Intimacy With The Infinite [Exodus 20:4-6]

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How do you get God to say “yes” to your prayers? Is there a negotiation tactic that works? Is there a posture, if you pray on your knees is it more likely he’ll say yes? If I dress nicer - does God lean in to hear me? Is there a certain amount of good deeds I need to do - how do I get God to say “yes”? What’s the formula I need to punch into the vending machine to get my blessing to drop? You know when I was a kid - I really enjoyed the Harry Potter books, because my parents were heathens who believed in witchcraft. No, they’re kid’s books - but there’s a part in the first book where the little wizard boy learns to fly on a broomstick. They lay the broom on the ground and say “UP!” and the stick flies up into his hand, and it’s amazing - and it sounded like so much fun. And, of course, he’s an absolute natural at it - a brilliant flyer. (Now, what I’m about to tell you is very embarrassing, and is going to show you how dorky your pastor was as a little kid - so just, please be kind with my vulnerability). I read that book and I thought, “that’s amazing, I want to fly on a broomstick.” But of course, I know witchcraft isn’t real - or the real stuff is evil. Magic’s not real, but God IS real. You don’t need spells or magic, you’ve got prayer. This is absolutely true - I was like 8 years old. And I went a got a broom out of the closet [pause]. And I go into the backyard, and I put it on the ground, and I said, “God, please make this broom fly.” Up! And this is going to shock you - but nothing happened. Where did I go wrong? And some of you are like, “by opening the Harry Potter book” - maybe. But isn’t that how some of us approach God? I saw this clip last week and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. There was a self proclaimed prophet in Nigeria - claims that God has given him powers, and at one point he tries to part to the ocean with a staff just like Moses did - let’s see that clip. [show clip]. Didn’t quite work out the way he thought it would. He heard about a miracle, that God did with a guy years ago - and he figured, if I follow God, I’m going to get those superpowers. 

Or maybe you’re not as dorky as me, or as ridiculous as that guy - but have you ever had that conversation in your head? God, I go to church, I give, I serve - how come you haven’t answered my prayer? God, I follow your laws, I pray every day, I read the bible every now and then - how could a bad thing happen to me? How could I lose my job? How could I get cancer? How could my friend die? We have this almost, transactional relationship with the divine, don’t we? A lot of us, with this whole religion thing, we’re just out here trying to answer the question - “how do I get God to say yes to my prayers?” But what I want you to consider today is that we might be asking the wrong question - and if we can discover the right question, that is actually the key to fulfillment and happiness in life. 

Now, last week we talked about the framework of the ten commandments. God’s people were slaves for so long, they didn’t know how to live any other way. But with this new set of rules, we see that God is giving his people an outline for how to live free. It’s not a set of restrictions, it’s a structure to build a healthy life on. And if we pay attention, we can build that same healthy life here today in Byron Center, Michigan. 

And so if you want to grab your bibles, we are going to be in Exodus, chapter 20. I’m using the NIV translation, and you can look it up on your phone, or just grab a physical bible off the back wall. I say it a lot, but we are a BYOB church - bring your own bible. And I make you this promise - if you bring it, we will open it. Now if you don’t own a physical bible, and you don’t like the phone apps - we’ve got bibles on the bookshelf, and I want you to just take that, it’s our gift to you. We love getting the word of God into people’s hands. So Exodus 20, God has led his people out of Egypt, they crossed the red sea - the time when it actually worked - God leads them to the desert to Mount Sinai, where he gives them the ten commandments. Verse 4, [read 4-5a]. Don’t make images that you bow down and worship. In common language - no idols. Do not make idols. Now, we talked about this a bit last week - because the first commandment is really similar: have no other gods. But I think the biggest obstacle for us in the modern world to understanding it is that word idol. I’m willing to bet that most of you don’t have little statues in your house that you bow down to. And so most of us read this commandment and we think, “well that’s easy - I’m all set.” But let me redefine idolatry for a second. A good friend of mine described Idolatry as “anything we look at that makes us believe, “If I just had THAT, then my life would have value, my life would be complete, my life will be worth living. If I could just have that relationship. If I could just have that job title. If I could just have that number in my bank account, if I just have that (whatever it may be for you) then my life will finally be full. I’m willing to bet, right now in your life, you probably have 2-3 idols lobbying for your attention. 

