WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:11.119 If you remember the storyline that we've been in for a few months, it's these people, the Israelites, who've been saved and rescued out of Egypt, out of slavery, and now they're in the desert. 00:00:11.359 --> 00:00:32.240 And so if you can think about their situation before we get too judgmental toward them and just think about their situation, they're in the desert and they know nothing about where they're going, where even where they are, when they will go, where they're going, they're stuck. 00:00:32.479 --> 00:00:34.159 They're just waiting. 00:00:34.399 --> 00:00:45.200 And I don't know about you if you've ever felt this, where you are somewhere and you're not sure where you're going or when that might happen, and you're just in this limbo. 00:00:45.359 --> 00:00:48.000 You are just absolutely waiting. 00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:59.920 And so you have this leader, Moses, who's a bit of a mess himself at times, and he goes back up on the mountain to meet with God, and while he is up there, the people grow impatient. 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:14.319 And in their impatience, uh they go and they melt down a whole bunch of gold and they form a golden calf, and then they basically worship the golden calf, and in that they break three of the Ten Commandments. 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:17.439 Now, we all know patience is a virtue, right? 00:01:17.519 --> 00:01:21.680 I mean, I mean that would extend past Christian faith, that would extend in pretty much every faith. 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:26.159 I mean, I think probably any human alive would say patience is better than impatience. 00:01:26.239 --> 00:01:41.200 So I mean nobody's sitting around the dinner table saying, I'm so grateful that my father was impatient with me through my childhood, and no parent is saying, you know, sitting around dinner table with friends and going, you know, I'm just really impressed with my uh my 10-year-old. 00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:46.159 You know, he is really growing in impatience, and we're proud of him, really hoping to foster that. 00:01:46.319 --> 00:01:52.480 I mean, the idea that patience is a good thing is just really, really clear in the human experience. 00:01:52.560 --> 00:01:57.519 And yet, in the human experience, we all know that we're not good at it. 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:02.239 And that when we grow impatient, we start to do certain things. 00:02:02.400 --> 00:02:04.640 We start to scramble, really. 00:02:04.879 --> 00:02:10.240 And so I was thinking about this because I was on a flag football team, my sophomore year of college, and we were defeated. 00:02:10.560 --> 00:02:11.520 Our team was defeated. 00:02:11.599 --> 00:02:12.800 The entire year we were defeated. 00:02:12.879 --> 00:02:15.199 We were a defeated team the whole year. 00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:16.159 We didn't win a single game. 00:02:16.240 --> 00:02:18.080 We we scored like two touchdowns the whole time. 00:02:18.159 --> 00:02:22.159 So we were so bad everybody took a turn at quarterback because nobody was good at it. 00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:22.879 We were horrible. 00:02:23.039 --> 00:02:33.759 And so I think I had like a four-down career as flag football quarterback, and I was horrible at quarterback, obviously, and we didn't win that game either, but I only had four downs. 00:02:33.919 --> 00:02:44.639 And the reason why I was not good was as soon as I felt just a little bit of pressure, just a little bit, just a little bit of pressure, I wouldn't wait. 00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:45.039 Right? 00:02:45.199 --> 00:02:46.719 I wouldn't stand in the pocket. 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:50.560 I wasn't waiting for my buddy to break open there that last second. 00:02:50.719 --> 00:02:55.280 I mean, I you know, as soon as I felt a little bit of pressure, I would scramble. 00:02:55.680 --> 00:03:09.840 And probably if I had just waited, if I just waited just another second, you know, my buddy would have broken free, we could have done something, but no, I was gonna scramble and I wasn't that fast, and so I'd always get caught. 00:03:10.159 --> 00:03:15.199 Nobody really wants a scrambling quarterback, by the way, even if you're a Cam Newton fan. 00:03:15.280 --> 00:03:15.840 It's just true. 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:19.919 Because eventually the knee gets blown out or the shoulder or whatever. 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:25.439 What you want is you want the steady, boring Peyton Manning, right? 