Good morning, Grace Life. It's been a joy to be able to preach these past two weeks. I'm excited to be able to continue in the Book of Exodus this morning. And before we do, as we have each week, we will get to provide an update on the church plant as well. If you've missed any of those updates, you're in luck. After service today, 10 minutes after service ends, we'll be meeting back here in the auditorium, and we'll get to go through some of the updates that we've already given on the church plant, and how you can stay updated with the church plant. So I'd invite you to stay 10 minutes after service. It's only going to be 10 minutes long. We will provide a snack. We'll provide snacks for the kids as well. Kids are welcome to join us. It is invitation only, but the good news is you're invited. So we'd love to be able to have you join us and receive some of those updates. So each week we have been talking about different questions surrounding the church plant. The first week we got to talk about where, then we got to talk about who. This morning I'd like to talk a little bit about what with the church plant, so what are we doing. One way that you can stay informed is by joining us right after second service for that update and how to stay informed with updates and be praying alongside of us. Additionally, what else do we have coming up? If you haven't received one of these handouts, there's some on the back table there for you. This goes over Commitment Sunday. Commitment Sunday is the first Sunday in May, and that's where individuals will be making a commitment to be a part of the church plant. Part of the reason we want to set aside this time to be making this commitment is it allows for us to have a six-month runway leading up to the official covenanting, the official planting of this new church. This will allow for Grace Life as they make plans for the future for individuals to be stepping in and fulfilling those roles. and for the church plant to be planning for sending out those individuals as well. So that'll be on the first Sunday of May, our Commitment Sunday. So I invite you to join us after second service today and to be praying and be preparing for Commitment Sunday, the first Sunday of May. What else are we doing with this church plant? Is this just going to be version 2.0 of Grace Life? Is this going to be Grace Life's West Campus or North Campus as we're looking to plant in the Hockley and Waller area? That's not the case. What we see in the New Testament is churches planting local churches. not as alternate campuses, not as alternate meeting locations of the same church. All a part of the universal church, separate churches, separate pastors, separate elders, separate deacons. There will be a lot of similarities between the church plants and between Grace Life. We're intentionally taking some of the DNA of Grace Life with us. Part of that being by bringing members, by bringing regular attenders to come alongside and be a part of the church plant. But this isn't going to be the same. It's not going to be Pastor Joel and the elders over the church plant, although they're going to help with that. It's not going to be the deacons that are going to be overseeing the church plant, although they will be helping with that. There's going to be helpful transition in that, but we are starting a new church. This is what we want to see is healthy churches planting healthy churches and disciples making disciples. So I'd invite you to join us after service today and be able to receive more updates as we continue on there. Let's pray and then we're going to jump in the text together this morning. Lord, we ask that as we seek to be faithful, we seek to be obedient and stepping forward with this church plan. Lord, we pray that your will would be done. It's daunting, it's burdensome as we consider all of the work going forward, as we consider all of the unknowns. Lord, we pray your will would be done. Lord, I pray for those that are even sitting in this room now, those that are unable to be with us, that are considering going. Lord, I pray that you would make their path clear. Lord, I pray that you would be laying on all of our hearts, whether to be participating in this church plant, another in the future, or to stay at Grace Life. Lord, place a burden on our hearts to see your glory amongst the nations through more and more healthy churches being planted, both here in the Houston area and where Jesus is yet to be named. Lord, we pray that you would do this work. We pray that you would be adding deacons and elders here at Grace Life. Lord, we pray that you would be adding volunteers and members. Lord, we pray that you would be building up Grace Life as she prepares to step out in this church plan. Lord, be fulfilling needs, be fulfilling the roles that will be vacated, and Lord, be preparing the hearts of those that will go. Be adding, be growing, be giving strength to those that will be stepping out in this way. Lord, we pray your will would be done for the glory of your name. