Today on Bold steps with Mark job, we're learning to give God his proper place.
You cannot replace God or compete with God or substitute God for other things in your life. He stands high above all the universe and controls the world and the destiny of man that God cannot be substituted. There is no substitute for that God.
Welcome to Bold Steps. Our Bible teacher is Mark job, senior pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago and president of Moody Bible Institute. I'm Wayne Shepherd. You know, when you hear the phrase the Ten Commandments, what comes to your mind? Maybe Charlton Heston coming down from the mountain and a Cecil B de Mille movie or or do you see yourself remembering those ten commandments and memorizing them? Mark, did you have to memorize the Ten Commandments. Growing up.
I did have to know them. Yes.
We can't pick and choose, can we? They are for today, as well as old covenant times.
You know, Charlton Heston was from the Chicagoland area?
Yes.
Yeah. And that was a great, great movie, The Ten Commandments.
He actually grew up in a little town in Michigan where my folks lived.
Okay. Great actor. But you know, this first commandment, thou shalt have no other gods before me is really at the core of what we all struggle with. And when I say idolatry, most of us think of a tribal group in some remote place.
A statue of some kind.
Yes, worshiping a totem pole. But the heart of idolatry is much more common than that to all of us. And it's the idea of putting anything equal to or above God that's idolatry. All right. And that's the heart of this first commandment.
Well, we're just starting today with this new series. So listen now here's Mark Jobe's message. Give God his proper place.
And so I'm going to begin reading in verse one of Exodus chapter 20. You can follow along. It says, And God spoke all these words, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt and out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. I want to start with this first command. I want to talk to you about what it means to have no other gods before him. Now, as we look at the Ten Commandments and before I get into commandment number one, I think it's important to talk about
how the Ten Commandments were given. Many of you know that the people of Israel were in slavery for 400 years. For 400 years they had been Subject to the Egyptian rule. For 400 years they had lived under someone else's government. The Egyptians had multiple gods. They were pagans. They worshiped the god of the Nile. They worshipped Baal. They worship, uh, dozens and dozens of gods. But the people of Israel, they knew that their God was the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. But they had no written law. They had no principles that they could follow. They had no law that would govern them. So here they are, being set free to be a country, a nation. Three months after they're liberated, God says to Moses, Moses, I want to take you to Mount Sinai. I want you to ascend unto my holy mountain. I'm going to have an encounter with you. He told the people of Israel, no one
else is to even come close to this mountain. If you come too close to this mountain animal, man, child or woman will die. They watched as Moses climbed up that mountain, and for 40 days and nights he spent that time on that mountain in a supernatural fast, with no food and no water. While he was on that mountain, God appeared to Moses, and God spoke to him and said, I, I have a covenant with these people. I, I have
a purpose and a plan. I have a promised land for these people, but I want them to follow the laws that I give them. And so God supernaturally on tablets of stone, it says, he spoke the commandments. And then with his finger he engraved on these tablets of stone what would come to be known as the Ten Commandments. In the Hebrew it means the ten sayings or the ten statements or the Ten Commandments. You remember the story
when Moses came down from the mountain. He had been gone so long that the people of Israel, they decided, hey, maybe he's never coming back. Maybe he died on that mountain. We need a God to worship. And so they reverted to their pagan practices. They took jewelry, earrings, rings, any kind of gold they could find, and they melted it into the image of a god they had worshiped in Egypt. And they began to worship and dance around a calf as they went into this major pagan frenzy, worshiping while
Moses was on the mountain. When Moses came down and he heard the roar of the people and looked, he saw that the people had quickly gone astray. How about it? 40 days, and they had already gone astray. They had just been liberated. They saw the miraculous sign of the parting of the Red sea. They saw the cloud and the fire. Isn't it amazing how quickly we can walk away from God, even after we have seen the hand of God work so powerfully in our lives? Does it
amaze you? Oh, it amazes me how quickly my heart can stray away from God after I've seen God do so much. The Bible tells us that Moses was so angered at the people of Israel that he threw the tablets of stone on the ground, and they burst and they crushed. And so a second time Moses ascended unto the mountain and met with God. And for the second time God engraved in these tablets of stone ten commandments.
The power of God was so evident that when Moses walked down from that mountain after having met with God. The Bible tells us that his face was glowing. When people looked at him, they noticed the glow on Moses face. So strong was the glow on Moses face that he had to put a veil over his face so they could not see the fading glory of the presence of God. I want you to understand these commandments were given at a special moment in time. They were given because the
people of Israel needed a rule. They needed guidelines to conduct their society in a healthy manner. In. They needed a moral code that reflected the design of God for their lives. And so God gave them ten commandments. I'm going to read those ten commandments for you. Many of us have heard those ten commandments as negatives. Thou shalt not,
because that's the way they are placed in Scripture. But I want you to understand that although there's a negative, there's also a positive because God is saying you should not do this because you should be doing this. So let's read it that way. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. God is saying God is God. So make sure that you honor and worship God as number one. You shall not make for yourself any idol. God is
not contained in stone or wood or image. God is a spirit and therefore we should worship him in spirit and in truth, because he's alive and well. He travels with us, goes with us, and there are no images, no graven images that should replace God. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. God is holy. So therefore, when you address God, address him with respect. His name is to be honored. Remember the Sabbath day.
