Equipped: Follow The 10 Commandments

May 9, 2021

Sermon Series: Equipped

Message 4: The Ten Commandments

May 9, 2021

Gene Smillie 

Scripture: Exodus 19; Exodus 20

 

FILL IN THE BLANK

in Exodus 19:4 & Exodus 20:2, God tells His people “I am the God who brought you out of Egypt to

God tells His people in Exodus 19:5-6 that if they obey His voice and keep His covenant they will be …

  1. my treasured
  2. a kingdom of to me
  3. a holy

YOUR OWN SERMON NOTES

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. Who ‘made the rules’ in the household you grew up in? Who enforced them?
  2. Three months after they had left Egypt, Israel found themselves at the foot of the holy mountain of God.  In both Exodus 19:4 and 20:2 God tells them “I am the God who brought you out of Egypt / to myself.”  Why do you think God introduced all the other things He is about to say to the people, with this description of Himself and his actions?
  3. God tells them (Exodus 19:5-6) that if they obey his voice and keep his covenant, they will be    1. ‘my treasured possession’;   2. ‘a kingdom of priests to me’; and 3. ‘a holy nation’.  What do you think each of those expressions mean?  Discuss with your group.
  4. How is the manifestation of God’s presence on the mountain described in 19:16-19 and 20:18? How do think it felt to be one of the people standing at the foot of the mountain?
  5. The author of the NT Book of Hebrews deliberately contrasts  how it felt to be at Mt. Sinai in that moment, and how it is now, for Christians, to approach God in his dwelling place (Hebrews 12:18-24). Why would they (the Israelites) have felt what they did, and why are things different for us?
  6. Why does God prohibit our making ‘images’ or representations of Himself?
  7. What is your understanding of what it means to “take the name of the Lord in vain”?
  8. In the Gospels, Jesus is constantly criticized for “violating the Sabbath” yet he persists in doing things on that special day that legalist authorities say he shouldn’t.  Does this mean that this particular commandment (Exodus 20:8-11) has been rendered obsolete, and is no longer legit?
  9. How does the final commandment of the 10: to not covet anything that belongs to someone else, serve as a wide canopy that ‘covers most of the rest of the commandments’?  
  10. Do you feel like you a) mostly keep the 10 Commandments? b) fail miserably and consistently at trying to please God by obeying his commandments?  c) don’t need such a reference for your ethical decisions?  d) other response?
  11. If the 10 Commandments are not a “check list” which we can use to get points with God, what are they?   Discuss with your group.

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