WEBVTT 00:00:16.349 --> 00:00:19.870 When you're opening your Bible speech to Exodus chapter 32. 00:00:20.350 --> 00:00:24.750 If you're new with us, we have been slowly walking through the Old Testament this year. 00:00:24.829 --> 00:00:39.469 In the first few months of the year, we looked in depth at the creation story and just how that set a foundation for some of the most important theologies, doctrines about who God is in the whole Bible, the first few chapters. 00:00:39.710 --> 00:00:43.230 The last few months we've been looking at what we've called the patriarchs. 00:00:43.390 --> 00:00:54.030 We're looking at Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and now we've been with Moses for a few weeks and uh getting on in a minute to Joseph and Joshua. 00:00:54.670 --> 00:01:00.829 We've been slowly looking through the story and looking at where is Jesus in the middle of the Old Testament. 00:01:00.909 --> 00:01:07.469 In Luke chapter 24, when Jesus is walking on the road to Emmaus and he meets these disciples who are discouraged. 00:01:07.549 --> 00:01:12.829 They didn't realize that Jesus had risen from the dead yet, and he's talking and walking with them. 00:01:12.909 --> 00:01:21.149 And scripture tells us that he explains to them, beginning with Moses and the prophets, all the things in Scripture concerning himself. 00:01:21.390 --> 00:01:25.789 So we're on this journey this year of looking at Moses and the prophets. 00:01:25.950 --> 00:01:28.429 Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. 00:01:32.030 --> 00:01:45.310 And along the way, we find broken and fallen people and leaders who do crazy things good and crazy things bad, and we sit and judge like I do, and I'm like, well, I would do the same thing. 00:01:45.469 --> 00:01:50.750 And we are learning more about ourselves, and we're learning more about the nature and the character of God. 00:01:51.069 --> 00:01:55.069 As we're unpacking here today, Exodus chapter 32. 00:01:55.629 --> 00:01:59.469 I believe you're gonna find yourself in this story. 00:01:59.789 --> 00:02:06.670 And if we look carefully and we allow the story to read us, we're gonna see how often we make the same mistakes. 00:02:06.829 --> 00:02:13.150 And we're gonna look at the grace of the Lord that keeps drawing us into his presence. 00:02:13.469 --> 00:02:17.390 I feel it's a warning because we're in the season of summer. 00:02:17.550 --> 00:02:22.430 Summer kind of starts, and summer for many people begins this slow drift. 00:02:22.750 --> 00:02:30.430 The slow drift, not like, you know, I end up, you know, I start in the month of May and I write Pastor David an email saying, hey, I'm out. 00:02:30.670 --> 00:02:32.110 Like I'm mad at the church. 00:02:32.270 --> 00:02:33.310 No, that doesn't happen. 00:02:33.469 --> 00:02:34.430 Thank you, thank you. 00:02:34.590 --> 00:02:59.870 Um what happens is we drift, we get lazy, we we start dropping off the text chains, out of the life groups, we start dropping out of the community, we out of our disciplines, and we find ourselves just a few weeks, a few months later, disconnected and beginning to reimagine what Christianity could or should look like within our schedules, within our desires, within our designs. 00:03:00.110 --> 00:03:16.110 I feel like today's a warning because, like a ship that moves pretty slowly and getting to the dock, if it's coming in too fast and moving in the wrong direction, somebody has to yell and say, Stop, let's redirect, let's let's re-redire, get on the right path again. 00:03:17.950 --> 00:03:22.990 I'm going to the beach in a few weeks, and my favorite vacation is in the beach. 00:03:23.070 --> 00:03:30.189 And it's so easy to think you get so comfortable with the ocean, and before you know it, you begin to drift. 00:03:30.510 --> 00:03:35.710 Begin to drift, and a current takes you out, and you find yourself suddenly unable to control yourself. 00:03:35.870 --> 00:03:36.909 It's time for a warning. 00:03:36.990 --> 00:03:45.950 I think scripture is giving us one today that if we should heed it, we should read that we come back on track with what the Lord is asking us to do. 00:03:46.430 --> 00:03:52.909 Are we ready and willing to do God's will, God's way, or are we gonna redesign it? 00:03:53.150 --> 00:03:55.150 Are we gonna keep redesigning it? 00:03:55.469 --> 00:04:06.030 My title for today, if you're a title writer down a rare, um technical term, is get your heads back, get your head back in the clouds. 