Biblical Worship | Getting It Right II (September 16th, 2018) - Mike Armstrong

All right, well, if you would get your Bibles open right now and get them turned over to Exodus, the book of Exodus, chapter 32 specifically.

Exodus 32 · chapter mention

Now, last week, if you were here, uh, we started or we did part one of our two-week series on biblical worship.

Worship's one of our pillars, right?

One of our four pillars at harvest.

You come to step one next week, you're gonna hear more about that, okay?

But this is one of the main things that our church is committed to as a church, as a movement.

And and so this is the idea that men and women, all men and women, are created by God with a wiring deep in our souls, in our core, a core drive in our hearts to worship.

That's how God created us.

Okay, so so worship for a Christ follower, then, for us as a church, is it's it's more than just the singing or giving your offering.

It's more than that.

It's actually a lifestyle of love and honor and submission to the Lord in all things.

Okay, so meaning that in everything that you and I do in life, it should be done with the Lord in mind and for his glory.

Okay, while we certainly come here on Sundays to express praise to him through our singing like we just did, and and all of those other things, giving, study of the word, all of that.

Okay, a more all-encompassing view of worship is that it's everything that we do in life, right?

Everything we do in life, from our from our interaction with the Uber driver when we go downtown, or to the attitude uh in which we do laundry for our families.

Everything should be, all of it should be worshipful.

Okay, worship full, done from a from a heart posture of love and gratitude to Christ and submission to his authority, his authority, and his greatness, and filled with hope for all the things that he promises to still do.

Here's the thing though, church.

We're not very good at any of that.

Have you noticed that?

Have you noticed that in your life?

You have moments where it's kind of going along pretty well, but plenty of moments where that's not going so great, right?

We struggled mightily at times to worship him rightly.

Kind of as did the Israelites, as we saw last week, and we're certainly gonna see here today.

We're so preoccupied with ourselves, with with our agenda, with our wants, our desires.

And and I think as believers, do you feel this way?

This is how I feel.

I feel that like that that constant tension and and and friction within myself between the the the my flesh, right, that just wants selfish things, and and the spirit of God that that resides in me because I'm a Christ follower.

Right?

I feel the spirit wants me to glorify Christ.

It wants to glorify Christ.

And so there's that that tension then there.

Right?

And then you you throw the enemy and warfare into the whole mix, and the thing just right, it's tough.

It's tough.

And I think we we know, you know, deep down and and sometimes not even deep down, that you know, that that we're to we're to honor the Lord, we're to be growing as worshippers.

We know that there should be greater surrender and obedience and faith and and and love and all of that, but but in day-to-day life, we kind of just we just grapple, don't we?

Or or maybe even just straight up give in to other things that have captured our hearts' attention.

Or maybe if we're being truly honest, we just flat out enjoy other things more than God.

Right?

That's kind of a sick realization, but it's a good thing to admit.

Once we admit that, once we understand that and we're willing to really face that head on, now we're cooking with gas, okay?

And because of all of that, though, because of our giving into the flesh and all of it, the quality of our worship suffers, doesn't it?

And how we function as human beings internally and then express that externally, it it suffers spiritually, we suffer.

And and emotionally and mentally and and physically, all of that takes a rather significant hit over time.

Okay, so these are the things that we're going to go after here today.

All right, it is like lock-in, strap-in mode.

It's not just, all right, we're gonna listen to some nice words that the pastor has to say here.

No, we're gonna we're gonna assess some things, we're gonna explore what's really going on in our hearts and face all of this stuff uh head on and really get our hearts right in worship before the Lord.

Okay, so here's where we're going uh before we jump into the first point.

Let's pray.

God, thank you again for this time together, Lord.

We thank you that we have so much hope in Jesus Christ, Lord.

We thank you for all of your promises, Lord, that you will not forsake us.

We thank you that you promise to sanctify and ultimately glorify us, Lord.

That's not something we have to, I don't know, kind of wonder about and and question or doubt.

No, that's that's coming.

And so, Lord, I pray that in that we would stand, and in that we would be willing to face the brokenness and what's wrong inside of us, Lord.

And I pray that your Holy Spirit, you would be so gracious, Lord, and work and move in power in us to make us more like Jesus Christ.

And so, God, I pray that we would, as we're you know, finishing off our first series here for the 2018-19 season, God, I pray that it would be a new day for us.

Lord, I pray that uh it would be a clean slate, Lord.

I pray that we would experience the mercy, grace, forgiveness, transformation, the joy that comes from Jesus Christ alone.

Lord, help us.

We pray in Christ's name.

Amen.

Amen.

All right, well, here we go.

We're jumping right into it here.