00:03:25.599 --> 00:03:27.039 I mean, just steady. 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:35.120 It's like just stands there over and over and over, and wins you another Super Bowl, another Super Bowl, another Super Bowl, and get a huge injury, right? 00:03:35.199 --> 00:03:41.759 And he just comes back, because all he's gonna do is back up a few steps and stand there and he's patient and waits. 00:03:42.479 --> 00:03:44.240 But we know this feeling, right? 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:52.639 Whether you've ever played quarterback in a flag football league or not, you know the feeling of a little bit of pressure and then a scramble. 00:03:53.039 --> 00:03:56.560 It's like a feeling rising up inside of you. 00:03:56.639 --> 00:04:02.479 And this is what impatience does, is it rises up in us, and we we get impatient, right? 00:04:02.639 --> 00:04:09.680 And we feel this need to scramble to not trust God, to not trust Him in the silence or in the waiting. 00:04:09.759 --> 00:04:17.920 And we we feel this when uh we feel it when life is just not on our timetable. 00:04:18.879 --> 00:04:43.680 When the job does not come, or the job you're in is not the job you thought it would be, or you're never getting the job you want, when the health just never seems to come around, uh, when the healing doesn't come, when the purpose that you really wanted for your life just doesn't seem to be playing out, when the night just keeps going. 00:04:44.240 --> 00:04:47.759 This had to be how these people felt. 00:04:49.040 --> 00:04:52.639 And you can't help but feel alone, you can't help but feel abandoned on some level. 00:04:52.720 --> 00:04:56.720 I mean, you can't help but start to ask questions like, you know, is God in this? 00:04:57.519 --> 00:04:58.879 Is he with me? 00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:01.199 Is he uh is he for me? 00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:06.000 And we we get impatient and we scramble. 00:05:07.680 --> 00:05:23.600 So last Sunday uh got home from we got home from church and eventually we we walked up to the square, there were arts festival or something up there, and so we walked up to the square, and uh my mom and Christy they they went down a couple of the aisles and I took uh the two bigger girls and we went over to the playground, the little caboose. 00:05:23.759 --> 00:05:25.199 You all know the caboose, the playground. 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:30.079 And so we go over there and they start playing, and I'm sitting on one of the little brick walls. 00:05:30.319 --> 00:05:37.759 I'm sitting there about 40 seconds before I can't stand that I am waiting while my children are playing. 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:40.959 Like I'm just sitting here doing nothing like a moron, right? 00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:44.560 I mean, we just don't do that, we don't just sit, do doing nothing. 00:05:44.800 --> 00:05:45.759 I mean, heaven forbid. 00:05:45.839 --> 00:05:47.680 So you know what I did, right? 00:05:48.079 --> 00:05:50.879 I reached for my phone, but I didn't have it. 00:05:50.959 --> 00:05:51.519 I left it. 00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:54.639 Like I left it at the house, so I didn't have it, so I have to sit, I have to sit there. 00:05:54.720 --> 00:05:59.920 I mean, heaven forbid, I have to sit there, just sit, watching my children play, right? 00:06:00.160 --> 00:06:03.600 Revolutionary idea what might happen in those minute those minutes. 00:06:03.759 --> 00:06:06.240 But so I started to also look around, right? 00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:13.759 And there's about 14 other parents around, and about eight of them, nine of them are all on their phones. 00:06:14.079 --> 00:06:17.279 And I'm not in judgment because I've I tried to be on my phone, right? 00:06:17.360 --> 00:06:18.160 Like I attempted. 00:06:18.399 --> 00:06:24.480 I assumed the other like six that aren't on the phones, we like left our phones somewhere and we're like regretting it the whole time. 00:06:24.959 --> 00:06:25.279 Right? 00:06:25.439 --> 00:06:28.240 I mean, it's just this feeling of scrambling. 00:06:28.319 --> 00:06:29.360 I read this this week. 00:06:29.439 --> 00:06:31.600 Um, this was the New York Times article. 00:06:31.839 --> 00:06:32.560 It's in your handout. 00:06:32.720 --> 00:06:34.000 It was six years ago, mind you. 00:06:34.079 --> 00:06:35.600 I mean, this is sort of like prophetic. 00:06:35.839 --> 00:06:38.000 It's called an ugly toll of technology. 00:06:38.399 --> 00:06:46.800 Um do you sometimes think about reaching for the fast forward button only to realize that life does not come with a remote control? 