God's Invitation - Exodus 19

[00:00:05] Thank you for listening to the Calvary Monterey Podcast. Please visit Calvary.com to learn more about our church and visit Nate Holderge.com for additional Bible teaching for my lead pastor, Nate Holderge. Teaching today is our lead pastor, Nate Holderge.

[00:00:23] Alright, good morning everyone. Great to see you guys. Let's take out our Bibles today and turn to Exodus chapter 19. We're going through the book of Exodus together as a church and we left off before a little Christmas season with

[00:00:39] Exodus 18. So today we're an Exodus chapter 19 and as you guys are turning there in your Bibles I do want to say to all the men of the church I am very excited for this men's conference that is coming up first weekend in February. Josh

[00:00:54] Why from Dorf Hope in Portland is one of my favorite pastors Not in the sense of oh I just love on social media seeing what he's doing or whatever but the messages that he delivers It's just a biblical man Gospel thinker bringing the hope of Jesus Christ to

[00:01:14] Portland itself inner city Portland and God has used him in great ways and I really love this guy and so this last year I read his book on

[00:01:25] Stumbling towards eternity. It's a it's a book about the seven sayings of Jesus on the cross and the radical forgiveness that Jesus was displaying there and it's interspersed with his story of Trauma and difficulty especially in the relationship with his dad and how God over the years

[00:01:43] Restored him didn't always necessarily restore their relationship but just the things it got Tone him and kind of that idea of like two steps forward one step back kind of thing and so I really think that God is gonna speak and some powerful ways to

[00:01:59] Every man who makes a decision to come to that conference that weekend. So I hope that you're there guys And get yourself plugged in dedicate the time the space the mental and emotional energy and

[00:02:12] Let's do some work for a couple of days with Pastor Josh when he comes down All right, so today what we're gonna do we love we love the Bible here if you're new here this morning

[00:02:20] If it's your first time with the church we love the Bible here. So I'm gonna read a chapter from the Bible and then I'm gonna talk a little bit Okay, so let's read it together because we'd follow along with me Exodus chapter 19 It says on the third

[00:02:37] new moon After the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt On that day they came to the wilderness of Sinai they Set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai and they encamped in the wilderness There Israel encamped

[00:02:57] Before the mountain will Moses went up to God The Lord called to him out of the mountain saying Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel

[00:03:10] Verse four you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and now I bore you on Eagle's wings and brought you to Myself Now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant

[00:03:26] You shall be my treasured possession among all peoples for all the earth is mine and You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation

[00:03:37] These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel so Moses for seven came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words

[00:03:45] That the Lord had commanded him all the people answered together and said all that the Lord has spoken We will do and Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord and the Lord verse nine said to Moses

[00:03:57] Behold I am coming to you in a thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you and May also believe you forever When Moses told the words of the people to the Lord the Lord said to Moses go to the people and

[00:04:11] Consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them watch their garments and be ready for the third day For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the site of all the people and

[00:04:25] You shall set limits for the people all around saying take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it Whoever touches the mountains shall be put to death

[00:04:36] No hands shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot would whether it be used or man He shall not live when the trumpet sounds a long blast They shall come up to the mountain

[00:04:48] So Moses went down verse 14 from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people and watched their garments And he said to the people be ready for the third day do not go near a woman

[00:05:00] On the morning of the third day for 16 there were thunders and lightenings and A thick cloud on the mountain in a very loud trumpet blast so that all the people in the camp trembled

[00:05:10] Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God and they took their stand at the foot of The mountain now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it and fire the smoke of it

[00:05:23] Went up like the smoke of a kiln and the whole mountain trembled greatly and as the sound of the trumpet Groot louder and louder Moses spoke and God answered him in thunder

[00:05:36] The Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain and Moses went up And the Lord said to Moses go down and

[00:05:47] War in the people last they break through to the Lord to look and many of them perish Also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves Less the Lord break out against them and Moses said to the Lord verse 23

