Exodus: God's Recalibrating Presence

This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.

For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.

Jesus, thank you for coming to be with us, to meet with us not only here in this room, but coming back to us when we had done nothing to deserve it.

Coming and being our light and our vision so that we can experience the life that God has for us beginning right now with you.

So do that now as we open ourselves up to not only read your word, but to let your word read us.

So that we can become more and more like you.

We pray in your name, Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

You can have a seat.

Well, welcome to Grand Parkway.

I'm Rick.

I'm one of the pastors here.

And before we dive back into our series on Exodus, we want to direct your attention to the screen.

Today is the day we kick off our community group season for the fall.

We have a whole, we have over 20 groups, I think 22 groups that meet throughout the week.

The vast majority actually meet on the first and the third Sundays of the month.

This being the third Sunday is an opportunity for you to get plugged into one if you'd like.

So just to give you a little bit of a feel of what they're like, take a look.

So you've been coming to church.

Maybe you even serve.

You sit in a row almost every week, but now you're ready for more.

You want to connect relationally.

Or maybe you want to grow spiritually.

Those are good ideas.

Those are God's ideas, both of them.

Because relationships are one of the five things God uses to help us grow.

And that's why we do groups.

In fact, apart from service on Sunday, it's almost all we do.

Because you can't grow spiritually without connecting relationally.

Every time a group meets, they spend time building relationships, exploring truth, and supporting each other through prayer.

And as a result, group members experience accountability, belonging, and care.

Group is your chance to pursue healthy relationships and spiritual growth.

So when you're ready for more, step out of your row and into a circle.

Join a group.

Life is better connected.

We really believe that here at Grand Park.

We have four values.

Our values are gospel, community, mission, and blessing.

So the second one, community, means we're highly committed to helping each other get connected with each other.

Because we are convinced, like it said there, you can't grow spiritually without being connected relationally.

It just doesn't happen.

We need iron to sharpen iron in our lives.

So we want to give you a chance to plug in.

And some of you might be thinking that's awkward just showing up at someone's house.

Not this week, it's not.

They're expecting you to show up at their house.

So we have some flyers for you to pick up on your way out at each of the doors if you'd like to have more information about which groups are where, the little bit of a description about each group on our website.

We have even greater description and directions if you would like.

But before we do that, there are any of our group leaders in the room, if you would stand, please.

There are several of you that are in here, I know.

All right.

So here's a few folks in your section.

If you just want to ask some questions about a group or their group, or they can help you get connected with someone, or I can, we would love to help you this morning find a group.

So check out the brochure or the flyer, talk with some of these folks, and we'd love to get you connected in community around here.

All right?

Thanks.

You guys can have a seat.

Let's dive into Exodus.

Um, and as I was thinking about this week, it I realized that I have a scale aversion.

Is anyone like afraid of scales that tell you how much you weigh?

Yeah.

Yeah, I don't like those things at all, especially the one at the doctor's office because it lies.

Right?

I swear the nurse is behind me going like this with her foot on the scale and the doctor's office.

But I actually found a scale that I really liked.

It was at the gym.

My son and I were working out there a few months ago, and and uh he calls me over after our workout.

He says, Dad, is this scale right?

I'm like, I don't know, I haven't really got on it.

I stepped on it and it was 15 pounds lighter than the doctors had said last week.

I'm like, yeah, I'm sure this scale's right.

It's gotta be, you know?

Because the next day I went to get my Texas driver's license, and I'm like, yeah, that's the weight I'm putting on my license right there.

Right?

Which it doesn't really matter much, a few pounds here or there on your driver's license.

But there's some things that it gets more serious if you're not calibrated correctly, right?

That thing wasn't calibrated correctly.

I'm thinking the doctor's office wasn't either, but but um somewhere in there there's like the right measure of what the true and accurate weight is.

That's why the gas pumps have been certified by the Department of Weights and Measures.

You've got to make sure that things calibrated correctly.

But it even gets bigger sometimes.

The stakes go up.

I read of a plane that um in 1979 was on a sightseeing expedition over Antarctica from New Zealand.

The pilots, this is the first time they had flown this, but they're somewhat familiar with the area.

But their instrument panel navigation was off just a little bit.

