The View From Up Here (Exodus 32)
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[OPEN BIBLES & OPENING STATEMENTS}
A few years ago, our church had a yearly theme based on Isaiah 54:2, which was “lengthen our cords and strengthen our stakes”.
The idea was simple. A healthy church must have a balance of ministry intended on outreach and ministry for discipleship.
I believe God is calling us into a cord lengthening season.
The world is in chaos
As I thought about the state of the world, I was reminded of the stories of Moses on the mountaintop found in Exodus 32-34.
After being delivered from Egypt, and having dealt with rebellious people during their journey, Moses had learned a lot about God.
He understood a lot about God’s sovereignty. He understood God’s Holiness, God’s perfection, and also, he understood God’s grace.
Moses had been strengthening his stakes, however, in our passage, we see the people of Israel fall into a deep state of rebellion.
[READ 1-10]
While the people of Israel were living in sin and rebellion, Moses had a unique perspective and opportunity.
While they were singing and dancing to a golden cow in the valley, Moses was in the presence of God in the mountaintop. Moses was growing closer to God. Moses was learning more about God.
Like many of us, Moses could have been content to allow God to do what God said He would do, and destroy the people, but Moses could not stay quiet. Moses had to do something for His people.
From the mountaintop, Moses looked at his people with love and compassion, and pleaded with God to give them another chance.
Tonight, I want to talk about, “The view from up here”. [PRAY]
Like Moses, many of us who are born again believers, and active church attenders, also have a mountaintop perspective. I’ll explain.
Moses could only be in the presence of God for short periods of time. We have God living within us through the Holy Spirit!
Think about that for a moment. The experience that Moses had to climb a mountain, remove his shoes, and cover his face with a veil for, we experience all the time! We are constantly with God.
When we pray, we are closer to God. When we read the Word, we are closer to God. When we sit in the safe four walls of the local church, we can hear God speak through His anointed pastors.
From here, we look at the rest of the world, and we see the same thing Moses saw; lost people looking for something to worship.
However, while all believers may share a similar view, many of us have different responses to how we react to that view.
Throughout this chapter, I see three different ways that Moses responded when confronted with the sin of the Israelite people.
After God warns Moses of His intent to destroy the people, look at how Moses responds to God.
But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
1) Remember their Worth (11-14)
1) Remember their Worth (11-14)
Whenever we look at lost people, we must never forget that all sinners are valuable to God. All sinners are precious in His sight.
When Moses prayed to God, he was reminding God of the great love that God had already demonstrated for His chosen people.
We have to remember that our value to God did not begin when we were saved. Our value was there since the beginning of time.
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
Before we were born, God knew us, and God loved us!
Does 1 John 4:19 say that God loves us because we loved Him?
We love because he first loved us.
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
What is the value of a sinner? Illustration: A pastor friend of mine shared a story with me about when he purchased a rare comic.
On average, big companies pay about 30 cents per comic. The comic book said $1.99. He paid $50. Today it’s worth $1,500.
Here’s the question my pastor friend asked me. How much was the comic book really worth in 1980? It was worth the amount he paid.
How much is a sinner worth to God? Jesus Christ. A sinner is worth Jesus Christ to God, and so are you, and so am I.
When we view sinners, we must be reminded their value to God.
Yes, men are wicked, men are vile, and man are depraved, but that doesn’t change the fact that lost men are valuable to God, and therefore, lost people should be valuable to us as well!
The next way Moses responded to sinners is found near the end of the chapter. After Moses had confronted the people, he knew that they still needed proper forgiveness, so we see in [READ 30-32]
2) Recognize their Wickedness (30-32)
2) Recognize their Wickedness (30-32)
What we see here from Moses is not a defense or justification of their sin, but a deep disgust and repentance for His followers.
Not only does he beg for forgiveness, but he even goes as far as to offer his own life for God to forgive the rest of his people.
While we must have love toward sinners and remember the value they have, we must never take sin lightly! So often we see churches only focus on one aspect and not the other, and we see the fruit.
I’ve seen churches look at lost people like scum. They rant and rave about how foolish and evil they are and do nothing to love on them. The most they might do is dedicate a special day to hand out tracts to people but make no effort to talk to them ever again.
But on the flip side, I’ve seen churches who value sinners, but are either unwilling, uninformed, or too afraid to address their sin!
They think they’re being loving by being affirming of sin, but when we choose to ignore sin, we’re doing the exact opposite of love!
Faithful are the wounds of a friend;
profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
One who is full loathes honey,
but to one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet.
Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
While we must value sinners, we must also believe that there is something wrong, and that only Jesus Christ can make it right.
It does the world no good when we make light of sin. We need to love people enough to say, “we are sinners, but we are loved!”.
Example of telling “Bailey” that was a sinner but loved. It was painful, but it was well received, and we continue praying for her.
When Moses prayed for sinful people, he remembered their value, but also acknowledged the weight of their sin, and asked for mercy.
However, the story doesn’t end with a prayer on the mountaintop.
Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written. The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
Last but not least, Moses did not only pray for sinful people. He stepped down from his mountaintop and confronted them.
He didn’t stay and analyze their sinfulness. He didn’t pay for someone else to go down and talk to them. We didn’t wait.
He came down, with the Word of God, and took action. He burned down the golden calf, and when he saw them naked and ashamed, he challenged them to get up and follow the Lord, and it worked!
The Bible says that time and time again, the Lord would relent of His impeding destruction, and chose mercy because of Moses’ prayer and compassion he demonstrated for God’s people.
It’s what we’ve been trying to say here for a while now. It’s easy to talk about it, but at this church, we want to be about it! Like James told us, we want to have faith with action! Prayer with legs!
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
That’s why we didn’t just pray for small businesses. We went out of our comfort zone as a church and blessed them where they were!
We don’t want to just talk about the police. We go serve them. We don’t just talk about the kids in the wicked public school system. We start Bible clubs and share the gospel where they are!
There are plenty of churches with plenty of things to say about Hailey, but I don’t see a lot of Christians doing anything for her!
The view is great from up here! It feels good to talk about sinners from up here. It’s easy to complain about lost people from here.
But when are going to get down off the mountain, and take action?
There’s enough Christians who are willing to condemn. Who’s willing to intercede? Who will pray like Moses, “God, if I have to lose my own life so that others can be spared, then let it be!”
On the screen is a picture of young man named Christopher Sercye. On May 16, 1998, Sercye was 15, playing basketball with his friends when he was shot in the chest. The bullet perforated his aorta leaving him unable to move. His friends rushed him as fast as they could to the Ravenswood Hospital, but when they got there, they realized here was no way they could carry him outside of the car without making things worse, so the boys ran inside and asked for help.
To the boy’s amazement, the hospital staff refused to help Christopher saying that it was against the hospital’s policies to administer aid to those outside the hospital. Eventually a policeman was able to get a wheel chair and wheeled Christopher into the hospital where he was helped by the hospital staff, however it was too late. Christopher died about one hour later.
In 1998, Congress passed the Christopher Sercye Emergency Hospital Care Zone Act, not only authorizing, but demanding that hospitals always be ready to go out of their way to treat the sick.
Church, how many Christopher Sercyes are dying outside our church walls? How many people are lost in sick without hope?
How’s the view, church? How’s the view from our spiritual mountaintop alone with Jesus, while the world is dying?
Are we looking down at the world with anger, bitterness, and frustration? Are we so tired of their liberal agendas that we’re willing to stay seating while valuable souls perish around us?
Or are we going to ask God to give us His perspective on the lost?
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
It’s time to move. [PRAY]