Biblical Worship | Getting It Right I (September 9th, 2018) - Mike Armstrong

Uh if you would turn in your Bibles to the book of Exodus, we're gonna be in Exodus uh chapter 19 and 20 here today as we start up uh our new fall series.

Now, uh when I say fall, that's a little bit misleading.

It's a two-week miniseries, okay?

So it's uh it's pretty short, but it's really in many ways a reset for us as we come out of uh our summer, whatever that was for you.

For some of us, summers do not slow down.

For others of us, uh we've we've spent like countless hours uh basting in the sun on our dock up north or something like that.

And to get back into the swing of things, the speed of things, uh, we need to get the juices flowing a little bit.

And that's what this uh series is really aiming towards here, as we uh uh kind of reset again and figure out what is biblical worship, what is that all about?

And so hopefully you're in Exodus 19, or if you're turning there now.

Um this week, okay, or actually it was the other week, I uh I had an oil change done on my car.

And I don't know if you go to these places, maybe some of you are handy enough to just do that yourself in your own driveway or garage or whatever, but I went to this place, got an oil change, and uh.

I was so impressed with how one of the attendants, um, how much care and attention he put into cleaning my windshield.

Does that does that bless anybody else other than me?

I mean, this guy was like this guy was like Van Gogh with how much attention and and and care and the detail that he put into it.

And you know, he is like scrubbing hard on all like the dry, dead bugs on there.

And and and the best part though was was, you know, when he when he dries it with the squeegee, and you know, like the streak free, you know, he starts at the bottom and he curves and he works his way up and he you know, he has the blade angled just perfectly.

I mean, unbelievable, right?

I love that so much.

All of you are looking at me like I don't care at all about that kind of thing, but but I do, okay?

And it was just so clear, so obvious, that this guy wanted to do the job right, right?

He wanted to do it right.

Now, now maybe you too appreciate uh a job well done.

Okay, it's how the the carpenter he installed your, you know, the trim in your new basement, and he did away that in a way that was just so seamless, or you know, it's the remarkable penmanship in in the note or the card that somebody wrote to you to just to encourage you.

You know, they could have sent you a text or or or or an email, but they took the time to craft that.

I mean, there's there's just something about a job done right that I think just right, it kind of hits the spot for us.

Now, if we can appreciate those kinds of things done properly, it stands to reason that as Christ followers, we really should appreciate the massive importance that God uh places on worshiping Him rightly.

Now, when I use the word worship here and throughout most of the morning here together, I don't just mean it in the in the more narrow sense that we often have come to think of it as, which is namely uh the singing that we do at church.

Right?

We just we just sang, we call that worship.

It's not wrong to call that worship, but sometimes we get thinking that only that is worship, and we compartmentalize the understanding of worship to this time of singing in in church, and then I go uh from my day, and nothing else I do is worship or or worship full.

Um, but that is uh not at all accurate.

Okay, and today I mean uh the word worship in the broader sense of that word.

Worship being the overall heart attitude and an expression of honor and submission to God as his creation.

Because listen, we we've been designed to worship.

Do you know that?

That is how God, that's how God made us.

And we reveal that.

We reveal who or or or what it is that we worship by the things that have captured our hearts, our uh the our attention, the our affections, and the priorities that we place in life.

From things like the pursuit of wealth or comfort or entertainment to the deep inner urge that some have to live for people's approval.

All of this at its bedrock is worship.

We all worship something.

Now in Exodus, we see that God's people, Israel, they were just starting to kind of learn what this was all about.

And there's there's just so much here in these two chapters, and we'll look at a few later chapters uh next week, but so much that you and I can learn as a church, as worship is just so core uh to who we are as people made in God's image, and it's so core to who we are as Harvest Bible Chapel.

I mentioned how prayer earlier, I mentioned how prayer is one of our four pillars.

Well, while so is worship.

So if we're gonna place uh so much attention on that as God does, then it makes sense that, hey, listen, we better be getting this right.

Right?

We better be getting this uh accurate.

All right, and so this is where we're going today.

Hopefully you're in the scriptures now.

I'm gonna pray and then we'll dive in.

Join me as we pray.

God, thank you for this time together.

Lord, worship is a massively uh foundational component to what it means to uh to know you.

Lord, it's it should really be driving all of life.

It should be driving how we think and act and breathe.

Lord, I think it's just so easy for us.

