Podcast: The Trouble with Looking Over Your Neighbor’s Fence

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“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.”
-Exodus 20:17

Well, this is it. The last one. We’ve been going through the Ten Commandments for a couple of months here, and we’ve reached number 10. We’ve been building to this particular one for a while, if you think about it. The first half of the commandments deal basically with our relationship with God, and the second half of the commandments deal with our relationship with others. In that latter half, the first few of those have told us not to sin against them in deed. That’s where we shouldn’t steal or murder or commit adultery. Then we looked at how we shouldn’t sin against them in word. Now God tells us not to sin against others in thought.

And you have to admit, this is a big one. We are always jealous over the stuff other people have. I remember as a kid once, a friend of mine and I were playing with our toys, and he had this one vehicle the characters could ride, and that thing made me so jealous. I couldn’t imagine anything cooler.

As adults, this jealousy comes out in different ways. Only today I overheard a conversation two men were having about another man’s car. When one family remodels their house, suddenly their friends are discontent with their own décor. Sometimes this jealousy is over a wife. Sometimes it is over a family. Someone from a broken home will be jealous over someone down the street with a solid family structure. It can be income, possessions, or an automatic sprinkler system.

Sometimes we disguise that covetousness under the guise of virtue. We think, “That family has so much money, but they never seem to be doing anything for the church or the poor! It would make it so much easier if they would just give a little more.” Which may be true, but God calls us to be generous from our own purse, not someone else’s. It’s very easy to volunteer someone else’s money, but it’s not very holy.

This jealousy can so easily turn to resentment. It can so easily turn to discontentment. There will always be someone with more stuff than me. If I start comparing myself to those people, I will never be content with what I have. We start talking bad about our neighbors behind their backs. We start getting angry at God because we’re only just making it. It is this sin that leads to so many others.

But what this commandment tells us is this – to love our neighbors as ourselves. To care for them, whatever they have or whoever they are. No matter what they do, respond in love. And you know what? If you follow this commandment, you’re not going to have trouble with the ones that come immediately before it. You won’t steal, kill, bear false witness, or commit adultery. Because you can’t do those things against those you love.

But this is also the biggest challenge. I can, by sheer force of will, keep myself from killing and stealing and the like. But can I force myself from sinning in thought? Not likely. Not completely.

We are sinners by nature. We can mold our actions with time, but our hearts are much harder to tame. We are filled with lust, greed, ambition, pride, and selfishness. We covet everything.

But that is why Jesus died. Instead of coveting the stuff of others, He gave up everything, even His life, out of love for us. He came to earth and died, and in that death He took the price we should have paid for our sin. If we repent and believe in Him, we will be saved. But more than that, we will be given the Holy Spirit to guide and train our hearts, making it possible for us to love our neighbors without getting jealous of that awesome surround sound system they have.

Podcast: The Trouble with Making Stuff Up

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“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
-Exodus 20:16

I cannot tell you how many lies I have heard in my career. No matter where I have worked, people are so willing to throw someone else under the bus when it can get them something. And it’s not something they resort to have hours of negotiations. No, it’s the first thing they jump to. If they don’t get what they want, they’ll say, “Well, that other person who works here told me it would be done.” “She told me it would be here by now!” “That person never returns my calls!”

Of course, all of these can be legitimate statements, but so often they are things we say in order to try to tilt the situation in our favor.

Sometimes we do it for sympathy, or even to be funny. While working on this podcast, I became painfully aware of how often I get into conversations about people who aren’t there to defend themselves. This person did this, or that other one said that. Maybe it’s completely true, but without the full story. Someone can do a hundred things perfectly in a day, but the one thing he messes up will be discussed around the office. Sometimes, even by me.

This commandment speaks about being truthful about others in court, certainly. It also speaks about being truthful about others in every day life. It means not lying about the previous customer service rep when on the phone. It means not starting (or spreading) rumors about someone you don’t like that much, just because you don’t like him. It means not repeating that embarrassing moment for a laugh. It means not complaining to your friends because a coworker messed something up. It means not doing harm with your tongue.

Which is hard to do, because it is so easy to talk bad about someone who made you angry. It’s so easy to tilt the story a little in your direction and against your coworker when the boss wants answers. It’s so easy to call someone a name when you are angry and want to hurt that person. It’s so easy to not be loving in every thing we say.

When Jesus was tried, those against Him brought false witnesses so they could have the result they wanted. But no less harsh were the words of Peter, when he denied being a follower of Christ. Or those of the thief who mocked Him, speaking falsely of who He really is.

