First and Ten : Image Is Everything - (Full Experience)

I'll be the one to say yes when you call I'll be the one to share your love with others I'll be the one to forgive like you forgive I'll be the one to go wherever you send me I'll be the one to stand up for my faith when it costs If you're looking for someone, Jesus, I'll be the one That's our prayer this morning. Whatever Jesus's will is, wherever he sends us, that we would be bold and we would be available. Jesus, we're here. If you're looking for someone, we'll be that one. Tattooed on my heart He's the mighty name of Jesus I am unashamed Of his gospel prophecy Let it be your name As it is in heaven What you will be done I will not be afraid If you're looking for someone, I'll be the one I'll be the one If you're looking for someone, I'll be the one I'll be the one Yes, I'll be the one Walking in your light I bring you my weakness All I have is faith Let your power rest on me Everywhere I go I'm carrying your kingdom If I boast I boast That Jesus Christ is king If you're looking for someone, I'll be the one

I'll be the one If you're looking for someone, I'll be the one I'll be the one If I perish, I perish I only want to live for Jesus If you're looking for someone, I'll be the one I'll be the one Yes, I'll be the one Your name won't be denied by me I will live out before my risen ♪ You opened up a door nobody else can close ♪ ♪ By faith I'm walking through it ♪ ♪ Your name won't be denied by me ♪ ♪ I only bow before my risen King ♪ ♪ You opened up a door nobody else can close ♪ ♪ By faith I'm walking through it ♪ ♪ If you're looking for someone I'll be the one, I'll be the one ♪ ♪ I'll be the one, I'll be the one ♪ ♪ If you're looking for someone I'll be the one, I'll be the one ♪ ♪ I didn't deny myself, take up my cross and follow you ♪ ♪ If I perish, I perish, I only wanna live for Jesus ♪ ♪ I didn't deny myself, take up my cross and follow you ♪ ♪ If I perish, I perish, I only wanna live for Jesus ♪ ♪ If you're looking for someone I'll be the one, I'll be the one ♪ ♪ I'll be the one, I'll be the one, I'll be the one ♪ Good morning and welcome to church. How's everybody doing? We wrote that song because we believe that God has a purpose for each and every one of you. It's a unique plan.

It's a unique purpose for all of your lives. But understand this, you matter. You're here on this earth for a purpose and it's his purpose. And so as we come into this time today, don't just go through the motions, but ground your feet, ground your heart and say, Jesus, I'm here and I'm listening. And maybe you're here for the first time in the balcony. Maybe you're online, maybe you're here on the ground. It's your first time here. You don't even know what you believe about God, but you're kind of suspicious that maybe there's something more out there. And maybe your life means something. We're here to tell you it does. And we're gonna meet with the one today who created you and who can show you what it's all about. So just pray with me right now. We wanna be intentional in this time, God. We thank you for bringing us here to your house. We wanna meet with you. We don't wanna be thinking about anything else. Nothing else matters. Like knowing you, being known by you, being led by you. Show us where you want us to go. Help us to live a life of step-by-step, moment-by-moment, faith and obedience. And let your kingdom come in our lives and through our lives. We lift you up and we seek you. Our King, seated on the throne. Come on, let's sing this together.

We sing praise the Father. Praise the Son. Praise the Spirit. Three in one. God of glory, majesty. Praise forever to the King of kings. It all starts by fixing our eyes on Him. Making sure He's seated on the throne of our heart. Let's sing this together. In the darkness we were waiting without hope and without light. Till from heaven you came running. There was mercy in your eyes. To fulfill all Him promised. To a virgin came the Word. From a throne of endless glory to a cradle in the dirt. We give Him all of our praise. Lift your voice and sing to Him. Praise the Father. Praise the Son. Praise the Spirit. Three in one. Come on, let's sing it again, sing praise. ♪ God of glory, majesty ♪ ♪ Praise forever to the King of kings ♪ Come on, He came to reveal. ♪ To reveal the kingdom coming ♪ ♪ And to reconcile the lost ♪ ♪ To redeem the whole creation ♪