[00:06:02] The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai for you yourself warned us saying set limits around the mountain and Consecrate it and the Lord said to him go down and Come up bringing Aaron with you

[00:06:14] But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord Let's keep break out against them So Moses went down to the people and Told them all right, let's pray together

[00:06:28] Lord we thank you for your word and on this first Sunday of this new year We ask Lord that you would speak to us We set this year aside for you. We consecrated to you

[00:06:40] We pray that it would be a year Lord where you teach us and struck us shape us mold us Thank you Lord so much In advance for all the patients and grace and mercy and long suffering that you are going to display towards

[00:06:54] Every one of us this year Lord we pray and ask that we would be a people who bring you honor and glory through the ways that we live But we really need your help to do so

[00:07:04] So Lord teach us from your word today. We ask in Jesus name amen Okay, in the opening chapters of the book of Exodus Pharaoh's voice Is the only voice that mattered to the people of Israel

[00:07:29] Whatever Pharaoh wanted that's what they had to do his leanings were their law his desires We're their dictates if you're in Israelite person those opening chapters of the book of Exodus When you woke up in the morning the question was not what do I want to do today?

[00:07:46] The question was what does Pharaoh want me to do today? Pharaoh's word was your law? Then the book of Exodus tells us and we've already read this and studied this that after a period of time

[00:07:58] And crying out to the Lord God raised up a man named Moses who came in from the wilderness after 40 years of being out in that wilderness And Moses said to Pharaoh that he should let God's people go so that they could come out and serve him

[00:08:16] Now at this point we've studied the first half of the book of Exodus And in the first half of the book of Exodus We've gotten a record of how Pharaoh

[00:08:28] Did finally let God's people go let me ask you guys a question this morning. Do you think that Pharaoh was He easily let the people go or was he hard-hearted in it was he stubborn in it?

[00:08:41] We all know the answer it took him a long time to finally let the people go, but but he did he Relented and he allowed the people to go

[00:08:51] That's the front half of the book of Exodus, but God said let them go so that they might serve me the second half of the book of Exodus is About how Israel could serve God and for the rest of the book of Exodus

[00:09:06] Israel is going to gather around this mountain mountain Sinai you might have even noticed as we went through the tanks. It's not it's not actually like the way we would write in modern times Because the word mountain is repeated over and over and over again at Nazim

[00:09:23] It's God's way of saying this is the meeting place This is where we are going to gather years earlier God had told Moses you're going to come back to this mountain This is the site of the burning bush and

[00:09:37] For 59 chapters and for one full year the people of Israel are going to dwell at this mountain hearing the word of God

[00:09:47] Now those 59 chapters aren't all found in the book of Exodus some of them are, but then you have the book of levittic is that is attached to it We're not going to study that as a church although if you're wild enough to want to

[00:09:59] Study verse by verse through the book of levittic is I have taught that before So there's that little feather in my pastoral caps so you can go online and catch that if you'd like to

[00:10:09] But for a whole year for 59 chapters the people of Israel are going to gather around this mountain to hear the voice of God The God who gave us two chapters the beginning of Genesis

[00:10:23] dealing with the creation of the universe gives us 59 chapters about the creation of the people of Israel Page after page chapter after chapter sentence after sentence command after command was designed to make them a People built on the word of God

[00:10:44] They no longer needed to hear the voice of a foreign king telling them to bake their daily quota of bricks But they needed to hear the voice of their God telling them how to live in a way that honored him

[00:10:59] They needed to become a people obedient to God. This this was really there only true path Towards true freedom of God knew that if all that happened to them was that they were set free and then

[00:11:13] They did not hear his voice and come under his leadership. They would only find themselves bound Lead enslaved by another foreign king in some other space or at some other time And so God begins to open his mouth and speak to them his word

[00:11:34] Now I will say that this as I'm introducing this back half of the book of Exodus It can sometimes for a modern Christian be confusing and I'm gonna do my very best to try to make it clear to us

[00:11:47] A pleakable to us in our modern time, but there is there are a few reasons why it might be confusing to us But one of them is that We often think that the way the story goes is that Moses came to Egypt The plagues came down the

