Good morning. Good Good to see you guys. Good morning to everyone tuning in online. Today, we kick off a new series, the 10 commandments as God's blueprint for human flourishing. We're calling that series 10 x.
Rev. Terence Gray:When you think about the 10 Commandments you might think about something that's old or ancient or antiquated. I know for me, a lot of times when I thought about the 10 Commandments growing up I would remember this movie that my mom used to watch, the 10 Commandments with Charleston. Heston, check out that beard man. He's he's working that beard. Right.
Rev. Terence Gray:So I thought about it like that. Maybe this is something that's not too relevant to my modern day. And some of you might be thinking, what do these ancient teachings have to do with my modern twenty first century life? What does this have to say about the world that we live in with artificial intelligence and confusion around gender and human sexuality with global politics and all of these complicated matters in the world? How can this ancient text speak into our modern world?
Rev. Terence Gray:Some individuals came to the conclusion that the 10 Commandments were antiquated and dated and couldn't really apply to our modern world. And so a group online solicited submissions for a new 10 Commandments. And they've been unaffectionately named the 10 non commandments. I wanna look at those 10 non commandments. Be open minded and willing to alter your beliefs with new evidence.
Rev. Terence Gray:Strive to understand what is most likely to be true, not to believe what you wish to be true. The scientific method is the most reliable way of understanding the natural world. Every person has the right to have control over their body. God is not necessary to be a good person or to live a full and meaningful life. Be mindful of the consequences of all your actions and recognize that you must take responsibility for them.
Rev. Terence Gray:Now this was kind of unfair, I think they kind of stole this one from Jesus. Treat others as you would rather them to treat you and can reasonably expect them to want to be treated. Think about their perspective. We have the responsibility to consider others including future generations. There's no one right way to live, leave the world a better place than you found it.
Rev. Terence Gray:Now I'm not saying that that stuff is bad in and of itself, these are the 10 modern commandments that have been coalesced by this group. But I think the significant distinction between God's commandments that he delivers and these two modern non these these modern non commandments is that the 10 commandments begin and end with God and the modern non commandments kind of begin and begin and end with self. This is kind of the spirit of the age. This is kind of how we do things. And the question I want to propose for us as we kick off this series is how is that working for us?
Rev. Terence Gray:How's that working for us beginning and ending with self centering life on self, saying that I can be a good person in and of myself and pull this off myself. How is that? How's that working with us? If you're new to faith, I want to invite you to go on this journey with us to step into this with a mind of curiosity. These ancient truths known as the 10 commandments weren't always called the 10 commandments for a long time.
Rev. Terence Gray:They were called the 10 words. So if you're new to faith or if you're skeptical skeptical, I want to invite you to explore these 10 words and see if these 10 words have something meaningful for you in your life today. And if you're already familiar with the 10 commandments with these 10 words, I want to invite you to come to see them with fresh eyes. I invite you to go on this journey with us over the next ten weeks as we look at these these 10 words to live by. But before we go any further, let's pray.
Rev. Terence Gray:Father, we come before you in the mighty name of Jesus, thanking you for your word. God, is blessed. It is from of old, but God, it is very applicable for our lives today. So I pray that throughout the series and throughout the day that your word would breathe into our lives. God, wake us up where we may be asleep.
Rev. Terence Gray:Shake us out of our comfort of if we're building our comfort on the wrong things. God, I pray that you would move me out of the way, that I would decrease, that you would increase and be made much of in the lives of your people. It's in the name of Jesus Christ that we pray together. Amen. During my junior year of college at the University of Memphis, I took a philosophy class from a professor who kind of liked to poke at Christians.
Rev. Terence Gray:If he knew there were some Christians in the class, some people who followed Jesus, he got a kick out of poking at us a little bit. One time he brought in someone to deconstruct and disprove the resurrection according to his perspective on this thing, and so he used to like to get us hot under the collar and pick on us a little bit. One time on our final exam, he added a question that agitated a little bit. The question was, what do Christians believe about getting to heaven? How do Christians believe that they are to get to heaven?
