Faith Over Feeling - Nick Serban IV

Faith Over Feelings __ Nick Serban IV

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

god, feel, gods, worship, egypt, heart, feelings, moses, israelites, lord, bondage, golden calf, attitude, israel, faith, people, miracles, image, trust, verse

I found this passage in Exodus that I feel like we've read many times or if we've gone through Sunday school growing up, we've we've heard the story of, of Moses, right? I mean, you've heard the story of Moses, you know, he was he was in Egypt, and he sets all the other people free. And they, they leave Egypt. And there's all these crazy things that happen. And there's this moment that takes place. When they, when they finally get out of Egypt, where they receive the 10 commandments, they receive the law, all these different things. And then the people immediately turn around, and they build this golden calf. And every time I've kind of glossed over this many times, he was like, oh, you know, they build this calf, they build this thing out of gold, and all these things happen, and it's great. But, you know, I always get stuck on this. How did this happen so quickly? Like, how is it that they saw all of these miracles? Let's just remember Moses came. And there's these these miracles that take place all the plagues and the people have been in captivity in Egypt for for over 400 years for and in 30 years, they've been slaves, to the Egyptians, they built all these monuments, they built statues of gods and all these different things. And they finally get set free after all these like signs, wonders, miracles take place these plagues, they leave and the Red Seas actually parked in front of them. Have you ever seen like water parked in front of you and you walk through it? I haven't. But it'd be pretty cool to like, this is this is amazing what's taking place, right? Like, wow, they walked through and Pharaoh's army comes in behind them, the water drowns them splashes. It's just kind of crazy. How God protected his people and brought them out of Egypt out of this bondage. They come out and almost immediately, you know, they start praising God, and it's so great and so cool. But almost immediately after that, the people start complaining. The Israelites start complaining to Moses, they're like, there's no water for us to drink, you brought us to a desert to die. Right? And so, you know, he throws a stick in some some water that was bitter, and it becomes clean, and everything's good. Miracle, right? And then it's like, Hey, God, awesome. And then they keep going into the desert, and then they're hungry. Did you bring us out here to kill us? Like we're starving out here, then Moses takes care of it, you know, says God, you know, can we feed your people and manna from heaven comes and again, another amazing miracle that takes place. And the people complain again, right after because they're still thirsty, they still don't have enough. And it's this constant back and forth, back and forth. And finally, Moses gets to Mount Sinai. He goes up into the mountain, there's these clouds are stunning. They're enlightening, like the presence of God is, is there and tangible and the people can see the presence of God up on this mountain, and they're so afraid they don't want to go up there like Moses, you go up, you talk to God, you figure this out. And he receives the, the 10 commandments, right. And so we're starting here in Exodus 20. verse one says, And God spoke all these words, again, the people are hearing this from God, His lips to our ears, says, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, You shall have no other gods before Me, you shall not make for yourself a carved image of any likeness, or anything that is in heaven above or that isn't the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. And again, he's describing all this, and you say, I'm a jealous God. There are no other gods that can be before me. You can don't build anything, don't even build a statue of my likeness, or what you think I look like nothing. But showing steadfast love to 1000s of those who love Me and keep My commandments. So keep My commandments. So the 10 commandments go, then Moses goes up to the top of the mountain, and he ends up receiving the rest of the law from Exodus 21, all the way to 31. He's up on the top of this mountain for 40 days, receiving all the law, and it's how they build the Ark of the Covenant. And you know, how they build the tabernacle, how they should dress, you know, if there's conflict between people, like it's all the nitty gritty laws, we've got the 10 commandments law, the people know this, they hear this, but now he's got to get all the other law for the next 40 days. Okay? And for whatever reason, after hearing the I am the Lord your God, and there will be no other gods before me. What did the people do? In Exodus 32, again, this is 40 days. When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, make us God's who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what's become a him. So Aaron said to them, take off your rings of gold, that are in the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters and bring them to me. So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears brought them the air, and he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool didn't didn't. Didn't God just say, Hey, don't carve anything like in any image to be any god, he received the goal from the hands, he has a great mentor, he made a golden calf. And they said, these are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. I don't know why. But every time that I've read this, I've never really dove into what