Only ME! | Road Trip | Pastor Tim Payne

We're going to have fun today. Is that okay? Can we have fun in church? We're going to have fun today. I'm so, I'm so thankful to be here. I'm thankful for all of you being here today. And dads, we're going to finish today how we started. We're going to honor you at the end. And so I would encourage all of you, do not leave. Do not leave. We mixed up the end, it's different. And Pastor Michael and our worship team, they're going to, you guys are slaying that song, man. I'm telling you, it is fire. I preach in Africa. When I got done preaching, two of the African pastors, they're kind of like the bishops, they're the leaders. They came up to me and they said, Moti, Moti, and I thought I was in trouble. I said, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And they said, I said, what does Moti mean? They said, fire, fire. And so that song, our worship team, our production team is Moti, Moti, they're fire, fire. And I can't wait to pray over you men. Last gathering, the gathering before, just such a showing of men. I'm thankful for a church where the men show up. I'm thankful for that. Women, you already know, we can't do it without you.

But men, we can't do it without you either. And God made Adam on purpose and Eve on purpose. And you both have a purpose and you need to walk in that purpose. And so 96 men showed up yesterday to our man up in a culture where, you know, hell just belittles men. Masculinity is under attack. I'm thankful for men of God that said, hey, first thing, yeah, Saturday morning, we're coming. And we do that quarterly. If you have not come, you're missing it. You're missing out. I'm telling you, it was special. And I don't want you to miss that. So I want to jump in today. It's a new series, so it's not just a message. If the message was just a message, but when you kick off a new series, you kind of, it takes a little extra work. And so any teachers here, you know what I'm talking about. But I'm excited about our new series, it's Family Road Trip. I don't know about you, but our family's going on a road trip tomorrow. We'll be back for next Sunday. My best friend, one of them, I have several, but one of my best friends from K-5, we went to kindergarten, first grade, second grade, sixth grade, seventh grade. And then he moved to our rival school

and we ended up being college roommates. And I saw him at the Christian college. I was like, what are you doing here? He's like, I was fixing to ask you the same thing. And come to find out, what dorm are you in? What floor are you in? Oh my good, look what God did. We were roommates. We roomed together three and a half years. He helped some guys, but we were right across from door to door. And I was just so thankful. He's a church planner. Him and his wife are going to be co-teaching next week on the second of the 10 commandments. So that's what the series is, Family Road Trip. It's 10 commandments. We're going to go on a trip together, but we're going to go this way. So we're starting this way. And today, the task at hand is for me to help y'all understand that this isn't just a God who's distant, distracted, or detached, telling you what you need to and what you don't need to do. Because some of you, that was your view of God. It's what kept you from God because you knew people who knew God, maybe weren't anything like God, and it kind of rubbed you the wrong way. And so you got this idea that God is angry at you

and mad at you and God hates you and God is against you. And our Bible tells us just the opposite. So, excuse me, excuse me. So yes, I'm glad I didn't cough this way. That'd have been painful. But we're going to go on this road trip together. Let me ask you this. How many of y'all like a good road trip? How many like a good road trip? Come on. All right, we're driving to Texas tomorrow. We're driving. I said driving. I like flying better. Anyone here like to fly? Anyone like to fly? You know, it's been a little crazy. Pensacola Airport, hello. I was like, what in the world, right? Like, this is awesome. A good problem to have, you know? People want to come here. But how many of you are like, no, I like to white knuckle it. I want to drive. Give me 20 hours, baby. I got this, man. Give me some, come on, some of y'all. All right, a few of y'all, you know. A couple of weeks ago, we were going out to New York.

I was going out there to speak and I went to Kansas City. We missed our flight by 20 minutes. So then, you know, you lay over and spend the night, get the hotel and get up at 3 a.m. And you know, with two hours sleep, it's all that stuff. But I'm willing to risk it. You know what I'm saying? I love the takeoff. I love the acceleration. Put me back in my seat. Come on, some of y'all got electric vehicles just for that reason. I got a ride in one. I don't know the other night. What is today, Sunday, Friday night? One of our deacons took me in Stacy's new car. Stacy, I see you out there. He stepped on it. I was like, I could get used to this. I just like acceleration. I like acceleration. I like the takeoff, but I love the landing. Something about a good road trip. up, you know, when your kids are young, you're five, 10 minutes into drive. Are we there yet? Mommy, daddy, we're like, no, here, take some Benadryl. No, I mean, gummies. I mean, I'll be volume. No, that's my, no, I put you to sleep, man. And road trips can just be crazy. They can be crazy. And this is going to be a great adventure together. And so I want to say, if you're new to the church, come at least for this series, if this is your first time or second time, like, just give us a couple of weeks together and