I have been so filled with this overwhelming sense all week of just how how short I fall of doing this well.

And God, though, you are so merciful and you are so gracious, and through Jesus Christ, you continually call us back to yourself, Lord, and and you are so patient with us, and and bit by bit you you take ground in our hearts, Lord, so that we would in all things learn to worship you.

And so, God, teach us what biblical worship is all about.

Lord, we pray that as a church uh we would go uh deeper and go further in this uh this year, God.

Thank you for your grace to us and in all of these things.

We pray it in Christ's name.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, we pick it up in Exodus uh chapter 19.

A lot has already uh happened here uh through this uh this book of the Bible.

We know that uh uh God has just led uh the Israelites out of Egypt.

They were in slavery uh there for uh for 215 uh years, and the Lord has just brought them out through the leadership of Moses.

So they've just crossed the Red Sea where Pharaoh and the Egyptians had been defeated by God's mighty hand.

They had stopped after that on the other side of the shore to sing praises to God, and now the Lord, what was he doing?

He was beginning to train them and teach them what being their God and they being his people uh was gonna be all about.

And so he shows them, I am going to be your provider, and they're grumbling and complaining about, you know, uh dying of thirst or hunger, and he gives them manna, and he gives them water and quail and all of that.

They have enemies come out against them, the Amalekites, and they're, you know, they're not warriors.

They, you know, had centuries of just being slaves, and and God comes in and he protects them, he defeats their enemies, he establishes leadership ranking uh among them so that they can they can structure themselves well and operate as uh as a newly formed nation.

And now we pick it up in the story where God has led these people to the to the foot of Mount Sinai, and He's gonna show them epically, okay, as we're gonna see this here, what right worship looks like.

Okay, so here's the first thing, then, if you've got your notes and you're into taking those and writing some things down.

It says, To worship God rightly, I must be captivated by what He's done for me.

That's really the first thing that we see here in the text.

So why don't you take a look at it here?

We're gonna look at uh verses one to four, first of all.

Uh here's what it says.

It says, On the third new moon, okay, so this is this places us uh about seven weeks after the Exodus.

Okay, this is not like years and years later.

This is very recent after they had just left Egypt.

It says, on the third new moon, after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.

They set out from Rephidim, which is where they were before, and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness.

There, Israel encamped before the mountain while Moses went up to God.

And so this is really in fulfillment of what we see earlier in Exodus chapter 3, verse 12, where God tells Moses, it's gonna be assigned to you, that I am with you, I'm gonna bring these people out to this mountain, and you will you will serve me, you will, you will worship me.

Exodus 3:12

Okay, so keep going, part way through verse 3.

It says, The Lord called to him out of the mountain, this is Moses, he says, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel, you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself.

Okay, so what do we see here?

What do we understand so far?

Well, we see that uh that it's clear that it's it's been God's grace, it has been God's power, his action that has gotten these people to this point so far.

Right?

They're not they're not sharp enough, they're not mighty enough, they're not wise enough, they're not all of that enough to get them to this point.

He he did, right?

He brought the the plagues, right?

He freed them from the Egyptians, he fed them, he defeated the Amalekites, right?

He brought them to the foot of this mountain.

Now, if you want to back it up even further, and we've talked about this a little bit even recently, right?

He chose them to be his nation, his people.

Right?

It all started with their forefather Abraham, and and God initiates a relationship and this in a covenant with Abraham to be his God and his descendants' God forever.

So these Israelites that we're reading about here today, they are the descendants of Abraham that God was talking about there.

And that's all found in Genesis 15 and and in chapter 17 as well, and it shows us that this that this covenant between God and Abraham and and ultimately with Israel, as they would become to be known as, right?

It would be dependent on who to fulfill?

On God, right?

On God.

Usually in a covenant, now understand this, usually in a covenant, both parties, like they they pledge an oath or or they agree to terms here, but but but with Abraham, God alone signs the contract, so to speak, by by by passing between these animal parts.

That sounds a little bit weird to us, it's a little bit out of our context, but this was this was pretty normal in the time.

Typically, what happened was both both parties would pass between these animals, and the idea would be uh may what happened to these animals happen to us if we break this covenant.

But instead, it's just God who goes through it.

And so here God is reminding Moses, and he's reminding Israel here.

He's like, Look what I have done for you.

Look, look.

Now listen, that doesn't mean that there are or there is zero participation in this covenant on their part.

