Well, once again, good morning. If you got a copy of Scripture today, I want you to go ahead and turn with me to the book of Exodus. The book of Exodus, the 32nd chapter, the 32nd chapter today. And since we are not in a series, two things, let me warn you. Number one, we have a mountain of text to cover today. You'll see why that is not funny in just a minute. And it's funny that joke in just a minute when we see the text. But number two, since we're not in a series, I'm going to spend some time today just talking through one of the things that, through counseling, through dealing with people, through reading about culture, one of the things that I feel like our culture, especially here in America, is beginning to slip into more and more. And that is this fact right here. Most of us, probably all of us, and most of America, if you would, would say that they kind of believe in the fact that there is a God. They would say that there is something out there. There is something that is above them. But here is the problem. Most people would say they believe that there is a God, but most people would probably, through their lifestyle and maybe even through their words, live a life that basically says that they prefer a God that is small and manageable. That's small and manageable. And here's what I mean by that. 

It’s that they prefer a God that they can fully understand, that they can fully kind of keep their hand on, that is predictable, that they can control. And a God, that is, that is, here are the words slightly bigger than them, but not so big. Does that make sense to you a little bit? Not so out there. You see, the problem is in that is that that is not the God of Scripture. It's not the God that we see in Scripture. And the problem with this kind of God, that it's just kind of moldable and that we kind of create in our own little image, is the problem with that God is that there is no way that God, that little g God that a lot of our culture is trying to create. There's no way that that kind of God can sustain you. There's no way that that kind of God can answer your biggest questions. There's no kind of, there's no way that kind of God in a time of turmoil or struggle or of hurt. There's no way that that kind of God can come behind you and sustain you in your greatest times of need. Let me say it like this: If you're not following yet, you see, a lot of us try to build God into our image of God rather than worshiping the God that Scripture has already given us, rather than worshiping the Jehovah God. 

Let me, let me, let me kind of give you an illustration. How many of you have ever been in a Build-A-Bear workshop? Has anybody in the house ever been in one of those? Come on, you can raise your hands. Come on. You know, that's like you've been there. I spent $97 on a stuffed animal. Yeah, okay. There it is. Right in a build-up. I don't even know if they still have them. I don't I don't know if they still have him or not. Anyway, my kids are a little older, although it would be a great Christmas gift. Matt. And so, when you walk into one of these Build-A-Bear deals, what do you do? First, you pick out the shape of an animal, the skin, if you would like, of the animal. Right. Then you walk past, and you pick out a heart for the little animal over here. And what do you do? You kiss the heart, you put it in. Right? And then what do you do? You pick out the little accessories for the animal, the colors, and all of those little things. Then, the last thing you do is walk over to the little stuffing machine. I don't know what it's called, right? The little machine where you kind of determine how much of the stuff that you want inside of your animal before you take it over to the little doctor, and they sew it up on the backside so it doesn't leak all the time. Right? That's what you do in the Build-A-Bear workshop right here. Here's the reality. That's a lot of the ways that some of us treat God. A lot of us. What do we do with God? We pick up the pieces of God that we want in our lives, and we pick out the different elements of God that we want and the pieces of God that we want, and we walk away from the elements that we don't want in our lives, or the elements that maybe our kids are going through. And we have to choose which one we are going to follow. Maybe Build-A-Bear is not the illustration that hits home for you.

Maybe it's kind of like going to Golden Corral for you. Maybe a whole different group of people. Right? Maybe for you, God is kind of like the Golden Corral, where you skip the healthy stuff and you just go on over here to the ribs. Amen. I mean, that's my world, right? You just eat what you want to, and you leave the rest. You see, here's the point I'm trying to make. A lot of people live in this concept that they can reimagine or remold God into the image that they want him to be, and they feel like they're blessing God by worshiping him and that image. Now, look, before we get to our text in Exodus 32, where some people are going to show us that that never turns out well, let me show you two commands in Scripture that come from the Ten Commandments. They already cut this out super early in Scripture. Exodus chapter 20 is where the Ten Commandments are listed. And you know this, but let me remind you of the second commandment. Let me bring it to our knowledge. Here it is. It says this in verse four of Exodus 20. It says you shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything that's coming on the tails of the image of God. Watch this, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me. Do you see what the text is saying? 