00:04:06.350 --> 00:04:07.950 Get your head back in the clouds. 00:04:08.030 --> 00:04:16.029 In this portion of scripture, here in chapter 32 through 34, there's an image that keeps showing up, and it's this image of a cloud. 00:04:16.110 --> 00:04:18.430 And I want you to hold on to this. 00:04:19.389 --> 00:04:27.870 We start when Moses is on the top of Mount Sinai in chapter 32, and he's meeting with God, and the glory of the cloud of the Lord is on the mountain. 00:04:28.110 --> 00:04:34.269 We look later on how Moses is back amongst the people and he goes out to the camp into the tent of meeting. 00:04:34.349 --> 00:04:40.029 And when he goes in to meet with the Lord, the cloud of the Lord rests on the tent of the meeting. 00:04:40.189 --> 00:04:49.389 It's in the presence of the Lord that we need to get our heads back into if we're gonna uh autocorrect, if we're gonna redirect our course here today. 00:04:49.469 --> 00:04:51.549 It's get your head back into the clouds. 00:04:51.789 --> 00:04:52.430 Amen. 00:04:53.469 --> 00:04:55.870 Hopefully by now you're at chapter 32. 00:04:56.029 --> 00:05:01.389 I want to give you uh a little bit of an update of where we are in the story here. 00:05:01.629 --> 00:05:05.709 Moses has been on the top of Mount Sinai for 40 days. 00:05:05.949 --> 00:05:07.469 40, only 40 days. 00:05:07.549 --> 00:05:08.909 He's on the top of the mountain. 00:05:09.149 --> 00:05:26.509 God is giving him the Ten Commandments, and with the finger of God writing on the stone tablets the Ten Commandments, and he's speaking to Moses, in a sense, giving him the blueprint of what the nation should how the nation should function and how God wants the nation to move forward. 00:05:26.669 --> 00:05:41.469 This is a new group of people, a couple million, who came out of Egypt and were in slavery for 430 years, and now God is putting his fence around them, his name on them, calling them out, saying, You are now my people. 00:05:41.709 --> 00:05:49.549 I'm about to lead you into Canaan, but here is your constitution, if we want to understand our language for today. 00:05:49.789 --> 00:05:51.870 This is how we're gonna govern ourselves. 00:05:52.029 --> 00:05:56.750 This is how I'm gonna lead you, and this is how you should look at how you do your life together. 00:05:56.990 --> 00:06:01.310 Moses is having a great time in the cloud on the mountain, 40 days. 00:06:01.469 --> 00:06:03.870 People down below are losing it. 00:06:04.430 --> 00:06:06.750 40 days with no visible leader. 00:06:06.909 --> 00:06:10.589 I mean, Aaron and Miriam are there, but they got their issues. 00:06:10.829 --> 00:06:18.349 So they don't see Moses, they don't see the word, no sign, just silence, and like us, they can't take it. 00:06:18.669 --> 00:06:21.629 Let's read verse 1 from chapter 32. 00:06:21.870 --> 00:06:36.669 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, Up! I like that, get up, make us gods who shall go before us. 00:06:36.909 --> 00:06:42.029 And for this Moses, I like how the the attitude changes. 00:06:42.269 --> 00:06:44.509 Moses who led us out of the out of Egypt. 00:06:44.669 --> 00:06:45.709 Now it's this Moses. 00:06:46.189 --> 00:06:53.949 Now, this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what's become of him. 00:06:55.310 --> 00:06:56.589 So, what does Aaron do? 00:06:56.750 --> 00:07:00.509 Aaron buckles under this pressure and he does what they want. 00:07:01.069 --> 00:07:08.269 He builds them a statue, and it's not a statue of Baal, it's not a foreign kind of deity. 00:07:08.509 --> 00:07:10.430 He builds a golden calf. 00:07:11.229 --> 00:07:16.589 Israel didn't invent this image as a god, godlike figure. 00:07:16.829 --> 00:07:19.629 Egypt inherited uh Israel inherited this. 00:07:19.789 --> 00:07:21.709 This was something they picked up in Egypt. 00:07:21.870 --> 00:07:30.829 Where they lived in Goshen in Egypt, there were some of the images of cows and calves that would have been common to them, familiar to them. 00:07:31.149 --> 00:07:32.430 So they make it. 00:07:32.990 --> 00:07:35.870 But then listen what Aaron says in verse 5. 00:07:36.189 --> 00:07:48.029 When Aaron saw this thing that he had made, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord. 00:07:48.269 --> 00:07:50.349 Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord. 00:07:50.509 --> 00:07:57.149 The word Lord there in in Hebrew is Yahweh, the covenant name of the Lord. 00:07:57.310 --> 00:08:00.750 Tomorrow we will make a feast before Yahweh. 