Slip Away

Was that any of you this past Wednesday night?

Things escalate quickly.

Because you look at a video like that and obviously its exaggerated but there is a little bit of truth to it.

Because its a slippery slope with a lot of things like that. You know both women in the beginning are just walking nice and calm and you know they are so friendly, but then they start walking a little faster until it turns into an all out brawl for the turkey.

And like I said its exaggerated but you see this happen all of the time with black Friday shopping, concerts and the list keeps going.

But none of these people start out going yeah we are going to trample other people to get a TV or get into a fight over a turkey

But one thing leads to another and it happens.

And when you think about that how often do we set out for something but then one thing leads to another and we end up somewhere completely different then what we sought out for.

and really how often are we like this in our relationship with Christ?

I had a ton of friends in high school and you know they were strong in their faith and once they left for college one thing led to another and eventually they never would even step foot in a church

and you know I am sure you all have experienced this also because you might raise you kids a certain way and they decide well I do not want to live that way

There are plenty of people who grow up in a church and they decide I do not want to live that way, I do not need a relationship with Christ because I can rule my own life.

and often times th

and really this happens to us also.

Because we may start out following Christ, but one thing leads to another, and a bunch of reasons start to add up and we walk away from where God is wanting us to be and even our relationship with Christ.

And really we are going to be seeing this in the Bible passage we are in today.

But if you have been with us the past few weeks we have been in the book of Exodus and by now we have seen God do some amazing things

We have seen Him call Moses through a burning bush

We have seen Him turn Moses staff into a snake

We have seen Him part a sea that was impossible to cross

and ultimently we have seen Him deliver the Israelites from the hands of the Egyptians.

and by now you would think these people must be divine followers of Christ, but what happens is one thing leads to another and they actually end up turning their backs on God.

So turn with me this morning to

Because I do not know if you all ever read the Bible and go I would never do that.

I would never react this way or live like that but a lot of times when you look at these stories we are doing the exact same things in our own lives.

So once again it is and it says:

(NIV)

The Golden Calf

32 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.”

2 Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.” 6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.

7 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’

So if you look at this passage Moses left the Isralites to speak with God on top a mountain and and he has left Aaron in charge who has basically been Moses assistant during this time.

and when he left the people were following God’s way but now he has been gone for probably over a month and things are changing You see that slipperly slope effect.

so we are going to be looking at a few reasons today why the Israelites end up straying away from God

and if you take notes you can write this down, but the first reason why the Israelites turn their back on God is because they are not patient.

You know as I mentioned Moses at this point was gone for over a month and at this point they are just going maybe something happened to him

and even if it dident we were not that big of a fan of him either.

and they probably were starting to feel abandon.

and they were going well why are we waiting on Moses and ultimately why are we waiting for a God that we cant see.

and so they are thinking why are we waiting for this.

But we get that way with God where we go why are we waiting for God when we do not see Him near us.

Things are going wrong and we go I am not waiting for God in this situation.

Its like when you are trying to loose weight in a healthy way.

so you start out getting rid of junk food and you decide I am going to start exercising more but after a few weeks you get on the scale and you are only one pound less or way the same or have even gained a little.

and you go forget about this. I want fast results and you give up on other options.

Because we like fast results

Especially as Americans we like fast results

We are probably worse then the Israelites

and when we do not get fast results we find another option.

And that really what the Isralites do in this passage.

They are going we have waited long enough, we have been in this desert way to long and we need to get out of here now.

And so are you ready for the second reason they stray away from God.

they see other options around them that are starting to look a little more appealing.

because they are going well this God isn't giving us the results we want but in this culture they had a ton of other false gods that they could choose from and most of these gods were visible statues that you could worship.

So they are looking at these gods and going “hmm, what if we had a god who was physically visible”

and they are looking at all of these gods and going you know

And we are the same way.

We go well I see everyone else having fun partying and they are not in a relationship with God.

