Sept. 6, 2026 -- Exodus 32

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Good morning. [00:00:00] Speaker B: We're in Exodus, chapter 32, as we just keep journeying through the book of Exodus. [00:00:05] Speaker A: And so if you've got your Bible, [00:00:06] Speaker B: you can turn there. We're going to cover the whole chapter. And this chapter is one that you're probably familiar with. [00:00:12] Speaker A: You might have heard about it early on. [00:00:14] Speaker B: It's a chapter about the golden calf. And it's a story that many of us have heard, many of us have learned a little bit about. But as we jump into this, there's [00:00:24] Speaker A: an incredible amount of very difficult things that sometimes the Hebrew text is interesting [00:00:31] Speaker B: in how to figure out what exactly it's saying. It's a little bit ambiguous. [00:00:34] Speaker A: And so your Bible might be translated [00:00:37] Speaker B: a specific way based off of how they're kind of interpreting the translation of some unique things in this text. There's also some really unique themes in this text. And there's some things that kind of confront us in this text that we [00:00:49] Speaker A: go, whoa, wait a minute, that's not [00:00:52] Speaker B: the same story I think I remember from kids church with a little kid's story about a cow that was golden calf. And they just said, don't do that. And there's some things in here as we read it, that will confront us. And so my hope is, as we walk through this again, one of the [00:01:08] Speaker A: things that I believe Exodus is doing is it's lifting up the character of who God is, that we get to [00:01:14] Speaker B: see who God is and how he [00:01:16] Speaker A: interacts with his people. [00:01:18] Speaker B: And so we're going to be confronted with that. [00:01:22] Speaker A: My goal at the end of this is to leave us in a place of going, man. Israel had a mediator in Moses, and that was to their own benefit. But we have a better mediator. We have a mediator, Jesus, who not only intercedes for us, but who paid the price of our sin. [00:01:46] Speaker B: And so that's where I hope to [00:01:48] Speaker A: land us today, is that we would get to this place of going, man, I'm just so thankful for Jesus because he does what we can't do. And he accomplished for us what we couldn't do on our own. [00:02:02] Speaker B: And so let's pray and then we'll [00:02:04] Speaker A: jump into this text this morning. Would you pray with me, Lord? I just confess coming this morning, Lord, just my own inability to bring all of these things to bear. And Lord, your word is true and it will accomplish the purposes for which you sent it. And so, Lord, as we jump into your word, Lord, I pray that your spirit might do the work which only your spirit can do, Lord, in giving us Ears to hear and eyes to see, and a heart that would desire to obey your word. And so this morning, we pray that you might be lifted up, Lord, and that you would move us to be more like you. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen. There have been a few times in parenting where my wife and I go walk to the mailbox. [00:03:02] Speaker B: It's not a long journey, but we give instructions. [00:03:06] Speaker A: Don't fight, don't bicker, don't argue. Just be at peace. [00:03:13] Speaker B: And we walk a few steps down the driveway to the mailbox. And it's about the time that you open the mailbox and you get the things out that you can hear something [00:03:24] Speaker A: going on in the house. [00:03:26] Speaker B: Maybe you've experienced this in parenting. You're like, wait, we just left for just a minute. What is happening? And that's really what we see in the text here. And so as we unfold, I want to roll it out in kind of three scenes of what we see as this story unfolds, that the narrative unfolds in these scenes. And we see Moses has been up on a mountain. He's up there with Joshua, and God is giving him vision and instruction about [00:03:54] Speaker A: what he's supposed to build in the tabernacle. [00:03:57] Speaker B: And so we've been walking through that of this incredibly intricate, unique vision for what is supposed to happen. Before Moses went up on the mountain. Then there was clear instruction to the people of Israel that they should obey God, that they should do what he had said. And the people of Israel said, we'll do it. Everything he has said, we will obey. And so here let's jump into our [00:04:19] Speaker A: scene and this is what we get. Verse 32, or chapter 32, verse 1. [00:04:25] Speaker B: When the people saw that Moses delayed [00:04:27] Speaker A: to come down from the mountain, the [00:04:30] Speaker B: people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him upon make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him. Now, there's some really interesting things there just to pick up, just as a reader, that we note this, that the people go to Aaron because there's been a delay. They're like, where's Moses? But what they say specifically about Moses is really interesting, and we're gonna see it pulled forward. This is why I want us