we're going to finish this up early September. And believe it or not, it's almost July. That's going to be here just like that. And we're going to go through the 10 commandments. I felt convicted. Um, any of y'all ever felt convicted? You're not shame. That's different. Not condemnation. There's no more condemnation for those of us in Christ Jesus. But I felt convicted. I not taught on the 10 commandments in a long time. And so the Lord's like, how about that? And I was like, I can do that. And so I'm looking forward. We got some guest speakers also coming in and some of our staff going to speak into this. I'm, I'm super pumped, but you don't want to miss a week because some of us have misunderstood the 10 commandments. How many know we need the 10 commandments, not just in public schools and private schools. How many know we need the 10 commandments in our church again? You know what I'm saying? Come on. We need to get back and thank God. Um, whether you agree with this or not, you could be wrong, but our country was built on this. In fact, this is built and weaved into the fabric of society, the fabric of society. And, um, that's why, you know, you don't have to teach your kids how to steal. I was four years old, stole a candy bar. Mom, mom, can I have a candy bar? Mom said, no, it'll ruin your lunch. I said, blessed are those who help themselves for they shall be comforted. I took that candy bar. I was four years old and I walked out like crazy, you know, little pocket, little four year old. I walked out and you know, you don't have to teach our kids how to lie. Do you? As soon as they start getting in trouble, boy, they're like, right, right. Not just our kids. Right. And so we're going to realize that we oftentimes know when we cross the line because God gave us some boundaries to stay within. How many of you are thankful for boundaries? I'm thankful for boundaries. I like boundaries when I'm driving. I don't like someone coming into my lane, rode my motorcycle. Mark and I, Mark, I didn't know you wrote it. We'd gone on a ride together, but I had to take a trip to Harley anyhow. So, you know, I don't, any vehicle is a potential accident. Any vehicle I see wherever I am on my motorcycle, I know that that is, it is a potential accident. So I have to keep my head on a swivel all the time, but especially on that motorcycle. And so I'm looking, I'm looking, I'm watching And I pray against dumb drivers, distracted drivers, drunk drivers. I pray against deer and dogs and Lord, keep me from being distracted. You know, uh, Wednesday I was on my bike Wednesday night and taking a little, little cruise and I saw a trash can and it was over on the road

a little bit coming back. It was in the middle of the road over. And I just thought 15 seconds earlier, like, you know, I live in bear country, evidently golf breeze. And I was like, you know what? I probably should be watching for a bear. And I looked to my left and sure enough, I don't know, 15, 20 feet away, there's a bear. I was trying to get in that trash can. And so I just always reminded you get on a road trip. And if you're not careful, if you get distracted, if you take your eyes off what's in front of you, that trip, that adventure becomes something different. And I would say that even as Christian speaking, I think some of us we've, we've taken our eyes off of what God was like. This is so important and not because God is a God of dues and don'ts and rules and regulations. When I was a student pastor and I would talk to parents before I had kids, when I knew all the answers, I would teach the parents that rules without relationship equals rebellion. And it is good and it is true, but the 10 commandments, God is not here just shoving something on to us because he's against us. He's actually doing something for us. That makes sense. So Riley, let me see a microphone real quick, please. So I wonder how many all know the 10 commandments. I wonder how many of you, if I just step down here real quick, put a mic in your face. I wonder if you could say one or two or three of the 10 commandments. No, don't worry. I'm not going to do it. But some of you are like, thank God I live to see another day. But the 10 commandments. So to understand Exodus chapter 20 and to really understand that we got to get the context right. Sometimes people take a verse out of the Bible and they slap that verse down, but they don't even understand the whole picture. It's like walking into a movie at the end and you miss the whole. the whole three-fourths of the movie. You're like, well, I think I understand it all. No, you missed a lot. So my job as a pastor is to help us really understand the context. So let me jump in. There's a guy named Moses. I'm gonna go real fast. Can you listen fast?

I gotta go real fast. Gotta shave some time off this gathering. There's a guy named Moses, Moshe. Moses, all the babies are being killed, two and under. So his mom, thank God for moms, fathers, that was our moment right there. And thank God for dads. We know a lot about Moses' dad. I don't know, think anything about his dad too much, but know about his mom. His mom put him in a basket, put tar in the basket, put him in the water, Nile River, where there's crocodile. I can't do that, there's a gator. Put it into the water. And she did that to spare his life. Moses means drawn out. And so Pharaoh's daughter, Pharaoh, most powerful man in the world, most powerful army in the world, politically, economically. I mean, you just name it. He was the man, that was the country. And his daughter is bathing and she sees a basket and she draws out the basket and there's a baby. Baby basket, there it is. And she draws it out and there's Moses. And Moses is just a little guy, but God made him on purpose for a purpose. And I wanna tell you today that God made you on purpose for a purpose. You may not know that purpose right now.

