deeper meaning than just about a bunch of four letter words or those words that sound like the four letter words and even those certain phrases that have been deemed as bad. The third commandment is this – Exodus 20: ⁷ “You must not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name.

In the Jewish culture the name of God is profoundly sacred. The orthodox Jew would not use the name of God. They would not pronounce the name of God. In fact, when the scribes were making copies of the Holy Scripture, when they came to the name of God they would place their pen down, rise, go, bath themselves and put on different garments. Then they would come with a pen that had never been used before and with a brand new pen they would write down the holy name of God. In some communities they feared misusing the name of God. So they wouldn’t say it. They figured if they didn’t say it – they couldn’t misuse it. They got so obsessed about with the name of God, they came up with a lot more rules to keep you from accidentally misusing the name of God. By the time Jesus came along they forgot what this commandment was all about.

The commandment says, you should not misuse use the name of the Lord our God. What this means is:

1. Don’t associate the name of God with something God is not associated with. (Andy Stanley).  Like racism or bigotry.  An example: at one point in our history we used scripture to justify slavery.

2. Don’t leverage the name of God in order to accomplish something that God has nothing to do with.

3. Don’t use the name of God to accomplish your means, your agenda, or make your ideas sound spiritual. Don’t use the name of God to get your way.

Think of it this way.  Identity theft.  People can steal your personal identity and buy things on your credit card or steal your pay check.  A few years ago, a guy from Mexico stole my daughters identity and used her information to get her paycheck.  This guy misused my daughter’s name for his gain. To misuse God’s name  is similar to identity theft. We misuse his name for our personal gain.

Here’s how we do it (how we misuse His name):

• When we make a profession of Him but do not live up to that profession.
• When we use God’s word to manipulate others.
• When we play the judge in someone else’s life.
• When we make false or glib claims about Him or His word.
• When we make frivolous vows.
  • ex: “I will do this God if you do this for me.”

• When we make up rules in the church in the name of God that aren’t spiritual or help someone spiritually at all. They are simply rules and nothing else. There is nothing spiritual about them.

Many Christians get out of sorts when people use four letter words. We say they are using God’s  name in vain. I remember Tony Campolo, a Christian sociologist, speaking at an international youth convention of the Church of God. There were about 5000 counselors and teens at this convention. He was making a point that the church was more concerned about themselves than people dying and going to hell. He said we are  full of SH**.  As about a 1000 people were leaving the auditorium, he went on to say that most of you are more concerned with me saying that word than you are concerned with people dying and going to hell. A point well taken. There are far greater concerns than using four letter words.

Here are the far greater concerns of misusing God’s name:

• You may not say four letter words but when you play the judge in someone’s life, you are misusing His name.
• You may not say four letter words but when you don’t live up to your profession of faith, you are misusing his name.
• You may not say four letter words but when you leverage God for your sake – you are misusing His name.

The second part of this commandment which says, “The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name.”  takes on a whole new meaning. We thought only those who used four letter words will get punished.  Nope.

Right after God gave Moses the Ten Commandments,  Moses was given  another 100+ commandments based on the Ten Commandments dealing  with how to do, how to live, how to deal with marriage, money, and countless other issues. God knew (and knows our) their hearts.  He wanted them first to commit to not misusing His name. He knew that once He started giving all these commandments that we would find loop holes.  And because they were a religious community He knew they were going to use His name to support their loop holes they find in His law. In other words they are going to use God against himself in order to feel good about themselves. They create religious rules to get around God’s law and do it in God’s name. And we are continuing to do the same thing in 2014. We keep creating this superfluous rules that benefit us and not the kingdom of God.

We, the religious community, have done all kinds of things in the name of God that having nothing to do with God. We leverage God’s name  for our benefit. We leverage God’s name to get things done. We leverage God’s name in the church to justify a man-made rule. This is misusing the name of God. At one point in the church we used the name of God to keep people out of movie theatres, we leveraged the name of God to keep people from dancing, we leveraged the name of God to dictate a dress code.  We leveraged the name of God to stop people from playing cards. That is misusing the name of God.

A story in the bible that will help us understand this is in John 2:14-16

¹⁴ In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money.¹⁵ Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables.¹⁶ Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!”

Let’s understand what’s going here:

This temple area that Jesus was in was nearly 500 yards long and 400 hundred yards wide and 15 stories high. The outer court of the temple compound was nearly the size of 15 football fields. The businesses that were there were legitimate and legal and provided a needed service. Faithful Jews were expected to offer animals. Why did Jesus get so upset? It  wasn’t because they were selling things.  The people didn’t carry sacrifices with them so they needed to buy a sacrifice when they came to Jerusalem. It was because  the money changers and the Temple priests and other local politicians created a network of deception, fraud, and money – making scheme to take advantage of the people. The money changers would charge exuberant fees and the animal sellers would mark up their prices.  The priest would take care of any competing markets. The whole system was filled with greed and corruption. The religious leaders  knew the people would an animal for sacrifice. So they charged them a huge fee. The money changers were charging them a huge fee and they were doing this all in God’s name. Jesus was upset because He saw the religious leaders leveraging the name of God and leveraging the law (you gotta make an animal sacrifice to get right with God). They leverage the name of  God and the law for their own benefit.

They were misusing the law and they were totally misusing the name of God. They created this system of belief that had nothing to do with God. The people came into temple thinking that everything was legitimate. After all, everything was taking place in the temple. The religious leaders totally manipulated the system in the name of God to make a buck. The leveraged the law of God for their own benefit.

To misuse God’s name is to play God against himself so that you can have your way.

You don’t have to cuss to use God’s name in vain. God wasn’t referring to four letter words and catch phrases that we don’t like. He was referring to doing and saying things in the name of God for your own personal benefit and personal justification.

How do you make this personal?

• Ask the question, “how am I using the name of God for my own personal benefit?”
• How am I using the name of God to justify certain actions?
• Are you living up to your profession of faith?

God knows your heart.  So answer honestly.

(click on the pic to listen) There’s the story of a man named Urbaal, who was a farmer living in about 2200 B.C.  He worshipped two gods, one a god of death, the other a goddess of fertility.

One day, the temple priest tell Urbaal to bring his young son to the temple for sacrifice – if he wants a good crops. Urbaal obeys, and on the appointed day drags his wife and boy to the scene of the boys “religious execution” by fire to the god of death.

After the sacrifice of Urbaal’s boy, and several others, the priests announce that one of the fathers will spend the next week in the temple with a new temple prostitute. Urbaal’s wife is stunned as she notices a desire written more intensely across his face than she had before, and she is overwhelmed to see him eagerly lunge forward when his name is called.

The ceremony over, she walks out of the temple her head swimming, concluding, that “if he had different gods, he would have been a different man.”

We learned in the last blog entry that we are pretty good at god making. We can make a god out of anything.  We may not physically sacrifice our children or run off to a new temple prostitute for these gods but we spend countless hours worshipping them. The people around that love us are saying, “if only he had worshipped different gods, he would have been a different man.” We also learned that the real question is not whether we create other Gods but what are doing about the God’s we are creating.

Commandment number two says this, Exodus 20:4 –   “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea.

In this blog entry I will also be referring to Exodus 32. The following verses are the most comical of the story: click here to read all of the story.

