Which of the 10 Commandments is the most powerful? This message explores the importance of not taking the name of the Lord our God in vain.

<p>Which of the 10 Commandments is the most powerful? This message explores the importance of not taking the name of the Lord our God in vain.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Collegedale Korean SDA Church

John Chung

The Most Powerful Commandment

Good morning. This morning I wanna talk about the most powerful commandment. We attend commandments. Which one is the most powerful? Now, all the commandments are important and also powerful, but I wanna focus on one particular commandment. If you turn to Exodus chapter 20, verse seven, this is the third commandment says, you should not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him. Guiltless, who takes his name in vain, it's kinda as I was, I realized this, this commandment may be the most powerful commandment. I like to study this commandment a little deeper and look at it from a slightly different angle. You know, when the Bible uses the word vain, what does that mean? What is vain in the Bible? Useless vain. V a i N. Okay. If you look at first Corinthians 15, verse 14, it says, if Christ be not risen, then our preaching vain and your faith is also vain. So if Christ did not rise, then our preaching will be useless, and our faith also will be useless. Right? If you look at Ezekiel, Ecclesiastes, chapter 1, 1 4 Says, the word of the preacher, the son of David, king of Jerusalem, says, vanity of vanity says the preacher vanity of vanity, all is vanity. What prophet has a man from all his labor in which he throws under the sun, one generation passes away and another generation comes, but the earth abides forever. So Solomon is saying here, everything is useless as far as down under the, under the sun on this earth. So <unk> take the name of the Lord God's name in vain, that means don't take his name useless. Right? Don't take it in Maine. Now, you know, sometimes we go, you know, this commandment, it is important that God's name is holy, very, very holy. And you know how a lot of people use his name most commonly used as a, in a context of a cursing, but his name is very, very holy. But we're gonna talk about a little different aspect of his name. Now, let's say you've been studying chemistry for days and nights, neglecting all other subjects because you know, your, there's chemistry test is the most important test. So you even stay up all night studying chemistry. You're absolutely ready for the most important chemistry exam. When you go take the exam, you realize that it's actually a biology exam. You sit up all night studying and you go and this biology exam, and you failed the bio biology exam because why? Because you've studied the wrong subject. Uselessly or in vain, You. Okay? Now, Israeli lights had a big problem. Literally a big problem is a well known story of David and Goliath. That's f that's found in First Samuel chapter 17 in spiritual gifts, volume four, a page 79. It says, the Philistines proposed their own manner of warfare in selecting a man of great size and strength, whose height is about 12 feet. And they sent this champion Goliath for, to, for, to provoke a combat with Israel, requesting them to send out a man to fight with him. He was terrible in appearance and spoke proudly and defied the army's of Israel and their God. Goliath challenged the Israelites for 40 days. 40 days. What happened? You know, what was the response of Saul, the king of Israel and the entire army of Israel? What did they do? First Samuel 1724 and all the men of Israel? How many, All, All, oh, not even one person stayed. All the men of Israel, when they saw the man that's Goliath fled from him, they ran away and were dreadfully what? Afraid. I am sure that most, if not all of us would've done the responded the same way. He's a person who's tougher, tall and asking somebody to come and fight him. This is normal human response, isn't it? Fleeing because you're afraid. Then David appears, he's a young kid, maybe, I don't know, 17 years old. He's a young kid, and he hears this, the response, I mean this challenge from Goliath. What was David's response? He fled because he was afraid. No, the last part of verse 26, he says, this is what he, David says, who for? For? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he shall defy the armies of the living God. That's the first thing that he says. Who is this? Who defies a living God. David is not afraid. He doesn't run away, but what does he do? He takes immediate action. If you turn to verses 40 to 45, he says this, then David took his staff in his hand, and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook and put them in shepherd's bag in a pouch, which he had, and his sling was in his hand. He drew near to Goliath. So Goliath came and began drawing near to David and the man who boiled the shield, one before him. And when Goliath looked about and saw David, he disdain him for he was only a youth ready and good looking. So the Goliath say to David, am I a dog that you come to me with, with sticks? And Goliath cursed David by his gods. And Goliath said to David, come to me and I will give you, give you a flesh to the birds of the air beasts of the field. And David said to Goliath, you come to me with a sword, a spear, and with a javelin, but I come to you and the name and the lo name of the Lord of hosts, the God of armies of Israel, whom you have to fight. Now look it carefully. What the verse 30 45, David doesn't say, well, you come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin, but I'll come to you with a, with stones and a swing. Did he say that? What did he say? I come to you. What? In the name of the Lord. So he his depend his dependence, he did not depend and on his instruments, but the power and the name of the Lord. Now, if you were to have lined up Saul and all the