00:06:47.839 --> 00:06:52.079 If you answered yes to any of those questions, she had a bunch of other questions as well. 00:06:52.319 --> 00:06:56.399 Exposure to technology may be slowly reshaping your personality. 00:06:56.560 --> 00:07:07.759 Some experts believe excessive use of the internet, cell phones, and other technologies can cause us to become more impatient, impulsive, forgetful, and even more narcissistic. 00:07:08.079 --> 00:07:13.279 I mean, anybody like, okay, yeah, me, me, me, all of us, we we know it, we know it. 00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:17.040 And and we're not in judge, I'm not I'm not in judgment, because I'm I'm a I'm along with it. 00:07:17.120 --> 00:07:21.680 And the reason why I think this is interesting is it's a revealer, right? 00:07:21.839 --> 00:07:32.639 Like our phones and how we react, they're a revealer of our nature that we scramble as soon as we get impatient. 00:07:32.800 --> 00:07:41.600 Like I can't control this moment that I'm having to wait in, but uh so I can control a few text messages. 00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:49.759 I can't control this moment I'm having to wait, so I can control some Instagram, I can't control the, and I don't like the feeling of not being able to control, right? 00:07:49.839 --> 00:07:52.560 I mean that's what waiting is, is the fact that you aren't in control. 00:07:52.879 --> 00:07:54.079 We hate that. 00:07:54.240 --> 00:07:54.879 I hate that. 00:07:54.959 --> 00:07:55.519 I hate to wait. 00:07:55.600 --> 00:07:57.839 I'll do anything not to wait. 00:07:58.319 --> 00:08:04.800 All right, here's a couple sentences I worked really hard on to entertain me because I actually just want to read them because I worked really hard. 00:08:05.519 --> 00:08:07.199 This was my week, these three sentences. 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:12.879 Waiting reveals we don't have as much power as we thought. 00:08:13.279 --> 00:08:23.040 We are actually creatures with the creator, and this we say is good, but the waiting reveals we actually hate it. 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:28.879 So in rebellion to surrender, we reach for control. 00:08:30.319 --> 00:08:38.159 And so we scramble with our phones, or we scramble for some control addiction, or we scramble with some escape. 00:08:40.879 --> 00:08:41.200 Right? 00:08:41.360 --> 00:08:50.320 I mean, just we know this feeling um when you get the thing you want and it doesn't deliver, you'll scramble then. 00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:57.120 Or when you still you just still feel exhausted or unlovable, you scramble. 00:08:57.279 --> 00:09:02.639 When you're hearing nothing, you keep crying out to God, like I want to hear something, I want to hear something, I want to hear something, you're just hearing nothing. 00:09:02.720 --> 00:09:05.840 It's just like a silent period, we scramble. 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:11.519 And it's this waiting room of passivity that's such an offense to our pride. 00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:21.679 How dare he offend my pride by leaving me in a waiting room where I am forced to be passive? 00:09:23.440 --> 00:09:30.879 See, we're actually creatures with the Creator, and we say that's good, but we actually hate it when it happens. 00:09:31.039 --> 00:09:32.080 So we scramble. 00:09:32.320 --> 00:09:35.200 So a few points to to guide us through. 00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:37.039 The first one is I've sort of said it already. 00:09:37.120 --> 00:09:40.320 Point number one, we tend to scramble when we are forced to wait. 00:09:40.480 --> 00:09:43.360 So that that's what they're that's what's going on with the golden calf. 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:49.600 I mean, literally, the you know, I can't control this God, I can't control this moment, so we'll just melt some gold down. 00:09:49.759 --> 00:09:51.679 I mean, this is this is insanity. 00:09:51.840 --> 00:09:58.000 Like we're gonna worship just a literally a golden statue, I mean, a material. 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:04.000 We will worship a material because we are so uncomfortable in this moment. 00:10:06.720 --> 00:10:15.919 I mean, this idea of idolatry, of giving our hearts to things other than God, it's not always, it is, money, sex, and power. 00:10:16.080 --> 00:10:17.440 Those are some pretty big ones. 00:10:17.519 --> 00:10:19.360 Uh materialism, pretty big one. 00:10:19.440 --> 00:10:21.679 I mean, there's those are some pretty big ones. 00:10:21.759 --> 00:10:28.879 But but you know what also is just like the control addictions, uh, the addiction of like religious activity? 