It’s saying that we actually hate God when we try to create a little image or a concept of God that is something in our minds rather than who God says he really is. The keyword in that text is the word image. It's an image, and it's easy to read that text if you know the Ten Commandments and just assume that that text is just a follower or a continuation of the first commandment. The first commandment is this: Exodus 20, verse three. It says that you shall have no other gods before me, before me. Now, the second commandment is not just a clarification of the first one. The first commandment says, hey, you shouldn't be worshiping anything that is not God, right? The first commandment talks about worshiping anything that is not God or not worshiping God. The second commandment talks about the fact that we should not worship anything that is not God and not God as he defines himself. You see, the Ten Commandments are all about trying to worship God in the wrong way. And here's what I believe. All right, this is just an opinion. 

I feel like we have a handle a lot of times on the first commandment not worshiping the wrong God. But I feel like a lot of times in our lives, even church people's lives, we violate the second commandment. Because why? Because we do this. We add and subtract from who God really is, and we try to mold God into our image. That's what he's talking about here. So yeah, this text is talking about not carving this little image to worship, but we don't have that little problem. But the problem we have is that we give God these attributes, or we give God this form that God has not given himself. And I would say that we violate this command more than many of the other commands when we try to define God in the image that we want him. Now, we would never come out and say it like that, but we would say it like this. You've probably heard this in the Bible study. Well, the way I see God is. Have you ever heard anybody say that? Just stop them. Right there. You go there. No matter how you see God, it matters how God sees God, right? Or maybe you've heard it like this. I don't think that the God I know would. Have you ever heard anybody say that? 

Well, depends on what Scripture says. Or the best one I've heard in a long time. Heard this one in counseling this week. If you're here, I so love you. Here it is, right? I prefer to see God as. Have you ever heard anybody say that? Well, let me just give you one statement, and then we're going to move on because I feel like I need to say it's no offense, but you don't get to define God. God defines God. We get to grab hold of the eternal God of the universe. He died for our sins, and he's given us life. And we get to be a small piece of the puzzle. The audacity to think that I, as a human being, get to define God in my image? How dare we? But we do it all the time. Why? Because our kids now believe this. Because our kid now feels this. Because our kid walks over here. And what do we do? We try to reshape God into this image. It's exactly what we're about to see in Exodus. Now, let me bring you to see what's happening in Exodus. They'll help us launch forward. Exodus is all about God's chosen people. Now, Moses has been called out. He's brought them out of bondage. He's brought the children of Israel out of Egypt. And spiritually, he is now continually reminding the Jews this is who you are in God. This is who you are in God. This is who you are as his chosen people. It has been a crystal clear display all the way through Exodus to where we're about to start, of God's power and God's presence. And it's a reminder to all of us that no matter where you are in life, every single person that has ever been born has this felt need that there is something bigger than them that they need to connect to. You could say that about every single person, whether they're a Buddhist or a Baha'i, A or a Muslim. 

We all are born with this desire, with this innate need to connect to something bigger than us. Well, what we're seeing here is that God is that something and that God's plan is always better than our plan. Why? Because God is all-loving. God is all-knowing. God is all-powerful, and God loves us so much that he doesn't want us to stay where we are. And really, what we're seeing throughout the book of Exodus is that God makes a way better God than I do, or even a way better God than I could ever design. Amen. He really does. He makes. I actually laughed out loud at my desk this week. I was studying this text, and I was just reading and really thinking through God. How can I communicate this to make sense in our lives? And I got to laugh to myself this week because I said out loud after reading this text this week that I would make a horrible God, right? A horrible God. Don't laugh. You would, too, right? I mean, I need sleep; God doesn't sleep. People annoy me so much. There's no telling what would happen if I was really God, right? I mean, I don't even know where my truck keys are sometimes, much less take care of the whole universe. I would make a horrible God. Now, most of us would not ever say hey, God, get out of the way. I should be God. But here's the principle I want us to look at today. You can write it down in the notes. Launch us into the text. 