Just take a look at verse five, okay?

Verse five says, Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all people, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.

And so Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him.

All the people answered together.

They were unified, and they said, All that the Lord has spoken, we will do.

And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.

Now, this whole covenant and and this agreement that God re-establishes with Moses and the Israelites here, it's not to say that this is a 50-50 agreement.

You know, you do your half and and I'll do mine, or else the covenant's off.

Right?

That's not exactly what this is saying.

It's to say that that their obedience was a condition of their enjoyment and their well-being and their spiritual vitality within this covenant.

God's saying, if you if you fail in this, if you fail to keep this, if you fail to obey me, the covenant's it's not void.

It just means that your experience uh you'll experience consequences, you'll experience pain and all kinds of problems because of your sin, and you'll miss out on the blessings that could be yours if you had only worship me.

Okay, so what God does here, right out of the gate, we see this in Exodus 19, is he shows the Israelites and and ultimately us that that right worship as he is teaching them here has so much to do with getting our hearts and our minds onto his great works, the things that he has done.

We're to be reminded of them, we're we're to be captivated by what he's done.

Those are the things that motivate us to worship.

It's all the great things that he's done.

If you think about it, there's never any good reason at all to be to be bored Christians.

To be passionless, to be dry, to to not care about the Lord and and about all of these things.

And when it comes to our attitude in worship, it really should be fired up, right?

It because the Lord has, I mean, he's just done so much for us.

Now, as Christians living in 2018, as we find ourselves, you and I have have the immense benefit of studying this text today through the through the lens of the cross and the resurrection, which adds more amazing layers uh into this.

Okay, so so we, you know, even more so I would say than than the Israelites here, understand just how much God really has done for us.

We know the sacrifice, don't we?

We know the the commitment carried through.

We know the the radical love that He has shown.

And I think most of us we can even remember that the time where we look back on our own lives and and and we remember the time that we embraced that as our own and and got saved.

Right?

How in awe of him we were in that moment.

And how heavy we felt about our sin and how just full of wonder we we felt about about our forgiveness and the eternity that was purchased for us.

And of course, the joy that we felt knowing that, wow, now I'm on I'm on good terms with my creator.

Listen, are you are you still captivated by this?

Are you are you captivated by the gospel?

And then as a springboard from that, all the other ways that God has has shown you grace and has has worked his power in your life and answered all kinds of other prayers on top of your salvation.

As the Lord urges Israel to be enthralled by all that he has done for them in the very recent past here.

The message to us is the same.

Right worship of God cannot happen if we're not infatuated by the great things that He's done for us.

And this is something that has to come from the heart, right?

It has to come from within.

And we need to put some serious thought into that.

Because you and I, I mean, we can be so easily deceived into thinking that our our external acts of singing and giving and you know, reading the scriptures and praying and and and all of those things, those are the are the are the only or or real measure by which our worship is deemed right and and acceptable in God's eyes.

Right?

I'm outwardly doing these things, therefore my worship is it's good.

Right?

Therefore, therefore, God is pleased.

Okay, but all of those those outward acts can be, it's very possible we know this, can be performed mechanically.

We can be super wooden heart, detached from passion and joy and and love about these things.

We can be, you know, so void, devoid of of joy and gratitude and and love, right?

So hollow these acts can be if they're not, again, overflowing from a heart that's that's been captivated by God's goodness and his greatness.

So listen, where is your where is your heart at with these things when when it comes to this fall that we're all heading into?

We're into it now.

Right?

We know that the fall is going to be mental.

Right?

It's it's busy, right?

It's driving kids back and forth from school.

It's you know, sports is starting back up again, it's you know, busyness with small group, and it's all of those things.

Listen, as you think about your state before the Lord in terms of worship and all of that, do you do you come into this fall like energized and I'm ready to go after the rest that I've had this summer?

And you know, are you feeling good about all of these things and eager to get with the Lord and his church?

And I can't wait to see the Lord take me to greater depths of worship and in ways that I've never experienced before?

Or are you more cold about these things and distant and blah about it all?

Listen, if that's you, what's your plan?

Right?

Like what's your strategy here?

What's your I guess a game plan is a good way of putting it.

Is it, I don't know, I'm gonna just kind of keep it in autopilot and just kind of keep going the way things are going and not really care too much about seeing things get to a better spot or or just hope that it all sort of, I don't know, works out, or or listen, will you take the the action necessary to actually think back on and and remember all that God has done for you right in your life through your salvation in all the ways that you have grown?