And as a result, when they went down to go get below the clouds to show people Mount Erebus, the tallest mountain on Antarctica, they flew into Mount Erebus.

And the author of that article that I read said, for every single degree you fly off course, you will miss your target landing spot by 92 feet for every mile you fly.

That's about one mile off target for every 60 miles you fly.

So let's, if you do the math, that means if you were to fly the diameter of the Earth, by the time you get around the diameter at the equator, you'd be off by 500 miles.

Or if you flew from JFK in New York City to LAX, you would not land at LAX, you would land 40 miles into the Pacific Ocean.

Which means if you're off one single degree in an airplane, that's the difference between a safe landing and trying to remember that speech about your seat cushion can be used as a flotation device.

Right?

One degree.

And one degree, you don't feel one degree, do you?

You don't feel it.

You feel way off, but you don't feel a little bit off.

Today, as we continue our journey through Exodus, we come to a moment where the children of Israel are not only just a little off, but they're actually way off.

But it it serves as this recalibration moment for God's people.

Now, last week, Neil talked with us about how the honeymoon from this escape from Egypt had been wearing off because Moses seems able.

He's up on Mount Sinai talking with God, hanging out with God, and the people are down here going, where did Moses go?

We'd have been better off back in Egypt.

And they're whining and complaining, ends up like, well, let's just kind of have an Egyptian idol fest.

And so they go make this golden calf, and they're just, it's all about we want what we don't have.

We want what we left.

That's gotta be better than what God has for us.

We don't really trust God to give us what he said he's going to give us.

And they're in this pity party, and Moses comes down from the mountain, and he sees this, and he goes off, and God goes off, and it's a mess.

It's a mess.

Which brings us to our text today in Exodus chapter 33, where we see how God responds to their mess.

Exodus 33 · chapter mention

Turn to Exodus 33, beginning in verse 1.

The Lord said to Moses, Get going, you and the people you brought up from the land of Egypt.

Go up to the land I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

I tell, I told them, I will give you this land, give this land to your descendants, and I will send an angel before you to drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

Go up to this land that flows with milk and honey, but I will not travel among you.

That's the key.

That's like, what?

But I will not travel among you, for you are a stubborn and rebellious people.

If I did, I would surely destroy you along the way.

When the purple people heard these stern words, they went into mourning and stopped wearing their jewelry and fine clothes.

Those were things that they brought with them from Egypt.

So they repented.

So the Lord told Moses to tell them, You're a stubborn and rebellious people.

If I were to travel with you even a moment, I would destroy you.

Remove your jewelry and fine clothes while I decide what to do with you.

So from the time they left Mount Sinai, the Israelites wore no more jewelry or fine clothes.

It was Moses' practice to take the tent of meeting and set it up some distance from the camp.

Everyone who wanted to make a request of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp.

And when Moses went out to the tent of meeting, all the people would get up and stand in the entrance of their own tents.

They would all watch Moses until he disappeared inside.

As he went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and hover at its entrance while the Lord spoke with Moses.

And when the people saw the cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, they would stand and bow in front of their own tents.

Inside the tent of meeting, the Lord would speak to Moses face to face as one speaks to a friend.

Afterward, Moses would return to the camp, but the young man who assisted him, Joshua, son of Nun, would remain behind in the tent of meeting.

Not about Joshua, but there's something I think there that we should pay attention to, why Joshua is one of the guys that made it to the promised land.

So I want to make a few observations about God's response here.

I think the way that God responds here is not out of character for him.

It actually teaches us about his character.

And it teaches us about how God responds to us, not only in this big mess they create, but the messes we create.

And then I think as we explore how God responds to us, it helps us to then form a response for us to God.

How should we live our lives differently in light of how God responds to them?

So that's where I want to head today with a thought of I think we can come out of here going, wait a second, I need to recalibrate my life just a little bit, and this is how that can happen.

First observation that I notice, and I actually think it's good news, even though sometimes when you mess up, this may not sound like good news, but it actually is.

God is coming closer.

That's what I noticed here.

God's coming closer.

Remember, the fall, Adam and Eve sinned and they disqualify themselves from living in the garden.

So now they had chosen a life to live without God.

