Old
Testament
Sermons on the Ten Commandments
No
Rivals: (The Second Commandment)
The story is told of the bishop
entering the Cathedral on a grand liturgical occasion. At the end of the
procession the bishop, a visitor to that cathedral, realised to his dismay that
he had no idea where he was supposed to sit among the ranks of dignitaries
seated in the sanctuary. Spotting a vacant and suitably impressive chair, he
thankfully sat down. During the next hymn a small boy from the choir tapped on
his shoulder and said ‘excuse me Sir, do you realise you are sitting in my
deat?’
But what if something or someone
takes God’s place? That is what the
Bible calls idolatry. The Bible describes this in Romans 1:
They
exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things
rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen. Romans 1.25
At the very same time Moses was
receiving the ten commandments from God, God’s people were busy making
themselves an idol to worship.
‘That’s
terrible,’ you might say, ‘but I have never done anything
like that at least this is one commandment that I haven’t broken.’ But actually you don’t actually have to
make an idol and bow down to it, just like the people of Israel did, to be
guilty of idolatry - its a bit more subtle that that
Sometimes people say to me at a
funeral visit things like ‘he lived for his garden’ or ‘she lived for her
grandchildren’ but I find that rather sad, not because I hate gardening nor because
I can’t appreciate the joy of family life, but just because as we talk I
realise that this poor family are caught up in the sin of idolatry. If that’s all people have in their lives, if they
don’t have a relationship with the God who made them and loves them, then they
have missed what life is all about. They have missed the most important thing
in life
Let’s get it clear:
¨
if you live for
your garden, you’re an idol-worshipper
¨
if you live for
your job, you’re an idol-worshipper
¨
if you live for
your children or your grandchildren, you’re an idol-worshipper
¨
if you live for
your car or your hi-fi or your CD collection, you’re an idol-worshipper
¨
if you live for
going out or going on holiday or if you live for sex or your husband or your
wife, you’re an idol-worshipper
¨
if you live for
football or any sport or a favourite hobby, you’re an idol-worshipper
¨
if you live for
anything or any activity, but for the living God, you’re an idol-worshipper
If we are living for any of these things, if our whole life revolves around them, we have got our priorities wrong. They are occupying the wrong place in our lives. Like the bishop sitting in the little boys seat, they have taken the place that rightly belongs to someone else: God
Two particular idols today are
security and leisure:
Holidays and Leisure: our whole
life revolves around some kind of leisure activity or the next holiday
But hang on, you say, nearly all those things
are good things, they are things that God has given us, so how can they be
idols ?
Yes,
that’s true, but the right attitude is not to worship them, nor to let our whole lives revolve around them but to
give thanks to God for them. The
Bible says this
For everything
God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with
thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. 1 Timothy
4.5-6
You have some lovely grandchildren,
you have a happy marriage, you enjoy your job, you have a hobby that you enjoy
? Great! All these good things come from God. Enjoy them and thank him for
them, just don’t let them take too big a place in your life. Don’t worship
them, don’t live for them and don’t let them become idols. In short, don’t let
them take the place of God, don’t let them take the central position in your
life, don’t let them become the thing that gives your life or purpose.
Why?
For three reasons:
1. Idols
dishonour God and harm your life
You shall
not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the
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 generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand
generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
A jealous God who punishes those
who worship other gods? Well he wouldn’t be much of a God if he wasn’t jealous.
If a husband embarks upon a relationship with another woman, his wife is
rightly jealous. In the same way, you can’t worship Jesus and something
else, any more than a husband love more than one woman. If Jesus is not Lord of
all, he is not Lord at all. He deserves everything, our wholehearted love
Idolatry dishonours God and brings
us under God’s judgement
2. Idols
could be taken from you at any time
No thing, no person, is ours
forever. They’re all on loan to us from God. People die, objects break, things
get stolen, accidents happen, illnesses and disabilities prevent us from doing
things we love doing. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. If you live for something that God has given
you, if you make an idol of it, and you have nothing else in your life, when it
is taken from you, your life is terribly empty
But, if you know Jesus, if you know
God’s love in your life, if you have eternal life, then when something is taken
away, its hard, you miss it, you’re sad, you’re bereaved, but you haven’t put
all your eggs in one basket. The most vital, most precious thing in your life
is still yours.
Your relationship with the Lord
Jesus Christ is the one thing you can take with you when you die.
3. Idols
can’t help you
Listen to what the Psalmist says in
Psalm 115:
3 Our God is in heaven; he does whatever
pleases him.4 But their idols are
silver and gold, made by the hands of men.5
They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see; 6 they have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but
they cannot smell; 7 they have hands,
but cannot feel, feet, but they cannot walk; nor can they utter a sound with
their throats.8 Those who make them
will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.