00:08:00.990 --> 00:08:02.909 Now, this was new to me. 00:08:03.549 --> 00:08:05.870 I've read this portion 50 times in my life. 00:08:06.029 --> 00:08:11.549 And here I'm like, wait, I thought they were starting a whole new religion and doing this whole ball worship thing. 00:08:11.709 --> 00:08:16.269 What they were doing was trying to take a familiar image that they were used to. 00:08:16.430 --> 00:08:19.870 400 years in Egypt makes you used to a way of doing things. 00:08:20.029 --> 00:08:32.830 And they want to now put this in front of God, Yahweh, the God of Israel, who just performed the ten miracles, the ten plagues in front of them, brought them through the Red Sea, and they want to offer this thing to Yahweh. 00:08:32.990 --> 00:08:36.830 They're not going into atheism or into Baal worship. 00:08:37.070 --> 00:08:39.549 They're redesigning their faith. 00:08:39.870 --> 00:08:43.389 They're making it a little bit more comfortable, a little bit more familiar. 00:08:43.549 --> 00:08:48.190 They're doing God's will their way, not God's way. 00:08:48.590 --> 00:08:50.750 And it's so important for us here. 00:08:50.990 --> 00:08:58.269 They didn't abandon Yahweh, they tried to represent him with an image that they could control and carry. 00:09:00.590 --> 00:09:05.949 Moses comes down from the mountain and he sees what's going on there. 00:09:06.269 --> 00:09:18.909 Can you imagine those 40 days in the presence of God, speaking to him, talking to him, seeing his finger like carving out these stones with the laws of God? 00:09:18.990 --> 00:09:26.429 And he comes down, drops the tablets on the floor, and this crisis starts. 00:09:28.829 --> 00:09:38.990 Judgment, with intercession, unbelievable intercession, and this incredible covenant renewal, the grace of the Lord poured out yet again on us. 00:09:39.069 --> 00:09:45.389 So our question really today is are we willing to do God's will God's way? 00:09:46.189 --> 00:09:54.909 Or are we gonna keep redesigning our faith to fit something that's familiar and comfortable and suitable for our lives? 00:09:55.149 --> 00:09:58.269 That's the hard question for us today. 00:09:58.990 --> 00:10:05.549 My first point I want to unpack here is this that God's will is found in his presence. 00:10:05.789 --> 00:10:07.949 God's will is found in God's presence. 00:10:08.110 --> 00:10:11.389 Read from chapter 33, verse 1. 00:10:11.710 --> 00:10:13.309 We'll read three verses here. 00:10:13.549 --> 00:10:28.189 The Lord said to Moses, Depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, To your offspring I will give it. 00:10:28.669 --> 00:10:30.350 Sound good so far, right? 00:10:30.669 --> 00:10:40.669 So this whole calf thing happened, stone tablets are broken, Moses is kicked, and now the Lord says to them, Okay, guys, get up, go up from here. 00:10:40.829 --> 00:10:44.110 I'm gonna take you into the land that I promised your forefathers. 00:10:44.350 --> 00:10:56.110 Verse 2, I will send, I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites and the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. 00:10:57.149 --> 00:11:08.269 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go up amongst you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people. 00:11:09.870 --> 00:11:13.309 It slowed this down for just a second. 00:11:14.509 --> 00:11:18.909 God is offering Israel their full inheritance. 00:11:20.110 --> 00:11:22.189 I mean, this is a big deal. 00:11:22.350 --> 00:11:24.669 This these few verses are a big deal. 00:11:24.990 --> 00:11:27.470 He's offering them their full inheritance. 00:11:27.710 --> 00:11:31.949 The land, the land that they flowing with milk and honey. 00:11:32.110 --> 00:11:35.389 They didn't have a land, they were slaves for 430 years. 00:11:35.629 --> 00:11:38.269 He's gonna bring them into a good place, into Canaan. 00:11:38.429 --> 00:11:43.389 He's gonna drive out, not just do they not not need to, oh, it's nice and cool over here. 00:11:43.470 --> 00:11:45.549 This is a good section here in the church. 00:11:45.870 --> 00:11:46.189 Okay. 00:11:47.470 --> 00:11:55.549 Not just do they not need to joking, fight the armies, as happened in the book of Joshua. 