WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.080 We hope that you enjoy this teaching from Christ Church. 00:00:05.540 --> 00:00:09.519 This material is copyrighted and no unauthorized duplication, 00:00:09.880 --> 00:00:15.419 redistribution, or any other use of any part is permitted without prior consent from Christ Church. 00:00:15.419 --> 00:00:22.640 Please consider donating to this work in the San Francisco Bay Area online at ChristChurchEastBay.org. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:37.500 Today's scripture reading from the book of Exodus, chapters 19, verse 2 through 8, 00:00:37.920 --> 00:00:44.899 chapter 20, verses 1 through 3, and chapter 24, verses 7 through 11, as printed in the liturgy. 00:00:46.740 --> 00:00:50.019 After they set out from Rephidim, they entered the desert of Sinai, 00:00:50.379 --> 00:00:52.700 and Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain. 00:00:53.539 --> 00:00:57.620 Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, 00:00:57.619 --> 00:01:02.739 This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob, and what you are to tell the people of Israel. 00:01:03.599 --> 00:01:08.920 You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. 00:01:09.780 --> 00:01:15.159 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. 00:01:16.079 --> 00:01:20.500 Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. 00:01:21.280 --> 00:01:23.459 These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites. 00:01:23.459 --> 00:01:30.219 So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the Lord had commanded him to speak. 00:01:30.799 --> 00:01:32.379 The people all responded together, 00:01:32.899 --> 00:01:34.719 We will do everything the Lord has said. 00:01:35.579 --> 00:01:37.719 So Moses brought their answer back to the Lord. 00:01:39.199 --> 00:01:41.019 And God spoke all these words, 00:01:41.599 --> 00:01:45.459 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 00:01:46.019 --> 00:01:47.879 You shall have no other gods before me. 00:01:49.299 --> 00:01:52.019 Then he took the book of the covenant and read it to the people. 00:01:52.019 --> 00:01:53.099 They responded, 00:01:53.420 --> 00:01:55.000 We will do everything the Lord has said. 00:01:55.239 --> 00:01:55.780 We will obey. 00:01:56.799 --> 00:01:59.780 Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, 00:02:00.039 --> 00:02:04.179 This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words. 00:02:04.859 --> 00:02:10.240 Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the 70 elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. 00:02:11.139 --> 00:02:16.000 Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:20.060 But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites. 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:22.800 They saw God, and they ate and drank. 00:02:23.479 --> 00:02:24.780 This is the word of the Lord. 00:02:25.300 --> 00:02:26.360 Thanks be to God. 00:02:27.400 --> 00:02:29.120 Well, good morning to you all. 00:02:29.120 --> 00:02:36.759 We are now at the midway point in this Explore God journey that we've been taking over seven weeks. 00:02:37.140 --> 00:02:38.060 This is week four. 00:02:38.920 --> 00:02:41.340 And we've explored various questions. 00:02:41.520 --> 00:02:42.620 Does God exist? 00:02:42.819 --> 00:02:43.980 Does life have a purpose? 00:02:45.879 --> 00:02:48.099 Why does God allow pain and suffering? 00:02:48.340 --> 00:02:49.900 And today we come to this question, 00:02:50.460 --> 00:02:52.040 Is Christianity too narrow? 00:02:52.860 --> 00:02:55.000 Is Christianity too narrow? 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:59.719 So I took my dictionary, and I looked up this word narrow, 00:03:00.460 --> 00:03:01.879 and other words came up. 00:03:02.419 --> 00:03:07.520 Confined, cramped, tight, closed, pinched, and squeezed. 00:03:08.479 --> 00:03:11.180 And so then I, you know, went to my thesaurus, 00:03:11.420 --> 00:03:13.860 and I looked up narrow in the thesaurus, 00:03:14.039 --> 00:03:15.939 and it said words like these. 00:03:16.099 --> 00:03:21.780 Narrow-minded, intolerant, illiberal, reactionary, conservative, conventional, 00:03:21.780 --> 00:03:33.939 parochial, provincial, insular, myopic, blinkered, inward-looking, inflexible, dogmatic, rigid, entrenched, prejudiced, and bigoted. 00:03:34.819 --> 00:03:41.699 And those are like the worst criticisms you could possibly make of anyone in our society today. 00:03:41.759 --> 00:03:41.979 Amen? 00:03:42.860 --> 00:03:47.060 Like how many of us would like to be called any of those things? 00:03:47.420 --> 00:03:47.599 Right? 00:03:47.599 --> 00:03:49.400 We're educated people. 00:03:49.599 --> 00:03:50.979 We're cosmopolitan people. 00:03:51.180 --> 00:03:58.759 We like to think of ourselves as broad-minded people living in this pluralistic, diverse, equal, and inclusive society. 00:03:59.159 --> 00:04:05.560 So how many of us really want to be called illiberal or intolerant or even bigoted? 00:04:06.099 --> 00:04:11.699 It's not really what you hope people will say in your obituary or at your eulogy. 