Exodus: Coming Full Circle to the Foot of the Mountain

This sermon explores Moses’ return to Mount Sinai in Exodus 19, a profound "full circle moment." A year after the burning bush, Moses returns leading a freed nation. The biblical narrative slows down, dedicating 57 chapters to this encampment. Through Moses' trips up the mountain, we see God’s invitation to covenant, His demand for holiness, and a stark warning against treating His presence casually.

Scripture References

• Exodus 19:1-8: God calls Israel His "treasured possession" and a "kingdom of priests."
• Exodus 19:9-19: God commands the people to consecrate themselves before descending in fire and thunder.
• Exodus 19:20-25: God warns the people not to force their way up the mountain.
• Exodus 20:18-21: Moses explains that the fear of God keeps them from sinning.

Key Points

1. The Order of the Covenant God initiates the relationship before giving rules. He reminds Israel He carried them out of Egypt on eagles' wings. Grace precedes obedience. We obey because we have been rescued, not to earn rescue.
2. A Kingdom of Priests God calls Israel His singular "treasured possession." Their purpose is to be a "kingdom of priests." A priest brings God to the people and the people to God. God wants an entire nation to represent Him to the world.
3. The Demand for Holiness Because we represent a holy God, we must be holy. Commands to consecrate themselves were tangible ways to separate from pagan nations. God's demands for holiness make sense when we understand our calling to represent Him accurately.
4. Do Not Be Casual with God God repeatedly warns the people not to cross the mountain's boundary. He warns against a flippant approach to His presence. We run a great risk when we treat God's holiness and our sin lightly.
5. The Fear of the Lord When God descends in fire, the people are terrified. Moses says, "Do not be afraid... so that the fear of God will be with you." The fear of the Lord is a deep reverence that produces obedience, drives out worldly fears, and draws us toward God.

Conclusion

We are called to be a holy nation and a kingdom of priests. We cannot fulfill this if we approach God casually or harbor unrepentant sin. The fire of God's presence is mesmerizing and dangerous. May we cultivate a healthy fear of the Lord that draws us closer to Him.

Calls to Action

1. Check the Order: Obey out of gratitude for God's rescue, not to earn His love.
2. Embrace Your Priestly Role: Represent God's ways in your workplace, school, or family.
3. Cultivate Reverence: Identify areas where you have become casual about sin and ask the Holy Spirit to renew your reverence.

Transcript

Have you ever experienced, full circle moment?

I know for me, I experienced one last week. Last month, I should say, when my daughter got married. I remember coming, like, down the aisle and thinking. This is very surreal. It felt very surreal because the setting looked familiar, but I had a different vantage point. I was not the groom. I was not a groomsman.

I was not performing the ceremony. I was now the father of the bride. But the person performing the ceremony was the same man who married Tiffany. And I. And then the person who led worship in their ceremony was the same guy who led worship at my wedding. And so everything felt kind of familiar, except for I was in a very different seat and experiencing a bunch of different feelings.

Have you ever had a full circle moment? I love it. I love those stories. I love when someone comes back to coach a team that they once played on. I love when someone returns to a campus that they were once on as a student, and now they're a teacher. Now, there may be a part of the faculty on that campus.

I love it when someone returns to their childhood town and maybe lives on their childhood street. Has that happened for anybody? Anybody in their childhood home? I love that stuff. I think it's really, really beautiful. This is something that old guys do. I've noticed this. Old guys will go looking for the car that they first had. Their first car, realizing how valuable it was.

Now they can afford it. Maybe because they have a real job. And so they're back on the hunt for their first car. I know that's happened for me. I had a 79 Volvo station wagon. That I would kill for. And there quite a bit right now. How about you, students, have you returned as a counselor to the camp that you were once a participant in, or maybe you used to get piano lessons, but now you give piano lessons.

All these things would be examples of, like, a full circle moment where you're like, oh, here I am. Everything looks very familiar, but I have a very different vantage point. The text that we're going to read today in Exodus is Moses having a full circle moment, a very, very powerful one.