Rev. Terence Gray:And I thought to myself, oh, you messing with the wrong one professor. I got the answer for this. You don't know who you're messing with. So I wrote down something. I said, we're saved by grace through faith, not by works.
Rev. Terence Gray:We're saved by placing our faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ and his life and his death and his resurrection. We don't put our faith in our own works, we put our faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Boom. I'm like, I know I got this answer right. You don't know who you messing with, professor.
Rev. Terence Gray:I didn't know who I was messing with. I got the grade back. It was wrong according to my professor. He says, no. Christians believe that they get to heaven by following and keeping the 10 commandments.
Rev. Terence Gray:So he tells me that I'm wrong. And so I booked some office hours with him, and I go to his office later that that day, and we go back and forth. We debate a little bit about, you know, how are Christians supposed to get to heaven according to their theology, according to the books. And we go back and forth and he changes changes the the the grade and ended up I end up passing that final. I end up passing that class and the rest is kind of history.
Rev. Terence Gray:But honestly, as I look back on that story now, I look back on it with less agitation and more compassion because my professor didn't just misunderstand the 10 Commandments, I think he misunderstood something about the character of God. He imagined God sitting back grading people as they try to keep these 10 Commandments. And if they weren't able to keep the 10 Commandments and do these works, then they would be disqualified from having a relationship with him. And that's a dangerous yet subtle misunderstanding of the character of God that even we can slip into as Christians. See, the biblical story is the other way around.
Rev. Terence Gray:Grace comes first, rescue comes first, then God teaches his people how to live. So let's pick up our story today in Exodus chapter 34. This is where the 10 commandments are brought before the people. It says, then the Lord said to Moses, write down these words for in accordance with these words, I have made a covenant, meaning an agreement with you and with Israel. Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water.
Rev. Terence Gray:He was fasting and spending time with God. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the 10 commandments. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. Moses spends this time with God. He comes back with this inspired word, and it's a word of freedom.
Rev. Terence Gray:This scene takes place after Israel has been rescued in miraculous fashion. By the time that they receive the 10 Commandments, Israel is out of Egypt. But here's the problem, Egypt isn't fully out of Israel. Their bodies are free, but their hearts and minds have been shaped by generations of slavery. They were free, but this freedom was new, unfamiliar, kinda awkward.
Rev. Terence Gray:They're not used to this. And that's the context in which God gives the 10 commandments. So here's what we know. The 10 commandments are not how we live in order to receive salvation, they are how God's people live because they have received salvation. This is how we live because we're free.
Rev. Terence Gray:In other words, we'll just put it like this. This is how free people live. This is how free people live. And this is something that the Israelites were learning. Generations after generations in bondage.
Rev. Terence Gray:Generations after generations of not resting and now they are told to keep a Sabbath. Generations after generations where they've been oppressed and beat up and beat down and now they're hearing about do not murder because lives have value because they're given from God. This is how free people live. This is new for the Israelites. See, Israel was constantly tempted to go back to Egypt.
Rev. Terence Gray:It was familiar. It was what they knew. They had grown accustomed to the practices of that day. And so they were really always tempted to go back, and you and I can face the same temptation. There's always the option of going back to our old ways, especially if we feel like God isn't moving fast enough.
Rev. Terence Gray:Israel went back to the gods of Egypt. They they made a golden calf and they bowed down and they worshiped it because they felt like Moses was taking too long. God wasn't moving fast enough. And so they said, you know what? You know what?
Rev. Terence Gray:We're gonna go back. We're gonna go back to these old practices. This is the contemporary crowd, so maybe you've heard of the show I'm about to bring up or maybe you haven't. But does anybody remember the show, the Andy Griffith Show? Anybody?
Rev. Terence Gray:I grew up watching that. I would whistle it, but I'm not going to do that. Somebody applauded for Andy Griffith. We got some fans. Well, was a character on the Andy Griffith Show named Ordus Campbell.
