I. The Metagame of Life 00:00
Lord, I thank you for this opportunity to come into your presence. I thank you for the worship that we bring. I thank you for the words that we read. I pray that you would enliven our hearts through the preaching of your word today. In Jesus’ name, amen.
So, out of all of those wonderful Scriptures we read this morning, we are still going to be with the Israelites. But hopefully you can see that there are some pretty easy connections between the Scriptures we’re reading week in and week out and the journey that is encapsulated in the Exodus narrative. If you’ve been following along, we’ve taken the Israelites out of Egypt and into the desert, and from that moment on they’ve been heading towards Mount Sinai to meet the Lord. And today they finally get there. Through all the harsh weather, the lack of water, the lack of food, God has provided every step of the way, and now they’re showing up at Mount Sinai.
So as we get into this, I wanted to frame our talk today by talking about what I did last night. I had my thirtieth birthday party, which was awesome. Thank you to everyone who came; it was great. But I started thinking about it throughout the party, and then this morning. What we did is we did a poker tournament, and poker is an interesting game. Basically, there are a couple of different things going on in it. There’s the baseline, which is: whoever has the best hand wins, whoever has the best five cards. And there are different combinations that you can do with them: a straight, a flush, a pair, two pair, all of that stuff. So that’s one level of the game. But then there’s a completely different level of the game, where you’re betting and you’re trying to figure out what the other person has, and you’re playing against other people. It’s not like chess, where it’s just one thing after another, back and forth. You’re actually influencing people to try and get the overarching goal of poker. You don’t have to win a single hand in poker by the base rules, which is that you have to have the highest five cards. There’s a different game that you’re playing. Your game is to have more chips than anybody else at the end of the night. That’s it.
Now, this layering is actually one level deeper, because you want to have the most chips at the end of the night and not have everybody at the party hate you. So you have to play a certain way. And there are levels of games throughout our life. Of course, calling it a game almost cheapens what we’re talking about, but using the analogy of a game can help us understand our life. We’re not just playing one level of game as we go throughout our day. And I’m contractually obligated to tell you that Spike Mercer did win the poker tournament, and he played the game well, so that most of us weren’t too angry with him by the end of it. So he won what I call the metagame of having a fun poker party. Because ultimately, winning’s great, but the point of the night was to have fun with our friends and to have a party.
In the same way, what we’re going to read about today, the revealing of the Ten Commandments, is our secret into knowing what the metagame of life is. Because people will tell you, “Play my game. Play this game. This is what life’s all about.” They’ll say things like, “We’re meant to eat, sleep, and reproduce.” That’s the evolutionary idea: that’s the goal in life. And if you play life that way, you might win that game, but you will lose. What the Ten Commandments do is focus us on what the actual game of life we are playing is, and what the rules of the metagame of life are. There’s one other thing. So there’s eat, sleep, and reproduce. We might be more familiar with eat, sleep, and produce, meaning your job in life is to eat, sleep, and make money: be successful, achieve your goals, get to the place you want to get to. That’s rampant in our culture. But if you play that game and you ignore what God has instituted into the fabric of the universe, then you’re going to lose.
So as we talk about these Ten Commandments, I don’t want them to feel like, “Oh, here’s another burden for you to bear as you go throughout your day.” I want them to be what they are, which is God’s revelation for the goodness, the abundance, the growth, the freedom of your life. He’s telling you how the world works, because if you get that wrong, you’re going to lose the game.
II. A Kingdom of Priests 04:26
So let’s talk about these Ten Commandments. The Israelites arrive at this mythical mountain, Mount Sinai, the place of the burning bush, the place where God shows up in his glory and his presence. And everything that happens there is framed by God’s first words to Moses. So we’re going to start there, with what God says when Moses first arrives at Mount Sinai, in Exodus chapter 19, beginning in verse 4:
4 You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. Exod 19.4–6
Everything that God says after this, all the laws and regulations (and there are chapters of them), is because God wants this people to be his treasured possession, his kingdom of priests, his holy nation. He wants them to be set apart. He wants them to live in his kingdom. In fact, what he wants is to take them to the promised land, not necessarily the physical place, although that’s important. He wants them to be a people who are spiritually experiencing the goodness of God at all times. They’re living their life, and they’re like, “Man, this is the land flowing with milk and honey.”