Exodus 32: 22-24

 22 “Don’t get so upset, my lord,” Aaron replied. “You yourself know how evil these people are. 23 They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.’ 24 So I told them, ‘Whoever has gold jewelry, take it off.’ When they brought it to me, I simply threw it into the fire—and out came this calf!”

Before this scene lets look at what the Israelites experienced before they built this golden calf. They experienced freedom from slavery in Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, water from a rock in the middle of dessert, and God supplied them with food for forty years. Moses goes up the mountain to be with God for forty days. While he is up there he gets the ten commandments. What were the people doing while Moses was getting the ten commandments. They were building a golden calf because they were bored and tired of waiting for Moses. If you know anything about the Israelites they went from obeying God to not of obeying God. You could say that they were fickle followers. They had experienced and seen the power of God time and time again but yet they were powerless when it came to trying to obey Him.

This was their first problem — trying. It was with human effort they tried to obey Him. They were powerless to obey him. Worshipping the wrong God didn’t help them either.

Why were they so powerless to obey?  The same reasons why we are so powerless to obey.

1. We are worshipping God but it’s not Him.

We are obeying the god(s) we are worshipping but they are the wrong God. If you are worshipping the wrong God you are going to be powerless no matter how much you obey. They are powerless because we have created them. Could it be the reason we never experience the power of God in our life is because we are worshipping a fake God?

It is different for everybody but there are things in our lives one looks and you say If I had that. I will be okay. The only way you can tell you are worshipping the wrong God is when God allows problems to come into your life and you begin to see you can’t get to that “thing”, that one “thing” that would bring you peace. You can’t get there. There is a ceiling. A wall. When you can’t get to it you begin to realize what really is running your life.

2. We don’t trust Him.

Why? Because we don’t know Him. We believe THAT God will do but do we put our trust IN him? It is possible to know THAT Jesus lived and died for you without ever trusting IN Him. We only trust in people that we know.

There is a story in the book called, “The Case for Christianity”. The story describes a police officer who faced a gun point-blank which a parolee was  holding. In his mind he knew that the bullet proof vest would protect him from serious injury and death. But his knowledge about his vest wasn’t going to save him in this moment. His knowledge about his vest was put to the test. The man fired the gun point-blank at his chest. He lived to tell the story. Now, not only did he know that the vest would protect him, he could put his trust in it as well.

This is true of the people in Israel in Exodus 32. They believe “THAT” there was a God and He did all those incredible things for them. Despite the fact that He freed them, fed them, and led them. They still built a golden calf. Despite all the stuff God did for them they still struggled to put their trust IN Him. So instead of trusting in Him, they built their own God.

When we make this personal we all could agree that we know a lot about Him. But if we are honest, who do you “FUNCTIONALLY” (meaning “really, really”) put your trust in? Many Christians say they put their trust in God. It doesn’t matter what you say with your lips. We must ask an honest question: WHAT DOES YOUR HEART REALLY RELY ON? Is there anything you are seeking to get only what God can give? The gods we make up have no power to give us the things we are all longing for:

peace, joy, comfort, feeling of knowing you are loved

When we put our trust in these gods we created, we are giving them power.  Whatever or whoever we put our trust in we are giving them power over our lives.

God is the only one who can empower you. This is why I believe why some many Christians are powerless. They are putting their trust in a God doesn’t exist.

So what do we do?

Look at Colossians 3:5-11

⁵ So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. ⁶ Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. ⁷ You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. ⁸ But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. ⁹ Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. ¹⁰ Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. ¹¹ In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile,circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized,slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.

a. Have nothing to do with them. Once you discover what fake God is controlling your life, have nothing to do with it

b. Get rid of them. What do you when your house and/or garage get cluttered with stuff? You get rid of it.

b. Put on your new nature. This is a daily thing. When we get up in the morning, instead of letting the weather, circumstances, or your job dictate your day, tell the Lord, “Here I am.” This is your day.

The bottom line is that we are asked to put to death the fake Gods we worship.

Simple but not easy.

Like Urbaal in the beginning of this blog entry, we would be a different person if we would worship the real God.

Just ask your friends and family.

A U.S. District judge suggested a couple of years ago that reducing the Ten Commandments to six would help solve a dispute between the ACLU and The Giles County, Virginia School District.

Ted Turner (owner of many the channels we watch on cable TV) has declared the Ten Commandments obsolete,  “We’re living with outdated rules. The rules we’re living under are the Ten Commandments, and I bet nobody here even pays much attention to them because they’re too old. When Moses went up on the mountain, there were no nuclear weapons, there was no poverty. Today, the Ten Commandments wouldn’t go over. Nobody around likes to be commanded. Commandments are out!”

A 2.6 ton monument of the Ten Commandments was asked to be moved out of the Alabama state judicial building back in November of 2013.

These arguments and discussions are nothing new.

The Commandments themselves aren’t really the problem. There have never been really any arguments against the 10 Commandments. We know we are not to kill anyone. Steal from anyone. Covet someone’s else’s stuff. Honor our mom and dad. Most of us keep the last six pretty well. Even those who don’t follow Christ struggle very little with keeping the last six.

The First Commandment is the most difficult to keep because the rest of the commandments are built around this one commandment. Without the first commandment the rest of the commandments would be simply suggestions. They would be suggestions you could try and if you didn’t like it ,well, that commandment wasn’t meant for you.

Exodus 20:3 – Do not worship any other god’s besides me.

There is something fundamentally wrong with the human heart. We have this incredible human drive for “god-making”.  Many are unhappy, unsatisfied, and not pleased with their life. We blame everything going wrong or right on the things we have or don’t have, the money we don’t have or have, or on somebody we don’t have or have. We have convinced ourselves that there is something we MUST have to be happy that is more important to our heart than God himself.

People can know God and be unhappy. People can know God and be unsatisfied. People can know God and not be pleased with their life.

Romans 1:21, 25 says, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him ….. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the creator.

If you know God and you are not happy, satisfied, or pleased with your life then it is quite possible that you are worshipping other god’s.  We all have god’s that are hidden in every one of us. The question is not whether, “do we worship other gods?” The question we need to ask, “What do we need to do about them?”

God always wants to be number one in our lives. But if we are honest, keeping him number one hinges a lot on where we are in our life and how life is treating us right now. There are certain times when we give God the number one spot He deserves. Then there are times when we forget and treat Him as an after-thought. There are times when we are intrigued by God, wanting to learn so much more about him. Then there are times when we scoff at God, not with our lips but with our actions.

The First Commandment, “Do not worship any other gods besides me” is not only a commandment but it is also a statement of fact. There are no other gods, but God. These other gods are totally made up! By people! In other words they are not real. They are created by man and we make them real. How do we make them real?

• We let them dictate our decisions
• We let them dictate our schedule.
• We let them dictate our thinking.
• We give them power over us.
• We make them lord of our lives.

These small “g” gods are not real. You and I make them real. We are the ones who give them life.

