The Fawn
A couple weeks ago, we went to Yellowstone Park. While we were there, we saw a bear, some bisons, deer, elks, ground hogs, and many other smaller animals. Today I want to tell you a story about a family of deer. Let us pretend that this is the family of deer.
Two young fawns and their deer family. This family of deer lived in a very large park, the roamed freely in the park. The two fawns loved to play and chased each other all over the park. Occasionally they would see some friendly people that love taking pictures of them.
One day, the two fawns can across a tall fence. They decided to see there the fence ends but after hours and days of walking, they made it full circle to the very spot where they began. This fence totally surrounded the place they lived.
The two fawns went back home to tell their mother about this very strange fence. The moms told them the fence was for their protection. Outside the fence lurked danger and evil. They were never to wander pass the fence. Everyday these two you fawns would go to the fence and looked outside. They didn't see any danger. In fact the sun seems to shine brighter on the other side. The grass seems to be longer. The flowers bloomed brightly. They thought to themselves: "Why would our mom tell us such lies? We don't see any danger." They felt the fence was restricting them and preventing them from having fun.
As the fawns grew, they started to learn to jump higher and higher. Soon they were jumping as high as the fence. The mommy deer knew their desires, so they warned the deer again and again: "Do not go outside the fence. It is dangerous out there."
One day the one of the fawns decided he was strong enough to jump the fence. So he convinced his sister to come along. The two of them took a running start and they jumped as high as they can. They sailed over the fence and landed on the other side.
Wow!!! See, no danger. Every day they would jump over the fence to explore the forest beyond. In the evening, they would jump over the fence to return. No one knew... or so they thought. You see, there was a man sitting in the bushes watching all this happen. He would see these two deer jump the fence in the morning to go out and then jump the fence in the evening to go home.
One particular morning, the two fawns jumped the fence as usual to go explore. As they wondered deeper and deeper into the forest, they discover it was really quite. The usual birds were not singing. They didn't see any rabbits or foxes along their trail. "What is going on?" The sun was shining as usual. The weather was perfect. But all the animals seem to have left the forest.
Suddenly, they heard a bang. Then another bang. And another bang. The fawn's sister fell to the ground crying in pain. She yelled: "Run... Run... Run for your life. The hunters mom had told us are here."
The fawn ran as fast as he could. He jumped the brook. He jumped the bushes. He wanted to get home. He finally reached the fence. He stopped and backed up to get a running start. He ran as fast as he could. He jumped. As he was sailing past the fence, he heard another bang. Then pain. Then everything went dark. The poor little fawn was shot by the hunter that had been watching them. Fortunately, a forest ranger found him and brought him to the animal hospital where the doctors were able to save him.
There are many types of fences and rules that adults puts on us. Many of those rules are for our own safety even though they may not make any sense to us. We need to believe that our daddies and mommies love us so much that they know best for us. We need to listen to them. When we listen to them, we would not fall into danger like our two deer.
Fences
There are many types of fences and walls. Some are to keep people out. Others are to keep people in. Some protect us from the outside. Others keep the danger restrained.
Here is the Great Wall of China. It stretches from the Gobi Desert all the way to the Pacific Ocean. This wall is over 4000 miles long and can be seen from space. It was built to keep China safe from the enemies to the north.
The Berlin Wall encircled West Berlin but the people outside of the confined area wanted to get into the walled in area so they can be free. So freedom may not have to do with confinements. In this case, people outside of the walled city wanted to get in to be free.
Here is a wall around a prison. This wall was constructed to keep criminals in. The people inside a prison are generally violent and dangerous to the rest of us. We have removed them from the society so the rest of us can be free to operate without fear.
Here is another wall. It is the wall that divides Israel and Gaza. To the Israelis, it is to keep them safe from Palestinian terrorists. To the Palestinians, the wall is there as a symbol of tyranny against them. The Palestinians feel they have the right to their own home land. The Israelis feel the wall is a level of protection against people that hate them and want to kill them.
This is rather interesting. To one group of people a wall is a symbol of freedom. To another group of people, the same wall is a symbol of oppression and tyranny. What makes the same wall viewed in two opposite ways?
We operate under a different type of wall. It is call a law. To be more specific, we operate under the Law of God. The question I want to explore today is when does a wall or a law change from being a symbol of freedom to a symbol of oppression.