If you've got your notes, here's what it says it says, to worship God rightly, I must face the ugly truth that my idolatry runs rampant.

It does.

Now, now last week you might remember we looked at Exodus chapter 19 and 20, right?

Exodus 19 · chapter mention

And how the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt.

He rescued them from slavery and he ultimately brought them to the foot of the mountain, Mount Sinai, to worship him and to know him.

But listen, because of God's extreme and awesome holiness and his absolute moral perfection, okay, the people, the Israelites, they needed to get some things straight.

Namely, they had to be deeply humbled by a profound awareness and realization of their absolute moral imperfections.

Okay, so so what did God do?

Well, he gave them the Ten Commandments.

We took a look at all of that, and and the Ten Commandments made all of that real clear, right?

This is basically how God was saying these are all the ways that you fall short.

These are all the reasons why you can't expect to just come into a relationship with me without sin atoned for, forgiven, dealt with.

Okay, so we left off last week with the people, just, I don't know, I think a really good way of putting that is they were just like laid bare.

Right?

They were they were standing back, they were they were fearful.

They actually thought in that moment that the Lord was just gonna stomp them out and they realized that they deserved it.

And Moses was like, no, that's not what he's here to do.

Yeah, you deserve that, but God wants to be merciful, he wants to invite you into this covenant with him.

But you just have to understand that sin's a big deal, it's a big problem.

And so they come away with this like holy awe and reverence as well, which is so awesome, and what we're trying to get our hearts to as well.

Now listen, in chapters 21 to 31, which we're basically gonna vault over in many ways uh here today, uh, what happens?

Well, we end up seeing that that God and Moses commune a little bit more, and God explains to Moses uh in in some further deal uh details uh what some of the other laws are going to be all about.

Okay?

Then the god then the covenant between God and man is is re-established, it's it's confirmed.

They all agree, and we're like, all right, good, we're gonna go for it here.

All that you have done or all that you have said, we will do.

That's in chapter 24.

And then Moses, after that, he goes back up on the mountain.

You remember this?

For 40 days and forty uh nights, while the Lord shows him what right worship is gonna look like for these people.

And he says, This is what the tabernacle is gonna be like, where I'm gonna dwell with you in your midst.

And this is how it's gonna be built, and these are the dimensions for that, and and all of the things that are gonna be in the tabernacle, like the the Ark of the Covenant and the altar and the lampstands and things like that.

This is what it's gonna be like.

He says, He says, Here's what the priests should wear, and and how that should go, and how they should consecrate themselves so that they are set apart as holy and that their worship is pleasing to me as they take a leadership role in that over the people.

Okay, so these are some of the things that God is teaching Moses during those 40 days and forty nights up on the mountain.

And he writes the commandments on these two stone tablets, as many of us are aware, and and he basically sends Moses off, go back down the mountain now, and and explain all of this uh to the people.

Okay, and so that's where we pick it up here today, in uh in chapter 32.

Okay, now let me warn you that uh what we are about to read here is kind of like uh watching a car accident.

Right?

Have you ever seen an accident happen or you've come across one just like right after it happened, like going north in the 400 or something, everyone slows down, and you've got that like feeling in you where you're like, I don't want to watch, but but I I kinda I'm compelled to.

Right?

That's that's 32, and even into some of 33 here.

Everything was going along great, but then it just takes this ugly turn.

Take a look at this here, uh, starting in in verse one.

It says this, when when the people saw that that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, okay, remember 40 days, 40 nights, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, Up, make us gods, you shall go before us.

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.

Now listen, let's let's time out for a second here, okay?

You ever had one of those those weeks where everything just goes so wrong?

Right?

Everything is bad.

Like I got like two speeding tickets somehow, I I've lost my job, like you know, the entire family has the flu, and and things just kind of continue to build up and build up to the point where you almost have to kind of laugh about it.

Like it's almost humorous, just how crazy things get.

Well, I think that's sort of sort of what we see here, right?

This situation is crazy, and it just kind of gets worse and worse and even more wild.

I mean, notice here in these verses that you know, Moses has been gone for a while, and so the people they gather themselves together, they go up to Aaron, and and notice how they're not like, hey, listen, Aaron, um, we we don't know exactly what's happened to our great and fearless leader, Moses.

Maybe we should pray for him.

Uh, you know, maybe here here's some suggestions that we have about how we could structure and organize ourselves as a as a newly formed nation in terms of our worship and our practices and stuff like that.

That's not what that's not what they say.

What do they say?

Up right?

Like Manders have even gone out the window at this point.

Get up, make us gods who shall go before us.

Like that's that's a that's a crazy thing to say.

Make us gods, like create them, right?

