[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's Word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to Him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 8:30 or 10:30am if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, find
[email protected] Be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: Well, good morning, everybody. What a blessing it is to be gathered here together this Sunday morning for worship. I want to just say, man, I love this congregation because you guys, you sing so beautifully. And every time I'm gathered for worship, I see the intentionality behind it and it blesses me so much. I hope it blesses you in the same way that this morning, I wanna start by saying, I sat in the auditorium this past Sunday and I couldn't help but laugh as Mr. Brandon got up here and he's being very humble and he said, hey, as we begin this new sermon series, Divine Connections, and we're looking into the Old Testament. If you got a question about this, you might wanna refer to Richard because he's kind of this Old Testament scholar, right? He's kind of this Hebrew scholar. And then when Richard gets up here, of course, he's very humble and he says, well, I'm really not that smart. And if you have a question you. You should probably ask Andrew or you should probably ask Brandon. And can I just say, I think that they all know what they're talking about a little bit. And I've been blessed to be a part of several conversations throughout the past couple weeks as we've kind of worked together to discuss what aspects in Scripture we wanted to use in our lessons. And we've just kind of talked about these ideas this morning. I say that because it's funny, but I also say that to. To tell you guys, I know that you already know, but the ministry staff here is very special. And so it's wonderful to see not only their intelligence and their dedication to the study of the Word, but also their humility this morning. On the flip side of that, you've got me delivering this message talking about the second.
The second commandment that God gives us, which is you should have no graven image. And on the flip side of them, I'm truly not a, an Old Testament scholar, nor a Hebrew scholar. And that's not me just saying that to be humble. That's genuinely the truth. I think about how Richard was saying he's at about a five or six year old Hebrew reading level. And if I'm being honest, that's probably getting dangerously close to my English reading level.
No, I'm kidding. I'm probably closer to 8 or 9.
But regardless of my intelligence this morning, I think there are some simple biblical truths that we can find in God's word. And if we allow ourselves to be open to, to transformation, I believe these principles can change our life. Like I said, we'll be talking about that second commandment, right, that you should have no graven images. And I think it's very obvious that today in America we don't struggle with pulling out our wooden or clay or maybe our metal figures and praying to them or worshiping them. So if that's the case, I think it's very important that we define what idolatry looks like for modern Christians in America today.
And so the definition I'm going with is this.
[00:03:17] Speaker C: Idolatry is placing anything above God in our hearts, actions or priorities, even if that thing is not inherently sinful.
[00:03:27] Speaker B: And so this morning we'll be in the book of Exodus, we'll be in the 32nd chapter.
[00:03:31] Speaker C: If you want to go ahead and
[00:03:31] Speaker B: be flipping there, we're going to be talking about the golden calf in Israel's sin in that. But before we get into the text this morning, I want to start by telling you guys story.
So when I was in high school I discovered something that changed my life.
Facebook, Marketplace. Now probably like lots of other men in this room, you have a similar feeling. You remember the time you first got on there and we've all been hooked since, right? And I've probably scrolled through so many listings, I've probably bought over the years, so many random things that I don't need. But also I've been able to learn and kind of understand how to flip things on Marketplace. And so throughout high school and even now in my life things, this is kind of the main way that I make money. I flip all sorts of technology, equipment, maybe furniture.
Something I love to flip is guitars. If you know me, you know I absolutely love playing the guitar. And so I love flipping these guitars not because I make a lot of money off of it, but because I enjoy getting to try out new types of guitars, different brands. I enjoy getting to meet people. The thing about guitar listings, more than Any other item that I've ever sold.
The thing about guitars is people respond to your listings, and they very often ask you if you'd be interested in a trade. Now, one day, I had a very nice acoustic Martin guitar, and I had it listed, and somebody responded to my listing. He said, man, I love this guitar. I'd love to trade you. Would you be interested for this electric guitar I had? And I thought about it, and I decided against it. I thought I would just keep what I had. But then he messaged me again, and he said, no, man, I'd really like this guitar. And I'm willing to give you not only this electric guitar, but another electric guitar. And at this point, the value of what he was offering me was worth more than what my guitar held. But again, for whatever reason, I decided against it. But then he messages me a third time, and this third time, he says, no, I really want your guitar. And I'm gonna give you both of these guitars, a few hundred in cash, and I'm gonna give you some extra guitar equipment I have. And so at this point, I'm thinking, now, this is an offer that I just simply cannot refuse. And so I go and I drive and I meet this guy, and he's very suspiciously nice. You know, the deal is suspiciously too good to be true. But I'm feeling on top of the world. And I'm driving home, and when I get home, I start to plug everything up. And what I realize and what I find is that the equipment he gave me, it doesn't work right. And I go to restring the first guitar, and it nearly snaps in half on me because the guitar was broken. And I'm thinking, well, at least I've got this one other electric guitar. You know, he gave me two.
