Deuteronomy 5:8-10 Bible Study | Episode 854

January 16, 2025

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Deuteronomy 5:8-10   Bible Study | Episode #854

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to Hope Alive, applying God's word to your daily life. Hi, this is Chad Harrison and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God will open up his word to you and allow you to see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today in Jesus name. Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are in Deuteronomy, chapter five, and we're dealing with the Ten Commandments. Doing a little bit of a deep dive into the Ten Commandments. And we're on the second commandment. And it is a. Well, it's a difficult concept for us to get because oftentimes we really don't even get worship of God. So it's hard for us to realize that our lifestyles are in many ways a act of worship of something. They're worshiping something. And, and for us, in the way we live, we. We give our lives two things. And, and really, that's what worship is. It is. It is the giving, giving of the efforts of our lives to something and play. And that something then receives the honor and glory of. Of the life that we have being fed into that. Now you go, Pastor, I don't know what you're talking about. Well, it's. It's really kind of hard to understand until you understand, you know, in the New Testament, that God's God says to us that we're to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. And he says that's the reasonable act of worship. What that means is as I give my life to something, as I give my life to things, that is worship of those things. Now, there are some things that we should give our lives to, and those are those things that are other than God are things that he would mandate us to give our lives for. What do we mean, what I mean by that? Well, he would mandate that we not just love him and offer ourselves as living sacrifices to Him. He would ask us, and he does, to love our neighbor, to love other human beings, to love that which he loves. And that's really what loving our neighbor is all about God for. You know, it's John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, so he loves humanity and gave his only begotten son, he, Jesus, in his actions on the earth, his self sacrificial actions on the earth revealed unveiled God's love for humanity in its fullness. And so that act of worship or that act of giving your life for something was given for us. So we're not only to the first and greatest commandment is to love God, but the second one is like unto it. And why it's inseparable is because if I love God, I have to love what God loves. And what God loves is us. And so I need to make sure that I love others self sacrificially, especially church people, especially those who are part of the body of Christ. I'm to love them as Christ loved the church. And so you see how those things kind of intertwine and then you bring them to the stage of worship. Because that self sacrifice, that self sacrificial act of giving of yourself is, is our act of worship, is the way we worship God. Now this commandment says, you shall make for yourself. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that's in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them to serve them. For I am the Lord your God. Am a jealous God. Okay, so what is he saying? Well, we're not to make any graven images. We're not to make anything which is idolatry. We're not to idolize things, place things in a position where we worship them. Whether and he says in the heavens above, that means worshiping spiritual things. Okay, that means worshiping angelic and demonic. And some people may be worshiping those things and not know what they are. But if you study scripture, we know what they are. We know when, when you're worshiping, when you're saying you're spiritual, you're you and you do spiritual things. You have a spiritual aspect to your life. That can mean one of two things. That can mean the Holy Spirit or that can mean some other spirit. And if it means some other spirit, then it's likely not from God. It's likely not something that, that God is in the midst of. You're actually worshiping a spirit which would be a fallen angel. And you go, well, what if I'm worshiping the angels in heaven? You're not. Because if you'll notice in scripture, every time a human tries to worship a regular angel in heaven, the angel Tells them not to. Don't do that. We're brothers. Don't worship me. Now, in the Old Testament, there is an angel that is worshiped and is allowed to be worshiped. And that. That is the angel of the Lord. And it's quite clear the angel of the Lord will come up. And it comes up several times. He. He shows himself several times in the Old Testament, that is the pre incarnate Christ. That's Jesus before he came as a man. And so sure, we can worship heavenly beings that are God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and even the Holy Spirit, when we worship him, he points us to Christ. And even Christ, when we worship him, he points us to the Father. Why? Because we are all worshiping the will and the ways and the character and the nature that is God himself. And the Father is the embodiment of that character, nature and will and way. And so we're worshiping that. How do we do it? Well, we offer ourselves as sacrifices, living sacrifices. We give ourselves to those things. God says, don't worship anything in heaven, in the heavens. Don't make a graven image to it. Meaning don't make something physical to represent that spiritual thing that you're worshiping. Don't make that. Don't make graven images of things on the earth. Now you go, well, I don't have any idols that I worship. Yeah, you do. Because remember, anything that we make, and that is a part of the. What we have as our thing, if we worship those things, which means we give our lives for those things, then we're worshiping them. Okay, now does that mean I don't work? So I don't. I don't buy a house? I don't. No, no, no, no. We're not talking about that. That. But is your work? Is your work the, the. The total sacrifice of yourself? No, no, My work is the way my life, my, my, my. My life of loving God and loving my neighbor and loving each other. I've many, many times said the reason I work in the world is so that I can be who God wants me to be in that world. It puts me in a position to be who I'm supposed to be in the world. Now, am I great at it? No, not always. I'm not. Of course. Remember, we're not, we're not talking about quality. God's in charge of the quality. I try my best to be obedient and faithful, but, you know, I'm not great at it. And nor is anyone else, nor is anyone Else, But I'm doing it so that I can, Pastor. So that I can take care of my family, so that I can love my neighbor as myself, because so it puts me in a position to. To be who I'm supposed to be in that world. To be who I'm supposed to be in that world. That is. That is the love we have for God. That's the love we have for God. And so when we're doing those things, when we're. When we're. When we're living our life focused on his will and carrying it out in his way in the world, then we're not making idols of those things. One of the things that if. If you're not a part of the church this time of year, one of the things that I've always talked about as being one of my idols is football. And I still love football. But this year I've. I've tried to take a back backseat to it a little bit. Not, not. Not invest myself emotionally as much into it. Kind of let it, Let it, Let it become what it ought to be, which ought to be some. A form of