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Over these past couple weeks, we've been able to go through Exodus, and we've been able to see how the Lord has laid out the plans for the tabernacle, the Lord has laid out the plans for the priesthood, and in all of that, the Lord has made a singular promise to his people. I will be among you. We saw that he will be among his people through the promise of the tabernacle in his presence, and that he invites his people to be in his presence by the invitation to the priesthood and to the sacrifices. This morning, as we've read through our scripture reading, we're going to see that in contrast to the Lord's presence being amongst his people, that amongst them is going to be a God, an idol who is not Yahweh. Our sin is deceptive, and we can think that we have everything figured out on our own. And I'd like to give a silly example of my own pride that I think fits this well. I think that I am probably the best driver in this room. If not, I'm probably in the top three. I think that I'm so good at driving that while I'm driving, and my wife can attest to this, I'm constantly giving advice to other drivers. And this may be a strange or a sick desire, but I desire to volunteer with either Texas Highway Patrol or with the constables to help others in their driving as well. This is definitely a misplaced pride. But I'm sure I'm not alone in this. Maybe it's driving for you, maybe it's cooking, maybe it's baking, video games, or something that you think that either you're the best at or that you know better than others with. And you become blinded in that sense. You become blinded to thinking that your way is the best way, and it can be difficult to self-reflect on where you may be wrong in those areas. We're gonna see today how that thought process will play out. Because today we're going to see three realities of our standing before the Lord. Three realities of our standing before the Lord. First, we're going to see how we engage in impatient idolatry. We engage in impatient idolatry. We need to remember the context of where we find ourselves. In these past two weeks, Moses has been on the mountain receiving instruction from the Lord. Exodus 24 describes the scene for us in verses 17 and 18. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people. And Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain for 40 days and for 40 nights. The people of Israel, while Moses is up there receiving instructions about the law, about the tabernacle, about the priesthood, the people are at the base of the mountain, seeing the glory of the Lord on the mountain. Moses has entered in and Moses has not come back for 40 days. They're impatiently waiting. And all the while while they are waiting at the bottom of the mountain without Moses, the holiness of God continues to linger in the background atop the mountain. In verse number one, they present a problem. Our leader is missing. Moses is gone. We don't know what's happened to him. And the immediate solution that's being presented is maybe we should form an idol and we should worship it. We should gather together all of our gold, form together an idol. And Aaron gets on board with this and says, yes, we will worship this idol together. Now we need to take caution because it can be easy for us to place ourselves in a high seat of judgment and to see the Israelites and say, oh, you foolish Israelites. God's glory is right there. If only you would wait, you would hear of the goodness of God. You would experience his blessing on you. We can be tempted to look at the Israelites and separate ourselves from them, like we're distinct, like we're better. But Christian, are we not the same? We have the very presence of God within us, His indwelling Holy Spirit, yet our tendency can be similar and the same. Where in our impatience and in our unmet desires, instead of running to the holiness of God, instead of waiting for the working of the Lord, we run instead to sin. We don't get the praise that we want, so we run to self-satisfaction and gratification. We don't get the raise or the attention that we felt like we deserved. So instead, we run to drunkenness. Our plans don't go perfectly, so we turn to anger and seething or lashing out. Our sinful desires are not met. Our perceived needs are not being met. And we run instead to idolatry and sinful means. Sin promises to us a quick fix that will never satisfy. An old preacher once said, sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay. I'd like to add a line to that that I think is helpful. And sin will give you less than it has promised. Sin offers to us a dissatisfying quick fix to the needs of our heart that never matches up to the promises of God and destroys us rather than gives us life. This sinfulness, this running to sin, this engaging in impatient idolatry is a warning to us and to our own hearts. This is also instructive for us in our own worship and how we worship the Lord. If you look with me at verse number five of chapter 32, we read, when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it and Aaron made a proclamation saying, tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord. Notice what Aaron has proclaimed and what Israel is doing in this moment. They in their minds are not forsaking the Lord but are rather through their idolatry attempting to marry it to the worship of the Lord. But worship is not what we make it to be. They have attempted, just as we do, to add our idols to the worship