"10", Part 1: No Other Gods | A Balanced Life

Today's episode of A New Beginning is brought to you by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God.

Learn more at harvest.org. And while you're there, browse our library of free ebooks designed to help you grow in your faith. What do you get excited about? What do you think about the most? What do you dream about, plan for, perhaps scheme for?

What are you passionate about? That is your God. Pastor Greg Loris is making the Lord God your God is the pathway to settled contentment. If you will put God first in your life, I promise you on the authority of Scripture, everything else will fall into its rightful place.

Put him first. Ever driven on a tire that's out of balance? Sometimes it feels like the tire is bouncing down the roadway. The steering wheel wobbles, your seat vibrates, and you wonder if you're losing control.

But a tire store can adjust that balance and give you a smooth ride once again. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Loris shows us how to adjust a life that's out of balance. If your life is wobbling and it feels a little out of control, I'm glad you pulled in for an adjustment today from the Ten Commandments. Let's look now at these commandments together. Found here in Exodus 20, starting in verse 2, commandment number 1. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the village, who shall have no other gods before me. That's commandment number 1.

No other gods before him. Commandment number 2. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that's in heaven above or earth beneath or in the water under the earth, nor shall you bow down and serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children of the third and fourth generations, of those who hate me, showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. So commandment number 3.

No carved image that you bowed down before. Commandment number 3, Exodus 20, verse 7. Don't take the name of the Lord in vain. Commandment number 4, verses 8 to 9. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Commandment number 5, verse 12.

Honor your father and mother. Commandment number 6. You shall not murder. Commandment number 7, verse 14. You shall not commit adultery.

Commandment number 8. You shall not steal, verse 15. Commandment number 9, verse 16. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. In other words, you shall not lie. And finally, commandment number 10, verse 17. You shall not covet your neighbor's house, or his wife, or his male servant, or female servant, nor his ox, or his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.

There it is. The 10 commandments. The commandments are broken into two sections. Not five and five, as we might assume.

But actually four and six. The first four commandments have to do with our relationship with God. The final six commandments have to do with our relationship with other people. So if I love God with all of my heart, soul, and mind, I am not going to have another God before him. I am not going to bow down before a graving image. I am not going to take his name in vain.

And I am going to honor Sabbath. If I really love my neighbor as I love myself, I am not going to kill them. I am not going to steal from them.

I am not going to lie to them or covet what belongs to them. I think Augustine summed it up perfectly when he said, love God and do as you please. See if I love God, as I ought to love God, I will naturally want to do the things that please God.

That is what he was really saying. So let's focus on the first commandment. That is all the time we have, is to do only one commandment in this message.

Commandment number one, Exodus 20 verse three, thou shall have no other gods before me. Do you think you have ever broken that commandment? A survey revealed that 76% of all Americans consider themselves completely true to the first commandment. So do you think that is accurate? That most of us have never broken the first commandment?

I suggest to you we have broken it more than we may realize. Because everything starts with the place of God in your life. Because you will end up serving what you worship. Remember when Jesus was tested by Satan in the wilderness? And the Bible says that the devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

I am not even sure how that played out. But we know that Satan, the devil, is described in the Bible as the God of this world. The prince of the power of the air who rules over the demon forces right now. So in a sense the devil said this is my stuff. And it belongs to me. Interestingly Christ did not dispute it.

I don't know if he gave him a glimpse into the future. But whatever it was the devil is saying this is all my stuff and Jesus I know why you have come. You have come to die on the cross and purchase back what was lost in the Garden of Eden. And I am going to make you a deal you cannot refuse.

Bad Godfather imitation alert. Satan says I will give it to you. You can have it on a silver platter. You don't have to die on a cross. You don't have to go through any of it. I will give you what you have come for.

Here is my condition. He says I want you to worship me. Jesus says thou shall worship the Lord God in him only shall you serve.

Wait what? The devil didn't say anything about service. He said just worship me momentarily. Worship me. But Jesus said only worship God because you will serve him. In other words he is saying you will end up serving what you worship.

You see. So what is on the altar of your life is of the greatest importance. But here the Lord now gives them the motive for keeping the commandments.

The motive. Verse 2 I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage. God does not start by threatening or scaring them. He starts by reminding them of what kind of God he was. A loving caring God who delivered them from bondage and misery.

You might say well that is great for them. They were slaves in Egypt. Well hey you were a slave too. We all were to sin on our way to hell. But God loved us so much he sent his only begotten son to die on the cross for our sin.