You may know this. You may have had those moments where you’re just with your family, you’re having a birthday meal, a holiday meal, and you just look around and you’re like, “Man, I am so blessed.” And you may not have any more money that day than you did the day before, but you’re in a moment where you’re experiencing the fullness of the kingdom of God, where your eyes are open and you’re like, “This is like heaven.” And we want to live there. That’s where God’s taking us. You could actually live every day with your eyes open, saying, “I’m living in the kingdom of God.”
It doesn’t take away the difficulty. The same person who preached that the most, Jesus (he preached on the kingdom of heaven more than anything), went to the cross. He didn’t exit the kingdom of God to get to the cross. He was still in it, even in that moment. He could have experienced the cross and denied God, which would have been hell and torture. Instead, it was torture and heaven. It was torture and God’s salvation for us and the whole world.
So I say all that to say: the framing of all of these laws is that God wants you to be a people who can live in his abundant, ever-flowing kingdom. This is the metagame: to be God’s treasured possession, to live like you’re God’s treasured possession.
III. Saved Before the Commandments 07:45
All right, let’s jump into these Ten Commandments. So then Moses goes back up to the mountain after telling the Israelites God’s first words, and then we dive in here in chapter 20, verse 1:
1 And God spoke all these words, saying, 2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Exod 20.1–2
We’re going to stop there for a second. Even in the Ten Commandments, the framing is important. God saved the Israelites before the commandments. God saved the Israelites before they did anything for him. They weren’t living holy lives, and God was like, “Man, I’ve got to rescue them because of how holy they are.” He saved them, and now he’s teaching them how to live in his kingdom. It’s not “Be worthy of his salvation.” He’s already declared them his people. He’s now just teaching them how to relate to him, how to maintain connection, how to live in the kingdom of God.
And it has massive implications for us, because remember, taking them out of Egypt, out of the slavery in Egypt, is a symbol for us of being rescued from the slavery of sin and death. And so it’s the same thing. God’s saying to you, “I saved you out of your sin and slavery. Why in the world would you submit yourself once again to that sin and slavery? So here are some rules to help you know how to live your life, so that you don’t put the yoke back on.”
Now, I will say right now, the scandalous thing is he never stops taking the yoke off. There’s nothing you can do that would invalidate God’s cross in your life. There’s nothing you can do that would take away the price he has paid. So if you mess up, don’t worry. He has paid the price. Come back to him. This is more of a dance than it is a test. God is teaching you the moves, and you’re going to stumble and fall, but he is not mad at you when you do. And that’s why these laws, instead of a burden, can be the instruction manual for living a healthy, abundant, good life, in right relationship with God and your neighbor. So that’s what we’re going to talk about as we talk about these things.
IV. No Other Gods Before Me 10:10
So the first law is this:
3 You shall have no other gods before me. 4 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. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. Exod 20.3–6
So right away, I’m just going to mention: God’s making this very clear. If you don’t do this, if you serve other gods, there are consequences for your actions. He may have paid the price for your sins, but he is a good father, and he’s not going to save you from the consequences of your actions. He’s not going to take away your free will. The same way that I, as a good father, without any anger or upset or any judgment towards my son, will deal out discipline as a consequence of his actions. Because if I didn’t bring discipline or consequences to my kids, then they would think that that’s how they are supposed to live, and that path leads to death. We’re told sin leads to death. And so, just like a good father, God will let you experience the consequences of your sins, because you need to know what it means to live well and what it means to not live well. You need to know that. But the price of your sin is paid. There’s no guilt. You are saved. Even if you’re experiencing the consequences of your own mistake, God is still all for you, and he is still constantly rescuing you. So there are consequences if you go the opposite way.