00:10:29.759 --> 00:10:33.919 Like the need to always be religious over and over again. 00:10:35.600 --> 00:10:45.360 And we can form that out of impatience, and for all practical purposes, uh, a religious action that we're addicted to, we can call the action God. 00:10:46.240 --> 00:10:50.559 Rather than the action serve us knowing God. 00:10:54.240 --> 00:10:59.840 What we also see in the story is we see that his character and his intent toward us never alter. 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:08.799 So while all of that is just the bad news of our nature, that we tend to scramble when we wait. 00:11:08.960 --> 00:11:14.639 The good news is this point number two, his character never alters. 00:11:15.120 --> 00:11:20.559 So, first we see this as the conversation begins with Moses and God, and next week Brad's preaching, which is fantastic. 00:11:20.639 --> 00:11:23.120 I'm gonna sit right there, and Brad's gonna preach, it's gonna be so good. 00:11:23.200 --> 00:11:26.399 And Brad's a good preacher, actually, he doesn't like to say he is, but he is. 00:11:26.559 --> 00:11:39.440 And he's gonna preach and he's gonna talk more about this conversation with Moses and God that's going up on the mountain while these people down in the valley are they're they're melting gold and they're they're just reaching for control. 00:11:39.759 --> 00:11:47.200 But what we see a little bit this morning is that Moses pleads for mercy because God is angry. 00:11:47.679 --> 00:11:55.679 He is angry toward this behavior, toward this sin, towards this heart position that they refuse to surrender. 00:11:55.840 --> 00:11:58.720 And here's what we read in Exodus 32, 8 through 10. 00:11:58.879 --> 00:12:02.480 They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. 00:12:02.720 --> 00:12:11.919 They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it, and said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:18.240 And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. 00:12:19.200 --> 00:12:29.759 Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them in order that I may make a great nation of you. 00:12:31.440 --> 00:12:35.519 So he doesn't dismiss right and wrong. 00:12:35.840 --> 00:12:37.840 He's fully righteous. 00:12:38.080 --> 00:12:47.120 Wrong is wrong, and he's calling it wrong, and as he is fully righteous, he cannot allow wrong to go undealt with. 00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:50.559 But thankfully, there's more to the story. 00:12:50.720 --> 00:12:56.879 Because if we just end the story there, we end up with like that policeman, angry God, who's waiting to get you. 00:12:57.039 --> 00:13:01.840 But fortunately, there's a sacrificial system in place, and unfortunately, that leads us to Christ. 00:13:01.919 --> 00:13:06.960 And we get Moses comes back and he pleads for mercy for the people. 00:13:07.039 --> 00:13:08.720 Like, there's got to be more, God. 00:13:09.679 --> 00:13:11.519 We need more than just your wrath. 00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:13.440 We we're asking for mercy. 00:13:13.600 --> 00:13:17.039 And here's what how Moses responds in 34, 8 through 10. 00:13:17.200 --> 00:13:32.879 And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped and said, If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin. 00:13:33.360 --> 00:13:38.879 Jesus, full honesty, and take us for your inheritance. 00:13:39.519 --> 00:14:01.759 And he said, Behold, this is God speaking, Behold, I am making a covenant before all your people, I will do marvels, such as I such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation, and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:06.159 And so here's the good news, the relieving news to all of this, and it's point number three. 00:14:06.399 --> 00:14:10.399 God keeps his always and forever love toward you. 00:14:10.559 --> 00:14:15.840 And where we see this is in this chapter 34, is that he makes the covenant. 00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:18.000 He communicates that again. 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:24.799 He doesn't say, hey, like, here's five more things, and then I'll then we'll then the relationship can continue. 00:14:25.279 --> 00:14:31.200 He says, Okay, I heard your honesty, I heard your confession, and I'm coming toward you. 00:14:31.279 --> 00:14:34.399 I'm not gonna make you work your way out of that hole that you dug. 00:14:34.480 --> 00:14:36.879 Uh I'll come toward you. 00:14:38.240 --> 00:14:41.600 Now we're told Christ is our satisfaction. 00:14:41.679 --> 00:14:46.879 If we can kind of go back and think about this impatience and the the way these people had to be feeling. 