NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME

0:03 I'll never forget what happened years ago. I was in my restroom shining my shoes before church. I love shiny shoes. In fact, I hate to judge people, but normally I'll look and see if their shoes are shined or not. It's kind of funny. I'm paranoid about shoes and shoes being shined. Lisa, for the most part, she doesn't really care about it. And many times I'll even shine Lisa's shoes. How many husbands shine their wife's shoes? Lift your hand. Hands are going up everywhere, way in the balcony. I see it. Well, this Sunday morning, years ago, I'm shining my shoes and EJ walks in. He's like seven, carrying his shoes. He said, Dad, would you shine my shoes? I said, no, EJ, but I've got a better one than that.

0:59 I'm going to show you how to shine your shoes. So I began to show him what I know about shining shoes. And so he began to mimic what I was doing. So I kind of didn't look at him for a while and I'm shining my shoes. And then I turned. He had his shoes turned upside down. Not only had he shined the upper part, he was shining the soles of his shoes. I said, EJ, what are you doing? I mean, you don't shine the soles of your shoes. He goes, oh, dad, yes, you do. Because when you walk and lift your foot up just a little bit, people can see the soles of your shoes. I thought, you're right.

1:53 over the next several weeks as we study the 10 commandments our great god through his great word is going to shine our shoes not only will we shine the exterior but he's also going to shine the literal souls of our shoes where we walk how we live how we talk so when it comes to shining shoes, God has a corner on the market. I was thinking about and praying about over the last several months where to go during the first of the year, because it's a big weekend. You start in January, and we have all of these New Year's resolutions, and we think about this, and we promise to do that. And so I thought, what in the world can we talk about? Then I thought, boom, the 10 commandments, boom, let's call it first and 10, first of the year.

2:56 And I'm going to challenge you to give me 10 hours of your time. It's not very much over the last, over the next couple of months, just 10 hours, because we're going to look at first and 10. How do we start this year off right? How do we start our lives off right? How do we reset? How would he reboot? Well, this is it, because it doesn't get any better than those 286 words called the Ten Commandments, the laws that liberate, the greatest laws ever penned. And when you read the Ten Commandments, it's like, I can't even come up with an 11th one. They're that complete. They're that amazing. They're that awesome. But if you're like me, you know, when you pull for a certain team and you know, it's coming down to the wire now in college football, isn't it? Don't you always feel better when your team is at first and 10?

3:51 It's like, okay, we're first and 10. We have a fresh set of downs. First and 10, first and 10, first and 10. Well, what if, I was thinking, what if we could do life first and 10? What if we could face every opponent, every situation, every conversation with first and 10, a fresh set of downs? I believe we can when we allow our Heavenly Father to shine our shoes with these commandments. So not only the uppers, not only what people see, not only the exterior, but also in our heart of hearts, our soul. I've been studying the Ten Commandments for many, many years, and I have run into a lot of facts about the Ten Commandments that I think you should know. some of these surprised me. So I thought we would kind of talk about these facts before we get into the first commandment. This is sort of a prologue, which is critical before we get into the 10 commandments. The first thing I wanted to say about the 10 commandments is the 10 commandments began with grace, not law. That is very important what I just said. You have redemption first, the children of Israel being freed from Egyptian slavery.

5:12 Then after redemption, you have God resourcing his people regarding how to live. So it's like God was saying, okay, I've helped you and shown you where to walk. I sent Moses. I turned the Nile into blood. I parted the Red Sea. I sent the plagues and all of those things. So God's saying, I did all of that. And I've shown you where to walk with a cloud in the sky, in the day, a fire at night. And now God is saying to those 2.5 million Jews camped at the base of the Mount of Sinai, he's saying, now I want to show you how to walk. I've shown you where to walk.

6:04 this GPS system. Now I want to show you how to walk. And the how part is the 10 commandments. So that's important to understand is by God's grace, it's his redemption first, then we have the law, then we have the how to part. Does that make sense? Just nod your head. Yes. Number two, the 10 commandments pivot from vertical to horizontal. We like that word pivot now, don't we? So all of a sudden, the first four commandments are about our relationship with God. Think of the cross, vertical. Then five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 is horizontal. It's our relationship with one another. When you read the 10 commandments, you need to think through those things and think, okay, is it part one or part two? Is it vertical or horizontal? Number three, the 10 commandments are about freedom not restriction i think some of us are like oh the 10 commandments they're negative thou shalt not thou shalt not thou shalt not no they're not the 10 commandments are about love i think back to when i was a kid and I remember dad saying, son, whenever you cross the street, look both ways.

