This Weeks Sermon

This week begins our January series at Mercyhouse. We will be taking a closer look at the Ten Commandments. Each week we are going to be looking at a different commandment. For those of you who are math whizzes, you may have noted that there are not ten Sundays in January, yet there are ten commandments, so how is this going to work? Well, we are simply not going to look at all of the commandments in detail. Some will have to be skipped.

Before we jump in to the sermon, let us pray.

I feel like it would be irresponsible to just jump in to a discussion about the commandments without first recapping Israel’s history up to the point at which God gives them these laws. I debated where to start, and I think we need to go all the way back to Abraham. Abraham was the Father of the Israelites. It was Abraham that we see God initially making the covenant that is going to come to fruition with Moses and this generation of Israelites. The promise that God made to Abraham was that he would bless Abraham’s offspring. He would give them the land of Canaan- what became known as the Promised Land. Now at the age of 100 Abraham had a son as a sign of this covenant. He named him Isaac. Isaac also had a son, Jacob. Through various experiences, trials, failures, and wins, Isaac and Jacob also come to know the Lord God. Jacob has a son, Joseph, who is sold into slavery by his brothers, and ends up in Egypt. Joseph also had faith in God, though, and God uses this evil for his own purposes. Joseph climbs the ranks of Egypt’s nobility because of gifts that God has given him, and eventually is able to save his family because of the influence he had with Pharaoh.

Now because of the favor they were receiving in Egypt, Jacob and his family decide to stay there, and a “Jewish”, although they are not called that yet, root takes hold. Later however, we read in Exodus that a Pharaoh emerged who didn’t know this Joseph and what he had done. This Pharaoh then enslaves the Israelites. This is where the book of Exodus begins. Israel had been enslaved for over 400 years when we pick up the story of Moses. The Promised Land was looking more and more like a myth, however God is still at work.

At about this time, it just so happens that a Jewish baby named Moses makes his way into the royal family of Pharaoh. It happens through a decree that all male Israelites should be killed, and once again, like with Joseph, we see God using evil for his good purpose. I want to make it clear here that God did not cause the Evil, he was not excited that Pharaoh was killing all these babies, He is just bigger that the Evil that Pharaoh caused, and was able to cause His good plan to come about anyway. He was able to use the evil for good, but he in no way caused the evil. I also want to note that this is also not an excuse to sin. We should never say that it was good that evil happened simply because God was able to use it for His plan.

Back to the history though. Moses is raised by Pharaoh, but knows about his slave roots, and one day he murders and Egyptian. He flees the country, and soon is going to have the experience of a lifetime. He encounters God face to face. From this experience he has a real conversion, and God raises him up to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land. Eventually Moses goes back to Egypt and demands that Pharaoh, “Let God’s people go.” Pharaoh says no, and one by one God causes plagues to come upon Egypt. If you were here in October, you may remember that each plague God caused had a corresponding Egyptian God, so not only is God punishing Pharaoh for his evil, he is at the same time showing the world that he is bigger that Egypt’s Idols.

Eventually, after the curse of the firstborn son, in which any house not marked with the blood of the lamb lost its first born son, Pharaoh lets Israel go. He changes his mind though, and God has to protect this fledgling country from Pharaoh’s armies. God leads them tot the Red Sea, where he allows Israel to cross, but drowns Egypt. God then provides water for a thirsty nation, and after that bread from heaven. A pillar of fire lead them at night, and a pillar of smoke by day. Every step of the way god was teaching this new nation what it meant to depend upon him. Finally they come to Mount Sinai, and Moses goes to get the Ten Commandments from God, which is where we pick up the story.

Up to this point, all the Israelites know is slavery and Egypt. Once God has brought them out of the immediate danger of death, he brings them to Sinai for some laws. This seems kind of strange, doesn’t it? Why doesn’t God just bring them to the Promised Land right away and then set some ground rules? Well it has everything to do with their slavery. Up to this point, God has been Israel’s God. He knows how to do this. He has never stopped doing this. He had always remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He had never forsaken his people.

Israel on the other hand is a different story. God’s covenant with them read as follows, “I will be your God and you will be my people.” But all Israel knows is how to be slaves. Sure there are still people who worship Yahweh, but Egypt’s culture has slipped in as well. Israel had no idea how to be God’s people, because they had never done it. So the first thing God does for them is tell them how to be his people. This is the reason for the Ten Commandments. This is why it is of first importance. Israel can’t keep their part of the covenant if they don’t know what it is. So God tells them on Mount Sinai what it means to be his people.

This is the same pattern for us today. God calls us from slavery, he frees us from what ever god is ruling our life, he brings us to a safe place, and then he starts to give us some new ways to live, right. Just like God doesn’t demand that Israel obey these rules before he saves them, Jesus doesn’t demand that we become clean and obey his rules before he saves us. He saves us before we know what it means to be his children, his people, and then teaches us later.

So there Israel is, half way between where they came from and where they are going, with no clue what it truly means to be God’s people, and God gives Moses the Ten Commandments- which would make you think that we have gotten to the sermon, but you’d be wrong. Before we get to the second commandment, we need to have the first. And here it is

"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 "You shall have no other gods before me.”

So that is the first commandment. Have no God’s before Yahweh. The first way to be god’s people is to love God. But the wording seems like it allows for other gods as well, just not in the first place of honor, doesn’t it? And this wouldn’t have been a strange idea to the ancients. This would have been common place in Egypt. The ancient world, Egypt included was full of cults. I don’t mean the kind of cult you are thinking of since they didn’t even have Kool-Aid in ancient Egypt. The cults were just people who were dedicated to one of the gods above the others. Every god had its cult, or following. Now all gods were given tribute and praise, but some people gave more tribute to certain gods in hopes that they would be blessed by them. So God telling the Israelites to give him the first place of honor wouldn’t have necessarily at that time meant give him the only place.

So after the first commandment to worship him, God tells his people the second commandment.

4"You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

And in this second commandment God tells us to have no idols. There is no room for secondary gods. It is interesting to note that God doesn’t just say don’t make idols, isn’t it? He tells them not to make things and then worship them. To the ancients they more than likely would have been one and the same, but at least I find the wording interesting.