♪ You did not despise the crosshead ♪ ♪ Nor even in your suffering ♪ ♪ You saw to the other side ♪ ♪ Knowing this was our salvation ♪ ♪ Jesus, for our sake you died ♪ Come on, so we give Him all the praise, all the glory, lift your voice. Sing praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit, three in one. God of glory, majesty, praise forever to the King of kings. Let's remember that beautiful morning. ♪ In the morning that you rose, all of heaven held its breath ♪ ♪ Till the stones moved for good, for the Lamb had conquered death ♪ ♪ And the dead rose from their tombs, and the angels stood in awe ♪ ♪ For the souls of all who come to the Father are restored ♪ ♪ And the Church of Christ was born, and the Spirit lit the flame ♪ ♪ Now this gospel truth of old, shall not kneel, shall not faint ♪ ♪ By His blood and in His name, it is revealed, I am freed ♪ ♪ With the love of Jesus Christ, who has resurrected me ♪ ♪ Yeah, come on, we'll praise Him, we'll give Him glory ♪ ♪ Sing praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit ♪ ♪ Three in one, God of glory, majesty, sing praise forever to the King of kings ♪ ♪ Praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit ♪ ♪ Three in one, God of glory, majesty, praise forever to the King of kings ♪ ♪ Praise forever to the King of kings, praise forever to the King of kings ♪ Sing that ♪ Praise forever to the King of kings, praise forever to the King of kings ♪ ♪ He's seated on the throne! Praise forever to the King of kings ♪ ♪ He's seated on the throne, yeah ♪

♪ And he's seated on the throne of my heart ♪ ♪ Take the seat of the throne of my heart ♪ ♪ Take the seat of the throne of my heart ♪ ♪ Cause you alone are worth it ♪ Come on, just take this time to lay down things that you're chasing after. Things that are consuming you, comparing yourself, chasing validation, pleasure, success. Put them on the throne of your heart. Put them on the throne of your heart. Because who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one, only you Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one, only you Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one, only you Jesus. Put them on the throne. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one, only you Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one, only you Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one, only you Jesus. I'm so grateful that we have a God who is so great, so powerful, but loved us enough to come to us. He wanted to be with us. He wanted to walk through life with us. That's why we come today to worship. My name is Tian Moon. I'm a part of the team here. And on behalf of Pastor Ed and Lisa, I want to welcome you. We're so glad that you're here. If you're here for the first time or if you're joining us online, we're glad that you chose to be with us. I think it's important for all of us to remember that we gather for a reason.

We are the church. And one of our purposes is to come and worship together, to be reminded of who God is. And that he can handle all the things that we deal with through the week. We also come together to study God's word. And today we're going to continue our series first in 10. And we're going to look at the 10 commandments and how we can reset and refocus. But we also come together to live in community. Because we need one another. We need to encourage each other and to support one another and walk together. And last Sunday we had an opportunity for everyone to share prayer requests. We gave you time to write those requests, those weights that you are carrying on a card. And we received literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of cards. And I want to share a few of those this morning just to remind you that you're not alone. Someone said, please pray. Is PA school really where the Lord wants me to go? I pray that if it is, the door open. And if it's not, that the door shut. They're praying for guidance. Another said, heal my broken marriage. So many people who are asking God to intervene in their marriages. Another says, pray for my husband's health and safety while he's working in Alaska. And for myself and my kids to have patience, peace, and courage while we wait for him to return. And then we had one from a lady saying, please pray for my mom. We'll find out on Tuesday if she has cancer. I got to talk to that lady this week. And on Tuesday they found out that her mother is cancer free. And that's awesome. Because as a community, we share our burdens. We share our weights, but we also share our victories. And so today we want to give you an opportunity to be a part of this community.