Let me give you some examples. Some of you, maybe the first word you thought was success. However you define success - whether that’s your family life, the vacations you take, the amount in your bank account, the car you drive - success might be an idol you’re pursuing in life, and you don’t even realize it. Here’s another one - IMAGE. It’s the idol of image, of how people perceive you. It’s how they see you. Do they you as someone who is successful, do they see you as someone who is beautiful, do they see you as someone who is important or power or classy. The perception is what you desire. The thing you are pursuing is the IMAGE of how other people see you. Can I just say - that one is me. I think for a lot of people pleasers - image is so important. We want people to like us, so I want people to think I’m likeable, I want to always present a positive image. Even in worship. I remember a couple of weeks ago, I wasn’t playing in the band, and the worship was so overwhelming, the beauty of the lyrics and the music and the power of all our voices lifted together and I just felt so compelled to kneel before God. But I hesitated, because I’m the pastor and I kind of sit in the front row a lot and I didn’t want people to think, “oh, he’s just putting on a show. He’s trying to draw attention to himself” - and I had this little moment of “God, please don’t let anybody see me, I just want to kneel over here in the corner.” Because for a moment, my image - how I appear to other people, became more important than expressing humility before God. For some of us image is an idol, reaching for our worship, reaching for our attention. Here’s some more - I’ll go through them quick. For some of you, maybe it’s Money, Position, health, power, intellect, social media influence, alcohol, athletics/sports. And you can probably come up with a bunch more. They are vying for your attention, they are playing with your heart strings. Sacrifice for me, Give me your attention, give me your desire, think about me, dwell on me. Some of these things are actually blessings FROM God, that we become OBSESSED with. It’s subtle, but we shift our hearts away from the blessing giver, to the blessing itself and that becomes what we pursue instead of pursuing God.

And here’s what usually happens - we have these idols, and idols do a great job when we cannot actually achieve them. When they are far off goals in the distance, they serve us well. But what happens when we achieve them? Success is a great idol as long as we don’t have it. But some of you have achieved success, and realized the horrible truth - it’s not enough. Some of you have achieved position, or have a lot of money, or have a great image, or have power, a brilliant intellect - you have grabbed those idols, you have achieved everything they have to offer you - and it is not enough. Some of you have been chasing idols, and maybe you’ve even caught up with them - and then you realized that idol didn’t fulfill you, so you move on to the next one thinking, “ah, but THIS is what will bring fulfillment.” Like a dog chasing cars, idols are only useful if you do not actually catch them. But on the other hand, we worship a God whose fulfillment only comes when you fully catch hold of him. And the reason for that chase, the reason for that fulfillment that only comes from God is because we were made to worship. We chase all these things because we were designed to chase, we were designed to worship - but there is a puzzle piece in our soul that only God can fit into. And we’re trying to put all these other things in there, but the only piece that fits is God.

Exodus, verse 5 it continues, [read v.5-6] Now, can I just admit to you all - I struggle a little bit with that word jealous. In human terms, jealousy is almost never a good thing. It makes me uncomfortable to think of God as a jealous God. But then I read about how the ten commandments are more than just a list of rules, they are considered a covenant. And if you don’t know that word - it’s like a legally binding, relationship promise. Probably the easiest way to explain it is like a marriage. Marriage is more than just “I pinky promise to like you for a long time.” Marriage is a commitment - there’s going to be good days and bad days, but you’re my person and I’m in this, this is how we’re going to be in relationship. And I know human jealousy can be toxic and controlling and unhelpful - but in marriage, you want some jealousy, right? I think about my marriage - I want my wife to be possessive of me. I want her to say, “no - I don’t want you looking at other women. I don’t want you getting emotionally attached to other women. I don’t want you to get physically attached to other women. You’re mine, and that means something, I’m not going to share you.” It sounds weird, but I want her to be possessive me, that makes me feel like I matter to her, I’m important and I have value to her. Do you know the worse thing that a spouse could say about that stuff? “I don’t care what you do” - because it starts with “I don’t care.” When it says God is a jealous God - what they’re saying is that God says, “I do care. Because you matter to me” That’s the way God talks to us. I don’t want you out here worshipping money or fame or health or beauty or sports - those aren’t good for you. You are mine, and that means something. God is possessive of you, because you are valuable to him. So I don’t like that word jealous, but it actually shows us something beautiful about God’s character - but then I don’t want you to miss the imbalance. Verse 5 it says, God punishes sin to the third or fourth generation - but showing love to a thousand generations. This is the other piece of God’s character I want you to catch - God’s mercy and his love are a thousandfold stronger than punishment for sin. He recognizes, sin has ripples. Sin can mess up a family for generations - but his LOVE goes for a THOUSAND generations. 

