Why Break the Mold?

Intro

Our last series was all about love

How we love God and how we love others

Our next series aims to answer the question Who is God?

In this series, we are going to explore that question through the lens of how God chooses

to reveal himself - in the context of ongoing relationship with his people throughout history

and today. How he chooses to not just be known about but be known deeply and intimately. There’s a

difference.

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Have you ever been absolutely sure about what you know, only to find out the truth was different than you thought?

I am a people watcher and I may also be guilty of analyzing personality types as I watch people. Have I been totally wrong: yes

Now let me ask another question: Do you think you have God “figured out”?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but none of us have God “figured out”.

And that’s ok!

In all honesty, we probably don’t have anyone in our lives fully figured out. Why?

Because we’re human

Each 1 of us is unique with different personalities and ways of doing things.

We all have different pasts and experiences that make us so much of who we are and even sometimes very difficult to understand

So if humans are hard to understand and know, how much more so is God?

God is big, deep, and surrounded in mystery.... and trying to understand who He is can be confusing and overwhelming.

So what do we do with things that are too big to understand?

We take Big things and try to make them smaller

We take things we don’t understand or feel overwhelmed by and turn them into something we Can understand, grasp and control

We do this with God

We create a mold (man-made mold) in our mind of what God is in order to understand Him

This sounds harmless and even logical but we will see that this can lead to completely misunderstanding God and missing out

This is exactly what the Israelites did in the book of Exodus

God saves them from slavery in Egypt, and then parts the Red Sea for them to walk thru

Big crazy stuff

Moses goes up to the mountain to talk to God about their next steps...

Exodus 32:1 NIV

1 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”

So, They saw all this great stuff but they did not have a personal relationship with God. They liked what He did for them, but they did not take time to get to know Him

Instead they go straight back to what they did know - Idol worship - prevalent in Egypt

It is what they always did… Make an image they could understand and worship something they could see.

When we only know about God, we create a mold and follow and worship a false version of Him.

This is how the Israelites had behaved for several hundreds of years in Egypt

They we scared and alone now, saw amazing things and didn’t know what to do with it

So they went back to what they knew - idol worship

They decided that this golden calf image is what saved them from Egypt and parted the sea because this (calf) is what gods looked like

They obviously missed it and both Moses and God got mad

But do we miss it too?

Do we decide who God is based on what we think we know or can be sure of? What feels comfortable or convenient?

We need to break this mold so we can see and know God for who He truly is!

Think about it this way: Have you ever felt the frustration of someone judging you or labeling you without really know who you are?

You might think - if they’d just take the time to know me they would see that I am so much more than the box or idea of who they thought I was.

We can see in the Bible that God is relational - in Exodus - we see God establishing that relationship with the Israelites - saving them, leading them, giving direction for how to have a relationship, how to relate to Him

And the 1st thing they do - make an idol - mold - box Him in

But Moses knew God

When we spend time with God, we are able to see him for who he truly is

We see the relationship growing

Burning bush Exodus 3 Moses is afraid and hides face

This was the God he’d heard about from his forefathers. Moses knew about him, but Moses didn’t know God’s love or God’s ways.

After obeying God, listening to his voice, following all he had commanded, and even arguing with God, Moses learned who God truly was.

He goes from hiding his face in Exodus 3 to spending time with God face to face which left his face literally glowing (Exodus 34)! Like your face lights up when your best friend walks in the room.

What made Moses move from fear to friendship with God?

He spent time with God

listening to His commands, obeying, following, praying, and responding to all that God showed him. - These steps led Moses to love

At 1st he was terrified, but because of God’s love for him, Moses learned to communicate with God. He got to know God’s incredible and unfailing love.

Moses began to get to know God - all His greatness and mystery

And because Moses knew God personally, he could see God for who he truly showed himself to be.

When we truly know God, we can begin to break the molds we create for Him

We have been answering why we bread the mold, but the next question is HOW?

Thru time in God’s Word, listening and obeying, gratitude and prayer

Psalm 145:1–3 NLT

1 I will exalt you, my God and King, and praise your name forever and ever. 2 I will praise you every day; yes, I will praise you forever. 3 Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! No one can measure his greatness.

Respond in awe and worship - not trying to contain God but enjoying the greatness of God.

Conclusion

We were created for relationship with God, not just knowledge of God.

And when we move into a relationship with God - we begin breaking the mold!

There is a beautiful mystery in our Lord. He is strong, yet merciful. He is justice-minded, yet

forgiving. He is fierce, yet gentle.

We have the freedom of not needing to know everything about God

We can now focus more on how much he wants to be known by us!