This morning's message is entitled The 10 Commandments aren't What You Think. Uh, the 10 Commandments are not what you think, and I say that because the 10 Commandments might be the most famous part of the Bible. They're displayed really in courtrooms. They are it's printed on monuments. It's for sure debated in politics of what's acceptable in classrooms and, and in society as a whole. But the question is, while most people know something about the 10 Commandments, do we actually understand what they are and, and what they mean? Let's take a quick, quick poll, quick test. Don't, don't stress, I'm not gonna call on you. Um, but just show of hands, how many of you think you can name all 10 commandments? If you think you can name all 10 commandments, raise your hand. OK. All right. This is a good, good time for this message. All right. Uh, another question. Um, how many of you think you can name the 10 Commandments in order? Remember, lying is 9, so. You don't want to break one in the, OK. So, you're proving my point here that already, and I, this is not a judgment thing. It's, it's a reality that we, we're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, 10 Commandments. OK. But do we actually know what they say? And more importantly, do we actually know what they mean? See, if you're taking notes, I encourage you to write this down, that the 10 Commandments do not save people. They shape people. The 10 Commandments do not save people, they shape people. Now with 20 years of ministry experience, here, what I've seen is that there are two common errors people make when it comes to reading the 10 Commandments. And I would go as far to say that everybody in this room, myself included, regularly makes one of these two errors. Why? Because it's human to do so. OK. Error number 1 here, error number 1 is what I would say religion. And that is, we think if I obey the 10 Commandments, then I will earn God's acceptance. If I obey the 10 Commandments, then I will earn God's acceptance. Now where does this come from? Well, in, we're gonna be looking at Exodus chapter 20, the first time that the 10 Commandments is shared. It's shared several times throughout the Old Testament. But right before Exodus chapter 20, there's Exodus chapter 19 in which Moses has this conversation with God, and it's described as the Mosaic covenant. That basically put that he's going to give a series of laws or commands that if you follow these laws, you will be blessed, and if you don't follow these laws, there will be consequences. And, and that seems healthy and, and makes logical sense at its foundation. But where we make the mistake is that we take those ideas, those rules, and then turn them into performance. In other words, that if I follow the rules, if I live morally, if I keep the commands, then God owes me blessing. And we don't say this part out loud, but we use religion as a way to control God. Right? God, if I, I did this, I, I didn't cuss, I didn't do these things. I, I tucked in my shirt. I didn't wear a hat inside like I did, you know, I don't, I don't drink, smoke, or chew or go with girls who do. Like that was a very old school Baptist thing. Um, and so I see some of my roots like, like you, you have a version of this, right? The problem is, is that as soon as you keep the rules, you start judging other people. Right? And if you don't keep the rules, you feel ashamed, or maybe you feel judged by other people. Church hurt is a very real thing. I know this because over the 7 years of our history of our church at Mission Grove, I've had a lot of conversations with people who struggled with faith, because somebody in the church hurt them along the way. And most commonly that happens when someone uses Christianity or faith as a list of rules or a religion and weaponize religion to hold it over somebody. So when you think that if I obey, God will love me, where that ends up is a place of pride, a place of judgment, a place of spiritual comparison. And so we think that religion or Christianity is performance, that I have to perform to be loved. And some of you, maybe it's not religion, but maybe you grew up in a household where it was that case, right? That's a tough place to be. And so that's mistake number 1, is religion, where you think you have to obey to receive God's approval or acceptance. Mistake number 2 or error number 2, goes over here. Well, actually, I'll stop there before we go to mistake number 2. Here's a way to summarize this mistake, is that the 10 Commandments are not a ladder that we use to climb up to God. Right? We think, oh, I'm climbing up this ladder, right? I'm getting closer to God. You know, I, I have my reading the Bible streak. I, I, I have good attendance at church. I do these things. Therefore, God, you must give me what I want. See how quickly we do that? And maybe not publicly, but subconsciously you're thinking that. How do I know? Because how many times has something bad happened in your life and your first thought is, God, how could you? I do this and we start again listing our performance. As a way to control God's blessing to us, right? So there's one mistake. The other mistake goes on the other side of it is what I would describe as rebellion. So religion defines life and identity by keeping all the rules. Rebellion goes and defines life by breaking