Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Well, good morning village churches. Good to see you this morning. My name is Craig Jarvis. I'm the lead pastor here at village church east. Uh, it's good to see all of you who are guests this morning. I'm assuming there's something big going on today. That you're, that you're excited about as am I, we have baptisms that we're going to be doing today and where we've been working on trying to make sure that we can stream this from the pool. So if you've seen us running around a little bit this morning, it's a, some last minute tweaks that we have to make. It really looks easy when you look at it on television, but I have to tell you it's not so easy. If you're a youth with us today, we have a children's program and that lady standing at the back while she's gone now, but the man there she is right there.
Speaker 0 00:00:39 She would be glad to take your kids from you so that you can, uh, you can send them to a place there'll be right out here on the balcony. There's a beautiful little spot out there in the sunshine and learn a lesson that's geared toward their age level. So you can send them out there if you'd like to, for the rest of you, you're stuck with me. Ah, so we're starting a new, uh, a new series actually today, which I'm excited about. And, um, before we do that, let me, first of all, say, this is July 4th. Like actually today is July 4th and it's a very special day. I know when, uh, America became an independent nation, broke away from the confines of the dreaded English and, uh, and became a nation all to themselves. I know I'm Canadian. So, uh, I don't know how that exactly fits in, but there you go.
Speaker 0 00:01:30 Uh, it's, it's exciting that we get to celebrate this day and what it stands for, the freedom that we have as a nation. And I appreciated Marina's prayer earlier. All of those people will never know who gave their lives so that we could enjoy the freedoms that we do. So I just want to say thank you if you were in the armed services and the, uh, in any regard veteran or currently serving those of you that are online line as well, thank you for your service. We are grateful, uh, as a nation and to preserve the nation that we have, right? Uh, ever, ever a challenge. This is our opportunity to do what we can so that this, uh, this nation that we hand off to our children is better than the one we received ourselves. All right, here we go. Our new message series called the golden calf.
Speaker 0 00:02:22 Ooh, doesn't that sound exciting? We left the Israelites at the, at Mount Sinai and that's where we're going to pick up again today. Kind of took a little hiatus there, uh, but there's so much here that we have to jump in sooner than later and pick up these children of Israel. Now at Mount Sinai being introduced to God, God, for the very first time, how many of you have heard the phrase one step forward, two steps back. Have you heard that phrase? Yeah. All right. Pretty popular phrase, right? That, that phrase is actually from, uh, the Lennon land mayor Lennon who, uh, led, uh, the Russian political scene for a while. This phrase was made popular. When he wrote a book called one step forward, two step back. Now, originally it was about politics, but it's interesting how many real-time scenarios, this phrase applies to the workers by the day, uh, the workers of his day loved his book.
Speaker 0 00:03:24 The elites of the day. Didn't love it so much. We've taken the phrase and applied it to a variety of different, uh, different scenarios. And mostly it comes out this way. Usually what it means is we are our own worst enemy. For instance, if you're dieting, don't you hate that? Don't die it on July 4th. It never works really well. Right. Okay. So if you're dieting and, uh, and you're doing really well, let's use me as an example because that's after all, why I picked this one, because I don't do diets so well. So you do diets and you, uh, and you're doing pretty good and a week goes by and two weeks go by and three weeks go by and you're thinking to yourself, I'm doing pretty good. I haven't tasted anything sweet in three, three weeks. I'm actually, I'm holding my own. And then you get to a July 4th picnic and you're thinking to yourself, ah, I can let it go today.
Speaker 0 00:04:20 After all it's July 4th, you only get one a year. So you let it go that day. So here's what I do. I'll let it, let myself go that day. And I'll chat down on just about anything that's available and I'll feel really crummy at the end of the day, because my stomach is not used to all that stuff, but it sure tastes good going down. Right. And then, and then the next morning I wake up and I'm thinking to myself, we'll start all over again. But then I'm thinking to myself and it's just two days. So then I'll think to myself, I'll just treat myself to McDonald's because it's just, you know, it's a day after and I'll pick it up the next day and the next day comes. And it's interesting how it's interesting to me, how I justify one step forward and two steps back.
Speaker 0 00:05:04 And before long I'm thinking to myself, I gotta start that dog on diet again. Right? And you lose all the progress you ever made. Resolutions. We do this all the time. This is why the gym industry does so well is because it's one step forward, two steps back here. Here's your Christmas gift to yourself. You're going to buy a gym membership and you start going every day in January Bravo for you. But February comes and it's really cold and you're busy at work and you don't want to go to the gym. And then you think to yourself, well, I let February go. I'm going to let March go. I'm going to let, and then you realize you're paying for a gym membership. You never use, right? This is one step forward, two steps backwards. They did an interesting study just in case you're feeling bad at this moment.