About a year earlier, while minding his own business, he walked up on a shrub. But it wasn't just any old bush, it was ablaze. It was not being consumed. So that was wild. So it caught his attention. And then the bush spoke to him. Which is pretty crazy. Even crazier than that is what the Bush said to him, which is that he was going to lead the people of God out of slavery in Egypt.

Moses said what we would say, what? There's no way. There's no way I'm supposed to go up against the most powerful man in the world, the most powerful nation in the world, with literally a stick and a one sentence sermon. Let my people go like you. I want you to go in there, and I want you to say, let my people go, but mean it.

I mean, really mean it when you say it. And then the most powerful person in the world, he's built his empire on the backs of a slave population. He's going to be like, yeah, right away. Moses is like, no way. This is crazy. And this is what God says to him. So he sees a shrub on a mountain.

And this is what God says to him. I'm with you. You're not just going with a one sentence sermon, and you're not just going with a stick. You go with me. And as a sign to you, Moses, you will bring over a million people back to this very mountain and stand in this very spot, and you'll worship me.

It was never about freedom. Hear that again as an American, because we love some freedom. It was never about freedom. It was never just about let my people go from Egypt. It was about so they can worship me so that they can give their lives to me, no longer bound in the same way. Go get them. You'll bring them back here, and we'll go from there.

So Moses leaves and you wouldn't believe it. All of that happens, and he's now parading with what we believe to be somewhere between 1 and 2 million people. Back to the mountain. Thinking to myself I can't believe what just happened in the last year. I can't wait for the nation to have their own burning bush moment. I'm bringing them back to meet that eye.

The God that I met a year ago. And to hear from the God who spoke to me a year ago and much had transpired. I'm pretty excited. I noticed last week that this spring, in fact, it may be soon. Like a film has been made on the life of of Moses and it feels like as a result of all of our prayers, Christian movies are getting better and better.

That's what it appears kind of up into the right. Still a lot of ground to take, but we've got to be thankful for what we got. But I watched this preview and I just thought, I want you to watch this because I think when we see it, we get out of the mode of, I've heard this before, and you start to realize Moses saw some crazy things and what a reunion it must have been to get back to that mountain and go.

It happened. Everything you said that I told you, there's no way that guy's letting go of those people. Well, that went down.

So this is what Moses has seen. And here he comes back to the foot of the mountain, thinking it happened. All of it. So.

What you need to know about the life of Moses is that before he led some massive exodus, he experienced his own mini personal exodus. In fact, some of the things that happened to Moses he would lead the Israelites through. Remember, it's Moses who's delivered in the waters of the Nile, right? He's rescued from the Nile. And then Moses would lead the Israelites as they're rescued from the waters to the red sea.

And Moses wandered in the desert for 40 years before he led the Israelites who wandered in the desert for 40 years. And Moses had a burning bush moment where he met with God, and he took his shoes off because this ground was holy, and he's about to lead the whole Hebrew people into an encounter just like that today.

So he is at the base right now of Mount Sinai. They'll be camped there for almost a year. Glenn Power pointed out to me that the Bible dedicates 57 chapters to what happens at the base of this mountain. So the rest of Exodus, Leviticus and all the way to numbers, chapter ten is what happens here at the mountain.

And I believe that's on purpose, that the biblical storyline slows down so that we understand how important this moment is for the people of God. If you've read the Gospels, you know that it covers three years of Jesus's life. But many, many chapters go to the Passion Week. Why is that? Why do the weeks? Why do the events of this week get much of the gospel accounts?

What slows down to say this? This right here pay attention. And this is what's happening right here in Exodus. Moses will go up this mountain seven times in the book of Exodus. Three of those will take place in this chapter that we're about to read together. This is important because he's 80 years old, and I'm sure, if he's anything like me, I would have been like, could we get this done in one trip up?

Could we have killed multiple birds with one stone? But he goes up here from God, brings it down, back up, down, back up, back down. So I want to talk to you about the three trips that Moses takes in this text. Are you guys up for that trip number one. This is verses one through eight. I want to call this the invitation into covenant.