Essentially they said, we want to be like God.

We know we're made in God's image, but we think we can do that without you.

That was the temptation.

God's trying to say, you can be like God.

You don't need God to be like God.

So God says, That's what you want, that's what you can have.

So they went on this path of life without him.

And then God interrupts Abraham and brings him and begins to form a people, and they kind of get off track and they end up in slavery in Egypt after a while.

And now they're completely far from God again.

And then Moses comes along, and God's meeting with Moses in this burning bush, and then he gets the people out, and Moses is the intermediary.

And then they get out in the wilderness, and Moses meets with God up on this mountain that no one else can go on, and then they make this huge mess.

Instead of God just saying, I'm done with you, I'm out, which he essentially threatens to do, he comes closer.

His tent comes closer, and the pillar of cloud is right there for the people to see.

And they know when Moses is out meeting with God, he's actually meeting with God on their behalf.

Now, soon the tent of meeting will become the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy of Holies and the Temple, and ultimately Emmanuel, Jesus, God, with us.

But I think it's good news for us to know God's agenda is always to come closer to us.

Even when we create the mess.

Even when the wound is self-inflicted, there's hope.

God is coming closer.

He's coming closer.

And because he's coming closer, it teaches us secondly, second observation, that God is not afraid of messes.

God is not afraid of messes.

There's some of you who probably when you heard Sally talk about what Jesus said love does and strip clubs, are like, should we really be doing that?

And we want everyone to be saved, but should we be hanging out in places like that?

And I'd say that sounds like something Jesus would do.

Right?

Because when we make messes, God moves toward us.

That was his posture toward Adam and Eve in the garden when they sinned is God's response every time we fail.

See, meeting us in our mess is what God ultimately does in Jesus.

Um, John 1, which we heard read already, the word there is he actually tabernacled among us.

He set up camp.

He moved into the neighborhood.

Now, when we mess, it's hard for us to think about this because when we make messes, when we sin, when we fail, we tend to want to be like a dog who knows they made a mess in the house while you were gone or when you were in the other room.

We want to hide, right?

The dog goes and they see you coming, they go hide under the table like, oh, they don't see me.

And of course we see them, but we're humans and we we're not God, so we pull them out by the scruff of their neck, and what do we do?

We go stick their nose in the mess they made, and we roll up a newspaper.

So I think we think, oh, that's what God's gonna do to me when I make a mess.

That's not God's posture.

When we make messes, God doesn't grab us by the scruff of the neck, stick our nose in our mess, and say, See what you did, and bam, bam, don't do that ever again.

And the reason he doesn't is because you don't have the power in you to not do it again.

He's like, I gotta help you.

Let me help you.

See, God's posture toward us when we make a mess is always redemption and restoration.

It's always mercy and grace.

Now that doesn't mean that he just winks at sin or it's okay and it's you can just do whatever you want.

I mean, Paul talks about this in the New Testament.

So if grace abounds, should I just sin a whole lot more?

And he says, he says, absolutely not.

He actually uses much stronger language than that, but I'm being recorded, so I won't say what that is in the Greek.

But he's like, that's crazy.

No, that's not, you don't just sin because God has lots of grace.

But what you need to know is God is that committed to you that he's gonna come to you in your mess and he's gonna help you clean it up and help you live in such a way that you don't keep making that same mess if you let him help you.

That's what God's posture is toward people who make messes.

Now that's not always comfortable, it's not always easy, it's not always pleasant, but that's his heart.

So the good news in the midst of our messes, and in this mess and in our messes, is that God is coming closer to us.

And that's God's ultimate agenda is to come close and fix our mess once and for all.

Jesus says in Revelation 19, I'm coming to make all things new.

He's not coming to blow things up and make all new things.

He's coming to fix what's broken.

That's what he talks about in Luke 4.

Jesus says, This is my mission.

This is the good news to bring sight to the blind and freedom to the captives and healing to the broken.

I've come to make all things new, which means God's not afraid of messes.

He's not even afraid of your mess.

He's not even afraid of the mess you made when you knew you were making it, you knew you were making it.

Your mess doesn't scare him.

I think that's really good news.

Third observation is this I noticed that God doesn't come all the way inside the camp.