Speaker 0 00:05:48 And you're thinking to yourself, well, Craig, I'm kind of liked that in different areas of my life. Okay? If you're feeling bad, this is actually a psychological malady. All right. So you're not in, Hey, Ben, how are ya? Good to see ya. All right. Sorry. I just realized Ben was here. That's great. Uh, all right. Where was I? Zip, zip, zip, zip, zip. Uh, so they did, uh, they did a study a bunch of years ago and they took these dieters together to see about their dieting habits. I separated them into two groups. The first group they brought in now, listen to, this is going to shock you. They brought the first group in and they said, listen, if you've been dieting for a while, congratulations, we're just going to brag on you for a half an hour. Like a lot of you guys have done.
Speaker 0 00:06:30 I may just bragged on them and bragged on them. And they said, okay, now we're going to take a little break and then we'll go into our next session. And during the break, you can choose from one of two snacks. They didn't know. See, they didn't know would be tested. You can choose from one to two snacks. And they brought them in and they bragged on them. And then on one side of the table, they put apples. And on the other side of the table, they put chocolate bars. The group that came in and they bragged and bragged on them. Which one do you think they chose? They chose the chocolate bar. 85% of them chose the chocolate bar. But then they brought in another group and they didn't brag on them. They said, you guys, you know, you got to keep going. Don't let it, don't let your guard down, keep it up.
Speaker 0 00:07:11 You're doing okay, but you got to do better. They didn't brag on them. And then they put the same snacks out apple chocolate bar, and only 58% of that group took the chocolate bar. It's interesting. You kind of give yourself permission to fall back based on how good you think you're doing at the time hybrid cars. This is going to shock you. They did a test on hybrid cars. This bag actually is called moral licensing. The psychologists have a name for this. It's called moral licensing. It's like, you think you're doing really well. So you give yourself license to kind of let yourself go a little bit. So they brought in all these people, yelled at a study and they called it going green. And they invited all these people in who had hybrid cars. Uh, and they, and they, uh, they, uh, did a, a, um, a poll of those who did hybrid cars that did a high, high, high duty study in 2010 of all, people who drove hybrid cars, people who drove hybrid cars were involved in more collisions than those without hybrid cars on percentage basis, they wasted more fuel by driving 25% more than other drivers on a per capita basis.
Speaker 0 00:08:23 And they ended up getting 65% more traffic tickets than regular car owners. Their conclusion was that when you drive a hybrid car, you think you're, you know, you're helping the planet. You're doing pretty good. So you give yourself license to do, do some other stuff. Not so well, there are efforts to preserve the earth and behave nobly ended up actually giving themselves permission to break their own commitments. Here's a point. We are a permissive bunch. Human beings are permissive. We think to ourselves, we really need it. Are we doing really well? So we deserve it. We like our comfortable spots. We revert to what is familiar. And then we all always seem to justify why we needed or how we got to that spot. The Israelites have committed themselves to following God there at Sinai. And I don't know if you remember where we left off, but they've actually said all that God says we will do. They commit themselves to be God's own people. They've heard the 10 commandments they're willing to do them. They've escaped Egypt, Egypt, because of God's help getting them out of Egypt, rescuing them. They've been in slavery. Now they're going to start their own country. They're going to a land flowing with milk and honey all is unicorns and sunshine. And they're excited about what is going to happen, but they come against a very hard trial and that trial was
Speaker 1 00:09:52 Sinai. Okay.
Speaker 0 00:09:54 Let me take it to the passage of scripture. You may not have thought of Sinai as a challenge on them, but let me assure you. It very much was Exodus 24 verse 15. Then Moses went up into the mountain and a cloud covered the mountain. Now the appearance get this of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire. You ever see the forest fires in California, devour everything. This is how the Bible describes the appearance of God. At Sinai. The glory of God was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain, in the sight of the people of Israel question, why does God reveal himself this way? He doesn't need to. I mean, he could have come to them in a burning Bush. He could have come to them as a, as an angel of light that would give them some comfort and hope like he had done with Jacob. He could've come in any form that he wanted, but he came as a big funder mountain shaking kind of God. Why does he do that?
Speaker 0 00:10:55 In fact, if you were to read this in the actual Hebrew, when the people at Sinai, the rule was, if you touch the mountain where God was, you're going to be killed, God is, is very much revealing himself in a way that strikes terror into the hearts of the people. To the point where he's saying, don't come near me, or you're going to be killed. That's pretty significant, right? We've just entered into the presence of God through singing we've. He invites us into his presence. We've lifted up his name through our fallen voices this morning. And none of us feel like we're going to get devoured, but they did. In fact, if you read in the Hebrew, the way that God reveals himself here at Sinai, if you read this in the Hebrew, it literally says they moved back and forth in their boots,
Speaker 1 00:11:47 Sandals,
Speaker 0 00:11:49 They move back and forth in their shoes. Have you ever seen the cartoons where people's knees are, are shaking? Have you ever been in that position where your knees are shaking? That is very much what the Hebrew word means when they saw God at Sinai. Now they've never seen God before. They've only seen the plagues. They've seen God pour out his plagues to rescue them, but they've never been in the presence of God before. They've seen this cloud. They've seen him is pillar of fire by day, but they've never acted surely been there in the presence of God, verse 18, Moses entered into the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. Now some of you have been in the storm that we had several weeks ago. You remember that storm? I actually, I was actually in, um, pointed that south.
