SPEAKER_00: Good morning, church.
SPEAKER_00: How's everybody doing?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Legacy.
SPEAKER_00: So glad to worship with you on this Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to be in Exodus chapter 32.
SPEAKER_00: If you turn there in your Bibles, Exodus chapter 32.
SPEAKER_00: And as you can see, we are going to worship in communion today.
SPEAKER_00: We do this the first Sunday of every month.
SPEAKER_00: We stop and remember the Lord, which is so helpful in the connecting to today's sermon.
SPEAKER_00: Title of the Sermon Today, if you're taking notes, is A Forgetful People, a Faithful God.
SPEAKER_00: We will come to the table and remember this morning what he has done.
SPEAKER_00: This is sermon number 80 through the book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_00: We've been working verse by verse, chapter by chapter, through the book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, sermon number 80.
SPEAKER_00: Don't ask me how long it's taken and how long it will take.
SPEAKER_00: We're almost there.
SPEAKER_00: Just keep telling them we're almost there.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to cover verses one through six in our Bible today.
SPEAKER_00: Heard of a story, maybe you heard of this one, an elderly husband and wife, who noticed they were starting to forget the little things around the house and they got nervous about it.
SPEAKER_00: What if somebody left a stove on?
SPEAKER_00: So they went to the doctor who told them lots of folks their age just write themselves little notes so that they remember.
SPEAKER_00: Works like a charm.
SPEAKER_00: They walked out delighted.
SPEAKER_00: And that evening, the wife says, Honey, would you go into the kitchen and fix me a bowl of ice cream?
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you write it down so you don't forget?
SPEAKER_00: He says, Nonsense.
SPEAKER_00: I can remember a bowl of ice cream.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'd also like some strawberries on it.
SPEAKER_00: Better write that down.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you'll forget.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Don't be silly.
SPEAKER_00: A bowl of ice cream and strawberries, I've got it.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, dear, but I'd really love some whipped cream on top, too.
SPEAKER_00: Now you better write it down.
SPEAKER_00: Woman, my memory is not that bad.
SPEAKER_00: Ice cream, strawberries, whipped cream, no problem.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes in.
SPEAKER_00: She hears him banging pots around, rattling pans, making all kinds of racket, far more than a bowl of ice cream ought to require.
SPEAKER_00: 15 minutes later, he comes out beaming with pride and sets down a plate in front of her, bacon and eggs.
SPEAKER_00: She looks at the plate and she looks at him and she says, Hey, where's the toast?
SPEAKER_00: We laugh because forgetting someone's order is harmless, of course.
SPEAKER_00: But in Exodus 32, we're going to watch Moses' people forget something you would think is utterly unforgettable.
SPEAKER_00: They will forget the God who split the sea for them.
SPEAKER_00: And they will do it in about a month, 40 days.
SPEAKER_00: They will somehow forget the Lord in 40 days.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the question I want you to carry with you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: When God's people forget him, does he forget them?
SPEAKER_00: Because if we're honest, that is the fear underneath a lot of our quiet days.
SPEAKER_00: I've drifted, I've wandered, I forgot to pray, I forgot to turn back, I forgot who I was, and surely by now he's written me off.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the fear.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the heartbeat of the whole sermon.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to hold both halves.
SPEAKER_00: We are a forgetful people, but he is a faithful God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Down in the valley, Israel is forgetting everything God ever did for them.
SPEAKER_00: And at that very hour, up on the mountaintop with Moses, God is faithfully, patiently, lovingly preparing to come and dwell with the very people who are betraying him.
SPEAKER_00: If you keep one eye on the valley and one eye on the mountain, you'll see this gospel hiding in plain sight, this good news of what the Lord has done and continues to do for us.
SPEAKER_00: We're in Exodus chapter 32.
SPEAKER_00: Can we stand for the reading of God's word?
SPEAKER_00: We always stand for the reading of God's word here at Legacy to pay honor to Him and to remember whose word we're reading.
SPEAKER_00: These are not my words, not my story.
SPEAKER_00: These words belong to God, His story, His ways.
SPEAKER_00: And we want to take what He has said, remember what He has said and apply it to our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Not be guided by our own minds and our own thoughts, for we are fickle people.
SPEAKER_00: We bounce back and forth to and fro so quickly.
SPEAKER_00: We need God's word on our hearts, in our minds, brought to us over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: The guiding line for our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Exodus 32, we're going to read verses one through six.
SPEAKER_00: Take a look at the story.
SPEAKER_00: It says, And the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: So the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, Arise, make us gods who will go before us.
SPEAKER_00: As for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.
SPEAKER_00: And Aaron said to them, Tear off the gold rings which are in your ears of your wives and your sons and your daughters, and bring them to me.
SPEAKER_00: Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron.
SPEAKER_00: And he took this from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made it into a molten calf.