00:04:11.699 --> 00:04:19.019 You know, Jonathan St. Clair was, of all the people I've ever known, the most narrow person I've ever met in my life. 00:04:19.199 --> 00:04:22.259 So the question is, will Christianity make me narrow? 00:04:22.519 --> 00:04:25.079 And if so, I want to have nothing to do with it. 00:04:25.899 --> 00:04:30.699 Now why do we say that increasingly in our Western secular culture? 00:04:31.719 --> 00:04:36.719 The reason we say that is because our deepest value is freedom and liberty, 00:04:37.019 --> 00:04:40.459 which we define as the absence of constraints. 00:04:40.459 --> 00:04:49.579 And you see, there's already, there's all of a sudden a problem because any absolute truth claim is by definition constraining 00:04:49.579 --> 00:04:53.719 and therefore seen as the enemy of freedom. 00:04:54.560 --> 00:05:05.299 Any doctrine, any ethic that would limit my options or rule out alternatives or restrict or keep me from thinking and living the way that I want must be narrow. 00:05:05.300 --> 00:05:05.800 Right? 00:05:05.800 --> 00:05:10.500 And so we look at the doctrinal and moral boundaries of Christianity. 00:05:11.460 --> 00:05:17.900 And we look at the way that Christianity names certain beliefs as heresy and certain practices as immoral. 00:05:18.620 --> 00:05:24.500 We look at the way that Christianity includes or excludes its members based on their creed and their conduct. 00:05:24.540 --> 00:05:25.379 And we say, yuck. 00:05:26.259 --> 00:05:28.019 I don't want that. 00:05:28.019 --> 00:05:34.839 Christianity seems to narrow my options, limit my liberty, constrain my freedom, and cramp my style. 00:05:34.939 --> 00:05:35.879 So no thank you. 00:05:37.079 --> 00:05:43.219 And it's true that when you look at the Christian community with its set boundaries, 00:05:44.219 --> 00:05:48.459 you can look at that and you can say, well, if Christianity bars people from its community, 00:05:48.979 --> 00:05:52.039 that seems to endanger civic freedom. 00:05:52.040 --> 00:05:55.100 That seems to kind of divide rather than unite. 00:05:56.140 --> 00:06:03.240 Or if Christianity fails to affirm various cultures and their different perspectives on truth and reality, 00:06:03.740 --> 00:06:06.060 that seems to be culturally narrow. 00:06:07.180 --> 00:06:13.259 Or if Christianity determines what its members must believe and practice down in the particulars, 00:06:13.340 --> 00:06:16.879 that seems to enslave and infantilize its members. 00:06:16.879 --> 00:06:24.199 And some people look at Christianity and say, this really threatens to stifle our creativity, 00:06:24.459 --> 00:06:30.579 to stifle our growth, it stifles our ability to think for ourselves and determine the truth for ourselves. 00:06:31.899 --> 00:06:33.219 Maybe you believe this. 00:06:33.300 --> 00:06:35.000 Maybe you know people who believe this. 00:06:35.079 --> 00:06:39.219 20th century social activist Emma Goldman wrote this. 00:06:39.300 --> 00:06:43.420 She said, Christianity is the leveler of the human race. 00:06:43.420 --> 00:06:47.300 It's the breaker of man's will to dare and to do. 00:06:47.420 --> 00:06:53.620 It's an iron net, a straitjacket, which does not let him expand and grow. 00:06:54.680 --> 00:06:56.379 So that's the question before us. 00:06:56.480 --> 00:06:58.600 Is Christianity narrow? 00:06:58.780 --> 00:07:01.300 Is it this iron net, this straitjacket? 00:07:02.120 --> 00:07:04.379 Is Christianity the enemy of our freedom? 00:07:05.120 --> 00:07:10.580 The enemy of social cohesion and cultural adaptability and authentic personhood? 00:07:10.579 --> 00:07:17.319 And I want to address these questions through this foundational event in the book of Exodus. 00:07:17.740 --> 00:07:22.939 What we just read is that the center of that book, literarily and theologically, 00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:28.560 you have these recently enslaved but newly liberated slaves. 00:07:29.439 --> 00:07:36.959 And the people of Israel, they go and they get these words of truth from God at Mount Sinai in Exodus 19. 00:07:36.959 --> 00:07:43.299 And then God gives to them these 10 words, these 10 commands in chapter 20. 00:07:43.819 --> 00:07:48.339 And then he gives them this book of the covenant, these case laws in the next several chapters. 00:07:48.479 --> 00:07:52.439 And then he seals his covenant with them in Exodus chapter 24. 00:07:52.439 --> 00:07:58.160 And the average modern person looks at this and says, well, this is a problem. 00:07:59.100 --> 00:08:08.819 Surely at this stage in history, we need to get beyond religions that are based upon absolute doctrinal truth and universal ethical laws. 00:08:08.819 --> 00:08:20.620 But what I hope to show you in the next few minutes is that Christianity's commitment to doctrinal truth and to the moral law is not the enemy of freedom. 00:08:21.420 --> 00:08:24.480 But it's actually the basis for freedom. 00:08:24.860 --> 00:08:27.779 It's the ground note of freedom. 00:08:27.959 --> 00:08:29.659 And I hope I can demonstrate that to you. 00:08:29.740 --> 00:08:34.240 And if I'm not satisfactory, come to our Q&A and you can grill me afterwards. 00:08:34.439 --> 00:08:36.100 I'd love to talk with you about it. 00:08:36.100 --> 00:08:37.180 But here's what we're going to explore. 