[SPEAKER_00]: So today's message title is waiting and wandering, waiting and wandering.
[SPEAKER_00]: Today we're stepping into maybe the most shocking, there's a lot of shocking moments in Exodus if you will.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is where we're moving, pretty epic to say the least, but this is one of these shocking turn of events, maybe the most shocking in the book of Exodus because we've seen God
[SPEAKER_00]: free his people who were enslaved for 430 years out of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's done the miraculous to get him out.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's 10 different plagues, which are miraculous in and of themselves and that he saved them, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Save them from slavery, save them from death with the pass over there.
[SPEAKER_00]: He brought them through the Red Sea, Man of From Heaven, all these amazing things.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then today in chapter 32, we see that it takes this turn that we might not expect.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the Israelites, having been saved, seeing Yahweh, God Almighty's hand, and, again, miraculous ways in Chapter 32, they seem to have forgotten everything that's happened and they turn to their old ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: It turned to their old ways, and so while Moses, if you remember, Moses is on Mount Sinai, he's meeting with God, God's given him all these instructions.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's up there for 40 days, and God's telling him that he's given them the 10 commandments, right, on tablets of stone.
[SPEAKER_00]: He gives them the blue prints, if you will, for the tabernacle, and how that's to operate, and how you have to have the priestly garments, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
[SPEAKER_00]: And while Moses is getting this,
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean all of this downloaded to him having this amazing moment with God, I mean aren't you a little jealous in a sense or like man Moses got to like meet and hear and speak with God in this amazing way the Israelites are down in the valley and they are
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean to say at least they're going to stray, they're going the wrong way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this whole thing today it hinges on this one verse and if you look at chapter 32 verse one it says, when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, so remember he's up there for 40 days, 40 days is,
[SPEAKER_00]: kind of a long time, but at the same time, it's not a long time, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like it depends on what you're doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: For Moses, it probably was like over an instant, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's having the time of his life.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's amazing never experiencing anything like it.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's meeting with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It probably felt like four hours, not 40 days there.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then for the people down in the valley, they're waiting on Moses, waiting on these instructions.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's next?
[SPEAKER_00]: What are we gonna do?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, they probably felt like this is taking forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it says, 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, make us God's who shall go before us.
[SPEAKER_00]: As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when the people saw that Moses delayed, they start to wonder what's going on, but they also start to wander into old habits.
[SPEAKER_00]: When they felt like God was maybe taken too long.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses is taking too long longer than they want to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I just want to ask you the question, isn't this a little bit?
[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully relatable, right a bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: You ever felt that way when God's not moving as fast as you want.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've prayed.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've asked for counsel.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've talked with your friends, talk with a pastor, talk with whoever you've watched all the podcast, YouTube things, and sermons that you can as much as you can get.
[SPEAKER_00]: You just want an answer and it feels like
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, maybe saying just not yet, maybe saying, we just wait, be patient.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's hard to wait sometimes, isn't it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Especially as we get to this Christmas season, those of us who have kids, I think we see our kids, right, my kids are already like, what are you getting me for Christmas?
[SPEAKER_00]: If I don't worry about it, maybe nothing, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, I got plenty of time to figure this out, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's hard to wait, and when our prayers aren't answered in our timeline, our expectations aren't met when we want them, when we don't see the progress, when we feel uncertainties is taking too long.
[SPEAKER_00]: The waiting becomes wondering, what are you doing, and then the wondering eventually,
[SPEAKER_00]: becomes wandering.
[SPEAKER_00]: We start to wander around because, honestly, our hearts cries.
[SPEAKER_00]: We want to find something.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's someone to give us purpose.
[SPEAKER_00]: We want purpose in our life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we want that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God is sitting here, telling Moses all the things is how it's supposed to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is what I want you to do so that God, me, can dwell with people.
[SPEAKER_00]: But all the while of the people are like, well, we're going to make our own plan.
[SPEAKER_00]: And isn't that us?
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's not right now if you're born again in Jesus, but I mean, just think back to your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, each and every one of us have a story where we were wandering around trying to find purpose.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who am I?
[SPEAKER_00]: What was I made for?
[SPEAKER_00]: What do I want to do with my life, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We just try to find satisfaction in different things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's pleasures, maybe it's money, maybe it's success, maybe it's things.
[SPEAKER_00]: We wander around.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is really what today's message is about.
[SPEAKER_00]: We wander around trying to find purpose fulfillment.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you remember back to almost a year ago, we went through ecclesiasties and the whole book is about everything apart from God is vanity, meaningless, empty.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in today's,
[SPEAKER_00]: text, we see the Israelites, they want to, in a way, I guess, learn the hard way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes we've got to learn the hard way, don't we?
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, you can either learn from experience or you can learn from the experience of others.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I forget what who said it, but it said, any fool can learn from experience and he said, I prefer to learn from the experience of others.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's true, but we're stubborn people.
[SPEAKER_00]: and the Israelites are stubborn as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they want to find their own way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so again, verse one, it says, when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's this kind of this, the whole,
[SPEAKER_00]: nation, if you will, maybe not the whole nation, but a large crowd to be sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: They gather together and they come and talk to Aaron.
[SPEAKER_00]: Aaron's the guy in charge, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses is on the mountain.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses or Aaron's like second in command, if you will, and so they go to Aaron with this concern, and they say up, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, hey, Aaron, get up.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not time to sit around anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, and they say,
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, make us gods who shall go before us.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, like we're tired of waiting around.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's take this into our own hands and let's start moving, figuring this thing out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here's the thing that they want to, I mean, they're trying to make their own god.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I wish there was more in this about the Israelites and their thought process because for me as a pastor, as I read in study, I just think, what were they thinking?
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, maybe they're like, hey, let's just make something that represents y'all way that would go before us and that's why God's waiting this whole time anyway is we just got to make a move and then he'll move, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, they say it can't steer parked chariot, you know, and so let's get it moving and maybe God will start to move.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what they're thinking, but all the while they're breaking the first commandment, the second commandment, and they are creating an idol.
