No off-sides, guys run the ball, there's no out-of-bounds, or he's run the ball and the guys from the sidelines can come out and tackle him. No rules. It would be totally chaotic. Can you imagine going to the Sturgis Festival and wanting to hear the Marine Corps band, as many of you do? And you go over there and they choose not to listen to their conductor. They choose not to play the score that's in front of them, but they play anything they want. Each instrument doing their own thing. Can you imagine what that would sound like? Big chaos. Why? Because they're not following the conductor. They're not following the score. Same is true in life and society. You know, our society is built on the rule of law. If that rule of law is not followed, which, by the way, there is a lot of debate today as to what rules should rule and who should give those rules. In fact, there is a debate whether we should play by those rules in society. In fact, if those who advocate we should live free of rules, I can assure you those who say we want to live as we please, thinking it would be freedom, just the opposite would happen. that it would bring about bondage. It bring about chaos in our society of ever changing standards or in some cases, no standards at all. I can assure you that God has clearly spoken. He has an authoritative word for us that we need to hear and that we need to respond to. But what God has said is good for us. and brings glory to his name as we respond to it. And this morning we are to talk about the Ten Commandments. Maybe that's as we talk about that, you say, well, man, that doesn't sound like a lot of a good sermon. It sounds like kind of old fashioned stuff. Who lives by the Ten Commandments today? Who even knows what they are? If you go on the street and ask somebody about the Ten Commandments and you ask them, are they morally binding today? They might say, nah, that's for another day. They're too restrictive. We don't want to live by somebody else's rules. I don't want to be told what to do, and especially I don't want to be told what I can't do. In fact, a lot of people Who may even say, yeah, I think the Ten Commandments are morally binding. You ask them to name them. They might find a hard time even naming them. Better to ask you to name them this morning, could you? Let's get out our paper and pen, let's have a test. Now, that's not the purpose of the sermon to see whether you can name the Ten Commandments. Our purpose this morning is to hear from God that God has spoken. that God has graciously given us a word so that we might know how to relate to Him, how we might demonstrate to Him to love God and to love our neighbor. And with that, I'd ask you to take your Bibles and turn to the book of Exodus, where we find God giving to Moses and to the people of Israel these Ten Commandments. Jesus summed this up when asked, what is the greatest commandment? Putting him to the test. Remember what Jesus said? He basically said, this is the greatest commandment. What? Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, all your strength. The next one's like it. Unto it. To love your neighbor as yourself. He says this sums up all the law and the prophets. Now he doesn't sum up the Ten Commandments. Love God, love neighbor. But it basically is a summary of the entire scriptures. We are creatures who were built to respond with an allegiance and a love and a loyalty to God. And secondly, we're to respond on a on a horizontal level and loving one another as a reflection of our love to God. The Ten Commandments, I should mention right up front, were given after the children of Israel were delivered from their bondage in Egypt. They'd already been redeemed and taken out of Egypt and their bondage and were brought to the mountain there in Sinai where they were to worship God. And they were given in a covenant context these Ten Commandments and the laws of God so that they might then respond in relation to God. So these ten commandments were given after they were delivered to demonstrate that the law was not given as a requirement for salvation and grace. In other words, if they were given before they were delivered, it might be said that God somehow wanted the children to obey him. And if they obeyed him, then God would deliver them. No. God, in his grace, delivered and chose to deliver the people. out of sure grace. And then on the basis that he made them their people, he then gave them the commands. And in doing so, the commands, the laws were given as a loving response, then to God's grace and salvation. Our response and obedience to God is not so that God might somehow say, oh, Dan, you're good enough. Come on up here to heaven. You've obeyed all these laws fairly good, better than most. That's not what he's saying. So because I have redeemed you, I bought you with a price with the precious blood of my son because you are my own. Now, here is how, Dan, you can live in a relationship with me to show an expression of your love through obedience of that which I have graciously given you so that you might demonstrate in a community of God's people how to love And how living out these commands shows the expression of who God is and how we're to live as His image bearers in this world. Now, you notice, let's read these and then we'll we'll talk about them. Chapter 20, verse one. And God spoke all these words. I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of Egypt and out of the land of slavery. You shall not have Any or you shall not have other gods before me. Number one. Number two, you shall not make yourselves an idol in any form, in the form of anything in heaven above or on Earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them. For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. Number three, you shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will hold anyone will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name before. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy six days, you shall labor and do all your work. But of the seventh day is a day is a Sabbath to the Lord, your God, and on it you shall not do any work, neither you nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates, nor in six days the Lord for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth. and the sea and all that is in them. But he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath and made it holy. Honor your father and your mother so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You should not give false testimony against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his manservant or maidservant or his ox or donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor. And then it says, when the people saw the thunder and the lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain and smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and Moses said, Speak to us yourself and we will listen, but do not have God speak to us or we will die. That's what they said to Moses. And Moses said to the people, do not be afraid. God has come to test you so that the fear of God will be with you and to keep you from sinning. The people remained at a distance while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was. Now, if you notice these ten commandments, That they're mainly eight out of 10 were given in a negative form. Do not do not do not. Like I said, some people don't like the Ten Commandments because they're too restrictive. You hear of people today that raise their children in a philosophy in which they never say no to their children. They were met some people like that. I don't want to say no to my child because somehow it might hurt their psyche. I don't say no to my child, because somehow that might stop their creative abilities. But God put his commandments eight out of ten in a negative form. Why did he do that? I'd like to suggest to you that the very reason of doing that is not that it restricts, but rather it gives promotes freedom. By saying no to something, it gives a boundary, yes, but it gives freedom in all the other areas where it's not in a negative. I tell my children, you can't play in the street, but it gives them freedom to play other places. God is putting a boundary up for our protection and He's putting up a hedge for His covenant people that they will not walk outside of that into the place of really that which brings destruction for them, as well as God's discipline for those who walk outside of that. Two of the commands are very positive. I think it's the fourth and fifth one in a positive form. Now, having said that, I also want us to read chapter 19, because this gives us a background of what we're going to talk about. And if we don't get through all the Ten Commandments, we might get through one or two this morning. We'll be picking up the rest tonight. This morning is just kind of an introduction that you might get a sense of who God is, why He gave His commands, and how that we might respond to Him in the right way. So, in what setting did God give these commands? Chapter 19. In the third month after the Israelites left Egypt. So get the picture. They have now three months traveled. They have been delivered by great miracles of God. and by the blood that was put on the doorposts that the death angel might pass over. And they were given deliverance by God. They have now traveled three months into the desert to this mountain. The mountain, by the way, where Moses earlier had seen the burning bush where God had spoken to him, which I believe is the same mountain that Elijah was spoken to by the Lord. And so it says they came to this desert in the Sinai, verse two, and after they set out from Rephidim, they entered the desert of Sinai and Israel camp there in the desert in front of the mountain. Then Moses went up to God and the Lord called him from the mountain, said, This is what you're to say to the house of Jacob and what you're to tell the people of Israel. You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagles wings and brought you to myself. Now, what God is doing here is saying to Moses and to really the whole community of Israel, I am reestablishing my covenant with you. What I started with Abraham and calling him out and giving him my covenant. I have told you that I would be what you needed me to be. And I have now done that. I have redeemed you and brought you out of bondage. I have now brought you to Myself that you might worship Me as your people. I have done all of this. And He says, now if you obey Me fully and keep My covenant, then out of all the nations you will be My treasured possession. Although the whole earth is Mine, you will be for Me a kingdom, a priest, and a holy nation. These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites. God has come to His people and He is making them from a nation of slaves to a kingdom of priests in a holy nation. You know, it's interesting. God always delivers us to something far better, does He not? God, as He saves us from our sins, delivers us to that which is so much better to live in His presence and in His righteousness. And God wants to reveal Himself to Israel so that they then can live out His will and reveal Him