He's coming closer, but he doesn't come all the way inside the camp.

Now Jesus comes and sets up camp among us, but God doesn't yet.

Why is that?

Well, the first thought that comes to mind is to come inside the camp would have been a sign of solidarity on God's part.

It would have been his endorsement of the way they were living.

And they needed to feel the pain of his distance a little bit.

See, God was not on board with their overt and even their covert idolatry.

I mean, they were violating two of the top ten before Moses even got down the hill, right?

Right?

No, I'm the Lord your God, there'll be no gods before me, do not make any other idols.

Those are the top two.

Yet God, instead of wiping them out, although he mentions the thought that crosses his mind, he comes toward them and their mess by establishing a place where he will meet with them.

He's like, I want to help you fix this.

And you can't fix this without my help.

So let me come a little closer so that you can actually access my help at the tent of meeting.

And so there's this tent where Moses goes to meet with them and the cloud shows up.

People are like, Yep, God's definitely there.

And Moses goes in to meet, and it says Joshua stays in there, and some of the language in verse 7 even implies other people could go in there, and most commentators aren't really clear on that, but it just seems to be this place like, okay, people can, there's a place to know go meet with God.

But notice, where did they have to go to meet with God?

Where was the tent of meeting?

It was outside the camp.

See, to access God's presence, they had to intentionally get out of their routine, inconvenience themselves, interrupt regularly scheduled programming, walk away from their idols, or as the old hymn that I've been singing all week says, come away from rush and hurry.

And just as an insight into how hurried I've been lately, if you read the email I sent yesterday, it said come away for rush and hurry.

So we didn't invite you today to come away to be more hurried and spin more plates.

But that feels like my life is that way, and I didn't even notice it until my wife pointed it out to me.

She's like, You didn't proofread this very well.

My stupid spell check, you know.

Or actually auto-correct.

That's what happens.

So, anyway, God invited them to come away from their normal everyday life so that he can meet with them on his terms, not on their terms.

And I think, friends, we do that a lot.

We tend to want to meet with God on our terms.

God, can I just fit you in here?

Now I'm not saying don't ever fit God in or stay connected with him on the go, but I'm telling you that will get you one degree off at a time.

You'll start to drift and you won't even know it.

It happens to me.

We drift and we don't even know it.

It's not because God's being mean here.

He knows if I can get my people away from their everyday environment, and which in their case and in ours, has just become a petri dish of idolatry, that he can get their attention.

And if he can get their attention, he can help them recalibrate.

Which is why we do things here like Sunday morning worship and community groups.

It's why we're having a retreat, guys, in a couple of weeks.

I know that can be a pain, and you don't want to hear other guys snore, and I get all that, right?

But there's just something that happens when we come away out of our normal routine.

It's why we offer camps and for students and retreats and why a day of solitude as a part of your regular routine is really important.

It's why taking Sabbath actually seriously is really, really important.

Because we drift.

And if we don't have a built-in way to catch the drift, we'll drift even further.

God also knew that if he got them outside the camp, they would get a taste of his presence firsthand.

Up to this point, they were just taking Moses' word that God was good.

But now they could taste and see for themselves that God was good.

He made himself accessible to give them a taste of his presence.

But also notice he wasn't so accessible that he became familiar, overfamiliar, or taken for granted.

Or like that photo on the wall that you haven't looked at in ten years.

He's still this holy other.

See, and once they get a taste of God's presence, they actually realize, oh, I don't want to live without that.

They get a taste of what they'd be missing if they decide to take the offer to go into the promised land without it.

Because that's what God's offering.

I promised it to you, you can have it, but I'm not coming with you.

And this all worked.

It did its work because ultimately the fourth observation is God's presence recalibrates us.

God's presence brings us back to true north.

And it does it every time without fail.

And this is where I would like to spend the most of our time this morning.

Again, verses, the first three verses of Exodus 33, Moses tells the people, hey, you can have the promised land.

God said you can have it.

You can have what your collective hearts desire.

And God says, I promise it to you, and I will never go back on my promise.

I'll even send an angel with you to clear the way and make sure the transaction is fully finalized.

But I am not coming with you.

I'm not coming with you.

This was the bomb that was dropped in their lives where they're like, wait, what?