And this commandment here, “You shall have no other gods before me,” frames the entirety of the rest of the commandments. Do you sin? You don’t have to raise your hands or say yes; it’s rhetorical. We all do. Well, guess what? Your sin has to do with this commandment. Because if God was your only God, and him only you shall serve, then guess what? You wouldn’t be going out disobeying him, living contrary to his will. We can find many idols in our life: whether it’s hunger, our belly, whether it’s money, whether it’s security, whether it’s politics, whatever it is that you dedicate your time to, whatever it is that you look to when you’re in distress, those things that take the place of God in our life. But you know what I realized recently? I don’t need any of those. I’m pretty happy worshiping myself. I just figure out how to do idolatry all on my own. I am so convinced that I know what I need to do or want to do that I often forget to even ask God what he wants me to do. And it leads me into those situations where, pardon my French, you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t. If you don’t follow God’s ways, you’re going to get yourself into those situations, and it’s not fun. Now, he will redeem you. He will forgive you. He will rescue you. But man, it’s better to just go his way, let me tell you.
Another way I’ve heard it put is this: “I just need God and ______ to be happy.” Whatever you put in that space. “I just need God and money.” “I just need God and physical health.” “I need God and a car.” “I need God and my phone.” Whatever’s in there, that’s your idol. That’s the place where something is wiggling. And we were just singing all day about it: “I’m thirsting for you, and only for you.” That’s what we should be focused on. And then guess what? We’re told, “Seek first the kingdom, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matt 6.33). It’s not that those things aren’t good. There are objectively bad things, but a lot of the things we go after are not those things. They’re things that might be good, but if you put them in the wrong order, if you put them above the kingdom, above God, you’re missing it.
But when you get this right, when you put him first, what happens is remarkable. Your whole being begins to be transformed, because we become what we worship. We become what we look to and dedicate our time to, what we serve, what we sing to, what we run to. We get transformed into it. So when I’m worshiping myself, what am I becoming? More myself? No, I’m becoming an egotistical maniac. Because really, what I’m worshiping underneath the worship of self is a grand delusion that I’m more important than God. And so I’m becoming a delusional human being. If I’m worshiping myself, I’m worshiping a false image, a false idol. And if you worship money, you might be really good at making money. You might succeed. But you’ll find that it’s empty. It doesn’t fulfill. “Oh my soul, I thirst for you, God.”
V. Do Not Take His Name in Vain 14:34
Let’s move on to the second commandment. And I’ll just let you know right now, we’re not getting through all Ten Commandments. I know some of you were starting to look at your watch, starting to think, “Man, lunch is going to be delayed. Football games.” I understand. We’re just going to go through a few of these today. So, number two:
7 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. Exod 20.7
That’s a strong statement. You shall not take his name in vain, because God, who sees everything, who is eternal, won’t let you off the hook. You don’t get away with it. So what is he talking about here? Well, God just spent the first half of this Exodus story introducing his name to these people: I am Yahweh, the God who saves. He cares about his name. He cares about what they think about his name. What he’s concerned about is not making sure that people say “Oh my gosh” instead of “Oh my God.” That’s not what he’s concerned about here. Absolutely, you can say “Oh my God” in a situation where it applies to this verse. You took it in vain, you said it in anger, you said it in whatever. Yes, absolutely. But he’s talking about so much more than that. He’s talking about the people who try and justify abortion based on Jesus’ love for the Samaritan woman. That’s taking the Lord’s name, God’s name, in vain: misrepresenting him.