Now does this text mean that we can’t make art? It seems to almost imply that, saying not to make a carved image of anything on the earth or above it, but that can’t be what it really means. The reason for this is that later God is going to tell Moses to build the Ark of the Covenant. This was a box that held the Ten Commandments. Now on this box were 2 angels beautifully adorned. So either God is contradicting himself here, or there is something else going on. Since God doesn’t contradict himself, we need to see what is really meant by God telling Israel to not make carved images. The key is in the next sentence. You shall not worship them.

Let us take a quick digression into how Idols work. The first premise was that the gods were mischievous at best, and evil at worst. They needed to be appeased constantly or controlled somehow. There were many ways to do this, from offering sacrifices from food to your first born, to finding out secret knowledge about the god, like its name, that gave you power over it, to trapping it in an image. Idols were more than just representatives of the gods they depicted, they in some way were the gods depicted. It was believed that if you made the image right, then the god that you just carved would come to dwell in the idol. The idol literally became the god. As such, the created thing was elevated to the creator.

They would create an image, and then start worshipping it. This is the prohibition God is calling for, not an end to art. I have some images of ancient idols, as well as some modern ones, to show you what I mean.

This prohibition against creating images was two fold. As I said before, it was a way to tell the Israelites that is was not okay to have multiple gods, they had to only worship him. At the same time, God is subtly telling Israel not to make an idol of him either. He is letting them know that the rules he plays by are different that the gods of Egypt. You cannot trap him or control him with images or likenesses. He is rewriting the conversation about how a people relate to God. He is not some evil being to be controlled or subdued; he is a loving God that calls his people into relationship with him.

There is one more thing we need to notice about this commandment. It is not just a prohibition about craven images. It is a prohibition about idols of any kind. God says that we are not to bow down or serve anything but him. Now certainly there are still religions that worship idols in the ancient sense of the word. In both Hinduism and Buddhism they offer sacrifices to idols. They still make images and worship them, but the majority of the Western world has long sensed abandoned this practice. There still are Pagans and sun worshippers and those who follow Greek gods and goddesses, but that is mostly a thing of the past. The West tends to laugh and marginalize such people.

I say this, and I hope you can feel the however coming, however we live with as many idols today as did the ancients. In this text, and in Romans 1 we get a feel for what idol worship and Paganism feels like. At the heart of idol worship, paganism, is the worshipping of created things. We give honor and glory to creature and creation rather than Creator. No, there is no longer statues that we bow to, but we are in the midst of an extremely Pagan culture. I brought some pictures of the gods that our society worships.

Our culture has lifted things like money and sex and power to places or gods. We are consumes by them. We worship food, and women, and Hollywood, and in this town, learning, Liberalism, and one night stands. Let me say quickly that I have nothing against learning or liberalism, I am not a conservative attacking the left, I am simply observing that in Amherst, Ma, politics, especially the breed of politics that swings toward the left, has been raised to the position of god. It is its own religion, as is learning in our sweet college town.

What Paul says in Romans 1 is that people rebelled because they worshipped other gods. Moses, when re-giving the ten commandments to the people in Exodus 34 tells them not to just not bow down to idols, but to worship no other gods besides God. And I just said that we, as a culture, worship various things. It seems fitting to take a step back and discuss worship for a second.

What does worship look like? We call this a worship service, but is this all we need to do? Come to church for an hour, sing some songs, and hear a sermon? The bible gives some great insight into what worship really is. If you were to do a word search of the Bible and worship, you would have a ton of things to read through. But some common strands would start to emerge. One of the things you would notice is that worship is almost always associated with bowing down. What is being communicated is a place of submission. The people who are worshipping, either God or something else, and you will find both in Scripture, are elevating whatever they are worshipping. The next thing you would likely notice is that there are sacrifices associated with worship. People are giving the object of their worship material things. Something else you would notice is that there are ceremonies associated with worship. The worshippers are giving up their time. Also there are very often laments or songs being sung, depending on the situation, and sometimes at the same time. The condition of the heart is one that is in agreement with the object of worship, and as such is either grieving its sin, or singing praises to it savior.

In Romans 1 Paul says that humans were worshipping the creation rather than the Creator, in Exodus 34, as Moses re-tells Israel the law, he rephrases the first and second commandment, telling the people to only worship the LORD, and I said moments ago that our society worships many false idols. But what does any of this have to do with us? Well that brings me to today’s sermon. These commandments are not antiquated rules set up for an ancient nation, but rather the guidelines to be known as God’s people.

As I said before, the pattern that God sets up for Israel is important for us as well. It is the same pattern that God uses today. This pattern can even be seen in the order of the commandments. The first is to worship God. The second, to worship nothing else, and then all the rest. It is not the other way around. To be called God’s, we do not need to follow a bunch of rules and be good enough for Him first, and then he calls us his people. God called the Israelites and brought them out of slavery before they had any of the 613 rules he would give them. And once they were free, he doesn’t demand that they now obey to remain his people, but rather that they would just worship him. This is what makes Christianity different from every other religion there is. We don’t need to please God first, but rather just decide to follow him.

When Jesus confronts the adulterous women in John 8 he doesn’t tell her to stop sinning and then he would forgive her, but rather tells her she is forgiven, and then tells her to sin no more. God calls his people, and them asks them to respond in faith, and after that he begins to work on their character. It is not the other way around. You don’t need to be clean to be saved; you just need to want it. Gods will work out the rest of your junk with you after.

God did not demand that Israel obey his rules to be known by him, they were already known by him because of who he is, not because of what they had done. This is also the promise of Christ. You are already known by him, not because of what you have done, but because of what he did. Jesus says he did not come for the clean, but for the sick. He is here to heal you as you are. It is religion that demands you become a good person before you approach the alter, not God. He gives us the first commandment first. Love him. If you don’t have this, none of the others matter. If you are sitting here toady and don’t know Jesus, I tell you he wants you now. He is ready to rescue you from slavery and bring you to the Promise land. All he requires is that you follow him. He doesn’t need you to follow a bunch of rules to make yourself look good, he doesn’t require that you free yourself and meet up with him later. He is here now to rescue you and protect you, and lead you every step of the way until you arrive at Mount Sinai. He would be your God if you would just turn and be his people.

