Well, turn with me in your Bibles to Exodus 20 this evening. Exodus 20. If you’re not familiar with that passage of scripture, I’m sure you will be when you get there. That is a well-known passage for many people who have any sort of church background.

It is the 10 Commandments, and that’s where we will begin this evening. We come now in our worship series to really the practical outworkings of the foundation that we have laid. We’ve talked about what worship is, and in that even we’ve hit on some of the passages that we’ll look at tonight, as we will see. But we’ve talked about what worship is, what the definition of what we’re talking about is.

And then we’ve seen who we should worship. Who it is we must worship, and that is Yahweh, the God of the Bible. Last time, we saw that while the call of salvation is unconditional, it goes out to everyone everywhere, and it calls people as they are to turn and come to Christ. But we saw that the call to worship is conditional. Who may worship, the Lord, who may worship our God.

And we looked at Psalm 24 and we saw that the condition of the worshiper is dependent upon their spiritual and moral lives, the condition of their heart and their actions. We saw from Psalm 24, we are to have clean hands and a pure heart and be truly devoted to this one God and to be keepers of our word. And we saw all of that last time as we considered who may worship, who is it that may worship our God. And now we come to the specific areas of our worship. And we’re going to begin tonight with everyday worship.

We’ve seen in some of the passages of scripture that we’ve studied that the focus has been on the worship services or ceremonies in the Bible. And that is very important. But that’s not the only setting of worship that the Bible speaks to. I think sometimes we can get the mindset to separate the sacred from the secular too much. And that, well, what we do on Sunday at church, that’s worship. And the rest of my life is my life. And worship is for Sundays. And we tend to separate the two too much.

Now, we don’t want to diminish the importance of our worship services and our Lord’s Day worship, but we also don’t want to diminish every other day of our life. In fact, as we saw last time, it is what we do on a daily basis that qualifies us to be worshipers of God. And when you really examine all that the Bible has to say, it really speaks a lot more about how we worship every day rather than what we do on Sundays in our worship services.

And again, worship services and the corporate gathering of God’s people are certainly important. And we’ll spend a lot of the remainder of this series speaking about the different things we do in our worship services. But really, the true worship of God is mainly expressed in scripture in our everyday conduct, in our everyday actions in our lives. And the corporate gatherings are really the pinnacle or the high point of a life of worship.

And as we see in Exodus 20, God’s commandments to Israel involved their everyday conduct, their everyday lives. It wasn’t just, this is what you must do in your worship of me and your worship services. It spoke more to what they do every single day. It is in Exodus 20 that we find the 10 commandments, as we call them. But as we think about this, what are the 10 commandments really? Are they a list of rules to follow? Are they the do’s and don’ts that God gives us, that God gave Israel? Do this, don’t do that, and then I’ll be happy. Are they how an Israelite could be saved? If you keep these rules, then you’ll be saved. Or are they much, much more than that? In the Bible, they’re referred to by Israelites in the Hebrew language as the 10 words, the 10 words from God. And that’s where we get the term Decalogue that you’ll hear sometimes, the 10 words given by God.

And the Decalogue was the only part of God’s revelation to Israel at Mount Sinai that the people got directly from him. Everything else came through Moses. whether by his spoken word or his writing down what God told him to write. But the Ten Commandments, God wrote himself on the tablets of stone. And they were given directly to God’s people. But it was only the beginning of his communication to them. And these Ten Commandments ultimately functioned as a summary of what His will for their lives would be.

So I’m going to read Exodus chapter 20 verses 1 through 17. We’re not going to go too in-depth into the Ten Commandments, but I do want to use them as kind of a starting point as we look at what God has to say about our everyday lives. So I’m going to read Exodus 20 verses 1 through 17 to begin this evening. This is the word of the Lord. Then God spoke all these words, saying, I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them, for I, Yahweh, your God, am a jealous God. visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing loving kindness to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain, for Yahweh will not leave him unpunished who takes his name in vain.

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of Yahweh, your God. In it, you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male or your female slave or your cattle or your sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days, Yahweh made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which Yahweh, your God, gives you.

You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male slave, or his female slave, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

These are the 10 commandments or 10 words from God to the people. And typically, when you hear or recite the 10 commandments, you start at verse three, right? You shall have no other gods before me. But that’s not where God starts. And I think this is key to understanding what the 10 commandments were. God starts in verse one, verse one and two. Verse one says, God spoke all these words saying, I am Yahweh your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

God starts with their salvation. He saved them. He redeemed them. He called them out of Egypt. He starts with their deliverance. He starts with the good news, the gospel. He has saved them and called them to himself as his people. He starts with how he made them his. And what follows is how they are to respond to his act of salvation. God acted first by saving them, and now he gives them these 10 commandments for how they can live out their rightful response to what he’s done for them.

