Order, Words, & Voices
10.06.24, Remembering Love, Exodus 32:1-14
Order
Pre Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close
Lighting of Christ Candle/Prayer Rick
Songs He Walks With Me, Song # 7068848 Billy/Pato
Passage/Prayer Exodus 32:1-14 Cricklins
Song In the Garden # 7102401 Billy/Pato
Impact/Message Remembering Love Rick
Music Goodness of God Billy/Pato
Community Rick
Closing Peace Rick
Closing Music Thank You Lord # 577439 Billy/Pato
Post Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close
- Please record message on camera memory card.
- On the message Video Leave Room above Speaker’s head for the instagram post.
- Screen Share for entire message
Christ Candle (No Slide) (Billy playing/team ready) Rick
Prayer
God, thank you for the opportunity, this morning, to gather together entering into a mutual holy focus on You. We ask that you guide us through an inventory of those things that distract us from You. May we recognize those things that steal our attention and steal our hearts. May we be aware of those moments when our human filters are permitted full reign in our minds and hearts. May we guard against those allegiances and agendas, political and even religious institutions, those that often hijack our faith and steal our hearts. God, we ask that you immerse us in truth and guide our steps on Your path. Amen.
Music (Slides) Billy/Pato
He Walks With Me (1 Peter) CCLI Song # 7068848
Verse 1
Though now we have trials
We wait for salvation
Though tested by fire
We suffer with joy
Verse 2
By His great mercy
Our hope has been born again
Faithful as the morning
We’re raised up with Christ
Chorus
And I cannot see Him
But oh how I love Him
I cannot see Him
But I believe I know He walks with me
I believe that He walks with me
Verse 3
Raised up with the priesthood
To witness His wondrous works
Called out from the darkness
To shimmering light
Chorus
And I cannot see Him
But oh how I love Him
I cannot see Him
But I believe I know He walks with me
I believe that He walks with me
Passage (Slides) Exodus 32:7-1, Cricklins
God said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them;
They have cast for themselves an image of a calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’
”The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen how stiff-necked the people are. Let me alone so that my wrath may burn against them and I may consume them, and then, out of you, Moses, I will make a great nation.”
Moses implored the Lord saying, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that their God brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people.
Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ”
And the Lord altered his decision about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.
Join me in the prayer of Jesus,
Our Father who art in Heaven hallowed be your name.
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our trespasses, while we forgive those who trespass against us.
And, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen
Music (Slides) Billy/Pato
In the Garden # 7102401
Verse 1
I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses
Chorus
And He walks with me
And He talks with me
And He tells me I am His own
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known
Chorus
And He walks with me
And He talks with me
And He tells me I am His own
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known
Verse 2
He speaks and the sound of His voice
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing
And He walks with me
And He talks with me
And He tells me I am His own
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known
Verse 3
I’d stay in the garden with Him
Tho’ the night around me be falling
But He bids me go thro’ the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling
Chorus (X2)
And I cannot see Him
But oh how I love Him
I cannot see Him
But I believe I know He walks with me
I believe that He walks with me
Impact Prayer (No Slides)
Prayer for our world during our current manmade and natural crisis. No Slides, let this prayer wash over you as we prepared to look at God’s word. Prayer for our world, Prayer for our impact on/in our world. Let us pray…
God Almighty and our all-merciful God, through Christ Jesus you have taught us to love one another, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and even to love our enemies.
In times of violence and fear, may the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, so that we may not be overcome with evil but, instead, evil will be overcome with good.
Help us to see each person in light of the love and grace you have shown us in Christ.
Wipe away our nightmares of terror and awaken us to the dawning of your new creation. Establish among us a future where peace reigns, justice is done with mercy, and all are reconciled.
We ask these things in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Message Rick (Slides)
[Title Slide]
Let’s just start with this troubling segment of our passage, this uncomfortable portrayal of God’s character.
[Slide – Your people] God angrily tells Moses to go down the mountain because the Isrealites are worshipping the golden calf. God says “Go down to YOUR people, whom YOU brought out of Egypt!”
God is done! [Story of Caleb as toddler- ‘YOUR son’].
In this same anger and angst, note that the people, who were too impatient to wait for Moses to return from talking to God, had previously said to Aaron, “Get up, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”
[Slide – Leave me alone] Then, God still immersed in his anger, still speaking to Moses, says, “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 different great nation of you instead.”