[00:12:05] Feral released them they went through the Red Sea They wandered for a couple of months and then they came to Mount Sinai and Moses went up to the mountain Twatt type of mountaintop two times

[00:12:17] That's the way we think of it that he went up to the mountain top two times the first time He got the 10 commandments we think and God wrote them on the tablets of stone and he comes down It probably actually weren't all that big

[00:12:28] We kind of look like this like they're all huge but they're probably very small little tablets He comes down the people are breaking the law worshiping a golden calf He froze them down

[00:12:39] It symbolically you guys have already broken everything the concept you're not supposed to do and then God says come back up Moses I'm gonna give you the 10 commandments again. He goes up with another set of tablets and God writes on them again

[00:12:51] And Moses comes back down we think of those two journeys of Moses up the mountain But really what you have from this point till the end of the book of Exodus is Moses going up the mountain seven times

[00:13:02] Those are the final two times that Moses goes up the mountain in this chapter that we just read together You might not have picked up on it as we went through it. He went up the mountain three times and every time that Moses goes up the mountain

[00:13:16] It's a way for God to help the people of Israel Reorient themselves around his authority Pharaoh's edicts and their slave masters whips were meant to fade into a distant memory the voice of the good God and

[00:13:34] The idea of loving service in his honor are intended to replace him So Moses goes up that mountain seven times to help Israel reorient themselves upon Yahweh and his word

[00:13:46] If you've ever seen an abused dog or an abused animal of some other kind who is then transferred into good ownership You know that it takes a little while they don't immediately hear the voice of their new master all that history

[00:14:03] It needs to be dealt with and that's the idea of the Hebrew people They for years now generations over 400 years have been living under Pharaoh's leadership

[00:14:14] And now they are under new management and for a year God is going to take them aside and speak to them. This is the new life that I have for you and this is an entirely

[00:14:26] New Testament concept we might be here reading the law of the Old Testament over the next few weeks together But this is an entirely new testament concept that God sets people free not just to be free to do whatever

[00:14:39] We want but set set us free into a better brand of life and living before him We too on this side of the cross have been set free from our captivity So that we can walk with God and obey his word he has a new life

[00:14:55] Designed for us and we must continually reorient ourselves upon his voice whenever we listen to those old task masters Those old voices those old inclinations of the flesh we damage ourselves We damage our people we damage our community But whenever we listen to the voice of the Lord

[00:15:18] Use the deliverance that he won for us on the cross at Mount Calvary to hear his voice and obey his will the more health We introduce to ourselves and our people and our communities So as we go through this second half of the book of Exodus

[00:15:33] No matter how tedious it's been for you in the past if you've ever tried to read the second half of Exodus or No matter how confusing parts of it Have been for you my hope is that you'll see it's an essential part of God's

[00:15:46] Redemptive story in our lives without it God's Exodus for Israel would have been incomplete and Like Israel we need the same thing we need to be centered upon God and is we're just to put this in like real practical terms

[00:16:00] I'm sure many of you have had the experience in your own life or you've seen it happen countless times in the lives of others We're a moment happens where they become or you have become very excited about the Lord

[00:16:14] You're set on fire so to speak there's a season perhaps of Zeal as you pursue him and then what ends up happening if someone doesn't then learn the word come under the word

[00:16:29] Get disciple in the word if that doesn't happen in their lives then the seed of the word as Jesus said has no chance to Get embedded within and produce fruit in that person's life and inevitably that person will drift from the Lord

[00:16:46] And so what we need is to just like the people of Israel after being delivered come around God and his mountain here his word and grow and grow and grow

[00:16:56] One of the reasons why we do like the Bible here not that the only way to grow in our understanding of the Lord is to hear sermons

[00:17:04] But we do want to center ourselves upon him in a sense. It's like what we're doing on Sunday after we worship the Lord for pair ourselves

[00:17:11] Come to the Lord we're opening up his book and we're saying God, what do you want to say to us as your people? One lady compliment in me recently. She's like I really love this church