You may not understand what God is doing in your life, but just like making a cake, sometimes it gets a little messy, but hang on for the end. Are you with me? Hold your fork, the best is yet to come. And so Moses grows up under Pharaoh. He is lavished. He has a lifestyle. In fact, the New Testament would tell us that Moses chose God over comfort. He could have stayed humble, or excuse me, wrong, sorry. Although Moses did claim himself to be the most humble guy. I love that. He could have stayed comfortable. He could have stayed, hey, I'm an Egyptian, but he really was an Israelite. So when you read about the children of Israel or the Israelites, you're reading about the people of God, God's chosen people. If you pay attention to the world today, there is all kinds of hate, hate crimes against God's people. Pay attention to that, because God does. We look back in history, all kinds of hate crimes, but it didn't just start with the Nazis. No, no, it started way back in the beginning. Here's a principle I draw out from this story. Whenever God's doing something and God begins a genesis in your life, the devil will always jump in quick to kill the baby,

because if he can kill the baby, he don't gotta fight you as a man. If he can kill the baby, he don't gotta fight you as a princess warrior. Are you with me? So you start coming to church, and you and your wife, you start coming to church, then all of a sudden you start fighting. You're like, well, maybe it's going to church. We weren't fighting before we went to church. Let's give up going back to church. Been out a couple years, let's give that. No, the devil will always try to jump to get the advantage to take you out. So here's Moses. He grows up, he's watching God's people who are being persecuted. They've been in slavery for 400 years. That means generation after generation after generation, all they knew was slavery. And God wanted to bring them out so God had to call out a man, but he had to work on the man before the man could lead the people. I wonder where God is working in your life to make you more like him so you can influence them the right way, the right direction, to know God, to love God. And so Moses' story is he's watching his people. He knows the secret.

He's watching them being beaten by the Egyptians who all the Israelites are their slaves. By the way, Egypt is a picture of the world. Egypt is a picture of sin. They're enslaved by sin. That's what sin does. It's fun. It starts out really fun, but then it gets really painful. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. It says sin is fun for a season, but that season gets over and then we're stuck with the consequences. You with me? And so Moses, he sees some of his brothers being beaten and he actually kills the Egyptian, buries them. And the next day, two of his own brothers, they're fighting with each other and he shows up and he's trying to break it up. He's being the peacemaker. And they're like, what are you gonna do? Kill us like you killed the Egyptian taskmaster yesterday? And he does what we do when we get scared. What does he do? He runs. By the way, God loves runners because God can run too. And can I tell you one more thing? God can outrun you. Ask Jonah. I mean, that's Jonah, God, God, surely God's goodness and mercy will follow me all the

days of my life so that I can dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Behold, David said, if I make my bed in hell, behold, God, you are right there. God is chasing me down. Do you know some of you, you feel distant from God. You feel angry at God. There are things in your life you don't understand. You got a lot of questions for God. I've been there, but can I tell you, God just loves you. And just because you don't understand why that happened, why they died, why it worked out that way, why you lost the job, why she left, why he left, just because you don't understand it. God is not, listen to me. He is not against you. He's for you. And if it's, if it's not good yet, God's not done yet. That's not done yet. So fast forward the story and Moses runs into the wilderness. He sees a bush that's burning. It's on fire, but it's not burning up. The leaves are still green. He sees some miraculous. He moves towards it. When you see God at work, move towards it. You want to experience God in your life. You want to build your relationship with God. Look and see where is God working? And then join that, get involved right there, right there. And so, so God speaks out of the bush, tells Moses, you're going to go back to Pharaoh. Moses and Pharaoh knew each other, probably grew up together. He says, you're going to go back.

You're going to be my voice. You're going to tell Pharaoh to let my people go 400 years. So there've been many Pharaohs. And now Moses is going to go tell him, Hey, by the way, big dog, we know each other. Hey bro, but listen, for real, I'm being serious. Let them go. And Pharaoh is going to say, Oh no, I'm not going to let them go. And then God's going to send plagues and Pharaoh's going to say, get out of here. By the way, when we don't walk God's way, God has a way of getting our attention and rerouting us. But God's purpose always prevails. And so, so now here's Moses and he's, I can't, he's given God all the excuses. Anyone ever been there? I can't, I can't talk. I just, I, he's doing all this. And he's like, Aaron's going to go with you, but you're going to do it, do it. God didn't change his word. We have to change our will to level up to God's will. So Moses goes back and he does some really cool things. And of course, Pharaoh's like, get out of here, go. And those that were beaten and they've got scars on their back are now leaving with smiles and laughter and joy. This is freedom. This is celebration. This is bigger than 250 years because this has been 400 years. And by the way, I want to, I got a word from God for you today. Your family may be in a pattern generation after generation. I believe in generational curses where like if great, great, great granddaddy was a drunk and then great, great, great and great, great and great and grandpa and dad, you don't have to be.