I'm going to ask you just to go ahead and take a seat. And in the seat back in front of you, there is a blue Connect card. I'm going to ask you just to grab one of those. are looking for community. If you are looking for support, I invite you to fill that out. We'd love to reach out to you this week. Later on, when the offering bag comes by, you can drop it in and we'll reach out because we have Bible study classes, we have connect groups, we have support and recovery groups. We have so many opportunities for you to build community here. But I'd also like to invite you, during this next song, as we continue to worship, to also write down a prayer request you may have. Maybe it's an illness, maybe it's a financial issue, a relationship issue, maybe it's something that you haven't even told anybody about. We wanna ask you to write that down. And then later, drop that card in the offering bag because we wanna pray for you. We wanna pray with you. We wanna walk with you because you weren't meant to live this life alone. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you that you did love us so much that you were willing to come to us,

that you came as the Lamb of God. You were willing to sacrifice yourself so that our sins could be forgiven and we could have a relationship with you. Father, we just ask that you would step into our situations. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. ♪ I am an instrument of exaltation ♪ ♪ I was born to lift your name above all names ♪ ♪ You hear the melody of all creation ♪ ♪ There's a song of praise that only I can bring ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, there is no one, only Jesus ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ There is no one, only Jesus, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ There is no one, only Jesus, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ There is no one, only you, Jesus, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy, worthy, worthy ♪ ♪ We praise you, we praise you, Jesus, we praise you, Lord ♪ ♪ We praise your name, oh Jesus, we praise your name ♪ ♪ We lift you up in this place, we praise you, Lord ♪ Come on, will you stand to your feet as we lift up the one, the Lamb seated on the throne. ♪ Lamb of God, anointed one, who was and is and is to come ♪ ♪ Seated on the throne above, holy, holy, holy is your name ♪ ♪ Righteous one who shed his blood to prove to us ♪ ♪ The Father's love, Jesus Christ be lifted up, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Lamb of God, anointed one, who was and is and is to come ♪ ♪ Seated on the throne above, holy, holy, holy is your name ♪

♪ Righteous one who shed his blood to prove to us ♪ ♪ The Father's love, Jesus Christ be lifted up ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ There is no one, only you Jesus, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ Who else is worthy, who else is worthy ♪ ♪ There is no one, only you Jesus, there's no one ♪ ♪ There is no one, only you Jesus, there's no one ♪ ♪ There is no one, only you Jesus. ♪ Jesus, you and you alone are worthy of our praise. We lift you up in this moment. We put you at the center. Amen. Church, you may be seated. Recently, I was in Cape Town, South Africa, touring Table Mountain. It's absolutely stunning. I think 4.3 million people visit this mountain every year. And as you stand on top of the mountain, it cascades into the Atlantic and also the Indian Ocean. It's just a, it's probably the most beautiful mountain I think I've ever seen. So, it's a beautiful mountain. It's probably the most beautiful mountain I think I've ever seen. So, I wanna ask you a question. How many of you have been to Table Mountain before? Well, just one or two. Most of you haven't. So, I thought, you know what? You've come to the right place today.

I'm gonna make a replica of Table Mountain. You know? Juicy fruit gum, really good. I mean, I don't recommend chewing gum in church, but because a lot of you have not seen Table Mountain, I thought I would just make a representation, a model of Table Mountain with this juicy fruit. Because, you know, I have a fine arts background. Here we go. This is very difficult. Quiet, please. Oh, and it was kind of flat. There it is! There's Table Mountain right there. I did it. So, now you don't have to spend a bunch of money and time and energy and make the trek to Cape Town. You don't have to get on the gondola and go up. You don't have to get sunburned now. You can just look at this beautiful replica of Table Mountain. Is that awesome or what? Well, that's precisely what we do with God. That's precisely what the second commandment is all about. Don't reduce God. There is nothing that we can come up with that communicates the majesty of our maker. Exodus chapter 20, verses four through six. And this text is pregnant with power and power. Theology, Exodus chapter 20, verses four through six.

You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is 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 nor serve them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. To give you a little bit of a backstory on this text, God had miraculously led the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage. And it's very interesting theologically to understand they were first redeemed. Then God resourced them with how to live. So he said, okay, here is where to walk and here is how to walk. God had performed all of these feats of strength, you could say, turning the Nile red, sending the 10 plagues, water out of a rock. These aren't in specific order. Parting of the Red Sea and leading 2.5 million Jews through the desert. They were camped at the base of Mount Sinai and Moses rappels up the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments. And we know the Ten Commandments were written by the finger of God, spoken by the voice of God and also given to the people of God. Moses is up, you know, hearing from God.