God is a God of patterns and rest, so make sure in your life you carve out time both to worship God and to replenish yourself and to rest. Honor your father and your mother. God has given you a family. Cherish them. Honor them, esteem them in high value because as you esteem them, you honor God. You shall not murder. God is the God of life. So therefore uphold life. Honor life, value all life because all life comes from God.
You shall not commit adultery. God is faithful, asking you to live as a married individual in a monogamous, faithful relationship in which you do not violate that covenant. Because as you violate that covenant, you sin against God. You shall not steal. God wants you to work. Work hard, make your own money, and live off of what you make and not take of others what does not belong to you. Thou shalt not lie. God is a God of truth and therefore God expects integrity of our life.
So therefore we speak truth because God is truth. Thou shalt not covet. God is sufficient. So therefore we should not be looking at what other people have wanting it for ourselves. We should learn contentment and peace in our life because God is all sufficient. Now think about that for a moment. Think about what this society would look like if our society practiced the Ten Commandments. Think about how Chicago would be different if Chicago was practicing the
Ten Commandments. The dozens of youth that have been murdered this summer would not have been murdered. The robberies that have been taken, that have taken place over these last couple of months, no one would have stolen. You would not hear cursing on the street, using the Lord's name in vain because people would be honoring that. Our marriages would be stronger because people would be faithful to their
marriage partner. You wouldn't have people backbiting and gossiping because we would be content with what we had, and honoring that our churches would be full on Sunday, because people would be putting God in the main place and not worshiping other gods. You would have people that aren't burnt out because they would be taking the Sabbath as a
day of rest. You would have parents that are older and retired, and instead of just being shoved to the side and neglected, they would feel a part of the family and they would feel like they are being honored and being cherished. It would strengthen our families. It would help our society. It would make our neighborhood safe. It would strengthen the fabric of of son and daughter relationships with parents. In fact, this society would be an utterly
different society if we practice the Ten Commandments. And I want you to understand that exactly. I want you to understand this, that the Ten Commandments are not obsolete. I know they were written in the Old Testament, but they come out of the heart of God. And so since they come out of the heart of God, they are applicable for us today just as much as they were 2000 years ago.
You're listening to the Bible teaching of Mark job here on Bold Steps. We're pausing our program to take a moment to let you know that we'd love to hear from you. If you have a question or a comment, or even a prayer request that you'd like to share with Mark and the team, you can do that online at bird-stamps.org. And we encourage you to keep listening, because you might even hear your question answered in an upcoming episode.
Right now, let's get back into the second part of today's message, because Mark is going to dive into the commandments, and you don't want to miss what he has to say about God's place in your life.
I believe that God put the first commandment in place there, because if we don't get the first commandment right, we miss all the other commandments. It's like buttoning your shirt. If you don't get the first button right, all the other buttons are going to be wrong. What is that first commandment? You know, a lot of people compete for number one, right? Coke and Pepsi are always competing for number one. The Sox and the Cubs are always competing
for number one. There's a lot of competition for number one. Well, this number one is the number one top commandment that God gives first on purpose for us to follow. And I believe it's the foundational commandment that makes all these other commandments fall into their place. And it says this you shall have no other gods before me. Commandment number one you shall have no other gods before me. Now it's a very short commandment, but it has some huge implications to it. And so I want us to look
for a moment at what this means. I believe there are three breakdowns of what this means that you can apply. When it says you shall have no other gods before me, the language that's used here in the Hebrew is marital covenant relationship. It's the idea of a married man marrying a woman, and there's no other partner involved in that. It's an exclusive relationship right now. It's not between the man and his wife and three other women or other people. No, no, no,
this is an exclusive relationship. And the language that's used here is marital language. God is saying, I will not share your worship of me with any other gods. I want exclusive devotion from your heart to my supremacy. I want to be number one in your life and have no competitors that even come close. I want to be before every other God in your life. What does that mean practically? Well, practically it means that you cannot have any other gods instead of him. Sometimes we substitute something
else for God. I love what it says in Isaiah chapter 43 verse 11. It says, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no other. Isaiah 45, verse 21. One Isaiah 62, verse 11. They, they, they all proclaim the sovereignty and exclusivity of God in our life. What God is saying is, if you call yourself a follower of mine, if you are going to worship me, then there can be no substitutes for me. I know that works for for sweeteners in your coffee you say, no, no, no,
I don't want sugar. Give me sweet'n low. I want Splenda. I want equal. Hey, that works for your coffee, where you can put substitutes in for the real thing. But it doesn't work in your Working your relationship with God. There are no substitutes permitted or allowed. You cannot replace God or compete with God or substitute God for other things in your life. God says I am supreme, I am God, I am the I am. There is no