You can, you can cut the head of the snake off in the name of Jesus. And you can say, this may have been my history, but this is not my destiny. My God, it's not my destiny. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord as for me and my house. You know why? Because I'm going to pick up Goliath's sword. I'm going to cut his head off and I'm going to take that head back where everybody can see it. Look what God did. And some of y'all need to do it. You need to say there's a pattern. Our family is a pattern of moodiness. Don't point to please. Let's keep a good day going good, unforgiveness, bitterness, jealousy, gossip. We all got sins we struggle with, but, but grandma's sin don't got to be my sin. I got to keep preaching. Y'all, y'all are too good a crowd. You make me want to preach. Here we go. So then Moses, he's out there and, um, God appears. He goes back. God delivers them. They're moving out freedom till they get to the water. Here comes Egypt, all the horses, all the army. They're coming to slay him, to kill him. And he gets there. And what do we do? And everyone around 2 million people, they think theologians say somewhere around 2 million. Um, they say, Moses, we're going to kill you because they're coming to kill us. And there's no way out of it, but God, and whatever you're staring at, there's no way

out of it, but God, but God, but God, God parts, the waters, they cross dry land. Here comes Pharaoh and his entire army on dry land. As soon as Pharaoh and his whole army get into the water, God's like, all right, water, go back. Water takes out the entire army. God did it. God did it. God did it. God did it. I want to read some verses here and I, I, um, I want to invite you to stand. I want to invite you to stand for the reading of God's word. I didn't do this last two, but I sensed the Lord saying. So would you stand? I'm gonna read some scripture Exodus 19. We've got to understand 19 to get to 20 early two months. How many months? Exactly two months after the Israelites left Egypt they arrived in the wilderness of Sinai by the way Sinai is very important. It's very it's very holy to them This is where the burning bush was with Sinai This is where God's going to deliver the Ten Commandments by the way God knows how to bring you back to a moment where you experienced them before So God where he said to Moses at the burning bush take off your shoes I am that I am he is now getting ready to do the same thing With the two million people that God called Moses to lead same place same word same person Are you with me do it again Jesus? Hmm They arrived in the wilderness after breaking camp at Rephidim. They came to the wilderness of Sinai Oh, by the way, this is where Elijah would experience the presence of God passing through The same place Sinai, I'm I talked to most Moshe this week He lives in Israel working on it a trip for 2027 to Israel. Get ready. It's coming Then Moses climbed the mountain to appear before God sometimes we got to climb a mountain Sometimes we got to lead the place where we were to experience God where he's at The Lord called to him from the mountain and said give these instructions to the family of Jacob

Announce it to the descendants of Israel. Here's what you're to tell him Moses. You have seen what I did to the Egyptians I just told you what he did to the Egyptians. He delivered them you know How I carried you on eagles wings and I brought you to myself. I grew up in Eagleville, Tennessee. I love Eagles I love watching Eagles a mama eagle would take her young and she'll carry them on her back She'll even carry them on her wings And if the if the babies aren't learning how to fly she'll take the nest apart make it uncomfortable King-sized bed comes down to a single So they and what she'll nudge them out and as they're falling or failing or flailing whatever you want to call it Mama will swoop down and catch them. This is a picture of God. This is what he did for them This is the same God that does this for us You may feel like you're falling fit failing or flailing and God will say I will get underneath you. I will rescue you I will carry you. I will lift you. I will take you back. I will bring you back I am God and beside me. There's no other so don't forget Israel. This is what I did I brought you to myself God brought you to him. None of us found God God wasn't lost God sought us. God found us. God saved us. God rescued us. I love this It's so good. It goes on it says now if you obey me someone say obey by the way, it's still obedience It's obedience Obedience is the very best way to prove that you believe doing exactly what the Lord commands doing it happily immediately Someone say just obey Obedience is better than sacrifice That's a Bible verse. Well, let's keep reading. Here we go All right, he said but if you will obey me and keep my covenant you will be my own special treasure From among all the peoples of the earth for all the earth belongs to me And you will be my kingdom of priests my holy nation Not just the priest but all of you are called by the way All of you are called if you're a Christian you are called to be a minister of the gospel You're called to be a missionary. You're called to be a preacher I don't care if you're a dentist or police officer. You are called to carry the mission