So how does this happen? We have so many different types of Christians in this country, so many. We’ve got the progressives, we’ve got the Baptists, the mainline, we’ve got all these different people, and some of them we look at and we’re like, “Are you reading the same Bible?” How does it happen that they get such different ideas of who God is? Well, if you don’t follow that first commandment, having no other gods before me, if you aren’t constantly seeking God in his revelation of who he is, then the devil starts to wheedle his way in between and say, “Did God really say?” Remember that from the garden? “Did God really say?” (Gen 3.1) If you don’t spend your time with him, and you go two weeks without opening your Bible or praying or looking to him, then your brain starts to repaint a picture of God. It’s in our very nature; our broken nature does this. We just automatically start to paint a different image of God, and generally we paint him in our image, which is really backwards, because he wants to paint you in his image.
So maybe you start to think God has the same politics that I do. Or that car that I just bought, even though I’m struggling: God would want me to have that, because it’s so nice. There are all these different things that we do where we just put his rubber stamp of approval on our life. “I’m a Christian. I go to church on Sundays. He must love what I’m doing.” Or the vice versa is very common in our church setting: you are constantly walking around with an angry God in your head telling you how you don’t measure up. That’s equally not God. That’s equally taking the Lord’s name in vain. You’re besmirching his name by ascribing to him attributes that he does not have. He is not angry at you, and he’s also not rubber-stamping your life. If you don’t think there’s anything you need to change, you’re not paying attention. You’re not listening. But if you think he doesn’t love you, if you think he’s not happy with you and proud of you, you’re also not paying attention.
So don’t take his name in vain. And the first step towards taking his name in vain is not seeking him. He will reveal himself to you. Those who seek will find. But you have to take the time to do that.
VI. Remember the Sabbath Day 19:04
Okay, here’s a fun one. Commandment number three:
8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 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. Exod 20.8–11
It’s kind of funny, right? “On it you shall not do any work: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, female servant, livestock, sojourner.” He knew his people. “I’m not doing any work,” as their servant is running their business, or the foreigner’s coming in: “Hey, can you go do this for me?” He knew they’d try to wiggle out of this one.
But remember, we were talking about metagames, that there are games that are higher. Well, the problem with this one is that we worship our time, because we think that the game is: work really hard so you can get the money to enjoy your time. That’s the equation in our culture. Work really hard, get the money, so that when you have free time you can go to Vegas, you can go to Paris, you can drink that bottle of wine, you can hang out with your friends at the bar, you can do these fun things. You can sit down and watch Netflix or HBO or whatever, because it’s my time. Well, if you serve God and only God, then guess what? It’s not your time. And this is just the way that God has told us to remind ourselves of whose time it really is. The same way the tithe, giving ten percent of your income, reminds us that it’s God’s money, the Sabbath reminds us that it’s God’s time. If you can’t imagine finding a Sabbath, then guess what? You’ve made your time an idol.
Now, I’m not here to tell you you need to have twenty-four hours and you need to have the little red cord that says how many steps you can walk from your front door. I’m not here to just prescribe to you what your Sabbath looks like. But man, we need to think about it. It’s in the Big Ten. It’s not some side gig that God threw in for the Jewish people. It’s right up there with not murdering. If you think murdering is bad, not keeping the Sabbath is in the same category, because God wants us to not get to the point of murder. And if you worship something that’s not him, then guess what? You’re headed in that direction. Maybe it’s not murder. Maybe it’s stealing. Maybe it’s adultery. Maybe it’s this, that, or the other thing. But when you don’t worship God, when you start worshiping an idol, you are tempted by all the other bad things. So don’t worship your time. Remember, he can do more with your six days of work than you can with your seven. I want to live by his strength, not my own, because man, I’m tired this morning. It’s not easy to do all the things that we have to do. But if you live by his strength, he will be faithful to provide.
