August 2, 2025 • 42 mins
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It's a blessing to be with you again.
And it's been a wonderful, wonderful week.
So thank you, Dan, and thank you all the elders and all the members who I saw every evening.
I know many of you were watching online.
I didn't get to see your happy, smiling faces, but I do know you were there.
And I thank you so much for that as well.
And it's nice to see you here this morning.
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This morning, we're going to talk about delay.
what happens to us when we're waiting for something or someone and it takes longer than expected
if that someone is my wife then i should expect to get a phone call
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but what if you're unable to contact the one to whom you consider delayed you get impatient
You begin to worry.
You begin to imagine all sorts of scenarios.
And if not satisfied, impatience creates from delay that can lead to unchecked, irrational action.
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And this was the situation the Hebrews were in on Mount Sinai just a few months after the exodus from Egypt.
Moses had gone up the mountain to speak with God.
And after some time, the people began to get impatient.
Listen to this.
It says, now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain,
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the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain,
the people gathered together to Aaron.
Was Moses on a holiday?
Was Moses responsible for his itinerary?
Was Moses delinquent?
The people couldn't see Moses delaying coming down from the mountain
because the people couldn't see Moses.
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What they could see was the same phenomena that they had previously frightened them.
Before God spoke the Ten Commandments,
now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire.
Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
After the Ten Commandments, now all the people witnessed the thunderings,
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the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking,
And when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off.
Then they said to Moses, you speak with us and we will hear, but let God, not God speak with us, lest we die.
And Moses said to the people, do not fear, for God has come to test you,
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and that his fear may be before you so that you may not sin.
Moses had already been up and down the mountain a few times by this point, talking with God,
and he had not stayed very long on any of those occasions,
always returning, it seems, the very same day.
But this time, he had gone up into the mountain,
into that stormy, smoky cloud with thunders and lightnings and quakes,
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and hours went by.
Finally, the sun went down, and Moses had not returned.
The people waited long into the night, and still no Moses.
Children had to be put to bed.
The sun rose the next morning and still no Moses.
But by the time the sun set the next day, the people had to start taking care of their basic needs.
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Sure, the mountain was still there, as was the cloud, but no Moses.
The next day came and went.
And then the next.
And then a few more days.
And an entire week had passed.
More days.
And then two weeks.
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then three weeks then another week an entire month had passed and still no moses after another
week and a half the people were getting used to the mountain but impatient uh the patient for the
results impatience turned to questions questions without answers eventually led to suspicion
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there had been a command that no one was to touch the mountain while god was speaking or else they
would die. Might Moses have done something and God killed them? I mean, how would they even know?
But remember what God had told them back in Exodus 20. Do not fear, for God has come to test you,
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and that his fear may be before you so that you may not sin. God had come to test them. The people
couldn't see Moses delaying coming because the people couldn't see Moses. If they had seen Moses,
they would have seen him communing with God
and God sharing with him instructions about how to build a sacred space
so that God himself could live in their midst.
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Jesus returned to heaven in A.D. 31.
Do you realize it's just six years until it's 2,000 years since he went to heaven?
How did he put it in John?
Go to prepare a place for us.
Why does a God who only used seven days to create the world need 2,000 years to prepare a place for us?
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It's a fair question.
It's a question a lot of people have had.
The truth is, though, we have no idea what's involved in preparing a place for us.
Just as the Hebrews had no idea what Moses was doing up on the mountain,
we also have no idea what it takes to prepare a place for us.
God did not inform the Hebrews why he was keeping Moses so long.
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And God did not inform the Hebrews what Moses was actually doing on the mountain.
What God did inform the Hebrews of is what they should be doing while they waited through Moses.
Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that his fear may be before you so that you may not sin.
In times of crisis, we revert back to our habits.
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In moments of upheaval, we are not designed to think rationally.
Our nature, our energies, our passions, our disciplines, our habits kick in.
I coach basketball, and this is something we tell the girls basketball.
It's what we tell the girls all the time.
If you want to make that shot at the end of the game when the pressure's on,
you have to have the habits because otherwise you revert back to whatever habits you have.
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If you haven't laid the right foundation, you're going to miss.
You're going to panic.
In fact, Steph Curry is one of the most famous basketball players today.
skills wow even other basketball players yet Steph Curry Kobe Bryant Michael Jordan Bill Russell and
a host of other players were not born with those skills what fans don't see are the hours and hours
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of time spent working on just one percent of a skill a skill is just a simply a habit that's
formed by stacking 1% of a skill on top of each other every time you practice one more percent,
so that when high-pressure moments come, the players don't have to think what they're going
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to do. They revert back to the habit, that stack of the 1% that they had during practice.
And this is exactly what Moses was telling the Hebrews. The moments of trial that leave us
wondering what is God doing today are simply opportunities to practice 1% of, say, the skill
of trust, 1% of the skill of patience, 1% of the skill of faith. Over time, after many trials,
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these 1% begin to stack up and they form habits so that when the big crisis comes,
we have already formed the habit of trust, the habit of patience in God.
In those moments, those crisis moments, those moments of chaos,
when we revert back to our habits,
God in his loving kindness gave us those moments to begin practice habits,
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building 1% at a time so that when the testing moments come in our lives,
we're ready for the big moment.
We don't have to know what is taking God so long.
All we have to know is God.
And knowing that God is good gives us confidence and patience to wait.
After all, we're in training for trials.
So what can we learn from the Hebrews today about delay?
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Join me in our passage for consideration this morning.
It's found in Exodus chapter 32.
I read the first part of the first verse a minute ago.
Exodus chapter 32, the second book of Moses, Exodus,
primarily looking at the first five verses.
In it, we will see three characteristics of those who impatiently consider a time period to be delay.
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In this well-known story, we will see exactly what we should be doing as Adventists.
We're in a Seventh-day Adventist church.
We're Adventists waiting for the second Advent.
Exodus chapter 32.
By the way, I'm going to read these all from the Bible.
Every other text will be up on the screen.
So if you want us to open your Bibles to Exodus 32, you can just leave it open there.
Exodus 32 verse 1.
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Moses wrote, now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain,
the people gathered together to Aaron and said to him, come, make us gods that shall go before us.
For as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.
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Who brought the people out of the land of Egypt?
Who brought the people out of the land of Egypt?
And God said, and God said, see, where are we at?
And God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage, you shall have no other gods before me.
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While Moses on the mountain getting the Ten Commandments written in stone,
the first one of which explicitly says that we shall have no other gods before God,
the people were in the valley saying, Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt.
Moses. How many people have fallen through the ages because they put their trust
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in a human and followed the human rather than following God? I mean, how many Jim Joneses,
David Koreshnas, Harry Krishnas do we need to see before we too stop following people?
Even if we're certain that the one we're following is following God,
how much danger do we put ourselves in when we follow a person who's following God
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rather than just following God directly?
The first characteristic of those who impatiently consider a time period
as delay from our passage this morning is that they were not really following God,
but a man who was following God.
Catch that nuance.
It's critical.
The Hebrews were following God because of the man.
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The man was the one following God, and they were following the man.
Moses had become like a god to them, and Aaron like his prophet, just as God had said,
See, he, Aaron, shall be your Moses' spokesman to the people.
He himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God.
They were not really following God, but they were following a man who was following God.
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We, too, find ourselves in a position of considering a time period to be delayed.
We, too, have been told to spread the gospel message while we wait for the return of our Savior.
As Adventists, we can sometimes focus on the time that's passing by
rather than the work we're supposed to be doing.