And we turned from our sin and believed in Jesus. Thus we have so much appreciation for all that the Lord has done. Therefore it should be our privilege and pleasure to seek to live a life that is pleasing to him. Not because we have to but because we get to. You see you don't obey the Bible because you have to. You obey because you want to. And the reason you want to is because of all that God has done for you.

You love him because he first loved you. That is what the Bible says. Jesus did not say keep my commandments and I will love you. He said if you love me you will keep my commandments.

So before the Lord tells him what he wants them to do he says hey check it out. Look at what I did for you. So this should be your way to respond. My love for him is a response to his love for me. Now Kathy and I as we mentioned we've been married for 46 years. I have certain expectations of her. She has certain expectations of me. God is the same. He wants an exclusive relationship.

He doesn't want to share you with other gods any more than your husband wants to share you with other men. How would it sound if a wife says to her husband honey I'm going out on a date now with Chad. I don't know why I picked Chad. Seemed like the right name Chad.

Something sketchy about the name. No they're not. I'm kidding.

I'm kidding. I'm going to have all the Chads rise up in anger against me. Is anyone here named Chad? Sorry Chad.

Because I can tell you're a great guy. Your wife there? Keep your eye on Chad.

Anyway I digress. But if the wife said hey I'm going on a date with Chad tonight honey. Oh and I probably won't be home tonight. I'll see you in the morning.

That's crazy. Can't have that. You need faithfulness in a marriage. Honor the vows that you make in a marriage. The Lord says I want the same thing.

Because why? I'm a jealous God. Whoa God's a jealous God. Hello someone's insecure.

Right. God's not insecure. He says I've done this for you. I want an exclusive relationship with you. And I don't want to share you with anybody else. Look to want your spouse to be faithful to you is a reasonable thing. In a way you're a jealous parent. You want the best for your child.

The very word jealousy speaks of ownership. You know we're connected. You're my child. And God's saying I'm your father and I want you to be faithful to me. So don't have any other gods before me. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. You know when you've walked in the very land where Jesus himself walked you'll gain a whole new appreciation for the truth of scripture. Hey everybody Greg Laurie here inviting you to the Harvest Ministries Israel tour April 9 to 19 2024. This will be an unforgettable journey through biblical sites and a unique opportunity to grow in your own faith. Listen spots are limited. Be sure to sign up as soon as possible at israel.harvest.org.

Again it's israel.harvest.org. Hope to see you there. Well today Pastor Greg is presenting a practical look at the first of the 10 commandments. Don't have any other gods before him.

Let's continue. What does it mean to have another god before him? You know we think of an idol worshiper as someone bowing prostrate before some carved image. Yeah that would be an idol worshiper for sure. But that's not the only form of idolatry.

In the epistle of first John we read the words little children keep yourself from idols. There's a lot of things that can become idols in your life. Listen to this an idol is anyone or anything that takes the place of god in your life.

Let me repeat that an idol is anything or anyone that takes the place of god in your life. So the question is who or what is your god? Everybody has a god. Even an atheist has a god.

They'll say they don't but they do. Maybe their god is themself. Maybe their god is their atheism. But they have a deity. They have someone or something they bow before that is on the altar of their life.

How do you determine who your god is? Okay question. What do you get excited about? You know what gets you out of bed in the morning? What do you think about the most? What do you dream about, plan for, perhaps scheme for? What do you spend most of your money on?

What are you passionate about? That is your god. Now most of us would say oh the lord is my god.

Well good I hope he is. But sometimes we can put other things in his place. It's not who we name.

It's who we ultimately serve. Sometimes your god with a small g can be something that's not necessarily bad but it's out of its rightful place. Idols are not always evil outright. Listen the most dangerous idols are good things that are twisted. You can make an idol out of your family. What?

Hello? Oh yeah. You can make your family more important than god. Well we should focus on our family. Yes we should but the lord has to be number one. If the lord's number one everything else falls into its proper place. God's more important than even your marriage. God's more important than your kids. God's more important than anything. God's more important than your career. And sometimes people make the career the god of their life.

And yes you should work hard and do what you can but god needs to be in the number one position. There's so many things that can choke the word of god out in our life. And again I emphasize they're not always bad things. Oh sure there are sinful things that can be booze or drugs or illicit pleasures.

Those can all become idols in your life. But it can be good things out of proportion. Jesus said it this way in what we call the parable of the sower. Remember he talked about a sower that threw his seed out. And some seed fell on ground and it began to grow but it was choked out by weeds. And he said in Matthew 13 22 the seed sown among weeds represents a person who receives the message. They receive the message but listen life's busy distractions, his divided heart, and his ambition for wealth result in suffocating the kingdom message and prevent him from bearing spiritual fruit.

Did you hear that? Life's busy distractions. There's nothing wrong with your career.

