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GPS: Live This Way
July 28, 2026 · 34 min
God’s “GPS” story in Exodus shows Him leading people from slavery to freedom and then giving them guidance for how to live well along the way. Pastor John Mark explains that God’s laws aren’t meant to feel like prison bars, but like guardrails—loving boundaries that protect us from wrecking our lives, harming others, or destroying our families.
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton
John Mark is the Senior Pastor of the thriving Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, Texas, where he has served since 1995.
July 28, 2026 · 34 min · "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton
God’s “GPS” story in Exodus shows Him leading people from slavery to freedom and then giving them guidance for how to live well along the way. Pastor John Mark explains that God’s laws aren’t meant to feel like prison bars, but like guardrails—loving boundaries that protect us from wrecking our lives, harming others, or destroying our families. ...more Show the full description Show less God’s “GPS” story in Exodus shows Him leading people from slavery to freedom and then giving them guidance for how to live well along the way. Pastor John Mark explains that God’s laws aren’t meant to feel like prison bars, but like guardrails—loving boundaries that protect us from wrecking our lives, harming others, or destroying our families.
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
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In this video 0:00 GPS: God's Guidance from Slavery to Guardrails7:07 Three Types of Laws: Guardrails for Life13:51 The Ten Commandments: Reading and Memorizing23:16 Purposes of the Law: Relationship, Protection, Jesus33:11 Law Points to Grace: Prayer and Salvation
GPS: God's Guidance from Slavery to Guardrails 0:00 Morning, church. You glad you're in God's house today? Yeah. Man, it sounded like it. Love hearing you worship. Welcome to you and those of you who are joining us online. Over, through the summer, we've been studying the0:10 book of Exodus, in a series entitled GPS, God's powerful story, not just in the children of Israel's life, but also in our lives. You know, we think about GPS, we think about, rerouting,0:22 getting us, to from point a to point b as quick as we can. If we make a wrong turn, we expect it to get us back on the road. And, that's really what we're talking about. God's powerful story is about him showing us the0:34 right way and when we veer off the path, he wants to encourage us and reroute us back towards his plan and his path for our life. And, it also reminds us, that, although GPS0:46 is a pretty, new thing for us, generationally, God has been leading his people for thousands and thousands of years. Now, when it comes to the book of Exodus, GPS is talking about God's powerful0:58 story from taking the children of Israel from slavery for over 400 years toward the promised land. That was all God wanted to do, take them from slavery to freedom and along that1:10 journey, he lets them experience some things. If you'll remember, the children of Israel were right in slavery. God lived them out of slavery. They encountered bitter waters.1:22 We talked about that idea that you and I can be right in step with God and find ourselves at bitter waters. And the point that week was let the water stay bitter, you don't become1:34 bitter, move beyond that place and beyond that space. We talk about obstacles. Man, they ran into the Red Sea. The Red Sea was a legit obstacle. It was a real obstacle and God had to part the Red Sea and you
1:46 might find yourself following God someday and you're looking at what's the Red Sea and you're like, how am I gonna get through this? Trust me, God has a plan. They were pursued by the enemies. There are times that we
1:57 look back in our life and maybe some old addiction, old habits, old struggles, old this, that that they're constantly pursuing. God ultimately dealt with them looking forward more. God says, listen, we're gonna look at
2:08 this next week. How many of you know that not everything that glitters is gold? That's what we're gonna look at next week. But today, I wanna talk to you about this idea. I wanna talk to you about laws
2:20 and commandments. Really how we should live to honor ourselves, honor our families, honor our country, honor our community as well as honor our God. Now, I know a
2:32 lot of times when people hear the idea of commandments or laws, you think prison bars not guardrails. The laws and the commandments are guardrails to keep us from
2:44 going off the cliff, from destroying our family, from hurting ourself. And so today, we're gonna be looking at the idea how does God want us to live specifically in Exodus. We're gonna be looking at Exodus chapter
2:56 20, which are the 10 commandments. We're gonna talk through those and figure out how do those apply to my life. But let's go back to a passage we've looked at the whole time when we think about God's powerful story, our