That is not to say that God will allow us to stay in out filth. After he tells Israel to worship him, he tells them to stop worshipping everything else. He tells them that not only does he get the first place in their hearts, he gets the only place. We are to worship God, and only God. Most of us are Christians in the room, and I suspect that we are all thinking, well I love Jesus, so I have these commandments down. But I want to ask all of us if we have them as down as we think we do? How can we tell though? Well, I will tell you. The way to tell if God has the first and only place in your heart is if you are worshipping Him. Now that seems just as simple for us Christians to answer, doesn’t it? We are at a worship service, after all. But how do we know we are really worshipping God, and only God, well as you may have suspected, I intend to tell us.

Remember what worship looked like in the Bible. It looked like people who agreed with God in their heart, gave to God, and submitted to God. The way I was able to say that society worships money, power, and most of all, sex is for multiple reasons. One, pornography is the largest industry in the US, and the world, taking in billions and billions of dollars each year. At Umass kids spend hours each night trying to see naked women. People are inclined to desire it, agree with it, seek after it. The spend time pursuing sex, money buying it, and form communities around it. Sex has become their god. They are worshipping sex.

Drug addicts spend their entire time pursuing their drug. On the show, “Intervention” a TV show on A and E that follows addicts around and offers them help, one of the users ever said that drugs were his god. He spent all his time looking for them, all his money buying them, and all his energy on them. His life revolved around them.

What about for us then? What gets the place of worship in our hearts? Are we giving money to God and his church, or to Starbucks and websites. And I am not talking about just giving in that offering basket when Robert preaches about money and you feel guilty, but week after week giving back to God what he has given you. In the Old Testament worship was associated with gifts and offerings. We usually hear that you should tithe 10 percent, but a devout Jew would have given almost 30 percent of their income. They also would have had to leave some for the poor too.

I don’t want this to turn into a sermon on money, but where your money goes is a good sense of where your worship is. I am also not saying you have to give to this church, but if you are truly worshipping God, and putting him in the first and only place in your heart, you will be giving your money away to somewhere.

I feel I can say all this because Money was a god for me. It consumed me for a very long time. For the first years of my marriage, I didn’t give anything to this church, or anyone, for that matter. When Sarah did give some of our resources away, I was always very upset. Money was an idol I had to care for and covet. God convicted me though. I took this job on church staff making less than nothing, and learned how to give it away anyway. And God provided every step of the way. I am not rich now, and I am not saying you need to sow your faith seed, what I am saying is that I turned to God and put him in the first spot in my heart, and he provided for me needs.

On the same page, when I was out drinking, I always managed to find the money for booze. It was a god that demanded worship, and as such, it needed my resources. So I ask you again, where are your resources going, because that truly is one of your gods. Jesus says where your treasure will be, so your heart will be also. Will your treasure be in God, or some created thing.

At the same time, when we look at worshippers of the Bible, we see that they not only give of their financial resources, but also of their time. Where is your time going? Are you feeding the poor, or playing video games. Are you watching hours of TV a night, or reading the Bible? Are you volunteering at church, or are you doing anything else that you want to do? Now as I say this I must confess that I still watch more TV than I should. I was raised by it, and although I have made strides in the right direction, it still receives much more time than it should. I got rid of digital cable, but still can’t cancel it altogether.

How often do we say we don’t have time to volunteer here or there because it interferes with our “alone” time, as if any of this was ours. How many of us have said we have way to much work to help out in the kitchen Sunday mornings because Monday through Saturday we are goofing off, and we need to make up for it on Sunday. How many of us make time for the internet, flag football, DVDs, music, and snowboarding, but can’t find an hour a day to read our Bible and pray. Where is your time going? It is a good indication of what you are worshipping.

Another great indication of what we are worshipping is what we are doing. What I mean is, does our heart agree with God and His word and we try to follow him, or are we doing our own thing. Do we continue to sin, refusing to confess it to God or others, or confess it but continue to do it anyway? By whose standards are we living? Do we truly want to do what God would have us do, or do we just shrug him off. I am not saying we won’t sin, or we will be perfect angels, but if God is truly the Lord of our life, when we see that we are not doing what is right in his sight it will grieve us. We will want to change, even if we can’t. God and not our personal desire will be the ultimate guide to our life.

Let me say that this is subtle, and for most of the time, seems relatively easy and straight forward. The tests come when what we want disagrees with what God wants. Let me give you an example from my past. After I became a Christian I met this great girl. We started dating, and after a while we became more and more intimate. It got to the point that we were sleeping together. We both knew this was wrong, and would pray for God’s forgiveness after each encounter, but we continued to do it. What I had done was place my own desires, as well as this girl in the place of God. I devoted my heart to her and sex instead of God, and as such was worshipping false idols. How are we still giving ourselves over to lesser gods.

We can go the other way too though. It is not always sex and drinking that takes the place of God, but religion and goodness. Are we trying make ourselves righteous and good, thereby placing ourselves or our rules in the place of God? Do we value the things we have done more than the redemption that God has given us though His Son Jesus Christ? Are we preaching false gospels, that the way to salvation for others and the world is through self improvement, education, health care, regulations, policies, and politics? Do we agree with God that salvation is free to all who would accept it, and there is nothing we need to, save ask, or do we hold to the idea that we must make ourselves clean before we enter the presence of God, demanding that others shape up as well.

Not only did people who worshipped God agree with him, they submitted to Him when they didn’t always want to. They gave their entire lives to God. It is very easy to worship when God is in agreement with us, but to see if He truly has the first and only place in our hearts, we need to look at our actions when He doesn’t agree with us. How do we act when we are in a sinful relationship? Do we repent and turn to God, or pay him lip service and continue to do what the other gods demand? What do we do when we are faced with a decision that will better us financially, but compromise our Christian walk? How good are we at doing what we don’t want to do, because God requires it of us?

What are the other gods that we are worshipping right now? What is getting our money, out time, our energy? Is it God? What are we submitting too, sin or righteousness? What idols are we asking for blessing from, and in return giving ourselves to? Do we seek our comfort in God or TV, God or food, God or sex, God or drugs, God or religion? What is competing right now for the position that only God deserves?

