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[0:00] Raise your hand if you don't get one or however we're going to do that. Someone asked me to share about, we've had a busy weekend, our family. We had a wedding on Friday.

[0:11] Some of you know the Craig family. They came here for a while and I can't remember which number daughter it is, but their daughter Ella got married this Friday to a wonderful young man, as far as I can tell anyway.

[0:25] It was a beautiful wedding and we really enjoyed it. But then on the heels of that, we had three productions of a play that three of the kids were in, The Story of Esther.

[0:39] The title of the play was For Such a Time as This, which is a famous line from that account about Esther. And they did an amazing job. I know some of you came and were able to check it out, but what a blessing to see the story of Scripture acted out in front of us in such a God-honoring way.

[1:04] I think that's it. So, go ahead and open up your Bibles to Exodus chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20. I'm going to do the same here. We are going through the Ten Commandments.

[1:18] We have a series here on the Ten Commandments. Up to this point, I think we've had three messages that have all been somewhat introductory, setting us up to understand really how to view the Ten Commandments, especially as Christians.

[1:34] The memory verse that we have for this month kind of relates to some of the things that we've been talking about over the last couple of weeks. And it specifically says there in Romans that us as Christians, we are not under the law, but we are under grace.

[1:51] So, well, what does that mean? Well, we talked about that the last couple of weeks, that our relationship to the law is different than how it was for the Jews who lived under the law during the time of Moses and on from there during that age or dispensation, you might call it.

[2:11] But for the Christian, the law is still good. It's still righteous. It's still holy. But our relation to it has changed. That law no longer has the power that it once had to condemn us as believers.

[2:27] When we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, the law can no longer condemn us. We are in Christ. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

[2:40] And so, when we look and study the law, we need to make sure we do it with the right lens, with the right perspective, knowing where we stand.

[2:53] The law is good. We can learn from it, but we should not put ourselves under it. Today, we're going to look at the very first command. And as we'll find out, well, which one is the first command?

[3:06] It's actually a bit controversial. It's not a huge controversy, but there is some question about, well, which of these commandments is the first one? We'll look at that in greater detail.

[3:18] But specifically, what we're going to look at today is really just one verse, though we'll read a whole section here. You shall have no other gods before me.

[3:28] We're going to look at what that means. We're going to look at the question of, well, how do we identify who God is? And then we're going to look at going beyond the law and what really God, his design for us, not just to avoid idolatry, avoid worshiping other gods, but how to, especially as believers, as his people, to learn to love him.

[3:56] Let's go ahead and read this passage. We're going to read Exodus 20, verse 1 through 6. 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 bondage.

[4:15] You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, 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.

[4:27] You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments.

[4:49] As you remember, last week we looked at really the story of the Ten Commandments. And even though we're reading these ourselves, and later on, as we read later in Exodus, these Ten Commandments were inscribed, etched in stone, and brought down from Mount Sinai.

[5:08] This passage that we're reading here is not something that was just written on parchment or paper. This is something that God spoke from Mount Sinai to the people.

[5:21] There was lightning and thundering and fire and smoke and earthquakes as this was happening. So God is giving these commands.

[5:33] And the very first one here is, You shall have no other gods before me. Now I handed out this sheet, so if you can pull that out. There's actually a little bit of controversy or disagreement, different ideas on how exactly to divide up these commands that we see into ten.

[5:58] Now, there isn't any mention of Ten Commandments here in this passage, but last week we discussed that later on we find that God describes these commands that he gave from Mount Sinai and that were inscribed on stone as the Ten Commandments, or really, in a very literal sense, the Ten Words is what the Hebrew says.

[6:21] And so you have really three major views that we can divide up between the traditional Jewish view, the traditional Catholic or Lutheran view, and then the traditional Protestant view.

[6:35] Now I'm sure there's disagreements even among Jews, right? Or even among Protestants about these things. But these are kind of the traditional ways of dividing things up.

[6:47] And so, just looking at this sheet of paper, we really have, for the Jewish tradition, if you look at that first column, they actually look at what we would call, or some people would call, the preamble.