It is an oncoming bloodbath, God is considering throwing the people under the bus and, at the same time, the people have set themselves to reject God and return to the false gods of the Egyptians – they, in turn, are throwing Moses and even God under the bus.
Remember, God had called the Israelites “My People,’ AND it was GOD, not Moses, who had “brought the Isrealites out of the land of Egypt. The people have rejected God and Moses and now it appears that God is rejecting the people and placing the responsibility for the people fully on the shoulders of Moses.
God is saying, “I’m considering consuming them…”, and “Let’s start over and Moses can lead an obedient people, not THESE Israelites.”
This split of God and Israel from one another seems mutual angry and impatient decision. A red line has been crossed for both.
Dismal
[Slide – 400 years] Now, to better understand how things between God and the HIS people got to this point, let’s look again at some background. The Israelites, over the course 400 plus years gradually had become unwanted but essential, while invisible but all too noticeable, marginalized but feared. Just as God had explained to Abraham, his descendants would be oppressed and enslaved for 400 plus years.
The question is, ‘How did this happen?’ ‘How did the Hebrews/Israelites, over the centuries of generations’ not recognize what they had settled into?’
2 Considerations as to why Hebrews were still in Egypt centuries later.
1. [Slide – comfortable] It could have been that they had become too settled, too comfortable, that they had settled along the way. Generation after generation subtly accepted their new status on the way to enslavement. With each opportunity to leave and return to the land of their ancestor Abraham and Sarah, and Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Rachel. But they had forgotten the promise. They had had become comfortable, they had settled on Egypt being home – even though they were oppressed, enslaved, and worse than marginalized in Egypt
2. [Slide – fulfill 1st 2 elements of promise] Or, could it be that God had left them there just as he had told Abraham he would. Could it be that the Hebrews needed to stay in Egypt in order to achieve the first two elements of the original promise – to become as numerous and the stars in the sky, and, to become a people, a community, chosen children of God. These two elements of the promise to Abraham had to be fulfilled before they could head toward the fulfillment of the third part of the promise that they would possess their land.
So, we return to God who, in anger, proclaims that
- [Slide – Consume] God will now consume the Israelites.
- [Slide – Weight on Moses] The people are now a weight only on Moses’ shoulders, no longer on God’s shoulders.
- [Slide – Replacements] God is going to continue to use Moses but will start over with another/other people.
Before we speak ill of the Israelites, let’s try to understand them
- [Slide – Low Trust] At this moment in the lives of the Isrealites they have a very low trust in this God, they had a very small treasure chest of memories and experiences of and with this God.
- [Slide – Short time – 3 months] For all intent and purposes they only met this God in a first person manner three months before.
- [Slide – Lack of knowledge of God] The only solid connections they had before this was their experience with the plagues, miracles of the exit, and the stories passed down from generation to generation of the promise God gave to their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the stories of the their ancestor Joseph’s heroic saving of the Egyptians as well as the family of Jacob.
[Slide – impatience of humanity] However, there is also the reality of humanity’s inability to be patient and wait. This was a trait that God did not have and it was a reality that was unimaginable to the one true and Holy God.
[Title Slide]
Which leads us to an uncomfortable reevaluation of the character of God. We do not like to go outside our own one dimensional thinking of God.
God is God and must be interpreted through this divine and holy filter. God is the bar by which we judge holy and unholy. So, for God to have consumed the people would have made perfect sense and it would have been acceptable and just. Think of the sons of Aaron who desecrated the holy place and were consumed because it is impossible for evil and holy to coexist. However, the element of God’s love makes such an action, in our human thinking, unGodlike and unloving. This is where our one dimensional thinking is painfully and uncomfortably challenged.
We must understand…
[Slide – Fact] Fact. God is God we are not God.
[Slide – Fact] Fact. We were created in the image of God.
[Slide – Fact] Fact. God was not created in our image.
[Slide – Fact] Fact. We live in a fallen world, a world where sin reigns which creates a reality of negative influences and persistent struggles.
[Slide – Fact] Fact. God lives in Holiness and is not influenced by evil, nor is God persistently engaged in struggles such as our struggles. God, as proven in the earthly life of Jesus, does not succumb to evil.