3:07 journey with God. Look back to Proverbs chapter 3 verse 5 and 6. We've said every week we've read this passage, trust in the Lord, how? With all of your heart and lean
3:19 not to your own understanding. In all your ways, notice this, submit to him and he will make your paths straight. Now, we all have some
3:31 practical questions. We all say I would love how many of you would just love to live that verse out? I would. But some practical questions come out. Alright. What does trusting God with all my heart and leaning not to my
3:42 own understanding, what does that look like? Is it a feeling that I get that I just wake up every day and I got goosebumps and I just know God's got this? Is it just believing a couple of things? Man, I
3:54 I want to believe this and this and as long as I believe right, I can live however I want to because I believe right. Some people you might think, well you know what? Trusting God with all my heart, lean not to my
4:06 understanding just seems I I I go to church every week. It's way more than that. Let me show you what Moses told the children of Israel
4:18 it looked like for them to trust God with all their heart and lean not to their own understanding. We find in Deuteronomy chapter 10, let me show it to you. Here's what and notice a progression. So, Moses is
4:30 saying, children of Israel, this is how you should live, and Moses is about to die as you go into the promised land. Here's what he says, and now Israel, what does the Lord your God
4:42 ask of you? Now, notice it's that's trust and leaning not to your own understanding, but to fear the Lord with who is your God, now he's saying reverence, that is honor God, To walk in
4:53 obedience to him, that means to obey God. To love him means to love God. To serve the Lord your God. To serve God. How do we wanna do this? Notice very
5:05 much Proverbs 3 5 and 6. How do you do this? With all your heart and with all of your soul. Now, part of that means that I need to learn to live by some commands
5:17 and laws that God gives. Now again, like I just said, a lot of times we think of laws and commands as prison bars, but God has given them to us for our guardrails. We won't run off the road. We won't harm others and harm
5:29 our family. Think about Adam and Eve. Back in the garden, everything was good, everything was perfect. God gave them 1 boundary, limitless opportunities. God gave them
5:41 1 no, limitless yeses. Don't eat of that tree. Anything else in the garden, participate in. Anything else you wanna do, just have at it.
5:53 Boundary around that 1 tree, 1 no, don't eat of that fruit. What did they do? They ate of that fruit. See, a lot of times we do the same things. We think about all these laws and we think God doesn't want me to have any
6:04 fun. Let me tell you what, God wants you to have fun. But he also wants those around you to have fun and your family to have fun and your husband or wife to have fun, your kids to have fun. So, he puts these guardrails
6:16 around. He gives us boundaries and limitless opportunities. He gives us a couple of no's and a whole lot of yeses. Alright? That's what we see. Now, a lot of times people will accuse
6:28 Christians of picking and choosing in the old testament the laws we bring and apply today. They will say, how many of you had someone say that? Well, you you Christian what about what about the law of
6:39 this? What about this law? What about this dietary law? So, I want to help you understand this is how you respond next time you're at the office and someone says, well, you just pick and choose the laws you want to bring
6:50 out of the Old Testament into the New Testament. That's not true. There are 3 different types. Everybody say 3. There are 3 different types of laws in the Old Testament. There is the moral law, there is a
7:02 ceremonial or religious law, or there's the civil or judicial law. Let me tell you the 3 and what they mean. The moral law reflects God's ongoing character
Three Types of Laws: Guardrails for Life
7:14 of that which is right and that which is wrong, that which is a yes and that which is a no. Okay? It's kind of like marriage, the Old Testament, is between 1 man and 1 woman. That is for all time. That is not
7:26 a picking and choosing. It comes to the new testament. Why? Because Jesus repeated it in the new testament. Paul repeated in the new testament. Peter repeated it in the new testament. So, we bring that 1 forward. The 10
7:38 commandments we're going to look at today, we bring them into the new testament. Thou shall not kill, thou shall not lie, thou shall not steal, thou shall not commit adultery, keep the Sabbath. Alright, so all of those
7:49 moral laws, if you're thinking about building a house, those are the foundation. They translate from the old testament to the new testament because those laws, those boundaries
8:02 of yes and no, alright, boundary and freedom, they reflect God's good and kind character for us, plus they are repeated in the new testament over and over.