We often try to shape God into the image that we think we should be, and it never turns out right. We want God to think and act, how we want him to act, and allow what we want him to allow. But here's the deal. That kind of reshaping of God really is rebellion. And it's really looking at a perfect father in heaven and telling him, I've got a better idea than you, and let's in church that’s sin. It's sin, and it's rebellion. But thanks be to God that even in that, God looks at us, and he forgives us, and he grabs us up and walks with us. What have you ever thought about the fact that you can write down the second principle, and then we're going to move? Have you ever thought about the fact that we rebel against the only thing that can truly satisfy our eternal souls? And that's God. Have you ever thought about that in trying to reshape God, we rebelled against the only thing that can really ever satisfy you? And it's God. Listen, that's the story of mankind. It's the story of us. And it's the story that my prayer today is that we can see through this group of people in Exodus, and then we can walk out of here with some walkaway lessons. Exodus chapter 32. We're going to jump into the text. I'm going to go ahead and warn you, Type-A people. There are zero notes until the last four minutes of the message. All right, four minutes. All right. So you can quit looking at your watches. All right, here we go. Ready? Here it is. Exodus 32, verse one. Let's just walk through the text. You can write down some things if you like. Here it goes. 

Says when the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. Aaron is the priest. They pressed on around him 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. And Aaron answered them, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, get them, Aaron, get them. It's not going to happen. Right? Here it goes. Verse two. And Aaron answered them. Here's what he said. He said, take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons, and your daughters are wearing and bring them to me. So the people took off their earrings, and they brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf. And in other words, he made a cow for these people, right? Watch, fashioning it with a tool. Remember those words. And then they said, these are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt. Now, when you read this, if you've ever read the book of Exodus in the context of Exodus, it seems absolutely unbelievable. Why? Because these people had only been in the wilderness for three months. Three months. It has been a measly three months since God took them from slavery in Egypt and delivered them. It's been three months since they saw the plagues happen. It's been three months since they saw the sea split in front of him. It's been three months since they saw God lead them by fire and by cloud. It's been three months since they've seen the manna. The Golden Grahams from heaven fall to feed them. It's been three months since they've been seeing the quail. One of the most underrated miracles in the whole Bible falls from the sky so they can have protein. It's been only three months that God has provided them supernaturally water twice. Once because it came out of a rock, once because it was bitter, and he made it for them. It's only been three months since the mountain events, the consuming fire, the earthquake, the lightning, and the direct words that they had heard from God. 

But at this point, only three months in, even though they've been seeing all this stuff at this very moment, it seems like they are saying that the provision of God has gone, that God has forgotten them, and that they are going to do what they want to do because it seems like God is not even there. Now, when you read that, be very careful not to judge them too hard. Why? Because you've been there before. You've been there in your life before you say, man, I've never been there before. I've never been at the base of the mountain waiting for something like this to happen. No, but you've been at a point in your life where it just seems like God, although he has done something big in the past, and right now, things seem to be quiet. Things seem to be still, things seem to be not happening, and the provision of God has been forgotten. So before we judge him too hard, we have all been there. We've all struggled. Here is one of the worst of Israel's struggles. And so what do they do? They go off on their own, and they do what they think is right. What do they do? Well, we just read it. They take off all of their gold jewelry. They take off all their earrings and all their gold jewelry, melt them down, and make this golden calf to worship. Now, let me ask you something. Do you remember where they got all this gold? Now, if you read Exodus, you'll know that they got all of this gold because God gave it to them. God gave it to them. But really, the Egyptians gave it to them. Now, let me tell you the story real fast. After all the plagues, right before they get to the sea being split in front of them, God put the Egyptians into some kind of mental state. I don't know what kind of mental state it is, but God put the Egyptians into some kind of mental state where the Egyptians lined the roads as they were walking out of town, and they just started giving them all of their jewelry and all of their gold. I mean, in my mind, I can just picture it, right? They're walking down the road. They're really, really upset about what's going on. The Egyptians hate them at this point because of all the plagues. And they're like, here's my Rolex, right? Here's my earrings. Here's my necklace for my grandma. Take them and get out of here. 