00:11:55.629 --> 00:11:59.389 There was something over 30 fights and and wars that they had to do. 00:11:59.549 --> 00:12:05.069 Not just that, the angel says it will go before them and drive out all the people of God. 00:12:05.389 --> 00:12:06.669 Good deal, right? 00:12:06.909 --> 00:12:08.350 Doesn't this sound amazing? 00:12:08.590 --> 00:12:12.990 But but your presence won't go with you. 00:12:17.870 --> 00:12:20.189 We gotta be honest with ourselves for a minute here. 00:12:21.149 --> 00:12:22.429 What would we say? 00:12:23.389 --> 00:12:25.309 What would we have done in that minute? 00:12:26.669 --> 00:12:30.990 The next verse gives me immediate hope for the people of Israel and should for us. 00:12:31.149 --> 00:12:33.309 When the people heard this, verse 4. 00:12:33.549 --> 00:12:38.669 This disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. 00:12:38.750 --> 00:12:41.149 They showed some remorse. 00:12:41.470 --> 00:12:47.230 And then Moses goes into the tent of meeting to go talk to the Lord some more about this. 00:12:47.870 --> 00:12:48.990 Look at verse 9. 00:12:49.149 --> 00:12:55.309 When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent. 00:12:55.389 --> 00:12:58.269 And the Lord there would speak with Moses. 00:12:59.069 --> 00:13:01.549 Moses then has this interaction with the Lord. 00:13:01.629 --> 00:13:03.949 And verse 15, he says the most incredible thing. 00:13:04.110 --> 00:13:09.309 He says, if your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 00:13:10.029 --> 00:13:14.110 If your presence does not go, who do not bring us up from here? 00:13:14.429 --> 00:13:22.590 In fact, he goes on to say, if your presence doesn't go with us, how will we be distinct from any of the other nations on the earth? 00:13:22.750 --> 00:13:25.149 It is your presence that marks us. 00:13:25.230 --> 00:13:28.590 It's your presence that makes us different from anybody else. 00:13:28.669 --> 00:13:34.029 It's your presence that has so marked them as a people and called them a name. 00:13:34.990 --> 00:13:39.230 He's understanding this is your presence doesn't go before us. 00:13:39.470 --> 00:13:41.870 Do not send us out from here. 00:13:43.230 --> 00:13:46.669 Really want us to think hard about this question. 00:13:50.269 --> 00:13:57.629 I think the question the text is asking us, not whether we believe in God, but it's whether we actually want him. 00:13:59.629 --> 00:14:07.389 Whether we actually want him, whether we actually live our lives in a way that without him, it's not right. 00:14:08.029 --> 00:14:10.829 Without him, something major is missing. 00:14:10.990 --> 00:14:12.909 Without him, I'm incomplete. 00:14:13.069 --> 00:14:16.110 Without him, I'm feeling like failure. 00:14:17.549 --> 00:14:19.949 Is that the way we live our lives? 00:14:20.110 --> 00:14:23.549 And let's bring this more home. 00:14:23.710 --> 00:14:27.549 If God were to offer you a guarantee, let's say this. 00:14:27.710 --> 00:14:31.710 If God was to offer you sitting down with you, hey bud, let's sit down. 00:14:32.350 --> 00:14:34.269 I got a deal to make with you. 00:14:34.750 --> 00:14:36.110 I will give you. 00:14:36.909 --> 00:14:44.269 Your family will stay healthy, your finances are secure, your your kids are thriving, your reputation is intact. 00:14:44.909 --> 00:14:47.549 But I won't be with you. 00:14:47.870 --> 00:14:52.110 You will not know or experience my presence at all. 00:14:53.149 --> 00:14:57.549 Not in your daily life, not disruptive, not demonic, just quiet and distant. 00:14:57.870 --> 00:14:59.230 Would you take it? 00:15:02.669 --> 00:15:08.189 I think most of us would have to sit with that question if we were to be honest with ourselves a little bit. 00:15:09.230 --> 00:15:10.509 And here's why I say this. 00:15:11.230 --> 00:15:12.590 This is a warning to us. 00:15:14.909 --> 00:15:31.230 If I just summarize the whole book of Hosea, Hosea says that these people have been asking for God's blessing, God then blesses them, and then they turn to the blessing for their security, and they forget the Lord. 00:15:32.350 --> 00:15:45.230 If I just summarize the whole book in a couple sentences, I feel to some regard, God has so blessed America financially, reputation, it's the strongest economy in the world. 00:15:45.629 --> 00:15:48.110 It's not an opinion, it's just a statement. 00:15:48.909 --> 00:16:00.269 But for most of us Americans, we're so used to this level of blessing that we now look to the blessing for our security and our comfort. 