The Power

Our power is limited to who we follow

Election day is two days away.

Like every election day since I’ve been mature enough to pay attention, I’m ready for it to be over.

An election is an adversarial contest.

It’s competitive like sports - we’ve made it a sport - some even bet on the outcomes now.

It’s a lot like working in a union environment - one side or the other always has to be the villain.

The closer it gets to contract negotiation time, the more evil the union, the more evil management becomes

At least to the opposing side.

In this national election, Trump is being portrayed as the reincarnation of Hitler.

Harris is being portrayed as dumb as a fence post.

Both are abrasive personalities - but I do want to caution us about something.

What would you look like if your life and your words were magnified under the microscope of the media?

You know what I’ve noticed - since we have high definition TV now - I can see their makeup.

And if you look closely enough, you can see what’s under that makeup.

One female commentator had 4 or 5 very large bumps on her face she was trying to conceal.

One male commentator’s face was made up to be a completely different skin tone from his hands.

In person we’d never think about it.

Under the magnifying glass of the camera or the microphone and people’s opinions

Every single wart is magnified to catastrophic proportions.

So what does this have to do with anything?

If you haven’t voted, you need to get after it.

And you need to practice what we talked about a long time ago - post-it note voting.

Put a post-it note over the candidates names and faces and read their platforms.

Yes, they lie and they may not do all that is in their platform.

But if their platform says they support abortion until birth, chances are they aren’t lying.

As a local pastor said this week, “I’m voting for the platform that has the best chance of allowing me to practice my faith and lead my church.”

We all would do very well to put aside personalities and vote as my brother voted.

Vote for the platform that has the best chance of allowing us to practice our faith and live our faith without interference from any government.

That is our choice.

Nothing else in all of creation rises to that level.

See, what is facing us right now is the same thing that faced the Israelites.

When Joshua finally leads Israel into the promised land, he’s going to say a sentence that has become famous to us.

Joshua 24:15 ESV

And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Who will we follow?

While they were waiting on Moses to come down the mountain with the 10 commandment tablets, they had a choice.

Who will we follow?

They chose expediency.

They chose pragmatism.

They thought they had the power to define the future.

They followed their hearts - and their hearts lied to them.

What does God’s word say about the future?

Psalm 31:14–15 NLT

But I am trusting you, O Lord, saying, “You are my God!” My future is in your hands. Rescue me from those who hunt me down relentlessly.

My future is in your hands.

This morning we are in Exodus 34.

I encourage you to read the entire chapter sometime this week - make yourself do it, it’s good stuff.

But today we’re going to focus on verses 5 - 10.

So go ahead and find that in your Bibles.

Children,

On Wednesday of this week, some people are going to be very happy and some are going to be very angry.

Here’s what I want to coach you to do.

Look at the sun coming up as you go to school.

Smell the air and feel the cool breeze on your face.

Look at the leaves as they fall from the trees and remember

The Lord loves you and He created all of that just for you to enjoy.

He will never leave you

He won’t abandon you in your hardest times

And when you are the happiest you have ever been

He will be celebrating with you.

Let your parents and other people get all wound up

Children, choose to enjoy what the Lord has done for you.

Three words you are listening for this morning, Lord, Love and Know.

Church, hear now the Word of the Lord from the book of Exodus 34:5-10

Exodus 34:5–10 ESV

The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.” And he said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

Let us pray:

Father - no man is adequate to describe you - least of all me.

We come to this text knowing that every word that is spoken is like a parent trying to describe Christmas to a two-year-old.

Lord, please cause the Holy Spirit to impress upon our spirits the grace and grandeur of you.

Lord, we want to see you and to know you - to really know you.

We want to live for you - help us O Lord we pray. Amen.

Moses went up the mountain.

The Lord told Moses the day before to cut two stones like he broke when he saw the golden calf

And to come up the mountain for a second time.

When Moses started up, the cloud that represented the presence of God descended.

It covered where Moses was and it was then God spoke to Moses.