00:08:37.259 --> 00:08:45.420 We're going to look at the wideness of grace, the narrowness of love, and the fullness of the covenant. 00:08:46.139 --> 00:08:54.159 I'm going to explore in this text the wideness of grace, the narrowness of love, and the fullness of the covenant. 00:08:55.019 --> 00:08:58.820 Let's think about the wideness of grace for a moment. 00:08:58.820 --> 00:09:05.200 If you look at Exodus 19, verses 4 and 5, it says God is speaking. 00:09:05.320 --> 00:09:09.300 And the most important words in the book to this point, he says this in verse 4. 00:09:09.420 --> 00:09:16.740 You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. 00:09:17.500 --> 00:09:24.400 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. 00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:37.879 These words of God himself show us that the starting point of Christianity is not narrow laws, but it's wide grace. 00:09:37.879 --> 00:09:44.279 There's a widespread assumption that if God is there at all, he wants us to follow his rules. 00:09:45.220 --> 00:09:54.620 And in order to find credibility with God and acceptance with God, then we need to behave ourselves and get our lives together and follow the rules and obey his laws. 00:09:54.679 --> 00:09:58.779 And if we do that, then we'll get into his good graces. 00:09:58.919 --> 00:10:01.620 Then we'll win the love of God for us. 00:10:02.580 --> 00:10:04.360 But notice what God says first. 00:10:04.360 --> 00:10:08.340 The very first thing he says is, I carried you on eagles' wings. 00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:22.480 I want you to imagine an eagle with outstretched wings that can soar at great heights and can go at incredible speed over long distances. 00:10:23.639 --> 00:10:31.600 And the image here is of this eagle who looks down and sees his helpless or her helpless fledglings that cannot fly. 00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:33.940 And they're being attacked. 00:10:34.379 --> 00:10:35.000 They're in trouble. 00:10:35.139 --> 00:10:37.300 There's some predator that's coming after them. 00:10:37.720 --> 00:10:39.200 And so the eagle just, what does he do? 00:10:39.259 --> 00:10:45.460 The eagle swoops down to the rescue and carries its young off to safety. 00:10:46.399 --> 00:10:51.240 And what do those little fledglings contribute to this moment of salvation? 00:10:51.399 --> 00:10:53.920 What did they contribute to their deliverance? 00:10:54.460 --> 00:10:56.120 The point is they contributed nothing. 00:10:56.120 --> 00:10:59.440 The eagle did everything. 00:11:00.299 --> 00:11:04.159 And God says, I've already saved you. 00:11:04.899 --> 00:11:07.299 I've carried you on eagles' wings. 00:11:08.299 --> 00:11:12.460 By my infinite grace, I brought you to myself. 00:11:13.019 --> 00:11:14.200 Now obey. 00:11:14.200 --> 00:11:18.120 I've completely accepted you. 00:11:18.720 --> 00:11:20.240 Therefore, obey. 00:11:21.320 --> 00:11:26.800 You see, every other religion and every human heart operates on pretty much the opposite principle. 00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:29.320 I need to obey God. 00:11:29.400 --> 00:11:31.100 I need to do right and live right. 00:11:31.320 --> 00:11:32.700 And then I'll be accepted. 00:11:32.879 --> 00:11:33.980 Then I'll be blessed. 00:11:34.259 --> 00:11:35.200 Which I agree with you. 00:11:35.280 --> 00:11:36.060 That is narrow. 00:11:36.640 --> 00:11:37.280 That's narrow. 00:11:38.279 --> 00:11:44.019 But Christianity, at the heart of Christianity, is this God who says, I have carried you. 00:11:44.279 --> 00:11:45.220 I have saved you. 00:11:45.279 --> 00:11:46.159 I have delivered you. 00:11:46.539 --> 00:11:47.679 Now obey. 00:11:48.899 --> 00:11:55.079 And that, I want to argue, is a very wide expression of the grace of God to us. 00:11:55.860 --> 00:11:59.039 It's not obey, then I will do these things for you. 00:11:59.779 --> 00:12:06.720 God did not give them the law in order to deliver them, but he delivered them, and then he gives them the law. 00:12:07.279 --> 00:12:15.519 And what that means is that your belief in divine truth or your practice of the moral law has nothing to do with God saving you. 00:12:16.159 --> 00:12:23.720 It has nothing to do with God setting his love on you and accepting you and carrying you and bringing you to himself. 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:30.299 Whatever you do is a response to the prior action of God on your behalf. 00:12:30.299 --> 00:12:38.719 So the default mode of the human heart is to completely reverse this order. 00:12:39.879 --> 00:12:43.599 And it says that, you know, if there's a God, we have to prove our worth to him. 00:12:43.659 --> 00:12:47.059 We have to earn his acceptance and work hard for his blessing. 00:12:47.059 --> 00:12:52.479 But if you notice in the story, the people of Israel were doing nothing. 00:12:52.699 --> 00:13:03.279 They were miserable slaves and sufferers and sinners there in Egypt, hopeless and helpless, little baby birds, little eaglets who couldn't fly. 00:13:03.279 --> 00:13:13.799 But God, with his wide wings of grace, swoops down and carries them off. 00:13:15.559 --> 00:13:21.759 So the laws that are going to follow in this story are not the condition of the relationship. 