And that may be the worst way we break this commandment – when we speak poorly of our Lord in order to fit in, or when we do not defend Him out of fear.

Jesus’ words were never false. He never gave a half truth about someone. Sometimes He was harsh, and sometimes cutting, but never false. And so when He calls us to repentance and promises us eternal life when we follow Him, we can trust those words. We can believe every statement, for He would not bear false witness.

Podcast: The Trouble with Taking Stuff

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“You shall not steal.”
-Exodus 20:15

I’m going to be honest with you, I’m having trouble starting this podcast off. There are so many things I can talk about here. We just recently had an armed robbery at our apartment complex. Last year, my car was broken into because someone thought I had a GPS system in there. I didn’t. It was a backup camera hooked up to a camera above my back license plate. Doesn’t really matter – I still had to replace the window. At my work, someone was swiping other people’s lunches for a little while.

So these things would very obviously fall under this commandment. But I have to wonder how far God intends this verse to go. Would committing fraud be an infraction against the command not to steal? Like when a car mechanic tells you that you need a part you don’t really need to get money? What about when you inflate the price excessively because you can a little more money from your customer? Like when a movie theater charges four dollars for popcorn because they know you’re not allowed to bring your own snacks into the show? We just had one company promise us a fifty dollar rebate if we bought this particular item, only to have the rebate request declined on a technicality. Is that stealing?

I think, as with all the commandments, that it does us a disservice if we try to follow the letter of the Law without even understanding the Spirit. We can so easily fall into a legalism here by saying, “I have never robbed anyone, so I’m a good person,” without understanding that all of these commandments are driven by love.

The reason we should not steal is because we should love other people enough that we don’t want to take their things. In addition, we should trust God enough to provide for us. How different things would be if we just had that sort of love for one another. There are things we all want. What if we trusted God to provide what we need rather than to resort to theft to gain these things? What if the person who broke into my car had loved me enough to think about the Saturday I had to spend repairing my window? What if the person at work who was taking lunches had loved other people enough to not want them to go hungry? What if the owners of the movie theater loved their customers enough to settle for a reasonable profit instead of gouging people for popcorn?

Money and things will fade away, often much more quickly than we would hope. But people are made to live forever. How strange it is that we would give up God and others for a little cash, which will probably be gone in the next few months. We give up eternity for something that cannot last.

Jesus promises us that God will provide for our needs. We do not need to worry about our clothing or our food, because our Father in Heaven loves us and will take care of us. Of course we need to work, and work honestly. But use your money to love others, don’t use others to love your money.

Out of love, Jesus gave up everything for us. People were coming to Him all the time, begging Him for blessings and for guidance to everlasting life. He could have so easily asked them for some money for His teaching. When the devil tempted Him, he offered the whole world, and Jesus turned him down. He could have had it all, but in love He gave it all up.

These earthly rewards will pass away, but, if we follow Jesus, we will have eternal rewards in heaven. Jesus had nothing when He was here on earth, but He has returned to the right hand of the Father, and He is preparing a place for us with Him. If we repent of our greed and selfishness and follow Him, we will gain so much more than what this world can possibly offer.

And we will have gained it honorably and honestly.

Podcast: The Trouble with Cheating

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“You shall not commit adultery.”
-Exodus 20:14

I would like to make a statement that, while it is a very obvious statement and obviously true, is something that almost no one believes. That statement is this – God’s plan for us is for something better than what the world wants for us.

Almost no one believes that. Almost everyone sees follow Christ as a burden, while the world offers us freedom. Almost everyone sees God’s Law as something only neatniks and prudes would really follow. We routinely hear that people don’t want to follow God because they want to have fun.

Which is weird, because those people really don’t seem to be having any fun.

This view of Jesus is in stark contrast with His own statements, such as when He said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Jesus never suggests that following Him would mean being a prude or a legalist. In fact, He made fun of people like that. In truth, the rules He gives us are like the rules of a good parent – not there to ruin the child’s fun, but to make it more lasting, more wonderful, and more honorable.

When we talk about sexual sin, people get defensive. They want to do whatever they want with whomever they want. More than one person has fled from religion completely just because of this topic.

Adultery is most often used to speak of a married person who has sex outside of the marriage, and yet here it is used more completely to encompass all sexual sin, including even lust. Jesus tells us, “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28).