Rev. Terence Gray:And if you know anything about old Ordus, he would get intoxicated. And when he got intoxicated, he would go to the prison himself. He would take himself to the precinct, grab those keys, lock the door, and lock himself in, and he'd stay in there overnight until he sobered up the next morning, he let himself out, and then he'd go out, live that same lifestyle again, get intoxicated, go back to the jail, and lock himself up, and he kept doing that. The thing is, he had the key. So he had the key and so he had the means of freedom.
Rev. Terence Gray:He had the means to get himself out, but Ordus was using his freedom to manage his bondage. He had been given freedom, but he didn't use that freedom to stay free. He used that freedom to manage his bondage. He had access to the key, but he was merely using it. He wasn't really living in the freedom that had been granted to him.
Rev. Terence Gray:And sometimes we can do the same thing spiritually. Spiritually, sometimes we do the same thing. Every time that we choose rebellion, we choose sin, we choose to go in the opposite path of God's will, it's like we're saying we wanna go back. Even if we are in Christ, even if we become a Christian and we've been living with the Lord, we say, I'm just familiar with this. And so sometimes we go we go back because this is what we're used to.
Rev. Terence Gray:This is what we know. And even though we have access to freedom, even though we have access to the key, we only use the key to manage the bondage. But for some of us, we're like, this is what we know. This is what feels comfortable. This is where I think I belong.
Rev. Terence Gray:And now I am stuck in these handcuffs, and I need some help. Sean, help me out. Sean has another key. Alright. I gotta get on this side.
Rev. Terence Gray:You gotta get on this side. See, this is what happens. We get stuck, then I have to phone a friend. Get us out and get us out of that one. Alright.
Rev. Terence Gray:Thank you so much. And so I'm grateful for Sean. Thank you, Sean. But what if I wanna keep going back to my what if this just feels so comfortable? This is what I know.
Rev. Terence Gray:And I know I got Grace over here, thanks Grace. Thank you so much for this Grace. I know I can always just call you to help me manage it. Thank you. Thank you.
Rev. Terence Gray:And what if I did it again? Thank you. I did see a drop in for him. I'm stuck. I'm still stuck.
Rev. Terence Gray:Alright. Let me get myself out of this thing. But we can we can go back and forth like that just managing. We have the freedom. We have the gift of grace.
Rev. Terence Gray:But if we're not careful, can just use that gift of grace as a means to manage, to manage our bondage. For some of us that bondage feels like home, but God wants you to know that he has saved you and designed you for more than this. He wants you to live like a free person. Paul says in Galatians, it is for freedom that you've been set free. You're more than this.
Rev. Terence Gray:God has more than this for you. As we come to our first commandment, God is addressing free people, but they don't yet know how to live as free people. The Israelites are gathered out outside of Mount Sinai, and they hear this. And God spoke all these words. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Rev. Terence Gray:You shall have no other gods before me. And this was audible. This was God's voice speaking to these people who are getting their identities renewed and they're hearing this audibly. He says, I am the Lord your God. Knowing who your God is is life altering.
Rev. Terence Gray:It's like knowing who your father is. See, they're not slaves anymore. They're not orphans anymore. Their their god is being revealed to them. And here's what we know.
Rev. Terence Gray:True flourishing occurs as we mature in our understanding of who God is and who God is not. We need to know both in order to flourish. We need to know who God is, and we need to know who God is not. And for the Israelites, this would have been very confusing as they lived in this society with many gods and pharaohs over them, and people are telling them what to believe, and they're confused about who they are and who they belong to. It's important for their growth and their maturity.
Rev. Terence Gray:It's important for their flourishing to understand who God is and who God is not. Until we come to terms with who God is, friends, life just won't make sense. We'll perpetually feel off mission, off base. We won't feel right. We'll feel like there's a rock in our shoes.