And remember what we defined worship as as we began this series. Our worship is our response to what God has already done, not our trying to prompt God to do something for us. Worship is a response to who God is and what he’s already done for us. So really, the Ten Commandments are not a list of rules to follow to be saved. They are a summary of what a life lived in gratitude to God because they are saved looks like. The Ten Commandments are a life worship manual.

This is what you ought to do because of what God has done. And they’re not simply commands to be followed or else. These are acts of worship done in response to what God has already done. This is how they are to glorify God in the land he was giving them.

This is how you show God, Yahweh, the one who delivered you, is most important to you. Live like this. This will show everyone around you God is most important. words or commandments are addressed to people that are already redeemed. This doesn’t mean all of Israel was saved in the salvific sense, but in general, they as a nation had been redeemed from Egypt.

This really reflects a whole life view of how they were to respond to God. Again, this is not just speaking about their worship rituals. All of these commandments speak to every aspect of their life. These commandments call for the Israelites’ devotion to God in relation to God, in relation to their own household, in relation to their neighbor, and then lastly, to their own hearts, to their desires in life. You have the first three commandments in verses three through seven that are all in relation to how they are to live in light of God. The first commandment, have no other gods before me. Live like there’s only one God. Secondly, don’t have idols. Don’t make a graven image of God or of anything else that you could worship. And then honor his name. Do not take his name in vain. Live like God is important to you. Live like his name is important to you.

And then secondly, you see the next group of commandments are in relation to the household. Keep the Sabbath day. The way that you run your house, honor the Sabbath. And then honor your father and mother. And then you have commandments in relation to neighbors, how they were to live with each other. Don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t bear false witness to each other.

And lastly, God speaks about their hearts. how they are to honor God with their heart, and that is don’t covet. Be satisfied in your desires with what God provides. And this is instructions on how to worship God with your life. This is what it looks like to worship God every single day. Glorify God, show that he’s most important to you by living like this.

Again, these are a summary of the over 600 other specific case laws that could be applied, but they summarize in these 10. In short, the Ten Commandments are a charge to God’s people to live fully committed to Him due to the covenant He made with them, due to their salvation, and to show devotion as it concerns God, their household, their neighbors, and even their own hearts.

This is why Jesus can sum up the whole law, the 10 commandments, with two commands, as we see in Matthew 22, where it says, Matthew 22, starting in verse 35, one of them, a scholar of the law, asked him a question, testing him, saying, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?

And he, that is Jesus, said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And the second, this is the great and foremost commandment, and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets. So Jesus summarizes even further, love God and love neighbor.

And if that is a summary of what we saw the 10 commandments as a worship manual for life, then this is what true everyday worship looks like. Love God and love neighbor in everything we do. But what is love? What does it look like to love God and love neighbor? And how is this applied?

Well, we know a passage like 1 Corinthians 13 talks all about love. This is what love does. This is what love looks like. 1 Corinthians 13, starting in verse 4, you probably know it well. Love is patient. Love is kind. It is not jealous. It does not brag. It is not puffed up. It does not act unbecomingly. It does not seek its own. It’s not provoked. It does not take into account a wrong suffered. It does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

That is what love looks like. And if the two greatest commandments are love God and love neighbor, all of these things apply to God and all your neighbors. This is what it is to live a life devoted to God. As one author summed up biblical love, he said, biblical love is to demonstrate covenant commitment through actions that serve another person’s interest and well-being. To demonstrate your commitment to another person through your actions that seek the other person’s best interest. This is what we demonstrate. when we are totally devoted to God, demonstrating our commitment to Him through actions that serve other people’s interests, when we live to bear His name with honor, when we live to represent Him well, when we walk in His ways and obey His word. All of this was to be how life was shaped for the people of God. And this is why Moses taught them the law or the teaching in short memorable forms. There was a more extended version of the law, but he summarized it and gave it to them in memorable bites that they could remember and live out.

This is where Jesus gets the first great commandment. Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter six. We went here before in this series. But this is a classic passage in scripture. It’s foundational, really, but it speaks to a life of worship. Deuteronomy chapter six is where we find what has come to be known as the Shema, which is the first word of the sentence. In Deuteronomy six, verse four, Shema means here. And the Shema was one of the most important spoken symbols or parts of life for Israel.