SPEAKER_00: And they said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: And Aaron looked and built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow shall be a feast to Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: So the next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play.
SPEAKER_00: Let's let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we we thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_00: What a reminder for us.
SPEAKER_00: What an awakening for us.
SPEAKER_00: Pray, God, that you would speak to us by the power of your Holy Spirit through your word, the stories that you have written down for us to return to over and over again, that we might not forget you, that we won't forget you and won't forget what you have done, and won't forget who we are and where we came from.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that you would ignite the text, that you would cause it to glow in our eyes and our hearts and our ears.
SPEAKER_00: It would ring true.
SPEAKER_00: And that we would allow seeds to be planted, roots that would go deep, that would cause us to remember you all the days of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Bless us, Lord, as we study your word.
SPEAKER_00: We ask it in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You can be seated.
SPEAKER_00: So again, before we walk through this verse by verse, you have to see the split scream here because the timing of the whole thing is a heartbreak, really.
SPEAKER_00: Up on the mountain, hidden in the cloud and fire, Moses is receiving the greatest revelation any man has received up to that hour.
SPEAKER_00: God is handing him the blueprints of the tabernacle.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, we walked through it extensively.
SPEAKER_00: We looked at the furniture.
SPEAKER_00: God mapped it for him.
SPEAKER_00: He gave him all the details up on the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: Moses is up there getting the download.
SPEAKER_00: And all of the details, gold curtains, priesthood, the mercy seat, God's telling him in every detail exactly how he intends to come down to live in the middle of his people.
SPEAKER_00: Heaven is about to come down to earth.
SPEAKER_00: And down at the bottom of that same mountain, in the very same hour, the people are melting down their gold jewelry into a golden calf.
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss the irony.
SPEAKER_00: While God is faithfully preparing to draw near to the people through the tent of meeting and the tabernacle, the people think God has gone away from them.
SPEAKER_00: They are forgetting about him entirely.
SPEAKER_00: Moses has been gone only 40 days, and 40 we know is a biblical number of testing.
SPEAKER_00: They are failing this test before he ever gets back down the mountain with the blueprints.
SPEAKER_00: And we will watch a forgetful people forget three things.
SPEAKER_00: And each step we'll lift our eyes to the mountain and see a faithful God who is doing the very opposite.
SPEAKER_00: They're forgetting and he's remaining faithful.
SPEAKER_00: They forget his timing, he was never late.
SPEAKER_00: They will forget his salvation, though he was in the process of saving them again.
SPEAKER_00: And they will forget his worth.
SPEAKER_00: But we know he is always worthy of all their praise.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when the people saw that Moses delayed, they concluded that he was not on time.
SPEAKER_00: He was delaying to come down from the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stop right there on that word delayed.
SPEAKER_00: The word is the crack and the dam.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing has gone wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Moses isn't lost.
SPEAKER_00: Moses isn't dead.
SPEAKER_00: Moses is exactly where God put him, doing exactly what God told him to do.
SPEAKER_00: The only problem is that it's taking longer than what the people wanted.
SPEAKER_00: And watch how fast their forgetful hearts turn.
SPEAKER_00: They crowd around Aaron.
SPEAKER_00: It's a mob scene.
SPEAKER_00: And they say, Arise, make us gods who will go before us.
SPEAKER_00: And the cruelest line of all, as for this Moses, you look at the text, as for this Moses, this guy, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: Moses is up on the mountain with God and the people are mocking him.
SPEAKER_00: That's a ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get into ministry unless you're prepared for a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Decades of that.
SPEAKER_00: The people need an escapegoat.
SPEAKER_00: They always need someone to blame.
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't learn that early on, you'll be very miserable in ministry.
SPEAKER_00: You have to be the escapegoat for the people until they learn to make Christ the escape goat.
SPEAKER_00: He has taken it on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: But those in leadership, you will be the escape goat.
SPEAKER_00: Who is this Moses?
SPEAKER_00: This guy who brought us up out of Egypt, who really cares?
SPEAKER_00: Where is he?
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't care about us anymore.
SPEAKER_00: This Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Forty days ago they trembled at his feet.
SPEAKER_00: Now he's this Moses.
SPEAKER_00: And notice what they've forgotten.
SPEAKER_00: They've forgotten all that the Lord has done for them in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: They forgot that all Moses did for them.
SPEAKER_00: This is the God who brought the ten plagues on Egypt to free them from slavery.
SPEAKER_00: The God who saved them from the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_00: The God who provided manna every single morning and sweet water from the rock.
SPEAKER_00: The God whose glory was burning on the mountain in plain sight, in which they stood in great awe and fear.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember the fireworks show that went off?
SPEAKER_00: We studied this extensively.
SPEAKER_00: It was unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00: The people stood back in awe.