Exodus 34:6 “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,”

“Yahweh” “Yahweh”

Have you ever been some place where someone asked you your name and you replied

“Randy,” “Randy Darnell”

Why did you do that?

You did it because you wanted them to know who you were - you didn’t want them to miss it.

That’s what the Lord did here.

As the Lord passed before Moses, he stated His name twice.

Who is Yahweh?

You’ve probably heard this multiple times in your Christian life.

Yahweh is Hebrew for I am.

When the Lord proclaims His name is Yahweh, He is saying, I was who I was, I am who I am, I will be who I will be.

What Yahweh just did was throw a choice at your feet.

Will you accept that Yahweh is the pre-existent God of all time and space?

Will you accept that all that is, was or ever will be is under the sovereign, the total control of Yahweh?

Will you accept that every man, woman and child, every beast of the field, every bird of the air, every fish in the sea

Everything that lives, answers to Yahweh?

That’s what the meaning of Yahweh’s name compels.

It’s not like learning the name of Odysseus in the Odyssey

Or Gandalf in the Lord of the the Rings

Or Dumbledore in Harry Potter.

It’s not the name of the primary character in the Bible.

Without the book, He still is.

The name Yahweh reveals the One who created us and to whom we are accountable.

He was and is and forever will be alive and powerful.

Will you accept that and more importantly, will you let that drive the course of your life?

Exodus 34:6 “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God ...”

See the word God - notice it’s not in all caps so it’s not Yahweh - it’s another word

It’s the word El - E. L. - it’s a bit generic because it is used when people refer to other gods too.

So why does Yahweh use it?

Because of what it mean - EL means powerful.

So listen to the sentence - Yahweh, Yahweh, a powerful God merciful and gracious.

Power does not mean destructive

We are leery of powerful people.

Elections - we know the power elite aren’t really concerned with us.

We are pawns - another brick in the wall.

But Yahweh - powerful - sovereign King over all of creation, time and space.

And yet - merciful towards us.

Another word for merciful is compassionate.

Think of a parents love for their child.

We had a situation years ago when one child closed the closet door on another child’s fingers

Not once, but twice.

You know and I know that it’s not the epitome of intelligence to put your finger in the space between the door and it’s frame one the hinges are located

While someone else is attempting to close the door.

That’s a 10 on the dumb-o-meter.

But when it happened, there was no yelling or chastising the one with the broken fingers.

You hold them close - that’s compassion - that’s our Lord.

Combine compassion with gracious

Another word for gracious is kind.

Now think - right now you might be riding the wave - life has never been better - store this away

Because right now some of us are suffering.

We have medical issues - we have to go to specialists, have biopsies, treatments

The Lord feels for you like a good mother and father would.

But some of us are suffering self inflicted wounds

Poor choices we have made - sinful - against God - we forgot Who we were accountable to

And our hearts hurt.

The Lord is not hovering over you with a lightning bolt.

He’s powerful enough to fix your heart and He wants to fix your heart.

He is compassionate and kind enough to draw you close and give your soul just the loving you need.

See the next words in verse 6 - “slow to anger”

The word long-suffering works here.

He’s not in a hurry to condemn us when we choose like we don’t have good sense.

He’s the parent who knows the child is going to get in big trouble - and they can’t stop it, but they are there patiently waiting for repentance.

Not just to remove the parent’s wrath, but to rejoice that the child can be fully restored to good life that God has designed for it.

Exodus 34:6 “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding...

Abounding.

I think this is probably our biggest sin - we underestimate God.

Abounding means no limit.

“Abounding does not try to set any limits on the Lord.” (Mackay)

Remember this: Ephesians 3:20 “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,”

Yet we keep limiting Him - WE hold him back.

Abounding is combined with “steadfast love and faithfulness.”

Maybe re-translate this to be long-term, reliable love.

Many of us have had someone pledge to you long-term, reliable love and it didn’t work out that way.

Some of us have had parents who for whatever reason, didn’t show us long-term reliable love.

And we’re a bit jaded by that.

We’re a bit leery of anyone’s love - including the Lord’s.