other like me. I am not replaceable. I was, I am, and I will be the eternal God, the omnipotent God, the sovereign God, the God that is always known all things because he is omniscient and has never learned anything, because he's always known everything. The God that is omnipresent, present at every time, everywhere, all the time. The God that is omnipotent, that has unlimited power in the palm
of his hands. The God that is sovereign, which means that he stands high above all the universe and controls the world and the destiny of man that God cannot be substituted. There is no substitute for that God. Now, in classic paganism, there are five primary other gods. There's the God of Mars, who is the god of war and conquering. There was the god Bacchus, the God who promises comfort, joys and thrills. There is the god Mammon, the god of money and success. There was the god Venus,
the god of love and romance. And there's the god Minerva, the God of wisdom and philosophy and understanding. Now, most of us today here we live in a country that, for the most part, considers itself a Christian nation and Christian country. When you hear the command, thou shalt have no other gods, you sit back and you say, I
got that down. I'm not out there looking for an idol, worshiping some pagan god and some foreign religion out there, but I, I want to pause and I want you to think a little deeper, because this commandment is not only violated by people in Africa and tribal Africa that are bowing to some statue or pole or addressing some other God, this commandment is violated every day in the United States of America and is violated not only outside of the church walls, but listen to me well, this
commandment is violated many times by Christians. Oh, we violate it not because you go and you bow at some shrine of some other god. But the Bible tells us that there is no competing gods. When you make the center of your life pleasure. When you make happiness and thrill the center of your life, the most important thing of your life, you have just worshiped at the God
of Bacchus. When you make money and finances the primary drive of your life, and that is more important than God, than you have just worshiped at the altar of Mammon. When you make love in romance and your date, or the person that you're marrying when they become higher than God, than you have just worshipped at the altar of the God of Venus? Oh, I see it all the time. Whatever's at the core of your life, whatever's most important in your life will determine the decisions that you make
in life. You see every day across America and every day in churches across America, we violate the number one command. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. There is no God that should ever compete for my superiority, my preeminence in your life. I am the God that should have no competition in your life.
Pursuing God instead of all others. That's the takeaway from today's message from Mark Jobe, and we'll continue on tomorrow's edition of Bold Steps. In the meantime, Mark, we've got a special resource available to our listeners right now, and we'd like to tell them more about it.
You know, Wayne, today's young girls, they're just bombarded with messages that shape their beliefs, Leaves affect their identity. That's why I'm excited about this Bold Steps gift this month. It's called LA Girls Believe by Dana Gresh.
And Dana is with us right now.
Absolutely, Dana, great to have you with us. Tell us a little bit about why you wrote this book.
Oh, well, my friend Nancy DeMoss, Wolgemuth wrote a book called Lies Women Believe. And over a million women read that book, and it helped them to really identify where they were in bondage to lies. And that was resulting in emotions that weren't working, that weren't healthy. That was one of the telltale signs, as well as sinful behaviors that they just couldn't stop. And when they identified the lies,
they felt freedom. Well, those women said, these lies started when I was in my teen years and in my teen years. So Nancy and I worked together to write both Lies Young Women Believe for teens and then Lies Girls believe for the 8 to 12 year old girls.
So this is for 8 to 12 year olds specifically, by the way. I just think this is so, so needed. Yes, especially in today's culture where young girls more than ever are bombarded about identity, lies about who they are, gender, where they fit into the world. What would you say are the top three lies? I know you have a list of quite a few lies. Can you identify what you'd say are the top say three lies.
God is not enough. If we don't believe that God is enough, then that dismantles and affects everything else around us. And one of the ways that shows up is emotions, which I just addressed. Emotions are one of the telltale signs that we aren't believing God is who he says he is, and he will be in our lives who he says he will be. So we believe God isn't enough. I need the car, or the house or the job or whatever. But as as tweens, they tend to really
believe the lie. God isn't enough. I need the friend and friends lead you down a road of believing all kinds of other lies. Peer pressure is either a great gift in our lives that leads us to Jesus, or it is a great dismantling of our faith and leads us away from Jesus to counterfeits. And so I think that's probably one of the big lies. And you mentioned
identity so many times. If if that friend isn't from a source of biblical truth, a home that's grounded in biblical truth today, which of us feels good about ourselves? Our emotions are healthy in our in our middle school and pre-teen years, none of us. Well, today people are saying, okay, the reason you don't feel good is because and they're leading them down, these really lethal, dangerous roads of lies that lead to lots and lots of years of struggle and pain.
Well, Dana, we are so happy to partner with you in getting this book into the hands of our listeners lives. Girls believe and the truth. Can't forget the subtitle Mark the truth that Sets Them Free. Dana, thank you so much.
My pleasure. Thanks, guys.
And we'd like to send you a copy of this book. When you give a donation of any amount to bold steps to send a check in the mail, write to us at bold steps. 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. Or call us at 800. D.L. Moody. That's (800) 356-6639. And of course, you can also visit us online at Bold Steps. Well, that's our time for today. On behalf of the entire Bold Steps team, thank you for listening. Be sure to join us again tomorrow as we continue
this message. Give God his proper place. We'll be discovering how to let God be God in our lives. That's Tuesday on Bold Steps with Mark John. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.