SPEAKER_00: They felt like they were gonna die.
SPEAKER_00: In about a month of waiting, they forgot all of it.
SPEAKER_00: And man, it sounds like us.
SPEAKER_00: The cause of the golden calf was not unbelief in some abstract sense, it was forgetfulness turning into impatience.
SPEAKER_00: They forgot that the God who had always been on time would be on time again.
SPEAKER_00: The God who had always been on time in the past was going to be on time in the future.
SPEAKER_00: But this is us.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we can forget the good deeds of people so quickly.
SPEAKER_00: We can turn on our spouse so quickly.
SPEAKER_00: We turn on our friends so quickly, we turn on the church so quickly, we turn on I mean, we have a hard time remembering the order for our friend when we go to order uh to the coffee shop.
SPEAKER_00: These fickle, these fickle minds.
SPEAKER_00: These soft hands, these broken feet.
SPEAKER_00: We gotta lift our eyes to the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: Was God late?
SPEAKER_00: No, not by one second, 40 days was his timeline.
SPEAKER_00: He was at that very moment faithfully working on meeting with them.
SPEAKER_00: He was working towards a meet.
SPEAKER_00: I'm coming, I'm actually coming down this mountain.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna meet with you.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, where's God?
SPEAKER_00: Where's Moses?
SPEAKER_00: No, no, I'm gonna meet with you.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm on my way.
SPEAKER_00: Faithfully working on meeting with them.
SPEAKER_00: He was thinking about them.
SPEAKER_00: The people had simply confused God's silence with God's absence.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the truth we cannot get away from most of us don't forget God in the storm.
SPEAKER_00: We forget him in waiting.
SPEAKER_00: We forget him in the waiting.
SPEAKER_00: We can white knuckle a crisis and cling to the Lord, but the long, quiet, desert-like days, that delaying of hearing from the Lord erodes our memory and what the Lord has done.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing how fast we can forget him.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe some of you, maybe, maybe you've prayed and sought the Lord about something and heaven has gone quiet.
SPEAKER_00: You prayed about the job, nothing changed.
SPEAKER_00: You cried out to the Lord, and the prodigal son hasn't called back.
SPEAKER_00: You knocked on the doors of heaven, but he hasn't opened like you wished.
SPEAKER_00: And somewhere around day 30, you start to forget every other time God came through.
SPEAKER_00: And by day 39, we are thinking about other gods, our idols, other things to make us happy.
SPEAKER_00: Silence felt like absence, but a God who is silent is not a God who is gone.
SPEAKER_00: He's never God.
SPEAKER_00: How do we know?
SPEAKER_00: He said it very clearly.
SPEAKER_00: Deuteronomy chapter 31, verse 6 be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or terrified, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you.
SPEAKER_00: He will never leave you nor forsake you.
SPEAKER_00: Never.
SPEAKER_00: Even if it feels like God is gone, he's never gone.
SPEAKER_00: He is the only person who will never leave you.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_00: Paul may forsake you, but he will never leave you, nor forsake you.
SPEAKER_00: And he has every reason to now, doesn't he?
SPEAKER_00: For we're not the most faithful people.
SPEAKER_00: We're forgetful people, aren't we?
SPEAKER_00: We forget the Lord in our sin.
SPEAKER_00: And if he gets silent, sometimes we want to run for the hills.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you know who this Ella Langley is.
SPEAKER_00: She's taken the music world by storm.
SPEAKER_00: Uh beating out Beyoncé and Taylor Swift.
SPEAKER_00: She has become the first woman to ever hold the number one, number two spot on the billboards in country music.
SPEAKER_00: Uh was choosing Texas and be her.
SPEAKER_00: She took over.
SPEAKER_00: Well, she's she has a hidden song about talking to God about her prayer life.
SPEAKER_00: No one's listening to this one.
SPEAKER_00: It's so good.
SPEAKER_00: It's called Speaking Terms.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's the best song on her album.
SPEAKER_00: See that I used to kneel beside my bed at night when I was small.
SPEAKER_00: It was easy as breathing.
SPEAKER_00: Believing wasn't hard at all.
SPEAKER_00: I knew that you were there, close as my next prayer.
SPEAKER_00: The world will break you down, break your heart, shake your faith, but now you feel so far away.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know who's to blame.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, or I don't I don't talk to you as much, but maybe that's part of growing up.
SPEAKER_00: I carry on this one conversation.
SPEAKER_00: I'm listening to you, but you don't say a word.
SPEAKER_00: If your answer is in the silence, I'll be patient, but it's hard to know my prayers are being heard.
SPEAKER_00: I'm waiting on the whisper, just something to confirm that you and me are still on speaking terms.
SPEAKER_00: So good.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's important to be honest about your waiting.
SPEAKER_00: Forty days, Lord, where are you, God?