Isn’t God trying to ruin our fun here? Isn’t He just being a prude scolding us for enjoying ourselves? That’s what we sometimes think, but it’s actually quite the opposite. He wants us to enjoy each other more fully.

This is the truth of everything in life – we gain to the degree that we give. God tells us over and over again that the last will be first, that the servant will be exalted, that we gain our lives by giving them up. So it is even here. God designed sex to be most wonderful, most fulfilling, most exciting when in a loving, giving marriage. It is meant for two people, a man and a woman, devoted to one another for life. It gets tainted by pornography, sexual histories, infidelities. It is these things that prevent us from being free sexually. You loss the sense of oneness, the spiritual connection. Love is giving. Lust is taking, and you’ll never experience the awesome wonder of love if all you deal in is lust.

In my experience, the couples that have only known each other are happier with each other longer. It is those who had partners before marriage or look at pornography that end up divorced.

Our marriages are supposed to tell us something of the joy that is to come when we are united with Jesus forever. He is compared to a faithful husband in the Bible, coming to earth in such love that He died for His bride, the Church. He gave up all for us. That love, faithful and true, lasts forever. Even though we had turned out backs to Him, He did not use that as an excuse to discard us. Instead, He chased us, determined to take us back from the very hand of death. Because of that love, we can have life eternally, a life without pain or sorrow.

If God gives us commands, it is only to guide us closer to Him, closer to that full life that Jesus promises. To guide us toward eternity. Sounds fun.

If you’ve made mistakes before, it’s not too late. You aren’t excluded from this life. See, we have all made mistakes, and none of us deserves the love of Jesus. But love, by its very nature, is giving, whether it is deserved or not. Jesus came to save us from death. Repent of your old mistakes and believe in Him, and you too will be saved.

Podcast: The Trouble with Killing People

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“You shall not murder.”
-Exodus 20:13

What in the world am I going to say about this one? You know, when I started doing a series of podcasts on the Ten Commandments, I didn’t really think it out. Idolatry, the Sabbath, honoring your parents, these are things that can fill up five to ten minutes. Murder? I mean, do I really need to do a podcast on why it’s bad to murder people? There really isn’t a lot of wiggle room here. I mean, even the Bible only spends four words of the Ten Commandments on it (only two in the Hebrew), while the Sabbath gets four complex sentences.

Except that this is the one I perhaps most often disobey.

Surprising? I’d bet it’s the same way with you. See, we sometimes get so caught up in the absolute legalism of the Commandments that we forget the spirit behind them. Jesus reminds us that we can sum up the entire Law with two commands – “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. . . . You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

See, I haven’t really accomplished anything if I simply don’t gun down people I come across. Most of the time, that’s not terribly hard to do. In fact, I’ve made it my whole life without doing it even once.

But do I rise to the true standard of God, which is love? Maybe I stop short of killing someone, but do I stop before wanting to? Do I even stop before getting unduly angry? Do I hold back terrible words out of love? Do I take their hurtful words with love and forgiveness? Do I put them above myself and God yet still above that?

Jesus talks about this particular commandment in detail in Matthew 5: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”

Why is this? Why is this so harsh? It’s because the source, the meaning behind this commandment and all of the other ones is love. Our human law mostly tells us what we cannot do, but God’s perfect Law does not stop in what we should not do, but what we should do, and even what we should feel.

Frankly, I’ve been angry a lot in my life. When I was younger, I used to be angry at just about everyone. I did not act out of love. My temper has quelled somewhat, but it still pops up. I have been angry, I have insulted, and I have called people names. I am guilty, as Jesus tells me, of murder.

A lot of people don’t worry about God and eternity that much because they think they are good people. And even if that were true – even if it were true that you’ve never lied, never lusted, never were selfish, never angry – even if that were true (and it’s not, by the way), can you say that your whole life was guided by nothing but love for God and your fellow man?

If you say no, as we all must if we are honest, then we must realize that we are in danger of eternal death, because that is the rightful punishment for sin.

Jesus is the only one who did live perfectly and utterly without sin. He alone did not deserve death, and yet He died nonetheless. In that death, He took the punishment that belongs to us because of our sin. If we repent and believe in Him, we will be forgiven. He paid our price for us.

And if you confess, be sure and confess of murder too.

Podcast: The Trouble with Teenage Rebellion

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“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”
-Exodus 20:12

You know, I wasn’t real impressed with my parents when I was a teenager. Most of my friends weren’t very impressed with their parents either. I liked them fine, but in general I really thought I knew a lot better.