But the first characteristic we need as we wait for the second Advent is to follow God directly.
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We must have a personal relationship with God directly.
If we get our religion from sermons, from the lesson study,
our parents, our friends, our teachers,
Adventist TV or radio stations, podcasts, social media,
or any other good and wonderful source,
we have made a mistake of following a man or woman who is following God.
We must have a personal relationship with God directly.
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These other sources are all supplementary.
They are necessary to help keep us from going off the path,
But being supplementary does not mean being substitutionary.
There is no substitute for a direct relationship with God.
Vitamins are a good supplement to take,
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but they are not a good substitute for a proper, healthy, well-planned meal.
Owning a textbook is a good supplement for your education,
but it's not a substitute for you actually mastering the discipline.
Flowers are a good substitute.
I'm sorry, a good supplement.
I get it right.
Flowers are a good supplement to remind of the love I have for my wife,
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but they are not a substitute for my loving presence with her.
Amen?
Okay.
And hearing a good sermon is a great supplement for your relationship with God,
but it's not actually a substitute for you actually taking time intentionally
to spend quality time with God yourself, getting to know him for yourself.
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The first characteristic of those who impatiently consider a time period to be
the lay is that they are following a person who is following God rather than
following God directly.
The second characteristic we need to avoid is found in the next two verses.
Let's keep reading.
Exodus 32 verses 2 and 3.
Exodus 32 verses 2 and 3.
Moses writing.
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Exodus 32 verses 2 and 3.
Moses wrote,
And Aaron said to them,
Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives,
your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.
So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears
and brought them to Aaron.
Ancient Egyptian jewelry,
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by the way, if you were here a few nights ago,
you heard a little bit about it.
It was not used for beauty, but for religious purposes.
In ancient Egypt, religion was life.
They did not have a dichotomy between sacred and secular.
Everything was sacred.
The Egyptians believed that humanity had been given the great task of partnering with the gods,
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with them in order to preserve the balance and harmony of the universe,
in order to keep back the forces of chaos that were ever pulling at the fabric of the universe,
the tapestry, hoping to unravel it and send the universe back into its pre-creation form of formlessness and emptiness.
One way that humans did this partnership with the gods was through wearing jewelry.
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Every aspect of a piece of jewelry was chosen deliberately.
Gems, for example, were not chosen for their color,
for their refractive properties, but instead for their color.
Color meant everything because it was through color they believed that the gods worked.
The color red, for example, represented danger.
Examples such as the sun, fire, blood outside the body,
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The desert were all dangerous and all were red.
In fact, Egypt itself was called the black land because of the rich black silt that settled on the land after the waters receded.
And so everywhere the waters went and left this black silt was the black land of Egypt.
The lands right beyond it, the desert lands were the red lands.
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Those were dangerous lands.
The Hebrews went through a body of water called the Red Sea because there was a sea in the middle of red lands.
The gods they believed worked through jewelry, amulets, statues, imagery.
It was believed that having one of these in your possession kept that one close to the gods and helped keep balance.
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Thus, Aaron's request for them to give up their closeness to the gods, the Egyptian gods,
so that Aaron could make for them the god who saved them from Egypt.
it's abomination this concept of closer to the gods wasn't unique you remember the story
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i remember a few hundred years earlier on the way to bethel uh the worship god jacob had the
made his family bury their foreign gods and their earrings so they could purify themselves
before they came to meet with god that's in genesis 35 but this this mean what this means is that the
families weren't, the family of Jacob was not wearing jewelry when they went into Egypt. All
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the jewelry they acquired at the time of the Exodus, they acquired in Egypt, and thus all the jewelry
at Mount Sinai that they were giving for this, what ended up being a golden calf, was jewelry
that's associated with the culture and the gods of Egypt. The second characteristic of those who
impatiently consider a time period to be delayed in the passage this morning is that they live in
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culture of the world. And I wonder, in what ways am I? In what ways are we perhaps, maybe unwittingly,
adopting the culture of the world in our everyday lives? A diet, recreation, education, politics,
even religion. It's impossible to define. I mean, we live in the world and then,
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so without even trying, we adopt the culture of the world. But God challenges this. God challenges
us to live in the culture of heaven today. God challenged us to see the world through heaven's
eyes, through God's eyes. Let each of you, Paul wrote, look out, not only for his own interests,
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you should do that, but also for the interests of others. Jesus said it this way, do you not say
that there are still four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes
and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest.
God asks us to look at the world through God's eyes,
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not the world's eyes.
Aaron asked them to specifically give the gold earrings.
Most ancient Egyptian jewelry was made of gold.
There's a few pieces of silver, actually.
But gold was considered, as you probably learned this week,
considered to be the actual skin of the gods.
So when the Hebrews were wearing the gold jewelry,
they would have believed this is the actual skin of the gods.
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Thus, while God was on the mountain with Moses,
giving him instructions about how to build a sacred space
so that God himself could live in the midst of his people,
a space that would include a tabernacle
in which gold was the entire material used,
or at least seen because it was a place for God to dwell,
Satan was down in the valley getting the people to use that gold
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to make their own God.
Living in the culture of the world has consequences
and often leads to waste,
a waste of resources that God intends for the good.
All right, so so far we've identified two characteristics
of those who impatiently identify a period of time as delay.
In our passage this morning,
they were not really following God,
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but they were following a man who was following God
and thus have a skewed religion
rather than a pure one straight from God himself.
And the second characteristic was that they live in the culture of the world
and thus do not see with God's eyes which can lead to waste of resources God intends for the good.
The third characteristic is found in the next two verses.
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So read me again, Exodus 32, the last two verses for our passage this morning, verses 4 and 5.
And he, that's Aaron, received the gold from their hand,
and he fashioned it with an engraving tool and made a molded calf.
Then he said, this is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt.
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So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it.
And Aaron made a proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.
In most translations, the word God here is in lowercase.
In the Hebrew, it's the word Elohim, which is plural.
It's the exact same word, by the way, that appeared back in verse one.
In verse 1, they asked Aaron to make for them Elohim.
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And in verse 4, they said, this is your Elohim.
Back in the first commandment, God had said, I am the Lord, your Elohim, who brought you
out of the land of Egypt.
In fact, the word Lord there is in small caps in English, usually in most translations,
indicating the name of God, Y-H-W-H, was used.
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I'll pronounce that today as Yahweh.
So that God has said, I am Yahweh, your Elohim,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
In Exodus 32, verse 4, they had said about the molded calf,
this is your Elohim, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt.
And then just to be clear that they meant in verse 5,
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don't have it right here, it is verse 5,
tomorrow is a feast to Yahweh.
The third characteristic of those who impatiently consider a time period to be to lay in our passage
is that they determine to domesticate the divine.
The whole idea behind domestication is that we take something that's untamed and tame it
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so that it will do our bidding.
We become the master.
But there are no gods like God.
No Elohim like Elohim.
We cannot place him in a box, for he's everywhere.
We cannot instruct him, for he knows everything.
We cannot guide him, for he already sees the future.
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We cannot make anything for him that he cannot make for himself and yet infinitely better.
We cannot say anything to him that he's not already thought of.
As the newsboys sing, I am not following a God I can lead around.
I cannot tame this deity.
C.S. Lewis, when describing God in that childhood classic, the Lion and Witch in a Wardrobe said,
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he is not tame, but he is good.
And praise God, he is good.
Being good does not mean tame.
Are we able to regulate God's goodness?
Are we able to inform God what good means?
Are we able to teach God to behave?
This calf would lead them where they pointed him.