The children of Israel, they were like, man, God is so great, he's so strong. He's as strong as a bull, they said. So they melted down a bunch of stuff, gold, and they formed this golden calf. I mean, after all, it was pointing to Jehovah. It was pointing to the Lord. What's so bad about a golden calf? And Aaron was leading the charge and everything, but something shifted, something pivoted. And all of a sudden, this worship turned into a partay. which turned into an orgy. Moses rappelled down the mountain, saw what was happening, and smashed the first set of the Ten Commandments. Thankfully, he gave us a second set, God did. But that's kind of the backstory of this. So when I read this Second Commandment, I'm thinking, you know, okay, that was for the Israelites. You know, they were coming off this golden calf debacle. It doesn't relate to me. And I'm gonna count ceiling tiles or lights. I'm gonna scroll through my phone. I mean, this is gonna be an easy deal because I've never had a desire to melt down my wedding ring or my Tesla and bow down and worship it. I mean, I just don't have that desire. So again, at first reading of this commandment,

it seems like, okay, this is gonna be an easy one for me. It doesn't relate to me. But just the opposite is true. This commandment comes close to the warning track of our lives. It comes up into our grill. This is a commandment that I struggle with, and if you're honest, you struggle with it as well. What's the meaning of this? Just to put it in modern day vernacular, don't reduce God. Don't waste your worship. Worship God as God. He is preeminent, he's powerful, he's purpose, and there is nothing, nothing materially that can communicate the essence of who God is, nothing. The Bible says in John 4, verse 24, that God is spirit and his worshipers must worship him in spirit and in truth. So God is spirit, and the material cannot and should not ever replace the spiritual. We keep God as God. We put God on the throne of our lives and allow him to rule and to reign. And I'm gonna tell you something, parents. Let me talk to the families just straight up. The greatest gift you can give your kids is to show them and teach them how to worship. That's it. And this text talks about it.

This text talks about it. It says, you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is 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 or serve them. Again, a lot of us are like, oh, that's irrelevant. That does not apply to me. But wait a minute, think about, for example, your phone, your iPhone. Think about your iPhone, for example. We have that app of all of the photos. I look back on my photos, I have a lot of them. My photos started in 2009 and go all the way to 2026. It's a long time, isn't it? And you can scroll through my photos and you can know a little bit about me, but you don't really know me. You don't really know me because you've not seen every single image of me in my 64 years and you're the same. Yeah, a lot of us carry around a photo app of God and the photo app is just really incomplete. They're just one or two pictures of God. And I would argue that a lot of us have conjured them up, we've made them, we've fashioned them to be what we want them to be. I talked to a person the other day and they were describing God and I was thinking to myself, oh, you have a peephole God.

You know what a peephole God is, don't you? Has that lazy boy, he has the bathrobe and the matching pajamas and he's always there to give you a kind, grandfatherly word. Everything's gonna be okay. You're great. You're awesome. And let me tell you something, honey, I love you. A lot of people carry around that photo. Another photo we carry around would be General God, a five-star general, super strict, laying down the law. If you mess up. Some of us carry around another picture of the homie God, you know, Jesus is my homeboy, you know, like yeah, we're just, we're tight, everything's cool, you know. God is good. It's about God, man, it's about God. Okay. Others have the man upstairs God, that's another one. And then, you know, the man upstairs God is unique because when we need him, we dial 911 and he bounds down the stairs to rescue you and me. And then, of course, we have the Amazon Prime God. God's just there to deliver gift after gift after gift after gift after gift. I mean, God gives me so much gifts, he makes the stuff my wife orders seem like it's not even, hardly anything. I thought that was funny.