Rev. Terence Gray:Something just we'll feel off balance. We may even feel and be successful in the world's eyes, but until we come to terms with who God is, we won't flourish and live the life we were designed for. And we also must know who God is not. Theologian J. I.
Rev. Terence Gray:Packer says this. He says, our hearts shrink to the size of our gods, lowercase g. And a small god means a small heart and a small life. When we take anything in this world and build our lives around it, even a good thing, we will shrink down to that thing, and our lives become all about that thing, and we begin to live a small life, not the life that God has designed us to live. Earlier in your walk with the Lord, if you just come to faith or you can look back to when you first came to faith in those early days, the temptations may seem big and obvious.
Rev. Terence Gray:The devil just kinda puts a big slice of cheese on the mousetrap and you know not to touch that slice of cheese and the temptations become kinda clear and obvious and you're like, I'm not touching that, I know where that leads. But over time, some of the things competing with God for your heart become more subtle. Our idols can become more respectable over time. Ministry be can become an ugly and hideous idol, ask the Pharisees. Volunteering at church can even become an idol if it's not surrendered to God.
Rev. Terence Gray:If I'm placing my identity in that thing, it can become an idol. My preaching is filthy rags if it's not surrendered to God. Parenting can become an idol. You read every child development book and watch all of the Instagram reels determined to raise the perfect kid, but even that can become an idol. That's how subtle this gets.
Rev. Terence Gray:Even these good things can compete for number one in our hearts for God. Generosity can become an idol if we use our generosity to control other people or make them feel indebted to us. Subtle. So we have to be careful and always be bringing our hearts before God to examine our hearts and say, God, has something taken your place in here? Has something else become number one in here?
Rev. Terence Gray:Knock knock knock. Is there another God in here? If so, I need to put it in its place. I need to know that that thing is not God in order to flourish. True flourishing occurs as we mature in our understanding of who God is and who God is not.
Rev. Terence Gray:And God says to Israel, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of slavery. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of slavery. He reminds them about the chains. And this isn't to shame them, but to remind them of who they are and who they're not. They're not slaves anymore.
Rev. Terence Gray:They're not in bondage to pharaoh anymore. That is not who they are. He says, I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of slavery. And then God gets straight to the point. He asks for an exclusive relationship.
Rev. Terence Gray:He says, you should have no other gods but me. On Facebook, everyone has a profile that allows you to declare your relationship status. And on that relationship status page, you have an option of many different titles and ways to be in a relationship. You have married, you can select that one, you can select single, you can select divorced, widowed, engaged, in an open relationship, or it's complicated. Right?
Rev. Terence Gray:It has all those different things you can place down in a relationship in a relationship. Israel would have been very comfortable selecting in an open relationship. Yeah. Yahweh's good, he could be one of the gods. We're okay with him being a god, but we wanna be in an open relationship with all of these different things we've worshipped in Egypt, so we're not comfortable with him being the god.
Rev. Terence Gray:And that is what they're getting confronted with right away. They were far more comfortable with that arrangement. And this is why earlier in the Exodus story, if you haven't read Exodus, I invite you to go back and read that alongside this series, it'll make the 10 Commandments make a lot more sense. Because if you if you go back to the Exodus story, Yahweh proves that all of those gods of Egypt were not gods at all. He triumphs over all of the deities worshipped in Egypt.
Rev. Terence Gray:Each of the 10 plagues, if you're familiar with it, you remember this, if you've not yet read it, I invite you to go back and read it, there are 10 plagues in Egypt that God sends, and each of those 10 plagues were a direct attack on one of the idols that were worshipped in Egypt. I have a visual here. God turns the water to blood. That's because in Egypt, the people worshipped the Nile River. It was the source of life and they believed that there were certain gods who oversaw the Nile and God is going straight at that one first day.
