The Story Behind the Story

View the entire message here.

The Golden Calf | Exodus 32

We often view the story of the Israelites who made the golden calf as a cautionary tale that suggests something like, “If you don’t wait on God, you’ll make an idol. That’s bad. Don’t do that.” But what if, in this month of Tammuz, God is actually using it to invite us into something deeper?

After Maggie’s message on overcoming shame, the Lord started to show me this story in a different light. Instead of, “You bad little Israelites, you should have just waited on God,” I began to have the thought – what if there was something deep down in their hearts that was eroding their trust in God? And what if instead of focusing on being good little Christians, we let God into that place before the opportunity to make a golden calf even comes across our radar? Maybe God isn’t standing there shaking His fist saying, “Don’t make a golden calf you dummies,” but instead He’s extending His merciful hand, asking us to take Him up on the offer to look inside so that we aren’t tempted to follow the voice of shame when things get hard.

What we believe about God in these situations when God asks us to wait, stay, remain, trust – especially in a season of suffering – will determine what we choose. Will we wait for what He wants to give, or will we take and make out of our own insecurities? I would suggest the answer is deeply connected with what Maggie was talking about this Sunday.

The Story Behind the Story | Exodus 32 | Genesis 3:1-24

In Genesis 3 we see that shame causes us to hide or cover up, blame or criticize, cut off or separate. If you take these three consequences of shame and apply them to the story of the golden calf fiasco, you may notice some similarities.

It says in Exodus 32, “When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, ‘Up, 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 do not know what has become of him.” ESV

Was it just mere impatience that led to the idol worship? Maybe. Or maybe there was something underneath that lead to the impatience we see in the story. Let’s look at the pattern here – hide, criticize, separate.

There was no honesty about how they were feeling and what they were thinking, just criticizing how long it took Moses to come down. Then we see that it ended in separation – separation from Moses and separation from Yahweh.

Who would have thought that shame could look like making a golden calf in our lives? Or impatience? Or mistrust? Or an inability to wait on God? Or misdirected confidence in our own ideas and plans?

With this new lens, let’s re-imagine the story behind the creation of the golden calf. Now, we will never really know what was going on in their hearts, but we can imagine that it might have sounded something like this – “Moses sure is taking a long time to come back. Maybe God’s given up on us all together. It makes sense, we have let Him down so much. We’ll never measure up. Why would He still want to provide for us and take care of us? He’s probably angry and disappointed and I don’t blame Him. But we need a god to follow! If this really is the final straw and He’s not coming back to us, we had better make something that we can worship. It’s right and good to worship. We’ll call Him Yahweh and because we can control this god, we can trust He will never leave us.”

When you dig down deep (I mean really deep to the very bottom) you’ll find that shame always results in the same underlying story - because I am this way, they’re gonna leave me. Or more accurately, because I am this way, God’s gonna leave. It’s our deepest fear. And if we sit long enough with the voice of shame in our lives, this is what we will find at the bottom of it all – the story behind the story.

I don’t know about you, but it seems clear to me that the Lord wants to confront deep areas of shame in our lives that are masquerading as something noble, accepted, and celebrated even. Areas where we hang our heads low, or areas where we puff our chest up all because of the same root – I’m not good enough.

But don’t stop there! Let Holy Spirit show you what you’re really scared of – I’m not good enough and because of that _________________________. <<< This is the place He wants to meet you! This is the place where you surrender and this is the place you experience the reality of the gospel in your life – He came to make peace so that we could experience the reality that He will never leave nor forsake us.

This week let’s slow down and let the Lord uncover areas of shame in our lives. As we do, remember the glorious gospel of Jesus and how He made a way through shame to get to us with the promise - I will never leave you or forsake you. This is the most combative statement that obliterates shame and He wants to make it real to us.

The Gospel and Shame | John 8:1-11 | John 21:15-19 | Genesis 3:21

The gospel both uncovers and confronts shame in us. It gives us a pathway back to the way we were originally made to live in the garden – naked and unashamed before God and each other, no fear, no distance.

In John 8, where the woman caught in adultery was the only one who had her shame uncovered, Jesus evened the playing field. He called out everyone else’s and gave an opportunity for them to confront it, just like he did with the woman. This is what the gospel does! Not because we’re bad, but because there is a way to live where we’re free, whole, and empowered to choose and shame robs us of that life.

Then in John 21, we see Jesus undoing the shame that was wrapped around Peter after his denial, making it possible for Peter to choose to follow Jesus again. Here we see that Jesus calls out shame as the problem, not Peter. Once shame was unwrapped from Peter’s identity, he could choose to once again follow Jesus and step into what God had for him to be and do in the earth.

