1 Ten Commandments

Today we begin our series on the Ten Commandments. A recent survey shows that more people in this country can name all the ingredients of a Big Mac than all Ten Commandments. Other surveys show that belief in the Ten Commandments are largely dependent on the country you live in or your age.

The best book I've ever read on the Ten Commandments was written by Joy Davidman. If her name is familiar to you, it might be because she was married to C.S. Lewis. The name of the book that she wrote is called Smoke on the Mountain. So many of the illustrations I will use over the next 10 weeks will be from her book.

There's a tale of a missionary years ago in Africa. He was hard at work, tried to convert the village chief. The chief was very old, and the missionary was very Old Testament. His version of Christianity was filled with the thou shalt not. You've met the type.

The chief listened patiently and finally said to the missionary, "I don't understand. You tell me that I can't take my neighbor's wife." "That's right," said the missionary. "Or his ox or his ivory." "Write again," said the missionary. "And I must not dance the war dance and kill." "Exactly," said the missionary. The chief thought for a minute and said, "But I cannot do these things. I'm too old. To be old and to be Christian, they are the same thing."

Sadly, many people see Christianity as old and joyless and constraining. If you're a mature Christian, you know that God is good, and there's a great joy and pleasure and a right relationship with him. To this world, Christianity is at times perceived as an enemy of pleasure and a list of thou shalt nots.

What Joy Davidman does in her book Smoke on the Mountain is brilliant. She turns the negatives into the positive. Over the next several weeks, I hope that you will see this great list as freeing, not constraining.

Ten Commandments are found in the book of Exodus, chapter 20. I begin with the first three verses from that chapter: "Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me." That's what he said. That's how it began.

Before we look at the first commandment, "You shall have no other gods before me," I want us to look at what God said in verse 2 of Exodus 20. You recall, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." What God is doing here is he's reminding Israel of all that he has done. He's telling them to remember how much he has given.

Parents say this to ungrateful children. They say things like, "Do you know all we've done for you? We put a roof over your head. We put food on the table. We put food on your clothes on your back." You get the picture.

So the Ten Commandments are about to be given. God reminds Israel about all he has done. After God does this, the first commandment is given. Between verse 2 and 3, the word "therefore" would help: I have done this, verse 2, so therefore you should do this, verse 3. The 10 Commandments then should be our response to God in all he has done for us.

So finally we get to the first commandment, found in Exodus chapter 20, verse 3: "You shall have no other gods before me." To put this into the positive helps me. Instead of thou shalt not have other gods before me, it tells me to look at the first commandment as thou shalt have me. God looks at his people and says, "Thou shalt have me."

I love that. For man, this is the greatest truth ever: God wants a relationship with us. The first commandment lets us know that God wants us to make him our priority. Thou shalt have me.

Do you remember several years back, I think it was 2003, when there was a battle in Alabama about removing the Ten Commandments from a courthouse? A group of protesters gathered in Montgomery. I was watching all of it unfold on TV, and I saw one of the protesters on the side of saving the Ten Commandments plaque in the courthouse say to the camera and to the world, he said, "I ain't big on God, but I believe in him." "I ain't big on God, but I believe in him."

What that defender of the Ten Commandments was saying was breaking the first commandment. God wants us to be big on God. When we lose sight of the first commandment, thou shalt have me, we lose sight of God. And if we miss the first commandment, the next nine will be big trouble. If we get the first commandment right, the next nine are not so hard.

Thou shalt have me, God says to us. Isn't that beautiful? Just think how different this world would be if everyone followed this commandment.

My walk with God has been very different from the old chief's thoughts and the story I began with. The Ten Commandments have freed me to live in a way that is pleasing to God, and therefore most helpful for me. I don't feel constrained; I feel liberated.

I pray you two are liberated as you hear that the God who created and who sustains this world looks at you, whoever you are, wherever you've been, whatever you've done, and says, "Thou shalt have me." Isn't that great news?

Let's pray together. Lord, help us to see your truth and the light that you minister. See them in not to handcuff us but to let us free, not to stop us from enjoying life but to enable us. Father, thank you that we can have you. That's why we watch and why I make these videos.

And while we celebrate Jesus Christ and celebrating what we have seen in him, we find you. And Father, thank you, you want to be found. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.