all the rules. And they say, well, I'm free. I have grace. Therefore, I do not need the law at all. Right? And we start making stuff up. I, I remember, uh, playing basketball by myself in the driveway as a kid, and, and maybe some of you who back when kids played outside, they're like, they, like kids, so you know, there are, there are times growing up where people went outside and did things. Um, anyway, sorry, I, sorry, it's a little pain. OK. Um, and I remember I would do this and I would, I would pretend like I'm in the NBA Finals, right? And I would go, 10 seconds, 543, and I'd shoot it, and then I'd miss it and go. But the clock is still going and I'd pick up the ball, right? And then I'd go, and then I'd miss it like, oh, but there was a foul, like there's a clock malfunction. And then like go grab, did anyone do that? Right? Like, and then, and then you finally hit it. 01, wow, we won the game, right? Like, and I would change the rules so that I could win the game every time, right? We do this in life too, don't we? We say, well, I don't wanna follow all the rules, therefore, the rules don't apply. I win, right? I can do whatever I want. I'm free. OK, but you're only free if you're living in the context for which you've been created. Right, if I had a little fish bowl on stage, and I take the goldfish out of the fish bowl, and I throw it onto the stage, you go, you're free. Like you would report me to like, for animal cruelty, right? Because no, the fish is not free. The fish is out of water. It's not in the context for which it's been created. In the same way, you are only free when you live within the context for which God made you for. And so this idea here is that we get hurt by rules or somebody using weaponizing faith. And so then we get saved or we come over here like, well, then I can do what I want. God loves me, right? God loves me, so I'm gonna, I'm just gonna do whatever I want. When in reality, we just don't like people telling us what to do. Right? We don't. We think, well, I can do whatever I want. The problem is when you reject God, you're not free. You reject God and you actually just start serving other gods. Right? Now, in Egypt, the gods had statues, they had names, they had protocols, right? Today, our gods don't have statues. But our gods do have screens, right? Our gods may be a little more indirect and we don't like to talk about it like, no, they don't control me. But our gods look a lot like career, approval, success, money, pleasure. Well, if you just buy this new car, if you just get this upgraded device, if you just get the promotion, if you just get to fill in the blank, then, then you will be satisfied. And so people make the mistake of either religion. Or rebellion. That's why the story of the prodigal sons, plural, is actually one that still resonates today. One son tried to define himself by rebelling against his father, went and partied his savings away, ends up coming back. The other son tried to have his identity approval of his father by keeping all the roles. That's why when the prodigal son comes back, and the father in the story ends up throwing a party for the son that comes back, the older brother gets really mad. Like, wait, you're throwing a party for him? But I kept all the rules. I did all this stuff. This didn't count. And it's like, no, you've had access to this the whole time. Right, you are my child, because you're my child and I love you, not because you did. Or acted a certain way. Right? We either focus on religious performance or pursuit of selfish pleasure, neither of which is gonna satisfy. So if the 10 Commandments are not a ladder, what are they? The 10 Commandments really serve as a mirror in which we see ourselves. It's a mirror in which we see ourselves. Uh, you know, I've now crossed over into the 40s. I officially feel old, right? Like I walked into a store or I walked into a setting, a public setting where there's music or a band playing, like, ah, it's too loud. I was like, no, I crossed over. Um, I've also reached the age where like I'll walk by a place and I'll see a mirror and sometimes I'm surprised at myself, like, oh, who's that old man? Oh, it's me. Like there's a lot of gray coming in, you know, there's like little things I'm like, oh man. And uh what's not cool about mirrors is that they don't lie to you, right? And so you're like, no, I'm fine. Like I don't have it. And then you see like, oh, OK, there's another gray, there's another gray, right? And you see yourself. That's what the 10 Commandments are, is that it, it holds up a mirror. That shows you who you really are. Right? You don't go to the doctor to get sick. You go to the doctor to reveal what you have, right? We'll talk in a few moments how it's a diagnostic tool, but for right now, understand that when you see. The 10 Commandments, it really acts as a mirror that shows us who we are. Now there's 10 commandments here, there's more commands in the Bible, but we typically refer to the 10 that Moses received from God on Mount Sinai. Now Mount Sinai was the same mountain that God had a conversation with Moses in a burning bush, saying as a sign that you're gonna set my people free, you're gonna come back to this very mountain and we're gonna have a whole another conversation. And so now we're a few months removed from their escape