[7:04] It's not really a command, but it is a word from God. And so, the Jews, in general, tend to identify that as the first of the ten.

[7:17] And then, the no other gods that we're going to be looking at today, they consider that to be the second of the Ten Commandments, or the ten words. And then, looking on down further, they take the no other gods that we're looking at today, and then the command against creating graven images, or idols, and combining those into one command.

[7:43] Whereas the Protestants, generally, will look at the, I am the Lord your God part, and consider, well, that's just the preamble, that's just the introduction to the Ten Commandments, it's not one of them.

[7:55] And then, you have the no other gods command, that's the first one. And then, the no idols command, that's actually a second, the second command. Now, in the Catholic tradition, and the Lutherans also adopted this, the preamble, the no other gods, and the command against idols, making idols, is all combined into one, the very first command.

[8:19] Once we get to the end of the Ten Commandments, we'll see how the last commandment about covetousness is divided up in two, because, you know, we know the Bible, or God identified ten commands, so you've got to make sure it fits in ten.

[8:34] And so, if you take away from one, you've got to add to another somewhere, and vice versa. And we'll look at that later on, when we get to the end of the Ten Commandments. But the question is, well, which of these is right?

[8:49] You know what? I don't really know. I don't know that it's hugely important, that we very specifically identify which of exactly how to number each of these Ten Commandments.

[9:07] The most important thing is the content as a whole, right? That God gave these as commandments, and we need to pay attention to them. But, today, we are going to mostly cover the no other gods verse, verse 3, and next week, we're going to primarily focus on the next few verses, which are mostly focused on idols.

[9:32] But, as you read through it, and as we read through it this morning, it kind of all seems to go together, doesn't it? Having no other gods and not worshipping idols really is part and parcel of the same thing.

[9:48] So, getting into this verse 3, you shall have no other gods before me. I kind of want to set up a little bit. You know, during this time, and in much of the history, or really all the history of the ancient world, polytheism, the worship of many gods, was the theme of the day.

[10:08] That's what most people did. Most people worshipped many gods. And at that time, basically everybody was religious. Now, in our day, that's a little bit different, right?

[10:19] Especially in the western world, we are kind of used to more of a secular humanism, where people reject the idea of really any god. But back then, and even today, mostly in the eastern world, polytheism, worshipping of many gods, is very common.

[10:40] When we go back in the story of the Bible, there was a man named Abraham, right, who was called out of the pagan people, who were worshipping false gods. And he was called to follow the one true God, Jehovah, and to be devoted to him alone.

[10:59] And really, Abraham, historically, is the beginning of this concept of monotheism. And you know, today, there are three primary monotheistic religions.

[11:13] Judaism, Christianity, and what's the other one? Islam, right? And all three of those trace their faith back to that one man, Abraham.

[11:30] So, here's my first question as we look at this verse. You shall have no other gods before me. Here, there's a reference to there being many gods, but hey, we just need to make sure, you know, as Jews, as believers, this is talking to the Jewish people, that you shall have no other gods before me.

[11:54] So, are there many gods and the Jews just need to make sure they put this one god first? Well, the Bible speaks over and over again about other gods.

[12:10] Are those gods real? Are they genuine? Well, yes and no. Well, what do I mean by that? Well, false gods are real.

[12:24] the Bible speaks many times, including here, of the gods that were worshipped at that time. He speaks here in this passage about the idols that they would set up that represent sun, moon, and stars.

[12:42] Idols made out of wood and clay and stone and those idols are not real. Right? They're made out of, by human hands. idols. But, the Bible also mentions that there are real entities behind these idols.

[13:02] In Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 17, it says this, that they sacrificed to demons, not to God. To gods they did not know.

[13:14] To new gods, new arrivals, that your fathers did not fear. There's a reference here that these idols, you know, even though they're just statues, they're lifeless statues, they're not real beings, but many times, there's a real being behind those idols.

[13:36] Even in the New Testament, Paul references, he says this in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4, whose minds the God of this age has blinded.

[13:47] He references Satan, Satan, Satan is a real person, and he is called the God of this age. Satan, he sets himself up as God, right?