I think that’s a pretty typical reaction at that age. It’s really too bad. Just because it’s the typical reaction doesn’t mean it’s the best one. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that I was wrong in almost every confrontation I had with my parents. And even in those few times I was right, it still wasn’t really worth it.

I could not be reasoned with at that age. If someone claimed to know what I was thinking, what I was feeling, I would have scoffed. Just like teenagers would do if I were to say those words to them now. But here’s the truth of it – it’s all empty pride. I knew nothing then, but I thought I knew it all.

It took me a while to figure out that leaving my parents’ authority only meant that I fell under someone else’s. Even today, I work in a place where more than a handful of people with more authority than I work within smacking distance of my desk. I can (and hopefully will) move up in the company, but that will only mean that different people are above me. And even if I reach the top of my trade, the government – local, state, and national – is in authority over me.

The difference between me now and me then is that now I realize that it’s probably better that way. I’ve gotten myself into more troubles than I can count, only because I acted rather than listened. I wish I had paid more heed to this commandment back then. Maybe I would have learned some lessons a little faster and suffered a little less grief.

A good parent acts for the good of his child. Sometimes that good is not what the child wants. Sometimes it means punishment. Sometimes it means his child is going to get angry at him. But he’s still going to act for the good of that child, because that’s what love does.

And what this commandment is merely saying is this – if you have good, loving parents, have faith in them, that they are working for your good. Trust them. If they are following God, then follow them, because you know where they will lead you.

There’s a reason that God set things up like that, and there’s a reason that God tells us to call Him our Father. Like a good earthly father, He is worthy of our trust, even if following Him doesn’t seem immediately like the best idea. He is worthy of your faith.

There are probably some of you who didn’t have trustworthy parents. Your parents may not have acted in your best interest. They may have hurt you. Maybe the name “Father” does not conjure up images of love and support in your mind. I wish it did. I wish you could know immediately the relationship that God wants for you when He bids you call Him “Abba,” which is best translated “Daddy.”

Well, our Father in Heaven showed us a love you may not be used to when He sent Jesus, His Son, to the earth to die for us. You may be used to a father who takes, but God is a Father who gives. In our sin – our pride, our selfishness, our hatred, and our lust – we are not worthy to be called His children. We deserve much worse. But Jesus died in our place, taking on our sentence on Himself. In repentance and faith we run home to the Father, and God welcomes us with open arms, as a loving father should with a child who may have gone astray, and yet returns repentant.

My parents and I have a very good relationship now, despite the way I acted as a child. That’s the way it should be. I turned away from that foolishness, and I came home. That’s exactly what it’s like with God.

Podcast: The Trouble with Weekends

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“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. . . . For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
-Exodus 20:8-11

I usually record these podcasts on Saturday, the traditional Sabbath. I won’t be going to church today. I do that, mainly, on Sunday, like most Christians do. There are massive debates in Christianity about this still today. I can’t tell you how many things I’ve read online lately that say, in essence, I’m going to hell because I don’t celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday.

It was the same way in Jesus’ time. From this commandment came a lot of boggy tradition, and that tradition, in the minds of the people, became law. When Jesus’ disciples were getting some grain on a Saturday, the Pharisees were horrified. When Jesus healed on a Saturday, they flipped out. They didn’t care a whit that some guy with a withered hand was healed. All they could say was, “Couldn’t that have waited until Sunday?”

And honestly, I can understand the point of view of the Pharisees here. I don’t agree with it, obviously, but I understand it. Because when you have a wrong view of the Sabbath, you’re going to go in an extreme direction on it. Either you are going to ignore it completely, as many Christians do, or go overboard in legalism with it. Either you’re going to say, “Oh, that’s part of the old Law we don’t follow anymore,” of you’ll say, “You’re not of God if you answer the phone on Saturdays.”

Both approaches are wrong, and if we look at Jesus as our example, we will see how. First of all, Jesus remembered the Sabbath. He didn’t ignore it as part of the “old ways.” The Gospels specifically record that He would teach at a synagogue on the Sabbath.

On the other hand, He scoffed at those who would impose wild restrictions on the Sabbath. He constantly mocked the Pharisees when they would frown on Him for healing or on his disciples for gathering grain on the Sabbath.

So what is the Sabbath for? First of all, it’s for us. Jesus says, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). The Sabbath is like when the government makes labor laws, dictating that companies have to give employees breaks at certain intervals. In this case, God is telling us, “It’s good to work hard, but I want you to rest too.” The trouble comes when some zealot comes and tries to force us into rest, as though we were made for the labor laws and not the other way around.