00:16:00.350 --> 00:16:02.590 And we've forgotten the Lord. 00:16:07.309 --> 00:16:09.549 What is the thing you obsess about most? 00:16:09.710 --> 00:16:11.309 What is the thing you worry about most? 00:16:11.470 --> 00:16:13.629 What is the thing you pray about most? 00:16:13.789 --> 00:16:19.870 And if the Lord were to give you that, without his presence, would we take it? 00:16:20.829 --> 00:16:22.269 That's the question here. 00:16:22.590 --> 00:16:27.389 He was ready to give them their land, drive out everybody else, there you go. 00:16:27.789 --> 00:16:29.710 Thankfully, they mourned. 00:16:30.029 --> 00:16:32.269 But I have to ask us the question. 00:16:32.590 --> 00:16:44.590 Because I know how I've structured my life, and it's easy now that certain big things have been checked out in my life, and you know, taking care of this and the future and the kids and all of that. 00:16:44.750 --> 00:16:46.990 Uh now can I just coast? 00:16:47.789 --> 00:16:49.149 It's easy to live like that. 00:16:49.230 --> 00:16:51.230 We're in a blessed nation. 00:16:52.189 --> 00:16:56.590 We have to ask ourselves, do we need God every day? 00:16:58.110 --> 00:17:01.069 Can we survive without him every day? 00:17:04.430 --> 00:17:08.910 We curated so much comfort, stability, predictability. 00:17:09.150 --> 00:17:14.190 I believe we can go days or sometimes weeks without genuinely needing God. 00:17:15.230 --> 00:17:17.950 One of God's names is the comforter. 00:17:18.509 --> 00:17:20.829 Comforter, but we build lives that don't need him. 00:17:21.309 --> 00:17:22.269 And guess what? 00:17:22.430 --> 00:17:24.190 We call that a success. 00:17:24.509 --> 00:17:26.750 Our culture calls that a success. 00:17:27.230 --> 00:17:30.190 You have enough of a home here and enough of a home at the beach. 00:17:30.509 --> 00:17:32.910 Whoa, you are successful. 00:17:33.869 --> 00:17:38.190 You have enough of this or enough of that, whoa, you have done well. 00:17:39.150 --> 00:17:42.670 And this is the mark of a quote-unquote Christian nation. 00:17:42.910 --> 00:17:44.349 How we celebrate these things. 00:17:44.509 --> 00:17:47.069 I believe God is trying to get our attention back. 00:17:47.230 --> 00:17:49.789 What is the most important thing in your life? 00:17:49.950 --> 00:17:52.829 What is the one thing you cannot do without? 00:17:53.389 --> 00:17:56.109 And we have to come to this question. 00:17:58.269 --> 00:18:00.190 Trying to figure out what is it for you? 00:18:00.430 --> 00:18:01.150 It's not me. 00:18:01.230 --> 00:18:03.710 I this cannot be me trying to condemn you. 00:18:04.349 --> 00:18:05.950 This is not condemnation. 00:18:06.269 --> 00:18:12.349 This is me looking at this scripture and asking myself, am I that different to these Israelites? 00:18:12.990 --> 00:18:15.549 And I want to ask us as a church, are we that different? 00:18:15.629 --> 00:18:16.910 And what are we going to do about it? 00:18:16.990 --> 00:18:18.670 There's a warning here for us. 00:18:18.910 --> 00:18:22.029 But there's also an invitation, and I'll get there in a minute. 00:18:22.269 --> 00:18:24.990 But here's a concrete, concrete diagnostic. 00:18:25.150 --> 00:18:29.869 When did you last pursue God when nothing was going wrong? 00:18:32.269 --> 00:18:38.109 Not in a crisis, not when you needed anything, just because you wanted his faith. 00:18:40.990 --> 00:18:47.069 I believe that answer might tell you more about your spiritual state than your church attendance. 00:18:48.670 --> 00:18:52.109 When last have we pursued him for him? 00:18:56.750 --> 00:19:01.869 I often talk about my kids, and I've I have two kids who live away from home now. 00:19:02.589 --> 00:19:03.950 I love hearing from them. 00:19:04.190 --> 00:19:07.470 But often the phone calls are, hey dad, I need money. 00:19:08.349 --> 00:19:08.990 That's good. 00:19:09.389 --> 00:19:09.789 It's fine. 00:19:12.829 --> 00:19:14.269 Hey dad, I crashed my car. 00:19:14.430 --> 00:19:16.029 Hey dad, I crashed my hands. 