Before we leave here ready to get rid of all the junk we have been worshipping, we need to remember that is not in our strength that we can do this. If we just set about to stop worshipping our idols we would become very religious and legalistic. What would happen is we would create a bunch of ways to not worship those gods we had, and in so doing we would create a new god our of our rules. We would become very self righteous in our ability to follow our new rules or we would become miserable wretches because we couldn’t follow them at all. It seems like a Catch-22, doesn’t it? How then do we obey this second commandment?

The answer is the first commandment. We run back to God. We remember that He is the God that brought us out of slavery, and he is the God that will bring us to the Promised Land. We worship God again, and soon the other gods will disappear. We turn our hearts toward our Savior, crying out for him to heal us, and we receive His Grace. We remember what he has done for us, and fall on our knees at His holy mountain.

Very often we as Christians have this idea that God expects us to be good after our conversion. That our sins were forgiven when we became a Christian we are sure of, but we are as equally sure that God is keeping a tally of the sins we committed after our conversion. We have this idea that since we obeyed that first commandment for a while, we need to know obey all the rest to receive the same grace that we were first given. But the reality of it all is that we are always forgiven. We always have the grace of God. The way to receive it isn’t to try to obey out if fear, but to remember the first commandment and worship God. The way to obey the second commandment is to remember the first.

We leave our idols in Egypt as God leads us to freedom, and then when we make a Golden Calf, we confess this to God and run back to Him again. We bring ourselves before our King, asking Him to bring our hearts in agreement with his. We worship God once again.

If you are here and you are not a Christian, know that God is the same today as he was on Mount Sinai. Jesus came to die for you. He does not demand you become clean, and then give you a place in heaven; he has that place already prepared for you now. Jesus asks that you follow him, that is all. He knows that you have broken commandments, he knows that you are in slavery, he knows that you have other gods. All he wants is you to worship him. There is no other requirement to receive the grace he has for you. Only ask for it and bow to him.

If you are a Christian, hear that again. There is no requirement to receive gods grace than to turn and ask for it. It does not change because you were baptized 20 years ago, or yesterday. God will again lead you from the slavery you are enduring and free you from the Idols that have tired to fill the place of God. So run back to him with all you craven images and ask him to smash them to pieces. Worship him and be his people, as he has always been your God.

Let us pray.

More Art This Week

Sorry I haven't written anything in a while. There will be more stuff someday. For now, here is some more art.


This one one the right is called waiting. The one below is the third installment of the Advent Story.

Some Art for You

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I have been super busy with Advent and what not. I have been doing art for each sermon, and right now have a total of 12 pieces. Here are some of them. I will post more later.


This one to the right is called "Darkness". It was first in the series, and represents the darkness that Israel was in, however, there is still a little light shining through.






This one on the Left is the next in the series. There is even more light as we get closer to Advent. Along with this painting went 8 others for the second week. They were hung in the Sanctuary along with verses from Isaiah and the Gospels.











The one one the left is oil on canvas, and the picture above is charcoal on canvas. The picture below is oil on canvas again, and is entitled "Hero".



Hope you enjoyed them. There will be more to come soon.

After the Exodus Sermon

This weeks sermon. Hope you like it. Sorry I have been a slacker. I will be better in December.

How was everyone’s Thanksgiving? Mine was great. And it was not great for the usual reasons. I mean, it was great because of the usual reasons, bit it was great for so much more this year. Over dessert at my family’s house the subject of black holes came up. Being a physicist, that in and of its self was great. We talked about space time, quantum mechanics, sting theory, and the new E8. But the conversation didn’t end there. After all that, my cousin asked me what I believed about creation. This opened up the floor to Spiritual matters, and for the next 2 hours we talked about the gospel. We talked about the texts authenticity, about the claims of Christians, about “Religion”, about everything. We got to the point where we are going to pick up today. It is possibly the most offensive idea in all faiths, but at the same time, it is the most freeing.

Before we look at the text, let me set the stage. Jesus and his disciples have just had the last supper, and he is giving them some parting words before he is dragged off and murdered. It is at the end of his ministry. He had been with the men he is talking to for three years now, doing all sort s of wonders, miracles, and teachings. And this is the last this he wants them to hear. This is then, is the most important teaching, I imagine. I know if I were going to die, an I knew it, I would want to pass on my best jewels of wisdom, my sincerest love, not just something like, “don’t forget to turn off the lights in the garage.” I can assume that most of us are the same, right? We wouldn’t waste our last moments on Earth with our closest friends. We would make every word count. Jesus is doing the same thing here. He is passing along the last things he will say to his disciples before he goes to the cross.

Turn with me to your programs. We read:

1"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4And you know the way to where I am going." 5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" 6Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."

8 Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." 9Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

Let us stop there for a minute and unpack this. As I said before, this is one of the most offensive and freeing parts of the Bible. What is Jesus really saying here? Well it seems sort of self evident, doesn’t it? If we are Jesus words at face value he is saying that 1. We need to believe in him, 2. He is the only way to heaven, and 3. That he is God.

If we remember back to the beginning if the Exodus journey, we may remember that God makes similar statements to Moses when he begins his journey. In Exodus 6 we read

God spoke to Moses and said to him, "I am the LORD.” 3I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as^(D) God Almighty,^[a] but by my name the^(E) LORD I did not make myself known to them. 4^(F) I also established my covenant with them^(G) to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. 5Moreover,^(H) I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. 6Say therefore to the people of Israel,^(I) 'I am the LORD, and^(J) I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and^(K) I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. 7I^(L) will take you to be my people, and^(M) I will be your God, and you shall know that^(N) I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out^(O) from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8I will bring you into^(P) the land that I^(Q) swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession.^(R) I am the LORD.'" 9Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they^(S) did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.

Jesus words are echoing the exodus. Right before Jesus spoke these words he had instituted the Lord’s Supper. He calls it the New Covenant. He is reminding them of the old covenant. They were eating the Passover meal during this conversation. All the promises of Exodus would have been in their minds, as well as all the requirements. What Jesus is doing here is setting up the new covenant.