Speaker 0 00:12:39 I had actually driven out of that area, wherever, yeah. Down near, uh, I can't remember the name of it. Anyway, wherever it was down south, I'd actually been there like 15 minutes before that tornado hit. And I saw the clouds I saw there was no rain. It was just like, it was, it was just like lightning, everywhere, thunder, everywhere. And I knew something bad was, but it was so dark. I couldn't tell what was going on. The radar starts going off in my car. My phone starts going off, you know how that goes. And so I'm just driving, hoping to God that I'm not the bottom, you know, doing the Dorothy thing in a few minutes. So I just dropped it. Having Moses walks into that.
Speaker 0 00:13:19 That is what they're experiencing against Sinai. They're shaking in their boots. And Moses walks in the people had to over time. Can you imagine? I mean, that, that storm went on for what? Uh, maybe an hour, maybe two hours at a, at the end. Then we had some rain and stuff like that. But for the next 40 days and 40 nights, it seemed like. But anyway, imagine seeing a guy walk in, they're not hearing from him from him one day goes by two days, 10 days a month. You don't know if he's coming back. I mean, do you think you'd survive? You think he was dead up there, right? Nobody could survive. That kind of they're worried. They're terrified. No one can survive. What's going on in that mountain. And if God killed Moses who he got it, like what we're getting, we gotta be next on the docket. Right?
Speaker 0 00:14:12 And so after taking one step forward toward God and saying all that God says we will do. They suddenly take two steps back 32 verse one. When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, oh, this is so sad. Get up, Aaron make us gods who shall go before us? As for this Moses, we liked him. We were hanging with him. He seemed like a good fella. But the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we think he's dead. We don't know what's become of him. That's the cringy. And that's Craig chant. Translation. They're scared to death. They don't know what's going on. In other words, when the tough get going, no, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. They started running away from God.
Speaker 0 00:15:06 Now get this. They wanted spirituality, right? They wanted a God. They said, make us another God, this God is too much. We can't take this. God. We're a little scared of this. God, they want spirituality. They just don't want God. They don't want that. God. Now keep in mind. Aaron now is being asked to make a God like an idol in order for this to happen for these guys to come to Aaron and have this pow-wow with Aaron, they have got to have some meetings beforehand. Somebody has to, has to come up with the idea. I mean, not everybody comes up with the idea at once. Somebody came up with the idea, they went knocking on the tent doors. They handed out flyers. They said, we're going to have a meeting at 7:00 PM on whatever date it was. Everybody come together. Let's have a little town hall.
Speaker 0 00:15:52 What are you guys saying? I don't know. What do you think? Let's go talk to Moses. They all are Aaron, Moses dead. Let's go talk to Aaron. We can make this happen. In other words, they've got to think this through this. Isn't just an overnight deal. They've been planning this and they go to Aaron and they say up, get up. It's time to make some new gods. We don't like the one we have. You know what they did here. These were all slaves of Egypt. And what do they know about Egypt? What do we know about Egypt in that day? There's gods everywhere. They need a God that they're used to a God that looks familiar to them. A God that they can have some,
Speaker 1 00:16:35 Some, some
Speaker 0 00:16:37 Power over. They're not willing to deal with a God like that. Like as on the mountain, because anyone who touches the mountain is dead. And apparently anyone that walks up there, even though they're allowed to touch the mountain, they're dead too. We don't want to follow that gun. We want to God, we can control. So let's fashion a God so that we feel like we have some control
Speaker 1 00:17:00 Back in our lives.
Speaker 0 00:17:03 They went back to what they thought was familiar. One other point, before we go on, they are eating in the desert. The desert does not produce food. What are they eating? Church? They're eating manna. That falls from the sky. Who's feeding them. I mean, who's dropping food out of the sky. The very God they're abandoning the very God who's feeding them. They want to abandon. They choose a God and what God do they choose? They choose a God that looks like a bowl. Now you may think to yourself, why would they choose a God? That looks like a bull. Because when they grew up in Egypt, all the most powerful gods looked like bulls that had some sort of a cow figure to them. In fact, here's one that you can S uh, let me, uh, before we get there, let me, let me read the passage of scripture.
Speaker 0 00:17:56 First of all, Aaron obligers verse, sir, uh, three. So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and they brought them to Aaron. By the way, where did these rings of gold come from? These were slaves. Where did they get these rings of gold Egypt? The Egyptians gave them these rings. When they left Egypt, they said, please, would you go? Here's a gift on your way out. They gave them there. So all the stuff that God worked to get for them now they're using God's gifts to me, make idols.