Do you ever look back on your life and just be like, man, like I I get it, I'm still a work in progress and I'm so broken here, but how cool is it that the Lord has transformed me in this or that area?

Do you do that?

Do you look back on your marriage, whether you've been married for a year, you've been married for 40 years and say, wow, look what God has done.

Do you think about you know all the prayer that you've put into your kids, your children, and we long so much for the Lord to capture their hearts and for them to be captivated with Him.

Do you look back on that and see answered prayer?

And does that does it fire you up?

Does it excite you to give more of your life over to the Lord?

Listen, recounting his grace and his works, what does it do?

It it it stirs up your motivation, right?

Doesn't it?

Right?

Your your inner fire to to praise him, to worship him, to to give him everything you've got in in everything that you do.

Listen, Harvest, we've We've got an opportunity here to lock into what right worship really looks like according to God and and reset the trajectory of our approach to it.

Starts, of course, with being captivated with him again and allowing that to drive you towards him as a worshiper.

Okay, but at the same time, never approaching him simply on your own terms.

That's the second thing here this morning.

And we're gonna see this here very clearly, I think, through most of the rest of our passage here today, picking it up in verse 9 of chapter 19.

We're gonna read down almost to the end of chapter 20.

So lock in here.

Here we go.

Says this, and and the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and you and also may believe you forever.

And so God is saying, heads up, something amazing is about to happen, like we've never seen before.

You've certainly never seen anything like it before.

I'm gonna come down, I am gonna speak to you and to the people, and and the and the people are gonna hear me speaking to you, so that they realize that you are my man, you are my guy, you are the leader here, and they will follow you, knowing that you are mine.

And he says, It's gonna be awesome.

Now pick it up in the next paragraph.

When Moses told the words of the people to the Lord, the Lord said to Moses, Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow.

Consecrating is setting yourself apart to be holy.

Okay, so this is really important.

Okay, and he said, Be ready, verse 11, be ready for the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people, and you shall set limits for all the people all around.

He's talking about the base of the mountain, saying, Take care to not go up into the mountain or even touch the edge of it.

Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death.

No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot, whether beast or man, he shall not live.

So you're starting to get the idea here.

We're dealing with a holy God, and we, uh, yeah, not so holy.

Okay, and so holiness being a serious thing here.

But God continues, he says, When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.

Okay, so Moses, he went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people, and they washed their garments, and he said to the people, Be ready for the third day.

Something's coming.

And he says, Do not go near a woman, which might sound a little bit random.

It might seem a little bit out of place.

It's not to say that women were sinful or anything like that.

It's actually talking about sexual relations.

And it's not even to say that that is sinful by any means, but it is to say, no, I want your focus not to be on those things, on other things here.

I want you to get your hearts and get your minds on this, on this thing that is about to happen as God comes to meet with man.

He's like, This is this is the real deal.

This is happening.

Verse 16.

On the morning of the third day, there were 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.

So just picture this scene that's developing here.

This is wild, right?

Verse 17.

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.

The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.

Wow.

Verse 19, and the set and as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder.

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.

Okay, now take a look at this here in verse 20.

This is what the Lord is concerned with.

Sorry, verse 21, it says, And the Lord said to Moses, Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord and look, and many of them perish.

Also, let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break out against them.

And Moses said to the Lord, The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, Set limits around the mountain and consecrate it here.

Hey, where are we?

I lost my spot.

Verse 24.

Right?

And the Lord said to that, said to him, Go down and and come up, bringing Aaron with you.

But do not let the priest and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break out against them.

And so Moses went down to the people and told them, Hey, the Lord is concerned that listen, you guys aren't, you guys don't understand sin properly yet.

You don't understand how a holy God relates to a sinful people and you to him.

And so the Lord is concerned that in their curiosity at this incredible scene, we know that they're trembling, we know that they're fearful, we know that this is altogether wild what's taking place here.

He's concerned that they're in their in their zeal and their foolishness, they're just gonna break through the barriers and they're gonna come up to try and sneak a peek.

Hey, Moses is up there, maybe we can see something too.

And the Lord, in his grace and in his mercy, he doesn't want to have to come out and end them.

And so what God's well, let's just jump into this here, chapter 20.

Okay, chapter 20.