from Egypt. Last week, Pastor Dan shared. How in those uh wilderness seasons, they were not really just setbacks, they're really training seasons in which God can force you to, to grow in your faith when you have to fully depend on him. And so now he's on the mountain, receiving these commandments from God. So to summarize the 10 commandments really is two groups. So commandments 1 through 4 is how to love God. And then commandments 5 through 10 describe how to love one another. Right? Love God, love others. If it sounds familiar, it's because this is how exactly how Jesus summarized the commandments. OK? Here we go. Matthew chapter 22, starting in verse 34. But when the Pharisees heard that they had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, even in Bible time, lawyers got a bad rap, right? Leave it to the lawyer to ask the question, right? And so, uh, don't get mad at me, it's in the Bible. Um, and a lawyer asked him a question to test Jesus. He said, Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? And Jesus said to him, that you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment, and the second is like it that you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. Hey. Think of it this way, loving God is like breathing in. Loving others is breathing out. They're connected, they're linked. You have to have both. You can't just walk through life going. Right? That's the person that goes to church on Sunday, but it's kind of a jerk on Monday. You know what I mean? Like you need both. Or you have other people who's like, well, I just love people. OK, but they have no relationship with God. That's the person who breaths out. But never received the love of God in their life. And so you need both. There's a vertical. Loving God, and there's horizontal, loving others, right? There's this picture of that, OK? So, if all of the 10 Commandments can really be summed up as love God, love others, what we can see is that the 10 Commandments really serves as a diagnostic tool. Over the last couple of months, uh, my two boys got some sports injuries that required an X-ray. All right? Why do you get an X-ray? Well, you get an X-ray to diagnose what's happening on the inside. Like, can you confirm, is there a bone break? Is there a chip in the bone? Is there something here like, if it's not, even if it's not an X-ray, think of it as like an MRI machine or, or another diagnostic tool that is used to describe the reality of your situation. Right? When you hold up the 10 Commandments, it's like getting a spiritual X-ray of your heart. And so why, why do we read them? Why does it still matter? Well, this spiritual X-ray really reveals 4 things, and this won't be on the screen, uh, but I wanna share this with you. Number 1, the 10 Commandments reveal the heart of God. How do you know? The characteristics of God. Well, you know what he values, and you know what he values based on what he tells you what to do, right? So it reveals the heart of God. Number 2, the 10 Commandments reveals the sin of man. How do you know something's a sin until you understand that the policy has been put into place, right? The rule's been put into place. That's why like if you've ever been driving out in the middle of nowhere, you're not quite sure what the speed limit is. So you have two kinds of people in that moment, by the way. You have people who don't know what the speed limit is, which means, well, I can go as fast as I want. Or there are people who don't know what the speed limit is and so they slow down just to be a little extra cautious, right? And usually those people marry each other. This is true, OK. OK, so the 10 Commandments reveal the heart of God, the sin of man. Number 3, it shows us what love looks like. Right? It's all about relationship. Love God, love people. Well, what does healthy love look like? It gives us an understanding of how to love somebody well. So it shows the heart of God, the sin of man, what love looks like. And then the last thing is it, it shows our need for a savior. Ultimately, the 10 Commandments point us to Jesus. They're a diagnostic tool. Uh, when I was younger, I would go around in public places, and I would share my faith with people and have regular conversations. And, and the most common thing outside of somebody saying they believe in Jesus, when I'd ask them the question, if God was standing hypothetically at the gate of heaven, and he said, why should I let you in? What would you say? The most common response, can you guess? Well, I'm a good person, right? I'm a good person. And so, then I said, well, do you mind if I ask you a few questions to see if that's true? I said, sure. I said, OK, um, have you ever told a lie? And they're like, well, yeah, I mean, everyone's told a lie before. I was like, OK, um, have you ever taken anything from somebody else, like, even as a kid, like a piece of candy, a pencil from a classmate, have you ever stolen anything? Well, yeah, of course, everyone's done that. Like, OK, uh, now, I'm gonna. Let me frame the question. I'm hoping the answer is no, but have you ever murdered anyone? I usually take a step back when I ask that question, just in case, right? You gotta be ready. Um, is it, no, it's like, OK, but did you know that Jesus in the New Testament said, well, if you hate somebody, it's like