Nothing wrong with your schedule. Nothing wrong with all the things we're engaged in each and every day. But don't let them become god in your life and push the true god out of your life as a result. Keep god in the number one position. If you will put god first in your marriage. If you will put god first in your finances. If you will put god first in your singleness. If you will put god first in your career. I promise you on the authority of scripture everything else will fall into its rightful place. Put him first. Because Jesus said seek first the kingdom of God.

Right? Which means the rule and reign of Christ in your life. The kingdom of God.

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. What things? What you're going to eat. What you're going to wear. What you're going to drink. Where you're going to go to school. Who you're going to marry. Everything you need in life. It'll all find its proper place.

But sometimes we let things take the place of God. Classic example is the rich young ruler. You know this guy had it made.

Young man climbed his corporate ladder. Had a tricked out chariot. It was lowered.

Extra big wheels. Had a latte. Cruises up to Jesus. Hey Jesus. What must I do to inherit eternal life?

You would think Jesus would have said man you're like such an awesome dude I want you on my team right now. You're good for my image. Come on. I just got a bunch of fishermen. I need you.

By the way can we use your chariot? Jesus says the very opposite. He says okay. I'll tell you what.

Loose paraphrase buddy. Sell all that you have. Take the money. Give it to the poor and follow me and you'll have eternal life.

This guy couldn't do it. He went away sorrowful. Why did Jesus say that? And by the way Jesus never said that to anybody else. I'll tell you why he said it because Jesus being God could look right in that guy's heart and he could see it's the stuff that he owned or maybe I should say his stuff that owned him. And so Jesus was effectively saying if you want to follow me you got to get this out of the position that it's in right now and I need to be the Lord of your life and this man couldn't do it. What's holding you back from Christ? To somebody else Jesus might say you need to terminate that relationship.

That thing is killing you spiritually. To another he might say man you need to give up that vice or that thing you're doing. You can't live that way anymore. But listen when we come to the commandments of God here's what we quickly discover. I can't live up to these commandments. I've broken these commandments and you've broken these commandments. And the Bible says if you offend in one point of the law you're guilty of all of it. Wow.

Who hasn't done that? But here's the good news. 2,000 years ago God sent his son Jesus to die on the cross and take the full penalty of our sin upon himself. And the Bible even says he took the handwriting of ordinances that was against us which is a King James way of saying all the laws that said you're a sinner and he nailed them to the cross.

He did that for you. Because the law, the commandments don't make me holy. They show me I'm not holy. They're like a moral mirror. You ever look in a magnifying mirror? That's alarming isn't it? Remember when I was a kid I'd look at old men and I'd notice that when they shave they miss patches.

Like what's wrong with these people? Now I have a magnifying mirror and I look in it and I say uh oh. Missed a couple places didn't I? But see I look in God's mirror and I realize I fall short. But the good news is it's not there to make me feel miserable. It's there to drive me into the open arms of Jesus who will forgive me of every sin I've committed. Yes Jesus died on the cross. Paid the price for our sin. Rose again from the dead. And now he stands at the door of our life and he knocks and says a fool hear his voice and open the door he will come in.

And I want to ask you in closing have you asked Jesus to come into your life? What if it were your last day? Today? Tonight?

Tomorrow? If you're a Christian you don't have to live in fear of death. It doesn't mean you look forward to it. But it means you're ready. It means you're prepared. Prepared to meet your God. And I ask you that right now. Are you prepared to meet God?

Because heaven is a prepared place for prepared people. I've told you the story before of a tombstone. And somebody was walking through this graveyard and they saw the writing on the tombstone which had these words.

Pause now stranger as you pass by. As you are now so once was I. As I am now so you shall be. So prepare for death and follow me. Someone reading that tombstone was overheard to say to follow you as I was following you is not my intent until I know which way you went.

Right? Are you prepared for eternity? You say well how do how do you get prepared? You admit to God you're a sinner and you invite Christ into your life. He'll forgive you of your sins and the commandments you've broken and then he'll start changing you from the inside out. And if you haven't done that yet you can do it right here right now.

He's just a prayer way. In a moment we're going to pray together. And I'm going to extend an invitation to you wherever you are. Everyone in this room wherever you are this is for you. This is your moment to get right with God and ask Jesus to come into your life. If you need to do this do it now.

Don't put it off. This is your day. The day of salvation. Let's pray. Father I pray now for every person here.

Every person watching and listening wherever they may be. If they don't know Jesus yet let this be their moment of decision. Their moment where they pass from darkness to light.

The moment where they pass from unbelief to belief. Help them Lord to see their need for you. Help them to come to you now we ask in Jesus name.