7:32 Look both ways before you cross the street, he said. Was dad being capricious or cruel? Was he being mean-spirited? Was he being legalistic? Oh, it was all about love. He wanted me to experience and wants me to experience the best life possible. So when you see the 10 commandments, think about 10 words. Think about this law, these laws that liberate. Because remember, the Israelites had been in slavery for hundreds of years. They'd been emancipated, freed up. Now, God is showing them, okay, the last thing I want you to do is go back in slavery. So here are 10 principles, precepts, whatever you want to call them, that will help you live in freedom. So that's God's goal, for us to live in freedom.

8:35 The fourth thing that you could learn about the sin commandments and that I need to learn is they were written twice. Did you know that? Written twice. The first set, well, okay, the children of Israel, 2.5 million, were doing the KOA thing. at the base of Mount Sinai. They traveled 250 miles in the desert. It's a lot of walking, isn't it? I mean, their souls, I'm sure, were worn out. They're camped out, and Moses climbs up Mount Sinai, receives the Ten Commandments, repels back down, and when he comes back down, his people, the people he was leading, God's chosen people, were worshiping a golden calf. Moses gets so angry, he just goes on tilt. He slams the Ten Commandments and just totally obliterates the first set of commandments.

9:31 Did you know that? Well, now you do. But it shows you God's grace here because God gives everyone a second chance. Moses climbs back up the mountain, receives the Ten Commandments. It's the voice of God ascribed by the finger of God given to the people of God. He repels it back down, and he throws down the Ten Commandments. So twice, you got it? Number five, the Ten Commandments were written on two tablets. Two tablets. One tablet was for the people. The other tablet was for God. One tablet was for the Lord, Jehovah. The other tablet was for Israel. And these tablets were placed in the Ark of the Covenant.

10:23 Raiders of the Lost Ark, remember that? Yeah. Okay. So that's interesting. I mean, it's, again, about this covenant, right, between God and his people. Number six, Jesus never deleted the Ten Commandments. He intensified them.

10:48 For example, 10 commandments say, thou shalt not murder. It's pretty clear, isn't it? Jesus said, if you're on the freeway, someone cuts you off and you're yelling at them. I know you don't flip anybody off, but Jesus said, you have committed murder in your heart. The 10 commandments say, thou shalt not commit adultery. It's pretty straightforward. Don't sleep in the wrong bed. marriage is for two people it's a beautiful covenant it's it's it's it's awesome so don't sleep in someone else's bed Jesus said talking about intensifying this commandment if you look at someone with lust in your heart, you have committed adultery. Ouch. And sometimes people ask me this, let me kind of go off script a little bit. They'll say, well, I'm not sure the New Testament talks about tithing very much. Well, it does, but let me tell you how the Lord even intensifies tithing. The Bible says in the Old Testament, bring the tithe. What is the tithe?

12:01 the first 10%. Not 10%, the first 10%. Whew, man. People get nervous when you talk about that. Well, Jesus took it to a wholly another level because Jesus talked about sacrificial giving. Most of the followers of Christ in the early church gave, are you ready for this? 20, 30, 40% of their income to the Lord's word.

12:29 So see, you have you have the Ten Commandments, you have the Old Testament, and then you have Jesus going, all right, I'm gonna even take them to the next level. Number seven, this is funny to me. This is kind of a funny one. The Ten Commandments are posted everywhere, but they're seldom read or studied. What if I could walk through the audience right now and we're not gonna say, you, come on up. Recite the Ten Commandments. You, right there. Come on up. Recite the Ten Commandments. We would freak, wouldn't we? I mean, the biggest fear we have is speaking in public, and now you're asking me a Bible question in front of thousands of people, in front of the World Wide Web? You're asking me. It's scary, isn't it?

13:21 So we talk about the Ten Commandments a lot, and we post them here and there and everywhere, but we don't really read them or study them. That's why I'm so thrilled that we're studying the 10 commandments. They're some of the deepest and richest and soulish. They're the greatest laws of all time. Let's go to number eight. Number eight, the 10 commandments can be summarized in two sentences. Did you know that? Two sentences summarized in 10 commandments. Love God and love others. Let me say it again, love God and love others. Matthew 22 does what Jesus said, love God and love others. So I've given you the cliff notes of the 10 commandments right there. Do we have another one? Yes, we do. Number nine, number nine, the 10 commandments always point us to Jesus. Did you hear that? They point us to Jesus. The Bible tells us in the New Testament that the law, the 10 commandments is a tutor.