In Acts 17, we read about Paul entering into Athens, Greece. The Greeks worshiped as many as 30,000 gods and goddesses. They were man-made gods that they made real gods. They would erect statues and monuments and altars of made-up gods. The streets were lined with them; there were in every niche, in every window, and at every doorstep. They were afraid of angering any god and in case they missed one they erected a statue to “the Unknown God”.  Paul begins to explain to them who this Unknown God is. Starting at verse 22:

22 So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, 23 for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about. 24 “He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, 25 and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. 26 From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries. 27 “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 29 And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone. 30 “God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. 31 For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.”

All of scripture tells us that there is only one God who made the world and everything in it. There is only one Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples. There is only one God who gives life and breath to everything. There is only one God who can satisfy every need. There is only God who the poets write about. There is only one God but he is not designed by craftsmen using gold, silver, and stone. God cannot be shaped, formed, created, or imagined. He simply IS. I AM.

So what do we do with all these other made-up gods? Here it is in three “easy” steps.

1. Stop worshipping them …… because they aren’t real.

God always wants to be number one in your life but there seems to be this daily tug – of – war between the god I have created and the God who created the universe. One God is real and the other one isn’t. One God brings peace – the other one doesn’t. One God brings understanding – the other brings confusion. One God gives you energy – the other sucks the energy out of you.

2. Stop building your life around them ….. because they aren’t real.

The rich young ruler built his life on wealth. When Jesus asked to stop building his life on wealth – he walked away sad.

The woman at the well, built her life on men. When she stopped worshipping men – God transformed her life.

Mary, the prostitute, built her life on sex. When she stopped worshipping sex – God transformed her life.

Paul, the Pharisee, built his life on rules and regulations. When he stopped worshipping rules and regulations God transformed his life.

King Nebuchadnezzar built his life on power. When he stopped worshipping power God transformed his life.

We build our life on stuff that isn’t real (a lie). We build our life on stuff that someone else has told us we need to have to be happy.

3. Stop creating them …. Because they aren’t real.

The people of Athens created 30,000 gods but even then they knew there was only one God. They created a statue to “the Unkown God”. Despite all the gods they had created, there still was an emptiness. We are still doing the same thing today. There is something we always feel we must have to be happy, that is more important to your heart than God himself. So what do we do we do? We shape and form it and make it a god.

It really is that simple but there is something fundamentally wrong with the human heart – we have this incredible drive for god-making which creates this constant tug-of – war in our heart.

Like the people of Athens we think we need many gods to make us feel safe, secure, and protected.

And like the people of Athens many have become religious. All of us our religious one way or the other because we all worship something – we are all created to worship.

For many people, God is just this Unknown God. Like the people of Athens He is there just in case we miss a god. In essence He is just a catch –  all God. When those other gods we have created fail us – we cry out to the Unknown God. Many have prayed the prayer, “O God, if you exist, come and change and my life.” We cry out to him when these other gods fail us.

Like Paul, I tell you there is only one true God.

Look at what  Paul says about the “Unknown God”: (from Acts 17)

-He is the God who made the world and everything in it. – Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples. – Human hands can’t serve his needs because he has no needs. –He gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. – He decided before  hand when they should rise and fall and he determined their boundaries. – His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. – He is not far from any of us. – For in him we live and move and exist. – We are his offspring. – We shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone. – He overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times. – He commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. – He has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed. – He proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.

The other 29,999 gods that we worship are fake. They are made up to make us feel good about ourselves and our life. We shape and form them into our image.

If you are unhappy, dissatisfied, or not pleased with your life I encourage you to cry out to this one Unknown God you know exist but have never experienced His power in your life.

(click on the pic to listen) In a  Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, Calvin is standing by his mother’s bed when he says, “Hey, Mom! Wake up. I made you a Mother’s Day card.” His mother was very pleased and started to read it out loud. “I was going to buy a card with hearts of pink and red. But then I thought I’d rather spend the money instead. It’s awfully hard to buy things when one’s allowance is so small. So I guess you’re plenty lucky I got you anything at all. Happy Mother’s Day. There, I’ve said it. Now I’m done. So how about getting out of bed and fixing breakfast for your son.” She responds – “I am deeply moved.”  His response – “did you get the part about the allowance.”

Would you agree that we take our mother’s love for us for granted? I know I did. I wasn’t the easy kid to raise – there were times I had a mind of my own and would do whatever I wanted. You could say I had a free spirit. There were times I would stay up until 3 in the morning – I never called – I didn’t think I had to because I knew where I was at and I was fine.  That is all that mattered. But guess who waited up for me until 3 am. There were times when I waited to the last-minute to get a project done – guess who came beside me and helped me finish it. There were times when I would complain about not getting my way – guess  who listened to me and corrected me. There were times when we broke things – I learned quickly not to hide what we broke – she would find out anyway. There were a few times I got in trouble at school – I always wondered how my mom found out. Little did I know they called my mom. The few times I tried to lie and get out of something – well I haven’t figured out to this day how my mom ever knew I was lying.  She might have got mad at me, been disappointed in me, and I am sure I broke her heart many times by my lack of obedience.  But she never stopped loving me.  There are moments when I didn’t like her – but she never stopped loving me. She was there to put a badge on my knee. She sat with me for countless hours after I broke my elbow to stretch the tendons and muscles that were attached to it. She watched her garden get massacred as we played softball as kids in the back yard. Despite all of that, she never stopped loving me.  As I reflect about my mom over this weekend – I realized how much that I took advantage of her love.  You know what – she never minded! How do I know she never minded! Because she never stopped loving me.

One of things I learned is I was  not always willing to receive her love.  She kept giving it – but there were times I rejected it. I believe we do the same with God – He keeps giving love but there are times we reject it.

Scriptures:

John 1:12 – Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God –

John 3:16  “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

As I look at the scriptures, I have discovered that part of the way God’s love is best demonstrated is the way a mother loves her child. I have also discovered that we have taken His love for granted. Lastly, I have discovered that throughout history we spend a lot of time rejecting His love for us rather than simply receiving it.

How is God’s love similar to that of a mother’s love for her child?

1. First of all it is sacrificial.

In 1^st Kings 3 we get a beautiful picture of what a mother is willing to do for their child.  The readers digest version of the story goes like this:

Two women had babies at the same time. One of the babies died. One mother switched the babies in the middle of the night. The other mother woke and realized it was not her baby. The other mother KNEW it wasn’t her baby. So they took the issue to King Solomon. King Solomon said “cut the baby in half and give one half of the baby to one mother – give the other half of the baby to the other mother.” One mother said, “NO KING, just give the baby to her.” The other mom said, “king – do as you wish.” Who do you think the king gave the baby too?

The scriptures are full of stories where the mom had to make a tough decision on behalf of her child. There is story of Moses’ mom pushing her baby away so that he could live. There is Hannah who gave her son Samuel to a priest to be raised. And Mary, the mother of Jesus, who watched her son be brutalized, mocked, and crucified so that we could have eternal life. Through out history mothers have loved sacrificially. Think of what your mom has done for you and I believe will get the picture. Even if you think your mom is the worst mom in the world, she still brought you into this world.

A mother’s love is very similar to the love of God.

Wouldn’t a mom do anything for their kid?

Wouldn’t a mom risk their life for their kid like the mother in I Kings 3?

God loves you sacrificially.that God so loved the world he gave his one and only son. God allowed his only son to be a substitute for the punishment we deserve. His son was the perfect sacrifice. God willingly gave Him up so that you and I would one day be willing to receive him.