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This calf would make decisions for them that they had already made for themselves.
This calf would never tell them to do something or not to do something they didn't already want to do.
This calf would be a very obedient master because this calf was made entirely out of gold.
And gold is not very bossy.
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Thus we can see through this act that their concept of God was still a very Egyptian concept.
Their concept of God was that Moses was very much in control.
Thus, they blamed Moses for the hardships they encountered
because they considered Moses to be the superior partner
in the relationship between himself and God.
Because they saw God as subservient to Moses,
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they didn't see any reason why God couldn't be subservient to them.
And they made God.
They determined to domesticate the divine.
But honestly, are we really that much different?
Each one of us here today has a picture of who God is in our mind.
Do we let God challenge that picture?
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Do we allow the Bible to teach us new truths?
Truths that we have not already seen.
Are we willing to stretch beyond our comfort zone?
A zone defined by our own personal definition of who God is.
By the way, that is the true definition of idolatry.
Jesus spent time with prostitutes.
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Would we consider that a proper use of time for a holy man?
God cannot be put into a box.
We cannot tame him.
He will always do something that we don't expect.
Job's friends were confused in the same way.
They knew that they had God all figured out.
Saul was certain on the road to Damascus that he was 100% doing the will of God.
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The Pharisees had the utmost confidence that their lifestyle guides were what God wanted everyone to do,
but all of them were wrong because God cannot be tamed.
God is not a calf.
By the way, why a calf?
It's been pointed out in Egyptian creator God, Peta, who spoke the world into existence,
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is a superb parallel for the God of heaven, the God of the Hebrews.
Perhaps the Egyptian priests used this aspect of him speaking the world into existence to say,
hey, that's the same as the God you talk about.
And perhaps they suggested that was God.
By the way, he was manifested in the world as actually an Apis bull.
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The Apis bull.
Another suggestion that we mentioned last night is that since they were in Sinai,
and Sinai was a land for Hathor, the mother cow goddess was very popular at the time of the Exodus,
and perhaps was even the, well, she was the favorite goddess of the woman
who may have been Moses' mother, famously depicted as feeding
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one of the major candidates for Pharaoh of the Exodus,
who I think is the Pharaoh of the Exodus, Amenhotep 2.
And what happened when they came into the Sinai Peninsula?
God gave them manna to eat.
There seems to be a similarity there, perhaps could have been used.
further hathor was worshipped in the way a woman becomes a mother we talked about that last night
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using that clanking sistrum up there or there talked about that last night the act of which
was explicitly in the celebrations of the worship of the golden calf remember joshua heard the sound
of the metal clanking and he thought it was the sound of battle but moses said no it's the sound
of singing moses after all had grown up in the palace and would have witnessed this kind of
festival. More likely than that, the Egyptian practice of combining gods and goddesses at work,
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and perhaps both of these are correct, but why a calf? The Apis is a bull and Hathor is a cow.
Why a calf? Neither of those are calves. Let me introduce you to Heset. The reason the calf was
golden is because of Heset. Heset was also a mother goddess and was also a cow. She was the mother of
each new God-king.
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So when a new king rose to the throne,
she was considered to be his mother,
the new God-king.
For when a new God-king rose to power,
the new God-king was considered her son
and was represented as a golden calf.
The God of the Hebrews was to be their God-king.
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He was their master and commander.
He was new to most of them.
From an Egyptian way of thinking,
They probably thought they were honoring God by making him in this abominable way.
But God is not new, even if he's new to us.
God is not new even if he was new to them.
Just because we may have only met God a short time ago
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doesn't mean that God began to exist at that time.
He's the Ancient of Days, the Everlasting Father,
the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
He existed before the beginning, for he always existed,
And he's the one who has no origin story.
For God, he is a God because he is a creator.
He is God because he's the architect of the universe.
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Only he knows all of its intricate details.
He can rule because he wrote the laws.
He can judge because he knows what's true.
He can command because he orchestrated reality.
And he can love because he's always had creation in his heart.
Because he is God, he demands worship.
Because he's a king, he demands obedience.
Because he's a God, he demands loyalty.
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Because he's a king, he demands respect.
Because he's God, he demands submission.
Because he's a king, he demands allegiance, because he's good.
He is better than any god we could invent.
He's better than any king we could appoint, because he's good.
He provides us with opportunities to grow in worship and loyalty and submission.
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Because he's good, he provides us opportunities to grow in obedience and respect and allegiance.
because he's good.
He provides us trials to test our trust,
our patience, our faith.
And because he's good,
he provides trials to test our love,
our kindness, our mercy.
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Because he's our God, King,
he knows what's best for us eternally.
He knows the time of trouble is coming.
He knows how much our characters need to be tested
in times of relative peace to be ready.
He knows what will happen.
He knows what must happen now and how much we can endure.
This is why he doesn't allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able, 1 Corinthians 10, 13.
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This is why he sent the Holy Spirit to be our helper, our comforter, John 14, 16.
And this is why he allows bad things to happen to us, Daniel 11, 35.
He is God and he is good.
How did Moses say it?
Do not fear, for God has come to test you.
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That his fear may be before you so that you may not sin.
How has God come to test you today?
How has God come to test you this week?
What has he done in your lives to test you?
We're in training for trial.
There is some reason that God is taking 2,000 years to return.
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We know that he desires sin to never enter the universe ever again.
And beginning in 1844, the seats of the heavenly court were set
and the cosmic conflict began to be judged in the universe.
When this work is done and not a moment earlier and not a moment later,
Michael will stand up and declare that those who are righteous will remain righteous
and those who are wicked will remain wicked.
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At that moment in Daniel chapter 12 verse 1 says that we will experience a time of trouble
such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. Ellen White says it this way,
none but those who have fortified the mind with the truths of the Bible will stand in the last
great conflict. She says none but those who have fortified the mind with the truths of the Bible
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will stand in the last great conflict. None but those. We are in training for trial, and it must
be this way because sin must never come back again. All that God is doing is to ensure that outcome.
Never again must there be sin, and that takes time. We must take advantage of the one percent
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opportunities given to us every time a little trial comes up in our lives, these opportunities
to build useful habits so that we can be part of the solution to the sin problem, which will result
in us being able to stand in the last great conflict.
Look what Paul writes.
Paul writes this in 2 Corinthians 4, 17 to 18.
Paul says, for our light affliction, he calls it light,
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the things that happen to us in the world, all the pain, the suffering,
the death of loved ones, the financial issues,
all the things that happen to us, the wicked, evil things.
He says, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment,
it's perspective.
That's perspective.
is working for us.
It's for our benefit.
A far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory
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while we do not look at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen.
For the things which are seen are temporary.
The things which are not seen are eternal.
Later in our chapter in Exodus 32,
Moses stood on the side of the camp and shouted,
whoever is on the Lord's side, come to me.
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This is why we come to church.
We come to be revived.
We come to remember why we are engaged in training for eternity.
We come to hear the shout again in our day, and it's ringing in our ears,
whoever is on the Lord's side, come to me.
Why don't you say it with me?
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Whoever is on the Lord's side, come to me.
When we are tempted to think that Jesus is delaying is coming,
we must hear the call.
Say it with me.
whoever is on the Lord's side, come to me.
When we are tempted to substitute our personal time with God,
if we're simply hearing about someone else's relationship with God,
we must say, say it with me,
whoever ist on the Lort's side, come zu me
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Come to me.
This is why we are Pathfighters leaders.
This is why we are teachers.
This is why God calls us to train for eternity so that we can live forever,
so that they can live forever.
