Let's go we are in Exodus chapter 20 gonna do the Ten Commandments today When I think of the Ten Commandments, it's it's one of those One of those sections of Scripture that like everybody knows the Ten Commandments or knows about them but It's it's so interesting if you ask somebody well, what are the Ten Commandments? Like what are they? Yeah, but like what are they what's first one what's first amendment Okay, what's second commandment No graven image is very good, but he's a pastor We have to have non pastors answering this question I You're in the back end we're still in the front end Don't take the Lord's name in vain his third Remember the Sabbath to keep it. Holy honor your father and your mother Don't murder Don't commit adultery. Don't steal Don't lie And don't covet. Those are the Ten Commandments. Covet your neighbor? Yeah, covet your neighbor. Don't covet anything. Don't covet anything. That means wanting more than you've got. Coveting? Coveting means to want more than you've got. Want what he's got. It's kind of like the idea. Oh, I like jealousy. Yeah, that's basically what coveting is. Got these Ten Commandments. A few years ago, we started thinking that the Ten Commandments were so important that we had to put them on courthouse walls, and we had to put them out in the school playground, or not playground, but like classrooms. Thank you, that's what I was thinking of. You know, and so on. And by the way, it's fine. Don't find any I'm not finding any fault with that. I'm not suggesting that that was a good thing bad thing but Normally, it misses it was done for all the wrong reasons It was done for any any reason but the reason that God gave us the Ten Commandments Because the Ten Commandments were given to us They were given to the children of Israel who already said they believed And it said These are the things that you should do if you want to stand out against everybody else. Because these are the things that they don't do. They don't honor the Lord. They don't keep the Sabbath, obviously. There was a huge problem, and still really is today and throughout the world, of honoring one's parents. And most people don't even know what that means, to honor your parents. And by the way, that's the only commandment that comes with a promise. It says if you honor your parents, you will live a long life. That's a pretty incredible statement. Murder was very common in those days. Heck, Jacob's own sons threw their brother in a pit. Murder was not even something people really thought was a big deal. Adultery was going on all the time Men had multiple wives and wives were running around with multiple men and it was just you know an incredible thing stealing was was happening all the time and To get somebody to give you a true statement was such a big deal. They actually had ways where you had to give up a tremendous amount of through these, where you would take actual animals and slice them in half and lay them out and you'd walk through the parts just to say, okay, yeah, I am, right now I am telling the truth. Because the truth was so, I don't know, just almost non-existent. And by the way, This is not unique to 3,000 years ago. This is the way men and women have lived throughout time. So God gave Moses these 10 commandments, also 603 other commandments to go along with them, of the things that we as believers should be doing, but these were never written so that we might have a relationship with God because a relationship with God comes through belief. Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him as righteousness. It was never anything that he did. There was no keeping of rules and regulations and so forth in his time, nor was there in Moses that was going to get you to a position where you had a relationship with God. Because the fact of the matter is, is that you break one of these and you've broken them all. That's what James tells us. So it's not about these rules and regulations being there so that we will have a relationship with God. You either have a relationship with God or you don't. Now, once you have a relationship with God, there are certain things that you should be doing to stand out, and that's basically what the commandments were all about. But I will say this, and this is extremely important. Once Jesus came, he brought in a new dispensation of grace. By the way, it brought back the dispensation of grace that was actually there before the commandments came. And what's really fascinating to me about the Ten Commandments, probably more than any other single thing, or I should say the 613 commandments, is that the rabbinic teaching, the rabbis, took these basic things that God gave us and then amplified them to a point where it almost is silly. So, for example, and we're going to get into the actual Ten Commandments, but just to show you how the commandments can be taken and run in a different way, there's a scripture in the Book of Exodus that we're going to get to in a couple of weeks that says, you shall not seethe or boil a kid in its mother's milk. Okay? Basically, this is a This is actually a cleanliness thing, really, more than any other single thing. Why anybody would even do such a thing is just kind of crazy, but evidently it was something that people did at that time. I don't know. I wouldn't have even thought of doing this. But from this one little verse has come hundreds, I'm not talking about tens, literally hundreds, hundreds of rules and regulations