Its good to see you this morning on this beautiful spring day. Enjoying the sunshine, here we are in our coats and sweaters again-not fun, not fun. Would you open your Bibles to Exodus 20 with me this morning? While youre finding that, are there any American Idol watchers out here? Are you pulling for the hometown boy, Danny Gohlke? All right, good, good. What about Adam? Anybody a big Adam fan? Not too many Adam fans? All right a few. Any for the red-haired girl? The guy with the hat? Okay, just polling everybody. Well, we are not going to be talking about the television show this whole series. Its just simply a name we have used. What it does signify is that there are things in America that we hold in the place of God. There are people and things we idolize that fill a place in our lives that only God should have, and those are the things we will be talking about. If you look to the banner at my left, you will see some of those things. We will be an equal-opportunity toe-stepper on-er this series. You can see some of the things that are represented there of passion, power, prestige, possessions-all of those things we will be addressing in this series. Were going to lay the foundation this morning in talking about idols. Like the media said, Is that something thats still applicable today? We dont have idols that we bow down to, right? Dont be so sure to judge that one. I think we do. Lets take a look at Exodus 20. This is where God gives the commandment originally. This is the Decalogue or the Ten Commandments. Its really important for us when we read the Ten Commandments to understand the historical context in which they are given. God gave these Commandments to all of us-for all people at all times; but He did give them specifically to the nation of Israel for a specific period of their history. It doesnt mean that its not relevant; it doesnt mean that theyre still not in effect; they certainly are. This is Law. Sometimes Law gets a bad rap, Oh, were not under the Law. Were under grace. Thats true in regards to righteousness. We are made righteous by grace through faith-not by the works of the Law. The Law is certainly not irrelevant. Though shall not kill is very much relevant, isnt it? Law points us to God. It points us to our need for God. Now legalism-thats bad. Legalism is when we take a man-made concept or tradition and we elevate that until it becomes an authority. If I am living by Gods Law as its written in His Word, thats one thing. But to take a man-made concept or principle and say, You must conform to this in order to be righteous, thats legalism, and thats not healthy. The Law is good. The Law points to our sin and our name for a Savior. Law gives us a guideline as to what God expects from us, so it is very much relevant to our lives. God speaks this to a people who have just come from a culture in Egypt where they worship many gods, polytheism. They are going to a region where there is also the practice of worshipping many gods-the Canaanites and the other surrounding people groups, the practice of many gods. Why? Because gods were limited in their territory, and they were limited in their powers; so you had a god who was over your region. There was another god over here who was over another region. Gods were limited in what they could do. This god might be power in the weather, so you would pray to that god and sacrifice to that god in hopes that you would have a good crop. Maybe you were having problems conceiving a child, so there was a fertility goddess that you would pray to in hopes that that goddess would enable you to have a child. You might be going to war with another tribe or another nation, so you would pray to the god of battle to give you favor in that war. There were multiple gods and multiple specialties that they had. The relationship was very shallow. You didnt really love that god; you didnt really worship that god, but you tried to placate that god because of what that god could do for you. Ill worship this god. Ill sacrifice this god in hopes that that god will send the rain, so Ill have a good harvest or hopes, that god will allow my wife to have many children, or hopes that god will give me victory in battle. Really, if you think about it, its kind of the spiritual mafia. Ill give you a price, and youll protect me. Ill give you something, and youll do this. These were a desperate people because it was a desperate time to be alive. If there was famine, you could starve. If a storm came and flooded away your crops, you could starve. You couldnt just go down to the local grocery store. You cant trust the Red Cross to come in and save you or get government assistance. Its not going to happen. Those things dont exist, so a health concern that we might be able to go and take a pill for or go see the doctor and it goes away like that, those infections would kill those people. It was a whole different time. Science wasnt what it is now, so life was very fragile. It didnt take much, so they did this idol worship out of fear and out of their needs. They were desperate, desperate people. Desperate people do desperate things. I was driving in Chicago this week-in downtown Chicago. You know how it is if youve been to downtown Chicago when