It's our task that God is giving to us to call people to God's side,
just as he's been calling us to his side.
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And then one day soon, we'll look off in the eastern horizon
and see that small black cloud about half the size of a man's hand coming toward us.
The earth will grow silent as it draws near.
Larger and larger it grows.
Brighter and brighter until it's a huge white cloud.
It's based like fire.
It's top like a great rainbow.
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Ten thousand angels will fill the sky all around,
singing the most beautiful song we have ever heard.
Our eyes will be drawn to the center of the cloud,
where sits our precious Jesus,
hair white and curly down to his shoulders.
A bright crown on his head that has the appearance of many crowns.
His feet look like fire and his right hand is a sickle and has left a silver trumpet.
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His eyes like flame of fire.
He looks right at us.
He looks right through us.
Finally, we cry out, who is able to stand?
Is my robe spotless?
The angel stops singing and all is silent.
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Finally, Jesus speaks.
Those who have clean hands and a pure heart shall be able to stand.
My grace is sufficient for you.
With faces lit up with joy, with joy overwhelming our hearts,
the angels will sing a song higher and louder than before.
Jesus lifts the trumpet to his lips and he blows and the cloud descends,
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moves downward and are wrapped in flames of fire.
He looks at the graves and he lifts his eyes and hands towards heaven and he says,
Awake, awake, awake, you who sleep in the dust and arise.
A mighty earthquake violently shakes the earth,
and there rising in the sky all around us are the righteous
who have heard the summons, and with their guardian angels
are carried into the sky to meet their liberator, their savior.
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We cry out hallelujah as we recognize our loved ones.
Then in an instant we rise to meet them in the air,
and together we meet the Lord in the air.
Then I'll meet my father-in-law for the first time.
then I'll reunite with my uncle
I'll hug my
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sorry I'll hug my grandparents
and my cousins
I'll see my dad again
then we'll meet Mrs. White
and the other pioneers
then I'll meet some of the Bible
some of the Bible patriarchs I spend so much
time studying about
then we'll all
we'll meet our Lord and Savior
face to face and he won't
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be a stranger because we spend so much time here on earth getting to know him. Do you long for the
second advent as I do? Do you long for the second advent? If you do, stand up. Stand up where you
are. This is an Adventist church. If you are longing for that second advent the way that I am, stand up.
Stand up with me. Stand up if you long for that second advent. And raise your hand if you're willing
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to tell somebody about it. We're Adventists. We're supposed to be telling the world about it. You've
you've heard things and you're like, I never knew about the Exodus that way, but now I'm seeing God
in a new way. And I don't want to tell somebody what I've learned this week. I want to share
something. I want to share something I heard this week. That's great. Do that. Please send them to
the website of the church. Let them watch the videos that you watched. If you heard the
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presentations, send them to that. If you know somebody who is just dying in the depths of
despair and they can't see any hope, point them to Jesus and give them the hope that you found,
the hope that you have the reason why you're sitting here right now.
And maybe through this week, maybe because of the seminar,
maybe because of your own Bible studies,
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maybe your heart has been moved and you're like,
I want to follow Jesus in a way I have not followed him before.
If you have that in your heart,
if you have that in your heart that you want to follow Jesus
like you've never followed him before,
then I invite you to come forward.
Maybe in your heart, as you were listening this week,
or maybe you're thinking about there may be somebody in your life,
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a daughter, a son, a father, a mother, a brother, a sister,
who has fallen away.
Maybe they don't know God, and you're like,
I want to have a relationship with,
I want them to have a relationship with God
the way I have a relationship with God.
And you want to come forward as an act of intercession.
Then come forward as an act of intercession for them,
and we'll have a special prayer for you.
If there's someone in your life, there's people in my life,
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people close to me that don't know Jesus,
they've left him.
My heart yearns for them.
I'm sure you do too.
If you want to have a special prayer, come forward for them.
If you want to join this church,
if you want to join an Advent movement,
a movement of people that is actively looking forward to the second Advent,
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and you want to worship the God the way he tells us,
not the way we want, but the way he tells us to,
and you haven't done it before,
and you want to join this church,
then I also invite you to come forward as well
and meet up with one of our elders,
and they will teach you and help you how you can join this church
and this movement in Mesa to help the people here know more about God.
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We don't need to worry about what is taking so long.
I've wondered my whole life.
I've heard people say, you know, I heard Jesus was coming.
I heard he was coming when I was a little girl, and now I'm 80 years old.
He still hasn't come.
Is he ever going to come back?
We don't need to worry about what's taking so long.
Don't lose your faith at the end.
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We need to spend our time right now with God,
fortifying our minds to the truth of the Bible,
building up those 1% of trials into stacks of habits.
And then rather than using our gold to build up the tabernacle
so that God can dwell among us,
he will take us to his home where the streets are paved with gold
and we can live with him forever.
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That's worth the wait.
He is worth the wait.
Let's do it together.
let's say it one more time.
Let's do God's work.
Won't you join me in saying this one more time?
Whoever is on the Lord's side, come to Jesus.
Let's pray.
I'll wait just a second.
Go ahead.
Please come.
Please come.
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If anybody out there wants to join, now is the time.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, what a miraculous God you are.
And you're so patient with us, Lord.
You're so patient with us.
We tend to fall away.
We get distracted by the world.
We live in the culture.
We can't help it.
This is where we live.
And our eyes get distracted.
We have to take care of the bills.
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We have to take care of the responsibilities,
even the responsibilities for church.
And sometimes, Lord, we spend so much time doing your work,
we forget to spend time with you.
And Lord, we realize that.
We repent of it.
We want to spend more time with you daily,
ourselves getting to know you better.
Lord, we dedicate ourselves.
We rededicate ourselves to you this morning.
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We also understand, Lord, that you are not delayed at all,
that we are just impatient for it.
And Lord, we have dedicated ourselves
to be a little more patient this morning
and let you be God.
And we'll just do your work until you come.
But Lord, we need your hand to help us overcome.
We can't do it on ourselves.
You made us who we are.
We know, Lord, also that you are always on time.
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You are on time for the Exodus.
You are on time for your first Advent.
You certainly will be on time for your second Advent.
And Lord, we can't wait for it.
We know you want to redeem everybody.
We also know, Lord, that where you lead us,
you are there.
And so if you're leading us to make a decision in life that's different than we have had before, Lord,
we trust you in that decision.
And we're going to follow you wherever it leads.
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Thank you so much, Lord, for always being with us.
We want to dwell in our midst and being with us.
And so, Lord, we dedicate ourselves.
We've come forward this morning because of that.
We've come forward this morning also because there are people that are in our lives that are dear to us,
that our hearts yearn for.
I have them myself, Lord.
We yearn for them.
Our hearts cry for them.
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We want so much for them to have the peace of a relationship with you,
a peace that can give us peace in the midst of chaos,
not because we're holding on to an idol like the Egyptians believed,
because we're holding on to you, a real living God
who interacts with us in a personal way,
who wants to be known by your name.
Lord, that name, Yahweh, the name Jesus,
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the name by which all others must fall,
Jesus, the name who gives us salvation,
and we want people to know that.
as we've dedicated ourselves here to do your work until you come in Jesus name.
Amen.
It's a blessing to be with you again.
And it's been a wonderful, wonderful week.
So thank you, Dan, and thank you all the elders and all the members who I saw every evening.
I know many of you were watching online.
I didn't get to see your happy, smiling faces, but I do know you were there.
And I thank you so much for that as well.
And it's nice to see you here this morning.