Lastly, the gospel allows us to come close to God, as uncut stones making an altar to offer ourselves to God. In Genesis 3:21, God covers Adam and Eve in animal skins so that – though they had to leave the garden – there would always be a way to come close to Him. This is so powerful! And this is the foreshadowing of the gospel! If our deepest fear is that God is going to leave us, when we look at Jesus we see that God literally crossed Heaven and Earth to prove to us that this was not true, and it started way back in the garden. 

This week is filled with breakthroughs for us. Areas where we’ve been stuck and had no idea were linked with this deep root of shame, God is coming for. Expect it to be uncomfortable, surprising and freeing. Ask Holy Spirit to help you be aware, soft and humble when He draws near to expose and ask Him to let you really sense the closeness of His presence. Where there has been a separation in our hearts, causing distance, callouses and apathy, the King is coming!

Personal Reflection

Q. Take some time to read over and meditate on these scriptures this week. Let Holy Spirit reveal how the gospel abolishes shame. God wants to speak directly to those deep parts of you.

Q. Do you notice any fruits of hiding, covering, criticizing, blame, separation or isolation? This is a clue! Ask Holy Spirit to uncover by asking, “What’s the story underneath this? Why am I covering, criticizing, isolating etc.?” Go as deep as Holy Spirit leads you then make an altar and surrender it to Him. He promises to meet you in that place, no matter what you find hidden there.

The Month of Tammuz - The Filter of your Heart

The Month of Tammuz | Exodus 32

As we enter into the month of Tammuz, we set our hearts to worship God, expecting Him to challenge some of those areas in our hearts that are telling us a story that’s different than what God says. Our hearts are our filters. We can all hear the same truth and because it goes through the filter of our heart, we all hear it differently. Sometimes it’s filtered through pain, offence, disappointment, twisted by the enemy who has a legal right to meddle. Every time we get healing and are washed by the blood and the Word, our hearts are cleansed and we can see and receive in a new way. When we leave our hearts untended, whatever is in there becomes the default way of viewing the world and – for better or for worse - it feels so right to us.

But let’s remember that it also felt right to the Israelites to make a golden calf all because the story they believed was that Moses wasn’t coming back. That God had abandoned them because it was taking too long. This wasn’t a new story – it was an old one that had yet to be eradicated. God wants to give us blueprints this month, but we will reject them, just like the Israelites did if our hearts aren’t prepared to receive them.

So, let’s ask Holy Spirit to reveal if there are any stories hidden in our hearts that are telling us something contrary to what He is saying. Let’s ask, then let’s wait for Him to answer. No making a golden calf, no giving in to impatience, but waiting to hear His voice, even if it takes longer than we’d hope to hear Him.

Walking in Our New Nature | 2 Peter 1:1-15 |1 John 4:19-21

As Dan shared on Sunday, I was encouraged about how he talked about walking in our new nature. It’s not laboursome, though it takes work. It’s not a life of striving, though it’s not  a life of passivity either. There is a place that we are invited to live in the Lord where we are at rest in the security of who He is, so we can advance, grow, do, work. But if it comes out of a place of insecurity (not able to believe who God is for us) then it will always look like we have to perform, strive, earn, do more. In those areas where we are living this way, it’s because we aren’t secure in our relationship and in the experiential knowledge of who God is.

This is why, as we allow Holy Spirit to look at our hearts this month of Tammuz, the stories we believe about God or the filter we view Him through in our hearts dramatically affects the way we will (or won’t) rest in the security of who He is. This secure place is where circumstances won’t sway you – affect you, yes – but not cause you to close and harden your heart towards God and others.

Let’s take a look at the progression that we unpacked on Sunday in 2 Peter. The scripture tells us that we begin with faith in who Jesus is and what He’s done.

Add to that virtue - righteousness, inner strength of the Holy Spirit within you

Then add to that knowledge - that translates to practical wisdom for your life; a knowledge that you practice, not just know.

Then add to that self-control - the ability to manage yourself in any circumstance that’s rooted in knowing that God has all things in His hands so we can let go.

Then add to that perseverance - the ability to not give up based again on the truth that God has all things in His hands.

Then add to that godliness - the continual awareness of God’s presence that is marked by leading with your heart; if you’re leading with your heart, you will feel something, be affected by the things that affect God; He moves us not just by commands, but by desires and by allowing things affect us.

Then add to that brotherly kindness - when we show love to others, God’s love is made complete in us. It’s the culmination and maturation of love. 1 John 4:19-21

Then add to that love – agape love that originates in the One who loved first; unconditional, steadfast, not based on the person who is on the receiving end, but on the giver themselves.

