Exodus: How Idolatry Happens

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Let's pray together.

Lord, we've come to do what that exactly what that hymn says.

We've come to rejoice in your great love.

We've come to part of rejoicing in your great love is to be done with all the less wild lovers in our life, all the things that are less than what we were created for.

We're coming to be done with Him today, Lord, to repent and to resign, to expose the idols of our heart, to lay them bare before you, and to rejoice in your great love.

To rejoice in your great love is to confess that there's nobody and no thing in my life that can love me the way God loves me.

And so we don't have to settle for all these lesser loves because we were created by a great God for a great love.

The Bible says that you've demonstrated your love for us in that while we were still sinners, you died for us.

And so you're on the record.

You went first.

You said, I want you.

And so everything we do today is a response to your desire to have a people for your own who are zealous to do good deeds, who are zealous to live their life in such a way that makes much of God.

And so, Lord, speak to us today.

Speak to our head and our heart and let it demonstrate itself in our hands this week.

We pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You can have a scene.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up with me to Exodus chapter 32.

Exodus 32 · chapter mention

Exodus chapter 32.

Exodus 32 · chapter mention

Uh, and if you're our guest today, let me say welcome.

We are uh we've been going through the book of Exodus.

We took a break and did a uh a summer series in July and August, and now we're back into Exodus, and we'll be 10 weeks in Exodus, and then we'll finish the book of Exodus.

Uh and so uh we're kind of getting to the part where it all kind of ends, and we'll we're gonna talk about finishing well.

But today, uh, I want to talk to you about how idolatry happens.

How idolatry happens.

One of the reasons, if you're a guest, that we preach the Bible, I'll read Exodus 32, verses 1 to 14, and now talk to us about our lives out of the context of the Bible.

Exodus 32:1–14

One of the reasons we do is because the Bible tells us the story.

It's a gospel story.

It's the only story big enough to live in, and it's a big story.

And so we see ourselves in the children of Israel.

They've come out of bondage and they and they're gonna cross over the river Jordan and they're gonna go into the promised land.

And that's much like us.

We've been baptized, we've kind of crossed over, but we're not where we're not in the promised land yet.

And so the Bible speaks to how we live and it speaks to the heart motivations for why we do the things that we do.

Now, uh let me begin by just saying this.

Uh, yesterday morning, uh, because I was full of the spirit, I was watching college football, uh, and I was just flipping channels, and I came across a game that I care nothing about.

Like I care nothing about Oklahoma State.

I know some of you do, especially people in this area right over here, uh Oklahoma State and Central Michigan.

Central Michigan is home of a fighting Chippewas.

Uh that should strike fear in your heart.

But I I got there and Oklahoma State was ranked 22nd in the in the in the nation, and they're behind.

And I thought, well, I'll watch some of this.

Like five minutes ago in the game, and they're driving, and they they throw an interception in the end zone, and I just think, eh, well, that's over.

Well, I just kept watching.

The team gets the ball back on the 20.

The first they have a fumble.

Oklahoma State gets it back, they punch it in for a touchdown, and they go ahead, and I'm like, that's over.

I flip to another game.

It goes to commercial.

I flip back, and I'm like, oh, Oklahoma State's got the ball.

They're just running the clock out, okay?

They're up by three points.

They got this.

And so the guy won't even run a play.

I'm like, hello, maybe you should keep playing until the game's over.

But he runs around, kneels down.

They get it, they do the math.

We can just kill the clock by running so much time with each play.

Fourth down, four seconds to go on the clock.

Quarterback takes the ball, backs up.

Receivers don't even go out on a pattern.

He just throws the ball out of bounds over here.

Problem.

That's called intentional grounding, okay?

That's what they call intentional grounding, and it's a loss of down.

And here's where the refs made the mistake.

It's supposed to be game over, but they gave the other team one untimed down.

In other words, they there's no penalty.

You get the ball right here.

The other guy had the quarterback.

I've seen better arms on a snake.

The guy could not even throw it in the end zone from where they were.

They're like on the 45-yard line.

It's 55 yards.

Heave that bad boy, okay?

He gets up there with his little noodly arm, throws it as far as he can.

And I'm watching this and I'm thinking, there's no way.

There's no way.

But you know, you that's the reason you don't turn the channel because there's no way.

Is there?

He drops back, he heaves it, a guy catches it on the 10-yard line with his back to the end zone.