You know, it’s kind of strange - but if you actually jump forward a thousand generations. If you jump all the way from Moses to Jesus - there’s this amazing moment where Jesus deals with some idols. In John, chapter 4, Jesus sits down and has this little conversation with a woman at the well. Maybe you’ve heard this story before, there’s a lot to it, but I just want to focus in on verse 19. Jesus sits down at a well, and his disciples went into town to go get food. And while he is sitting at the well, a Samaritan Woman comes up, and they chat for a little bit. But what you need to know to understand this exchange is that Jesus is jewish, and the Samaritan woman is a samaritan - and those two groups don’t really get along. And so in verse 19, [read v.19-20]. Basically what she’s saying is “you people worship over there in Jerusalem, and we worship over here.” 700 years after Moses, but still 700 years before Jesus shows up Jews and Samaritans had a disagreement about how to worship God. They weren’t worshipping little statues anymore, now the new problem was about WHERE you worship. Can you worship on this mountain? Does it have to be at the temple? The core question is still the same - how do we get God to say yes to our prayers? - Got to be on the right mountain! But then Jesus responds, [read v.21-23]. So Jesus says, “it doesn’t matter where you worship - I mean, you Samaritans are wrong, but it doesn’t matter” (laugh). The time is coming when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Now I know to us in the modern world that sounds silly - worshipping on a mountain vs in a temple - but do you think it’s any different to God’s ears than the modern church bickering about organs and drum sets in the church? I grew up during the worship wars of the 90’s - contemporary vs traditional. Wear a suit vs dress how you want. I have actually heard some people from one style of service say stuff like, “those people at the other service - they don’t really love Jesus. That’s not the right way to worship.” And sometimes I think, nah - we’ve moved past this, but then I remember, I got ordained in one of these [show picture of ordination]. Brian Blum told me in the interview process to get hired at this church, the first sermon he ever watched me preach was in a robe. Even into the modern world we’re still bickering about how we’re supposed to worship God. And hey - if you want to dress nice for worship, I love that. That’s amazing. That’s respectful to our God. But if you come in here in stained work clothes, you got a rip on your sleeve or maybe your kids still in their pajamas because that’s all you could get them to wear - I love that too, because you can worship in spirit and in truth, even in your pjs. I love it when people worship in nice clothes, but God’s not here for your wardrobe, he’s here for your heart. And actually, that’s the main point - God wants your heart. And then Jesus hits her with the big moment, [read v.24-26]. The Samaritan woman has this abstract concept of God. We worship him on the mountain, and someday there will be a messiah. And Jesus says, “I’m right here in front of you.” God wants our heart - we were made to worship him, to be fulfilled by connecting to him. 

And actually we see that in the very next verse, check this out, [read v.27-32]. In all the hubbub, you kind of forget that the conversation started while Jesus was waiting for the disciples to come back with food. But then Jesus says, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” And they’re a little confused but then we read, verse 33 [read v.33-34]. Have you ever had a moment like this in your life? You’re working hard on something, and spending hours and hours on it - but it’s so satisfying or it’s so fulfilling that you didn’t even notice the hours slip by? Like, logically - you should be exhausted, you should be in a puddle on the floor - but something else is giving you strength. It’s a sense of fulfillment - actually, I heard a quote about this I wanted to share with you. PrinzClips has sort of a spoken word poem where he says - God created the fish to swim, but fish don’t take swimming lessons because the swim is already in the fish. God created birds to fly, but birds don’t go to flight school because the flight is already in the bird. God created seeds to become trees, but seeds don’t take gardening classes because the tree is already in the seed. So you see, success is already built in. But here’s the part most people miss - if you’re doing what God created you to do, success isn’t the goal, it’s the default. All of God’s creation succeeds naturally, when it functions according to its design. And humans are exactly the same. The problem is, most people are disconnected from their design. Most people are trying to succeed outside of what they were created for. A fish looks untalented on land. A bird looks weak underwater. A seed looks dead on concrete. But none of them are failures, they’re just in the wrong environment. So success isn’t about effort - it’s about alignment. When you’re doing what God created you for, there’s a different level of Grace attached to it. And it’s not because it’s easy, it’s because you were literally designed for it. When a fish swims, it looks effortless. When a bird flies, it looks effortless because they were built for it. - and what he’s getting at there is that you… and me, humans, we were made for worship. You were made for relationship with the almighty. And we can hop from idol to idol trying to fill the puzzle piece in our soul - but it will never be effortless until we find alignment with the creator. 

