Date: July 11th, 2010
Speaker: Pastor Kevin Snyder
Title: Measuring Faith
Text: Exodus 32
Introduction
I hold in my hand a measuring tape. We use it primarily to measure length, depth or growth…depending on how you hold it. We can use it to measure how something has grown.
i.e.
Person –
Measure height
measure biceps, shoe size
diameter
Measuring can tell us a lot about health.
Today I want us to try & “measure” our spiritual lives. Not quite as measurable or precise, but I think it is possible.
How?
Well, there are events that we all face in life, often several times, that I would call “measuring stick” events.
Events that measure the core issues of our life & faith.
Measuring Stick events are ones that…
1. measure the strength of our commitment to God
2. measure the depth of our character & convictions
3. measure our knowledge and trust in God
The measuring stick events show us how far we’ve really come.
What are those events?
Before I list them let’s look at a story in Exodus 32 that reveals 3 of them.
Exodus 32
Tell or read?
1. Measuring Stick Event # 1:What We Do When God is Silent
Note Ex. 32:1:
When the people saw how long it was taking Moses to come back down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. “Come on,” they said, “make us some gods who can lead us. We don’t know what happened to this fellow Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt.”
- Moses was to the people God’s representative. God spoke to Moses and he spoke to the people.
- God said “stretch out your hand over the waters of the Red Sea”…and waters parted.
- God said “throw stick into water and water will become fresh” –
- God said to Moses here are the commandment and Moses spoke them to the people.
- In Exodus 19 – people brought needs to Moses and Moses would speak God’s word into their situation.
Exodus 33: 7 – 11
7 It was Moses’ practice to take the Tent of Meeting?*? and set it up some distance from the camp. Everyone who wanted to make a request of the Lord would go to the Tent of Meeting outside the camp.
8 Whenever Moses went out to the Tent of Meeting, all the people would get up and stand in the entrances of their own tents. They would all watch Moses until he disappeared inside. 9 As he went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and hover at its entrance while the Lord spoke with Moses. 10 When the people saw the cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, they would stand and bow down in front of their own tents. 11 Inside the Tent of Meeting, the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.
But now Moses is gone. Gone for 6 weeks and the people are floundering. God seems silent.
- No direction.
- No answer.
- No remedy.
Some refer to times when God seems silent or absent …
- as “dark nights of the soul” –.
- “desert times”
- “winter season of the soul”
Our spiritual life, like our climate has seasons. There are times when the sun is shining, the birds are singing, God is good, and life is great. Then there are winter seasons. Times when our soul feels cold. We feel alone.
Critical, measuring stick question is:
What do we do in those times?
The story is told of six WWII Navy pilots who left their aircraft carrier on a mission. After searching for enemy submarines, they tried to return to their ship shortly after dark. But the captain ordered a blackout of all lights on the ship. The frantic pilots radioed repeatedly asking for just one light so they could see to land. They were told that the blackout could not be lifted. After several appeals the ship’s radio was turned off and they broke communication with the pilots.
We all have perhaps felt that at times in our spiritual lives.
The end result led to the pilots crashing in the ocean.
What did the people in Exodus do?
Like the pilots, they crashed.
- They filled the silence with a substitute.
- They made a replacement god.
Application
What do we do in those times when the heavens are silent?
- When the emotion isn’t there.
- When our experience just “isn’t what it used to be”
- When God’s Word just doesn’t seem alive.
Do we crash? Do we look for a substitute god to fill in?
Do we compromise?
Response #1
You see, the new or immature believer often reacts like the Hebrews.
- They need someone.
- They are dependent on someone to prop them up, give them answers, tell them what to do, reassure them that God is still there, fire them up with emotion.
Jesus identified this response in the parable of the seeds and the sower. Some are like the seed that fell on the stony soil. It grew up quickly but then withered because it had no roots.
Correlations:
- There is some correlation to addictive behaviours. If we have some addictive tendencies these times of silence and waiting can be difficult. We get anxious and tend to turn to our addictive behaviour to self-medicate. Kind of what these Hebrew people did. They went back to Egypt. They made their own god to soothe them. They couldn’t wait and so they self-medicate. They try to fill this anxious void with a substitute.