took place in the hearts of these people in their minds that they would see all of these miracles, witness God's goodness, again, and again and again, hear from the Lord says, I have no other gods before me, and then turn around and then create a god. It just doesn't make sense to me. And so there's four things that I want to hit on. Because, again, as I was praying about this, you know, it's like, how do we go from being set free to going back and worshiping the gods that were around us when we were in bondage? Because you can remember the Israelites were in Egypt for 430 years, they were building statues of other gods that were surrounded by this culture all around them of, of worshipping many different gods. And so there's four things that I want to touch on here. But again, as I was praying about this, I asked the Lord like, what, how did this happen? You know what's going on, and I felt the Holy Spirit speaks. So clearly, this is still happening today. This is still happening today. And it's even happening within the church. And my heart was so broken, just to hear that and so I had had to go I had to go deeper had to go study a little bit more on this. So number one, idols influenced the image of God. This is how they they went from being set free to worshiping a golden calf, this golden calf was not some random God that emerged from the flames. Right? This is actually a combination of many of the different gods that the Israelites were surrounded by when they were in Egypt. Among the many gods of Egypt the cow or the bowl was said to be one that had visible representation so they were surrounded by all these other gods that looked like cows and bulls are there were different gods that had characteristics of cows and bulls so let me just I'm gonna give you some some fun facts your history. So the supreme god ta which is how it's pronounced could be found in the a pice bull so the supreme god over Egypt was TA and you can also see the god TA in some of the designs and buildings and structures that were the shape of this ape is bull also named Molik. If you've ever heard of Moloch before, okay, cool. The mother of Horus Horus is the Son God of Egypt was founded Hayter, which was the cow goddess, some of you're like, why are we talking about cows today? Like I don't understand what is going on. Like, who out here is worshipping cows who's ever worship cows before? Like nobody, right? Like this is so so random, but just just follow me here. Frequently these gods are shown as a cow with actually a sun disc between their horns that indicates that they are Almighty, right? There's all these images of cows. The ape is bull was a figure of strength and virility and could deliver Oracle's or messages to the people. prophetic words basically. Well, hey, ether, was a symbol of motherhood, sustenance and beautiful music. Even the Pharaohs of the time had the name, the strong bull victorious over all of their enemies, with their mighty arm in their names. So again, the Israelites for over 40 years. They're surrounded by all these other gods, they're, they're enslaved, they're in bondage. They had to have been influenced in some way shape or form, but what was around them right. And for people who were out in the wilderness, even though they were set free, they still felt lost. They still felt like they didn't know what was going on. They needed protection. They needed strong leadership they needed the ability to stand up for themselves and fight battles. They needed provision, you know, music closeness with God, a God who could speak and deliver encouraging words, Oracle's or prophetic words. Like what better figure could they have been the combination of all of these other gods right They took all of the the attributes and characteristics of the gods around them and said, We need an image of God to worship. And it's, it's actually kind of twisted when you think about it, because God brought all these plagues, showed his power and in so many different ways he provided for the people time and time again, set them free, destroyed their enemies, all these different things, right. But they had no image of him the image of God was more important to them than who God really was. And this is actually this is a cult that's that's actually been developed. And you'll know if you've read specially through the Old Testament, you've heard of the the god bail, right? It's a golden calf. And we're constantly seeing all these other kings and other leaders worshipping this golden calf, and turning to it rather than God. And this is why it all started right here. Again, the Israelites combined all of the preferred qualities, and characteristics of God, Yahweh, into an image of God, that was relevant to the gods of the world that surrounded them. What we are surrounded by will influence how we see God, especially for a God that we have to have faith, to believe in not sight to see. We see God through our music, our politics, our social media, our friends and family, we see God through our pain, and our struggles, our money or poverty. And when we see how good pleasurable and easy life can be for people in the world, it's easy to put our hope and worship into those things. We make gods and idols to worship when we focus on the concepts of God, and the convenience of God. And this, what do we get out of the relationship? God I've said it before. It's the gimme, gimme, gimme God, right. And this is this is fun, if you're into history, and names, all these different things. And Exodus 32. When the people say, up, make us God's who shall go before us that Word, God's right there actually translates to Elohim which is a name that we call God. It's