Oh, then, oh, here's another one. The psychotherapist God. God is my therapist. And he just explains to me the inner workings and the in-depthness of my mind. Mind. When we conjure up and we make up these photos, we build a theology, a life around two or three photos, but we miss the majesty of our maker. We miss the essence of God. We miss his glory. We miss his holiness. We miss his righteousness. All of these gods I just went through, they're aspects of God. Is God a people of God? Yes. Does God tell us he loves us? Yes. Do we matter to him? Yes. Does he understand us? Yes. When we mess up, does he forgive us? Yes. God's a God of judgment. It's not popular to say it, but he is. And that's part of who he is. God's a homie God. He's our friend.

The Bible says we can be friends with God. In fact, scripture tells us that God even likes us. Try that one on. That's a deep theological concept. It's interesting how a lot of churches in the Dallas-Fort Worth area kind of talk about one aspect or maybe one or two aspects of God. I mean, there are people of God churches. There are general God churches. There are the homie God churches. There are the man upstairs churches. There are the Amazon Prime churches. There's a psychotherapist church. Isn't that a fact? I mean, that's just real. So in Fellowship Church, here's what we do, guys. This is very, very, very important. It's so important. This is an application, maybe an implication of the second commandment. We try to fill out your photo app fully with the nature and the character of God. So I'm not just saying that. It's easy to say that, but I want you to think about just some of the things that we've done over the last year that helps you download these images into the apps of your phone. Let's take the public part of Fellowship Church, this stage. Think about just what we've taught here on this stage recently.

I went through the book of Romans, which teaches us about God, about general revelation and specific revelation. Then I did a series called Glass and Your Lasagna. We went through the life of Joseph. So see, we're teaching you figures in the Bible and how they relate to where we are today because Joseph dealt with something that is very fresh in a lot of our lives, betrayal. Then I went into a series called In the Zone, the fact that we all have stuff that God's given us and blessed us with. And basically, we're blessed to be a blessing. I did another series on theology, and I believe what we believe. We did a series on heaven because we're gonna spend more time on that side of the dirt than on this side of the dirt. And let's face it, everyone's gonna die. And a lot of us don't know what is going to happen when we die, and we talked about that. Think about our conferences. This Creative Marriage Conference coming up, thousands of people will be there. And it's about the only relationship that mirrors God's relationship to his people, marriage. Marriage, so goes marriage, so goes our culture, right? Then the C3 Conference, we have leaders from all over the place come in and invade Fellowship Church,

and we talk about leading in the church. Then we have our Sisterhood Conference for all of the women. I mean, women make the world go round. And we love women, and women have unique issues. I mean, great issues. Then we have Elaso Ranch, our summer camp. It's a retreat center like I've never seen, if you've never been out there. You're committing some sort of a sin. Hope for our city, we mobilize our church to help those to be the hands and the feet of Jesus who are less fortunate and needy. Think about our men's ministry. We wanna show people what it means, show men what it means to be a man and to live in godly masculinity. We need to have strong men who stand for the Lord Jesus Christ, who have God first in their lives, not their spouse. Uh-oh, that's, whoa, whoa, whoa, you hear what I just said? If your spouse is number one, my friend, your marriage is not right. It's gotta be God. So God is number one, not Lisa. But there's no way I'm gonna love Lisa like she should be loved unless God is number one. Oh, somebody slapped somebody on that one. Same is true with your family. Family first, family first, that's it, family.

Are you kidding me? Family first doesn't work. Family first is a formula for failure. That's messing a lot of you up right now, I know it is. But see, you're coming dangerously close to breaking that second commandment. You're worshiping your family. We're not worshiping our family. We worship God. And then God gives us the ability to lead, to love, to parent, and also to grandparent. Read this text. Read the book of Exodus, chapter 20, verses four through six, read it. That's what it talks about. I think about our FC kids with our worship, with our involvement, and what is being taught there. I think about the mix. Massive amounts of students come in here every single Wednesday and worship the Lord. Think about our Bible study classes. We have small, mid-sized groups to study the Bible before and after our worship services. Whether you're a single, whether you're a young married, whether you're a middle-aged married, or whether you're an old married, we have a class for you, small groups. I mean, if you wanna even go smaller than the mid-sized groups, we have small groups that meet in various zip codes