about dietary restrictions, different dishes, eating utensils, all sorts of things that Jewish people are supposed to basically do so that we don't break that rule. which is not what it was designed to do. There's another verse in Leviticus that says, whatsoever parts the hoof and is cloven foot and chews the cud among the beast, that you should eat. Well, from this, hundreds, again, not scores, hundreds of rabbinical laws governing animal breeding, eating, living habits, Just all sorts of different kind of rules and regulations on what you can or can't do as far as killing an animal and eating it. But that's never what it was meant to do. What he was saying was, don't eat anything that's unclean. That's all he was basically trying to say. Don't eat things which are nasty. Really, that's all it was. But we ran with that. Genesis says this, therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank. That's a very interesting one. Well, according to the rabbinical interpretation, Jewish people are to refrain from eating the hind quarter of an entire animal. So you slay an animal, but you leave the hind quarter? You know, anything about, you know, Animals and and and how they're slaughtered and so forth the hindquarters a pretty big part of the you know of the of the deal here But Jewish people were told not to eat the hind quarter which by the way most Jewish people did not Agree with and frankly that's one of those rules that everybody broke okay, but nevertheless. It's there So the ten commandments first one says this starting in in chapter 20 We'll read we'll read right from the beginning and what we're gonna do here is gonna we're gonna read the first so so, you know, there's basically six Commandments that deal with people and there's four commandments the first four that deal with God so Actually, you could say that the fifth one about the honor your parents is sort of more about the relationship between familial issues But but nevertheless it but it's about people with people and and the first is people with God So so look at listen what it says. It says then God spoke all these words saying I am The Lord your God now what's interesting to me is That when people talk about ten commandments and they say well, what's the first commandment? Yeah, thou shalt have no other gods before me But you have to understand that God starts this whole thing out by saying, I am the Lord your God. That's the issue. So what he's saying is, he's presupposing that they're believers. He's presupposing that you believe that God is your Lord. that this is the one that you want to obey. This is the one that you want to glorify. This is the one that you want to praise. This is the one that you want to testify to. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. So now he's basically reminding them of his proof that he is the Lord your God. The proof is that redeemed you. So you see how redemption takes place first? Before we ever get into a law, before we ever get into anything at all, redemption is at the forefront of God's mind. And He wants to remind them of what He has done for them, not what they have done for Him. It's always about what He has done for us. It's never the other way around. And so He's reminding them of what He has done for them. And that is that he redeemed them. And in this dispensation, we need to be reminded of that at all times, that Jesus has in fact given us redemption. He has become that one. We're going to see at the end of the chapter that the people recognize that they need someone to mediate on their behalf. The Bible tells us that we have a mediator, which is Christ. We have that mediator. So, listen to what he says now. So, thou shall have no other gods before me. It's a very simple statement. Notice it's about the only one that there's no commenting on. There's no other comments. The comments were made before it. Because I am your Lord, because I am the one who redeems you, you don't have anybody else before me. It's really a very simple statement. If you think about it, it's not even a really a rule. It's just it should be kind of like automatic. Because I'm the one who did this for you because I'm the one that that redeemed you Why would you even consider having any other guys before me? Yes, sir I'm sorry said again Okay Yeah, I don't have any problem with that I mean the fact of the matter is is that what he's saying here is I'm God alone God alone There's no other gods all these other things that you hear about and they you know this guy's got this guy this you remember you know Moses Just had this meeting with his with with Jethro Jethro gives him all sorts of advice and But it wasn't godly advice. It wasn't advice that he got from the Lord God. It was advice that he thought on his own. Well, that may, you know, this just means logical. And maybe, maybe it was logical. I don't, we don't know. But it wasn't from God. And this is a guy who did not worship the Lord God alone. He worshiped everything, everybody along. Maybe God can be included in there, I guess, because, you know, he did some pretty cool stuff too, right? there was there's no evidence that Jethro ever worshipped the Lord God alone and what God is saying to Moses here and to the children of Israel is You need to worship me and me only nobody else and to me if you think about the entire heart of the scripture if You will buy if you abide by the first commandment Everything else sort of takes care of itself. I mean, I'm