committing murder in your heart. Have you ever hated somebody? Well, yeah, OK. Um, and if I'm talking with a guy, I'll say like, well, have you ever had any thoughts of lust? Well, yeah, I'm a guy. Like, OK, cool. Um, you told me you're a good person, right? OK, in 30 seconds. You just admitted to me. That you are a lying, stealing, murderous, lustful person in your heart. And I don't even know you. I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, yeah, but I'm not, I was like, like you see how quickly we go down the path. And now I always confirm after, look, I get it. Like all of us break the 10 Commandments. So I'm not better than you, you're not better than me. Like, that's the thing is that it's a diagnostic tool. It actually shows us how sinful we really are. OK. And so let's go ahead and take a little spiritual X-ray together for the next 1015 minutes. I wanna read through Exodus 20. And we're gonna talk through what are the questions that we should be asking ourselves when we examine, do we know what it means to love God and to love others? So let's go ahead and pick it up here in Exodus chapter 20 verse 1. And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Pause. This is so important, and we miss this. Especially Christians miss this. Do you know why? When did God give the 10 Commandments, before or after he rescued them out of Egypt? After, right? The reason that's important is that it shows us that grace comes first. He did not give them the 10 Commandments, while enslaved to say, OK, if you follow these rules, and you keep enough of them, then I'm going to rescue you. He actually rescues them. Has a relationship with them, with his power, with his promise, leads them out, provides a way when there is no other way. And then he's gonna give them these rules. Why? To flourish and thrive in their relationship and in their living and following him, right? Even in the Old Testament, it was not about performance. It was about grace, salvation, faith, and now I'm gonna give you these rules as boundaries to help you thrive and flourish. Don't miss that. Rescue and relationship comes before the rules. You don't say in your household, right, when you have a newborn baby. OK, well, if you follow these rules, then I will love you. Right? You have this little baby, it's so cute, goo goo ga ga, right? Like all the things. And then, and then as the children grow up, you give more rules. Why? Because you want them to flourish. But the relationship is already there. Don't miss that. Right? That's why these are not performative. These are about flourishing. Do you know what happens if you have no boundaries with lots of water coming down? You know what, what, you know what they call that? A flood Right? That's what happens if you have no guardrails in your life, you have no boundaries in your life, you would just have chaos and destroy everything in its path. That's why don't be intimidated. Oh, they're just trying to. Make me follow all these rules, so no, you want them to live. Right? That's why when you're teaching somebody to drive, you're going to give them keys, but you're like, OK, drive on this side of the road. I'd stay on the road. Right, cause you can get where you need to go, OK? All right. Let's keep going here. All right, commandment number one, you shall have no other gods before me. Now this one's important because we have to ask ourselves, what do you rely on for ultimate security and identity? Have no other gods before him, is this idea that the wording there is means before me is in my presence, meaning God is not first in a line of many gods. God is first as in preeminent or only God. That's why Jesus is ascribed in preeminence in Colossians chapter 1, verses 15 to 20. God doesn't want to be first. He wants to be only. And the reason I think this commandment is first, is because if you break any of the other ones, you've also broken the first one. Cause if you think about it, that's why you do the things that you wanna do, which we'll get to like stealing, hate, lying. Why? Because you have put yourself in the God position. And say, well, I need this. I want this. So I don't need to tell the truth because this helps me. I can take what I don't want because this helps me. I can sleep with who I want, because this is what I wanna do. And so when you break any of the other commandments, you're also breaking the first one, because you are not recognizing God for who he is, right? Have no gods before me. He's only, he's first, OK? Commandment number 2, let's keep reading. It says that you shall not make for yourself a carved image. Or of any likeness or anything that is in heaven above, or is in earth beneath, or that which is in the water underneath. That you shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I am the Lord your God, am a jealous God. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers of on the children to the 3rd and 4th generation of those who hate me. So, but showing steadfast love to the thousands of those who love me and keep my commands. So the commandment number 1, no other gods before me. Commandment number 2 is that you shall have no idols. Now, again, there were statues in that day to Egyptian gods, right? Even in the New Testament that talks about in the book of Acts, where people were worshiping gods built with human hands. There's actually kind of a funny story in Acts where they had to nail down the idols because as the people were trying to pray to them, they were falling over. And it sounds crazy. Why would you worship a God that you built with your own hands? OK. Well, again, our gods don't have statues, they have screens, right? And how often we give them credence, career, approval, pleasure, money, titles, right? He says no. Don't have any gods before me. Don't make any idols. What's also fascinating here is this is don't make any images, right? Why is that important? Because in Genesis one, what does it say? Let us make man in our image. In other words, God's saying, don't make images of God that you pretend to worship when I have made you in my image. Understand that you have been made in the image of God, that you are a reflection of me. So worship, not creation, but the Creator. That's why in Romans chapter 3 verse 20, people are saying like, no, no, no, they started worshiping other things. They replaced God with the thing that God created. Don't mess up the order, right? Commandment number 1, no gods before him. Commandment number 2, no idols, right? Uh, what do you imagine will make your life complete? What do you maybe subconsciously worshiping? Because if you don't worship God, capital G, you're gonna replace him with a lowercase g. And sometimes you put yourself in that position, saying don't, don't make idols, OK? Let's keep reading. Verse 7, that you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Now, people equate this to, uh, just don't use the Lord's name. Like church is the one place where it's acceptable, acceptable for you to say, oh my God, right? Cause you're talking to him. Um, but if you actually read the Psalms, their prayers actually is they say, oh my God, cause they're saying like, but they're talking to him. Um, we say in modern culture, don't say, oh my God, because you're, you're, you're just being flippant with the presence of God. Don't be flippant with God. Uh, uh, it's not healthy to cuss and curse and stuff either, right? Cause then you go to the motive behind it, like, why are you speaking the way you're speaking? Does it honor God? Does it reflect him? But this actually goes further than just how you speak. It goes further because what he's saying here is, do you use God to serve your own agenda? How many people have done evil in the name of God? They take religion and they weaponize it as a power control, a power play over somebody else. This is where a lot of people have, have left church over hurt because somebody took the Lord's name in vain, meaning instead of submitting yourself to God's agenda, they did what they wanted, and they excused it by saying God gave them approval to do so. See how bad that can get kind of how quickly that can go bad. 1, don't, don't have any gods before him. 2, don't make any idols, right? You're not worshiping. Number 3, don't use the Lord's name in vain. Like, yes, it's not healthy to cuss, it's, it's not, it's not helpful to use that. It's not, it's not good to be flippant with the name of God. But also don't use God to just affirm your own agenda, right? OK. Number 4, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. 6 days you shall labor and do all of your work, but on the 7th day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. And on it, you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in 6 days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the 7th day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Now we don't have time to go fully into Sabbath. Just understand that in the created order, there is a rhythm in which you work and you rest, work and you rest. Now, in American culture, we tend to err on the side of work, work, work, work, work, like just, if I just work harder all the time, but again, we put ourselves in that God position, right? So it's not healthy. Now in recent times, now people emphasize Sabbath, which is good, but now they're like, well, I just need a Sabbath, I need a Sabbath, I need a Sabbath, OK. But understand there's also 6 days of work, right? It's not 6 days of Sabbath, and then, uh, and then 1 day of work. Like some people will say Sabbath when really it's just being lazy, right? Um, but the other side of it though, let's be honest, is like we just work and we just think, well, if I just work harder, Then I'll get what I need. OK? It's a diagnostic tool. What do you feel like you cannot stop doing? Well, if I don't fill in the blank, then this will happen. Again, who's in control there, God or you? Right. And are you busier than God was? God created the universe and took a day. Uh, Jesus saved the world and regularly got away and prayed. I mean, there's a whole set of teachings on this that we could dive deeper into. But for today's message, just understand, are you, do you have a regular rhythm in your life in which you pause, you rest, you reset to focus on God? First four commands. No gods before me. Don't make any idols. Don't take the Lord's name in vain, and make sure you keep the pattern of the Sabbath. Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Sabbath is a gift from God to help us focus back on our priorities, right? And who he is. Right? No gods before me, no idols. Don't use my name in vain. Keep a Sabbath. All this designed to help you love the Lord your God with all our hearts, soul, mind and strength. OK? Now, let's get real practical and what does it mean to love others. Verse 12, honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God has given you. This is the first command that we see here connected with a promise or a principle. OK? Honor your father and mother. This is important because we say respect must be earned, OK. But honor can be given. Now, some of you didn't come from healthy households. OK. But there are even within healthy boundaries as adults now, you have to understand what, what does that look like to still honor them. To hold value before them. Why is this the first relational command given? I think because in the framework and the foundation of a home, understanding from the very beginning that there are authority structures, that we have to have humility, that we have to obey when it follows God. And there's a place in order for things that if you learn as a child in your household, what it means to obey and follow, it sets up well for you to then also follow God, right? Cause there are authority figures in your life. If you struggle honoring your parents, it's gonna be really tough for you to honor and follow God, isn't it? So there's connection. Honor your father and mother. We learned right from the beginning, this idea of submission of of humility and a following. OK? Let's keep going. Verse 13, you shall not murder. Not a lot of explanation needed there, right? Except when did murder come into play? Cain killed Abel. We made it to the 3rd and 4th person ever created, and we broke this rule. That's how bad we are with hate. At one point, Cain killed 25% of humanity. Like, we don't even make it like sin enters in Genesis 3. And by Genesis 4, we are murdering people. No wonder we live in a culture now that just spews hate and hate and hate, right? Jesus comes in further and says, don't commit a murder. Yes, but don't hate your brother in your heart. That's why when there are divisions among you, yes, stand for justice, fight against evil, but understand that your faith is bigger than a political party. Your faith is bigger and, and how you speak, how you treat people, the understanding this idea that don't place yourself in a position of God saying, well, I deserve to hate this person, because why? Because they, they wronged me. Right. So don't, yes, don't murder. Why? Because life is valuable. But 2, don't, don't just freely hate either, right? That's why it goes beyond that, OK. Next one, you shall not commit adultery. You shall not commit adultery. Uh, here it shows the value of relationship. Because even in the Old Testament where there's descriptive stories of people having multiple um wives and other things that seem weird, right? And every single case, by the way, that went bad. It's not saying do this, it's saying no, don't do this. Like it, it went poorly every single time. So by the New Testament, we don't have examples of this lived out. And in fact, it says that marriage is supposed to be representation of Christ in the church. And so beyond just this passage of committing adultery, of seeking pleasure over a covenant relationship that you have, what the Bible teaches across the board is that any sexual activity outside of a relationship between one man and one woman in the context of marriage is sin. And so lust is a big problem, especially in a culture that not only accepts it, but actually elevates it. Right, guy says no, that's not honoring the relationship that's not how I made it that's not how I made you. Let's keep going. You shall not steal. Why is that important? Well, let me ask you the question here. What do you feel you must have no matter what? Right? What do you feel like you have or what you need in that where you need to take from somebody else? You're saying that I need this and I'm more valuable than you, and I don't trust God to provide for me. Therefore, I'm gonna take matters into my own hand, and I'm gonna take something from you and give it to me so that we come back here. And so it's wrong to steal. Why? Because it breaks the relationship. Verse 16, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Next one here lying. Let me ask you the question, what truth would damage your image that you don't want people to see? Right? That's why we lie. We lie because we're protecting our own image, aren't we? And we don't wanna have, we'll say sometimes it's to protect the feelings of another person, but in reality, we don't like how we feel if that person hears that, right? And so we don't tell the truth because we're ashamed or we're hiding or our walls up or we have another motive. And sometimes, and if you've lived this, you understand what I'm talking about, that sometimes the lie is actually 10 times worse than the actual sin itself. Because it breaks the relationship, doesn't it? Something, someone does something wrong, then they lie and cover it up. And then that sin gets found out, and now you're left guessing or not trusting that person for a future time, right? That's why lying is so detrimental to relationships because it breaks the trust, right? That's why honesty and truth telling is so important. Let's keep going. OK. Verse 17, you shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. Right? Anyone ever thought