The Story, Unit 1:Point of View Sermon 5: New Commands October 5, 2014 Last week, you were introduced to Moses. Now Moses is not a new name. In fact, Doc mentioned that only 2 people have more written about them in the Bible...Jesus and King David. We learned about God calling Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. There at a burning bush, Moses had an experience with God. One of the principles we learned was that when God does something amazing to you, He wants to do something amazing through you." Moses really isn't any different than anyone else we have looked at in chapters 1-5. We have looked at Adam and Eve, Cain and Able, Noah, Abraham and Joseph. They each have their own stories. Each story has its own difficulties and challenges, but from God's point of view, as much as He is interested in each individual person and what is going on in their lives, He also has a plan for mankind. Despite Adam and Eve's sin, he continues to relate and provide for them. Despite Abraham and Sarah not being able to have a child, He has Abraham look into the sky at the stars and tells him, "So shall your descendants be." Despite Joseph ending up in a pit and prison, he rises to second in command in Egypt, saving Egypt and his family. Joseph tells his brothers, who threw him in the pit and sold him as a slave, "Don't be upset and angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives." All through this series Doc has reminded us of the first 4 words, "In the beginning God." Everything seems to hinge on our belief and trust regarding phrases such as "in the beginning God'' and "It was God". Can we trust that He can take our pieces of being banished from a garden, not able to have a child, being thrown into a pit and being sold as a slave and put those individual pieces together and use them for His good and His purposes? Can we trust His point of view when our point of view doesn't make sense? Sometimes things can really be confusing from 2 different points of view. I found this letter that was sent from a woman and her husband who were going to campground. The woman is described as rather old-fashioned, quite delicate, especially in her language. She wrote to a particular campground and asked for reservations. She wanted to make sure the campground was fully equipped but didn't quite know how to ask for toilet facilities. She just couldn't bring herself to write the work "toilet" in her letter.
After much deliberation she finally came up with the old-fashioned term of "bathroom commode", but when she wrote that down, she still thought it was being too forward. She started all over again to rewrite the entire letter and referred to the "bathroom as the'' B.C." "Does the campground have its own B.C.?" she wrote. Well, the campground owner wasn't old-fashioned at all and when he got the letter he couldn't figure out what the woman was talking about. The "BC" business really stumped him. After worrying about it for a while, he showed it to several campers and they couldn't figure it out either, so the campground owner figured it must mean the 'BAPTIST CHURCH' and its location. So he replied--- Dear Madam, I regret very much the delay in answering your letter, but I now take the pleasure of informing you that the "BC" is located 9 miles north of the campground and is capable of seating 250 people at one time. I admit it is quite a distance away if you are in the habit of going regular, but no doubt you'll be pleased to know that a great many people take their lunches along and make a day of it. They usually arrive early and stay late. The last time my wife and I went was 6 years ago and it was so crowded we had to stand up the whole time we were there. It may interest you to know that right now there is a supper planned to raise money to buy more seats. They are holding it in the basement of the B.C. I would like to say it pains me very much not to be able to more regular, but it is surely no lack of desire on my part. As we grow older, it seems to be an effort, especially in cold weather. If you decide to come down to our campground, perhaps I could go with you the first time, sit with you and introduce you to all the other folks. Remember, this is a friendly community. We ended last week with the Israelites being released from Egypt. Pharaoh went back on his word and chased them to the Red Sea and God parts the sea, saving the Israelites and killing the Egyptians. 2 months have passed and the Israelites have come to a place where they are camped at the base of a mountain called Sinai. Chapter 5 is a huge transition in the story because now God is no longer going to relate to only one person, like he has with Noah, Abraham, Joseph and Moses. God is now going to share life with all of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Just like chapter 1, God wants to dwell among His creation.