you see somebody with a sign, a cardboard sign, that usually says, Will work for food or something? They look like youd expect them to look. They usually look rather unkempt, unpleasant, unshaven, and shabby with greasy clothes. You try not to look at them because its uncomfortable, so people just continued to drive by; but this was a different situation for me. This was a young girl-probably 17 years old. She was standing out there, and she had a sign that said, Im homeless. Im hungry. Please help. I hadnt seen that one before. As a dad, immediately my heart went out to that child. If there were ever a time I was tempted to stop and do something, that was one of them. At the same token, you see that, you also know the world we live in and you start thinking, Is she part of a scam? Is somebody going to rob me? Is she addicted to drugs? Is she a street-wise kid who is going to pull a knife or a gun on me to get money? So, you keep driving, but I looked in her eyes as I drove by. There was just fear and desperation. As a dad, you think, Man, how does a girl get to this point? Do her parents know she is in such a vulnerable dangerous position with predators who could take advantage of her? It was the worst place to be holding a sign that says, I have no home. I have no money. I have nobody protecting me and watching out for me. That touched my heartstrings, but desperate people will do desperate things. People in Biblical times were so desperate that they would even sacrifice people-children, their livestock-to these gods in hopes that their lives could be spared or that they could have abundance. It was a desperate, desperate time. So onto this scene God comes with these Commandments-telling them about living in a new culture, forming a new nation in which there would be one God. God is going to say, Have no other gods before Me. It is a declaration of His all sufficiency. He is saying, Im not God over a territory. Im not God over a region. I dont have a limited power. I am the only God that you need to have. I am the God of gods. I am the Lord of lords. I am the Lord of Heaven and Earth. No other god is before Me. Exodus 20:1 (page 73 of pew Bibles), And God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in Heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God… Well stop right there. No other gods, no other idols-is that still applicable? No other idols? We dont have the wooden images or the images of stone. Do we have idols? We most certainly do. In fact, Paul talks about that if youd turn please to the Book of Colossians 3:1-5 (page 1167 of pew Bibles). He says, Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Not on this stuff over here thats seen in this banner. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. It is idolatry, so Paul says idolatry is very much alive and well, and its living in our hearts. We start to idolize these things. We start to pursue these things. We start to bow down to these things, lay our lives down for them, sacrifice for them. People sacrifice for the house, the car, the mansion. Theyll cheat; theyll lie; theyll steal; theyll hurt others. They will do whatever it takes to acquire what they think is going to make them happy and be deemed a success. Let me ask you this question-is it possible that you could worship the true God and still practice idolatry? Dont give me an answer right away. Think about that-is it possible to be worshipping the true God and still practice idolatry? Its a trick question. Do you know there are some pastors, teachers, authors, speakers who teach that if you will follow God-you will give your life to Christ-if you worship God, He is going to give you stuff. So they worship God-not because God is worthy of our worship and praise, not to adore Him for who He is-but they worship Him because theyll get stuff. If I worship God, Ill be rich! Thats what the preacher on TV says. If I just worship God, everybody is going to like me. Ill be popular! If I worship God, God will keep me from ever being sick or depressed, and life will always be wonderful-all the time! So they worship God because of what they can receive. Have you heard that Gospel before? How is that different than what they did in idol worship? Thats why it was called harlotry-because there was no emotion; there was no love. It was like, Okay, Ill give this to the god, and the god will give this to me. Its a business transaction. I wont send that tornado. I wont send that flood if youll give me what I need, so they worshipped that god for what that god could do for them. Friends, if you worship in the living God for what He can do for you, that is a form of idolatry. We worship God for who He is, His essence, His divine nature, because He is worthy of our praise-not for any promise of stuff. [Theres] this wonderful thing Hell do; Hell make you successful, popular, rich and healthy all the time. So idolatry is very much alive and well. Now we have to ask the question why did God give these Commandments. Why did God give this Commandment? Because when you first read it, it sounds as though God is a little bit insecure because number one, He says He is a jealous God. Jealousy is not an admirable quality, is it? If youre a jealous