Changed By God

Intro:

Last week we dug into chapter 32 in which we see Israel fail to keep the covenant they just vowed to keep with God.

Moses had gone up to the mountain to speak with God and while he is gone they panic and ask Aaron to make them an idol.

He does. SMH

God revealed how important it is that we pursue Him daily and that our abiding needs to be the source of our decision making, not our wisdom, feelings, or piers.

We touched briefly on those that God has called to leadership and that their call does not vaccinate them against sin.

We need to intentionally pray for those that God has called to lead the church.

We saw that after God sees Israels sin, he wants to wipe them out and start over with Moses.

Moses intercedes for them and asks God to remember His promise to make them a great nation.

We need to intercede for one another in the same way.

Our prayers for one another matter greatly!

Lastly, we talked about our response to the covenant we made with God reaches far beyond just our lives.

God’s plan to reveal Himself is those who follow Him.

God is calling each of us to walk with Him daily, abiding, and obeying all that he calls us to do.

We are going to pick up where we left off last week in Exodus 32.

Exodus 32:30–35 ESV

30 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” 31 So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. 32 But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.” 33 But the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. 34 But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.” 35 Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.

Moses begins with, again, confronting their sin, and making it known that God is fully aware of all that has transpired since He and Moses went up on the mountain.

He offers to go to God, on their behalf, and beg for God to forgive them.

Moses goes back up the mountain and says the most peculiar thing.

Exodus 32:32 ESV

32 But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.”

Do you see it?

Do you see what Moses ask of God?

He ask God to forgive them, but if He won’t, to take Moses instead.

What could possibly motivate Moses to offer himself for Israel?

What motivates you to love in a radical way?

Some say that he wasn’t offering himself. He was just saying that if God was going to take them out to take him out as well.

If that is the case...

At the very least, he is aligning himself with their sin and asking that God dole out the same punishment to him that God will be giving to Israel.

Moses had no part in their sin. He was completely innocent.

Yet, he ask God to give him the punishment.

Moses loved Israel enough to offer his life for theirs.

We all know that Israel has been looking for a new “Adam” since the fall.

This is what they are looking forward too.

They are looking for someone that can finally crush the serpents head.

We also know, and Moses knew, that He isn’t the new Adam because of his sin.

So why would he do this?

Why and How could Moses love these people to this radical extent?

Look at what Paul says about this same idea in Romans chapter 8 and 9.

Paul begins by speaking about God’s love and it is a passage that most are familiar with.

We need to read the end of chapter eight so that we know what Paul is referring too in the beginning of chapter nine.

Romans 8:31–37 ESV

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Paul is describing the incredible love of God.

We know how powerful these words are and we speak them to ourselves when life gets hard as a reminder of the power and love of God.

Look at what Paul goes on to say and the value that he gives that love of God.

Romans 9:1–3 ESV

1 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

In verse one and two, Paul is internalizing why he feels the way he does and ask God to reveal it’s motivation.

He wants to know why he is sorrowful and anguished.

The sorrow is so great that he is willing to be cut off from Christ so that his brothers in Christ might know Him!

What is the cause of the anguish that Paul is experiencing?

What or who has God highlighted in your life that breaks your heart?

Romans 9:4–5 ESV

4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

What Paul is saying is that his heart is breaking because the people, to whom the Christ was promised, have completely missed it.

He is in anguish because he knows and has experienced the love and mercy of Christ forgiveness and they have not!

Because of his experience with the Holy Spirit, His heart is breaking for those who have not experienced the HS.

He finishes this thought in chapter 10.

Romans 10:1–4 ESV

1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

He telling the church in Rome that God has done all this work, performed miracle after miracle, and Israel still doesn’t know God.

He and Moses share this same desire to give up themselves so that the people in their lives might truly know God.

My fear is that we too, like so many, who have witnessed the works of God, are also still floundering in this weird world of trying to live under the grace, but motivated by the law.

My heart is anguished because I see some of you still seeking the things of this world in hopes of finding purpose and fulfillment.

Instead of asking God to reveal His purposes, we fight God’s call as if it was some terrible task.

Do you remember the kind of man Moses was?

Why did he flee Egypt in the first place?