Adam, His first son He created, gave into temptation and fell short. The second Adam, the one we call Jesus, was tempted but did not sin but He became our substitute. In other words, he died so that we could live.

2. It is unselfish.

Mothers love unselfishly. Most of us can recount how unselfish our mothers are. They go through a lot of pain to give us life. They go through a lot of pain when we break their heart. They go through a lot of pain when we move away from home. They give of themselves generously not because they have to but because there is this built-in mechanism to love and to serve.

This past week Kevin Durant won the NBA MVP award. He gave an incredible tribute to his mom. It is also a great picture of the unselfishness of all moms. Just click on the pic to watch the 2.5 minute tribute.

God loves each one of us unselfishly. He sent his only son not to LORD over us but to serve under us! If you look at the life of Jesus, he came to serve.

Matthew 20:28 – “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

He fed the 5,000, he fed the 4,000, he healed the blind, the lame, the sick, he turned the water into wine, he washed his disciples feet, and then he gave up his life. He continues to love each of us unselfishly. Why? Because He can’t stop loving you.

3. It does not stop caring.

My mother, who is in her 80’s still loves to serve me. She never stops. All of us in here have disappointed our mom’s. We have tried our mom’s patience. We have made our mom’s angry. We have broken our mom’s heart. But, she never stops caring.

The same is true with God. Read the Old Testament – Israel disappointed Him time and time and again. Israel tried his patience time and time again. Israel made God angry time and time again. Israel broke God’s heart time and time again. But God never stopped caring.

When it comes to us, All of us have disappointed God. All of us have tried God’s patience. All of us have made God angry. All of us have broken God’s heart. But He never stops caring.

God can’t stop caring because he knit you together in your mother’s womb. God can’t stop caring because he wants a relationship with you. God can’t stop caring because you matter to Him.

What has our response been to this incredible love?

We have taken it for granted!

Only when we begin to reflect on the sacrifice He made. Only when we begin to reflect on how unselfish he is to serve us by giving up His only son. Only when we begin to reflect on how much He does care for us. Do we begin to understand how much he really loves us.

He is okay with us taking it for granted, because like our mothers, he will never stopped loving us, he hasn’t stopped caring for us, he hasn’t stopped serving us, he constantly still gives and gives and gives and gives and meets us at our deepest need.

Why does he keep loving, caring, and serving?

The answer is summed up in John 1:12:

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God –

He wants you to receive him. He wants you to believe him. Because when you receive him and believe him you have the right to become a child of God.

Before and after Jesus walked the earth, people still reject this incredible, unmeasurable, and unconditional love.

Growing up as kids – none of us really understood how much our mom’s loved us. We got angry at them when they told us no. We got upset at them when they wouldn’t give us our way. We got mad at them when they corrected us. We got frustrated at them when they took certain things away. Once we realized that all of this was out of love, once realized that they were right most of the time, once we realized that they never stopped loving us when we were difficult to love. They never stopped caring for us when we were difficult to care for. They never stopped serving us when we really didn’t deserve it. Once we came to that realization – the whole relationship changed.

The same is true with God – we get upset at him, we get mad at him, we get frustrated at him, we get angry with him but he never stops loving, he never stops caring, he never stops serving. And if you honestly think about it and honestly reflect on the fact that he is not going to stop loving you, he is not going to stop caring for you, he is not going to stop serving you – the same thing is going to happen to you that happened to Zacheus, Paul, the woman at the well, the disciples, and the countless billions of people who came to realization that God loves them – their lives were turned upside and they began to receive and believe this truth – and they became children of God.

When you believe and receive this truth it will totally mess up your life. It will turn your life upside down. It will change the way you do life. It will change the history of your family.It will change the way you think.

(click on pic to listen)

There’s a story in Greek mythology about a young man named Narcissus. He was a beautiful young man, and he knew it. One day Narcissus saw his reflection in a stream, and he instantly fell in love with the reflected image of himself. What he saw staring back at him from the water was so beautiful that he couldn’t pull himself away. One day he said to himself, “You are handsome, Narcissus! There’s nobody so handsome in the whole world!” He stooped down to kiss his reflection, fell into the water, and drowned.

Daniel 4 is about a man who was full of himself. It was written by a King that had a reputation as an evil, pagan, monarch. His name was King Nebuchadnezzar. He was the King of Babylon, the most powerful city in the world which is not called Iraq.

Remember Saddam Hussein? King Nebuchadnezar was his hero. He gave himself the title of the “Sucessor of Nebuchanezzar.”  And the two had plenty in common. Jeremiah 39 tells of Nebuchadnezzar murdering the sons of one king of Judah before the king’s eyes; then immediately gouging out the eyes of the king, so his last memory would always be the murder of his sons.  Other rulers of Judah were literally roasted to death over a fire.  His power and cruelty had no equal. So it’s fairly surprising that he would write a chapter of the Bible, but what he writes is shocking.  Chapter 4, verse 1 begins this way:

King Nebuchadnezzar, To the peoples, nations and men of every language, who live in all the world: May you prosper greatly! It is my pleasure to tell you about the miraculous signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me. How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; his dominion endures from generation to generation.

King Nebuchadnezzar has basically written a worship song. But this is the last person you would expect to be singing the praises of God. It would be like tuning in your radio and hearing Howard Stern telling of God’s greatness or turning on your TV and watching Bill Maher speak of the one true God, the God Most High.

So how did this happen? There is a literary device that has become fairly popular these days known as “reverse chronology.” We have seen  movies or read novels that use reverse chronology. This is when the story begins by revealing some extraordinary or shocking ending and then goes back and shows you what led to such a conclusion. When you see the beginning scene, it seems so outrageous, so unbelievable that you ask yourself, “How could this have happened?” But as the story unfolds it all starts to make sense. The fourth chapter of Daniel is written using “reverse chronology.” We see this incredible change that has taken place in Nebuchadnezzar’s life. He goes from being the ultimate self-worshiper to worshiping the one true God.

Look at verse 4, “I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at home in my palace contented and prosperous. I had a dream that made me afraid. As I was lying in my bed, the images and visions that passed through my mind terrified me.” Notice how things are going for him. He is content and prosperous. In a few minutes we’ll see just how prosperous. But he is at the pinnacle of his success as a ruler. He’s living the good life. But he has this nightmare, where he dreams of an enormous tree – it’s visible to the ends of the earth. This tree is abundant with fruit. But in verse 13 Nebuchadnezzar says, “In the visions I saw while lying in my bed, I looked, and there before me was a messenger, a holy one, coming down from heaven. He called in a loud voice: ‘cut down the tree and trim off its branches; strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the animals flee from under it and the birds from its branches. But let the stump and its roots, bound with iron and bronze, remain in the ground in the grass of the field. Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven, and let him live the animals among the plants of the earth. Let his mind be changed from that of a man and let him be given the mind of an animal, till seven times pass by for him.’”

This dream gets his attention and he sends for his wise men and magicians to interpret it for him, but they don’t have clue.  He finally sends for Daniel, who by now is the chief of his wise men. When Daniel hears the dream, the King can see that he is disturbed; but Daniel gives Nebuchadnezzar the truth. And in verse 20 he says to the King – “You are the tree.” Babylon was the largest city in the world at that time, and there was no one more powerful than the King. But remember, in the dream the tree gets cut down.