And this New Covenant looks remarkably similar to the Old. In the Old Covenant God sets up a few things. First he establishes that he is God. And then as we just read, he sets up some requirements. That is that Israel would be his people. If the denied him, then he would forsake them. But at the same time, if we go back to when the Covenant with Abraham was set up, God took the entirety of the Covenant upon himself, knowing that Abraham could not handle it. We are going to see the same pattern here with Jesus.

He first sets up, as we just read that he is God. But he does so much more than this. At this time there is a religious movement called the Pharisees. If we trace back their origin we find that they started out as a great movement, beginning with Ezra, a chief priest in the Old Testament. They began as a way to ensure that the people were following God, and as a call to all of Israel to be holy. However, by Jesus time, they had become corrupt. They had forsaken God for their rules. What they had done is decided that the way to God was through laws and regulations. If you followed their rules to a T, then you were safe, God would let you into heaven, and all was well. If you didn’t, well, then your fate as not so pretty. What they were trying to do was guarantee their spot in heaven buy their own power. They wanted to be sure to please God, and so they set up all these ways that they could be holy. Let me footnote this, and say that the desire for holiness is not in and of itself bad. It is actually very good. But what the Pharisees did was exchange God’s holiness, and God for their holiness and rules.

The Pharisees took the 613 Laws of the Old Testament and added to them thousands. They were so concerned with holiness that they would keep their drinks covered so as not to even drink a gnat, thus making themselves unclean. This seems a little absurd right? Worrying about gnats? And how were they to guard against them in their sleep? But before we laugh too hard at these men, how many today are trying to be good persons to get into heaven, or believe that that is all one needs to do. If we really question them though, we find that their idea of what a good person looks like looks pretty close to what they look like. They, like the Pharisees, have raised up their own standard of holiness, and forsaken God’s standard. If we were to ask them who got into heaven, based on being a good person, all of them think that they should get in.

Jesus says different though. He says that he is the way, the truth and the light. No one come sot the Father except though him. This New Covenant he sets up is one based on relationship. Just like is Exodus, if we call God our God, he will call us his people, and lead us into the Promised Land. This New Covenant is really no different from the Old.

Remember back to last week’s sermon. After God had established his covenant with the people he set up some guidelines for them to follow. We know them as the Ten Commandments. God is telling the people that the way to be his people is to follow his rules. He is not doing this just to get people to follow his rules though, he is doing it as a loving Father. Jesus is going to do the same as he sets up this Covenant. He says in John 14:15

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

And again in John 14:23-24

"If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

And what are these commands? Well, of starters we know that in the previous chapter of John Jesus specifically gives a command to love each other. So that is part of it, but there is so much more. Let me submit that what he referring to when he says “my word” is everything he has taught. Just as Israel was given statutes to live by, so are we, if we call our selves Christians. And part of the reason for this is obvious. How can the world tell that you are part of this covenant if there is nothing different about you? The reason for all the laws given to Israel was to set them up as a light among nations. It was to set them apart and to call others to the Living God.

But back to what Jesus says. He says if you love me you will keep my commands. Some of Jesus words are very harsh. He tells us in the Sermon on the Mount

21 "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' 22But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insult his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire.

27"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' 28But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

What Jesus is telling us is that God’s standard of Holiness is impossibly high. That the idea of being a good person is thrown out the window. But at the same time he says that if we love him we will obey him? How is this possible if his commands are in fact impossible?

There are a few things going on here, and we need to deal with each of tem to get a full picture of hat Jesus is saying. One of the first things that he is saying is that just acknowledging God is not enough. OT say that yeah there is a God, and even to say that it is Jesus doesn’t cut it. Even Demons know that to be true. In James 2:19 we read,

“You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!”

So just a knowledge or head belief is not enough. There must be a outward change. We must begin to not only say that there is a God, but to obey him. Jesus is here speaking to those who would say they love him but continue in sin. IT is the people whop have no desire to change. The one who pay lip service to God. Jesus is saying that one way to find out if someone loves me is if they are changing.

I don’t think Jesus is referring here to a perfect obedience. That contradicts his teaching, as well as all of Scripture. We are unable to obey on our own. We are sinners. What Jesus is saying though, is that there will be a change, a desire to obey, an outward mark. We will get back to this though.

The second thing that Jesus is trying to teach us here is total and utter dependence on Him. See we Are going to screw up. No matter how hard we try, we are going to get angry, we are going to lust. We can not fulfill the law. But remember the way to God. It is not through being good, but through Jesus. He is the way the truth and the light. In the same breath that he tells us that if we are angry we have broken the commandment about murder, h tells us that he has fulfilled the law. When he is crucified his last words are “It is finished”. In both cases he is communicating that we need not worry about being good people any more. What we couldn’t do, Jesus did. Paul states it this way in 2 Corinthians 5:21

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

This is the Gospel. God did for you what you could not do for yourself. God says obey, you can’t, so he sends his Son to die and pay the penalty you deserved. Through this death you can exchange your sin for righteousness. Jesus is calling us back to himself when he calls us to obey. We try, we fail, we come to the cross.

The third thing that Jesus is doing when he tells us that if we loved him we would obey him is changing the conversation completely. The motivation for obeying is different than any other religion at any other time. This is what makes Christianity unique. We are not called to obey out of fear, or to gain something for our selves, but out of love. If you love me, obey me, Jesus says.

In every other religion you obey to become holy so God won’t punish you, or so that the Gods will smile on you and give you what you want. The motivation is fear. Muslims pray 5 times a day because if the don’t Allah may deal harshly with them. Buddhists offer sacrifices and obey their gods because if the don’t evil spirits will torment them. The Pharisees obeyed their rules because if the didn’t they couldn’t be sure that God would protect them. In every other religion at every other time the call to obey was motivated my fear. Fear of Hell, of wrath, of tormenting demons. If you obeyed and became holy you could assure for yourself a p[lace in heaven. You could appease the gods, you could dissuade god’s wrath.

This is not the motivation in Christianity. We can do nothing to make our selves holy. W are sinners. We are evil and vile. In Isaiah God says that our righteous deeds are like filthy rags. We read in Mark that Jesus says that no one is good. This is good news however, because God saves us. He knew that we were sinners, but Christ died that we have become holy. There is nothing that we need to do, except accept Jesus sacrifice for us.