[14:02] But is he really a God? You know, even in the wilderness, right? Remember when Jesus was tempted? And he was tempted to do what? To break this very command we're looking at this morning.

[14:17] Remember, Jesus fasted for 40 days in the wilderness and there was three temptations. But we'll look at this in Matthew 4, 8, it says this again, the devil, that's Satan, took him up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

[14:31] And he said to him, all of these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. And then Jesus said to him, away with you Satan for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only you shall serve.

[14:49] Satan sets himself up as a God and the Bible references him as a sort of God.

[15:00] You know, I think one of the reasons why polytheism was so popular back in the ancient world and continues to be very popular today is because there are real true entities out there that vie for the affection, for the worship, for the adoration of people.

[15:30] Real demonic entities, not just Satan but many of his demons out there who are constantly working in the world trying to gain the affections of people.

[15:45] Inviting people to worship them. Promising to bless them if they will worship them. Threatening to hurt them if they don't.

[15:57] honor and worship them. And that's what most idolatry, that's what most of what you see among the pagan world. You do sacrifices to prevent this God or that one from doing harm to your family or your culture or your society or to bring you blessing.

[16:23] But to what extent does the Bible give credence to these gods? Well, here's what the prophet Isaiah has to say in Isaiah chapter 43 verse 10.

[16:41] You are my witness, says the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. before me there was no God formed nor shall there be after me.

[16:57] This is God, the God of Israel saying that before me there was never any other God formed and after me there won't be another one. It's me and me alone who is God.

[17:09] A few chapters later, Isaiah 46 9 says this, remember the former things of old for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me.

[17:21] Even though there are many who set themselves up as God and the Bible refers to them as gods, there is only one God. Paul himself makes this abundantly clear.

[17:34] He's talking to the Corinthians and he's talking about, you know, whether, you know, what their practice should be when it comes to eating meat that's sacrificed to idols.

[17:45] And he's saying, hey, you really don't need to worry about that because, well, even though these pagans are offering this meat to idols, those idols are not actually real gods.

[17:57] He says this, 1 Corinthians 8, 4, we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is no other god but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one god, the father of whom are all things and we for him and one lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things and through whom we live.

[18:27] In his letter to the Galatians, he says this, Galatians 4, 8, but then indeed when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods.

[18:39] So even though these demons, Satan himself sets himself up as gods, there really is only one. Now ask this question, so as we read this, you shall have no other gods before me.

[18:55] At first, it might seem like what God here is saying is that, well, even though you have many gods, I want to make sure that at the very least you make me the first one.

[19:07] You know, you shouldn't, you know, when you're ordering your idols, make sure that you put me at the head of all the idols. Put me before them. That's at first glance what it might seem he's saying here.

[19:19] Is that true that among the pantheon of gods it's appropriate that Christians, well, we just put Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we put him first and that we worship these other gods maybe second or third tier.

[19:35] Is that what God is looking for? By no means. You know, this phrase before me actually literally means, when you look at the Hebrew, before my face.

[19:48] He's not talking here about an order. In some translations, it's actually translated, you shall have no other gods beside me. Or, you shall have no other gods except for me.

[20:02] He's saying, listen, this is an exclusive relationship. It's not about ranking, it's about having no other gods that you worship, period.

[20:14] Worship me alone, the one true God. It's like a husband and wife relationship. We just had this wedding that we went to on Friday. And among the vows and the dedication that these two people are making is the husband expecting from the wife or having his wife expect that, well, she will be the first of all of his wives.

[20:44] And she's going to be the most prominent one. she's going to be before all the other wives. Is that what he is promising? No. He's saying, you are going to be not just the first, you're going to be the only one for this romantic relationship, for this marriage relationship.

[21:02] You will be my one and only, the only one who receives that kind of affection. And that's what God wants from us.

[21:13] He does not want us to give our affection to any other. The next question to ask is, well, here, what we're speaking of, what we're speaking of with one God, is a reference to monotheism.

[21:28] And so, we might be tempted to think that, well, the most important thing as a believer is that you believe in one God, right? Not many. And there are many people out there who will say, you know what, it doesn't really matter which God it is, how you call Him, how you identify Him.