00:19:16.190 --> 00:19:17.230 Hey dad, I need this. 00:19:17.389 --> 00:19:17.869 Hey dad. 00:19:18.109 --> 00:19:19.230 Fine, fine, fine, fine. 00:19:19.389 --> 00:19:20.269 Love all of that. 00:19:20.509 --> 00:19:22.269 Then every now and then I get a phone call. 00:19:22.349 --> 00:19:23.389 I'm like, hey dad. 00:19:23.710 --> 00:19:24.990 I'm like, yeah, what's up? 00:19:26.349 --> 00:19:27.549 What do you mean, what's up? 00:19:27.789 --> 00:19:29.150 Just wanted to say hi. 00:19:29.710 --> 00:19:37.069 I literally, no matter where I am, I put down my pen, I put down my everything, I sit back and I'm like, what's up, boy? 00:19:37.150 --> 00:19:38.029 What's up, girl? 00:19:39.789 --> 00:19:40.269 Wow. 00:19:40.509 --> 00:19:41.869 Best phone call ever. 00:19:42.109 --> 00:19:43.309 Best phone call ever. 00:19:43.789 --> 00:19:46.269 Father doesn't mind you coming with your problems. 00:19:46.509 --> 00:19:48.910 But what about just coming to be? 00:19:49.710 --> 00:19:51.309 Just coming to hang. 00:19:51.710 --> 00:19:53.950 Just coming to be refreshed. 00:19:54.190 --> 00:20:00.430 Just coming to be reimagined because the world is trying to reimagine you all day long. 00:20:01.069 --> 00:20:02.269 Just coming to sit. 00:20:02.670 --> 00:20:03.789 Who am I? 00:20:04.029 --> 00:20:04.990 Who am I? 00:20:05.230 --> 00:20:06.190 Who am I? 00:20:06.430 --> 00:20:07.869 You want to know that question? 00:20:08.190 --> 00:20:12.029 Sit with your father and you begin to understand who you are. 00:20:12.269 --> 00:20:15.309 You begin to understand the heart that he's put inside you. 00:20:15.470 --> 00:20:22.910 You begin to understand the desires and the true deep desires he's put inside of you because you have been made in the image of God. 00:20:23.710 --> 00:20:27.069 But you've been made to be connected in, tethered in with him. 00:20:27.389 --> 00:20:30.430 And this is where we find who we truly are. 00:20:34.990 --> 00:20:37.069 Can we practice this for just a minute? 00:20:38.029 --> 00:20:39.230 It's where you are. 00:20:46.750 --> 00:20:48.190 How do you do that? 00:20:49.470 --> 00:20:50.349 Just for a minute. 00:20:50.589 --> 00:20:52.109 Would you close your eyes? 00:20:52.670 --> 00:20:55.549 There's nothing spiritual about closing your eyes. 00:20:55.629 --> 00:20:57.950 For me, it's simply practical. 00:20:58.349 --> 00:21:00.269 I'm so distracted. 00:21:01.470 --> 00:21:03.789 So for a minute, just close your eyes. 00:21:06.750 --> 00:21:10.349 Become aware of the Spirit of God. 00:21:56.190 --> 00:21:57.710 Just look around, would you? 00:21:58.029 --> 00:21:59.069 Would you all just look around? 00:21:59.150 --> 00:21:59.710 Put your hand up. 00:21:59.789 --> 00:22:01.470 Do you sense the presence of God? 00:22:01.789 --> 00:22:02.990 He's here, friends. 00:22:03.230 --> 00:22:03.789 He's here. 00:22:03.869 --> 00:22:06.269 That wasn't that complicated, was it? 00:22:06.910 --> 00:22:08.430 This is the father. 00:22:08.750 --> 00:22:10.029 This is the I'm a father. 00:22:10.190 --> 00:22:13.389 My kids call me and they're like, yo, dad, what's up? 00:22:13.549 --> 00:22:15.470 I'm like, yo, let's talk. 00:22:16.509 --> 00:22:18.750 Your father is that for you. 00:22:19.710 --> 00:22:21.470 Just ask him. 00:22:22.509 --> 00:22:25.389 Lord, I just need your presence. 00:22:25.950 --> 00:22:27.629 Lord, I'm in a pickle. 00:22:28.430 --> 00:22:29.950 Lord, I'm dry. 00:22:30.430 --> 00:22:30.990 I'm dry. 00:22:31.150 --> 00:22:34.109 I realize I've been living the last three weeks without you. 00:22:34.349 --> 00:22:36.990 Lord, I would like to know your presence today. 00:22:37.150 --> 00:22:37.629 Again. 00:22:37.869 --> 00:22:38.750 You're just asking. 00:22:39.230 --> 00:22:41.710 I closed my eyes, I've helped me with distraction. 00:22:41.789 --> 00:22:44.029 You absolutely have to put your phone away. 00:22:44.670 --> 00:22:48.589 Put your phone away, put your screens away, and just get into the presence of God. 00:22:48.750 --> 00:22:50.269 Get your head back in the cloud. 00:22:50.990 --> 00:22:53.549 And this is where we're going to find God's will for our lives. 00:22:54.109 --> 00:22:54.589 Amen. 00:22:57.789 --> 00:23:00.589 There's not a chance I'm finishing my message today. 00:23:00.750 --> 00:23:02.190 But let me just go a little bit further. 00:23:02.349 --> 00:23:03.309 Are you with me? 00:23:03.629 --> 00:23:04.349 You okay? 00:23:05.309 --> 00:23:08.750 My second point is this that God's will is found in his word. 00:23:09.389 --> 00:23:11.069 God's will is found in his word. 00:23:11.230 --> 00:23:19.150 If you want to know what God's will is, you have to be serious about looking for it, asking him, and finding it. 00:23:19.309 --> 00:23:20.109 It's there. 