God Isn’t Your Manager — He’s Your Father | Big Ten Week 1

Man, hey, welcome home, welcome to church, welcome to the place that you are more believed in than anywhere else on the planet, and that is in God's presence. Is anybody grateful for God and his church this morning? I know that I am. Gosh, I am thrilled to be with you. Hey, if you're joining us live at a campus, if you're live or later online, God Behind Bars, win community gatherings. I'm telling you, God is moving in personal and powerful ways. And if you're in a season of your life where you do not feel God moving personally and powerfully, you will be invited into that today, and I pray, like anything, that you would step into all that God has for you. Can I tell you, God's moving. Last weekend, Mother's Day was a good, did y'all have fun at Mother's Day? I thought it was awesome, that was so good. Rachel did a great job, I'm so glad. God's blessed my family with her, but also our church with her. Just some other fun things that happened last week I think we would all wanna know about. Last weekend, 101 children were dedicated to the Lord. Is that not awesome? So great. Gosh, I'm telling you,

it's one of my favorite things we do all year. Something else that we did, because of your generosity, we were able to give away over 150 gift cards to single moms or moms where their families are deployed overseas with the military. Can we celebrate that, that's awesome. That's so good. So I just wanna remind you, whenever you give, whenever you tithe, you are joining in a mission to equip kids and families to be prayed over, to bless single moms and families who are in need. And so I just wanna encourage you, I wanna invite you if you're not, encourage you to continue if you are. We give generously, we bring the tithe in, not just to obey God, but to be a part of all that he is doing. I grew up listening to my dad preach right here on the front row, and he would always say, don't take your tithe on vacation. And I just wanna echo that sentiment, because God's just doing so much, and we are winning the world together in just so many ways. Such a privilege to be a part of that with you. Hey, before we get into today's message, which I really do believe it's gonna change your life forever, how you see yourself and God and others,

but I wanna tell you about something coming up. I just wanna, I wanna make sure that you get the magnitude of something coming up called Summer Fun. Now, Summer Fun is something we do with our FE kids, and I just gotta tell you, let me just say it this way, because I can tell you it's gonna be fun, it's gonna be fun. I can tell you their lives are gonna be impacted, their lives are gonna be, let me tell you from my perspective. I asked Rachel to marry me in Charleston. It's one of her favorite cities in the world. I asked Rachel to marry me in Charleston. I drove down there while she was on a girl's trip, and we have some friends there, a pastor, a church. He called me and said, hey, Zach, we're gonna be gone for two weeks. You can come stay in our house and be there. Have you guys ever had a place to stay for vacation that's free 99, okay? It's the best price. It's a big house, it's awesome, right? We were jacked about it. I checked the calendar, and one of those weeks is over Summer Fun. We will not be in Charleston over Summer Fun. Is it because I have to be here? No, it's because I will not let River and Valor

miss out on what God's gonna do. I will not let JL miss out on the opportunity to serve. It's the bigger deal. It's the bigger deal what God's gonna do. There's just times in your life where God just shapes who you are as a man or woman of God, and Summer Fun is one of those times. Do whatever you gotta do. You have any questions, whatever it might be, tap that blue disc in front of you. Register those kiddos, and I'm telling you, it's gonna transform their life and your family and their future. It's just a public service announcement. I hope you don't miss it. My family wouldn't miss it for the world, and I really hope to see you and your family there. Okay, so I've noticed something about our nation, and I wonder if you've noticed it as well, that it seems like there's this hunger growing for the Word of God. Bible sales are up. We're seeing revivals on college campuses. There's just this hunger for what God's doing, for what God has to say. Maybe it's because we've tried everything else. We've tried self-help books and politics and technologies and vaccines and outrage therapy and achievement, and so I think it's ironic. At the boom of AI,

where information is more available than ever, and it's not bringing transformation, then it seems like the world for sure, but our nation is asking, is there a word from God for me? And if you're a Christ follower, you know there is a word from God for you and for them, and if God's moving that way, we're gonna join Him in it, right? Where God... is is where we want to be. So for the next few weeks, we're gonna be diving into one of the most foundational, yet one of the most misunderstood passages of scripture in the whole Bible. And I know that you know already, but we're gonna be talking about what you might know as the 10 commandments. Now, before you check out, before you're like, I already know all that, before you think, I don't really wanna hear about a list of rules and regulations, can I just ask you just super like respectfully, will you just slow down for a moment? Would you humble yourself? And would you hear what God has for you right there where you're at? Actually, just to help you, let me give you some stuff that I learned while preparing for this time with you.