He says you are holy you are set apart God's got big plans for you And he goes on he says you're a special treasure Hey Remind yourself when the devil's calling you everything he wants you to believe you start telling yourself who God said you are Who God calls you are you are not your past you are not what you messed up you are not your failures You're not your screw-up. You're not your last divorce or marriage. You are a child of the Most High God You are a son of God. You are a daughter of God You've been sought out by God chased down by God and rescued by God. That's who you are. God thinks you're important You're gonna be a kingdom of priests this message This is the message you must give the people Israel So Moses returned from the mountain called together all the elders of the people told him everything Lord commanded and all the people responded What did they say? We'll do everything the Lord has commanded, but they hadn't heard it yet My question for me my question for you. Is that it is that our heart is our heart like God I'm gonna say yes for you even tell me what Yeah, I signed the check it's blank God you fill in the amount They said we'll do everything by the way, they lied they started well We mess up too. It's just encouraging other people got it wrong too, right? We'll do everything. So Moses brought the people's answer back to the Lord. Then the Lord said to Moses I'm gonna come in a thick cloud Moses. So the people themselves, this is important, can hear me when I speak to you Hey, by the way, God doesn't speak to everyone at the same time Sometimes God will speak to the leader That's why we got to be close enough to hear him. You with me? This doesn't mean God didn't speak to everyone God speaks to everyone not everyone listens But sometimes God say I'm gonna speak to the leader and I'm gonna do it in front of the people to validate my relationship with the leader and Sometimes being a pastor there have been times in my life where I made decision I prayed and fasted and the people who didn't pray or didn't fast didn't like the decision

But God didn't ask them to start the church God didn't give the word to them and it's hard as a pastor because you sometimes you're judging you're like I'm just obeying doing what God said. I'm like, well, I don't think you should do this or that. It's always easy to Say what you would or wouldn't do on the lazy boy Watching the game 400 pounder running so fast against the quarterback. This just encourages me By the way, if you're a leader you run a business You're a CFO. You're a CEO you own businesses. This ought to encourage you. That's not just for preachers Your people are not always going to understand the direction God is leading you your children not always gonna understand the direction God's leading you but that's okay because we answer to the audience of one So my job isn't to make everybody happy. That's a clown's job That's pretty good in it very good preaching right there my job is to obey To listen and obey and so let's keep going y'all still doing alright standing up Kind of feels like a ballgame, but this we're guaranteed to win. Here we go. Let's keep going here. Look what he says He says I'm doing this so they can hear so they will always trust you We live in a day and age I Just saw a statistic Pastor Michael also saw this I saw it on Instagram where it says how the percentage is so high of even Church going people that don't trust their pastor as Christians we want to live in a way to earn that trust every day Interesting enough The Lord told tells them. Hey, here's what we're gonna do. Tell them to consecrate themselves I preached last week on three crosses the cross of salvation dedication and rededication Consecration is dedication. We see it here in Scripture. God is saying have them consecrate themselves Have them dedicate themselves have them wash their clothes and get right and by the way looking on the outward doesn't mean the inwards, right? But God was so holy. He said I want everything clean Someone say everything clean and then he goes on you can read it here This is kind of I want to read it. So, you know, I'm not making this up here

He goes on and he tells him hey get ready for my arrival get consecrated on the third day I'm gonna come down. I want all the people to watch then he says mark a boundary Don't let anyone cross the boundary either man or animal. They cannot come to the mountain. This is my mountain. It's the mountain of God I'm Descending because I'm I'm up in heaven. I'm descending to this mountain This mountain is going to become holy and they are unholy and they are not allowed to cross this Boundary because it will kill them because they cannot handle they cannot fathom. They cannot hold the glory of God Are you with me? And so he wasn't like try me test me just touch it. I'm gonna I'm gonna take you out No, he was like if you get too close, you'll get burned. You get too close to the Sun You stay in it too long. You're gonna get burned my holiness my my glorious Glory is too great for you Remember later Moses would come down his face is shining the people couldn't even look they're like cover your face We can't even look at you. You're so bright That was just from being with when you and I are with God when we spend time with God We ought to be so bright. We ought to be light that other people like something's different about you, man Something different about you. I mean, I might be an atheist man, but I'm telling you there's something you got I don't And he says I'm telling you they'll be put to death if they cross that so Moses goes down He gets the people ready for worship and he tells them wash your clothes get ready on third day And then he says of staying from sex I'm staying from having sexual intercourse. That's verse. Let's go 15 Now why is that important when the New Testament you guys be seated in the New Testament? We're almost done Just bear with me in the New Testament. Paul says the only reason a married couple Should not be in living in a biblical marriage should not be having sex is if you designate a small period of time To pray for each other Pray with each other so that there can be breakthrough with wherever you need God to show up. And then Paul says, he says, besides that, listen, hello, marriage is the green light. There's some Christian marriages falling apart because you're not coming together. And so I just wanted to say, if you're here, you're in Christian marriage, like God says, like you ought to be having sex and you can