Psalm 115. 3-8
Idols aren’t real: they can’t do
anything for you. That was Elijah’s point on Mount Carmel as he addressed the
misguided idol-worshippers:
27
At noon Elijah began to taunt them. "Shout louder!" he said.
"Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling.
Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened." 28 So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and
spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed.Midday passed, and they
continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice.
But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention. I Kings 18.27-29
But, our Lord Jesus: he is the real
God. He keeps his promise, he delivers the goods. He gave his life for us to
save us: he is worthy of our
worship, he deserves centre stage in our lives.
And so we
need to turn away from idols and turn back to him. Here are three steps to take
to do just that:
1. Recognise your idols
2. Reject your idols
3. Renew your worship of the True God
How to Stop
Driving Yourself Crazy (The Fourth Commandment)
This poor man (pictured
on screen) is driving himself crazy. He is running faster and faster to keep up but the faster he runs, the faster
he has to go. He is living his whole life against the clock and the clock is
always against him.
He never has enough time. He’s overworking and he is overwrought. He is
slowly driving himself crazy. Perhaps you know the feeling?
Why is he so stressed out? Because he has forgotten something. It has slipped his mind. It has
slipped out of his life altogether.
He has forgotten the fourth commandment. Perhaps God realised we would
tend to forget it, that’s why he started it with the word ‘remember’
Remember the Sabbath day by
keeping it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the
seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work
The word sabbath means ‘rest’
or ‘cease’ or, to put in even more simply, ‘stop.’ That in a nutshell is what
the Sabbath means: stop; have a rest; put
your feet up; relax
What a wonderful idea! What a wonderful blessing for the
human race: a day-off for everyone once a week, courtesy of our creator God - a
day to rest, recuperate and re-charge your batteries.
What image does the word ‘sabbath’ conjure up in your mind? A welcome day
of rest or worship in the midst of a busy life ? A welcome oasis of calm in the
hectic busyness of life? Or, to be honest, a rather grim, depressing, empty day
of don’t do this and don’t do that
There have been times when sabbath-observance has become a rather gloomy
affair when the sabbath has been turned into a burden rather than a blessing, a
day best known for what you are not allowed to do rather than what you are.
You’ve only got to watch a programme or read a book about Victorian Britain to
realise that Sunday could be rather a trial. No fun, no games, no joy - and
three long church services in cold draughty buildings listening to long-winded
dull preachers. Monday must have come as quite a relief !
Perhaps you can remember Sundays a bit like that? Or perhaps your
memories are much happier? Whatever our experience of Sunday, what was God
thinking of when he invented the sabbath?
The Bible says God himself rested:
By the seventh day God had
finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all
his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested
from all the work of creating that he had done. Genesis 2.2-3
and he wants us to rest, too:
This means you shouldn’t feel guilty about resting, about leisure, about
taking some time off to be quiet, to worship to relax or just enjoy life. Sadly
many people do feel guilty when they do that. Somehow they feel they have got
to be on the go, they have got to be busy - all the time. Some people actually
become addicted to work - they become workaholics and they drive themselves
crazy
But the Bible says rest is good. Work is good as well,
but work is not to fill up the whole of our lives. God has planned for us to
have a break to rest to recuperate and to re-charge our batteries.
When is the sabbath?
For the Jewish people it was Saturday, the seventh day of the
week. Most Christians have celebrated it on the first day of the week, Sunday,
the day that Jesus rose from the dead. But it could be any day. My sabbath is
on Friday: that’s the day I switch off the phone, put my feet up, read a book,
go out to lunch, go for a walk, or do whatever I want by way of rest or
refreshment.
Your Sabbath can be any day, the
important thing is that you have one.
The key thing about the sabbath is that it is to be different from all
the other day of the week. It is to be a special day - a holy day - that is
what the word holy means: special and set apart. It’s a shame that our Sundays
are the same as any other day now
because although Sunday doesn’t have to be the sabbath, when the vast
majority of the population kept Sunday as the sabbath, it made it a special day
and it meant that families could all enjoy one special day together. Now it is much harder for families
to all have one day off together. It’s much harder for the chuch family to all
gather together for worship on one day aswell.
So how can I keep the sabbath ?
If you are fortunate enough to be able to keep Sunday as your Sabbath,
keep it as a special day, as a day of rest and worship and refreshment.