He's getting tackled, sees his player, throws it behind him to that guy.

He catches it and runs on an angle to the end zone, scores a touchdown, and they win the game.

And I'm thinking to myself, because when they were lining up for this untimed down, this one play, the commentator said, Oklahoma State has three defenders on the goal line, so they're prepared for what is to come.

And I'm thinking, if you're so prepared, how does this happen?

I think the same thing when I read Exodus chapter 32.

Exodus 32 · chapter mention

The Bible starts in verse 1.

This is men why you should watch college football.

Helps you to understand the Bible better.

Exodus chapter, that's for the second Sunday in a row, I've married those two together.

Exodus chapter 32, verse 1.

Exodus 32:1

When the people saw that Moses was delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, Up, make us gods who shall go before us.

And for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.

So Aaron said to them, Well, take off your rings of gold that are in your ears, of your wives and your sons and your daughters, and bring them to me.

And so all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron, and he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with a graving tool, and made a golden calf.

And they said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it.

And Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.

And they rose up early the next day, and they offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.

And the Lord said to Moses, Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves, and they have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them.

They have made for themselves a golden calf, and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it, and said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.

Now therefore, let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.

But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?

Why should the Egyptians say, with evil intent, did he bring them out to kill them in the mountains and consume them from the face of the earth?

Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.

Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by yourself, and said to them, I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the heaven, as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised, I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.

And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

Now, I honestly do think, how does this happen?

How do you so quickly turn from God and you make this idol?

How does this happen?

I want to speak to that this morning about how how idolatry happens.

Now, by the way, when I say idolatry, I mean when idolatry is when you put anybody or anything before God.

Idolatry is what happens when when we say idolatry, that means when you put anybody or anything before God.

Let me give you four or five ways that idolatry happens in our lives in 2016.

Number one, when we it starts with these people, and the same thing in us, when we neglect our hearts.

When we neglect our hearts, you say, I don't know what you mean.

You can get these people out of Egypt, but it's hard to get Egypt out of them.

Let me say that again.

You can get these people out of Egypt, but it's hard to get Egypt out out of them.

What do you mean?

You ever ask yourself the question, where did the where where does a golden calf come from?

Of all the things you're gonna make, who thinks I'm gonna make a golden cow?

Did any of you for homemaking make a homemaking project, a golden calf?

I was in ag in high school.

They still have ag, future farmers of America.

We got to make stuff in ag.

We made trailers uh that our teacher sold and made a profit.

I was like, isn't this scandalous or something?

But no, we would weld for free because he would let us dip snuff, but that's a whole nother story.

Uh and so, yes, I was a redneck.

And I use the word was kind of loosely.

Anyway, uh, and so, you know, I just but but how just think about it.

Have you ever been stuck in traffic?

Have you ever been made mad at your wife?

Have you ever been frustrated with your kids?

Have you ever just been like, oh, my boss is a jerk?

And your next thought was, I'm gonna make a golden calf.

It's the most random thing in the world.

Or, look at me, is it?

Where does this come from?

It comes from their hearts.

You say, I I don't know what you mean.

Uh, where did they get this from?

Some of the major false gods of Egypt were represented by these idols in the shape of a cow or a bull.

Uh the god Apis or the god Moloch were both uh represented by this image of a bull.

Now Joshua says this after Moses died, Joshua's kind of his apprentice.

He takes over.

In Joshua 24, verse 14, he says this.

Joshua 24:14

He says, Now therefore, fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness.

Put away the gods that your father served beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the Lord.

And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods of your father served in the region beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Now, it's that last part that we put on a plaque in our house.

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

And that's great.

But before you get to that, you've got to trip over verse 14 where he says, put away the gods that your father served beyond the river and in Egypt.

Now, the Bible's so subtle that if you're not careful, you miss the what it's saying and the magnitude of what it's saying.

He says, put away the gods that your father worship beyond the river.

Now, what do you mean?

Beyond the river means that they've crossed the river.

What river are they talking about?

The Jordan River.

Y'all like, that's a trick question.

I ain't going for that.

No, the Jordan River.

Translation, they're in the promised land, okay?

And so he says, Hey, put away the gods that your father worship beyond the river.

And so before they got in the promised land, they had these false gods with them.

And then he says, and in Egypt.

So back when they were in Egypt, he said, what am I saying?