As we walk in our new nature, we become more like Jesus and are able to live in and extend the agape love of God towards others – unconditional, steadfast, never wavering, complete.

Walking in our new nature isn’t a checklist of things to do, but rather a lifestyle that unfolds as we purpose to follow, stay connected to and aware of the Holy Spirit within and around us. It’s an overflow, not an attempt. It’s not something that’s manmade, but it’s a lifestyle of learning to follow the prompts of the Holy Spirit. He is the One who causes fruit to grow in our lives as we surrender to Him, partner with Him and let Him do the work in our hearts. He confronts, we let His conviction affect us and we ask Him to help us adjust. It should grieve us, not condemn us, that we can go the whole day and not really be aware of Holy Spirit’s presence.

Q  Does the thought of missing something that Holy Spirit has for you affect you? How?

Q  What is the difference between the feeling of condemnation and conviction?

Guarding our Hearts | 2 Peter 1:8

8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

If these qualities are yours and are increasing, you will be fruitful in the knowledge of Jesus. That means if they aren’t, we can have a lot of knowledge of Jesus but be unfruitful in it. That means we can know all about Jesus but still not be bearing fruit. Ouch. The scripture shows us three specific ways of how this happens, how our hearts begin to grow cold. Let’s take a look and then spend some time letting Holy Spirit search us and bring awareness to the places where we have knowledge but aren’t walking in the reality of it.

·  Blindness and forgetfulness – We’ve let the gospel grow cold in our hearts. It’s stopped influencing us, so our vision is cloudy. We’ve forgotten what Jesus did in a way that it no longer affects us.

·  Shortsighted looking at earthly values - Getting sidetracked by earthly pursuits rather than the spiritual realities; Looking at our own two feet; spending so much time in our own world, pursuit of our own temporal things.

·  Forgetting we are cleansed – This either results in paralyzing shame or debilitating pride. Either we aren’t clean because of the bad we’ve done, or we are clean because of the good we’ve done. Both are symptoms of forgetfulness of where our cleansing actually came from.

God wants to bring us into a place of security this month. He wants us to know, by experience, that He’s got everything in His hands. That we can trust Him. That He is trustworthy. He wants to come and re-orient our lives around Jesus, the presence and power of the Holy Spirit and accomplishing the things that He has placed in our hearts to accomplish for the Kingdom.

Personal Reflection

Q  Ask Holy Spirit to show you where you were once on fire and aren’t anymore. Notice where your heart is shut off, where you feel stingy with your affection, passion and engagement. As you surrender it to the Lord in prayer, He wants to minister to this place in your heart.

Q  Is there something that you know should be affecting you and isn’t? Talk with Jesus about it. He wants to bring you a revelation of the gospel in a new way to soften your heart again.

Q  When your heart is truly invested, you feel the (healthy) weight of what’s happening around you. Where are you not feeling the weight anymore. Are you relieved or are you burdened?

Q  What does it look like for you to keep the reality of the gospel in front of you? Keeping this alive in our hearts will lift our eyes from our own small world up to the Kingdom realities around us. It keeps our hearts soft and sensitive to the Holy Spirit.

Q   Are you more familiar with shame or pride when it comes to your cleansing? Not clean enough, or clean in your own strength? Ask Holy Spirit to come and wash you again, let the reality of what Jesus did penetrate your heart in a new way.

Behind the Locked Doors

Behind the Locked Door | John 20:19-29 | Ephesians 1:17-18 | Romans 15:13

On our way to Pentecost, Jesus walks into the rooms of our lives that we have locked up tight – this is really good news. He is much more committed to our freedom, our wholeness, our ability to live an abundant life than we are. He was so committed that He gave His life to make it possible. Then, He rose again and came to find us. He came to meet us right in the middle of our questions. Jesus is a safe place to bring our fear and our doubt. He doesn’t condemn or belittle. In the midst of fear, He commissions. In the midst of doubt, He authors faith. An encounter with Jesus catapults us out of the areas we are locked in and into the mission He has for us by breathing the peace of His presence on us – a promise that He’ll always be with us.

Thomas Recommissioned

I love Thomas’ passion. He wants to see for himself, why? I believe it was because all this mattered so much to him. He valued it. He valued it so much that he had to see for himself. I believe Jesus met Thomas at a very critical point in his walk - either the past 3 years were for nothing, or they would catapult him into a new way of living. Some of us are at this crux in our story.