And again, this should be seen as a continuation of the covenant that started with Abraham. But it's an invitation to these people nonetheless. I think for this journey. The song that came to mind for this trip, the soundtrack for this trip, is Reunited and It Feels So Good by Peaches and Herb. You know, this band reunited and it feels so good.

On the first day of the third month, after the Israelites left Egypt on that very day, they came to the desert of Sinai, and after they set out from redeem, they entered the desert of Sinai. And Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain. And then Moses went up to God. And the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, this is what you're to say to the descendants of Jacob.

There's the link to the covenant that began with Abraham. And this is what you're to tell the people of Israel. You yourself have seen what I did to Egypt. You didn't have to hear about it. You're not like Jethro. You yourself saw this. You saw what I did to Egypt. How I carried you on eagle's wings. And I brought you to myself.

Now, if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites. So Moses went back and he summoned the elders.

And he says, I've got a message from God for you. And this is what he commanded me to speak. And then the people all responded together, yeah, we'll do everything the Lord has said. And this is that's probably the funniest part of my sermon. And no one laughed. If you know anything about the text, this is not what happened.

But the people are like, sounds good. It reminds me of when my kids are like, can we have a sleepover? We'll go to bed at 10:00. You know, it's just like this. You're just saying what you need to say to get what you want to get. You don't mean any of this. We're good. Yeah. Oh, yeah. We'll do it.

Will totally do yard work this weekend. That. I want you to pay attention to two things here. The order of the sequence, I think is really important. And also our identity as his people. The order is really important to me, because you can start this story by thinking. Oh, and then Moses climbed the mountain. No. God is the committed initiator of relationship.

And before Moses ascends, God Condescends Moses goes up, no doubt, but it's after God comes down and calls him so long before Israel responds. God acts. He's committed. He's the initiator of relationship, and the order is so important. Long before Israel's called to obey God acts. You saw what I did in Egypt and you saw how I carried you.

Now therefore you'll obey and you'll keep, but it's not obey and keep. And then I'll rescue you on eagle's wings. It's. I have rescued you. I first loved you. Now you love. Have you heard that before? Of course we're called. We're commanded in Scripture to forgive. But that's because we've been forgiven. That's what Paul says to us. Of course we're to be holy.

But it's because our our father in heaven is holy, and he's made a way for us to be holy.

You've probably heard it before. This is how the order goes. And it's really important that we get it in this order. This is who God is. This is what God has done now. This is who you are, and this is what you're called to do. And if you're anything like me, I just want to get to the part that's like, what am I supposed to do?

It's like, no, don't skip that. Don't skip this part. This is who God is. This is what God has done. God has acted. And so we respond to that. And the order is of huge importance. The Lord has acted. Securing benefits for his people and obedience to him brings the enjoyment of the things that he achieved. That's the order.

And it's really important. I think it's a gospel importance, like it's really important that we get the order right. The other thing that I find fascinating is how very personal and warm this is. Say the word singular with me, singular, singular. Turn to your neighbor and say, your mother almost named you singular.

This is the word treasured possession in Hebrew singular. And this is how we're described. This is our identity as his treasured possession. And now we have a role as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. But before our purpose, we get this identity. You're a treasured possession, and the idea behind this singular is that the king, of course, owned all.

But he had a special treasure, something that was especially valuable to him. And chronicles it says that David did a bunch of things to build the temple, including taking his singular like his very valuable, most precious treasure.

And yielding it for the construction of the temple. And here's the idea. You've seen it before in film. You know there's piles of gold, there's jewels. You know, there's like one eyed Willy's treasure. But there's something that's like a specially valuable. There's something at the very center, you know, Aladdin's lamp or whatever. So they're actually not even seeing the gold.

They're not seeing all the jewels. It's piled up and Scrooge is swimming through it. But there's something that's especially valuable. That's the singular. And that's what God is saying. I'm a king. I own all the nations. But this nation will be my singular. If you're a parent, you understand this really well because I own everything in my house.