Mount Sinai
God had to reintroduce the Law to the Children of Israel after they had spent 400 years in slavery. He asked Moses to receive the law and instructions. God gave Moses two tablets of sapphire as the basis of all His laws. When the tabernacle was completed, this two tablets was placed in a chest lined with gold. The chest, called the Ark of the Covenant, was placed in the Most Holy Place in God's Tabernacle. Above the chest in the Most Holy Place was where God's Glory rested. This place was called the Mercy Seat or the Throne of God. In-other-words, the Throne of God rests above the Law of God. God views His laws as the foundation of His kingdom. We now call these rules on this tablet the Ten Commandments.
What are these laws? They are ten fundamental principles on how we should worship God and treat each other. All other rules and regulations rests upon these ten rules. And these ten rules rests upon two paramount axioms.
Love God with all your might and soul.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
When God's enemies try to destroy God's government, they attack the foundation of God's administration. That foundation is the Law of God.
Satan's Three Lies:
If you were to destroy a society or a country, you can either destroy it by attacking it from the outside or corrupt it from the inside. And Satan has decided to do both. Satan has attacked these laws because it s the foundation of God's Kingdom.
Through the ages, Satan has basically used three lies to challenge the Law of God. I would like to go through the three lies, discuss why they work, and hopefully give you some solutions to combat against these lies.
There are basically three ways to look at the fence or the wall. One - you can be inside looking out. In that case, you are wondering how life is outside your confines. Two - you are outside looking in. You are then wondering how anyone can life in such a limited space. Three - you wonder how we can get rid of the fence all together. Then you can go anywhere you please. Those are basically the three situations that Satan uses to convince us that the fence or the law is bad. So let us apply our three situations towards Satan's lies.
1. God's Law is Unjust
Lie number 1.
Satan approached Eve telling her that the rules are meant to hide real knowledge from her. Like the fawn in our story, he baited her with the unknown on the other side of the fence. Satan lies telling her that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Lies can be propagated only if there is an unknown.
Satan used the same lie to convince the angels that God's law is unfair and it only there to limit their freedom. Again, Satan used the unknown on the other side of the fence to create a very convincing story to pull away a third of the angels.
When you don't know what is on the other side of the fence, you have two choices. (1) Believe the person that created the fence that the fence is built for your best interest. (2) Or believe that the person that built the fence is hiding from you or limiting your freedom because this person wants to control you. If you believe in the first, fence builder is a benevolent person. If you believe in the latter, that same person is a tyrant.
2. No One Can Keep the Law.
Lie number 2.
After the fall of the angels and man, the whole universe understood that they had been lied to. Hence Satan created another lie to justify the first lie. He managed to convince those that are outside of the fence that it is impossible to just stay in the fenced area. This area is too small and you cannot live within the law. The laws of God are impossible to keep. If you break one item of the law, you have broken your covenant with God all together. So why try so hard, you can never be that good.
Millions have gone to their graves believing that they are never good enough for God. They can never be that good, so why try. God will never forgive all those evil things they have done, so why try.
Jesus came down to this earth to prove the law can be kept. The Law is not too hard and we do have a way out through Jesus Christ. But even though Jesus has given a way out for all that accept him, Satan continues to use this lie on those that don't know. Again, the unknown on the other side of the fence is what enables Satan to propagate his lies.
The first lie is for those that are inside the fence looking out. This second lie targets those that are outside of the fence looking in.
3. Mercy Nullifies Justice and the Law.
Lie number 3.
What about those that are inside the fence and know how bad it is outside the fence? They know how terrible it is without God's Law. They have no desire to go back into the world again because they have seen the evil it in. Out-side the fence is not a temptation for them. What does Satan do now?
Satan creates a lie within the church to nullify Law. He uses pastors and church leaders to tell the people that the Law has been abolished through the blood of Jesus Christ. In Romans 7:6 - Paul specifically writes that
6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
And in Romans 6:14:
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
The truth of the matter is that Christ's death upholds the law as being valid.
Different Perspective
So how are we able to keep the Law the way God wants us to keep it? Maybe we need to think of the law in a different way. Allow me to point you to out a different perspective. This interest perspective came to me after weeks of prayer. At least this is a different perspective to me.
Jesus himself gives us the secret in the story of the rich young ruler. The story is recorded in Matthew 19:16-20:
16 Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good[a] Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”
17 So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good?[b] No one is good but One, that is,God.[c] But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
18 He said to Him, “Which ones?”
Jesus said, “‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ 19 ‘Honor your father and your mother,’[d] and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”[e]
20 The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth.[f] What do I still lack?”
21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Jesus told this young man that being above the law requires him to give up all his earthly possessing and go follow Jesus. Notice the first requisite is to keep the law at face value. Keeping the law at face value is really not that hard to do. Most of us do not lie, or steal, or murder, or commit adultery. We honor our father and mother, we keep the Sabbath, we don't speak against God, and we don't bow down to idols. So like the rich young ruler, we are keeping the commandments at its face value.