00:14:47.039 --> 00:14:50.240 Now, what we're told in the New Testament, Christ is our satisfaction. 00:14:50.480 --> 00:15:01.840 What we read in the Psalms at times, you know, people totally just just in anguish and questioning God, and at other times, uh, totally in love and satisfied with God. 00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:08.720 Now, the idea that Christ is our satisfaction is completely true. 00:15:10.159 --> 00:15:15.679 Completely true for me to say to you, Jesus should be and is your satisfaction. 00:15:16.159 --> 00:15:17.840 Very true, completely true. 00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:30.000 It's just not easy because we hate the moments in life when they're silent and we have to wait. 00:15:30.320 --> 00:15:46.240 So the problem's not in his ability to give us satisfaction, the problem's us and how we react to moments in our lives and what we know we can do in any given moment where we're feeling like we know we can go build a golden calf. 00:15:46.879 --> 00:15:50.639 We know it will give us a little hit of satisfaction. 00:15:50.960 --> 00:15:52.159 Just a little hit. 00:15:52.960 --> 00:15:59.279 Now it doesn't really fulfill, it doesn't relieve, and actually what it does over time, it demands more and more and more of you. 00:16:01.679 --> 00:16:03.279 But we know we can do it. 00:16:03.600 --> 00:16:15.600 And so we can go back to that thing of control or that thing of escape or that thing of pride because it makes you feel like you are in control, even when you're not. 00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:23.120 I think I've just always read this passage with some judgment toward these people. 00:16:23.360 --> 00:16:25.360 And this week I just started to read it. 00:16:25.840 --> 00:16:28.399 I just read it thinking, get your act together. 00:16:28.480 --> 00:16:31.440 Like you couldn't hold out for just a little bit. 00:16:31.600 --> 00:16:35.440 I mean, I just I've always read it that way, just hold on a little bit. 00:16:35.600 --> 00:16:37.120 I mean, I mean, this is ridiculous. 00:16:37.679 --> 00:16:42.080 How quickly you ran to that melting that gold and forming a golden calf. 00:16:42.159 --> 00:16:50.799 And I think I always had a little bit of judgment, but but then once you start to see yourself in this text, you're like, yeah, I do that. 00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:57.360 Like when I'm in that waiting, I'm in that questioning, when I don't know where I'm going or what's going on or when something's gonna play out. 00:16:57.519 --> 00:16:58.639 I I hate that. 00:16:58.799 --> 00:17:04.160 I hate when I'm not in control or I don't have the sense of feeling like I'm in control. 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:06.559 And these people, that's where they're at. 00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:12.319 I mean, they're in the middle of the desert, they don't know where they're going and when they're going, and they're just stuck. 00:17:12.480 --> 00:17:20.400 Have you have you ever felt, have you ever, have you ever felt the anxiety of not knowing where you're going? 00:17:23.839 --> 00:17:31.279 The greatest place for us to know even in that moment that he hasn't left us, it might not be that moment. 00:17:32.480 --> 00:17:36.400 See, if you're trying to conjure it up in that moment, it might just be emotionalism. 00:17:36.480 --> 00:17:44.240 But the greatest place for us to know, in a given moment of waiting, the greatest place for us to know that he hasn't left us is the cross. 00:17:44.720 --> 00:17:49.519 Because that's the moment where it seemed like there's no way God could be in this. 00:17:50.319 --> 00:17:53.440 And it's actually in that moment he's doing the greatest work. 00:17:53.759 --> 00:18:02.559 He's taking on all of our impatience and our idolatry and all of our tendencies to not surrender and to scramble, prone to wander, like we sang. 00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:09.519 All of that he's taking on himself that he might give to us his righteousness, that the relationship would be restored. 00:18:09.680 --> 00:18:14.160 That's the covenant that he is sealing, that we are secure. 00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:25.279 And what that means is it means that true satisfaction in God's love towards you, known in Jesus, true satisfaction is not forever felt in every moment. 00:18:25.440 --> 00:18:29.680 If you're looking for that or somebody promised that for you, that's disillusionment. 00:18:29.759 --> 00:18:32.559 It won't happen, it won't be forever felt. 00:18:35.759 --> 00:18:41.200 I mean, life just has too, we have too many emotions, there's too much suffering, there's too much complications and complexities. 