But I especially own some things. I own every chair. Every chair is mine. And then one chair is really mine, and I own the whole couch. All of it. But one spot that's mine and I own everything in the fridge. But some things are especially mine in the fridge. I own the mayonnaise, I own the mustard. I own it all.

But it's like, don't touch the doctor pepper. That is mine. That's the seagull. Don't touch dad's singular. This happens for moms too. I own everything, but there's some things you especially own. And this is what God's saying. You are that for me.

You're that for me.

Do you notice how personal this is? I brought you to myself. He doesn't say. And I brought you back to this mountain to teach you a lesson. He says I brought you to myself. I'm not just looking to get you out of Egypt. I'm looking to get you to myself. And then he says, you're my possession. You're from me, and you're for me, me, my I.

These are all in this invitation to this covenant. It's really beautiful. Trip number two is a bit of a hard left. And we'll call this trip up the mountain. Without holiness, no one's going to see the Lord. And I thought about Ice Cube and his call to check yourself before you wreck yourself. And this is apples or chickadee.

Check yourself before you wreck yourself. Is the way that it goes. There's a lot of other things he says in this song that I would not encourage you to do. But this part check yourself before you wreck yourself is, I think, pretty sound advice. So Moses brought their answer back to the Lord. He's like, hey, they're in, they'll do it all.

And the Lord said to Moses, I'm going to come to you in a dense cloud so that the people hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you. That's really kind of God to validate Moses, his leadership. And then Moses told the Lord what the people had said. And the Lord said to Moses, okay, well, go to the people, consecrate them today and tomorrow.

Have them wash their clothes and be ready. The third day, because on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all people. Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, be careful that you do not approach the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain is to be put to death there, to be stoned or shot with arrows.

Whoa! Not a hand is to be laid on them. No person or animal shall be permitted to live only when the ram's horn sounds a long blast. May they approach the mountain. And after Moses had gone down the mountain to the people, he's like, wow, I got a different message for you. And he consecrated them and they washed their clothes.

And he said to the people, prepare yourselves for the third day. Abstain from sexual relations. On the morning of the third day, there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God. They stood at the foot of the mountain.

Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace. And the whole mountain. It trembled violently as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Moses spoke, and the voice of God answered him. So this second trip Moses says, okay, the deal is on.

Consecrate yourselves, which means set yourself apart, be holy. And the idea for us that God's holiness could be lethal is shocking, because we've been raised in a steady diet of you being God's special possession. You're a snowflake. Like, why wouldn't he want you on his team? You're special. Jesus loves you. In fact, he's your homeboy. He gives you knuckles.

This is what you've been raised on. So the holiness of God is like, wait, wait, what? Maybe in the past to come to someone and say Jesus is your homeboy would have been like, wait, what? But now to say that God has wrath, that God judges to say that he demands holiness is kind of like, why would Santa Claus do that?

It's shocking to us. And I don't know about you guys, but in particular in the Old Testament, when I read about God's requirements for holiness, I'm like, man, this is bizarre. I don't know, look, since we're in church, let's be honest. Sometimes I read this Old Testament stuff and I'm like, man, the punishment does not fit the crime.

This feels like a huge overreaction. Chill, chill. God. You're going to leave me out here just like I'm the only person who ever thought this. Great. Fine. I'll take one for the team. You read it and you're like, that seems so random. Have you ever read a requirement and thought that is random? Where did this come from? What's the one about boiling a goat and goat milk and its own mother's milk?

You know, you read this stuff and you're just like, what does this have to do with God?

And I want to say to you that God's demands for holiness require an understanding of the context and God's demands for holiness make a lot more sense to us when we understand this identity that we've been given to be set apart, and this role that we've been given to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And when we understand these things, we start to go, okay, maybe it's not random.

And when we start to understand the context of what God's doing again, we go, maybe there's something to that. So just for a second, just be curious with me. Don't decide that God's petty. Don't decide that his commands are random. Just be curious. I wonder God what God might be doing as he does this. This is a kingdom of priests.