I'm saying that God's people just kind of blended in with the culture around them and worshiped what they worshiped.

They had these idols in their house.

That's where the golden calf comes from.

And he says, Hey, listen, you guys have had this fallback plan all along.

You've had something.

When God wasn't coming through, you were going to turn your heart and your affections from God and you were going to worship this.

And by the way, every one of us in this room has the same thing.

You have something when the chips are down and you're not getting your way, you're going to take matters into your own hands and say, by golly, if it's up to me, I'm going to make it happen.

And that, my friends, is idolatry.

Some of you, it comes in the mail once a month.

It's called your bank statement.

You're like, hey, as long as I got some cushion, I'm good.

Some of us it comes once a quarter.

It's our in it's our retirement account that kind of says, you know what?

I've done the math.

I think I can retire.

And boom, there you go.

I got it.

By the way, this is free.

Uh I had this conversation with some friends this week.

Uh, if we're not careful, the most tangible idol in America is our grandkids.

Would you feel that?

Some of you are like, I think I got my pistol in my purse right here.

Keep talking, Pastor.

Now, I'm not saying don't see your grandkids.

I'm not saying don't help out with your grandkids.

I am saying this.

We've got to learn to think about trajectory.

We'll talk about that in just a minute.

Look down the road.

If we're not careful, we're going to raise the next two generations and they're not going to know what to do when they turn 62 to 65.

They're not going to know how to finish that last chapter of their life because all they've known is that people have turned around and obsessed on them.

And again, I'm not getting in your business.

Please don't send me emails.

Why do you wait till you have grandkids?

I relish the thought of saying to my grandkids, I love you, but I got some things in my life that are more important than you.

All of a sudden I feel like I'm all alone.

Marco! Marco! Oh, there you are.

Y'all were just like, I ain't going there with you, dude.

My wife's right here beside me.

Are you kidding me?

I love having my in-laws in my house three nights a week.

Yeah.

He said, Where does this come from?

This is where it comes from.

We all have something.

He says, hey, the gods of your father's worship beyond the river and back in Egypt.

Reverse engineer this.

You guys have had some fallback, fallback plan B since you left Egypt.

Hey, this is good and everything, but let's not kid ourselves.

If God gets out here and runs out of goodness, we got a plan B in our pocket.

That's idolatry.

And so, how does this happen?

It happens when we neglect our hearts.

Bob Thune wrote a little book called The Gospel-Centered Life, and in it he says this all of our surface sins are symptoms of a deeper problem.

Underneath every external sin is a heart idol, a false God that has eclipsed a true God in our thoughts and affections.

Keeping God primary is foundational to spiritual growth.

The key to gospel-driven transformation is learning to repent of the sin beneath the sin, the deeply rooted idolatry and unbelief that drive our more visible sins.

Hear that again.

The deeply, keeping God primary is foundational to spiritual growth.

The key is repent of the sin beneath the sin.

The deeply rooted idolatry and unbeliefs that drive our more visible sins.

And he goes on in the book and he gives the example of the sin of gossip.

Now I know you guys don't, I choose the sin of gossip because I know none of y'all struggle with that.

You don't gossip, you share prayer requests and concerns.

I'm concerned about Susie, me too.

Let's talk about her.

What are you concerned about?

Because I've got some things, but here's how you know you've been a Christian a long time.

I got some things I'm concerned about, but I don't want to gossip.

You go first.

Man, that is smooth right there.

You say, What do you mean?

This is how you got to think about because here's the thing.

Look at me.

If you've got some sins in your life, one or two sins that you've struggled with your whole life, I'm gonna say to you, your issue is not that surface sin.

Your issue is the idol in your heart.

That surface sin is just an indication.

And Thun uses the example in the book about gossip.

And he says, you know, why do we gossip?

Here's a great question to ask about any sin.

What are we looking for that we should be finding in God?

What am I looking for when I engage in this sinful behavior, the surface sin that I should be finding in God?

Like when the sin of gossip, he talks about the idol of approval.

In my heart, what I'm really what I really struggle with is the idol of approval.

I want the approval of the people I'm talking to.

So I talk about this other person that's not in the room.

The idol of control.

I use gossip as a way to manipulate and control other people.

The idol of reputation.

I want to feel important, so I put others down.

The idol of recognition.

Talking about others gets people to notice me.

The idol of success.