00:13:22.419 --> 00:13:24.299 They're the confirmation of the relationship. 00:13:24.299 --> 00:13:28.559 We do not obey God in order to be saved. 00:13:28.659 --> 00:13:34.459 We obey God in order to live in a manner that's worthy of the great salvation we've received. 00:13:35.819 --> 00:13:41.219 Friends, the God of grace at the heart of Christianity is not narrow. 00:13:42.919 --> 00:13:51.799 And when we interpret being in a relationship with this wise creator and this gracious redeemer as something oppressive and withering to our humanity, 00:13:51.799 --> 00:14:00.419 rather than liberating and life-giving to our humanity, we are the ones who are being narrow and not God. 00:14:01.240 --> 00:14:12.579 When we resist the grace of God and all of its wideness, what we're really doing is we're choosing the narrowness of our own self-sufficiency. 00:14:13.839 --> 00:14:20.299 And ironically, we're excluding ourselves from God's incredibly inclusive grace, 00:14:20.299 --> 00:14:25.439 this God who wants to carry us and bring us to himself. 00:14:26.659 --> 00:14:31.979 So that's where we need to start today is, have you experienced the grace of God? 00:14:33.419 --> 00:14:40.299 Has the grace of God come in and swooped down and picked you up and carried you off and brought you to himself? 00:14:41.019 --> 00:14:42.719 Because that is the starting point. 00:14:43.639 --> 00:14:48.159 And it's really the continuing principle and the ending point of Christianity. 00:14:48.159 --> 00:14:51.179 It's all about the wideness of the grace of God. 00:14:52.319 --> 00:14:53.579 You tracking with me so far? 00:14:54.299 --> 00:15:00.159 So we talked about the wideness of God's grace, but we do need to talk about the narrowness of love. 00:15:00.919 --> 00:15:02.759 The narrowness of love. 00:15:03.679 --> 00:15:04.539 Look at verse 5. 00:15:04.620 --> 00:15:04.939 It says, 00:15:04.940 --> 00:15:21.040 God says, 00:15:21.040 --> 00:15:29.820 Now there's that pesky little word, obey. 00:15:31.700 --> 00:15:32.020 Submit. 00:15:33.220 --> 00:15:33.580 Conform. 00:15:33.580 --> 00:15:36.420 That's what feels narrow. 00:15:36.580 --> 00:15:41.960 That's what feels like that iron net and that straitjacket that will not allow us to expand and to grow, 00:15:42.080 --> 00:15:44.920 that threatens our freedom and our authentic personhood. 00:15:45.800 --> 00:15:49.280 But how many of you have ever fallen in love with another person? 00:15:50.379 --> 00:15:50.700 How many? 00:15:50.840 --> 00:15:52.020 Oh, like not enough. 00:15:52.240 --> 00:15:52.980 Not enough. 00:15:53.180 --> 00:15:53.480 Okay. 00:15:53.900 --> 00:15:55.240 Now I know how to pray for you. 00:15:55.240 --> 00:16:04.220 If you've ever fallen head over heels in love for another person, what do you want? 00:16:04.340 --> 00:16:07.860 You want to figure out how to please that person. 00:16:08.860 --> 00:16:09.019 Right? 00:16:09.080 --> 00:16:10.580 You start to do your research. 00:16:10.779 --> 00:16:12.320 Like what makes her tick? 00:16:13.279 --> 00:16:15.500 And what's going to delight her? 00:16:15.580 --> 00:16:16.740 What's going to please her? 00:16:17.060 --> 00:16:18.519 What does she most deeply want? 00:16:18.519 --> 00:16:21.559 And then you go and you give it to her. 00:16:21.819 --> 00:16:22.659 Here's the trick, guys. 00:16:22.799 --> 00:16:23.879 Without being asked. 00:16:25.100 --> 00:16:27.000 Without even being told sometimes. 00:16:27.299 --> 00:16:27.460 You know? 00:16:27.460 --> 00:16:32.320 Now when you do that, you know, it actually doesn't feel like duty. 00:16:32.460 --> 00:16:33.720 It feels like delight. 00:16:34.700 --> 00:16:36.139 You don't feel coerced. 00:16:36.440 --> 00:16:45.400 You feel constrained by love to place your happiness and your joy into the happiness and joy of that other person 00:16:45.400 --> 00:16:50.440 so that their being happy and their being joyful is your happiness and your joy. 00:16:50.440 --> 00:17:00.320 So that the more you see your beloved delighted and fulfilled, the more it fulfills you and the more you want to serve them, 00:17:00.400 --> 00:17:05.539 the more you want to get below them and get out in front of them and do things for them. 00:17:07.220 --> 00:17:11.180 Has anyone ever known that kind of love that made you do crazy things? 00:17:12.799 --> 00:17:16.259 So why does God say, obey me so that I can treasure you? 00:17:16.259 --> 00:17:23.059 Well, it can't mean so that I can accept you because we just saw he already has done that, right? 00:17:23.099 --> 00:17:25.700 I carried you and brought you to myself by my grace. 00:17:25.740 --> 00:17:26.319 That's done. 00:17:27.680 --> 00:17:32.480 You see, in Exodus 20, when he starts the Ten Commandments, he doesn't go straight into the law. 00:17:33.319 --> 00:17:37.819 He starts out and he says, I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 00:17:37.960 --> 00:17:39.559 And why does he say that first? 00:17:40.519 --> 00:17:43.019 Because what he's saying there is, I'm your lover. 