As you may know, Jesus had a lot of really inconvenient things to say. In John 14:15, He said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” In John 14:21, He said, "Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me.” And in John 15:10, He said, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” Wow, does that mean that I demonstrate how much I love Jesus by how well I keep the commandments? Yep, pretty much. There is a direct link in the Scriptures between knowing God, loving God, trusting God, and obeying God. Wow again, not only is that inconvenient, for most people, it’s downright intimidating. And if you read about how Jesus expounded the meaning of these commandments in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), you will discover that He takes them way more seriously than most of us do. What’s a person to do?

Well, these week we’ve come to one of the more well-known chapters in the Bible, Exodus 20 and the Ten Commandments. Quick, can you name them? Most people can’t. How are you doing on obeying them? Most people aren’t. And those who are trying, for the most part, aren’t succeeding. Why not? Well, a big part of the problem is that we simply don’t understand them. We don’t understand why we have them, why God gave them, what they actually demand of us, why God insists we obey them fully, and what are the consequences when we don’t. Furthermore, we don’t understand exactly what difference do the Ten Commandments make today? We’re going to try to answer those kinds of questions this Sunday. I hope you’ll be there! Dr. Dave

P.S. – Joanne and I want to thank everyone for all the well-wishes and prayers for our new grandson, Paul Andrew Surface! Andy, Sarah, James, and Emma are all excited to have Paul home and they really look forward to sleeping again someday!