And he says, as for this, I love that, as for this Moses, you know, as if that is his real name, right?

The man who who brought us up out of the land of Egypt.

Okay, so they're kind of blaming Moses now.

They're they're forgetting the Lord completely.

Like, we don't know what's what's what's become of him.

We don't know.

Now, if you know the story, does does does Aaron handle this well or not so well?

Yeah, well, let's let's see this here, verse two.

Okay, so Aaron said to them, take off the the rings of gold that are in your ear, the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters, and bring them to me.

Okay, so all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron.

Hmm, what's he gonna do with that?

Well, it says verse 4, and he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it into uh with a graving tool and made a golden calf.

Uh-oh.

Right?

And they said, These are your gods, O Israel, that we like, remember, just made out of metal, right?

These are your gods who brought us up, past tense, out of the land of Egypt.

Huh?

Like, what this is ridiculous, right?

This is insane.

Are you serious?

Out of the land of Egypt.

When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it, verse 5 tells us, and Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.

So hold on a second.

They just made this calf, they've built an altar to this calf, and now they're also somehow saying, We're gonna worship the Lord.

I mean, this doesn't compute.

Like logic, logic has gone out of the window here.

Okay, none of this even really makes sense.

I don't even know what they're trying to do.

It's like idols and the Lord somehow.

And so what does it say, verse 6?

And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings.

It says, and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

Okay, literally, that's saying that they indulged in revelry.

Okay, they didn't just go grab some fast food and have a meal.

They like, it was it was a debacle here.

It was depravity, it was carnality.

This thing is off the rails so fast.

Okay, the people just bail on the Lord completely, they create this God or gods, and they are they're worshiping it.

Sounds like a great plan.

Okay, verse 7.

And the Lord says to Moses, listen to this, go down for whose people?

For your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.

Hey, as a parent, have you ever said to your spouse, um, your kids are acting up?

Right?

You need to go deal with that.

Right?

It kind of has a little bit of that feeling here, only it's not really funny, is it?

Because the Lord, he's, I mean, you sensed here as we're gonna read through this, he's he's distressed, he's upset, he's he that you know, the wrath is building.

He he wants to disown them for their fickleness and their lack of patience.

Like, he's just been gone for 40 days, man.

Hang on, right?

Things are, we're working on some things.

But so quickly they run to something else or to someone else.

He says in verse 8, they have turned aside quickly, there it is, out of the way that I've 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.

There is so much pride and so much arrogance there and hard-heartedness.

That's what the stiff-necked part refers to.

Then he says, Now therefore, let me alone.

He's like, I am stewing here, that my wrath may burn hot against them, that I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.

And so the Lord is like, I want to start over.

I want to wipe them out.

How can they possibly not understand what we're trying to do here?

How can they seem they just had this transcendent, amazing experience in chapter 20 that we looked at?

Right?

There's there's smoke going up from the mountain, like a kiln, it said.

The Lord is speaking to the people through thunder and lightning, and like a month later, they're like, golden calf, that sounds like a great plan.

And the Lord is furious about this.

And in the next paragraph, there we see that that Moses, Moses pleads with God, and he he reminds him of the covenant, and he reminds them, uh, reminds the Lord of his promise to not forsake them and to multiply them and their inheritance that they will have forever.

And because Moses intercedes, right, which ultimately foreshadows Jesus Christ and what he does for us, between us and God.

As Moses intercedes, the Lord, it says in verse 14, relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing to the people.

Keep going.

Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides.

On the front and on the back they were written.

The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets.

When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.

So apparently uh Joshua had been kind of hanging out, you know, a little bit low, kind of in between Moses and where the people were, or he had started to go up to Moses and they met kind of partway down there.

But verse 18, Moses said, It's not the sound of shouting for victory or the sound of the cry of defeat, but but the sound of singing that I hear.

And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hand, and he broke them at the foot of the mountain.

Now understand, that's way more than Moses throwing a hyssifit.

Okay, what that is, is it signifying the broken covenant that that is now a reality for the Israelites and God.

And it says there in verse 20, he took the calf that they had made and he burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and and made the people of Israel drink it.

I mean, that sounds so excessive and and so extreme, but their sin was so extreme, and a statement needed to be made.

Now keep going.

And Moses said to Aaron, Okay, here's where the humor comes back in, all right?

What did this people do?

Uh what did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?

And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my Lord burn hot.

For you know the people that they are set on evil.

Cool, throws them under the bus.

Right?

For they said to me, Make us gods who who shall go before us.

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.

And so I said to them, Let any who have gold take it off.

So they gave it to me, and I threw it out of the fire.

Look at this, and out came this calf.

Right?

It's a miracle.

