Knowing God: The King’s Royal Speech
In our study series we have titled “Knowing God,” we are now at the place in the story where God gave the Ten Commandments to His people. Moses brought tablets down from the Mountain of God with God’s handwriting on them of these Ten Commands for His people to follow. You will recognize the Ten Commandments at least in part, and we know them in Scripture as the ‘LAW OF GOD.’ But much of the time we look at the Ten Commandments as just a set of ‘rules’ to follow — not unlike rules in a board game. We often view them as God saying to us… “just follow these basic rules in the game of life, and you’ll be fine,” as New Testament believers far too often view the Ten Commandments as kind of optional moral guidelines. Because we live by God’s grace and we know that we cannot fully obey the laws anyway, we see them as a simple moral code of conduct and that’s it. But here’s the rub…
What comes to mind when you think of the Ten Commandments? I have observed that many of us see the Ten Commandments like an instruction manual. When we open a new board game that we have not played before, we pull out the instructions, and try to read through the multiple steps and rules on not only how to play the game, but what it takes to win the game. In my household my kids had to teach me to play the board game “Settlers of Catan.” It’s a really fun game that has become popular in our home, but it has multiple layers of rules to follow. It took me quite a bit of time to get this all down. (OK, go ahead and make fun of me. For some of you it was easy… but for me it was terribly confusing for a while—yes, I am a bit slow—and I rarely win!)
In our study series we have titled “Knowing God,” we are now at the place in the story where God gave the 10 Commandments to His people. Moses brought tablets down from the Mountain of God with God’s handwriting on them of these 10 Commands for His people to follow. You will recognize the 10 Commandments at least in part, and we know them in Scripture as the ‘LAW OF GOD.’ But much of the time we look at the 10 Commandments as just a set of ‘rules’ to follow — not unlike rules in a board game. We often view them as God saying to us… “just follow these basic rules in the game of life, and you’ll be fine,” as New Testament believers far too often view the 10 Commandments as kind of optional moral guidelines. Because we live by God’s grace and we know that we cannot fully obey the laws anyway, we see them as a simple moral code of conduct and that’s it. But here’s the rub…
The Ten Commandments are NOT….
- The Ten Commandments are NOT just ‘rules for the board game of life.’
- The Ten Commandments are NOT just guidelines for a happier life.
- The Ten Commandments are NOT just a code of conduct that we check off as a ‘to do and not to do’ list.
- The Ten Commandments are NOT just a ‘behavior modification’ formula to prove our worth.
The Ten Commandments ARE…
- A priority of KNOWING the KINGSHIP of the Almighty God.
- A path to KNOWING that GOD is the ONLY God of LIFE. Every other path in life leads to total decay and a dead end.
Come prepared for worship this Sunday by reading ahead these passages:
- Ten Commandments. They are found in two places in the Bible…Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21.
- Matthew 5:17-20, and what Jesus says about the value of the 10 Commandments and the Law.
- Matthew 22:37-40 and Jesus’ summary of the 10 Commandments.
We will be teaching out of the Ten Commandments for the next two Sundays, and using it as a significant marker for Knowing God for the rest of the school year. The Bible over and over again repeats that if we choose LIFE then we need to fall in love with the “Law of the Lord.”
See you Sunday morning at 10am as we take on this chapter of “Knowing God” together.
Happy New Year everyone!