like Jehovah, or Yahweh Elohim. It's a name of a god. It means the God of Israel, l o heme l Israel, the God of Israel, or it can actually translate to the gods of Israel, plural. And so it's really confusing because it can be used, singular, but it can also be used plural. And so when when Aaron hears make us an Elohim make us the god or gods of Israel. He immediately understands, because, again, Aaron was living in Israel as well. He knew exactly what they meant, well, let me craft together all of these characteristics of images of God into this one God, and this will be the God of Israel, our Elohim Have I lost any of you? Again, this is referring to the gods, the gods that they worshipped, or were surrounded by, while in Egypt, we see again, we see this golden calf all throughout the Old Testament. And we have kings, queens, Prophets worshipping this calf bale instead of God at all, it all stems back to this bondage when they were in Egypt. Number two, they worshipped what they were bound to. It's that you can take the man out of Egypt, but you can't take Egypt out of the man. You know, you've probably heard that before you can take the man out of Nashville. But you can't take that now. It's not really a saying, okay. Whatever town you came out of, that you're not proud of, you know, you may come out of it, but it's still in the right. It's that attitude. It's the attitude of you don't know where I've been. You don't know what I've done. You don't understand that for generations and generations. We've been enslaved. We've been in bondage. This is who we are. Their past life still had a hold on them, even though they had been set free from Egypt. They were out of Egypt, where they were still Egypt in their heart. When we've been in bondage, it's easy to let the memories of the past to dictate how we feel about the present, even though we've been set free, even though we've been delivered, that that past still wants to creep up, the enemy still wants to speak to your heart and say you are still this way. You may say and believe you're one thing, but I know where you came from. It's that chip on your shoulder. And it can, it can come out as an attitude of resentment and bitterness, ready to be triggered at anything perceived as offense. And here's what's really interesting, the way that the Egyptians often and really all, all pagan worship really worked out is, you know, we fear these gods all around us. But if we, if we need something from the God, you know, something specific, maybe I'm having, you know, I'm having a baby, and I want this baby to be blessed, or, you know, I'm farming, I've got crops about livestock, and I want them to be blessed, and all these different things, you would come and you would give a sacrifice to these gods, right? In order to receive something. So I would, I would give a little bit of something, and then I would receive back, hopefully, tenfold. And it was this constant. Again, this attitude of I'm going to give a little but I'm going to receive back, always. And if I don't, then God, the God must be mad at me. I must have done something wrong. If I don't receive back after I've given and this, and even this attitude, comes out with the Israelites. And oftentimes to these gods really gave them the sense of purpose. Because here I am, I'm working, I'm slaving away. But for what we see this for 40 years, we see this merging of holy worship to God and worship of idols begin because it gave meaning. It gave meaning to the suffering of the Israelites, they could blame God for their suffering. They could blame God for their suffering, and they could thank the Egyptian gods for the provision given to them. They were fed, they were taken care of Yeah, they were whipped. They were beaten, like all these horrible things happen. But that was God's fault. Because he brought a Yawei brought us here, but the Egyptians at least they take care of us, right? It's like this. It's this weird romanticism of our bondage. Look at this in Exodus 16, verse two, and the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the people of Israel said to them, wood that we had died by the hands of the Lord in the land of Egypt again, you know, we're suffering, God's going to kill us, right, because we're in Egypt. But when we sat by the meat pots, and ate bread to the fool, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Again, God could have killed us when we were in Egypt, and the Egyptians took care of us. How to how they felt about where they were ultimately dictated their truth, their reality and their worship. It's so twisted the world again, the world tells us to blame God for our suffering, and then praise the thing that enslaves us. And it's happening today. It's happening today. And whether we realize it or not, it's happening to many of us, myself included. We worship so often the things that we can do and put our hands to it's what I did. Sure, yeah, God helped. But it's when I stepped out and they crafted this God and worshipped it. It was by their own hands. Number three, our focus or worship centers on our feelings. They begin to move to the desert, they're complaining they're grumbling. Exodus 1524. Then the people grumbled against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? Their attitude was out of complaining about what they didn't have. We said again, their attitude was that of complaining about what they didn't have, rather than trusting God to provide. They would complain. And then God would provide they didn't trust God would provide, they would complain first to everyone around them. This hurts, we're starving, We're thirsty. We don't know where we're going. We don't