Daniel tells the King in verse 25: “You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like cattle and be drenched with the dew of heaven. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes.” In the dream everything comes crashing down.

God is going to give this king–who thinks he’s god–a reality check. He’s going to make it clear that he is the only true God. Let’s push pause on our story and do a little self-diagnosis. There are some questions we can ask ourselves as we look at King Nebuchadnezzar’s life that determine if we are sitting on the throne of our own hearts.

Question #1:  What motivates you?

In fact, earlier in chapter 3 we read about him building a huge statue and insisting that everyone bow down and worship or be put to death. He was consumed with everyone acknowledging his power. Talk about impressing others, Nebuchadnezzar was responsible for one of the 7 wonders of the world – the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. These were massive gardens he built for one of his wives who came from Media where there were mountains and vegetation, so Nebuchadnezzar constructed an artificial mountain and planted gardens that hung down the side of this structure. It looked like these gardens were growing in air. An ingenious system had been devised to hoist water over 300 feet from the Euphrates to water these gardens.

Question #2: What is your standard for success?

For Nebuchadnezzar it was PERSONAL GAIN. The King’s main palace was some 350 yards long. Today we might be amazed at a home that is 10,000-12,000 square feet, but his palace was estimated to be about 630,000 square feet.

Question #3:  What’s your source of power?

Where do you go to for help? When you need strength, where do you find it? For Nebuchadnezzar it was SELF EMPOWERMENT. In verse 28 he looks at all of his success and concludes that it was accomplished by his mighty power.

Question #4 : What’s the purpose of your life?

For King Nebuchadnezzar it was PERSONAL HAPPINESS. Everything he did was motivated by a desire to be happy and satisfied.

How Nebuchadnezzar answered those questions are the same answers we give when we are worshiping the god of me. But God is about ready to flick Nebuchadnezzar off the throne of his own heart. Daniel tells the King that he’s about ready to be cut down. Nebuchadnezzar will soon be living like an animal and eating grass like cattle.  In verse 27 Daniel says to Nebuchadnezzar, “Therefore, O king, be pleased to accept my advice: Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue.” Daniel tries to warn the King, but one of the problems of making yourself god is that you don’t tend to take advice very well.

Verse 28: “All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. Twelve months later, as the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, he said, ‘Is this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?’”

Notice he had 12 months since his dream. Twelve months where, if he could have humbled himself, maybe it wouldn’t have come to this. But verse 33 says, “Immediately what had been said about Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from people and ate grass like cattle. His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird.”

Try to imagine the transformation that took place. He could no longer live with people. He lived outside in the fields with grazing animals. At night he slept in the open field. His hair became matted and coarse, and looked like eagle feathers. His fingernails and toenails, never cut, became like claws.

For a number of years Nebuchadnezzar lived as a wolf-man. But verse 34 he says, “At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does what He pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of earth.” This man, who thought he was god, is made a beast…and eventually realizes he’s just a man.

Skip down to verse 37. Let’s see what Nebuchadnezzar had learned. “Now, I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything He does is right, all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.”

We need to ask these same questions:

1). What really motivates you?  What causes you to get up in the morning?

2). What is YOUR standard of success? Is it money, power, or position?

3). What’s YOUR source of power? Where do you go for help?

4). What’s the purpose of your life?

Nebuchadnezzar takes himself off the throne of his heart. He knows there is only one God and that’s not him. And now he answers those questions differently.

When God replaces you on the throne of your heart you answer the questions differently:

What motivates you? Instead of “impressing others” that answer becomes “pleasing God”.

What is your standard for success? Instead of “personal gain” the answer becomes “faithfulness to God”.

What’s your source of power? Instead of “self-empowerment” your answer becomes “dependence on God”.

What is the purpose of your life? Instead of answering “personal happiness” your answer becomes “God’s Glory”.

The big problem with making yourself God is that you can’t save yourself. Did you catch what he did in verse 34 when he finally changed? He said, “I raised my eyes toward heaven.”  That’s the best thing you can do today.

Like Leah from last week – now is the time to choose. Now is the time to make a willful decision.

You might not have little Buddah’s sitting in your house. Or you might not have a  nine foot statue built in your honor. You might not have any carved images in your home that you bow down to.

We have learned that  it is not about statues anymore. Every sin we struggle with , every discouragement we are dealing with and the lack of purpose you’re living with is because of idolatry. What god you allow to have first place in your life will be the god that dictates what you do, the relationships you have, the decisions you make, the dreams you have, or what you hope or wish to become.

Now is the time, to stop staring at your yourself and “raise our eyes toward heaven.” If you look in the mirror too long you will find all kind of flaws about  yourself or for some of us we could drown in our arrogance.

Because In the end, when this life is over, you will find out what gods or God you chose to serve.

Now is the time to choose between

• Impressing others or pleasing God
• Personal gain or being faithful to God
• Being Self-empowerment or being dependent on God
• Personal happiness or giving God the glory

Time to Choose.

Our culture is in love with love.

There are 5 ½ Harliquin Romance books sold every second.

The message our culture  and even the church culture tells those who aren’t married or is at least dating someone is that you won’t be content or complete unless you are in a relationship. In fact the church culture communicates to single people that they are incomplete without someone in their life. Christian bookstores are full of books that deal with finding your future mate.  Both the mainstream and the church culture communicate, “if you are not with someone, there must be something wrong with you.”

Our culture teaches us that everyone must have someone who completes them. It teaches us all we need is love. Love sweet love. There are many who would do anything for love.

Life was never meant to be all about romantic love.  Much of what we think of as romantic love was actually an invention of Western culture, something that didn’t take a hold until the middle ages. It’s not like romantic love didn’t exist before – God invented romantic love too. But romantic love as a great quest, a great obsession, something we must have or be miserable, is a human, cultural invention. Many of us have been convinced that romantic love is the secret to our satisfaction and the missing piece to make life feel complete. Romantic love makes us feel good. Romantic love makes us look good. We are in love with love. Romantic love is not a bad thing but when we make it a requirement to be happy and content then it becomes an idol.

The scripture today is Genesis 29. This chapter could be called, “The Bachelor BC” because it would be a great story for reality tv.

Starting in verse 16: Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful. Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.”

Jacob loved Rachel and made a deal with her dad, Laban, that he’d work seven years if he could have Rachel as his wife.

We also read that Laban had another daughter, an older daughter, named Leah. We’re told that she had weak eyes while her sister Rachel was lovely in form and beautiful.

Now listen to verse 20, So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her. Isn’t that a romantic verse? There is a completely irrational side of love. We have a hard time thinking objectively about people or even things that we love. That’s why for some of you this message will be a hard one to hear.  Our emotions get involved and we don’t see things clearly.

After Jacob serves his time we read in verse21, Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to lie with her.” Well, that doesn’t sound quite as romantic. But you can’t be too hard on the guy, Seven years is a long engagement. But all of the sudden there is a soap opera-type twist in the story.  Verse 22: So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. ²³But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, and Jacob lay with her.