serious as a heart attack. If he's the one that you obey, if he's the one that you praise, if he's the one that you glorify, if he's the one that you testify to, everything else sort of takes care of itself. We don't need the other 612, really. Because if He alone is your God, you're not going to murder. If He alone is your God, you're not going to steal. If He alone is your God, you're not going to dishonor your spouse. You're not going to covet your neighbor's goods. You're not going to want anything. No, because I want to please Him. In other words, the positive side of the first commandment is that we need to love God without reservation. That He needs to be the most important thing in our lives. Everything else that's gonna happen from this point forward is all stemming from that particular issue, that He is God alone. I remember years ago, we used to sing a song that He is God alone. And it was just one of those songs that every time we sang it, it was like, wow, that just says so much. You know, He is God alone. And the truth of the matter is, is that that is the beginning and the end of all the commandments if you think about it. Yeah. Yeah. So in my in my notes I wrote The word gods here is the word Elohim. It's used for the term plural gods L would be God Elohim gods and we must ask ourselves. What is the scope of the commandment? Is it confined to pagan deities or does it not include any object, any ambition, any desire that preempts God from being the ruler in our lives? So it's really a question of what is it that is your God? He's bigger than that. What is it that you think is so important that you would be willing to testify for it or worship it or whatever? He said, no, no, I'm bigger than that. I'm over that. So he's certainly not saying that there aren't things out there that are going to tempt you to walk away from me. In fact, he is saying that. But what he's saying is, I'm bigger than that. And I love what Jesus said when he was asked the question, you know, what is the greatest commandment in the law? And he said, well, you should love the Lord your God with all your heart. That's the most commandment, and the second is like unto it. You should love your neighbor as yourself. Which, by the way, is not part of the ten, but is the essence of the ten. The remaining ten. Or, excuse me, the remaining five, six. The last five or six. So, it's really just an incredible thought that we're looking at and so forth, but you really can conclude that everything about walking with God is summed up in this very first statement. Make me number one. Make me number one, period. And by the way, there is no number two. It's not like, because one of the problems with having a one and a two and a three is, it's the problem I have with the New York election right now, where you get to pick number one, number two, number three. Because in other words, what you're saying is any of them are acceptable. Think about it. This guy would be the one will be most acceptable this one be sort of the second most acceptable this would be like the third most acceptable and God is saying there is no second third. There's just there is no rank choice. There is just me I'm it you got one choice Just the phrasing Yeah I'm it. I'm it. I would actually suggest that maybe the better way to say it might have been You know thou shalt have no other gods period I think it's much closer to the Hebrew. Yes. Yep It's only the best. But it's a really good analogy because because live So to the point to your point Now it didn't mean this to be just The first commandment today, but but it's kind of cool the conversation Lifting can be your God That that's that's the point you're making you're putting that There's there's no problem with any of these things as long as they fall with under the governance of the Lord That's basically what he's saying. And so all of these things are there. So the second thing he says about himself is Not only do you need to put me first, that I'm God alone, but the second thing he says is that you should not worship any graven images. Now, graven images, that's an interesting word because he doesn't say idols. He actually does say graven images, and there is a different Hebrew word for idols. And so, why does he say graven images? Well, a graven image is something you can see, feel, touch, And God is not something you can see, feel, touch. So he's saying, don't take that which is unseen and try to make it seen. Paul put it this way. He said, we seek not those things which are seen, but those things which are unseen, because the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are unseen are eternal. So what he's telling us right here at the very beginning of this whole entire thing is God's saying to Moses and the Jewish people, listen to me, listen to me. I am God alone, and I am a spirit. And you don't worship stuff you can touch and feel. Those are not the things of God. So anything that you can touch or feel. So this could be lifting. This could be baseball. This could be any kind of activity. This could be any person. It could be anything. Anything anything that you can see feel touch don't ever put anything that you can see feel touch ahead of me period Which by the way is the problem I have with the thing that's down in the middle of the courtyard That we have here, but really I'm serious. Let's say I have a problem with the statute. I just do okay Yeah, that great man image. Yeah, I have a