And this was as close to Israel came to a creed. This is what they lived by. This is what they all know and could recite. Even to this day, practicing Orthodox Jews can recite these verses, and they do every morning and evening. This is what it was to be an Israelite. Deuteronomy 6, starting in verse 4, hear, O Israel.

Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one. You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. This is the Cliff Notes version of the Ten Commandments. What does God want from us? This. There is one God and love him with everything you’ve got. Verse four reflects the first part of the Ten Commandments that teach Israel what they should do in relation to God. Hear, O Israel, Yahweh is our God, and He is one. We have a God, and we have one God, and we ought to live like that. Don’t have any other gods before me. Don’t make any idols. Honor His name. Israel was to cling to their one God who delivered them. And the Shema is like a pledge of allegiance to him. It’s an affirmation of the covenant commitment that he made to them and that they ought to make to him.

And then verse five really summarizes the rest of the commandments. Love your God with all your heart and your soul and your might. because God loved them. Yahweh showed his love for Abraham and Isaac and Jacob by choosing them and choosing their descendants and rescuing them from slavery in Egypt. And now Moses tells his people to respond to that and to prove their commitment to him and to do that with love in return to God. Again, as we’ve briefly looked at, love is to demonstrate covenant commitment through actions that serve others’ well-being.

This is what verse five tells them to do. This life of worship that they were supposed to live, it was not just words. It wasn’t just something they had to repeat. If worship was just about the words that we sing or hear on Sunday, then Moses could have stopped at verse four. But we have verse five and he tells us there that this life of worship, this life of demonstrating honor and glory to God involves all of life.

That’s what he says, you shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. So what does that mean? What does it mean, why does he mention those three elements? Well, in Hebrew, the heart and soul spoke of the ultimate essence of a person. What a person is, it was your mind and your will. What you think and what you desire.

Love God in everything that you think and everything that you want. That’s what that means, to love God with all of your heart and with all of your soul. Love Him with everything that you think and everything that you desire. Everything that you are. And then it says, with all your might. And sometimes when we hear this word might, we think strength, like your physical strength. With all the strength that you have, love him. And so you’re thinking of just all this effort you have to exert to love God.

But really, that’s not what the word might means in this sense. What made a person mighty in the world was not just his physical strength. It had more of an idea of resources. Think of a man like Job. In Job chapter one, we’re told what Job was like, what type of life he lived. Job chapter 1 starting in verse 1, it says, there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, fearing God, turning away from evil.

Seven sons and three daughters were born to him. His possessions also were 7,000 sheep and 3,000 camels and 500 pairs of oxen, 500 female donkeys and very many servants. And that man was the greatest of all the sons of the east. What was the measure of his greatness or his might?

Well, it listed it out for us. It was all the resources that he had. All the things that people looked at and said, oh, that man, he is mighty. That is a man of substance. He has stuff. He has resources. That is the meaning of might here in Deuteronomy. Might means something like resources.

So, love God with everything you are, heart and soul, and with everything that you have? Might here would include physical resources, the things you have. Do we love God with the things that we have? It would include economic resources. Do we love God with our money? And even social resources, with your influence, the circles of influence that you have. Do you love God in that way? Again, it could be physical resources like houses and fields and livestock and family, servants, everything that made them a person of renown. That was someone’s might.

Everything is to be devoted to God as an act of worship. Nothing was to be left over for anything else, whether it was another God. or any other thing that they could give more importance than God. So think about what Moses is telling them here. The thing that they were to remember and recite.

Love God with all your heart and all your soul. So everything that makes you what you are, and love God with everything that you have. So given the definition of love that we’ve talked about, You could say, show commitment to God with everything that you are and everything that you have. So true worship is rooted in our hearts, but it extends to every aspect of who we are and how we live. And this was how an Israelite was to shape their everyday life. But what were they to do to show this? What were they to do to demonstrate that they lived like this? Well, Moses continues there in verse six.

These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as phylacteries between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. This is to be important to you.

Loving God with everything you are and everything you have is to apply to everything you do. When you rise up, when you lie down, when you go in, when you come out, it’s Moses’ way of saying everything. Love him with everything you are and everything you have, everywhere you go, and in everything you do. So everything you are, everything you have, everything you do, everywhere you go, that is what a life of worship looks like. And this is what God asks of his people. Live all of life for him.

