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.
They may be thinking,
“This is not fair! Didn’t God give this young boy (named Isaac) to Abraham and Sarah as a blessing? A fulfillment to His promise?”
This test for Abraham and Sarah has been recorded in Genesis 22. Let me try to explain so we can understand the Lord.
Well, let me just give you the bottom line.
Abraham had to make a choice.
Who is Number One in my life?
Who is more important to me?
God or my son?
Not an easy question to ask any parent.
Personally my heart aches for what Abraham had to do.
Consider what happened:
Early one morning, Abraham got up and prepared everything for the journey to Mt. Moriah. In order for the sacrifice to take place, there had to be wood for the fire. Can you imagine?
Abraham got out his ax and chopped wood that would be placed underneath his son. Abraham knew that once he lit the fire, it would consume his son’s body.
With every swing of the ax, I can only imagine that there was a lot to think about. Maybe Abraham thought about all of the wonderful memories he and his son had made together.
Some of those thoughts might have been the same thoughts that would have gone through my mind:
1. Why do I have to give God 100%?
In other words, what gives Him the right to tell me what to do?
I believe that is the same question the Israelites were asking when God handed down each of the Ten Commandments.
It’s also the same question that most people (nowadays) ask themselves. Each of us must face the tough decision of making God Number One in our lives.
Each of us are often faced with being forced to choose between what looks good for us, or what feels good to us, and what God ultimately says is right.
We may ask ourselves,
“Why should I have to listen to God?”
Here is our answer:
Because of Who He is.
He is the Lord your God. Jehovah God.
When you hear the word “Lord”, you probably think of master or boss, but that is not the meaning of the word used in our text. God the Master is used many times throughout the Bible, but not here.
The word “Lord” translated here is actually the word “Jehovah”.
It is God’s own personal name.
My personal name is Jim.
God’s personal name is Jehovah.
Why is this so important. Because this proves to us that God had a personal relationship with Moses and the Children of Israel. They had chosen to recognize “Jehovah” as their personal God when they agreed to follow Moses out of Egypt. There was a relationship there.
God was personally involved with the lives of each and every person who crossed the Red Sea with Moses.
The children of Israel knew “God” as –
q The One Who created the universe.
q The One Who had created them.
q The One they would one day stand before as their Judge.
God had often declared to them,
“I am that I am.”
God was God no matter whether they chose to declare their allegiance to Him or not. The same is true in our lives. God is going to be God no matter what, but He is only going to be your God by your choice. He won’t force Himself on you during this life.
Having said that you should know that since He is God! One day you and I will also have to give an account for how well we follow the Ten Commandments.
But especially the first Commandment.
“Thou shall have no other gods before Me.”
I don’t think God is going to ever change His mind about this.
He is God, after all. He made us.
He knows what is best for us. He knows the future which means He knows the outcome of every decision that we might make. And this God (Who knows us so well) is the same God that wants a deep, long lasting (eternal), and intimate relationship with us.
He wants us to know Him as the children of Israel knew Him. The Lord God “Jehovah”. And when and if we know Him personally, we will naturally be obedient to His first commandment.
We will have “no other gods before Him”.
This is crucial for each of us. Each of us must be told by God exactly what to do.
We are not capable of running our own lives. Left to our own devices, anyone of us can very easily find a way to destroy ourselves. It is so easy when we face the struggles and problems of today to forget God and Who He is.
I would suggest that Abraham found a way to be completely obedient to the Lord God Jehovah.
Abraham knew –
q Who God was,
q What God had done for him,
q That God had the right to tell him what to do,
q His responsibility was not to try and reason with God about His commands,
q He must simply obey God.
Close:
There is no such thing as part-time commitment/loyalty to Jesus Christ.
As an example, a spouse who is 85% faithful to their mate is not faithful at all.
There is a big difference between our having an interest, and demonstrating our commitment. When you are –
q Interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstances permit.
q Committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.
God is not really interested in folks only being interested. But God is committed in seeing a 100% commitment from us.
That is why His first commandment is,
“Thou shall have no other gods before Me.”
Today, Christianity seems to be less than a matter of commitment and more a matter of convenience.
God’s first commandment has been broken. Has it not?
God knows that we could impact many more lives if we are willing to commit ourselves 100% to Jehovah God, and to
the building of the Kingdom of God.
Question:
Is it worth the cost of commitment to see people set free from their sins and getting right with God? What do you think?