Yes, we’ll say we believe it

But in practice, when we need to know that we know that we know that the Lord’s love will never fail us

What do we do?

We get angry at the people around us because they don’t give us what we need

And they can’t because it’s not their job.

Yahweh…[is] abounding in long-term, reliable love.

It is His job to give you sense of permanent long-term, reliable love and belonging.

It’s the only place that will ever be found.

Ever

Look at verse 7 Exodus 34:7 “keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.””

Yahweh loves his people with a long-term, reliable love

And His people include thousands upon thousands.

It includes you.

Whatever you are struggling with, this includes you.

Notice “forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin...”

Iniquity is wickedness but not just

It includes the sense of guilt that comes when we do wicked things.

It’s not simply the action, it’s every thought and feeling born by that action

Iniquity is taking something that is right and twisting it into something wrong.

The easiest illustration in our society in sex.

Inside marriage it is right, designed by God for human flourishing.

But culture has twisted it and look at the devastation that’s gotten left behind.

Hold that thought.

Transgression is crime.

Breaking the laws of God, breaking the laws of God’s community.

Bringing harm on the community.

Hold that thought.

Sin isn’t just missing the mark, sin means that we missed the mark and it is our fault.

We are culpable.

That we did it - we might try to pass the blame, but it keeps circling back.

Abortion is a big thing in this election.

There is iniquity - child bearing is a good thing, but we twisted it.

And there is sin - because see, yes, the child is growing in the mother’s body

But the father of the baby was involved too.

For every aborted baby, it’s not just a sin of the mother - a deliberate action that she caused.

It is a sin of the father - because he was a willful participant - a deliberate action that he caused.

Hold that thought.

So we a full definition of what Yahweh forgives - iniquity and transgression and sin.

What does forgive mean?

It comes from the root word which means take away or lift up.

Remember, Hebrew is a picture language, they want you to SEE what the word means.

Forgive means to lift a burden off of someone’s shoulders.

I can tell you from personal experience, iniquity and transgression and sin burdens your soul.

To this day, I can remember sins - and we all remember the bad things about ourselves easiest right?

I can remember sins and the weight on my soul will come right back.

The heaviness, the depression, the guilt, the darkness

But what does Yahweh say to us?

He says, that because of his long-term, reliable love, He lifts that burden from us.

And even more, He tells us how to get rid of the guilt every time we pick it up again.

Listen to 1 Peter 5:6-7

1 Peter 5:6–7 ESV

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

Humble yourself - remember who is God and who isn’t.

And then cast all your anxieties

Have you ever been fishing with a rod and reel?

When you cast your line, what are you trying to do?

You are trying to get the hook far away from you, right?

If you use a cast net to get bait fish, where to do cast your net?

You cast it away from you.

What is the Lord telling us in Peter?

The same thing He’s saying in Exodus.

Yahweh has a long-term, very patient, compassionate and kind, super loyal love for me and you.

He has the power to forgive us.

And we have permission to cast our sins and burdens on him.

He forgives us - He lifts our burden off us - because our sin and our guilt is cast on Jesus.

Verse 10 is a promise.

It was a promise to the nation of Israel.

But it doesn’t stop with Israel.

This promise is repeated over and over from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21.

Listen to this verse - pretend that the Lord Himself is whispering in your ear - because essentially, that’s what He’s doing.

Exodus 34:10 ESV

And he said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.

Please hear that - “it is an awesome thing I will do with you.”

With you personally.

With us as a Church.

With us as the universal body of Christ.

Take heart brothers and sisters, regardless of whatever happens in the election

No matter how the biopsy comes back

No matter what the specialist says

No matter who has left you or forsaken you

The One from Whom all blessings flow

The One Who has a long-term, very patient, compassionate and kind, super loyal love for you

Is going to do an awesome thing with you.

Humble yourself and trust the Lord.

He is the power that will change your life.

And if you’ve never trusted Him, you’re in a bit of a conundrum.

You know Yahweh is real - you’ve heard what He’s said about Himself.

What are you going to do with Him?

Let us pray.