A New Beginning presents something for the new year from Pastor Greg Laurie. We want to help you get stronger in your faith and discover what it really means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. To help you do that, we're offering a book called Discipleship, The Road Less Taken. I explore what the Bible says about discipleship and how we can grow in this area. And we'll send this book to you for your gift of any size.
Get your copy of Discipleship, The Road Less Taken at Harvest.org. A recent survey found that 14% of Americans could name the Ten Commandments. By comparison, a quarter of Americans can name the seven ingredients in a Big Mac.
Now what's with that? We tend to remember those things that are important to us, those things we hear about repeatedly. Pastor Greg Laurie says we need to spend time with the Ten Commandments.
It's from these commandments given to us in the pages of Scripture that we know right from wrong. This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning. Amazing grace how sweet the sound.
Again you hear all the angels are singing. This is the day, the day when life begins. What time is it? Really, what's the exact time? How do we know what the exact time is?
Maybe your clock is a few seconds different from mine. The de facto standard is international atomic time, a weighted average of time kept by over 400 atomic clocks in 50 laboratories worldwide. That's the source that's trustworthy. Well, when it comes to right and wrong, Pastor Greg Laurie says the trustworthy standard is God's Word. And we'll consult that standard today on a new beginning.
This is the day, the day when life begins. You know a lot of us like top ten lists. Right? Like the top movies or the top songs. I was looking online just wondering what the top ten songs of all time were according to different people.
A lot of difference of opinion on this topic of course. But according to Rolling Stone magazine these are the top ten songs of all time. I don't really even agree with the list but it is interesting. Number ten, Ray Charles, what I would say. Number nine, Nirvana, Smells Like Teen Spirit. Number eight, The Beatles, Hey Jude. Number seven, Johnny Be Good, by Chuck Berry. Number six, Good Vibrations, by the Beach Boys. Number five, Aretha Franklin, R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
Right? Respect. Number four, What's Going On, John Lennon at number three with Imagine and The Rolling Stones. Number two was Satisfaction. And the number one song of all time according to Rolling Stone magazine is Icky Breaky Heart, by Billy Ray Science.
No. That's actually on the worst songs of all time list. Now according to Rolling Stone magazine the number one song is Like a Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan. Good song. I don't think it is the greatest song of all time.
But a good one. But other lists have Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen and Hotel California by the Eagles on the top ten list as well. But then there is a list of the top ten worst songs according to Blender magazine. On the list is We Built the City by Starship.
Ever heard that song? It deserves to be in this list. Icky Breaky Heart by Billy Ray Science is on this list.
Now I don't know why this one made it on the worst. I mean I don't love it. But I don't think it is one of the worst songs. The Heart of Rock and Roll by Huey Lewis and the News. They say it is one of the worst. Don't Worry Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin.
I agree. I don't like that song. Ebony and Ivory is thought of as one of the worst songs ever done by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder. And also surprisingly guess what song made it on the worst songs of all time list?
It is A Small World from Disneyland. I mean I liked it the first time I heard it. But after you have heard it so many times it gets on your nerves.
And Macarena is on the list as well. So there you go. Ok. So God is the top ten list. This does not reach by consensus. Nobody gets to vote on this.
It doesn't change. Written by the finger of God in tablets of stone. His top ten list is known as the Ten Commandments.
Barely 300 words long in English. The Ten Commandments form the foundation of our legal system and the foundation of western civilization. You know it has been said that humans have written 32 million 647 389 laws and they still haven't improved on the Ten Commandments. Abraham Lincoln said of the Ten Commandments quote, but for the Ten Commandments we wouldn't know right from wrong. End quote.
Very true. Theodore Roosevelt put it this way quote, no man is a good citizen unless he acts so as to show he actually uses the Ten Commandments. End quote. Now we agree that they are important. So let me take a quick poll. How many of you know the Ten Commandments by heart? Raise your hand. Not so many. Now why is that? We know they are valuable.
We know they are sent from heaven. Why haven't we taken the time to memorize them? A recent survey found that 14 percent of Americans. Only 14 percent of Americans could name the Ten Commandments. By comparison a quarter of Americans can name the seven ingredients in a Big Mac.