00:23:20.269 --> 00:23:26.910 It is a gold mine waiting to be mined for you, full of treasures for your daily life. 00:23:27.069 --> 00:23:45.150 In Exodus chapter 32, from verse 15 through 19, what essentially happens is Moses comes down from the mountain carrying the two stone tablets written by the finger of God, and he sees the calf and he sees the dancing, and he throws the tablets down and shatters them at the foot of the mountain. 00:23:45.549 --> 00:23:48.670 This is not an anger management problem. 00:23:49.230 --> 00:23:50.589 It is a custom. 00:23:50.670 --> 00:23:57.309 In ancient world, breaking these treaty tablets was, in a sense, a formal and legal act of dissolving a covenant. 00:23:57.710 --> 00:23:59.629 Moses is making a declaration. 00:23:59.789 --> 00:24:01.230 You have ended this. 00:24:02.349 --> 00:24:04.750 You have chosen another way. 00:24:06.109 --> 00:24:07.950 Yeah, maybe he's a little mad. 00:24:08.109 --> 00:24:10.670 Look at verse chapter 34, verse 1. 00:24:10.990 --> 00:24:21.950 But the Lord says to Moses, cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. 00:24:22.190 --> 00:24:23.230 You notice there? 00:24:23.549 --> 00:24:26.430 Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, right? 00:24:26.670 --> 00:24:29.710 Same template, but I'm going to put the same words on them. 00:24:29.950 --> 00:24:32.029 The same words I'm going to go put them back on there. 00:24:32.190 --> 00:24:35.150 Friends, God doesn't move on from the tablets. 00:24:35.230 --> 00:24:37.629 He doesn't move on from the broken promises. 00:24:37.789 --> 00:24:40.589 He doesn't move on from where our failures are. 00:24:40.829 --> 00:24:42.349 He comes back to the same things. 00:24:44.269 --> 00:24:45.710 Let me write on there again. 00:24:45.950 --> 00:24:46.589 Same word. 00:24:46.829 --> 00:24:48.829 He's not going to lower the expectations. 00:24:48.990 --> 00:24:50.829 He's not going to lower the demands on us. 00:24:50.990 --> 00:24:55.389 He's not going to lower the cost that it costs you and I because it does cost us. 00:24:56.109 --> 00:24:58.750 But he presents us again with an invitation. 00:24:58.990 --> 00:25:00.190 Come back to my word. 00:25:00.509 --> 00:25:02.829 Come back to my word and I will show you. 00:25:02.990 --> 00:25:06.750 Friends, the word does not change because you couldn't keep it. 00:25:07.629 --> 00:25:09.309 The word does not change. 00:25:09.629 --> 00:25:15.710 We are constantly trying to redefine our scriptures today to match our culture. 00:25:15.869 --> 00:25:21.309 The word does not change because you and I can no longer keep it up in the culture that we're living. 00:25:22.589 --> 00:25:24.910 The will of God is the will of God. 00:25:25.309 --> 00:25:27.869 And the will of God is a treasure to be found. 00:25:27.950 --> 00:25:40.269 The will of God is a constitution by which you and I can live happily together, can live in unity, can live in harmony when we follow the will of God, the way of God. 00:25:44.269 --> 00:25:48.269 In verse 6 of chapter 34, something extraordinarily happens. 00:25:48.509 --> 00:25:50.990 Moses asks to see God's face. 00:25:51.629 --> 00:25:56.430 God's response wasn't a vision, his response was a word. 00:25:56.990 --> 00:25:58.029 He spoke. 00:25:58.349 --> 00:25:58.829 He spoke. 00:25:58.990 --> 00:25:59.869 Look at verse 6. 00:26:00.029 --> 00:26:09.309 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, a God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. 00:26:09.789 --> 00:26:24.349 Keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children and of the children's children to the third and fourth generation. 00:26:24.509 --> 00:26:27.230 This is called the formula of grace. 00:26:27.470 --> 00:26:31.710 It gets quoted more than any other scripture in the Old Testament. 00:26:31.950 --> 00:26:34.589 Moses quotes it back in the book of Numbers. 00:26:34.750 --> 00:26:37.150 David makes it personal in Psalm 103. 00:26:37.549 --> 00:26:43.789 Joel uses it to call Israel to repentance when he calls on the nature and the character of God. 00:26:44.109 --> 00:26:48.589 Jonah whines and he says, I knew you would be merciful and gracious. 00:26:48.750 --> 00:26:50.190 I knew you'd be slow to angry. 00:26:50.269 --> 00:26:51.470 That's why I didn't want to do it. 00:26:51.629 --> 00:26:55.710 He is whining a little bit, but using the same promise of who God is. 00:26:55.950 --> 00:26:59.069 Friends, God's self-revelation is verbal. 