He Is Number One! Series

HE IS NUMBER ONE!

I am thankful that God has saved me and redeemed me by the Blood of the Lamb. A couple of weeks ago we talked about how God reminded Moses and the children of Israel of how He saved them from the bondage and oppression of Pharoah. And after He reminded them of their deliverance, God declared (to them) His Ten Commandments.

Text: Exodus 20:1 thru 3

Question: Of all the persons spoken of in the Bible (other than Jesus), who would you say best lived out the Lord’s first commandment?

Thou shall have no other God before me.

God expects and commands that He is Number One, so who kept God as Number One better than anyone else?

Job may be a possibility. After all, Job –

q Lost all 10 of his kids,

q Lost all of his possessions,

q Was told by his wife to give up on God and die.

In spite of all his trails and tribulations, Job continued to worship God.

Perhaps Paul would be a candidate.

q He gave up everything that was important to him,

q He was willing to endure any form and any amount of suffering,

q He did whatever it took to make certain the churches were started and nurtured.

Maybe Ruth would be the best choice.

q She knew nothing about serving God but lived a life that was filled with uncertainties,

q She left behind her family, friends, & future just to serve a God.

What about Mary, the mother of Jesus?

q She was told that she was going to give birth to the Son of God,

q She could have rebelled,

q But instead, she welcomed the privilege of giving birth to the Savior.

Each of these Bible characters proved (through their actions) that God was the supreme focus and purpose for their life.

God was not only the God of the universe, but He was God in their everyday lives.

This morning we could look at each one of these four, but let’s just look specifically at the life of Abraham.

The great patriarch of the Old Testament.

I want us to focus only on one single event that happened in Abraham’s life.

Before we do that - you should that Abraham lived a long time before God gave Moses the Ten Commandments.

Long before Abraham could have known that Jehovah God had to be Number One, Abraham made God Number One.

What is so remarkable about Abraham is that he didn’t need a commandment (written in stone) to understand what God wanted for his life.

Abraham knew that God deserved –

1. His complete and undivided worship,

2. and an uncompromising commitment of trust and obedience.

God promised Abraham & his wife a son.

q They waited a very long time for their son to be born.

q They had become disappointment and frustrated waiting on God.

Finally the day came when Abraham and Sarah had their son, named Isaac.

And like many parents, Abraham and Sarah dearly loved Isaac.

But this blessing of a child became a problem in Abraham’s relationship with God. Since they had planned, prayed and waited for this child for so long, young Isaac became the focus of everything that they did.

That is not an uncommon mistake for many first time parents even in our day.

Anyone of us may have something that belongs to us that we hold very dear.

Sometimes, we may prioritize our lives around that something, or someone.

This is what happened with Abraham and Sarah with their son, Isaac. The very gift that God had given them had now become the Number One priority in their life. Ahead of the Lord, Himself.

So God sent a test.

Most of us know the story.

It is one of the most controversial stories of the Bible. This great patriarch, named Abraham, was to place his own Son on an altar and sacrifice him to the Lord.

Let me remind you once again that Abraham had not been told the first commandment.

Thou shall have no other God before me.

I keep reminding us of this because many of us may be like Abraham. Maybe we need to be told the first commandment.

Perhaps you were not as familiar with the first commandment before coming here this morning.

In the story of Abraham and Isaac, God wanted to see who really was Number One in Abraham’s life.

Was God #1, or was Isaac #1?

In our life’s story, God also wants to see who really is Number One in our lives.

Is God #1?

Or, is something or someone else #1?

Perhaps there may be some who would take issue with how God handled this situation with the story of Abraham and Isaac.