[SPEAKER_00]: right before God Almighty.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he says, when the people saw the Moses delay to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron said to him, up, make us God's who shall go before us.
[SPEAKER_00]: As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're probably, we don't know if he's dead or alive.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's been gone for 40 days and there's fire on the mountain and God met with them and maybe God consumed him, who knows, maybe that's what they're thinking.
[SPEAKER_00]: And verse two, it says, so Aaron said to them, take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters, and bring them to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they said, these are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_00]: When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said, tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's God's name, Yahweh.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, and they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we're gonna talk a lot about this, but it just goes from bad to worse, doesn't it?
[SPEAKER_00]: They say, hey, make us some gods that we may serve them and they'll go before us, Aaron and Aaron's like, okay, right, that's like red flag number one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Aaron, are you serious?
[SPEAKER_00]: You have one job to do, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You supposed to lead these people.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're supposed to be bold, courageous, lead them into all the truth and the ways of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remind them of what God has done.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses is on the mountain.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's getting instructions from God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He'll be back soon when I'm not sure, but we got to wait.
[SPEAKER_00]: We got to be faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: We got to be patient.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are things Aaron should have done.
[SPEAKER_00]: But instead, Aaron Cape to what we could say is peer pressure.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a psychology, there's something called, I don't know if this is the technical name of it, but there's like the band wagon effect.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's essentially when everyone starts to do it and say that this is right, and this is what we should do is you just jump on board, cause you're like, well everyone else is doing it.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you ever thought that right, it's like, well, everyone else is doing this.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I might as well do it too.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so all the people come up to Aaron, gather around him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they say, this is what we got to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this wasn't necessarily Aaron's idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Aaron goes along with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The bandwagon effect here, the herd mentality, if you will, the peer pressure that he gives into.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is a warning to us is when those around us say we should serve false gods and they're not going to say it that way, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We're in 2025.
[SPEAKER_00]: Probably not going to use that language.
[SPEAKER_00]: It would should go build a idol so that we can serve it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And do these different things.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's plenty of idols out there, but just remember scripture first Corinthians 15, 33, this one came to mind this week, is that bad company corrupts good morals.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you haven't heard that verse before, I encourage you to go look it up, memorize it, write it down, and tell yourself this when you feel like you're being pressured into something that you know deep down isn't right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bad company corrupts good morals, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So when you hang out with the wrong crowd,
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, guys?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, everyone else is getting drunk.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone else is party, and everyone else is doing X, Y, and Z.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you might be like, but I got Jesus, I'm good, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, maybe for a time, but Scripture is true.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it will be, God's word will be true, 100% of the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: So give it enough time, hanging out with the wrong people, the wrong crowd in the wrong place.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you think's gonna happen?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's only a matter of time.
[SPEAKER_00]: It might be a day, it might be a week, it might be a year, but eventually you're gonna be doing what everyone else is doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because bad company corrupts good morals.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's an absolute.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember this in my own life, right, I early on as a baby Christian, I thought, well, I got Jesus, I got the Holy Spirit, I'm good, and I can still hang out with my old friends, and if you're
[SPEAKER_00]: new to the church and don't know much about my testimony, I used to party, do drugs, alcohol, all the things that came with it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought, well, I'm strong enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got Jesus now and I'll be good, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's nice to think, but I'm still a week.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm still human.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I'd hang out with my old friends thinking that I'm the new person.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then eventually find myself falling into sin where it's like, what's going on?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's because bad company corrupts good morals.
[SPEAKER_00]: You hang out with the wrong people.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's only a matter of time until you're talking like them, acting like them, going out with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: We gotta be careful.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Aaron, he's surrounded with, I mean, we could say bad company.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're corrupting his good morals, if he even has any good morals.
[SPEAKER_00]: Proverbs 29 tells us that the fear of man is a snare, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a trap, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe Aaron feared the people, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: This mob of people who are like,
[SPEAKER_00]: But he feared that more than he feared God Almighty.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we just gotta understand, like whatever the world's saying, popular opinion, whatever's trending on Instagram and TikTok, like it's almost never aligned with the word of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Understand?
[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever's on the news, you're like, oh, but everybody else is saying this, well, it's usually not aligned with God's word.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then again, just because everyone else is doing it, doesn't mean that we should do it, and it definitely doesn't mean that God's in it, we're like, well,
[SPEAKER_00]: If we just do this, God's gonna bless whatever I do.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, God's not gonna bless sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not gonna bless your rebellion, you're going to stray, you're doing it because everyone else is doing it.
[SPEAKER_00]: That might work with your parents.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know, my friends did it, so I did it, but it's not gonna work with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Israel tells Aaron, make us gods that will go before us.
[SPEAKER_00]: They want something they can see, touch, manage, control.
[SPEAKER_00]: Honestly, at times, I believe that's us when we're waiting for God and it feels like he's taking too long, and I know I've heard time and time again, people say, well, I prayed for long time, and I didn't feel like I got an answer.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I stopped going to church, I stopped reading the Bible, I stopped being a Christian even.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's sad, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Isn't it sad?
[SPEAKER_00]: And even some of you may have come from that background.
[SPEAKER_00]: But because we want answers, we want something we can see, control, manage, touch, something that we understand a little bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so when we want that, we don't feel like we have, and we start to look to other things.
[SPEAKER_00]: In verse four says that Aaron takes their gold and melts it down.
[SPEAKER_00]: He forms a cow, but it's really a bull, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a symbol that's straight out of Egypt, which is again, this is the idea here is they go back to what they know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we don't have directions from God of where we're supposed to go, well, what do we know?
[SPEAKER_00]: And like, well, I remember back in Egypt, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, these people grew up in Egypt.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're born in Egypt as slaves.
[SPEAKER_00]: They grew up in Egypt as slaves, 430 years, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Their grandparents were slaves on down the line.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what they know.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's like in their blood, if you will.
[SPEAKER_00]: But God's brought them out of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_00]: but almost the moment they face this uncertainty or this period of waiting, they revert back to their old ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just think of it as like it's interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the plagues that God sends is directly against the livestock.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you remember that, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, hey, let my people go or I'm going to kill all your livestock, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what happens.
