IMAGE IS EVERYTHING

0:00 Recently, I was in Cape Town, South Africa, touring Table Mountain. It's absolutely stunning. I think 4.3 million people visit this mountain every year. And as you stand on top of the mountain, it cascades into the Atlantic and also the Indian Ocean. It's probably the most beautiful mountain I think I've ever seen. So I want to ask you a question. How many of you have been to Table Mountain before? Well, just one or two. Most of you haven't. So I thought, you know what? You've come to the right place today. I'm going to make a replica of Table Mountain. juicy fruit gum is really good I mean I don't recommend shooting gum in church but because a lot of you have not seen Table Mountain I thought I would just make a representation a model of Table Mountain with this juicy fruit because you know I have a fine arts background here we go this is very difficult quiet please and it was kind of flat there it is there's table mountain right there i did it so now you don't have to spend a bunch of money and time and energy and make the trek to to cape town you don't have to get on the gondola and go up you don't have to get sunburned now. You can just look at this beautiful replica of Table Mountain. Is that awesome or what?

1:44 Well, that's precisely what we do with God. That's precisely what the second commandment is all about. Don't reduce God. There is nothing that we can come up with that communicates the majesty of our maker. Exodus chapter 20, verses 4 through 6. And this text is pregnant with power and theology. Exodus chapter 20, verses four through six. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me.

2:48 To give you a little bit of a backstory on this text, God had miraculously led the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage. And it's very interesting theologically to understand they were first redeemed, then God resourced them with how to live. So he said, okay, here's where to walk, And here is how to walk. God had performed all of these feats of strength, you could say, turning the Nile red, sending the ten plagues, water out of a rock, these aren't in specific order, parting of the Red Sea, and leading 2.5 million Jews through the desert. they were camped at the base of Mount Sinai and Moses repels up the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments.

3:41 And we know the Ten Commandments were written by the finger of God, spoken by the voice of God, and also given to the people of God. Moses is up, you know, hearing from God. The children of Israel, they were like, man, God is so great, he's so strong, he's as strong as a bull, they said. So they melted down a bunch of stuff, gold, and they formed this golden calf. I mean, after all, I mean, it was pointing to Jehovah. It was pointing to the Lord. What's so bad about a golden calf? And Aaron was leading the charge and everything, but something shifted, something pivoted. And all of a sudden, this worship turned into a partay, which turned into an orgy. Moses repelled down the mountain, saw what was happening, and smashed the first set of the Ten Commandments. Thankfully, he gave us a second set. God did.

4:43 But that's kind of the back story of this. So when I read the Second Commandment, I'm thinking, you know, okay, that was for the Israelites. You know, they were coming off this golden calf debacle. It doesn't relate to me. And I'm going to count ceiling tiles or lights. I'm going to scroll through my phone. I mean, this is going to be an easy deal because I've never had a desire to melt down my wedding ring or my Tesla and bow down and worship it. I mean, I just don't have that desire. So, again, at first reading of this commandment, it seems like, okay, this is going to be an easy one for me. It doesn't relate to me. But just the opposite is true. This commandment comes close to the warning track of our lives. It comes up into our grill. This is a commandment that I struggle with, and if you're honest, you struggle with it as well. What's the meaning of this?

5:41 Just to put it in modern-day vernacular, don't reduce God. Don't waste your worship. Worship God as God. He is preeminent. He's powerful. He's purposed. And there is nothing, nothing materially that can communicate the essence of who God is. Nothing. The Bible says in John chapter 4 verse 24 that God is spirit and his worshipers must worship him in spirit and in truth. So God is spirit and the material cannot and should not ever replace the spiritual. We keep God as God. We put God on the throne of our lives and allow him to rule and to reign.

6:39 And I'm going to tell you something, parents. Let me talk to the families just straight up. the greatest gift you can give your kids is to show them and teach them how to worship. That's it. And this text talks about it. This text talks about it. It says, you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. Again, a lot of us are like, oh, that's irrelevant. That does not apply to me. But wait a minute. Think about, for example, your phone, your iPhone. Think about your iPhone, for example. We have that app of all of the photos, you know. I look back on my photos. I have a lot of them. My photos started in 2009 and go all the way to 2026. It's a long time, isn't it?

7:37 and you can scroll through my photos, and you can know a little bit about me, but you don't really know me. You don't really know me because you've not seen every single image of me in my 64 years, and you're the same. Yeah, a lot of us carry around a photo app of God, and the photo app is just really incomplete. There's just one or two pictures of God, and I would argue that a lot of us have conjured them up. We've made them, we've fashioned them to be what we want them to be.