[00:17:23] I really like this church. I really like that you've teach the Bible and everything like that I tell people all the time I tell people you know he might talk for a really long time But you'll learn the Bible so

[00:17:38] It was one of those compliments. I wasn't sure to share what to do with it We want to be a Bible people okay

[00:17:47] In our passage today Moses goes up the mountain three times and we're just going to use that as our outline for thinking about what God is trying to do in this invitation The big gifts to Israel and in the first Movement when he goes up the hill

[00:18:01] The first word that Moses heard from God on the mountain it was the invitation itself If they would Verse five and six if you look at that in your Bibles if they would obey God's voice If they would keep God's covenant then God said

[00:18:22] You'll be my treasured possession among all the nations you'll be a kingdom of priests and You'll be a holy nation Now just want to say it would be really hard for me to stand up here and over emphasize the Magnitude of that invitation

[00:18:39] There are lots of people who think of those two verses as the theological center of the Old Testament The like the rest of the Old Testament is about that All right, what it is is God is coming

[00:18:52] To these people who are descendants of Abraham Isaac and Jacob God God had made promises to Abraham Isaac and Jacob got it to Old Abraham From you will come one from your seed From whom all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed

[00:19:07] That is going to happen. That is the promise and God entered into that covenant It was very one-sided affair, but now God comes to these people who I mean would you describe God's rescue of the people of Israel as a completely one-sided thing out of Egypt?

[00:19:22] I mean what did they do? They did barely anything they what did they do they applied the blood that's what they did All right, it's very similar to our Christianity entering into a relationship with God

[00:19:33] What do we do to get saved to be justified before we apply the blood? We believe in the blood that's what they did. They applied the blood

[00:19:41] They knew that they needed it and then God delivers them and rescues them, but now he gives them this invitation on top of the promise that he'd already made to Abraham's descendants. It's like he's saying to them something like if you obey me

[00:19:57] You will become a nation that serves as priests to all the nations Through you, if you obey me people are going to hear about and know the true and living God If you obey me you will broadcast yaw way to the world

[00:20:19] Just as the nations heard what I did for you when I brought you out of Egypt So they're gonna hear what I did for you in blessing you as you just simply walked with me and allowed yourselves to be governed by me and my dictates

[00:20:31] If you obey you will live your best life and You will have represented me well on earth in a sense. You could say it's like God was inviting them to be to borrow from Jesus the salt of the earth and the light of the world

[00:20:48] That's what that's what God is inviting Israel in to at this point now At this point God has not told them what the covenant will look like The the 10 commandments have not been spoken The ceremonial and civil law of God has not been uttered

[00:21:10] He's just getting them a blanket invitation a covenant is coming Do you want to enter into it now? In verse eight, look at their reply They told God we want in they say all that the Lord has spoken We will do all that the Lord has spoken

[00:21:28] We will do now. I know some people make fun of the people of Israel at this point and they say like they are they they wanted it

[00:21:35] But if you read the rest of the old testament, they failed to realize it and they'll make fun of them at this point That's if there was some other better answer out there

[00:21:47] Okay, what would you rather have them say at this point? This this was the right reply They didn't know what you know They didn't know what we know on this side of the cross. They could not have possibly said to God Well, Lord we would like to

[00:22:03] But the reality is we are fallen and depraves people We have fallen short of the glory of God what we need more than anything is regeneration We need Jesus to come dial him across rise from the dead and ascend to the right hand of the father

[00:22:18] So that he can pour out the Holy Spirit on anybody who believes in him So that after believing him they could become born again regenerated and the spirit of God could begin to live within them

[00:22:30] And change them from the inside out we can't possibly do that because we're not on that side of the cross So no, we do not want to enter into the covenant They would not have ever said that

[00:22:41] They're saying the very best thing that they could possibly say yes We want to enter in to this covenant with you now do not mistake God's invitation As God's directions on how they could be his people in the first place