[SPEAKER_00]: All these dead cows, bulls, animals all over the place.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was this symbol of God saying that even though you serve the Egyptians and Pharaoh, even though you serve in worship, these false gods, and there would be the cow or bull god that would be strength.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think prosperity even that it would show.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's saying, they're nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I look at your your God's, they're dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the moment they have to wait, Aaron's bright ideas, let's probably like, well, oh, remember that, that cow God?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, let's make one of those.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go back to what we know, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: When people feel anxious or unseen or uncertain, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We often go back to the things that are familiar to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Israel slips back into this Egyptian style worship, because again, that's what they know.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what we do as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we face trials or uncertainty.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what we have to be aware of, too, when you face trials, maybe aren't in one right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: but the temptation is to go back to old ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: Old habits, old patterns, old friends, old environments, sin, coping mechanisms.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, but when life gets hard, I mean, that's often what we do.
[SPEAKER_00]: We see it in Scripture, Peter, one of the first disciples.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, when he denies Jesus three times.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you remember what happens in John chapter 21?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like this is Jesus has been crucified.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's been buried in the grave.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't know that he's risen yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peter says, I'm going fishing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, if you know Peter's story before he met Jesus, what was he doing?
[SPEAKER_00]: He was fishing.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was a fisherman.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what he knew.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what he grew up with.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's his language.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's his world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Jesus calls him out of it says, Hey, stop doing that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Follow me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to make you fishers of men.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for three years, Peter,
[SPEAKER_00]: Follows Jesus, close by his side and sees the miraculous.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the teachings.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a changed man, but then the moment there's some trial, some persecution in Peter's life, there's temptation, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, aren't you one of his friends?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he says, no, I don't know the man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Essentially, Peter gives up and he goes back to his old ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going fishing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even in that instance, the other disciples follow with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's the herd mentality.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Peter's going.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks be to God that He's a gracious, merciful God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't stop pursuing us because when Peter's out there fishing, what do you know, Jesus is on the shore?
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, boys, you caught anything?
[SPEAKER_00]: And what do they say?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, all right, no, because I mean life without Jesus is fruitless, or we could say for Peter, it was fishless.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so he's out there trying his own ways and he's not getting anywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: We will not get anywhere if Jesus is not the center and the one true God of our life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Jesus tells them says, throw the net on the other side of the boat.
[SPEAKER_00]: Once they start doing things, Jesus, the way they start to catch more fish than they can haul in and then Peter being somewhat logical and smart, and John, they're like, it's the Lord, Peter's overwhelmed, excited, I don't know, but he jumps out of the boat and swims to shore, he's like, he can't wait if I was there, I'm like, Peter, seriously, we're going to go in.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he jumps into the water.
[SPEAKER_00]: He gets there because he wants to see the Lord and then it's in that moment that Jesus meets with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, do you love me?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he says, feed my sheep, feed my lambs, tend my flock here, Peter.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like it's not over yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the point being, and for today's sake, is that we go back to old ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peter goes back to his old ways because life got hard and we see this time and time again in our own lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: Life gets hard, we go back to what we know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe life gets hard and you get back to drinking, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, well, this is gonna help numb the pain.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, you go back to old friends or old relationships and start doing things you shouldn't do, but it's because it's familiar and it's what you used to know.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what you used to do and you just want comfort, you want peace and so our human heart, just that we'll do whatever we have to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Essentially to find it, but again, hopefully for us, we can see the warning signs and avoid some of these pitfalls.
[SPEAKER_00]: But so they bring their stuff to Aaron.
[SPEAKER_00]: Aaron says, bring all your gold to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse three, all the people took off their rings of gold.
[SPEAKER_00]: Brought them to Aaron, verse four.
[SPEAKER_00]: Aaron, he receives the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with the gravy tool, which is important to note.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's going to be when we're building this case about Aaron, and essentially against Aaron, and the things he's done wrong, right there it tells us plainly that Aaron took these things, and he fashioned it with a graving tool, and he made a golden calf, and they said, these are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, this is blasphemy in the highest level, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: These are your gods who brought you out of Egypt,
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you serious?
[SPEAKER_00]: These are who saved you, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember the plagues.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember how God destroyed and killed the livestock and yet you want to say this golden cap that we just made informed out of the fire is our God and actually did something for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Isaiah, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: There's this hole.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's Isaiah 44.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have any of my notes, but we're God talks about these fake false gods, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like you took a log of wood and with half of it, you burned it in the fire to keep you warm, to make your food on, and the other half you made into a God, and you're going to worship it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's like, how foolish and silly is that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or in other words, how stupid is that?
[SPEAKER_00]: How stupid does it seem right for the Israelites here to make a calf and fake God and to worship it and say that this saved me?
[SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't it seem silly?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, no, maybe so.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's just be honest.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's super silly and ridiculous, but honestly, if we take a look at our life, some of the things that we center our lives around, that we worship, that isn't God, it's silly too.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, this is what saves me, this is what's gonna help me, this is what's gonna keep me going, it's like, no, nothing and no one else other than Jesus is gonna be the one that can save us and keep us going.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Aaron takes the stuff, he fashions it, makes a golden calf, and they said, these are your God's O Israel who brought you out up out of the land of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 5, when Aaron saw this, says, gets worse, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He built an altar before it.
[SPEAKER_00]: to me as this again, Aaron, are you serious?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, the fact that you even made an idol is ridiculous, but now you're gonna make an altar to offer sacrifices to your idol?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's just gets worse.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's what happens when we go astray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything seems fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we have no morals, no moral compass, no fear of God, everything seems fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's not going to hurt us or harm us.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Aaron builds an altar.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Aaron made a proclamation and said tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: A feast to Yahweh.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now he seems godly right in a sense you're like okay Aaron I can get on board with that but you got to understand it's like this is Maybe it's a mix of spirituality and that he's got a little bit of the right mindset He's knows who Yahweh is but on the same sense he's mixing idolatry with it
[SPEAKER_00]: And we know that the two things don't mix, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: If we think that, oh, I can be in a little bit of sin and I can go my own way and do my own thing, but I'm gonna also say that I believe in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: The two things don't mix.