Israelite army and David altogether, And you a, you asked this, this question, do you believe in this passage found in Philippians four 13 in New King games version? Do you believe this is, there's a saw all the Israel army and David, she asked him, do you believe in this passage, Philippians four 13? We all know this. This is a very well known verse. I can do all things. How many things? All things through Christ who strengthen, strengthen me. Okay? If I had, if somebody has, you know, if you ask them, do you believe this? Do you believe this verse? How would you say, if I say I can do all things through Christ strengthens me? I'm sure they all would've said, of course, yes, we're Christians, after all we follow Christ. You'll say the same thing, right? But David was the only one who truly believed because he was the only one who actually acted. All others fled because they were so afraid. Belief is always accompanied by action. If you look at James 2 26, it says, faith without works is what is dead. And also second Timothy three, five having a form of godliness. So that is, you come to church and you, you know, in front of other people, try to do the right thing, Having a form of godliness, but denying is what it's power. And from such people turn away. Now, David did not have monopoly and the power and the power of God. Did you hear that? David did not have monopoly and the power of God? David was not the only one whose prayer and request that God would answer. God would've answered the prayer of Saul and the man of Israel, Israelite army. Not so it wasn't, David was not unique. God would've answered any, any prayer, not just David. So he did not have monopoly in God's power. So in Israel army, oh, oh, every one of them had us access to the same God for them, the mighty true God of Israel was in the name only they took the name of the Lord in vain. That is, they took it uselessly. They did not use his power. God's power. They saw no power in God. That's what the reason why they were, they were afraid and ran is because they com what they did was they compared the giant to themselves. And they said, there's no way I can do this. That's why they were afraid and ran away, right? But when David saw Goliath, What did he do? He compared Goliath to the power of God. David says, I have no power, but my God has no problem with you Goliath. You know, in sets of Christ, page 94, it says this, our heaven father ways to bestow upon us the fullness of his blessing. It is our privilege to drink largely at the fountain of balanced love. What a wonder it is that we pray so little God is ready. Who is, who's ready? God is ready and willing to hear the sincere prayer of the humblest of his children. Yet there is much manifest reluctance on our part to make known or wants to God. What can the angels heaven and think? A poor, helpless human beings who are subject to temptation when God's heart of infinite love yans toward them, ready, ready to give them more than they can ask or think. And yet they pray so little and have so little faith. You know, I'm a dermatologist that is skin doctor. I had a 70 year old patient come to my office and he says, Dr. Chung, I have been to over 40 dermatologists. You're my last resort. I heard that you may be able to solve my problem. He had this intense itching without rash, no rash, just itching for 20 years. 20 years. He went to every single doctor he could think of, he says, and he drove a couple of hours to come to see me. And this is the first thing he says, you're my last resort. Oh boy. So I am, so I started asking him all these questions. Did they do this test, this test, this test, this test, this test, this test. He says, yes, yes. It, what are the results? All normal. Did they give you this medicine, this medicine, this medicine, this medicine? Yes. Did it work? Nope. Not one. Oh boy. Okay. So here I'm thinking, what, okay, I don't know what to do except I have my own workup for people who have itching without a rash. So I said, let's just do some, you know, x-rays and do some blood work, and I'm gonna have you come back in two weeks. So he, he came back two weeks later when he came, he sitting, he was sitting there, and I, I looked at all the results and everything was absolutely normal. Everything normal. And you know, I I, I told him, sir, I have absolutely no idea why you're itching and I have no medications for you because you tried every single medications that I was thinking about. You said nothing worked. So why should I, you know, give him this, right? And then as I was talking, you know, he, first time when he came, he came by himself. This time when he came, he brought a young lady, she probably was about 50 years old, and I thought this was his daughter, to find out that this, she, he's, he's a retired PE teacher. He, and she was a star athlete, and she went to a prominent university and they kept in touch. And because it was summertime, she came and visited her old coach. And she, you know, knew about his problems and she was really ho help hoping that I would be able to solve this problem. Now she was a PhD and at a very prominent university, and he just, she just came and to just give him support. And as, as I was talking to him and give him this bad news, I said, you know, I really don't know what to do. I don't know why you're itching. And so, but there's one thing that I can do. I can pray for you. And he says, well, Dr. Chung Iro make you feel better. You can pray for me. I said, yeah, it'll, yeah, won't make me feel better. So do you mind if I pray? As soon as I said that, and I also, I looked at her and I said, do you mind if I pray? She got up, her face turned red, and she started yelling at me. She said, you get a vulnerable person like this, and you are pushing your religion on him. I'm going to report you to the state board so you'll never be able to practice medicine again. I mean, she kept