A couple weeks go by, and I'm about to play in a show. And right before I play, I realize that all the internal electrical components of this guitar, they quit working on me. And so I'm thinking, man, in this moment, I'm so frustrated. I had something of good value, and I got rid of it for a whole lot of nothing. I got scammed, right? And we'll go back to this example and. But for now, we'll go ahead and start reading there in verse one of Exodus 32 this morning, we're gonna spend a lot of time in the Word, so I encourage you to pull out your Bible, if you have one. Before we read the text, I wanna lay it down a little bit of context, right? Remember where we are thus far in the Israelite story. God has saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians. He split the Red Sea for them. He's providing manna for them. He's destroying their enemies, and he brings them to Mount Sinai.
And he's about to enter into covenantal relationship with them. So Moses goes up to the mountain. He's about to speak with God. And in verse one, the text reads this.
It says, when the people saw that
[00:07:06] Speaker C: Moses 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?
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.
[00:07:22] Speaker B: What I want us to immediately notice about this passage is that they are crediting their deliverance to Moses, right? So they're already taking a step in the wrong direction. They're not saying it was God who delivered us out of Egypt, but rather it was Moses. Earlier in Exodus, it tells us that Moses was gone for about 40 days. And so at this point, this is when Israel is starting to say, okay, that's a little too long for us. We're starting to get a little scared. And this man who delivered us out of Egypt, he's nowhere to be found.
And since we serve an invisible God, we can't see him either. So we're starting to get scared. So we need something physical that we can put our hands on and that we can credit to it our deliverance.
And I believe that teaches us a first, very important lesson this morning, that how we handle God's delays is a good sign of our spiritual maturity.
We'll pick back up in verse two, where it says, aaron said to them,
[00:08:17] Speaker C: take off your rings of gold that are in your ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters, and bring them to me.
[00:08:23] Speaker B: So all the people took off their
[00:08:24] Speaker C: rings of gold that were in their ears, and they brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with an engraving 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.
[00:08:36] Speaker B: Verse 5.
[00:08:37] Speaker C: When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, tomorrow will be a feast to the Lord. And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: Something that strikes me in this passage is I noticed that Aaron builds this idol. He builds an altar before it, but then he says, hey, tomorrow we are gonna have a feast, and we are gonna worship the Lord, Capital L, O, R D. So he's talking about the Lord God Almighty. And so when I thought back to this passage, I thought. I kind of thought that Aaron was completely rejecting God. But what we actually see is Aaron isn't completely rejecting God. In fact, it looks as if he almost is saying, we're gonna worship God through this golden calf. And so it reminds me of worship today, where in our country, there would be a lot of Christians who say, of course we're gonna worship God, but we want to kind of do it our way.
Have you guys ever been to a Build a Bear workshop? Man, when I was a kid, I used to love Build a Bear. It was the best thing ever build. Because you get to do it your way, right? You get to pick out the animal and the stuffing, and you get to pick out the little outfits and all the accessories, right? And it's wonderful. But the thing is, that's for children, right? We're talking about stuffed animals for children.
When we speak in regards to the way we worship God, we should be speaking in a much more reverent way. We should understand the power of our worship. And so that's the problem when we listen to what others say. Say it was never Aaron's idea to build this calf, but he's just as guilty for listening to the people of Israel.
The second thing I want us to see here in this set of scripture is I want you to understand just how far Israel had gone into sin. In verse 6, it ends by saying a phrase. It says that Israel rose up to play. Now, you might gloss over that phrase, but that Hebrew verb in the context of this passage is referring to an immoral, sexual, drunken behavior. And so when you understand that, it's absolutely insane to consider that just a couple months ago, God was speaking to his entire nation through a cloud. And when you remember everything that the Lord has done for them in the span of just a couple months, they are living in a wicked, chaotic state.