[SPEAKER_00]: You either follow God wholeheartedly or you don't.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know we struggle at times, we fall.
[SPEAKER_00]: that's not what I'm saying here right here is like they're making worship about what they want this false god that they've made and they want to sprinkle a little bit of Jesus on top.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what it's going to be okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, that seems nice and all that, but it's totally blasphemous.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it says, and they rose up early the next day, verse six, offered burnt offerings to this fake God and brought peace offerings.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now what this mirrors is, if you remember, by when God made a covenant with the Israelites, with Moses right, he made this covenant with them, and then they leaders, the elders of Israel, also mouth them, I think this was Exodus 24, May 25.
[SPEAKER_00]: and they meet with God, and then they have this meal with God, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like they meet with God, they have this covenant, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: This promise is secured here, and then they have a meal.
[SPEAKER_00]: It shows communion and all that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is a, it mirrors that, but this is, um, idol worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: They sat down to eat and drink.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have this picture of spirituality, yet their hearts are far from God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then it says they rose up to play.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we're like, oh, that sounds fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if we look at the Hebrew of what that word is for play, it's actually sexual immorality.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like they sat down to eat and drink, which would actually be if you study a little deeper, they got drunk, wasn't just like, oh, it's just have some water with our man and bread.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, whatever, no, they got drunk.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they had sexual immorality, or Jesus would even be the word that Hebrew word would relate to or not relate to it is that word.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you can see that they quickly goes from bad to worse.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just want to warn you and me right here today is that when we start to compromise, it might be little, well it's just okay, God doesn't mind if I do this or whatever it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: One little compromise leads to another next thing you know that you're totally lost your way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Isn't that, and that's the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, bad company corrupts good morals.
[SPEAKER_00]: You think, well, I can hang out with these people.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're my friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I care about them.
[SPEAKER_00]: But again, if you love and care about God and things that he has for you, you'll be wise enough to know that I, you can't be there anymore, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or at least you can't be in the same, it can't be the same as it used to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because little by little, we'll go a stray.
[SPEAKER_00]: And honestly, it often happens faster than we like.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was listening to a Matt Chandler sermon on this, and he was talking about, he gave this example illustration of a tree, and he said there's these hardwood trees, and he had a picture of it, and all this stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: But anyways, he said that there's this disease that would infect these trees.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, these hardwood trees, like there,
[SPEAKER_00]: There's some of the strongest, whatever tree it was, or some of the strongest trees that are out there, like you could hit it with your truck, and it wouldn't fall down and wouldn't bud.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, your truck would be told that the tree's gonna be fine and live another 100, 200 years, whatever.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, but he said there'd be this disease, and it's called this heartworm or heartwood disease.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he said that it was slowly in fact this tree where what it would do is it would kind of go from the inside out.
[SPEAKER_00]: You wouldn't know that it's there.
[SPEAKER_00]: The tree looks beautiful, healthy, it's growing strong and all that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But little by little, this heartworm effect would start to affect the tree to the point that once it kind of totally
[SPEAKER_00]: out of disintegrates the right word, but weakens the core that he said that even a normal size man could come over to this tree and push it over because it is so brittle.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what in the picture he was pointing to.
[SPEAKER_00]: is that that's what happens when we compromise and we let a little bit of sin in to our life.
[SPEAKER_00]: We start to go astray.
[SPEAKER_00]: You might look like you got it all together on the outside.
[SPEAKER_00]: You come to church on Sundays and you say, hey God bless you and whatever it is and like the Israelites, they sprinkle a little bit of Jesus a little bit of Yahweh on top.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we're gonna do this feast unto the Lord, but really inside there morally, they're decaying.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right there, and it happens fast inside of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: from like zero to a hundred within who knows a few hours.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the crazy things if you think about this is that they would have received a man of that morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Miracle bread from heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're like, hey, we're waiting for God to show us the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we're God to show up, we're him to do something to speak to us, lead us, and all the while that, I mean, who knows, maybe that was in the morning while they were eating their man.
[SPEAKER_00]: So have you forgotten that God's literally providing for us
[SPEAKER_00]: but it goes from bad to worse very quickly.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Aaron seems to be doing nothing about it other than
[SPEAKER_00]: giving the people what they want.
[SPEAKER_00]: Which I think is a, I mean, for a leadership lesson, there's been a debate in one of my classes I'm taking actually right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's about church, or one of the sessions was about church government and how should a church be governed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Should it be congregational, govern where it's like, hey, what do you guys want?
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what we're gonna do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Should it be a singular pastor ran?
[SPEAKER_00]: Should it be a kind of a committee oversight?
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, anyways, it's a whole debate about it, but I shared in my my little essay I wrote it's just I just when I and I come back to this text Like if we give everyone what they want I mean no offense to you guys you guys like wait a second What but it's like the Israelites Aaron gave him what they wanted and they went straight.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like there needs to be someone to have
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: What we see Moses is the man that God uses and when people would try to go straight and just think, well, I want what I want and we just, just because we gathered everyone together, we riled everybody up, doesn't mean that we're right.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's another psychology term, I think it's the illusory truth effect.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, there's other ones too.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's basically this thing where it's like, we're, and I think it's biblical, even.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, we're so bent on being right that we'll lie to ourselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, we just think that we're right, and we want what we want, and what we want is right, even though we'll read scripture where it says that, that'll shall not do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or there's even the sense where we see it enough times or we hear enough times and you're just de-sensitized and you just believe that it's, we believe that it's true and we start to just go with the crowd.
[SPEAKER_00]: And nowadays, 2025, we've got social media, we've got all of these things speaking into our lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: All the time, 24, 7.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's very easy to fall into these effects where we're like, well, everyone else said it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I saw someone on TikTok said it.
[SPEAKER_00]: YouTube said it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I saw, you know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, how many of you guys use these things?
[SPEAKER_00]: I get friends who send me stuff all the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you see this?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I even sent them sometimes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you see this?