Seriously, this is his defense.

Okay, keep going.

And when Moses saw that the people had had broken loose, meaning that they'd cast off all restraint.

They were just doing whatever they wanted and giving into whatever, to the point where their enemies apparently were looking at them like you guys are crazy.

Like that's how bad this was getting.

Verse 25.

Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord's side?

Come to me.

And all the sons of Levi gathered around him, and he said to them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, put your sword on your side, each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.

And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses.

And that day about three thousand men of the people fell.

And Moses said, Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.

The next day Moses said to the people, You have sinned a great sin.

And now I will go up to the Lord.

Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.

And so Moses returned to the Lord and said, Alas, this people have sinned a great sin.

They have made for themselves gods of gold.

But now, if you will forgive their sin, but if if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.

Moses is willing to say, Lord, punish me instead.

Again, we read things like this in the scripture.

We should be thinking gospel.

We should be thinking Jesus Christ.

We should be thinking this is what he did.

And Moses is in an initial picture of that.

Verse 33, though, but the Lord says to Moses, Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.

But now go and lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you.

Pretty amazing there.

You see his grace, as much as they deserve punishment, the Lord's like, just you're gonna go.

You're gonna go to that place that I've promised.

And he says, This, Behold, my angel shall go before you.

Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.

Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf the one that Aaron had made.

Now that might be reference to another awful thing that happened as a consequence to what they had done.

It might be in reference to the three thousand uh men that had fallen earlier.

But now take a look at chapter 33.

The Lord said to Moses, Depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt.

And you recognize the tension here, right, between God's grace, right?

He's so kind and merciful still, even though they have done this, but he's still burning hot.

He says, To the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and Jacob, saying, To your offspring I will give it, I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

It's a lot of sites.

Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.

Now listen to this, verse 4.

When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on ornaments.

For the Lord had said to Moses, say to the people, You were a stiff-necked people, repeats it for the third time, if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you.

Now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.

Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from Mount Horeb onward.

Now that this was an ugly situation, I think is an understatement, would you say that, between them and God?

Okay, but listen, far be it from us to kind of sit back comfortably here in this room years later and chide Israel, you know, for for how obscene their idolatry was, you know, as though ours isn't.

Because in the end, what these verses really do, this passage, it serves as a window into our own souls.

Okay, or another way of putting it, it's like staring into a mirror.

You and I are Israel.

You and I are just as laughably pathetic as as Aaron is.

And just like how God's people don't seem to perceive just how egregious and and awful their their blatant idol worship is, you and I, we fall into similar traps constantly, right?

With the same kind of apparent unawareness and care that what we're doing is a massive massive atrocity to God and and does great damage to us.

But listen, church, if we ever want to see growth in our worship, you know, where we're getting it right, where it's becoming more biblical and it's and it's impacting us all through the week, daily, you know, where our hearts are becoming consumed with Jesus Christ and all things.

And listen, you and I, we must, must, must face that ugly truth that our idolatry runs rampant.

Okay, it's it's more widespread, it runs more deep, it it's more ridiculous, okay?

It's causing more harm to us and and to others than we likely even realize.

Because here's the thing.

Okay, too many Christians and and and too many churches, I think, you know, we want all the blessings, don't we?

Right?

We want the good times, we want the mountaintop experiences, Lord.

Lord, show me your goodness, Lord, give me more peace and and and more joy.

You know, I want all the good feelings and and and the comfort and and all the things that to function properly inside as a human being, Lord, I want I want the victory over my shame.

I want victory over my fear and the hurt and the pain.

Okay, far too often we want all that goodness, all of that good stuff that comes with intimacy with God without properly addressing the idolatry that's standing in the way of all of it.

Right?

That that that can be us.

The stuff that causes what's wrong with how we function and operate internally and externally.

All the stuff that ultimately harms our our worship of God and eventually makes us what?

Miserable.

Do you feel that?

Do you feel that ache inside at times?

You're like, I know things aren't great.

I know that my relationship with the Lord isn't really where it should be, but I'm I'm gonna continue to chase after these other things, and they bring just temporary kind of happiness or excitement, but but over time your soul's starting to decay and you're becoming more and more isra uh miserable.

But you know what, I'm gonna double down on these idols and I'm gonna go after them even more, and it just gets worse and worse and worse.

And we're and we're praying for for more of God's goodness, and Lord, we get frustrated and discouraged, and why are you pouring more of that into me and just magically transforming me easily?

But we don't want to face all the problems that are there.

We don't want to look at it, we don't want to walk through it.

So listen, folks, if you haven't sensed it already, I'm gonna push us here, right?

As individuals, as a church, we've got to be done with this lethargic attitude about these things.