Secondly, it is a time for worship. God knows me pretty well. He knows I love to worship, but that stuff at work keeps piling up, and I get distracted. While I should worship in all I do, this day is reserved for specifically that. So we go to church on that day of the week, every seven days, and we try to never miss.

Thirdly, it is a time to worship Jesus. Jesus tells us, “I am the Lord of the Sabbath.” The Sabbath is about Jesus. He established it, and we should use it to celebrate Him.

Lastly, it is to tell us of what is to come. Like this week will end, this life will end too. We toil in life, we work hard, and then it is done. The Sabbath is a way to remind us of the rest that is to come if we have faith in Jesus. As Hebrews tells us, “there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.”

That rest, that final Sabbath, can only come through the Lord of the Sabbath. Only through His death can we be saved from the death that awaits us because of all the sins we have piled up in our lives – the hatred, violence, lying, selfishness, greed, lusts, and ambition. It is through His Blood that we can be forgiven. If we repent and have faith in Jesus, we will find that rest, though this life may be toilsome indeed.

I used to hate going to church, but that was before I understood what Jesus had done for me. Now I find great peace there. It is a reminder to me of what He is preparing for me, and hopefully for you.

Podcast: The Trouble with Swearing

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“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.”
-Exodus 20:7

I’m sure you know the story of the boy who cried wolf. I’ll repeat it in brief. There was a shepherd boy who was bored one day in the field, and so he ran into the town, crying out, “Wolf, wolf!” The people of the town, anxious to rescue their sheep, hurried out to the field, but there was no wolf. The next day the boy did it again, and again the townspeople ran into the field to find the sheep peaceably grazing. But on the third day, there really was a wolf, yet when the boy went to town for help, none would help him. He returned to the field alone and was himself killed by the wolf.

It is a very strange habit we have, taking the Lord’s name in vain. Can you imagine if we started cursing by using a loved one’s name? If every time you got angry, you said, “Mom fix it!” or “Dad’s car!” It doesn’t even make any sense, and it would certain annoy the person whose name we are using.

Yet we do it with God. We call upon His name and power without meaning it. We say, “Damn it” of “Bless you,” but we say them not as a loving and heartfelt request to the Lord to do these things, but as a burst of frustration or just out of habit. We are like the boy who cried wolf. We keep using God’s name, and yet we don’t really want Him to come.

And let me clarify here. Using the Lord’s name in vain is not talking about using four-letter words. That can be offensive speech, but it’s not this. Using the Lord’s name in vain is to either use or imply God’s name without meaning it. So something goes wrong, and you say, “Damn it!” Are you really requesting God to damn something? Or is it just something you say? When someone sneezes, and you say, “Bless you!” are you really asking God to bless that person, or are you just saying it? By all means, pray for someone’s blessing! But mean it when you say it. Finally, when you’re in an argument or something, and you may say, “God knows the truth,” are you truly requesting God to come bear witness for you, or are you just making a statement you think will help you win?

This is called blasphemy, which is simply disrespect against God. And I know a lot of you are thinking, “Who cares? I mean, it’s just something I say. I don’t mean it to be disrespectful.”

If you are thinking this, I understand you. I used to think the same way. But consider this for a moment. What if the people around you, who said they loved you, started using your name as a curse word? How much would you like it if you son used your name to vocalize his anger and frustration?

God gave us life. He created this world and everything in it, from the clothes you have on to the breakfast you had this morning. He guides your every step. And we respond by using His name as a curse word.

This is exactly why Jesus drove the money-changers out of the temple. In their greed, they had brought disrespect to the Father by using His place of worship to make money. Jesus saw their blasphemy and drove them out. He was likewise stern with the Pharisees, who showed off their righteousness, calling upon God at all times, and yet their hearts had no love for the Father. They used His name in vain.

Which is something Jesus never did. In all ways did He show His love and respect for the Father.

I am guilty of this sin. We all are, save only Jesus. And it is through Him we can be forgiven. In repentance and belief we can be saved from ourselves and restore our relationship with Him.

Podcast: The Trouble with Statues

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“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”
-Exodus 20:4

We’re continuing our look at the Ten Commandments, and already, with number two, we’re going to run into some problems, because people number the commandments in different ways. Some include this one in number one, saying we are forbidden from making images of false gods. Others say, no, you shouldn’t make images of the true God. It is a separate commandment.