SPEAKER_00: That's better than running for the hills and cling on the other idols.
SPEAKER_00: You know the spot.
SPEAKER_00: It's that one where the waiting has just plain worn you out.
SPEAKER_00: The prayer you prayed so many times, just you're just losing count of it.
SPEAKER_00: Don't don't bury it.
SPEAKER_00: Take it to the Lord, say it out loud.
SPEAKER_00: He can handle your honesty far better than our pretending.
SPEAKER_00: The silence is not meant to push us away, but to bring us close, to build strength in our faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to believe when everything is working out.
SPEAKER_00: Every prayer seems to be being answered, yes, like you're hitting the jackpot every day.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to hear the word wait from God, because of course the next question is, how long, O Lord?
SPEAKER_00: How long?
SPEAKER_00: Second, we should do the very thing Israel wouldn't do.
SPEAKER_00: Stop and remember.
SPEAKER_00: Sit down somewhere quiet and start naming them.
SPEAKER_00: The times God showed up.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you have a journal.
SPEAKER_00: Go back and read the great works God has done in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the the bill that somehow got paid, the door that opened when every other one slammed shut.
SPEAKER_00: The morning the heaviness was finally lifted from your shoulders.
SPEAKER_00: Write it down if you haven't.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's the truth a God you remember is a God you will trust.
SPEAKER_00: A God you remember is a God you will trust in the future.
SPEAKER_00: We don't drift away from the Lord on a full memory, we drift away on an empty one.
SPEAKER_00: It's important, third, that you say to your heart, a delay is not a denial from God.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a no from God.
SPEAKER_00: A delay is not a no.
SPEAKER_00: Delay is not rejection.
SPEAKER_00: Remember what was happening while Israel was waiting.
SPEAKER_00: God wasn't ignoring them.
SPEAKER_00: He was up on the mountain drawing up the plans for the tabernacle, getting ready to come and live right in the middle of them.
SPEAKER_00: The waiting wasn't punishment, it was preparation.
SPEAKER_00: Shocking for them to come back and read the story, huh?
SPEAKER_00: We were like, where is this guy?
SPEAKER_00: And he was up there mapping out the dinner, mapping out the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: He couldn't wait to dwell amongst them.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta understand your delay may be the very same thing.
SPEAKER_00: God quietly preparing something good that you can't see yet.
SPEAKER_00: Quietly preparing something good for you.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 27, 14, wait for Yahweh, be strong and let your heart take courage.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, wait for Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 40, 31, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
SPEAKER_00: They shall mount up with wings like eagles.
SPEAKER_00: They will run and not be weary, they will walk and not faint.
SPEAKER_00: Who?
SPEAKER_00: Those who wait upon the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians 4 4, the giving of his own son.
SPEAKER_00: Where is God?
SPEAKER_00: It's been 400 years of silence.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians 4 4, when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son.
SPEAKER_00: Perfect timing.
SPEAKER_00: Think of a child in the backseat of a car five minutes into the drive.
SPEAKER_00: Are we there yet?
SPEAKER_00: Dad knows the destination, he knows how to get there, but the child who can't see past the window is sure, the is sure that we don't know where we're going and that it's going to take forever to get there, right?
SPEAKER_00: The problem was never the dad's driving, it was the child's impatience, their memory, and their view of the road.
SPEAKER_00: And that is Israel at the foot of the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: Far too often, that is us in the backseat, forgetting the one driving, has never missed a destination.
SPEAKER_00: He knows where he's going and he's right on time.
SPEAKER_00: Oswald Chambers said, Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the one who is leading.
SPEAKER_00: We just trust the one who's always got it right.
SPEAKER_00: We have to abandon our control, my way, what I want.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want your way.
SPEAKER_00: Trust me.
SPEAKER_00: Father knows best.
SPEAKER_00: He knows way better than me.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we demand we want it our way, and then we get our way, huh?
SPEAKER_00: We muscle things into our way.
SPEAKER_00: We try to control them.
SPEAKER_00: And it ends up going south.
SPEAKER_00: Moses was not delayed, he was hanging out with God.
SPEAKER_00: And the people forgot his timing, but he was never late.
SPEAKER_00: Point number two, if you're taking notes, they forgot his salvation, but he was already saving.
SPEAKER_00: Verses three and four.
SPEAKER_00: Again, verse two and three tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, your daughters, and bring them to me.
SPEAKER_00: They do it.
SPEAKER_00: They line up and they hand it over.
SPEAKER_00: Where did the gold come from?
SPEAKER_00: They were slaves.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't have gold mines back in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: They had whips and quotas and mud bricks.
SPEAKER_00: So where did the gold come from?
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember?
SPEAKER_00: God gave it to them.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, on the very night he set them free, he moved the Egyptians to pile silver and gold into their arms on their way out the door.