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This morning, we're going to talk about delay.
what happens to us when we're waiting for something or someone and it takes longer than expected
if that someone is my wife then i should expect to get a phone call
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but what if you're unable to contact the one to whom you consider delayed you get impatient
You begin to worry.
You begin to imagine all sorts of scenarios.
And if not satisfied, impatience creates from delay that can lead to unchecked, irrational action.
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And this was the situation the Hebrews were in on Mount Sinai just a few months after the exodus from Egypt.
Moses had gone up the mountain to speak with God.
And after some time, the people began to get impatient.
Listen to this.
It says, now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain,
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the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain,
the people gathered together to Aaron.
Was Moses on a holiday?
Was Moses responsible for his itinerary?
Was Moses delinquent?
The people couldn't see Moses delaying coming down from the mountain
because the people couldn't see Moses.
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What they could see was the same phenomena that they had previously frightened them.
Before God spoke the Ten Commandments,
now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire.
Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
After the Ten Commandments, now all the people witnessed the thunderings,
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the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking,
And when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off.
Then they said to Moses, you speak with us and we will hear, but let God, not God speak with us, lest we die.
And Moses said to the people, do not fear, for God has come to test you,
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and that his fear may be before you so that you may not sin.
Moses had already been up and down the mountain a few times by this point, talking with God,
and he had not stayed very long on any of those occasions,
always returning, it seems, the very same day.
But this time, he had gone up into the mountain,
into that stormy, smoky cloud with thunders and lightnings and quakes,
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and hours went by.
Finally, the sun went down, and Moses had not returned.
The people waited long into the night, and still no Moses.
Children had to be put to bed.
The sun rose the next morning and still no Moses.
But by the time the sun set the next day, the people had to start taking care of their basic needs.
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Sure, the mountain was still there, as was the cloud, but no Moses.
The next day came and went.
And then the next.
And then a few more days.
And an entire week had passed.
More days.
And then two weeks.
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then three weeks then another week an entire month had passed and still no moses after another
week and a half the people were getting used to the mountain but impatient uh the patient for the
results impatience turned to questions questions without answers eventually led to suspicion
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there had been a command that no one was to touch the mountain while god was speaking or else they
would die. Might Moses have done something and God killed them? I mean, how would they even know?
But remember what God had told them back in Exodus 20. Do not fear, for God has come to test you,
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and that his fear may be before you so that you may not sin. God had come to test them. The people
couldn't see Moses delaying coming because the people couldn't see Moses. If they had seen Moses,
they would have seen him communing with God
and God sharing with him instructions about how to build a sacred space
so that God himself could live in their midst.
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Jesus returned to heaven in A.D. 31.
Do you realize it's just six years until it's 2,000 years since he went to heaven?
How did he put it in John?
Go to prepare a place for us.
Why does a God who only used seven days to create the world need 2,000 years to prepare a place for us?
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It's a fair question.
It's a question a lot of people have had.
The truth is, though, we have no idea what's involved in preparing a place for us.
Just as the Hebrews had no idea what Moses was doing up on the mountain,
we also have no idea what it takes to prepare a place for us.
God did not inform the Hebrews why he was keeping Moses so long.
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And God did not inform the Hebrews what Moses was actually doing on the mountain.
What God did inform the Hebrews of is what they should be doing while they waited through Moses.
Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that his fear may be before you so that you may not sin.
In times of crisis, we revert back to our habits.
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In moments of upheaval, we are not designed to think rationally.
Our nature, our energies, our passions, our disciplines, our habits kick in.
I coach basketball, and this is something we tell the girls basketball.
It's what we tell the girls all the time.
If you want to make that shot at the end of the game when the pressure's on,
you have to have the habits because otherwise you revert back to whatever habits you have.
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If you haven't laid the right foundation, you're going to miss.
You're going to panic.
In fact, Steph Curry is one of the most famous basketball players today.
skills wow even other basketball players yet Steph Curry Kobe Bryant Michael Jordan Bill Russell and
a host of other players were not born with those skills what fans don't see are the hours and hours
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of time spent working on just one percent of a skill a skill is just a simply a habit that's
formed by stacking 1% of a skill on top of each other every time you practice one more percent,
so that when high-pressure moments come, the players don't have to think what they're going
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to do. They revert back to the habit, that stack of the 1% that they had during practice.
And this is exactly what Moses was telling the Hebrews. The moments of trial that leave us
wondering what is God doing today are simply opportunities to practice 1% of, say, the skill
of trust, 1% of the skill of patience, 1% of the skill of faith. Over time, after many trials,
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these 1% begin to stack up and they form habits so that when the big crisis comes,
we have already formed the habit of trust, the habit of patience in God.
In those moments, those crisis moments, those moments of chaos,
when we revert back to our habits,
God in his loving kindness gave us those moments to begin practice habits,
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building 1% at a time so that when the testing moments come in our lives,
we're ready for the big moment.
We don't have to know what is taking God so long.
All we have to know is God.
And knowing that God is good gives us confidence and patience to wait.
After all, we're in training for trials.
So what can we learn from the Hebrews today about delay?
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Join me in our passage for consideration this morning.
It's found in Exodus chapter 32.
I read the first part of the first verse a minute ago.
Exodus chapter 32, the second book of Moses, Exodus,
primarily looking at the first five verses.
In it, we will see three characteristics of those who impatiently consider a time period to be delay.
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In this well-known story, we will see exactly what we should be doing as Adventists.
We're in a Seventh-day Adventist church.
We're Adventists waiting for the second Advent.
Exodus chapter 32.
By the way, I'm going to read these all from the Bible.
Every other text will be up on the screen.
So if you want us to open your Bibles to Exodus 32, you can just leave it open there.
Exodus 32 verse 1.
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Moses wrote, now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain,
the people gathered together to Aaron and said to him, come, make us gods that shall go before us.
For as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.
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Who brought the people out of the land of Egypt?
Who brought the people out of the land of Egypt?
And God said, and God said, see, where are we at?
And God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage, you shall have no other gods before me.
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While Moses on the mountain getting the Ten Commandments written in stone,
the first one of which explicitly says that we shall have no other gods before God,
the people were in the valley saying, Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt.
Moses. How many people have fallen through the ages because they put their trust
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in a human and followed the human rather than following God? I mean, how many Jim Joneses,
David Koreshnas, Harry Krishnas do we need to see before we too stop following people?
Even if we're certain that the one we're following is following God,
how much danger do we put ourselves in when we follow a person who's following God
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rather than just following God directly?
The first characteristic of those who impatiently consider a time period
as delay from our passage this morning is that they were not really following God,
but a man who was following God.
Catch that nuance.
It's critical.
The Hebrews were following God because of the man.
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The man was the one following God, and they were following the man.
Moses had become like a god to them, and Aaron like his prophet, just as God had said,
See, he, Aaron, shall be your Moses' spokesman to the people.
He himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God.
They were not really following God, but they were following a man who was following God.
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We, too, find ourselves in a position of considering a time period to be delayed.
We, too, have been told to spread the gospel message while we wait for the return of our Savior.
As Adventists, we can sometimes focus on the time that's passing by
rather than the work we're supposed to be doing.
But the first characteristic we need as we wait for the second Advent is to follow God directly.
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We must have a personal relationship with God directly.
If we get our religion from sermons, from the lesson study,
our parents, our friends, our teachers,
Adventist TV or radio stations, podcasts, social media,
or any other good and wonderful source,
we have made a mistake of following a man or woman who is following God.
We must have a personal relationship with God directly.