thank me for it. And I just want to say to all the fathers, happy father's day. I love you. Your pastor loves you. Let's keep reading on. So Moses went down, tells the people, on the morning of the third day, the thunder roared, lightning flashed, and a dense fog appears. Can you imagine this? Put yourself there. Put yourself there. There was a long, loud blast from a ram's horn. All the people trembled. Moses led them out from the camp to meet with God. They stood at the foot of the mountain. All Mount Sinai was covered with a smoke because the Lord had descended on it in the form of fire. By the way, that's how he got Moses' attention. And now he's getting the people's attention. God's in the details, not the devil. The Bible says smoke billowed into the sky like smoke from a brick kiln, and the whole mountain shook violently. Now there's earthquakes, thunder, lightning. At the blast, the ram's horn grew louder and louder. Moses spoke, and God thundered his reply. The Lord came down on the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses climbed the mountain. Moses is going up and down. He's getting his steps in. He's getting his exercise. By the way, don't think it didn't cost him. High school camp's coming up. We'll be climbing up the mountain. We get to the top. We're like, oh man, that's a climb. Moses did it a couple times, and God still had more in store. So he goes, God, he says, hey, go back down. Tell the people don't come. Don't cross the boundaries. And, but Lord, Moses said he'd protest. Why? Because he's tired. You know, when we argue with God, when we don't go along with God, oftentimes it's because we're tired. Like, I don't have the strength to do that. And the Lord's like, well, in my presence there's fullness of joy, and the joy of the Lord is your strength. Moses said, oh God, I just want to protest. I don't need to do that. God, I already told him. That's the TJP translation. I already told him, God, and you keep reading and look at it, and God doesn't change his word nor his will. God says, no, you will. Go now. And tell your brother he can come up too. Your brother needs some exercise. Bring Aaron back up with you in verse 24. So Moses went down to the people and told them what the Lord had said. Then God gave the people all these instructions. I wanted you to

see that today. Read pretty much chapter 19, because, because if we just come into Ten Commandments thinking about it as like just a top ten of all the things we got to keep, we miss it. We don't see it. By the way, God didn't give the law so they would be perfect. God gave them the perfect law to show them you're not perfect. How many ever lied? And if you didn't raise your hand or are in denial, welcome to the club. How many ever stolen something? How many ever taken God's name in vain? How many ever killed somebody? And look how fast your hands went down. But grace doesn't lower the bar, it raises it. Jesus would say later, you've heard, do not murder. But I say to you, if any of you got anger in your heart, you're just as guilty. How many ever committed adultery? No one gonna raise their hand. Jesus raises the bar and he says, you've heard it said, do not commit adultery. But I'm telling you, I'm saying to you, whoever looks on a woman and lusts after her, you've already slept with her. You're already guilty. You're already an adulterer. That'd be every man's hand in here for sure. Right? Probably every person's hand at some point. And so God's given them a law, but not like a list of to do's and to don'ts. God is saying, this is going to protect your life. If you can, can you imagine what happened if we took the Ten Commandments out of our country? Wait a second. Wait a second. When people don't value life, we can murder a baby because it's my body. Even though God formed that baby in the mother's womb and kill an older person because they're just taking up space. Right? Like we could lie because it's just a little white lie. It's just a white lie. White lie is still a lie. There's no such thing as a white lie. It's a liar. It's the truth. God didn't tell white lies and he don't want you to tell half truths. So these, these 10 are so powerful and we're almost through. Watch this. Let me put my, uh, put my eyes. Let's back on real quick. Look at this, I love this. God says, I'm the Lord, your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. God reminds him who he is. I am the Lord God.

And then he reminds him what he did. I rescued you. That's a great place, right? It's a great place to say, man, sometimes we lose our way. We forget who God is. All we gotta do is look at what he's done. How many enemies has he delivered from you? How many times did you cry out in trouble, Lord, help, and God was there? How many times there was no way but God? How many experienced a miracle in your life? So when you feel far from God, you just turn around and look back to God. I love this because in this verse, he goes on and tells us the first 10 commandment. And it's real simple. He says, I'm the Lord, your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. Don't forget how bad you were before me, where you were before me. And then he says, you must have no other gods but me. The title of the message today was only me, only me. And as I was studying this and looking into this, when God says no other gods before me, there's a couple things here. In Egypt, they had a ton of gods. Polytheism, they had a ton of gods. God was saying, no, this is theism, one God.