to. To catch this, that they say, this man Moses is the one who brought us out of the land of Egypt. Which we know that's not true. [00:05:13] Speaker A: God brought them out of the land of Egypt. [00:05:16] Speaker B: That it was by God's mighty right hand, that he brought them out of the land of Egypt. And yet they say, Moses brought us up out of the land of Egypt, and we don't know what's become of him. And so they're like, well, we need something to lead us. So Aaron said to them, take off the rings and of gold that are in your ears, in the ears of your wives and your sons and your daughters, and bring them to me. [00:05:40] Speaker A: So all the people took off the rings of the gold that were in their ears, and they brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from the [00:05:46] Speaker B: hand, and he fashioned it with a graving tool that's unique, that he actually fashions it. He uses this graving tool, and he makes a golden calf. Now, it's interesting that these rings came out of their ears, the same ears in which they had heard what God had commanded them, in which they had [00:06:04] Speaker A: responded, we will obey. [00:06:06] Speaker B: And so now they're taking these out of their ears. They're giving them to Aaron. They're asking him to make them a [00:06:13] Speaker A: God who would lead them. And they said, these are our gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. [00:06:30] Speaker B: And Aaron made a proclamation, and he [00:06:32] Speaker A: said, tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord. And they rose up early the next day, and they offered burnt offerings, and they brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up early to play. [00:06:46] Speaker B: Scene one. [00:06:48] Speaker A: We see just the disaster of idolatry. [00:06:53] Speaker B: This is a disaster. This is God's people, which he has rescued out of Egypt, which he has brought to Mount Sinai, the place where he wants them to worship him, where he has given intricate instructions that he might dwell among his people. And the people have created a disaster. [00:07:13] Speaker A: The human heart, one commentator said, is an idol factory. [00:07:19] Speaker B: That out of their heart has come this desire to have something tangible for them to worship that in one sense we've already seen in the book of Exodus. Moses was teetering on this place of the people worshiping him. And yet he very quickly, and at the wisdom of his father in law, said, no, I'm not who you worship. [00:07:40] Speaker A: We worship God. [00:07:42] Speaker B: And yet the human heart is this factory for idolatry. To give you a definition of an idol, it's putting something or someone in the place of God. To put something or someone in the place of God is to create an idol. And yet in our minds, many of us believe that idols are these wood or stone or gold images that people would then bow down to. [00:08:09] Speaker A: And yet what resides in the heart is something different. See, those images are the outworking of something which is in the heart that [00:08:23] Speaker B: the heart's desiring, Something which the people could control, something which the people could tangibly have, something which they could control [00:08:31] Speaker A: and could serve them rather than having to trust God. [00:08:35] Speaker B: See, the people were in a place. And oftentimes this is what would lead [00:08:38] Speaker A: to a place of idolatry is the people were in a place of waiting. I don't know about many people, but having been in ministry for a little while, I don't really know of anybody that loves to wait on the Lord like God. [00:08:56] Speaker B: If you could just tell me, then I can obey God. If you would just show me, then I can trust you. God, if you won't make me wait. [00:09:07] Speaker A: See, but that waiting is what requires trust, requires faith. And so in exchange for not having to wait, the people fashioned a God which could serve them. They exchanged the Creator for that which they created. I mean, this is. [00:09:32] Speaker B: This is an incredible reversal that the God who spoke all things into existence, the God who has rescued them out of slavery which they couldn't save themselves, the God who has provided food and water for them, the God who parted the Red Sea, the God who has control over all things, they have exchanged [00:09:51] Speaker A: for that which could be fashioned with human hands. It's just foolishness. [00:09:58] Speaker B: I mean, if you actually step back and think about it, it's just silly. We can look at this and go, why in the world would they have done that? [00:10:07] Speaker A: And yet if we take a deeper look into our heart, we recognize that we often do the same thing, [00:10:16] Speaker B: that idolatry doesn't actually satisfy us. The people were looking for something that would satisfy them. Hey, Moses is gone. Give us something that's going to lead us. We don't want to have to wait on God. So give us something that will lead us. It doesn't actually satisfy us, it distorts us. The psalm that I read at the call to worship tells us that