Now, as funny as it seems, it actually proves a point. The point is that God not only delivered them but also provided for them for the future, and God provided a covenant with them that he would take care of. He would take care of them and carry them into the next stage of life. In reality, it is also a way that we can see in marriage. When you give your spouse a ring in marriage, it means that we are together. We are not going to be apart, and we belong to each other. It's what God was doing at the end of this. But now, just three months in, even though God has done everything he said he was going to do, they're melting down this gift from God. How? Watch this in verse five. Why? Watch what it says. Says when Aaron saw this, the priest built an altar in front of the calf and announced tomorrow, there will be a festival to the Lord. Now circle that word, Lord, because it's capitalized. That word, Lord, right there is Yahweh. It is the true Lord. This is a little confusing, but you'll see it in a minute. So the next day, the people rose early, and they sacrificed the burnt offerings and presented the fellowship offerings, which, by the way, is the right way to worship according to chapter 29 of Exodus. Now, I'm not making excuses for what Israel did here, but I feel like I need to explain what they are doing because one of the things that we do when we read the Old Testament sometimes is we think, man, that is so far out there that there's no way that has anything to do with my life, right? We read that in the Old Testament. I don't have a golden calf on my mantle. I don't have a big old thing that we worship on my mantle. No, but I want to show you what's happening and how it relates to us. 

So Moses, their leader, had been gone for 40 days, right? He is up on the mountain. The last time they had seen Moses, their leader, he was heading up into the consuming fire of the Lord. In fact, Exodus 24, verse 15, says this: When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it. The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and for six days, the cloud covered the mountain. And on the seventh day, the Lord called Moses from within the mountain. Verse 17: To the Israelites, the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. And watch this. And then Moses entered the cloud as he went up on the mountain. So, what did these people see? They saw that either Moses had gone up into this mountain, and he would be back by now if he was still alive, but because he went up into the consuming fire. Moses has probably been burnt to a crisp. Right? And so now they're panicking. They're going, man, we're out here in the desert. We have nothing. We have no jobs. We have nothing going on. We have no hope. What if the quail stops? What if the manna stops? What if Moses had just left us for no reason? And so what they did was they came up with a way that they thought they could worship God. In other words, they came up with a way that they thought in their minds was the best thing to do. Not, though, following God's command. Listen, they didn't outright reject God. Don't think that. They didn't outright reject him. They were just trying to get back to God on their own terms and shape God into something that they felt like they wanted him to be. There was no proclamation here that they were now atheists, right? Verse five says they declared the feast to the Lord. Verse four, we just read, says that these are your gods. The calf and Jehovah. 

I want you to understand something. The calf is not a replacement for God. It's a supplement to God. And I think we live in this lifestyle sometimes. I really, really do. Here's what I mean by that. You see, I don't think many of us would stand up and just say, well, I'm replacing God with this in my life. But I think a lot of us live in lifestyles where we add things to God to try to make it more palatable for us. Listen, what are they doing? They're reimagining the remodeling, and that is a dangerous sin. They wanted God, but they wanted to seek God how they wanted to on their terms, in their timeline, and not how God had directed them to worship him. Which is exclusive. Man, we fall into this trap by saying things like this to God: God, I'll worship you. But you got to leave me with this part of my life. God, I'll follow you. But God, I'm going to keep this as a key of my life. You know, it's hard to worship God that we don't see, right? And many times, what do we do when we're worshiping a God we don't see? We do the same thing they do. They fall back into something they can see. You say, Matt, what does that have to do with them making a cow? It has everything to do with them making a cow. You see, in their life, where did they grow up? In Egypt. One of the key gods in Egypt was a calf named Apis. You can look it up this way. You can fact-check me for all that you want to; it’s Apis. The god Apis in the Egyptian religion was formed because lightning, so-called, hit a cow one day, and it formed the god of vitality, power, and fertility. And now, when they saw this lightning on the mountain, they were like, well, hey, there used to be this God in Egypt that connected us to the bigger gods. So let's form one of those gods, this little g god so that maybe it'll connect to the big G God, and then we can worship it. 

Now, look, I know that you're like, it doesn't have anything to do with my life. Yeah. It does. Here's how. In times of anxiety, quiet, and trouble, the old gods that we used to worship are always the gods that come to the top of our lives. For you, it is probably not a golden calf. For you, maybe it's pride. For you, maybe it's something you rely on to get you through the day. For you, maybe it's some kind of sexuality that doesn't honor God with your life. Come back to that in a minute. But I want to finish the story because it gets great. Watch this in verse six. It says. Afterward, they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. That's not an eighth-grade dance. That's a drunken sexual fest. That's all it is. Free for all. Verse seven. Then the Lord said to Moses, go down because your people who you brought up out of Egypt, I love that it's not God's people anymore. It's Moses's people. If you ever have that kid, that's trouble. And your wife's like, go get your kid, all right? That's what Moses did right here. All right? He says the people you brought up out of Egypt have become corrupt. They've been quick to turn away from what I have commanded them. And they made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They've bowed down to it. They've sacrificed to it and have said, these are your gods, Israel, who you brought up out of Egypt. I have seen these people. The Lord told Moses that they were stiff-necked people. I love this metaphor of being stiff-necked. Do you know why? Because I can relate to it. Amen. I can relate to it. Stiff-necked is an agrarian term. It's a term that you would describe an animal that did not like to be yoked. You say, Matt, what does that mean? We're not farmers. 