to others. The people then now have to prepare themselves to meet with God. Verse 7, So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the Lord had commanded to him to speak. And the people responded together, We will do everything the Lord has said. I don't think they fully comprehended what they just said there, because they broke that very soon afterwards. So Moses brought their answer back to the Lord. The Lord said to Moses, I'm going to come to you in a dense cloud so the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you. And Moses told the Lord what the people had said. And the Lord said to Moses, go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day. Because on that day, the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people and put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, be careful that you do not go up to the mountain or touch the foot of it. For whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. He shall surely be stoned or shot with arrows. Not a hand is to be laid on him. Whether a man or an animal, he shall not be permitted to live. Only when the ram's horn sounds and a long blast, may they go up to the mountain. After Moses had gone down the mountains of the people, he consecrated them. They washed their clothes. He said to them, prepare yourselves for the third day. Abstain from sexual relations. And on the morning of the third day, now get this. There was thunder and lightning with a thick cloud over the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast. Can you get the sense of what was taking place? Have you ever been in the midst of an unbelievable thunderstorm where the lightning is blasting all around you and it's like you can almost feel it and it shudders underneath your feet and you almost want to utter up a prayer of repentance in case the next bolt gets you, you know. And there is that sense of holy fear because of the majesty and the power and the awesomeness of God, even in that nature display. And there's great cloud where God comes and the mountain actually becomes the temple of God because He's there in the midst. There's trumpet blast. There's smoke. There's fire. The mountain shakes. And it says the people shake too. For it says everyone in the camp trembled. And Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God. This God who delivered them. This God who's about to speak to them and give them His commands of how to live. And they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the Lord descended on it in fire. And the smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace. And the whole mountain trembled violently. And the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him. The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up and the Lord said to him, go down and warn the people so that they will not force their way to see the Lord. And many of them perish. Even the priests who approach the Lord must consecrate themselves and the Lord will break out against them. And Moses said to the Lord, the people cannot come up to the Mount Sinai because you yourself warned us, warned us, put limits around the mountain and set it apart as holy. The Lord replied, go down and bring Aaron up with you. But the priests and the people must not force their way through to come up to the Lord and he will break out against them. So Moses went down to the people and told them. So God has come. The mountain has become his temple and God speaks. What does he say? Verse 2, chapter 20. I am. That's what he revealed himself to Moses earlier. When Moses came to God and said, God, your people are in bondage and they're crying out to you. And for many years they've not heard from you. And now you speak to me and you want me to be your deliverer. Who do I say that you are? And God says, I am that I am. God gave Moses his name. And this little phrase, I am, where we get this word Yahweh, Jehovah, is the name of God that God says, I will be your Redeemer and the pastor. I have been that I will be all that you need. I will be what you need in the present, and I will be all that you need in the future. I am a God who is involved in your life. I am a God whom you can trust. I'm a God you can call upon. I am that I am all that you need me to be. That's what I am. So this great God says, I God is not in it. He is a personal being who wants to relate with you. For he says, I am the Lord, your God. Again, speaking to Israel, but we know that our God, the God of Israel, is the God of those who've been grafted in with Israel to be the people of God. Not only that, God is the God who brought you out of Egypt. He is the one who has redeemed His people. He tells them of what great acts He has done for them. We've been redeemed by the undeserving grace of God. God explains His covenant obligations to the redeemed people, and He gives commands. These commands, again, I want to tell you, they're not here to restrict you. But really, they're here to enable us to express our love and gratitude to God for the liberty that they were experiencing. If we're to say to God, God, I love You, and God says, OK, show me, what would we do? How do you show God that you love Him? You love Him. By obeying his commands. That's the expression that we use to show God we love him. These commands, as we've read, listen, their expressions of his glory. By reading these commands, we learn something about God, we learn about his character, we learn about his acts, what he desires and what he desires his children to be like. their reflection of His glory. These commands also then reveal that I need God