I've always heard these called the 10 commandments. That's what I've always heard them as, the 10 commandments. But whenever these were originally given to God's people, they weren't called the 10 commandments. They were called the Aseret Hadavarim, Hadadarim. I've practiced it, you're welcome, Hadadarim, okay? Which means 10 words. It's 10 words from a loving father, not 10 commandments from a ruthless dictator. Like, see, we've already learned something already. There are 10 words of life, not 10 rules from somebody who wants to make you act a certain way. Let's learn something else just as we're getting into it, right? Just to draw us in. The biblical Israelites, the Hebrew people, whenever God gave them, they paired them together a little bit differently than maybe you've seen them. They had the first five that were about God, and then the second five that were about us and others. They would pair up because they're actually connected. There is exponentially more depth to these 10 words from God than any of us realize, but we're gonna get some more revelation from God today. These are not a ladder to climb, right, so that God will love you. They are words of life given by a God who already loves you and wants to walk closer with you, so he gave us some guidelines to do that.

I want you to think about it this way. If you think about these as rules you have to follow instead of life-giving learnings from God, then you are looking at God more like a manager than a father, and you cannot find anywhere in Scripture where God describes himself as a manager, even in like Christian chicken Chick-fil-A. It's not that, right? He is a Abba, heavenly father. They're not 10 commandments from a manager who wants to badger you. They are 10 words from a father who wants to build you. I pray even in how we're describing it, you're feeling life from what God has for you in this time. I'm so excited about what God is gonna do. So today we're gonna start at the top two, words from God. Now, there's revelation about God and yourself right here. I pray that we get it. If you have your Bibles, I wanna ask you to go to Exodus chapter 20. It's the second book of the Bible. It shouldn't take you long. Whether it's on your phone or on your Bible, I want you to look at Exodus chapter 20, verse two, and that's where we see this first one. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Now, when Moses and the Israelites, when they got the 10 words,

they would have counted this one as the first one. Now, I gotta tell you, whenever I learned this growing up, I didn't learn this one as the first one. So when you learned them or when you heard them, or even if this is your first time, a lot of people skip that one and they go straight to thou shalt not, right? But this is where God's people, when they originally got them, the principle of the first, they would have started here. And so I want us to start here and read them this way so that we can see what God has for us, what God had for them, but also what God has for us. Now, I want you to notice in this first one, what God did not say. He said, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt. He did not say, keep these commands, then I will bring you out of Egypt. He didn't say, keep these commands, and then I will save you. He says, I've already rescued you. Now, this is what it looks like to live life as free people. They had been in slavery for 400 years, for generations. They didn't know how to live free. A lot of us, we don't know how to live free. We've been in bondage or generational curses for so long. What these help us do is know how to live as Jesus people, live in freedom. He says, I've already rescued you.

This is what free people live like. He says, rescue first, response second. Grace first, obedience second. God did not save the Israelites so that they could keep the commands. He gave them the commands because he had already saved them. Save them. This is a very important reversal that a lot of us have to get. It's the difference between religion and relationship. God wants a relationship with you. He wants freedom. You're gonna feel today what he has for you, and it's gonna be a shift for a lot of us. But there's so much more for you from God. If you skip this first one, that I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, they will continue to be 10 commands from a manager and not 10 words from a father. We need these to be 10 words from a heavenly father. We are living for the first time that we know of in world history where there's more kids without dads than with dads. We've never needed 10 words from a heavenly father in human history than we do right now. And can we be honest? How many of us Christians, how many of us walked in here? We're just tired from trying to be good enough, tired of trying to make ourselves feel a certain kind of way.

You go straight to the 10 words from God. It's just not how he wants us to live. Could you receive today that there's a different way to walk with the Lord than maybe you've ever received? I wanna read to you one more time, Exodus 20, verse two. And God says, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Now this first word, it's self-introduction before it's instruction. It's relationship, not religion. I am the Lord, identity before instruction, relationship before requirement. This is very important. And there's three things I want us to see about God. And these are very important for us. There's three things I wanna see about God in this first word that he gives them. The first thing is that God brings life, say life. So at the beginning, whenever he says, I am, I am, I'm the one that put air, I'm the one that put life in not just human, but the universe. I am, I am, he brought life. The second thing I want you to see in this short verse, I am your God, he is a personal God, say personal. So he brings life, he is personal, he's not a distant idea, he's not cosmic stardust, he is a person that knows your name, who loves you desperately.