God calls Moses up on the mountain and says that he has something he wants Moses to tell the people. "You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession." God is saying that He wants to put something before the people of Israel. What he is putting something in front of them is something different than he has before. He says, "Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant..." We have heard the word covenant before. A covenant is a promise. It is not the same as a contract. I make a contract to protect myself. A covenant is something I enter into that protects you. Covenant is for the other persons benefit. God made a covenant with Abraham promising to make him a great nation. God made a covenant with Noah promising to never destroy the earth by a flood again. This covenant is different. God says, "If you obey...". The other covenants were unconditional. God said he was making a promise and required nothing from US, but now there is a condition. There is a response required. God wants the Israelites to have some skin in the game. He tells Moses in 3 days he is going to come down on Mt. Sinai and He is going to speak. Earlier we made an announcement that John Calipari was coming to speak at CCCC. Have you already cleared your schedule? Did you text anyone to let them know? Do you already have the lucky blue shirt picked out that you are going to wear? Well, I get to be the bearer of bad news. John Calipari is not coming to speak. You probably were really excited. In planning our worship service for this week, we tried to think of something that would have the same sense of anticipation that the Israelites had in meeting with God. Moses goes down to tell all the people to prepare to meet God. This is serious. They are told not to touch the mountain or they will die. They must prepare themselves. Moses dedicated them to God, people washed their clothes and they were to abstain from sexual relations. They were to get themselves ready. "On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled." They may have been excited, but it seems that fear was the dominate emotion. "Mt. Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The whole mountain trembled violently." God descends on the mountain and Moses enters the cloud that seems to have fire in it. The people are so scared that they tell Moses, "you speak to us, but don't have God speak to us or we will die."
God speaks to Moses. In the cloud, God says, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery." He tells Moses the 10 Commandments. You have seen them: No other gods before me. Don't make any idols. Don't misuse my name. Remember the Sabbath The first 4 commandments are part of the conditions of how we are to relate to God. Honor your father and mother. Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not lie about your neighbor. Do not covet what your neighbor has. The last six commandments deal with how we relate to people. God has verbalized these laws to Moses. Moses tells the people God's conditions for the covenant, and the people respond, "Everything the Lord has said we will do." This is great. God has been doing His part and now the Israelites promise to do their part. Look what happens next. God calls Moses to the mountain again and this time He tells Moses that he is going to write down the commandments on stone and give them to Moses. Well Moses is gone for a week, 2 weeks and finally he is gone for a 40 days on the mountain with God. The Israelites turn to Aaron and say, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him." Now at this point, I would expect Aaron to really get on the Israelites. Aaron was the mouthpiece for Moses. He had seen all the plagues. He had just been on the mountain when God verbalized the 10 commandments. I want him to be sarcastic and say, "A god who will go before you... we have a God who has gone and will go before us. Don't you remember just a few weeks ago, you stood before God and said, 'Everything the Lord has said, we will do." Do you remember one of the themes we have highlighted throughout this Point of View series: God blesses, Man Messes and someone ends up getting hurt. Man is messing it up royally. This shouldn't surprise us. Adam and Eve ate from the tree. Cain killed Abel. Noah got drunk. Abraham lied about his wife. Joseph was entitled and thought too highly of himself. Now
the Israelites, the ones who God has rescued and wants to be in relationship, have turned their back. Aaron tells them to bring all their gold earrings. He melts it all down and fashions a golden calf. Aaron tells the people, "Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you out of Egypt. Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord." Chapter 5 tells me a lot about me. This story and the other examples I have mentioned tell a lot about us. This is one of the things we need to highlight from this Point of View Series. We say we will obey but when push comes to shove, we cave. While God is hand writing the 10 commandments, His people are breaking the first 2. They are breaking: no other gods and don't worship idols. Most of you would say, "Todd, I'm not going to worship a golden calf." What about the first commandment... "You shall have no other gods before me." What in your life competes for #l? Is it a job, a relationship, a hobby or your kids? You may have heard the circuit riding preacher, in the early 1900s, who was making his monthly rounds when he visited an isolated farmhouse. The farmer and his wife invited the preacher in and began talking religion. The wife decided wanted to impress the preacher, so she called her son over to her side. "Billy Joe, you go and fetch your mother the book she loves so dearly- the one she reads all the time- - you know the book." in a moment the boy reappeared and proudly handed her a worn out copy of the Sears & Roebuck Catalog. There are "things" that God has to compete with in our lives, but listen to what David writes in Psalm 106:19-22. "The people made a calf a Mount Sinai; they bowed before an image made of gold. They traded their glorious God for a statue of a grass-eating bull. They forgot God, their savior, who had done such great things in Egypt." David, looking back on this story, can't believe that they let go of God for a grass-eating bull. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. He is referring to the Olympic Games. Back then they did not receive a gold medal; they received a crown of olive leaves that we be placed on their heads. In just a few days, that "prize" would be wilting and falling apart. Listen to what he says, "Don't you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize."