Out of this we obey. Knowing that we are loved, that God desires us to be with Him, that he died for us, that he sacrificed his only Son so that we may be called Sons of God, knowing all this, we obey. This is the motivation. Do you see the difference. It is subtle but it is there. We obey because we are loved, we are not loved because we obey. We are given grace upon grace, and after all this we choose to obey a loving Father that has plans to prosper us an not to harm us.

We realize that our worth is not based on what we do, but on who God is. We see God as the loving Father who has set up rules and commands for us to obey to protect us. He is not some cosmic sadist who just wants his own way, but rather a parent who wants what is best for his kids. And after we realize all this, we obey.

So there’s my introduction which brings me to today’s sermon.

Obeying is hard though, isn’t it? If left to our own how many of us would be able to stop getting angry, stop lusting, stop lying, stop being greedy, stop drinking, stop being prideful and self righteous, stop any of the negative behaviors we have? I know I couldn’t. When I was drinking and womanizing I would try and try to stay sober. I knew that I wasn’t supposed to be drinking to blackouts and sleeping with anything with 2 legs. I knew it in my core. But I couldn’t stop on my own. I tried everything in my power, and nothing worked. My own strength wasn’t good enough. I could not make my self a better person. I know that not all of you share my testimony, but I assure you that you share my story. The details may be different, but everyone in this room has tried to make themselves better in some way, and failed. Although the sin may be different, the flesh is the same. And if you are sitting there thinking tat you have never had this experience, then you sin I pride, and I assure you, you can not change you self righteousness on your own.

So how then are we to obey, as Jesus tells us? Let’s go back to today’s text.

15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 18"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?" 23Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

25"These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Can you see what happens? God gives us his Spirit to live in us. One of the Spirits jobs is to help us in all our struggles. You receive the Spirit when you become a Christian. So here is the pattern.

1. God calls us to be in Covenant with him

2. This covenant means we need to obey all sorts of laws we can’t obey

3. God knew we couldn’t obey, so he sent his Son to die in our place

4. We believe in Christ and love him because of who he is and what he has done

5. God calls us his own and makes his home with us, giving us the Holy Spirit

6. The Spirit helps us to obey all the commands we couldn’t before

The Spirit helps us obey all that is commanded, as well as giving us new desires for holiness. Let me explain with an example. When I was drinking, not only could I nit stop, but I couldn’t imagine a life with out alcohol and women. It was not just that I needed to drink; it was that there was no other alternative. That is what life was, and that is all I could hope for it to be. I couldn’t imagine a Friday night apart from parties and bars, a life without meaningless sex.

However once I submitted to God, crying out to Him in my brokenness, not only did he help me to not drink, he filled me with new desires. I could truly be free through the Spirit that lives in me. I was able to see an entire world apart from the one where I had been enslaved. I was freed t have a life outside of the prison of alcohol and drugs that I had made for myself. I was able to see way out.

Jesus promises that he will not leave us a orphans. He is here talking to his Apostles, but also to each of us. God is not some far off being, trying to impose his tyrannical will upon us. He is right here with us, helping us every step of the way. Jesus isn’t calling us to follow him, and then wishing us luck. He doesn’t go to a better place and allow us to fend for ourselves. He is right in the thick of it with us. He is helping us in our struggles. His Spirit lives in us, moving us forward in our sanctification. He doesn’t just say obey, but helps us to learn what that truly means.

It is through this Spirit that we can learn to live holy lives. Once we come to Jesus, and love him, we are already righteous in his sight. There is nothing else we need to do. Jesus said “It is finished.” All our work has been completed. But he also knew that there would still be struggles and hardship. That at times we would not want to obey, or be able to. We are constantly struggling against the flesh. Paul, the most prolific writer of the New Testament says that he does what he does not want to do, and doesn’t do what he wants. Jesus says that he is with us though. He will not abandon nor forsake us. Jesus says that he will make his home with us. He will live there. The Spirit of God will dwell in side of us.

As we listened to Robert speak last week about the Ten Commandments he cautioned us. His warning was about just trying to obey them with out looking to Jesus. Here is why. Either, like the Pharisees we check all the commandments off the list and become self righteous, or we live in utter despair because we try to follow the rules and find that we couldn’t. The temptation is to set up a religion. We set the rules higher than the rule giver. We add our own laws and call all those who don’t live up to our expectations evil. Or we live in fear and despair, never being able to live up to the standards we set for ourselves.

Jesus is calling us here to something completely different. He is calling us to love him, to love God. That is all. Yes he is calling all of us to obey, but it is out of a love for God. And with this love comes a knowledge that our salvation is secure. That God had hade his home with us, and we are his friend. We know that the Holy Spirit lives inside of us, and through His power, the same power that raise Christ from the dad, we may be transformed. That even if we mess up and sin, God still loves us. His love is not based on our performance. His love is unconditional, and we need to just accept it to be free.

Jesus ends this speech on the Spirit as follows:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.

And this is his peace. You are God’s. He loves you like a Father loves his children- unconditionally. There is nothing that you can do to make him stop loving you. His arms are stretched out awaiting you. All you need to do is run into them. He died for your sins, not because you were holy, but because he is Holy. He doesn’t love you based on what you can do, but based on who He is.

If you are a Christian, you need not worry any more. Your salvation is secure. You are sealed. You are His Beloved. His love depends no more now on your perfection as it did when you first came to him broken and sinful. Because of Christ’s sacrifice you have been made righteous. There is no condemnation for you. There is no longer Judgment on you. As Paul writes in Romans 8:38-39

for I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing. Now, with that knowledge, obey him. Obey him out of love. He has such better plans for you than you can imagine. The sin you are living in right now is nothing compared to the overwhelming joy of knowing God more fully. Listen to the Spirit that lives inside you, and have life abundant. Out of the overwhelming grace that God has shown you, respond in joyful obedience. Know that he has set up his rules to protect you. He is a loving Father, not a tyrant. Love him more and obey. In the Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis writes that we as people don’t sin because we are too passionate, but because we are not passionate enough. We are like a child content to play with mud pies because he can not imagine what is meant by a holiday at sea. We are far too ready so sin and exchange God for lesser things. God is with you, his Holy Spirit lives in you. You could have God more fully, and you are content with the sin that you are living in. Respond to God’s love. He wants to give you nothing less than himself. Yes he gives you peace, and salvation, but more than this, he gives you himself. Love him more. Cry out to him in your sin, and allow the Spirit to guide you in all truth and righteousness.