You're called to be a part of a kingdom of priests. Jesus did his priestly duty so well that we are all now priests. Jesus sacrificed once and for all, and so now we as a holy nation, as a kingdom of priests, get to bring our offerings and our worship to him. And I don't know about you, but I found myself this week going, well, if we're supposed to be a kingdom of priests, what does a priest do?

That's what I would be saying. When God's like, you're going to be a kingdom of priests. I'd be like, help me understand what a priest does. If we're all supposed to do it. Well, here's a summary. They were teachers of God's ways to the people. So they brought God's word. They brought his ways. They brought his laws. They brought his revelation.

And through the priests, God would become known to the people. So he brings God to the people. But that's not the only role the priest has. The priest also is in charge of bringing the sacrifices of the people before God. The priest has access to God and then brings people into that. So he's got both those things going.

He brings God to the people through teaching, and he's bringing the people to God through sacrifice over and over again. And God's saying, I want a whole kingdom of these people, not a kingdom with a few of these priests, but a whole kingdom of priests. That's what I want a group of people, a nation set apart to myself, that understands that I'm called to teach my ways and my word to the nations, and then bring the access that I have and the sacrifices that have come to me back to this God.

I want a whole group of people to function. How priests function in your group of people. So I want everyone to do what a few people do. I got the best example of this this week, because two weeks ago I taught about Jethro and like leadership lessons. In the book of Exodus. And so I hope that I brought God's word to you.

I hope that I expounded on God's ways, and I hope that I sacrificed time, had some sort of connection with God that I brought you into. I hope that I served you in that way. What I loved hearing in my pack was one of my friends. Matt ended up having to speak that way to a group of businessmen.

He had to speak that week to a group of businessmen on the topic of delegation. So he took what I taught and taught it to a group of people that I'll never stand before. And he brought God's words in God's ways, and he brought his sacrifice and allowed people to look in on the ways of God. And I just thought, that's exactly what God's looking for.

I will never get. And I don't know your students. I don't know your coworkers. I will never have the audience you have. And my role as a priest, although that word is not used in the New Testament, but my role is to bring you what I think to be God's words and God's ways so that you can take it to the audience that's in front of you.

And that's what God is saying. I want a kingdom. I want a nation that doesn't just have a few of these guys in it representing God to them, but I want a whole nation to represent me to the nations of the earth. He goes on to say, this group, if it's going to represent me, has to be holy.

I'm holy. I'm set apart. You can't represent me if you don't walk in holiness.

We have a.

We have had a disproportionate reaction. I would say, when who we believe to be a leader or a priest or a pastor stumbles and falls.

Why? It's just a dude, right? We're all. We're all. No one's perfect. We're all sinners. Why is it especially troubling when someone who's a priest or a pastor cheats, steals, abuses, power?

Wheels? Because there's a call on his life to represent God. And this is a gross misrepresentation. You have a role. You've been given a place of trust in people's lives, and you didn't use it. Well, can I say something to you? You have a role as a kingdom of priests. And it's not just a gross misrepresentation when a pastor or a leader stumbles, because many people are looking to you and not me, they're looking to you, wanting to know what God is like.

And so holiness matters not just for our holy men, but for this holy nation that God is gathering. Because we represent him. So in our speech and in our dealings and in the things that we do. This comes with a huge ethical code in the old Testament. If you're going to represent me, this is what it's going to look like.

So that's the context, okay? We're a holy nation. We're a royal priesthood. This is our job. And holiness is a huge part of it. Got it. Let's talk about these what seem like kind of random requests from God. Hey, don't have sex. Hey, everyone, take a bath, wash your clothes. Number three, create borders and watch those boundaries. Kind of random, right?

Well, stay curious with me for a second. This is what happened for me this week. Don't have sex for three days. I was just thinking, what in the world that just appears out of nowhere? It seems kind of random and a waste of a bath. Like they've been a year without a bath. And of course, when you get one, you're like, this is as good a time as any, but don't have sex.