Keep it as a day free as far as possible from all the things
you normally have to do: the cleaning, the ironing, the shopping. Those are
important things but if you are able to have a break from them, do so, and don’t feel guilty. Even God rested and
so can you
If you can’t keep Sunday as your sabbath because you have to work, try if
at all possible to have another day as a day of rest. A day that is different
from any other day of the week, a day to recharge your batteries, a day just to
enjoy and make sure that you have chance to feed yourself spiritually if you
are kept from worship on Sunday.
If you are a full-time house parent or you are a carer you may not have
the luxury of a whole day off each week, life isn’t like that. But even so you
need rest and refreshment and you shouldn’t feel bad when you take it, even if
it is just a few hours at a time.
.
And finally, realising that the Sabbath is
intended by God as a blessing rather than a burden here are ten ways to make
the most of it:
10 Ways to
Make Your Sabbath Special
1. Turn the telly off
2. Spend more time with your friends or family
3. Have a meal together
4. Don’t go shopping
5. Go to church
6. Have a sleep
7. Go out somewhere
8. Stop work
9. Turn your computer off and your
answerphone on
10.Do something different!
The sabbath is a blessing not a burden. Its a precious gift from God. So
remember the sabbath day and keep it holy.
The Tenth
Commandment: How to Find True Contentment (Ex 20.17)
Did you know?
¨
Each week £82 million is spent on
the National Lottery, where the chances of wining are 13 million to one
¨
the 3 richest individuals in the world have more money than
the combined wealth of the worlds 23 poorest nations
¨
342 individuals have more money than half the world’s
population
¨
each of those 342 individuals no doubt would like more money
¨
shopping is the most popular national pastime in the UK
If only. If only. If only I could
have MORE. More money. More clothes. More videos. A new car. A bigger house.
Then I would be truly happy.
There’s a whole industry devoted to
making you feel dissatisfied with your lot. It’s called the advertising
industry. Each year £15 billion is spent in this country alone persuading us
that if only we bought product X, we would be healthier, wealthier, sexier and
thousand times happier.
By the time they are 35, today’s
children will have seen 150,000 TV commercials
‘Go on.
Buy it. Treat yourself. Pamper yourself.
You deserve it’ is the insistent message of the advertising industry. And so it
goes on, day in day out, on the telly, in the papers, on the radio, in
billboards, on the internet. Buy . Buy. Buy. More. More. More.
Day in day out we are being encouraged
to do the very thing God commands us not to do: to covet. Coveting has been defined as being based on the belief
that ‘happiness lies in getting what you
have not yet got’
In the world of coveting, the grass
is always greener on the other side. Happiness is just round the corner. After
you have bought those new clothes, that new pair of trainers, the smart car, or
have won the lottery, then, you will
be truly happy.
But the cruel thing about coveting
is that happiness is always just round the next corner - you never actually
reach it. It’s a bit like those long hill walks where over the next hill, there
is yet another hill. Coveting promises happiness, but the happiness promised is
always after the next purchase. Sadly
as soon as you’ve got it, you just want something else.
Listen to what the Bible says in
Ecclesiastes 5.10:
Whoever
loves money never has money enough;
whoever
loves wealth is never satisfied with his income
Coveting is a bit like an
addiction. Lasting satisfaction always eludes us. You always want more. ‘I can’t get no satisfaction’ is the theme song of a world addicted
to coveting.
It all began a very long time ago -
when the serpent crept up to Eve in the Garden of Eden and whispered in her ear
something like this: ‘that fruit looks tasty why don’t you have a bit?’ They
were living in paradise but the devil managed to make them dissatisfied
with their lot! He managed to awaken in them the desire for something more. The
Bible says:
When the woman saw that the fruit
of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for
gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband,
who was with her, and he ate it.
She saw
it, she desired it, she decided to have it, even though it was the one thing
God had warned her not to do. It was the first act of coveting but now we are
all caught up in it.
We want more. We long and yearn for
something more. We are not content with what we have. We are not able to enjoy
what we have because of the constant desire for MORE. It‘s a form of madness.
It’s at the heart of sin. And that is why God says: do not do it :
“You
shall not covet your neighbour's house. You shall not covet your neighbour's
wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that
belongs to your neighbour."
The commandments were given by God to
the people he loved, the people he had rescued from slavery in Egypt. Now they
were free, they needed to know how to live. That’s why God provided the
commandments.
I know of a children’s playground
in the middle of a large estate. All the way round it there is a fence. It’s
not there to spoil the kids fun. It’s there so they can enjoy being free. Inside the fence, in their playground, they’re safe from the
road, safe from dog’s poo on the field. They don’t need to hold mum’s hand, or
be strapped into their buggy, or held on to the reins. They can run free
because they are in a safe secure environment.