around the Dallas-Fort Worth area. And then we have recovery groups for those who are battling addiction. We also have grief support groups because so many of us, like Lisa and I, have, I hate to even say lost, but you know what I'm saying to you. Our daughter graduated from this life to heaven. But grief is something that never leaves you. If you're experiencing a situation like that, we would love to have you as a part of that. We also have MEND ministry, and that's for moms. And obviously dads too who have had little ones pass away from this life to heaven. We have an amazing prayer garden. There's a beautiful statue. And that's been such a wonderful ministry that's brand new to Fellowship Church. We have serving teams. We have over 1,400 people that volunteer to make Fellowship go and grow every single Sunday. Do not think about our online ministry that we have. We also have a national radio ministry. We have people that check us out from around the world. Have you ever thought about the worship music that we write and that we produce? Fellowship Creative, think about how brilliant the theology is of our songs. On top of that, we have prison campuses. We have Fellowship Church in prisons.

And even moreover, we've leveraged technology. Have you ever thought about that? To go into Dallas, to go into Frisco, to go into Fort Worth, to go into El Lazo. And people think, oh man, technology, yeah, that's why, I don't know about that. Are you kidding me? Using screens is like ancient. The early church would take letters written by the apostles and read them in one location. Then read them in another location. And then read them in another location. So a disciple is an incurable learner, and I'm so thrilled that we can leverage that. So see, what I'm trying to do is, I'm trying to show you that everything I just mentioned communicates a unique aspect of the majesty and the glory of God. Glory of God. So this doesn't just happen. You don't just show up and we go, yeah, I wonder what we're gonna do today. No, no, no. There is prayer, there's thought, there's work, there's sweat and blood and tears behind every single thing we do. So what are the applications of this text? I wanna make the decision, I refuse to reduce God. God, you're at the throne of my life. What can happen?

How can I become a true worshiper? Number one, prepare for worship. Just our general worship we have here every Sunday, people sometimes say, well, you know, I really can't fit church into my schedule. Oh, homie, you got that all wrong, playa. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Who are you to fit your schedule into God? No, no, God runs the show. That means that those of us who call ourselves believers, we need to have our rears in church every single Sunday, even if we don't feel like it. Even, well, my kids say, mom, dad, I don't wanna go, my friends aren't there. Hey, they're under your roof, you're paying the freight, bring them, maybe drag them to church and they'll meet new friends. So prepare for worship. Not only do we prepare for worship, we need to participate in worship. Too many of us stand like statues in worship and yet hours earlier, we're going buck wild in front of a television screen or at a stadium over some crazy game because let me tell you something, we definitely bow down to the little white ball and bow down to that pigskin, don't we? Oh, that's straight up worship there. Brilliant worship, wrong object. So we need to participate. That means to lock in.

That means you don't leave church and try to critique that. You say, man, you need to say, what did I learn about Jesus? What has Jesus taught me? What did he teach me today? So that means you engage in worship. That means you engage in the spoken word. That means you engage in serving. So again, what have I been saying? The most important thing God says is, these aren't my words, the most important thing you can teach your family. Worship, worship, worship. So we prepare for it, we participate in it and then we pray for our church. We pray for, obviously, our lives, our family. We pray for the church family. We pray for the leaders that make this happen or any other event happen. So those are just three quick handles that we can apply today when it comes to the second commandment. So the goal of this message is a panoramic, packed photo album of our great God. Again, let me bring you to John chapter four, verse 24. God is spirit and his worshipers must worship him in spirit and truth. Nothing from the material can truly reflect the essence and the majesty of our maker. These other gods, lowercase g,

