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The Big Ten: Enough’s Enough
Pastor Rollan Fisher
Focus: You will experience greater joy when you obey the commands of God.
No Need to Lie
No Need to Keep Up
Everything You Need is Found in Jesus
PRAY
No Need to Lie
You do not need to lie to get ahead in the world.
Commandment #9:
Exodus 20:16
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
This is a pretty self-evident command but let’s dig a bit and find modern application.
Be truthful, not spiteful, regarding your neighbors.
In our world it seems that people will do anything to get ahead or to press their agendas.
However, you don’t need to lie about yourself to push yourself forward or tear others down falsely to get where God is going to take you.
This means do not lie about anyone, whether maliciously or merely for your personal benefit.
Bearing false witness against someone is an assault on their reputation and future interactions with the world.
This is especially true in the world of cyber-bullying, cancel culture and online defamation.
God commands that we steward the reputation of others carefully and never let out in impetuous anger that which we can not take back.
In fact Jesus said this:
Matthew 12:36-37
36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Tell the truth.
When you tell the truth about someone or a situation, you are able to experience the joy of knowing you can sleep well at night.
Choosing not to lie is freeing because you do not have to keep up with what you said or remember to whom you said it, because what you communicated was simply true.
When the truth is communicated in love, you equally know that while you are not involved, the seeds that you’ve sown are still working for your neighbor’s good.
You are free from having to cover your tracks and conversations because your integrity allows you to say the same thing about people when they are in front of you as when they are absent.
We’ve all had enough frienemies.
In friendships, on social media, in the workplace and in the home, we should be those who are looking to build others up, not tear them down.
Don’t buckle to the pressure of self-preservation, selling others out to save your own skin when telling the truth may cost you something.
God will back the man or woman of integrity.
Proverbs 28:18
Whoever walks in integrity will be delivered, but he who is crooked in his ways will suddenly fall.
Be faithful, not fearful, as you testify about God.
Proverbs 29:25
The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.
It cost Jesus to come and bear truthful witnesses about his Heavenly Father, the state of the world before him, the consequences of sin and the judgment to come.
In doing so, however, it led to our faith, forgiveness and freedom.
We need to do the same for others when testifying about the cross of Jesus Christ and the redemption of God.
When we are truthful about God by faith, not only does it lead to others’ salvation, but God is able to supernaturally back us with his favor (Hebrews 11).
No Need to Keep Up
You do not need to have what others do to experience true joy.
Commandment #10:
Exodus 20:17
“You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.”
Remember, in each of these commandments, God is trying to set you free.
God does not owe you a particular sized home, spouse with certain measurements, type of career or number of checks on your bucket list.
God is always more concerned with saving a man or woman’s eternal soul than fulfilling their modern, entitled vision of manifest destiny promoted in our media.
God does, however, enjoy blessing his children as they obey His commandments so that they can enjoy his goodness and be a blessing to others (Genesis 12).
What I’ve noticed in our world is that we need to be both sensitive and aware during challenging times.
People need to make sure that their disdain for others’ successes are not covetousness disguised as righteous indignation.
How can you tell the difference?
*If you would be happy if you were in someone else’s shoes, but are unhappy that someone else is now enjoying what you desire for yourself, then that is envy, not justice for which you long.
Carnal jealousy and ungodly rivalries always produce a wanton soul (Galatians 5:20).
Selfish ambition breeds discontent that will never allow you to rest in the life of promise that God intends for you.
What causes coveting?
Beyond greed, it is our modern battle with the idea of self - derived not from God but from society’s value placed on self-actualization.
The daily frustration and disappointment that people feel comes from an imagined sense of who they thought they should be, what they should do or what they should accomplish.
Yet who told you these things?
If it was not God, it can actually lead to slavery.
And in the quest to fulfill a self-created dream, we can reject the everyday life, relationships and opportunities that fulfill God’s
Kingdom narrative for us with Christ, rather than ourselves, at the center.
This type of “keeping up with the Joneses” can enslave us and distort our lives.
