Golden Calves

Tonight I heard one of the most convicting talks of my life.  I'm so thankful for the way David Platt opened my eyes to God's words tonight in a bold and beautiful way.  He started us out in Exodus 32 where Moses went up on Mt. Sinai and Aaron and the Israelites built a golden calf to worship.  He connects this to Paul's warning to the church in Corinthians 10:6-13.  His question to us was what are our golden calves?

Aaron was the leader of the Israelites while Moses was up on Mt. Sinai and he built a golden calf for the Israelites to worship.  As a youth minister and leader to the teens at Pleasant Valley what golden calves am I building for them to worship?  My goal above all else should be to connect them with the father and open their eyes to the cost of discipleship.

David Platt suggested 4 golden calves that we must be cautious of.

1. We have become leaders without conviction!
-Aaron as their leader gave the people exactly what they wanted.  They wanted a God to worship and so he built them one.  So often I fall into the temptation to please the youth group instead of pleasing my God.  I want to give my kids what they want because that results in them being happy, which results in their parents being happy, which ultimately results in me having a job. But is that truly what is pleasing the Lord?  Christianity if truly lived out is costly!  It should cost us our luxury cars, our huge houses, our comfortable circle of friends, and in some cases even our lives.  So often we PERFORM crowd pleasing Christianity that cost our people nothing.  Our people come to church to consume not to give.  This is so backwards from what we see in the Bible.  I am lying to my teens if I only tell them what they want to hear.  I can't let everything revolve around them, when everything is suppose to revolve around HIM.  I pray that God will fill me with boldness and a deeper understanding of His word so that I will speak His truth and never water down the message.  It's not comfortable, it's not easy, and it's not free.  Christianity is costly!

2.  We have devised salvation without dedication.
-Salvation and dedication go together.  So many times we think now that we are saved we can do whatever we want because we have God's grace.  When truly now that you have given your life to Christ you can do whatever He wants.  Christ is worth COMPLETE and TOTAL abandonment.  When we give our lives to Him we are saying I'm ALL in.  There is nothing I want more than to magnify and praise your name.  Most people go through life without truly finding something that is worth losing everything for, but as Christ's disciples we should praise Him that we have something that is truly worth losing everything for.  Nothing could ever compare to the riches of intimately knowing our savior and the hope of seeing Him face to face someday SOON!

3.  We have manufactured worship without humiliation.
-As the Israelites stood around and worshiped the golden calf they worshipped it in the same ways that they had been called to worship God.  They were worshipping.  The only thing that they forgot was God.  Platt challenged us to think about how we do this same thing today.  We mold and make our image of God to look like us.  We fashion Him in our image.  When we take God and fashion Him into our image and come to sing and praise his name are we truly worshipping God or are we worshipping ourselves?  All throughout the Old Testament there are examples of men and women falling face down before the Lord.  Where is our humility and brokenness in worship?  Tonight as we praised God we fell on our knees before His throne.  As I set their on my knees with my head bowed and my hands opened the image of a servant falling before her master kept running through my head.  It was almost as if I was on my knees begging Him to save me.  I was just so thankful that the King of the universe allowed me to come into His presence.  Dear God, please forgive me when I become prideful in my worship.

4. We fail to speak of the wrath of God.
-When we downplay the wrath of God we downplay the cross.  If hell doesn't really exist and isn't really that bad then why did Jesus die to save us from it?  When we doubt the wrath of God we downplay the gift of God's mercy.  So often I fail to remember and remind myself and my teens of what God truly did save us from.  Without His mercy where would I be?  If my sweet Savior didn't come and take the cup and drink every drop of God's wrath I wouldn't stand a chance.  His wrath is real, but Praise God so is His mercy.  When we doubt God's wrath we minimize the mission of the church.  If hell isn't real then we shouldn't be too worried about telling people about Jesus.  If hell isn't real then people don't really need saving.  But if I believe that the Bible is completely true and is God's Holy word then I believe that hell is real and that it is far more terrible than my mind could ever imagine.  If I believe the only way to escape hell is through Jesus then I should be sharing His story with great urgency.  I should care far more about peoples' eternal suffering!  Sweet Jesus thank you for taking the cup for me and drinking every drop of God's wrath.  When I think of all you have done for me I am overwhelmed with joy and am humbled because I know I could never repay you.

I am thankful to serve a patient and merciful God, but I pray that I will never water down His message. His message is perfect!  His Word is powerful.  May I come to KNOW it better and engrave His Words on my heart. May I never build golden calves for me or for anyone else to worship.  May I live boldly with no fear of this world.