What?

They came to this fork in the road.

Now we gotta decide, do we want what God can give us or do we want just God?

And I think that's a question we have to ask ourselves regularly.

Do I want God because of what He can give me, or I just want God?

And they had to really wrestle with that.

And we see the response because God's like, your stubbornness and your sin is telling me you just want what I can give you.

You don't want me.

And if you don't want me, I'll let you have what you want.

And they realize that's not what we want.

And they repent.

They put away the fine jewelry and the fine clothing, and they go, We gotta rethink, we gotta redefine what's successful.

We gotta re-examine our values and our priorities and our hearts.

And then in verse 4 tells us that upon hearing this news, they go into mourning and they repent, which is way more than just feeling sorry and apologizing.

They actually change their minds, they change the way they're thinking about how they're doing life, and they change the way that they're actually living.

They change their ways.

They realize if they get all the promises of God without God, they actually are getting the short end of the stick here.

What they really need is God, not what God can give them.

So they commit to go forward on God's terms.

Let Him lead instead of saying, God, here's what we wanted to do, and we want you to bless it.

They repent and they agree with God that life with God, cooperating with God, following God is the only way they will ever flourish and have the life they dream of having.

They're not getting it any other way.

Now, this isn't the only time something like this happens in Scripture.

It happens actually a bunch of times, but one that I always come back to when I think of when I'm on this path, I know I'm off a few degrees, is Psalm 73.

If you have your Bible, I want to walk us through Psalm 73 this morning.

I like to refer to it as the Finding Nemo Psalm.

Everyone's seen Finding Nemo at some point, right?

I remember seeing it when my kids were little.

My favorite character in Finding Nemo is Crush, the turtle.

Everyone know who Crush the Turtle is?

He's like the surfer dude.

Well, they're upside down.

But um, so Crush, uh, he first meets Nemo when Nemo gets caught in this rip current, and he's kind of twist and turn and shot out the other end, and he's trying to catch his wits, catch his bearings again, and crush goes, dude, I saw the whole thing.

First you're like, whoa, and then you're like, whoa, and then you're like, whoa.

That's exactly what happens in Psalm 73.

That's why I call it the finding Nemo Psalm.

It's the whoa, whoa, whoa psalm.

Let me show you what I'm talking about.

Because it's one of those things that helps us to recalibrate.

Psalm 73 is written by a priest, not by David.

David didn't write all the Psalms.

This is written by a priest.

His name is Asaph.

And so that meant his job was similar to my job, which is another reason I go back to this.

His job was like work with church people and help them to connect with God.

And he even he got off a little bit.

This is what he says beginning in verse 1 of Psalm 73.

Truly, God is good to Israel, to those whose hearts are pure.

But as for me, I almost lost my footing.

My feet were slipping and I was almost gone, for I envied the proud when I saw them prosper despite their wickedness.

They seem to lead such painless lives.

Their bodies are so healthy and strong.

They don't have troubles like other people.

They're not plagued with problems like everyone else.

They wear pride like a jeweled necklace and clothe themselves with cruelty.

So they're not even trying to mask it.

They're just flawing it before God, like, what do I need God for?

My life is great.

These fat cats have everything their hearts could ever wish for.

They scoff and speak only evil.

In their pride, they seek to crush others.

They boast against the very heavens and their words struck throughout the earth.

And so, because everything seems to be going so well for these people, Aesap says, the people are dismayed and confused, drinking in all their words.

What does God know?

They ask.

Does the Most High even know what's happening?

They openly mock God.

Right?

I don't have to be accountable to God.

I don't have to bow before Him.

I don't have to stay within the lines.

Look, my life is great.

And then Asaf says, and it's bad enough, they're doing so well, but what makes it exponentially worse is that I'm trying so hard to be lived righteously and follow God's ways, and my life is getting harder and worse.

In verse 12, look at these wicked people, enjoying a life of ease while their riches multiply.

Did I keep my heart pure for nothing?

Did I keep my innocence for no reason?

I get nothing but trouble all day long.

Every morning brings me pain.

I go to church, I read my Bible, I have a quiet time, I pray for people, I give to missionaries.

I'm planning on writing a check for that October 2nd hilarious Giving Sunday.