Someone is succeeding, and I'm not, so I gossip about them.

The idol of knowledge, talking about people is a way of showing that I know more.

And see, here's the problem.

All of these idols are false saviors that promote a false gospel because every one of these things approval, control, reputation, recognition, success, knowledge, all these things are false saviors promoting a false gospel because every one of these things I have something we already have in Jesus because of the gospel.

All of that I already have.

And I just forget that.

Now, I unless I sound like I got it all together, I was in the bank yesterday.

In the bank, in line.

They got three tellers working, and four managers telling us it's just gonna be a few minutes longer.

Let me say that again.

Three people actually working, four people telling us, hey, the line's right here, it's not gonna be that long.

Thanks for your patience.

And I said out of my mouth, I could probably be more patient if two of you went back there and opened up another teller station.

Because my heart idol is the idol of control.

I have an idea about how everybody could do their job better.

I know I'm the only one.

I'm the guy that gets pulled over, and I say to the cop, Are you aware?

As I'm handing my driver's license and insurance, are you aware you didn't use your blinker when you pulled off the road?

I can't help it.

It's just that's my hard idol because I just think I need to help these people do their job better.

I'm going berserk in the bank yesterday because it is taking forever.

And they're up there talking, so how are you kids?

And I'm like, I've got things to do.

And finally the guy, and by the way, I was the most well-behaved person in line.

I got a I got a ribbon.

Uh, because the guy behind me said, Man, he said, You're you're you're you're pretty laid back about this.

I'm you're cracking jokes and everything.

I said, Well, the problem is I'm not God.

And he said, Excuse me?

And I said, I'm not God, because if I was God, I would push a button and all these people would fall through a trapdoor and I would go to the front of the line.

And that's why I'm not God, because I would use my power for destructive purposes.

But sometimes I fantasize about being God.

And he's like, that's funny.

No, it wouldn't be because I'd kill you too.

Because I don't want to be talked to right now.

That's just because here's the thing.

Unless you you've got to stop lying to yourself and say, Well, I kind of struggle with this.

You what the struggle is the idol in your heart.

Do you understand the difference?

All of our sin manifests itself up here, but it comes from this deep place in your heart.

And these things I already have in Jesus because of the gospel.

But when I don't live in light of the gospel, I turn to these idols to give me what only Jesus can give me.

My kids say to me all the time, Hey Dad, put your chalk up.

My 13-year-old said to me the other day, hey dad, when you die, they're gonna do an autopsy and you're gonna die from chalk lung.

Because they say I carry a piece of chalk in my pocket, I put a little X and tell everybody where to stand.

And I was like, I I I'm not about control, I'm just about helping people improve their performance.

And they just put your chalk up, and I'm like, okay, I hear you.

When my family says that, what they're saying to me is, hey, hey, you you need to deal with that heart idol of control.

And and and this is what happens with the children of Israel.

So they turn to this idol.

God's up on the mountain and like, hey, where does the golden calf come from?

From their heart.

That is their frame of reference.

Secondly, how does this happen?

It happens when we experience God as slow.

When we experience God as slow.

Look at Exodus 32, verse 1.

Exodus 32:1

When the people saw that Moses was delayed to come down from the mountain, the people, by the way, how'd they know he was delayed?

Moses never said, I'm gonna go up here and I'll be back in five days.

They had no frame of reference.

They had this, they were like me.

They had this internal idol of control that kind of says, Hey, let's make this more efficient.

Here we go.

Let's go, come on.

We take matters into our own hands to ensure the outcome we want.

And by the way, theirs was an issue of worship.

And here's the beautiful thing about the Bible why you should read the Bible and think about the big picture of the Bible.

They're their idol, they built an idol they could worship, and while they're doing that, Moses is up on the mountain for 40 days getting instructions from God on how to build a tabernacle, a place where they could come and worship God.

Hello.

But they're like, you know what?

We need something tangible to fixate on.

Let me just say this: God is not slow, but he is different.

Let me say that again.

God is not slow, but he is different.

You say, I don't know what you mean.

There's a difference because when we think God's slow, in other words, God's not doing things at the pace at which I say I think they should be done.

What we do is we help God out.

And I'll show you that in just a minute.

But what do you mean when you say he he's not you know he's not just slow, he's different.

Uh God says it like this in Isaiah 55, verse 8 and 9.

Isaiah 55:8

He says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord, Praise.

The heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Here verse 8 again.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.

In other words, when God says, My thoughts are not your thoughts, I don't think like you, and I don't act like you.

I don't think like you about this problem, and I don't do what you would do if you were me.

Because we always want to get that mixed up and take matters into our own hands.

And so the next time you come up against a situation that is frustrating, let me encourage you to ask this practical question as a matter of prayer.

And it's simply this when God says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, the next time you get blocked by something, just in in prayer, just ask God, hey God, how are you thinking about this?

How are you thinking about this?

Because that sounds innocent, but that that is a very indicting question.

Like, for example, our oldest came home from college uh on Friday, and so we killed the fatted calf on Friday, and my wife made a feast roast and gravy and brown rice, and it because my daughter texted in her request.

I want this, and so we had that, and then last night we had another big meal.

We didn't eat lunch yesterday because we were gonna feast again last night, and then the day after church, got to go to Nick's and get pistachio chicken because dad, I love that.

And I'm like, oh, okay, great, great, great.

But last night, About 11 15, I go in the kitchen, it looks like a bomb went off.

There's dishes stacked that tall on our counter.

And the lady in the first service said, I doubt that.

I bet your house is spotless.

No, no, it's not.

And it doesn't bother my wife.

She's like, I'll get to it when I get to it.

I got the ladies' kickoff thing of the night, and I'm like, oh no, no, no.

I can't be looking at this till Monday when you have time to get to it.

You need to come on after church and get this cleaned up and then go do your woman thing.

Now I didn't say that, but I was thinking that.

And so I practice what I preach, believe it or not.

I was getting a little bowl of cereal last night about 11:15.

I was kind of pouting because my wife is not as clean sometimes as I want her to be.

It's clean, but I opened the dishwasher because I thought, I'm gonna load, put these things in the dishwasher.

It was full of clean dishes.

That's too much.

I didn't bargain for that.

I gotta unload the dishwasher and then turn around and load it.

Now we're going over the top.

And so while I'm pouring my cereal, I thought this thought, Lord, what do you think about this?

Very clearly.

I just, every once in a while, God speaks and sometimes He just giggles.

I just heard God kind of chuggle and I think you're gonna clean this tomorrow after church.

After I preached three times, take these kids to lunch.

I mean, are we yeah, yeah.

No, we ain't doing it.

You're doing it.

Okay, okay.

Here's the idol of appreciation.

This morning when the lady said, Oh, I doubt your house looks like that.

I said, I'll send you a picture.

In a nanosecond, I thought, and then I'm gonna send you a picture of what it looks like after I cleaned it.

Because here's what I do my wife will come in after the thing tonight.

She's all excited because Lindsay Friedless's gonna lead worship.

She's got a full band because it's gonna be incredible, and then we're gonna have desserts, and we're gonna we've got a shaping word, and then we're gonna talk about our fall semester, and then we're gonna have desserts and just hang out with other women, and I'll my wife will come home and it'll be spotless, and I'll have the undercounter light, under cabinet lights on, and the granite all be polished, and I act like it was no big deal.

And she'll say, baby, it looks incredible, and I'll work into the conversation because I'll set a timer and I'll say, Oh, it only took 18 minutes.

You're like, What's the point of that?

I want her to know that she had 18 minutes that she could have cleaned this, but she chose not to.

So I'm thoughtful and a jerk all at the same time.

And say, I'm I sound like I'm really minimizing.

I'm like, oh, it was no big deal.

It took 18 minutes.

But my wife hears that, and she's like, oh, great.

I probably should have gotten that.

Now, will I say that?

No, but I'll think it.

Just like when I open the dishwasher, I was like, oh, there's clean dishes, so I gotta unload that and then that's too much.

But then when you ask God, hey, God, how do you think about this?

What's your thoughts about this?

All of a sudden it gets a little bigger and a little better.

Third thing, third way, how does this happen?

How does idolatry happen?

Here's a third way when God is present but he's unmanageable.

When God is present but he's unmanageable, what do you mean?

The beauty of an idol is that it's manageable.

And so it's not like they didn't know where God was.

God's presence is this very discernible reality.

And so in Exodus 32, Moses is up on top of the mountain, they're at the bottom of the mountain, and it's he's meeting with God, and God doesn't show up and unannounced.

