Giving Freedom

Last week we completed Exodus chapter 33 and specifically looked at how Israel finally came to the realization of what they lost by choosing to break the covenant.

They had seen the death of the three thousand and went through a plague, but it wasn’t until they saw the physical separation between God and themselves that it got their attention.

Daily they had to watch Moses go out to the tent of meeting, God’s presence would descend, and it would be a real reminder that God was separating Himself so that he wouldn’t have to kill them.

God also tells them that they are about to move on from the mountain and towards the promised land.

However, that generation would never enter it because they broke the covenant.

Only their children would enter.

The application we see there is that if we refuse God, He will find someone else that is willing to do what we were not.

Israel forfeited their chance to walk with God, and He gave that opportunity to someone else.

When we choose to not obey God, we are forfeiting our opportunity to walk with God and experience Him here and now.

This breaks God’s heart because we are giving up the best and replacing it with a lie that something else will be better than God.

Israel watches the relationship that Moses has with God from afar, and it is God’s presence that sets Moses apart, not Moses' activity.

The same is true for us.

It is God’s activity that sets us apart from the world, not our religious activity.

Religious activity just makes us more like the world and less like God because our motivation is self-serving.

We are doing for appearance or to make ourselves feel better.

Lastly, we saw that God’s revelation of Himself is what fuels ministry.

Every time that Moses experienced God, it caused him to want more. At the end of chapter 33, he asked God to reveal His ways so that he may know Him.

We often find ourselves not desiring God because we have purposely separated our selves from Him.

We are afraid of what He may ask of us, and so we avoid entirely Him so that we don’t have to face uncertainties.

The only way we will ever join God to set people free is by coming to know Him by experience through abiding.

Today we are going to see the results of Moses' request to know God.

We are going to see that God reveals Himself to Moses in a very particular way, and our lives should reflect the characteristics that God reveals to Moses.

The only way that can happen is by us, allowing God to speak correction into our lives so that we can be more like Him.

Lastly, our experiences with God are going to change us, and that change of nature is going to be God’s revelation of Himself to the people in our lives.

Exodus 34:1–9 ESV

1 The Lord said to Moses, “Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. 2 Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. 3 No one shall come up with you, and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain. Let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain.” 4 So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. 5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 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, 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.” 8 And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. 9 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.”

As God’s representatives, we communicate the gospel through our words and actions.

In this conversation, God lists six attributes of His character.

I think it is helpful for each of us to consider how we have personally experienced each of these and how it has affected our lives.

God describes Himself in this way:

Merciful (רחום, rchwm)—Expresses deep compassion that leads to action. Most occurrences of the word רחום (rchwm) are in descriptions of God. The result of God’s mercy or compassion is forgiveness and a new relationship.

Gracious (חנון, chnwn)—Represents the emotional experience that leads a person to help another person in need (Exod 22:27). Even when His people threatened to return to Egypt from the wilderness, God’s graciousness and compassion made Him ready to receive them back and forgive them (Neh 9:17).

Slow to anger (אַפַיִם אֶרֶךְ, aphayim erekh)—Literally “long of nostrils,” depicts self-control. God is patient with His disobedient, rebellious people.

Abounding in loyal love (חֶסֶד, chesed)—A covenant term for trust and faithfulness. Loyal love represents that which ties together family, friends, and associates. God’s granting of success, answering prayer, and fulfilling His promises expresses such love and commitment (e.g., Exod 34).

Faithful (אמת, 'mt)—Refers to what is true and consistent, what is trustworthy and reliable. The faithful one is morally upright and can be trusted to do what is right, even when the other person has done wrong. For example, God accepted and renewed covenant vows even after His people had built a golden calf (compare Josh 24:14).

Forgiving (נָשָׂא עָוֹן, nasa' awon)—Refers to lifting or forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin (Psa 85:2; compare Lev 5:17; 17:16).

Because of these very characteristics, God is doing the work of restoring the covenant that Israel just broke with God.

It is because of who God is, that He redeems us.

God describes Himself in this way and then proves it in His actions.

He is in the process of restoring the covenant that Israel just broke.

His plans for them haven’t been changed.

He continues to work in them and through them, even in their sin.

We see God doing the same thing again by sending Jesus.

God, again, does all the work of the new covenant through Jesus.

None of the work of restoring our relationship with God is done by us.

It is only through the work of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit that we are able to enter into and participate in the new covenant.

We, in our natural selves, do not exhibit any of these characteristics.

It isn’t in our nature to be merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love, faithful, or forgiving.

Those Godly characteristics are only exhibited in our lives as we allow the Holy Spirit to work.

Just like it was God’s presence that set Israel apart, the same is true for us.

We are set apart by God’s presence, and they are revealed through the change from sin nature to Godliness as we walk with God.

It is these characteristics, exhibited through our lives, that draw people into the person of God.

The world doesn’t exhibit these characteristics.

It tries to but falls short.

Like we talked about last week, when we try to fake these things, we don’t come off as godly.

At least not for any lasting amount of time.

If it isn’t authentic, the truth will come out at some point.

I know you have all heard it, but I hate the phrase, “fake it till you make it.”

It encourages people to be something or someone other than they are.

Us faking, makes us like the world.

Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are full of people who are portraying one life while living a completely different one.

We can give away freedom, not by pretending we are free, but by allowing God to free us.

If we are abiding in God, that process is going to cause us to love Him more and more.

That will give us a desire to not only know him but to want to be like him.

We cannot live in these characteristics without the power of the Holy Spirit.

Only He can make these changes.