And he jumps straight into the Ten Commandments here and gives them the law.

And then here's the first commandment.

He says, You shall have no other gods before me.

He says, You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, visiting iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing, listen, his grace goes even further, but showing steadfast love to thousands, okay, or to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commands.

Here's the third commandment.

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

Number four, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.

On it you shall do not do any work, you or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.

For in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.

Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Number five, honor your father and mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Six, you shall not murder.

Seven, you shall not commit adultery.

Eight, you shall not steal.

Nine, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

And the final one here, you shall not covet your neighbor's house.

You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor.

Listen, what the Lord is doing through all of this here, I mean, we covered a lot, right?

There's a lot of detail that we could go into in terms of the Ten Commandments alone.

And someday we'll do a series on just that, and it'll be good.

But but listen, what he's showing us here through this whole scene that is developing is that the people, they simply cannot worship him however they deem necessary.

Right?

There's no such thing as worshiping the Lord however we want to do it.

Right?

The commands not to approach or even touch the mountain where God was descending, the giving of the law, these ten commandments, which reveal God's God's character and his perfect standard to those who would know him and worship him rightly, through this incredible scene unfolding here, God's showing them that he is infinitely holy and awesome and wonderful, and that they fall so far short of that.

Yet in the foolishness and pride and arrogance of their heart, God knew that they were likely to just sort of ignorantly push past all of those warnings and the boundaries and carelessly on their own terms try and worship him, right?

Minimizing the seriousness of their sin and also the intensity of God's perfection.

This would bring instant death and deservingly.

Because who were they to think that they deserved to be near this, you know, their holy creator who they have rebelled against?

They deserved wrath.

They didn't deserve relationship.

And when you think about us here today and you're thinking about your own life, where have you gotten all too comfortable approaching God on your own terms?

Perhaps you're you know putting up a pretty good front, you know, as a you know, solid Christ follower, you know, who who worships God rightly and day-to-day life, and that's the vibe you're putting out for sure, but but maybe inside your heart is it's a mess of broken commandments.

You're just not taking it seriously enough.

You act like everything's fine and it's all good, but but you're maybe it's the first commandment that you're breaking.

Newsflash, we all are, right?

But you're putting countless gods before the Lord.

It's your career, maybe.

It's your family, right?

It's it's it's your hobbies, it's it's your aspirations, it's other goals, it's other dreams that you have.

You're like, hold on a second, aren't these aren't these good things that I need to be, you know, giving attention to?

Absolutely, but in in so doing these things, you've relegated God way down here.

And your family's great, and and and so, and and people that you need to disciple, and and all of that, and your your career's important, but but in your heart, it is it is they've taken the throne and and God has been cast off to the periphery, but but you kind of still give off the sense that that God is number one or what have you.

It's a breaking of the first commandment.

Maybe it's the third commandment for you that you're breaking, and you use the Lord's name in vain, constantly.

Have you noticed how many Christians do this so carelessly?

Oh my gods, and it's all of that stuff, and we use it as a swear.

But it's in the same breath that we also exalt him.

We talk about the great things that he's done.

Maybe it's the seventh commandment for you.

You're committing adultery on a daily basis.

Maybe it's maybe it's through an affair.

No one knows about it.

Maybe it's through a pornography addiction, or it's your eyes and your mind just wandering to somebody who's, I don't know, not your spouse, though you have no problem coming in and not dealing with that and taking communion once a month here with us as a church.

Right?

You're keeping up appearances and giving off that impression like you're worshiping, you're worshiping him right, you're worshiping him well.

Right?

Do you see how easily we we lower the standards of uh of God's well the standards that God has given us?

Right?

We we love to to move the goal line and and make it easier to attain and you know, not lower it so much that we would feel some conviction about our sin or anything, but but just low enough where we can still sort of enjoy some of those sinful pleasures that we like, yet still still feel like overall, you know, we're we're good Christians, you know, getting this whole worshiping God thing right.

Right?

All of that, you see how all of that we're approaching God in our own terms.

We're rewriting how this works.

What right do we have to do any of it?

Zero.

I'm just gonna answer that hypothetical question for you.

All right?

None.

We have no right for it to it.

You better believe that that impacts all of that, all sin.

It impacts the quality of our of our worship.

It affects our heart attitude towards him.

It starts to dull all of it, it hinders us from honoring him well in all that we do, and and it certainly reveals a lack of submission to him in all things.