[00:22:58] God is not saying to them if you do these things you'll be my people He already even told them before this invitation I drew you out of Egypt to myself on any Susan that very artful way on Eagle swings. I brought you out

[00:23:15] They're already his people in fact at this point in the book of Exodus God has already called them his first born son To they are to him But here what he's inviting them to is is into a newness of life

[00:23:31] The law was not going to be given as a message on how they could be saved But on a message on how they could be shaped it was there to not justify them, but to sanctify them

[00:23:46] Now I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that God's invitation here It's at the stage for the rest of the Bible in fact If you just read through the rest of the story of Israel the black and white facts of their old testament history

[00:24:01] And if you read the prophets and poets that color in that black and white history or Story what you'll discover is that Israel hardly ever lived up to this beautiful ideal There were moments that they got close moments of revival moments that things were going well

[00:24:18] And there's once a special and significant moment where it seemed like it was about to really come to pass David had been king in Israel you all remember him David of David and Goliath fame

[00:24:31] But after he died his son Solomon became the king and that was a directive of God's heart and will Solomon seemed led To bring the people into this destiny as God's holy nation to all nations a nation of priests to all nations in fact

[00:24:52] There's one dramatic scene where Solomon asks God not for wisdom or victory or fame Excuse me well for victory or fame, but but for God's wisdom he says God I'm like a little child I don't know how to go out or how to come in

[00:25:06] I need your wisdom above any other thing and God supplied it Soon Solomon constructed a permanent temple to replace the movable tent that got it to well-dent for hundreds of years

[00:25:17] The message was clear God's people had arrived. They were established and when the queen of Shiva and first king chapter 10 came from a Arabia to hear Solomon's wisdom and see his kingdom the Bible says there was no breath left in her and

[00:25:34] It's like at that little point you've read all the way from Genesis all the way to first kings and you're like it's happening The invitation that God made is happening they're gonna become a nation reaching the nations But it was a Mirage

[00:25:51] Solomon's heart was turned to a multitude of foreign women and their gods Israel was split into Itals rushed in and after many patient years pleading with his people so did God's judgment Israel was anything but the shining light

[00:26:05] They were meant to be in for centuries after that moment Israel struggled to be the light of the world in Jesus When he arrived gave the definitive statement when he entered into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday went straight to the city's center the temple Mount and said it is

[00:26:25] Written my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations But you have made it a den of robbers all nations according to Jesus were supposed to be there and

[00:26:38] They weren't because Israel had not been the light that God was inviting them to be at this moment in Exodus chapter 19 now It's all very depressing at this point, right? We're all very sad sad for Israel But this is where Jesus and his church come into the story

[00:26:55] You know Jesus as I already alluded to said that we're the light of the world That's what we're called to be in Revelation chapter 1 verse 5 and 6 tell me if this sounds familiar

[00:27:04] He said that Jesus it says that Jesus loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us What a kingdom priests to his God and father and listen to what Peter said in first Peter chapter 2

[00:27:18] He quoted directly from Exodus 19 when he said by you the church You are a chosen race a royal priesthood a whole the nation of people for his own possession That you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light

[00:27:37] I don't know what gets you out of bed in the morning, but this is one of those truths it gets me out of bed It's it's it's God saying this is who you are to me You are a chosen Species of people you are a royal priesthood

[00:27:55] You've got the blood of Christ over you and upon you and you are called to introduce people to who I am You're a set apart holy nation among

[00:28:08] The nations and you exist to proclaim the excellencies of God who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light But the reality of this truth is that just as it was in the Old Testament

[00:28:24] If the people of Israel refused to walk in that covenant, they would not realize the beauty of what God had given to them And in the same way if we neglect a The discipline of following after an obeying the Lord

[00:28:40] We will not have the salt and light like a trackiveness that God has destined for us to have God makes this invitation to his church to today. He says obey and become

[00:28:54] Now I know a lot of people in our modern time they want to sand down Christianity into something that requires absolutely nothing I get that and all that's required They say is faith That's the only thing that is required and there is an element of truth there