I mean, he kind of comes with full battle regalia, and everybody knows, uh-oh, God is setting himself down up here.

And so for this, the obvious presence of God, Moses spends most of Exodus chapter 19 prepping the people, saying, Don't touch the mountain, don't go near your wives.

Exodus 19 · chapter mention

I mean, let's all get ready.

And then that which had he'd been warning them about arrives with these words in Exodus 19, verse 16.

Exodus 19:16

He says, On the morning of the third day there was thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.

Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain.

Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire, and the smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.

And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder.

And the Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

But he's unmanageable.

He's present, but he's no, that's not language we use.

None of you are gonna say, Well, I know God's present, but he's just unmanageable.

Here's what we are gonna say.

It sounds like this.

Well, I'm a Christian in everything, but God helps those that help them that help themselves.

That's not in the Bible.

Here's another one that I hear.

Well, I'm a Christian in everything, but I I I prayed and God didn't take this desire away, so it must be his will.

No.

Here's another one.

Well, uh I'm I'm a Christian in everything, but you know, it's the 21st century and times change.

God doesn't.

He doesn't.

So if you're taking your cues from the culture as to how you relate to things like your marriage, you know, I hear this.

Well, it's just hard.

I mean, we're not happy, and and she frustrates me.

Join the club.

That's not grounds for divorce.

You cannot just be, you know what, this is hard.

We should get a divorce because God wants to.

I hear this.

Well, I'm a Christian and I know God wants me to be happy.

No, God wants you to be holy.

And one of the ways you get holy is you rub up against another redeemed sinner in this covenant thing called marriage, and you love all the edges off of each other, and sometimes she doesn't clean the kitchen like you would.

And as my wife says, if it bothers you that much, go clean it.

And I think to myself, shut up.

But I don't say that.

I just go, it doesn't bother me.

And she just smiles, well, good.

We agree, it doesn't bother either one of us.

She ran that woman Houdini trick on me.

And now not to clean the kitchen, I have to swallow my pride.

Hey, look at me.

You don't want a God that you can manage.

You just don't.

How does this happen?

Let me tell you another way it happens.

It happens when we forget.

It happens when we forget.

What do you mean?

Two things we're prone to forget.

Number one, the trajectory of our relationship.

The trajectory of our relationship.

We forget, just like in marriage, you cannot take one incident from marriage and build a case for the way it's gonna be the rest of your marriage.

Because there's gonna be great days in marriage, and there's gonna be days that you're just like, oh, I'm gonna get on Facebook and see what my ex-boyfriend's doing these days.

Yes.

Because you just think, oh, oh, but see, that's what these people do.

Things are great.

And then all of a sudden, wait a minute, God, we don't know what happened to Moses because church people got a short memory.

They're like, you know, it's been a while.

I don't know what he said, but why should we wait for that?

Because it sounds like serious business.

Like coming up from a kiln.

I don't know about that.

How about we just get something manageable going here?

And Aaron goes, okay, sure.

Bring me your earrings.

What do you mean when we get the trajectory of our relationship?

If you want to read the entire book of Exodus, just read the 106th Psalm.

Psalm 106 recounts all these things.

And look at me.

You don't want to think about your Christian life as this one experience here, and this one experience here, and this one experience here.

There's an arc of God's faithfulness and goodness to this thing.

There's our trajectory, and there's going to be times where nothing's happening or it's kind of going down, and you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

But the overall, it it you got to look at the trajectory of the whole thing.

This is what the 106th Psalm says.

Praise the Lord.

Oh, give thanks to the Lord for his good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Who can utter the mighty deeds of the Lord or declare all his praise?

Translation verse 2 Who can remember all the things that God has done?

There's so many of them.

Blessed are those who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times.

Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people.

Help me when you save them, that I may look upon the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory with your inheritance.

For both we and our fathers have sinned.

We've committed iniquity and have done wickedness.

Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works.

They did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea at the Red Sea.

Yet he saved them for his namesake, and he might that he might make known his mighty power.

He rebuked the Red Sea and it became dry.

He led them through the deepest through a desert.

So he saved them from the hand of the foe, and he redeemed them from the power of the enemy, and the waters covered their adversaries.

Not one of them was left.

And then the people believed his words and they sang praise, but they soon forgot his works.

You see yourself in there?

Oh, God came through.

Yes, let's sing oceans.

But they soon forgot his works.