Like wise, if you are not a Christian, hear Jesus call on your life. He doesn’t require holiness before you come before him. He doesn’t want you to obey out of fear. He loves you. He wants to be in relationship with you. He wants to make his home with you. Jesus did all the work. You can be made righteous in him. All he requires is that you love him as he loves you. He is calling you right no to give up your mud pies and come to a vacation at sea. He has so much more than this world has to offer, and he gives it to you for free. You don’t need to do anything but accept it. He is calling to you as a loving parent, laying down his life that you might be saved.

Give him your religion, your self righteousness, your sin, and your filth. He has already done the work. You don’t need to try to impress God anymore; he loves you just as you are. He loves you just as you are. He has for you peace unlike anything you have ever known. He has for you his Spirit. He has for you himself. Come unto him, in all your sin and shame. He will clothe you in righteousness. He has already done the work. Come receive a renewed soul. Come, cry out to your Savior, and receive the life he always meant for you to have. Come and be in relation to your Father, who loves you beyond compare.

Jesus calls us to be in covenant with him. He calls us to a new Covenant. One where all we need to do is love him, and accept his love. In front of me is the Lord’s Supper. It was given to the disciples as Jesus spoke all this to them, and more. As he sat in the upper room eating the Passover Meal with his followers he took the bread and said “This is my body, broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the up and said,” This cup is the New Covenant of my blood. Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

If you call yourself a follower of Christ, weather it has been for years, or minutes, I invite you to the table. Know that you have been cleansed. Come humbly to the feast set before you, confession those sins that you are holding on to, asking the Spirit o free you from bondage. Come and eat of the New Covenant. Come to God as he calls out to you. Come.

Planting Churches that Plant Churches

Before I get all theological on you, I thought I would update you on our live out here in Amherst. We are all pretty good. Kiera is turning a year next week, eating solid foods, and running around. She is into everything. We also went away this weekend, which is what got me thinking about today's topic. We went to visit friends out in Eastern Massachusetts.

A few things struck me. First is that the country side looks the same as where I live, but the culture was completely different. It was almost eerie. There definitely is a difference even in the 2 hours difference, or 80 miles.

Second, our friends are having the toughest time finding a church. And the question is why. Are they too picky? Possibly, but after talking with them, it doesn't seem like they are being difficult. It seems like there just aren't good churches that are close. I will even quote them as saying "...at this point we are ready to sacrifice quality for locality."

How many others are doing the same? This is why dying churches just won't die already, or get their act together and follow Jesus, reaching out to the community, loving sinners, and calling all of us to repentance. Because there aren't good churches close, we are forced to drive a long time to find a good church, or settle for the best that's around. Now I am not saying that the church should accommodate everyone and no one should have to be inconvenienced by a little travel, but at some level the church should be meeting people where they are, both spiritually, and physically.

The solution to this problem is churches that plant churches. We need to stop being content with a 500 person sanctuary that reaches the people near it, and start having a kingdom view of the church. we need to start think globally, even on a local scale. What does this mean? Well, for starters, it means thinking not just about the town we are in, but the next few over, and the ones after that. It means that we start seeking the lost, and stop expecting them to just show up where ever is convenient for us.

The problem that my friends are facing is that the churches 30 minutes or more away are not thinking about people outside their Jerusalem. They are doing well numbers wise, financially, and even growing where they are. They are running small groups, multiple services, and trying to be as biblically faithful as they can. They feel like they have made it. How can I say all this? Because that is how many people at this church felt for a while. We bought a building, had 200 plus on any given Sunday, and were multiplying small groups. But we were only doing it in one place.

I think these other churches feel the same way. It is scary planting new churches. You take your best and kick them out, and then rely on God to fill that void, both personnel and financial. But if we want to make an impact for Jesus, and obey him, this is exactly what we must do. There are people 30 minutes away that couldn't find a church if they wanted, and there are cultures 10 minutes away that aren't going to come to the churches that are here.

Just like Eastern Ma. was different that Western, so are all the towns in between different from each other, the change is just subtler. A church that plants churches can study the culture around it and make their new plant local, organic, and culturally relevant. There are people 30 minutes away just waiting for Jesus to show up in their communities, and it is on us to bring it to them. If we don't they will sacrifice quality for closeness (you can debate the merits of this all day, but it is what is happening, right or wrong), and in so doing, possibly loose their souls.

I believe that my friends problem is pandemic. There are entire regions with no church. We need to get the local churches to reach out to the communities just out of sight. Sure we need to send missionaries to Asia and Africa, but if we are also not sending them to where we are right now, can we really say we are following the great commission? We need the local churches to multiply, plant other small groups and large celebrations. We need to re saturate North America with living, growing churches. The only way that this is going to happen is if the local church does it. The local church knows the flavor and temperature of the area around it, and is therefore best suited to this kind of work.

This is the hardest option to be sure, but I don;t think that Jesus lives in the easy, no matter what t he Prosperity Guys say. He is there most when things are hardest. It is in the struggle and turmoil that we can learn to depend on Christ whole heartedly, and at some level, this is what the modern church is missing.

So let's go plant churches. Let's invade culture first as students, getting a feel for the people, and then as teachers, leading them to Salvation. If we don;t do it, who is going to? If the church is not faithful in the seemingly small things of the next town over, how can we hope to be faithful in the larger goal of the world? What we need now are men and women convinced that this is how to reach the globe, and then ready top sacrifice all to make it happen. What is God calling you to do?