This this unwillingness to do what must be done.

Are we willing to take just a good, hard, honest look at what's going on under the hood?

Right?

Are we willing to pop that and and look underneath and and and roll up our sleeves and get our hands a little bit greasy here?

Are you willing as a Christ follower?

Remember what that means.

It means saved by grace.

It means forgiven.

It means endless hope for an amazing future that's to come.

That's where you and I stand.

Are you willing in that reality to address all of this?

To grow in your sanctification here, which let's not forget.

Sanctification is God's will for us.

1 Thessalonians 4:3.

1 Thessalonians 4:3

We often wonder what's God's will?

Who am I gonna marry, right?

You know, where am I gonna work?

What's my career gonna be like?

What house should we get?

We we want all that stuff.

Worry about your growth, focus on that stuff.

The Lord will take care of the rest of it.

Are you willing to face these things and to and to grow?

Here's another way of putting it.

Are you willing to burn down your own golden calf?

Or quite likely, don't be too discouraged by this.

But calves, plural.

Now you might be wondering, well, how do we do that?

Like, how do I go about this process?

Because maybe for you, none of this is news to you.

Maybe you're like, yeah, like I know I know what my idols are, and I'm and I'm fairly aware of this, and I, you know, I've tried praying or I've tried talking to somebody about it a little bit, but I don't, I don't seem to be picking up any steam with all of this, and and and I'm discouraged by it, and and I don't really know where to go or where to start or how to properly face all of this and find victories, uh victory over the idols that have captured my heart.

Well, we got this for you.

You can jot this down here.

How to face your idolatry, okay?

These are just these are ten things.

Okay, I'm not saying this is any like in any perfect chronological order, but but here are ten things, and I'm sure there's more.

Here's the first one how to face your idolatry.

Well, first of all, know what an idol is.

Okay, if we're gonna face our idols, we better be able to like define that, right?

To to understand even what we're talking about.

Okay, so what's an idol?

Well, we've talked about this before, but an idol is anything that your heart thinks it needs more than God.

Okay, what does your heart think it needs?

Because that's the thing that your heart is worshiping.

And that's where worship goes sideways.

Okay?

So anywhere in your heart that you think, you know what, God's not enough for me.

I I kind of appreciate him and he brings me something for sure, but to be truly complete as a person, I need this other thing, really, or these other things.

And so we're kind of like the Israelites here.

They worship the golden calf and they try to honor the Lord in all of that.

We try to do the exact same thing.

Okay, whatever that heart thing is, that's that's your idol.

I love what John Calvin said, an amazing quote.

He said, Our hearts are idol factories.

Our hearts are idol factories, our hearts create these things.

We we we make these things up, and everyone's are you know maybe a little bit different.

Tim Keller also talks about it, and I like how he kind of discusses it.

He said, our idols are the broken ways that we try and save ourselves.

He refers to the entire thing as the self-salvation project.

And so, for example, you you know, you might notice, like, man, I have this like crazy desire that's all-encompassing for like more free time in my life.

Right?

And I'm so busy and I have this, you know, this urge and this drive to like neglect some of my responsibilities.

I might be, you know, giving attention to your kids and discipling them because I'm gonna numb myself in front of the TV or or online or whatever, into my hobbies.

Right?

That's an example of the self-salvation project.

I think I need more free time, more downtime, more whatever it might be in order to feel whole.

All right.

So this is the first thing.

You need to know what an idol is, first of all.

Second one, you need to know what yours are.

Specifically, you need to know what yours actually are.

Well, how do we do this?

How do we begin to figure out what our idols are?

Well, I would say this.

Start analyzing the fruit in your life.

What is the fruit?

What is your attitude?

What what are your actions?

Just go through your schedule, your calendar, how you spend your time, how you spend your money.

Think through what is my what do my thoughts drift to throughout a day?

What am I excited about?

What am I passionate about?

Can I just be really honest before you?

Some of the things that the Lord has started to unearth in deeper ways uh in me, and I've been noticing this and starting to realize some some idolatry in in my life, and it's come through recognizing some of the fruit that's there.

And listen, it's not good fruit.

And over the last, I don't know, year or so, I've really struggled with sleeping at night.

Okay, something as as simple as that.

I'm I'm waking up multiple times through the night, and and I'm and I'm thinking, I can't shut the brain off, right?

And and at times I'm I'm worrying and I'm anxious and I and I'm stressful, and I wake up and I just feel like like death.

I mean, ask my wife.

I used to be able to sleep like a college student, right?

And and that's just it's it's not really happening anymore.

And it goes in these these awful waves, and sometimes it's great, and sometimes it's it's really not.

And and so the Lord is starting to show me, listen, this is a problem.