of the Lord. Christian, this is why we need a church that's informed by the Bible. This is why we need worship that is informed by what the Lord says. We preach the Bible because it's what the Lord calls us to. We sing together as Christians the worth of the Lord because it's what the Bible calls us to. We give of our time and of our finances because it's what the Bible calls us to. We follow believers' baptism and the Lord's table because it's what the Bible calls us to. We cannot fall into the temptation of individualizing our worship. That this is how I worship God. This is how I think that the church ought to be structured. This is how I think God wants to be worshiped. This is what we see happening here in Exodus 32, is that we are taking the worship of God and turning it into what fits my heart's desires. This is why we need churches that are rooted in the Bible and submit to the authority of the Bible. This is why we want to see healthy churches planted that are rooted in the Bible, that submit to the authority of the Bible. The Lord desires to put his glory on display through the worship of his people. But Christian, as we see these calls and sometimes as we attempt to individualize worship and make the church experience or make Christianity, make the Lord into something that fits my ideals, we're entering into a dangerous pattern. Pastor David Platt summarizes it this way. He says, when we do this, when we take the commands of scripture, the desires of the Lord, we are entering into a dangerous temptation to take the Jesus of the Bible and twist him into a version of Jesus that we are more comfortable with. a nice middle-class American Jesus, a Jesus who is comfortable with our sins and who desires to bring us comfort and prosperity as we live out our Christian spin on the American dream. But do we realize what we're doing when we do this? We are molding Jesus into our image. We're making Jesus into someone we're more comfortable with, ourselves. And now the danger is when we come to worship the Lord, when we gather together as a church and lift our hands in worship, we may not be worshiping the Jesus of the Bible, but we're worshiping ourselves. Christian, have we settled for worshiping an ideal or an idolized version of ourselves or an idolized version of our desires? When we look at pagan idolatry and what their idols stood for, they were often representing things that we would consider good desires. There were idols for health. There were idols for wealth, for prosperity, for good crops. These are good things to desire. But in our own hearts, our idols are sneaky. What we do is what Pastor Tim Keller said, is that we will take a good thing and we will make it a God thing. We take the good gifts of God and place them in the place of God, where we pursue after those things. But the Lord will not settle for this. The Lord will not settle for idolatry. Just as the people of Israel are violating God's very commandments, crafting a graven image so that they might come before and worship while trying to include Yahweh into this worship. The Lord is not going to excuse this. The Lord is not going to say, well, they gave it their best shot. They're trying. The Lord is not going to settle for his glory being given to another. He doesn't settle for that with Israel, and he won't settle for that with us. We can want to take Jesus and align him with our desires and our priorities. We want Jesus to align with our politics. We want Jesus to align with our finances. We want Jesus to align with our priorities and our pursuits. But he won't do it. Jesus doesn't look like your idols. Jesus won't accept your idols. He won't bow down to your idols. And Jesus doesn't play nice with your idols. Jesus died because of our idolatry. Jesus died so that you wouldn't be cut off from his people. because of your idolatry. And Jesus rose again from the dead so that you might worship him alone and abandon your idolatry. Christian, we are called to confess our sins honestly. We can't fall into the temptation to want to excuse them or to protect them. We can't try to hide them or justify them. Confess them. As scripture calls us to, we are called to confess our sins before the Lord and he will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. and we are to constantly turn in repentance from our idols to Jesus. Christian, this is not a once and done. As Calvin said, our hearts are idol factories, constantly making these objects into worship as we pursue after good things, turning them into God things. And Calvin's right when he says this. We are called to live lives of constant repentance, each morning dying to self, killing our idols, following after Christ and Christ alone. As we live constantly in fighting with sin, we turn in repentance and we live by faith. It's easy for us to want to engage in impatient idolatry. And in the same way, we as God's people need providential prayer for preservation. If we look down at verse seven, Moses is still up on the mountain having a conversation with God. Moses has yet to leave, and the Lord says to him exactly what's going on down at the base of the mountain as his people are engaging in idolatry. And this is helpful for us as we consider our own confession of sin. The Lord already