God’s commandments are like that
fence. They weren’t designed to restrict people, to spoil their lives or cramp
their style. They were given to a people who were now free at last, to help
them enjoy their new freedom in safety without damaging themselves and spoiling
their lives, and in a way that would honour the God who had saved them
That’s why we ignore God’s safety
fence, his commandments, at our peril. Go outside the 10 commandments and
you’re heading for trouble. Keep them and you will enjoy the new life that God
has given you in Christ
So when God says ‘Do not covet’ to
you: listen, take it heart. He has your best interests in heart - unlike the advertisers
who constantly try to make you dissatisfied.
And remember that true contentment
comes not through things but through trust in God:
25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry
about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will
wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than
clothes? , O you of little faith? 31 So
do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What
shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run
after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
33 But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew
6)
We acknowledge O Lord that much of what
our hearts desire is neither good nor right. Our hearts are deceitful above all
things and beyond cure and only you can understand them. We come before you
now, and in a moment of silence, confess to you the things we have wrongly
desired
We thank you for the many promises
of forgiveness that are held out in Scripture to those who are truly repentant.
Let us take to ourselves God’s promise in Ezekiel 36: ‘I will sprinkle clean
water on you and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all impurities and
idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you’
We pray
O Lord that you will, indeed cleanse us from wrong desires and fill us with
your Holy Spirit afresh through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
How to prosper with a clear
conscience (The Eighth Commandment)
by Jane Cowan
DO NOT
STEAL!! A clear
cut, three word commandment - no explanations necessary. We can cover up our thoughts about coveting,
and say that 'we didn't mean what we said' if our lies are questioned. But when
it comes to the eighth commandment about stealing, we are dealing with
something we have either done or not done, something which can be proved with
material evidence. This is a commandment which it is less easy to bluff about.
Throughout the Bible there is a
clear message that there are two ways to live - the way of the world, the way
of the majority, and God's way. Two cultures - the culture of the world around
us, and the culture Jesus came to demonstrate. Which one are you in? Or more likely, where on the continuum
between disobeying and obeying the commandment
would you place ourself..where too am I?
When preparing to preach on this
subject I found these solemn words
in Romans ; 'You who preach against
stealing, do you steal?'
The commandment not to steal was
given to a nomadic people who had lived as slaves in Egypt. In comparison to us their possessions must
have been few but nevertheless important - largely herds of animals and gold. The concept of private personal property was
allowed by God, but He saw that man's sinful nature was bent towards self-
interest,- as we have seen in the last two sermons - we want more.
One of the early traits we see in
small children at Under 5's is taking toys from each other - what some other
child has is more desirable. I doubt if
I am the only mother who has experienced the pain of discovering a child has
been helping themselves to money for sweets, - in fact I wonder if the desire to steal is one of our earliest
temptations - knowing what we should not
do but finding the strong pull to do it.
It happens long before we reach the age of dishonouring parents or
contemplating committing adultery.
God's response to man's fallen
nature was to give this clear commandment - do not steal. Do not take what belongs to someone
else. If it was important then, what
about situation now? Who has had something stolen from them?..wallet, handbag,
car radio, or perhaps had their house broken into?
I wonder what response there would
have been when this church was first built? Older people say the situation is
much worse: that doors could be left open in times past - then there were no
burglar alarms, security cameras, credit card frauds and so on. They all came as we gained more and more
possessions. At the same time we now
live in a culture where the majority have no concept of a God who sees what we
do in secret, and has set boundaries.
No wonder crime is a major topic in the Election.
If you have read the relevant
chapter in the book 'Ten' by J. John, you will know that in 1999 a national
newspaper described Britain as a nation of cheats and thieves, based on a
report on theft in the workplace. Three
quarters of the population steal from their employers, a quarter will make
opportunities to steal and half will
steal when the chance arises.
Apparently only a quarter of us refuse to steal.
This came home to me the other day
at London Bridge station, when I was given far too much change for a cup of
tea. The next person in the queue was
so astonished that I owned up, that he followed me to make a comment- I'm
ashamed to say I replied with no more than that 'I did not believe in stealing'
and closed down an opportunity to take the conversation further.
In today's world it seems it is
fair game to steal from an unseen large organisation - and sadly it doesn't
even seem to matter what that organisation stands for. Churches are experiencing increasing amounts
of theft - only recently a fire extinguisher was stolen from the kitchen. When I was doing my nursing training I
remember hearing about a few nurses who removed washing up bowls and the odd
pillowcase for their flats, but my daughter's experience includes purchasing 18
of those V-shaped pillows for her cancer patients, and all 18 gradually
disappearing.