I tithe.

I avoid all these big sins that you guys tell us to stay away from.

And I'm not getting a bigger house or better car or nicer clothes.

I'm not like one of those guys on TV that has a Rolex on each hand, so when I look this way, I see the blessing of God and see the blessing of God on this one.

That's not how it works.

See, ASAP is just marinating in this poison, right?

Does your mind ever marinate in poison like that?

Boy, mine does.

It's really easy in the world, the part of the world in which we live, isn't it?

Because lots of people with nice houses and nice cars and nice clothes.

That when you look at them from a distance, you're like, man, what do I gotta do to get what they got?

And then let's be honest.

If you're committed to following, you know, obeying God and saying, you know, I'm committed.

First 10% is yours.

It's actually all yours, but I want to thank you with it.

I'd say there's sometimes I write that check and go, man, I could use this someplace else.

Is that what God wants?

Is that the heart?

And then I go, wait a second, what's going on in my heart that I'm doing this?

Envy will just chew you up and spit you out.

But that's exactly where ASAF is.

Verse 15.

If I had really spoken this way to others, I would have been a traitor to your people.

Again, he he recognizes the importance of relationship and community for him.

Again, that's why it's a value for us.

Community is the only thing keeping him in the game at this point.

He said, if I continued to speak this way, I would have been unfaithful to your community.

My envy would make me violate everything that I stand for.

Verse 16.

So I tried to understand why the wicked prosper.

What a difficult task it is.

He's like, it actually just made my head spin.

It's confusing, it's discouraging, it makes me bitter and envious, and I feel like, God, this is stupid and I don't get it.

He's just like, I can't make any sense of it.

And then comes this recalibration moment in verse 17.

Then one day I went where?

Into your sanctuary, O God.

I went into God's presence.

Remember, Asaph is a priest, so this literally meant he went in to do his priestly duties, to sacrifice and to intercede on the behalf of the people, to do these cleansing rituals.

And when he did, his like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, turned into whoa.

Whoa.

Now, the good news for you and me is we don't need a guy like ASAP to go into the temple for us.

We don't have to go do the sacrifices and cleansing rituals ourselves.

Jesus, our great high priest, has gone to the cross, and if we come to God through him, covered in Jesus' righteousness, we can come straight into God's presence wherever we are.

That's incredible news.

If you marinate in that for a while, but ASAP tells us it wasn't until I consciously entered the presence of God, and there I encountered God's goodness, and I redirected my attention and my affection to God even when I didn't feel like doing it.

I guarantee you he went to the work that day because that's how he gets paid.

He says, when I did that, my thoughts and feelings were turned to 180 degrees.

I repented.

I agreed with God.

And actually, in God's presence, not only did I get pointed back to true north, get recalibrated, I actually found my sanity.

See, this can happen with you and me.

Whenever we come into God's presence, no matter what mess we've made, no matter what poison we've been marinating in, when we come into God's presence, he gives us two incredible gifts that he gave Asaph.

One, he gives us his perspective, and secondly, he gives us a look in the mirror.

God's perspective and a look in the mirror.

Now, God's perspective is just simply his bird's eye view.

Let me kind of map it out for you.

This is where this thing's all heading.

Second part of verse 17, Asaf says, and finally I understood the destiny of the wicked.

Truly, you put them on a slippery path and send them sliding over the cliff to destruction, because in an instant they're destroyed and they're swept away by terrors.

So no matter what it looks like on the outside, if they don't come to God through Jesus, it ain't gonna work for them in the end.

No matter how much they have in their bank account, no matter how nice a car they have, no matter what their portfolio, that is not how God keeps score.

And then he's basically saying, and it reminded me, God, that every man and woman that I see is just one heartbeat away from giving account of their life to this transcendent God who is both breathtakingly holy, unimaginably loving, and yet utterly just.

Holy, loving, and just.

Everybody is gonna stand before that God.

Which is why we should never shy away from just talking about God's goodness and what he's doing in our lives, because every person we come across, no matter how successful they may appear, they're on that slope.

Right?

The bank account, the house, the car, that doesn't factor in when it comes time to stand before this God who's breathtakingly holy and unbelievably loving and utterly just.