Now what is with that? Here is another interesting stat. Nearly one out of four can name all three Stooges and one in three can name all six kids from the Brady Bunch.
Is there anyone here who can name all six kids from the Brady Bunch? That is amazing to me. So basically what we are saying is I know that the Big Mac has two all-beef patties but I don't know that thou shalt not murder, thou shalt not steal.
What is going on here? You say, well Greg it is hard to memorize those things. Well how about starting with just the first four commandments. Well I don't know if I can memorize that. Ok. Tell me the names of the Beatles.
John Paul, George Ringo, Whitey West. Well you can memorize stuff like that. You can't memorize these commandments. Actually you can and we should.
Why? It is from these commandments given to us in the pages of Scripture that we know right from wrong. They are the grid that we live by. They are the basis of all morality. Listen. The Ten Commandments are not obsolete. They are absolute.
Let me repeat that. They are not obsolete. They are absolute.
But not everybody agrees with that. A contest was launched by some atheists to rewrite the Ten Commandments for today. They called them the non-commandments.
The contest drew 2800 submissions. And it was decided by 13 judges. And there was not a single thou shalt not among them. In fact commenting on this there was an article on the CNN website that said quote, if they lack faith in the divine the atheist's non-commandments display a robust faith in mankind as if Silicon Valley had replaced Sinai.
End quote. And so here are some of the choices by atheists for their so-called non-commandments. Number one. Be open minded and be willing to alter your beliefs with new evidence. Number two.
God is not necessary to be a good person or to live a full and meaningful life. Three. There is no one right way to live. Four.
Every person has a right to control their own body. Five. Leave the world a better place than when you found it.
Interesting. As Kevin DeYoung points out in his book on the Ten Commandments how can you leave the planet a better place than you found it and exercise control over your body if there is really no one right way to live. These are our reaction.
They are a counterpoint to the truth of the Ten Commandments. You have to start somewhere. We can't say well we will reach it by consensus. In fact the people that put this together said that they wanted to keep this open ended because they believe quote in the wisdom of the crowds end quote who can go online to weed this out. The wisdom of the crowds. Online. Are you kidding me.
Are you on Twitter. I am looking for the wisdom of the crowds out there. Here is an example on how the crowd can get it wrong. The British government wanted to name a brand new 287 million dollar polar research vessel. So they opened it up to the wisdom of the crowd so to speak online. And they suggested names for this new craft like Shackleton named after the famous explorer or perhaps Endeavor or Falcon. But everyone got together and the people's runaway choice from the Internet for this 287 million dollar polar research vessel.
Are you ready for it. Boaty McBoatface. I am not making this up.
Boaty McBoatface. It is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. So the folks overruled him and gave it another name altogether. So this just reminds us that we don't arrive at truth by voting on it.
God has given us this truth from his own hand written by his own finger. In fact the man Solomon the king of Israel the son of David went on a binge sinning against the Lord breaking every commandment left and right. And he lived a miserable empty life. He chased after sexual pleasure. Chased after drunkenness.
Material possessions. Everything one could want he experienced. And here is his conclusion at the end of the book of Ecclesiastes. He said here is the end of the matter after all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments for that is the whole of man. That is to say that if a man or a woman keeps God's commandments they are a whole man or a whole woman.
Solomon is saying if you violate these things your life will be out of balance. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. And also we have an online community of believers who are looking for what's next in their spiritual walk. So at Harvest Discipleship you can find trusted Bible teaching in a community that cares for you. And positive encouragement in your spiritual life. That sounds pretty good right? So become a part of the Harvest Discipleship platform.
And you can do that by just going to harvest.org. Well we are considering the Ten Commandments today from Exodus chapter 20 and one of our most requested studies of the year. Pastor Greg's message is titled Ten Part One.
No Other Gods. Okay so let's look now at these commandments together. Down here in Exodus chapter 20.
Let's pick up where we last left off. Moses has led the Israelites out of the bondage of Egypt. They are in the wilderness. The Lord is feeding them with supernatural bread from heaven called manna.