00:18:41.279 --> 00:18:43.920 We're way too imperfect for it to be forever felt. 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:45.279 But we can know it. 00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:46.640 We can know it. 00:18:47.119 --> 00:18:49.920 And that's the great thing about the cross. 00:18:50.400 --> 00:19:02.559 In history, in physical form, God showed it to us that there is a covenant of love toward us, even when we feel like there's not. 00:19:03.119 --> 00:19:09.279 I read this this week by Henry Nowen, who's a great contemplative writer in his book, Life of the Beloved. 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:18.960 Becoming the beloved means letting the truth of our belovedness become enfleshed in everything we think, say, or do. 00:19:19.519 --> 00:19:25.759 It entails a long and painful process of appropriation or better incarnation. 00:19:25.920 --> 00:19:36.480 As long as being the beloved is little more than a beautiful thought or lofty idea that hangs above my life to keep me from becoming depressed, nothing really changes. 00:19:37.039 --> 00:19:42.640 What is required is to become the beloved in the commonplaces of my daily existence. 00:19:42.799 --> 00:19:53.119 And bit by bit to close the gap that exists between what I know myself to be and the countless specific realities of everyday life. 00:19:53.759 --> 00:20:01.119 Becoming the beloved is pulling the truth revealed to me from above down into the ordinariness of what I am. 00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:07.279 In fact, thinking of, talking about, and doing hour to hour. 00:20:09.359 --> 00:20:13.680 This is about appropriating what has already been deemed to you. 00:20:14.559 --> 00:20:28.880 And so we get into the moments of silence, waiting, where we usually run to impatience and learning to appropriate what's already been deemed to you even when you're emotionally unable. 00:20:29.519 --> 00:20:32.480 Even when you're emotionally you're not feeling something. 00:20:32.880 --> 00:20:34.000 We love when we feel it. 00:20:34.160 --> 00:20:35.039 I love when I feel it. 00:20:35.119 --> 00:20:36.319 I love when you feel it. 00:20:36.559 --> 00:20:43.519 But freedom is when we can live and appropriate the gospel to ourselves even when we don't feel it. 00:20:47.920 --> 00:21:20.960 See, there's a danger when we when we refuse this way forward and instead move forward and addicted to some uh some form of positive spiritual experiences, when that's what we're looking for over and over and over again, and we need it over and over and over again, there's a danger in that because when the negative moment comes, when Moses is gone too long, when the weight is too much, and we've formed some warp view of the Christian faith where God can only be in the positive experience, but He it means He's deserted the negative experience. 00:21:22.480 --> 00:21:24.000 And it puts us in a cycle. 00:21:24.240 --> 00:21:29.599 It puts us in a cycle of always needing the next positive spiritual hit. 00:21:29.839 --> 00:21:32.720 And that's not freedom, that's religious addiction. 00:21:35.119 --> 00:21:48.319 Rather, what we should want is a spirituality that is that is beyond time and beyond emotion, and so often speaks into it, and that we love, we celebrate, we cry out for it, we celebrate, we love that. 00:21:49.519 --> 00:21:59.599 But freedom is that when even when that is gone, we can learn to appropriate that there is a covenant of care over us that is beyond time. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:04.480 And beyond emotion and even beyond suffering. 00:22:06.240 --> 00:22:10.640 And this we should want for ourselves because that is even a greater freedom. 00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:17.440 We are free from gauging what God might be in and what he might not be in. 00:22:17.680 --> 00:22:24.240 Free from us needing the next experience and the next better experience, and even the better experience. 00:22:25.039 --> 00:22:27.759 More smoke out of the smoke machines, you know. 00:22:27.839 --> 00:22:32.079 I mean, all sorts of just more religious activity and addiction. 00:22:32.640 --> 00:22:34.880 Here, in this sort of, we can just simply live. 00:22:35.359 --> 00:22:39.440 We can live in honesty and the grace of God as faithfully as we can. 00:22:39.519 --> 00:22:47.920 And when we screw up, we can come back to him and say, here I am, here's what I'm like, and in the grace of God we can move forward again. 00:22:48.640 --> 00:22:55.200 And that's the kind of freedom and security that comes when you're appropriating a covenantal God to you. 00:22:55.359 --> 00:23:01.920 So just to review this, to review this, God doesn't live up to their expectations of him. 00:23:03.440 --> 00:23:05.119 And they feel like they're abandoned. 