Jason Dohm's sermon on the First Commandment emphasizes the importance of loyalty and love for God as the foundation of all commandments. He reflects on his personal conviction and urges listeners to identify hidden idols in their lives. The sermon unpacks the prohibition of 'having no other gods' as a pathway to holiness and a living relationship with God. Jesus' teaching in Matthew 22 is highlighted, showing love as central to the law. Dohm warns against being a 'minimalist' by only focusing on outward compliance and illustrates modern-day idolatry, such as money and personal affections, using biblical examples like the rich young ruler. He encourages a thorough examination of one's life to ensure God is the master affection, urging immediate action to dismantle idols. The sermon concludes by calling for a return to fervent love for God, using practical measures to solidify this commitment.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. God, I pray that you would put a heart in us that says like David, Oh how I love thy law. These things would be beautiful to us and that we would love them for the way that they help us understand our sinfulness and the way they drive us to Christ. The way they help us to understand what you're like and how we might live pleasing to you. Lord, we pray that you would help us, that you would give us a heart of flesh, that you would grant us repentance, You would cause us to have the greatest affection for the Lord Jesus Christ through all these things and we ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen. So I have to say this was not a normal sermon prep time for me. It was a time of very intense conviction, as the Lord showed me a number of areas of my life where I did have other gods before Him. Where there were things that were hidden that I did not want Him messing with. And the Lord wants to identify and put his finger on those things and he wants to mess with them.

He wants to eradicate them so that we can serve him with fear and with joy. And really that has happened to me. I have more fear of the Lord and more joy than I did before I started preparing for the sermon. So I'm hoping a little of that will bleed over onto my ears this morning, that we would together understand what it means to have other gods before the true and the living God, and that we would act, we would take action. There would be repentance as a result of the things that are said today.

The next ten weeks will be spent studying a very small slice of scripture. It's a half a page, and we're going to spend 10 weeks there on the Ten Commandments, just isolating each commandment and going deep there. And so in this instance, the title and the text are the same thing. It's Deuteronomy 5.7. You shall have no other gods before me." Eight words, you'd think, surely this man cannot preach for an hour on eight words.

My friends, you know me so little. I can preach. I can and will preach an hour on these eight words. And there will be five more times over the next ten weeks where I am confident that the title and the text will be the same. But the Ten Commandments are towering figures in Scripture.

This is such an important time for us, because a wrong understanding of the Law trips people up. One of the things that trips us up about the Ten Commandments is that eight of the ten are prohibitions. Thou shalt not. They tell us what we shouldn't do. The two exceptions to that, one is the fourth commandment, observe the Sabbath to keep it holy, and the other is the fifth commandment honor your father and your mother those two exceptions tell us what we ought to be doing the other eight are prohibitions they tell us what we shouldn't be doing must not do and as a result we can begin to think that these prohibitions are designed to keep us from things when they're really designed to keep us for things.

Do you understand the distinction there? There's still very real prohibitions, but the prohibition is a means to something much greater that's on the other side of it and the means is to Holiness that we would be a people who are set apart for God's pleasure for God's purposes and that we would have a close and special and living fellowship with Him. This is the real and the greater end. That's harmed if we disregard the Prohibition. So we don't want to be caught being like the Pharisees who had an intense focus on what must not be done but they had no love for God in their hearts.

They couldn't see past the prohibition to the real end which was a living, breathing relationship with God Almighty. This is the intent of the prohibitions. And so the challenge this morning, since we're in one of the eight prohibitions, and for the rest of the prohibitions, is not to think that the object of the prohibition is the end. It is not the end. It is a means to a much greater, much more noble, much more glorious means.

It's that we would be set apart as gods, that He would be our God and we would be His people. In Matthew 22, a Pharisee asks Jesus a question. And here it is, picking up in verse 36. The Pharisee says, Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

And this passage is a keystone that I trust over the next ten weeks that we'll come back to again and again and again because there can be no proper understanding of any of the commandments without this as a foundation. In this passage Jesus is doing two things. One, Jesus establishes love as the centerpiece for the law. We typically don't think that, but that is the truth, and that's what Jesus is teaching here. Love is the centerpiece of the law.