8:14 I talked to a person the other day, and they were describing God, and I was thinking to myself, oh, you have a peepaw God. You know what a peepaw God is, don't you? He has that lazy boy, the bathrobe, and the matching pajamas. and he's always there to give you a kind, grandfatherly word. Everything's going to be okay. You're great. You're awesome. Let me tell you something, honey. I love you.

8:49 A lot of people carry around that photo. Another photo we carry around would be General God, a five-star general, super strict laying down the law if you mess up Some of us carry around another picture of the homie God. You know, Jesus is my homeboy. You know, like, yeah, we're just, you know, we're tight. Everything's cool, you know. God is good. It's about God, man. It's about God. Okay.

9:29 Others have the man upstairs, God. That's another one. and then you know the man upstairs god is unique because when we need him we dial 9-1-1 and he bounds down the stairs to rescue you and me and then of course we have the amazon prime god god's just there to deliver gift after gift after gift after gift after gift i mean god gives me so much gifts he makes the stuff my wife orders seem like it's not even hardly anything.

10:01 I thought that was funny. Oh, then, oh, here's another one. The psychotherapist God. God is my therapist. And he just explains to me the inner workings and the in-depthness of my mind. Hmm. When we conjure up and we make up these photos. We build a theology, a life around two or three photos, but we miss the majesty of our maker. We miss the essence of God. We miss his glory. We miss his holiness. We miss his righteousness. All of these gods I just went through, they're aspects of God. Is God a people of God? Yes.

10:53 Does God tell us he loves us? Yes. Do we matter to him? Yes. Does he understand us? Yes. When we mess up, does he forgive us? Yes. God's a God of judgment. It's not popular to say it, but he is. And that's part of who he is. God's a homie God. He's our friend. The Bible says we can be friends with God. In fact, Scripture tells us that God even likes us. Try that one on. That's a deep theological concept. It's interesting how a lot of churches in the Dallas-Fort Worth area kind of talk about one aspect or maybe one or two aspects of God. I mean, there are people God churches. There are general God churches. There are the homie God churches. There are the man upstairs churches. There are the Amazon Prime churches. There's a psychotherapist church.

11:45 Isn't that a fact? I mean, that's just real. So a fellowship church, here's what we do, guys. This is very, very, very important. It's so important. This is an application, maybe an implication of the second commandment. We try to fill out your photo app fully with the nature and the character of God. So I'm not just saying that. It's easy to say that. But I want you to think about just some of the things that we've done over the last year that helps you download these images into the apps of your phone. Just let's take the public part of Fellowship Church, this stage. Think about just what we've taught here on this stage recently. I went through the book of Romans, which teaches us about God, about general revelation and specific revelation. Then I did a series called Glass in Your Lasagna.

12:44 We went through the life of Joseph. So see, we're teaching you figures in the Bible and how they relate to where we are today. Because Joseph dealt with something that is very fresh in a lot of our lives. Betrayal. Then I went into a series called In the Zone. The fact that we all have stuff that God's given us and blessed us with. And basically we're blessed to be a blessing. I did another series on theology. Why we believe what we believe. We are serious on heaven. Because we're going to spend more time on that side of the dirt than on this side of the dirt. And let's face it, everyone's going to die. And a lot of us don't know what is going to happen when we die. And we talked about that. Think about our conferences.

13:37 This creative marriage conference coming up, thousands of people will be there. And it's about the only relationship that mirrors God's relationship to his people. Marriage. Marriage. So goes marriage. So goes our culture, right? Then the C3 conference. We have leaders from all over the place come in and invade Fellowship Church. And we talk about leading in the church. Then we have our sisterhood conference for all of the women. I mean, women make the world go round. and we love women and women have unique issues. I mean, great issues. Then we have Alasso Ranch, our summer camp. It's a retreat center like I've never seen. If you've never been out there, you're committing some sort of a sin. Hope for our city. We mobilize our church to help those to be the hands and the feet of Jesus who are less fortunate and needy.

14:38 Think about our men's ministry. We want to show people what it means, show men what it means to be a man and to live in godly masculinity. We need to have strong men who stand for the Lord Jesus Christ, who have God first in their lives, not their spouse. Uh-oh, that's what I just said. If your spouse is number one, my friend, your marriage is not right. it's got to be God so God is number one not Lisa but there's no way I'm going to love Lisa like she should be loved unless God is number one somebody slapped somebody on that one same is true with your family family first family first that's it are you kidding me family first doesn't work Family first is a formula for failure.