00:17:43.019 --> 00:17:48.639 And I've done everything in this love relationship to get it going. 00:17:49.319 --> 00:17:52.180 I listened to the deepest needs of your heart. 00:17:52.920 --> 00:17:57.259 I heard you crying out in pain and agony in Egypt. 00:17:57.400 --> 00:18:00.420 I saw you in your misery and oppression and slavery. 00:18:00.779 --> 00:18:03.319 And I swooped down and I came to the rescue. 00:18:03.559 --> 00:18:07.259 And I carried you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself by my grace. 00:18:07.259 --> 00:18:10.500 And now I want you to reciprocate. 00:18:12.599 --> 00:18:14.839 I'm about to show you my law. 00:18:15.859 --> 00:18:21.019 And here in my law is everything that I love, everything I desire, everything I value. 00:18:21.160 --> 00:18:24.599 All that delights me and pleases me is right here. 00:18:25.700 --> 00:18:30.119 And what's the first foundational principle that God gives in his law? 00:18:30.200 --> 00:18:35.140 Before, don't steal or don't lie or don't hate or don't lust. 00:18:35.140 --> 00:18:35.820 What does God say? 00:18:35.880 --> 00:18:38.280 He says, don't have any other gods before me. 00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:46.240 I don't want you to have anything more central than me or more important than me in your life. 00:18:47.880 --> 00:18:51.300 Obey me, he says, so that I can treasure you. 00:18:52.540 --> 00:18:58.520 Now the treasure in the ancient Near East, this word for treasure is the private wealth of the king. 00:18:58.519 --> 00:19:08.639 The king had special certain objects of beauty and value that were his exclusively by right. 00:19:09.799 --> 00:19:11.420 Think of the crown jewels. 00:19:12.200 --> 00:19:14.799 This is the personal possession of the king. 00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:15.960 He kept it in his room. 00:19:16.920 --> 00:19:20.940 And he would delight in these things in a special and a higher way. 00:19:21.019 --> 00:19:24.119 And what God is saying here is he's saying, I already love you. 00:19:24.119 --> 00:19:37.939 I've already carried you by my grace, but now I want you to obey me so that we can have a relationship of intimacy and mutual delight so that you can know you're my treasure. 00:19:38.899 --> 00:19:40.039 You're my crown jewel. 00:19:41.419 --> 00:19:45.539 Now this is an incredible offer, but it comes at a cost. 00:19:46.359 --> 00:19:48.659 It comes with strings, doesn't it? 00:19:48.660 --> 00:20:07.120 Look, my wife on the day that we were married and every day since then, a thousand times a day, I know that Catherine is saying to me, look, you can enjoy an authentic love relationship with me, but here's the deal. 00:20:08.580 --> 00:20:12.480 I want nothing and no one to compete with me. 00:20:14.100 --> 00:20:16.880 I want to have your exclusive loyalty. 00:20:16.880 --> 00:20:22.120 I want to have your wholehearted, uncompromising commitment. 00:20:23.520 --> 00:20:27.540 Now, how many of you here think that Catherine is being narrow? 00:20:29.360 --> 00:20:31.580 How many of you think she's being unreasonable? 00:20:32.940 --> 00:20:40.920 Isn't that just the basic prerequisite for having a romance, for having a healthy marriage? 00:20:41.880 --> 00:20:45.420 God says, obey me because I want to treasure you. 00:20:45.420 --> 00:20:53.400 But he goes beyond that and he says, not only do I want to treasure you, I have greater desires even than that. 00:20:53.460 --> 00:20:55.420 He says, I want to make you my treasured possession. 00:20:55.860 --> 00:20:58.620 And then he says, I want to make you into a holy nation. 00:20:59.640 --> 00:21:02.519 I want to make you a nation that is holy. 00:21:03.620 --> 00:21:04.440 What does that mean? 00:21:04.539 --> 00:21:08.840 Well, to be holy means to be set apart, to be separate and distinct. 00:21:08.839 --> 00:21:16.679 And God is saying to his people in this moment, he's saying, I want you to function as an alternate society, a radical counterculture, 00:21:17.259 --> 00:21:24.199 a community that operates on a completely different operating principle than all the other communities around you. 00:21:24.200 --> 00:21:34.420 And when you go and read the laws in the Torah, you can see there that the way the people of God are to deal with sex and money and power, 00:21:35.080 --> 00:21:40.559 they're to use these things in non-destructive, non-exploitative, non-addictive ways. 00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:42.940 So, sex, for example. 00:21:42.940 --> 00:21:51.680 Israel was the first culture where adultery was seen not just as a sin for women but for men. 00:21:52.860 --> 00:21:58.660 And men would be held responsible and held accountable for whatever part they have in that. 00:21:58.960 --> 00:22:00.180 So, it's completely revolutionary. 00:22:01.440 --> 00:22:08.519 Sons in Israel weren't the only people that could inherit the family's wealth and riches. 00:22:08.720 --> 00:22:10.120 Daughters could inherit it as well. 00:22:10.119 --> 00:22:13.359 A completely different kind of approach to sex. 00:22:14.519 --> 00:22:24.819 When it came to money, all the people of God were required to give 10% of their income as an offering to share with their community. 