Behind our worship problem is the problem of idolatry.
Sermon Title: GOD AND OUR DEVOTION
Sermon Text: EXODUS 32 (NIV)
Sermon Series: MOSES: LIFE LESSONS FROM THE HESITANT HERO
By: PTR NESTOR SY
Sermon Notes:
EXODUS 32:1-8 NIV
1 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron 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.” 2 Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.” 6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. 7 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt.
8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’
Idolatry is “anything we put above God.” It’s when we put God second.
“Idolatry is huge in the Bible, dominant in our personal lives, and irrelevant in our mistaken estimation.” Os Guinness
I. IDOLATRY AFFECTS OUR PERSPECTIVE
When we grow impatient with God, we become vulnerable to things we would otherwise not consider.
Impatience with God is an unwillingness to trust God to do what he said he would do and leave the timing up to him.
The most basic form of idolatry is not worshiping a statue, it’s worshiping yourself.
EXODUS 24:9-11 NIV
9 Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up 10 and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. 11 But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.
EXODUS 33:21 NIV
21 He said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?”
What is God asking you to wait for?
II. IDOLATRY AFFECTS OUR PASSION
EXODUS 32:5-6 NIV
5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.”
EXODUS 20:4-6 NIV
4 You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
“I couldn’t help but think about the fact that I really attended two worship services that day. The question I was asking myself was, ‘Which one was I the most passionate about?’”
Everybody has a passion and your passion reveals who your God is.
“Suddenly it hit me. My eyes scanned the room slowly, and sure enough every seat in the room was carefully positioned to face the fifty-inch flat screen on my mantel.”
Kyle Idleman (Gods at War)
What are the chairs in our heart aligned to?
“Passion for God is not a youth thing. It is a hunger thing.”
III. IDOLATRY AFFECTS OUR PRIORITY (ALLEGIANCE)
“Human beings by their very nature are worshipers. Worship is not something we do; it defines who we are. You cannot divide human beings into those who worship and those who don’t. Everybody worships; it’s just a matter of what, or whom, we serve.”
Paul Trip
PSALMS 14:1 NIV
1 For the director of music. Of David.
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.
Behind our worship problem is the problem of idolatry.
The issue is not, “Do you believe in God?” The issue is, “Which god do you believe in?”
EXODUS 33:15-20 NIV
15 Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. 16 The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “There is the sound of war in the camp.” 18 Moses replied: “It is not the sound of victory, it is not the sound of defeat; it is the sound of singing that I hear.” 19 When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. 20 And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.
EXODUS 32:26 NIV
26 So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the LORD, come to me.” And all the Levites rallied to him.
EXODUS 32:27-28 NIV
27 Then he said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’” 28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.
Where does your allegiance lie?
Ultimately, it’s all about who God is to us.