But Jesus goes further. He asks the rich young ruler to sell all he had and come follow Jesus. After you are able to keep the law, then give up everything, and become a disciple.
What does that mean to us today? Do we sell our house, our cars, liquidate our savings and investments to become a disciple? After being a disciple, how do I "follow" Jesus when he is physically not here on earth? Those were my questions and the answer was right in front of me.
Is giving up all earthly possessions the only thing the rich young ruler had to give us if he wanted to follow Jesus? What about his time, his reputation, his family, his health and well being? Jesus was asking for much more than just giving up his possession. Jesus is asking us to give up everything to be His follower. But is everything?
Ten Commands
Allow me to point you back to the Ten Commandments as that is where Jesus started in this conversation. Each of the Ten Commandments deals with a certain human condition. In order to become disciples of Christ, as Jesus said, we must understand what these human conditions are and then give them up to God. Jesus told the young man to give up everything. So what is it that he has to give up? Shall we go through each of them together and discover what they are?
Let us turn to Exodus 20 and look at the Ten Commandments and a different light.
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
God wants us to make Him our priority. He should be the first and the most important in your life. This is the who premise and foundation of this whole document - making God our priority. Jesus said: "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." Matt 6:33
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
God wants us to have faith to believe in a God that is invisible. You cannot feel or see this God, yet you must believe he exists. Physical things are temporal but invisible things are permanent. Paul describes faith as "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Hebrew 11:1) In 1 Corinthians, Paul also encourages us by saying - So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
God wants us to praise him with our voices and not use His name to curse and swear. All worship should start with praise. The Psalmist says "God's throne lives in the midst of the praises of His people." (Psalm 22:3) God wants us to live at the foot of His throne through our praises.
In another Psalm it says: "May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer." Psalms 19:14
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Give your time to God. God wants all your time. Then He asks for one seventh to be dedicated for His worship. David said in Psalm 31:15 - My time is in Your hand. If our time is in His hand, then God asking one seventh back to be dedicated for His worship is not asking too much. In fact, it is through this act of worship that we recognize that our time belongs to Him.
5. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
God wants our families, including our father and mother. We are to dedicate our families for His purpose. God expects us to take care of our families. Paul tells Timonthy this very thing by saying in I Timothy 5:8 “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."
When we take care of our families or God's family, He will turn around and bless us.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
The cause of murder is anger. Jesus said in Matt 5:21-22 - 21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder,[a] and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause[b] shall be in danger of the judgment.
And the cause of unjust anger is our super ego. Give up your super ego and reputation to God. If your reputation and your ego is not yours, you would not care to defend it. If you don't have to defend your ego, you would not become angry and murder.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
God wants our desires and our love. Give up your wants and desires to Him and he will calm the fires within your heart. He will teach you to love in a pure and holy way.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
Give up your material goods. This was the problem with the rich young ruler. He had a lot and he wanted to keep it. When we dedicate our material goods to God, he will take care of them for us. Yet when there are needs we see, God expects us to be good keepers of His material goods by giving it to the needy.
Our family has dedicated our possession to God. He has honored that by protecting our cars, our house and our possessions. Our cars are able to run beyond their expect life.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Watch your words. Give all that we own, means giving up the words that come out of your mouth. Give every word that comes out of your mouth to God and He will make it work for Him. Like the prophet Isaiah, God will touch our lips with coal from the alter in heaven.
The Psalmist tells us to "Set a guard over my mouth, LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips." Psalm 141:3
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
God wants us to be content with what we have. If we have given Him our lives, we should be contempt with what he has returned back to us. Do not look at your neighbor and want what he has for God has prepared a mansion with our name on it. If it were not so, Jesus would have told us. He goes to prepare a place for us. And if He goes to prepare a place for us, then he will surely return to receive us as His own.
So why worry about the things of this world when we have eternity in a huge palace prepared for us by the creator of the universe.
Conclusion
How would Jesus ask the question to you instead of the rich young ruler?
Would he ask you to give up your pride, or your priorities, or your family, or your desires?
What would he ask of you?
I don't want you to answer the question at this moment. I want you to think about it. Then tomorrow morning when you wake up, kneel by your bed or wherever you pray. Quietly ask God to show you what you need to give up in order to be His disciple.
Then ask Him to give you the strength to give up whatever it is. Dedicated to God.