Speaker 0 00:18:24 See if the goal from there, hand fashioned with it, a graven tool and made a golden calf. And th and then they said, these are your gods. Israel who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Here's probably what a bull head would look like. Apess was a bull God actually mediator between humans and God is symbol of power because Moses has God. So they they're gone. So they don't have any mediator anymore. They're probably looking for a powerful God that was able to give them some power, our feeling back. The other thing, I also notice about this verse, look at the verse. Can you give me the verse one more time? Where they replacing our way, take a look at the verse.
Speaker 0 00:19:09 They weren't replacing alley, pull the bull out of the fire. And they said, this is your God. These are your gods who brought you up out of Egypt. They're giving y'all way a face, a figure. In fact, if you read on, you'll find, you'll find out that the next day they planned a party to the capital, L O R D Yahweh. They pulled a calf out of the fire and they said, this, this is the God who brought you up out of Egypt. This in other words is your way. It's even worse doing it that way. Don't you think they broke the first two commands, no other gods, no images broke. The first two, like allowances. We make to move one step forward. And two steps back. This leads these people to more and more permissive behavior. They make the calf. They feel like they got some power back, like, regardless of what's happening on that mountain, this at least we can touch.
Speaker 0 00:20:13 We can move it around. If we don't want it to look at us, we can make it face the other way. You have a lot of power over the, if the God is hungry, give him some oranges, right? You could feed the God. The guy becomes a little needy. It's something that we can control. That's by the way, why God says no images. Did you know that? No images, one step forward, two steps back. Look at this verse six. They rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace sufferings. And the people sat down to eat. And then they rose up to play. Do you know what that means? You want to take a stab at it. It's one thing to make a God. But once you start down that permissive behavior, that moral permissiveness it'll lead you in a bunch of places. You don't want to go. When it says they rose up to play. Let me give you this. Genesis. 1914 uses the same word for laughter or teasing Genesis 32 19 uses the same word for dancing and Genesis 26 8 uses the same word for sexual activity. That's also in Genesis 39, 14 and Genesis 39 17. When it says they rose up to play, it probably means they rose up to do all of these things.
Speaker 1 00:21:33 This is debauchery.
Speaker 0 00:21:38 They gave themselves permission to revert permission to go backwards. God's not performing. Let's make something we can control. And since we already went this far, let's just go a little further. The rules of God are after all kind of straight line, shall we say it wasn't enough just to create idols. They were giving themselves permission to do more than just abandoned God. They abandoned his ways. This is what sin does, by the way, did you know sin doesn't live to make you comfortable to play with it. Sin will enter into your life for one reason. Now you may think you're getting some pleasure out of it. You may think you're getting some joy out of it. It may bring you satisfaction, but sin lives. For one reason, it lives to destroy you. It lives to destroy your family. It lives to create ripple effects that will destroy relationships all around you. Haven't you ever met somebody that just gave themselves over into some sin. Does it usually go well
Speaker 1 00:22:45 For them?
Speaker 0 00:22:47 Sin lives to destroy. Satan seeks somebody that he might not play with them, but he seeks somebody. Who's like a roaring lion seeking somebody to what church
Speaker 1 00:23:01 Devour.
Speaker 0 00:23:03 He doesn't want a little piece of you. He wants all of you. And it will. Sin will take all of you. If you give yourself permission to sample it. I heard one movie line. I'll never forget about how Satan gets us to abandon God. He lies to us and his movie line. I'll never forget it. It's one guy talking about how, how, how God is just totally unfair. You're going to serve a God. This God that you want to serve is like, oh, look at this. Yeah, look at it. But don't touch it. Oh, touch it. But don't taste it, taste it. But don't swallow. God's always trying to keep something from you. It's how that language rings true in the world that we live today. The alternative is you can give yourself over to sin, but you see, God wants to give you life. Sin wants to bring you
Speaker 1 00:24:00 Death. And we know that it does. Sometimes it's awfully pleasurable. The fruit always looks compelling,
Speaker 0 00:24:12 But Satan will take that fruit and stuff it down your throat until you choke on it. Idolatry emerges in our lives. When we're desperate, we turn to idols. When we think God is to take in too much time, he's delayed. Come on, God, work, little fast. Come on, God. It's been like 40 days is a long time. And they don't know if he's coming down. Even the 39th day, 40 days is a long time. What were you doing? 39 days ago. All right. It's a long time. We turned to things we feel comfortable with when we feel like God is taking too long, we turn to security or comfort or pleasure or something that feels like we have control. We find our parameters, not God's parameters. And so we want God to fit our parameters, not us to fit his parameters. See God's not performing for the Hebrews.