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like, just because I saw it on a video, it doesn't mean that it's true, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Just because someone who has thousands of followers said it doesn't mean that it's true.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we often will go with the crowd because we just assume, without even realizing it, that it's true.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the crowd here, they want what they want.
[SPEAKER_00]: Aaron goes along with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: They rise up early.
[SPEAKER_00]: burnt offerings, peace offerings, they sit down, they eat, they get drunk, and they have sexual immorality takes place.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 7, and the Lord said to Moses, go down for your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if this was like, maybe there was more God wanted to do, but then it was just like, hey Moses, we're having to put a pen in it for now, and we'll come back to this later, but you need to leave right now because your people are going to stray.
[SPEAKER_00]: they're going a little crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse eight, God tells him plainly says they've turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said these are your God's O Israel who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_00]: So just note, this is God Almighty telling Moses of the sins of the people down in the valley.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: God knows everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: You and I, we can make excuses.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can say, well, everybody else is doing it or I just want to do it because it felt good.
[SPEAKER_00]: It seemed right in the moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can deceive one another, however you want to, to try to frame the picture.
[SPEAKER_00]: But at the end of the day, God knows the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: He knows what you've done, knows what you've said, knows what you've even thought.
[SPEAKER_00]: He tells Moses the truth of what's happening.
[SPEAKER_00]: Says, verse nine, the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people and behold, it is a stiff necked people.
[SPEAKER_00]: What that would refer to back then, they use animals for transportation, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: They have horses, donkeys, whatever.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's like an a stiff neck, say we're on a horse.
[SPEAKER_00]: It'd be the picture of like you're trying to use the reins, to steer it, to guide it, to get it to go and it doesn't wanna go.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the idea here, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Your people are a stiff neck people.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm trying to lead them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm trying to guide them, but they don't want to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're stubborn.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 10, God says, now, therefore, let me alone, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Leave me alone, Moses.
[SPEAKER_00]: Says, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them in order that I may make a great nation of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think on the one hand, we got to understand God doesn't play around with sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's not cool with your sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've said it before.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna say it again.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not cool with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not okay with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Just because you're alive.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that wasn't so bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: God may be up there, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like maybe the same things are set of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to consume them, but thanks be to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus stands in our place, says no, their sin is on me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got their sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna pay their debt.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in this moment, right, he's telling Moses, I'm gonna destroy them.
[SPEAKER_00]: every single one of them for their sin, for their idle worship, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That picture of this, too.
[SPEAKER_00]: The idle worship, we're like, to make it, maybe a little, to let it set in, and a little more, it's a picture of adultery against God.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what idolatry is.
[SPEAKER_00]: it's adultery against God, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember that God has saved them.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's brought them out of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's done the miraculous.
[SPEAKER_00]: He made a covenant with them, then everlasting covenant right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, you're going to be my people.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be your God.
[SPEAKER_00]: The people said, whatever you say, we'll do.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're on your page.
[SPEAKER_00]: We like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're good with it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And they made the covenant.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a sacrifice.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a meal.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was sealed in blood.
[SPEAKER_00]: But here.
[SPEAKER_00]: The people they go to false gods, what have they done is they've essentially, they've slept with, let another god into their bed, and idol, a false god, and they've gone further than their covenant, what they've done is they've broken the covenant.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're here that week when I talked about it right, the covenant versus a contract, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the picture of marriage, even of wedding covenant where it's like for better or worse.
[SPEAKER_00]: So death through us, part like it doesn't matter what happens, not worrying it, ride together, die together.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the picture of a covenant with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like whatever happens, I'm keeping my covenant to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wants us to keep the covenant with him, but they break it here in the most vile of ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think if we could get a maybe one day we can, we could get to heaven, we can see this on the call it like DVR.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Can we see what happened?
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to see what happened, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And they probably didn't think it was that big of a deal.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we're just going to make this God and we're going to worship it, but y'all way, God Almighty told us we got where to give sacrifices and he was cool with the last one we made.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I wouldn't need to be okay with this one, but again, it's like they have these wrong motives.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're worshiping false gods and God Almighty, he sees it and he says, let my wrath burn hot against them that I may consume them.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's not cool with their sin, he's not cool with our sin, or idol worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: And an idol for us today might not look like a golden calf, but it's just anything you put above God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's something, maybe it's a possession, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's your car, your house, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But maybe it's not even that, maybe it's just something like ideal, all it, ideological, I don't know, something, just like I have this feeling of success, and that's what you worship, and that's what you're all about.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to be liked, you want to be loved, you want to be accepted, maybe that's what you worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: And idol can be just about anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: And idol is something when we put it before God we're committing adultery against God Almighty.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he says I've seen these people, I want to consume them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he says in order that I may make a great nation of you, Moses.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, it's almost like God could do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: It wouldn't void any of his covenants that he made.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, I'm gonna destroy these people who've gone astray, but Moses, you're still gonna be alive.
[SPEAKER_00]: You'll carry the torch.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll still make a great nation out of you that he could fulfill his promises that were to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
[SPEAKER_00]: But check out verse 11.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, but Moses implored the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: His God and said, oh Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people?
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, I mean, it's just like why are you so angry?
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, why do you, is your wrath burned so hot against your people?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he gives him this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I love this.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with the mighty hand?
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He appeals to God on the things that God has already done.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why does your anger burn hot against these people whom you've saved?
[SPEAKER_00]: You've brought them out, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: With great power with the mighty hand, you've brought them out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 12, he says, why should the Egyptians, by the people back in Egypt, say, with evil intent, did he bring them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth?
[SPEAKER_00]: Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so what is Moses doing here?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's praying for interceding for the people.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, God, why are you so angry?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why do you want to kill these people who you've saved?
[SPEAKER_00]: And even uses some logic in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, did you really just save them to bring them out here to kill them?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because if that's the truth, well, then the people in Egypt are going to think you're a cruel God.
[SPEAKER_00]: right like why would he do that and then even the Israelites it's like if you did that then the Israelites were right when they were arguing and complaining against me said Moses did you just bring us out here to kill us?
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's like, God, do you really want to do that?