Verse 25: When morning came, there was Leah! Jacob woke up expecting Rachel, and found Leah!  So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?”

Then the drama really begins. If you keep reading in the story eventually Jacob marries Rachel as well. The whole thing ends up being a huge mess.  Leah loves her husband and wants more than anything else for him to love her. But he’s really not that interested because Rachel is the one he loves. Leah spends her life hoping and dreaming of the day she will feel love from her husband. Really, she makes it her life goal to win the heart of her husband Jacob. That’s what she puts her hope in.

Leah was put in a tough spot.  She was hoping and dreaming that by giving Jacob sons he would one day love her as he loved Rachel.  That never happened.

Leah was looking for Jacob to satisfy her. Leah was looking for Jacob to save her from her misery. Leah was looking for Jacob to be her source of significance. If you were to look at the names of her children she had with Jacob they tell the story of disappointment and heart ache that she was experiencing.

Leah’s problem  was that she wanted Jacob to be her God! With each child she continued to become more bitter. With each child she says, “finally he’ll love me”, “finally we can have a real marriage”, “finally we can have this happily ever after ending.”  Finally never came.

Leah just wanted to be loved.  What’s wrong with wanting to be loved? As fantastic as human love is, it can never be substituted for God’s love. We have this idea of love in our head of what it should be, what it should feel like, and what it should look like. Even guys have an idea of what love should feel and look like.  We fall in love with our idea of love.

As children we read books and watch movies that end with “and they lived happily ever after.” And we end up putting that dream on the altar and bowing down to it. In our culture romantic love is held up as the ultimate human experience. It’s the subject of countless books. It has inspired the beautiful works of poetry and art. It’s the plot line of innumerable movies. It is the theme of most every song.  Now don’t misunderstand, these relationships are often beautiful gifts from God. God is the creator of romantic love. Marriage was his idea. He is pleased with a love between friends. The problem comes when those relationships replace him.

My dad was my hero as I was growing up. We did a lot together. We went to basketball games, church, and I worked for him through the summers. When he died, I had a hatred towards God (a lot of bitterness as well). One day I was tired of being sick and tired. So, I went and prayed, read, and sang for several hours. During that time, God (I believe it was God) asked me this question, “do you trust your earthly father more than Me?” I answered honestly, “Yes, I do.” God was not my greatest affection – my dad was. Once I admitted this, my thinking began to change, my attitude began to change, and the God I worshipped changed.

No human being is designed to satisfy the deep longing in our hearts to be loved. As fantastic as human love is , it can never be substituted  for God’s love. Whenever we put another person in the position of having to complete us by satisfying our longing to be loved, or saving us from loneliness, or we need them to feel significant – we are wanting them to be God.

Here is the real issue: All of us are designed for a love far deeper than any human relationship but most of us settle for just another human loving us. When you make a relationship with someone else your God, it will eventually  be marked with disappointment and bitterness.

Parents, we do this with our children as well.  Our love for our children can become an idol. If the way your children act or don’t act determine whether or not you are having a good day – it is quite possible that they have become an idol in your life .  If your children have the power to make you angry or you are counting on them to be happy or joyful, well that’s what happens when make them gods of love.

Luke 14:26 reminds us, ²⁶ “If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. We must understand this verse in the context of all the scripture. Scripture tells us to honor our mother and father (Exodus), children love your parents, parents love your children, wives love your husbands, husbands love your wives (Ephesians).  So we need to go a little deeper.

 Hate is not the opposite of love. If you hate someone you are actually saying I love someone or something else more than the hated person or thing. I found this quote that helps us understand this word even more, “Hate is just a word for somebody you love but no longer believe in.” For instance, if someone says , “I hate you” ……  What they are really saying is, “I love myself more than I love you right now.” or “I love you but no longer do I believe in you.”

In the Jewish culture, hate was used to express a lesser form of love.

The truth we learn from this scripture is loving God is the only thing that makes you a disciple. God doesn’t want to be one of many THINGS and PEOPLE you love.  He is the only one to be loved period. Loving Him is the only thing that makes you a disciple.  A second truth from this scripture is, we are not to love other humans the same way we love God.

Leah finally figured that out.

Look at verses 35-36: ³⁵ Once again Leah became pregnant and gave birth to another son. She named him Judah,for she said, “Now I will praise the Lord!”

Something happened to Leah between vs. 35-36.

• Leah’s thinking changed.
• Leah’s attitude changed.
• Leah’s God changed.

She finally stopped looking  to her husband  for those things that only God can give and she turned to God and said, “this time (now) I will praise the Lord.” And she named her son, Judah, which is a hebrew word for praise. Judah may be a name that your recognize. In Matthew chapter 1 we find ourselves reading a list of names. Not the most exciting way to start off the New Testament, but these are the names of the ancestors of Jesus. Matthew 1:2 says Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob was the father of Judah…Leah’s fourth son. God had a good plan for this marriage and it came when she turned to God as her source of fulfillment and put her hope in him.

She is rejected by her father and by her husband but she finally knocks these gods of love off the throne of her heart  and makes God her greatest affection.

God will never compete with your love for your spouse, kids, boy/girlfriend, or other family members. He wants to be your greatest affection. When God becomes your greatest affection all these other loves begin to line up.

 We do need to answer these two very critical questions:

Who does complete me?

Who has my greatest affection?

As a husband and father answering these two questions honestly changed the way I loved my wife and kids.  I believe that if God is your greatest affection he will change the way you think about your spouse, your boy/girlfriend, your children. The opposite is true. If you are experiencing nothing but pain and frustration in any of your key relationships then it very well may be looking to the relationships to complete  you and these relationships have your greatest affection. They have become your God.

In my story with my dad, I changed when I agreed with God that he (my dad) was the one I put my trust in. I admitted  my dad was my greatest affection. I admitted my dad was the one who completed me. When that happened my bitterness towards God changed to love for Him.

These questions, if answered, honestly, will change  your life.

He will complete you. Just ask Leah.

(click on the pic to listen)

There is a story about a grandfather who wanted to see how much his four-year-old granddaughter knew about the Easter story. He put her on his lap and asked, “Julie, why do we celebrate Easter?” Without hesitating, she said, “Jesus was crucified. After He died, His body was put into a grave. They rolled a big stone in front of the opening. A bunch of soldiers guarded the tomb. On the third day, there was a big earthquake and the stone rolled away.”

Grandpa was pleased with how much his granddaughter knew about the Easter story but then she continued, “When the earthquake happened, the entire town came out by the grave. And if Jesus came out and saw His shadow, they knew there would be six more weeks of winter!”

I Corinthians 15:17

17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.

For hundreds of years people have tried to disprove Jesus death and resurrection. For hundreds of years people have tried to prove his death and resurrection. It is a never-ending battle of words against words. Scientists have attempted to explain away any possibility of near death experiences by saying that “Within the first 30 seconds after the heart had stopped, all the mammals displayed a surge of highly synchronized brain activity that had features associated with consciousness and visual activation. The burst of electrical patterns even exceeded levels seen during a normal, awake state.” I was in a “tweeting battle”  this past week with a couple of atheist and a couple of doubters who questioned everything I had to say.  They saw  Easter as a bunch of foolishness and a fairy tale.