00:22:25.359 --> 00:22:30.899 And beyond that, they were to care for widows and orphans and the needy with their own resources. 00:22:32.919 --> 00:22:34.559 Sex, money, there's power. 00:22:34.559 --> 00:22:45.819 The aliens and immigrants and racial outsiders among you, God says, they're to have the same rights and same privileges that you do. 00:22:45.899 --> 00:22:50.599 Because, remember, you were aliens in Egypt and you know exactly what that's like. 00:22:50.599 --> 00:23:04.279 You see, when it comes to sex and money and power, you, my people, are to be this radically chaste, radically generous, radically just counterculture. 00:23:04.279 --> 00:23:14.339 And modern people look at that and they critique Christianity as narrow, as something that puts a limit on their personal growth and potential. 00:23:14.759 --> 00:23:20.779 Because it constrains our freedom to choose our own beliefs and practices. 00:23:20.779 --> 00:23:30.700 And we argue that it's this kind of freedom to determine our own standards that's necessary for being a full human being. 00:23:31.740 --> 00:23:37.940 But I want to argue for a moment that freedom should not be defined in strictly negative terms. 00:23:37.940 --> 00:23:45.100 In many cases, we all know that confinement and constraint is actually the means to liberation. 00:23:46.539 --> 00:23:50.559 If you have a talent, you discipline that talent. 00:23:50.700 --> 00:23:56.980 You put a limitation on yourself in order to unleash your ability that would otherwise go untapped. 00:23:56.980 --> 00:24:10.240 You deliberately lose your freedom to engage in some things in order to release yourself to a richer kind of freedom to accomplish other things. 00:24:10.319 --> 00:24:11.500 Some of you are musicians. 00:24:11.839 --> 00:24:15.319 Some of you are incredible academics and incredible athletes. 00:24:15.480 --> 00:24:20.680 You know what it means to lose some of your freedoms over here in order to gain other freedoms over here. 00:24:20.680 --> 00:24:28.220 Freedom is not so much the absence of constraints and restrictions as finding the right ones. 00:24:29.080 --> 00:24:31.660 Finding the most liberating restrictions. 00:24:34.340 --> 00:24:41.100 See, the laws of God in Exodus 20 to 23 are full of his humanitarian concerns. 00:24:41.099 --> 00:24:50.799 About the oppressed, the elderly, animals, the environment, enemies, immigrants, widows, orphans, and the poor. 00:24:50.859 --> 00:24:53.359 If you don't believe me, go home and read it this afternoon. 00:24:54.339 --> 00:24:57.839 All of these laws were given to shape our social conscience. 00:24:58.719 --> 00:25:01.740 To teach us how to maintain the dignity of our neighbor. 00:25:02.480 --> 00:25:04.759 How to protect the worth of human life. 00:25:04.879 --> 00:25:09.099 How to uphold justice and maintain trust in our society. 00:25:09.099 --> 00:25:15.099 How to protect basic rights and well-being, particularly the most vulnerable people. 00:25:15.199 --> 00:25:23.099 The most disadvantaged and powerless people from discrimination and exploitation and oppression and abuse. 00:25:24.419 --> 00:25:28.119 And what I want to argue with you today is not that any of this stuff is narrow. 00:25:28.359 --> 00:25:34.099 But that the book that we're talking about today, Exodus and the whole Bible, is really... 00:25:34.099 --> 00:25:43.839 It is the legal and moral foundation for all the freedom and equality and humanitarianism that all of us love in the Western world. 00:25:46.259 --> 00:25:48.659 If you don't believe that, let's talk about it at Q&A. 00:25:48.660 --> 00:25:55.340 But it's why the center frees over our Supreme Court in the United States has who? 00:25:55.800 --> 00:26:03.900 Moses holding this law that's telling us everything that God loves. 00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:11.220 And all the freedom losses that we need to experience in order to become full and truly free human beings. 00:26:11.220 --> 00:26:19.680 Modern people say, well, I don't want to be a part of a community that has such a high ethical vision. 00:26:20.420 --> 00:26:23.420 And such strong moral standards because that feels narrow. 00:26:24.920 --> 00:26:30.039 But friends, the law of God is there to draw us into an intimate relationship with God. 00:26:30.860 --> 00:26:40.059 And to mold us into this beautiful, radically unique, different, life-giving human community that God defines as holy. 00:26:40.059 --> 00:26:44.119 And holiness is not narrowness. 00:26:45.179 --> 00:26:51.619 Holiness is allowing your heart and allowing your life to be expanded by the priorities and purposes of God. 00:26:52.720 --> 00:26:59.480 Holiness is allowing your soul to be enlarged by the character of God and the will of God, which is so much bigger than us. 00:27:01.019 --> 00:27:06.940 God says, if you obey me, you'll be my treasured possession in a holy nation. 00:27:06.940 --> 00:27:19.259 And this is my simple invitation to you to experience this most liberating freedom loss that you can imagine. 