The law is about love, period. There is no obedience to the law without love. This is again where the Pharisees missed the boat. They had outward compliance, but inwardly their hearts were far from God. There is no obedience to the law without love.

The law is about love. And so when we think about the law, we should Think about love. This is why in Romans 13.10, Paul says, love is what? Love is the fulfillment of the law. So number one, Jesus establishes love as the centerpiece of the law.

Number two, He gives us a framework for thinking about the law. Jesus tells us how to think about this law, the Ten Commandments, and all other requirements of the Bible. What do I mean by that? Well, He gives us these twin peaks. He gives us the first and great commandment.

Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second, to love your neighbor by yourself. The first is love for God. It's the first table of the Ten Commandments, or its commandments one through four. No other gods, No images, no taking the name of God in vain and observe the Sabbath.

Those are about loving God. He gives us the second peak, which is love for neighbor. It's the second table of the Ten Commandments, Commandments 5 through 10. Honor your father and mother. Do not murder or commit adultery or steal or bear false witness or covet." And so what we have is a structure, a framework through which we can view and understand the requirements of the Bible.

And it does look like a pyramid. I think it was Alan Smith who said that in our extended discussion time a couple of weeks ago. It's like a pyramid. At the top we have these two peaks. We have love for God and we have love for your neighbor.

Below that we have the Ten Commandments, which helps us to understand those two types of love. Love for God and love for your neighbor. And below the Ten Commandments, you have all the other requirements of Scripture which relate to the Ten Commandments which are summarized by the two Twin Peaks, love for God and love for neighbor. And so today we're looking at the first commandment, you shall have no other gods before me. And so we're going to use this framework that Jesus has given to us to look upstream and ask the question, how does this commandment relate to love?

Because the summary of the law is love. Love is the fulfillment of the law. And so somehow or another, this commandment, you shall have no other gods before me, relates to love. So we're going to ask the question, what's upstream? How is this about love?

And then we'll ask, what's downstream? And that question is, what are the other requirements of Scripture that are under the heading of this commandment? In other words, there are other requirements of Scripture which help us to understand what you shall have no other gods before me means. What we'll find in this study is that the New Testament is a rich ground for understanding the first commandment. Jesus had much to say about the first commandment and we'll spend our time looking at it today.

So let's go to the text. The text is Deuteronomy 5.7. You shall have no other gods before me. These eight words, which are so profound. The ordering of the commandments is not by chance.

They're not randomly ordered. The first commandment really is the first commandment. It is the commandment which is important above all the other commandments. In some respects you could say that the other nine commandments are commentary on the first commandments. You shall have no other gods before me.

And so this is a towering commandment that we need to understand, particularly to understand in light of what Jesus said. Scott last week spent a lot of time talking about our tendency to be minimalists about the law. In other words, if I haven't stabbed anybody to death today, then I'm clean on the sixth commandment. No murder for me. I'm good.

And this is what we tend to do. Thankfully, Jesus blew that type of thinking up. In Matthew 5, we see Jesus giving commentary on the sixth and seventh commandments. And this is what he says. Jesus says, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.

But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, Rocki, which literally means empty head, shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, you fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her, had already committed adultery with her in his heart." So what Jesus is teaching here is about the spiritual nature of the law.

In other words, it's not technical outward obedience that God is driving at here. He is driving at the heart. What a shock it must have been for the Pharisees who were so careful about their outward conduct but have no love in their heart to hear that the Sixth Commandment was really about lust and not about the external physical act of adultery. So the law is intended to govern our hearts so that the outworkings will also be right. In other words, the law starts inwardly and then it works its way outward.

So should our outward conduct be exemplary? Of course it should. No one would ever argue against that. But it needs to be the fruit of work done in the heart because the heart is governed by the law of God, not just because we've figured out how to clean up our outward conduct. And in the meantime our hearts are far from God.

Now from a human standpoint you can game the system. You can cheat. You can have an appearance that you're compliant with the commandment, but internally, in your thoughts and in your heart, things are awry. Things are a mess. But, God isn't human.