just coming on, I mean like red and just angry and yelling. And this man, he says, <unk> just hope and pray. Just hope and pray. Because he felt very embarrassed, embarrassed by her, her action. And so I prayed a very short prayer, probably shortest prayer ever, even shorter than Jesus wept. Anyway, so I prayed something, I have no idea what I, I don't even know what I prayed. She took my card and you know, it has my license number and everything. And I didn't give him a return appointment because there's nothing I can do. So he went, they both went and my heart was pounding. You know, every time you complain to the state board, they have to investigate it, you know, and just, there's so much time. You just, you waste so much time. You have to go in front of state board and all these things. Anyway, I'm just thinking about all these things anyway, so I have to keep seeing patients. So I saw other patients and two weeks, two weeks later, so one of the front desk person says, Dr. Chan, there is a patient here who wants to see you. Cause, and he told me, who was? I goes, oh, what's that man? He drove all the way here two hours to complain about what is he gonna say this time? You know, I go, well, I don't want him to, you know, get upset and all that. So I want him to, I don't, I don't want you to put him in a room. I want you to take him to the very back. So he and I went to the back, I said, may I help you? And he goes, Dr. Chan, I, I came here because I need you to pray for me again. I said, okay. He said, for the last two weeks, that's the first time in 20 years. I have not itched one time. And then he says, I feel like I might be starting to itch. That's why I drove over here. Because he wasn't itching, but he thinks he is, he might be starting to itch. So I prayed for him again for six months, every month for six months, for every month. One time a month he came, says for prayer, never itched one time after 20 years. And you know, and, and the person news for me was, she never reported me to the state board. What are they gonna say? Well, he had ing for 20 years and Dr. Chuck prayed and he got better. He needs, you need take away his license. What they gonna do? She never, I think, I don't, she never reported me. Anyway, you know, the sad thing about this, you know, what do we do as, as humans? For me, I did all the history, I took all the blood work, I did, I, I got blood work, I did, you know, x-rays and I ordered all those things. And then only after when I could not figure out what he had, that's when I offered him prayer. That's how we do a lot of times we charge everything for ourselves. Then when we make God the what? The last resort, oh, we tried everything, you know, last resort is we should just pray. You know? But that was not David's attitude. God should be our first resort, not the last resort. Cuz you know what? If you make his him the first resort, you don't have to go through all these things. You don't have to get yelled at. You don't have to get, you understand, we have to make him our first resort. You know, we all have this external giants in our life. We have Goliath in our life, right? Could be our physical problems, could be financial, could be our grades, relationships. Do you believe Philippians four 13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. If you turn to act 16, 16 to 18, act 16, 16 to 18, it says, now it happened as we went to prayer that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of de nation met us who brought her masters, much profit by fortune telling this girl, followed Paul in us and cried out saying, these men are the servants of the most high God who proclaimed to us the way of salvation. And this she did for many days. But Paul greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, I commend you in what? In the name of Jesus Christ, name of the Lord to come out of her. And he came out that Jerry, our So what did Paul, you use to cast out the demonn, the name of the Lord. Now we struggles, we, we struggle with our internal demons and internal problems. Yeah. Like addictions, depression, anger, guilt, you know, different internal demons that we have, right? But we can overcome. We can overcome all these things, all these things, all these internal issues with the power and the name of the Lord. But we use all these medications first, and then we do. And you know what? Nothing works. We go, well, I think we should have some type of anno, anointment, service anointing. You know, we use everything else. And God is the last resort. Now the third and the most important is our salvation, John 20, verse 31. But it says, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. We have life, eternal life through The name of the Lord. So the name of the Lord can solve our external problems. Goliath in our life, name of the Lord can solve our internal problem, demons in our lives. And the name of the Lord can solve our eternal problem that is salvation. So name of the Lord can solve our external, internal, and eternal problems. You know, God is the most powerful being in the universe. We must not waste this most powerful name, but we do it all the time. We break the third commandment because what does third commandment say? The shall not take the name of the Lord in vain. But as Christians, we break it all the time because the name of the Lord, remember, it gives us, we can solve all of our problems in terms of external, internal, and eternal. So let's not take the name of the Lord our God in being. This media was brought to you by Audio verse, a website dedicated to spreading God's word through free sermon, audio, and much more. If you would like to know more about Audio verse or if you would like to listen to more sermons, please visit www.audio verse.org.

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The Most Powerful Commandment

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