[21:49] Everybody's basically worshiping the same God. It doesn't matter what you call Him. Is that true? Is that what God wants from us, just to identify one God, and that's Him, and that is enough?

[22:07] Absolutely, absolutely not. In fact, here in this passage with what we call, or many people call the preamble today, God wants to make sure that these Jews don't just worship any God, they want, God wants them to worship Him, and He gives a way in this preamble to identify Himself.

[22:33] And what does He say in verse 2 here? He says, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Now, these Jews were familiar with many gods in Egypt, and the other places that the Jews had lived since the time of Abraham.

[22:54] And so, here's a God here on Mount Sinai, well, which one is He? Well, He wants them to know, and He's identifying Himself, in this case, by what He did for them.

[23:06] I'm the one who brought you out of Egypt. I'm the one who delivered you from your captivity. In other places, we find that God identifies Himself as the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.

[23:24] You know, when there's many gods out there, you have to do something to identify. You know, you can have a specific name, but sometimes the name itself really doesn't mean anything.

[23:37] Well, who is behind the name? You know, there are other people that share my name, but they are a different person, right? And so, my wife is married to Nathan, but she needs to make sure that she is faithful to this Nathan, right?

[23:55] Not the hundreds of others that are out there. And it's the same way, vice versa. It really matters, not just what your name is, but who you are.

[24:08] So, God identifies himself here as the one who brought you out of the land of Egypt. And over and over in the Bible, we see God identifying himself by what he has accomplished.

[24:23] He identifies himself by his character. He identifies himself by his faithfulness to his people. Later on in the New Testament, Paul, the apostle, is taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole world, going to the Jews first who knew who God was.

[24:48] They just hadn't gotten the updates about Jesus, but also took opportunities to talk to the pagan people of the land. And there's an account in Acts chapter 17 where he is in the city of Athens.

[25:02] It's a city where there's a lot of, well, throughout the whole Roman empire, but here in Athens, there's a lot of pagan worship. Many Greek gods.

[25:15] And he takes the opportunity, he's actually asked, hey, would you come to this certain spot where we have speakers come and give public presentations and share about this God that you are speaking of?

[25:29] So he was happy to comply. But as he's talking to these people, he references, he says, I see here that you have a statue, an idol, some kind of a reference here to something, to someone, to some god you call the unknown god.

[25:47] And so I want to share with you about this God that you do not know. And here's how he describes the God that they do not know. Acts 17, 24.

[26:00] He says, God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, and he does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he worshipped with men's hands as though he needed anything, since he gives to all life, breath, and all things.

[26:20] For in him we live and we move and we have our being. Now these Greeks, they had idols, they had gods that they made with their own hands. They had idols or gods that lived in temples.

[26:35] Some of them, I think, had creative power, but it was kind of shared, you know, among the many. Paul here is saying, hey, listen, I'm telling you about the God, not just one of the many, but the God, the one who created everything.

[26:54] He doesn't say this here, but he's the one that even created all the other gods. Though they are false gods. And so, identifying who God is, is important, and that's what Paul is doing in this passage.

[27:15] You know, there are many, we talked about the many monotheistic faiths. Judaism, which a lot of times we reference our heritage as Judeo-Christian.

[27:32] You know, the Christian line comes from Judaism. And so, the Jews worship one God, the Christians worship one God, and the Muslims, they also worship one God.

[27:45] And here's the question to ask. Are we all worshiping the same God? A lot of times it's the same name. That's true. Now, let's just talk about the Jews for a second.

[27:58] Would we say that the Jews and the Christians worship the same God? I think, I think so, right? We could say that. They worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

[28:13] But there was an update about who God is. is. But got missed by those who continued to hold to their Judaism, to those who rejected an important part of the identity of who God is.

[28:35] You know, later on in the Gospel of John, and I don't know if I wrote this down here, but John chapter one says, in the beginning was the word. the word.

[28:48] And the word was with God. And what? And the word was God. Right? And so, there's this new revelation identifying who God is.