I see everyone else being sexually imorall and that doesent seem to bad and we end up not following the path that Gods given us.

Its like you are on your diet when its not working and you go well what if I tried this one product. it might cause some harm to my body but it will get me to loose weight.

Thats how a lot of sinful things are it might give this temptation or promise of your going to get what you want quickly, maybe even immediately.

and we decide okay I am willing to do that regardless of what the consequences of sin are.

but sin ends up causing so much damage and ultimately brings us down a path that leads to death.

Pause

Alright the third reason is ultimatley they wanted to be their own Gods

and the best way to do that is by making your own god.

look at verse 4 because here it says they gather gold and they fashion their own god into a bull with a graving tool.

and we may not create our own god’s with a graving tool but how often to we use other things.

We use our money to buy happiness

We make our job our idol

and we even make people around us idols

and look what happens because at the end of verse 4 Aaron goes look these are the Gods that delivered you from the hands of the Egyptians.

They go this false god we created is really the reason you are here today not the real God that delivered us.

and we do that with the things we make idols to we go

my job is the reason I made it out of that situation

This person is the reason I am around still.

and I am not saying our jobs and people do not help us out of things but we make them our idols and we forget where God was involved.

and instead of recognizing this we actually end up feeding our idols

and this is the final reason.

Because instead of the Israelites trying to turn away from their idols they end up feeding it.

In verse 6 they end up having a feast and making sacrifices to their new god and by doing this they affirm they affirming this false idol as their god and ultimately feeding their idol and walking further away from God.

I don’t know if you have ever read that book “when you give a mouse a cookie”

But basically in that book they give a mouse a cookie and then then they have to keep giving the mouse somthing like a glass of milk.

and by the end of the book this person is stuck giving this mouse like a private jet or something.

Pause

And you know that honestly is how the idols in our lives are.

We give a little to that idol and not much harm happens but then we keep feeding it.

We gamble a little and we keep feeding it and we end up loosing everything.

We have this lustful temptation and we keep feeding it until we end up loosing our family

We keep giving our job our hobby to much of our time and children are disappointed they never see us and our marriage is falling apart.

And we keep feeding our idols until we have given them everything and ultimately they have taken everything we had.

Theres a song called “waiting for the night to fall”

and I am not going to sing it but I want you to listen to these lyrics because its talking about Satans grip on our lives

It says “While your feasting at his table he’ll tie your hands up and numb your mind. He’ll take you further then you want to go, he’ll keep you longer then you want to stay, and it will cost you more then you ever thought you’d pay.”

and how true is that of sin in our life.

it seems great an we feel like we are feasting but we are getting robed blind.

and we often realize after everything has gone wrong.

And you know in our story today God tells Moses to go back down and get the Israelite peoples act back together and Moses does that.

But if you look at the next hundred and hundreds of years the Israelites are going back and forth between worshiping the real God and worshiping all of these false idols and they really are completely lost.

and God works with them but they keep messing up.

And Finally there is this hope that comes to them through a baby and that baby is Jesus.

But He doesn’t just come for the Israelites but He comes to save the world from their sins.

To save us from the destructiveness of our sin and all of the false idols we have in our life.

Because the truth is we cant do it.

We cant get rid of are false idols by ourselves but it is only through the power of Jesus Christ that we can do that.

He is the only true hope we have and he ends up being a sacrifice for our sins.

and you know we can try to stop sinning or to stop following our idols but we are going to keep slipping until we say Jesus I want you to be my God and rule over every area of my life

and rule over me.

You can alow God to rule over that area in your life

will you pray with me?

Song

It is through Jesus that we are free from our idols and we have hope in Christ Amen?

Well next week we are beginning our new series “A Thrill of Hope” and this is really kicking off our Advent season and before we get going I just want you all to watch this short video on this series.

Video

Well I don’t know about you but I am ready to kick off the Christmas season. and I am ready for the hope of Christ. So go today living in the reality that you are freed from your sin and can live in the hope of Christ.