In the next passage through 7 through 12, we won't read it this morning for the sake of time, but you would see as this sin that Israel commits is enrages God. And God, he speaks to Moses and he says, moses, I think I'm just gonna destroy this nation, and I'm gonna restart my lineage through you. Moses pleads for mercy. He says, God, remember your character. Don't let for a moment the Egyptians be able to say, look at this God who delivered his people, brought them into the wilderness. Only to kill them. And because of Moses pleading, the Lord listens, and the Lord extends mercy to his people. There's a lot to take from there, but for now, we'll go ahead and
[00:11:31] Speaker C: Skip to verse 15,
[00:11:34] Speaker B: where the text
[00:11:35] Speaker C: reads, then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands.
[00:11:40] Speaker B: Tablets were written on both sides, on
[00:11:43] Speaker C: the front and on the back they were written.
[00:11:45] Speaker B: The tablets were the work of God,
[00:11:47] Speaker C: and the writing was the writing of
[00:11:49] Speaker B: God engraved on the tablets. When Joshua heard the noise of the
[00:11:52] Speaker C: people as they shouted, he said to Moses, there is a noise of war in the camp. But he said, it is not the sound of shouting for victory or the sound of the cry of defeat, 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 hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people
[00:12:21] Speaker B: of Israel drink it. I want us to focus on verse 20 here for a moment. I want us to see the significance of Moses commanding the people to take your idol, to crush it, put it in your water, and consume it. Why is that a big deal? First, it's a big deal because it demonstrates the idol's worthlessness. Israel had made this physical image, and they said, this physical statue, this is what saved us. This is what's worthy of praise. This is what's powerful. And Moses says, do you really believe that? Well, why don't we take it and crush it into absolutely nothing?
And so, in the same way, in our own lives, when we think that we can credit our success, when we can credit the good things in our life to some form of sin or some sort of idol in our life, well, we're going to be disappointed every single time.
Also, what I want you to understand here is there's only one place something goes once you've consumed it. And so again, Moses is saying, you're crediting all these powerful things to this idol. Well, why don't you drink it down? And in about three to four days, or however long it takes to get through your system, we'll see what becomes of it.
Secondly, this is important because it shows that Israel had to consume the consequences of their sin Again, exactly. In our life, when we choose to follow an idol in our life, when we choose to pursue sin, it's going to by nature Bring consequence to us. It's going to bring havoc in our life. And so God is doing everything to protect you from that moment.
[00:13:44] Speaker A: He.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: He's saying, would you just trust in me? You don't have to find yourself in all this hurt. But our God is a good God. He won't force you to do anything. So when we choose our own sin, it's gonna bring pain in our lives.
The Bible doesn't explicitly say that drinking this golden water made the Israelites sick. But on top of this, I would branch out to say, I would have to imagine, you know, our bodies are not designed to consume gold. I would have to say they were probably dealing with some sort of a stomach ache.
[00:14:12] Speaker C: Right?
[00:14:13] Speaker B: Because sin makes us sick. Let's pick back up in verse 21,
[00:14:18] Speaker C: where the text reads, and Moses said to Aaron, what did this people do to you that you have brought them such a great sin upon them? And Aaron said, let not the anger of my Lord burn hot. You know, the people that they are set on evil for they said to me, make us gods who shall go before us? As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, which we do not know, what has become of him. So I said to them, let any who have gold take it off. So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.
[00:14:48] Speaker B: Now, I've got a few things that I want us to notice here. The first is I want us to ask a question. Do we fight to excuse our idols? Because we see here Moses is so angry, and he confronts Aaron, and Aaron says, moses, would you just relax?
[00:15:03] Speaker C: Right?
[00:15:04] Speaker B: Is my sin that big of a deal? And on top of that, it's not even my fault. The only reason I even committed these sins is because everybody wanted me to. Everybody was pressuring me into doing those things.
And it's easy to look at this text and look at Aaron and say, man, would you just give it up? Would you accept that you're in the wrong here? But do we do the same thing in our lives where we pursue sin and we pursue some form of idolatry? But in our minds, and it's not that big of a deal, look at our lives in comparison to the people outside of this building, these people who are living wicked lives. What's the big deal about my little one or two things that I'm not willing to give up in comparison to our wicked world?