problem with that. Okay, so I I'm sorry. Yeah at the picnic table. I really do. I have a problem with it. It to me. It bothers me It's not not to the point where I'm gonna blow it up or something But the fact of the matter is is that I don't think it's appropriate. I really don't I have that's the problem I have with crosses I don't wear crosses. I don't worship crosses. I really don't. A friend gave me a cross for a gift, and it was a great gesture, and I loved him for the gesture and so forth, but it's not something I'm going to keep around. I'm sorry. Because it's not something that I want to have in my life. I just don't. There's an extension, as we talked about before, where you add to that. Yeah Yeah, so again we have these these issues, but what he's saying there is so simple It's not complicated What he's saying is don't worship stuff you can see God is unseen. So don't worship the stuff that you can see. And what I wrote in the notes here is any concept that we might have of God and attempt to make our concept into an image is something we need to avoid. And any other likeness of living or dead persons is equally unacceptable. Any likeness of a creature as a form of worship Forbidden, it's just not something God wants us to do Now again, this is not I come back. This is not what Brent is bringing you to salvation This is what God wants you to do as a believer. This is what he wants you to look like The third thing he says is he says I don't want you to and this is so important I don't want you to take my name in vain. I Don't want to take I don't want you to take my name in vain. Okay? Well if there is one commandment that most men screw up, this would be at the top of the list. What does it mean? What does vain mean? Vain means empty. It means without value. You make God's name valueless when you use it just indiscriminately. Now Jewish people have taken this to a whole other level where they will not even say the name of God, nor will they even write the name of God. When they write God, most Jewish people, when they write God, they write G-D. It's a fact. Instead of saying Jehovah or Yehovah, which by the way, there's no prohibition. It's about saying God's name. He says his name on almost every page of the Bible. So there should be no prohibition about saying his name, but they're so concerned about saying it improperly that whenever they read the name of God, they say HaShem, which means the name. Okay, I think that's taking it to an extreme that's missing the whole point. The point is that you want to use God's name correctly. You want to share the Lord with people. You want people to understand that He is, in fact, your Lord, that He is the Lord God, that there is a God Almighty. There is. There is a God Almighty. And we should not be afraid to say that name. But we have to also understand that to use it in vain is just stupid. Sorry. Yes, sir. There it is, okay, this is that's it, you know, OMG, that's my favorite actually Yeah That's the Jewish way. I saw him Jake so but but yeah, I mean that that's it That's it. But but even more than that when we ask God to damn things That I mean, that's that's inappropriate. I'm sorry. It's just inappropriate That's not that is not going to be pleasing. But here's what it really does is it screws up your testimony? He really does. When people hear you speaking like that and talking like that, they go, you know, I thought he was a Christian guy, you know, and yet he's speaking like everybody else or, you know, sounds like everybody else. Sound different is what he's basically saying here. So first and foremost, he's saying, make me number one. Second, he's saying worship different. Now he's saying sound different. Speak differently. Use words differently. Use words that glorify me. When you say my name, say it in a way that it is glorifying me. That it is honoring to me. Yes, this is good. But don't use God's name in a way that is going to be dishonoring. And by the way, I'm at the top of the list of people who have done this. Look, I'm not suggesting that I'm speaking here from a position of holiness. I'm not. In fact, it's just the opposite. So many times I've caught myself, you know, I'm angry, and what's the first thing I do? Use the Lord's name in vain. First thing, I was like, why? And afterwards, you go, well, that was, what? What was I even thinking? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So Adonai means Lord. It means, it doesn't mean Lord God, which is what, Yehovah is a special name that God gave himself that when we brought it over into English, we took it, we made it Lord, just like Adonai, except we put it in caps. So you know the difference. Adonai could be a person. Adonai could be anything. Could be any kind of a Lord. Yeah, it could be anybody that you're, any kind of a master and so forth. And in most Bibles, you know the difference between Adonai and Yehovah by just the fact that one has got all caps and the other one doesn't. And when you see the word Lord with just a small L, that's still Adonai, but that's Adonai recognizing that it's towards a person. capital L would be towards God. So the other thing that Jewish people do a lot is they replace Yehovah with Adonai. So for example, in the Shema, this is really interesting. Shema, which is Deuteronomy 6.4, a hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Most Jewish people would say it this way. They would say, Shema Yisroel, hero