Think of it like this. Think of it: the last time you were trying to correct your toddler, and you know how, like any time you need to correct, your kids are always looking away from you? It just seems like that's how it always is. So, what do you do with your toddler in a godly way? You kind of you kind of hold them. You kind of get down low on their level, and you try to pull their face back over to you so you can have this conversation with him. And what do they do? I mean, they fight it, don't they? I mean, they fight it. They fight to get away from you. That is exactly what God is saying here. He is saying, man, these people are stiff-necked. They want their way, they want their deal, and they want their personal preference rules. Does that sound a little bit like us? Also, look closely at what God has been doing during this time. What do we just read? What's God been doing? God has been watching his people. You see, the problem is never that God isn’t present; the problem is, do we realize he's present, and does it affect us? The problem is, are we going to realize his presence, and are we resisting him? You say well, Matt, it was easy for them. They had the physical presence of God in their life by a fire, by a cloud. They would turn the script on that and say this. It's easy for us because we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. Keep reading. I want you to see what Moses does and what God says to him. Verse ten says, now leave me alone. God says, so that my anger may burn against them, that I may destroy them. And then watch what he says to Moses: I will make you into a great nation. Does it seem like God's a little bit done with him at this point? Yes. Right. He's, but he's really not ready to write them off. Because God knows it’s his people. God knows it’s the people that he has chosen. 

So what does God do? And all theologians agree that God is testing Moses, and he's pushing Moses to pray. He's drawing this faith response out of Moses to do what? To intercede on behalf of the Israelites. God is showing us what a coming Jesus is going to do for us, right? Because what is Jesus doing for us right now? He's interceding on our stiff neck behalf, right? It's exactly who Moses is. Watch what happens next in verse 11. But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. Lord, he said, why should your anger burn against the people you brought up out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say it was with evil intent that you brought them out to kill them in the mountains and wipe them off the face of the earth? Moses is saying, God, these are your people. God, you are powerful. God, receive glory from them. Watch this, watch what Moses says to God. He says, God, turn from your fierce anger and relent. Do not bring disaster to your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, Israel, to whom you swore by your own self, and said, I will make descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give descendants all this land I promise them, and it will be their inheritance forever. So what is Moses doing? Moses is doing the exact same thing we should do in our prayer life. We're going to talk about it some more next week. He's recalling the promises of God. He's recalling the character of God. He's saying, God, you started this. God, your glory is at stake. God, finish it and get the glory. Verse 14. 

Then, the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster that he had threatened. Now, this one verse causes a lot of people to have some theological angles and some really big problems. But you know what this really means? This means that our prayers unlock God's plans. That's what it means: church. It means that when we pray, God's heart hears. Keep going. Verse 15: Moses turned and went down the mountain. Listen, it gets better. The two tablets of the covenant of the law. In his hands, they were inscribed on both sides, front and back. The tablets were the work of God. The writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets, which was the very penmanship of God. Keep in verse 17, when Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, Joshua was the intern by the way of Moses. When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he told Moses there was a sound of war in the camp. Moses replied it was not the sound of victory. It is not the sound of defeat. It is the sound of singing that I hear. Moses says, nope, it's war, and he's saying it's sin. Verse 19. Then Moses approached the camp, and he saw the calf and the dancing, and his anger burned, and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. Do you know what this represents? It represents the broken covenant of God that we broke the covenant of God. And what happens next makes Moses my hero. Verse 20, listen to it. And he took the calf the people had made, and he burned it in the fire. Then he ground it to powder. He scattered it in the water, and he made the Israelites drink it. 