person, that means you are a very insecure person. That's not something you want to be, so when God says, Im a jealous God, immediately thats kind of a negative connotation. We say, Oh, Gods above that, isnt He? Thats a little petty for God to be jealous! He cant be insecure. Hes God. No other gods before Me. I want to be the only God! Well, God has an ego problem then, doesnt He? Why is it, God, You have to have all the attention, all the worship, all the accolades? You have a problem? You have an ego problem? You have insecurity issues, God? Does God need to be psycho-analyzed or something? He has some real serious issues here apparently. Well, were looking at it hrough the wrong lens if were seeing it that way. Were not understanding how Law operates. See when you read the Ten Commandments, theyre pretty negative. You dont do this; you dont do that. Most of the Commandments are of a negative nature in that they are prohibitions. I dont want you to lie. I dont want you steal or cheat. Dont covet. Dont do this; dont do that. Dont worship idols. There are a few positives in there, but most of it seems to be this negative prohibition. Why is that? Because, the Law is first and foremost built on a positive. The positives are that the Law is relational; above all things, the Law is relational and foundational. What do you mean by that? I want you to turn to Matthew 22. Were going to have you see the Ten Commandments in a whole different light. Verse 34 of Matthew 22 (page 980), it says, Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. This is their counterpart-Oh, the Sadducees couldnt get the best of them, so we will. One of them, an expert in the Law, tested Him with this question: Teacher, which is the greatest Commandment in the Law? Now, we dont know what he had up his sleeve, but he in some way was trying to entrap Jesus with that question. He was waiting for whatever answer Jesus was going to give and somehow, some way try to turn it around and use it against Him. Listen to the response that Jesus gives. Its just brilliant! He says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest Commandment. And the second is like it, Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and Prophets hang on these two commandments. Thats absolutely brilliant because if I truly love, there are things I will not do because those things will cause you pain and hurt. If somebody tells you they love you and they do this painful thing to you or if somebody tells you they love you and they steal from you, kill you or any other thing in this Book here, they probably dont love you as much as they say they do. The Law is based on love. If you truly love God, you wont take His name in vain. If you truly love God, you wont follow any other gods. If you truly love God, you will worship Him and you wont bow down to idols. If you truly love your parents, youre going to honor them. If you love other people, youre not going to steal their stuff. Youre not going to kill them. Think about the Commandments: theyre based in foundational on love. Because I love this positive, wonderful thing, there are things Im not going to do-these negative things. So the Law might seem like its a negative-dont do this; dont do that-but its really foundational. It is love. God establishes those Commandments because He loves you, because He doesnt want you to hurt yourself; He doesnt want you to hurt others; and He doesnt want you to squander your life. The Law is based on love. Its foundational to an understanding of Gods nature. God doesnt want to see you suffer. God doesnt want to see you suffer, and God doesnt want you to cause suffering to other people; so He gives you this standard to live by. He gives you this Law that you are to adhere to. Its not like Gods up there with a list and Hes a law-monger. Hes not like, Oh, you didnt do this. You didnt do that! If we break His law, we first and foremost break His heart. Law is based on love. Jesus says the foundation of the Law is we love God and we love others. Because we love God and because we love others, here are the things that we will not do. Now there is another thing thats important. My Greek is okay; my Hebrew, not so good. In my Hebrew, I really am relying upon what a commentator might say. One of these days, Ill have to go back and take some more Hebrew, but I just find that a real challenge. I listen to what they say, and I have no reason to doubt what they said. It was very interesting. I was reading a commentary on this passage, and the author said that you would think that when God would speak to the nation of Israel from Sinai and give them the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, that when He says the word you it would be plural because He was talking to a people group. Actually, when He says you, He uses the singular form. Thats very significant. That means the Ten Commandments, though they were given to all people and though they were given at this point to a nation, it was very much individuals-very much personal. God is saying to you, Heres how I expect you to live. Heres what I expect you to abide by, very personal. These are the Commandments you shall live by as a people. So the Commandments are relational; theyre