[00:29:09] But their version of faith, I think is far too small Their faith is a belief in the mere tenets of the gospel of the cross of Christ Without belief in God behind or on the cross itself If someone believes in that God

[00:29:30] They will see a God so loving so good so beautiful that they will want to follow him They will believe that with the aid of his spirit They can live an obedience to him. They will believe that every other path outside of him leads to ruin and despair

[00:29:46] And they will believe that the life he wills is the best life because God is good and God designed it They will have faith in God so they will crave the life that that God creates

[00:30:01] All right, so this is I'm talking about this a lot because this is like I said a very important verse of scripture It's an invitation that God is making to Israel and I think by extension makes to us as has as his people

[00:30:13] You know, I've heard recently that They say that they've studied these things and that the average knowledge worker today You know someone working in an office creating things on the computer and stuff. They say the average knowledge worker gets Sad or

[00:30:31] Marginally depressed every time they check their email Can you guys anybody relate to that at all? They said that's what happens. It's not like a huge deal But it's like there's a little mark thing like I check my email and yeah, I'm sadder than I was before And

[00:30:49] They've also tried to figure out why why why do why is this happening and what they've discovered is That not only is that true, but the average knowledge worker checks their email about 70 times or more than 70 times a day So the question is why would we do something?

[00:31:07] 70 plus times a day that is making us sadder Why wouldn't you just be like I'm gonna check it one time just gonna get it all over with you know one time a day

[00:31:15] I'm gonna get super depressed and then I'll go you know you to twink you or something and bring myself out of my despair Why is it well they they say the reason is because Every once in a while we get a good email

[00:31:30] Everyone's in a while. It's not spam or a critique or complainer with everyone's and I was like an invitation To something really cool and because we have that memory our bodies are like You might want to check that because there might be something good in there

[00:31:47] All right, I'm just telling a funny story to say God has given us an invitation it's a standing invitation He's just he's saying this is the life that I'm inviting you into do you want

[00:31:59] That life and you got to come got to hear my voice continue to allow me to shape who you are as My people because that that's the invitation

[00:32:08] But let's close out by just thinking about the next two times that Moses went up the mountain the second word that Moses heard from God on the mountain was about their preparation

[00:32:18] They get an invitation but then God says you need to prepare to hear what I'm about to say And he gives them a whole litany of steps that they need to take they got to wash their garments

[00:32:30] Probably a way for them to kind of symbolize we want to be a clean people They weren't weren't to go all the way up the mountain

[00:32:40] There are to remain at the base of the mountain. That was a way for them to kind of recognize like the fundamental difference between divine and human Anybody who refused to obey and tried instead to come up the mountain was to be punished with death

[00:32:57] Sounds severe, but at this stage of their development like anyone willing to disobey such a clear Line of demarcation that God declared over and over again anybody willing to cross that line

[00:33:10] And we don't have record that anybody did but anybody willing to do that would have been an eventual cancer to this new community The God was forming and when the long trumpet blast sounded

[00:33:21] They were to approach the base of the mountain without touching it or going up the mountain That was a way for them to say that they were ready. We're ready to hear God's commandments

[00:33:29] We've come as far as we can God has now come down and we're ready to hear and There's even instruction to the people that they were not to enjoy marital sex for a few days

[00:33:41] This can be a little shocking to us because we know of God in the Bible as the one who invented sexual pleasure So it seems odd to many that he would prohibit it right here

[00:33:52] I don't think this is his way of saying you know because that's itky so don't do that I think what he's saying is I want your undivided attention You're my people. I don't want you to even be distracted with a person that you love the most in life

[00:34:05] For just a couple of days because I want your eyes on me I want you to be thinking about me and I definitely don't want you to be worshiping me like so many of the pagan nations around you Worship their guns with all kinds of sexual practices

[00:34:19] And with all that said one can only imagine the feeling They came over the camp during those three days. I mean they watch Moses go up To the mountain. They saw the cloud descend upon it. They saw The smoke the fire

