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August 11, 2024 - Exodus 32-34 - Ryan Palmer
for you extroverts I'm sorry we're cutting this the greeting time or shutting it down for you introverts you're welcome there's a lot of you well I'll have all of you upset with me if we don't move on with things here so we're happy to have all of you it's awesome to look out and to see a lot of the roads full full I love seeing God's community come together here and all of us worshiping God together on Sunday mornings and then we also have our connection groups and different avenues like that rock the block event I wasn't able to be here for that but it from looking at pictures online the Facebook website it looks like that was an awesome event it grows bigger every year so thank you guys for who I know nearly all of you participated in that so thank you guys very much for making that happen the community from the position that that I have in the community they talk about it so it's an awesome thing to see our church be a part of that and to see God work in that so today we're gonna continue our discussion I should introduce myself some of you don't know me my name is Ryan Palmer many of you do I'm an elder here at hello everyone I'm an elder here at Stone Bridge and I get the privilege of preaching once every eight or ten weeks somewhere in there so this is one of those weeks so if it's your first week like the couple I met earlier hopefully this isn't a training wreck come back next week and you can hear Pastor Matt all right so today to start we're gonna be working through Exodus 32 to 34 we're gonna continue our journey through Exodus we have three chapters today last week we had six chapters so we have a little bit less but we still have a lot of content to try and get through my prayer is that you guys would go back and look at these three chapters there is so much in these chapters of God's holiness his faithfulness and his redemption I can only pick out a small portion to try and focus on but I really ask that you guys over the next week you'd go back and you'd study these three chapters and you'd see what it is that God would have for each and every one of your hearts as like I said there's so much my prayer is that he will really be speaking to all of us just in what he's given me to say to you guys today but I guarantee there's gonna be more so go back and read these three chapters later on but to start before we dig into Exodus 32 I want to form this bedrock for God's message his words to sit on today and really just a spot for our heart to just kind of sit and meditate for a little bit while God speaks to us so to do that I referenced it a second ago we've been speaking or talking about God's holiness his faithfulness and his redemption as we've been working through Exodus so I want to pick out two of those to form this platform for God's words to sit on today so the first one's gonna be holy God's holiness to be holy is to be sacred is to be set apart it's to be pure undefiled morally blameless and without sin holy is who God is and really his holiness influences all of his other attributes if you've ever done a study on the attributes of God you know that holiness is at the center of these attributes okay his love is a holy love it's a pure and it's an undefiled love his wrath is a holy wrath God hates sin because of his holiness his justice is a holy justice when God acts when he speaks when he works all of this is done out of his holiness and his utter perfection he's a holy God and he's set apart the Israelites they knew God's holiness okay a couple months ago we covered Exodus 15 and a lot of Exodus 15 is this praise song that sung to God as the Israelites worship God and as they declare his holiness okay and prior to chapter 15 the Israelites they were under the suppression of the Egyptians who were serving many false gods at the time so the Israelites knew what false gods were they knew the powerlessness that was found in false gods but they also know the magnificent power of our holy God as he led them to where they're at today at the base of Mount Sinai so in chapter 15 the Israelites they're recalling many of God's acts of power and his holiness and his faithfulness and they say God you alone are glorious in holiness God you're set apart from those other gods they're saying those other gods they have no power on you them your blast from your nostrils makes the waters stand firm like a dam God you shatter your enemies like it's nothing your warrior they say your name is supreme the I am is your name the Lord is your name this is the Israelites declaring the holiness of God so I want us to remember as we go into what we're going into today where we see some rebellion and idolatry the Israelites knew the holiness of God it had been leading them to where they're at but yet they still fell to rebellion and idolatry so I also want to use a small portion of Isaiah to kind of point out God's holiness to us Isaiah chapter 6 verse 1 Isaiah receives this vision from God in verse 1 says in the year that King Ussa died I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne and the hymn of his robe filled the temple so let's stop with verse 1 for a second I just want to say God does not sit on a chair in heaven right God does not sit on a chair anyone can sit on chairs you guys right now are sitting in chairs but holy rulers they sit on thrones sovereign King sit on throats judges sit on thrones okay those with proper authority proper holiness and proper sovereignty sit on thrones and God is a God who's elevated above the Israelites lives he's a God who's elevated above our lives and he's a God who sits on a throne because of his holiness verse 2 Isaiah chapter 6 Sarah friend we learned last week Matt pointed out those are angel Sarah from understanding above him they each had six wings with two they covered their faces to they covered their feet and with two they flew and one