Speaker 0 00:25:09 He's making them work too long. But the, the 10 plagues, we don't know how long that took, but it took a quite a while, like 10 different plagues. God could have just wiped out the <inaudible> nation and they could have just tried it out free. But he spends all this time doing the 10 plagues. It had to take some time. Then they're thirsty. And then he waits until they're like desperate, thirsty. Before he gives them water. Then he, then he gives him. Then he goes to the red sea. You remember that? He takes him to the red sea while they're escaping Egypt, they see the Egyptian army coming and they think to themselves, we're going to die. The Egyptian army is going to take us over. He actually puts him in a no-win situation. And then he parts the one. Why does God always wait until the last minute? Does it get on your nerves? You can say, yes, you're in good company here. It does. It gets on my nerves. Why does he wait so long? Like he could do whatever he wants to do. 39 days ago. Why wait? Because God knows we have idols church. We
Speaker 1 00:26:19 Don't know. We have idols. The only way we'll realize that we have idols
Speaker 0 00:26:26 Is if we get into a spot where it's easy to revert one step forward with God, two steps back. So God helps us realize the idols that we have for ourselves. James. One 12 puts it this way. Bless it. Isn't the man who remains steadfast trial Hoya, right? Steadfast under trial for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life with which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I'm being tempted by God for God, cannot tempt with evil. And he himself cannot be tempted with evil and he himself temps. No one's. In other words, God allows circumstances that will test us. He doesn't tempt us, but he tests us. And when those tests happen, the reason you take a test is to find out what you don't know, right? It's also to find out what you do know, but more specifically, what you don't know when God provides a test, we may not know we have idols, but let me tell you those idols emerge pretty fast. When we get into the middle of a test, we run back to what we know, what we love, what we're comfortable with instead of being steadfast. And during his tests, God uses tests and trials to reveal
Speaker 1 00:27:44 Our idols.
Speaker 0 00:27:47 If you look down in verse 14, it says this, let each person in James one, but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed. By see that in there. When do we get tempted? When we're lured and enticed by our own desire. And that's when our idol comes up, each person is tempted. It's not a test when God tests us, it's an down, here's a test. This is a noun. When we allow ourselves to be tempted, we turn that down into a verb. It now becomes something we battle with each person is tempted. When he is alert and enticed by his own desire, then desire. When it's conceived gives birth to an idol. James says it gives birth to throw that verse up there. One more time gives birth to sin and sin. When it's fully grown, brings forth death, see your idol. Doesn't want to give you everything you desire. Your idol wants to destroy you. Sin doesn't want to give you everything. Every pleasure it will. It'll give you so much pleasure. You choke on it. Satan does not want to give you comfort and hope kind of full life, unless it means you can turn your back on God. Then it'll give you whatever you want. Rich people have a very hard time finding God.
Speaker 1 00:29:07 Do you know that that's not me? That's Jesus.
Speaker 0 00:29:11 It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to find Jesus. You don't want to know why, because Satan will give you as much joy in this life. As you can. If he can take your soul with him when you die, why doesn't God answer our prayers right away? Because he wants our idols to emerge for us to see in first Corinthians 10, six, it talks about this very subject, this very event at Sinai. Now these things took as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did.
Speaker 0 00:29:49 We're talking about this in 2021, because the whole purpose of putting this in scripture is that you don't do the same thing. You don't deserve evil as they did your desire. Doesn't get you and pull you down. Verse seven says don't be idolaters. As some of them were, as it is written. Does this look familiar? Church? The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Because if you give yourself permission, one step toward God, two steps back. It is subtle. It happens. And it happens when we pull out our idols and we're unhappy with God. Well, here's the rest of the story. Tad it with these people. So he tells Moses, they're gone. They're dead. Their friends are dead. Their family's dead. They're all dead. And Moses says, listen, he appeals on, on the people's behalf. He says, if you wipe them out now, what can we brag about, about what you did in Egypt?
Speaker 0 00:30:53 You rescued us in Egypt, let us emerge into the people. You know, we can be so God relents. And he says, okay, Moses kind of emerges like Jesus here. Like he, he merges on behalf of the people and he says, don't, don't destroy them. Don't destroy them. Let them, let them become who you know that they can be. Verse 12 says, why should the Egyptians evil intent with evil intent? Did he bring them out to kill him? I'm in the mountain and consume them off the face of the earth. Turn from your burning, anger and relent from this disaster against these people, against your people.
Speaker 0 00:31:34 I want you to know one thing Moses had not seen what they were doing. Moses is in the cloud on top of the mountain, in this tort tort, uh, turmoil storm, this torrent, God knows what they're doing. And if you saw it, you would be appalled. God knows what they're doing. And for a holy God, this really, it has to be appalling to him. Moses has not seen it. Moses appeals on their behalf. And when you read God relents, think of it. Not as changing his mind, but have passion on better translation, his compassion on the people. And so when Moses comes down off the mountain and he sees for himself, what debauchery is happening, if you've ever read the story of Moses, what does he do? That just shocks you? Like, what does he do when he sees the sin that is going on in front of him, he does something. What does he do? And we all remember it. He breaks the tablets of stone. And you're thinking of yourself, are you crazy? These that God wrote on himself and gave to Moses. Moses broke those. I mean, those are like, if there ever was a holy book, that's holy right? Moses takes them, smashes them on the ground. Now, you know why? Because what he saw appalled him.