As Dr. Timothy Keller continues to relate in his book, Counterfeit Gods,
“...counterfeit gods come in clusters, making the idolatry structure of the heart complex...Sin in our hearts affects our basic motivational drives so they become idolatrous, “deep idols.” Some people are strongly motivated by a desire for influence and power, while others are more excited by approval and appreciation. Some want emotional and physical comfort more than anything else, while still others want security, the control of their environment. People with the deep idol of power do not mind being unpopular in order to gain influence. People who are most motivated by approval are the opposite - they will gladly lose power and control as long as everyone thinks well of them. Each deep idol - power, approval, comfort, or control - generates a different set of fears and a different set of hopes.
“Surface idols” are things such as money, our spouse, or children, through which our deep idols seek fulfillment. We are often superficial in our analysis of our idol structures. For example, money can be a surface idol that serves to satisfy more foundational impulses. Some people want lots of money as a way to control their world and life. Such people usually don’t spend much money and live very modestly. They keep it all safely saved and invested, so they can feel completely secure in the world. Others want money for access to social circles and to make themselves beautiful and attractive. These people do spend their money on themselves in lavish ways.
Other people want money because it gives them so much power over others. In every case, money functions as an idol and yet, because of various deep idols, it results in very different patterns of behavior.
The person using money to serve a deep idol of control will often feel superior to people using money to attain power or social approval. In every case, however, money-idolatry enslaves and distorts lives.”
-Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters (page 64-65)
The Bible reminds us, however, that on the other side of God’s commandments, including, “do not covet”, are His blessings and freedom.
How is this so?
We are filled with joy when we are able to “rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn (Romans 12:15).
When I can congratulate someone else for their success and be content to fulfill my stewardship before the Lord, I am truly free.
*I do not need to covet when I know that God will take care of me.
The beauty of God is that his principles work for everyone who would believe his good news and employ his principles.
It does not mean there will not be obstacles because of the sin and fallenness of our world, but it does mean that God’s favor and blessing are stronger.
Let’s get practical.
This is the hope that we have in God:
Proverbs 14:23
In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.
Remember that Jesus is the God who opens doors that no man can shut and shuts doors that no man can open (Revelation 3:8).
God will give me the exact measure I need so that my heart might maintain worship and fulfill his purposes.
This is why Agur son of Jakeh wrote by the Holy Spirit:
Proverbs 30:7-9
Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.
Joy is a product of thankfulness.
When we are ungrateful or feel entitled to something that we did not receive, we are soured in our souls.
Nothing pleasant happening to or for us ever fills the void.
When we maintain God’s perspective that what we ultimately deserve is punishment for our sins, death and hell, then everything that we receive is a cherry on top and a product of grace.
This transforms every good thing in my life to a gift for which I am truly grateful.
It is in this way that I am freed of coveting and am content to ENJOY everything that the Lord has graciously given me, whether it be a gift, or the product of my own labors.
I know that it all comes from the Lord and I don’t need what another man or woman has to be happy.
Everything You Need is Found in Jesus
You will experience true joy when you begin to embrace all that you’ve been given In Jesus.
John 6:25-35
When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
Everything that you need for abundant life and godliness is truly found in Jesus.
God wants to give us joy in that which he’s entrusted to us.
Choosing to be content is freeing because it allows us to finally rest in the truth that we can actually be happy in what God had lovingly given us.
True joy begins and ends with the Lord.
God allows life to show us that no experience, no lover, no number in your bank account, no title, no measure of power or control will ever be able to substitute for the joy that is found satisfied in a relationship with Jesus.
We can learn now or later, but we will learn.
*When we learn that Jesus is our great reward, we are free to accumulate in life to be a blessing, not to be happy.
This is the great justification of the call to worship Jesus alone, our champion.
He is the one who stood in proxy for fallen humanity to do battle at the cross against sin and death at the cross and so save all who would come to the judge through the merits of Christ’s sinful life alone.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher 2021