00:27:20.220 --> 00:27:27.440 You will lose some of your independence in order to gain a greater intimacy with the living God. 00:27:27.440 --> 00:27:38.299 And this is how we truly become more fully human and more free to become more fully ourselves, who God made us to be. 00:27:39.740 --> 00:27:44.180 The psalmist says in Psalm 119, he says, 00:27:44.340 --> 00:27:49.720 I run in the path of your commands for you have set my heart free. 00:27:49.720 --> 00:27:52.460 I love the paradox of that. 00:27:52.460 --> 00:27:53.279 Just chew on that. 00:27:54.100 --> 00:27:59.839 I run in the path of your commands for you have set my heart free. 00:28:00.980 --> 00:28:03.180 That's the narrowness of love. 00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:11.200 And you're never going to have love if you're not willing to submit to all the narrowness of love. 00:28:12.100 --> 00:28:13.819 So there's a wideness of grace. 00:28:14.759 --> 00:28:16.720 There's a narrowness of love. 00:28:16.720 --> 00:28:21.079 But finally, I want to talk about the fullness of the covenant. 00:28:22.019 --> 00:28:23.100 The fullness of the covenant. 00:28:24.160 --> 00:28:25.860 God says, I want you to be three things. 00:28:25.920 --> 00:28:27.339 I want you to be my treasured possession. 00:28:27.920 --> 00:28:29.039 I want you to be a holy nation. 00:28:29.160 --> 00:28:31.360 I want you to be a kingdom of priests. 00:28:32.839 --> 00:28:34.220 And what's the job of a priest? 00:28:34.339 --> 00:28:37.460 A priest is somebody who brings people into the presence of God. 00:28:38.600 --> 00:28:41.900 Somebody who enables people to see God and experience God. 00:28:42.059 --> 00:28:45.200 It's someone who mediates the blessings of God to other people. 00:28:45.200 --> 00:28:52.059 And God says, I want you, my people, my people collectively and corporately. 00:28:52.180 --> 00:28:56.400 I want you to mediate my presence and my blessings to all the nations. 00:28:56.519 --> 00:28:58.500 I want you to be the light to the world. 00:28:59.360 --> 00:29:03.559 So that when people see you and they see your life, they'll see me and they'll see my life. 00:29:04.740 --> 00:29:07.779 And how do the people respond to this incredible invitation? 00:29:07.779 --> 00:29:10.740 It says in chapter 24, verse 7. 00:29:11.899 --> 00:29:13.619 Then Moses took the book of the covenant. 00:29:14.619 --> 00:29:19.680 He read it to the people and they responded, we will do everything the Lord has said. 00:29:20.039 --> 00:29:21.180 We will obey. 00:29:22.480 --> 00:29:24.639 The unanimous pledge of allegiance. 00:29:24.899 --> 00:29:28.599 They say together, not our will, but your will be done, Lord. 00:29:28.599 --> 00:29:31.019 And what happens next? 00:29:32.279 --> 00:29:37.000 It says in verse 8, Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, 00:29:37.240 --> 00:29:43.399 this is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words. 00:29:44.539 --> 00:29:46.039 They didn't live in a written culture. 00:29:46.199 --> 00:29:48.379 They lived in an oral and dramatic culture. 00:29:48.380 --> 00:29:51.880 So they didn't ratify a contract on paper. 00:29:52.020 --> 00:29:54.620 They would act out the covenant. 00:29:54.740 --> 00:29:57.680 They would act out the penalty of breaking this covenant. 00:29:57.820 --> 00:30:02.440 So that when Moses is spraying the people with blood, they're all saying together, 00:30:02.620 --> 00:30:07.460 if we don't do all that we just promised to do, may our blood be shed. 00:30:07.580 --> 00:30:08.720 May we be cut off. 00:30:08.780 --> 00:30:09.420 May we die. 00:30:11.240 --> 00:30:14.700 And then what happens next is that in verses 9 through 11, 00:30:14.700 --> 00:30:19.740 when Moses and the elders of the people go up as representatives of the people, 00:30:19.819 --> 00:30:22.220 they go up the mountain and it says they see God. 00:30:23.299 --> 00:30:24.779 They don't see the face of God. 00:30:24.840 --> 00:30:27.700 They don't see the fullness of the glory and the majesty of God. 00:30:28.120 --> 00:30:30.680 But what they see, they're grasping for words. 00:30:30.740 --> 00:30:35.279 They say, we saw something like, they're trying to describe it. 00:30:35.279 --> 00:30:39.039 They see the foundation of God's throne. 00:30:40.059 --> 00:30:42.900 They see the pavement under God's feet. 00:30:42.900 --> 00:30:47.100 And even this to them is breathtaking and ineffable. 00:30:47.500 --> 00:30:52.100 And it says after that that they ate and they drank with the high king of heaven. 00:30:53.420 --> 00:30:57.920 This is the blessing of being in a covenant relationship with God. 00:30:58.840 --> 00:31:01.519 The hospitality of God brings us home. 00:31:02.420 --> 00:31:05.640 And he feeds us at his table as his royal family. 00:31:05.640 --> 00:31:12.200 And he enables us to enjoy friendship and intimacy with him in his presence. 00:31:13.320 --> 00:31:15.400 And you may be wondering, like, how is this happening? 00:31:15.520 --> 00:31:17.600 How in the world is this possible? 