[00:34:36] They wanted in on this covenant and then they see the cloud lift They see Moses coming down the trail. I can only imagine you know one person saying I see him

[00:34:46] I see him he's coming back down and he comes all the way to them and during that whole time that he's on this journey But have been an explosion of activity after Moses declared God's rules to them

[00:34:59] Word would begin to spread throughout the camp and they begin concentrating themselves a somber spirit would have overcome them They're they're hearing like the God who broke out against Pharaoh is going to declare his commands to us

[00:35:12] The God who broke Egypt is gonna build us as his people the God who spoke chaos in the plagues It's going to show us how to order our lives and

[00:35:23] As all of them began to turn their attention to the mountain a great searching of heart occurred in my clean and in my ready Will I follow When I hear what God has to say and That mood that preparatory mood that attitude that says I

[00:35:44] Want to hear what God says for my life It's a mood or a spirit that seems to have run throughout the rest of the Old Testament Their Psalmists invited them to search their hearts Their politicians would ask them at times to reestablish their commitment to God

[00:36:02] Their poets would invite them to see if there was any wicked way within them and their profits would invite them to look within for any root of Wickedness time and time again Israel was meant to prepare themselves a fresh

[00:36:15] To enter in to obedience God was if you read Old Testament history always very long suffering with them very gracious To them very patient with them when they didn't obey him, but he always invited them to come back I think this preparatory mood

[00:36:36] Of the people of Israel should follow us into our new Testament church era as well You know today many people believe that All versions of shame must be Eradicated Not realizing that the ability to be embarrassed by behaviors is a cornerstone of a healthy society

[00:36:56] When we lose the ability to blush We lose the tenacity to choose self-denial for the greater good This preparation this attitude that says I have a poverty of spirit I am mourning over my own sin I am going to neatly submit myself to his rule

[00:37:17] It's what leads us as Jesus said to become the salt and light that we were meant to be before him But all of this takes I think at times the spirit of preparation Yesterday my family we had our last and final day of Christmas

[00:37:32] You know what I mean it's like we had at the 14th or 15th or whatever day of Christmas was yesterday We got together with Christina's family and her brothers and her dad and That was like it was like our final moment like okay now Christmas is over

[00:37:48] I actually asked Christina at the beginning of the day because we were hosting and everything I'm like do you want me to turn on Christmas music today for this time We're gonna open a few presents. She's like no, please don't you know like we're done with that

[00:38:00] We've retired the Christmas music it's on hiatus until next August or so but You know one thing I observed over this holiday season as we've gone to Christmas parties and have had people over to our home Friends and family is there there's always a little bit of preparation

[00:38:20] You know there's the cleaning of the house There's the preparing of a meal You're getting ready. It's not it's not just you know, yeah, come over whenever It's a I'm gonna ready myself for a company I'm gonna ready myself for this moment

[00:38:35] I think to hear the voice of the Lord we have to ask ourselves and my willy to prepare for that Israel And they had so many cool opportunities to reprepare themselves before God They had their annual

[00:38:51] Day of the Lord their day of a torment where they could recommit themselves to hand they had their daily morning and evening Sacrifices they had their weekly Sabbath and their annual festivals and we might be a little jealous of those things

[00:39:05] But we have some things that are very similar every single day We can set the day aside for the Lord We have access to him every single Sunday We can gather together and say, God I'm gonna give you on this first day of the week

[00:39:19] I'm gonna give you the rest of this week it belongs to you Every single year at Christmas time in Easter We can celebrate the incarnation and the death and resurrection of Jesus every new year We can dedicate the fresh year to God every Valentine's Day

[00:39:34] We can embrace God's design for sex and romance every independent day We can remember what Christ did to set us free everything's giving

[00:39:41] We can praise him for what he's done every birthday we can you have recount God's faithfulness and look forward to his future work in our lives So my encouragement as let's be a people who take his words seriously

[00:39:55] He wants to use us in this community we live in But we need to prepare ourselves to hear from him over and over and over again Okay, let me address one last little thing here the third time Moses goes up to the mountain to hear from God