He brought life, he is personal, and he is a rescuer. He says, I brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, say rescuer. He is a rescuer. Now, remember, he is a father, not a manager. If we miss the purpose of this identity statement at the beginning of these words, then the power will be lost. It'll feel like work instead of a relationship and identity. Now, before we talk about murder, dun, dun, dun, before we talk about murder, which is, can I just stop for a second? Our obsession with murder is weird. The top podcasts in the world, some of them are about murder. I can't just tell you, ladies, it's mostly y'all. Y'all weird. Can I tell you right now, husbands, if your wife is listening to murder podcasts about how to kill somebody and not get caught, we have a prayer team up front. You should be concerned. I don't know how you married, I married a woman of God with weak upper body strength so she couldn't smother me out. There's no question. I'm telling you, I would think she was getting a massage. She had very weak arms, strong spirit, weak arms, okay? It was in my criteria, okay? But before we talk about murder, right, I wanna just, I wanna take a moment and realize why does it impact us so much, who God is?

Why does it impact us so much? And then why is it connected with you shall not murder? We're gonna get to that, but please hear this. There's so much power in this, and I'm gonna read to you Genesis 1, 27. This is one of the verses I read over, I say over my kids every night before they go to bed. Genesis 1, 27, and so God created mankind in his own image. In the image of God, he created them, male and female. He created, in that one verse, created three times. He made them, he made them, he made them. One of the enemy's oldest strategies is identity confusion. He's always been doing it, but I feel like right now in this season, it's more egregious than ever. And if he can make people forget who God is, that's where he started, then he can make people forget who they are. That's why we're, and one of the reasons why we see identity confusion and gender confusion is so rampant over here, and we're staring at it, but what causes it. is biblical illiteracy, is identity illiteracy. The reason the devil can get away with these egregious, crazy lies to God's people is because we have forgotten God's Word. Because God's Word tells us who we are. It's happened to kids and students and moms and dads and leaders and parents. And it manifests because people carry labels that God never gave them.

They carry a purpose or a lack of purpose that God didn't place in them. I pray that this would drive deep down into our souls. You have purpose. You have identity. You have value. And anything that you hear or believe other than that is calling God a liar. I need you to hear it whenever you listen to something, whenever you think something. You look in the mirror and you think something. You look at your spouse and you think something. You hear something and you process something. Anything that says you don't have identity, you don't have purpose, you don't have value is calling God a liar. And I'm not saying that I don't believe Him, but I need us to feel the weight and the pressure of believing heresy. I need us to feel the weight and the pressure of listening to demonic voices over God's voice in our lives. You know, in the ancient world, whenever the Bible is being written, kings would put statues all over their territory. It was a mark of authority. This is where this king reigns. And Genesis 1, 27 takes that exact language and applies it to us. What does that mean?

It means that we are God's statues in the world. That means that where you go, you carry God's authority. When you go stand somewhere, God's presence, God's identity is there. Why? Because you are there. This is a place of worship. Why? Because you are there. Listen, and this is why you can have joy no matter what, no matter what the circumstance is. Hey, you think leading this church doesn't overwhelm me? You think that trying to think about launching two, three, four, five campuses every year doesn't overwhelm me? You think that trying to figure out how to help my daughter stay pure and raise godly men doesn't overwhelm me? After I have my quiet time with the Lord and I sit with my heavenly father and he tells me who I am, when I walk out of my office, I'm good. When I walk out of my office, it's gonna be all right. When I walk, why? Because my problems are too big for me, but they're not too big for my God. And then when I'm with my God, I realize that I am God's image bearer, so it's not too big for me. Amen? That's who you are.

But guess what? Guess what feels good? It's true. But if it's true about you, then it's true about others too. This is why these two words from God are connected. If you are an image bearer of God, so is every other person God has made. Every person you see, every person you try not to see, every person you love so much, and the people that you can't stand, they're image bearers. You and I do not get to be the arbiters of who's an image bearer of the most high God. We receive something we don't deserve, so we give something no matter what somebody deserves. Every person that we see, every single one of them. Again, this is why these are connected. And it says, I'm the Lord your God, and it's connected with you shall not murder, which in Exodus chapter 20, that's verse 13, I believe, but before we dive into that, a lot of you guys are thinking, well, I don't kill anybody, I don't murder, right? So I'm good on that one. At least, at least one of the 10, I'm okay. I think about killing people, right, on my way to work or whatever it might be, but I don't, so I'm all right. Well, let's remember how Jesus reframes murder