There are religions in the world that worship many, many, many, many gods. Egypt worshiped more gods. And the more gods that you had, the more chance you were to be blessed. That's what they believed. And now God comes and he's gonna give them the 10 commandments, but the first four is gonna teach them walk this way because this is how you relate with God. The first four are about God. The next six are about man. So the first four, vertical, the next six, horizontal. In the New Testament, Jesus gets asked, which one's the greatest commandment? Out of all the commandments, Jesus, which one? And Jesus, they think they're gonna trip him up and Jesus shows up. And Jesus takes the 10 commandments and he goes. The greatest of all the commandments is love the Lord your God with everything that you are and love your neighbor as yourself. What did he do? He just shrunk the 10 commandments into the first four, this is how you love God. And the next six, this is how you love man. If you love man, you don't lie to him. If you love your neighbor, you don't sleep with his wife. If you love man, you don't steal, you don't covet, you don't kill.

But if you love God, you don't take his name in vain. You remember the Sabbath, you keep it holy. You have no other gods before me. He's teaching them how to live because they've been living in the world. And God had to get them out of Egypt and then God had to get Egypt out of them. So he's teaching them, he's directing them. And so I want you to feel this, see this, experience this as this is God's direction. Like, wouldn't it be so cool if the people who work for you didn't steal from you? Wouldn't it be so cool if the people who you pay, if they didn't lie to you? Like just imagine, right? Like what it could be like. As I wrestled and studying with this, here's what God was saying. Don't put any other gods before me. World Cup, anybody watch it? Last game, Australia, two to nothing. I love it, it was awesome. Cheering on our country and watching the game. Like, come on, come on, I love it. I played soccer growing up. And when you start a soccer, flip coin, one team gets the ball and they line up and a team lines up on the other side of them. And the whistle blows and the game starts. And even though there's time on the clock,

the refs keep the real time. A lot of running, a lot of endurance. Anyone makes fun of soccer may not understand. It's the World Cup's like being watched 50 times bigger than the Super Bowl. The world is watching this sport. And teams are lining up and they're all doing it to be number one. And God says, number one, the first of his top 10, God says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm already number one. I don't have to compete for it. Don't put anyone on the other side of me because no one can compete with me. No one can keep up with me. No one can score against me. Nobody can make a move against me. I am God. Don't put any trinket gods in front of me because the game's already run and the game is already won. No trinket gods. And I grew up thinking, seek the Lord, seek the kingdom of God, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And God wants to be number one. But then the spirit of God spoke to me. This week and, and, and, and told me God doesn't want to be your number one. God wants to be your only one, your only one, your only one, your only one. And Paul knew it and he felt it.

And Paul would say in the new Testament for me to live is let's try it again. The answer is Christ for me to live is. And then the next fill in the blank is gain or better. And to die is gain or better. So why could Paul say for me to live is Christ? Because Christ wasn't his number one, which means he had other things. He could say for me to live is Christ my life. Like growing up, I had a shirt, basketball is life. Then later on soccer is life. Then girls are life, right? Then the next one, like motorcycles are life. Why are you saying life is? Show me your bank account. Show me your phone, where our time is, trying to teach our kids to track how long you're on this thing. It'll suck you in, right? God says, I, I, I'm not going to compete. And he's jealous, not because he's insecure and he's like, I need people to worship me because I just feel so insecure about myself. That's not God. God is like, I am God and there is no competition. One day, every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess there never was any competition. So we get to choose to do it now. And that's so cool. God didn't want to just be your number one. He wants to be your only one. So I want us moving on to the invitation. Would you stand to your feet? Prayer team, would you come forward?

I want you to think about this this week. Take this one verse. What if that's the only verse of the Bible you read? You don't have to, but what if you just took this one verse and you memorized it this week? How many think you could do that? How many, if we didn't just hear the word, but we became doers of the word, how many of us could be like, you know what? You know what I'm going to do? I am going to ask the Holy Spirit to show me if I have God in the right place in my life. And I'm, I'm inviting the spirit of God. By the way, he'll answer this prayer real fast. Some prayers you're like, I still haven't got it, but this prayer he got, boom, he right there. You say, Lord, like David said, search me and try me. See if there'd be any wicked way in me, God, am I, am I bowing down to trinket gods? Am I bowing down to social media and the day and age? Major league baseball team. So we're going to have pride night. You will wear this. We have four Christian men on that team, at least four who said, I'm not bowing down to a trinket God. I'm going to write a Bible verse. By the way, there's a rainbow over the church today. The rainbow belongs to the Lord. It's God's promise. The devil's counterfeit. He can't create crap. Anything the devil has, he stole. The rainbow belongs to the Lord.