these idols that have eyes, can't see, that have mouths, can't speak, have ears, can't hear, have feet, can't walk, have hands, but can't feel that. That these idols, they can't accomplish anything. [00:10:50] Speaker A: And yet the psalmist tells us that those who worship them become like them, [00:10:57] Speaker B: that there's insight into that, that that which we worship changes us. Here's the truth. [00:11:03] Speaker A: What you worship changes you. It changes you. [00:11:08] Speaker B: And so if we are worshiping an idol of money God, if I could just have More money, then I can be in control and I won't have to trust you. If I could just get enough money, that money becomes my answer. We begin to look for answers in money. When our idol is money, we look for money to satisfy. [00:11:30] Speaker A: It changes us. [00:11:31] Speaker B: We stop looking to the Lord. We start looking to a paycheck. When popularity becomes our idol of acceptance, [00:11:43] Speaker A: we serve the God of whatever it costs to be accepted. Because I want to be popular, I want to be liked. We become like our idol. It doesn't actually satisfy us, it changes us. When comfort becomes our idol, we will no longer sacrifice. We will serve the God of comfort, [00:12:12] Speaker B: which we have fashioned with our own hands, which we have created a protective sphere around our lives, which we will see sacrifice as the enemy which seeks [00:12:22] Speaker A: to destroy that which we serve. That what we worship changes us. But here's the cool piece that when God becomes what we worship, then we will be created more and more in his image. It's what he's called us to that [00:12:46] Speaker B: what we worship changes us. And so if we set our affections upon the Lord, then we will become more and more like the Lord. If you just want to know what's the next right step, set your affections upon him and he will change you [00:13:00] Speaker A: as you worship and serve him. But when you set your affections upon something other than the God who has created you, the God who has rescued and redeemed you, whatever you set your affections upon, you will become like that. Scene two unfolds as the response to this, we get an insight into the way God views our sin. [00:13:24] Speaker B: And so verse seven begins this way. And the Lord said to Moses, go down to your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt because they have corrupted themselves. That there is a total breach of a covenant here, that God is separating himself, where we would expect him to say, go down to my people who I rescued. Maybe you've experienced this again to the parenting illustration. It's like, that's your child, that's your kid, right? That there's a separation here. Which God is going that. Look, they don't want anything to do [00:14:00] Speaker A: with me and I won't have anything to do with them. Go down to your people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, who have corrupted themselves, for [00:14:10] Speaker B: they have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. And they have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, these are our gods, O Israel, who brought you [00:14:22] Speaker A: up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people and behold, it is a stiff necked people. [00:14:29] Speaker B: This is a phrase that's going to [00:14:31] Speaker A: show up several other times throughout the next couple chapters. It's a theme that they are a stiff necked people, that this is the [00:14:37] Speaker B: term of a farming community, of if you had a donkey that you were trying to get to move in a certain way and it just constantly pulled against you, it's a rebellious people, a [00:14:48] Speaker A: stubborn and rebellious people who will not bend to the will and ways of God. They are a stiff necked people. Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them in order that I may make a great nation of you. But Moses implored the Lord his God [00:15:14] Speaker B: and said, oh Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with mighty hand? Look at what Moses is doing. He's shifting it back. He says, no, these aren't my people. These aren't my people I rescued. [00:15:31] Speaker A: These are your people, God. [00:15:32] Speaker B: He's reminding him of who God is. He's reminding him actually of the person of God, that these are your people. He's reminding them of the purposes of [00:15:41] Speaker A: God and he's reminding them of the promises of God. [00:15:43] Speaker B: Look at this, verse 12. And why should the Egyptians say with [00:15:47] Speaker A: evil intent did you bring them out [00:15:49] Speaker B: to kill them in the mountains and [00:15:50] Speaker A: consume them on the face of the earth? [00:15:53] Speaker B: Turn from your burning anger and relent [00:15:56] Speaker A: from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, your servants [00:16:04] Speaker B: whom you swore by your own self and said to them, I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven. And all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring and they shall