The more I thought about it this week; I came up with several good options as to why this occurs. Yes, "stuff" can get in the way. I found a great quote about comfort and complacency about the "luck of the draw" to be born in the United States. But after thinking through this chapter this week. I am the problem. You are the problem. I would never say these things out loud, but I live them. I know better than God. I think God's ideas and ways aren't very good...mine are better. I need to be on the throne of my life. That is why this week is so important. God is giving us standards for a relationship and we can't keep up our end of the bargain. God gives the 10 commandments to show US that we need a Savior. James 2:10 states, "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.'' It is kind of like having a window. It doesn't matter if you have 10 holes or 1 hole; the window needs replacing. If you are asking why God gave the 10 Commandments, there seems to be one reason...to show us that we can't keep them. God uses the 10 Commandments to show and remind us: He is the Creator and we are the creation, He is able to be faithful and we are not, He is holy and we are not. Chapter 5 tells me a lot about God. He wants relationship with us. He wants to dwell among us and be in relationship with US. God actually tells Moses, "Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." God shows how serious He is about relationship with us in this chapter. When they made the golden calf, God instructed Moses to grind down the golden calf and put it in water and made the people drink. Moses also, asked the people to choose a side. Remember the 12 brothers of Joseph. It says that those in the family of David sided with Moses. God instructed these people to go throughout the camp and kill those who were still partying. 3000 people died that day. He has standards for living and worshiping. He has given the 10 commandments. He also gave other laws to Moses called the Book of the Law that help them understand daily life. God gave standards for worshiping. He told them to create a tabernacle or tent of meeting. This would be a place where God would dwell in their midst. Can I take you to the end of this chapter? "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I Promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your descendants.' I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Go
up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way."' Do you realize what God is saying, "I have had it up to here! I am going to keep my part of the bargain and give you the land. I will send an angel to protect you, but I am not going, because I might just wipe you all out." The good thing about this conversation is that he said this to Moses, not to the Israelite people. What do you think they would have said if God had given them that choice? You may think, Todd, you are being really had on them. Think about it-at one point they were willing to return to Egypt without God or an angel, just to escape the desert discomforts. I am sure they would have taken the Promised Land with an angel. Listen to Moses response in Exodus 33 :15, "If Your presence does not go with US, do not bring US up from here." "Here" was the desert. It was a place of hardship, a land void of comfort and pleasure. Make sure you get what Moses is saying, "I would rather have Your presence in the unwanted and uncomfortable place than a land of abundance and beauty void of Your presence. This is what really became clear to me in this chapter. The Israelites were in a relationship with God based on what God could do for them. Moses was in a relationship solely for who God was and is. Listen to what Hebrews 11:24-27 says, "It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to share the oppression of God's people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin. He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward. He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible." I have to believe that one day, when he walked over the bush what wouldn't burn up and God spoke his name; that day changed him forever. All Moses wanted from that day forward was to know God intimately. Maybe you are saying, "I want to have faith like that... no turning back. I want to have a relationship that is all about WHO God is." You can have that today. God has made a really good case that He wants relationship and we need relationship. God is going to pursue that throughout the rest of the story. We have had a logo throughout this series called Point of View. We hope God's point of view is becoming clearer. The last several weeks I had no idea what this was. Let me show you something about this graphic. Chris Taylor is our Communications Director. Each week, he creates some amazing graphics that add so much to our service. He is behind the
scenes, so tell him thank you when you see him. He brought me into his office and gave me this card. I am going to guide you like he guided me.