He is guiding them by his supernatural GPS system of a fire by night and a cloud by day. The people are thirsty so Moses is directed by God to strike the rock with his staff and water comes out. Now the Lord summons Moses to Mount Sinai.
And he says I want you to go there and I am going to speak to you. So Moses goes alone to this mountain to meet with God. And there the Lord gives to Moses these Ten Commandments from heaven.
Exodus 20 starting in verse 2. Commandment number one. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. That is commandment number one.
No other gods before him. Commandment number two. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is 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 three.
No carved image that you bowed down before. Commandment number three. Exodus 20 verse 7. Don't take the name of the Lord in vain. Commandment number four.
Verses eight to nine. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Commandment number five. Verse 12.
Honor your father and mother. Commandment number six. You shall not murder. Commandment number seven.
Verse 14. You shall not commit adultery. Commandment number eight.
You shall not steal. Verse 15. Commandment number nine. 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 Ten Commandments.
They are there to protect you. Years ago I went into my backyard. This is when I had my German shepherd. And he was staring intently at something in the grass. And I leaned down and saw a brightly colored little bird just shaking away terrified knowing he was going to become an hors d'oeuvre for my dog. And it looked like somebody's pet bird. And so I stooped down and I put out my index finger and sure enough this little bird hopped right in my finger. So I walked into the house and Kathy is making something in the kitchen cooking something up.
I said Kathy look what I just found. So we took the bird. We threw it in the pan. We cooked it.
And no we didn't do that. So I said I wonder who this belongs to. And my son Jonathan who was a little guy at that point said hey there is a neighbor down the street that their bird just died. They still love the cage. They said go get it. Hurry. So he came back with the cage.
We set it on the counter. I opened up the door of the cage and the bird flew from my finger into the cage. Jumped on the bird. It was going back and forth and chirping away. That bird was happy to be in that cage.
Why? Because the bird did not see the cage as a prison keeping him in. He saw it as a barrier of protection keeping my dog out. That is what the Ten Commandments are.
They are there for your protection. You know I was a kid I remember going to Disneyland and going on the Autopia ride. Remember that.
It is still there. Drive the little cars. And when you are a little kid that is very exciting. But you have these barriers around you. You really can't go very far even if you hang a hard right or left. You are going to pretty much stay in the lane they put you in. That is what the Ten Commandments are. They are guardrails in life. But ultimately as we develop our relationship with God they come naturally.
As the Bible says they are written on the fleshly tablets of our heart so they are internalized but they do give us absolutes to live by. They are like traffic laws. Now maybe you don't always like traffic laws. But they are there for a reason.
To keep you alive. By the way somebody came up with some commandments for drivers. And I thought they were pretty valid.
Here is one. Thou shall not go slow in the fast lane. Prius drivers are you listening? Prius drivers why? Maybe it is because the tires on a Prius are the size of a little donut.
They are so little I don't know. Here is another one. Thou shall not text while driving. That is a good one. And thou shall not text while waiting for the light to change. That is another.
Here is another. Thou shall not go 30 miles over the speed limit. Thou art not a driver in the Indy 500.
Thou art a dangerous idiot. I like that. Is there are people that drive like that.
Here is another. Thou shall not tailgate. Thou shall not pull in front of me and slow us down. Why do people do that? You are cruising along and they come up get right in front of me and slow down. Like excuse me. You had all these other lanes. So then I tailgate them. See that now. Payback.
No I don't. Traffic laws are there to protect us. Now here is an interesting thing. The order of the Ten Commandments is very important. If we were to rearrange them I think some might say some are more important than others. A recent article I read pointed out that in general people believe that certain commandments are still really valid. Like thou shall not murder. Thou shall not steal. Thou shall not commit adultery.
Everyone agrees those are bad things. But people are fudging a bit if you will on other commandments like well less people thought it was that big of a deal to take the Lord's name in vain. And a very small percentage of people thought it was really that big of a thing to have another God before him. However when the Lord puts the commandments together at the top of the list is you shall have no other gods before him.