Okay, and and he's revealing to me that this anxiety that I that I might have just about you know the life of the church and caring for people and and trying to put out fires or fix problems and trying to get better and trying to grow in my own life and lead my family, all the different things.

And some of you have some of those same responsibilities as well.

In that, I'm I'm realizing that you know why I what's become clear is I'm not really trusting the Lord with these things.

Not deep down.

I mean, I can I can talk about it literally, I can preach about trusting the Lord, I can preach about his sovereignty till the cows come home, but somewhere in my heart, I'm not resting in it.

And so I'm realizing that for me, I have this idol of control.

I want to control my life.

I want things to go the way that I want them to go.

And when they don't, which it never does, right, I start to get anxious about that, or I start to get annoyed, or I stop sleeping.

And so somewhere in my heart, the sovereignty of God isn't sweet to me.

Feel that how how awful that sounds the goodness of God is not something I'm resting in.

I I know it up here, but the heart's not getting it.

And so I'd appreciate your prayers as I kind of think through these things and talk to people about these things and work through these things.

And this is all part of my sanctification, right?

The Lord is good and he is working in me, and I'm and I'm truly thankful for it.

I really, really am.

Yeah, but what are your idols?

I don't know, we'll give a couple of examples, and we've shared examples before, and we certainly can't get to all of them, but maybe for you, you're noticing just like deep insecurity within you about your appearance.

I don't like the way I look, and and the world is just all in with you better look good.

You better be on the best diet and have a great workout plan and be attractive and all of these things.

And so your insecurities, okay, in that you've gone to spending, let's say, thousands on clothing to try and hide those insecurities and present a more attractive version of yourself to other people.

Maybe that's it.

Maybe, maybe clothes or or appearance has become your idolatry.

Start to peel that back a little bit and go down to the bedrock of what your heart and and and what am I not believing?

What truth am I not believing here about God or the reality of my relationship with Him through the gospel?

Maybe for you it's it's a simple addiction to your phone.

Like I'm like refreshing Instagram constantly, right?

Don't act like you don't do it.

You do it.

Right?

Maybe maybe that's it.

And and it's this like it's this need, as you start to peel that back, and you're looking under the hood, you're like, it's this need for constant entertainment.

And when life's boring, I can't handle that.

And instead of finding rest deep in our souls, in Christ, and joy in that, I'm gonna look for it in scrolling constantly.

Maybe it's in food.

Uh-oh, this is gonna get convicting.

Right?

And and for some people it's it's just eating too much.

It's food just makes me feel comfortable, and I and I and my whole life is revolved around meals, and most of my paycheck goes into food and restaurants and eating out, and it makes me feel good, but what ends up happening over time, you feel terrible.

Right?

And and you're looking for that comfort in something other than Jesus Christ.

So, what are your idols?

What are they?

You need to know them.

Because once you start to start to, that's when you can get moving into all of these other things.

Here's the third one.

Recognize how far this spreads.

How far this spreads.

Hey, realize this isn't just, ah, it's not a big deal.

So what that I, you know, am obsessed over the new iPhone 10 XRS, whatever it's called.

Right?

Who cares?

It's not a big deal.

Are you sure?

Maybe it's messing up your budget plans.

You know, maybe your idols, whatever you know they may be, are causing paralyzing insecurity and you're you're you're hiding it, but you know it's there.

Maybe it's just this constant worry and and and and despair over things in life.

Maybe it just causes you to make foolish and and ridiculous decisions over and over again.

You keep you keep going back to these same foolish, sinful things and it's causing strain on your relationships, in your marriage.

It's affecting your parenting.

It's affecting your attitude and your desire to worship the Lord.

Recognize how far this spreads.

It's not getting better on its own.

How about this one, number four?

Stop with the excuses, cover-ups, and blaming.

No more Aaron's.

Okay, sorry if your name is Aaron here.

But listen, Christ's followers own it.

We own it.

I am broken.

I don't have to, I don't have to shrink back in despair or or shame about that.

Christ loves me despite my brokenness.

Right?

He he is renewing me.

I can I can face what's wrong with me head on and enjoy, knowing that I'm forgiven, knowing that Christ is making me new.

I I don't have to make excuses for all this.

I don't have to, you know, blame you know my the my parents' awful upbringing.

I don't have to blame all that.

Yeah, that has an effect on us, sure.

But it's not their fault I'm gonna own it.

No more of this victim mentality, no more stiff-necked refusal to see it and to address it.

Some of you you've been told over and over again, this is what's wrong with you.

People who love you are telling you kindly and graciously, and you're like, nope, don't want to hear it.

And some of you have come into our church because you've been to another church and and they've they've tried to chode you.