You can only game the system from a human standpoint. From God's perspective, we learn in 1 Samuel 16, for the Lord does not see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. So, from a human perspective we can game the system but from God's perspective we never can because He always sees the heart. So we're minimalist by nature and we're minimalist by doing two things.

The first thing that we do is that we inappropriately narrow the scope of the requirement. We're saying, murder is just about me hacking my neighbor to death. That's it. I haven't done that today. I'm good on the fifth commandment.

We inappropriately narrow the scope of the requirement. So it's not us who's the violator, it's my neighbor the bomb. He is a violator of the Ten Commandments, but I'm clean. And we do it secondly by focusing on the external to the exclusion of what's going on in the heart. So that taking the name of God in vain is only about cussing.

That's all it's about. And murder is only about the physical killing of another person. And committing adultery is only the physical act outside of marriage. And bearing false witness is just misrepresenting things while on a witness stand. It's just about testifying against your neighbor wrongly.

That's all that bearing false witness is. But the Bible will have none of this minimalist theology. It is maximalist. It goes inside of our hearts and it tests our thoughts as well as our actions. It looks at our affections.

So what would it mean to be a minimalist about the first commandment? It might go something like this. I'm a Christian, you know there's a lot of other things I could be. I could be a Muslim, be a Hindu, be a Jew, and on, and on, and on. But I'm not any of those things.

I'm a Christian, so I don't have any other gods before him. See? I'm good on the first commandment. Next commandment. What's the next commandment?

I'm good on the first one. And that would confine the definition of a god exclusively to the object of a competing religion. So we skinny down the definition to something that is easy to comply with. I'm not a Muslim. Don't hassle me about the first commandment.

They have their religions. They're the wrong religions, of course. We have our religion. We're worshiping the true God. So we're good with the first commandment.

So yes, in context of where we are in Deuteronomy, the land that God was giving the Israelites had false religions, lots of false religions, lots of false gods. And yes, the command is about that, but it's not just about that. The First Commandment is not just a prohibition about polytheism, where if we don't have a lot of other gods, then we're clean on the first commandment. The New Testament has a terrific example of a minimalist. A terrific example of a minimalist is captured in Luke 18.

Now, a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? So Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good but one, that is God. You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother.

And he said, all these things I have kept from my youth. So when Jesus heard these things, he said to them, you still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow me." But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich. Ruler comes to Jesus and he says, what do I have to do to get into heaven? And Jesus reels off a portion of the Ten Commandments, right where we are in Deuteronomy.

And the rich young ruler is a minimalist. He says, all these things I have kept from my youth. So he's inappropriately narrowed the scope of the commandments and he's only considering his outward conduct so he thinks he's good. He really thinks he has kept the commandments since his youth. I love what J.C.

Ryle says about this. J.C. Ryle says, �An answer more full of darkness and self-ignorance it is impossible to conceive. He who made it could have known nothing rightly, either about himself or God or God's law. Does the case of this rich ruler stand alone?

Do we suppose there are none like him at the present day? If we do, we are greatly deceived. There are thousands it may be feared in all our congregations who have not the least idea of the spiritual nature of God's law and consequently know nothing of their own sinfulness. They do not see that God requires truth in the inward parts, and that we may break commandments in our heart and thoughts even when we do not break them in outward actions. To be delivered from such Blindness is one of the first things needful to our salvation.

The eyes of our understandings must be enlightened by the Holy Ghost. We must learn to know ourselves. No man really taught of the Spirit will ever talk of having kept all God's commandments from His youth. He will rather cry with St. Paul, the law is spiritual, I am carnal.

I know that in me dwelleth no good thing. Jesus takes this man's claim that he has obeyed the commandments and he drills down what? He drills down into the first commandment, you shall have no other gods before me to prove that this man is an idolater. He says, OK, we'll start at the first commandment then. If you've obeyed the Ten Commandments, let's just take the first one.

He puts his finger on the one thing that this man has held above God probably for all his life. He proves that he's an idolater. He demonstrates that he really does have another God before the Living God. We learn that money is one thing that isn't the object of a world religion per se, but can be truly worshiped as the object of ultimate affection. Money is one of those things that can be an overvalued imposter.