Israel, Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad. They won't say Yehovah. In fact, I don't even know how to say it that way. Isn't that funny? So Shema Yisroel Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad. The Lord, our Lord, the Lord is one. But in Hebrew, it's not actually written that way. In Hebrew, it's Shema Yisroel Yehovah Eloheinu Adonai Echad. So it's really actually a better way of saying it because it identifies the triune nature of God. The three different names of God in one place. There's a whole bunch of places like that. Isaiah 48 is another place, 4810 I think it is. And there's a couple places in Psalms where he does it. It's interesting how many, it's not just an occasional one-off kind of thing. There's numerous times where God uses three names to describe himself in one sentence. So, you know, so that kind of a thing. But again, first commandment, I am God alone. Second, I'm the only one you should worship. Third, when you speak, speak well of me. Speak well of me. That's what he's saying. Not that he doesn't want us to speak of him, just the opposite. He's saying, don't use my name in vain. Don't use my name when it's just empty. Make it real. Make it valuable. Make it powerful. Which then leads us to the fourth commandment, which is, remember the Sabbath, that it is holy. Why is that? Because that's God's day. Bible tells us in Genesis chapter two, that the Lord created the world in six days. I believe that's six actual days. And on the seventh day, actual day, God rested, not because he was tired. I always think that's such an interesting, you know, well, I rest on the seventh day because I'm exhausted. You know, well, okay, maybe, but God was not tired. Why? It was because it was Khadash. It was holy. It was sanctified for Him. It was the day to remember Him. So, don't have any gods before me. I am God alone. Don't worship anybody else but me. When you say my name, say it well, and remember that I'm the one who created the heavens and the earth. I am the creator of all things. That's the point of Sabbath. The point of Sabbath is not so you can have a day off. That's not the point. The point is to remind us that God has created all things. Look at what he says here in verse 8. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it harash, keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all of your work, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God, and in it you shall not work, you nor your son nor your daughter, nor your male or your female servant, nor your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you for six, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it harash, made it olive. It's all about creation. So this fourth thing that you shall, because The Sabbath is to remind us that God is in control. God created everything. It is all His. He was the one who made this and set this thing on its course. And we're to remember that. So the idea of keeping Sabbath is not so that you can do all the different ordinances just exactly the way you're supposed to do it and that you don't walk too far and you don't walk your dog on Sabbath. I thought about that. I remember first time I heard it. You don't walk your dog on Sabbath Okay, so does the dog just go inside the house Dog doesn't know it's Sabbath The dog does not know it's Saturday trust me. Okay. It does not know. Okay, so they made a provision I'm serious. I'm not even making this stuff up This is so they made a provision for walking one's dog and you can only do it in a prescribed amount of territory can't walk beyond a certain point with your dog, which is crazy. But nevertheless, that's the rule. When you do go on Sabbath, you have to, for example, you're going to go to Shul on Sabbath, that's fine, but you cannot walk more than, are you ready for this? More than a kilometer. And that's why you have to have synagogues within a certain, that's why they have them all over the place, okay, in Jewish neighborhoods. So, for example, there was a huge uproar down in Boca a while back where this Jewish neighborhood, and they said, look, we want to take this one house and make it into a synagogue. And the people were going crazy. You know, you can't do that. Why not? Why not? And their basis for this, which was really interesting, was many, many moons come sada, many moons ago, All the churches were in neighborhoods Hello, and so they'd never so they said we I should be a restriction against the shul. I could get the same idea But but you see again This is we get these laws that kind of bind us and keep us and drag us and go in all sorts of directions And that's not what they're designed to do there to remind us that God has created the earth. Yeah Yeah Saturday Absolutely seventh day Bible tells us that you should We should bring our tithes and offerings on the first day. That's what Paul says first days Why because that was the day that Jesus? Resurrected was on the first day. Did you ever think about this that Jesus was was crucified? before the Sabbath Was buried and rested on the Sabbath and was raised after the Sabbath That's by the way how you get three days So it's a very, very important mathematical equation. It's not all that complicated. But at the end of the day, should Christians—this is important—should Christians worship on Saturday or should they worship on Sunday? I personally think we should worship every day, but that's a whole other issue, okay? But when should we get together? Well, the