inherit it forever. And the Lord relented from the disaster [00:16:18] Speaker A: that he had spoken of bringing on his people. We see an incredible event happen here. [00:16:27] Speaker B: It's a picture of intercession of a mediator. What's happening here? Well, we see the beginning that God [00:16:35] Speaker A: is saying, the people have broken this covenant with me. [00:16:38] Speaker B: And so God had entered into a covenant with his people that he was going to be their God and they [00:16:42] Speaker A: were going to be his people. [00:16:43] Speaker B: And now they have broken that covenant. And so he says, now I'm going [00:16:46] Speaker A: to separate my from you. [00:16:48] Speaker B: He's not abandoning his promise that he was going to make a great nation. He just says, I'm going to restart [00:16:54] Speaker A: through Moses, much like I did through Noah. I'm going to wipe out all these People, and I'm going to restart. That's what he says he's going to do. Because they are rebellious, stiff necked, sinful people who have exchanged the Creator for that which is created, who have trampled upon all that God has done for them. And so God says, I'm going to blot them out. Now, there's an interesting thing happening here that we see which goes, okay, did [00:17:31] Speaker B: God change his mind? Can Moses change his mind? [00:17:34] Speaker A: What is the position of intercession prayer? [00:17:37] Speaker B: And how do people change God's mind? And does God actually change his mind? And can God know what's actually happening and also change his mind? And so we get all these questions [00:17:47] Speaker A: from this text, but I want to remind us of what we actually see going on here, that there is a mystery to some degree that God has [00:17:57] Speaker B: allowed for Moses to intercede and for God to be completely sovereign. [00:18:04] Speaker A: And those meet somewhere in heaven. Now, we don't know exactly how all that happens, except we see in the [00:18:13] Speaker B: scripture and we see throughout the rest of the Scripture that God actually invites mankind into an intercessory prayer that says, if you pray for these things, things will change. If you don't pray for these things, things won't change. [00:18:28] Speaker A: We can't explain it. [00:18:30] Speaker B: We can't rationalize all of it. [00:18:32] Speaker A: We can look at the text and go, okay, we can try to jump [00:18:37] Speaker B: through theological hoops, and we can try to jump through rational and logical hoops to try to make this all make sense. Some of that does is it often puts us right up to the edge of what the scripture says. And in order to make a jump, [00:18:51] Speaker A: we have to go a little bit beyond what scripture says. [00:18:55] Speaker B: And so here's the two truths which [00:18:57] Speaker A: we've got to hold. God is completely sovereign. [00:19:02] Speaker B: God didn't have to tell Moses, hey, [00:19:04] Speaker A: move out of the way so that I'm going to destroy my people. He didn't have to say that. He could have just done whatever he wanted. [00:19:12] Speaker B: And yet he's invited Moses as the [00:19:15] Speaker A: leader of these people, into a place where Moses intercedes for his people and God in a very real way listens to Moses. Now, Moses is actually not asking God to change. He's asking God to stay the same. Now track with me. What is Moses appealing to? He's appealing to the character and nature of God. He's saying, God, you are a person who rescued your people out of the land of Egypt. This is who you are. Remember that. It's not as if God had forgotten who he was. [00:20:00] Speaker B: He says, God, you had a purpose in rescuing this sinful, stiff necked people that you knew they were sinful and stiff necked. You knew in rescuing them [00:20:13] Speaker A: that you [00:20:14] Speaker B: were going to bring them into a [00:20:15] Speaker A: place for the purpose of demonstrating to the nations who you are and your character to these people. Remember that. And then he says, remember your promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. [00:20:30] Speaker B: Remember that you made a promise that you were going to bring about a people group whom you would bring into a promised land, whom you would make into a great nation, whom you would make be a blessing to all other nations. [00:20:44] Speaker A: Remember that. And so God relents from the disaster that he had spoken. [00:20:55] Speaker B: And so we see in this that [00:20:58] Speaker A: we're invited into, much like Moses, a place where we can mediate. [00:21:06] Speaker B: We've been given the task as a priest, right? That we've been given the task. We've seen that in the book of Exodus that we represent a holy God to a sinful people and we represent a sinful people to a holy God. And who stands in between that is a mediator. And we've been given that task. And so we ought to do that job of bringing the sinful people before the Lord and saying, God, remember who you are. [00:21:30] Speaker A: That you would be gracious and merciful to these people, not minimizing their sin, but calling