8:13 So, these are timeless. The 2nd kind of law that we will see in the old testament are called ceremonial laws. Think of these as religious laws. Now remember, God was taking the children
8:25 of Israel out of Egypt. They had been in slavery for over 400 years. As God was leading them in Exodus towards the promised land, he began to teach them how to worship him. Alright.
8:37 When you think about these seal, these ceremonial religious laws, he says, alright, you're gonna worship 1st of all in the tabernacle and eventually in the temple. This is where you see these ceremonial laws, animal
8:49 sacrifices. When you come to the house of God, bring it a sacrifice. When you choose an animal, choose the blameless animal. Alright, that's when you talk about priest and diet. When you see some of the crazy things
9:01 in the old testament, you can't eat. In the new testament we're told by Peter we can eat them all and everybody says bacon. Amen. Right? Why? Because God gave them those laws for them
9:12 specifically to begin to worship him. Now, do those ceremonial religious laws of the Old Testament carry to the New Testament? No, because Jesus was
9:24 the fulfillment of the Old Testament ceremonial religious laws. What did John the Baptist say about Jesus? Behold, the lamb of God that
9:36 takes away the sins of the world. Does that make sense? Then listen, all of those old testament worship were pointing to 1 thing. They were pointing to the time that Jesus would show up and he would
9:47 ultimately die on the cross, be buried in the tomb, rise again the 3rd day. The 3rd type of law, so those don't carry those ceremonial religious laws they were fulfilled in Jesus in the
9:59 New Testament. So, we don't have to do those anymore. We've got our 1 sacrifice, alright? They had priest as well. Jesus becomes our high priest that's why you no longer need high you need priest in the New Testament.
10:11 The 3rd type of law is called a civil or judicial law. This was given by God to tell them specifically how the nation of Israel was to be established and
10:23 built up. And so, he gave them laws on crime and punishment and some of the punishment were pretty heavy there. He he talked about property rights. God talked to them about
10:34 agriculture. He talked to them about things like years of jubilee where the slaves would be released. God said, listen, plant for a certain number of years, then give the land a time off. Remember they didn't have
10:45 irrigation systems, they didn't have fertilizer. God just told them, listen, don't plant every year, give the land a day off or a season off. Why? They had what was called cities of refuge. What
10:57 was the cities of refuge? Well, it was a place, let's say that all of a sudden I'm rolling with my card or I'm doing something and I accidentally kill your brother or your mom or your dad or what what would happen in
11:08 tribal society, especially back in Egypt and the Philistines around them, they would go kill that individual whether it was a wrongful death or an accidental death. And so, God said, listen, when you get into the
11:20 new land, we're not going to have just this tribal justice. I want to create cities of refuge so if someone commits an act, does something, they can come, hide out, they can stay free in the cities of refuge
11:32 until the court and a judge can determine was this intentional or was this accidental. God gave them a lot of laws that were simply for setting up the nation
11:44 of Israel. So, 3 kinds 3 kinds of laws. The moral law reflects God's character, his eternal yeses and noes. It goes from the Old Testament to the New Testament
11:56 all the way through to today. They're repeated over and over again. The ceremonial religious law that we see in the Old Testament, sacrifices, animal sacrifices, they were fulfilled in Christ so those stayed with the
12:07 children of Israel. In the new testament, we have the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. The 3rd kind was the civil and judicial law. That was specifically for the setting up of the nation of Israel, how
12:18 they would be distinct and different. Salt and light among all the other nations around them. So, those stay specifically with the nation of Israel. Now, if you go look at our founding fathers,
12:30 they used a lot of old testament law to set up our society which I believe that's why it's so good is because they look back and said that's a good rule. That's a good rule. That's a good rule. And so, they brought it
12:41 in. Let me explain it to you this way. You say pastor, how come we leave some of the laws in the old testament and we bring some forward? Put an image up there. Let's say that you're building a multistory house.