That's not what he's gonna ask about.

And if you don't say, the reason I'm here is because of Jesus, your host.

Your host.

The presence of God, the psalmist says, when I came there, my eyes were opened, the scales came off, the lights came on, I saw that these people I were envying actually, not only they shouldn't be pitied, but actually they should be the people to whom I am God's conduit of grace and mercy.

Because I have what they need, they just don't know they need it yet.

In God's presence, I saw people the way God sees them.

I got his perspective.

Then God gave him a look in the mirror.

He said, I saw what was going on in my heart, verses 21 and 22.

He says, Then I realized that my heart was bitter and I was all torn up.

Inside, I was so foolish and ignorant, I must have seemed like a senseless animal to you.

I read about a guy who had an electric fence for it to keep his dog in, because his dog would just chase all the other dogs, especially the girl dogs that came along.

And so the dogs, they had to turn the thing way up to the full thing, like it was dangerous because the dog kept trying to escape.

And so another girl dog comes along, he's got the collar and the whole thing, and you could tell the dog's like, uh, this is this worth it.

So you see the dog kind of backs up and just gets in the full gallop and just leaps across that line and it just stuns him and he rolls and kind of laying there for a couple seconds.

Then he shakes it off and takes off after this girl dog.

But of course, the girl dog doesn't reciprocate because he eventually comes home, right?

And then the dog keeps doing it.

Every time a girl dog comes around, he takes the hint of the electronic shot that knock shock that knocks him out.

He goes chases this girl dog, and then he comes back, and it never works out for him.

I mean, only animals would be that stupid, right?

That's what the psalmist is saying.

He says, I was like that dog.

I let my heart and my mind violate these boundaries that God said, This is how I want you to live.

I mean, you know that tenth commandment about governing?

I was living in this nonstop mode of envy and jealousy.

And God's great command to love God and love people.

You know who I loved?

Me, myself, and I.

I was like a dumb animal.

I would I gave in to bitterness and self-righteousness and judgmentalism.

And you and I, we can be just like that, can't we?

And we know it never leads to satisfaction and joy.

And yet we go back to it.

Even though it brings us pain and regret, the psalmist says, I give into it time after time.

I was like this dumb beast, but thank God I came into God's presence and I remembered, I was reminded, you know what?

Not only do I not want to do that, I don't have to live this way.

There's a better way to live.

And then this beautiful word in verse 23, yet.

Yet, Asaf says, here's the truth about me.

My soul was bitter, I was stupid and ignorant, I was like this brute beast toward you, God, on this self-destructive path.

Yet I still belong to you.

Again, that's God's heart.

I still belong to you.

And his heart is so overwhelmed with this love of God, he begins to stop, stop talking about God and himself and starts just talking to God.

I still belong to you.

You hold my hand, he says.

And I have that picture in my mind when my kids were learning to walk, you know, and as toddlers, and I would hold their hand, right?

And they never fell when I was holding their hand.

They might dangle a little bit from time to time, but they never fell.

That's God.

You guide my path with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny.

Whom have I in heaven but you?

I desire you more than anything on earth, God.

My health may fail, my spirit may grow weak.

God, I don't want any gift you could give me if it doesn't come with you.

I may never be one of these rich, beautiful people.

We are not Ken and Barbie in this house, right?

But God remains the strength of my heart.

He's mine forever.

Those who desert him will perish, but for you destroy those who abandon you, who don't want to do life with you.

But as for me, how good it is to be near God.

I have made the sovereign Lord my shelter, my tent of meeting.

And I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do.

That's a guy who went from wow to whoa.

And I think every single one of us could say, we've been on that path, haven't we?

Some path that's taken us just, it seemed like just a little bit, this little complaint, this little critique, this little envy, this little I gotta get mine, and we take a little step off the path.

And before you know it, we're swimming in poison.

But then God in his grace and mercy sends somebody our way, whether it's a community group or we show up on a Sunday morning when we're like, man, I'd rather sleep in.

Or I hear something, and God does something that wrecks my world, that gets my attention.

And I come into his presence.

And I get ambushed ambushed by him, quite frankly.

And I'm not only recalibrated, but I he does this deep work of transformation in me.