knows. You're sparing no one by keeping your sins hidden. You're not fooling God. The Lord is not waiting for you to confess and finally revealing the sins and the idols of your heart. Just as he knows the worship his people are engaging in at the bottom of the mountain, he knows the idols that rage within your own heart. The people are sinning and things are getting worse. Read with me in verse number seven. And the Lord said to Moses, go down for your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. Our bells ought to be going off right away as the Lord is revealing this to Moses, because what he is laying before Moses is that these are your people. These are the ones that you have brought out of the land of Egypt. The Lord is not disowning them, but he is revealing to Moses and declaring before him, these people who say that they are mine, they are living like they are not. And jump with me to verse number 10. This is what the Lord says he's going to do. Now therefore, let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them in order that I may make a great nation of you. The Lord lays before Moses the idolatry of the people of Israel. And the Lord states, Moses, I'm gonna start over with you. I'm going to consume them for their sin, and I'm going to start over with you. Moses now finds himself in a position between the people of Israel and between God. And Moses's response is to pray and to plead before the Lord. Read with me beginning in verse number 11. But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, Oh Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, with evil intent he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self and said to them, I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring. and they shall inherit it forever. And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people. This the threat that the Lord lays out before Moses, that he will consume his people. After Moses pleads before the Lord, the Lord does not destroy his people. We see in Moses's prayer that he is praying the truths, the reality, the promises of God himself. He begins his prayer by saying, O Lord, Yahweh, the covenant name of God, reminding him of his promise with his people. He continues to say, Lord, these are your people. These are the ones that you have brought out of the land of Egypt. These are the ones that you have spared in your work. He reminds the Lord of why he has brought them out. The Egyptians are watching. You said that you would put your glory on display in the lives of your people and in the face of Egypt and the washing nations. Lord, remember your promises. You have promised to Abraham, and to Isaac, and to Jacob, your goodness and faithfulness, that you will make them a great nation, and that through them all the nations of the earth will be blessed. This is the content of Moses's prayer. He is praying back to God, the reality of who he is, and the promises that he has made. So we're led to a question. Does the prayer of Moses change God's mind? We need to consider some realities. The Lord himself is unchangeable. He does not change. He cannot change. If the Lord was to change, that would be terrifying. If the Lord had a bad day, all of us would be consumed in wrath. If he were to change his mind on fulfilling his covenant promises, if he were to change his mind on his love for his people, if he were to change his mind on his sovereign sustaining rule of all creation, all would cease to exist. The Lord himself does not change. And this is a great hope for us. Yet he still calls us to pray. He places Moses into a position to intercede on behalf of his people, to come pray for change, pray for things that are yet to be, pray that I might work in and through you. So does the prayer of Moses change who God is and what he is doing? What we're seeing here is it's helpful for us to see that two things can be true in scripture and seem to be in tension with one another, and we can hold these things in faith. The Lord's threat here is not empty. The Lord can and could destroy his people and start again with Moses while remaining faithful to his promise through Moses. Yet God is reminded through Moses' prayer. Moses brings the promise of God before him and says, Lord, this is who you are and this is what you have done. The Lord gets his glory through his preservation of his people. The Lord's thread is not empty. The Lord cannot change. And the Lord uses the means of the prayers of his saints, here the intercessor of Moses. And we see that the people are spared because of Moses's intercession and prayer and God's unchanging covenant to his people, his unending covenant mercy. The Lord unchangingly moves to preserve his people rather than to consume them. He would be right to consume them and destroy them, but the Lord shows his mercy in his patience. However, we will see judgment and correction continue to come. Moses is in a really difficult position with his people. I like to watch court shows on YouTube or on Reels, just seeing those courtroom interactions, they fascinate me. And one thing that is perplexing to me, and I would never wanna be a lawyer in this position, where you are defending a guilty client. Knowing that they are guilty, all of the evidence is stacked against