00:23:05.279 --> 00:23:11.759 They grow impatient, they go melt some gold, form a golden calf, they break three of the Ten Commandments. 00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:13.680 They try to self-save. 00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:16.160 That's what sin is, self-saving. 00:23:16.319 --> 00:23:17.759 They try to self-save. 00:23:17.920 --> 00:23:27.680 God communicates his anger to Moses about them, and then God communicates five things for the people to do in order for right standing. 00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:29.039 No, no, no, he doesn't. 00:23:29.119 --> 00:23:30.000 And you know what he said? 00:23:30.160 --> 00:23:33.680 He says, I'll I'm making a covenant with them. 00:23:33.839 --> 00:23:37.680 I will make a covenant, I will move toward the people. 00:23:40.319 --> 00:23:41.680 There's your relief. 00:23:42.559 --> 00:23:46.640 Not in you doing something, but in the fact that he did something for you. 00:23:46.799 --> 00:23:48.799 That's where you have the cross. 00:23:49.119 --> 00:23:51.519 He doesn't abandon them, he won't abandon you. 00:23:53.599 --> 00:23:57.839 We absolutely live in given moments and reactions to those moments. 00:23:58.000 --> 00:23:59.039 That's where we live. 00:23:59.279 --> 00:24:00.240 You know that. 00:24:01.119 --> 00:24:13.839 But we can rest in a covenantal care that is even beyond that, which has the power to rescue us from our emotions and our doubt and our impatience and our idolatrous hearts. 00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:24.960 So, my brothers and sisters, in the waiting, in that waiting that is so difficult, maybe it's right now, or maybe it's going to be in a few months. 00:24:25.279 --> 00:24:31.680 In the waiting, may you rest deeper in the thing that is more profound than the waiting. 00:24:31.759 --> 00:24:34.400 And that is his covenant care for you. 00:24:34.480 --> 00:24:39.599 And if you if you can't find it in that moment, we can find it in the cross. 00:24:41.680 --> 00:24:45.039 That while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 00:24:47.839 --> 00:24:55.680 May you grow weary of the scrambling that preoccupies so much of our lives, and may you rest deeper in his covenantal care for you. 00:24:55.839 --> 00:24:57.359 Let's pray together. 00:25:00.480 --> 00:25:06.160 God, we freely confess this morning that we do not like to wait. 00:25:06.640 --> 00:25:14.160 That we find it an offense to our pride, an offense for our love, for control. 00:25:14.799 --> 00:25:22.480 And we confess we don't like it, we confess that this is uh this is our self-saving. 00:25:23.839 --> 00:25:26.319 This is not good for us, but we do it. 00:25:27.039 --> 00:25:33.039 And in that we wander and we scramble and we form other gods. 00:25:33.920 --> 00:25:51.039 We form gods of religiosity, we form gods of morality, we form gods of escapism, we form gods of the world we say are great things, and some that are horrible things, and God, we we do all of this because we we're frustrated with you in the waiting. 00:25:52.000 --> 00:26:02.720 And we confess that it is our pride, it is our sin, it is our refusal to live with open hands and live as creatures before a creator. 00:26:03.440 --> 00:26:25.200 And God, this morning we are so thankful that you do not burn us in your wrath, but your wrath was fully satisfied in your own sacrifice and the work of Jesus for us, and that you have mercy toward us. 00:26:27.440 --> 00:26:32.720 God, for many of us here, we are waiting. 00:26:33.359 --> 00:26:38.480 We are waiting on a doctor's call. 00:26:38.720 --> 00:26:50.319 We're waiting on a healing emotionally, we're waiting on a job to work out, we're waiting on some purpose in our lives that we're so frustrated. 00:26:50.559 --> 00:26:53.279 We're waiting on you to stop being silent. 00:26:55.039 --> 00:27:06.480 And God, I pray for just a measure of rest and freedom this morning, of knowing you care for them even when they don't feel it. 00:27:07.680 --> 00:27:21.440 Would you help us with our faith to embrace some measure, some measure of trust and even mystery of what you might be doing for us? 00:27:23.759 --> 00:27:26.079 God, we thank you for the work of Jesus. 00:27:27.359 --> 00:27:30.640 We thank you that we are forever yours. 00:27:30.799 --> 00:27:37.279 Help us to learn to appropriate this great righteousness that has been deemed to us. 00:27:37.440 --> 00:27:44.720 Help us to appropriate it into the ordinariness of this day and this hour. 00:27:45.519 --> 00:27:47.279 In Jesus' name we pray all things. 00:27:47.519 --> 00:27:48.079 Amen.