SPEAKER_00: It was a gift from God.
SPEAKER_00: It was a gift from heaven to his people.
SPEAKER_00: He blessed them with gold.
SPEAKER_00: A going away present from God who was setting them free, and here they are, prying that gift off their children's ears, melting it down, melting down the trophy of their salvation to build a rival God.
SPEAKER_00: Against the God who gave it to them.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what forget forgetting does.
SPEAKER_00: It takes the good gifts of God and turns them into idols.
SPEAKER_00: We take what God has given us and we start worshiping these things.
SPEAKER_00: He gave you that.
SPEAKER_00: And now you're worshiping it.
SPEAKER_00: It's a wild idea when you think about it.
SPEAKER_00: Like everything I have has come from him.
SPEAKER_00: I take these things and I'm so grateful and thank you, God, for what you've given me.
SPEAKER_00: And then we we build it into an idol and we start worshiping this thing.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it takes all shapes, all forms, all sizes, from material things to people, to ministry of success.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, all kinds of things.
SPEAKER_00: He gives it to you, and then you start worshiping it, like it's going to give you something, and it doesn't pay out.
SPEAKER_00: It will fool you.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4, and he took from their hand and fashioned it, Aaron, with a graving tool, and he made it into a molten calf.
SPEAKER_00: And they said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: There it is, there is forgetfulness at its absolute worst.
SPEAKER_00: They took the golden calf, a cow that was nothing more than a pile of earrings the day before, and gave it the credit of the Most High for parting the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, cow, for parting the Red Sea for us.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: They handed the medal to the wrong God.
SPEAKER_00: They handed the offering.
SPEAKER_00: They handed the gold to the wrong God.
SPEAKER_00: The psalmist could hardly believe it when he wrote it down, Psalm 106, 20.
SPEAKER_00: He says they exchanged their glory for the image of an ox that eats grass.
SPEAKER_00: The psalmist says it.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, they exchanged their glory for a cow that eats grass.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't even eat good food, it eats grass.
SPEAKER_00: They traded their God for a grass-eating cow.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 106, verse 21, they forgot God, their savior, who had done great things for them in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: This psalmist is writing about Exodus.
SPEAKER_00: This is not just bad memory, that's rewriting the whole story of their rescue.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God for this cow that saved us from Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Wait, what?
SPEAKER_00: I thought Yahweh saved you from Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, no, it was the cow.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't you see it watching, walking through the Red Sea?
SPEAKER_00: No, I don't remember that.
SPEAKER_00: But up on the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: While they are crowning a golden calf, their faithful God is drawing up a greater salvation than the one in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: The tabernacle he's designing is the way to a holy God.
SPEAKER_00: They can come and live, and he can be with them in the middle of a sinful people without consuming them.
SPEAKER_00: He's making a way to be with them, and they are forgetting him.
SPEAKER_00: You see, every piece of wood, every curtain, all of the gold, all the things made, every drop of blood on the altar was whispering the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They forgot the salvation behind them.
SPEAKER_00: He was already building the salvation ahead of them.
SPEAKER_00: He was building forward towards Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to tabernacle amongst you.
SPEAKER_00: I will tent amongst you, Jesus said.
SPEAKER_00: The God man comes down to the earth and lives amongst humans.
SPEAKER_00: He was giving them the picture in the Old Testament that God Almighty would come and live in the tent of meeting, in the tabernacle, in the midst of the two million, and spend time with them.
SPEAKER_00: It was a way to connect with Almighty God.
SPEAKER_00: And like He's forgotten about us.
SPEAKER_00: Like talk about getting it wrong.
SPEAKER_00: They can miss the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody's thinking, well, Pastor, I've never in my life melted down my jewelry into a golden calf.
SPEAKER_00: But forgetting your salvation looks a whole lot more ordinary than that.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like a believer who can still recite the facts of the cross, but hasn't felt the wonder of the cross in months.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like running back one more time to the same old comfort of our idols, things that try to convince us that they have saved us for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Drubs, sex, alcohols, success, the screen, the shopping cart, the relationship you know isn't good for you.
SPEAKER_00: And why do we run there?
SPEAKER_00: Because in that moment we forgot there was already a Savior who paid for our soul in full.
SPEAKER_00: And our idols, just like Israel's, are almost always made out of God's good gifts.
SPEAKER_00: And we reach for them in the exact moment we forget and start believing that they rescue us and that they will rescue us right now in this moment and make us feel good for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: We worship them.
SPEAKER_00: And then they don't pay out.
SPEAKER_00: They burn us down, they hurt us.
SPEAKER_00: Our mind, our spirit, they deceive us.
SPEAKER_00: It's sad.
SPEAKER_00: We take our good gifts given to us by God and we make them idols.
SPEAKER_00: So how do we apply this?