Okay, maybe that's not good for you, but that is good for me. Amen. This could be my favorite Moses moment ever. Do you know why? Because it reminds me over and over and over again how serious God is about sin in my life and how serious God is about me trying to create my own God. You say, Matt, how in the world does it mean any of that? What did Moses do? Moses not only destroyed the sin. Moses not only burnt the sin. Moses not only purified the sin. But God, through Moses, wanted these people to be so sick when they thought about this sin again. What did he do? He ground it down, put it in the water, and made them drink it. Now listen, here's the deal. The old digestive tract probably didn't like this a whole lot. Amen. Probably didn't like this a whole lot. And here is the point of this. When they saw this gold again, what goes in must come out. I mean, you feel where I'm going with that, right? This was a direct message of what God thought about the little g God that they had tried to create. Church, let me tell you something: God hates sin. He hates it when we try to make cheap replacements for him, and he hates it when we try to drag culture into defining who God is. This is how much he hates it. He hates it as much as a pile. We're going to keep reading. All right, verse 21. All right. Two of you got that. Here it is, verse 21. And he said to Aaron, Aaron's the priest. What did these people do to you that you led them into such a great sin? Remember, Aaron's the priest. He's like, you should be taking care of these people. 

Listen to what Aaron said. He said, do not be angry at me, Lord. Aaron answered, you know how prone these people are to evil, right? You're always blaming it on the other people. Listen, your response is never determined by other people. You should know that, right? Aaron? Verse 20. Watch what he said. They said to me, make us gods who would go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him. In other words, he's blaming Moses for being with God. Watch. It gets better in verse 24. So Aaron said, so I told them, whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off. They gave me the gold. Listen to what he said. And I threw it in the fire, and poof out came this calf. It's got to be the worst lie in the whole Bible, right? This is like a middle schooler getting caught stealing gum in the grocery store. Like, I don't know how it got in that pocket. Just jumped in, Mom. Right. Verse 25 Moses saw that the people were running wild. That were running wild means they totally gave up any moral restraint. Why? Because that's where sin takes you. That's where you end up when you try to define God. Moses saw that the people were running wild, and Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies. 

So he stood at the entrance of the camp. Moses did, and he said, whoever is for the Lord, come to me. And all the Levites rallied to him. Then he said to them, this is what the Lord God of Israel says. Each man straps a sword to your side. Go back and forth throughout the camp, one into another, killing his brother, his friend, and his neighbor. And the Levites did as Moses commanded. And that day, about 3000  people died, which on this side of the New Testament were like God. That's a little harsh, isn't it? Well, let me ask you something. If you have a cancerous, malignant growth growing in your chest, do you not need to get it out of there so that the rest of the body can function right? That's exactly what God did right here. 2 to 3 million people, 3000 of them, died the first day the covenant was supposed to be read. But God had to wake them up to what happens when they try to create God in their image. Now, let's finish the story in verse 30. The next day, Moses said to the people, you have committed a great sin. But now, listen to what Moses says, and this is what Jesus does for us, the church. But now I will go up to the Lord, and perhaps I can make an atonement for your sin. 

So Moses went back to the Lord and said, oh, what a great sin these people have committed. They've made themselves gods of gold. But now, God, please forgive their sin. Now you can read the rest of the story this week, which I think you should because it's an incredible story of man's evil and God's good. It's an incredible story of that. Even when we run away from God's Church, God is standing, and he is watching. He is waiting for us to turn back to him. And it's an incredible story of the forgiveness and the love and the grace and the mercy that God offers. Even when sin gets the best of us, and we try to define God into who we want him to be. But here's what I want to do with the five minutes and 23 seconds I have left. I want to give you five walkaway points that really hit me this week and challenged my own personal life. Number one, let me just encourage you. Number one, don't doubt in the dark what God has shown you in the light. Don't doubt in the dark what God has shown you in the light. You say, Matt, what does that mean? That means this. There are times when God seems silent. There are times when God seems out there. There are times that God seems to not be speaking and not moving and not answering all of your questions. Don't doubt in those moments. Go back to the moments that he has delivered you. Go back to the moments because listen, I got news for you, believer. God is going to be quiet sometimes. Sometimes, it's going to feel like he's not fighting. Sometimes, it's going to feel like nobody's around. Sometimes, it feels like God just doesn't make sense. Here's what I'm going to tell you. Go back to the times of light. Go back to the times you knew he was leading you. Go back to the times you knew he was saving you. Go back to the times. You know, you came out of Egypt spiritually, and you went into the promised land of knowing that you're a child of his. Go back to those moments, faith. You might need to spend some time this week just writing out five, six, seven, ten. However, many times, you know that God has delivered you. Because I can guarantee you that Satan wants to drag you into the dark moments and try to cancel out the light moments. Number one, don't doubt in the dark what he's shown you in the light. And here's number two: expose the idols that you return to in times of stress and turmoil and offer them to Jesus now. 