They did not wait for his counsel, but they had a wanton craving in the wilderness.

They had some idols in their heart and put God to the test in the desert.

He gave them what they asked, but sent a wasting disease among them.

When men in the camp were jealous of Moses and Aaron, the holy one of the Lord, the earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and covered the company of Abiram.

Fire also broke out in the company, and the flame burned up the wicked.

They made a calf in Oreb and worshipped a metal image.

They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass.

They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt.

Wondrous works in the land of Ham and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.

Therefore, he said he would destroy them had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before them to turn away his wrath from destroying them.

See, we we forget their trajectory.

We forget how long God's been faithful and all the ways he's been faithful.

Let me give you a point of application today.

Before you go to bed tonight, I want you and your spouse, if you're married, or you yourself, if you're single, just to sit down and recount all the ways that God has been good to you since you got together.

That makes sense because we have this innate capacity to feel sorry for ourselves in the moment.

Well, I'll tell you what, it's just hard right now, and blah, blah, blah.

You're forgetting the trajectory of this thing.

Remember that first apartment you lived in?

Remember that?

600 square feet of pure living pleasure.

And you were glad to have it.

You thought, man, we're sitting in high cotton now.

This is awesome.

We got three channels and a refrigerator.

What else do we need?

Yesterday, when a rain cloud blew through and our cable, our dish network wasn't working, I was like, what in the world?

We're being persecuted.

And my wife, who has no compassion for me, just looked at me and was like, grow up.

I'm not talking to you the rest of the day.

She's like, promise.

Second thing we forget is the nature of God.

We forget the nature of God.

I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but let me just say this.

We have an eye problem in our country.

In Romans, it says that, hey, there's no fear of God before their eyes.

And in Judges, he says, hey, there was no king in Israel.

Hear this.

I think it says in Judges 21.

There was no king in Israel, so each man did what was right in his own eyes.

Beloved, if you don't have a king in the Israel of your heart, you're going to do what's right in your own eyes the rest of your life, and you're going to destroy yourself.

And so we've kind of forgotten the nature of God.

We act as if, you know, let me just say, God is as holy today as he ever was.

And his fixed displeasure with sin and sinners remains unchanged and unchangeable.

And the life of Jesus did not diminish the nature of God one iota.

The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, if anything, it magnified the nature of God.

We should look and say, look how much God loves us, yes.

But we should also look and say, look how much God hates sin.

And how is it that I can be in a relationship with that God and not feel the same way about sin?

Because my concern is that with these younger generations, we've lost a sense of holiness, we've lost a sense of the nature of God.

And so it's kind of like God has to tolerate just whatever I do.

And I'm here to tell you, He's not going to.

He's not going to.

See, so so when I say, hey, how does this happen?

It happens because we forget.

There's two things you need to remember: the trajectory of your relationship with God and the nature of this God that you're in a relationship with.

Because he says to Moses, get out of my way.

I'm going to kill every one of these people.

And look at me.

He's unchanged.

He is as displeased with sin today as he was back then.

He's unchanged.

Now for the believer, for the Christian, the wrath of God has been satisfied in the death of Jesus.

For the unbeliever, there's nothing between you and God.

You say, What do you mean?

Here's the last thing I'll tell you.

You got room for one more before we go?

Hello?

How does idolatry happen?

Fifthly, when we fail to see the bigness of what God is doing.

When we fail to see the bigness of what God is doing, what do you mean?

Look at verse 9.

And the Lord said to Moses, I've seen this people, and behold, it's a stiff-necked people.

Now therefore, let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them in order that I may make a great nation of you.

Did you hear that?

Look at me.

God says to Moses, basically, he extends the Abrahamic covenant to Moses.

I'll make a great nation out of you.

I'm going to kill these people and start over, and I'm going to make you the father of many nations.

And Moses so loved his people.

This is the kind of leaders you want.

He so loved his people that he got between them and God and said, God, you don't want to do that.

And here's why.

Because all these surrounding nations are going to think you brought them out here in the desert just to kill them on this mountain.

And that's not who you are.

And the Bible says that God relented of the evil that he was going to do, of what he was going to do.

He changed his mind.

He didn't repent because God doesn't repent, because for God to repent means that God has to sin and God never sins.

You know that, right?

God never does anything wrong.

So when God acts justly and says, Moses, get out of my way.

I'm going to kill these people, and I'll start over with you because you're all I need.