SPEAKER_00: We we first have to fight forgetting.
SPEAKER_00: Fight the mind from forgetting about the Almighty with remembering.
SPEAKER_00: Remembering.
SPEAKER_00: We have to do communion again.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we're forgetful.
SPEAKER_00: This is the whole reason Jesus gave us a table.
SPEAKER_00: He knew his people would be forgetful, so he gave us bread to hold and a cup to taste, something we can fill in our hands to jog a forgetful heart back to Calvary.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot sleepwalk through communion.
SPEAKER_00: Let it do what it was made to do.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, enter into his presence.
SPEAKER_00: Say, I'm sorry, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Say, I need you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Save me again and again and again and again.
SPEAKER_00: Save me from myself.
SPEAKER_00: Save me from my forgetfulness.
SPEAKER_00: Second, we have to give the credit where it belongs.
SPEAKER_00: When life is good, the forgetful heart looks around and says, Look what I built, look what I earned.
SPEAKER_00: When life is good, we forget God.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what I've done.
SPEAKER_00: Who gave you those gifts?
SPEAKER_00: Who gave you that determination?
SPEAKER_00: Who gave you that desire?
SPEAKER_00: Who gave you that drive?
SPEAKER_00: Who gave you the spirit within you?
SPEAKER_00: The remembering heart says, Look what he's given me.
SPEAKER_00: Refuse to pin the reward of your Savior's glory on a calf of your own making.
SPEAKER_00: Don't do it.
SPEAKER_00: Always give the glory back to God.
SPEAKER_00: Don't drink the glory.
SPEAKER_00: It will make you sick every time.
SPEAKER_00: And third, when you feel yourself drifting back to an old idol, you've got to stop and ask the honest question what am I forgetting right now?
SPEAKER_00: Because you don't run to the calf until you've first forgotten Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We have to preach the rescue back into our own hearts and watch the pull of the idol start to weaken in our hands.
SPEAKER_00: Remember where you came from.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the slavery in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Don't forget it.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the miracles it took to pull you out.
SPEAKER_00: You got to remember where you were and the miracles that God did to pull you out, and the miracles that He's done to continue to carry you to this place.
SPEAKER_00: And you got to keep praising Him.
SPEAKER_00: You got to keep remembering.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle John warns us in 1 John 5 21, little children, guard yourselves from idols.
SPEAKER_00: Guard yourself from idols.
SPEAKER_00: John ends his whole letter on it like a father at the door leaving, saying, reminding his kids one last time, guard yourself from idols.
SPEAKER_00: A.W.
SPEAKER_00: Pink says, Man must have an object.
SPEAKER_00: When he turns from the true God, he at once craves a false one.
SPEAKER_00: Man must have an object.
SPEAKER_00: When he's turned away from the true God, he craves something else.
SPEAKER_00: He craves a false one.
SPEAKER_00: Church, don't let it happen to us.
SPEAKER_00: Remember him.
SPEAKER_00: How often?
SPEAKER_00: Every day.
SPEAKER_00: I need you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I need thee.
SPEAKER_00: I need thee every hour, O precious Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I need thee.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I need thee.
SPEAKER_00: I need thee every hour.
SPEAKER_00: We truly do.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it is wild.
SPEAKER_00: If you just document the hours of your life, oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00: Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.
SPEAKER_00: They forgot his salvation, but he was already saving them.
SPEAKER_00: Point number three, and finally, they forgot his worth.
SPEAKER_00: But he was worthy of all along.
SPEAKER_00: Verses five and six.
SPEAKER_00: Aaron looked and built an altar before it, before this golden calf.
SPEAKER_00: Building an altar.
SPEAKER_00: And Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow shall be a feast to Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: Now lean in here, because this is the slipperest verse in the whole passage.
SPEAKER_00: Watch carefully.
SPEAKER_00: Aaron isn't standing up and inventing some brand new religion.
SPEAKER_00: Look at his words.
SPEAKER_00: He builds an altar, and that's how you worship the true God.
SPEAKER_00: And then he calls it a feast.
SPEAKER_00: That's right out of the law.
SPEAKER_00: And then he uses the covenant name Yahweh around this cow.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see what he's doing?
SPEAKER_00: He's trying in panic to staple God's holy name onto a cow and call it church.
SPEAKER_00: He says, relax, everybody, we're still worshiping the right God.
SPEAKER_00: We've just changed how we do it a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly the problem.
SPEAKER_00: To bow down to a metal cow and call it Yahweh is to forget what Yahweh is worth.
SPEAKER_00: The church does this.
SPEAKER_00: Like to slap all kinds of things.
SPEAKER_00: You know, slap Yahweh on all kinds of things and call it church.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not.
SPEAKER_00: He's actually told us very clearly what it looks like.