Rev. Terence Gray:The Nile isn't controlled by these idols that you worship. The Nile is controlled by the Lord your God and he turns that thing to blood. Yahweh controls the source of life. And then God sends frogs. There were frogs everywhere because in Egypt they worshipped a a goddess named Haket who was a frog and she was believed to be the goddess of regeneration, rebirth, and fertility.
Rev. Terence Gray:God sends those frogs as a way to communicate that I am God, not these frogs. Yahweh controls fertility and life. He he does this over and over again. He attacks the livestock because they worship Hathor, which was the fertility god over livestock and provision. And God is saying, no, these false gods do not control livestock and provision, I do.
Rev. Terence Gray:Yahweh controls provision. And this happens over and over and over in the Exodus story until you get to all 10 of these here. And then lastly, you get to the death of the firstborn of Pharaoh. And Pharaoh was considered to be a god. And by killing the firstborn, Yahweh is saying that he controls life and death, and Pharaoh is not a god at all.
Rev. Terence Gray:And that's why when we get to the 10 Commandments, the first thing that Yahweh says is, you shall have no other god but me because there are no other gods. Sometimes God has to shake things up in our lives in order to show us who God is and who God is not. He says in Isaiah 45, I am the Lord and there is no other apart from me, there is no God. Friends, he'll go to war with our idols. He'll go to war with our idols just like he went to war with the idols of Egypt.
Rev. Terence Gray:He'll go to war with the idols in our lives. Why? Because he's a mean god? No. Because as long as we are in an open relationship with an idol and enslaved to false gods, we will not flourish.
Rev. Terence Gray:We will not flourish when our lives are handcuffed to false idols. He does not want to see you like this. That's why he will go to war with your idols in order rescue you from them. He wants to see you living a flourishing life. He will crush your small guts even if it makes you uncomfortable, even if it hurts your feelings.
Rev. Terence Gray:He will fight past the armies of hell in order to pull you out of bondage. He will close doors, end relationships, redirect paths, and meet you right there at rock bottom if he has to. Why? Because he's a mean God? No.
Rev. Terence Gray:Because if you build your life on the wrong things, you will not flourish. And God wants his children to flourish. God wants that so much that he became a man, lived among us, and died poor and naked so that you and I might inherit the riches of heaven. True flourishing occurs as we mature in our understanding of who God is and who God is not. Are you ready to do that?
Rev. Terence Gray:It may cost you. It may cost you. But what you receive in exchange is far greater than it will cost than what it will cost you. I wanna encourage you as we close, I want to encourage you to pray a dangerous prayer this week. I have a dangerous prayer for you.
Rev. Terence Gray:You ready for a dangerous prayer? I want you to ask God, God, what has been competing for your place in my life? That's a dangerous prayer, especially if he shows it to you. God, what has been competing for your place in my life? And if God makes that clear, I want you to pray, God, put that thing in its place.
Rev. Terence Gray:Now that might mean removing it, like I said, dangerous prayer, or that might just mean reordering it, putting it in its right place. So I invite you all to pray that dangerous prayer this week. Let's pray. Oh, father, we come before you in the mighty name of Jesus, acknowledging that, yes, our hearts can be idle factories, that we too can be like Egypt. We're we're we rush you.
Rev. Terence Gray:We try to put you on our timetable and in our five and fifteen and twenty year plan, and we don't do things the way we want them, God, we can sometimes make an idol so that we might bow down and worship that. God, we confess our sin for when we have done that. God, we can't grow and be the people that you've called us to be if we continue to give glory to things that don't deserve that glory. God, you are God alone. Help us to live like free people.
Rev. Terence Gray:I pray for anyone under the sound of my voice who does not have a relationship with you. Oh God, I pray that they would choose life, the life that you've designed them to live. I pray that they would go on this journey with us as we discern your will and your way through these 10 commandments. God, they are old, but you are from of old, and they are applicable and life giving to us. I pray that we would cling to them and live them out.
Rev. Terence Gray:It's in the name of Jesus that we pray together. Amen. Amen. I invite you to stand with me as we sing this final song together.