them, and in the worst-case scenario, the judge has witnessed this act themselves. There is no excuse, no evidence that could be brought before the judge to convince this person is innocent. We are in a similar position just as the people of Israel are in a similar position. The judge has seen the transgression. He has witnessed the idolatry and Moses here knows that they are sinful. He's not making excuses for the people of Israel. He is pleading for the Lord's continuing mercy. Christian, in the same way, we need an intercessor before the Lord. We need an advocate before the Lord. We are guilty in the same way. We need someone to plead for mercy on our behalf. And Jesus is our perfect intercessor, our perfect advocate. He understands you perfectly. He knows what it's like to be tempted in every way. yet he is not sent. He understands the law because he has walked it perfectly, fulfilling all of its requirements. He understands the judge. He knows what the expectations are, and he knows the judge who judges rightly, and he knows what it's like to receive the punishment for that transgression. He is not only our advocate and our intercessor, but he is our substitute as well. Christian, just as Moses stands in between God's people and himself, we get the Christ-like opportunity to do the same thing. Mom, one of the most Christ-like activities that you can do is to continue to pray for your children. Husband, pray for your wife. You say that you would take a bullet for her, but will you pray for her? Grandparent, keep praying for your children and grandchildren. Year after year, the Lord calls you to be their go-between. Saint, pray for one another. Plead for the Lord's mercy and for his blessing. The people are spared from total destruction. Moses goes before the Lord and pleads on behalf of the people, but there are still lingering consequences to sin. We have lingering consequences of sin. In verses 20 down through verse 34, we see that although Moses has stepped into the place between the Lord and Israel, they have been spared from complete destruction, that there are lingering consequences that continue. In verse number 20, Moses comes down the mountain. He sees the idol there. He burns it up, grinds it into dust, places it in the water, and forces the people to drink. What is your idol now? What is your God? Nothing. Its power is gone. It's nothing but excrement. We need to recognize that the drawl and worth of sin is nothing but a facade and a lie. That as the people gather together to worship, This idol that they had gathered around is worthless, empty. Moses first deals with the sin. Next, Moses deals with the excuses. He goes and he confronts Aaron. And as he confronts Aaron in verse number 21, Moses says to Aaron, what did the people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them? And Aaron says, let not the anger of my Lord burn hot. You know the people that they are set on evil. And he goes on to give excuses and say that, they gave me this gold, I threw it in a fire and then out came this calf. I don't know what happened, Moses. This was out of my hands, out of my control. But if we see earlier in the passage, this is very intentional from Aaron. He's calling on the people, bring your gold. He places it in the fire and he crafts it himself with a crafting tool. If we remember from previous chapters, Aaron himself is intended to be set aside as the high priest of Israel. He's to be the one that is going before and bringing the sacrifices, being the representative to God of the people of Israel, literally bearing their names on his chest and on his shoulders. And here Aaron is making poor excuses and being a poor example of what confession looks like. Aaron would rather step in and protect himself, shift the blame to the people that he is to be representing. Moses deals with the sin. He confronts Aaron, knowing his excuses are empty. Next, Moses shows us that we ought to deal with the consequences. In verses 25 through 29 and in verse 35, we see the lingering consequences of the idolatry of Israel. The Lord sends the sword amongst those who rightfully deserve death, and he sends a plague amongst his people. The Lord has relented from the total destruction of his people, but there are still consequences that follow. If we enter back into that courtroom context, if we are to break the law of the land, if we are to steal, to kill, to cheat on our taxes. There is forgiveness before the Lord. We come, we confess, we are cleansed of all unrighteousness. However, there are still consequences. The forgiveness that we have received before the Lord does not negate the courtroom ramifications that we face in the law of the land. There is still fines. There is still jail time. There are going to be consequences for that sin, for that violation of the law. In the same way, there are lingering consequences within our own lives for the sin that is completely forgiven in the eyes of God. But we continue to live with the brokenness that sin has brought. We see Moses in contrast to Aaron in verses 30 through 34. Moses again goes before the Lord and he pleads before the Lord to show forgiveness, to give forgiveness to the people. And Moses makes no excuses. Moses does not try to excuse their idolatry. He