Again, this confronts the idea I spoke of earlier of separating, well, Sundays are for God. And Monday through Saturday, well, if there’s moments that I can think about God or devote things to God, then that’s great. That’s kind of bonus. But everything else, I mean, it’s my life. The sacred is on Sunday, and the rest of life, we’ll figure that out. No, all of life is to be devoted to God. It doesn’t mean you sit around like a monk and contemplate and read scripture 24-7, but all of the things that you do in life.

What’s your motivation? What’s your purpose? What are you thinking about as you do these things? Who are you serving? Who are you showing is most important in everything you do? Do you think about it? This is what we ought to be thinking about when we read that all of life is to be an act of worship, it’s to be devoted to God. Love God with everything, everywhere, all the time. Don’t leave anything out. But what does worship like this look like? What does this commitment look like in practice?

We’ll turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 10, a couple chapters over, in the same sermon that Moses is preaching. In Deuteronomy chapter 10, after Moses recounts a lot of Israel’s history and the motivation why they should do this, he kind of gets to chapter 10 verse 12 and wants to rehash some things and give some specifics. He says in verse 12, Deuteronomy 10 verse 12, so now Israel. So given all that I’ve told you, all that I’ve had you remember, and earlier in chapter 10, the 10 commandments that he reminded them of, so now Israel, what does Yahweh your God ask of you? Now that you have the 10 commandments, now you’ve been reminded of what he’s done for you, what does he want? What does God ask of you? What kind of worship, what kind of life is he asking for? And you might think, well, what kind of worship is God asking?

Well, to perform these rituals and to present your offerings and to do the things that the priests are to be doing. But that’s not where Moses goes. So now Israel, what does Yahweh your God ask of you? But to fear Yahweh your God. and to walk in all his ways, and love him, and serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of Yahweh and his statutes, which I am commanding you today for your good.” We’ve looked at this before, and we talked about what worship is, but this answer that Moses gives as to what does God want?

What does God want from us? He answers it with five verbs, five actions, five things they need to do. One for every finger on your hand. Fear, walk, love, serve, and keep. Fear Yahweh your God. Live life with an attitude that recognizes who God is. A disposition. that respects and fears Yahweh, your God. Fear Him.

Walk in all of His ways. Follow Him. Live life as you are pursuing Him. Walk in His ways. He’s showing you the way to go. Walk that way. Love Yahweh, your God. We’ve talked about what that looks like. Serve Yahweh, your God, with your whole being. Serve Him. He’s your master. Serve him with your life. Do what he says and then keep his commandments.

Remember them, live them out, keep them. Again, five of them so they can remember them. Fear, walk, love, serve, keep. That’s how we live for God. It involves our attitudes of fear and love, and it involves our actions of walking and serving and keeping.

Because you see, in Moses’ view, you didn’t separate your attitudes and your actions. You couldn’t go through the motions worshiping God. As long as you were doing the right things, it didn’t matter how you felt about it. That’s not what we’ve seen in our examples of worship that we’ve looked at.

You see, they go hand in hand, because without the right attitudes of fear and love, without the right reason for doing it, walking and serving and keeping, they just become legalism. Well, as long as I do the right things, I’m gonna earn God’s favor, and then he’ll be happy with me. But I don’t need my heart in it. I don’t need to be thinking about why I’m doing this, but at the same time, walking and serving and keeping the commandments, or without obedience, our attitudes are worthless.

Because we can feel the right way all we want, we can say that we’re devoted, we can feel sorry for our sin, but if we never repent, if we never actually live it out, if we never live for God, what we claim we feel, well, what is that? It’s nothing but your words. Your life demonstrates that you truly are feeling and demonstrating what you have in your heart.

And Moses continues with the reasons why they are to live lives like this. Why it is that God requires this of them. Keep going in verse 14. Behold, to Yahweh your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. Yet on your fathers did you always set this affection to love them, and he chose their seed after them. Even you, above all peoples, as it is this day.

So circumcise your heart and stiffen your neck no longer.” Moses is saying, you didn’t deserve this. You didn’t deserve to be God’s people. but he still chose Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and he still set his affection to love them, and he chose their seed after them, their children. And even you, he says, even you people, God has chosen as his.

So circumcise your heart and stiffen your neck no longer. This is set apart your life for God. Live for him. And he still continues in verse 17. For Yahweh, your God, is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the fearsome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. Because of who God is, he’s the God of God, the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the fearsome God.

Because of all that, this is what this looks like. He doesn’t show partiality or take a bribe. He executes justice for the orphan and the widow. He shows love for the sojourner by giving him food and clothing. So, what are we to do then? So, show love for the sojourner, for you are sojourners in the land of Egypt.