have a plan. God provides clean water, manna from heaven, and he actually guides them remember with the cloud by day and a pillar fire by night. I mean, how cool would that be? Gods GPS like I just like I would probably be Come, you know nocturnal, because I just think the flame at night would be so cool to follow all the time, right? How they felt dictated their actions and their attitudes towards God, again, both positive and negative. Here's here's the positive. This is right after they were set free, you know, from Israel, they crossed over the Red Sea. And Exodus 15, verse one that Moses and the people of Israel sang the song to the Lord saying, I will sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider, he was thrown into the sea, The Lord is my strength And my song, and he has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt Him is actually a song that they sing and that that the Jewish people actually sing during Passover. Still today. They're there, they're jumping, they're leaping, they're praising God for for what they've been delivered from, but it was again, it was something God did and then they praised. I'm going to praise after God comes through. I'm going to complain to God when he doesn't come through. But when he does, then I'll praise. It's that same attitude that the Egyptians had towards their gods. They were influenced, it was all about how they were feeling. Again, it's easy to worship God when we've been set free. It's easy to worship God when when things are all going our way when everything feels right and feels good. When everyone else around us is rejoicing and worshiping man when when the worship song, you know, gets fired and says like, Hey, let's go like everyone's going, right? When you got a couple people in the front, like lifting their hands, it's like I'm gonna lift my hands to I'm not rebuking anybody here in the church, but it's this attitude so often that we have the, unless everyone else is into it, I'm not going to be into it either. Or if I'm not feeling it today, then then maybe I you know, I'm just gonna have my little moment even though God deserves all the praise. He deserves all the honor all the glory. He deserves our faith and our trust in Him, not contingent upon our feelings. When God has only worship for how he makes us feel, he will never be enough. He will never be enough. In fact, you could say right now that God is not enough. And many of us have this attitude. In the church and outside of the church, the world looks at at the church, they look at God and they say, God is not enough. Look at all these broken people. Look at all these people in church worshiping God and they're still in bondage. God must not be enough. Feelings can be influenced by others, a speaker can make you feel passionate about some kind of social justice thing or passionate and even in church, a worship leader or, or some song on the radio could make you feel like God's presence is all around you. A friend can make you feel encouraged or maybe justified in your actions. Gossip can make you feel suspicious, or bitter towards someone. A social media ad or a post can make you feel poor, alone, or not good enough, or a news article can make you feel anxious or, or angry. Our feelings, again, are so easily influenced. It's like sand in a desert that's that moves. When the wind comes. When the wind blows, then it moves. So easily influenced our feelings. It's changed my words, it's changed my actions. It's changed by tones. How many times have you heard something? And it's the tone that comes through more than what was actually said. What else led the Israelites to abandon and ultimately disobey God after seeing so many incredible miracles? Number four, the evidence of God was greater than God himself. Exodus 17 Verse two, therefore, the people quarreled with Moses, and said, Give us water to drink. And Moses said to them, Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord? But the people thirsted there for water and the people grumbled against Moses and said, Why did you bring us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? Why did you set us free? Jimmy down to verse seven. Moses he called the name of the place masa, America because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they test to the Lord, by saying, is the Lord among us or not? Where is God? I don't see him working. If we don't feel him if we don't hear him, if there's no evidence of God, then he must not be among us. It's like, it's like a magic show, you know, or you meet, you've ever met a magician, you know, and they have deck of cards with them or something. And you just say, Hey, show me some magic. And it's like, well come to come to the show and pay the ticket to entry. It's like, no, just show it to me right now. Give me show me the trick now. Give. You must not be magic. If you can't do it right now. You know, it's the dance for me monkey attitude. Remember, God sent plagues. And he proved that he was the most powerful God, he destroyed their enemies, the Egyptians and then later the Analects. He provided food, water, even Riches on their way out the door, the Egyptians were just throwing all of their gold and jewelry at them. He gave them direction with a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. And all the while the Israelites wind and grumbled rebellion in their hearts against Moses and against God, they were not satisfied. And I know, I know, I don't preach very often, because I know I come across really heavy handed sometimes. But I just want you to know like this, this is something that's on my heart so heavy, even for myself for my family. Because I've had so