For the Lord this is a number one offense. Jesus summed it up this way. You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your mind. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And then he said there are no other commandments greater than these. See if you love God with all of your heart, soul, and mind and you love your neighbor as yourself the rest of the commandments will come naturally. Good insight on the first of the Ten Commandments, one that sets the stage for all the others.
And Pastor Greg Laurie has more to come from this presentation here on A New Beginning including a final comment today before we conclude. But Pastor Greg, living a proper Christian life actually starts by having a relationship with the Lord. We come to God not by keeping the commandments but by accepting Jesus' sacrifice for our sins. What would you say to the person who's just not sure if they've ever come to the Lord and asked him to be their Savior?
Yes, I think they need to make this commitment to Christ. Here's what the Bible says, whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. So you need to reach out to God. Not just think about it, not just say one of these days I would like to, just do it.
In fact, you can do it right now. You say, well, how do I call out to the name of the Lord? You do it through prayer.
God is just a prayer away. He desires a relationship with you. He wants you to know him.
He wants to reveal himself to you. So you just need to call out and say, Lord, save me and help me. How about if I lead you in a prayer? And you could pray this prayer after me, you can pray it out loud if you like, you can pray it quietly in your heart, but direct this prayer toward God and you could pray it after me right now.
You ready? Pray this after me. Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you're the Savior and I want a relationship with you. So as your word says, I'm calling on the name of the Lord. I'm asking you to save me from my sin.
And I'm asking that we begin a new relationship today. Thank you for loving me and sending your son Jesus to die on the cross for my sin and then raising him from the dead. I now put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
Amen. And if you have just prayed that prayer along with Pastor Greg, and if you've meant those words sincerely, let us be the first to welcome you into the family of God. And we want to help you get started off right in this new daily walk with the Lord. Pastor Greg would like to send you his New Believers Bible. It's a special edition of God's Word for those who are new to the faith with scores of helps for new believers written by Pastor Greg.
So get in touch and ask for the New Believers Bible. We'll send it to you free of charge. Just call 1-800-821-3300.
That's 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to harvest.org and click the words, Know God. And Pastor Greg, we're so thankful for the work God is doing through this ministry. We're touching lives for eternity. And we're really thankful for our friends who see the fruit of this ministry and invest so this work can reach even further.
Isn't that right? Absolutely. When you invest in Harvest Ministries, you're investing in the souls of men and women, boys and girls. And what is the value of a soul?
Well, let me personalize it. What's the value of your soul? What's the value of the soul of your husband, your wife, your son, or your daughter, or your mom or your dad, or your best friend?
Well, I would say you probably couldn't put a price tag on it. It's so valuable. Well, listen, God says all souls are mine.
God loves us and sent his son to die on the cross to pay the price for all of our sins so we could be forgiven and come into a relationship with him. I can't think of a better investment of my resources, of my money, than in the work of the kingdom of God. So we would ask you to prayerfully consider investing in Harvest Ministries as we continue on to fulfill the Great Commission.
Yeah, that's right. And you can make your donation right now at harvest.org or write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300.
That's a 24-7 phone number, 1-800-821-3300. Well, next time, Pastor Greg returns with more insight based on the Ten Commandments. But before we go, he closes this way. I mentioned that we have our church over on Maui and there are people who are locals who are born there and they have their own interesting dialect that is described as Pidgin English. Have you ever heard that? Pidgin English. So someone came up with the Pidgin English version of the Ten Commandments.
So here they are. Commandment number one. I am the Lord your God. Have no gods before me. Their version is God is number one.
Right? Number two. Don't have any other gods before him is make no dakine statues.
Number three. Watch your mouth. Don't swear with God's name. Commandment number four.
On Sunday you can do nothing. Ok. I like that. Number five. Listen to your mother and your father for honor your father and mother.
Number six. No murder nobody for thou shall not kill. I like this one. For thou shall not commit adultery. No go mama with your brother's wahine. No go mama with your brother's wahine.
Wahine is their word for a girl. Number eight. For thou shall not steal. No cockroach nuttin.
For thou shall not bear false witness. No lie bra. No lie bra. Finally number ten. No be jealous when not a person stops. So there you have it. The pitching version of the Tenka Melts.
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