Speaker 0 00:33:00 He hadn't seen it yet, but the attitude of the people even made it worse. They were grievously sending. And then in verse 17, listen, what happens? Joshua heard the noise of the people in the camp as they shouted. And they're having a great time. It's a big party down there in the worst way possible. So he said to Moses, Hey, there's war in the camp we're being attacked. Can you imagine the kind of noise you would have to have to overpower the storm right behind you? I mean, these guys are partying, but he said, this is not the sound of shouting for victory, their sound or the sound of the cry of defeat. But this is the sound of singing. I hear. I don't know if we've ever sung in
Speaker 1 00:33:44 Here. Like they're singing here.
Speaker 0 00:33:46 They're lifting the roof off. This is a serious breach of behavior. And there is no repentant heart among
Speaker 1 00:33:53 Any of them.
Speaker 0 00:33:55 So Moses comes up with a plan, verse 20, you're going to love this. Then he took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and grounded to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel. What did they do during it? Now, this is not like going to a fancy restaurant today and getting those gold leaves on your cake at the end of the dinner. Have you seen that? They're putting these gold things. I don't know what that is, but that is not this. This is gold covered wood ground up, burned to ashes and put into water. So when you drink, listen, when you go to the bathroom in the desert, it's already an uncomfortable situation. Can you imagine going to the bathroom in the desert, after drinking a pile of gold, this is not idolatry. Just only idolatry.
Speaker 0 00:34:42 This is complete loss of devotion to God, everything God says we will do, but they didn't quite mean it did. They now they've chosen the worst form of debauchery, Moses, Moses. They have not even seen this in Egypt. They just let themselves go. Here's the point when our faith is tested, our idols are revealed when your faith is tested, your idols are revealed. Some people when their faith is tested, they run to their faith. Those are the people that you're going. Wow. They've got like integrity, strength that I don't know. I, I have myself, but for most people, when their faith is tested, they go back to their security blanket. They go to find something that they feel comfortable with. When faith is tested, idols are revealed. Here's the first thing you need to know. Your idol is not your friend. Your idol is not your friend. We all have idols. What is an idol? An idol is anything that you serve the authority of God. Here's how, you know, you have an idol. If God says to do something and your response is okay, God, but whatever you fill that blank in. That's your idol. Okay? I believe you God, but fill in the blank. You've you have an idol that's been revealed. You may not form a calf out of a fire, but you
Speaker 1 00:36:03 Definitely have an idol.
Speaker 0 00:36:06 When the going gets tough, the tough get going toward their idols, fear, worry, despair, feeling of loss, of control, whatever it is, that's testing you, whatever it is that that's trying you, whatever it is, that's stretching your faith. The purpose of that is to reveal, not to God. He already knows you better than you know yourself. The purpose is to reveal real to each one of us. We have an idol that needs to be killed. When my girls were growing up, I would always, we would always have a security blanket that we put into. It's not like a little thing with a security blanket. So if they sneak out the window, we know where they're at. It was like a little blanket. There was a little blanket and they would curl up with it. And, and if they're having a rough night or something, they would always pull that blanket close.
Speaker 0 00:36:45 You've seen that, right? When you have kids that have those little bunnies or what little bear or whatever it is, that little security thing that's, that's meant for small children so that they can have a feeling of security, a feeling of control, a feeling of peace that that is in this, this abstract form that they can touch. We're made to function that way. The problem is we don't realize when we get older, we do the same things. We stick to something. We can touch, feel something that brings us pleasure, satisfaction that becomes our idol. And you'll know you have one. If you re disregard the authority of God and run to that. Instead, first Corinthians 10 11 says this. These things happen to them as our example, that they were written down for our instruction. And that's why we read about this today. Don't fall for it.
Speaker 0 00:37:36 I find it also interesting that the leadership of the day, Aaron, okay, Aaron, you're in charge. I'm going to go up into that torrent up there to get what God wants to tell us. All right, so please do a good job. Aaron's gone. No problem, Moses, I got this Moses heads up to the mountain errands in charge and the people say, oh, Aaron, we just had a meeting. We'd had our flyers out. We just had our meeting. We need you to build us an idol because that up there scares the Hulu out of us. So we didn't even need you to give us something that we get gives us a little more control something. We can hug, touch, feel, taste, feed, turn around. If we don't want it to watch us, whatever it is, we've got some control over it.
Speaker 0 00:38:18 You want to know what kind of a leader Aaron was? Here's this is my favorite verse in the whole story. Here's what it says. You're going to love this. They said this was Aaron's response to Moses comes down and goes, Aaron, what happened while I was gone? Here's what they said to me. Make us gods who shall go up before us as for this Moses, Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what's become of him. So I said to them, let anyone who has gold, take it off. So they gave it to me. I threw it into the fire and poof out, came a calf.