There is a correlation to some Christian people who when God doesn’t seem to answer on their timetable they will seek a substitute. Their anxiety causes them to turn to a substitute - turn to a fortune teller or tarot card reading, or horoscopes. That becomes their substitute, fill-in god because “we don’t know what has happened to him.”
But there is a 2nd response:
This is the response that recognises there will be winter seasons of the soul, desert times….
This is the response identified by Is 50:10 –
Let him who walks in the dark,
who has no light,
trust in the name of the Lord
This is the response of faith.
The people who cling to God’s promises.
i.e.
Psalm 109 – lament Psalm
The Psalmist has some critics and enemies who are just relentless in their attacks….and it seems God is not coming to his aid. What does he do?
He pours his heart out to God. He tells God how he sees it in a lament.
1 O God, whom I praise,
do not remain silent,
2 for wicked and deceitful men
have opened their mouths against me;
they have spoken against me with lying tongues.
3 With words of hatred they surround me;
they attack me without cause.
4 In return for my friendship they accuse me,
but I am a man of prayer.
5 They repay me evil for good,
and hatred for my friendship.
6
21 But you, O Sovereign Lord,
deal well with me for your name’s sake;
out of the goodness of your love, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy,
and my heart is wounded within me.
23 I fade away like an evening shadow;
I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees give way from fasting;
my body is thin and gaunt.
25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers;
when they see me, they shake their heads.
26 Help me, O Lord my God;
save me in accordance with your love.
27 Let them know that it is your hand,
that you, O Lord, have done it.
28 They may curse, but you will bless;
when they attack they will be put to shame,
but your servant will rejoice.
29 My accusers will be clothed with disgrace
and wrapped in shame as in a cloak.
30 With my mouth I will greatly extol the Lord;
in the great throng I will praise him.
31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy one,
to save his life from those who condemn him.
The Psalmist patiently waited on God.
Often heaven’s silence is because of some divine delay. It is like God wants to do something more or different than what we are asking for and we only know that afterwards.
The silence builds our faith and reveals our faith.
Remember Abraham waited 25 years for the promise God gave him for a son.
Graphic: stalactites & stalagmites
i.e.
Gerald Marvel – time when God seemed to be not responding…discouraged.
Sp Retreat – beautiful night sky…and a big cave with stalagmites and stalactites…formed by little drops of water over hundreds and 1000’s of years…leave mineral deposits…
“Gerald, I am the God of the speed of light and the God of stalactites and stalagmites and I’ve got you on the drip program.”
Point:
One of the ways we can measure our spiritual growth and maturity is by how we respond when God seems silent. Do we keep on keeping on? Do we keep the faith or do we jump ship…fill the silence with a substitute?
2. Measuring Stick #2: What do we do when…
Nobody is Looking?
A burglar broke into a house one night. He shone his flashlight around, looking for valuables, and when he picked up a CD player to place in his sack, a strange, disembodied voice echoed from the dark saying "Jesus is watching you." He nearly jumped out of his skin, clicked his flashlight out and froze.
When he heard nothing more after a bit, he shook his head, clicked the light back on and began searching for more valuables. Just as he pulled the stereo out so he could disconnect the wires, clear as a bell he heard, "Jesus is watching you." Freaked out, he shone his light around frantically, looking for the source of the voice. Finally, in the corner of the room, his flashlight beam came to rest on a parrot.
"Did you say that?" he hissed at the parrot.
"Yep," the parrot confessed, "I'm just trying to warn you."
The burglar relaxed. "Warn me, huh? Who are you?"
"Moses," replied the bird.
"Moses" the burglar laughed. "What kind of stupid people would name a parrot Moses?"
"Probably the same kind of people that would name a rotweiller Jesus," the bird answered.
What would change if we felt no one, not even Jesus was looking? Great measuring stick.
Somehow when Moses was out of the picture the people felt no one was looking…not even God
It says:
Exodus 32:6 - So the next day the people got up early. They sacrificed burnt offerings and brought friendship offerings. They sat down to eat and drink. Then they got up to dance wildly in front of their god.
They cast off restraint.
i.e.
jokes about “watch what say or do – preacher is here.” I live with the reality that often I am at times perceived as a moral judge. People will act differently around me. Want me to see they are good people.