Sadly it seems that even the older
generation who speak of the more honest days of their youth have been
tainted.... I read a report which said a garden centre caught 200 shop-lifters with
a new security system and 75 per cent were over 70.
Thieves no longer work largely
under cover of darkness - Day light robbery is happening all the time and most
people turn a blind eye and don't want to get involved - perhaps not surprising
when we remember the recent case of a handbag theft which led to the death of
the owner. Theft can have serious
consequences. Large amounts of theft go
on under the heading of deception. The programme Watchdog is full of
stories of the deception of people who respond to phoney mail order companies
and hand over money without ever receiving the goods.
As society has rejected the
clear-cut laws of God, so it has reaped the results. A world where stealing is
common place is a world where people
feel insecure and threatened and the vulnerable are exploited.
When Jesus wanted to illustrate the difference that
following him would make, he described himself as the shepherd who entered the
sheep fold by the gate and drew the contrast with those who entered by climbing
over the fence - the thieves who wanted to steal, kill or destroy, not give
security to the sheep.
When Jesus spoke of heaven he
described it as a place where thieves would not break in and steal,
To be part of the world that
accepts stealing, or turns a blind eye to it, is to align ourselves with
activity that is in complete contrast to all that Jesus stood for. Stealing was unacceptable behaviour in his
eyes. Thieves have no place amongst his
flock.
But how innocent do you think you are? Could you place yourself up the other end of the continuum and
say you obey this commandment? Or could
you only mark yourself down somewhere in the middle.
Is there a fuzzy, grey area in
between where there is a temptation to join in what everyone else does. Not exactly stealing - more what is called
euphemistically, 'helping oneself'. An
area that the boss overlooks - that seems to be built into the cost of running
the office? - Items from work enough to
keep you going when you work at home, but also keep the family in paper,
sellotape, floppy discs and so on?
Items, ostensibly borrowed, but
never actually returned?
What about not paying when you nip
into a car park? Is that stealing? I confess that back in my dressmaking days I
used to feel incensed about paying to park at Reffel's Bridge when all I wanted
was a reel of thread, so I never did.
The family were shocked when they discovered this, and facing up to
preaching about this subject, made me realise how easily we accept the world's
attitudes -that to be caught not paying to park is unfortunate, not exactly an
offence and certainly nothing to do with God's laws. Shouldn't we have more tender consciences as Christians?
The immediate application of this
commandment is to material possessions - perhaps particularly in our society
but Jesus tended to push people's thinking beyond merely the letter of the law.
What about the area of fair trade?
- paying less than a fair cost for our coffee, tea, bananas clothing etc and in
effect stealing from the poor. What about investing our money ethically - when
I noticed the title chosen for this sermon 'How to prosper with a clear
conscience?' I wondered if Ethical investments should be the topic?! Have you
ever thought about the subject.
What about robbing employers of
time?
Deception can often lead to
monetary gain - isn't that stealing? -
Are there things we know about our houses which would reduce their market value
if we mentioned them? What about wastefulness and robbing the environment?
Taking the law even further - how about accepting praise that is really due to
others and taking affection from others without returning it.?
You will be able to think of other
areas..............
Ultimately what about robbing
God? In the book of Malachi it says quite
bluntly that we rob God if we do not offer to him, to his service, a proportion
of our material possessions. Is this all taking the commandment too far? Grey areas, like the white lies we thought
about a fortnight ago are areas for prayerful consideration and a tender
conscience. Our goal should be
obedience and clean open hands.
Paul saw integrity, as a vital
ingredient of discipleship. People who
could be trusted, people whose standards were higher than the norm, were
witnesses to their faith. He exhorted
slaves not to steal from their masters, but to show they could be fully
trusted, 'so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our
Saviour attractive.' Titus 2 v 10 Notice poverty and being the underdogs as slaves were not an excuse to steal.
So if your behaviour at work is scrupulously honest, and you stick to the letter of the law when it comes to not stealing - will your colleagues find that attractive, will it be a good witness or will you seem superior or mean spirited or simply negative? A Holy Joe? Will it merely make them feel uncomfortable but not demonstrate Jesus in the way you would hope? I believe Jesus has something to teach us about keeping this commandment. I think he calls us not simply to be obedient and not steal, but actually to go beyond the continuum I drew between disobedience and obedience and add to our complete integrity, a generous spirit. That will be more difficult to mock. In the New Testame