foundational; theyre personal; and they are absolutely essential. They are essential. Im going to pick on your dad this morning, Joy, because I picked on him already. It worked out. It was a spontaneous thing on Saturday night, and it worked so Ive been following that pattern all the way through. You know Joy Thompson and Jesse, our music minister, heard that Mom and Dad are now coming to Faith Community-John and Mary Dorfer; and John is a retired physician. Mary is a teacher. They were missionaries in Ecuador for over a decade, so Joy spent her childhood growing up in Ecuador. In this hypothetical situation were going to make Dr. John the good guy. You know we have the swine flu outbreak right now. In Mexico its now crossed the border into the United States, so we should be concerned. If we see our children have these flu-like symptoms, the swine flu is spreading in a new form. Its dangerous. The fear that it generates-you can just imagine. So (hypothetically) in Ecuador, there was this outbreak of an epidemic, and nobody knows a cure. Well, in this story, John has the cure. He has it in a pill form, and if youll take this pill and follow his instructions, soon youll see the symptoms begin to dissipate; and you will see your health begin to return. You can be expected to have a full recovery. Now there are others in Ecuador who see this happening. They become jealous. They see this as a way to make money, so they start to sell or market a placebo, a sugar pill. Theres nothing to it. Its not a drug. Its not medicine. The only benefits would be psychological. So you take this pill, and nothing would happen because its not real. There is no medicine in that. Its not a drug; its just psycho-somatic. Thats all; but people are selling it, and theyre making money. John is watching people die right and left in this epidemic because theyre believing a lie. The people are falling prey to this deceit of people saying this pill is a cure, This will fix your problem. This will enable you to live and not die. He knows that he has the only true cure. He knows it for a scientific fact. Some do-they take it and they get better and get well. Others, for whatever reason-they buy the lie. They take the placebo, and they die. Hes angry; hes angry because hes a good man, and he wants to see people get better. Isnt that right, John? Thats right. He wants to see people get better. Thats why he went into medicine. That's why he became a doctor, and now hes having to watch this entire village parish because people are going after a lie. Would you think he has an ego problem if he went around to people and said, I want you to take this medicine only from me? All of those other doctors are false doctors. Those medicines really dont work. Its a trap; its a deadly trap. If you believe it and you succumb to it, youre going to die. This is the cure. This is the only medicine that treats this problem, so I am begging you-come to me because I have the answer youre seeking. I have the cure to what is ailing you. Would you say, Boy, that Dr. John, he sure is insecure-wanting everybody to come to him? Boy, he sure has an ego problem, that guy. He thinks hes the only show in town. In this scenario, he is. Over here are all of these pretty little pills, right? Each represents fame and possessions, passion, power. Do this and youll be beautiful. Do this and youll be popular. Do this and youll be rich and youll be happy and healthy. Life will be wonderful. But theyre placebos; theyre not real. They dont cure what ails you. The world is relentless, isnt it? The world just keeps beating us over the head with this stuff. In our newspapers, in our magazines, on our billboards, on our televisions, on the radio-its flashing its lights and looking appealing. There is a journalist who I read an article from years ago that I thought was pretty funny. This isnt the funny part. He had a friend who had passed away who was from Russia. It was a close friend, and the friend wanted to be buried in his native land so the funeral was going to be in Russia. He and his American buddies were going to fly to Russia to pay tribute to their friend and attend this Russian Orthodox service. I dont know if its the custom for all Russian Orthodox churches, just the ones in this region or just this church, but the practice was that when you walked by the deceased you would bend down and kiss the deceased on his or her forehead. It was just a sign of respect, a sign of love. Right away, these three Americans see this, and theyre like, No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I am not doing that. I love the guy, but I wouldnt kiss him when he was alive; and Im certainly not going to kiss him now. So they make up their mind and form this little pact that theyre not going to kiss their dead friend. As theyre walking from the casket, the moment of truth is coming. What really makes this difficult is above the casket there is this huge Russian Orthodox priest with big bushy eyebrows. He is looking firm, stern and mean. They come up and he picks up on the fact that theyre not going to kiss [their friend]. He looks at them, and he bows down and says, Kiss. No, Im not going to kiss. Kiss. No, no. We Americans-we dont kiss dead