[Slide – Fact] Fact. God is Love.
[Slide – Fact] Fact. We were given life through the breath of Love.
[Title Slide]
So, just as any parent, and most persons, will attest to, children change us. Our rock solid opinions, practices, beliefs, convictions, viewpoints, and even our faith is, and will be, questioned, confronted, evaluated, dismissed, turned over, criticized, and forgotten. We will be internally challenged and left with doubts that lead us to reshape our view of the world, God, and humanity.
This isn’t bad. It is growth and maturity for beings that are given free choice but who are not God. Growth and maturity breaks down and tears away the things that are not truth. It also lets us see that some things are more multi-dimensional than we ever thought. We will begin to see that there are other perspectives that are not wrong and sometimes they are even better than our one dimensional, black and white, thinking.
It all leads us to listen, consider, accept, tolerate, and, as we learn to see people without our human judgements we find ourselves more capable of life, more able to accept, more empowered by love.
So, we go back up the mountain where Moses has listened to God.
Moses reminds God of God’s love for, and His promise to, the people.
God’s intentional filter is not just righteousness, it is a righteousness immersed in and ultimately acted out through God’s character of love. It takes a human perspective for this love to be called out to God. This is why Jesus had to be in the flesh, not only to die for us but even more to live for us. To become the power of God’s love in the midst of God’s Holiness and perfection.
[Slide – God does not…] God did not, God does not, change His mind, rather, God allows love to reorient His chosen actions and responses. Sometimes in scripture we see that God uses humans, humans who understand what it is like to be human, and who are able to understand the human struggle. Moses reminded God of His promise to the people and well as his love for the people. And then for us and God, Jesus is the validation of that love, Jesus lived the struggle of love and ‘right’. Jesus paved the way for us to understand the power of God’s unharnessed love.
[Slide – Thy Kingdom Come] Think for a moment, when Jesus told His disciples and therefore tells us, to pray, ‘Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’ Jesus is praying for righteous and love to coexist, not just one or the other. He was not giving us a magic collection of words that will change the world, no, Jesus was naming God’s calling on all of us. To stand on the foundation of Love as we stand for a world so in need of God’s love. A world in need of each of us to live in the midst of hatred while shining love that pierces the darkness. This is what Moses was reminding God – God was to have a righteous mindset but he also was love, and, being both did not come automatically even for God.
[Slide – God invites] God invites us to join Him in His creative masterpiece, into His neverending work of mercy and compassion. God’s call to us is to live out God’s righteousness fully immersed in, and guided by, God’s Love.
Music (Slides) Billy /Pato
Goodness of God CCLI Song # 7117726
Verse 1
I love You Lord
Oh Your mercy never fails me
All my days
I’ve been held in Your hands
From the moment that I wake up
Until I lay my head
I will sing of the goodness of God
Chorus
All my life You have been faithful
All my life You have been so so good
With every breath that I am able
I will sing of the goodness of God
Verse 2
I love Your voice
You have led me through the fire
In darkest night
You are close like no other
I’ve known You as a father
I’ve known You as a friend
I have lived in the goodness of God
Chorus
All my life You have been faithful
All my life You have been so so good
With every breath that I am able
I will sing of the goodness of God
Community (Slides) Rick
- Fall-Advent Sermon Series, ‘My Eyes Have Seen”, – Next Sunday- 10.13.24, Who Wants To Be Respectable Anyway’ Mark 7:1-23, Randy Ridenour
- CC Crop Walk, Sunday, October 20, 2:00pm, Ruby Grant Park (register for team Grace Fellowship on Web page)
- Instagram, GF link on website (follow @gracefellowshipnorman)
Closing Peace (Slides) Rick
Leader: May the peace of the Lord go with you.
Response: And also with you.
Closing Music Billy/Pato
Thank You Lord CCLI Song # 577439
Verse
For all that You’ve done
I will thank You
For all that You’re going to do
For all that You’ve promised
And all that You are
Is all that has carried me through
Jesus I thank You
Pre-Chorus
And I thank You thank You Lord
(And I thank You thank You Lord)
Thank You thank You Lord
(Thank You thank You)
Chorus
Thank You for loving and setting me free
Thank You for giving Your life just for me
How I thank You Jesus I thank You
Gratefully thank You thank You
Order, Words, & Voices 