reason we get together on Sunday is because we're supposed to be... the whole purpose for having Sunday service is to bring your offerings. That's the whole reason for doing it. Or at least that was the primary reason, according to Paul. So that's why we should have our gathering the first so that we can honor God and give our first roots to Him. So that's why Christians worship on Sunday and not on Saturday. But Jewish people basically have a whole different way of considering even the day. You know, our day starts in the middle of the night. Never have been able to figure that one out. Our day starts in the middle of the night. We're gonna go on Daylight Savings Time on Sunday. Daylight savings time starts at 2 o'clock in the morning, and we bounce back to 1 o'clock, or vice versa. It's kind of silly. Jewish day starts when you see the second star up in the sky. That's when the Jewish day starts. It ends when the stars are gone, by the way. Yeah, yeah. Because the whole point of the Sabbath was not to keep all these rules and regulations. The whole purpose of the Sabbath was to remember that God was the Creator, and therefore He should be honored. In the same way that you should never stop using God's name, so you don't use it in vain, you should use it well. That's the point. It's not a thing where you're prohibited to not use it. It's about use it well. It's not about we shouldn't worship, we should worship the right God. Not the graven images. Yes, sir? When I was living in California, I lived next to a city that's all Seventh-day Adventists. Mm-hmm. Okay, and your point? Sure, yeah. Their worship day is Saturday. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, I mean, yeah. Oh, yes. Yeah. No, it's none of those things. Don't go and work for another master. Right. Because you only are to be subservient to me. Right. That's the point. And so that then leads to this really interesting. And man, there's so much discussion. You want to you want to read some interesting discussion. Google. The Fifth Commandment and have at it, it's you cannot believe some of the stuff that's out there about honor your parents. and how so many people have misconstrued this to be something more and some people less, it's almost mind-boggling to me. And you know, just like we talk about the overbearing burdens that are put on the Jewish people for the Sabbath, You read the internet about what is being said about honoring your parents, and it's almost as crazy. But the word honor in Hebrew is a form of Chabad, which means weight. It means heaviness. It's a very interesting word because when it's used negatively on a bad sense, it means to be burdensome or to be something that's kind of tying you down, right? Think about that. For example, the weights that hold down a tent are called chabad, just as an example. The stones and so forth that they would use to keep a tent from blowing away in the wind. Whenever you put a sack on a donkey that's full of goods and so forth, that is Chabad. It's the same word. And we would say a burden, right? A burden or a weight, you know, that's on this burrow or whatever. But when it's used rightly, it means respect. That's what it really actually means. It means to make them weighty, to make them valuable, important. Does that make sense? It's the idea. So it's this idea of it being a weight I think is a really interesting thing. I can't Tell you how many times I have been given a medal Uh of some kind, you know for I I remember one particular Uh, I won a golf tournament and part of the golf tournament was they gave us a medal and uh And I filled this medal and it was just like it weighed about one quarter of one ounce, I think It was just, it was like this, that's why I'm holding this. It was like this little card that's on my chest. I mean, it was just that, it was just ridiculous. And it just felt so insignificant. I mean, really. And then I met a fella who actually won a medal in the Olympics. And he showed me his medals. I tell you. This medal that he won, it was, it was, it was weenie. I mean, it was, it was really, it was awesome. And I, I told him the story about, about, you know, my medal that I got for winning this golf tournament that was like, you know, vapor. And he, he laughed. He said, I'm telling you, Don, when they put that around my neck, I had no idea it was going to be what it was. It actually, it was, it was just not that it hurt him or anything, but it was just, he said it was really like, I knew it was significant. Weighty is important. Weight is important. And what he's saying here is, make your relationship with your parents weighty. Make it real. Make it valuable. Because that medal is valuable. My medal wasn't valuable at all. I'm sorry. It just wasn't. It was in the sense that, OK, it was neat. But the truth was, it wasn't weighty. And so when you respect your parents, when you put them in your life in such a way that they are weighty, it becomes really exciting. I don't think there's anything more tragic, and I've seen it a lot when I was in business. As an estate planner, I did an awful lot of work with people's wills and their trust and so forth. I can't tell you how many times I would read people's wills and they would exclude their children. Or they would not even... I remember one in particular. This one guy actually wrote in his will. I thought it was a joke. When he told me he wrote this in his will. Turns out it was a joke, but he decided that he