If we look deeper at this moment in John 20:24, it’s as if Jesus was meeting Thomas where he was at to recommission him. Let’s think about it. Thomas had given everything to follow Jesus. So, when he thought it might all be over, no wonder he was hesitant to believe again. And how did Jesus handle this important moment? He didn’t dismiss what was happening within him, instead He made space and took the time to answer His deep inner question that we would all be asking - "Is this worth giving my life for again?” No wonder he needed to see for himself! This moment becomes so much more than a picture of ‘Thomas the Doubter’ overcoming doubt. It becomes a rededication to follow Jesus again into the mystery of an uncertain future. It’s as if Jesus found Thomas at the point where he was deciding – “Am I going to keep doing this whole Jesus thing or is this it?”

And when He saw Jesus’ scars, fears were eased and new faith began to grow.

I’m sure Thomas was wondering, like the rest of them, “All we know to do is follow You and if You’re not going to be with us, how can we live this life?” Jesus answers this deep question (and more!) with the release of His Holy Spirit - the promised helper, comforter, counsellor, truth-teller, guide, sin-convicter, peace.

The reality of the with-ness of Jesus through Holy Spirit changes everything for us. Just like the disciples, we now have constant access to everything that we need to accomplish His mission on earth. The hard truth is that we may not have everything we need to accomplish our mission, but we’ll always have all we need to accomplish His. Can you sense the internal tension when these two start to butt heads? We question God’s goodness, His faithfulness, His desire and intention towards us. But sometimes a dead end is the greatest blessing because the abundant life only comes when we lose ours (our will, our way, our plans) and take up His (His will, His way, His plans). We can’t find abundant life without submitting to Him and His ways, though we try so, so hard. If you haven’t wrestled with this yet, you will - even Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane!

As we head on to Pentecost, where we are preparing to celebrate God’s faithfulness in making us the permanent dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, I pray that we have a revelation of just how incredible this is! That we would ask more often for Holy Spirit to help us to surrender to Him and to show us Jesus. That we would be freshly convicted of His presence, more aware and more sensitive to Him in us and in the world around us. Holy Spirit is on the earth to accomplish the mission of the Father – to reconcile all things to Himself. When we try to use Holy Spirit to accomplish our own will, we lose touch with Him and the way He’s working, and we become dull to His desires and His presence within us. It’s easy to get distracted from what we were born again into – a family on our Father’s mission.

When we stay locked behind our closed doors of fear, Jesus steps in to breathe peace and to commission us to go. Peace isn’t just so that we could be comforted for the sake of being comforted. It’s so that we can go in power and confidence, now bringing peace to the world around us. He steps into the places where we are doubting – maybe filled with doubt or maybe simply questioning – and He ignites faith so we can carry His mission into our world. We’re a family on our Father’s mission – what a privilege!

Reflection Questions

• What did you sense God doing in you this weekend? What was stirring? If Holy Spirit began to reveal something, follow that lead! Set aside time to listen and wait. If not, ask Holy Spirit why you didn’t’ sense anything and see what He reveals.

• Do you feel stuck? Ask Holy Spirit to come search you and see if there is anything in you that’s resisting God. Are there places of stubbornness that are causing you to be stuck? One glimpse of Him begins to melt those calloused places of our hearts.

• What does living our God’s mission in your world look like in your life right now?

• Where have you been on your own mission apart from God’s? Take some time to repent and turn from your own agenda and recommit to His.

• Are you in the crux of deciding if you’re going to keep going after God’s mission or launch out on your own? Ask Holy Spirit to come and breathe on you again. He wants to meet you in your questions and recommission you. Stay and receive.

Praying for the Church

• Where the church has strayed from the mission of God and onto our own mission, we repent. Where we have blamed God for not providing what we needed to accomplish our own mission, we repent. Forgive us for living our lives small and selfishly. That is not the way to abundant life and where we are disillusioned that it is the way, wake us up, Lord! Let closed doors, lack and limitations lead us right back to You!

• Pray that we would have a deeper awareness of Holy Spirit. Where we have become dull, we repent for ignoring and not valuing His presence in our lives.

• Pray for those who are facing fear and doubt and are in the valley of decision as to whether or not they will continue on with God’s mission or go their own way. Pray that the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation would come and reveal Jesus to them. Reignite passion in our hearts for You and Your mission.

• Pray over the stubborn, calloused hearts. Forgive us, Lord, for resisting You so much that we’ve become hard-hearted. Walk through those walls again and breathe on us again. Soften our hearts with your Spirit.

Praying for our Schools

The Invitation | Love Tells the Story

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. - 2 Corinthians 5:14,15 NIV

Lord, we pray for educators and students who are curious about the story of Jesus. We pray that they would hear of your great love and how it has changed many lives. May those who have been changed by this great love pass it on to those around them. Amen.