And what I've just done for you is more than read a psalm.

I kind of showed you how you can let a psalm read you.

This is one of the ways we can just marinate in God's presence.

But let's ask ourselves as I wrap up, if Clyde, if you would come on up.

Where is your tent of meeting?

Where is your tent of meeting?

Where is that place that you go outside of regularly scheduled programming and intentionally meet with God?

And I'm talking about more than Jesus calling in the morning, which I think that's a wonderful way to live with the realization of God's presence.

Or more than KSBJ or on your commute.

It's more than a podcast, it's more than just a quick devotional, it's more even than community group or showing up for worship on Sunday.

Where do you go to meet with God?

With no agenda, no like I gotta get through my prayer list, but where do you go just be with God?

Because he's God.

I think of it this way: Michelle and I have been married over 29 years.

We haven't had a perfect marriage by any stretch, but I think we have a really good marriage.

And the reason we do is we're very, very intentional about making time to just be together.

Just to be together.

And now that we don't have kids at home and we don't have their lives to fix all the time, um, we've had to be even more intentional about it because we found that we're both the sort of personalities that will just dive into our work and we live these parallel lives.

So we have to make sure we live in such a way that our lives intersect.

And that not just quickly intersect, but we actually spend some time together and talk about what's God doing in your life and how are you doing and just deeply connect.

I know my marriage would not work if I didn't do that, and my wife is not God.

Some of us, I think, are afraid to go meet with God because we think he's got wanting to stick our nose in the mess and beat us with the paper.

It's not gonna do that.

It might always be pleasant.

He might be showing you some things that need to be changed in your life or be removed from your life that he wants to do some surgery in your life.

But honestly, isn't it really good news to know that you have a tumor that needs to be removed and go through the pain of surgery than to just let that tumor fester and grow?

So, where are you going to meet with God this week?

I want you just to think about that for a moment.

Not a guilty way, and just imagine the Father's invitation.

Say, come on, let's hang out.

Let's hang out.

Just talk to God about that.

Father, I pray that you would give each of us this ignite that deep desire just to meet with you.

Some of us we need courage to do that.

Some of us we just need to slow down to do that.

Some of us just need our want-to kicked.

God, do something in us that we want to be with you and that you bring us to a place where you and you being with you is greater than anything you could ever give us.

Help us to trust that, God.

Help us to live like that's true.

So, Holy Spirit, come and do that work in us this week.

We pray in your name, Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

Um I said at the beginning, we have community groups that meet to help you really process the things we talk about.

All of our groups have a set of discussion questions based on the text that we preach from each week.

And um, if you want to really wrestle with this, go to a community group.

There'll be folks who'll help you wrestle with what does it look like for us separately and as a group to go, was let's meet with God.

How does my schedule need to be reorganized?

How do I get away and do that in a way that's helpful?

So pick one of these up.

If you're not in as a part of a group, they start meeting tonight.

Then also wanted to remind you, Neil's mentioned it a few times.

He sent an email out.

In a couple weeks on Sunday morning, we're gonna have our hilarious giving Sunday.

We feel like the Lord's saying, let's get rid of the weight of the debt of some of our facilities so we can step into the next season we have for us.

We don't do pledge cards, you know, manipulation, there's no big campaign.

We just simply say, pray about it, and then do what God tells you to do.

So we'll just make sure you're you're thinking and praying about that, all right?

Would you stand with me?

If you would like prayer this morning, something I said stirred in you, or there's something going else on else in your life that you know, there's a physical thing, there's just anxiety in your life that you can't figure out what's going on, or it's relational tension or pressure or work or money, what all kinds of things that we come in here that weigh us down, that when we come together, God's like, you don't have to carry that by yourself.

So we're here to help you meet with God in that.

So there'll be small group leaders, elders, myself, and Clyde will be available.

We just want to pray with you if you'd like prayer, okay?

Let me speak this blessing over you.

Just received this this morning.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May He make His face to shine upon you, and may you know the peace and joy that comes from just knowing God.

May your heart leap at the prospect of just spending time with God.

And may your time with him make you more and more like Jesus so you can be his hands and feet and instrument of blessing to this world.

I pray in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Have an incredible week.

Thanks for coming, guys.