upon the character of God. That he would be gracious to those who have turned against him, that he [00:21:45] Speaker B: would be merciful to those who worship [00:21:49] Speaker A: that which is created rather than the Creator. That's part of our job that he has tasked us with as a kingdom of priests. We see this, continue to unfold this idea of a mediator, that in first [00:22:06] Speaker B: Timothy, chapter two, verse five, then we're [00:22:08] Speaker A: told that there's actually one mediator between God and man, and that's the man Jesus Christ. [00:22:13] Speaker B: That there's only one who is actually the mediator between all of mankind and God. And it's the man Jesus Christ. What we see in Moses is that Moses could intercede for the people, but Moses only could beg for God to be merciful. [00:22:29] Speaker A: He couldn't actually pay the penalty and the consequences that were deserved for sinning against a holy God. [00:22:38] Speaker B: Moses couldn't pay those penalties. And so that's what we see as this continues to unfold, is that there are very real consequences. Look at this. In verse 15 and following says, Then Moses turned and he went down the mountain and the two tablets of the testimony in his hand. He's got the instruction from God that God has written. The tablets were written on both sides on the front and on the back they were written. And the tablets were the work of God. And the writing was the writing of God and engraved on the tablets. And when Joshua heard this noise of the people, and they shouted. And he says to Moses, there's the noise of war in the camp. Joshua doesn't know. He hasn't been in this conversation between God and Moses. He just hears this loud noise coming from the camp. And he's like, there must be war. [00:23:23] Speaker A: But he said, it's not the sound of shouting for victory or the sound of the cry of defeat. It's the sound of singing that I hear. [00:23:32] Speaker B: And as soon as he came near the camp and he saw the calf and the dancing Moses, anger burned hot. [00:23:40] Speaker A: And he threw the tablets out of his hand and he broke them. At the foot of the mountain, we see Moses what God had already seen and his anger burned. Now Moses sees and his anger burns [00:23:54] Speaker B: that there's an affront to a holy God. That he sees them dancing and singing around this calf, worshiping this calf, when they should be worshiping the Lord. He's just gotten this incredibly intricate instruction for all this beautiful detail for how the Lord is going to dwell in their presence. And then he sees this golden calf. He's like, what are they doing? They've exchanged the glory of God for this calf. [00:24:21] Speaker A: So what does he do? He took the calf. He made it that they had made. And there's four things that he did. He burned it, he ground it into powder, he scattered it on the water, and he made the people drink it. He devoted it to destruction. [00:24:38] Speaker B: Burn it, crush it, put it on the water. [00:24:41] Speaker A: Now you drink it. That they were drinking in their own sin. Verse 21 goes on that Moses and Aaron. He then goes to the leader, Aaron, and he begins to confront him, and [00:24:59] Speaker B: he says, what did this people do that you have brought such a great sin upon them? [00:25:05] Speaker A: Aaron begins backstepping. [00:25:07] Speaker B: It's much like what we see in the garden. He begins passing blame. He begins to shift off of himself, and he says, it's the people, that they did it. And then he begins to say, like, they just brought all this gold to me, and so I just threw it in the fire and out popped this calf. It's like, what the scripture's really interesting here, because it's as if Moses is [00:25:29] Speaker A: just like, I'm not even going to spend my time on that. Like, you're so ridiculous. Verse 25. When Moses saw that the people had broken loose, for Aaron had let them break loose to the derisions of their enemies. Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and he said, who is on the Lord's side? Come to me. This is really important. Before what comes next, Moses offers a path of repentance. [00:26:00] Speaker B: Catch this. [00:26:02] Speaker A: That the people have sinned. And Moses then stands in the gate, and he says, who will stand with the Lord? [00:26:12] Speaker B: There's a place like this. Joshua does the same thing. He says, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. But he says, choose this day whom you will serve. Moses in very similar. He says, if you will stand with [00:26:27] Speaker A: the Lord, then come with me. Inherent in this is that if you don't come, then you're making a choice that you're standing against the Lord. That's the choice. [00:26:41] Speaker B: You're either standing with the Lord or you're standing against the Lord. Their actions have shown that they were standing against the Lord, that they had fashioned this idol, that they would rather have that than have a God who [00:26:53] Speaker A: required them to trust him and to walk in faith. A God who set up his will and his ways, who had a path for their