Setting The Table Series

Setting the Table

Exodus 19:1-25

Rev. Brian Bill

April 17-18, 2021

I’ve never been very good at setting the table. My mom was a Home Economics teacher and taught me how to do it, but I always did it wrong…on purpose. I figured if I didn’t get it right, I’d get out of having to do it all the time. That’s continued through today. I don’t set the table very often but when I do, I just throw the plates on and slide the silverware to whatever side is closest. Napkins get dropped somewhere near the setting. Everything’s chaotic…but it keeps me from having to do it very often. It’s worked well for me (I’ve done the same with laundry).

I’m going to set the table for our new series on the Ten Commandments called, “Written in Stone.” I certainly don’t want to be sloppy about it. I want to carefully lay some things out, putting the utensils in the right place so we can dig into a fabulous meal over the next several months.

BTW, some of you will want to do some extra study on your own. We’ve included four outstanding resources on the Sermon Extras link on the website and app.

• Ten Words to Live By (Jen Wilken)

• The Ten Commandments (Kevin DeYoung)

• Written in Stone (Philip Ryken)

• Words from the Fire (Albert Mohler)

Recent polls show 80% of Americans claim to believe in the Ten Commandments but only 14% can name them. Even fewer consider keeping them. For many Americans, the 10 Commandments are not set in stone. We won’t take a quiz now, but I hope at the end of the series 100% of us will be able to name all of them!

Several years ago, when Jay Leno hosted the Tonight Show, he did one of his “Jaywalking” segments where he went into the street and asked people to name just one of the Ten Commandments. Person after person was stumped by the question until finally one woman answered timidly, “God helps those who help themselves?”

The Ten Commandments have influenced our country and the laws of other nations more than any other document. Ray Fowler writes, “They have been a positive good whenever nations have enforced them, and people have followed them. Whenever nations and people have disregarded them, it has only meant moral and societal decay.”

James Madison, our fourth president, made this statement: “We stake the future of this country on our ability to govern ourselves under the principles of the Ten Commandments.” I’m afraid we’re in trouble.

In their book, The Day America Told the Truth, James Patterson and Peter Kim conducted the first and largest mass survey on private morality. They discovered two alarming stats…

• 74% will steal from those who won’t miss it

• 64% will lie as long as no one gets hurt

This book came out 30 years ago. I can’t imagine things have improved in three decades.

We’ve moved as a country from what is right and what is wrong to “if it feels good, do it.” Isaiah 5:20 says: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.” The last verse of the Book of Judges summarizes the situation in our society today: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” We’ve thrown away the King and His commands to our own detriment.

Churches have capitulated as well. I came across a cartoon of a church sign meant to be humorous, but it’s truer to life than we care to admit: “The Lite Church: 24% fewer commitments, home of the 7.5% tithe, 15-minute sermons, 45-minute worship services, we have only 8 Commandments – your choice, we use just 3 spiritual laws and have an 800-year millennium. Everything you’ve wanted in a church...and less!”

At Edgewood, we don’t want to be a lite church, but instead desire to burn bright as we make disciples who make disciples by gathering, growing, giving and going with the gospel, all for the glory of God.

Brothers and sisters, there is such a thing as right and wrong, and it’s found in the Ten Commandments. Abortion is not just a harmless choice; it’s a violation of the sixth commandment: “You shall not murder.” Marriage vows are sacred because marriage is a covenant between one man and one woman for life, no matter what the current politically correct view happens to be.

Please turn to Exodus 19. Before we dive in, let’s watch this two-minute video which puts the 10 Commandments in context.

? Play Exodus, part 2 (Bible Project)

In order to set the table with two tablets today, we’ll focus on four key words – redemption, relationship, reverence, and requirements. Let’s put it into a sentence: Redemption, relationship, and reverence come before God gives His requirements.