Best Builder For Nations Series

1. In The Finishing Touch, Chuck Swindoll tells the story of a marketplace in northern India where people brought their wares to trade and sell. One old farmer brought in a whole covey of quail that he caught. He hoped to get the attention of passersby by tying strings to ring that fit loosely over a stick in the ground, and then attaching the ends of the strings he tied around a leg of each bird. He had taught the quail to walk in a circle.

But nobody cared. Nobody wanted them.

Then along came a devout Hindu holy man of the region. He believed in the Hindu idea of respect for all life, so his heart went out to these birds walking in monotonous circles.

He told the farmer "I want to buy them all.”

When he’d paid for them, he said, "Now, I want you to set them all free."

The farmer looked at him strangely and said "What's that sir?"

"You heard me. Cut the strings from their legs and turn them loose. Set them all free."

The old farmer shrugged, bent down and snipped the strings off the quail.

You’d have thought they’d have flown away… but they didn't. They simply continued marching around and around in a circle.

A little frustrated, the Hindu man shooed them off, but they only landed some distance away and resumed their predictable march.

Freed from their bonds – they just kept going round and round in circles as if still tied.

2. The first word of the 10 Words/Commands is so important that the other commandments are unimportant without it.

3. Exodus 20:1-2 (NLT) Then God gave the people all these instructions: 2 “I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.

I. Our Focus on God

A. GOD Gives the Commandments

1. It was NOT Moses or any other man

2. Men are fallible as false teachers prove – 2 Peter 2:19 19 They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you.

3. Without God – Judges 21:25

B. GOD Emancipates from Slavery

• He Sacrificed Jesus for US to FREE us – Romans 6:16-23

II. Our Obligation to God

A. Through the Commands

1. God is the Source of our Ethics; Morality; Right & Wrong

2. He Transcends Human opinion

B. The Commands Emphasize Our Treatment of Others

1. Pagans’ God’s required high maintenance [Do you own your stuff or does your stuff own you?

• Fed the gods

• Sacrificed even people/babies to appease their anger

2. Yet, it is GOD who does for us

• He Feeds Us – Matthew 6:31-33 31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God[e] above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

3. So WE Do for Him and Treat Others Well

• Parents are happy when Children get along (Psalm 133:1)

• We are ALL God’s Children via Adam; some via Abraham (Romans 4.16b Abraham is the father of all who believe).

• Even the Commands that pertain to God impact our treatment of others

C. He is the God of FREEDOM – Not just “Creator of Universe”

1. God hates slavery (the Hebrews and the rest of us) – Romans 6:6 6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin

2. God loves Freedom – John 8:31-32

[Liberty Bell Inscription: Leviticus 25:10, “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”

3. These Commandments Create a Free Society

• In the Nature of the Emancipator

• Not Freedom to do as I want, that leads to bondage (vividly portrayed in Babylonian Captivity)

• Freedom from Sin to be Moral – can’t have freedom without self-control

• Impressive to think about Creator; even more impressive to think about the Creator caring for the creation

1. We don’t like being bullied or forced into something we don’t want

2. God doesn’t bully, He invites

3. Sinai was a creative marriage proposal to which the people responded, “We will do and we will hear” [Coke Marriage Proposal

4. After ALL that God has done for us, why wouldn’t we accept His proposal? His invitation?