Taking God Seriously

July 8, 2007 - Taking God Seriously. Exodus 20:7.

The first four commandments serve as building blocks for a life of spiritual health, maturity and soundness. Putting them into practice consistently will lead us away from becoming trapped into a lifestyle of sin along with its consequences.

In one way following these commands is like taking the first steps to a better and more healthy physical life. Watching how much you eat, the kinds of food you eat, making sure you don’t abuse your body and getting enough exercise are some of the necessary ingredients to good health.
Putting these things into practice will make it less likely that you will do things that will cause long-term harm to your body, cause you to be unhealthy and even bring you to an early death.

Pursuing spiritual health and transformation is similar. Putting these first four commands into practice will make it more likely that we will pursue a pattern of godliness that will result in a life that is pleasing to the Lord and brings upon us the benefits of holiness. Blessings that are physical, emotional, social, psychological as well as spiritual.
This is why we looking at each of these first four commands separately as they provide a sure and solid foundation for spiritual growth and lasting biblical change.

The third command calls for us to take God’s Name which is intimately tied to His Person, character, nature, ways, attributes, word, worship, rule, agenda and salvation seriously.

This command doesn’t forbid us from ever using God’s Name. it does mandate that we use it properly and with utmost care. We don’t throw around His Name, use nicknames for Him or casually refer to His Person and activity.
This command also refers to our witness and mission. Since we claim the Lord as our God we represent Him to our community and society. Therefore the way we speak, think, behave as well as our outlook on life will be interpreted as being true to His character.
Moreover, the society and community He places us in will in some way come to know what God is like by observing us. This simply means that those who claim believe in God must understand the weightiness of that claim.

What does it mean to take God seriously?

We take God seriously when we revere, view, and treat Him as the most significant and important Person in our life because He is. God describes Himself, His word, His worship, His agenda, His salvation and His Son in terms that emphasize His supreme importance.
He doesn’t take Himself lightly or ever communicate that the things of God are to be viewed as having little or no real significance or weight in our thoughts and lives.
These commands are a perfect example of this along with how God phrases many of His commands. Looking at Exod. 20: you’ll see that He began to speak to His people by saying ‘I am the Lord Your God’. The Scriptures make it clear that God expects to be heard, obeyed, followed, worshiped and enjoyed just because He is God.

We demonstrate this in the consistency and quality of our worship. Gathering for public worship is to be consistent discipline for us. Worship should be done from the heart. Worship should promote, highlight and emphasize God’s attributes.

We also demonstrate our reverence for God with a biblically directed, holy lifestyle. God has expressed His character in these ten commands along with the rest of Scripture. In His law God gave to His people a just, righteous and orderly way of living. God’s law is an expression of His righteousness and its value is seen in all parts of Scripture. For example, God’s law regarding holiness is valuable because it directs us to a way of living that is beautiful in God’s sight. This is the sense of the law we discover in the book of psalms. It’s also valuable because it guides us into the path of true wise and prudent living. That’s the sense of the law we get from Proverbs. Remember the proverbs gives insight into the end of two kinds of living. One is the way of wisdom which is informed and guided by Scripture. The other is the way of nonsense guided by our craving to do what feels and seems right.
Finally it’s valuable because the Scripture warn us of the consequences of following our own way.

Revering God by following His word will be expressed in a number of ways including the following:

We live as though we’re his own, treasured and special possession. We carry ourselves in such a way as to intentionally identify with His holiness and not the world’s unholiness. This involves our demeanor and how we speak.
We live to embody His character and nature before our community. That includes people we live around, work with, our nuclear and extended family, friends, acquaintances and those we’re romantically involved with.
We make moral choices specifically with His honor in view. Eg. Joseph son of Jacob.
We specifically take direction from the Scriptures, not what we think or feel, not what our society declares what’s right and not what our friends and peers tells.
We show that we respect, revere and honor the Lord by patterning our lives along the clear course of righteousness laid out in His word. 

Finally, we demonstrate our reverence and respect for our Lord when we set our minds to investigating, learning about, knowing, thinking through and reflecting on the Person, character and ways of the living God. (see Isa. 2:1-4) along with showing our reverence for the Lord growing in our knowledge of His Person will become the basis for our delight in His knowledge, character, ways and presence.
Our character is more and more conformed to His.
We’ll embrace, adopt and pursue a lifestyle that’s based on, informed by and directed by His word.
It will cause us to pursue justice as a prime implication of His kingdom.

Now when we put those three things into practice: a consistent, heartfelt, Christ-centered life of worship, a Spirit-filled life of holiness and a deep commitment to know our God we demonstrate to our community and society that God is to be taken seriously.
On the contrary when worship becomes optional, righteousness a matter of preference and knowing God merely as a means to an end we show our community and society that we don’t really take God seriously so that they don’t have to either.

It’s by taking God seriously, honoring Him and His word that we can begin living a life that avoids the pitfalls and consequences of rebellion to Him.

We take God seriously when we refuse to attach His Name to things that He clearly forbids. Remember that God’s Name is intimately tied to His Person, character, nature, ways, attributes, word, worship, rule, agenda and salvation. God has revealed these things about Himself to us in His word. God’s word makes it clear who He is and who He is not. His word reveals what His character is and is not. His word shows what His will and agenda is and what it is not. His word tells of what He values and does not value.
For anyone therefore to attach God’s Name to something that is clearly not like God is a profane use of His holy, sacred Name.
We clearly are never to use God’s Name as part of a curse word.  are careful in prayer. We are careful in prayer not to use God’s Name as if it’s a lucky charm that will insure our success. We aren’t to engage in any kind of lifestyle that the Scriptures forbid and then thank God as if He’s blessing us to pursue that lifestyle.

We take God seriously when we rejoice in, rest in, proclaim and revere His Son Jesus Christ in whom God’s salvation is revealed fully. This is important because God connects His Name to His work of salvation. Throughout Scripture God connects His Name with His saving actions as He does here in Exodus.
1  And God spoke all these words, saying, 2  "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
God so emphasized and impressed this upon His people that whenever they recalled, rightly used and mentioned His Name it was to be closely and inseparably linked with His great and powerful salvation. This is the substance of king David’s sermon to Goliath, the Philistines and the Israelites.

And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. 42 And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. 43 And the Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 The Philistine said to David, "Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field." 45 Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand."

This temporal battle was just one illustration of the spiritual battle for the souls of God’s people. The spiritual battle for your soul was not one you could have or would have won.
Jesus Christ saved you, won the battle for your soul, secured you to God not by your might but by His weakness on the cross.
It’s therefore fitting and proper to connect the name Jesus which means ‘The Lord saves’ with the eternal work of salvation our Lord has secured for us.

To Him Who Loves Us...
Pastor Lance