[29:01] And today, we understand that God is not just the God in the heavens who delivered Israel from the land of Egypt. God is also the God who came down from heaven to earth.

[29:14] to become a man like us and deliver us not just from Egypt, but from our own sins. And that identity is important.

[29:28] Now, in Islam, they claim to follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but of course have many other things that they add. There are cults like Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses that also make claims about God, claim to follow the same God.

[29:47] And they can point to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the things in the Bible. But what do all of these do? They all reject Jesus Christ as Emmanuel, God with us.

[30:01] God with us. And that is important. It's not just important that we reject the idea of many gods.

[30:14] God with us. The big question we need to ask is, do we know the right one? Do we know the right God? We can believe in one God and believe in the wrong one.

[30:29] And what God wants is he wants our affection to be towards him, not towards a false representation of him. I want to talk now about really the heart behind this command.

[30:46] One of the things we talked about last week was that the law really is more of like a boundary of where you ought not to go. Boundaries are good.

[30:57] They're healthy. Parents give boundaries to their children so they don't hurt themselves. And so there's a lot of things. You know, the most important word that a toddler can learn from their parents is the word, what?

[31:09] No, right? It's an important word. If a child does not learn that word, they're going to be in a heap of trouble. It's the same way with the law here.

[31:20] So many of the laws, we count eight out of the ten of them, are thou shalt not. It's God teaching his people the word no. You need to stay out of trouble.

[31:31] There's a lot of danger here. But is no enough? If a child grows up with just no, don't do this, don't do that, stay away from this, avoid that, is that sufficient to lead a healthy life in your relationships?

[31:50] Or your life in the world? It's not. God. You know, one of the things that God says here in this passage, and we'll look at the next few verses more next week, but he mentions here that he is a jealous God.

[32:10] He says, I am jealous. A lot of times, jealousy can have a negative connotation. It's a kind of emotion that sometimes is out of place.

[32:21] But in this case, it is appropriate. You think of a husband who is jealous for his wife's love and affection. That's a good thing. This concept of jealousy is elaborated on in Deuteronomy.

[32:35] I'll read this passage, Deuteronomy 6.13. You shall fear the Lord your God and serve him, and shall take oaths in his name. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you.

[32:47] For the Lord your God is a jealous God among you. Lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you. and destroy you from the face of the earth. God says, I am jealous for your love.

[33:01] I am jealous for your attention. He wants our affection. He wants the affection, not just of you and me, not just those who already honor him and put their faith in him, but he wants the affection of the whole world.

[33:20] every single person that he's created. He cares deeply about having a relationship with us. And the Bible says that he is grieved when people reject him.

[33:37] you know, one of the questions to ask, I guess, is why is this so important? You know, we talked in the last few weeks about how the laws, you kind of divide it into two sections, those laws that are regarding God himself, right?

[33:55] And what our attitude, what our relationship with God should be. And then the others are about our relationship to other people. how our relationship to other people should be.

[34:10] And we talked about how our relationship with God is the most important, the highest priority. You know, God created us to have a relationship with him.

[34:26] And when we go after other gods or give priority to other things, or, as is so common today in our culture, just ignore him completely, then that leads to a broken life.

[34:44] Because that's not how God designed us to live. He did not design us to live without him. He did not design us even to live with just a, you know, kind of a light, you know, maybe a, what would we call it, somebody that you don't know very well.

[35:02] you just kind of have a passing relationship with somebody. That's not what God wants from us. He wants to have an intimate and a close relationship with us.

[35:15] Idols is just one thing that gets in that way, that gets in the way of that. But there are many other things that can. God made us to know him, to love him, and to enjoy him.

[35:30] You know, Jesus, when he was asked during his ministry, which of the laws are the greatest? Which of the laws are the greatest? Or which is the greatest?

[35:41] I think we just asked, which is the greatest of the laws? And he said this, Matthew 22, 36, Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your mind.

[35:56] This is the first and greatest command. And he goes on to talk about the second most important, but he says the very first, the most important command of all, and he's quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 6.

[36:10] This came later. It's not part of the Ten Commandments. It comes later. It's actually one of the very first things. that is described after the Ten Commandments.