Quite different when I’m not around.
Contrast:
Daniel
- people out to get him
- found nothing
- prayer life
i.e.
Leader conference – private and public ministry
Challenge and goal is to be bigger in your private ministry than your public. The temptation though is to be like the Pharisees & hypocrites – public was bigger than their private
Jesus referred to them as unwashed bowls – clean on outside but not inside
Whitewashed tombs – look good on outside but smell of death inside.
Question: “Who are we when no one is looking?
- gets to the core of your faith, your convictions
If the gap is getting smaller between your Sunday performance and your weekday performance then you can measure growth.
3. Measuring Stick #3: What do we do when…When We Mess Up & Get Caught
In our text we see 2 responses.
a. Aaron’s Response:
Look at v. 24 for how Aaron responded when he got caught. Has a familiar ring to it.
Exodus 32:22
22“Please don’t be angry,” Aaron answered. “You know how these people like to do what is evil. 23?They said to me, ‘Make us a god that will lead us. This fellow Moses brought us up out of Egypt. But we don’t know what has happened to him.’
24“So I told them, ‘Anyone who has any gold jewellery, take it off.’ They gave me the gold. I threw it into the fire. And out came this calf!”
Now was that really how it happened?
If it did – wow what a miracle?
That is almost as miraculous as believing that some random elements were by chance thrown in a pot , mixed up, and out popped a human being.
No, note what did happen:
v. 4 - 3?So all of the people took off their earrings. They brought them to Aaron. 4?He took what they gave him and made it into a metal statue of a god. It looked like a calf. He shaped it with a tool.
Then the people said, “Israel, here is your god who brought you up out of Egypt.”
Aaron would take no personal responsibility. It just happened.
i.e.
In Discipleship Journal, Don McCullough wrote: “John Killinger tells about the manager of a minor league baseball team who was so disgusted with his center fielder’s performance that he ordered him to the dugout and assumed the position himself. The first ball that came into center field took a bad hop and hit the manager in the mouth. The next one was a high fly ball, which he lost in the glare of the sun—until it bounced off his forehead.
The third was a hard line drive that he charged with outstretched arms; unfortunately, it flew between his hands and smacked his eye. Furious, he ran back to the dugout, grabbed the center fielder by the uniform, and shouted. ‘You idiot! You’ve got center field so messed up that even I can’t do a thing with it!’
Contrast:
Moses – Owns responsibility –
31?So Moses went back to the Lord. He said, “These people have committed a terrible sin. They have made a god out of gold for themselves. 32?Now please forgive their sin. But if you won’t, then erase my name from the scroll you have written.”
Moses takes responsibility for sin of people…willing to take responsibility and punishment on himself as their leader.
We see in those 2 men, 2 responses….responses that are measuring stick responses – Own it or blame it?
Take responsibility or shift it – “it just happened.”
Conclusion
Exodus 32 is a measuring stick event.
- It provides an example and warning to us.
- It reminds of what immaturity and maturity looks like:
Immaturity –
- looks for substitutes when God is silent
- it acts differently when no one is looking
- It shifts responsibility when it messes up or gets caught.
Maturity
- holds on in faith in the desert times
- It acts the same even when no one is looking
- It takes responsibility and owns its faults.
If you put those on a continuum…
Over the last few years, how have you grown?
When God is silent?
Substitute God, self-medicate or keep on, live by faith.
When no one is looking?
act differently …let down standard…or just the same person
When you mess up?
blame others, shift responsibility…own it and take responsibility
God uses these events in our lives to grow us…to help us become more mature and solid in our faith.
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Prayer for Growth and Strength
Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S. Ex 32:1
* This “Tent of Meeting” is different from the Tabernacle described in chapters 26 and 36.
Tyndale House Publishers: Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 2nd ed. Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2004, S. Ex 33:7-11
The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Is 50:10
The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Ps 109:1-31
New International Reader's Version. 1st ed. Zondervan, 1998, S. Ex 32:6
New International Reader's Version. 1st ed. Zondervan, 1998, S. Ex 32:22-27
New International Reader's Version. 1st ed. Zondervan, 1998, S. Ex 32:3-4
New International Reader's Version. 1st ed. Zondervan, 1998, S. Ex 32:31-32