Amen. Pastor Greg Laurie with an invitation to get your heart right with the Lord. And if you'd like to do that today Pastor Greg will help you in just a moment before today's edition of A New Beginning concludes. Well Pastor Greg my wife and I saw Johnny Cash the redemption of an American icon in the theaters some months ago and we both loved it.

There's so much about his life that we didn't know. And with so many interviews with those who knew him best you know other entertainers and family members we really felt like we knew him after the film. I see you have a copy of the new DVD on the table. I'm hoping you won't notice me walking off with it when the broadcast is over. Yes well we want everybody listening to walk off with one of these if they want to because for the first time ever we are offering a very exclusive version of the Johnny Cash DVD. It's called Johnny Cash the redemption of an American icon.

I wrote a book by the same title. This is a major documentary film produced by Lionsgate the kingdom story company and it's out there. Yes it's streaming on platforms but I'm offering you this new Johnny Cash DVD for your gift of any size and it also has bonus content. This is really important because you won't find that on the streaming platforms but I we filmed a special wrap-up message where I talked about Johnny's life. I brought the gospel into it complete with a presentation of the gospel and how a person can come to Christ and even a prayer. So when you were Johnny Cash the redemption of an American icon and DVD from us you will get that bonus content and also you'll get a streaming code.

So what that means is you can download it into your phone your tablet your computer and have the DVD which you can keep or give to someone. Be a great gift especially to someone that does not know the Lord. Seems like everybody loves Johnny Cash. You know he's an iconic figure. There's not that many icons out there but Johnny's one of them. He was loved by my grandparents generation.

That's where I first heard about him. My parents my my generation and the young generation today. It just it seems as though each new generation discovers the man in black and loves his music. It just transcends time you know to describe his music and say well it's country music. Well it is in that category but in reality it's kind of just Johnny Cash music. There was only one Johnny Cash. Only one man that spoke is he spoke and saying is he's saying that familiar boom chicka boom sound you know that he developed and and actually toward the end of his career produced some of his most amazing music and his spiritual life is similar sort of like bookends.

He started strong had a lot of lapses and he finished strong. So it's an inspirational story. This is not just a music documentary. This is a story of the man. The man who was transformed.

The man in black who was changed by the Lord and it's a story of hope and redemption that I think anyone who watches will be inspired by. So order your copy of Johnny Cash the redemption of an American icon that includes bonus content and a streaming code for your gift of any size. Yeah that's right and we're eager to get a copy on its way to you. Thanks for your generosity as you partner with us so these daily studies can continue to come your way. You can call us anytime 24 7 at 1-800-821-3300. Again 1-800-821-3300 or write a new beginning box 4000 Riverside California 92514 or go online to harvest.org. And then Pastor Greg I know there are some in our audience who felt God speaking to them today through your message and they want to make a change in their relationship with the Lord. Could you help them with that? Yeah you know Dave the Bible says whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved so I want to lead you in a prayer where you will be doing just that calling on the name of the Lord. So listen if you want your sin forgiven if you want to know that when you die you will go to heaven if you want Jesus Christ to come into your life and take away your guilt and your shame then just stop what you're doing and pray this prayer with me right now pray this after me if you would Lord Jesus I know that I am a sinner I have broken your commandments I have fallen short of your standards but 2000 years ago you died on that cross for me then you rose again from the dead so Jesus come into my life and be my Savior and my Lord and my God and my friend I choose to follow you from this moment forward thank you for calling me and accepting me and forgiving me in Jesus name I pray amen amen and listen if you have just prayed that prayer along with Pastor Greg and you've meant those words sincerely God has heard you and forgiven you of your sin and we want to send you some materials to help you as you begin to live this new life as a follower of Jesus Christ it's a collection of resources called the new believers growth packet we'll send it without charge if you've made a first-time commitment to the Lord today just ask for it when you call 1-800-821-3300 call anytime 1-800-821-3300 or write a new beginning box 4000 Riverside California 92514 or go online to harvest.org and click know God I don't know if you know about this but we have a weekend service called Harvest at Home exclusively for people that are tuning in literally from around the world listen to this we even have harvest groups where you can get into a small group with folks from all around this planet of ours and study the Word of God so join us this weekend Saturday and Sunday for Harvest at Home at harvest.org well next time more insight from God's top 10 be listening for another practical look at the 10 commandments join us right here on a new beginning with pastor and bible teacher Greg Laurie thanks for listening to a new beginning with Greg Laurie a podcast made possible by harvest partners helping people everywhere know God sign up for daily devotions and learn how to become a harvest partner at harvest.org