called to another holy holy holy is the Lord of armies his glory fills the whole earth so these angels are saying to each other holy holy holy is our Lord now why do they need to say it three times wouldn't it be enough to just say our Lord is holy no it's not enough to say it once sets him apart okay to say it twice sets him apart that much more but to say that our Lord is holy holy holy sets his name apart to the highest possible degree so high that these angels had to cover their faces in the presence of God and we're not going to go into it today but in our text today when you guys go back and read it you'll see that Moses had to cover his face in the presence of God because of God's holiness his face his complexion even shown bright Moses is because of the holiness of God's presence so to say that our God is holy holy holy is correct and it sets him apart from everything else so we're working to create this bedrock and God's holiness is a first key portion of that his faithfulness is the second half of that so Moses speaks in Deuteronomy he says know that the Lord the Lord your God is God the faithful God who keeps his gracious covenant loyalty for a thousand generations with those who love him now what I love about this text here is Moses could have stopped with the first quarter of that verse right he could have said know that the Lord your God is God and then everything else that follows would have been captured within that because that alone speaks of God's supremacy it speaks of his holiness he's a gracious God he's a glorious God he's a faithful God right our God is the God and he's a faithful God we really see this all throughout scripture but even from the first chapters of Genesis we see a faithful God pursuing his people okay out of his holiness and his love his patience his graciousness with open arms he's in constant pursuit of us he was in constant pursuit of the Israelites and he's faithfully in pursuit of us the name of God the Lord the I am is pursuing us today so some of us came into this room with I don't know what baggage some of us came into this room with sins that we feel like we're enslaved by that we're chained to I just want you to know God is faithfully pursuing you and there's nothing that you can do about that so stop running right some of us keep running from God just stop running he's faithfully pursuing us in Exodus we learn how God has pursued the Israelites and through his love and faithfulness he's really covenanted himself to his people so that he could work to redeem their heart and fickle hearts and the Israelites have really shown time after time their faithlessness but in God's faithfulness he continues to provide for them we've seen how he splits the Red Sea we've seen how he provides food from heaven we see how he turns bitter water into fresh water he provides ways for the Israelites to commune with him okay the Israelites were surrounded by God's faithfulness as they follow God okay God is faithful and he's incapable of anything but fidelity right he's incapable of anything but a holy loyalty and that holy loyalty is pursuing us today second Timothy 213 if we're faithless he remains faithful he cannot deny himself so if one falls away in faith faithlessness it doesn't change who God is he continues to remain faithful I sound like a broken record here but the Israelites showed their faithlessness but God remained faithful the faithlessness of man doesn't disprove the faithfulness of God the faithlessness of me the faithlessness of you doesn't disprove the faithfulness of God he continues to faithfully pursue his children so God's holiness and his faithfulness make up this bedrock for our hearts to just sit today so with the remaining time we're gonna start covering Exodus 32 to Exodus 34 and my prayer like I said before is that your hearts would just be really humble as you allow God to speak to you so we're gonna move through this fairly quickly we're gonna skip around a little bit so bear with me take notes where you can if you have questions later feel free to ask or any of the elders feel free to ask us Exodus 32 one through six we're gonna look at that first says when the people saw that Moses delayed and coming down from the mountain they gathered around Aaron and they said to him come make gods for us who will go before before us because this Moses the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt we don't know what's happened to him and Aaron replied to them take off the gold rings that are on your ears of your wives your sons and your daughters and bring them to me so all the people took off the gold rings that were on their ears and brought them to Aaron he took the gold from them fashioned it into with an engraving tool and made it into the image of a calf then they said Israel these are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt and when Aaron saw this he built an altar in front of them he made an announcement there will be a festival to the Lord tomorrow early the next morning they arose offered burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings the people sat down to eat and drink and they got up to party all right so verse one it says when the people saw that Moses delayed for the first 40 days Moses has been up on Mount Sinai he's been talking with God the Israelites knew this God surrounded this mountain with a ginormous cloud and called Moses up there the Israelites saw this okay but right now they're not able to see where Moses is and they began growing tired of waiting for Moses to come back down their hearts began feeling like they were maybe in a place of abandonment there was loneliness there maybe there was fear there okay some of us are in those same places right now you're walking through seasons of life you're walking through different situations and you're feeling those same things you feel abandoned you feel lonely there's fear that's surrounding you and you're beginning to feel like