Nysync Or In Sync?

I. Perhaps you can finish these modern day titles, ad slogans, or games:

-Ad slogan: "Plop. plop. fizz, fiz ____________ (oh what a relief it is)

-An NSYNC song: "I want you ______" (back) (over 10,000,000 sold)

-A game: Super ______ (Ninetendo)

-An NSYNC song, "God must have spent a little more ____ ___ ___" (time on you)

-ad song: "O I wish I were an ____ _____ (Oscar Meyer Weiner)

-saying: "knee high to a ________" (grasshopper)

-The old Army slogan: "Be all ____ ____ ____ ___" (that you can be)

-The new Army slogan: "An army of _____"

-saying: "that’ll go over like a lead _______" (balloon)

-Advertisement: "Reach out and touch ________" (someone)

-advertisements: "N-E-S-T-L-E-S, Nestles makes the ____ (very best)

-advertisement: "Tricks are for ______" (kids)

It seems that we all, or at least we all mostly know these ad slogans, and titles. When I was thinking about these few, I really thought the list could go on, and on, and on, and probably if I listed a hundred or more, someone, or most of us would know them all. How many of them did you know? (most of them?)

How about these: (from Exodus 20), Maybe you can keep score in your head of how many you know!

(vs 3) you shall have no _______ (other gods before me)

(vs 4) you shall not make for yourself an ____ (idol)

(vs 7) do not take the ________ (name of the Lord in vain)

(vs 8) remember the ____ (Sabbath) and keep it ____ (holy)

(vs 12) honor your ____ (Father and Mother)

(vs 13) you shall not _____ (murder)

(vs 14) you shall not (commit adultery)

(vs 15) you shall not (steal)

(vs 16) you shall not bear _____ (false witness against your neighbor)

(vs 17) you shall not _____ (covet your neighbors property, wife...or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

II. How did you do? Some of you knew them Some of you didn’t. Some of you knew a couple of the more familiar ones. Some of you may have gotten them all. Maybe you barely knew any, at least until someone jogged your memory.

Recently I received a curriculum flier which grabbed my attention: It read "Ask you average 7 year old who ’NSYNC is...and then ask them who Abraham is. "Children today can quote an entire CD by their favorite group...But can they quote the Ten Commandments? They can tell you how to get to level five on Super Mario brothers... But can they tell you how to get to heaven? They can program a VCR or surf the web, but do they know that Jesus loves them? They have school, friends, and television to teahc them about the world...But we need to teach them about God." (1)

One of the latest crazes among children and teens is the group NSYNC, formed with volalist and dancers Lanc Bass, JC Chasez; Joey Fatone, Chris Kirkpatrick and Justin Timberlake. Letters from their first names forming the title of their group to signify both their sound and rythyme of being "NSYNC". Visit their website at NSYNC.COM and you can find out how to get "NSYNC", their newsletter, or even get Nvolved. Obviously they are a very popular group, who have done very well among teens and kids, and I mean them no dis-respect. But what if we get NSYNC with knowing their music and never get In Sync with God?

What if we can recite everyone of their song titles or even their lyrics, and yet we can’t name the 10 commandments? Or better yet live them? If we are not In Sync with God’s plan for our lives, then how can we begin to be in the relationship he desires with us? What if we know all the things of this world, but never pay any attention to the one who is greater than the world?

You see often being "NSYNC" (play on the word) with the world, means that we are out of sync with God. How interesting it was to learn this week about the Rev. Jessie Jackson’s adulterous affair. An affair that was on going the entire time he was both counseling President Clinton an vigorously defending Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky affair. A period in our history in which he and others said it was a purely "private matter" and they downplayed adultery in the mind of the entire nation. Jessie and others sought to make adultery the norm of the world, why because he himself was engaged in it.

Our Scripture text in John tells us "They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them." They say that the sin is okay, even want to legalize it. In sync with the world and living by the worlds ways. And yet to be In Sync with God is to understand He continues to honor our fathers and Mothers, to hold fast against the greats sins of theivery, covetedness, and even adultery. That when it comes to something like the "Temptation Island" we should adopt the old slogan and "just say ___" (no).