As important as I think words are, and as much as I like to prove others wrong, and as much as I want to persuade you to believe that his death and resurrection did happen. As much as I want to persuade you that without his death and resurrection there would not be hope. As much as I want to persuade you to believe  that without his death and resurrection your faith is futile. If you don’t believe in his death and resurrection all of scripture is just a fairy tale. It is just a legendary story. It is just like all the other religions.  We wouldn’t have any reason to celebrate today. It would be just  another holiday where we gather with our family. It would be just another reason to go out to eat. If you don’t believe in His death and resurrection we are just worshipping the god of fertility today or the god of weather.

Does it really matter what you believe in?

Does it really matter why I believe?

All of us believe in something. Even the atheists I have been tweeting with believe in something.  All of us are in an intellectual pursuit of truth.  I was bombarded with questions that told me that even the least religious people are looking for truth.  I was doing pretty good until another well – meaning lady blasted them for the way they believed.

What we believe in affects every part of our life.

• It affects the decisions we make
• It affects the things we do.
• It affects the way we think and feel.
• It affects the direction of your life.
• It affects what or who we put our faith in.

The question I pose is – Do YOU believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? I believe most of us in here would say, “yes, I believe!”  But  Jesus says, “even the demons in hell believe in him.”  That’s why the demons trembled when they recognized him. That’s why they asked him to leave them alone when they were in His presence.  They believed who he said he was.  But they didn’t put their faith in Him. Belief is an intellectual pursuit of the truth.  All us in here have a believe system. All of us in here have probably made Jesus a part of that belief system. If I were to ask you that question – Most of us would raise our hands and say, “YES, I BELIEVE”. 

Do you see the problem? We have only made Jesus a PART of our belief system. When he is only a part of our belief system he becomes one of many gods we worship.  We turn Jesus into an idol (one of many things we believe in). What I mean by this is that we buy the plaque for our wall, we buy Christian books and magazines, we buy the Christian t-shirt, we buy the bumper sticker, we buy the little fishy emblem for our car declaring who we believe and we call that faith. But he never completely has our heart. We never really put our faith in Him.

Not all who believe in him put their faith in Him.

Charles Blondin’s greatest fame came in June of 1859 when he attempted to become the first person to cross a tightrope stretched over a quarter of a mile across the mighty Niagara Falls.

He walked across 160 feet above falls several times, each time with a different daring feat – once in a sack, on stilts, on a bicycle, in the dark, and once he even carried a stove and cooked an omelet!

On one occasion though, he asked for the participation of a volunteer.

In 1859 at Niagara Falls,  A large crowd gathered and a buzz of excitement ran along both sides of the river bank. The crowd “Oooohed!” and “Aaaaahed!” as Blondin carefully walked across one dangerous step after another — blindfolded and pushing a wheelbarrow.

Upon reaching the other side, the crowd’s applause was louder than the roar of the falls! Blondin suddenly stopped and addressed his audience: “Do you believe I can carry a person across in this wheelbarrow?” The crowd enthusiastically shouted, “Yes, yes, yes. You are the greatest tightrope walker in the world. You can do anything!”

“Okay,” said Blondin, “Get in the wheelbarrow…..”

Everyone believed that Blondin could do it … no one was willing to put their faith in him.

Anyone can believe.  If you asked someone if they believe in Jesus Christ more than half of them will tell you they do. But not all of them put their faith in Him. Faith is more of heart issue.

In my tweeting conversation this past week with one of the atheist, he said, “the claims of Christianity are simply not logical.” My response to him was that nothing about the claims of Christianity are logical. After I did that, a few of his other tweeting friends favorited my quote. A virgin birth? A man coming back to life after he was dead for three days? Nothing about the story  is logical. It takes faith.  Faith goes well beyond logic.

When Jesus was crucified and pronounced dead – everything the disciples believed was crushed. He had told them a couple of times that he was going to die and would be resurrected. Once it actually happened what they believed was put to the test.  It now went from head issue to a heart issue.

I can only imagine what they were thinking.

• “Even though he’s gone am I still going to follow Him?”
• “Even though he’s gone am I still going to believe in Him?”

Faith affects your heart.

After Jesus death and resurrection, the disciples were almost immediately transformed from men who were hopeless and fearful after the crucifixion into men who were confident and bold witnesses of the resurrection.

The women who saw the empty tomb, couldn’t believe their eyes. They couldn’t find his dead body any where.

• Was it stolen? If it was they would have brought in the first century CSI unit and they would have been able to produce a body to stop the successful spreading of the Christian faith in the very city the crucifixion occurred.
• Was He even dead? Wasn’t he just unconscious? I am sure he woke from being beaten near to death and stabbed in the side, removed the 2 ton stone, overcame the soldiers, and vanished from history after a few meetings with his disciples in which he convinced them he was risen from the dead.
• Or did he really rise from the dead? Am I just being gullible? Jesus said it would happen. The disciples said it happened. The women saw the tomb rolled away. They saw the linens they wrapped him in on the slab. Hundreds of witnesses actually saw Jesus walking around.   Is it gullible to believe that the supernatural happened?

I was told by a couple of atheists this past week  that I was believing in was a fairy tale. They are absolutely right if the death and resurrection of Jesus never happened. My faith is futile.

If His death and resurrection doesn’t affect your heart – which is the core of who you are – Then His death and resurrection is probably nothing but a fairy tale to you.

I often hear believers complaining and having issues  with how commercialized Easter is.  There are many who say things like, ”the world has turned Easter into about worshipping bunnies and having Easter Egg Hunts.” There is nothing wrong with bunnies, new Easter clothes and baskets, and Easter egg hunts. The New Testament church turned a pagan holiday called Easter into a celebration of Jesus’ death and resurrection and still called it Easter. His death and resurrection  transformed what was once pagan holiday and turned it into a holiday that celebrates Jesus’ death and resurrection. The real problem with the celebration of Easter  is that many who say they believe in His death and resurrection never allow His death and  resurrection to affect their heart.

His death and resurrection changed everything. His death and resurrection transformed hopeless and fearful men and women into confident and bold witnesses of the resurrection. His death and resurrection transformed a pagan celebration into a celebration of the Good News. His death and resurrection transformed the criminal that was hanging next to him into a committed follower.

Did he really rise from the dead? Yes. He did. His resurrection is real.  It’s not a fairy tale. It changed history. It changed a belief system. It will change your heart.

The things we really believe in affect the heart. We put our faith into those things we believe in.  Fairy tales are nice and they make us feel good and they always have a happy ending. But His resurrection wasn’t designed to make us feel good. His resurrection was designed to transform our heart.

 Is your faith real or just a fairy tale of beliefs?

It Matters.

This blog entry is about salvation. I don’t know if you know Christ or not. If you don’t I encourage you to take the next 28 minutes and watch this video produced by the Billy Graham association. If you do follow Christ, I encourage you to invite a friend over, go to Star Bucks, or meet with your friend or family member and meet somewhere where there is wifi. This video is well done and worth the look.