God is not near you anymore or that he's not pursuing you he's not working on your behalf you don't feel his sit you or his presence there in your situation and his delay is causing you to doubt and that situation might be your marriage might be a relationship in general a situation might be work you're struggling to find work you hate your job you feel it as though God has left whatever situation you're walking through you might be working through mental struggles you're standing at the base of that mountain you're looking at that mountain you're staring at one of the hardest things that you've ever walked through you're waiting for God to come down and lead you out but he hasn't he hasn't done that yet and this is where the Israelites were standing they were looking at this mountain that they knew Moses Moses was on they were waiting for him to come down but Moses wasn't working on their timeline so as a result their hearts turned to doubt which led them to sin finishing verse one so they gathered around Aaron and they said to him come make gods for us who will go before us because this Moses the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt we don't know what's happened to him let me point something out we're gonna go back 12 verses or 12 chapters sorry chapter 20 verse 2 I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the place of slavery the Israelites heard this from God himself and they've been following this ginormous pillar fire in this ginormous cloud to where they're standing at today they've been following God's holiness and his faithfulness through all these different situations but right now they're choosing to put Moses in a spot that's reserved for God alone right they're choosing to allow their hearts to worship Moses and as a result they fall to idolatry their hearts were designed to love to worship and to adore an almighty God and when our heart started adoring something horizontally or adoring somebody horizontally everything that everything else that follows is going to be tainted with evil and that's what we find in our story today the Israelites knew the holiness of God they knew the faithfulness of God we get their hearts doubted and it turned to idolatry so verses 2 through 6 of chapter 32 we see the Israelites fashioning a golden idol and this is really rebellion against the holiness and the faithfulness of God and those of you who are familiar with Exodus or you've just been journeying with us through this you've seen the countless ways that God continues to provide for what he calls a stiff-necked people the Israelites he keeps approaching them he keeps initiating them he keeps extending kindness to them and then these people in a moment of stress when they can't find Moses they freak out and they rebel against the kindness of God and what do they do what do they turn to remember one of the plagues that God brought on Egypt was the death of all the livestock okay for this we're gonna say the death of cows because cows fall in that right this was really a way for God to show the Egyptians and the Israelites that the little cow gods that they were serving at the time that those things held no power over the magnificent power of our holy God God was showing them that there's nothing that holds power over myself but what are the Israelites doing in the slightest moment of stress they form a goal night all based on the same thing that God had already crushed they form another golden cow and they say these are the gods who brought us out of the land of Egypt think about how offensive that would be how offensive that is they've been walking in the holy presence in the faithfulness of their almighty God and right now they're choosing to trade that all in for this little golden calf made of earrings and jewelry right seems kind of pointless to me kind of futile and look at what God does with this we're gonna start skipping around a little bit but chapter 32 verses 7 through 9 the Lord spoke to Moses he says go down at once for your people that you brought up from the land of Egypt have acted corruptly they have quickly turned from the way I commanded them they have made for themselves an image of a calf and they about bow down to it sacrificed to it and said Israel these are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt the Lord also said to Moses I have seen this people and they are indeed a stiff-necked people so God tells Moses go down for at once for your people God saying your people Moses he's giving these people to Moses he's essentially saying that I have already or I'm going to disown these Israelites because of their heart and stiff-necked hearts okay Moses or God's giving these people to Moses and this it's really because the wrath that God has over the Israelites sin right now and this is really how fierce God's wrath is towards sin hey because of his holiness he cannot tolerate sin our God is separate from sin yet we are not he says that the Israelites have hard and stiff-necked hearts and so do we so do we God in his holiness he declares what is good and righteous and he stands in opposition to all that is evil and what's happening at the base of Mount Sinai is they're forming this golden calf is they're worshipping this golden calf is really pure evil and God has some holy fire burning against this idolatry right now now why is that chapter 34 verse 14 if you flip over a page or two says because the Lord is jealous of his reputation you are never to bow down to another God he's a jealous God so God is justly jealous he's rightly jealous he deserves desires to receive all praise and all affection he commands all worship to go to him because he knows that there's nothing outside of him that is worthy of praise he's designed our hearts to worship and to adore him because he knows that anything outside of the scope of his holiness is not okay and he becomes so jealous over our hearts when our worship is outside the scope of him he becomes