many encounters with God. And I've said this time and time again, I can't turn away from God because I've seen him too many times. I've witnessed His faithfulness, time and time again, I've seen miracles take place. I've been baptized with the Holy Spirit, with evidence of speaking in other languages and other tongues. I've audibly heard the Lord speak to me. I've danced for hours in his presence at at camps and, and worship services. I've been slain in the Spirit, I've had visions of Jesus and angels, I've witnessed and experienced miracles. So again, it's easy to take those moments of encounter, and make them the object of my worship. It's the if God doesn't show up like he did, then God must not be here. If I don't see the miracles in this church, then God must not be in this church. If my if my heart if if the Holy Spirit doesn't come over me, and it just weigh me down like he did when I was 13 years old, when I drew nearer to him. If it doesn't happen again, like this, then God must not retest God, with our past experiences. Me say your revival is taking place in all of these these moments will it's not about revival, it's about Jesus. It's not about the signs and the wonders of miracles. It's not even about, you know, the Holy Spirit calling and moving, it's about him. And we make it about all of the things that God does, rather than who he is. And then we complain when he doesn't show up like he did. This was exactly what the Israelites were doing. They saw the miracles, they saw all this stuff. And so they just think this is what this is what being with God is all about. It's about these crazy mountaintop experiences where we see the thunder, we see the glory cloud, we see all these different things and and you know, and I know this, that's just not it. But how many times do we cast judgment onto onto a person or onto something that we see on social media and say God's not in this? Who are we to say? Who are we to say that God was among them or not? When the Asbury revival took place, we saw just as many people throwing negative comments about it. As we did the Wow, God's moving comments, right. We were so quick to scrutinize because we want to experience it Am I preaching Anybody today, if I don't feel God, when I pray that God has abandoned me, if I don't feel God like I did in the past, when I was set free, that amazing moment, whether it was emotional or whatever, like, if I don't feel like this, then I'm not going to show up with the same enthusiasm as I had, then. It's easy for me to worship that kid about my feelings. It's easy for me to idolize my past experiences, it's easy for me to say, if I don't feel God, I'm not moving. But God doesn't call us to what's easy. Because if as we if it was easy, we'd all be doing it. Come on somebody. When we focus on and worship, what makes us feel good, we begin to reject and resist the Holy Spirit. When it does not make us feel good. You know, the Holy Spirit corrects us. The Holy Spirit, some of the greatest encounters I've had with, with God, and the Holy Spirit has been when I've been out of line. And the Holy Spirit speaks to my heart. But too often, we just want that, that soaking encounter where everything feels good, and I get the goosies. And you know, it's all anybody else. Anybody else, get the goosebumps in the presence of God? Come on, it's great, right? But he's so much greater than that. He's so much more faithful than an emotional feeling your experience. It's your move God, pour out Your Spirit, then I will worship, let signs and wonders come, then I will praise when you move God, then I will move. Even though scripture says drawn near you drawn here, then I will draw on you. But it's this attitude, right? Because we're surrounded by you know, I don't want to play this game. Because I feel like I'm tired of hearing about how, you know, social media is just destroying everything, right? I feel like every time I go on social media, I'm watching people talk about how bad social media is, right? It's just like, I'm scrolling through and they're like, social media is killing you. Oh, really. Okay, scroll, you know. And I just keep going because it's like this, this dopamine hit again and again and again, of the entertainment, I'm feeling good. I'm feeling something I had a really rough day. So I'm just gonna sit and scroll on my on my phone all day long. Hours go by. And I still feel like garbage afterwards. But I go back to it the next day. Because in the moment, it felt really, really good. Because it's all about this feeling. And then we we come into church or we come into the presence of God or we we come to, to pray and we're just struggling because we're not feeling anything. And it's like we're equating everything else, all of the idols, all the stuff around us to God and saying, God, you should be more like you should be more like my phone. I mean, you're accessible, right? I can pick you up. I can call you God at any moment. Right? I can maybe I can text you, Lord, like what's your number? Let's just I'll message you, you know, on Snapchat or there's something but again, it's it's that convenience. It's that it's this attitude. Signs wonders, miracles are not enough. Not enough. If I never see another miracle, he's still enough. If if I never feel him again, I've I've seen him enough. I felt him enough. I know he's good. I know he's faithful. Great encounters and worship are not enough. Revival and a momentary move of God is not enough favor blessings, money, status, position, power. It's not enough. I was I was, uh, I went golfing with a pastor friend of mine. He's from Memphis area, we kind of met in the middle. And it was just the two