people in America. In Russia, well respect it, but well do this but were not going to kiss. Kiss! Listen, I know how forceful they can be. I sat by a babushka one time on a plane if you heard that story. They can be very forceful. This guy just wont give up, so he gets a little angry and says, Kiss! The guy is like, Okay. He kisses his friend. The next guy kisses, and the next guy kisses. Theyre like, Oh, man. I cant believe we did that! That's a humorous way of conveying what sometimes happens to us. The world is clamoring, Just bend over and kiss. Just embrace. Were like, No, no, I cant do that. I cant do that! but there is within us the flesh that entices. There is a tempter outside of us that seeks to make darkness look like light. There is the relentless bombarding of the world that says, Bend down and kiss. Bend down and worship. Bend down and ascribe worth to these things, and we do. Were like, Man, I cant believe I did that! We come to find out that they dont satisfy like they promised they do. That power corrupts; those possessions dont satisfy, so we end up suckers, duped, fooled, bamboozled-I could go on. So when God says He is a jealous God, it is not as we think jealousy. It is not based on insecurity. It is based on love because God knows that if we bow down to another god, if we bow down to serve another idol-we serve these things-its going to be empty. Its going to be unfulfilled. There is nothing inherently wrong with many of the things here. There is nothing wrong with beauty, but you and I have all seen Hollywood celebrities that will pay thousands of dollars to preserve their youth through cosmetic surgery. Most of them end up looking worse than they did before. They just let things go. We read in the paper all the time people who sacrificed their integrity to acquire one of these things. Its empty. Its not what was promised. God knows that since He is the one who made us and knows how we tick; and He knows what we need and that if we will give our allegiance to Him, He knows well truly experience the fulfillment that we seek-only through Him. So when He says no other gods and when He says dont bow down to an idol, its not based on any insecurity. Its based on love. The jealousy is an anger that is angry at those who would steal away the hearts of His people, getting them to buy a lie. Only He has the cure that we need. Only in Christ do we find what we are looking for. Only in Christ do we have the answer to the sin that besets our souls. That is the Gospel, and Law is foundation is love. The children of Israel did not want to forsake God. That was never their plan. When they went into this region and they started worshipping other gods, it wasnt to forsake God. They just wanted to have God and the other gods too. Im still going to worship the God of Israel. Im still going to worship the God of my fathers, but, you know, its probably not a bad idea to have an ace in the whole, a little something in my back pocket in case. Im going to have God plus Im going to have the other gods too. Thats idolatry. Idolatry is a lack of faith. It is trusting in something or someone other than the living God to supply what we need. What we have to do in this series is we have to do some introspection. We have to make sure that God is on the thrown in our hearts; that there arent idols that were bowing down to; that were not buying in to the placebos the world offers us. We know there is only one cure to what ails us; its only been found in one place, and thats the living God-the God of the Scripture, Lord Jesus Christ. We have to make sure because it is so easy to compromise, it is so easy to buy into the lie, its so easy to give in to the pressure… God is looking after a people who will return His love, whose hearts will belong solely to Him. Thats what this series is about. I hope youll join us. Were going to cover a lot of ground together in the next few weeks. Lets pray together: Father, as I bring this portion of the service to a close, our hearts reflect upon these Commandments. To those who would lack in understanding of Your Word, those who would not dig deeper below the Commandment, when Your Word says You are jealous, they are quick to point a finger and say that You are insecure, that You have an ego problem. Lord, when we understand that the Law is based upon love, we understand that this Commandment is here so that we would not ruin our lives or ruin other lives, that we could know true joy and peace. Father, wed come to embrace it. Wed come to see it for what it is, its value and its words in significance. Lord, till the day we die, these other voices will clamor and compete for our allegiance, commanding us to bow down, to give in, to sacrifice, to pursue that which does not satisfy. Lord, help us to be wiser than that, to rise above that, to see the air in the lie, to be drawn to the Truth that is found in You, Lord Jesus. Lord, help us in this series to break through some walls that have kept us back, to gain victory in areas where we have known defeat, to bring some things to the cross that have waged war against our souls, that we might know the freedom that You desire to bring us in Christ. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.