so jealous over our hearts God's longing to be in relation with our hearts and the problem we see in our text today is the Israelites hearts were no longer worshiping God so when God desires praises because he wants to magnify the source of all that is good he wants his name to be magnified he wants our hearts to adore him through praise and he's not jealous in the same way that you or I would be jealous we have a sinful jealousy okay God is not sinfully jealous he's graciously jealous okay God's jealous for our hearts and he knows that when we adore anything outside of him that our hearts will never find contentment so God graciously pursues us he jealously and passionately loves your heart because he knows what your heart is longing for so I want to ask you guys a question there's a piece of paper or an index card in front of the chair back in front of you there's some pins scattered around hopefully a few of you brought some pins I want to ask you guys a question what is something in your life in your heart right now that God is jealous over what is something that we can say this is idolatry in my life if God was sitting next to you today what is that one thing that he would say I didn't put that in your heart and that's stealing love from me I want to spend just two minutes here and Dave's gonna play a little instrumental music I want you guys to just pray and ask God reveal that thing that's inside of me that's stealing love from you God and then write that down tuck it in your Bible and we'll go back to it here in a minute you (crowd murmuring) (crowd murmuring) (crowd murmuring) (crowd murmuring) (crowd murmuring) (crowd murmuring) (crowd murmuring) (crowd murmuring) (crowd murmuring) (crowd murmuring) (crowd murmuring) (crowd murmuring) (crowd murmuring) (crowd murmuring) Okay, if you guys need some more time, that's completely fine. If God speaks to you as we continue moving through this, feel free to write that down. I encourage you to do that so you actually have that. We're going to keep following this conversation between God and Moses. Like I said, we're just picking out one small portion of this text, but I'm really focusing on a conversation between God and Moses. So we're going to continue with verses 10 through 14 of chapter 32, but I want to remind us of something here. Moses, as we move forward here, Moses has a problem on his hands. He has a substantial problem on his hands. God's thrown the Israelites into his hands as they've walked away from God, as they've shown idolatry. God's wrath over the Israelites sin has disowned the Israelites at this point, and as Moses is carrying the weight of that, he's going before God in the midst of his problems, and he does something very bold here. So let's continue on in this conversation. Verses 10 through 14 in chapter 32. It says, "Now leave me alone so that my anger can burn against them, and I can destroy them, then I will make them into a great nation." But Moses sought the favor of the Lord, his God. Lord, why does your anger burn against your people? You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a strong hand. Why should the Egyptians say he brought them out with an evil intent to kill them in the mountains and eliminate them from the face of the earth? Turn your fierce anger and relent concerning this disaster plan for your people. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. You swore to them by yourself and declared, "I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give your offspring all this land that I have promised, and they will inherit it forever." So the Lord relented, concerning the disaster he had said he would bring on his people. All right, so Moses here, he's told to leave the presence of God, but Moses refuses to do that. He refuses to sit back and to do nothing because he knows the heart of God. He's been on this mountain, he's been communing with God, he's been talking with God, he's been dwelling in God's presence. So in the midst of his problems, in the midst of his struggles, Moses doesn't sit idle, he doesn't sit idle. He gets on his knees and he begins talking with God. And the first thing he does in verse 11, he tries to give the people back to God. He says, "Why does your anger burn against your people?" Moses is trying to say, "God, these are not my people. I have no ability to lead these people outside of you. It's your graciousness, it's your love, it's your patience, it's your wisdom that is leading these people. All praise should go to you." Moses is giving praise where it's due. He's passionately interceding for the Israelites. He knows the deepest longings of God's heart because he's spent time in the presence of God and as a result of this yearning for God's grace on behalf of the Israelites, it says God relents. Now what does this mean? It's important to understand this. What does God relenting mean? Relenting is not God changing his mind. Okay, Moses, it's important to understand. Moses has no ability to be smarter than God. He has no ability to be wiser than God. He's not trying to convince God to change his mind. Okay, the wrath God that God has over the Israelites is not wrong. Here, the wrath he has, the anger he has over the Israelites idolatry is not wrong. God is a holy and a perfect God, which means his wrath is a holy and a perfect wrath. His wrath is pure, yet in this story I believe God's choosing to illustrate his redemptive plan, chapter 32, verse 30. Moses goes to the Lord in an attempt to atone for the sins of the Israelites. Okay, Moses is going to the Lord. He's interceding for the Israelites. And what we see here is really a picture of the greater Moses who is to come in the New Testament, who's Jesus Christ, right? So in the story, God in his rich merciful, his redemptive glory is allowing his compassion to just reign supreme over the Israelites. As he looks on Moses's heart, Moses is pleading for the people. God's allowing his goodness, his