they had a great day until they started scrolling? Anyone thought they had a great trip with friends and family until they saw somebody with a better trip? Or a better family, right? Or a healthier thing. It's like, man, they're doing all like, we get jealous. Why? Because now we think we're putting someone else over us and we put ourselves down, or we think we're better than neither of which is a healthy spot. Right? Love God, love others. You see how this starts to pan out. OK, let's keep going. Verse 18, it says, and when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off. And they said to Moses, hey, you speak to us and we will listen, but we do not let God speak to us lest we die. Like even from the beginning, there's this, this pattern of needing a mediator between man and God. It's all set up for Jesus here. Moses said to the people, do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin. So again, these have been designed for you to live and to flourish. There's rescue, there's relationship. Then he says, don't have any gods before me. Don't make any idols. Don't take the Lord's name in vain. Keep the Sabbath. Why? So that you can love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. OK? Now, in your relationships, honor your parents. Understand that there is submission and humility, right? Don't, don't commit murder. Don't hate in your heart. Don't commit adultery, right? Uh guard that lust in your heart there too. Don't steal. Don't take what's not yours. Don't lie about it, right? Tell the truth. Don't covet and be jealous of other people's things. Why? Because those, all those things break relationship. And so these 10 commandments actually serve as a diagnosis of how we're doing, because the 10 commandments do not save people, they shape people. I said, OK, John, but that was Old Testament. That was Old Testament. OK. Look at these words of Jesus. It says this in Matthew chapter 5 verse 17. Jesus is speaking, and he says, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. He said I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. They show the heart of God. They reveal the sin of man. They show us what love looks like, and they ultimately point us to Jesus, because no one in their own strength can keep all of these commandments. That it's only what Jesus Christ did for us, that he provides the way. And now through the power of the resurrection, the power of the Holy Spirit, we can now live and love people the way that Jesus has called us to. Right And so as we finish this morning, I want to challenge you with 3 things. Number 1, Will you let the commandments reveal your heart? Don't just sit there and go like, well, I'm a good person. OK, which of these 10 commandments did you break today? Cause guess what, we break them every single day. May you understand when you look up at the mirror each morning and say, God, examine my heart. Show me where I need to confess sin. Whether in my relationship with you or my relationship with people. Let the commandments reveal your heart. #2. Let Jesus rescue your soul. You don't have to have a life of performance. You don't have to live a life of rebellion, but rather, because God has made a way when there was no other way. We are no longer slaves to sin, but we are sons and daughters of a living God. who died on the cross to pay for your sins, that rose again, defeated death, covered our sins, gives us the Holy Spirit, offers us forgiveness so that now we can live in response to what God's already done, and to live out and to love people the way that Jesus loved us. We don't need to be afraid of the 10 Commandments. We don't need to justify the 10 Commandments. Well, it's not relevant. Yeah, it's, it's, it's relevant. Always. Always will be. Why? Because it shows the heart of God and it points people to him, that we need a savior. Last thing then is, if you let the commandments, commandments reel your heart, you let Jesus rescue your soul. The last thing there is to let God's love reshape your life. Do you love people the way these commandments tell us to? Right, cause if we live these out as people of grace, as people of faith. It changes how you speak of people. It changes how you treat people. And what we start to see is a growing movement and revival of God. See more people place their faith in Jesus. Why? Because when you see a life that's been transformed by God, it changes how you see things. There's hope for all people through Jesus. Amen. Let God reshape your love this week. Let's pray. Dear Heaven Fathers, thank you for who you are and what you've done. God, thank you. The 10 Commandments are not a ladder that we got to climb to earn your approval. It's not performative. It's not used to be a weapon to to judge others, but rather God, the commandments are a mirror in which we see who you are. We see our own sin. We see what love looks like, and it points us to your, uh, you as our savior, Jesus. Because you lived a life that we could not live. You died a death that we could not pay. God, may we live out a life through your grace, through your spirit, and through your power that we can love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and love others the way that you have loved us. Help us follow these commands in your spirit, and your power today. In your sons and we pray. Amen.