And Moses, look at me, gets between a sinful people and a holy God and interposes himself and says, You don't want to do that, and here's why.

And he reminds God of God's nature.

That's why you need to understand the nature of God.

Because God is moved by his nature more than anything else in this world.

God is moved when his people respond to him out of this glorious understanding of what he's like, instead of, well, you know, my God's a God of love, and you should love those people more.

Now, what moves the heart of God is not sentiment, it's principle.

It's truth.

It's, no, God, you don't want to do that because that's going to make you look bad.

And God said, Oh, you know what?

You're right.

I don't want even my enemies thinking wrongly about me.

So he relented.

It's the Hebrew verb naham.

And it means to repent.

It can be repent.

No, it means in this case, it could be to be moved to pity, or it can mean to ease oneself.

To ease oneself.

What is that?

That's what it, that's the translation that applies here.

You ever been so mad at your kids, men, that you're just kind of like, don't talk to me right now?

Mom, you better been so frustrated with your kids.

You're like, y'all better just go outside.

And you got to have a few minutes just to let some of the pressure drain off.

Just kind of like, that's what God.

God just says, you know what?

I'm gonna just kill and just start over.

Moses steps in.

See, look at me, we'll be done.

Moses is not just a leader, he's a mediator.

He gets in between sinful people and a holy God and he pleads on their behalf.

Now, why is that such a big deal?

Remember, I said when we failed to see the bigness of what God is doing, hear this from 1 John chapter 2, verse 1.

1 John 2:1

My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Look at me.

If you're in this room, I don't care how bad you think you are, how sinful you are, Moses is a picture of the a reminder of the bigness of what God is doing.

That's why we preach the whole Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, because in the Old Testament, in this story in Exodus 32, you see a picture of the mediator, and God's just getting his people ready for someone to stand between them and God.

And so when Jesus comes and dies on the cross, he's a propitiation, he's the payment.

Here's what I'm saying to you, and I'll be done this morning.

Look at me.

None of you has sinned so much that God's just kind of said, I'm gonna just kill you and be done with you.

There's a mediator, there's a way of being right with God, and it's Jesus Christ.

So ask yourself today have you ever accepted that?

Have you ever placed your faith in that instead of yourself?

The fact that God sent his son to be a mediator, an atoning sacrifice, a payment for sin that satisfies and appeases the wrath of this angry deity.

That's the gospel.

That's the good news.

Let's pray together.

Take a moment, if you would, and think about what you've heard this morning.

There's a lot in this passage.

But I think God wants us to not miss the bigness of what he's doing.

And so, what stood out to you this morning?

What had your name on it?

We like to teach the Bible and then give you space to think about it.

And so we'll do that now.

So just take this time.

This cloud's gonna sing over us, and just take this time to just ask the Lord, what had my name on it today?

What do I walk out of here with in just a minute?

Father, we're thankful this morning that you have fulfilled the requirements of the law.

And that's what makes grace possible.

And so we uh we come to church not just to feel, but to think, to grasp, to reach, to get up on our tippy toes, not just to be affirmed, but to aspire.

To say, I want to see the big picture of what God's doing.

And we see Christ in the big narrative today.

We see that you sent your son to be a mediator, to get between us and to make peace possible.

I pray for anyone who's not accepted this free gift that today would be the day.

I pray that in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Let me say this before I say goodbye.

Uh the Bible talks about God descended in thunder and lightning, and the whole mountain was shaking.

And yet, look at me.

Next week we're gonna look at a passage where it says that God meets with Moses and talks to him face to face as a man talks to his friend.

And God wants to have that same intimate relationship with you.

We'll talk more about that next week.

But for now, when you came in, you were uh if you're our guest today, you were given a little worship sheet, and there's a little part ask for some personal information.

And hopefully you've had a chance to fill that out.

If you'll just fold it, increase it, and tear it off, drop it on these wooden boxes by the doors.

That's uh where we receive those, and also that's where we collect our offering.

So if today is the day you practice obedience or generosity when it comes to giving, that's where you do that as well, okay?

We'll be available down front if we can pray with you or answer any questions.

Stand to your feet.

Let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

God has sent his son as a mediator.

That means peace is possible.

So depart now.

Live in this peace and give those that peace to people that don't deserve it.

It will remind you that you received it as an undeserving person as well.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you to dismiss it.