And the only reason I even have to do those things is because everyone around me is doing them. Everybody around me is expecting me to do these things.
If we think for a moment that our sin is not a big deal. If we think for a moment that our sin is excusable, that our idolatry is excusable.
Going to read here in just a second the effects of sin. We're going to read in just a second the cost of our rebellion.
The next question I want to ask as we look at verse 24 is where do idols grow from?
Because on top of every excuse Aaron is making, he finally says to Moses, oh, also, I just threw the gold in the furnace and out popped this idol. That's a hilarious verse he's saying. It just, I mean, I don't know, I guess it was lucky, right?
It's a lie. It's so obvious for us to look at that and say, aaron, that didn't just happen. Are you serious?
In fact, because it did not just appear, we've got to now ask, where did it come from?
Well, Israel's idol, it came from all the way back in verse one, where they were afraid because they couldn't see Moses, because they weren't trusting in God. It came from verse one where the people were pressuring Aaron into making this. And so we see Aaron as he sits in this fear, as he sits in this pressure, and he hand carves the idol, actually in great detail. And so in our lives, idols do not just appear. In fact, oftentimes we are the ones
[00:17:16] Speaker C: who are hand carving them.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: So that way, when we find ourselves in a moment of fear or pressure or self pity or weakness or anger or sadness, it's our own idols that we fashion that appear seemingly out of thin air to give us some sort of false confidence, protection, some sort of false hope.
Verse 25 it says, and then Moses saw that the people had broken loose, for Aaron had let them break loose for the derision of, of their enemies. Okay, so my version says that Israel had broken loose. Maybe yours said something similarly to that. But it reminds me of the earlier verse that said that Israel had risen up to play. Right? Remember what that means? It reminds me of in Judges when they describe Israel. And there was a specific time when everybody was doing what was right in their own eyes. And so I'm thinking of this sinful chaos. And then what you see is you see Moses in verse 26. He stands at the gate of the camp and in kind of a moment of saying enough is enough, he asks them the question.
[00:18:19] Speaker C: He says, 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.
[00:18:37] Speaker B: And the sons of Levi did accordingly
[00:18:39] Speaker C: to the word of Moses. And that day, about 3,000 and men of the people died.
[00:18:45] Speaker B: That's a pretty heavy passage, right? But let's break it down. Moses starts by asking, who is on the Lord's side? And we see that the Levites are really the only group that are willing to say, hey, I'm on the Lord's side. We see that the Levites are really the only significant group who want to be separated from the sin. And that's really disappointing. But it goes to show us the consequence in our life when we're okay being in opposition to God, when. When we're fine being set apart, we see the consequences. It also is gonna teach us something from the Levites here. Standing with the Lord is going to require something from you in your life. It's gonna require decision. It's gonna require action, and it's gonna require separation.
Let's pick back up in verse 30.
[00:19:28] Speaker C: 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.
[00:19:35] Speaker B: So Moses returned to the Lord and
[00:19:37] Speaker C: said, alas, this people have sinned a great sin.
[00:19:39] Speaker B: They have made for themselves gods of gold.
[00:19:42] Speaker C: But now, if you will forgive their sin. But if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written. But the Lord said to Moses, whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. Now go lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.
[00:20:05] Speaker B: What I want us to get from these last couple of difficult paragraphs is the seriousness of our sin.
It's easy for us to read that the wages of sin are death. But when we see it lived out in scripture, sometimes it kind of makes us cringe. Sometimes it makes us ask the question, are the wages of sin really death?
You know, was that a bit much? God? God. I thought you were the God of forgiveness and mercy. Did these men really deserve to be struck down?
If you believe that our God is a just God, you have to believe that these wicked men deserve to be struck down. You have to believe in the moments of our life when we chased idols when we lived in sin that we deserve to be struck down. But it's only by God's grace, it's only by God's forgiveness and mercy that we have the opportunity to stand here today with our sin resolved.
But I don't want that mercy for one moment to lessen the weight of sin, because yes, God has. He's redeemed Israel. But he says in verse 33 to the 1 who sinned against me, I will blot his name out because sin has big effects. Yes, God is going to deliver his people to the promised land, but this generation of adults, they won't see it because sin has big effects.