will not take us and get us to where we wanna go. You might be thinking, what? Well, Psalm 115, verses three through seven. God, check this out, this is about false God. Our God is in heaven. He does whatever pleases him, but their idols are silver and gold made by human hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak. Think about the gods that I've talked about already. They can't speak. We have a God, though, that speaks to us through his word, through situations and conversations, through worship, on and on and on. They have mouths, but cannot speak. Eyes, but cannot see. Our God sees it all. There's no such thing as a closed office door, bedroom door, or car door. God sees it all in the brilliant blaze of his glory. Idols can't do it. They don't have the juice to do it. They have ears, but cannot hear. God hears everything. The Bible says even when we don't even know how to articulate our prayers, he takes our moanings and groanings and sighs and he knows, he knows what we're saying. Now we have to understand in this text, this is speaking and we're speaking anthropomorphically. Anthropomorphically means we are putting

human qualities on God just so we can understand it. So that's the theological and biblical arch that we're dealing with. So they have mouths and they can't speak. Eyes cannot see. They have ears, cannot hear. Noses but cannot smell. What kind of fragrance are you giving to God? I mean they have hands, cannot feel. Feet cannot walk nor can they utter a sound with their throats. So the psalmist is saying you are wasting your dang time chasing after these gods. God says I'm a jealous God. We have a hard time understanding that. It kind of sounds strange, doesn't it? God's jealous? See when we think of jealousy, when I think of jealousy, I think about humanistic jealousy, you know. Nasty jealousy, bad jealousy. You know, I'm jealous of him or her because of what they can do or what they have or maybe they've been to Table Mountain and I haven't. That's typical jealousy. God's not jealous like that. God has a righteous and perfect jealousy. He knows he is God. There's nothing and no one that can compare to him. So he's like, I'm it. So I don't want you to waste effort, energy, time

chasing after something or someone else who is not God and he will not give you and be to you who I will be. Okay, let me talk to the wives here. How many of you are married? Lift your hand, okay. What if you walked into a room and your husband was kissing a beautiful girl? And what if your husband said, oh, come on in, honey. Hey, I'm kissing her because she reminds me of you. How many wives would say, oh, I understand. That's a crude illustration, but it just gives you a little bit of the vibe of our great God. God's like, what are you doing? There's no substitute for me. I'm the one who's got you. There's no substitute for me. There's no substitute for your spouse. What are you doing? So again, it's out of love. So God cannot be reduced. God must not be reshaped. God deserves my full devotion and your full devotion. That is what this commandment is driving at. Three questions. Number one, who is on the throne of your life? Be honest. I call it the affection question. Number two, who are you trying to impress this year?

That's the ambition question. Your neighbor, your spouse, those people at the country club, teammates, classmates. And then there's the achievement question. When you get to the end of the hunt, I mean, what's been your objective? I mean, what does it mean to put the ball through the net? To score the touchdown? What does that mean? So if you're honest with yourself, if you journal these things, your responses are gonna be those gods, lowercase g, that are vying for the prominent and preeminent place only reserved for the God of the future. the Lord. It all goes back to this juicy fruit gum. Who am I to try to mimic or represent Table Mountain with some juicy fruit? How ludicrous. How dumb, really. Yet whenever we substitute anything from God, in His eyes it's as ludicrous as this. So, refuse to reduce God. Give Him the totality of your being. Put Him on the throne of your life, and then you'll know what first and ten is all about. Lord, thank you for this message, and I pray if there's someone here and you've never ever bowed the knee to ask Christ into your life, I pray that today you make that decision. You might be thinking to yourself, well, Ed, how do I make that decision? Well, just simply talk to God. Well, I don't know if I have the faith. Ask God to give you the faith. He'll do it. Just say, Lord, give me the faith to make and take this step. I mean, you tried everything else. Try this. Just say, God, I admit to you that I've committed moral turnovers, wrongdoings. I know the Bible calls them sin. I turn from my sin, and I turn to you, Jesus. I believe, God, you sent Jesus to die on the cross for my sins, to rise again on the third day, and I invite you into my life. I open the door of my life and invite you in, Jesus. Take control of me. Forgive me. Cleanse me. Change me. And the moment, friend, the