flourishing, but yet they would have to obey it. And so Moses offers this. He stands in the gate and he [00:27:11] Speaker B: says, who is on the Lord's side? [00:27:14] Speaker A: Come to me. So all the sons of Levi gather around him. He said to them, thus says the Lord God of Israel, put your sword [00:27:23] Speaker B: on your side, each of you, and [00:27:25] Speaker A: go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp. And each of you kill his brother and his companions and his neighbors. And the sons of Levi did, according to the word of Moses. And that day, about 3,000 men of the people fell. And Moses said, today, you have been ordained for the service of the Lord. Each one at the cost of his son and his brother, so that he might bestow a bless upon you this day. Whoa. Listen. I don't know of many kids that got this section of the golden calf. This didn't have to happen. God offered a path of repentance, a path back in. And the people chose, no, I'm going to do my own thing. They chose to stand against the Lord. And we're reminded in this that there are very real consequences of sin. Sin is costly. [00:28:37] Speaker B: The cross reminds us that sin is costly, that you can't have a holy God who makes light of sin. You can't have a holy God who pretends that sin doesn't exist. Sin is costly. [00:28:53] Speaker A: And to stand against the Lord is dangerous. He offers an invitation. Come to me. He's kind, forgiving, compassionate, merciful. He says, come to me. But you don't come on your own terms. You don't fashion your own idols to serve you. Come to him. Romans 3, 26 points us to the cross where we see that Jesus is both the just and the justifier. [00:29:35] Speaker B: That how can a sinful people stand in the presence of a holy God when we know that we've sinned? How can we stand before a holy God and not be consumed by his wrath and his anger? It's because Jesus paid the price. It's because Jesus went to the cross. It's because someone did die. See from the very beginning that when God told Adam and Eve, if you eat from the tree, you will surely die, that sin brings about death [00:30:10] Speaker A: and that death is the consequence of sin. And thanks be to God that he sent Jesus, who took that penalty for us, that then he offers that all those who come to me will never die again. Jesus offers the path of repentance. Just like Moses. He said, will you stand with the Lord? Come to me. [00:30:42] Speaker B: That's the invitation he gives. [00:30:44] Speaker A: Come to me. Come to me. And we each make a decision, just like the people here in Exodus. Will you stand with the Lord or will you stand against him? My plea is, if you have not chosen to stand with the Lord, do that today, do that now. Cry out to him, God, I've been stiff necked. I've rebelled against you and I recognize the foolishness of my ways. God, I want to stand with you. And I'm coming based off of what you said and who you said you are, that you made a promise that all those who trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins will be saved. It's the message that we see in the book of Exodus is that all of us have a, have an idol factory until God removes that heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh by his spirit. So if you haven't done that, do it today. The rest of the text, the way it continues, is that God then moves forward. [00:32:04] Speaker B: It's one of the really cool things, is that it's not that he holds this over their head and continues to berate them with this. It's not that they live under guilt and shame. He moves them forward that there are consequences to their sin. [00:32:17] Speaker A: And yet God moves them forward in his power plan. He says, I'm going to take you to a new place on the way to the promised land. That God moves them forward. And that's the same thing that he wants to do with you and I. He wants to draw us to repentance, that we would recognize that we have a mediator who intercedes for us, but that also paid the penalty for us, that we would worship him because what we worship changes us. Let's pray. God, we thank you for your Word that calls us to repentance, that reminds us of the delusion of idolatry, that it doesn't satisfy us, but that it corrupts us. Lord, we thank you for your word which which shows us the great value of having an intercessor in Jesus Christ [00:33:17] Speaker B: and yet also that compels us forward [00:33:19] Speaker A: in knowing that we are supposed to [00:33:21] Speaker B: be intercessors for others. [00:33:24] Speaker A: That gives us an action based off of the model that we've seen in Christ to intercede for others. God, we thank you for your Word which reminds us of the consequences of sin, that we would never make light of sin, that we wouldn't manage sin, but that you call us to repentance in order that we might be transformed into your image. We might live our days worshiping you and being conformed into your likeness, that you might demonstrate your mercy, your kindness, your love, your forgiveness through us to the nations. Lord, use us. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.