Comments on Exodus 17 and 18

There are many things that I could focus on in these chapters, so I am going to pick a direction and go with it for now. The direction I will be going is that of authority and team work. One of the first things we should see in this chapter is that Joshua appears. This is of little importance now, however he will take over the Israelites and Moses position, making his appearance of value. What is he doing in this chapter? He is fighting the Amalekites. There is some importance here as well. This is the first time that God uses people to fight, instead of just wiping out the firstborn or drowning an entire army in the Sea. Some of the reasons for this is unclear to me at this time, but I think in the very least we can extrapolate that God uses people. We are co-laborers with God in His plan, and if we are faithful, He will use us. I am also sure that Joshua, when a slave in Egypt, never thought that God would use him to get rid of an entire nation from the face of the Earth. But that was God’s plan, and Joshua, being faithful, only had to follow God, both day and night, and God revealed the reason that he was created. We could get much more in depth about this, but there are other things I want to get to.

The second observation that we should read in Exodus 17 is how exactly Joshua and Israel were able to win the battle against the Amalekites. It was not because of their fighting skill, or neat battle plans. They were able to win because Moses kept his arms up. What do I mean buy this? Exactly what I wrote. The Exodus story tells us that Moses was overseeing the battle, and when he lifted his arms, Israel began to win, and when he let down his arms, they began to loose. As many of you can guess, Moses starts loosing strength in his arms, and can not keep them up. If he lets them down Israel will lose, so what to do? Well, luckily Aaron and Hur were there, and they held Moses arms up until Israel won the battle. Why does God though, use this ridiculous method of defeating Amalek? Well there are actually many lessons in this story. First is the obvious answer. God wants all Israel to know that it is He who is defeating the Amalekites, and not them. He uses this ridiculous method to ensure that they are focused on Him.

But there is another lesson here for Moses. Although he is the leader of Israel, he is not able to influence this battle by himself for very long. His arms get weary. He is too weak. If he insisted on doing this himself, he would have failed, Israel would have been crushed, and he would have died with them. Part of the reason that God uses such a laughable method of defeating Israel’s enemies was to ensure that Moses is humble as their leader. It is ultimately Moses actions that determine the outcome of the battle- it is his arms that need to be raised. However, he can’t do it by himself. He needs the support, quite literally, of others.

Moses, however doesn’t learn this lesson though. In the next chapter we read that Moses is the sole judge over Israel. There are many people with complaints against each other, and disputes need to be settled. The line is huge. Moses is hearing each case individually. This is not in Scripture, but I suppose that Moses liked hearing every case. He was able to know everything that was going on. He was in complete control. I can only assume this based on what I know of human nature. The other thing that is going on, though, is that Moses is trying to be a good steward of what he was given, at some level at least. I imagine that his thoughts were as follows, ”God made me the leader of this Nation, I can’t let it get screwed up. I have to do all this work to guard what was entrusted to me.” And on some level he is right. We are to be good stewards. But let’s continue reading the story.

Jethro, Moses Father-in-Law, and a priest for quite some time, sees this and tells Moses it is not good. He gives Moses advice to raise up other leaders who can hear the cases, and save the really important ones for himself. He comes up with an administrative scheme to help Moses out. He tells Moses that he will burn out and hurt Israel if this doesn’t happen. Moses listens and then agrees.

We can all see how Moses would burn out. There are too many cases to be heard each day, so his job would have become never ending. How though, would he have hurt Israel? There are two ways, actually. First, people would not have their grievance heard, and so would get upset. Some of these people would take the matter into their own hands, having mob justice. Others may have revolted, or moved into other lands where they would be heard. This all hurts the new nation. But there is another, more pressing way that Moses continued reliance on himself alone would hurt Israel. What would happen once he died if he never trained a replacement? Sure a leader would be chosen, but let’s remember that Moses had all this stuff fall upon him gradually. First he was to go to Egypt, then lead the Exodus, and now preside over the people. There was a learning curve. His replacement would have no such benefits. HE would go from no responsibility to full responsibility instantly. He would most likely do a terrible job, and probably burn out quite quickly.

Jesus himself does similar things with his disciples. He sends them out many times, and has them perform with him in ear shot to train them for the day he left. He tries to give them shared responsibility first, so that when he leaves, they will know what to do. Moses doesn’t see this far ahead though. He is just willing to do what needs to be done by himself so as to not screw the whole thing up, but in the process he is doing more harm than he could know.

Part of the reason that what Moses was doing wasn’t good is because he was trying to hold onto power that wasn’t his. Who gave Moses his authority? God. These were God’s people and problems, and not Moses’. Remember the Amalekites. It was God who decided the fate, working through Moses. Moses needed help then. If he had just relied on himself to save the Israeli army, they would have died. He needed Aaron and Hur. It is the same lesson here. He is relying on only himself, when he needed the aid of others. He needed to humble himself and ask others for help.

Now, these others weren’t any body. They were faithful, and humble, and lovers of doing good, etc. Moses was to give the authority given to him to others like himself. God didn’t give authority over Israel to anybody, and neither was Moses to do that either. This is how he was to steward the nation. He wasn’t to decide everything himself, but rather to train others to do it. He was to shepherd the shepherds, so to speak.

This is the application for us then. We can not do this alone. We need help. We need to realize that what God has given us is still Gods. We are not to make light of it. We are to be good stewards, but at the same time, as authority is given to us, we must be willing to give it to others. Our job should be to train our replacement, in all that we do. If we lead a Bible study, we should be trying to create Bible study leaders, and then give them opportunities to lead. If we are pastors, we need to raise up pastors. If we are laymen, we need to raise up biblically faithful laymen. We need to replicate ourselves so that the kingdom will grow, and so we don’t burn out, and finally so that we realize that we are in fact not that important. We need to come face to face with the fact that we are replaceable, even if God has called us to a task. More than this, we should be trying to become more replaceable daily by giving up what God has given us.

I know that this application seems to fit more people who are in the ministry, but we can extrapolate it out to all of us. We are all not that important. We as humans tend to think ourselves higher than we ought. We are waned consistently in the New Testament and Old Testament alike that we need to curb this urge. This is in fact th first sin of humans, is it not. We were so important that we just had to eat the fruit and be like God. We should always be training our replacement, either in a company or in ministry.

Finally, there is another application for all of us. Like Joshua, we may not know the plans God has for us, but we need to be willing to step into battle and answer the call that he has created us to heed. WE need to know that it is not our own value or expertise that ill win us the day, but God's grace and plan.