He killed a man in an attempt to save a Hebrew slave.

He tried to bring about justice under his own power instead of bringing it to God.

Remember the kind of man that Paul was before his conversion.

He sought out to imprison and murder believers of Jesus because he was making application of the law that was not what God intended when He gave the law.

Paul too tried to bring about “justice” under his own authority.

What changed both of these men?

An encounter with a Holy, Loving, God.

Experiencing God’s love changes all that we previously thought was important.

God gives us new perspective on everything!

Both of them, in response to their experiences with God, walked with God in ministering to His people.

The love they felt and knew from God drove them to love in dramatic and costly ways.

We cannot set people free that we do not love.

jumping back to Moses and his request on behalf of Israel.

If Moses life can’t atone for their sins, what good did it do to offer it?

Imagine if someone offered themselves up to you.

They wrote a blank check and said, “what ever you need, I’ll do”.

How would that change the dynamic of the relationship?

What would it communicate the people that God has called you to bless if you took their burdens and placed them on yourself?

How does it feel when your wife is going to have her first chemo treatment and your friends, who have three babies of their own, offer to keep your five kids so that you can go with her?

Deeply, unselfishly, loved.

This was one of the most meaningful expressions of love that I have ever experienced from a brother and sister in Christ.

If there was ever any doubt in Israel’s mind about the commitment that Moses had to them, it should have been erased.

John 15:13 ESV

13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

God is calling us to love like He loves, and lay down our lives for one another.

This is not simply rhetoric.

Hymn: They will know we are Christians by our love.

I know this is a process, but we must go through it. We must move beyond ourselves.

Do you recall the how reluctant Moses was to even accept his assignment?

He straight up told God to find someone else!

Exodus 4:13 ESV

13 But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.”

This is after God has already proven that He will be going with Moses and doing the work through him.

He has done all the staff/snake stuff.

Yet, that isn’t good enough for him.

Moses still doesn’t want to go.

I don’t think he doubted that God could do it, he just didn’t want to go.

We are no better.

God is offering us opportunities to love people and we aren’t taking them.

Here’s the truth though, we’re just like Moses.

We are still asking God to send someone else.

I know that’s a bold statement.

I know that there is much about each of your lives that I don’t know.

Until we have made our relationship with Jesus our absolute priority, we are in need of the Holy Spirit to will us to change.

We all need change, all of us, because none of us are perfect.

God has, time and time again, shown Himself as faithful.

He has shown that it is He that is working and we have seen the fruits of His work.

Yet, we keep putting other things into priority above Him.

What is it in your life that keeps taking priority over God?

God’s call to join Him in setting people free is not lagniappe.

We take for granted the amazing work that God has done here.

We need in God to do a work in us to show us how truly blessed we are and how much He loves us.

So what did it for Moses? What changed his heart towards his people?

How has God changed your heart towards people? Do you love people differently today than you did a year ago?

Moses walked with the Lord, and did what God told him to do.

John 15:14 ESV

14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.

It can not be made any more simple than that.

Moses had a heart change because as he walked with God,and in obedience, he became more like God.

God took Moses from being an arrogant, prideful prince, to a humble Shepard, into a deliverer, and to the leader of the nation that God promised to Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.

There is a difference between the Moses at the beginning of this book and the one at the end.

God wants to do the same kind of work in every one of our lives!

I am not saying these things to shame or guilt you into doing anything.

If you are walking in obedience and the Holy Spirit is confirming it, then awesome!

If the Holy Spirit is revealing to you that you are putting other things before Him, then receive that word and allow God to change you.

What I am trying to do is tell you that if you aren’t walking with God, YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE MISSING!

When you allow God to move you beyond yourself and begin to truly love others, you get addicted to it.

It is literally the best - thing - that - will - ever - happen - to - you.

Example of Quin jumping into my arms Wednesday night.

if anything, i screwed up at our previous interaction, but God did a work anyway.

This is incredible to me because it is evidence of what God has been telling us to do in this community is working. HE IS WORKING, even when I screw it up!

John 15:15–17 ESV

15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

LISTEN! God is going to do all the work.