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These other sources are all supplementary.
They are necessary to help keep us from going off the path,
But being supplementary does not mean being substitutionary.
There is no substitute for a direct relationship with God.
Vitamins are a good supplement to take,
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but they are not a good substitute for a proper, healthy, well-planned meal.
Owning a textbook is a good supplement for your education,
but it's not a substitute for you actually mastering the discipline.
Flowers are a good substitute.
I'm sorry, a good supplement.
I get it right.
Flowers are a good supplement to remind of the love I have for my wife,
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but they are not a substitute for my loving presence with her.
Amen?
Okay.
And hearing a good sermon is a great supplement for your relationship with God,
but it's not actually a substitute for you actually taking time intentionally
to spend quality time with God yourself, getting to know him for yourself.
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The first characteristic of those who impatiently consider a time period to be
the lay is that they are following a person who is following God rather than
following God directly.
The second characteristic we need to avoid is found in the next two verses.
Let's keep reading.
Exodus 32 verses 2 and 3.
Exodus 32 verses 2 and 3.
Moses writing.
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Exodus 32 verses 2 and 3.
Moses wrote,
And Aaron said to them,
Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives,
your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.
So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears
and brought them to Aaron.
Ancient Egyptian jewelry,
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by the way, if you were here a few nights ago,
you heard a little bit about it.
It was not used for beauty, but for religious purposes.
In ancient Egypt, religion was life.
They did not have a dichotomy between sacred and secular.
Everything was sacred.
The Egyptians believed that humanity had been given the great task of partnering with the gods,
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with them in order to preserve the balance and harmony of the universe,
in order to keep back the forces of chaos that were ever pulling at the fabric of the universe,
the tapestry, hoping to unravel it and send the universe back into its pre-creation form of formlessness and emptiness.
One way that humans did this partnership with the gods was through wearing jewelry.
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Every aspect of a piece of jewelry was chosen deliberately.
Gems, for example, were not chosen for their color,
for their refractive properties, but instead for their color.
Color meant everything because it was through color they believed that the gods worked.
The color red, for example, represented danger.
Examples such as the sun, fire, blood outside the body,
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The desert were all dangerous and all were red.
In fact, Egypt itself was called the black land because of the rich black silt that settled on the land after the waters receded.
And so everywhere the waters went and left this black silt was the black land of Egypt.
The lands right beyond it, the desert lands were the red lands.
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Those were dangerous lands.
The Hebrews went through a body of water called the Red Sea because there was a sea in the middle of red lands.
The gods they believed worked through jewelry, amulets, statues, imagery.
It was believed that having one of these in your possession kept that one close to the gods and helped keep balance.
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Thus, Aaron's request for them to give up their closeness to the gods, the Egyptian gods,
so that Aaron could make for them the god who saved them from Egypt.
it's abomination this concept of closer to the gods wasn't unique you remember the story
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i remember a few hundred years earlier on the way to bethel uh the worship god jacob had the
made his family bury their foreign gods and their earrings so they could purify themselves
before they came to meet with god that's in genesis 35 but this this mean what this means is that the
families weren't, the family of Jacob was not wearing jewelry when they went into Egypt. All
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the jewelry they acquired at the time of the Exodus, they acquired in Egypt, and thus all the jewelry
at Mount Sinai that they were giving for this, what ended up being a golden calf, was jewelry
that's associated with the culture and the gods of Egypt. The second characteristic of those who
impatiently consider a time period to be delayed in the passage this morning is that they live in
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culture of the world. And I wonder, in what ways am I? In what ways are we perhaps, maybe unwittingly,
adopting the culture of the world in our everyday lives? A diet, recreation, education, politics,
even religion. It's impossible to define. I mean, we live in the world and then,
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so without even trying, we adopt the culture of the world. But God challenges this. God challenges
us to live in the culture of heaven today. God challenged us to see the world through heaven's
eyes, through God's eyes. Let each of you, Paul wrote, look out, not only for his own interests,
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you should do that, but also for the interests of others. Jesus said it this way, do you not say
that there are still four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes
and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest.
God asks us to look at the world through God's eyes,
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not the world's eyes.
Aaron asked them to specifically give the gold earrings.
Most ancient Egyptian jewelry was made of gold.
There's a few pieces of silver, actually.
But gold was considered, as you probably learned this week,
considered to be the actual skin of the gods.
So when the Hebrews were wearing the gold jewelry,
they would have believed this is the actual skin of the gods.
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Thus, while God was on the mountain with Moses,
giving him instructions about how to build a sacred space
so that God himself could live in the midst of his people,
a space that would include a tabernacle
in which gold was the entire material used,
or at least seen because it was a place for God to dwell,
Satan was down in the valley getting the people to use that gold
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to make their own God.
Living in the culture of the world has consequences
and often leads to waste,
a waste of resources that God intends for the good.
All right, so so far we've identified two characteristics
of those who impatiently identify a period of time as delay.
In our passage this morning,
they were not really following God,
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but they were following a man who was following God
and thus have a skewed religion
rather than a pure one straight from God himself.
And the second characteristic was that they live in the culture of the world
and thus do not see with God's eyes which can lead to waste of resources God intends for the good.
The third characteristic is found in the next two verses.
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So read me again, Exodus 32, the last two verses for our passage this morning, verses 4 and 5.
And he, that's Aaron, received the gold from their hand,
and he fashioned it with an engraving tool and made a molded calf.
Then he said, this is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt.
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So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it.
And Aaron made a proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.
In most translations, the word God here is in lowercase.
In the Hebrew, it's the word Elohim, which is plural.
It's the exact same word, by the way, that appeared back in verse one.
In verse 1, they asked Aaron to make for them Elohim.
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And in verse 4, they said, this is your Elohim.
Back in the first commandment, God had said, I am the Lord, your Elohim, who brought you
out of the land of Egypt.
In fact, the word Lord there is in small caps in English, usually in most translations,
indicating the name of God, Y-H-W-H, was used.
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I'll pronounce that today as Yahweh.
So that God has said, I am Yahweh, your Elohim,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
In Exodus 32, verse 4, they had said about the molded calf,
this is your Elohim, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt.
And then just to be clear that they meant in verse 5,
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don't have it right here, it is verse 5,
tomorrow is a feast to Yahweh.
The third characteristic of those who impatiently consider a time period to be to lay in our passage
is that they determine to domesticate the divine.
The whole idea behind domestication is that we take something that's untamed and tame it
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so that it will do our bidding.
We become the master.
But there are no gods like God.
No Elohim like Elohim.
We cannot place him in a box, for he's everywhere.
We cannot instruct him, for he knows everything.
We cannot guide him, for he already sees the future.
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We cannot make anything for him that he cannot make for himself and yet infinitely better.
We cannot say anything to him that he's not already thought of.
As the newsboys sing, I am not following a God I can lead around.
I cannot tame this deity.
C.S. Lewis, when describing God in that childhood classic, the Lion and Witch in a Wardrobe said,
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he is not tame, but he is good.
And praise God, he is good.
Being good does not mean tame.
Are we able to regulate God's goodness?
Are we able to inform God what good means?
Are we able to teach God to behave?
This calf would lead them where they pointed him.
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This calf would make decisions for them that they had already made for themselves.
This calf would never tell them to do something or not to do something they didn't already want to do.
This calf would be a very obedient master because this calf was made entirely out of gold.
And gold is not very bossy.
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Thus we can see through this act that their concept of God was still a very Egyptian concept.
Their concept of God was that Moses was very much in control.