moment you prayed that prayer, Jesus came into your life. He infiltrated the depths of your being, and you are born again. You have a physical birthday, but now you have a new birthday, and today is your day. So we thank you for so many who made those decisions. You might be watching online. You could be at Frisco. You could be at Dallas or Fort Worth. You could be at Hawkins. You could be backseat of the balcony back there. We thank you, God, for it. Others of us here, Lord, need to really lean into this second commandment to take sinventory as we look at these questions, and more importantly, God, as we look to you for your answers. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. What a great message. What a great reminder to examine what it is that we are worshiping, what it is that drives us and controls us. I'm going to ask everyone to remain in your seat. It's really easy to rush out of here and just check off, I went to church today, but this is a time when we can reflect on what we just heard. God spoke to us today and to reflect and say, God, what is it that you want me now to do in response to that? What is it that I need to adjust in my life? So this is an important time of our worship, and I know it's important because many of you have just made that decision to give your life to Christ. That's such a great decision. Church, can we celebrate with them the decision that they're making, the commitment that they've made this morning? We want to walk along with you in this journey, and so I want to encourage you, if you made that decision today, to take that blue connect card that I've been talking about all morning. If you'll take one of those and fill that out, and there's a box there that says, today I am committing my life to Christ. If you'll check that, that'll let us know about the great decision that you made today, and our team would love to reach out to you because you were not meant to do this journey alone, and we would love to walk with you and share things that you can be a part of here that will help you to grow. We are going to continue our time of worship with a time of bringing our tithes and our offerings, and Church, I want to thank you for your faithfulness in giving, because you make it possible for all of the things that we do week in and week out here at Fellowship Church, and there are so many of you who've often also committed to our Anchor Project as we build the Anchor Center. We thank you for your generosity. You know, at Fellowship, we are very aware of the challenges the culture that our kids and our students are growing up in. And we have chosen not to sit back,

but to stand up for them, to fight for them, to stand with them. And so that's why we are building the Anchor Center. So there'll be a place for them to gather and to grow together. That's why even now we're doing things. Over the next two weeks, we're gonna be offering Next Step Kids, which is an opportunity for first through fifth graders to find out more about how they can have a relationship with Jesus and how they can take their next steps toward baptism. We have one night at The Mix coming up in just a few weeks on Wednesday nights, January 28th. It's gonna be a gathering of students. We're gonna worship together. They're bringing their friends. They're gonna experience God together. So we're investing right now in the next generation. And thank you for partnering in that because you make that possible. So I'm gonna ask our worship hosts to come forward as we begin this time of bringing our tithes and our offerings. You know, this is a busy season here at Fellowship Church because we have so many things going on right now. We call this our conference season because we have so many great conferences coming up. And the first one that's coming is just around the corner. It's our Creative Marriage Conference

on February 13th and 14th. It's going to be incredible. I'm here to tell you, if you have the right anchor, your marriage can soar. I think my marriage has always been great, but I've never loved my marriage more than I love it today. 18 years in. If we're gonna have unity, it's gonna be a fight. It's worth the fight. And God's word says, I'm on your side and I will command blessing on your life. Great is the mystery of marriage. That's the understatement of the year. You know, it's a mystery. How can two people actually live together in marriage? One of the greatest things you can give your kids today is a healthy, great marriage. It's true, and here's why. Because healthy marriages lead to healthy families. We have to understand that we want to value our emotions, but we don't want to be governed by them. If you have the right anchor, great things will happen. So I hope that you notice the dates, February 13th and 14th. So hint, hint, this would be a great Valentine's Day gift, a great way to invest in your marriage in a very practical way. So there's so many ways to register. You can tap the seat back in front of you. You can stop by our booth outside of the atrium. You can go to the website.

There are so many ways that you can find out more and go ahead and get registered for this conference. We would love to have you here as we partner together to strengthen your marriage and your family. Well, next week, Pastor Ed is continuing this series of first and 10. So we look forward to having you back again. And if today you would like to have someone to pray with you or maybe someone to talk to, we have a great team on both my left and my right that would love to connect with you. So we would welcome you to come and join us. I hope you have a wonderful Sunday and we look forward to seeing you back next week.