God's Ownership of People — Paul Washer

At this moment, we're going to have our children's Bible study. And I want us to go to the book of Exodus. Children, have your Bibles turned to the book of Exodus. It's the second book in the law. Also, for those who are the men here in our congregation, I just want you to know that if you're needing some help or you want to meet with regard to how to instruct your own children, how to teach them the Word of God, maybe a good catechism, things like that, please just get a hold of me after the service and set up a time so that we can maybe meet and do that.

I'd be glad to meet with any one of you. Not that I have all the information in the world, but I have learned some things and I have been taught some wonderful things. So just go ahead and get with me.

God’s Covenant Introduction in Exodus 20

Now, in Exodus chapter 20, we have the giving of the law of God. Now, children, look at the first verse. Then God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

You shall have no other gods before me. Now, I want you to notice two things. Look up here. I want you to notice two things very important. He said, I am the Lord your God. And then he said, I brought you out of the land of Egypt.

God’s Ownership by Creation

Now, there's two things that are extremely important. First of all, before I get to those two things, I want to make a statement. God owns you. Whether you believe in God or not, He owns you. Now, how does He own you?

By virtue of creation. He is the Lord God that created the heavens and the earth. So He owns you. And you are responsible to Him, whether or not you believe, or whether or not you have Jesus Christ possessing you.

He owns you just because He made you. Now, I want every child here to take a breath. Now let it out. Who gave you that breath? God gave you that breath. Put your hand to your chest. Feel your heart. Every beat of your heart is given to you by God.

Human Life in God’s Hands

God owns you. Your life is in your hand. And you know what He can do with that life? He can give you more life, and He can take your life away. Did you know that? Immediately, He can take your life away.

Your time is in His hands. You need to know that. You will live only the number of days that God has given you to live. Now that's very important. He owns you. Now, there's a second way in which God can own a person.

Redemption Through Jesus Christ

And that is, He says, not only am I the Lord your God, I'm the one who saved you out of Egypt. Now, God hasn't saved us out of Egypt, but He has provided His Son Jesus Christ to deliver us from sin. So the person who's just born into this world, he's owned by God because God created him and sustained him.

The Chief End of Humanity

But the person who repents of their sins and believes in Jesus Christ, that person is doubly owned by God because God bought them with the blood of His Son. Now, many of the great confessions of the church, some of you've read some of them, the Westminster Confession, the 1689 London Confession.

How do they usually begin? They begin with something like, what is the chief end or purpose of man? Why was man made? We were made to glorify God. What does glorify God mean? To worship Him, to honor Him, to obey Him.

And basically, what it means is this, that you recognize how worthy God is, that He is the most important person there is. Everything else means nothing compared to Him. You were created to recognize that He owns you.

Knowing and Enjoying God

You were created to recognize that He loves you. You were created to love Him back, to obey Him, to submit to Him as Lord. But not just glorify Him, but to enjoy Him forever. A person who has a relationship with God in which they're just obeying God, that's a dead relationship.

You know, when you go out, like when you're up in the mountains or something and you see a beautiful sunset, you don't just obey it, do you? You enjoy it. You enjoy that sunset. Well, God is much more beautiful than sunset, a beautiful stream like we have here in our town.

He's more beautiful than anything you could imagine. So you not only obey Him, you learn to enjoy Him. And as a matter of fact, now listen to me. Young people, this is what I want you to learn. Everything, this is where we're going to end.

Enjoying God as the Source of Obedience

There is a real sense that if you obey God, you will enjoy Him. Those people who obey God enjoy God, but that's not the normal order or the most important order. Here's what you need to see. The people who know God as He's revealed in the Bible and they see His beauty and they see His goodness, those people enjoy God.

Okay? And the more they enjoy God, the more they obey Him. Do you see that? Someone who just obeys God, that's kind of like slavery. Well, you just need to do this because it's the right thing. That's not right.

We need to do it because of God. God makes it the right thing. We need to do it because He is so worthy. He is so beautiful. He gives us such joy. So here's what I want, young people. I want what the Bible wants.

I don't want you just obeying God. I want you to know God so that He fills your heart with such joy and love for Him that you want to obey Him. That's why teaching you the attributes of God or what is God really like is so important.

Knowing God and Spiritual Strength

How many of you want to be strong? Nobody? Nobody? Who wants to be weak? Nobody? Who wants to be strong? All right. Who wants to be strong? You know what the Bible says? The one who knows their God is strong.

They know their God, and they're strong. They know their God, and therefore they're strong. All right, let's pray. Father, we come before You and we ask You, Lord, to deal with our children. We place their life into Your hands.

Entrusting Children to God’s Sovereignty

We ask You to take them. We trust You with them. We would more have You be sovereign over their lives than we have them be sovereign over their lives. Take them. We pray, O Lord, that You would have mercy, that You would save them, and that You would use them, that You would protect them from evil and evil men, that they would not turn to the left or the right, but that they would follow You.

In Jesus' name.

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