Thus, they blamed Moses for the hardships they encountered
because they considered Moses to be the superior partner
in the relationship between himself and God.
Because they saw God as subservient to Moses,
(23:24):
they didn't see any reason why God couldn't be subservient to them.
And they made God.
They determined to domesticate the divine.
But honestly, are we really that much different?
Each one of us here today has a picture of who God is in our mind.
Do we let God challenge that picture?
(23:47):
Do we allow the Bible to teach us new truths?
Truths that we have not already seen.
Are we willing to stretch beyond our comfort zone?
A zone defined by our own personal definition of who God is.
By the way, that is the true definition of idolatry.
Jesus spent time with prostitutes.
(24:08):
Would we consider that a proper use of time for a holy man?
God cannot be put into a box.
We cannot tame him.
He will always do something that we don't expect.
Job's friends were confused in the same way.
They knew that they had God all figured out.
Saul was certain on the road to Damascus that he was 100% doing the will of God.
(24:29):
The Pharisees had the utmost confidence that their lifestyle guides were what God wanted everyone to do,
but all of them were wrong because God cannot be tamed.
God is not a calf.
By the way, why a calf?
It's been pointed out in Egyptian creator God, Peta, who spoke the world into existence,
(24:52):
is a superb parallel for the God of heaven, the God of the Hebrews.
Perhaps the Egyptian priests used this aspect of him speaking the world into existence to say,
hey, that's the same as the God you talk about.
And perhaps they suggested that was God.
By the way, he was manifested in the world as actually an Apis bull.
(25:12):
The Apis bull.
Another suggestion that we mentioned last night is that since they were in Sinai,
and Sinai was a land for Hathor, the mother cow goddess was very popular at the time of the Exodus,
and perhaps was even the, well, she was the favorite goddess of the woman
who may have been Moses' mother, famously depicted as feeding
(25:34):
one of the major candidates for Pharaoh of the Exodus,
who I think is the Pharaoh of the Exodus, Amenhotep 2.
And what happened when they came into the Sinai Peninsula?
God gave them manna to eat.
There seems to be a similarity there, perhaps could have been used.
further hathor was worshipped in the way a woman becomes a mother we talked about that last night
(25:55):
using that clanking sistrum up there or there talked about that last night the act of which
was explicitly in the celebrations of the worship of the golden calf remember joshua heard the sound
of the metal clanking and he thought it was the sound of battle but moses said no it's the sound
of singing moses after all had grown up in the palace and would have witnessed this kind of
festival. More likely than that, the Egyptian practice of combining gods and goddesses at work,
(26:19):
and perhaps both of these are correct, but why a calf? The Apis is a bull and Hathor is a cow.
Why a calf? Neither of those are calves. Let me introduce you to Heset. The reason the calf was
golden is because of Heset. Heset was also a mother goddess and was also a cow. She was the mother of
each new God-king.
(26:40):
So when a new king rose to the throne,
she was considered to be his mother,
the new God-king.
For when a new God-king rose to power,
the new God-king was considered her son
and was represented as a golden calf.
The God of the Hebrews was to be their God-king.
(27:01):
He was their master and commander.
He was new to most of them.
From an Egyptian way of thinking,
They probably thought they were honoring God by making him in this abominable way.
But God is not new, even if he's new to us.
God is not new even if he was new to them.
Just because we may have only met God a short time ago
(27:22):
doesn't mean that God began to exist at that time.
He's the Ancient of Days, the Everlasting Father,
the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
He existed before the beginning, for he always existed,
And he's the one who has no origin story.
For God, he is a God because he is a creator.
He is God because he's the architect of the universe.
(27:46):
Only he knows all of its intricate details.
He can rule because he wrote the laws.
He can judge because he knows what's true.
He can command because he orchestrated reality.
And he can love because he's always had creation in his heart.
Because he is God, he demands worship.
Because he's a king, he demands obedience.
Because he's a God, he demands loyalty.
(28:08):
Because he's a king, he demands respect.
Because he's God, he demands submission.
Because he's a king, he demands allegiance, because he's good.
He is better than any god we could invent.
He's better than any king we could appoint, because he's good.
He provides us with opportunities to grow in worship and loyalty and submission.
(28:29):
Because he's good, he provides us opportunities to grow in obedience and respect and allegiance.
because he's good.
He provides us trials to test our trust,
our patience, our faith.
And because he's good,
he provides trials to test our love,
our kindness, our mercy.
(28:49):
Because he's our God, King,
he knows what's best for us eternally.
He knows the time of trouble is coming.
He knows how much our characters need to be tested
in times of relative peace to be ready.
He knows what will happen.
He knows what must happen now and how much we can endure.
This is why he doesn't allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able, 1 Corinthians 10, 13.
(29:15):
This is why he sent the Holy Spirit to be our helper, our comforter, John 14, 16.
And this is why he allows bad things to happen to us, Daniel 11, 35.
He is God and he is good.
How did Moses say it?
Do not fear, for God has come to test you.
(29:38):
That his fear may be before you so that you may not sin.
How has God come to test you today?
How has God come to test you this week?
What has he done in your lives to test you?
We're in training for trial.
There is some reason that God is taking 2,000 years to return.
(30:01):
We know that he desires sin to never enter the universe ever again.
And beginning in 1844, the seats of the heavenly court were set
and the cosmic conflict began to be judged in the universe.
When this work is done and not a moment earlier and not a moment later,
Michael will stand up and declare that those who are righteous will remain righteous
and those who are wicked will remain wicked.
(30:23):
At that moment in Daniel chapter 12 verse 1 says that we will experience a time of trouble
such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. Ellen White says it this way,
none but those who have fortified the mind with the truths of the Bible will stand in the last
great conflict. She says none but those who have fortified the mind with the truths of the Bible
(30:46):
will stand in the last great conflict. None but those. We are in training for trial, and it must
be this way because sin must never come back again. All that God is doing is to ensure that outcome.
Never again must there be sin, and that takes time. We must take advantage of the one percent
(31:09):
opportunities given to us every time a little trial comes up in our lives, these opportunities
to build useful habits so that we can be part of the solution to the sin problem, which will result
in us being able to stand in the last great conflict.
Look what Paul writes.
Paul writes this in 2 Corinthians 4, 17 to 18.
Paul says, for our light affliction, he calls it light,
(31:33):
the things that happen to us in the world, all the pain, the suffering,
the death of loved ones, the financial issues,
all the things that happen to us, the wicked, evil things.
He says, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment,
it's perspective.
That's perspective.
is working for us.
It's for our benefit.
A far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory
(31:56):
while we do not look at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen.
For the things which are seen are temporary.
The things which are not seen are eternal.
Later in our chapter in Exodus 32,
Moses stood on the side of the camp and shouted,
whoever is on the Lord's side, come to me.
(32:18):
This is why we come to church.
We come to be revived.
We come to remember why we are engaged in training for eternity.
We come to hear the shout again in our day, and it's ringing in our ears,
whoever is on the Lord's side, come to me.
Why don't you say it with me?
(32:39):
Whoever is on the Lord's side, come to me.
When we are tempted to think that Jesus is delaying is coming,
we must hear the call.
Say it with me.
whoever is on the Lord's side, come to me.
When we are tempted to substitute our personal time with God,
if we're simply hearing about someone else's relationship with God,
we must say, say it with me,
whoever ist on the Lort's side, come zu me
(33:17):
Come to me.
This is why we are Pathfighters leaders.
This is why we are teachers.
This is why God calls us to train for eternity so that we can live forever,
so that they can live forever.