[36:21] But you shall love the Lord your God. Love him with all of your heart. Love him with all of your soul. Love him with all of your mind. Because that is what God created us. That's what he designed us to do.

[36:32] I remember years ago I was doing some evangelism out in Columbus and talking to some teenagers and I was talking to this young lady about the gospel. And, you know, to her it was like going on deaf ears.

[36:47] Everything that I was saying didn't really make an impact about what Jesus accomplished for her and even her sins. And, you know, she asked me a question and it really kind of made me understand where she was coming from.

[36:59] She says, why do I have to have a relationship with God? Why do I even need to care? And that was her attitude. She didn't really see a need to know God, to have a relationship with him.

[37:14] To her that wasn't an important thing. You know, some people look at Christianity today and they're like, you know, I like the idea of living a good life and being a good person, but I don't really want to go to church to worship some certain God.

[37:34] Let me just be a good person. Let me ask you this question. Can you be a good person if you ignore the God who created you?

[37:44] I think the clear answer to that question is no. It is not possible to be good and to ignore the God who loved us and created us, who put breath and life into us.

[38:00] we owe God because of what he did, our affection and our love. And I think it turns out that those who ignore God, loving their neighbor is so much more difficult, right?

[38:16] When you don't have that foundation of knowing and loving God. So those who claim to, well, I try to do good to my neighbor, but I just don't really care about God. really practically what I think happens is they don't do very well at that either.

[38:32] So even here in the law, I think, and what's most important, right, is not, you know, boundaries are good, like we said. We don't want to go over here, we don't want to go over into idolatry, worshiping the wrong God.

[38:46] But here's what God wants from us. He wants to know us. He wants us to love him. to grow in our affection for him every day.

[38:59] And you know what, there's no boundaries around that. We can grow not only through the rest of our lives, but through the rest of our eternity learning to grow in our love for the Lord.

[39:14] And that's what he wants from us. You know, we talked about identifying God and who he is by what he's done for his people. And here in the Ten Commandments it mentions that I'm the God who delivered you from Egypt.

[39:32] But we have a new and even better way to identify our God today. He's the one who delivered us from our sins.

[39:43] We're going to wrap up this message this morning and we're going to take this opportunity opportunity to remember what it is that God did for us. I'm going to have the elders come up.

[39:54] You know, one of the things the Bible says is that God is love.

[40:12] love. And it says that even when we were in sin, even when we were rejecting God, he demonstrated love.

[40:28] He demonstrated his love for us in doing something, in accomplishing something, in an act that identified him as the God of love.

[40:40] And that's through the cross that he died on for the sins of the world. To Israel, he said, I am the God who brought you out of Egypt. And to us today, he says, I'm the one who gave you my son, who gave you of myself to take away our sins.

[40:58] And that's what we're going to remember this morning. Just a little bit of instruction here as we take the Lord's Supper. Every church does this a little bit differently. What we're going to do is we're going to pass out these elements.

[41:10] We'll do them one at a time. Which one do we do first? So remind me. We do the bread first. Thanks. And so we'll pass that out. Just hold on to it. We'll take it all together.

[41:20] I'm going to read the scripture about that. And then we'll take it all together. And then we'll pass out the juice. It's juice, by the way. Good old Welch's, not wine, just in case you were wondering.

[41:32] But we'll take that after. And at the very end, we're going to take up that offering. Sometimes I forget that. Somebody remind me if I forget it. But, well, tell you what, we'll go ahead and pass these out and I'm going to give just a little bit of instruction.

[41:49] In fact, we'll do that as we go along here. So, pass these to you guys. This is open for anyone who is a Christian.

[42:01] You don't have to be a part of our church. You don't have to be a part of, you know, a member or attend here regularly. You guys can go ahead and pass that out. You know, you don't have to be baptized.

[42:12] None of those things. This is just an opportunity for us as Christians, for us as believers, just to remember what the Lord did. This isn't something by eating the bread or drinking the juice or wine or whatever that adds anything to our salvation.