Maybe we should use that as a phrase. It replaced the word God in there with another definition to say an overvalued imposter. Because after all, there really are no other gods. It's not possible to have another God before God, at least. Not in the definition of a true God.

There are no other gods. There's only one God in heaven. We learned that in Deuteronomy chapter 4. It says in verse 35 and again in verse 39. There is no other.

There's only one God. It's not possible to have another real God before the Living God. It's overvalued imposters that we put in that spot. And money isn't a God like Allah or Ra, the Egyptian sun god, but it can still be supreme in our affections. This is about our affections.

Paul in Philippians 3, 19, he issues a warning about those, quote, whose God is their belly. Now there's a definition for you. Your belly can be your God. It's not just talking about love for food, although that's included there, it's about our appetites. If we're serving our appetites, then our God is our belly.

And then he concludes by saying this, who set their mind on earthly things. Now we're getting somewhere. Your God can be your belly when you set your mind on earthly things. When earthly things get your mind share, consume your thoughts, consume your conversations. Now doesn't that expand the scope of the first commandment?

Here's what Matthew Henry says. Pride makes a god of self. Covetousness makes a god of money. Sensuality makes a god of the belly. Whatever is esteemed or loved, feared or served, delighted in or depended on, more than God, that whatever it is we do in effect make a god of.

Mr. Henry has left us a dangling participle at the end of this sentence, But we will forgive him because this is a definition. Whatever is esteemed or loved, feared or served, delighted in or depended on, more than God, that is your God. Now more on money and other gods, because there's a principle in the next passage that we'll look at that is key to understanding the first commandment. It's recorded in Matthew 6 where Jesus addresses money again specifically, money as a god.

Matthew 6 says this, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth. This goes right back to who set their mind on earthly things to tie into what Paul said in Philippians 3. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. This passage is specifically talking about money, but it gives us a broad principle that we can apply to anything else and that's this. No one can serve two masters. It's right there in the text.

Do not be deceived brothers and sisters. You cannot serve two masters. I cannot serve two masters. Your master isn't the one you profess to be your master. It's the one you serve.

And so from this text, we'll take this and we'll make a more generic template out of it. And instead of saying, you cannot serve God and man, then we'll make our generic template say, you cannot serve God and blank. And then you fill in the blank. You search your heart and fill in the blank. You cannot serve God and blank.

So, how do we know if we've got a blank? How do we clearly identify if we've got something out of whack where we have another God before us? Again, Jesus offers us help on this. Matthew 10, do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. And that blows up our Christmas carols, doesn't it?

Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth and that blows off our Christmas carols doesn't it? Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth I did not come to bring peace but a sword for I have come to set a man against his father a daughter Against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law And a man's enemies will be those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.

He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it. Isn't it interesting that just like the story of the rich young ruler, Jesus' admonition, the dividing line that he makes is the phrase, follow me. In the story of the rich young ruler, when Jesus starts reeling off the Ten Commandments, he isn't teaching salvation by works, he's leading the witness. He's leading the witness to the spot that he wants him where he can show him he's an idolater. That passage ends with the same phrase, sell all that you have and come follow me." He's calling him to faith and they don't even get that far because when Jesus puts his finger on the man's idol the man has had enough and he goes away sorrowful.

And it's much the same here. Jesus is saying, follow me. Wherever I send you Follow me there. Is there anywhere that you will not go? Jesus says, whatever the cost, follow me.

Is there any price that you will not pay? Jesus says, No matter who it sets you against, follow me. Are there any relationships that you wouldn't part with because of your allegiance to God? Jesus is demanding that He be first in our affections. And the demonstration of this is that we follow Him in complete obedience.

Did you get that? Jesus is demanding that He be first in our affections, and He wants proof. The proof that He is first in our affections is that we follow Him in obedience. He's calling to us, follow me. This is disturbing and it gets worse.

The account in Luke is much worse. Try this on. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, Yes, in His own life He cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not bear His cross and come after Me cannot be my disciple." Now is Jesus canceling out the whole weight of Scripture that requires us to have honoring family relationships. Is that what's happening here?