What I’m trying to show you with all of this is that God is not interested in formulas. He wants a family. God is not interested in your rituals - what you wear to church, which mountain you worship on - it’s not your rituals he’s after, it’s a relationship. Jesus doesn’t want to be at the top of the list of priorities, he wants to be the paper you are writing the priorities on. Everything in your life, everything you do - revolves around this connection you have with the one who loves you. When you realize who God is and how much he loves us - the idols become so shallow, and empty. Paul puts it like this in Romans, [read Romans 1:22-23, 25]. 

So my challenge for you this week is pretty simple - replace your idols with intimacy, replace ritual with relationship, swap out ceremonies and control for surrender and connection. Take a minute this week and examine what you’re giving allegiance to and more importantly, why - and then redirect that towards God. Practice a worship that places God at the center of your life. And notice how I said REPLACE. You can’t just remove an idol - because a fresh one will just sprout up in its place. Idols are like the weeds of the soul. You throw out the idol of success - “oh, I’m not chasing success anymore, I’m going after a big bank account.” oh, I’m not chasing money anymore, I’m going after a good image. Oh, I’m not chasing image anymore, I just want to be influential. It’s not just about getting rid of the idols, you’ve got to replace it with a connection to God. Replace your idol with the person of Jesus, because only Jesus can save you. Only he loves you so much that he would die for you. 

So there’s two parts to that. First - figure out what your idol is. Examine your life. And then, once you identify it - stop, repent. Repent means turn around and go in the other direction. If I can have a moment of honesty - Byron Center, and a lot of the surrounding communities, we’ve got a lot of weeds in our soul, a lot of hidden idols hiding just under the surface of our rituals and religion. If you’re here this morning and you’re tempted to worship money, you’ve got to go in the other direction - be generous - instead of building up your life, use it to build the kingdom of God. If you’re tempted to worship your reputation, make it your goal to build God’s reputation at the cost of your own. Elevate the reputation of Jesus in your life. If you’re saying to yourself, “I don’t want to go over there and pray with that person - I’ll look weird, I don’t know what to say, people will think I’m dumb. My reputation might suffer” - do it anyways. Replace the idol. Your reputation might go down, but you know whose reputation will increase? Jesus. Repentance isn’t just stopping, it’s turning in the opposite direction. If you’re here this morning and you’re tempted to worship pleasure for your body - make a plan and actually pray and fast. For a limited time, cut yourself off - withhold the things from your flesh and ask God to fill you in your Spirit. You’ll find that the things you’re using to fill the void inside will leave you feeling empty - but if you replace that with God, it will change your life. I cannot recommend fasting enough. It’s one of the most powerful spiritual practices. If you’re tempted to worship your possessions - give them away. Give them to someone in need, and don’t even take credit for it. If you can figure out a way to give it in secret - do that. If you’re tempted to worship your job - make sabbath mandatory. Always go home on time, always take the day off, draw really clear lines in your life. 

What are you worshipping? You were made to worship. You’re probably worshipping a whole bunch of stuff in your life right now. Will you make a decision today to worship Jesus? To replace every good thing in your life with the BEST thing. So let me circle back to the beginning - how do we get God to say yes to our prayers? We don’t. Turns out God is not a vending machine. He’s a Father. I think some people figure, “okay, so if I get rid of my idols - then God will give me what I want.” And it’s like no - when you can see God for who he is, and what he has done for you - he IS what we want. We don’t worship God in order to get a lesser thing. We worship God, in order to get… God. [Let’s pray].