Click here to watch the 2 minute video of the Rich Young Ruler

The story of the rich young man is really about idolatry at its core. In the story in Luke 18 the rich young ruler asked a really good question, “Good Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?” The way he even asks the question reveals a false god. He says, “what must I DO to inherit eternal life?” The Greek word for inherit could also be translated “acquire” or “earn”. He sees eternal life as a measure of personal success. We are often drawn to the gods of success because these gods allow us to sit on the throne of our own lives. It’s about what WE accomplish and what WE achieve. He thought of salvation as something to be earned, another goal for him to accomplish. He was expanding his portfolio, so to speak.

In verses 19-21 Jesus says to this rich young ruler “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’” “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said. Jesus gives the man the answer he expected. He tells the man to keep the commandments. If you want to know how to successfully earn eternal life, that’s it: keep the commandments. But other than Jesus, no one has successfully pulled that off. Jesus tries to help the man with his response by first pointing out that no one is good but God alone. But the man isn’t connecting the dots. He says in verse 21 “All these I have kept since I was boy.” Ironically he was putting his hope in his religion. His religious rule keeping had become his god.

In verse 22 Jesus drops a bombshell. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. The rich young man was successful. He had a lot of stuff. He knows how to be successful and salvation was one more trophy to be earned. The adjective used to describe this man’s wealth puts him ahead of almost everyone. And in reading this story of the rich young ruler, one might conclude that this is a story about money. This is not a story about money, however; this is a story about idolatry. This man was already successful in terms of making money. He also wanted to make sure he was successful religiously.

I don’t think there is any of us that doesn’t want to be religiously successful. None of us wants to mess our ticket to heaven up. All of us want to have an impressive resume when we stand before God. But OUR idea of being religiously successful is a little messed up. Like the rich younger, we ask ourselves, “what do I need to DO to have eternal life.”

Is obeying the ten commandments enough?

Is loving my neighbor enough?

Is giving all my money to the poor enough?

Is obeying my mom and dad enough?

Is loving my spouse enough?

None of them by themselves is enough.

Doing something is a part of following Christ – but that’s not all there is to it. Anybody can do something but not everybody is willing to step away from all their stuff, all their achievements and say, “none of this means anything to me.” Look at Abraham who was willing to give up his only son. Look at Job – who lost everything but never grew bitter towards God. Look at Mary – who lost her reputation to bring the son of God into the world. Look at the disciples – they gave their day jobs to follow Him.

Roger Powell who I talked about in my last blog entry, was having a successful professional basketball career making hundreds of thousands of dollars but in his heart he knew that wasn’t enough. He retired early and gave up his six figure salary because he wanted to invest his life in young men. He shared with me that there was only one university he was willing to give up his pro career for – it was Valpraiso. He began to pray. And sure enough within the next year the assistant coaching position at Valpo opened up. He knew what he had to do. Now – he is not only teaches young men how to play basketball, he gets to influence these young men for eternity.

I am pretty convinced that God is not concerned with how “spiritually” successful you and I are.

• Success tells me, “you have introduced a lot of people to Christ over the last 24 years”
• Success tells me, “you have influenced a lot of young men and for Christ over the last 24 years”
• Success tells me, “you have impacted a lot people’s lives for Christ over the last 24 years.”

What else is there to accomplish? What else is there to do? Isn’t that enough? Isn’t God pleased? That is not success – that’s called being obedient.

Our ideas of success even in the church world is about being on top or accomplishing a lot of stuff. Jesus points to the down-trodden, humble, and pure-hearted who refuse to play the world’s game as success. Success in God’s terms is refusing to play the world’s game. Because when you refuse to play the world’s game you will be blessed.

The word success is not even mentioned in the Bible all that much. The closest Biblical equivalent is the word “blessed”. Today in our culture we use this word as a more humble way of saying “I’m successful”.

If we have a lot of stuff – we say we are blessed.

If we have a lot of money – we say we are blessed.

If we have a new car – we say we are blessed.

If we have a new home – we say we are blessed.

No …. You are successful. Because of your success you are able to buy a lot of stuff. Do you see how the gods of success can spiritualize your accomplishments, spiritualize your stuff, and convince you that you have done enough?

Success is something you have done and accomplished.

Blessed is something God has done or provided when you were completely helpless.

I have this prayer in my office to remind me that it is not about what accomplish or do:

May all my expectations be frustrated.

May all my plans be thwarted.

May all my desires be withered into nothingness.

That I may experience the powerlessness and poverty of a child and sing and dance in the love of God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

Jesus points out another god of success to the rich young ruler that he is worshipping and many of us continue to worship and that is money. We need to understand that money is not a god in itself. Money becomes a god when you are dependent on it for your security, your significance, and your feeling satisfied. Jesus does to this man what he has done too many of us these last few weeks, he puts himself in direct competition with what this man loves the most, and says, “You choose. It’s either going to be A) Money, or B) me, but C) all of the above – isn’t an option.”

Jesus put it this way in Matthew 6:24, ‘No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

Why is money so often portrayed as God’s primary competition? Because we look to money to do the very things for us that God wants to do. Here are lies that the god of money has told us:

1). Money will satisfy you. If we only had enough of it, we think happiness will come. We have decided that the phrase “Money won’t make you happy” is something rich people have made up to keep the rest of us from being miserable. We can never have enough of it. We say if we only made more money we could do this or we could give more to the church. Here’s the reality, it doesn’t make a difference how much money you make or don’t make – it will never make you happy.

2). Money means that you matter. We think that money can make us significant. We often judge our worth by how much we are monetarily worth. Instead of looking to God as our source of identity, we look to money.

3). Money will make you secure. The truth is that whatever you put your security in ends up being your god. It reveals where you’ve put your hope. With enough money God doesn’t seem all that necessary. We wrongfully assume that we can have enough or save enough to take care of ourselves.

4). Money will save you. The real problem with idolatry is that we look to something other than Jesus for salvation. We’re lonely and we look to a relationship for salvation. We’re empty and we look to possessions for salvation. We’re depressed and we look to food for salvation. We’re rejected and we look to pornography for salvation. We’re angry and we look to alcohol for salvation. We’re apathetic and we look to our work for salvation. We’re proud and we look to status for salvation. We’re worried and we look to money for salvation.

Millard Fuller tells of becoming a millionaire by the age of 29. He said he had bought his wife “everything” she could possibly want. But one day he came home to a note that announced that she had left him. Millard went after her – he found her on a Saturday night at a hotel in NYC. They talked into the wee hours of the morning as she poured out her heart and made him see that the “things” that our society says are supposed to be so satisfying had left her cold. Her heart was empty and her spirit was burned out. She was dead inside and she wanted to live again. Kneeling at their bedside in that hotel room, Millard and Linda decided to sell everything they had and dedicate themselves to serving the poor.

The next day being Sunday, they found the nearest church and went there to worship and thank god for their new beginning. They shared with the minister, and told him about what had happened to them and the decision they had made. The minister told them that such a radical decision was not really necessary. Millard says, “he told us that it was not necessary to give up everything. He just didn’t understand that we weren’t giving up money and the things that money could buy. We were giving up, period.” Millard and Linda started an organization you’re probably familiar with – Habitat for Humanity.

This story points out that it is not about giving up money and things it is about giving up period. This is what Jesus was asking the rich young ruler. The rich young ruler wasn’t willing to give up. He couldn’t choose. So he walked away sad because he couldn’t choose between God and money.

Jesus says you need to choose.