and I need grace. Because even though the people said, we will do what you said, they immediately broke it. Because we find that in and of ourselves, in our flesh, we cannot keep that which God has given us. These rules, these commandments seem to be demanding impossible demands upon us. And what happens is these commands, as Paul talks about in Galatians, they were never meant to save us. In fact, they are meant as mirrors or maybe as an X ray so that we might see ourselves in our sin. And as we read them, we go, man, I'm not like that. I failed there. It reveals my own heart and my shortcomings. Sin is falling short of what the glory of God and the law It's the transgression against God. So the glory of God and the law coming together reveal God's expression of who He is. And we realize that as His law is expressed here in these Ten Commandments, I cannot live those out in my own strength. And so then I realize that like someone who sees that they have cancer on the x-ray, they then run to the physician so that they might get help. And as we see ourselves in the law of God and we fall short, we run to God for yet more grace and enabling power to live out His will as only He can do through us. So these commandments act like x-rays showing us as we really are, but they're also as a guardian to bring us to Christ. Now, let's look at a couple of these commands as we have a few minutes. He says, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Everything is built on this aspect that God has redeemed us. Number one, you shall have no other gods before me. How many of you ever read that and say, well, that's not my problem. I love God. I'm seeking, trying to seek first the kingdom of God. That's not my problem. You know why we tend to think that way? Because we tend to not think We don't have a problem with idols such as carving them up and doing that type of thing. We tend to incorporate that with third world problems. People who might have idols and put them on a shelf and then worship that idol. We don't tend to do that here in the States. But we have to ask the question, well then, what is an idol? What is that which would take the place of God? In fact, an idol simply is anything that competes with God for a first place in your life. Folks, that can be a thing. It can be another person. It can be an ideology. It can be a purpose for which you're striving for. You know, it's interesting in the New Testament, it tells us that we're to love God with all your what? Heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. In other words, God is to be supreme in all that you are and all that you do. See, God is warning Israel here. I'm going to send you to the land of Canaan. You're going to go in the midst of a culture that does not know me. And in their actions and attitudes, they display everything that is contrary to who I am. I am warning you that as you go there and as they worship other gods, that you do not assimilate in with them. That rather, you are a distinct people. And that as you go and understand all these religious structures and culture that you're going to face, that you are to be the distinct people of God. Hey, when you go into that workplace, there's a different culture there. You go into that university, There's a different culture there. They don't know God. They don't respond to him as God desires. But you must maintain him supremely in your life and your allegiance must be to him. Dr. Jim Greer once said in the Old Testament, an idol represents the power of a culture because at the heart of every culture is a religious root. The heart of America's culture is a God. But I'm afraid it's not the God of the Bible. It's another God. We can Christianize America all we want, he said. But the root commitment of our culture is not to the God who redeemed us by free grace. It is important that we consider what is at the heart of our culture. What are the values that drive us, that impact our lifestyle and shape our thinking and choices? So what does shape your thinking? What does shape your choices? What is at the root of your allegiance? What do you seek first in your life? You know, there's so many false gods in our culture, not ones that we bow down to that are wooden, silver and that type of thing. But oftentimes their ideologies, hedonism, secularism, sensuality, materialism and on and on the list goes. I'm afraid even the church is struggling today. Church today is saying, you know what? The Word of God is not sufficient. We've got to somehow reach this generation. We've got to do other things to attract them and get them all focused on God in different ways. Somehow we have then shoved the Word of God as if this isn't sufficient. God's revealed Himself in His Word, but it's not enough. We allow sometimes culture of our age to filter into our own thinking, even in the church, even in our own worship. We dare not bow down to that which is contrary to what God says. Jesus defined this first commandment like this in Matthew 6 33. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things will be added on to you. Seek the kingdom first. Give your allegiance to God. Have no other gods or idols before you. You know what? This is negative in the sense that you're not to have any other gods before me. But you know what the positive of this command is? You know what God's saying? Don't have any other gods before me, but this is what you do have. He says, you have me. That's what that command is saying. You have me to worship. That's the joy of this commandment. You get to come and worship the true and living God, the God who is not only your creator, but this God who sought you out and redeemed you from the bondage of your your sin and your wickedness and brought you to yourself and to himself and cleansed you. And wants to have a relationship with you. You have me. to enjoy and to relate to and to live with. This first command has to do with our allegiance and loyalty. Your ultimate loyalty governs your life. What is it that you live for? I am to organize all my life, my thoughts, my actions, my desires, my emotions, my work, my family, my social life, my hobbies, my recreation, my church. All my life revolves around my allegiance to this God who loved me and redeemed me. The second commandment. You shall not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or the waters below. Your first impression here is like, I don't have that problem either. Or do we? Thomas Watson, the Puritan preacher, said in the 17th century, in the first commandment. Worshiping a false god is forbidden in this, the second commandment, worshiping the true God in a false manner is forbidden. Do we ever worship the true God in a wrong manner? Do we ever come to Him and make Him less than He is? Do we ever reshape God and say, God, I like you here, what you've revealed of yourself, but these things over here, I'd rather not. I'm just going to reshape my God into a God that I like. And I find myself saying I struggle with the second commandment as well. In Moses day, the tendency was to create an object that would represent God, that they could put somehow on a shelf and then worship him, worship him in that form. When we were down in Argentina, our team went downtown in Buenos Aires, and there was a magnificent church. We went in and it was it was just all inspiring for its architecture and its beauty and the artistry that went into it. And there was idols of the Virgin Mary and of Jesus Christ representations, images, pictures all throughout the building, magnificently done. And yet God says, you're not to image me. in anything other than how I've imaged myself. What does that mean? Why shouldn't we make image of God to aid us in our worship? Why? Because they limit Him. They confine Him. They obscure His glory. When Aaron made that golden calf, I really think he thought he was honoring God. Because the Israelites, they didn't like a faceless God who only spoke. You know, we don't like God that way too. We want God to be something that we can see and touch. We struggle with a God who has revealed Himself only in speech. Now, of course, He revealed Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. And in Christ, there's a fullness of God. But we recognize that here, they struggled with it too, and so they made a calf. And God was not pleased with that. Because it limits him. How can you represent the moral, magnificent God in an image of a calf? We seek to project him in our images, shortchange him of what he's really like. He is a God of love. We like that. We don't like the fact that he's also a God of wrath and deals with sin. But when we put God in our image and remove those things from us, remember Mark Devers saying he was in a Bible study once with a guy. He was talking about God's self-disclosure, God saying what he is like. And this guy then came and says, well, you know, this is what I think of God and say to all these things that God is love and that he could never send anyone to hell because he's love and blah, blah, blah. And he went on for a little bit, and Mark Dever then stopped and said, well, thank you for telling us about yourself. But now let's look at what God has said about Himself in the Scriptures. When we shortchange God from what He has said, we are imaging Him in a way that is detrimental to who He truly is. We subtract from Him. Joy Davidman said, The real horror of idols is not merely that they give us nothing, but they take away from us even that which we have. The trueness of who he is. Through images, we create God and man handles God and we mold God into any image we want him to be. And that's a dangerous thing. God has chosen to reveal himself, folks, through the Word of God. It is this is how we come to His Word and worship Him today, by hearing His divine speech and responding, God, by Your grace and by the enablement of Your Spirit, we will do as You say, that we might reflect Your glory and that we might image You on the campus. We might image You in the workplace. We might image You in the home, that we might reflect Your glory. It says here that God is jealous about His image. This root word of jealous is really the word zeal. When people create God in a form God did not disclose, God becomes zealous and active and there's consequences. Listen, when you live in such a way and take away from God what he has said about himself, And you believe God to be a certain way, but that's not the fullness of who He is. You pass that on to your kids. Your kids have an image then of who God is. They then live according to that truth as they believe it, and they pass it on to their children, and it can go on from generation to generation. It has consequences of how you think of God. The point is, God in His grace will give mercy to those who give allegiance to Him. Not just a generation, a generation, but on and on and on that impact goes. According to his loving kindness, God is so gracious. We'll look at one more. I should also say about this image. You know, my wife would be very upset with me. If I imaged her before others in a way that was not flattering to who she is. If I were to describe my wife to you totally different than what she is and