[SPEAKER_00]: That doesn't really align with your character.
[SPEAKER_00]: That doesn't align with who you are and what you've said you would do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even what you have done, and he says verse 13, remember Abraham, Isaac in Israel, who is Jacob, says, your servants to whom you swore by your own self and said to them, I will multiply your offspring.
[SPEAKER_00]: as the stars of heaven and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring and they shall inherit forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Moses reminds him, this is your promise.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is what you said.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now understand, it's not that God has forgotten.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know sometimes we think, well, God, have you forgotten about me?
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you forgotten about your word?
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think on one hand, it hopefully, when we can bring God's word into it, it brings peace to our lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got his said this in his word.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he is promised.
[SPEAKER_00]: Never leave me, never forsake me, and that's something I can hold on to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even the life may get hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: There may be periods of waiting.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, I might trip and fall, and I gotta get back up again, but I know God's gonna be with me, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a promise we can hold on to.
[SPEAKER_00]: First John one nine says, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a promise I can hold on to.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that when I'm going through life, I can say, God, but you said in your word,
[SPEAKER_00]: But if I confess my sin that you're going to forgive me and cleanse me, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's something I can hold on to and Moses is holding on to the promises.
[SPEAKER_00]: You promise this to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.
[SPEAKER_00]: You told him that they were going to have offspring, so numerous as the stars of heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't you remember Lord and of course God of remembers?
[SPEAKER_00]: from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
[SPEAKER_00]: King James Version even says that God repented.
[SPEAKER_00]: which is interesting, brings up a whole different theological debate.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, well, God had to repent.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does that mean that God is evil and does bad?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it doesn't mean that at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: My God is good.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's holy, He's pure.
[SPEAKER_00]: There in Him there is no darkness.
[SPEAKER_00]: He cannot lie.
[SPEAKER_00]: He cannot do wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not in His character, it's not in His nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what it means is that Moses, he interceded on behalf of the people
[SPEAKER_00]: And God changed his mind essentially, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, okay, I was gonna do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Moses, I hear what you're saying.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm gonna answer accordingly.
[SPEAKER_00]: He relented maybe a better translation.
[SPEAKER_00]: verse 15 says, then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony and his hands tablets that were written on both sides on the front and on the back, they were written the tablets.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're the work of God and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the ten commandments we believe engraved on there, the law, the word of God,
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 17, when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, there's a noise of war in the camp.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he said, it is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.
[SPEAKER_00]: And remember, they're having a party down there.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're going a little crazy, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Once you do a little bit of sanding like well, I'm already had six beers, my eyes will have another one.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they just keep going on, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Compromise has no end, really.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they hear this going on, verse 19, and as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing Moses anger burned hot.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses is a picture, a representative of God to the people, and so God was just angry, and was about to destroy them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses says, God, have mercy upon them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember your word, remember your promise.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God's like, okay, I won't kill them.
[SPEAKER_00]: At least not today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then Moses goes down there, sees what's going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, we got to kill them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's just so angry.
[SPEAKER_00]: And could you imagine, I mean, like, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like I went for 40 days.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm meeting with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm getting direction.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've had all of these encounters.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got all of these instructions for what's next, where what's to come.
[SPEAKER_00]: And while I'm there, this is what you do.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've gone so far straight that you've created false gods.
[SPEAKER_00]: This golden calf and your worshiping it says that he's anger burned hot and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.
[SPEAKER_00]: Which I mean is a sign in a way of a broken covenant.
[SPEAKER_00]: People broke in the covenant that they made with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Definitely a bummer, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He had the word of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean God's gonna give him another one later.
[SPEAKER_00]: But a picture that they broke in this covenant.
[SPEAKER_00]: Guess forgot.
[SPEAKER_00]: So quickly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses' angry and rightfully so, verse 20, says he took the calf that they had made and he burned it with fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: Check out this, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is intense.
[SPEAKER_00]: He took the calf that they had made.
[SPEAKER_00]: He burned it with fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember it's gold.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's going to take a little while.
[SPEAKER_00]: Burned it with fire, ground it into powder, scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's intense.
[SPEAKER_00]: My Moses said to Aaron, what did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is like an Adam and Eve moment too, right when God comes to Adam he says, what what have you done, right where says where are you, what have you done and Adam says, well, is the woman that you gave me, she gave me this food to eat.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Moses comes down, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a representative of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a picture of Jesus who is to come for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he says, what did the people do to you?
[SPEAKER_00]: That you've brought such a great sin upon them, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Aaron, in other words, you were responsible.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, because even Adam and Eve, we could say, well, hey, logically speaking and chronologically speaking, Eve did eat of the fruit first, and she gave it to her husband.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when Adam said, well, the woman you gave me, gave it to me, he's not lying, but the thing is, God comes to Adam, he says, but where were you?
[SPEAKER_00]: What have you done?
[SPEAKER_00]: Saying you were responsible.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Moses comes to Aaron in a similar manner.
[SPEAKER_00]: What have you done, Aaron, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then what is Aaron's response?
[SPEAKER_00]: It says verse 22, and Aaron said, let not the anger of my Lord burn hot.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know the people, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: They're crazy, Moses.
[SPEAKER_00]: Says they are set on evil.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so immediately, what have you done, Aaron and Aaron says, it's the people.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not me, Moses, you know me, Moses, come on.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, it's like we've done and seen so many things together.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're brothers after all.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it wasn't me, it was the people, they're crazy, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It might have even seemed like a reasonable excuse.
[SPEAKER_00]: But again, this is the, so what sin will do in our lives is that we just want to pass the blame.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I hope, and I pray this was my own prayer for myself, even was that I was reading, studying through this this week, was just God, if I'm at fault, if there's any sin in me, I don't want to blame someone else or blame my circumstances or say, but this or, but it was really them or whatever, I just want to, I want to see it, God reveal it, and I want to take ownership of it, so that I can repent of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's my prayer for you as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: God reveals something in your heart, something you've been worse in being something you've been given your life to that you shouldn't be, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I would reveal that to you today, that you wouldn't pass the blame, because again, that's what sin does is that we feel sin and to try to avoid shame, we'd like to point the finger to somebody else, well, it was them, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It was, they made me do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, my wife, we have little kids, and we have this, I have this conversation with two of our kids often, our older two, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, well, she made me push her, it's like, well, really, how did she make you push her?