Speaker 0 00:38:50 Okay? That's some good leadership. Didn't he say, Moses has gone. Really? That's the most profound story I've ever heard? What Erin allowed. The people ran to parents. What you allow in a home, your children will run too. You're allowed in. You may not. You may not be able to give your kids a relationship with God, but you sure can provide a lot of obstacles for them. I've heard people say, Craig, what gives you the right to, to go against the laws of the land? This is a law we're allowed to do this. Uh, the laws of the land. Aren't higher than the law of God.
Speaker 0 00:39:35 What the Supreme court allows suddenly now is defendable. But God hasn't changed. He's the same God. He was 2050, a hundred years ago. Thousand years, same God. He doesn't change his mind. Humans do. So when we say something is permissible, without checking with God. First we've created an idol. TV shows what becomes popular, becomes permissible. You watch TV shows. You can watch TV shows from 30 years ago and you think to yourself, ah, I remember some of these shows you think thinking yourself, I don't think we should be watching this. This is, this is, and now you look at those shows 30 years ago. And it's like, oh, I wish we were like, those TV shows what becomes popular, becomes permissible. And you look at TV shows now, and you, you have a whole system of an ideology. That's being propagated through comedy or entertainment. And the culture is eating it up. And whatever becomes popular will become permissible. And eventually you will not be able to say anything against it because you're out of touch.
Speaker 0 00:40:49 So let me ask your church. Who's the one in your family, holding back the evil. I pray to God, it's me, not me for you. But you know, evil is evil. Doesn't want to play with your family, wants to devour every person in it. Number two, God reveals idols to keep us from evil. Satan's goal is to kill you and destroy your life. Don't buy anything else, but that, because that's what God says. I didn't make it. I steal all this stuff, you know? Right. It's all out of scripture. I'm just, I take it all from God. Satan's goal is to kill you and destroy your life. He's like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He'll do that with as many comforts as you can take. My mind goes to pilgrims Prague. You ever read red pill is progress. If you know me, you know, it's one of my favorite books of all time.
Speaker 0 00:41:40 You really should read this. Pilgrim is traveling. He's going through vanity fair. This place called vanity fair. Vanity fair is like on his way to the celestial city, which is a symbol of heaven. He becomes a convert. He follows Jesus Christ. He's on this road. He meets all kinds of obstacles, all kinds of trials. He gets to vanity fair and vanity fair is absolutely populated with all kinds of other pilgrims who were on the same journey, but got distracted by all the pleasures in vanity fair. You know, vanity fair cause there's a magazine named vanity fair. You, you know where that came from, it came from Pilgrim's progress. Vanity fair is full of pilgrims that got distracted along the way. And when they got distracted, they F they forsook their journey with God. And they began taking in the pleasures of life to their fullest.
Speaker 0 00:42:25 Now poker's progress might be too deep for you or too theological for you. So let me take you to Pinocchio. Have you heard the story of Pinocchio? Pinocchio had the same problem as the Pilgrim in Pilgrim's progress because Pinocchio found the island of, oh, come on. You remember Jimmy cricket had to kick it into full gear to get them out of there found the island of pleasure or pleasure island might be then as pleasure island member. And they, and they would lure these little boys in and give them all this candy and all of these wonderful things. And eventually these little boys would turn into donkeys. Yes. There you go. So Jimminy cricket had to come and rescue them. Did you like you to either Pinocchio that well, wherever teaches own.
Speaker 0 00:43:11 It's interesting how the same story spins all these the same point, spans all these different stories. The common attitude in all temptations is I can handle it. That's a commonality. I can handle it. It feels so right. How can it be wrong? How can something so right to feel so earth? How can something so rightful be wrong? I don't know how they said, but you know how they say, you've heard this before, right? How can it be wrong if it feels so right? We don't look to God for his insight or his opinion. We simply go with our gut. What feels right? We revert to what is familiar. And we, we, we, we give up looking to God first until eventually we realize too late, we've made a terrible mistake.
Speaker 0 00:43:56 The Bible says temptation is when we take that idle into our jacket and hold it close. And it says, therefore in that Corinthians passage, it says, let anyone who thinks he stands take heed. Lest he fall, you can't mess around with that. Number three, God provides the way to overcome God rescues. It's what he does. It's why Jesus came to rescue us. It's God is the rescuer. The great rescuer. God doesn't force us to drink this goal. That idols can, but, but, but God will not put up with our idols. He will reveal them to us. He doesn't make us drink gold, but he will definitely put us into situations where our idols become
Speaker 1 00:44:43 Obvious.
Speaker 0 00:44:45 And that first Corinthians 10 passage, it says no temptation has overtaken you. That is not common to man. God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide, what does it say? Church, where to escape so that you may be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved flee from what's that last word there, isn't it interesting that the Bible says your temptation to sin is idolatry.
Speaker 1 00:45:12 That's what we run to.