Yahweh your God you shall fear, him you shall serve, and to him you shall cling, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise, he is your God, who has done these great things, these great and fearsome things for you, which your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt, 70 persons in all, and now Yahweh your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.” Because of who God is, this is what they should do. Love God with all that you are and all that you have because that is what he did for you. And look at the examples Moses gives. Don’t be partial because God’s not partial.

Don’t be unfair in your dealings. Don’t take bribes. Don’t do things for your own benefit at the cost of others. This isn’t just talking about what they do on Sundays or on Saturdays in their worship services. Be fair in your dealings. is talking about your business, your work. Care for the widows and the orphans. Love the sojourner, the stranger. Give food and clothing to the needy. Why?

Because that’s what God does. And that’s what it looks like to live a life that reflects his glory. This is what a life of worship looks like in practice. Do the things that God’s heart does, that God wants us to do. And Moses says in the next verse there, as chapter 11 starts, you shall therefore love Yahweh your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his judgments, his commandments all your days. That you shall therefore is basically saying this is how. This is how you shall love your God. All the things Moses just listed, these things are how you worship God with your life.

This is the life that he’s looking for. And this is not just an Old Testament idea of worship. We see this in the New Testament as well. In Romans 12, verses one and two, present your bodies as a sacrifice, living, holy, and pleasing to God. which is your spiritual service of worship. Present your whole life to God, because this is your worship, Paul says. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may approve what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect. And Romans 12 through really 14 goes on to explain in real terms what it looks like to live a life of sacrifice, of worship to God. And then you read in the book of James, James chapter one.

For if anyone’s a hearer of the word and not a doer, he’s like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror. For once he has looked at himself and has gone away, he immediately forgot what kind of person he was. But the one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of freedom, abides by it, not having been a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. This man will be blessed in what he does.”

What does that look like? If anyone thinks himself to be religious, If you want to live a life of worship, if you want to be truly religious, while not bridling his tongue, watch your mouth, but deceiving his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion, before our God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction. Sounds like Moses.

And to keep oneself unstained by the world. This is the heart of God. This is what God wants from his people. God has saved us and freed us to live a life of service to him. This is your spiritual act of service. Service means you serve. You live for other people. You do things for the benefit of others. You put others before yourself. You do things for the benefit of other people. You don’t live life for yourself anymore. You live it for someone else. Those who fear Yahweh, God’s people, they walk in his ways, they demonstrate love and they serve. They serve him and they serve other people.

As Jesus said in John 14, if you love me, keep my commandments. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. You will live like you love me. What are his commandments? What commandments are Jesus’ commandments? Well, who gave the commandments in the first place? The I Am, Yahweh. gave the commandment. And who’s Jesus? Jesus is the I Am. They’re His commandments. They’re no different commandments. Love Him with all that you are and all that you have. And do this in everything you do and everywhere you go. Don’t leave any part of your life undevoted to showing and honoring Christ.

In your job, Do people at your job know you’re a Christian? Do they know God is the most important thing in your life? In your family? Do you raise your children as though God is most important in everything? In our speech, as we saw in James? In how we choose to spend our time? in how we spend our money, in how you raise and train your children with everything that we have, everything, and everything you do. Ask yourself, am I showing my commitment to God with everything, everything I am, everything I have? When someone else looks at my life, Do they see the importance of God? Do they know that God’s important to me?

When I make decisions, when I choose what I’m going to do, does it reflect my priorities? I mean, it does reflect your priorities either way, but what priorities are they? What priorities do they reflect? Does this choice I’m making demonstrate to people around me that I love God, that I’m a Christian, that I live for Christ? We exist for Him. Do people know that I exist for Him? Am I glorifying God with all my life?

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might. Let’s stand and close in a word of prayer this evening. Our God, we thank you for the way that you have taught your people what your will is, what you desire from us, what you would have us to do, to live all of our life, to love you, and to show your importance in all that we are, in all that we have, everywhere we go, in everything we do.

Lord, I pray that you would help us to be reflective upon what we’ve heard tonight, what we’ve seen in your word, and to examine our own lives and see whether there is anything in our life that is not submitted to you as Lord, to you as most important. Are there things in our life that are giving others or ourselves the glory? And I pray that you would show us that and convict us of the things that we do need to change. But most of all, We thank you for Christ, for saving us, for redeeming us, for giving us the ability to live for you, and for forgiving us of where we fall short. God, we thank you for who you are. We don’t deserve your grace. We pray that we would live lives as people who show your importance. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.