[00:40:13] There's an acknowledgement of attention that exists Just to recap what happened in those final that final trip up the mountain He goes up there's thunders and lightnings

[00:40:26] There's a thick cloud appears on the mountain mountain mountain nice wrapped in smoke because the Lord descended on it smoke a rose like a burning oven whole mountain trembled greatly A very loud trumpet blast grew louder and louder

[00:40:41] Israel's signal to approach the base of the mountain everyone trembled at the scene Moses brings the people out of the can't they come to the base of the mountain and then Moses is called by God to the very top of the mountain

[00:40:53] And when he gets up there, what does God say God says hey Moses I know you're 80 years old and this hike is probably not all that easy for you But I need to go right back down and warn the people not to come up the mountain

[00:41:09] And Moses kind of pushes back a little bit on the Lord. He's like Lord they can't Because you already told them not to I've already set a boundary We've already talked about this Lord. It's like Moses has

[00:41:24] No clue about human nature and God knows everything about human beings He's like Moses they need to hear like five million times This is this is live or death. They need to hear that they cannot come up the mountain so he goes down

[00:41:38] He tells them and the next event that happened with Moses down with the people at the base of the mountain We're gonna look at this next week as they got spoke the 10 commandments to all the people together

[00:41:50] But the ominous nature of that moment I think it reveals attention both in the passage and in the larger biblical story In the passage God is seen as both the one who is so approachable

[00:42:08] That he did everything to rescue his people and draw them as he said to himself on Eagles wings And then at the same time feels so unapproachable really you could say is unapproachable by people outside of Moses as He thunders from the top of Sinai and

[00:42:31] By the way, I don't think we have to do anything with this tension We could just live in this tension it just the is God Love them and drew them to himself. God is also as Paul said in the New Testament Holy and dwells in unapproachable light

[00:42:48] But as believers we have a beautiful way of addressing this tension As Christians we know that God is our father in heaven He's not a top of fiery mountain for us but he invites us into fellowship with himself

[00:43:01] And this is made possible by the precious blood of Jesus Christ don't take my words word for it Look at the book of Hebrews on the screen. It says in Hebrews 12 verse 18 That you have not come to a mountain that can be touched a physical place

[00:43:16] That's burning with fire to darkness gloom and storm but to a trumpet blast To or to a trumpet blasts or to such a voice speaking words that Those who heard it beg that no further word be spoken to them because they could not bear what was commanded

[00:43:31] Even if an animal touches the mountain it must be stoned to death the site was so terrifying that Moses said I am trembling with fear But you this is what you have come to Mount Zion to the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem

[00:43:45] You've come to thousands upon thousands of angels enjoy full assembly to the church of the first born whose names Our written in heaven you've come to God the judge of all to the spirits of the righteous made perfect to Jesus

[00:43:58] The mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of able to put it another way As Christians we do not approach an ominous dwelling place of God

[00:44:11] Where law is delivered by Moses as a mediator and the blood of animal sacrifice Atones for us instead we come to the place angels sing about the cross Where grace is delivered by Jesus as our mediator and his blood is the all sufficient sacrifice and

[00:44:29] It's that life and grace and love and forgiveness So we find a Mount Calvary that we can enter into

[00:44:37] God's immaterial city and begin to enjoy him right now when we do our lives are changed and we begin to crave from the inside out to live in obedience to his spoken

[00:44:48] We're no longer are we forced to be driven by the impulses of the body or the dictates of our modern pharaohs instead We can look to our Lord and to his mountain for his guidance and when that happens

[00:45:03] We become the kingdom of priests and holy nation that we were meant to be and this is a vital issue Because without it how will the world here and how will the world know of the precious love and blood of Jesus Christ?

[00:45:23] Thank you for listening if you would like more teachings in information about Calvary Monterey Please visit calvary.com You can also find books teaching through the Bible and articles from our lead pastor at natholderage.com Thanks again for tuning in. See you next week