entertainment that I enjoy with other people rather than an idol in which I invest my emotional health into. And, and. And you go, well, I don't know what you're talking about. Well, what I'm talking about is, what I'm. What I'm explaining is, you know, there's a difference between worshiping something and enjoying something God made. There's a big, big difference in them. And sometimes that difference can be very nuanced in your mind. But. But it's a real difference. The things that God has given us, the blessings God has given us, are made so that we can see them, enjoy them, and worship him for them. Worship him because we've been given those good and good things from God. When the good things from God here on the earth or under the earth, when the good things from God become the emotional attachment, the object of all our thoughts and desires, when that happens, that takes a position in front of God and it destroys that relationship. And so what does God say? What does, what does God say about that? Well, he says, I'm a jealous God. And oftentimes we have. We have qualities and we have aspects of our nature that we think of as being bad or good. And jealousy is always seen as something that's bad. But it's not bad if we're jealous for what is right. If it's. If we're jealous for what is best, then that's not a Bad thing. It means that I seek that above all. Well, God is jealous for us because he seeks us above all. And you go above all? Yeah. He gave His Son for us. He. He. He saw us above all, including Himself. God did. And so when he says he's jealous for us, he is. He. He. He. He desires us above all. Well, He. He. He demands recompense for that. He demands that we. We be jealous for him, that we desire him and his will above all. Now, that does mean that we desire what he loves others. We desire his will and his plan. We. We. We seek that out. We enjoy the fruits of our labors and the good things that God has given us, but we don't enjoy them to the point where they become the focus of our emotional health, our emotional desires, our physical desires. And that's why when you do that, when you place something in this world in place of him, it becomes a problem. It becomes a. It becomes a stronghold in your life. And that's what he says. I'm jealous for you. I visit the iniquity, which would be sin. That would be. That would be choosing something in the world to worship other than God. He says, I visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, which means those who put me in a secondary position. That's what the word hate means. It means to be put last, to be put behind, to be put in a worse position. He says, I visit that iniquity upon them. Why? Because once you place a stronghold in your life, that stronghold gets passed down from generation to generation. Now, when we saw in Exodus the Ten Commandments, it started with this, this. This passage. He Now, Now Moses takes it in and takes it and moves it from the front of the Ten Commandments and moves it right in here, in the midst of it, and allows us to see that when we choose to place something in front of God, when we choose to do that, it not only does it bind us, it begins to be a familial binding. It binds those around us. It binds our children to those things. And it becomes a mechanism that holds the family in that bondage. Because that bondage, that worshiping of something in this world becomes the main thing for everybody, and that becomes the lifestyle of everyone. And so it's visited to them. And. But, but he says, but. He says, he says, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me. Thousands of what? Thousands of generations. He shows his grace and mercy to those who love him. Meaning he breaks you free of that bondage, if you will. What? Love him. Wines. Full circle. How do I break. How do I break the bondage of idolatry or placing something before God in this world? Well, the way I break it is to walk in the way of love. Loving my God, loving my neighbor, loving each other. I live by the law of love. That's why he says all the law and the prophets hang on these three commandments. Love God, love your neighbor, love each other. Because the. All the issues of life revolve around who is placed in the foremost, in the, in the, in the front of the line. And God says, don't make anything in this world a idol for you that becomes more important than you and me. Do not do that. He says. He says, I will show mercy to those who love me and keep my commandments. Remember his. His commandments are the, are the embodiment of his. His character and nature. And so when I read commandments in my heart and mind, I always think, for those who love me and keep my character in nature, who keep who I am at the foremost of who they are. And when we do that and do that well, we pass on not only the love that God has for us, but we pass on a legacy of love to our children or grandchildren, our great grandchildren. And that legacy of love that, that anointing of power that comes with that, because there's power that comes with, with faithfulness toward God. There's, there's blessing that comes with that, there's hope that comes with that. And as you build that reservoir of blessing and hope and power, as you build that up and pass that on to your children, it becomes more and more powerful generationally, it becomes more and more powerful. And that anointing and that power continues to grow because it, because it's, it's not only that generation's faithfulness, but it's that generation faithfulness times the generation before it. And so there's a great blessing to having having been passed a legacy of faithfulness and a legacy of worshiping God. There's great, great, great power with it, and there's great anointing with it. And those who actually begin to walk in it, even if they never have before, even if they never have in their childhood, those who begin to walk in it, that power and that anointing, well, I mean. I mean, it becomes evident how powerful they are before God. Now you go, what if I don't come from one of those families? Well, I mean, you gotta remember now, God loves, He loves to plant those new vineyards he loves those new places to prove him his character and his will. And sure, I don't have an anointing passed on to me, but you know, you have a special place in God's heart too. And so that's one of those. That's one of those things I can't have. I'm not a. I'm not new ground that has been tilled. I have a legacy of faithfulness to God. And so when I walk in, and I walk in it powerful. If you are, if you're one of the new ones, new ones to the kingdom, then you are the new. I mean, you're the, you're the new wine, you're the good stuff, the stuff that God's doing new today. And there's a special place in his heart for you too. It's different. It's always different. Every person is different. Every anointing, every, every walk, every, every will, every way is different. But God is not different. He does not change. We're just a manifestation of the fullness of his will in each and every person, glorifying an aspect of God in a unique way that no one can other than us. And so God says, don't make any graven images. Don't worship anything in heaven or on earth or under the earth that is made by Him. Worship the Maker, not that which was made. And how do we do that? Well, we offer ourselves as living sacrifices. And that's the reasonable act of worship. That's what we do. We sacrifice our will and our way for him and we sacrifice our will in a way for others. And it comes full circle and it ultimately brings about God's kingdom and God's good. As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.