12:53 Alright? And if you are, call me especially if it's on the beach. I'd love to come see it. But what happens if you're building a multistory house? The 1st thing you do is you lay down the foundation. That's the moral
13:04 law. It stays there. Then, around where the house is going to be built, you put up scaffolding. Right? Then, you build the house. What happens when
13:16 you finish the house? Do you leave the scaffolding up? No. You take it down. Right? Because you want people to see the beautiful house. The scaffolding around the house
13:29 was the old testament ceremonial or religious laws. Why? Because God was teaching the children of Israel, I'm building something completely different. It's gonna be the house of God and Jesus
13:40 Christ is gonna come and dwell in it, and you no longer need the scaffolding. So, that's really what that ultimately means. So, now, let's go to Exodus chapter 20. I don't know when the last time you've, just read
The Ten Commandments: Reading and Memorizing
13:52 through, the 10 commandments, but I wanna do that today and this is really how we should live. And and we've got, I don't have no idea how many laws we have on the books now. But if you could go back and just say, I
14:04 got an idea. Let's just do do these 10. Our society would be so much better off. Just do these 10. So, let me just read them to you. This is how
14:16 we should live and notice what it says, and God spoke all these words and notice this, he says, I am the Lord. Before he gives them a command, he reminds them of something. See, God doesn't start with a law, he
14:27 starts with his grace. He says, remember, I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt and out of the land of slavery. So, God starts there. He he says, before I start telling
14:39 you how I want you to live when you go into the, go into the promised land, here's what I want you to do. Don't ever forget that I am the same God that took you out of slavery and bondage to sin and ultimately
14:51 brought you to a place of freedom. You're no longer a slave. So, God starts even with grace reminding them before he gives them the law. So, then he starts giving them 10 laws. Here it is. Number 1, verse
15:03 3, you shall have no other gods before me. Number 2, you shall not make for yourself any, an image in the form of anything in heaven, above or on earth, beneath or in the waters
15:15 below. You shall not bow down to them and worship them for I am the lord your God and I am a jealous God. Jump down to verse 7, alright. Here's commandment number 3, you shall not misuse
15:27 the name of the lord your God for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. Here's number 4 verse 8. Alright? Remember, everybody say remember. Of
15:39 all of the 10 commands, this is the only 1 that starts with remember. He was reminding the children of Israel that you will easily forget if you don't remember how important the Sabbath is or worship is or for
15:51 us how important church is in being with God's people and studying God's word and hearing God's word preached and worshiping with other people. Alright? So, he starts it off with remember, he says remember the
16:03 Sabbath by keeping it holy. Then he goes on, 6 days you shall labor and do all your work, but on the 7th day, the Sabbath day of the Lord you shall rest. In other words, you should worship.
16:14 Interestingly enough, I won't read it all but of all the commandments, that commandment on the Sabbath is the longest 1 because God really wanted to emphasize to the children of Israel.
16:26 Listen, don't get caught up in your daily life where you think spending time with God's people and spending time in God's word and worshiping God doesn't ultimately matter. He says remember it, don't
16:38 forget it. Alright? Jump down to verse 12. Here's number 5. By the way, number 5, it's the bridge command between loving God and loving our neighbors.
