Idol Inc.

Bibles out…Exodus 32:1-10…Jump into text immediately! Read verses 1-10

Where we have been:

Moses on mount Sinai…Just instructed Moses on how to build the tabernacle…(so He can dwell amongst them)

God gave them materials…God filled them with His spirit…gave them the skills to do the work…

They are on the eve of dwelling with the Almighty!

Moses is going to come down tomorrow and they are going to build the tabernacle and God is going to come down in His glory and dwell amongst His people…

BUT…the people here do something incredibly stupid (right?)…

God is right! What a stiff necked people!

They build an IDOL!!!! A golden calf…

They literally break the first 3 of the 10 commandments on day 1!!!!

-Don’t have any other gods -Don’t make an idol -Don’t worship that idol

This is like a bride being unfaithful on the night before her wedding!!!!

This is how powerful idolatry is…

Some of you may be thinking “Im not going to worship a statue”

Take this text into context though…Idolatry may look different today but its still idolatry…

Tim Keller book “Counterfeit gods”

Tim Keller Quote: “An idol is anything more important to you than God. Anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God. Anything you seek to give you what only God can give. Anything that is so central and essential to your life, that should lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living.”

We need to see that this is a heart issue in all of us…

As we dig into this text…you are going to see how easy it is to fall to idolatry

And whats going to impact us more is the realization of how we are already fallen into it in our daily lives!

But don’t worry…God today is going to instruct us in this text on what the core heart issues that lead us to fall into idolatry…

1 Corinthians 10:1-7 (Black)

We fall into idolatry when:

-We fail to trust in the Lord (v. 1a)

Moses was delayed...

Things are not happening in “our” timing…It doesn't look like “our” vision

How many of us in here are super patient when we desire something???

Trust His plan…Trust His timing…

He has provided (water, manna, tabernacle)…He has sustained

-We place our faith where it doesn't belong (v. 1b)

People placing Moses as the deliverer…

God multiple times says “I brought you out of Egypt”

-We fear man more than God (v. 2, 5)

Aaron entrusted with speaking for Moses…

Aaron was there in Pharaohs chambers…

Who God called up to the mountain with Moses in chapter 19

Aaron entrusted with watching over the people as Moses went up to fellowship with the Lord…

Aaron who according to Gods future plan will be the high priest to Him…Is crafting an idol!!!

ALL ARE CAPABLE OF FALLING TO IDOLATRY!

Why did he fall? Influenced by man? Feared man?

Regardless…Aaron placed man above God in this instance

We see in the text that after Aaron saw the people worshipping the idol, he built them an altar

-We worship the provision not the provider (v. 3-4)

Took the provision God gave to them from Egypt…

The provision that we know has a purpose of being used to build the tabernacle…

To be turned into the focus of worship (a carved image of God)

We will always worship the image made because it was made with our hands…

That image is only as good as we make it…

THIS IS PROBABLY THE MOST EVIDENT IN OUR LIVES TODAY...

We often worship the things that are created and not the creator…

Money, cars, houses, cell phones, video games, social media, television…

Don’t think thats true? (what would happen if any of those things disappeared right now?)

-We stray from obedience to the Word of God (v. 6-8)

God tells Moses, these people have turned aside from my commands…

They have become disobedient...

You want to avoid falling into idolatry?? Stay in obedience to the word of God!

BIG IDEA: Idols are made when we pull our faith and focus from the Lord to ourselves.

Matthew 6:25-33. (double brown)

SEEK JESUS!!!

FOCUS ON CHRIST AND OFF OF YOURSELVES…FAITH IN CHRIST AND NOT IN MAN…