when he's teaching the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter five, verses 21 and 22. When Jesus is teaching, he says this, you have heard it said from people long ago, you shall not murder. He's referencing Exodus chapter 20, but he says, you shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But Jesus says, but I tell you that anyone, because Jesus is bringing a fulfillment of our identity in God, another level of understanding for us, but he says, if you are angry with a brother or sister, you're subject to judgment. What? Are you kidding me? Right, we were all fine a second ago when we didn't have to stab anybody, but now we can't be mad at people? Jesus changed the game. If that's not bad enough, he says again. Anyone who says your brother or sister, Raka, is answerable to the court, anyone who says you fool will be in the dangers of the fire of hell. Now, I could talk about this passage for a long time because like our feelings are a big deal to me and our words are even a bigger deal to me, but that's not what the Holy Spirit wants us to major on, to bring transformation today.

So can I talk about this verse? Can I just talk about the warning from the Lord for just a moment? And would you just be a big man of God, a big woman of God, and heed this warning from the Lord? Listen, living in anger puts you in danger of the judgment of God. Do you live in anger? Do you go looking for anger with the news or with social media or with this or with that? Jesus is warning us that whenever anger becomes contempt, that contempt becomes the way you see people and it's very dangerous. Because the devil knows. He knows that we can be so sensitive and we can be so influenced that we could see people by the color of their skin, the way they talk, or their political persuasion over top of their image bearer of God. Is that not crazy? Is that crazy? I do it? I get frustrated with people and I think these things. But our society celebrates anger. A couple years ago, there was a documentary that came out about Netflix and on Netflix called The Social Dilemma. And it demonstrates how modern algorithms amplify outrage and contempt because it drives engagement. What gets the most clicks?

What gets the most likes? What gets the most comments? It's not the positive, it's the negative. Mom and dad, how much time you spend with your face glued to that phone and we, I'm telling you, I really do in 30, 40 years, I think the next generation will be astonished that we gave our kids unfettered access to the internet. I think it'll be wild. You let them just look at women in their underwear and then let them go look at themselves in the mirror and you were shocked that they had body issues, image issues? You know what I'm saying? So, okay, guys, we're not talking about this. We're talking about something else, just chill, okay. Listen, we are living in a time where we have to be so intentional. If it wasn't hard enough to not be angry, Jesus says, if you say to your brother or sister, raka, you're in danger. Now, none of us have probably ever said raka, so we're probably thinking, gosh, I bet you that word's like aggressive. It's probably like the F word or like the, it's just a terrible word, I can't believe it. If you look at the translation of that word, it's dumb, nitwit, or blockhead. I just want you to think about the last time you lost your temper on the way to work,

on the way to school, and you're driving, they cut you off. Oh, you nitwit, is that what you said? Oh, you stupid head, right? That's probably not what you said. You probably said something different. You probably thought something different, and Jesus said, hey, what you say about my kids matters to me. Hey, watch it. I'm telling you, drive by one of my kids and say what you say. I'm gonna get you. I'm gonna get you. Those people you talk to are his kids, and he will discuss with you what you said. You know what I'm saying? I'm telling you. Now, listen, what we're gonna talk about today, I'm not, I just want us to feel it. I want us to feel the warning from Jesus about how we feel about people, how we talk about people. Remember, these are not rules. These are words from our Father so that we can live in freedom. But here, this is what the Holy Spirit wants you to get today. This is an identity issue. This is not a rule issue. Listen, the reason that we don't murder

is not because we're good little Christians. That's not it. For some reason, we like to read it from the right to the left and say, well, I don't do these bad things because the Lord, my God, he might see me, right? And so we're really fixated on the don't do this. But if you start how God started and you go from the left to the right, it says that I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of Egypt. Genesis, that's in Exodus 20. And then it says in Genesis one. 27 that you are made in the image of God since God's a life bringer that means you are a life bringer Actually to say that you don't murder It's almost like it's hyperbole because how could a life bringer bring murder? Whenever we look and we see people as sons and daughters of the Most High God and we're like, oh my gosh I want you to be free. I want you to live because all that God has for you I want you to see and just have joy love peace patience kindness I just want you to feel like you're floating off the ground with who God made you to be I just thought to think that I'm gonna bring murder. It's crazy Because I'm a life bringer because I made the image of God and he brought me out. He he brought me out of death Who do I do am I to think that I would bring death? Y'all just everybody calm down My show Think about this way don't get mad and take life thinking about it from Right to left would be behavior modification you were made to bring life is identity transformation and That's what these words from the Lord do for us