16:50 Alright? This is number 5 is the bridge command. It's interesting that this bridge command going from loving God over to loving our neighbors starts with the family. He says honor your father and
17:02 your mother so that your days may be long. Why would he make the bridge command between loving God and loving others, the family? Because we're better
17:14 should a son or a daughter or a mom or a dad be able to learn God's love and grace than in the family. Where the family falls apart, look at it. Cities
17:26 fall apart, communities fall apart, school districts fall apart. So, God chooses in order to make the bridge command from loving God to loving others, the family. Honor your father and mother so
17:38 that your days may be long. Look at number 6, these are all protecting something valuable. Alright? You shall not murder. How many of you think life is kind of valuable? That's kind of a good rule. Right? How
17:50 about shall not commit adultery? How many of you value marriage? God values marriage. You shall not steal. Man, don't take someone else's property. Number 9, you shall not give false witness
18:02 against your neighbor. Really, that's kind of a judicial term. People's character and integrity matters. If we go around falsely accusing someone of someone and we tear down
18:14 their character and tear down their integrity, We're doing them harm and God says that's a big thing. That if you're gonna accuse someone of something, make sure they're guilty of something. And if you hear
18:25 something, don't assume it's true, make sure it's right and do I even need to share it at all. Alright. So that's number 9. Here's number 10, you shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not
18:37 covet your neighbor's wife or his male or female servants. Now interestingly enough, there are 2 commands. The 1st and the last that start in the
18:49 heart. Number 1, there are no other gods before me. Not telling you to do anything or don't do anything. He's just saying, there's no other gods before me. Number 10,
19:01 starts in the heart. Do not covet your neighbor's house, his possessions, his wife, or his slaves, or his property, or anything. Notice, it starts with the
19:12 heart, ends with the heart. And if you think about the heart, the heart drives it all. Why do people steal? Because they covet. Why do people kill? Because, they're angry. It's a heart.
19:25 Why why do people commit adultery? They they want something else. It's a heart. And so notice, these are wrapped in 2 commandments about the heart with 8 in the middle that talk about how we should act. Now, I always
19:36 want to help you. I always want to give you a takeaway. How many of you in the room, you either have kids or grandkids Or great grandkids? Alright. So, I want you, I want Cottonwood Creek to teach every 1 of our kids and
19:47 grandkids the 10 commandments in order. You say, great. I'll read them to you. Nope. I'm gonna tell you how to memorize them right now I'm gonna give you hand signals that you can teach your kids the 10
19:59 commandments. But here, join me. Stand up. Everybody stand up. Everybody stand up. Shake your hands out just a little bit. We're about to have a little fun. Alright? I want you to follow through on these. You're gonna
20:11 know everyone. You're gonna know them all in order. Everybody put 1 finger up. 1st commandment. No other gods before me. Everybody how many of you got that 1? Alright, pastor. What comes after that? Everybody put this
20:22 up. What does it look like? Scissors. Do not make any graven images. Alright? No idols. Alright? Number 3. What letter does
20:34 that look like? A w. Watch your words. Do not take the Lord's name in vain. Alright? Number 4, I'm gonna give you 2. Alright? Remember the
20:45 Sabbath and keep it holy. If you have 2 kids, it's 4 people, mom and dad and the 2 kids going to worship. Alright? If you've got 9 kids, I'll give you another option. Do this.
20:57 Alright? Take these 4 fingers, put them together in a steeple. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. In other words, go to church. Alright? Put up your 5 hands,
21:09 your 5 fingers on 1 hand. Well, whatever. Don't know what I'm talking about. 5, do this. Salute. What is that? Honor your father and your mother
21:22 so your days may be long in the land. You could drive that with your kids, drive that home hard, that last 4, so that your days may be long in this house. Alright? Alright, everybody put up 6.
21:33 Thou shalt not kill. Oh. You want to skip that 1 or what are y'all going with? Y'all saying, I don't think we like that 1 or whatever.