Don't do it. Are so random. What if I told you that God was doing something new with a group of people, and that sex was being ritualized in all other nations of the earth? What if I told you that Baal, or the foreign gods being worshiped, were being worshiped through religious sex?

And what if God wanted a people set apart? And what if God was saying ritualized sex will never be a part of the worship of Yahweh, and he's wanting to break that understanding by saying, I don't think this is how you're going to get to God. This is a gift from God. But ritualized sex is never going to be a part of your worship to me.

He's not saying here that sex is bad or sinful. He came up with it. The idea of one flesh is God's idea. So what's up with the prohibition? You'll never elevate this to the place of God. This is gift. Kind of helpful. Yeah. You're like, All right, get it. What about wash your clothes? It's a little easier for us to understand, right?

Because you probably told someone in your life you can't wear that to church like this morning, right? We get that in the scriptures. Clothes are symbols of the nature and the intention of the wearer.

Clothes are symbols of the nature of the wearer. Why does the bride wear white? Why don't they wear red? Yeah, because the nature of a bride is that she's pure, set apart, undefiled. This is why we wear white. Why does the Lord put on armor? What is he intending to do when he puts on armor?

Why do I put on work clothes? So I intend to do something about my garage. Maybe today. Why will I wear a tie to church next week? To gain God's favor? No, I want to say something that this Sunday is not like every other Sunday where I don't iron my shirt. This Sunday is different than those Sundays. It's set apart by washing their clothes.

They're signifying something. What are they signifying? Yeah, that they've purified their hearts, that they've cleansed their minds, that they've spent time getting ready. Right. Communicates something. When I get dressed up right, the last thing is God says, hey, I want you to create boundaries and I want you to create a border, and I want you to watch them.

And I think the lesson here is very clear. Although it's not easy to swallow, God's communicating that obedience is a matter of life and death, that obedience to the Word of God is a matter of life and death. And I wish I could tell you that was an overstatement. But we've seen the fallout when we disobey and disregard God's Word in His ways.

So the idea is, I want you to draw a line, and you better believe they had their eye on that line right? I mean, the command is super clear. Even if Sparky crosses the line, Sparky dies. So you're like, Sparky, don't cross the line. Your kids, you got toddlers. I mean, they're like playing next to a busy street.

The idea here is that you would be attentive and you would mind the gap, and you would have not been casual. Nobody's walking up to that line in like. No one's doing that. You mind the gap. The holiness of God is not mean, but it's nothing to be messed with. And you shouldn't treat this flippantly. That leads me to my last point.

When God comes down, he doesn't just appear. He comes down. He descends. It's not just in appearing, it's that God comes down. And when he comes down. This is the biggest lesson for a group of people who have never met him before. Because God involves all five of their senses. This is just good teaching. They saw with their eyes the lightning in the clouds in the fire, and they heard with their ears the thunder, and they felt the ground shake and they smelt the burning.

And they tasted the ash. It was all right there. God made himself very clear. And I love I think it's so helpful that God often reveals himself as fire because fires two things at the same time mesmerizing and dangerous. I mean, I don't care how old you get. I see a fire and I'm just like, you. I could sit and stare into flames for hours.

I just love it. There's something there were just drawn to it. I still like a 12 year old boy will, like, melt forks in it. I just there's something incredible about fire, and it's like, I want to come close. And then it's like, whoa, not too close. And this is the picture that we have. This is mesmerizing. This is mysterious.

This is incredible. What's happening here? I don't even understand it. I want to drown. Oh, not too close. This is the idea. And I think it's super helpful to understand who God is.

Trick number three.

This is a warning to not be casual in your approach. And I was thinking about Elvis Presley singing Only Fools Rush In. The Lord descended to the top of the mountain, called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up and the Lord said to him, go down. And Moses said, probably like I'm 80, and this is round three.

Go down, warn the people so they don't force their way through to see the Lord. Many of them will perish, and even the priests who approach the Lord must consecrate themselves, for the Lord will break out against them. That phrase appears a lot, and it's terrifying, like the Lord will break out against you. Jesus, Moses said to the Lord, the people cannot come up mount Sinai because you yourself warned us.