mercy, his grace, his patience and his love to just allow his wrath to just kind of sit on the back burner just for a moment. So we in the Israelites can see God's desire for redemption in his longing to be first in his children's hearts. So God's not changing his mind as though he made the wrong choice. That's not what's happening in this text. He's choosing to reveal more of himself in his gracious and holy redemption towards the Israelites. So let's keep looking at this dialogue between Moses and God, chapter 33 verses 1 through 4. So the Lord said to Moses, oops, that's chapter 34. Chapter 33, the Lord spoke to Moses, go up from here, you and the people who brought you up from the land of Egypt to the land I promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, I will give it to your offspring. And I will send an angel ahead of you that will drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hethites, presites, 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. Otherwise, they might destroy you on the way. When the people heard this bad news, they mourned and didn't put on their jewelry. So why do the people mourn? Who knows? Usually I like to ask questions, I only have one today. So somebody can answer. Why do the people mourn? Don't make me call on someone. Who said that? They're in trouble. Josiah, you get bonus points. Yes, they're in trouble, but their hearts, they're mourning because the one their hearts were made to adore, their one their hearts were designed to worship was no longer going in front of them. He's saying, I'm not going with you anymore. And God's giving Moses permission to lead the people into the Promised Land. He's showing them grace. He's showing them love. He's allowing them to move forward, but he says, I'm not going to go with you anymore. This was really a test to Moses and the Israelites. If they were okay with this, it would really just show that they love their blessing, that they love God's blessings more than they loved the presence of God. If they rejected this and they leaned into God, it would show that they loved God's presence more than they loved His blessings. So what did Moses do with this? Chapter 33, 12 through 17, this conversation continues. 12 through 17, Moses said to the Lord, look, you have told me, lead this people up, but you have not let me know who you will sin with me. You said, I know you by name and you have also found favor with me. Now, if I have indeed found favor with you, please teach me your ways, and I will know you so that I may find favor with you. Now, consider that this nation is your people. And he replied, my presence will go with you and I will give you rest. Moses says, if your presence does not go, don't make us go up from here. How will it be known that I and your people have found favor with you unless you go with us? I and your people will be distinguished by this from all the other people on the face of the earth. Verse 17, the Lord answered Moses, I will do this very thing you have asked. For you have found favor with me and I know you by name. So Moses here, he's pleading for a closer personal relationship with God in the midst of his problems. He's pleading to know more of God and he says, who will you send with me? In a sense, Moses is saying, if you're not going to go, Lord, who are you going to anoint with your power to go with me? As I lead these people, as I lead your people, who are you going to empower to go with me? I've got to know more of you. Moses is longing to know more of God and to be in the presence of God. The word no, K-N-O-W is used five times in this text so we can be confident that Moses' heart is just longing to know more of God. In the verse 18, Moses does something very bold. I want us actually to all read this together. So if you have your apps or your Bibles, flip to chapter 33, verse 18. It starts with then. So we'll read it together. Then Moses said, please let me see your glory. Moses is longing to know more of God and he does something very bold and he is declaring to know more of God's glory. In his problems, he's leaning into God and declaring to know more of God. Moses was one of the largest slaps in the face as this Israelites, these hard and stiff-necked people. They're saying, God, we've seen you at work. Chapter 15, they're worshiping God's holiness. We've seen your presence lead us. We've seen your holiness and your faithfulness. But right now, standing at the base of this mountain, we don't see you anymore. So we're going to choose to grab hold of these different idols, these false idols, these cows. And that's what we're going to rely on. And that's what we're going to believe brought us out of Egypt. And many of us, as we walk through different situations, we kind of do those same things. We don't see God moving in our life. We don't see him moving in our jobs. We don't see him moving in our marriages. And we ask questions like, God, how could you bring us to this place? This is one of the hardest things that we've ever walked through. God, how could you do this to us? We've been so faithful over the years. How could you bring us here? And as a result, many of us turn to different things that we think we can control. We turn to different things that we think will change our outcomes. Some of us is drugs, alcohol, sexual sin, gambling, different addiction. Some of us, we turn to things that are going to steal our times, steal our love, steal our lives. All in an attempt to gain control of our life, a life that a perfect, holy faithful God has been in control of from day one. Yet we choose to trade that all in for an idol. And this is what the Israelites were doing. And this was a part of Moses' story. Yet in the midst of his sin, Moses fell on his knees and he cried out, "God, show me your glory." He was demanding to know more of God in this time. He was demanding a closer personal relationship with God. And Moses understood that the more he knew of