Exodus 19: 1-8

Theme: Christian living

Series: LAOS: The People of God

The movie, The Lord of the Rings, was based on the series of books by J. R. R. Tolkien. Many may not realize that Tolkien was a Christian. Faith is woven throughout his writings. The Lord of the Rings is a story about a place called middle earth. It is a place occupied by creatures such as Elves, Dwarves, Oracs, Ringwraiths, and Hobbits. The story focuses on the Hobbits.

Hobbits are described as shorter than dwarfs. They are homebodies, not being very adventurous. They tend to like the routine and ordinary. Hobbits are cheery creatures, wear colorful clothes and are known to have big feet but wear no shoes. They love to eat often and despise anything that makes them late for dinner. Hobbits are a lot like us ordinary folk.

Yet, one Hobbit, Frodo Baggins, had a most extraordinary adventure. He inherits a ring. It is no ordinary ring. It is a ring forged deep inside Mt. Doom. The ring gives its bearer absolute, corrupting power. The evil dark lord of Mordor wants it. But, in fact, no one can possess it without it destroying their soul. The only thing that can be done is to take back to Mt. Doom so that it may be destroyed in the fires from which it was forged. Thus, begins the adventure.

Gandalf the wizard, Frodo and others leave on the journey, ending up at Rivendell, the city of the Elves. Frodo is nearly killed and will forever be inflicted with the wounds of his adventure. At a secret meeting to decide what to do next, an argument ensued as to who might take the ring to Mt. Doom. In the midst of all the fighting, Frodo, the most innocent and the most injured, says, I will do it, "I will take the ring." From that group, nine people were dubbed the Fellowship of the ring and they would go with Frodo. The task was fraught with danger and required them to stick to a certain set of rules if they were to survive.

The Lord of the Rings reminded me of what it means to be called the people of God. We are ordinary people called out by God to be his special people, for a special purpose. We are called the Fellowship of His Suffering. We share in the suffering of Christ as well as in his victory.

This is a real journey and a real calling by the Most High God. And, of course, if we are to overcome the evil ahead of us, if we are to complete the journey, then we must follow the rules that God has laid out before us.

God elected Israel to be his chosen people. God had summoned the people to Mt. Sinai for the purpose of making a covenant with them. God lays out the broad outline of the covenant and then the specific rules. God recalls how he had removed the yoke of slavery and lead them out of Egypt. They readily acknowledged that God had done so. Salvation is always from God.

God sets the conditions of the covenant. They are to hear his voice and to keep his covenant. If they do so, then they will be a possession of God and a kingdom of priests. In the following chapters, God lays out the specifics of his covenant. These are high expectations set upon Israel. They were to represent God in the world as a holy people, even as God is holy. To live immoral lives in light of the covenant was to deny the power of God who brought them out of Egypt. It would bring dishonor upon the very name of God.

Today, we live by a new covenant, established in the Blood of Christ. We saw in I Peter 2: 9 that God has declared us to be his people: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession."

We are the people of God. And while we have not been called to the mountain, I believe we can find within Scripture certain covenant expectations that God has for us. I think we can see that each one has a biblical basis. We can summarize God’s standards for us in ten statements.

1. A commitment to Christ and believer’s baptism. If we are members of the kingdom of God, then we must be born again. You must come to him by faith, believing that Jesus has taken away your sin. The new life we have in Christ produces in us a desire to please and obey God. God has called us to be baptized as an expression of our union with him. Baptism symbolizes that we have died with Christ, have been buried with him, and have risen with him in new life.

2. Regular attention to Worship. As the people of God we must spend time together in worship. Worship unifies the Body of Christ as we offer ourselves to God as living sacrifices. When we worship, we bear witness to the world that we serve a living God. Jesus has promised to be with us in a special way when we are gathered in his name.

3. Regularly attending Sunday School. Call it Bible study, call it what you want, but we must be regular in the study of God’s Word. In the study of Scripture, we are confronted with God revelation to us, set afire by the Holy Spirit. You can neither be empowered nor equipped to serve God if you are not feeding regularly on God’s Word. Sunday school will help you find out if you are off base in your understanding or if you are dead on. And it is in the small group sitting that God enhances our fellowship. We grow closer together as we study together.

4. Regular contributions by means of the tithe and offerings. It is our responsibility to support the work of the Church as God has blessed us. Long ago, the principle of the tithe, 10% of one’s income, was laid out in Scripture. This is how we pay the bills and the costs of being a Church. However, God does not limit us to the tithe. We should be willing to meet the challenges as they come to us. And if that means giving more, then, as God prospers us, we need to give what is needed. It is a lack of faith when we claim we cannot give as God expects of us.

5. Commitment to being trained for ministry. We saw last week that we all have ministry to do. We do not always come fully equipped to do that ministry. We need to come together to be trained. We call it Discipleship Training. It is not unreasonable to expect all of us to be trained for God’s service.

6. Engaging in ministry. When we are trained for ministry, we need to be about the work of ministry. We know that there are all kinds of things that need to be done. God calls us and equips us. Therefore we need to carry out the ministries that God lays before us.

7. Sharing one’s faith with others. Part of ministry is sharing our faith with others. There are no secret Christians. It takes very little to tell others, when the opportunity arises, what Jesus has done for us.

8. Adherence to Baptist Doctrine. I am not telling you that you have to be a Baptist. But, if you are going to be a Baptist, you need to adhere to Baptist Doctrine. We are called in Scripture to practice sound doctrine. If you are not convinced that Baptist doctrine is sound, you need to go and join a church that meets what you think is sound doctrine. But, let Scripture be the judge. II Peter 1:20-21 says, "But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." Make sure that the church you become apart of practices sound doctrine and make sure you practice it as well

9. Live morally and ethically and practice sexual purity. We are called to be different from the world. We are to be committed to living moral lives. The Christian should be marked by moral purity and by ethical behavior. We are called to look out for the welfare of the other person. And we are called to be sexually pure. We don’t cheat others and we don’t treat others as sex objects nor do we give in to temptation. Moral uprightness is our mark in a world even while others push morality to the side.

10. Engage in personal devotions and prayer time. If we are to live public lives that are committed to Christ, then we must spend private time in prayer and devotional study. It is in our private time with God that we find strength to carry the expectations that God has laid upon us.

Perhaps we are a just a simple people. And maybe we don’t like adventures at all. But, God chose us. The only proper response is "I will go, I will do it." We will follow the rules and meet these high expectations because we are the people of God. That is what we are called to do.