00:31:18.560 --> 00:31:24.400 The first command God gave is that you should have nothing of greater importance than me. 00:31:24.480 --> 00:31:29.280 But if you read the Old Testament, clearly the people of God think there are things that are more important than God. 00:31:29.940 --> 00:31:32.140 They're breaking this law all the time. 00:31:32.140 --> 00:31:34.420 So how does this work? 00:31:36.640 --> 00:31:43.820 You see, Jesus Christ, on the night before his cross, he sat at table with his friends. 00:31:44.880 --> 00:31:53.020 And he took a cup and he lifted it up to his friends that knew this story of Exodus and Exodus 19 to 24 extremely well. 00:31:53.440 --> 00:31:54.540 And what did he say to them? 00:31:54.600 --> 00:31:57.780 He said, this is the blood of the covenant. 00:31:57.779 --> 00:32:03.379 This cup is the new covenant in my blood. 00:32:04.359 --> 00:32:06.500 And what does Jesus mean when he says that? 00:32:07.660 --> 00:32:13.399 See, in that moment, Jesus Christ, who is the almighty and eternal God, 00:32:14.359 --> 00:32:26.019 who in the most radical way narrowed himself and came down and constrained himself and submitted himself and conformed himself to us in his incarnation, 00:32:26.019 --> 00:32:38.440 this same God of Mount Sinai who came down to us in Jesus Christ as a limited human being and submitted himself to our condition and became vulnerable to suffering and death. 00:32:38.500 --> 00:32:49.240 He's saying, this is the blood that I'm going to shed on my cross as the substitute for all of your failures to obey God's law. 00:32:49.240 --> 00:32:53.120 This is the blood that's going to cover up your shame. 00:32:53.200 --> 00:32:55.579 This is the blood that's going to cleanse your guilt. 00:32:55.680 --> 00:33:02.980 Jesus on his cross, he got all the curses of that covenant so that we could get all of the blessings. 00:33:04.140 --> 00:33:08.980 And that's incredible because Jesus is God's perfect covenant partner. 00:33:08.980 --> 00:33:13.860 Jesus is the only human being who fully obeyed God. 00:33:14.640 --> 00:33:19.640 The reward he deserves is to see God and to experience the blessing of God. 00:33:20.400 --> 00:33:28.000 What we deserve is to have our blood shed for all of our self-centeredness and our pride and our biting and devouring one another, 00:33:28.099 --> 00:33:35.360 all of our violence, all of our putting ourselves first and not loving God and disobeying his law. 00:33:35.359 --> 00:33:38.679 But you see, Jesus doesn't give us what we deserve. 00:33:39.819 --> 00:33:46.039 Jesus takes our place and he gets all that we deserve so that we take his place and get all that he deserves. 00:33:48.379 --> 00:33:57.159 Friends, Jesus went to the cross as this priest so that he could bring us into the very presence of God. 00:33:57.240 --> 00:34:03.240 He could bring us home to God and give us access to the throne of God 00:34:03.240 --> 00:34:08.980 and enable us to experience the hospitality of God and to feast at the table of God 00:34:08.980 --> 00:34:14.300 and to be the royal family of God and to have friendship and intimacy with God. 00:34:16.059 --> 00:34:19.199 So if at this point you're still thinking Christianity is narrow, 00:34:19.900 --> 00:34:22.920 I want to assure you, you don't yet understand it. 00:34:24.119 --> 00:34:25.860 You just don't yet understand it. 00:34:25.860 --> 00:34:35.940 Jesus Christ did not think it too narrow to give up all of his eternal rights and infinite privileges 00:34:35.940 --> 00:34:46.200 and all of the benefits of heaven and all the benefits of his obedience to sacrifice all of that and all of himself for us. 00:34:46.199 --> 00:34:50.819 So that when we see what Jesus did for us, 00:34:51.939 --> 00:34:56.319 nothing anymore seems too narrow for us to do for him. 00:34:57.779 --> 00:35:01.339 This is why the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, he says, 00:35:02.619 --> 00:35:05.679 the love of Christ constrains us. 00:35:06.960 --> 00:35:10.699 The love of Christ constrains us, he says. 00:35:10.699 --> 00:35:16.279 Once you realize how Jesus Christ gave himself up for you, 00:35:17.199 --> 00:35:19.939 you're no longer afraid of giving up your freedom 00:35:19.939 --> 00:35:24.059 and therefore finding your freedom in him. 00:35:25.299 --> 00:35:29.379 And I want to close with these provocative words from Jesus himself 00:35:29.379 --> 00:35:33.460 in the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 7. 00:35:34.379 --> 00:35:35.779 I want you to think about this. 00:35:35.780 --> 00:35:41.380 He says, this is the most loving human being that's ever lived. 00:35:41.519 --> 00:35:43.560 The most gracious person who's ever walked planet Earth. 00:35:43.660 --> 00:35:46.580 He says, enter through the narrow gate. 00:35:47.800 --> 00:35:51.680 For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction. 00:35:52.420 --> 00:35:53.700 And many enter through it. 00:35:54.640 --> 00:35:55.960 But small is the gate. 00:35:56.880 --> 00:36:00.060 And narrow the road that leads to life. 00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:02.920 And only a few find it. 00:36:02.920 --> 00:36:05.480 And I pray that you would find it. 00:36:06.320 --> 00:36:07.220 And walk that road. 00:36:07.940 --> 00:36:09.740 In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 00:36:10.480 --> 00:36:10.700 Amen. 00:36:10.700 --> 00:36:10.840 Amen.