SPEAKER_00: And we should just be obedient to this.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need to invent all kinds of new ways and all kinds of new golden calves.
SPEAKER_00: That's what this reality is.
SPEAKER_00: It's a worth problem.
SPEAKER_00: You only trade down when you've forgotten the value of what you're holding.
SPEAKER_00: And verse 6 shows you where forgetting is worth always ends up.
SPEAKER_00: It says, So the next day they rose early and they offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
SPEAKER_00: The word play in the Hebrew is a loaded word, sensual and indecent.
SPEAKER_00: The worship service slid into a party.
SPEAKER_00: The party slid into something far worse.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the principle: when you forget how holy God is, you'll forget how holy you're supposed to be.
SPEAKER_00: A low view of God always produces a low view way of living.
SPEAKER_00: If God's a cow, then let's go roll in the mud.
SPEAKER_00: And on the mountain at that very hour, God was revealing how worthy he is, designing a worship so careful, so holy, so soaked in grace that it could guard his glory and still let sinners draw near to him.
SPEAKER_00: They had forgotten his worth, but he had not forgotten it for one second.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the truth, plainly said, that God alone gets to decide how God will be worshipped.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we return, church, to the Word of God every single Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: You'll never, not me, I mean, by the grace of God, we will be here.
SPEAKER_00: It will open in your Bibles too.
SPEAKER_00: We will be returning to the Word of God every Sunday for all of eternity here.
SPEAKER_00: We're not going away from this thing.
SPEAKER_00: Let's try this, and let's try that, and let's try this.
SPEAKER_00: Is it inside the book?
SPEAKER_00: Does it work there?
SPEAKER_00: If it works there, we're good.
SPEAKER_00: If it doesn't work there, we're not doing that.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter which way the culture shifts or goes.
SPEAKER_00: We have to keep doing what God has said.
SPEAKER_00: Because God alone knows what God is worth, and He reminds us of it.
SPEAKER_00: A forgetful generation is awfully good at building a comfortable God.
SPEAKER_00: A God who asks nothing of us, costs nothing, convicts nothing, a God made to fit our preferences, dressed up in all the right church vocabulary.
SPEAKER_00: It sings the songs, it uses the name, and underneath it all, it's a calf.
SPEAKER_00: Because somewhere along the way we forgot what the real God is worth.
SPEAKER_00: That's why you see so much debauchery.
SPEAKER_00: The church looks great on the outside, but under it all, it's an absolute mess.
SPEAKER_00: It implodes, it crumbles, it's destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: People get mad at us for applying the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: You know that?
SPEAKER_00: Like they like, the word of God, the word of God, the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: As soon as we apply it to their life, they're like, hey, I don't like that.
SPEAKER_00: Like, what are you talking about, man?
SPEAKER_00: Like this is the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: Like you're excited that we're doing that, but then when we apply it, people don't like that.
SPEAKER_00: First, we have to measure our worship by the word, not by our mood, not by how we feel.
SPEAKER_00: Real worship isn't whatever moves me on a given Sunday, it is what the worthy God has actually revealed, his word read and preached in prayer, his praise, the confession of our faith, his table.
SPEAKER_00: The moment I catch myself saying, Well, I like to think of God as this, or I kind of like this kind of God, then you start sketching a God to my own taste.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the moment I've picked up a graving tool to start building my golden calf.
SPEAKER_00: And that lowers the standard of Almighty God.
SPEAKER_00: And before you know it, the standard of your own life falls.
SPEAKER_00: That's the start of building my own golden calf to worship and calling it Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to let our worship cost you something.
SPEAKER_00: A worship that costs you nothing on Sunday will change nothing in you by Tuesday.
SPEAKER_00: The calf demanded nothing of them, and so it transformed no one.
SPEAKER_00: The true God is worth your time, your attention, your obedience, your whole week, your whole life, because he will bring forth real transformation in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to remember his worth, and your heart will bow on its own.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to white knuckle your way into reverence.
SPEAKER_00: Just remember who he is, the one who split the sea for you, the one who hung the stars for you, the one who went to the cross for you.
SPEAKER_00: And then worship just comes naturally.
SPEAKER_00: The one who hung the sunset for you, it comes naturally.
SPEAKER_00: We were made to sing one song forever about our God.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about a cow.
SPEAKER_00: News flash.
SPEAKER_00: And if somebody puts out a song, a worship song about a cow, we're burning it down.
SPEAKER_00: We to worship him in spirit and in truth.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation 4.11, worthy are you, O Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power.
SPEAKER_00: That is the line Israel for God at the foot of the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: It's a picture of a little child handed a priceless family heirloom, a ring passed down five generations, worth more than the house, and down at the playground, the child trades it for a plastic toy that lights up and buzzes.
SPEAKER_00: We grieve at that, of course.
SPEAKER_00: We also understand it.