Speaker 0 00:45:14 Last thing. Do you know what the opposite of one step forward? Two steps back is the opposite is faithfulness. Faithfulness is the opposite and God calls us to be faithful as he is faithful. Jesus put it this way. No one who puts their hand to the plow turns back, but they move. Keep moving forward. We have a bunch of people today that are going to go through the waters of baptism. Baptism is
Speaker 1 00:45:43 Faithfulness.
Speaker 0 00:45:45 Baptism is faithfulness baptism. Doesn't make these individuals more saved. It doesn't make God love them more. It doesn't give them a better standing in heaven. Baptism doesn't do any of that. You know what baptism does? Baptism helps individuals draw a line in the sand and say, I have crossed and I'm not going back. It's the Rubicon I've gone this far and I'm not turning my back anymore. Baptism is not necessarily for us who are watching. It is more for the individual to make this private decision to following Jesus Christ, a public declaration that they are not turning their back on God any longer. Now, are they going to drop the ball? Probably are they going to sin? I can almost guarantee it. But the point is for all of us that watch for all of us that listen for the online people that are watching right now that hopefully we'll get it to the pool.
Speaker 0 00:46:41 Don't hold your breath, but we're working on it. But for all of us that are watching for the people that are doing laps in the pool behind us, these are going to hear the testimony of these individuals who have given their lives to Jesus Christ. And they have said, I have made a line in the sand. Jesus has saved me from who I was to who I am now. And I am proclaiming loudly for all to here. It is. It is the moment of obedience. It is a faithful, humongous, giant step for these individuals. And both of them are teenagers. Is Eli a teenager yet? What is he? Nine, 12 Eli. I didn't see you there. Sorry. The blinding lights. You're almost a teenager. And these individuals have made a decision. That is a very one. And you can describe it with one word. Faithfulness is the opposite of one step forward, two steps back it's running forward and drawing a line and says, I'm not going.
Speaker 0 00:47:41 That says I'll not go back. God is the faithful one to me. And no matter what, I will be faithful to him. Galatians 5 25. I leave you with this verse. If we live by the spirit, let us also keep in step with the spirit one step forward and then another step forward and then another step forward and just keep going in that direction. Now, if you've never given your life to Jesus Christ, you got to take the first step that's important. And we can help you with that. If you would like to do that, because that's what we're here for. All of these people, going through the waters of baptism have already decided to follow Jesus. If they get hit with a bus, God forbid at the end of the, uh, if, if the ceiling falls on them, between here and the pool, they still go to heaven.
Speaker 0 00:48:28 Their lives belong to Jesus. He has done the work for them. They don't need to do anything else, including getting wet. They don't need to do that. Their lives belong to Jesus, but this is our moment to watch their pro proclamation of that faith. And if this is new to you, you're going to hear a lot of hooting and hollering out there at the, at the baptism at the, at the pool, because we see this as a mighty step forward for these individuals and we back them on it and we support them on it and we're going to help them grow with it. And we're going to challenge them as they continue to grow. But this is just a moment of faithfulness that these individuals taken. Jesus said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. He said, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, son and the holy spirit.
Speaker 0 00:49:10 And why we baptize as a church is because we follow in obedience, what God tells us to do. And that's about as simple as it is. If you've never given your life to Jesus Christ, that's a first step you've got to take. But the second step, maybe you'd never taken that. That is baptism. It might be time to make your private pay faith, a public declaration. Maybe this moment this day is to spur you on to be the next person to go through baptism here at village church east, that's you again, we'd love to talk to you about that. I do a baptism class. It's 45 minutes long, real short. It gives you a one-on-one time with me can ask questions because our goal again, is to see people give their lives to Jesus and walk in faithfulness and obedience to him. And these two people are going to do that this morning.
Speaker 0 00:49:58 So I can't wait to get out there. So let's pray. And then for, uh, everybody in here, if you would make your way to the pool, we'll tell you where to stand when you get out there. Uh, and then we're going to have the baptisms. You're going to hear their testimonies. We're going to sing and we'll call it a day. All right, let's pray. And give this time to the Lord father. We are grateful for the time we have spent in your word this morning. Thank you for how it connects so well to what we're about to do now in celebration of baptism, thank you for these two individuals that have proclaimed their faith in you that have met with me and, uh, and, and have spoken with elders of the church and shared their faith already. And now they get to do that in a public way.
Speaker 0 00:50:39 I'm so grateful for that. Thank you that, uh, this highlight, uh, gets to be shared with so many friends and family this morning. I pray that your spirit would do the work that needs to be done so that whatever was spoken of in here doesn't land on deaf ears. If you need to open a door in the heart of somebody to consider being either coming to you as their savior, giving their lives to you for the first time, the only time, the real time, or following you in obedience and making that private declaration, private decision, a public declaration through the waters of baptism. May those of you that are listening online, or even in house, maybe give them the boldness to take the next step forward. Maybe we always move forward and never give ourselves permission
Speaker 1 00:51:24 To move back
Speaker 0 00:51:26 All for you in Jesus' name. Amen.