14:22 You know what a tutor is, don't you? Well, back in the day, a tutor worked for well-off families, and this tutor would actually be tasked with leading the kids to the master teacher. That's what the law does. The law shows you and me, I can't keep the Ten Commandments. I mean, I don't break the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments break me, so I can't do it. So the Ten Commandments point us to Jesus, and the Ten Commandments would be the law would be our tutor. And then the Bible says also in the New Testament, the law is our mirror, our mirror. The New Testament writers talked about the law being our mirror. We look into a mirror we did today because all of you look so great. You do.

15:15 Let me compliment you. I mean, even the people in Frisco and Dallas and Fort Worth and Hawkins, Texas, everywhere, online. And this will be on radio around the country. You look great. I can tell you do. You look in a mirror and the mirror told you what to do, right? Told you if you're a guy, you know, comb your hair or, you know, shave or whatever we do. And then for women, all the other millions of things that you do. you don't take the mirror off the wall and the mirror doesn't do those things. No, the mirror shows you what you need to do. Likewise, that's what the law does. That's what the 10 commandments do. So the 10 commandments are all about Jesus. What's the Bible? The Bible is all about Jesus. Every book of the Bible is about Jesus. Woo, man, that was a quick lesson, wasn't it? And maybe you knew all those facts. I mean, I didn't know them all until I began to study them, but those are pretty interesting. So now let's move from that to the first commandment.

16:24 The first one. What is the first commandment? If you have your Bibles, go to the book of Exodus, Exodus chapter 20. I'm going to read verse two and three. Here's how God sets up the 10 commandments.

16:44 He says this, I am the Lord, your God. You can go ahead and drop the mic there. God's saying, I'm God. I'm the authority. It's a givenness. There's no debate. I am God. God. And the greatest fact in the universe is the fact that God exists. It's the greatest fact out there. So he's establishing his authority, but he's going to move from authority to allegiance. But that's a little bit later. I am the Lord your God, he said, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. He's reminding them again, guys, who do you think sent Mo to deliver you? Who do you think did the stuff with the plagues and the Nile River and the Red Sea?

17:44 Who do you think changed Pharaoh's mind? Who do you think has led you 250 miles in the desert to Mount Sinai? Who? It's me. it's me so God is going to say you mean you mean you're going to worship someone else other than me what because that's where we're going I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt out of the land of slavery and here's the first commandment are you ready for this you shall have no other gods before me. That's it. So again, God has, has led them. He's shown them where to walk. They've been delivered from slavery. Now God's saying, okay, here is how you walk.

18:35 A lot of us use maps. I use maps all the time. I told you in our Christmas services, I'm directionally challenged. And even when I follow my Apple maps, I congratulate myself if I can just follow those. That's how bad my sense of direction is. It's horrible. And it's really interesting, isn't it? Get in the right lane. Turn right. You've reached your destination. You know, all those little things. I love that. But for me, it's easy even to get lost with the maps. It's important for us to consider and think about the Ten Commandments being a map, because we're all following different maps. Everybody you meet is following a map. This map is basically God's map for successful living. He's saying, okay, here are 10 signposts, 10 ways, 10 things to do to follow as you're living your life.

19:33 So it's where you walk and how you walk. It's that the soulish stuff. So as I read this commandment, I was thinking, Okay, what is God saying here? Because me worshiping other gods, you worshiping other gods, I mean, how does that relate to us? Two things. Number one, God appears to be saying that there is no other being worthy to receive his worship, to receive our worship. God's saying it appears that I'm the only being worthy of your worship. That's what God's getting at. In other words, can you imagine someone who's been created like we have worshiping a non-creator?

20:27 Doesn't make sense, does it? So we see the genius of God, the cosmic common sense of God. We know God has intrinsic worth-ship. In other words, it's innate. God doesn't have to do this or perform there to be holy or have glory. He is. It's the is-ness of God. The only reason I have value and you have value is our value is derived from God. Because God is God. I should worship him as God. It's that simple. When I worship God as God, I will be at odds with all the other gods because we still worship other gods.

21:23 So again, the first thing is God appears to be saying there is no other being worthy to receive our worship, your worship. Number two, he appears to be suggesting no other being can meet the needs and yearnings like I can. God's saying there's no other entity, no other being that can meet your needs. I'm talking about your deepest needs like I can. that's powerful because in 2026, you're going to have an issue in 2026. You're going to face the disappointment in 2026. You might face a death or something that's just hellacious. where are you going to turn? Who are you going to turn to? Our God gets it. Our God can meet and does meet our deepest needs and doubts. He can face our anger. He can face our questions.

