3D Worship Part 4 – Worship is a Response: the First Commandment
Deuteronomy 5:6-7 December 7, 2025
Introduction
Did you ever have your parents read to you as a kid? What was your favorite
story? What were your kids favorite stories? We read to all of our kids and the
books that they liked best were so beaten up and well-worn, that some of that we
had to buy second copies of. Some of them, we read so often that we would put
on the bottom of the book pile so that they wouldn’t find them for us to read
again.
I’ve read Dr. Seus books like One Fish Two Fish, Cat in the Hat, and Green Eggs
and Ham, so many times, I can’t even begin to count. Of course, its December so
How the Grinch Stole Christmas would always become a favorite. I’ve read The
Book with No Pictures so much, it doesn’t even phase me when I have to say
“boo boo butt” anymore.
Kids love stories that excite their imagination and that they can learn so well, that
they can “read” along with you as you go. They learn the rhyming words and can
finish the sentences even before they can read. The bad thing is that when you
exhausted you can’t skip ahead anymore. My firstborn, Matthew, loved Richard
Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things that Go!…it was 72 pages; he memorized
every page, and he would not let us skip a page. When we had Jackson, I never
introduced Cars and Trucks and Things that Go!…
There is power in storytelling. Its helps our brains remember and impacts our
hearts to learn lessons that we hold onto. This is why Jesus taught in parables
and why I’m even telling you this story now….stories draw our attention and help
drive home the point into our hearts and minds.
So here is the point of our sermon today: God is the greatest storyteller, telling
the greatest story about His love for you….and proper worship is hearing that
story and, like an excited child hearing their book read to them, holding onto
God’s story with our hearts and minds and never letting it go.
This is what the first commandment is all about. God’s story shows us how
amazing He is, and true worship is our response to worship Him alone as His
story sinks more deeply into our hearts and minds.
Sections: 1) Responding in Truth 2) Responding in Spirit
Recap
Deuteronomy 6:4-6 “4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.”
John 4:23 “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers
will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to
worship him.”
o Our definition: exaltation and prioritization of the object of your highest love
in any given moment
God saved His people out of Egypt and immediately gave them the law to guide
their worship of Him as He delivered them into the Promised Land, but they did
not have the faith to trust the Lord to deliver them into the Promised Land.
Therefore, after wandering in the wilderness, the Lord re-affirms His covenant
with the new generation of His people in Deuteronomy as He repeats the law and
the people commit to trust in Him and worship Him as their God.
The 10 Commandments are called God’s testimony – his witness
o Exodus 25:16 “And you shall put into the ark the testimony that I shall give
you.”
o Exodus 31:18 “And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking
with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone,
written with the finger of God.” see also Exodus 32:15-16
Responding in Truth
Deuteronomy 5:6-7 “6 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land
of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 7 You shall have no other gods before me.”
To who He is:
o As was typical of all ANE treaties/covenants between a Master (suzerain)
and the servant (vassal) the Decalogue begins with a declaration of the
majesty and grandeur of the one to whom Israel’s fealty is being given.
“I AM” – God’s covenantal name – Yahweh. The Lord immediately
reminds them first who He is.
He is holy, eternal, sovereign, righteous, just, all powerful, all
knowing, ever present, unchanging, faithful, gracious, merciful, loving
and true.
He made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and He has
kept and will continue to keep His promises because that is
who He is.
He is the one true God, above all other gods, and there are none like
Him.
o “The LORD your God” – Moses continually emphasizes that Yahweh (“I
AM”) is Israel’s God (279 times in 239 verses out of 396 times in the entire
OT! More than 50% of uses in this one book)
Uses in chapter 5: 6; 9; 11; 12; 14; 15; 16; 32; 33
o Bob Kauflin “To worship God is to humble everything about ourselves and
exalt everything about him….Happily, God is always reminding true
worshippers there’s someone greater than themselves to exalt.” (True
Worshippers, p51-52)
To what He has done (and will do):
o “out of the” x2 = the Lord’s deliverance from bondage….there are no longer
slaves to all of the things of the world – idols of evert type – instead they
can freely worship the God who has acted to save them and desires to
continue to bless them with His power and presence.
They are now free
Galatians 5:1 “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm
therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
Kevin Deyoung “We too often think of the Ten Commandments as
constraining us—as if God’s ways will keep us in servitude and from
realizing our dreams and reaching our potential. We forget that God
means to give us abundant life (John 10:10) and true freedom (John
8:32). His laws, 1 John 5:3 tells us, aren’t burdensome. God isn’t
trying to crush us with red tape and regulations. The Ten
Commandments aren’t prison bars, but traffic laws. Maybe there are
some anarchists out there who think, ‘The world would be a better
place without any traffic laws.’ A few of us drive as if that were so! But
even if you get impatient when you’re at a red light, try to zoom
through the yellow, and turn left on a stale pink—overall, aren’t you
glad that there is some semblance of law and order? People stop and
go. People slow down when driving by schools. They stop for school
buses. You wouldn’t be able to drive your car to the grocery store
without laws. When you drive on a switchback on a mountain pass,
do you curse the guard rails that keep you from plunging to an
untimely death? No, someone put them there at great expense, and
for our good, that we may travel about freely and safely. The Ten
Commandments aren’t instructions on how to get out of Egypt. They
are rules for a free people to stay free.”