Showing what?

Well, that you and I are in desperate need of being humbled, of being broken, of being laid flat by God Almighty and seeing his holiness for what it is, which is really what this last thing here gets at.

Okay, to worship God rightly, I must be captivated by what he's done for me and never approach him on my own terms, because I need to be put in my place first.

Verse 18, chapter 20, take a look.

It says, Now, when all the people saw, right?

When all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid, right, and trembled.

And how interesting is this?

They stood far off, right?

And they said to Moses, You speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.

Moses said to the people, Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.

The people stood far off while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

They wake up.

It's like all their senses are in tune with what's going on, and and and they see the might of God and they they fear, right?

They they realize that they aren't worthy to be in his presence.

Or that they can't possibly hope to stand under the weight and the expectations of moral perfection.

They they fall short again.

So what do they do?

They stand at a distance and they implore Moses to be their mediator and to intercede for them with God.

They realize that they deserve wrath because they've broken every single one of these commandments, like we have too.

They didn't hear those commandments and think, all right, well, starting today then, I'm just gonna try and like do pretty good at those and hope that the Lord just kind of forgets all the times that I break them and lets me into heaven someday.

That's not what they were thinking.

They were like, shoot, we're toast, we don't have a hope.

We can't possibly stand before him, before this God.

And so they think that God is gonna kill them.

But Moses said, no, you don't need to fear that.

That's not what God is here to do.

He is here to show mercy and he is here to show grace.

And he says, rather fear him in the in the awe and in and in the respect and in the total life submission to him sense.

And and this whole story it ends with the people standing still far off while Moses goes and meets with God.

And you see so clearly, they've been humbled.

They're put in their place.

They're profoundly aware of their fallenness before the Lord, how deserving they are of judgment by a holy God, and how deserving they are of punishment.

Yet at the same time, listen, they're also taken aback here by how merciful and how gracious he is.

Think about what had been going on in their heads during this.

Like, why hasn't he killed us yet?

Why does he desire to know us and show us who he is and invite us into a relationship with him?

Can you just imagine the holy awe that was happening in this moment for these people?

Listen, as as you and I, as as we absorb these things, this text here through the lens or the grid of the scriptures again, like we're talking about, there should be a mixture of things happening inside you and I.

There should be this appropriate, overwhelming and even sickening sense of just how unworthy we are to stand before the living God.

And yet at the same time, an even more overwhelming feeling of gratitude and and joy and awe that God has, in fact, drawn us close to Him through Jesus Christ, our Savior.

Right?

As Moses serves as the mediator here between Israel and God, Christ is the ultimate mediator between us and the Lord, once and for all.

He's fulfilled every single part.

He he went to the cross willingly as our substitute.

He he took God's wrath that we deserved on himself.

Our sin is now paid for, forgiveness is now available to anyone.

Listen, if you've if you've embraced Christ as your savior, or or listen, if you do that right now, which I would implore you to do, please do it.

Then guess what?

You're no longer standing far off from the Lord.

You're no longer at a distance anymore.

Jesus Christ has brought you near in fellowship and relationship in communion with this amazing God.

And you know what?

A heart struck by all of these things leads to right worship.

Right worship.

Where every single thing that you and I do, how you how you think, how you act, how you conduct yourself and and live life, and every single facet will become worshipful from the heart.

Your priorities that you've got in life, your your attitudes about everything that you've gone through or that you're going through or that you will go through.

Everything begins to shift and align to better glorify God.

Right?

He he no longer gets the leftovers that we're so we're so quick to give him because we were giving so much of our time and energy and hearts to so many other different other things.

Your serving, your giving, your study, your your singing.

All of it comes from this place of blistering adoration for the one who has saved you.

I don't know about you, church, but man, I want more of that.

Don't you?

I want that for myself.

I want that for Ange, I want that for Wyatt and Karis, my kids.

I want that for you, I want that for your families.

I want that for our church.

I really do.

These are the things that I'm praying for.

Would you dig your heels in in an appropriate way and pray these things for yourself?

Pray these.

Things for my family, pray these things for our church as well.

Listen, one of my favorite things to think about is our best days are always ahead of us in Jesus Christ.

And that's the exact thing that I am trusting the Lord for.

And it all begins with getting our hearts and minds wrapped around this concept of right worship.

Let's allow that to be the thing that we pursue over the next year together.

All right?