One's a command from a manager and one is a word of life and identity from the father Let's protect life As I was writing this and praying It's so ironic to think that we're life givers and we're we protect life and it's hard not to hear it pro-life and all that Most Christians are pro-life. I'm pro-life. I bring I believe the life starts inside that the mom's belly and but you know, it's so interesting is that a lot of Christians are pro-life and We prove how pro-life we are by bringing death in the comment section We prove how pro-life we are by gospel about people who aren't I Think the best way that we can protect that little baby Is to tell that mom who she is Ain't the best way we could do it is to speak life and to be there and say half I'll be there I'll buy I'll buy formula. I Do that stuff We give life And it was so weird how is we we fight for that political stance? but what about life from the womb to the tomb and just everywhere in between and We see when we see it We're just we we we don't wait till we're offended to get involved we get involved because because it's just they're God's kids And Jesus died for them Let's be pro-life For every person that God has made in how we think how we talk how we act how we pray how we prepare How we do our finances and everything? You want God to bless your life? Be pro-life When I say pro-life, I'm talking about every person that you see you fight for The person that God knows he can trust is the person who's going to love his kids Let's be a life bring you you you you are a life

bringer It's who God made you to be But sometimes it's really hard To be a life bringer. If you don't if you haven't received the life that's been brought to you in Romans 5 8 it says that God demonstrated his own love for us that while we were still sinners Christ died for us While I was bringing death Jesus brought me life Who am I to say that I'm not gonna bring life to everybody else Have you ever received the life that Jesus brought you? Because he brought you life How'd he do it? He downed the cross Paid a price that we can never pay rose from the grave to defeat a foe in death that we can never defeat And I believe there's hundreds of people that you know, you need to start a relationship with Jesus today I know you still have questions and you're curious about some things. That's fine We'll talk about that. But right now don't let the devil distract you don't receive paralysis by over analysis right now Is God calling you not into religion but into a relationship not into commands but into words of life over you if that's the case We're gonna pray a prayer right now all together We're gonna do that and if you're ready to start a relationship with Jesus today's the day today's the day Is there anybody have faith promise who's happy to have a relationship with Jesus? I know that I am gosh If you're ready to start a relationship with Jesus We're gonna pray a prayer right now and we would love if you would join us faith promise We bow your head and close your eyes and let's pray this prayer out loud all together say Jesus. I Know I've sinned But I know you came to pay for my sin, because you love me, because you want me. I believe in my heart, and I confess with my mouth that you are my savior. Be Lord of my life.

With heads still bowed, eyes still closed, hey, if you made the decision today to go from religion to, you made the decision today to start a relationship with Jesus today, you just raise your hand. Come on, raise it up high, raise it up bold, it's awesome. Come on, if you started a relationship with Jesus today, raise it up high, thank you, Jesus, awesome. Praise God, praise God, awesome. One second, let's get these out, thank you, Jesus. All right, Faith Problems, can we celebrate with those people that gave their lives to Christ today? Come on. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Dear friend, each day is the most important time and all of Christ's works are the most important part of our time together. We've heard a lot of the word, we've heard a lot of information, and now is the moment for transformation. And I do want to tell you if you've been, you're saved the day, you've been saved the last little bit, we're gonna put you on the screen to help ya. I want you to text SAVE to the number on the screen All of us, this next moment is a moment of transformation. Here in a moment, I'm gonna ask you to pray with somebody that you don't know. And I know some of your anxiety is just shot through the roof. You're a life bringer. You're a person of God. You can absolutely do this. Can I ask you a question? Who is it hard for you not to be angry with? Who is it hard for you to speak life over? Is it yourself? Is it a, is it God? Is it a family member, a political party? Is it someone who hurts you, abandoned you, abused you?

Because here's what I want to ask you to do. I want to ask you to be bold. We're not here to play church. We're not here to act like we love Jesus. We're here to be the church. There's a world that's desperate, and we're gonna be the church. So here in a moment, I'm gonna ask you to stand up. I'm gonna ask you to tell someone around you who is it hard for you to bring life to and why? And then y'all are gonna pray for each other. And I mean it when I say it. This is the most transformational moment of the day for you, potentially of your life so far because of the path it's gonna put you on. Are you willing to obey what the Lord has to say right now? Tell someone around you who it is hard for you to love and bring life to and why, and let them pray for you. Will you stand as we prepare to obey what God says? Let me pray for us. And I want to ask you to just do it. Jump, do it. God, we pray for boldness right now, for obedience right now. Move in a mighty way as we obey what you have to say. In your name we pray, amen.