VII. Honor Your Father and Mother 22:21
And we’re going to end with one of my favorite commandments, mainly because God has given me the two best parents in the world. We’ve got “Honor your father and mother” coming up here. So let’s just read this real quick, and then we’ll talk about it:
12 Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Exod 20.12
God wants to give you so much. Every one of these commandments is opening a lock to the blessings of God in your life. It might not be money. It might not be a house. It might not be what you think it is. But man, I just want what God has to give me. He’ll give you those things. He’ll provide what you need; we’re promised that throughout Scripture. But I want more. I want what he has in my life. So I want to honor my father and mother.
As we pivot in this one: we had our first three commandments. Those were all about God, and of course those are first, because if you don’t get those right, you’re not going to get the other ones right. But now the last seven commandments are about how we love our neighbor. Jesus told us, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” as the second greatest commandment after “Love God” (Matt 22.37–39). We just read it this morning. That’s the summary. Like I said, the metagame is being God’s treasured people. How to win the game is love, period: love towards God and love towards neighbor.
So as we transition to how to love your neighbor well, let’s look at this. Where do you start loving your neighbor well? With your immediate family. Especially as a child, the first challenge you have is to love those people who aren’t letting you eat the candy, who are telling you not to climb on the bookshelf, who are controlling your impulses. You’ve got to love them. I went through several stages of difficulty in my childhood. Yeah, several. Lots of them. And all of them centered on this one concept. I could sum them all up right now, and my parents will know this is true: I thought I knew better than my parents. Now, you all have met [my parents]. You know that that wasn’t true today, and it definitely wasn’t true when I was five years old. I thought I knew better than them. But you know what? When I grew up, when I left my father’s house, what do I struggle with today? I’m pretty sure I know better than God.
How you honor your father and mother will affect how you love God. In fact, you cannot have a right relationship with God while being angry and bitter at your mother and father. John said it best: you tell me you love… sorry, you tell me you don’t love your brother, who you can see, and pretend to love the God you can’t see (1 John 4.20). If you can’t even love the people in front of you, you think you can love this invisible God? What’s the point there? When we say, “Oh well, those people, or my parents, or whoever, I have a right to be angry and bitter at them, but I am in good relationship with God,” you’re in good relationship with whatever God you made up in your head, who also hates them. That’s what we do. Like I said earlier, we imagine that God is like us, and so we’re pretty sure he hates the people we hate. Unfortunately, we’re told he doesn’t. He loves them just as much as you hate them, and more. And he loves them just as much as anyone you’ve ever met. There’s no favoritism here. God gives his gifts unrepentantly.
VIII. Forgive, and Seek Him 26:40
So when we talk about honoring your father and mother, the reason I wanted to include it today, even though it starts to shift towards neighbor, is that it’s a clear example. In fact, it’s probably the clearest example. If you’re honest with yourself, your relationship to your father and mother probably affects your relationship to God more than anything else in your life. Now, that shifts, of course, as you get older, as you start your own family. But man, is it important to get that one right. So I invite all of you today to think about how you honor your father and your mother. I admit and know and grieve that there are awful fathers and mothers out there who treat their children poorly or abandon them, etc., etc. But their evil does not justify our evil in hating them. Unforgiveness is the poison that we drink hoping the other person dies.
Honor your father and mother. Find a way. Maybe they’ve passed on, but you still have something against them. Find a way to forgive them. Maybe do an action. Maybe go lay flowers on their gravestone. Something to reconcile in your heart and mind. And invite God into that conversation: “God, where have I not loved you well because I’ve disrespected my mother and father?” Man, if I was eight years old right now, I would not be liking this part of the sermon. Not that I didn’t like my mom and dad, but I just wanted my way.
And in the same way, as we close out this sermon, let’s not do that to God. Let’s not buck against him because we want our own way. Worse, let’s not ignore him because we’re afraid he’s mad at us, or because we don’t want to hear what he has to say for our life. We need to seek God. These commandments are about learning to be transformed. They’re not about measuring up on a measuring stick. So how do we follow these commandments? We start by seeking him and letting him transform us. Amen.