I’m taking this as a separate commandment, but even if you don’t agree, this is still going to apply to you. A warning against making images of God is repeated in Acts 17:29: “Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.”

The Bible tells us not to make images of God. Why is this important? I mean, what does God care if we build Him a little statue or paint a picture of Him? Shouldn’t He feel honored that we want to do this for Him?

I’m reminded of a very funny Simpson’s episode where Homer is searching for a gift for his wife, Marge. He decides to get a bowling ball, measured to his hand and with “Homer” engraved on it. Marge was understandable furious. Obviously, he had bought the gift for himself, not for her.

I think a lot of our worship is like that. It’s more for us, not for God. God tells us over and over again in Scripture that He is not a man, but Spirit. He does not want us to depict Him like a man. But we do it anyway. Why? Because that’s the way we want it.

And in this we prove that we’re not worshiping at all, but only entertaining ourselves. It’s like we’re buying a gift for God, but it is measured to us and it has our names on it.

But this goes deeper. When we make an image of God as a man, we are trying, in essence, to make God in our image. But we have it backwards. We are made in HIS image. When we bow down before a golden idol, we are bowing before a creation of a creation. But God is the Creator of all things. “God is spirit,” Jesus tells us, “and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Should God be honored with our efforts, no matter what they are? Why would He be? He told us in His Word how He wishes to be worshiped. If we ignore His wishes and instead worship as WE would rather, then why would He be honored by that? Would you be honored if you were given a bowling ball measured to someone else’s hand and engraved with that guy’s name?

Lastly, any effort we make to depict God as a man falls short. We tend to depict one aspect of His glory at the expense of all others. Someone will depict Him as a comforter, and someone else as a judge, and someone else as creator. But our efforts fall so short of the truth.

Nothing shows that so clearly as when God did come in the form of a man, Jesus Christ. All the wonder of God was wrapped up in a man, and He was rejected. Why? Because the people had for so long been trying to form God in their own images that they did not recognize God when He walked right up to them.

They were expecting a God interested in the things they were interested in; they were expecting a God that agreed with them. This is the danger when you start making images of God. More often than not, you are only making images of yourself, and you may not recognize God when He stands in front of you.

If you are worshiping your own idea of what you would like a god to be like rather than God Himself, repent and believe in Him. Turn to the real Jesus and seek out what He is really like. You will be forgiven.

Podcast: The Trouble with Idols

“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.”
-Exodus 20:2-3

This is a transcript of our current podcast. To subscribe to the podcast using iTunes, please click here. To listen to the podcast without iTunes, please follow this link.

We’re starting a series today on the Ten Commandments, and I have to say, I was very tempted to go backwards through them. Almost like a countdown. The reason is, if you get this one down, you’re not going to have an issue with the other ones.

In this commandment, God tells us, “It’s only Me up here. I checked around before creating everything and, nope, just Me. So quit worshiping other things!”

Which most people pass right over, because they don’t think it’s about them. I mean, modern America is rather nonreligious as a whole. There’s not a whole lot of worship of Belial going on.

Maybe not, but we’re still one of the most idolatrous cultures in the history of the world.

See, Romans 1 expounds on what this commandment is really talking about, and it gives us a working definition of paganism and idolatry. “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever” (verse 25).

It’s not just about worshiping a golden statue. It’s about putting anything created above the Creator. Anything created, so that can mean women, wealth, sex, power, fame, food, or whatever.

What is first in your life? Is it God? Do this little test for me. Check your bank account and find out where your money’s going. Now, a huge chunk of your money will probably be going to rent and food. As long as it’s a reasonable amount, that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the rest of it. Are you spending your money on candy, on lavish trips, on some sort of self-promotion, on women, on lust, on luxury? Is it going to help spread the word about Jesus? Where is it going? Jesus tells us, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). Tell me where your money is going, and you’ll find your heart right there with it.

If you put God first in everything you do, you won’t have to worry about the other commandments. They’re going to come naturally to you. You will love God so much that you won’t even think about stealing, murder, or coveting.

Jesus provided our example in this. You may wonder where His heart is. Well, He gave up everything to come serve us. He, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6-7). See, He had everything in heaven. He created the world, and it was all His. But He gave it up, came to earth, and died for us.

And we need it. We have all put other, meaningless things before God. We have all abandoned Him for stuff. In His justice, He can and should leave us to our own paltry lusts and be done with us. But God came in the form of a man, Jesus, and died in our place. He took the punishment we deserve.

If we repent and believe in Jesus, we will be forgiven.