And you're like, the problem is them, I'm out of here, and I and now I'm here, and someday we're gonna have that conversation, and you'll be out of here and somewhere else.

This is this unhealthy cycle and pattern in your life.

Face it.

Face it.

That leads to the fifth one.

Take courage and press forward.

Take courage.

No quit.

Don't go part way and then pull the chute on this.

Remember, we have the spirit of God in us.

Right?

Why are we like, I don't know if this is gonna happen.

The spirit of God that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is yours if you know him.

That's power.

I don't know, I'm just gonna say that.

Right?

We should be like, oh yeah, this is amazing.

And the fact that the Lord wants to sanctify us and will glorify us ultimately means that he's already on board with transforming you.

You need to get on board too.

Take courage.

It's scary, I get it.

We don't always have all the answers, we don't know exactly where to go.

I get it.

Search the scriptures, talk to people.

We'll get to that one in a second.

Here's the sixth one mourn that this is against God.

That part has to be there.

If you want to get your heart right, if you want worship to be in a good place, you have to mourn the sin that is against him.

And sometimes we have worldly sorrow about these things.

We're distressed by the consequences our our sin has caused.

I'm distressed by the lack of sleep.

I'm distressed by the worry and the upset feelings and emotions that I have, but I'm not really upset by the idolatry and what that has done against God.

Okay, godly sorrow versus worldly sorrow there.

And we see that in chapter 33, verse 4, right?

They mourned.

The people mourned when they said when they heard this disastrous word.

Keep going, number seven, accept whatever the consequences may be.

You know what, Christians?

Again, it kind of goes back to the whole owning it, facing it.

You're gonna have consequences.

Choose to sin, choose to suffer.

That's gonna be there.

It might be, you know, years and years of disinterested parenting.

Listen, that's gonna affect your kids.

It's it's it's years and years of whatever sin, whatever issue it might be, it's gonna affect you.

It's gonna affect your spouse, it's gonna affect your relationships.

Those won't magically all just be taken away necessarily.

Got to accept them.

Whatever they may be, leave that in the hands of the Lord.

Trust him.

Number eight, find the right help.

Find the right help.

This is a reminder that you're not we're not to do this on our own.

No Lone Rangers out there.

So many of us are like, I can I can do this.

I just I'll just pray a little harder.

You know, I'll just read an extra chapter every day or something like that.

But I I don't want to actually invest in a community.

No, that that's what we're supposed to do.

Get people around you to help you.

Get people to pray for you.

The other part of this, I would say, not just any old advice will do.

Don't just talk to anybody.

I would say this don't even just go to any old Christian counselor.

They're not all created equal.

Do you know that?

Be careful about this.

Bring biblical, biblically centered, saturated, godly advice.

Surround yourself with that.

Find the right help.

Number nine, remind yourself of God's forgiveness and grace.

Okay, it's not just about despairing and and and and And hurting or harming ourselves and beating ourselves down constantly.

Remember the good news of the gospel.

Remember his grace towards you as we see God be gracious to Israel here.

He wants to consume them.

There's that part, there's that wrath.

But at the same time, he's like, I'm still gonna send my angel with you, I'm still gonna send you into the promised land.

He's gracious to us as well.

And then the last thing here, understand the ebbs and flows of growth.

You gotta understand that.

I think so many times we have like this mountaintop experience, and it might be through brokenness, it might be through surrender and repentance, and wow, the Lord is doing so much in my heart, and I'm so filled with joy.

And then, like three months later, we're like, why is it actually difficult again?

Understand that's that's sanctification.

It's a bumpy road, and you're gonna have ups and downs, and understand that your pride is way deeper than you think it is.

And just because the Lord does some work in you, which is so awesome, it might mean that he's gonna do it in layers.

And he's gonna slowly like peel back the onion and go deeper by his grace.

Understand the ebbs and flows.

Sometimes it's difficult.

You gotta have healthy and realistic expectations about how all of this works together.

Okay, but the idea here is to be bold, right?

To be in intentional and urgent about this idolatry as the Lord sanctifies us, okay, which is the process in which we become right worshipers.

Which I I hope, I believe, I think that's what we want, right?

Do we not want that?

Is that not why we're here on a Sunday morning and coming?

Because we want to press into the Lord and know him and see him work and bring him glory?

If that's the case, then we have to face this stuff.

We really do.

And on top of that, graciously desire God's presence and glory most of all.

Okay, that's the second point here today.

The final point is just two.

Okay, now in chapter 33 here in verses 7 to 11, uh, it kind of serves as a bit of a sidebar in the in the narrative here to create an attention for us in the story.