He's essentially saying, you've told us this before. You told us to put limits, and we did set it apart as holy. And the Lord replied, we'll go down, bring Aaron up with you. But the priests and the people must not force their way through to come up to the Lord, or he will break out against them. So Moses went down, and the people told them.

The best way to describe what happens here is that I think what what? It's a bit like what happens with my kids when I say, clean your room and they come downstairs and they said, I did. I cleaned it, and then I go, are you sure? And they're like, yeah. And I'm like, why don't you go back up there?

I want you to look at your room the way I'm going to look at your room, the way that your mom is going to look at your room. And why don't you look under the couch that I know has food under it? And why don't you look at your bed, which I know you didn't make? And why don't you look in your closet, which I know you stuffed everything in and shut the door, then come back down to me and look me in the face and say, your room is clean.

This is God saying to Moses, clean according to who? Are you sure? Why don't you go back there? Because I'm not messing around. Why don't you go back down and make sure? Well, the priest said they were fine. Of course the priest think they're fine. Don't let anyone take this casually as you come before me. And we have a risk.

As Christians of hearing about this stuff and treating this stuff casually. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've heard this before. And to make light of our sin and to make light of the holiness of God and this message, this chapter is a bit of a bucket of cold water saying clean according to who? Well, yeah, my neighbor, I'm way better off than he is.

He's a dirt bag. Oh, yeah. That's great. I'm glad you're doing well compared to your neighbor, compared to the Holy God that you're called to represent. How you doing?

Worship team. Would you guys come?

I want to remind you, because it's that passage warnings are loving. You're like, man, who is this wrathful God who warns is not a wrathful God who warns if he wants to strike you with lightning? He could do that without warning. You. He's giving you a warning because he doesn't want you to put yourself in a place of danger.

He he's warning you because you he hopes you respond to the warnings and he warns over and over again because he wants you to respond to the warnings. He wants to and is patient. And the other thing that you need to know today is that the fear of the Lord is life. And a lack of the fear of the Lord in your life is death.

This is a wild thing. If you turn to the next chapter. It says this when the people saw the thunder, saw the lightning, heard the trumpet, and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. And they stayed at a distance. And they said to Moses, speak, ask yourself, and we'll listen. But don't have that guy speak to us.

We're going to die. And Moses said to the people, don't be afraid. God's come to test you so that the fear of God will be with you and keep you from sinning. And the people remained at a distance while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was. This is a crazy thing, because if I was the people of God, I'd be like pretty weirded out.

Moses. Like, no, no, no no no no guys guys guys guys, don't be afraid. God's here to scare us. No no no, do not fear. Rather fear. The Lord. It's that fear that rules every other fear in your life. Get that one.

There's this idea that the fear of the Lord will dispel every other fear. And this is wild. What's most incredible about the fear of the Lord is that it doesn't cause us to distance ourselves from him. It actually says in Psalm 31 that we take refuge in him. Those who fear the Lord move towards him, not away from him.

That's unlike every other fear you have. You're scared of snakes, you distance yourself and you're scared of the ocean. So you distance yourself and you're scared of guns, so you distance yourself. Every other fear produces distance, but the fear of the Lord causes us to draw near. And the fear of the Lord is not a fear of him as much as it is a fear of going without him.

I'm not going forward without you. It's a reverence in our life that produces obedience, and that obedience produces faithfulness, and that faithfulness is rewarded in this life and in the next. And if you're operating in the fear of man, you're operating in the fear of the future. You're operating in any other fear. It will lead to disobedience. It'll lead to compromise, and it'll lead to death and separation, both in this life and in the next.

A fear of the Lord is what keeps us.

We just want to say, together as your people, Lord, would you teach us? Teach us, teach us the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord. That's clean, enduring. That produces reverence in obedience and doing the very next thing you tell us to do. And, Lord, where there's a lack of fear or not the right fear in our lives, I just want to ask that you would reveal yourself to your people.