does not try to justify it or hide it or minimize it. He knows what the consequences are. These people, those who have sinned against you, ought to be cut off from you. They ought not to be your people anymore. And Moses says before the Lord, in verse 32, but now if you, Lord, will forgive their sins, but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written. But the Lord said to Moses, whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. Moses goes before the Lord fully willing and ready to accept the consequences of Israel's sin on himself. He pleads for mercy for them. Lord, forgive them. And Moses offers himself in their place. but we're left in a difficult position here in the life of Israel. The Lord not only shows them that there is lingering consequences, but that his promises continue to linger as well. His covenant faithfulness does. That where I have sent you, continue to go, Moses. Go to the land that I have shown you. But I'm gonna send my angel with you. I'm gonna send my angel, it won't be me, I'm sending my angel with you. Christian, you may be dealing with the lingering consequences of sin yourself. And you need to remember, just as Israel remembers, in the face of holding these lingering consequences, you have a good covenant to keeping God. He continues to hold fast to his promises. They have an advocate in Moses. You have a perfect advocate in Christ. And while you may be bearing the consequences of sin, there is forgiveness, and the relationship may not be the same. There is full forgiveness, but the pain still remains. There is full forgiveness, but the money is still gone. These lingering consequences are intended to point us even further to Christ. As we wrestle with the brokenness of this world, as we groan under the consequences of a sin-cursed world and a sin-cursed life, Paul reminds us in Romans 8, how we are to approach this groaning, this cursed creation and this continuing and groaning in our own lives. Romans 8 and verse 18, we read, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us. For creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruit of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we eagerly wait for adoptions as sons, the redemption of our bodies. As we continue to bear the brokenness that sin brings in our lives, we are called to continue in that groaning, to trust in the full restoration that is yet to come. Israel, in the same way, is to look forward to the promise that the Lord has given. that they will have a land that the Lord will dwell among them. Remember, the tabernacle is yet to be built. The priests are yet to be ordained. The Lord's promise is still going to hold true. I will dwell among you. Christian, as you groan under the weight of sin, Run again to your Savior. Find grace anew and trust again in His promises. As you continue to endure the lingering consequences of sin, know that ultimate restoration is coming. Now, I know I said I was the best driver, but I can think of at least one mistake that I made. In our ever-growing city, there's constantly construction, whether they're expanding highways, they're adding lights, they're changing the way that roads are going. There's constantly construction, and I approached one of these construction areas. I was confident in my expertise, I would know how to handle this situation. Everybody was coming up, it was confusion all around, but I knew that I would be able to figure it out. And the way that I confidently solved this situation is I went through a red light. I went through the red light, honking my horn at everyone else, and they were all confused, and rightfully so, and in my mind, I was justified, that I was telling them, no, no, no, no, this is my turn. My turn to go, and you need to wait. And my guilt was undeniable. I was confidently wrong in thinking that I was right. And although my guilt was undeniable, I guess this is my public confession, because I wasn't caught in that moment. But I have to deal with these consequences. I am no longer a perfect driver. And this is just a silly example of how we engage in our own idolatry, thinking that we know what is right and best for ourselves. And in my own guilt, and in our guilt, we need an advocate to plead for us, as we are guilty and without excuse, and we have lingering consequences. Christian, today, remember the idolatry that lies within, but also remember the good Savior who is your enduring advocate as you turn from idolatry and turn to him. Let us pray. Our great God, we thank you that in our impatient idolatry, as we seek to satisfy our perceived needs or desires, that while you know our sin, While you know the depths of our sinfulness, you continue to remain faithful to us, your people. Lord, we pray that we would be led to greater and to constant repentance. May we not fall into the foolish thinking that we are justified, that we are justified in our idolatry, that we are justified in protecting our sin, May we know that we are justified even though we are guilty because of Christ. Lord, lead us back to Jesus. May we know that as our sins are ever before us, so is the grace of our Savior. It's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen. Would you stand as we sing these truths this morning? Play some more.