was going to put it in his will because he thought it set his family so perfectly. He said to my son David who said I would never remember meet him in my will hello David It was a joke that he had actually heard somewhere by somebody But he actually did it he actually did it and I told him I said are you insane? You know why are you doing that and he said he'll get it Really Why did he do that? Because his son didn't respect him. His son wanted nothing to do with his father, really. And his father said, you know what? You want nothing to do with me? Fine. I want nothing to do with you. And now it became like a shouting match, effectively. Hello, David. I'll never forget that. It was just one of those really almost awful things. But you have to respect both parents. No, you really need to go it says Yeah, I I don't want to I don't want to break you, but I break it break your heart here But it says honor give weight to your father and your mother your father anyone Which by the way sometimes very hard to do Right. I mean sometimes it's really hard to do Sometimes your your parents are complete horse behinds They just are I mean, I can tell you there were times when my father was a complete ass. Just was. Just did some of the dumbest things you ever wanted to say. I couldn't believe some of the things that he pulled off over the years. But when it was all said and done, there was something special about the relationship that he and I had. So it wasn't like he was perfect. No. And it wasn't like my mother was perfect or no And it's not like I'm perfect to my kids. No But the fact is is that I honor I pay I give weight to that relationship that weight was was real That way that relationship was important that relationship did not stop no matter how many things happened No matter how many things got broken how many things were were challenged, whatever? That relationship did not break. And I have to tell you, one of the great moments of my life was when I adopted our children and they adopted us back. I don't know if you guys can appreciate that or not. When they adopted us back. Now, when did I know that they adopted us back? This is really interesting. I knew when they were about nine years old. We went to China on a trip. And I had to go over there for some work. And the girls, I had invited the girls to come with. And I said, look, we're going to go there. We're going to visit your orphanage. And we'll show you where you grew up, where you were born, and so forth and so on. One of the things that I said to the girls while we were there is, you know, we can actually try to set in motion us, you know, kind of an effort to try to find your birth parents. And they said, not necessary, we have parents. It was really pretty cool. And it was at that moment that I realized this important relationship of not only did I adopt them, but they adopted us. Adopted us back. I have a very good friend of mine who adopted a young man. He's now a young man, but he was a young child, obviously, when he was adopted. And that child is now, he's the same age as my daughter, so he's 22 or 23 years old, and he was in the same class as them. He has never adopted those people back. He has never adopted his adopted people back. They're not his parents. They're not. His parents will tell you that, and he'll tell you that. They're not. And their relationship is hard. It's not weighty at all. It's got very little value. I have to tell you, the relationship we have with our daughters is immensely heavy. and very weighty, and very valuable, and very real. And that's what it's all about. Do you get it? So these first four and this fifth one about honoring your parents, because that's going to bring you long life, is an interesting one because I know an awful lot of people who have honored their mother and their father but they didn't get a long life. So does that mean that the thing was wrong? What it says is this. It says, honor your father and your mother, and your days shall be prolonged in the land. It doesn't say you're going to get a long life. It says that your days in the land, the place that God promised to you, is going to be long. Your relationship with God is going to be long. That's what he's saying. So if you want to have a long, worthy relationship with God, honor your parents. Honor your parents. This is not a guarantee that you're going to live to be 100. That's not what it says. And be advised, that's not what it says. Now, doesn't mean it won't happen. Doesn't mean he won't live to be a long... I would suggest that your chances of living longer, healthier, with a good relationship with other people, especially your parents, is extremely valuable. But when you don't have a great relationship with your parents... I know Randy struggles in this area. I mean, you've got a son that is just... it's a struggle. Just tell it like it is, okay? It's a struggle. And that always is a burden. It just is. I mean, he and I have spoken about it. I don't think I'm speaking out of hand. I mean, this is not, I wouldn't have done that if I didn't think that was the case. But it's a struggle. It's hard. It's hard. And I'll tell you, if you ask him, he'll tell you it takes a lot out of him. Right? It does. It's real on both sides of this. That's my point. So the idea of putting and having this weighty relationship is just huge. And then these final five commandments, really, I bundle them. I put them all together. Because to me, they all are