Yes, he's going to renew his covenant with his people, but he's still going to have to send out a plague in just fashion because sin has big effects. Let's finish here. In verse 35, it says, Then the Lord sent a plague on the people because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made. Listening to what other people have to say does not excuse us from sin in our life. It's noted in Scripture as Aaron's calf. It was Aaron's sin. And after we read a story like that this morning, where we can so obviously see the consequences of sin, when we can so obviously see the hurt that idols bring to God, it leads us to ask a couple questions as we conclude this morning.
First, if idols are worthless, why do we keep chasing them?
Think about my story with the guitars, right? I had something of good value and I looked at what this guy had to offer me and I thought it was worth more.
But in reality, the things that he gave me were worthless on a far grander scale. How often do we have what the Lord has given us and we're willing to just give it up for things that don't matter? How often are we willing to exchange something that is literally priceless for a whole bunch of things that are worthless? How often are we able to take to give up the Creator for created things?
There's a verse in Romans, the first chapter. I want to look at this passage
[00:22:49] Speaker C: starting in verse 21, where we see
[00:22:51] Speaker B: a group of people who do not understand proper worship.
It says, for although they knew God,
[00:22:56] Speaker C: they did not honor him as God or give thanks to Him. But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurities to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie. And they worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen.
[00:23:29] Speaker B: So this morning, how long will you know who God is and will you fail to honor him? How long will you continue to live a life that is not an outpouring of praise in your life? How long will you continue to choose the idols over the ultimate glory of God? It's easy for us to look at a group like this that we just read about and say, man, why are you bowing down to a bird? Why are you bowing down to an image and a image of man? That is so foolish. But here's what I believe. I believe they weren't really bowing down to those images. I believe Israel wasn't really bowing down to a cow. I believe that they are bowing down and worshiping themselves.
They're bowing down and worshiping the impurities and immoralities that these idols represent because they love the lust, they love the pride, they love all the sin that they get to be part of when this is the idol that they worship. And so today, I've got to ask, and we've got to be honest.
Who will you worship?
Who are you worshiping?
For a moment? I've got to use the iPhone as an example. I really. I didn't even want to have to use it as an example, but it is probably the greatest idol in this entire room.
And so we would look at something like the iPhone and we'd say, we're not worshiping it.
[00:24:52] Speaker A: Right.
[00:24:52] Speaker B: We're not building the altar, offering it incense, you know? Right. Because that would be ridiculous. But you know what else is ridiculous? The amount of time we spend with it, the amount of laughter and happiness we get from it.
So is it really ridiculous to say that sometimes we treat this thing like an idol because we have a more intimate relationship with the things on our phone than we do with God? Because we spend more time helplessly scrolling than spending time with God in prayer. Because we build an online connection with so many people while we stand up and reject all the people that we're surrounded by every day in our lives.
This is just a random example. I know it's a big one. But how many other worthless things are there in our lives that we could fill in the blank there? Things that we are in pursuit of rather than God this morning. Why do we think that our idols are different today?
Because I think. I think we can be honest. I think we can come together as a church and say, maybe there are some things that have become an idol in my life.
Maybe I can acknowledge my pride or my success is getting in the way. And these are things that are hurting my relationship with God. These are harmful idols to me in my life that I need us to take a step away from.
But for a moment, I want us to consider the scariest of thoughts. I want us to think about the things that might just be the most important to have on our rado, our radar.
I'm talking about the things in our life that aren't harmful, the idols where we would say, well, that doesn't really count as idol worship. That can't really be idolatry because it's a good thing. It's a blessing in my life. And this morning, this is where things start getting tricky, because I'm talking about your spouses, I'm talking about your kids, I'm talking about sports, I'm talking about your job.
Things that are not inherently evil. In fact, these are things that are amazing. They might be some of the biggest blessings in your life. This morning, I'm not fit to talk to you about your marriage, and I'm not fit to talk about your relationship with your kid. But for a moment, let me tell you about my relationship with sports. I grew up playing basketball my whole life. And when I was young, I thought
[00:27:02] Speaker C: I was really good.
[00:27:03] Speaker B: And therefore I thought all these sports I was playing, all these tournaments I was playing in, I thought that they were the biggest deal. And so I would miss worship. I would forsake the family that I have in the church to go to go play basketball, man.