It it showed that that before all this happened, Moses used to meet with God outside of the uh of the camp in the tent of meeting.

And it says there in verse 11 that the the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as man speaks to a friend.

Okay, that but the people's idolatry, we're supposed to steal this here as we read this, it's obviously put a put a strain on this relationship.

Okay, it's put distance between them and and God relationally.

It's spoiled intimacy with him.

And while our sin and our idolatry as as Christ's followers do the exact same thing, it doesn't mean that God rejects us.

Do we know that?

He mercifully still graciously, he draws near to us with his presence.

He shows us his glory.

And that's what we see here starting in verse 12.

Pick it up there.

Moses said to the Lord, said, See, see, you say to me, bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me.

Okay, so remember, God told them that he was gonna send his angel with them, but but Moses, he's like, That's that's not good enough.

I'm I'm hungrier for more than that.

Angels are great and all, but we need, we need you.

I mean, notice this how much he wants it, he says, You have said, I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.

Now, therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me your ways that I may, what is it, know you in order to find favor in your sight.

Consider too that this nation is your people.

So he's crying out to for himself and for the Israelites.

And God says, My presence, there it is, will go with you, and I will give you rest.

And he said to him, If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.

For how shall it be known that I found favor in your sight, I and your people?

Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?

And the Lord said to Moses, the very thing that you have spoken, I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.

Moses said, This is awesome, underline it, please show me your glory.

And he said, I will make all my goodness, okay, my glory pass before you, and I will proclaim before you my name the Lord, and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.

But he said, You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live, meaning that that mankind cannot handle the full force, the full weight of God's holiness and his glory.

It's just far too overwhelming, it's far too intense and extreme.

We would just cease to exist, we would die.

That's how incredible the Lord is.

And so the Lord shows him here.

So here's how we're gonna do this, here's how this is gonna play out.

Okay, verse 21.

It says, And the Lord said, Behold, there's a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by, I will put you in the cleft of the rocks, like this crevice.

I'm gonna put you physically in there, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by.

Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, it says.

Now, this isn't talking about you'll see physically God's back.

Because God is what?

God is spirit, right?

God is spirit, we know that.

So it what this is referring to is sort of like the residue of uh of God, the the after-effects of his radiant glory, as I saw one author put it.

You're gonna see the after effects of that, but he says, but my face or the full reality of my being, my full glory shall not be seen.

Wow, right?

Oh, that you and I would come to experience this more and more as God's people, as a church.

That hunger that Moses has here for the presence of God to be with Israel, you know, or it's just flat, it's not worth moving forward.

Lord, angels are great and all, but I need we need more than that.

That we would have that same like voracious desire and appetite to taste and see the glory of God as we come face to face with Him.

Right?

The effects, the the results of His goodness and His holiness and His splendor and His majesty and His love and His grace and His mercy, all those things.

I mean, listen, do you want more of that in your life?

Are you hungry for that?

Do you sense that stirring up in you as as we get into God's word here today?

Do you want that?

This is the kind of thing that I pray for our church constantly.

Every single Sunday morning.

I get up and and and I and I spend time in prayer before getting into the message and going through the scriptures and all of that.

I'm like, Lord, show up today in power and majesty.

Show up, show us your glory, word for word, what what Moses is saying here.

That's all I want.

Lord, if it comes down to what I have to offer, or what the worship he has to offer, or what harvest kids has to offer, or what people offer through, welcome you into the church.

Our church is lame.

Like we've said that before.

We need God, we need his glory, we need more of him, more of his presence, more of his goodness.

Do you want it?

More of his power every time we gather on Sundays.

More of his glory revealed in your life, in your children's lives as his people, Monday to Saturday.

Do you want the Lord to make it so abundantly clear that all of your idols are dust compared to him?

Because that's what he wants to do.

That is what he does when he builds his church.

God, give us that desire for your presence and your glory more than anything.

Because you know what happens as the Lord does this?

Do you know?

As he shows his glory, as he draws near to us, his presence is among us, guess what happens?

We worship rightly, don't we?

We worship him.

And all the idols that are numbing the desire to worship God properly, and all of those idols that mess up how we function and operate and that work as ultimately as cruel taskmasters, whipping us and enslaving us more and more, all of those things begin to collapse under the weight of God's glory and his presence.

Listen, pray for this.

Ask the Lord for this in your life, in our church.

That God would, as we taste a glimpse and see and catch a glimpse of his glory, and as we sense his presence, as we experience the residue of his glory as Moses did, ask for more of it.

That that hunger would, that voracious appetite would never be completely fulfilled, that we would just want more and more and more, and the idols would just go more into the distance and more into the past, and our lives would just be greater surrender and greater worship.