We must allow God to bring correction to every area of our lives.

“God issued a corrective against the natural human tendency to accept grace on the assumption that because an infinite God can produce an infinite amount of grace, sin has no consequences.” -The New American Commentary: Exodus, Stuart Douglas

As we discussed last week, Israel didn’t understand the consequences of their actions.

They knew it was against the covenant, but they decided to do it again.

Based on my experience as both a former child and as a father, I can tell you that most of the times I disobeyed my parents, it was because I thought the thing I wanted to do was worth the punishment I knew was coming as a result of that action.

Example: Playing with gunpowder when I was a kid.

I knew that it could very easily hurt me, well, if I wasn’t careful.

I knew that my dad would eventually find out, but oh well.

I know it’s easy to laugh at me. My actions were so stupid that they could have killed me, but don’t we approach sin the same way?

Don’t we, most of the time, know exactly what we are doing when we sin, and make a conscious decision to do it anyway?

Grace is not a free pass to do whatever we want.

We cannot go on living under the lie that it doesn’t matter how we live.

We have seen over and over through the book of Exodus, how the decisions that Pharaoh, Moses, Israel, etc., all made huge changes in the lives of the people around them.

We have been told and have accepted a lie that we choose to live “our” lives doesn’t matter.

When Moses’ mother made the decision to go against the pharaoh and save her son, it mattered.

When Moses choose to obey God’s call to deliver Israel, it mattered.

When Pharaoh repeatedly said no, and his people suffered, his decision mattered.

When Israel chooses to yield to their fear and build an idol instead of having faith in God, it mattered.

When we ignore God’s call, it matters.

When we choose to obey God’s call, it matters.

We see in our text today, that sin had a significant impact on the rest of Israel’s lives, but also the lives of their children.

God is having to do all this because the decisions that Israel made mattered.

How we live, who we allow to be in charge, and whether we obey will have a generational impact on your family.

That change will exponentially affect the kingdom of God.

In verse seven, God is telling them that what they do is going to change their lives and the children’s lives.

In this verse, when God says that He is going to visit the iniquity of the fathers on the children…

He isn’t saying that He is going to punish the children for their parent’s sin.

If you think about it, it’s obvious that He doesn’t do that. He just told Israel that they were not going to enter the promised land, but their children would.

What He is saying is that when we choose to live in sin, we pass those sin patterns to our children.

My children mimicking my snappy attitude to one another.

They inherited my sin of not being slow to anger.

I am often quick to anger, especially if I’m hangry or had a long day.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if our children, instead, inherited a desire to be mold-able by God?

There could be nothing better for any of our children than for them to grow up in families where it was normal to lay ourselves before God and let Him any changes that are needed.

We start that kind of legacy by daily allowing God to point out the sin in our lives, repenting, and asking the Holy Spirit to change our hearts.

The key to all of that is the realization that we are powerless to make the change.

It is only through the Holy Spirits' work that we experience real, lasting change.

Our experiences with God and changes brought by Him are the testimony of the goodness of God.

Exodus 34:29–35 ESV

29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. 30 Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. 32 Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. 33 And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. 34 Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, 35 the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face was shining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

When we are walking with God daily and discovering who He is by experience, it is evident to the people around us.

Moses just spent another 40 days on the mountain with God, and his face is literally shining.

There was a spiritual change happening to Moses, but there was also a physical affect life.

I don’t know if you realize this, but people can tell when you have had a good day or week with God.

They can see it on your face.

They can hear it in your voice.

They experience it as you do life with them.

When we have been walking with God, and He has been speaking, it shows in how we live life.

It changes how we react to everything.

We give away freedom by showing the world around us the joy that comes from knowing God.

What have you been thinking about as we have talked about joining God to set people free?

Have you ever considered that the very first way that we join God in setting people free is by merely joining God?

Just like our abiding grows our experiences with God, joining God daily, in abiding, is how we set people free.

Do you smell what I’m stepping in?

I think we often try to blow this thing way out of proportion and put way too much of the responsibility on ourselves.

We think that we set people free by doing something.

When in reality, when we just join God, the work of setting people free is put into motion.

Not by us, but by God.

Just like we don’t do the work in our salvation, we are the ones doing the work in setting people free.

We are part of the process, but we are just the empty vessel.

God is doing all the work of drawing people, preparing their hearts, and when we are joining him daily, in abiding, it puts us exactly where we need to be.

He puts us there as we are abiding.

He is going to use us to speak the truth and reveal the love of God.

However, we can’t give away what we don’t have.

This isn’t a guilt trip; it’s a reality check.

If you aren’t abiding daily, you can never join God to set people free.

Abiding is the first step.

There is a reason that God has been speaking this same message to us over and over again as a church.

We aren’t fooling anybody by just talking.

There are plenty of people out there that are talking the talk.

We aren’t fooling anyone by being just like everyone else.

People recognize it because it’s also their standard operating procedure.

We all do it in the south.

This is not what God wants of us.

God wants us to know Him, and as we do, we will make Him known by the changes He is creating in us.

Moses was able to set Israel free because we walked with the Lord.

We are all utterly aware that Moses didn’t do this in his power.

As a matter of fact, when he did try to do it in his power, it cost him the promised land.

Our call to Join God to Set People free is first a call to join God.

In joining God, we will be changed into his likeness, He will work in the hearts of people around us, and as we share what God is doing in our lives, it will fall into fertile soil.

John 15:5–17 ESV

5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 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.

This is it, this is what we have been learning for years.

If we will just abide, we will experience freedom, and that freedom will be passed to those in our lives.