00:26:59.309 --> 00:27:04.190 His character is inscribed in the book that you and I have possession of. 00:27:12.029 --> 00:27:13.789 And I say that again, friends. 00:27:14.109 --> 00:27:20.990 God's will is not a feeling you and I wait for, it is a word that we receive. 00:27:21.869 --> 00:27:24.430 God's word is incredible. 00:27:24.670 --> 00:27:31.309 God's word is the revealed, known as the revealed will of God in these scriptures. 00:27:31.549 --> 00:27:36.829 Here in this church, we have a very, very high view of the canon of scripture. 00:27:36.910 --> 00:27:44.829 These 66 books put together over, written over 1,500 years, written in three different languages by something like 30 different authors. 00:27:44.990 --> 00:27:50.589 This is the will of God that He watched over, that we will live and guide our lives by. 00:27:50.829 --> 00:27:54.750 At the same time, today the Lord continues to speak. 00:27:55.150 --> 00:27:55.869 He speaks. 00:27:56.029 --> 00:28:01.309 He speaks through prophets, he speaks through nature, he speaks through angels, through dreams, through visions. 00:28:01.470 --> 00:28:07.069 None of it superseding the word of God, because this is the revealed will of God for our lives. 00:28:07.230 --> 00:28:13.950 But all of it coming alongside it, coming under it, helping us understand which page you and I need for today. 00:28:14.349 --> 00:28:16.670 Which instruction you and I need for today. 00:28:16.829 --> 00:28:18.829 There's a lot in here, a lot of truth in here. 00:28:18.910 --> 00:28:22.589 But sometimes you're wondering, I'm in so much pain and so much agony. 00:28:22.829 --> 00:28:25.150 Someone comes alongside and gives you a word. 00:28:25.309 --> 00:28:27.789 This is what God wants to remind you of today. 00:28:27.950 --> 00:28:38.910 It's all in here, it's it's it's supported in here, but you need the word of God spoken today, and that's why he gives us gifts in the church to encourage and build up one another. 00:28:39.150 --> 00:28:39.789 Amen. 00:28:40.349 --> 00:28:44.509 Do you know that God wants to speak through you to somebody else in this church? 00:28:44.829 --> 00:28:49.150 God wants to speak through you to somebody else in your community and your neighborhood. 00:28:49.309 --> 00:28:58.910 All of us subject to the word of God, but all needed to speak into the lives of men and women in this city. 00:28:59.230 --> 00:28:59.869 Amen. 00:29:01.470 --> 00:29:03.549 Here's the challenge for you and I. 00:29:19.869 --> 00:29:22.910 Ohio, you guys are so nice. 00:29:23.230 --> 00:29:24.109 Aren't we? 00:29:25.309 --> 00:29:26.269 So nice. 00:29:26.509 --> 00:29:27.069 So nice. 00:29:27.150 --> 00:29:33.309 You're not necessarily gonna like someone tells you something you're like, nuh-uh, and you just have a fight with them. 00:29:33.549 --> 00:29:35.789 You just thank you. 00:29:36.750 --> 00:29:37.470 Thank you. 00:29:37.789 --> 00:29:40.430 You have a problem with somebody, let's start avoiding them. 00:29:40.509 --> 00:29:42.190 We're just polite indifference. 00:29:42.430 --> 00:29:47.069 I I spent our first years in America in Chicago and then Boston quite a lot. 00:29:47.230 --> 00:29:49.869 You know what somebody did to Boston people, but they're mad. 00:29:49.950 --> 00:29:51.389 They're mad all the time, right? 00:29:51.549 --> 00:29:54.349 And so they'll tell you, anybody here from the Northeast? 00:29:55.230 --> 00:29:55.549 Okay. 00:29:55.789 --> 00:29:59.549 I mean, Jesus loves you still, but like, don't be so angry. 00:29:59.710 --> 00:30:02.430 Uh the South, I mean, super sweet, right? 00:30:02.589 --> 00:30:03.549 Way too much sugar. 00:30:03.710 --> 00:30:04.910 Anyone from the South? 00:30:05.150 --> 00:30:06.829 Like, I don't know what if I can believe. 00:30:07.069 --> 00:30:09.869 You know, like no one can be that nice all the time. 00:30:10.029 --> 00:30:10.349 All right? 00:30:10.430 --> 00:30:13.869 But here we are in Ohio, the nicest people in America. 00:30:14.269 --> 00:30:15.150 We're polite. 00:30:15.309 --> 00:30:15.869 We're polite. 00:30:15.950 --> 00:30:20.190 So you're not gonna look at the word and like, heck no, I'm gonna start a petition against this. 00:30:20.269 --> 00:30:22.589 No, you're just like, no, I mean, it's nice. 00:30:22.670 --> 00:30:24.269 It's okay, but I'll put it here. 00:30:24.349 --> 00:30:25.950 I'll I'll do my own thing. 00:30:26.190 --> 00:30:28.349 A little conflict avoidance here. 00:30:28.670 --> 00:30:29.389