15:37 And that's messing a lot of you up right now. I know it is. But see, you're coming dangerously close to breaking that second commandment. You're worshiping your family. We're not to worship our family. We worship God. And then God gives us the ability to lead, to love, to parent, and also to grandparent. Read this text. Read the book of Exodus, chapter 20, verses 4 through 6. Read it. That's what it talks about. I think about our FC kids with our worship, with our involvement, and what is being taught there. I think about the mix. Massive amounts of students come in here every single Wednesday and worship the Lord. Think about our Bible study classes. We have small, mid-sized groups to study the Bible before and after our worship services.

16:36 Whether you're a single, whether you're a young married, whether you're a middle-aged married, or whether you're an old married, we have a class for you. Small groups. I mean, if you want to even go smaller than the mid-sized groups, we have small groups that meet in various zip codes around the Dallas-Fort Worth area. And then we have recovery groups for those who are battling addiction. We also have grief support groups because so many of us, like Lisa and I, have, I hate to even say lost, but you know what I'm saying to you. Our daughter graduated from this life to heaven, but grief is something that never leaves you. If you're experiencing a situation like that, we would love to have you as a part of that. We also have MEND ministry. That's for moms and obviously dads too who have had little ones pass away from this life to heaven. We have an amazing prayer garden.

17:35 There's a beautiful statue. And that's been such a wonderful ministry that's brand new to Fellowship Church. We have serving teams. We have over 1,400 people that volunteer to make fellowship go and grow every single Sunday. Then I think about our online ministry that we have. We also have a national radio ministry. We have people that check us out from around the world. Have you ever thought about the worship music that we write and that we produce? fellowship creative think about how brilliant the theology is of our songs on top of that we have prison campuses we have fellowship church in prisons and even moreover we've leveraged technology have you ever thought about that to go into dallas to go into frisco to go into Fort Worth to go into a lasso. And people think, oh man, technology, yeah, that's why I don't know about that. Are you kidding me? Using screens is like ancient. The early church would take letters written by the apostles and read them in one location, then read them in another location, and then read them in another location.

19:02 So a disciple is an incurable learner, and I'm so thrilled that we can leverage that. So see what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to show you that everything I just mentioned communicates a unique aspect of the majesty and the glory of God. So this doesn't just happen. You don't just show up and we go, yeah, I wonder what we're going to do today. No, no, no. There is prayer. There's thought. There's work. There's sweat and blood and tears behind every single thing we do. So what are the applications of this text? I want to make the decision I refuse to reduce God. God, you're at the throne of my life. What can happen?

19:56 How can I become a true worshiper? Number one, prepare for worship. Just our general worship we have here every Sunday. People sometimes say, well, you know, I really can't fit church into my schedule. Oh, homie, you got that all wrong, playa. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Who are you to fit your schedule into God? No, no, God runs the show. So that means that those of us who call ourselves believers, we need to have our rears in church every single Sunday, even if we don't feel like it. Well, my kids say, Mom, Dad, I don't want to go. My friends aren't there. Hey, they're under your roof. You're paying the freight. Bring them, maybe drag them to church and they'll meet new friends. so prepare for worship not only do we prepare for worship we need to participate in worship too many of us stand like statues in worship and yet hours earlier we're going buck wild in front of a television screen or at a stadium over some crazy game because let me tell you something we We definitely bow down to the little white ball and bow down to that pig skin, don't we?

21:23 Oh, that's straight up worship there. Brilliant worship, wrong object. So we need to participate. That means to lock in. That means you don't leave church and try to critique that. You say, man, you need to say, what did I learn about Jesus? What has Jesus taught me? What did he teach me today? So that means you engage in worship. That means you engage in the spoken word. That means you engage in serving. So again, what have I been saying? The most important thing God says is. These aren't my words. The most important thing you can teach your family. Worship, worship, worship. So we prepare for it. We participate in it. And then we pray for our church. We pray for, obviously, our lives, our family. We pray for the church family.

22:19 We pray for the leaders that make this happen or any other event happen. So those are just three quick handles that we can apply today when it comes to the second commandment. So the goal of this message is a panoramic, packed photo album of our great God. Again, let me bring you to John chapter 4, verse 24. For God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship him in spirit and truth.

22:49 Nothing from the material can truly reflect the essence and the majesty of our maker. These other gods, lowercase g, will not take us and get us to where we want to go. You might be thinking, what? Well, Psalm 115, verses 3 through 7. God, check this out, this is about false God. Our God is in heaven. He does whatever pleases him. But their idols are silver and gold made by human hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak. Think about the gods that I've talked about already. They can't speak. We have a God, though, that speaks to us through his word. through situations and conversations, through worship, on and on and on.