of us. It was like 100 degrees outside. It was horrible, horrible day to play golf. We're talking, we're sweating. And I just got to ask him, you know, how are things going? And he just like, Man, this is like one of the first things he said when we're talking. So I felt like he was prepared to have this conversation. He's just like, I am so tired of having great services. Like, what do you tell your pastor? Like? And he's generational, like he's the son of a pastor who's the son of a pastor like at st st. bonus is when I'm in. And it's just like how great services like, that almost feels like the goal, right? Like you have a great service then like God's moving like, that's great. And he's like, Yeah, well, we keep having great services, but people keep leaving empty. I was like, how do you what do you mean? How do you how do you know that? It's like, as people will come to me later, and they, they complain, and even though we saw, you know, someone got out of a wheelchair this last week, and like, wow, praise God, it's so cool. And like, we had this all these crazy moments in worship, where we worship for an hour, and God was just moving people, or we're seeing the all these different things take place. And then I'm sitting down with, with people for coffee for the next week, and every single day at someone's like, I don't know, like, it's just, it's just not enough. I'm just not feeling fed. And this isn't enough for me. As I'm tired of having these great services, but no one actually steps in. Nobody actually draws near it's, it's a remnant, it's a few people, and God is moving because of the few. And not everyone. And it really hurt my heart. But at the same time, I realized like, having a great moment and encounter with a God is not the goal. It can't be the goal. Because sometimes we enter it. And we have these moments, and God doesn't show up the same way he did before. And so we measure how God moves based on all these other things, and other factors and feelings, and everyone in the room is different, has different backgrounds and experiences. And it's just we just need one person to enter it. Just one heartbroken before the Lord. That's what matters. One person set free, that's great, it's powerful. But once you set free, Where is your faith is your faith in the feeling that you had when you were set free, because that's going to fade the feelings and encounters and moments we've had with the Lord like there, it's one moment. Even if it's ours in his presence, it's still one moment. And my dad has said this, I've said this on the platform, God can do more in one moment. And one second thing you can do in your own power for a lifetime. I believe it 100% I've seen it in my own life. But that is not the goal. The goal is worship and praise to Jesus. Regardless of what happens. The evidence of God when it becomes greater than God himself, we are worshipping an idol. They put their trust in an image of God, that they created a God of gods that made them feel all of these things, rather than God himself, it was all about them. You could almost say that it was self worship. So what do we do? How do we how do we change? Because I know for me, like, you know, I can look out at the world and I can see so many people living this lifestyle and worshiping themselves or or worshipping other things are, are going off of and equating the Holy Spirit to their feelings. Like how many times have we played the God card on something, but it was really just what we were feeling. That's an ouch. I've done it. I didn't feel like doing this. So maybe God doesn't want me to do it. Again, I'm not rebuking, I'm not even trying to hold a mirror up in front of your face. My heart is that we would be a people of faith. Not have feeling. And I'm not saying that feelings and emotions are bad. God gave those to us for a reason. But those feelings and those emotions, when they become the guiding factor of our faith, we ended up doing more damage and doing more for the enemy because we're resisting the Holy Spirit because we're worshiping our feelings. Again, what do we do? We read this when we were in our act series. Stephen was preaching to all of these, these Jewish people. And this was right before he's killed. He's He's stoned and murder murdered by all these Jewish people. And he's he's preaching he's he's like he's recapping this story that we're reading right now in Exodus. In Acts seven, verse 39, says our fathers refused to obey Him, him being Moses, but thrust him aside. And in their hearts, they turned to Egypt. Stephen, he's saying this to the Jewish people, the same people that were set free generations and generations later. And he say to them, you were set free, but your heart was still in bondage. You took up this verse 43, you took up the tents of Moloch and the star of your god refund, also ta the images that you made to worship images. And I will send you an exile beyond Babylon. Verse 51. You stiff necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit as your father's did so to you. I'm not calling anybody stiffening here. I'm not calling anybody stubborn. Or stuck in your ways. I'm not casting judgment or throwing you under the bus and saying you're still in bondage. But it's clear to me that Stephen was onto something here. It's not. It wasn't about Egypt. You've made it about Egypt. So you can you've made it about your past and you can feel good about where you are now. Really, it's your heart. Stephen points to the heart twice here in their hearts. They turned to Egypt. uncircumcised in heart. He said can you can take the man out of Egypt but you can't take Egypt out of the man. Unless you cut it out three