So we see the decalogue…the 10 Words….are meant to be the guidelines for
the exercise of our worship in light of the story of God’s love for His people….if
we know who God is and we know what He’s done – why would we want to
respond any differently?
o We contend against an enemy who constantly seeks to lie about the
character of God AND to lie about what He’s done – or hasn’t done the way
we want Him to – in order that like the generation of Israelites lost in the
wilderness, we would lose our trust in Him and turn our worship to other
things….that we would respond incorrectly because we lose sight of the
storyteller of the greatest story ever told.
Holy Spirit leads us into truth (defending against the lies of the enemy) and
teaches us scripture to remind us who God is and what He has done (and will do)
so we don’t forget the story….truth is embedded within us so we worship God the
way He has defined for us to worship Him – with all of our heart, soul, and
strength (spirit and truth)
o Many Psalms are beautiful depictions of this reminder of who God is and
what He has done so we know truth and worship Him rightly in spirit (all of
our inner selves), see e.g. Psalm 96
Responding in Spirit
“You shall have no other gods before Me” – More literally the Hebrew reads “there
must not be for you other gods,”
Joshua 24:14-15 “14 “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and
in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and
in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord,
choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the
region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.
But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”” see also Deut. 4:32-40
It’s one thing to know the theology of who God is….its one thing to know all of the
bible stories of the great things God has done, but at the end of day we can know
all of the truth in the world, and know exactly how Yahweh wants us to worship
Him, but if we don’t submit to Him with all of our heart, soul, and strength – all of
our spirit – then what we know is nothing more than vain knowledge that puffs up
our pride.
o We must not only respond by worshipfully accepting the truth of God, but
then we must respond with worshipfully listening to what He says and
submitting to Him with all that we are.
Kevin Deyoung “Some people view Christianity as: God has rules, and if I follow
the rules, God will love me and save me. That’s not what happened in the story
of the exodus. The Israelites were an oppressed people, and God said, “I hear
your cry. I will save you because I love you. And when you are saved, free, and
forgiven, I’m going to give you a new way to live.” Salvation isn’t the reward for
obedience; salvation is the reason for obedience. Jesus doesn’t say, “If you obey
my commandments, I will love you.” Instead, he first washes the feet of the
disciples and then says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments”
(John 14:15). All of our doing is only because of what he has first done for us.”
o Worshipping in Spirit and in Truth is a response to who God is and what He
has done….we cannot worship God truly unless we recognize how
awesome He is and accept what He is offering to us.
And we cannot continue to worship God unless we continually remind
our hearts of the amazing story of the good news.
In the OT, Yahweh continually reminded His people of how He
delivered them from bondage to slavery in Egypt…praise God
for his faithfulness.
But we have something even better. Today, Yahweh continually
reminds us of how He will deliver us from the bondage of our
slavery to our selfish, prideful, sinful, nature once and for all
through the Deliverer for all of humanity, Jesus.
And once we submit to Jesus by accepting the forgiveness and
freedom He offers, the story isn’t over. He gives us Holy Spirit
and empowers us to continue to learn who He is more deeply
and to walk with Him and He continues to do wonderous things
in our life and in the lives of those around us.
Deuteronomy 31:10-13 “10 And Moses commanded them, “At the end of every
seven years, at the set time in the year of release, at the Feast of Booths, 11
when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place that he
will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. 12 Assemble
the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns,
that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all
the words of this law, 13 and that their children, who have not known it, may hear
and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land that you are
going over the Jordan to possess.”
Conclusion
“The Greatest Story Ever Told” was a 1965 movie of the life of Christ from birth to
ascension starring Charlton Heston as John the Baptist [10 years prior he was
Moses in The 10 Commandments] and Elizabeth Taylor as Mary Magdalene.
Some here may remember it fondly with nostalgia, some may have hated the
film’s inaccuracies, and some have no clue who Charlton Heston and Elizabeth
Taylor even are. There was a time that if you referenced the title “The Greatest
Story Ever Told” many would automatically know that you were referencing the
life of Christ. The greatest story part remains true today, but this generation
doesn’t get that reference anymore.
It’s up to us to tell the story of how God saves us through our Redeemer, Jesus.
That’s our testimony…the story we who have turned to Jesus have the joy of
sharing with others.
o That God freely gave us eternal life in Christ, that he saves us from slavery
and death, and that He invites us to worship him as the only God, Yahweh,
for today.
And unlike the storybooks I used to read my children, that story will never wear
out, should never grow old and boring, and will always be relevant to whoever I
have the chance to share it with.
God’s story is timeless – who He is and what He has done should always capture
our hearts and minds in spirit and in truth. Our testimony is a miracle. It remains
relevant and fresh each day we live through our worship.
o Lamentations 3:19 “Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the
wormwood and the gall! 20 My soul continually remembers it and is bowed
down within me. 21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 22
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an
end; 23 they are new every morning great is your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord
is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
Let us be like little children, constantly excited to hear our favorite story retold
one more time…constantly excited to testify of God’s power and presence alive
and at work in our lives today, and let us testify of His story to all those who are
searching and yearning to find hope for their souls….that they would find the God
who loves them and sent Jesus to deliver them from their bondage, that they
would have the unending joy that He desires for all of His children as he joyful
sits down with us, opens up our favorite book and reminds us of His unending
love.
Amen. Amen.