You may be here. I'm not against you. If you're here and you're like, well, I'm gay. I'm not against you, but God's will doesn't change. God's word doesn't change. I don't conform what I want from what he said, and it's not just against gay people, right? We got people who live in all kinds of lifestyles that are wrong. God says, this is, I'm holy. Be holy because I'm holy. We don't change God like we change t-shirts. Don't get quiet on me now. God's looking for some men and women that won't bow down to idols because of peer pressure because of what everyone's supposed to do. You know, ask, ask the men that didn't bow, didn't bend and they didn't burn. Maybe it's social media. Maybe it's your money because you think it's your money. And so you're like trying to defeat a wound from your childhood. And if you could just make enough, have enough, buy enough, be enough, you could be enough. And maybe you're worshiping God and nothing wrong with money. I pray you have loads of it. Nothing wrong with money, but the love of money is the root of all evil. God wants you to, I told the men yesterday, how are you going to bless people if you broke? You're called to be blessed and to bless others around us. You can't bless someone if you broke. Get rid of your broke mindset. Watch the finances flow. Put God in the right place. He's got over everything. He's not God over my Sunday morning, but I get the rest of it. He's not over God, the top drawer in my shelf.

He owns all the drawers with me. That's who he is. If you're here and you're like, man, we just got on this road. And I'm already feeling like we on a, on a journey and there's a prayer team down here to pray with you. We're not here to condemn you. We're not here to judge you. This is the perfect place for imperfect people, but I'm going to tell you, I'm going to preach the perfect word of God. I'm not going to cherry pick the things that make me feel good and then stay away from the things that make me uncomfortable. There's a lot that make me uncomfortable in there, but we won't preach the word going to preach the truth. Thankful yet a church that still preaches the word of God. Well it's a time for prayer. I want to call you to prayer, but it's a time for salvation. If you're here and you're not a Christian, there's nothing you can do to earn it, to deserve it. Jesus bled and died. He took your place on the cross. He absorbed the sin of man. He absorbed the wrath of God so he could extend the grace of God. So we could receive the grace of God. We could receive the mercy of God. Here's the cool thing. What I told you about the mountain, God's mountain, his holiness. He said, don't come close to it. Don't touch that mountain. That's my Mount. If you get too close, you're going to drop dead because you can't handle, you can't hold,

you can't carry this kind of holiness because on your best day, you ain't holy. Fast forward to Jesus on the cross. When he dies, the curtain that was in the temple that separated everyone from the Shekinah glory from the presence of almighty God, while Jesus was on the cross, he's dying. He dies. That curtain was ripped. It was 18 inches thick. It was ripped from the top to the bottom by the hand of almighty God. And the God who before said, stay back, keep safe distance from my holiness now because of Jesus who became sin, but he was holy so that I, who was unholy could become righteous. Jesus now says, God, the father now says, I'm not the God saying, stay away from my holiness. I'm saying now I'm the God because of Christ who fulfilled the law. He didn't come to do away with it. He came to fulfill it because none of us could keep it. None of us could fulfill it. None of us getting a hundred, but because of Jesus now, James four, eight, God says, come close to me and I'll come close to you. Come close to me and I will come close to you. The God that used to say, stay back. I'm too holy for you was the God who died, showed us his holiness was love for us. And he stepped in and now he says, come, if you're hearing you like, man, I'm too far gone for Jesus. Let me tell you something. God loves runners. God loves runners. He'd been chasing you a long time and he's not ready to give up yet. Come to Jesus today, trust me, you want to get on the road gambling with your soul. I'll do it later. Well, you didn't choose your birthday newsflash.

None of us get to choose. I do funerals and weddings. Seems like all the time we don't get to choose it. Our life is short. It's a vapor. It's here. And then it's gone. Choose Jesus today. Don't walk out here. Some of you have been playing church. You're faking it till you make it, but you haven't made it yet because you're faking it. You need to say today, I'm coming to Jesus no more like, you know, I'm not playing church anymore. Give me Jesus. Let's pray. We're going to pray to the father. Heads bowed, eyes closed. I would ask you to repeat after me, you're, you're certainly not praying to me or through me. We're going to Jesus. Would you say Jesus? I am a sinner. I need you to be my Lord and savior. Thank you for loving me, dying for me. You bled for me. You rose for me. I believe it and I receive it. I now give you my life. I receive your life.

Teach me how to live in Jesus name. And we had hands up last gathering. We got people watching online. A lot of people, blackwater. Thank you men for coming out tonight. When you see this, thank you. I believe some of you men, you crossed the line of faith tonight. I believe some of you today, you just crossed the line of faith. I want you to put your hand in the air. We're going to clap for you. We're going to celebrate you. Jesus said, whoever is not ashamed of me. Yeah, that's not a bad thing. Come on. Jesus said, whoever's not ashamed of me, I'm not going to be ashamed of you in front of my father. That's like a pretty good, that seems like a win-win. So on the count of three, I love it when hands go firmly. That's the best. That's my favorite. On the count of three or before, hold your hand up. I see another hand. Come on. Here we go. Hold them up. One, two, three. Hold them up. Give my life to Jesus today. Come on. Who else?

Who else? Come on. Come on. Come on. I love that. We're going to close in just a minute.