23:48 They have mouths but cannot speak. Eyes but cannot see. Our God sees it all. There's no such thing as a closed office door, bedroom door, or car door. God sees it all in the brilliant blaze of his glory.

24:14 Idols can't do it. They don't have the juice to do it. They have ears but cannot hear. God hears everything. The Bible says even when we don't even know how to articulate our prayers, He takes our moanings and groanings and sighs, and he knows what we're saying. Now, we have to understand in this text, this is speaking, and we're speaking anthropomorphically.

24:49 Anthropomorphically means we are putting human qualities on God just so we can understand it. So that's the theological and biblical arch that we're dealing with. So they have mouths and they can't speak. Eyes cannot see. They have ears, cannot hear. Noses, but cannot smell. What kind of fragrance are you giving to God? I mean, they have hands, cannot feel. Feet, cannot walk. Nor can they utter a sound with their throats. So the psalmist is saying, you are wasting your dang time chasing after these gods. God says, I'm a jealous God. We have a hard time understanding that.

25:43 It kind of sounds strange, doesn't it? God's jealous. See, when we think of jealousy, when I think of jealousy, I think about humanistic jealousy, you know, nasty jealousy, bad jealousy. You know, I'm jealous of him or her because of what they can do or what they have. Or maybe they've been to Table Mountain and I haven't.

26:05 That's typical jealousy. God's not jealous like that. God has a righteous and perfect jealousy. He knows he is God. There's nothing and no one that can compare to him. So he's like, I'm it. So I don't want you to waste effort, energy, time, chasing after something or someone else who is not God and he will not give you and be to you who I will be.

26:46 Okay, let me talk to the wives here. How many of you are married? Look to him, okay. What if you walked into a room and your husband was kissing a beautiful girl? and what if your husband said oh come on in honey hey I'm kissing her because she reminds me of you How many wives would say, oh, I understand. that's a crude illustration but it just gives you a little bit of the vibe of our great god god's what what are you doing there's no substitute for me there's no substitute for your spouse what are you what are you doing so again it's out of love so God cannot be reduced God must not be reshaped God deserves my full devotion and your full devotion that is what this commandment is driving at Three questions. Number one, who is on the throne of your life?

28:14 Be honest. I call it the affection question. number two who are you trying to impress this year That's the ambition question. Your neighbor,

28:34 those people at the country club, teammates, classmates. And then there's the achievement question. When you get to the end of the hunt, I mean, what's been your objective? I mean, what does it mean to put the ball through the net, to score the touchdown? What does that mean? So if you're honest with yourself, if you journal these things, your responses are going to be those gods, lowercase g, that are vying for the prominent and preeminent place only reserved for the Lord. it all goes back to this juicy fruit gum.

29:30 Who am I to try to mimic or represent Table Mountain with some juicy fruit? How ludicrous. How dumb, really.

29:53 Yet whenever we substitute anything from God, in his eyes, it's as ludicrous as this. So refuse to reduce God. Give him the totality of your being. Put him on the throne of your life. And then you'll know what first and 10 is all about.

30:23 Lord, thank you for this message. And I pray if there's someone here and you've never ever bowed the knee to ask Christ into your life, I pray that today you make that decision. You might be thinking to yourself, well, Ed, how do I make that decision? Well, just simply talk to God. Well, I don't know if I have the faith. Ask God to give you the faith. He'll do it. Just say, Lord, give me the faith to make and take the step. I mean, you tried everything else.

30:55 Try this. just say, God, I admit to you that I've committed moral turnovers, wrongdoings. I know the Bible calls them sin. I turn from my sin and I turn to you, Jesus. I believe, God, you sent Jesus to die on the cross for my sins, to rise again on the third day. And I invite you into my life. I open the door of my life and invite you in, Jesus. Take control of me. Forgive me. Cleanse me. Change me. And the moment, friend, the moment you prayed that prayer, Jesus came into your life. He infiltrated the depths of your being. And you are born again. You have a physical birthday, but now you have a new birthday.

31:50 And today is your day. so we thank you for so many who made those decisions you might be watching online you could be at Frisco you could be at Dallas or Fort Worth you could be at Hawkins you could be backseat of the balcony back there we thank you God for it others of us here Lord need to really lean into this second commandment to take inventory as we look at these questions and more importantly, God, as we look to you for your answers. In Jesus' name we pray.