21:45 But see how easy I Alright. Here put up 7. Alright. This is the family. What happens when someone commits adultery? To leave the family and do their own thing or
21:57 they split the family up. 1 of those 2. Okay? Number 8. Put your hands up like this, 4 fingers. What happens in the old days, olden times? If you go back and look
22:09 at the code of Hammurabi and Mesopotamia and even the old testament, they would oftentimes, if you stole, they would cut your thumbs off so you couldn't steal again. They would maim you so people
22:21 would know, watch your things around this dude. Alright? So, everybody say, thou shalt not steal. Alright. Now, 9 9, put your hand on the bible. Thou shall not
22:33 bear false witness against thy neighbor. I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, not but truth, so help me God. Alright? Got them so far? Number 10, how about this? Just say gimme gimme gimme gimme
22:45 gimme. Thou shalt not covet. Thou shalt not covet. Now, I want you to take those, memorize those, teach your kids and your grandkids. Did you enjoy that? Alright. Y'all go ahead and be seated. Now, don't
22:56 say I never gave you anything. Alright? Say, I don't know. He just sits up there and yaks a bunch of stuff. But, he did these hand signals 1 time. It was pretty cool. Alright. So, that's how I want you to memorize, and
23:07 your kids are gonna love it. Start teaching them those 10 commandments. They're gonna love it. Alright. So then, ultimately, if God didn't give us the law to be prison bars, but to be guardrails,
Purposes of the Law: Relationship, Protection, Jesus
23:19 why did God give us the law? Why did he give us the 10 commandments? Number 1, to build a relationship with him. That's what God starts
23:31 there. Remember the 1st 4 commandments? No other gods. Alright. No idols. Don't take the Lord's name in vain. Remember the Sabbath and keep
23:42 it holy. And then ultimately, that's about building a relationship with us. God still wants you to take all of those serious. Now remember I told you when the moral laws and the
23:54 commandments are taken into the new testament and repeated that's when we receive those and still accept those. We still need to have no other gods. We know how to make known any graven image. We ought not to take the
24:05 Lord's name in vain, we ought to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Remember in the New Testament, if you go to Matthew chapter 22 you had a bunch of Pharisees and teachers of the law, they were having a conversation
24:14 with Jesus and they looked at Jesus trying to trip him up. Now, by the time Jesus showed up, all the Pharisees and all the legalists and all the teachers of the law, they had looked through all the book of Deuteronomy
24:26 and all the Pentateuch and they didn't just have 10 laws, they had over 600 laws by the time Jesus showed up. Now, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law and the elders, they were the only ones that knew.
24:39 But what they would do is they would walk around and they would look at you and they would look at you and you would break a law that you didn't even know you had broken and they would just look down on you and they
24:47 would judge you. So, in Matthew chapter 22 they tried to trip Jesus up and they said, hey Lord, which is the greatest commandment in the law? They weren't asking about the 10, they were
24:59 asking about the 613. They were wanting Jesus to choose 1 so they could say, oh, but what about this 1 and what about this 1 and what about this 1? Right? They were simply trying to trip him up. But Jesus responded,
25:11 what is the greatest commandment in the law? Let's read it. Matthew chapter 22 verse 37. Here it is. Jesus replied to them and said, love the Lord your God with all your heart
25:23 and with all your soul and with all your mind. Stop. God wants your heart before he ever wants your habits. God wants your heart above and
25:35 beyond. He doesn't just want some things that you do, he wants your heart 1st. And notice what Jesus said in verse 38, this is the 1st and greatest commandment. So number 1 reason
25:47 God gave us the 10 commandments is so that you and I could build a relationship with him, the 1st 4 commandments. Here's number 2, to build healthy families and communities. That's
25:59 the whole 2nd set starting with, the 5th commandment going all the way down. We want God wanted us to build healthy families and healthy communities. Well, how do
26:11 you do that? Well, you honor your father and mother. You don't kill. You don't, steal. You don't commit adultery. You don't covet. You don't bear false witness. That encourages us along the way.
26:23 You say, well, did Jesus mention those? Go back to Matthew chapter 28, I mean chapter 22, look at verse 39. We'll just pick it up. Jesus continued, they said, what's the greatest commandment?
26:35 And Jesus said, well hang on, I got 2. Number 1, 1st and greatest commandment, love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul. Here's number 2 verse 39, and the 2nd is like it,
26:46 love your neighbor as yourself. But remember the 2nd set, love isn't just a feeling, it is a behavior that I'm not going to steal, I'm not going to kill, I'm not
26:58 going to commit adultery, I'm not going to do all of these things. So, here it is, all the law and the prophets hang on these 2 commandments. Did you get it? Jesus basically
27:10 summed up the 10 commandments and all the other old testament commandments that we roll from the old testament and the new testament and the moral law in 2. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul. God
27:21 wants your heart before he wants your habits and then ultimately love your neighbor as yourself. God doesn't want you to do harm to your family or someone else's family or your kids or someone else's kids.