things I'm going to just say really quickly. Our worship team can come. Three things that we can do. To get out of this worship of idols are these patterns. This turn to God and His teachings consecrate. Concentrate your hearts. Trust God and His Holy Spirit. If you take notes, turn to God and His teachings, consecrate your hearts trust God and your Holy Spirit. I said this already but we are in a day at a time similar to the Israelites where our hearts are easily swayed and our feelings matter more to us than the Holy Spirit's leading. And we have a decision to make. As the Holy Spirit speaks to us, we have to listen. We have to let them speak to our heart. Second, Timothy three says But understand this that in the last days there will come times of difficulty for People will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God having the appearance of the image of godliness but denying its power. Avoid such people. As a church, we have to stand up. We have to wake up. We cannot be the church wandering in the desert. following God's blessings and miracles and desperate to go back to Egypt. Verse 10 says you however, have followed my teaching my conduct my aim in life, my faith, my patients My love. My steadfast is the verse 16 says all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching for repute, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness That the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Scripture tells us scripture the word of God tells us and shows us how to live and what to believe. And this is what should go Ever in our lives, this is what should inform our feelings. It's the word of God. It's a scripture. It's him speaking to us. That should govern and determine how we speak, think, act, not are changing easily influenced feelings we must put our faith and hope in Jesus. Not how we feel. Hebrews 11 One Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen. Faith is trusting and treasuring. When we put our faith in Jesus, we put our trust in Him and our treasure in him. Remember, the Scripture where your treasure is, your heart is also you can't put your trust in God and then treasure the things of this world. Having faith means trusting that God is who He says He is, and will do what He has promised he will do. And because we trust Him, who is eternally glorious, we treasure him above anything and everything else. We experienced disappointment, anxiety, fear, stress and pain. Sometimes we allow ourselves to become so tied down on our thoughts and emotions that we forget, right? We forget to trust we forget to treasure and maybe here today, you've allowed your feelings to overtake your faith. That's okay. You're here. We can make the shift. Maybe you feel a longing for immediate results instead of trusting God's timing is perfect. Again, when our feelings change our faith, we begin to worship what makes us feel good. We put our faith in ourselves, our bank account, our plans are our ideas. Our feelings dictate what we believe. And that's how we become stiffnecked people, worshipping an image of God that really isn't God. I love this second Corinthians. One eight, says, For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. This is Paul, he's struggling is in bondage. Verse nine says, Indeed, we felt we felt that we had received the sentence of death. They felt like death. They felt like it was over. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves. But on God who raises the dead, He delivered us from such a deadly peril and He will deliver us on him, we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. My faith, my hope, my trust is not in how I feel in this moment because my I can't trust what I'm feeling right now. Because I might feel like death. I might feel like die. I might feel like I have no hope. no purpose, no direction. But when I put my faith and trust in Jesus, I know he'll deliver me. Proverbs three, five, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. Proverbs 2826 Whoever trust in his own mind is a fool. But he walks in wisdom will be delivered. Jeremiah 17 Nine The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick who can understand it? What is your hope in today? Proverbs 1312 Hope deferred makes the heart sick if your hope isn't anything but Jesus our hearts become sick. Our hopes? Are your hopes and your dreams your expectations your plans? Did you hope that your life would have turned out differently? Are you focused on entertainment fun money politics news? The dopamine hit every time we scroll? Is your life centered around your career or your your children? Are you comparing past experiences and encounters with God with your current calling and where you are now? The world lives by what they feel but as believers we live by faith and trust in Jesus. We walk by faith not by sight I want to do something the holy Spirit speaking whether you feel convicted, you feel condemned. I'm sorry. That's not what I'm here to do. I just want us to be a church, and people that trust God because I'm tired of having great services and people leaving, hurt, broken. God is here. God is moving. And it's time that we put our faith fully in him. Want to Read this Psalm? And close in prayer, Psalm 25. And put up on the screen it says in you, Lord, my God, I put my trust. I trust in You. Do not let me be put to shame nor let my enemies triumph over me. No one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame. But shame will come on those who are treacherous without cause. Show me your ways. Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me for you are God my savior. My hope is in you all day long. I want this to be our prayer today.