It's our task that God is giving to us to call people to God's side,
just as he's been calling us to his side.
(33:37):
And then one day soon, we'll look off in the eastern horizon
and see that small black cloud about half the size of a man's hand coming toward us.
The earth will grow silent as it draws near.
Larger and larger it grows.
Brighter and brighter until it's a huge white cloud.
It's based like fire.
It's top like a great rainbow.
(34:00):
Ten thousand angels will fill the sky all around,
singing the most beautiful song we have ever heard.
Our eyes will be drawn to the center of the cloud,
where sits our precious Jesus,
hair white and curly down to his shoulders.
A bright crown on his head that has the appearance of many crowns.
His feet look like fire and his right hand is a sickle and has left a silver trumpet.
(34:20):
His eyes like flame of fire.
He looks right at us.
He looks right through us.
Finally, we cry out, who is able to stand?
Is my robe spotless?
The angel stops singing and all is silent.
(34:40):
Finally, Jesus speaks.
Those who have clean hands and a pure heart shall be able to stand.
My grace is sufficient for you.
With faces lit up with joy, with joy overwhelming our hearts,
the angels will sing a song higher and louder than before.
Jesus lifts the trumpet to his lips and he blows and the cloud descends,
(35:04):
moves downward and are wrapped in flames of fire.
He looks at the graves and he lifts his eyes and hands towards heaven and he says,
Awake, awake, awake, you who sleep in the dust and arise.
A mighty earthquake violently shakes the earth,
and there rising in the sky all around us are the righteous
who have heard the summons, and with their guardian angels
are carried into the sky to meet their liberator, their savior.
(35:27):
We cry out hallelujah as we recognize our loved ones.
Then in an instant we rise to meet them in the air,
and together we meet the Lord in the air.
Then I'll meet my father-in-law for the first time.
then I'll reunite with my uncle
I'll hug my
(35:49):
sorry I'll hug my grandparents
and my cousins
I'll see my dad again
then we'll meet Mrs. White
and the other pioneers
then I'll meet some of the Bible
some of the Bible patriarchs I spend so much
time studying about
then we'll all
we'll meet our Lord and Savior
face to face and he won't
(36:10):
be a stranger because we spend so much time here on earth getting to know him. Do you long for the
second advent as I do? Do you long for the second advent? If you do, stand up. Stand up where you
are. This is an Adventist church. If you are longing for that second advent the way that I am, stand up.
Stand up with me. Stand up if you long for that second advent. And raise your hand if you're willing
(36:34):
to tell somebody about it. We're Adventists. We're supposed to be telling the world about it. You've
you've heard things and you're like, I never knew about the Exodus that way, but now I'm seeing God
in a new way. And I don't want to tell somebody what I've learned this week. I want to share
something. I want to share something I heard this week. That's great. Do that. Please send them to
the website of the church. Let them watch the videos that you watched. If you heard the
(36:57):
presentations, send them to that. If you know somebody who is just dying in the depths of
despair and they can't see any hope, point them to Jesus and give them the hope that you found,
the hope that you have the reason why you're sitting here right now.
And maybe through this week, maybe because of the seminar,
maybe because of your own Bible studies,
(37:17):
maybe your heart has been moved and you're like,
I want to follow Jesus in a way I have not followed him before.
If you have that in your heart,
if you have that in your heart that you want to follow Jesus
like you've never followed him before,
then I invite you to come forward.
Maybe in your heart, as you were listening this week,
or maybe you're thinking about there may be somebody in your life,
(37:38):
a daughter, a son, a father, a mother, a brother, a sister,
who has fallen away.
Maybe they don't know God, and you're like,
I want to have a relationship with,
I want them to have a relationship with God
the way I have a relationship with God.
And you want to come forward as an act of intercession.
Then come forward as an act of intercession for them,
and we'll have a special prayer for you.
If there's someone in your life, there's people in my life,
(38:02):
people close to me that don't know Jesus,
they've left him.
My heart yearns for them.
I'm sure you do too.
If you want to have a special prayer, come forward for them.
If you want to join this church,
if you want to join an Advent movement,
a movement of people that is actively looking forward to the second Advent,
(38:24):
and you want to worship the God the way he tells us,
not the way we want, but the way he tells us to,
and you haven't done it before,
and you want to join this church,
then I also invite you to come forward as well
and meet up with one of our elders,
and they will teach you and help you how you can join this church
and this movement in Mesa to help the people here know more about God.
(38:48):
We don't need to worry about what is taking so long.
I've wondered my whole life.
I've heard people say, you know, I heard Jesus was coming.
I heard he was coming when I was a little girl, and now I'm 80 years old.
He still hasn't come.
Is he ever going to come back?
We don't need to worry about what's taking so long.
Don't lose your faith at the end.
(39:08):
We need to spend our time right now with God,
fortifying our minds to the truth of the Bible,
building up those 1% of trials into stacks of habits.
And then rather than using our gold to build up the tabernacle
so that God can dwell among us,
he will take us to his home where the streets are paved with gold
and we can live with him forever.
(39:28):
That's worth the wait.
He is worth the wait.
Let's do it together.
let's say it one more time.
Let's do God's work.
Won't you join me in saying this one more time?
Whoever is on the Lord's side, come to Jesus.
Let's pray.
I'll wait just a second.
Go ahead.
Please come.
Please come.
(39:48):
If anybody out there wants to join, now is the time.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, what a miraculous God you are.
And you're so patient with us, Lord.
You're so patient with us.
We tend to fall away.
We get distracted by the world.
We live in the culture.
We can't help it.
This is where we live.
And our eyes get distracted.
We have to take care of the bills.
(40:09):
We have to take care of the responsibilities,
even the responsibilities for church.
And sometimes, Lord, we spend so much time doing your work,
we forget to spend time with you.
And Lord, we realize that.
We repent of it.
We want to spend more time with you daily,
ourselves getting to know you better.
Lord, we dedicate ourselves.
We rededicate ourselves to you this morning.
(40:29):
We also understand, Lord, that you are not delayed at all,
that we are just impatient for it.
And Lord, we have dedicated ourselves
to be a little more patient this morning
and let you be God.
And we'll just do your work until you come.
But Lord, we need your hand to help us overcome.
We can't do it on ourselves.
You made us who we are.
We know, Lord, also that you are always on time.
(40:51):
You are on time for the Exodus.
You are on time for your first Advent.
You certainly will be on time for your second Advent.
And Lord, we can't wait for it.
We know you want to redeem everybody.
We also know, Lord, that where you lead us,
you are there.
And so if you're leading us to make a decision in life that's different than we have had before, Lord,
we trust you in that decision.
And we're going to follow you wherever it leads.
(41:14):
Thank you so much, Lord, for always being with us.
We want to dwell in our midst and being with us.
And so, Lord, we dedicate ourselves.
We've come forward this morning because of that.
We've come forward this morning also because there are people that are in our lives that are dear to us,
that our hearts yearn for.
I have them myself, Lord.
We yearn for them.
Our hearts cry for them.
(41:34):
We want so much for them to have the peace of a relationship with you,
a peace that can give us peace in the midst of chaos,
not because we're holding on to an idol like the Egyptians believed,
because we're holding on to you, a real living God
who interacts with us in a personal way,
who wants to be known by your name.
Lord, that name, Yahweh, the name Jesus,
(41:54):
the name by which all others must fall,
Jesus, the name who gives us salvation,
and we want people to know that.
as we've dedicated ourselves here to do your work until you come in Jesus name.
Amen.
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