22:35 our great God can take it and he helps you and me in this fallen and messed up world make it isn't that great so God's basically saying don't waste your life I mean I mean don't don't waste your worship worship me I'm worthy of it and not only am I worthy of it I'll meet your deepest needs. And that's one of the things that I always say about marriage, where people get messed up with marriage. Many times I meet people and they're putting God-type pressure on their spouse. Your spouse cannot meet the needs that God can meet. Only God can. And that's very, very important to understand that. Obviously, we have needs, physical needs, relational needs here, horizontally, but vertically, I mean, the deepest needs of life can only be met by him.

23:42 Oh, Ed, this is very interesting, my friend. I mean, I need to worship God because God is God. And okay, I understand that. And he's going to meet my deepest needs. That's interesting. But really, Ed, this is kind of irrelevant. I mean, you know, you shall have no other gods before me. I mean, I understand what Israel was dealing with. What will do you? God is throwing down a monotheistic vibe here when Israel had just come from a very polytheistic culture. They had numerous gods. Baal, Asherah, Moloch, Pharaoh, the golden calf, just to name five, top five, starting five. So God knew that. And God was telling them, hey, I am it. I am it. But you see, they were struggling because all these gods and goddesses were really sexy and cool and, And they kind of fed man's desire.

25:03 You're probably going, well, man, I'm glad I don't deal with Baal or Asherah or Moloch or Pharaoh or the golden calf. Stop your parade for a second. Because we might all deal with those things. Think about Baal. Read success. Money becomes our security.

25:32 Success defines our worth. We bow down on the altar of career, investments, and work. What's the heart issue? Trust in God. How about Asherah? Read their sensuality. Sexual desire overrides obedience. Feelings become my final authority. What's the altar? Porn. Only fans our hookup culture what's the heart issue?

26:21 Holiness I think we do deal with some of these things Moloch Moloch was about sacrifice families would literally as they worship Moloch sacrifice their children for success is that is that insane we don't go to that degree but how many people sacrifice their children on the altar of extracurricular activities and many other things or you sacrifice your children because of your career what's the altar achievement ambition your image my image what's the heart issue? Value. I'm valued by God. How about Pharaoh? Pharaoh is about authority. And a lot of us worship politics. We worship government leaders or systems. We think the Republican Party or the Democratic Party is the answer. Sorry, no cigar. And I like cigars. It's not going to get us where we want to go. As great as that is, many of us burn up way too much energy and time at that altar.

27:38 The altar of politics and institutions and strong leaders. What's the heart issue? Lordship. Jesus, your Lord. It's not that we're not to stand for the things of God in our culture. It's not that we're not to vote, but it's easy to wrap this Bible in the American flag. Some of you will get that later. The golden calf, that's control, the golden calf. We remake God. Is this popular in our own image? Here's my altar. It's my truth. It's customized Christianity. What's the hard issue? Surrender. so yeah we deal with this stuff and during your moments of introspection here's some homework this week I want you to think about what you think about I want you to think about ask God for insight about what you think about what monopolizes your time your thought processes is it glorifying God virtual mainstream entertainment técnic to just score the touchdowns, put the ball through the hoop.

29:08 What is that about? When we ask ourselves these questions, I'm telling you, God will do some amazing stuff. But we still worship idols, don't we? The idols haven't gone dark, they've just gone digital. So God wants to shine our shoes. And this is just the first portion of how he's shining the soles of our shoes. And it's my prayer that you bring your shoes, your all to him, and allow him to do business in your life, to shine your shoes from the top to the bottom, Even the souls, because the last time I checked, the souls are what contacts the ground, the holy ground that God has given us.

30:15 Would you pray? Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you for this message. I just thank you for your genius, God, for dumbing it down so we can understand. Your God, your ways are higher than our ways. You hold the universe in the palm of your hand, yet you're a personal God. You've told us, I am, I am the Lord, your God. so as awesome as you are you're personal you're the God of the personal pronoun and if you have never ever ever made God your your friend your Lord your Savior you can take and make that decision right now by simply saying God I believe you and I believe you love me and that you sent Jesus to do what he did on the cross, to die on the cross for all of my wrongdoings, all of my sins.

31:31 And three days later, Jesus, you rose again and I receive what you did for me. The work's been done. All we have to do is receive what's been done. And if you prayed that prayer, that's the greatest step you'll ever make. others here. You've been a believer maybe a year, maybe 20, 30, 40 years like I have. It's time that we reboot and reevaluate and think about the fresh set of downs that God has for us in this first and 10 series. And I pray, Lord, that all of us, every single one of us would make a commitment, just a 10 hour commitment for the next, what, two and a half months, and I promise you God will do some amazing things in every life here so we voice this prayer in the name of Jesus our living Lord Amen