[SPEAKER_00]: That sounds like it's your, your decision, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's, but that's what, and that's a silly example, but that's what we do, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We're like, well, they made me do it, it's like, well, what they made you, made you sin?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's your choice.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have the decision to make.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Aaron's confronted with this sin, yet he starts to point the finger point blame.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the people, they're set on evil.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 22 or 23, he says, for they said to me, right, this was their idea, Moses, make us gods who shall go before us, which he's not lying as far as we can tell the people did come to him and said that, but that doesn't excuse his behavior, doesn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, they said to do it, okay, oh, then that's fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like if you're Moses, like, oh, okay, they came to you, they said this.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's not worry about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, no, they asked you to make false gods that they could worship and serve and you're down here getting drunk and having an orgy, air and something's drastically terribly wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he says, this, right, they told us, told me, make us gods who shall go before us as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of land of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_00]: We do not know what has become of him.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I said to them, let any of you who have gold take it off.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they gave it to me and checked this out.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, and I threw it into the fire, and it came out this calf.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, wow, that's pretty incredible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Aaron, I've never seen that before, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We just throw something in the fire and outcomes this perfectly crafted calf, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like this is silly, and we laugh at it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But this is, again, he's pointing the blame.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's avoiding taking ownership for his sin, like Aaron, you were in charge.
[SPEAKER_00]: You were responsible.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're the one who's spiritually care for them to point them back to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet you have fully participated in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, it might have been their idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you didn't resist, you didn't tell them not this, we shouldn't do this, and matter of fact, it's not only that did you participate, like you made this, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And remember back to earlier in the chapter where it says that it was crafted, I wrote was the word, was, I forgot where it was.
[SPEAKER_00]: Crafted, we'll go with Crafted.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think that was the word, but verse four.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fashioned it, yeah, thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fashioned it with the gravy too.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like this is very obviously a work of man and Aaron's trying to sell Moses this lie.
[SPEAKER_00]: I threw it into the fire and it just so happened to come out like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose, right, they're going total,
[SPEAKER_00]: Sin knows no bounds, type of thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: For Aaron had let them break loose.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, that's the real moral of the story with Aaron.
[SPEAKER_00]: He'd let them break loose to the derision of their enemies.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, who is on the Lord's side?
[SPEAKER_00]: Now this is an important moment for Israel right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are there being confronted with their sin?
[SPEAKER_00]: They've been caught, red handed.
[SPEAKER_00]: committing adultery against God Almighty, breaking the covenant that He made, that He said that you'll be my people.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be your God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you said yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now obviously you've broken that and you've acted as if you've said no.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Moses gives them this question.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why tell all the people who is on the Lord's side?
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, it's like who wants to live for God Almighty?
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, who's on the Lord's side?
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, basically, if that's you, come to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like an altar call moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to repent?
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to be back on the Lord's side?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or do you want to stay in your sin?
[SPEAKER_00]: And it says, come to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, all the sons of Levi gathered around him, the sons of Levi, that's all that we know, who responded to this altar call moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: Out of potentially, a couple million people,
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's in total men, women, and children, probably out there.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's come to me and only the sons of Levi gathered around him.
[SPEAKER_00]: In verse 27 it says, and he said to them, thus says the Lord, God of Israel, put your sword on your side each of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.
[SPEAKER_00]: and the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that day about 3,000 men of the people fell.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now we're like, whoa, that seems a little messed up.
[SPEAKER_00]: But again, if you remember God's word, he says, anyone right who has these false gods, if you have other gods before me, he's like, they shall be utterly destroyed.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's different words where he says, like, if they are to, if they do this, they'll be, shall be killed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember when they had the mountain, he said, don't let them touch the mountain and if they touch it, they're to be killed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or any livestock that touches the mountain, they shall be killed.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, how do you think God's gonna respond when his people have very blatantly broken his covenant?
[SPEAKER_00]: in worship when they're caught red handed, worshiping a false God, committing adultery before God Almighty.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Moses says, thus says the Lord, put your sword on your side, go to and fro.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know that this is all encompassing that every one of you should kill every one of your brothers and friends and neighbors.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think the point is this is like the ones who don't want to repent once you're stuck in their sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: They'll be destroyed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that seems messed up, but God, again, He doesn't mess around with sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks be to God that we are here today in 2025.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we have Jesus, right, that we can look to.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we can become, who makes us clean before God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 28 says the sons of Levi they did according to the word of Moses that day about 3,000 men of the people fell, 3,000 people died.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 29 and Moses said today you've been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brothers so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.
[SPEAKER_00]: The next day Moses said to the people you have sinned a great sin and now I will go up to the Lord Perhaps I can make a torment for your sin, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses is being optimistic at least But he's trying to be a leader, trying to lead them before God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like today I'm gonna go up.
[SPEAKER_00]: You does not forget you guys messed up and you messed up bad He's like, but maybe just maybe I can go up to the Lord and maybe just maybe I can make an atonement for your sin
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 31, so Moses returned to the Lord and said, Alas, this people has sinned the great sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, and remember, God already told him this last time he was up there on the mountain.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was like, what you said is true, God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And always is, this people have sinned the great sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have made for themselves God's of gold.
[SPEAKER_00]: But now, if you will forgive their sin,
[SPEAKER_00]: But if not, look at this, please block me out of your book that you have written.
[SPEAKER_00]: What does this, I mean, it's a picture of Jesus and we'll talk more in a second, but Moses is offering himself as the attoning sacrifice for his people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank God, would you just please forgive them of their sin?
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you won't take my life to cover the sin for them and block me out of your book of life, but let them be.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's courageous, it's love, surrender, again, it's a picture of Jesus, or Jesus is the only one who can fulfill this, because look at what God says, He says, where was I?