Stop listening to and believing the lie that the things that you are allowing to take priority in your life are going to bring you more fulfillment than God.

There is no need to be nervous about how, why, or when God is going to do the impossible thing He has tasked you with.

He is going to do it.

All you have to do is show up.

When you see someone in need, you ask God for what ever it is that they need and He will do it.

If we will submit ourselves to God’s will, and allow Him to work through us, lives are going to be radically changed by the Love the Father.

I’ll tell you what else is going to happen.

One day, you will be just walking along with Jesus, you are going to offer your life up for someone else’s, and it will be the most joyous experience you have ever had.

I’ll be real honest with you.

I have every intention of tugging at your heart strings for a while.

My goal is to tell you stories that make you cry like a baby.

Not out of a desire to manipulate or coerce you.

I want to give you a taste of what you are missing.

God’s got some things coming over the next few months that, if you allow it, will change you forever.

God wants to show you the depths of His love.

Just like God showed mercy to Israel, God is going to show us mercy.

Nothing is over until God says it’s over.

I know this is the most generic sounding main point of a sermon. ever.

I wanted to say it this way, because the enemy will try to convince you that it’s too late.

You waited to long, the opportunity is gone, etc.

Exodus 32:34 ESV

34 But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.”

Even in our sin, God still loves us, and will keep His word.

Even in-spite of their egregious sin, God is still going to keep His word that He spoke to Abraham so many years before.

The same is true for us.

God has called us to be a church that sets people free.

We have all found ourselves to be lacking, but God is still going make us the church that He has called us to be.

In order to be that church, we must be willing to sacrifice as the Holy Spirit leads.

As I was writing this Friday night, Russ sent me an article he wrote last year.

In that article he uses the example of Aaron and the work God does in his life after he makes the calf.

“I just finished writing several entries for an expository dictionary. I’ve been mulling over one entry for several days now. The Hebrew word ‘ēgel means “calf” or “young bull.” It’s the word used for the golden calf Aaron crafted in Exodus and later for the golden calves that Jeroboam sets up in 1 Kings. The ‘ēgel is a clean animal and therefore suitable for sacrifice, but the only time it is mentioned in a sacrificial context is in Leviticus 9, which describes Aaron’s and his sons’ inauguration into the priesthood. The Lord commanded Aaron to offer an ‘ēgel as a sin offering for himself. That’s the only time the term ‘ēgel is used to refer to a sacrificial animal in the Old Testament. What was that like for Aaron? What was the thinking? How did he feel?” -Meek, R. (2018, March 5). Academic Work as Spiritual Discipline. Retrieved from https://ftc.co/resource-library/blog-entries/academic-work-as-spiritual-discipline

The article was about spiritual discipline, and God spoke through this about what it means for us to follow God.

Russ ask the questions at the end and I don’t know about you, but they prompted my heart.

What was that like for Aaron? What was he thinking? How did he feel?

God was very specific with sacrifice that required of Aaron.

He had him sacrifice the very thing that Aaron created to replace God.

You know that God was calling him out on the carpet, right?

What is God speaking for you to change a priority in your life?

As we have been discussing proper priorities, what ever the thing is that God has brought to mind that you know the Spirit is highlighting because you are putting it before Him.

God is speaking.

He may be telling you, as he did Aaron, to give up that thing that is drawing you from being in His presence.

I have no idea what that thing is for you, but I do know, from my own experiences, that giving it up will be the best thing for you.

It will, ultimately, give you the greatest joy.

It will bring you closer to God than you thought possible and that’s the point.

God isn’t and never will be done with us.

He is going to continue to stretch and grow us until we die.

This process never stops.

It never stops because God’s love for us never stops and He won’t ever give up on us.

This is what we were created for.

If your desire in life is do something that matters, to do something great, this is how you do it.

There is no better use of a life then to abide in God.

Psalm 90:12 says, "Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom." God longs to teach us how to use our days wisely. He longs to give us a heart of wisdom that we might center our lives around meeting with him. You have God himself dwelling within you, ready to guide you into a lifestyle of purposeful living. Choose today to open your heart and mind to the Teacher, the very Spirit of God, and live according to his will. May you find peace, joy, and purpose in the ways in which you invest your time today.