And I would get so frustrated because sometimes my parents, they might say, hey,
[00:27:25] Speaker C: you know, you don't need to be
[00:27:25] Speaker B: at that game because it's Wednesday night and we've got worship. And I would get so frustrated and say, do you not understand?
Do you not realize how big of a deal this is? Do you not realize how good I am and how big of an impact these games could have on my life? The truth is, looking back on it, those games didn't matter at all.
And I really wasn't that good.
Maybe you're in here this morning and you're a middle schooler, you're a high school athlete, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news. I hate to burst your bubble. I want you to believe that you can touch the sky.
But the reality is, you're probably not as good as you think. You're probably not going to make it to the next level, your kids are probably not going to make it to the next level, but 100% your kids will stand before the Lord in judgment one day. And so I want to ask you, as parents, as a family, what are you pouring into? Are you pouring in to something in your life that maybe by an odd 2% they can go on and be a great big time athlete? Or are you going to pour in to the fact that that they are going to stand before the Lord? Are you helping them develop a firm foundation? Are you giving them the preparation they need to give a reasonable response before the Lord one day?
[00:28:40] Speaker C: Finally, I want to ask you this morning,
[00:28:45] Speaker B: will you accept the mercy that the Lord is offering you?
And I want to immediately ask you if you have idols in your life that you just can't seem to give up. Are there things, is there anything, any good thing, any great thing, but you just can't seem to give it up?
Remember what we defined idolatry as?
[00:29:09] Speaker C: We said, it's placing anything above God in our hearts, our affections or priorities, even if that thing is not inherently sinful.
[00:29:17] Speaker B: And so it's easy to say, no, I don't bow down to some false image. I don't worship a graven image.
But do we have these things in
[00:29:25] Speaker C: our lives that seem so difficult to get rid of,
[00:29:31] Speaker B: these things that we put in priority, even the great things? I want you to ask, can you remember the consequence of that sin? Do you remember the consequence of Israel making that choice? It really cost them that day. Do you realize that your choice in loving something more than the Lord could cost you? It could cost you your life, ultimately, it could cost you your eternity. Is this something that you believe in? Is this real to you?
Or are you going to be like Aaron who just says, you know what, it's not that big of a deal. It's excused.
The Lord is saying over and over, I'm a God of mercy, but he's a just God. Your sin must be atoned for.
Exodus 34, 6. It's a beautiful verse as we consider the Lord's mercy to his people.
[00:30:15] Speaker C: It says, the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord the Lord, a
[00:30:20] Speaker B: God, merciful and gracious, the slow to
[00:30:22] Speaker C: anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, Visiting the iniquity to the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation
[00:30:42] Speaker B: at the end of verse 32, God sends a plague on the people because sin has to be dealt with. But the literal next verse, he's telling his people, now it's time for you to get up and. And go and enter into the promised land. And a chapter after that, he's renewing his covenant with his people. And so the same mercy that the Lord is extending to his chosen people, he's extending to us, a group of sinners like us. He's saying, I don't want this to be the end of your story. I want you to find my mercy. I want you to be renewed in me. I want you to be willing to give up whatever that thing is. And so this morning, I just want to ask, what would it look like if, as a church, we were willing to give up the idols in our life? What if we would take a moment and self examine ourselves? What are those things? Do I have something there? What if we could be humble enough to have conversations with people? What if maybe on your drive home, you're willing to talk to your spouse, to your kids, to your friends? What's maybe something that's become an idol in our life? What if we were praying for each other in regards to those things?
What type of impact would be made, not in this church, but in this
[00:31:46] Speaker C: community, in the Lord's kingdom?
[00:31:49] Speaker B: This morning, as I speak to you, maybe you realize you've got things that you need to confess, you got things you need to repent from. Maybe you have an idol in your life that before this morning, you didn't realize was an idol in your life. You thought it was a blessing from God, but you realize that maybe it's turned into something sinful in your life.
I couldn't think of a better opportunity for you to come and confess that and ask for prayers in a church, in a family that loves you and wants to be praying for you. Maybe this morning you're ready to begin your walk with the Lord and you're saying, enough is enough. And I'm seeing my idolatry. I'm seeing the hurt that it's bringing to my life, and enough is enough. I'm ready to turn around and walk in the newness of life.
This morning, if we could assist you in that avenue, if we could assist you in any avenue, we would love to do so, and we'd ask you to come while we stand and while we sing.