Don't wait till the times of stress, because I can tell you this in times of stress, in the times of turmoil, those are not the times you're always going to turn pre decide. Does that make sense? Pre decide now God I know that this is where I get God I know that this is where I go. I know that when stress comes I know that when turmoil comes I know that when these times of waiting and moments of darkness come, God, I know this is where I run to. And God, I'm already now going to go ahead and give you that now so that when it comes, you already have it. Listen, I don't know where you run to. You may run the money, you may run to pride. You may run to shopping. You may run to pornography. You may run to social status. You may run to food. You may run to some kind of drink or drug to numb you away. But confess it now. God, I know I run to this, but from this day forward I'm running to you. I'm running to you. Here's number three. Never treat sin as if it will have no consequence. Man, this hit me hard from the story this week. These people just thought, man, we'll just do what we want. Moses is gone right? But where was God? Remember we said it. God was on the mountain and God was watching. Believers know this. God knows everything and your sin will be exposed. In fact, Numbers 23, or Numbers 32:23 says this. But if you fail to do this, you will be sinning against the Lord, and you may be sure that your sin will find you out. Listen, just because it's done in the dark doesn't mean that God doesn't see it. There's always a consequence. 

Here's number four. Set your sights on running away from sin rather than creeping toward it and justifying it. This is Aaron's problem here, I think Aaron just kind of creeped into this mess. I don't think he meant for any of this to happen. I don't think that it was a malicious intent for any of this to happen, that he was like, hey, maybe nobody or no, maybe nobody will find out. Maybe this is kind of where it is. I'm creeping to it. And then what did he try to do on the backside of it? He tried to justify it and he tried to lie against it. How far is too far is never the question. What is holiness is always the question. And if we live on the side of holiness, even when we fall, sometimes we don't fall into sin. We fall on the other side. Here's number five. It's the crux of the whole thing this morning. Church, trust who Scripture says God really is not who others, not who culture or not even who your mind tries to tell you he is Now look, I want to be just as serious as I can with this. Satan is not going to try to get you to renounce God tomorrow. He's not going to do that. He knows that's not going to be effective. But what he is going to do is this he's going to start chipping away at some of the things that are in your life that either just don't make total sense that somebody in your life is going through, or that you have a bent towards following. And what are you going to begin to do is going to say, then is, does God really care about that? I know it says in the Bible, Does God really care? Does God really matter? Does it really matter about who you're living with that you're not married to? Does it really matter how you dress that that totally drags every boy down around you? Does the language you really matter use? Does it really matter how you use your money? Does it really matter how all of this stuff is? Is that really what God. That's what Satan's going to do. Eventually, you're going to roll into this, to where you're trusting that you know what's best even above Scripture. I got to thinking about this this week. 

And listen, we got two choices to make. We can choose on this side a fake God the Satan puts in front of us that never confuses you, then never contradicts you, but ultimately can never deliver you. Or we can choose the true God of the universe that sometimes frustrates us as human beings. Sometimes seems like he's silent, sometimes seems like I just can't grab onto fully, but at the end of the day has the power to give you eternal life. So which one are you going to choose? The fake one that you fashion, that you're going to end up burning up? Or the one that can give you life? Let's pray together. 

Lord Jesus today, God, we fully recognize today that you are the Lord. God, here's my prayer for this place today that we can see exactly who you are and exactly what you would have to do, and we can fall in total submission to Your Holiness. God, I just pray during this next minute or two of invitation today. God, that you just show us yourself. God, I pray that you radically save some people today. Some people need to give their life to Jesus in this room. I know it, and I pray for others today that they will finally submit wholly to you. I pray for others that need to join this church and come alongside of us. God, move in these next couple of minutes as we have this time of invitation. It's in your name. We pray. 

Amen.