All the rest of the scripture goes out the window because Jesus is canceling it. We no longer have to have honoring family relationships anymore because of what Jesus says in Luke 14, right? Wrong. He's taking things that are good and that should be highly regarded and valued, and saying that love for Him, devotion to Him, should be so far superior to even these good things that our esteem for them would be hatred compared to the heights of our love and devotion to Christ. He's drawing contrast.

He's putting a great gulf between our value on even good things and what our devotion must be to Him. And the issue is preeminence. Preeminence. What is my master affection? What is first place?

That's all preeminence means. What is first place? What is my master affection? The affection that subjugates all the other affections. We give everything else up for.

We all have a master affection, you know. In Colossians 1, Paul speaks of the preeminence of Christ. And he says this, He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.

All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the Church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, That in all things he may have the preeminence. In all things he may have first place. We learn in Deuteronomy 4 verse 24, for the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

He's jealously guarding first place. He's jealously guarding preeminence. And so I pose two questions today. One, is God your master affection? Honestly, is God your master affection?

We've already seen this verse in Matthew. It's the great commandment. Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy, chapter 6, verse 5. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. The great commandment which is stated here, and the first commandment, you shall have no other gods, are one and the same commandment.

They're not different commandments. The great commandment is the positive statement. It tells us what's required. It tells us that we should love God with everything that's in us. The first commandment is the negative statement.

It tells us what's precluded, what's forbidden. And these are the two sides of one and the same coin. What does it mean to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength? It means that we have no other gods before Him. It means that He is our all in all, that He consumes us.

All of our heart, all of our soul, all of our strength are consumed by God and there is no room for another. The first question was, is God your master of affection? The second is, is it hard to tell? Is it hard to tell? Remember, Luke 14, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father or mother, he cannot be my disciple.

Jesus is setting up the starkest of contrasts. He's setting up a huge chasm, even between the good things and what our devotion must be to Him. Jesus says this in Matthew 13, teaching about the Kingdom of God. He says, again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid. And for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls who when he had found one pearl of great price went and sold all that he had and bought it. For joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has. And notice, there's no buyer's remorse here. You know what buyer's remorse is? It's when you go out and you buy a big ticket item, you spend a lot of money, you get home, and you start wringing your hands.

I shouldn't have bought it. I couldn't afford it. We'll never be able to do this, we'll never be able to do that. And you're looking at it, and you thought it'd be so wonderful because it's a big ticket item. It costs a lot of money, it's nice.

And you thought it was going to be great, and you get home and you're looking at it, and it just looks like a boat anchor all of a sudden. It was so shiny at the store, but when you plunk down all the money, you get it home, it looks like a boat anchor. That's buyer's remorse. This man has no buyer's remorse. He gets home with his treasure and he says, what a steal!

What a steal! I can't believe I got a treasure like this. I can't believe I got a pearl like this for that price. How could this be? God is calling us to a life where we would have our hands completely open to receive whatever, to go wherever, to spend our money however, to be obedient in everything.

What do our calendars say is our God? Time is a precious resource. It tells us a lot about our true affections. What do our checkbooks say about our God? Money is a precious resource.

It tells us a lot about our true affections. What do our checkbooks say about our God? Money is a precious resource, it tells us a lot about our true affections. What do our conversations say is our God? Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.

Tells us a lot about what's really in there. What do our thoughts say is our God. What our mind dwells on tells us a lot about our true affections. And it isn't merely our profession that tells the tale that could just be lip service. We see it all through the Old and New Testament.

Yes, Lord, yes, Lord, yes, Lord. But there's no obedience. It is these other things, our calendars, our checkbooks, our conversations, our thoughts, that demonstrate what the objects of our affections really are. So in conclusion, I'm going to hit you with four more questions and then I will stop and let you recover. Number one, have you lost your focus on love?

Love is the fulfillment of the law. All the law and the prophets hang on love of God and love of neighbor. Have you lost your focus on love? If we're not very vigilant, then Christianity becomes a very sterile, mechanical, lifeless, loveless observance of duty, instead of a vibrant, living demonstration of love for God. Our religion, our Christianity practiced, lived, is supposed to just be a vibrant demonstration of love for God.