God, the more he would desire to know God. The more he knew of God, the more he would desire to know God. See, God hates sin. He's a holy God and he grows so wrathful over sin, but he's also a faithfully gracious God. And he knows that we are a stiff-necked people, so what did he do? He crushed his son to take the punishment of death for us. Scripture says, "For the wages of sin is death." We all deserve death, but through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we now have freedom to walk in relation with God. We now have freedom to go boldly before God with those sins that we think nobody knows about. Guess what? God does and he crushed his son for that sin. For some of you, it's the idol that's on your card. God crushed his son for that idol that's on your card right now. Because of the death of Jesus Christ, we now have freedom to walk in relation with God. We don't have to purify ourselves like the Israelites. Go through these rituals like the Israelites are having to do. We can just come as we are just before God and what a blessing that is. So, Ben, why don't you come up, we'll close this out. We just have a little more of this conversation here. Chapter 34 verses 5 through 7. Says, "The Lord came down in a cloud. He stood with him there and proclaimed his name, the Lord. The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed the Lord. The Lord is a compassionate and a gracious God. The Lord is slow to anger. He's a bounding and faithful love and truth. He's maintaining faithful love to a thousand generation. He forgives iniquity. He forgives rebellion and sin. But he will not leave the guilty and punished, bringing the father's iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations." So Moses here, he's asking God to just reveal more of himself. And he boldly asked God to see God's glory or God's not done moving in Moses' life. In a summary of what we just read, God's saying, "Moses, here I am. Here I am. I'm the same person that I've always been. There's never been a reason for you to doubt me. There's never been a reason for the Israelites to doubt me. In the delay, the Israelites felt that they were feeling. There was never a reason to doubt me. I'm full of compassion. I forgive their iniquities. I'm choosing not to crush you, and I'm choosing not to crush the Israelites." God says, "Moses, I'm full of love, and I'm full of compassion. But my holiness and my righteousness, those reigns supreme." And I hate sin. I hate sin. And at this point, Moses falls on his face because he knows the holiness and the faithfulness of the one God that he is in the presence of. He knows how hard and stiff-necked his heart can be in the sin of the Israelites that he's carrying in this time. And Moses' heart is longing to know more of God and longing to dive into the presence of God. And that is what God is longing for us to do in the midst of our struggles, in the midst of our sin to just fall in our knees and cry out to God and cast our gaze upon him. So in a moment, I'm going to ask you guys to do something bold. Moses did something very bold as he declared to know more of God's glory. Okay, Moses didn't care what the public opinion was. The public opinion was down at the base of the mountain worshipping false idols, right? So Moses didn't care. We don't care either. So I'm going to ask you guys to do something very bold if you call led to do so. Okay, the band's going to play some instrumental music for about five or seven minutes. I want you guys, if you feel led to be bold and to stand, take that card that you wrote an idol down. Over here at the base of the cross, there's a basket here where you guys can cast that idol down at the foot of the cross. Remember how I said God crushed his son for that idol. This cross is a representation of that. So this is going to be an opportunity for you guys in an act of worship to stand and to cast that down at the base of that cross. Nobody knows what that idol is, but God. You guys just be bold and follow God's leading in that if he's leading you to do that. And when you're done, I want you to go back to your seats. Chapter 34 verse 8 says, "Moses immediately now loaded the ground and worshipped." Moses could do nothing in the presence of God but worship. We are in the presence of God. So I want you guys, whether you come up here or whether you stay in your seats to just worship God in his presence, whether that's standing, whether that's kneeling, whether that's sitting, whatever that looks like, God doesn't care. He just wants all of your heart. He's graciously, jealously pursuing your heart. So let me pray and then five or seven minutes we'll spend some time in prayer and worship. God, we just thank you for this time that we can just be in your presence. God, your Holy Spirit is in this room right now. And I pray that our hearts would just be open to that. God, sometimes following you is an uncomfortable thing. God, we're scared of what public opinion is. We're scared of what those around us think. But God, I pray that you would call those in this room who need to shake that idol that they would be bold and they would come up and cast it at your cross where you crushed your son for them. God, I pray that they would feel your love and just that act of just your redemption over them. God, if there's anybody in here who hasn't made a choice to follow you, God, their whole life is an idol. God, I pray that your love would just be so strong to them that their hearts would just melt in your presence and they would make that choice today to just begin following you. It's a free gift, God. And I thank you for the freedom of that. God, all they have to do is say, "Here I am, God. Come into my heart, I'm all yours." So God, I thank you for this time that we just get to worship as a group. God, hear our prayers, thank you, God, for just being faithfully pursuing us. God, it's in your name. We give this time to you. Amen. Amen. [MUSIC PLAYING]