27:32 Alright? So, that's number 2. Number 1, why did God give us a law? He wanted us to have a good relationship with him. Number 2, he wanted to build healthy families and communities. Number 3, he wanted to protect our
27:44 freedom not limit it. As I've said all the way through this, a lot of times people look at God's laws or commandments and we see them as prison bars, but they're really guardrails.
27:58 I've noticed this. No 1 likes speed limits. I'm not done. Until you become a parent playing
28:10 with your kids in the front yard and a teenager comes flying down the road in a car. Hey. Slow that down. How many of you grew up in that house with
28:22 that dad? I grew up with that dad. That and let me tell you what, what? He we'd just be playing or ball or something like that and all of sudden you would, hey. And I'm like,
28:33 what happened? You look at your dad and I'm like, man, Jekyll and Hyde. I don't know which one's the good 1, which one's the bad 1. That's the bad 1 right there. My dad's telling somebody, slow that down. And now, how
28:45 many of you remember? How many of you did have a dad or a mom that did that? That was so embarrassing. Remember when you were a kid? How many of you remember it was embarrassing? You're like, dad, don't do that.
28:59 Because dad knew something I didn't. Dad knew danger just pulled on the road and dad needed to slow down. Guess
29:11 what? When I became a dad, hey, you gotta slow that down. Stop. Where do you live? I'm gonna go talk to your dad. Roll the window
29:22 down. You don't be speeding up. What's the speed limit? The speed limit on my road is what I say it is and that wasn't it. Right? Matter of fact, here's what you're going to do from here on out. When you see my family
29:34 and my kids out in the yard, you're going to park your car at the end. Just hand me the keys. You walk home, I'll bring your car home. That's how we're gonna do it. How many of you understand that, right?
29:46 See, as a kid, that embarrassed me because I didn't know the danger. My dad did. And guess what? I'm happy to say I
29:57 embarrass my kids a lot. You come speeding down the road, you get John Mark, you don't get pastor John Mark. Alright? You get something different. So, that's the whole we need to understand that. Alright. Let me show it
30:09 to you real quick. Alright. Here it is. Psalm 19 verse 7. The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, Psalm 19,
30:21 making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord, they're right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the
30:32 Lord, it's pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm and all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold, even than pure
30:44 gold. They are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. By them, your servant is warned. In keeping them, there's great reward.
30:56 Here's the 4th reason. God gave us laws to point us to Jesus. See, the laws and the commands are simply a mirror
31:09 that tell us that we fall short. I don't know about you. You ever wake up in the morning, you go look in the mirror and you go, woah. And you got bedhead. Hey, the mirror didn't cause bedhead,
31:22 nor can it fix it. It just shows you what's wrong. See, the law, it didn't make you a sinner. It just
31:33 shows you are. The law couldn't fix it, but Jesus did. That's the whole thought. Hey, when you go to a doctor
31:45 Let's say that I had a doctor's appointment tomorrow and I walked in the doctor and goes, you know, we've been looking at your blood work and I just looked at your MRI and it seems like you have cancer. Just
31:57 wanted you to know. I'll go, I'm not just looking for a diagnosis. Kinda like a cure. Do we have a plan? Right?
32:09 You you would get a new doctor. See, the law just diagnoses us as sinners. It's Jesus who brought the cure. That's why
32:21 Romans chapter 5 verse 8 says, but God demonstrated his own love towards us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Child of
32:33 God, God gave us a law for our protection. Healthy families, healthy kids, healthy communities, healthy church. Don't see them as prison bars,
32:45 see them as guardrails. Let's bow. God, thank you so much for the law. God, thank you so much for keeping me out of the ditch so many times.
32:57 But God, beyond that, thank you because of your grace that even those times, many, many times when I was in the ditch, you pulled me out. God, my prayer is that there's someone here
33:09 today that they don't have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, they would hear those words, that the law just reveals our sinfulness, but it can't fix us.
Law Points to Grace: Prayer and Salvation
33:22 But God demonstrated his own love towards us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen.
John Mark Caton99.9K followers