basically the same thing, ultimately. Don't murder. Have respect for other people's lives. Don't commit adultery. Have respect for your wife or your husband. Don't steal. Have respect for something that's not yours. Don't bear false witness. Have respect for the truth. And finally, don't covet. Have respect for what other people have built. It's not yours to take. You see, all of these things, if you think about it, are all very simply tied together. They're just acts of kindness instead of acts of violence. Because if you think about murder, it's an act of violence. You think about adultery, it's really an act of violence. If you think about stealing or lying or coveting, all of those things are violations against another person. And what he's saying here is, I don't want you to violate other people. Just don't do it. And it's interesting because if you read the Hebrew, the first five commandments are positively written. They're not thou shalt not, really. What it's saying is you should have no other gods before me. It doesn't say you shall not. It doesn't say that. It says you should have no other gods. You should have. It's a positive. Use the Lord's name. Don't use it in vain. Yes, that's a negative, but what he's saying there is use my name, but use it properly. But these last five are all about what you really should not do. And the point is you should not violate other people. That's all he's saying. Everybody focuses That's true. Yeah, I buy it by the way everybody And you really kind of spin it and you really start asking people about the 10 grams is over inevitably Jacob actually did it with the first thing you did Right, and then that's that's not I'm not finding fault with that. I'm I just want that's what we naturally tend to I We tend to these, you know, what you can't do, what you shouldn't do. Shame on you. And what I suggest is you need to focus on the things you should do. And the things that you shouldn't do will automatically take care of themselves. I'm telling you, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, if you're living those first five, these last five are really not that big a deal. I mean, I don't want to steal from people, I just don't. I don't want to covet from other people, I just don't. And I certainly don't have any interest in adultery. I have no interest in murder. I have no interest in any of those things. Really, I don't. And I don't mean that to puff myself up. It's just, you should feel the same way. Well at the end of the day you really you can't keep them in the sense that that they're going to do you any you know any They're going to make your relationship with God. But the truth of the fact the fact that matter is is that Eventually, you're going to break them. Oh, oh actually Exactly and that That was the purpose of the law and and that of course is what we're going to talk about next week anyway It's not this week. You see, you're skipping ahead, which is what Andrew does. He skips Ed. He's read the book. He's read my notes. It's interesting, because Luther gives neat definitions. And all of his definitions start all immediately. He asks, what does it mean to be a catechist? And he says, you should fear and love God. Yeah, yeah Absolutely, absolutely and you know to me That's the whole message really Do you give weight to your relationship with God? Do you give weight to your relationship with your parents? Do you give weight to your relationship with other people? That's really what he's saying here. And here's the here that we're going to talk about this next week he's you're skipping ahead now too, but that's beauty No, no, that's beautiful. It really is all kidding aside The truth that's true, but but but but we need to understand that If you do these things, this is good for you. That's what he says. He says, it will be good for you. These are things that God gave us so that it would be good, not that it would be bad, not that it would be hurting you. The opposite is the truth. What he's saying is, love me so much that you honor me in your worship. Love me so much that you make me God alone. Love me so much that you that you don't use my name, that you use my name properly. Love your parents. Make the relationship with your parents so weighty that you don't ever want to give it up. I can tell you that if something's really weighty, you don't want to give it up. My friend will never give up his medal that he won in the Olympics. That's a fact. He may give up everything. We were talking about this. He's like, I may give up everything, but this will be like the last thing that's ever going to go. You know, and that's cool, I think. I mean, that's cool because he understands what it means to honor something and the value of it and what went into it and so forth. There's a lot of layers there, don't you see? And the same should be with our parents and with our friends and with the people. And so therefore, murdering and stealing and adultery and all these other things, you know, they don't happen because they're just not valuable. And that's really where we're going to go. So next week, we're going to talk about what the law means. And we're going to talk about what Andrew just talked about. And we're actually going to talk about what John just talked about. John's going to skip. John's going to skip? No, I'm skipping. I want to be clear. That's the usual right there. I love it. Oh, you've got to love it. All right, let's pray and get out of here.