[SPEAKER_00]: 33, but the Lord said to Moses, whoever has sinned against me, I will blood out of my book, but now go, leave the people to the place about a place about which I have spoken to you, behold, my angel should go before you nevertheless, and the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, God says, no, I'm not gonna accept your sacrifice.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm not gonna take your life for their life and really the point of the matter, too, is that Moses's life can't atone for the sins of the people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moses giving maybe his life and would maybe, in a sense, the tone for his own sins, we could say, potentially, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But he can't atone for the people of God, only Jesus could do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's the pure spotless lamb, his sin lifts.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus would give Himself for us so that we wouldn't be blotted out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember when Jesus is hanging on the cross, He says, Father, forgive them.
[SPEAKER_00]: For they know not what they do.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's being crucified, being spit on, He's been mocked, it's been beaten, wept all the things, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: This God in human flesh, suffering on the cross, is Father forgive them.
[SPEAKER_00]: For they know not what they do.
[SPEAKER_00]: as he's giving himself for the life of anyone who would repent and believe in him that we could be safe so that we wouldn't be blotted out of the lamb's book of life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, there's this book, I mean, maybe one day we'll get to see it, but it's got the names of the children of God written down in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We want to be in that book, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a good thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when he says, bottom out, it's almost like he takes a, what do you call those things like the white out, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is anyone used white out nowadays?
[SPEAKER_00]: You do, okay, it's still thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hear things on a computer was I go just delete it real quick, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But I remember as a kid my mom would get a little white out and white out certain things and whatever.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's the idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, God's going to blot out your name.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, nope, you know, when we die, I would go to heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, oh, I'm going to look for your name in the book.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, nope, it's not here.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's blotted out, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, we don't want that and Moses is trying to appeal to God on the mercy of God, saying, hey, have mercy on these people.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you don't take my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: as a torment for for their sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Block me out of your book of life, but not them and God says, no, I'm not going to I'm not going to accept that and maybe it's a sobering moment for Moses where it's like, you can't do that right, Moses, you're not as good as you think, maybe I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the Lord says whoever sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.
[SPEAKER_00]: Says, go lead the people to the place about which I've spoken to.
[SPEAKER_00]: You behold, my angels shall go before you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nevertheless, in the day I will visit.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will visit their sin upon them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, God's not gonna forget this, not quickly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 35, then the Lord sent a plague on the people because they made the calf, the one that Aaron had made.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, sends a plague upon the people.
[SPEAKER_00]: One commentator said that maybe this is the reason 3,000 people died that day.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was because of this plague that he sent upon him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it could even be a symbolic or similar to
[SPEAKER_00]: the plague that he sent upon the livestock and then the cows died right while those who have worshiped this false God maybe sent a similar plague upon them and people die we don't know completely but what we do know is that Israel has sin they've gone astray Moses stands in the gap for them intercedes for them before God God shows them mercy and we'll see this isn't the end of Israel's troubles but it's really
[SPEAKER_00]: of their troubles.
[SPEAKER_00]: But as we wrap things up today, just some things that consider for ourselves, where have we, you, me, allowed waiting way and upon God to turn into wandering into things that we shouldn't be dealing with, maybe old things or old habits or old familiar places.
[SPEAKER_00]: Another question, what idols have you, me, crafted,
[SPEAKER_00]: in our own heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the question that we consider where am I drifting with the crowd instead of standing with the Lord?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, ways do we run back to when you're stressed or unsure what would it look like in your life to smash or destroy the idols that we've created.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've shared this story before there was, when I was coming out to come back to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, I was, I would say I was a drug addict and alcoholic and there was a day when I said enough to enough, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I never made this stance before.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe in Jesus, but I'm like enough to know if I really don't want to do drugs and smoke weed and do all this stuff anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I went home after church that day.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd rose my hand and service.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've got to give you my life and forgive me of my sins and I want to turn from my sins so that I can live for you All of that stuff and I went home and I took my pipe and this might sound silly to some of you But to me this is where this whole golden calf story really hits home is because the my pipe was my golden calf my my worships
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, is where I, what I ran to you on a good day, or a bad day, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: If things went good at work, it's like, oh, man, we're going to have a good time tonight.
[SPEAKER_00]: If things went bad at work, it's like, oh, man, we need to have a good time tonight.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'd run to this, my pipe and other things as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then that day though, I took it and I, and it's moment me in the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: in the alley and I smashed it against the wall and and as silly as this might seem as I smashed it and I had tears in my eyes because this was literally for five years or whatever this was my God that I served that I worshiped and I was destroying it making it statement that day.
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe you don't have a pipe of that nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you do, but maybe there's something in your life that you've been holding onto.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even though you believe in Jesus, you have one foot in the church believing in Jesus, but the other in the world holding onto your idol.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just want to tell you today as you can't have both.
[SPEAKER_00]: You got to make a decision like Moses says, who's for the Lord?
[SPEAKER_00]: do you want to be for the Lord today and if you do and you got to go home you got to take you got to clean up your house clean up your your life in the sense of like you got to take your idols you got to get rid of them so what might it look like for you to smash or destroy your golden calf in your life
[SPEAKER_00]: And encouragement for you guys is that as Moses was a mediator between man and God, we have a better mediator, Jesus, God in the flesh, who stands in the gap for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: So with that said, we're going to pray, we'll get into communion, I know, when a little bit long today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Father God, we thank you for your Word, and I pray that this morning that you've done something in our hearts in our minds that you've revealed, places, things, people, feelings maybe even that we idolize that we've put on a pedestal above you, Lord, that we worship and serve, and we might not use those words, and we might not think that way that we worship and serve them, but I pray that you've revealed to us that that really is the
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray, Lord, that has you revealed these things to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray, Lord, that we deal with them and we destroy them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would repent of our wrong ways, repent of our idol worship, Lord, repent of our adultery against you even at times.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I pray that we make a stance today that would come back to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that again, as your word says that if we confess our sins, that you are faithful and just to cleanse us and forgive us of all in righteousness, I pray that we can confess our sins before you and be made clean and righteous in your sight today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we make a stance for you to live for you, to follow you all the days of our life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.