SPEAKER_00: The child traded it for one simple reason.
SPEAKER_00: The child had no idea what it was worth.
SPEAKER_00: Israel traded the glory of the living God for that ox that eats grass, not because the cow was worth more, but because they had completely forgotten the worth of what they were holding.
SPEAKER_00: R.C.
SPEAKER_00: Sproul said, this was a religion designed by men, practiced by men, ultimately useless for men.
SPEAKER_00: They forgot his worth, but of course he was worthy of all.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, I can never forget you.
SPEAKER_00: I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're in a time of waiting and you don't know where the Lord is.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, He's on the mountain making good plans for you.
SPEAKER_00: Remember who he is in the waiting.
SPEAKER_00: Remember what he saved you from.
SPEAKER_00: Remember he's not delaying.
SPEAKER_00: Remember he is far greater worth than any idol in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: We forget him, but Hebrews chapter 8, verse 12 says, For I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more.
SPEAKER_00: We forget him, but he remembers our sins no more.
SPEAKER_00: I love this.
SPEAKER_00: I saw this online just the other day.
SPEAKER_00: It's absolutely amazing.
SPEAKER_00: This uh Peter, it's a it's a conversation between Peter and Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter walks up to Jesus, says, Lord, remember that time when you fed the 5,000, you multiplied the loaves and fish, and you fed all the people.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Yeah, Peter, I remember.
SPEAKER_00: I remember.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Lord, remember that time when you called me to come out on the water and I walked on water.
SPEAKER_00: Wasn't that amazing?
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember when that happened?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, Peter, I remember.
SPEAKER_00: I remember.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Lord, do you remember that time when you parted the Red Sea and I walked through on dry ground?
SPEAKER_00: It was absolutely amazing.
SPEAKER_00: You led us out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: No, Peter, that was not you.
SPEAKER_00: That was Moses.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Well, Lord, do you remember that time?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm so forgetful.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember that time when I betrayed you three times?
SPEAKER_00: I denied you.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, do you remember that?
SPEAKER_00: He looked at Peter with a smile and says, No, I don't remember.
SPEAKER_00: I don't remember, Peter.
SPEAKER_00: He remembers our sins no more.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 103.
SPEAKER_00: He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.
SPEAKER_00: He will not always chide, he will not always be angry, he will not keep his anger forever.
SPEAKER_00: He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
SPEAKER_00: For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so his greatness and his steadfast love towards those who fear him.
SPEAKER_00: As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our sin from us.
SPEAKER_00: As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
SPEAKER_00: I love forgetting the sins of my children.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to remember.
SPEAKER_00: I love him.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get on with it.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go play.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go have fun.
SPEAKER_00: God loves you.
SPEAKER_00: He's gone above beyond to cause you to remember his love for you.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to enter into communion now to remember the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You guys okay?
SPEAKER_00: It's time to remember.
SPEAKER_00: Ben and the Ban are gonna come up.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to worship, we're gonna pray, we're gonna partake in communion.
SPEAKER_00: Let's turn to the Lord now.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we worship you in this place.
SPEAKER_00: And we do.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for your love for us.
SPEAKER_00: You've gone above and beyond.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you even when we are faithless, you remain faithful, for you cannot deny yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And we marvel at the cross, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We marvel at the work that you've done in your death, burial, and resurrection, and we come here to celebrate that to now, today, in this moment.
SPEAKER_00: We come here to confess.
SPEAKER_00: We come here to celebrate.
SPEAKER_00: We come here to remember.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for every person in this place, whether heads are bowed, or eyes are closed, and we're praying and say, Man, I need Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I need forgiveness of sin.
SPEAKER_00: I want him to forgive me of all my sin.
SPEAKER_00: I want him to make me new.
SPEAKER_00: I want to follow him with all of my life.
SPEAKER_00: I want to make him Lord and Savior over my life.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray for everyone in this place praying that.
SPEAKER_00: Save now, save now, that you would hear their prayer.
SPEAKER_00: You would become their Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You would become their savior.
SPEAKER_00: You would walk with them all the days of their life.
SPEAKER_00: You'd give them new life.
SPEAKER_00: They would come to the table with clean hands and a pure heart, remembering the work that you've done.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we bring these filthy hands to you.
SPEAKER_00: We bring these broken hearts to you.
SPEAKER_00: We bring these hearts of stone to you.
SPEAKER_00: We ask, Lord, that you would do a fresh work in our lives, even in this moment, as we partake of communion.
SPEAKER_00: We have forgotten you, but we thank you, God, that you have not forgotten us.
SPEAKER_00: You will never forget us.
SPEAKER_00: But you remember our sin no more.
SPEAKER_00: We're in awe.
SPEAKER_00: We bless you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Bless this time as we enter into communion.
SPEAKER_00: We ask it in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.