[42:29] It's just an opportunity for us to ground ourselves in remembrance of what God did. Sometimes there are denominations who try to add something to this whole thing of the Lord's Supper.

[42:48] Say, hey, you're receiving more of God's grace. But you know what? The Bible is very clear that when Jesus died for our sins and we put our trust in him, all of our sins are washed away.

[43:01] They're completely taken care of. And so, the other thing that can happen during this kind of Lord's Supper is there's a lot of times a tendency to focus on our sin, the sin in our life.

[43:17] Maybe something from a month ago, maybe something from last week, maybe something from this morning. And we should certainly be cognizant of our sins.

[43:27] But this morning, what we're doing is we're not focusing on our sins. We're focusing on the solution to our sins, on our Savior, on what God did to take away our sins.

[43:47] And so, let's keep that in mind and make sure that instead of focusing on ourselves this morning, we focus on remembering him and what he did for us.

[43:58] take these.

[44:10] Oh, yeah. I'll grab one, two. All right, everybody got, everybody got some?

[44:21] Okay, here we go. I'm going to read from the scripture. This is in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Paul is really describing to the Corinthian people this practice that they ought to keep on a regular basis.

[44:34] And he's remembering in this the night that Jesus was betrayed, right before he was delivered into the hands of Pontius Pilate. He says this, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, he took the bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and he said, Take eat.

[44:54] This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Let's remember the Lord. Amen. Here, I'll take one.

[45:26] Don't forget. Another passage to share.

[45:43] You know, we've been speaking about the law, right? And the law's good, and it's holy, righteous. But Jesus, when Jesus died for the sins of the world, something happened regarding that law.

[46:01] It wasn't destroyed, but its power was taken away. In Romans, Romans chapter 8, it describes exactly what happened to the power of the law.

[46:22] I should have had this open. Let me make sure I get it right. This is what Paul says. For there is therefore now something changed, right?

[46:37] It's not the way it used to be, but now, in Christ, something has changed. For there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

[46:51] For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. And that's what the law of Moses was. It was a law that described sin and then described the penalty.

[47:07] what happens when you sin, when you break the law. And that penalty is death. And so the law would bring condemnation.

[47:23] It would judge us as guilty. And the penalty for sin was death. And that power that the law had was broken forever for all of those who put their trust in Christ.

[47:38] Isn't it amazing what Jesus did for us? So let's remember the power of what Jesus did for us and how it broke the power of the law. Continuing on to read here, in the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, You know, we are eating the bread that represents Jesus, right?

[48:18] It's not really Jesus' body. We're drinking this juice that represents his blood. But this is us identifying ourselves with Jesus.

[48:29] We are, in a way, metaphorical, not real, consuming Jesus. We are, our life is tied up with his. And that's, that's what God wants from us.

[48:40] He wants a close, devoted relationship with him. Let's go ahead, we're going to go ahead and take up that offering if we have it. And while we do that, we're going to end in a song.

[48:53] And I, I thought I had it written down and now I don't remember what song it was. Oh, how he loves you and me, I think, is what we, we usually do.

[49:04] So as we take up this offering, let's sing that together. Oh, how he loves you and me. Oh, how he loves you and me.

[49:18] He gave his life, what more could he give. Oh, how he loves you.

[49:31] Oh, how he loves me. Oh, how he loves you and me. Let's do the second verse.

[49:42] Jesus to Calvary did go, his love for sinners. His love for sinners to show what he did there.

[49:54] What he did there brought hope from despair. Oh, how he loves you.

[50:06] Oh, how he loves me. Oh, how he loves you you and me. Amen.

[50:17] He loves you. He loves you a lot. And he wants your affection in return. Take the time today, tomorrow, all this week and beyond to let him know that you love him.

[50:30] Would you do that? Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for loving us. We want to do more than just avoid idols. Father, we want to grow in a loving relationship with you. We want our love for you to grow each and every day on and on into eternity.

[50:43] Would you help us to love you more? Thank you for your work in our lives. In Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks, everybody. Hey, just one real quick thing I forgot to announce earlier.

[50:55]  We did prepare a directory, a church directory. Shiloh, where is that?