Is it that or has it become sterile? Has it become lifeless and loveless and very mechanical? This is the life of the Pharisees. Very mechanical, very sterile, very technical, but no love in the heart. And how does this happen?

It happens one degree at a time. We don't desire that it would happen, but it does happen. We drift there over time. Have you drifted there? Is God revealing to you that you've been drifting?

Is He calling you back? In Revelation 2, Jesus charges the Ephesian Church with having left their first love. Ephesians 2, 1-3-7, you should read it. They were working hard, they were commended for it. They were persevering, they were commended for it.

They're resisting false doctrine, and they're commended for it, that their love had grown cold, and they're rebuked for that. Oh, brothers and sisters, return to your first love. Do you remember what it was like to first be a Christian to know that you were forgiven for your sins. How sweet prayer was, how sweet fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ were. Do you wonder why prayer is not so sweet now?

Why your fellowship isn't so sweet now? This could be why. Return, return with all your heart to your first love. Number two, is your master affection Jesus Christ? If it's hard to tell, you're off track.

Sound the alarm, the building is on fire if you can't tell whether he's your master of affection or not. If you can't tell, he's not. Paul says this in Philippians 3, But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things lost for the excellence of knowing of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ to be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." God is calling us to single-minded devotion, that we would take the old things and we would count them as rubbish that we may gain Christ and be found in Him. What if Jesus Christ isn't your master affection?

The people on your right think that He's your master affection and the people on your left think that He's your master affection but you know in your heart that He isn't. Cry out to Him. Cry out to Jesus Christ. The Bible says that a broken spirit and a contrite heart He will not despise. In fact, if you have a broken spirit and if you have a contrite heart, you did not produce that within yourself.

It is a gift. God gives repentance. If you have a broken spirit and a contrite heart now, praise the Lord. Cry out to Him to finish the work. Thirdly, do you understand the value of what is being offered?

C.S. Lewis says this, Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pods in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. This is why we should count the old things as rubbish.

They are rubbish. Christ is a treasure. Christ is the greatest treasure. When the merchant sees the pearl of great price, he can't take his eyes off of it. He never has buyer's remorse.

He'll gladly, he'll for joy sell everything to possess it because it's of greater value than anything else he could have. Brothers and sisters, these prohibitions that God has given us are not keeping us from things. They're keeping us for things. They're not keeping us from the mud pies. They're keeping us for the holiday at the sea.

Go for the best things. Go for the highest things. Put off a little gratification now for the treasures of Christ both in this world and the world to come. Lastly, most importantly, is there something that you need to do today? Tomorrow is the assassin of our best intentions.

If you wait till tomorrow, you'll give your time to rationalize why you shouldn't do what you should do. You may be discovering that you've been a minimalist with the First Commandment. That you've never taken the name of Allah on your lips, but you're a violator of the First Commandment in the worst way. Do not delay. My encouragement is that you use the time where we gather together at the Lord's table for confession and commitment to action.

That you identify certain actions that you will take today And then, here's the clincher, cement it in concrete. Grab a brother or sister. Call them and say, meet with me today. Or call them up. Or talk to them before you leave to say, I got to do this.

I got to do this right away to get rid of my idol. And do something today that will put it in concrete, where you'll be stuck. You'll be stuck. You'll have no recourse but to do it, but to smash your idol. It'll be for your own joy and your own refreshment.

Act today. Let's pray. Lord, You are God of the universe, maker of everything, maker of heaven and earth. There is none beside You. We elevate things in our affections and we should not.

You have not been worshiped nearly enough in our hearts. Forgive us, Lord. Thank you for granting repentance today. Thank you for saving sinners. Thank you for the blood of Christ that there's provision for sin.

We can be reconciled to you. That your righteous wrath against sin can be turned aside from us who deserve it to Christ who never deserved it but who was a fitting sacrifice once and for all to bear the sins of the world. Lord we praise you. We pray that you would continue your good work in our hearts. In Jesus' name, Amen.