made a distortion of what she's like. How do you think she'd feel about that? She'd be pretty upset with me. And so is God when we do not image him the way he has revealed himself. Oh, that we might be people, the words that we might know him so that we might reveal him. Real quick, the third commandment. You shall not take the name of the Lord God in vain. Don't misuse the name of the Lord. You know, we tend to think of this command is don't swear. We've been around people, right, that swear. Those who curse want to bring down destruction on somebody else. Forgive me, but they say God D that GD that GD that. We all heard that. We live in that culture. Of course, we know the Bible says, let no corrupt communication proceed from your mouth. Ephesians 4.29 Colossians 3.8 says put off all filthy communication out of your mouth. But I want to say this, this commandment goes much further than that. Look what a name represents. If I were to call any one of you by name and brought you up here, your name is a representation of all that you are, your character and your activity. All that you've done that represents you. God's name represents all his character, all that he is in his glory, his holiness, his zeal and his purity and his love and grace, all that he is and also all that he has done. That he is creator and his redeemer. And so we need to recognize that. Remember back when the boxer Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali. He recognized that a name represents and he wanted his name to represent the core of his belief and who he now thought he was. A name is an important thing in the Old Testament. The Jews understood that. In fact, the very name of God, Yahweh, is so vital that it's the basis of all the aspect of who God is. When you put Yahweh to Zahra, it means the Lord will provide. Yahweh Nissi is the Lord is my banner. Yahweh Shalom, the Lord is my peace. Yahweh Shammah, the Lord is there. Yahweh Rohi, the Lord is my shepherd. And on and on it goes. God has revealed Himself through His name. This is who I am. This is what I've done for you. His name is holy and awesome, Psalm 119 says. God gave us His name so that we might call upon Him in times of distress. God gave us His name so we can come in His name in a community of worship, and together we can in humility call upon Him and worship Him today. Let us not misuse His name. Do you realize that when you were baptized, you were baptized into the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit? That we might represent His character, and all that He has done has been placed into us. In Matthew 18, where it says, two or three are gathered in my name, there I am. I am is there mentioned again. He is actively present in His name as we come, knowing who God is. He meets with us there. Don't use God's name somehow as a magic formula to control him to get what you want. Remember that verse where it says, ask anything in my name and I'll give it to you as if somehow we can now take God's name as a genie in a bottle and say, God, give me a million bucks. We're not used given his name to manipulate it so that we might control him to give us comfort and ease. But rather, we he has given us his name so that we might know him and evoke his name so that we might fulfill his will so that we might love him and we might enjoy him and praise and worship him. That he might meet with us and help us as we live out his will. We need to be careful here. That we don't abuse what God has given us. God wants us to understand the Ten Commandments were given so that we might know him and express our love for him in a way that would bring glory and honor to him. By the way, where is your allegiance this morning? Have you sought God as one who's saved you from the bondage of sin? And recognize that his commands are not restrictive, but they give you freedom so that you might worship him as as he has revealed. Do you understand that God has given these rules not so that you can obey them in your own strength, but rather you go to God and say, God help. And by His Spirit, He gives you the enablement to do what He says so that these laws are no longer impossible demands, but now they're descriptions of great possibilities for us to live it out as the Spirit of God enables us to live out His righteousness on a daily basis. May we seek Him and glorify Him. If you're here today and you've not repented of that sin and turned to Him and found His lovingkindness in a redemptive way where He has saved you from your sin, I invite you, call upon Him. Call on the name of Jesus Christ. The Bible says there's no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. It is in the name of Jesus Christ that we call, because in Him there is life. So we invite you to do that as well as we close our service. Let's bow in prayer. Father, thank you for the Word of God. Thank you for this passage of Scripture which tells us how we should live as your redeemed people. Forgive us when we don't. Oh God, forgive us when we have allegiance to other things, where we neglect you, or we take away from your glory because we don't like certain aspects of who you are. Help us, Lord, in all that we do and say, to image you on this earth that we might be your witnesses, that people might see who God is as they watch our lives and hear our life. Oh Lord, truly may you be glorified in this word today. We pray that you might truly have your name honored in this life. In Jesus name, Amen. We invite you to stick around after the service if you have any spiritual questions that you'd like to talk of me or Pastor Kevin this week.